Aequitas Betrayal

by Mason, a. c.

  Aequitas Betrayal

  (Aequitas I)

  by a.c. Mason

  Aequitas Betrayal (Aequitas I)

  Copyright © 2013, a.c. Mason

  Book design by Kaeros Publishing House

  Cover Art by Leila DeSint

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  Nontransferable. All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without author's permission, except in the case of brief snippets embodied in articles or reviews. No part of this book may be distributed via any means, electronic or print, without the author or publisher’s permission.

  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.

  Kaeros Publishing House

  Between the pages… infinite possibilities

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  Back Cover CopyThe Aequitas, part angel and demon, have kept the balance between the forces of good and evil—until now.

  When Etienne Grant is kidnapped and transformed into an Aequitas, marriage to Auria is the only thing that will save his soul.

  Auria is a beautiful but efficient Aequitas, a General who wants nothing to do with love. A former lover has plans to prevent any hope of happiness with her new husband, and after murdering his own best friend and forcing Auria to join his rebellion, the balance between good and evil spirals out of control.

  Can Etienne's tenderness melt Auria's cold heart and heal the pain of their secret pasts? Their very survival depends on it.

  Content Warning: This book contains graphic sex, mild bondage, sensual touching f/f and biblical references.

  Foreword

  My interest in theology started with my own French Roman Catholic upbringing and morphed into other paranormal-type realms over the years.

  Some of the concepts behind the Aequitas are loosely based on the Douay—Rheims Bible, The Apocalypse Of Saint John (Revelation) chapter 12

  [6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her a thousand two hundred sixty days.

  [7] And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels:

  [8] And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.

  [9] And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

  [10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God,

  Dedication

  To my many mentors. Each of you has guided my path and I am eternally grateful for your patience and wisdom.

  Chapter 1

  “Etienne, you’re in danger.” A sultry female voice echoed in Etienne Grant’s mind. He stopped dead in his tracks. To his left, a vacant but well-manicured lawn spread; to his right, overgrown shrubs. Startled by them, he stepped back.

  Haha. He’d better watch out for killer bushes.

  A glance behind said he was alone. Nothing but the owls and him. Great. This was all he needed, some mentally ill telepath messing with his head for entertainment. Typical of those who didn’t learn to control their abilities.

  His feet pounded the asphalt once more. Relief came over him as he rounded a corner and found no one.

  “In danger.” The same voice, and it seemed closer.

  He glanced around the surrounding area and still found no one. Whoever this was needed to understand he didn’t scare easily. The exception being dangerous hedges, of course.

  “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself.” He’d been a beat cop on the graveyard shift, for the love of God. Sure, Chief of Police had a nice ring to it and its benefits, but he couldn’t remember the last night he’d slept more than an hour. Maybe Chief wasn’t the right fit for him.

  Soft laughter rose in the air.

  No big deal. He’d ignore the troublemaker.

  He slowed his pace as he noticed a number of the park’s lights were out up ahead. A call to city maintenance would be just the thing to get them back in working order.

  A female form approached, clad in white clothing that accented her brown skin.

  The endless depths of her black onyx gaze mesmerized him, seemed to hold him captive.

  His surroundings faded.

  Eyes he’d seen before, but where and when?

  He tried to blink but could not. A euphoric daze came over him as the dark abyss of her eyes pulled him in further.

  Her small fingers shoved his chest, and he soared into the air.

  Shit!

  As his body slammed to the ground, he gasped. His lungs clutched for air. How could such a petite feminine creature overpower him?

  A seraphic beauty or a demon?

  She leapt, rising in the dark of night, steel heels gleaming. Crap! Yet he didn’t move, spellbound by the fluidity of her movements, and then braced for impact.

  Landing feet first, she knocked the wind from his lungs. They screamed for air. Impossible.

  The heels should have gone through him.

  Emotionless, she stood on his chest, yet her body didn’t weigh on him. His attempts to shift, fruitless. He remained pinned.

  She bent down. Her heels ground into his skin, scraping his chest until she knelt, knees pressed to his collarbone.

  “Err,” he protested, teeth gritted in anguish as his flesh bled beneath her slicing heels. “Err.”

  The slight twinkle in her eyes as she pressed her forearm to his throat held him in a trance the movement of branches crawled. Everything around him seemed to slow. The only sounds came from his pounding heart and rapid breath.

  Why didn’t she finish the job? She’d clearly proven she could dispose of him with ease.

  Face close to his, she made contact with his cheek and stroked her thumb on his flesh.

  He shook his head, reached up and grabbed her small wrists, restraining her, but she twisted her arms free. Lips curved upward to one side, she rose and stepped off his chest.

  She toyed with him. If her intent wasn’t to kill him, what the fuck was it?

  “Do I have your attention?”

  Dumbfounded by the question, he scratched his head as he sat up. “Yeah, but you had it before you tossed me in the air and—”

  “That wasn’t the attention I was looking for,” she said.

  “Really?” The statement had been rhetorical.

