Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I offer my Julian agreement, somehow making small talk as we travel down the path, but in the back of my mind, I know there is nothing small in the air at all. There’s a storm coming. And that storm had a name: Creed.
Chapter Five
Creed
With the taste of Addie still lingering on my lips, I step onto the elevator leading to the underground world of what was once Area 51 but now is known as “Zodius City,” the first of its kind in Lucian’s planned Zodius Nation. I’m shaking inside, and I don’t shake. It’s a sign of weakness. It shows weakness, and weakness will get me and Addie both in the dirt.
It's illogical.
I’ve lived the façade of being the second in charge to the most evil monster on this planet for far too long; I even managed to earn the reputation as the “Punisher” for my torture of any Zodius soldier who dared cross Julian. I’ve excelled at the role because none of them had righteous intentions.
And yet, I’m not just shaking; I’m shaken to the core. Because no matter how hard I try to find that empty, dark spot inside me that allows me to feel nothing, it’s nowhere to be found.
There is only Addie and the bittersweet taste of her on my lips. I can make her want me again—she already does—but I will never make her trust me again. Which is for the best, I tell myself. Nothing has changed. This place, and my role in it, is proof. No matter what some damn mark on her neck says, I am not the man for Addie. Hell, most days the darkness inside me has me questioning if I’m a man at all.
The elevator dings its arrival, the doors sliding open to Julian’s private corridor, a part of the never-ending expansion of the underground facility. A pair of silver doors, similar to those on the elevator, awaits me. Two armed guards are on either side, both in desert fatigues with machine guns on their shoulders. Neither soldier dares look me in the eye; there’s a class system followed in Zodius, with Julian at the top and humanity below, under his foot.
The guard to the right snatches up the wall phone to call Julian. Before he’s hung up, the doors slide open, and I step into a hallway resembling that of a hotel with doors running down its length. My destination is the door at the end—Julian’s apartment that drips of Upper East Side Manhattan luxury.
Ava appears in the entrance, awaiting my arrival, draping herself over the frame, one hand over her head, her hip seductively cocked. She’s dressed in a sheer white bra and panties, displaying her rounded stomach and full breasts, nipples barely covered. Long red hair draped over her shoulders.
“Creed,” she purrs, a taunting, sexual smile on her red lips despite the fact that she has eyes for no one but Julian. But she always has an agenda rooted in evil; she enjoys luring men into her web and then watching Julian catch them. Look the wrong way at Ava, and you end up in the “coliseum,” Roman style. There, the entire city watches as dozens of Julian’s wolves savage the offender, who does not dare kill one of the prized animals—at least not without further reprisal. The soldier would heal, but not without disgrace and a hell of a lot of pain.
Ava’s a bitch, plain and simple, and when I’m standing in front of her, my eyes on her face, I demand, “Where’s Julian?”
“In the shower,” she says, inching the door open. “I’ll keep you company until he’s out.”
“I’ll wait in the hall,” I say, irritation at her naïve attempts to seduce me, groaning through me. She has no idea I feel nothing for anyone but Addie, but even if I wasn’t lifebonded, I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.
She purses her red lips. “What’s the problem, Creed?” she baits. “You afraid you’ll be tempted to actually look at me if you come inside? Or do you simply find me unattractive because I’m pregnant with Julian’s child?”
Such a fucking bitch, but all I offer her is a heavy-lidded, cold stare. “I just want to talk to Julian.”
The door opens fully, and Julian—wearing a navy silk robe, his hair damp—steps behind Ava and smacks her on the ass. “Stop taunting the man. You should know by now that Creed is not going to betray me.”
That shaking sensation I’ve been feeling since leaving Addie fades, and I smile inside with a realization. Ava is Julian’s weakness. She makes him blind and foolish.
Julian tugs Ava around and against him, cupping her head, his lips close to hers. “Not even for you.” He kisses her hard and then sets her away. “Get dressed,” he commands, and already his attention is on me. “Come in.”