Oh shit. Jack had a sinking feeling. “I am not Warden material.”
“The keys to the brownstone are in the planter. You already have the keys to Venice. Should you need others, ask Uller. He knows where I keep the spares.” Ramon smiled wryly. “I cleared it with the Tribunal. They were in agreement. You have my number if you need me, but I’d prefer you didn’t use it. I need a break.”
“You live for the game, Ramon. In fact, I don’t buy this vacation bullshit. What’s really going on? You’re not leaving permanently, are you?”
“I’m going to find myself a warm beach with some soft surf, strong rum, and beautiful women, and play a different kind of game for a while.” He clapped him on the back in yet another uncharacteristic display of emotion, and then, the man known as the Spaniard, the ultimate shadow operative and consummate player in the game of Gods, turned and walked soundlessly to the door, leaving Jack standing there, looking and feeling like an idiot with his mouth hanging open.
At the door Ramon paused. Looked back over his shoulder, the way Hugh had done before he stepped into the certain death of an alternate dimension. Ramon’s dark eyes were as unreadable as ever. And for just a moment, in the deceptive wintry light, he didn’t look completely human. “Take care of yourself, Jack. And your bride. She’s an amazing woman. The future of the Covenant lies in her.”
About the Author
To learn more about Ursula Bauer, please visit http://www.ursulabauer.com/. Send an email to Ursula at [email protected].
Look for these titles by Ursula Bauer
Now Available
Eternity Covenant Book One: Immortal Protector
How can one angel’s wish cause so much trouble? Heaven only knows.
One Angel’s Wish
© 2007 Kira Stone
After wishing he were dead—then having it happen—Chris has given up wishing for anything. The problem? His salary as a Guardian Angel is paid in wishes. He hasn’t spent a one, and after a few years of hard work, he’s accumulated quite a pile. Enough to take over Heaven, if he wished with them all at once. All he lacks is the desire to use them, until Geena comes along.
Geena just wants to get through her first day as an Angel In Training. But she’s already lost her Mentoring Angel and now she’s been zapped into silence for taking God’s name in vain. Chris immediately leaps to her rescue, wishing he could help her. Literally.
And that’s when the trouble really starts.
Warning, as you’ve no doubt come to expect from this author, this title contains the following: explicit sex and graphic language.
Enjoy the following excerpt for One Angel’s Wish:
Romaine stroked the skin under her fingers, calming him. “You’re a special one, Chris. I’ve known that since the day you came to me.”
“This is Heaven. Everyone is special here,” he pointed out.
“Don’t interrupt,” Romaine shot back. Her eyes sparkled with good humor when she spoke again. “I don’t know what it is about you that makes you different from the others. Better.”
She had to be speaking a lie. Divine Judgment was swift here, so he waited to see what her sentence would be. But there was no booming voice. No penalty. Either someone was sleeping on the job over in FACTs—Fair Assessment of Cosmic Truths—or Romaine spoke the truth.
Satisfied that the correct conclusion had registered in his brain if the cat-like smile was any indication, his boss continued. “You’re wasting your talents here. Let me put you up for promotion. You could be performing Miracles.”
Chris thought that preventing mortals from shuffling off their coil prematurely was a miracle in itself. He didn’t want to do anything else. “Thank you, but I’m happy here. I’d like to stay.”
“You didn’t even think about it. You could do so many wonderful things.”
He glanced at the board. Tony’s replacement, a woman named Mei-Ling from China, rolled from “Troubled” into “Desperate”. Her account hadn’t been assigned. That was Romaine’s job and he was keeping her from doing it.
He shifted his gaze back to Romaine. “There are many wonderful things I can do here. Want me to take this one?”
She snapped her fingers, dissolving the privacy shield. “No, it’s time for your rest break. You’ve earned it.” Raising her voice, she called out to a nineteen-year-old with skinny limbs and a gentle smile. “Cyril, honey, Mei-Ling needs you.”
“I’m on it,” he replied and dashed out the door, leaving it open.
