Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Ben’s excitement became tangible; I could feel it growing. “How much is he paying you?”
“What?”
“How much?”
The man scratched his head. “He pays my pack thirty grand a month.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my skull. Thirty grand? Jasper? Is that what happened when you lived so long? You just acquired tons of money and paid werewolves to guard the forest?
“I’ll double it,” Ben said from beside me. “If you promise to text any information you get to my number. I want to know how often he visits this week; I want one of your pack members to follow him back home and let me know if he’s going into the orphanage. Lastly, I want your pack at the festival in two days. If you see any children wandering off with him, find us, we’ll be there.”
“Children,” he spat. “Last time he was capturing vamps, now he’s capturing kids?”
“Vampires?” I frowned. “Why would he be capturing Vampires then?”
“Their blood regenerates?” He shrugged. “Maybe he’s trying to help the woman wake up?”
“Maybe.” Ben stiffened as his tension heightened. “So, do we have a deal?”
“Deal.” He jerked his head down. “Toss me your phone, and I’ll plug my number in. The name’s Shane.”
Rather than toss his phone, Benjamin walked around me and approached, holding it out, handing it over, and talking in hushed tones.
Twice, Shane’s gaze flickered to mine, and he shook his head no.
Why was I disappointed when I didn’t even know what they were talking about? Maybe because I knew Ben would ask more about me, and I had a feeling that if Shane knew anything, he would tell us as much as he could, so shaking his head wasn’t exactly hopeful.
They talked a few more minutes, and then Shane was gone, and it was just me and Ben and a forest bed full of flowers I wanted to drag him down to.
“You can’t look at me like that and expect me not to touch you.” Ben groaned, pulling me into his arms and fusing his lips against mine.
We broke apart, and I caught my breath. “Now that we’ve had sex, you can touch me without snapping body parts, right?”
“Okay, first, I didn’t snap body parts. You were just frail and fell. Second, while it’s true I can control the siphoning—the more we have sex, the more we’ll want sex, and from there, it’s all gonna go to hell. So, we focus on breaking the curse, catching Jasper red-handed, and making sure he doesn’t snatch any more children at the festival.”
“Ugh, the festival.” I took his hand in mine as we started walking back toward town. “You’re going to be paired up with that horrible woman and—” A vision of her flashed in my mind’s eye; her face was eerily similar to my sister’s.
I stopped walking.
“Something wrong?” Ben frowned. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
I rubbed the middle of my chest. “No, nothing like that. It’s just now that I have my memories back; I recognized someone.”
He sighed. “You’ll start to recognize a lot of people around town. Just try not to panic if your memory of them is bad. Everyone has lived here, lived with my curse, for a long time.”
I swayed a bit on my feet. “They’re trapped here too, aren’t they?”
“The supernaturals?” He wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Most of them are trapped here until the curse is lifted. None of us truly knows why. Once the curse starts again, none of us can leave, but people can come in. That’s why we started the Taffy Festival in the first place.”
“A FEEDING FRENZY?” I clapped a hand over my own mouth.
Ben glared. “Look, I’m not proud of the reason, all right? And nobody gets hurt, the vampires are careful, the werewolves just want to fuck—”
“And the Fae?” I crossed my arms. “What could any of the courts possibly want with…” My brain worked faster than my mouth. “Spells.”
“Spells.” Ben took my hand again, tugging me. “The Fae that are still here aren’t here by choice. They can’t go beyond the mist, and their power is only as strong as the humans who owe them favors. So, they do a little fortune telling, promise true love in order to gain a small favor in return—never asking for money but, you know, an hour of time, five minutes, a second, and in return, they gain a little bit of their power back.”
“And what about you?” I didn’t look at him as we finally reached the street. “Do you use the festival, or I guess I’m asking, have you ever used it to power up?”
“It would make sense for me, but only because I would want to be my strongest so I could protect you. And I refuse to feel guilty about that.”
I dropped his hand. “That has to be the third time today you’ve said you need to protect me, but from my memories, all I ever see is us protecting each other. I see us as equals, so why are you treating me like I’m this weak woman who can’t stand on her own two feet?”