by Trina M. Lee
“Don’t say that.” I waved both hands in the air as the words tumbled out. “You can’t make that kind of promise so just… don’t. They’ve got to realize that you’re going out of your way to protect me.”
With a growl Nova shoved away from the door but stopped himself from coming to me. Fists clenched, his tail lashed about behind him. “Let me deal with that.”
“How exactly do you plan to do that, Nova?” My temper rose, and my voice climbed along with it.
I’d just witnessed how The Circle of the Veil dealt with issues. If they saw me as a problem, I was screwed. Even if Nova refused to be the one to take me out, they’d send someone else.
“They got what they wanted for now. They’ll leave you alone.” With a frustrated huff, Nova stopped holding back and swept forward, wings spread wide as he pulled me into his arms.
I sank into his embrace, finding myself overcome with the need to wrap myself around him. Peering up at my dark star, I dared to ask, “What if I really am the daughter of a demon? Is that why you’re so drawn to me?”
Nova frowned and shook his head of dark braids. “Don’t do that. Don’t try to find a reason for what’s happening between us. Nephilim females are rare. Aside from the one that lives here in the city, I know of only two others currently alive in this world. Males, however, not so rare. Records of nephilim births are kept. Each one is assigned a guardian, an angel. Maybe they never knew about you. Though how your birth would be kept a secret, I can’t imagine. I’ll look into it, ok? We’ll find your answers.”
While Nova puzzled over the rules and records of nephilim children, I racked my brain for any memory that might help. There was nothing. If my mother had had an affair with a demon, I’d never known about it.
“Most nephilim manifest their first power in early adulthood,” Nova continued, kissing the top of my head. That smallest touch sent a jolt all the way to the soles of my feet. “Do you recall any kind of extraordinary ability from before your turn?”
“No, I don’t think so. I mean, nothing I can recall at the moment.” Holding onto him, staring up into his eyes, I couldn’t think about the past. I couldn’t think about anything but having Nova inside me again.
Seeing it all over my face, the bastard grinned. “Just so you know, I’ve been shielding since I arrived. I still am. You’re welcome. I warned you how strong the pull would be. If I wasn’t shielding, you’d have been naked and begging the second I walked in the door.”
“Can I just be naked and begging now?” Being around Nova always made me hot on the inside, but now it was stronger than ever. My inhibitions quickly fled as I contemplated pulling my pants down and bending over for him.
Nova crushed his lips to mine. His kiss was a possession, a bold claim that named me as his. It frightened me how close he’d gotten. With his mere presence able to make me swoon, I should have run screaming in the opposite direction. What Nova did to me was deadly, and I should have been afraid instead of kissing him back like I couldn’t get enough.
“I’m sorry I got you into this,” he murmured against my lips. Despite his apology he rubbed a hand between my legs.
My gasp was followed by a sly laugh. “Are you kidding? I can quit any time I want. Now if you could just take your pants off, that would be swell. Take mine off too while you’re at it.”
I pressed lusty kisses to Nova’s neck, letting his pulse beat against my tongue. What would his blood taste like? It smelled like power. A deep, dark power that reached into an abyss of black. It called to me, tempting me to taste him.
What the fucking hell had I let this demon do to me?
Before I could give into the wicked temptation, Nova obeyed my command and started taking off his pants. He nodded to the leather easy chair with a wink. “You’re on top.”
EPILOGUE
Bloodlust crawled through my veins, bringing me alive in the way nothing else did. The way nothing else ever could. Becoming a vampire had been empowering, a liberation from human weakness. I had never experienced the brooding regret I saw among others. It had set me free.
Now I wondered if having demon blood in my veins made it easier to adapt to a life of preying on humans. Or maybe some of us were simply more cut out for murder than others.
Like Ghost. He crept out of the dark behind me, and I whirled to fend him off before he could make a grab for me. We were hunting tonight. A real hunt that would end with a very real kill.
Before Nova had left the house, he’d told me that we were free to hunt as long as nobody saw and we chose someone that would never be missed. No problem there. I had the name of a man who’d started a local dog fighting ring. He and his friends were responsible for dozens of dog thefts in the area.
Now we were on their trail, following two of them as they walked down darkened streets, looking into backyards. Pieces of human crap. Anyone who could be part of such a thing wasn’t contributing anything worthwhile to society. Fuck them. They had to go, and we were here to make it happen.
“What do you think, baby girl? We wait until they get to the end of the street there, where that last house is, or we cut down the alley and come around the other side to head them off?” We were a block behind them, so they didn’t hear Ghost’s raspy inquiry.