Romaine kissed Chris’s cheek and said, “You did good, sweetie. Now think about what I said. We’ll talk some more during your next shift.”
Chris hoped not. Wishes were something he’d rather ignore altogether. Saving souls was reward enough in his opinion. He didn’t want the responsibility of carting around a bunch of Wishes too. But since the chits were Heaven’s method of rewarding their employees, the best he could do was accept the ones he was given and put them away for safe keeping.
His assigned cube sat in the center of the room so he had to dodge a lot of flying feathers to reach it. Once there, he opened his fist, planning to put the silver button in his filing cabinet with the rest. But this one winked at him under the divine light illuminating his cube and he paused to study it.
Such a small thing, these Wishes. How many did he have? Chris wasn’t sure. He’d never counted them. Never really thought about them, except when he had a new one to add to the pile. Humans didn’t seem to give them a second thought either. They tossed Wishes around like Frisbees, so many of them flying so fast that the Wish Exchange could only register a fraction for consideration.
I wish it would stop raining.
I wish she’d shut up.
I wish he’d call.
I wish I was dead…
Suddenly the little silver button in his hand quivered and began to expand with purpose…
An animal rights activist is about to get a crash course in werewolves. One she may not survive.
Savage Retribution
© 2008 Lexxie Couper
Lone Irish werewolf Declan O'Connell has lost everything—his family, his clan, even his freedom—to his arch-rival, Nathan Epoc. The head of an underground werewolf clan and a brilliant scientist, Epoc plans to use Declan to create a super-wolf, a creature capable of shifting the balance of power in the lycanthrope world. But Epoc’s plans are about to be thwarted
Regan Thomas, a determined animal rights activist, rescues what she thinks is an ordinary wolf from his notorious animal testing facility in Sydney, Australia. She gets more than she bargained for when the wolf turns into an extremely hunky, extremely naked man who immediately drags her into a world where the clash between two opposing werewolf clans could spell the end of humankind.
Declan has survived without a clan for more years than he cares to remember, but sexy Regan stirs up all his fierce, alpha-wolf instincts. Now Declan has one last chance at revenge. But can he keep Regan alive, and resist the overwhelming attraction between them, long enough to stop Epoc?
Summer in Australia has never been this hot…or this dangerous.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Savage Retribution
Declan stared down at the woman beneath him, fighting like hell to keep her in his hold. Christ, she was a wild cat. Even with her legs trapped under the considerable weight of his own, she’d almost thrown him off more than once. What the hell did she do for a living? Wrestle rhinos?
No, Dec. She takes on security guards.
“Get off me!” she screamed again, body like a live current of electricity. He pressed into her, trying to hold her still, trying not to think about the lithe muscles of her limbs and tummy, the sweat-slicked smoothness of her bare skin, the velvet heat between her thighs mashing against his ever-growing shaft with each whiplash buck she gave.
Should’ve thought about the fact you were both naked before you jumped on her.
“Listen, love,” he growled, trying to shove the delicious sensat
ions stirring in his groin from his mind. “Just calm down and—”
Seismic rage erupted in her ice-green eyes. “GET! OFF! ME!”
Her body tensed with each bellowed word, thrusting her soft, damp heat harder against his now-throbbing cock.
Declan’s head swam, the change still too fresh in his system, the primitive, elemental instincts of the werewolf still too powerful. The musky scent of her sweat and sex threaded into his every breath. Intoxicating. Potent. She was a fighter, a warrior… She’d risked her life to save those incapable of saving themselves. The wolf in his blood growled in ancient appreciation, in hunger…
Unable not to, he leant down to kiss her.
One second he stared down at her, struggling to hold her still, the next he captured her lips with his and tasted her with his tongue.
For a moment, she lay beneath him, her exquisitely bare body locked frozen with shock. And why not? A man she’d never met before was kissing her, a man who—only seconds earlier—had been a bloody, great big wolf stretched out on her sofa. He almost pulled away, rational thought smashing down on him. But then, a slight tremble rippled through her, her arms snaked up around his neck and she was kissing him back. Deeply.
