“Alice!” he screamed.
“Here. I’m here.”
His gaze shot to directly below him.
Edge hung by both hands on a thick vine jutting from the side of the cliff.
“Hold on, baby, don’t move.” She was a little too far down for him to reach, and not wanting to take the time to look for a rope, he pulled off the tattered remains of his bloody cotton shirt. He twisted it in a semblance of a rope. Wrapping one end around his wrist, he lowered it to her, praying it would reach.
When she was able to grab it, he said a silent prayer it would hold. She wrapped the end around one hand then held on with the other, trying to dig her foot into the side of the cliff to help him as he hauled her up. Staining, he used all his great strength, ignoring the burn from the bullet in his side, to pull her over the edge and into his arms. “I’ve got you, kitty kat. I’ve got you.”
She buried her face below his chin and hugged him, like she never wanted to let him go. They stayed like that for only a moment both breathing hard.
As much as he didn’t want to let her go, he had to. They had two bodies they needed to get rid of now. No way, could he explain how he ripped a man’s throat out. Self defense or not. “You okay now?”
“Yes.” She straightened up and glanced over at the body a few yards behind them. Then, back down over the cliff. “We can’t leave them here. We’re going to have to move them and make sure they’re never found.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“Maybe we’ll make an Atrox bounty hunter out of you yet,” she said. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“Yeah, I’ll live. My flesh is already healing.”
“You’re going to need to rest soon.”
“I know but we still have to figure out how we’re going to get this guy’s body past the dock and to our boat, and get down there to get Beth’s body off the rocks.”
“Not to mention you’ve got no shirt and the rest of your clothes are hanging off you. It’s a good thing it’s dark now, so that will help. Beth and this man were the only two people I saw, other than the guy in the kitchen. The man used a silencer on the gun, so hopefully, no one heard anything. Why don’t you grab the guy and I’ll go first to make sure no one else is around. Our boat is tied to the end of the dock, so we don’t have to go past the restaurant or the gift shop. With luck, no one will see us.”
Ethan shrugged, unable to come up with anything better, only knowing they could not call the police. He walked over to the man, wrapped his already bloodied shirt around the man’s ripped out neck to prevent any blood from dripping. He grabbed up what was left of his ruined boots, then picked up the man. He and Edge used their feet to kick dirt over the blood already spilt there. “Lead the way,” he urged when they were done.
He followed a few feet behind her with all of his senses open wide to spot any trouble. When Edge headed for the other bigger boat, he didn’t hesitate but followed her. Taking the man below deck. He laid him on the queen-sized bunk. “Now what?”
“Now, we’ve got to go get Beth. I’ll take the speed boat around, get as close as I can, then swim out and retrieve her body.”
Ethan couldn’t help but wince. It all seemed so ghoulish. Something in his expression must have given him away.
“This is what I do, Ethan. Whatever it takes to protect the Clan. These bodies cannot be found.”
“I know, really I do. I just don’t like the fact we, you have to be the one doing this. That’s all.”
“Can you handle this boat?”
“Please!” he scoffed.
She grinned. “Just checking. Okay, follow me but don’t try to come in as close as I do.”
“I know what I’m doing.” He couldn’t believe he would actually help Edge get rid of two bodies, one of whom he’d killed, instead of calling the cops. Even if he did kill the guy in self-defense. The thought dawned on Ethan that the man was human. There would be questions if they just disappeared.
It didn’t take Edge long to swim out to where those rocks were and get Beth’s body onto the boat. She’d put a tarp she’d found on the bottom of the boat to lay Beth on, otherwise they’d have to explain how blood got on the bottom of the speedboat.
Ethan sighed, helping her get the body on board the sailboat. He placed it on the deck, then helped her secure the speedboat.
After they placed Beth’s body next to her accomplice, they went back up on deck.
He glanced around, the water still looked clear. The nearest boat was miles out and heading away from them. It’d gotten even darker now, they’d been lucky, so far Ethan didn’t think anyone had seen them. He turned to Edge. “Now what?”