Feeling a little devilish, maybe due to the supposed demon blood in my veins, I tapped a finger on my lip and smiled. “You come up from behind and drive them down the alley, where I’ll be waiting.”
The alley was void of streetlights. Lined with backyards and garages, it was unlikely we’d be seen. Ghost’s near black eyes sparked with excitement. He stroked a finger lightly under my chin, like an evil villain with his feline companion.
“Hunting with you is the best fucking foreplay.” He gently bit my bottom lip, careful not to pierce the skin. Then he was gone, becoming one with the night as he stalked our prey.
I slipped down the alley and followed it around to where I figured the halfway point would be. By the time Ghost got them this far from the street, most likely running away from him, I’d be set to block their escape.
My blood sang with the rush of the impending kill. This part never got old.
Demon blood. The idea haunted me. I wanted to laugh it off as something that couldn’t possibly be true, but part of me just couldn’t. And Nova could deny it if he wanted to, but it definitely would explain this thing between us. Why else would an incubus demon who’d likely been with thousands of women be so infatuated with me?
I needed to know more. If there was any chance it could be true, I had to do whatever it took to find out. Of course, if it did turn out that my mother had some secret demon lover, it wouldn’t do much other than explain why my father hated me and why my aura was red. It wouldn’t change anything about my current circumstances.
Would it?
Hearing voices ahead, I got my head in the game and readied myself. When the two guys rounded a bend in the alley and came into view, every nerve in my body prickled to life. The bloodlust was in control now.
Throwing both hands out before me, I nailed each of them with a psi ball between the ankles. The hit had them tripping and falling in a tangle of quickly moving limbs. Letting them shout and scream wasn’t an option. I was on the closest guy in a blink, silencing him with fangs plunged ruthlessly into his carotid.
Ghost emerged from the shadows, savage delight on his face as he went for the other man. Like a striking snake, he too sank fangs into his victim’s neck, going for a killing bite. The human never stood a chance against the vampire’s lethal attack. Watching Ghost in his element, along with the taste of fresh blood in my mouth, flashed me back to the one and only time we’d hunted together like this. And the way it had ended, me pressed against a building with Ghost thrusting aggressively inside me.
Our eyes met, and I knew he remembered it too. I never could have imagined where it would lead us. Of my three lovers, Ghost was the only one who could relate to my hunger for blood and death. We shared a bloody kiss
before disappearing back into the night like we’d never been there at all.
If I wanted to protect the bonds I’d formed, I needed to be prepared for whatever came next. Mastering my blood magic was just the tip of the iceberg. But I’d never achieve control if I didn’t master the past trauma that triggered my panic. It was time to face down that fear, no matter what I had to do to accomplish that.
Nova was willing to look into my possible demon parentage. Part of me wanted him to search for answers, while another part felt safer not knowing. It’s not like there was anything I could do about it now.
Except there was. I could get really fucking good at being me, no matter what that entailed. So good that The Circle of the Veil would see that I was no rogue. I was every bit as elite as any of them.
Volunteering to get inside the FPA as a mole was a good place to start.
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Blaze’s story continues in Assassins of Mayhem Academy Book 3, The Company of Werewolves.
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For exclusive teasers, giveaways and early cover reveals, join my reader group: Trina’s Wolf Pack.
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ALSO BY TRINA M. LEE
Each series takes place in the same fictional world.
Alexa O’Brien Huntress
Alexa is a werewolf with a rare power and an attraction to darkness.
If sinfully alluring incubus vampire Arys is anything, it’s darkness. Together they create something wild, dangerous and binding. But it doesn’t come without a price. Alexa turns to the powerful, deadly men in her life for help uncovering the truth about who and what she really is. Secrets revealed force her to face the ugly truth that not everyone is who she thinks they are. Not even her.
Reverse harem urban fantasy.
Rebel Heart Series
Angel blood runs through her veins.
Half human and half angel, Spike is a rare female nephilim. Like all nephilim, she’s caught in the middle of the war between angels and demons. She’s doing her best to avoid choosing a side.
Until she meets two mysterious nephilim brothers as different as night and day. Two brothers who need her help. They’re about to turn Spike’s world upside down.
Romantic urban fantasy.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trina writes urban fantasy that is dark and gritty with a twist of romance and horror but which is ultimately about people in dark places discovering who they are and what they’re made of.
A lover of rock music, vampires and muscle cars, Trina is a dreamer who always secretly wanted to be a rockstar. She lives in Alberta, Canada with her bass player husband, ukulele playing daughter and small herd of cats.
Trina loves to hear from readers so don’t hesitate to drop her a line.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
EPILOGUE