Her tongue battled his, curled and delved and flicked. Her teeth nipped at his bottom lip and a jolt of liquid heat shot straight to his groin, bringing a low and utterly raw groan to his throat. He dragged his hands from her wrists, down the smooth columns of her arms, his thumbs brushing the heavy swell of her breasts pressed flat against his body. The contact, light and fleeting, sent another surge of wet heat into his balls and his already-hard cock pulsed with new, eager blood.
What are you doing?
He didn’t know. The change had never left him so vulnerable to his werewolf’s desires, so manipulated by those animalistic cravings before. All he knew, all he cared about at that very moment, was how wonderfully warm and sensual the woman beneath him felt. How completely she returned his kiss.
He plunged his tongue into her mouth again, shifting his weight to smooth a hand up the delicious curve of her breast. The soft feel of it under his palm, the puckered peak of her nipple under his fingertips made him groan again, made his breath catch in his tight throat. Praise Mary, she felt so damn wonder—
Something hard and small smacked into his temple.
Explosive, white-hot pain erupted in Declan’s head. Eyes blurring, he rolled to the side. Christ, she’d hit him!
“Get off me!”
She lashed out, completely dislodging his weight before he recovered. She’d hit him! Christ, she’d almost knocked him out.
“Get the fuck off me!”
Another savage blow thumped against his head, this one narrowly missing his nose. He reeled back, pain and blood roaring in his ears. She’d hit him! While he was drowning in her taste and feel, she’d hit him!
Almost stumbling across the floor, Declan reached for his throbbing head, eyes still incapable of focusing. The blurred shape of the woman leapt to her feet, and he got the sense she was on the verge of kicking into him. A squirming wave of admiration rolled through him and his cock, still too full of hungry blood, twitched. “Shit, love, do you know how to throw a punch!”
The blurred shape loomed over him. “What the bloody hell are you and what have you done with my lizard?”
Declan blinked, both in confusion and in an attempt to clear his vision. “Your what?”
“Where the hell’s my lizard?” Long, bare legs came into focus—briefly—drawing his attention up to their apex and a distant, devious part of Declan’s mind—the part not in pain—noticed she not only knew how to punch, she also knew how to handle a razor.
Get your head out of the gutter. “Lady, I don’t know anything about a—”
“Where’s my lizard, you goddamn freak?”
Her roar split the room and sharp pain pounded through Declan’s head. Hell, he liked it better when she thought he was a wolf. “I haven’t seen your bloody lizard,” he growled, staggering to his feet. He squinted at her, relief flooding through him when she appeared sharp. In focus. “Praise Mary, I thought you’d buggered up my sight for good!”
She stared at him, gloriously naked, her lithe, toned and very perfect body shaking with what he assumed was rage. Her hands were clenched into rock-hard fists beside her thighs, her legs spread, knees bent slightly. Her hair tumbled across her straight, tensed shoulders in a shaggy curtain of rich-chocolate waves, falling to her nipples, drawing his gaze to her heaving breasts. She looked ready to attack. To rip him limb from limb. Such a different creature to the one only moments earlier smoothing her soft, gentle hands over said limbs in an attempt to find any injuries. What a contradiction.
What a—
“Where. Is. My. Lizard?”
Hands raised, he took a step forward. “Listen, love. I don’t know anything about a lizard, I haven’t seen a lizard, I haven’t even smelt a lizard.” He stared at her, saw confusion shimmer in her ice-green eyes, saw her muscles tense with each word he said. He returned his eyes to her face, needing to keep his attention away from her body. It was too flawless. Too distracting. “Now, you need to listen to me because while you did a very brave and noble thing breaking into Epoc’s lab, you also did a very stupid thing.”
Her jaw clenched, and those striking eyes narrowed. “I’m beginning to realize that.”
