Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
And then she is inside my head.
Like a dreamwalker.
Like a thief in the night, stealing my thoughts.
Like a wicked, wicked witch.
We are in a forest filled with purple haze. She is young, but not the blonde and beautiful young woman I remember. She is tall, and dark-haired, and naked.
This is not the body I remember, either. She is full, and round, and pregnant.
“Look at me, demon!” She is hissing at me. “See this face?”
It’s not her face. It is her voice, though. I would recognize it anywhere. Should I be able to hear her in the purple of a dreamwalk? Certainly not. But yet I can.
“Memorize this face, devil. Because she is the one you’ve been waiting for. And she is going to kill you.”
And then she thrusts her arms out, sending power my way. Enough power to knock me sideways.
I trip, stumbling, falling. The back of my head crashes into a rock, causing the dream to fade to black…
CHAPTER SEVEN - SYRSEE
He will make promises, darling.
Zusi bursts through the front door of my grandmother’s little house, face flushed red from the cold and eyes wild. “We need to get you out of here!”
The partiers are still in a frenzy outside, so the celebrations leak past Zusi along with the cold. “Shut the door.” I hiss this at her. “It’s fucking freezing out there.”
Zusi slams the door. “Did you hear me? You need to leave. Right now.”
“Calm down, OK? I’m not leaving her. I can’t, Zusi. Not when she’s so close—”
“The scion? He’s found you.”
“What? That’s not possible. She’s not even…” We both look at my grandma.
“No, she’s not dead. Yet.” Zusi finishes my thought. “And that’s why this is an emergency. He caught your scent in Vegas, Syrsee.”
“But that was only two days ago.” Whenever I have to leave the Guild compound, we take zigzag trips through many cities and airports. It takes almost a week to get anywhere so we can make sure that the scion can’t track me. Because even though I am cloaked from the vampire, I am not cloaked from his minion. But since this was an emergency, and my grandma is dying, we did a quick trip.
“Exactly.” Zusi throws up her hands like I’m the dumbest person alive. “The magic is already wearing off. Which means, by the time she does die, Syr? It’s highly probable that the scion will be able to waltz right into your present.”
I let out a long breath. Two days ago. He’s so close.
How does he track me? Scent?
I have never seen the scion, but the Guild has been tracking him for decades. If I were at home, in one of the Guild properties, none of this would be a problem. He could never find me there. They have cloaking magic for everything in that place.
But I’m not in the Guild and I’m not even going back to the Guild. This death is the end of my sanctuary there. They told me this before I left and I thought I was OK with it. I mean, at twenty-eight I should be more than capable of taking care of myself. But the truth is, I’m just not prepared for the new life ahead of me. A life without all the things that have kept me safe.
The scion has been close before, but this is the first time I’ve seen Zusi panic over his progress. So I frown. “This isn’t good.”
Zusi settles down now that the full threat is sinking in. “I’m sorry, Syrsee. I know you want to say a proper goodbye. You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t feel strongly about it. But two days.”
“Yeah.” I sigh, and turn to look at my grandma. “But she’s close, Zuse. If I leave her now—”
“She would want you to leave her now. Two. Days.”
I shake my head and try to do the calculations, then look over at an expectant Zusi. “One more hour.” We both look at my grandma. “She could be minutes from death right now. I’m not leaving her, Zusi. I will not let her slip out of this world alone. I won’t be able to live with myself. I know it’s stupid, I know you’re screaming at me inside your head, I know you have the best intentions and you’re only trying to protect me, but I can’t leave her like this.”
Zusi sighs and I know I’ve won. “Two days calculates to…” She pauses to figure it out. “Not even four hours, Syrsee. Three hours and forty-five minutes.”
Calculating how many days ago I was in Vegas—two—to tell us how long it will take him to track me here—less than four hours—is based on a formula that the Guild uses to estimate his tracking abilities and private transportation options. It also takes into account that whatever he’s using to track me strengthens as my grandma ages—or slips into death, as it may be—and she loses her power.