  She stood a few feet away, not human and with his luck a vampire. Just what he didn’t need. Every part of her exuded menace, except for her angelic face. She looked barely out of her teens, yet an ageless beauty. Black kohl liner accentuated her almond shaped eyes like those of an Egyptian queen.

  “Yes, really.” She winked.

  Keeping his gaze fixed on her while she walked towards the path in front of him, he pushed himself to his feet. Ouch. His chest hurt. Unsure of what she might do next, he smiled.

  “I know you’re used to flashing your smile around and getting by on your good looks, but not with me, you won’t.”

  A dark film descended, coating her entire ocular surface. He couldn’t turn from the liquid pools of rippling tar. Pure evil stared him dead in the face, grinned at him.

  “And you are...?” Barely escaping the power of her hypnotic eyes, he forced his gaze down, over the bridge of her rounded nose to her plump, lush mouth. He licked his lips. A faint scar trace
d a path from the bottom left corner of her mouth through her lips to her right cheekbone. The elegant line of her exposed neck led deep between luscious breasts. Large firm mounds stretched the leather top to accommodate their size, and the golden hue of her shiny skin called to him. Hard buds showed through the material. Brilliant. He shouldn’t be checking out her tits.

  “I’d introduce myself, but you already know who I am.”

  “They call me the General.”

  He closed his eyes, not wanting to see her because of the power she held over him. They who? Was this her title or an affectionate nickname due to her sunny disposition?

  Somehow, the image of her standing there remained imprinted in his mind. He tried to shake the sight of her. Had they met before?

  He’d remember an encounter with her. Beings from other realms just didn’t mess around with the living. This creature possessed no good reason to bother with the likes of him.

  “What do you want with me?” He opened his eyes. The area around him looked vacant. Not a whisper of sound, even the trees remained still. Where had she gone?

  “Me?” An unnatural laughter taunted him. “Don’t flatter yourself, cowboy, I’m just following orders.”

  The revelation didn’t put him at ease. He searched through the obscurity of night and located her a few feet away. An inaudible laughter crept into his mind. He turned his body in her direction, but she’d disappeared.

  Only the dark of night and trees swaying in the wind remained, making it virtually impossible to see her. Heavy storm clouds covered the moon. A quick turn to his right caused pain to ripple through his torso and revealed an empty park bench. His chest felt wet with a sticky substance, so he pressed his right hand against it.

  “Ouch.” A dark liquid coated his fingers, and he lifted them to just beneath his nose.

  Blood. Great, his scent would lead her right to him. He’d use his damn cursed gift for once. Survival. A cleansing breath to quiet his brain, then he closed his eyes and allowed himself to seek her energy.

  He spun, then stopped. Less than a foot in front of him, bright rays of moonlight peeking through the heavy clouds lit her face. Her eyes had returned to the fierce black onyx gems that mesmerized him.

  “Impressive. Nearly as great as my own gift when I was like you.” Her throaty commanding mind-voice sent a jolt to his groin. Mmm. A sucker for a woman with a raspy voice—he loved the sounds they made in bed.

  Her mouth curved in a mocking smile.

  “You mean alive?” he asked. “You are more spirit than flesh.” More than one spirit within her: one evil, one pure, and a third he didn’t know what to make of.

  “You shall understand in time. All you need to know right now is your mortal life will end, Etienne.”

  Keeping her footing in a firm stance, knees slightly bent, she stood. Ready to pounce at any moment. Damn. Sexy. When had she been turned? A dry spell of epic proportions and now a female vamp or some other creature of night wanted to haul him away. Freaky crap continued to afflict him. Like the way he knew what a suspect would do beforehand, or how he’d find himself somewhere as a crime was underway. Those were the tip of the iceberg. Stuff better hidden from everyone.

  “Vampire? Lilith?” Her tone was sharp, eyes narrowed. “I do not hunt children in the night and eat them, nor would I ever feed off the flesh of the innocent.” She paused harshly on each word.

  Wonderful. He’d seriously ticked her off. She couldn’t be a modern girl if she knew about Lilith, the Hebrew demon of the night, credited as the mother of vampirism. Not exactly Cosmo girl reading. She probably knew Lucifer was Latin for Morning Star or that Archangels were second to last in ranks of angelic order of God’s kingdom, too.

  Obviously, she could read his thoughts. So even if he came up with an escape strategy, she’d know.

  When he got out of bed this morning, he’d never thought this might be his last day on earth.

  Him killed, by a sexy, evil-she thing?

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re being melodramatic.”

  Silky fingers slid along his cheek, and the pure heat invoked by the light caress froze him. He wanted to reach for her hand and feel her skin. The withdrawal of her touch caused him to grieve.

  “It’s impolite to read other people’s thoughts.” Telepaths just knew it wasn’t done.

  “I never claimed to be polite. And don’t expect nice, nor well-mannered either. It’s lazy for a telepath to speak out loud.”

