Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Pax had checked the local news to find out if they were searching for us.
He’d found a news report of three men found dead outside a building. All had been arrested previously for drug possession and facilitating prostitution, and that article had speculated it had been some kind of deal gone bad.
I could only hope that belief remained.
It wasn’t as if those three men were the only reason the police might be looking for us. Not after Pax had broken into the mental facility to rescue me. I still thought of Jill often, the nurse who’d believed there was more to my story than my chart claimed, and had helped me escape.
I knew her life had to be intrinsically changed; no hope for her ever working in nursing again. Plus, I had no idea if any sort of charges had been brought against her.
I could only pray that she was safe and okay. Pray she didn’t regret what she’d done. I hoped some way, someday, I’d be able to repay her.
I carefully peeked around the back of the booth again, and I breathed out the strain when the officer moved to the counter to order.
I turned back to Pax, my voice quieted. “She’s just a customer.”
His nod was tight, and he busied himself by staring into his coffee. He didn’t look up until the door swung open again and she exited.
On a heavy exhalation, he scrubbed a flustered palm over his face. “Fuck. This is getting messy.”
My nod was slow. He grabbed his phone, and I knew he was searching the local news again. Antsy that something had changed. That someone had come forward and reported that they’d seen us. Had witnessed it all.
I expected there to be nothing, until Pax’s pale face completely drained of color, blanching a pasty white. Anxiety jolted my heart into an erratic beat as I watched him from across the table, apprehension curling through my being as I waited.
His eyes frantically flicked back and forth as he read.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I pleaded, so quiet the sound barely broke the air.
He didn’t answer. He simply turned the phone to me. It was an article, the headline reading Local man shot dead after closing pizza shop.
I wanted to scan the story. To take in the details that outlined what was known of the crime and understand what had caused Pax so much alarm.
But I didn’t need any of that.
I only needed the picture to know.
Only needed the image of a man who was probably in his forties.
A man with the palest gray eyes.
A Laven.
And he wasn’t part of our family.
Chapter Seventeen
Pax
“I can’t believe this. I feel sick,” Aria whispered from where she leaned against the headboard on the bed next to me, her legs drawn to her chest and her cell resting on her knees as she scrolled.
We’d been here for the last two hours, searching news stories from random cities.
We’d started close.
Chicago.
We’d been staggered when we found reports of three people, clearly Laven, who had been killed there that week.
All of questionable causes.
Violent.
Two gunshots.
One hit-and-run.
Their faces imprinted on the screen like blades driven into the centers of our chests. Unfamiliar faces we still could recognize.
So we’d extended the search, looking through news stories from both large cities and small towns. We’d seen the death reports of Laven after Laven stretched across the States.
The horror had only grown heavier when we found it extended around the world.
I could feel the sinking confirmation roll through Aria as she whispered, “‘I am the one who will put an end to your kind.’”
Sadness pulsed through her features as she turned her gaze on me. “We knew he was hunting us, but I thought it meant us. Our family. I can’t fathom the scope of this.”
“He wants to wipe all goodness from existence. Anything that would stand in evil’s way.” My chest tightened with dread as I uttered it.
We knew next to nothing about other Laven families, except for a mention in the great book that they existed. Neither Aria nor I had seen any other of our kind throughout our lives. Not until we’d come together.
Now there was evidence of us everywhere. The force greater than I’d imagined.
But I was worried the force we were fighting was even greater. The hope I kept trying to latch on to getting quashed every time we turned around.
Except sitting right next to me was maybe the greatest force of all.
Aria turned her attention away, that same dwindling hope cut deep into her words. “How can we defeat him? This is impossible, Pax. Look at all these people. These Laven . . .” she trailed off.
Shifting toward her, I took her phone and set it aside so I could thread my fingers through hers. I lifted them between us. “I heard her, Aria. I heard Valeen when I touched you. I heard what she said. She said it is written in you.” I squeezed her fingers tight. “You have the strength.”