by Lila Dubois
The woman pulled a cleansing cloth from her Birkin bag. “Madeline.” She wiped down her face and shuddered when she checked her mirror.
I rocked Madeline, and as her temperature fell, her cries silenced. “That’s a good girl.” By the time I handed her back, she was drooling with sleep.
“Whatever they’re paying you, I’ll double it if you ever want to nanny.” The woman shifted the girl into the crook of her arm.
I smiled. Money was a poor substitute for traveling the world, and I’d plenty left to see. But I was glad to have helped the baby. “Can I get you anything?”
“All set.” She flicked off her light.
Quieting the child had leveled down the tension, but it was far too hot for real comfort. Janna wasn’t the only one dealing with heat stroke. The passengers looked a dangerous combination of limp and furious.
I knew I shouldn’t use my ice so obviously, but this was past the point that I could look away. As I strode down the aisle, I released the cold inside me.
It bled away from me like mist, invisible to human eyes, though it would’ve showed on a thermal camera. I doubted any of the passengers had one of those in their seat.
One man in disheveled Armani shot me a hard look, but I returned a pleasant smile, and he turned around. As long as no one snapped, I could handle a sour glance or two.
In fractions of degrees, the cabin cooled. Tucked in the back corner, I found a man asleep under his blanket. Curled in on himself, he couldn’t hide his massive height, and his skin was so dark it approached black.
He must have been sweltering.
“Sir?” It wasn’t good policy to wake customers, but I couldn’t let him sweat himself to death.
His eyes opened, instantly alert and shocking yellow. He hadn’t been sleeping, and I couldn’t imagine how he’d been comfortable.
Instinctively, I took a step back from him. “Sorry to disturb you. I wasn’t sure if you’d suffocated.”
“I like the heat.” The man smiled slow and lazy, his white teeth vivid against his dark skin. As he cast the blanket aside and unfolded, my old hunting instincts tensed. I’d known he was large, but I hadn’t expected his frame to be so muscular.
Taller than me. That was rare.
He radiated a predator’s energy that needled at too many parts of me. His coloring—yellow against black—and the carved shape of his body were exquisite.
His eyes felt like hands as they worked their way up to my nametag. “Valdís. Where’s that from?”
“Scandinavia.” I’d been named for the lady of the dead, which most found morbid but was the highest compliment from my people. Another reason I didn’t talk about such things. “Can I get you anything, sir?”
Just standing next to him, the hairs at the back of my neck lifted. Some part was an unavoidable flush of attraction. With that body and those eyes, I couldn’t help myself.
The rest?
Primal response. This man was a hunter, and even relaxed into the leather seat, he represented such a physical threat that my suppressed powers stirred. If I stayed long enough, I’d be forced to respond. That would mean shattering my carefully maintained cool and risking the life I’d carved for myself. No man was worth that. No matter how much man he was.
And he was.
“Hmm.” He leaned in, forcing me to back away from his palpable body heat. “Just wondering how a stone-cold goddess like you ended up a stewardess.” He grinned a cat’s grin, pleased he’d figured me out, if that was what he’d done.
I went colder than usual but kept my mask. “Sorry, sir. I have to see to the other passengers.”
As I retreated to the galley, I could practically feel his gaze on my back. I pulled the curtain closed like I was draping myself in armor.
Retreat didn’t suit me. I fisted my hand and the hard ice in my blood seeped into my palm. I ached to draw it out into a spear and run across the frigid wastes like I had as a girl. No fear. No knowledge of anything else. I never would’ve let his challenge go unmatched. Things were different now.
The Last of the Monsters
Lila Dubois
That’s a wrap.
Monsters in Hollywood, Book 6
Leading lady Akta Patel is in love with Henry, her co-star in Truth in Darkness, the most anticipated movie in Hollywood. But there’s a problem. Only a few know that the “truth” in the title is the fact that Monsters are real. Henry is one of them—and he’s sworn never to date a human.
Henry is at the end of his rope. A year ago, an in-the-moment touch of her lips on his bought his monster roaring to the surface. Kissing and touching her now, as they film, is torture—and his fight to maintain control shows in the dailies.
An attack on the production brings life’s uncertainties into sharp focus, and Henry wastes no time making room for Akta in his arms, a space she gladly fills with her body. But as the premiere approaches, enemies close in on all sides, threatening Akta’s life.
Forcing Henry to risk everything—including the clan’s safety—to save the woman he loves.
Warning: This title contains a monster with a sexy secret, a woman who believes in love (and smoking-hot sex) and the last battle of the Monsters.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
The Last of the Monsters
Copyright © 2013 by Lila Dubois
ISBN: 978-1-61921-584-9
Edited by Amy Sherwood
Cover by Kendra Egert
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: September 2013
www.samhainpublishing.com