Declan didn’t miss the caustic insinuation. He was a journalist, after all. Well, had been a journalist back in Dublin. Who knows what he’d call himself now? Lone wolf? He cringed at the cliché. And the black look of murder on the woman’s face. “I’m going to say this as plainly as possible,” he went on, risking another step closer, “and I don’t want you to start screaming about your bloody lizard again. We have to get out of here. You have to come with me. Right now.”
She straightened, and he swore he heard her spine snap straight. The fact she was stark naked seemed to have completely slipped her mind. She glared at him, bunched fists on hips too smooth and curved for Declan’s peace of mind. “One kiss and you think I’m ready to elope?” She cocked a dark, arched eyebrow. “You had more chance when you were a wolf.”
Declan raised one of his own eyebrows. “Yeah, I noticed.”
Cool eyes bored into him. “What are you?”
“It’s usual practice to ask ‘who’ are you, the answer to which, is the man you just kissed.”
The woman crossed her arms, stare flat and decidedly icy. “Put it down to temporary insanity. I’m not in the habit of kissing strange men.”
Declan’s lips twitched. “And yet…”
A dusky pink blush painted the woman’s cheeks, a vision so innocent and beguiling a swelling wave of heat rolled through him and pooled low in his gut.
“I don’t know who or what you are. But it’s time for you to go.”
The desire to step forward, curl his fingers around her arms and pull her to his body crashed over him. Christ, it had been so long since a female affected him like this. The search for Maggie’s killer had consumed him. Nothing but finding his sister’s murderer had existed—or mattered. Yet here he was, in—based on the accents he’d heard since being captured—Australia, the other side of the world, and he was horny.
An immortal soldier defies the ancient Gods he serves and puts his existence and the world at risk when he saves the life of the mortal woman he swore to kill.
Immortal Protector
© 2007 Ursula Bauer
Gideon Sinclair, an immortal, shape-shifting soldier, defies the ancient gods he serves, risking his existence and the future of the mortal world, when he saves the life of the woman he was sworn to kill: Dr. Megan Carter. For centuries he’s fought for justice and balance in the eternal struggle between good and evil. Gideon challenges destiny and the forces aligning against her, but when Meg becomes more than a mission, will he be able to accept the healing love she offers or will their enemies and the demons of his past be their undoing?
Meg
’s accidental contact with an artifact sacred to the Goddess Isis thrusts her into the midst of a centuries old battle between two rival gods, and makes her the target of a crazed magician bent on unlocking the secrets of immortality. With nowhere to turn and no one to trust, she puts her life in the hands of the lethal, enigmatic Gideon, and is drawn into his dark world. She can’t resist the passionate desire he stirs, but will she pay the ultimate price when she falls for a man who no longer has a heart?
Enjoy the following excerpt for Immortal Protector:
Meg was out of the car and moving, any thoughts of her own safety gone from her mind. Gideon started to come round as she ran up her walk. The demon moved slower, as if in pain. She trampled the pansies and pulled the sword from the marigolds. The creature took note of her, snorted, and kept walking towards the immortal.
Gideon got to his knees, saw the demon coming down with a vicious swing, and lurched to the side. He rolled into the spill and came up on his feet just in time to sidestep another strike. This close Meg could see the other wounds. His shirt was sliced in a few spots, and blood poured freely. His cheekbone was bruised, and he was favoring his right leg.
The blade felt incredibly light in her hands. Her heart rammed hard against her ribs. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. But she managed. She put one foot in front of the other, and reached him just before the demon.
“Run. Meg. Run,” he ground out between clenched teeth. He grabbed the sword from her and lunged.
Meg stepped clear and started to back away as the two engaged in a series of traded strikes. The demon pivoted on the last salvo, changed gears, and made a run towards her. Before it could connect, Gideon leapt in between them, blade gripped with both hands, poised up in a defensive position. The creature’s sword connected, and Gideon’s sword severed the curved blade in two. A brilliant burst of light accompanied the sheering of steel, and the demon lurched back with an ungodly hiss.
ImmortalIllusions: The Eternity Covenant Book2 Page 31