“Sssh.” She leaned in against his chest. “I’ve spent a lot of time hiding, and believe me, I’ve had enough of it. I want to live.”
He wanted her to have everything she wanted, but he couldn’t risk losing her again. “But what about your safety?”
“I somehow don’t think James will come for me again after that lesson.” She lifted her head to stare up at him. “I don’t want to waste the chance I’ve been given, Blade. I’m going to do what I dreamed of…study and work…make something of myself.”
“And you will.” He gave her a kiss. “Whatever you choose to do, we’ll handle it together.” She’d survived experiences that would have broken others, and she deserved all the opportunities that came her way.
“What about the other girls?”
“Now that James is out of the way, any of them who need help can come to us.” That was one of the first things he’d agreed with the others when they got back. “But you don’t need to worry about anything right now.”
A comfortable silence descended around them as she snuggled against him. Above them, the moon shone bright, bathing them in its light. They were shut away in their own little world, together. Damn, he sighed with content. “You came for me, Blade. You broke the truce with James.”
“Yes. Because I love you.”
“You said that to me when I was tied down.” The memory made her shiver, and he tightened his arm around her. “You told me you cared about me, couldn’t be without me…you said I was your mate.” He’d been so struck with fear for her that he didn’t know what came out of his mouth…but it was true…she brought him alive in the way only a mate could. “Your words brought me back, Blade.” A small smile played on her lips. “I love you, too, demon.”
When she looked up at him with green eyes that were no longer afraid, he was grateful that she’d come to him…banished his isolation with her love. And when she kissed him, her soft breath mingled with his, filling his soul with joy…
###
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please could you take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer site.
Want more of Blade and Alyssa’s romance? Click here for the epilogue.
The next book in the series, BITTEN AND TWISTED, is now available for purchase. Continue reading for the first chapter of Leke and Veronica’s story.
Thank you.
Natalie Aejaz, Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I love making things up!
I am Natalie Aejaz, an author who enjoys travel and make-believe.
While managing a plethora of other activities, I focused on a series of social novels over the past few years. I wrote my first fantasy romance a few months ago, unexpectedly becoming addicted to the fun and freedom of creating universes. The opportunities for play were as limitless as my imagination and since then, I write in this genre.
Aliens, shapeshifters, vampires and witches … they are on their way in my future books.
CONNECT WITH ME:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/natalieaejaz
Instagram: www.instagram.com/natalieaejaz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/natalieaejaz.writer
BOOKS BY NATALIE AEJAZ
Blood Moon
(Adult Paranormal Romance)
Book 1: Marked by the Alpha
Book 2: Demon’s Soul
Book 3: Bitten and Twisted
Book 4: Lion’s Heart
Shifters Unleashed
(Adult Shifter Romance)
Book 1: The Wolf’s Bride
Otherworld Warriors
(Adult Fantasy Romance)
Book 1: Hela
Book 2: Zhinghaas
Standalones
Blood Rose: A Vampire Romance
Starstruck: A Paranormal Romance
Lost and Found (Part One)
Lost and Found (Part Two)
Forbidden (Part One)
Forbidden (Part Two)
PREVIEW—BITTEN AND TWISTED
* * *
Veronica’s life changes overnight when she’s bitten by Leke, the powerful leader of a vampire horde. As she transforms, she’s disowned by those who once looked up to her. Alone and determined that someone will pay, her thirst for revenge leads her to Leke. When an unexpected attraction flares between them, she vows to get past it and send him to his grave. But before that, she needs his help…
When Veronica comes to Leke with murder on her mind, he should be concerned…instead, his buried mating instinct rises. He wants her, but despite her attraction to him, she’s adamant on revenge. No matter how tough she is, when it comes to fighting an enemy who’s a danger to her and others, she’s going to need the backing of a horde. So for now, at least, they agree on a truce.
* * *
THE PAIN HAD HACKED AWAY at her for days. It took over her body, biting and twisting. Eventually, she longed for death. But by that point, Veronica couldn’t get up from the bed to end it. She took her hands to her throat, choking and twisting. Nothing. She buried her face in the pillow, but came up gasping for air. She clawed at skin soaked with sweat, leaving behind scratches.
Why didn’t I kill myself when it started?
A few hours later, the worst of it had passed. She turned over on to her front and pushed herself off the bed. Before she could fall back onto it, she threw her feet to the ground. She rested a few moments, waiting for the nausea and dizzy sensation to subside. She needed to place her head back on the pillow…no! When she stood, she collapsed against her bedroom wall, clawing her way across it until she was at the bathroom door. As she grabbed the handle, she fell to her knees, but forced herself to stand and enter the bathroom.
She kneeled over the toilet, wanting to throw up. Nothing. She had not eaten since the fever started. All she craved was the taste of…blood?
No. Fucking. Way.
Food…she needed food. She began the crawl of pain, making it through the corridor and into the kitchen. There was a vegetable casserole in the fridge, but it tasted of shit and only made her want to vomit again.
