Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
His fangs vanished. He stomped out of the alley, saying nothing else. Those massive muscles on his shoulders and back flexed with his movements.
“Relax, domina. Xan will warm to you eventually.” Ty picked up Xander’s gray coat and my robe off the ground. “Come with me. Our camping area is near.”
Chapter 2
Rebels
Camille
The two moons hung in a horizontal line, signaling dawn was near.
We’d walked through the city for hours, remaining within shadows and hiding in darkened corners when other vampires were on the streets.
Now we stood at the end of an alley.
Xander lowered to the ground, raised the sewer cap, and pointed into the darkness. “You first, domina.”
I gazed down into the hole and could only see darkness. I sniffed and caught a disgusting stench. It seared my nostrils.
Coughing, I covered my nose with my arms.
The area reeked of vampire bodily waste—decayed blood. Nothing was worse than the odor, not even feces or rotting flesh. It stunk of sharp, metallic whiffs and garbage undertones.
Since the majority of a vampire’s diet was blood, their waste came out stringy and red.
I’d learned this vomit-inducing fact from my maid on my first night in Capitol City.
I can’t go in there.
“Get in. The sun will be up soon,” Xander hissed. This was the most he’d said to me since leaving the alley.
“Don’t worry,” Ty assured me. “There are only friends down there and refugees like yourself trying to escape the city.”
Xander bared his fangs at me. “Get in!”
“Okay.” I avoided Xander’s glare and climbed down into the sewer.
Ambi, help me.
I breathed out my mouth and tried my best not to gag.
The gloomy space surrounded me with stifling, dank heat.
I refused to whine or complain, knowing Xander would seize the opportunity to use it as an excuse for why I shouldn’t be with them.
A scraping noise sounded above.
I stopped on the ladder and looked up.
Above me, Xander began climbing down.
Ty was further up, pulling the sewer cap back down.
Then, darkness swallowed us up.
Ty’s voice soothed me in the darkness. “Are you okay, domina?”
“Yes.” I began climbing down.
Suddenly, something crawled up my ankle. Shrieking, I kicked it away with my other leg and quickened my pace.
Don’t think about what it was. Just concentrate on something else.
I pictured my husband Ethan the night I left Zumaya with the castle guards. He’d told me that I’d sacrificed myself for our town and family, that he had never deserved me. I waved his comments away and embraced him. I begged him to take care of our girls, Lily and Rose, and make sure they knew who I was and what I’d done for them.
Sadness engulfed me.
I miss you so much.
My left foot slipped off the ladder and somehow my grip left my hands.
“No!” I screamed, falling into the darkness, grasping for anything, and only feeling wet, hot stone slip by my fingers. “Help!”
The air rushed through my hair as I fell through the darkness. The shirt rippled and scaled up my body.
Then fast, strong, warm hands clasped onto my waist and a massive arm hooked around my back, pinning me against a hard body. My breasts pressed into a hard chest that rose and fell into the curves of my body.
“Oh my Ambi!” I wrapped my arms around my savior’s neck, smelling the sweet, earthy scent of tenna herbs.
Xander?
Relief hit me. “Thank you.”
Xander only grunted. I pulled my shirt down with one hand and kept the other one around him. We remained on the ladder and didn’t lower.
“Are you okay?” His lips brushed my right ear.
“Y-yes.”
As if unable to help himself, he inhaled my scent and groaned.
What is he doing?
I shuddered and was glad he couldn’t see my blushing face within the darkness.
His chin rubbed against the curve of my neck. It had the rough edge a man gets when he hasn’t shaved in a day or two. I relished in the rough surface, gripping him tighter, just happy to be alive.
“Did you catch her?” Ty yelled. “Xan! Domina!”
“Would you shut your mouth?” Xander growled and carried us down, gripping me firmer than he needed to. “I have her.”
“My name is Camille,” I mumbled into his shoulder. His natural cologne wrapped around me.
“And why do I need to know that?” His lips tickled the skin under my ear. His fingers trembled around my hips.
“Because you both keep calling me domina.” I leaned away from him right as the edge of his fangs grazed my skin.
Did he just try to bite me or am I imagining things?
Xander’s deep voice slipped along me. “I call you domina because that’s what you are.”
“It’s what I was. Now, I’m just Camille. What if I only called you Path Finder?”
A sigh left his lips. A fevered intensity flickered from his hands and drowned me in his heat.
I cleared my throat. “Why are you so hot?”