  She mocked him, too. That was all he needed. Sure, because her comment hadn’t been melodramatic or anything. Excuse him if he liked his mortal life. Maybe ‘liked’ was too strong a word, but he still didn’t want to die.

  He looked down to consider his options and scratched his chin. “Maybe we can make a deal?” When he looked again, she wasn’t there. Damn it. Didn’t she have better things to do?

  “A deal? And what do you suppose you have to trade, Etienne?” The raspy, deliberate way she breathed ‘Eh-tee-yen’ sent shivers throughout his body. Damn. He’d gone far too long without if the mere sound of her voice had him stiff as a board. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

  The movement of her luscious lips replayed in his mind. “See, that’s the thing here...General, is it?”

  “Go on.”

  “Right. I need your help figuring that out, to point me in the right direction.” A shimmer of movement in the darkness, and he found her, sitting on the bench a few feet away. As he spun toward her, pain seared his chest, which he struggled to ignore.

  “Forget this stall tactic. You have been summoned. Chosen. Your soul and life. No other will suffice. And I’ve come to retrieve you.”

  By whom and for what purpose? Why him?

  Only beings of higher realms summoned each other. Not a layman. Good or evil, what would they want with him? Yeah, he’d been a troubled teen, but now he was the city’s youngest Chief of Police. He taught kung-fu at the inner-city dojo, volunteered at the Sixth Street soup kitchen. A normal guy, for Christ’s sake. Whoever she worked for shouldn’t be interested in him.

  There was the quickie marriage. But other than that, he’d tried to do good. And he wouldn’t take the full blame for that disastrous union.

  Why was he being summoned?

  Her laughter filled his mind. “Slow down, cowboy! Your life isn’t flashing before your eyes just yet... I’ve come to retrieve you, not kill you. I don’t take part in ascensions. Too messy.”

  She’d vanished again. Where the hell? If playing got her off, he could think of a few better versions of hide and seek to enjoy.

  Behind him, again.

  His body sent ripples of pain from his wounds throughout his chest as he rotated toward her.

  Heat emanated from her body, less than an inch from him. Maybe five feet two, the spiked steel stiletto heels helped her appear a few inches taller. Draped from head to toe in white leather with a trench coat, which flapped in the breeze. A tank top clung to her breasts, revealing hard nipples.

  Pants hugged her muscular legs, showed their lean definition.

  The things he could do with her.

  Was she part of some underground biker gang? No. She wasn’t human. Sexy, yeah, with her waist-length, wavy hair the color of graphite. Perhaps the moon made it look so haunting, as well as the onyx of her eyes.

  Her hips rounded just below a petite waist. Nice. Her ass must be slamming too. He’d bet his life on it. Bad choice of words, given his predicament. What was he doing checking out the creature about to deliver him to people who wanted to end his mortal life?

  A soft seductive laugh rose from her, and she circled him. “I love games, but unfortunately for me, oh, definitely unfortunate for you, I was asked to bring you back. As much as I’d like the chance to add some scratches to your back to match the ones on your chest, we’ll have to keep that fantasy unfulfilled.”

  One hand on the source of his pain, images of her toying with him flashed through his mind. Her naked body be
neath his, nails digging into his flesh.

  She winked with an evil curve to her lips and pulled something from inside her coat, then pressed it to his gut. Pain shot from his gashes. Crap.

  Leaning into him, she pressed her satin lips to his ear. “Not nearly as much as my nails etching into your skin would. Now focus. You’ll need these pants. Synthetic material can’t withstand the passage, and you’ll end up on the other side naked.” Her warm lips stayed against his ear, and he swallowed as his body responded.

  Cocking his head, he met her heated look before she pulled away, a twisted smile on her face. She enjoyed toying with him. Truth be told, he minded.

  She sauntered around him. “The pants will be too short, but you’ll be issued your own soon enough, cowboy.”

  Why did she keep calling him cowboy? Was it his appearance that gave her this perception? Or a twang in his speech? He’d never even ridden a horse, didn’t own any clothing made in Texas.

  He thought of himself as more of a GQ type of guy. Wait a second—

  “Excuse me, but what are you talking about, ‘other side’? Are we going to the Twilight Zone? To be honest, we can skip it. I feel like I’m already there.” Why couldn’t she be looking for a date? Now that was something in short supply in his life. Not that he’d say yes, given her current predicament of being dead, but the offer would be nice.

  She didn’t seem easily talked out of things. Wherever she was about to take him probably had someone in charge. Someone he could reason with and calmly explain the mix up, then be on his way. In the meantime, he could relax and enjoy hot she-thing.

  Pathetic! Up in more ways than one for an adventure with a dead girl. This had to be what hitting rock bottom felt like.

  “Someone you can reason with... I’m afraid reason isn’t our strong suit, but don’t worry, soon enough logic will mean very little to you, too. Now, I’ll give you twenty seconds to change.

  Or I’ll take you as is. Stark naked.” Raising an eyebrow, she winked at him. “Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen—”