She edged toward the dining table and sat before it, resting her head in her hands as she closed her eyes for a few moments, before opening them to stare around the kitchen. Its windows were broken, dishes smashed and appliances wrecked. That was how most of her apartment looked. A result of her tantrum two days ago. The fever had subsided for a few hours, but an uncontrollable anger took its place. Pissed at what had been done to her and unable to punish the person responsible, she’d gone for the apartment instead. She’d broken expensive appliances, punched her fists through glass and head-butted collectables, only stopping when she passed out. What a way to use the one burst of energy that had ventured her way during the sickness.
There was a hell of a clean-up waiting when she recovered. The place had been fitted with luxury appliances and customized furniture, even though it was in a rundown apartment block in a dodgy part of Manhattan. She could afford to live in a better location—much better—but with her line of work, a ‘no go’ area where even the cops wouldn’t venture was a given.
She left the kitchen and threw herself on the sofa in the living room, unable to make it back to her bed. Pain. It seared through to every inch of her body, sending frustration surging through her veins—but there was nothing left to trash in the apartment. The exhaustion returned, and as she felt herself falling asleep, she knew that even that would not bring relief—because night after night, she saw him in her dreams. The vampire. His touch had been ice and face cold as he sank his teeth into her.
Come to me, Veronica.
She covered her ears to block the sounds, but they continued inside her head. “Leave me alone, you damn asshole!”
She had always been in fucking control. She had to be, being brought up among the mob. Her distant uncle James had ruled their family business for decades, and when Veronica’s elder brother Paul was old enough, he was given a small group of his own thugs to lord it over. But Ver
onica was told to keep out of mob matters by James, just because she was a female. Instead, she spent years salivating over dreams of having a position such as that of her elder brother. She’d been bored shitless, desperate for her life to have meaning…but her asshole uncle wouldn’t allow her anywhere near the worthwhile jobs.
And then Paul was taken out by the leader of a rival gang. She didn’t even wait for instructions from James. She tracked the guy who’d taken out her brother, all the way to his hideout. By the time his thugs discovered their boss’s throat had been slit, she was back in James’ mansion, in the privacy of her suite. It had been a clean kill and thrilling, but within a few hours, the adrenalin rush was gone. Even that had not been enough, had it? Everyone was impressed, apart from James. No fucking female was going to carry out work on his behalf, he roared. So she’d left to find her own place…and Paul’s gang had followed her, as well as a few others. She’d set up her own enterprise, which steadily grew. It brought her some stability, and she’d hoped that this would bring the fulfillment she craved…
And then that night happened…but what the hell had gone down?
There had been a call, telling her that one of her guys was in trouble with Rasmus’ gang. Rasmus. A damn werewolf and one of many supernatural species that now co-existed with humans in Manhattan. She fucking hated the whole lot of them and would have taken several of them out by now if it wasn’t considered a hate crime by the bloody government. She’d put her damn brain on suspension mode and biked it to a rundown car park, itching to get her hands on the wolf. That was when it got blurry. She was hit from behind by some pussy and then there glimpses of Rasmus—flashes of yellow eyes and dark fur—and then…the vampire.
Bite after bite, sinking into her neck…
When Veronica awakened, something was different. She sat up on the sofa, with no difficulty. The pain was gone, but it was nothing to celebrate, because it was replaced by a more intense desire for blood. When she stood, her body was light, and she didn’t feel the need to fall to her knees.
Have I recovered?
But no, what was wrong with her skin? So pale…and had her fingernails been that long before? She belted it to the bathroom and stood before the mirror, her hands gripping the sink as she kept her eyes down. Heart thumping in her chest, she raised her chin and faced her reflection. And then looked away again. Her eyes…they’d flashed between red and their usual hazel color. She’d been in situations where she nearly died several times, but nothing had scared her as much as those flashes. Come on. You can do this. She took a deep breath and lifted her gaze again, forcing herself to keep it on the mirror.
Fuck.
Her hair had grown a few inches in a few days. Her face…pale and thin. As she inhaled, deep, the flashes in her eyes subsided, gradually coming closer to her normal hazel color…connected to her emotions, somehow? She was looking at a stranger…a monster. She opened her mouth. Please don’t let there be…fangs. Small and sharp, they flashed back at her from the mirror. Those dreams had not been a hallucination or an effect of the fever. Her fucking transformation was complete.
She fell back against the wall, her face twisting with horror before her. She wanted to look away, but a lurid fascination kept her eyes stuck to the reflection. The bastard supernaturals had a treaty with the government and were not supposed to touch humans, but they had. They had fucking touched her. She was now a damn vampire.
And she hated their kind…the worst of the supernatural species.
SHE IS AWAKENED.
