Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
“You don’t want to be in charge of the Other Side?”
“Fuck no.”
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed.” V glanced over. “But you know the Scribe Virgin, and then Lassiter, and then whoever is next, can’t play favorites when it comes to the hard graft of destiny. That’s not how it works.”
Butch took a draw off of his soda. “Oh, I wasn’t thinking about pulling rank like that. It’s the closet space.”
“Excuse me?”
“Payne told me that your mother had the mother of all closets in her bedroom up there. I figure I could use some of them. Or, you know, most of them.”
Cursing, V went back to the search. “You’re a sick man.”
“And there are twelve seasons of weather in Caldwell. Jus’ sayin’.” Butch tilted his head all the way back and finished his soda. “Here. I’m done with this. You can use it to ash in.”
As the male set the empty red can between them, V had to smile. That was the thing with your best friend. They knew when you needed somewhere to tap your cigarette before you did.
They were also the type to sit outside a hospital room, when you were shitting your pants about your sister but didn’t want to admit that to anybody, and talk to you about anything but what was really on your mind.
“Thanks,” V said as he took his hand-rolled to the little hole.
“Anytime,” his roommate replied.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Apex re-formed back at the wolven’s clearing, ready to get some advice from Callum about where they could go for medical supplies. As soon as he was corporeal, he caught the scent of vampire blood and followed it around to where he’d left the drama.
Well, what do you know, Lucan had a belt on. And they were trying to get him to feed, his female’s wrist over his mouth.
“I didn’t find anything,” Apex announced as all kinds of faces turned to him. “Where’s Callum.”
“He hasn’t been back yet,” Kane said. “So there wasn’t anything down there?”
“Oh, there was shit. Just nothing that’s going to help, not unless you think he’s going to need a parka to shovel snow in or some target practice.”
“Goddamn it—”
Apex took the other prisoner’s arm and urged him out of range. “So Callum hasn’t been back?”
“No. There haven’t been any wolven around, actually. They seem to have scattered.”
“Fucking cowards.” Then again, was it really their fight? “What are we going to do with Lucan?”
Nadya rose up and came over. “He’s stabilized a little. But he’s either going to lose his life or that leg. We’ve cut off circulation to it completely, which has stemmed the blood loss, but the tissue is going to start dying soon—and there’s no way I can operate on it. Even if we were in a sterile environment, that’s way beyond my abilities.”
“Where’s the nearest human healer?” Kane asked.
When there was no answer from anybody, Apex realized he was looking at two people who had as much knowledge about the environs as he did.
“We need to go find a human,” Kane announced. “Get into their brain, find something that way.”
Apex’s eyes went out to the valley below. He had no idea what time it was, but that didn’t matter. They were going to be scrubbing memories whether or not they had to wake a man or a woman up to raid their brain.
“You two need to go,” Nadya said.
“No way—”
“No fucking way—”
Nadya dropped her voice. “If there were still guards on the mountain, they would have attacked by now. It’s more likely that whatever’s left of them are steaming down the trail because you eliminated so many and they’re in retreat.”
“Or they’re getting reinforcements,” Kane cut in.
“From where? How many have you killed in the last twenty-four hours?” As that shut her male up, the nurse kept going. “You need to stick together. Rio’s a trained shooter. Mayhem is good with a gun. I’ll keep Lucan as stable as I can. We have to split up if we’re going to get him the help he needs.”
Kane broke off and did a little walk around like he was losing his mind and didn’t want to speak until he was sure he had himself under better control.
“We can move you into Callum’s den,” Apex said. “You’ll have your back against the wall, but it’s a single access passageway and we can leave you with enough guns and ammo to kit out a small army.”
“Dearest Virgin Scribe,” Kane muttered.
“He’s going to lose that leg,” Nadya said. “It’s already turning blue at the toes. He needs a real doctor.”
Apex looked at the other male. And when things continued to be tense and silent, he glanced at Nadya—
And did a double take.
The female was looking… well, she had a full head of hair all of a sudden. To the point where it was brushing the lobes of her ears, the baldness completely gone. And her face had smoothed out, no more of the skeletal bones and scarred skin.