Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
They weren’t so different than before that it would affect how well they ‘fit’. Small elements of a person’s character would vary with each life, but never their core nature.
He’d watched her closely so he could learn her patterns, familial situation, power-level, personal details, etc.
Basically, he’d discovered and filed away every aspect of her life to identify the easiest way to infiltrate it.
He’d already moved some pawns around, placing himself on the periphery of her world. Example: he’d recently bought this very pool hall that she frequented, and now he came here every Friday. Each time, he chose a table that was just a little closer to where she and Mia routinely sat.
Essentially, he’d set himself up to step fully into her life—something he’d soon do.
The coast was now mostly clear. The attempts to execute him had ceased. Celestials sometimes came to pass on messages from the Uppers, but there were no shows of violence. However, a new issue had cropped up. Once he’d resolved it, he could focus on Ella.
He planned to take things slow with her. To move with care, give her his full attention, and drag her so far under his spell she would accept all that he’d eventually have to reveal to her.
Some might say it made him a selfish bastard. There was no denying that since falling he’d become a literal stain upon this world. She deserved a life that wasn’t touched by him. But Viper hadn’t been ‘good’ in a long time, so here he was.
There was nothing sweet and flowery about what he felt for her. It wasn’t romantic or anyone’s idea of progressive. It was obsession and greed and a dark sense of ownership all tangled up with a blindingly intense emotion that, until her, had always eluded him.
She’d been easy to fall for—no pun intended with the whole ‘fall’ thing.
She was a person who would rise to any challenge. If she couldn’t move through something, she’d find some way to flow around it or leap over it—nothing was a true obstacle to her. Something he respected and admired.
She loved fiercely. Had a capacity for compassion that he found staggering. Anyone who’d heard about the life he’d led—a life that had weighed him down, darkened his soul, and stole so many choices from him—might have judged and shied away from him. She hadn’t. Nor had she shied away from being with him after hearing of the subsequent curse.
And she was happy for others. Too many people were jealous of those around him or resented them for having what they didn’t. Not her. Not as Everleigh or Ella, because they were one and the same.
In her previous life, she’d remembered him after their first meeting—nobody after did that unless he allowed it. Until her.
Sometimes, when Ella looked at him a certain way, he could even think she remembered him now. But that was likely wishful thinking on his part.
He tossed back a mouthful of beer and took an idle scan of his surroundings. The hall was dim—a deliberate effect of the tinted windows and low lighting. The neon ‘Beer’ signs hanging above the long mahogany bar did nothing to brighten the place.
Waitresses took orders from the patrons who’d either claimed tables or were playing pool. Other patrons sat at bar stools chatting, scrolling through their cell, or watching the darts game playing live on the wall-mounted TV. A few people hung at the back where gaming machines, an ATM, and a jukebox lined one wall.
An image shot to the forefront of his mind. An image of every single one of those patrons dead, their throats slit, their bodies gutted, their blood everywhere.
The image came from the once-holy being with which Viper shared his soul. Bored, it was ‘suggesting’ they instigate a bloodbath. Not unusual for the sadistic entity.
Viper focused on his five club brothers who were gathered around a pool table engaging in regular shit talk.
On falling, they’d all chosen the biker lifestyle. It fit the dynamic they already had after their years in service to heaven’s higher-ups. And they didn’t feel that they could connect with this realm’s normative society. They collectively had different values, different beliefs, different priorities.
Having secrets to protect, they hadn’t invited others into their club. Ella would join eventually, obviously. She just didn’t know that yet.
After doing a few ‘jobs’ with some local imps, they’d ended up with a surplus of cash that enabled them to buy land, businesses, and vacant buildings. They had no involvement in any sort of trafficking, and their businesses were legitimate—earning them no human attention.
But did they keep their hands perfectly clean? No. They hunted any hell-born demons who’d escaped from that place.
Old habits and all that.
Where the fuck was Ella?
She always arrived at six-thirty, give or take ten minutes. It was now seven pm, but there was no sign of her. He didn’t like it.