Leke sat in the underground hall of his mansion, surrounded by his horde of vampires. A bunch of twenty hardened assassins trained in all espionage skills imaginable. Most of them were in leather jackets, like himself, but a few of the males were in two-pieces and a couple of females wore flowing dresses. He had led them since before non-humans were outed by the state. Over the years, they’d made tons of money carrying out assignments for supernatural agencies and settling disputes between their kind. And when supernaturals were exposed and subsequently settled among humans, Leke added government contracts to his line of specialized work. As well as the routine spying and assassinations, his horde investigated rogue supernatural elements.
He didn’t do it just for the money. He’d made enough of that, and being a partner in one of Manhattan’s most successful social venues, Eclipse, meant he would never be out of pocket. It was for the thrill of it. The adrenalin rush of a dangerous investigation and the satisfaction of bringing a difficult task to completion. True to his meticulous nature, every job had been perfectly executed.
Until Veronica.
“How long before the government contact gets over what happened?” Fry was unable to conceal the nervous twitch at his throat, just above where his tribal tattoo began—a permanent design that each member of their horde sported. The vampire would usually never question Leke on matters of business, but the authorities were pissed off big time.
How the hell did I mess up?
His government contact had called him a few days ago, and the brief had been clear. Go to Veronica’s location and end her. It didn’t get more straightforward than that, did it? But he’d fucked up. “You should have finished her.” Fry held his hands behind his head, his muscled chest highlighted by a black tee shirt. “It would have been a blessing for her.”
It wasn’t the kind of job Leke liked, taking out a female. But Veronica was trouble. He didn’t care if her current disputes were limited to the wolf shifter Rasmus, who many supernaturals didn’t get on with, but since she started out with her own gang three years ago, her enterprise had grown fast. And she hated all non-humans. If she got any more powerful, she might have become a danger to even the ones who kept out of her way. So he’d accepted the assignment. He arrived at that abandoned car park to find her covered in blood. Someone had got to her before him. It wasn’t the most honorable thing he’d done, but he placed his hands on her neck, intending to twist it and free her from her misery.
But hazel eyes had peeked out from among the red splatters…
For the first time, he had hesitated during a mission. It was a strange sensation…being unable to let someone go. If he couldn’t do it himself, he could have left her there. With her injuries, she wouldn’t have lasted long. Instead, he kneeled by her and lifted her upper body into his arms so her head fell back and exposed her neck. He sank his fangs into her neck, ignoring her screams as he took enough blood to ensure she would turn…
“Leke?” Fry’s voice forced his attention back to the table. The vampires’ eyes were on him, waiting for an answer to whatever question had been asked. “How many of us do you want going in?”
“Five should be enough.” Stealing secret files from the Association, the strongest human agency in Manhattan, was not a job to be taken lightly. But they’d already checked out its headquarters and carried out dummy assignments in the training center next to the hall. The sessions had included cracking the security systems. It was a straightforward job, as long as nobody did anything stupid. “The main thing is that nothing leads back to us, Fry.”
He glanced around the walls of the hall. Swords, shields and guns lined them, so his horde was always ready to defend itself against assault. Not that many would consider launching an attack on Leke. He had a rather undeserved reputation as a ruthless vampire, one who beheaded first and asked questions later. On second thoughts, judging by the number of his kills, it perhaps was deserved. He did not fear supernaturals becoming a threat, apart from that crazy werewolf Rasmus, but powerful human agencies were another matter. Leke had joined Blade—his friend and a co-owner of Eclipse—on an assignment recently and attacked one of the most powerful mob bosses in Manhattan. As it was, local gangsters weren’t enamored of Leke, regarding the jobs that his vampire horde carried out for the government as stolen from them. Sooner or later, there would be repercussions. Hence, all entrances to Leke’s mansion featured a strict security system. And if anyone did get through, his horde was
always hankering after a good fight.
“Whatever happens, the Association can’t know that supernaturals are involved.” His eyes met Fry’s. He trusted that blood-sucker more than any of his horde when it came to such jobs. “We don’t know how other gangsters will react to what went down at James’ place, and we need no more powerful assholes on our back.”
In some ways—make that many—the Association was worse than the mob. At least with the thugs, you knew what you were getting, and few cried over their deaths. But the Association hid behind God. It was the strongest religious organization in the world today, because under the guise of unifying different global beliefs, it had sucked in members of different faiths and brainwashed them into walking its path. Like many who followed religion blindly, you could tell its members all you wanted about how they were being exploited, or how the Association had close connections with criminal elements around the world, but it would make no difference. Leke did not fancy getting on the wrong side of the organization, and the only reason he had taken the job from his government contact was to make up for his misdemeanor when it came to Veronica.
“The job won’t be traced to us,” said Fry.
“Great. Choose four other guys and set out tomorrow morning.”
“Sure, sire.” When Leke frowned at the old way of address, Fry grinned. “I mean, Leke. Anything else?”
“Be careful. There has been no fallout from when we attacked the mob boss’s mansion, but I get the feeling there will be sooner or later. There were many who wanted to see him go down, but there are those who have lost out because of his disappearance.”
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