Chapter Fifteen
Edge looked at him, understanding what they’d had to do must be hard on him. But he needed to see, to understand what she did for a living. What she really and truly was…an executioner of their kind. God, she wanted to be sick, but she couldn’t indulge, she took a deep breath and remembered why she did what she had to do.
“Now, I let you take the speed boat back to shore, turn it in and just wait at my car for me. You can lie in the back and get some sleep. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” She studied his side and noticed he’d found a first aid kit and patched himself up. But his face remained pale and dark rings hung around his eyes. “You’re going to crash soon. I’ll be back when it’s dark.”
“No. I’ll last long enough.”
“What do you mean…no?” She raked her hand through her wet hair. “Look, thank you for saving me back there, but I know this isn’t easy for you. You just killed a man…”
“It was either that or he’d have killed us, they both would have.”
“Yes, that’s true. Still, it couldn’t be easy for you. It never is.”
“Easy no, but—this isn’t the first time I’ve had to kill.” He turned his head away from her.
Oh, no she wasn’t going to let him look away. Edge placed her hand on his jaw and turned his face to force him to look at her. “Tell me.”
Ethan kissed her palm, but still couldn’t quite look her in the eyes. “I was twenty. Still learning to control my cat when someone was hunting on private land. Private and off season for any kind of hunting. I was in cat form and they put a bullet in me. I lay on the ground stunned, and in so much pain. The hunter found me and raised the rifle to put another shot in me when I leaped on him,” he paused and stared directly into her eyes. “I—I killed him. That was the first time I tasted blood and went more cat than human, but I managed to make it back to our cabin where I was staying and passed out. When I came to, I went back to the spot and found him, he—I’d mauled him almost beyond recognition. I called the police and they wrote the death up as an animal attack. Today was the second time I fully shifted since. The first was with you the other night.”
She placed her arms around him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But Atrox is not just what we are, but who we are. I can’t even imagine not being able to allow my cat nature out every once in a while.”
“Oh, but I do. I just didn’t shift fully, the other day with you was the first time in over twelve years.”
“Ah. The adrenaline rush from the extreme sports you like to indulge in. And now that you have shifted, how does it feel?”
“Freeing.”
“Except for the killing part?”
He glanced away from her then and back. “Not so much that part.”
“And therein lies the difference between us and Atrox like your stepmother, they kill without remorse. It’s when the thought of killing no longer bothers you that there’s a problem. Now, let me finish my job, then you take the speedboat and go get some rest.”
“I’ll be okay for awhile longer. Remember, I’m a Leo, my stamina is stronger than yours. Let me help you. Together, we do this together.”
Edge kissed him. She couldn’t help it. Maybe, just maybe, he understood and they could work things out between them. “Okay.”
�
��Now, I assume you have a plan?”
She lowered her arms from around his neck. “Yes. I’m going to rig this boat to explode. That will take care of the bodies on board.”
“But an explosion would require an investigation.”
“I know, but I’m going to take a look at the bilge pump. That’s the pump that pumps bilge water...”
“I know what it is. So, what are you going to do, block it?”
“Yes. And rig it so the generator will set off an explosion because of the build up.”
He shook his head. “You do know your business. Should I be scared?”
She frowned. “No. Never. Should I?”
This time, he reached for her and kissed her.
Edge opened her mouth along with her heart to him and felt his touch in depths she didn’t even know she had. When he pulled away from her, she felt the loss.
“Okay, tell me what you need me to do?”
“First, let’s see if we can find you a shirt. Those dark jeans hide any blood on them, and we can just finish cutting them into shorts, but you’re going to need to put a clean shirt on to hide the bandage. Not that I’m not enjoying the sight.” And she was, but first things first. She then explained to him how to shut off the pump, so the water would accumulate, it was already backed up but she made sure the automatic pump would not come on when it should. When it was ready, she primed the generator.
They made it off the boat and were within sight of the docks around the historic district when the boat exploded. Without turning around, they headed back to shore, returned the boat to the rental center and headed back to her car.
Ethan only had enough strength left to climb into the back seat and pass out.
Edge wanted to drive him back to the safe house, but he was no longer a wanted man. Instead, she got off the exit for Great Falls.
Blood!
Her claws were covered with it. She looked down at her chest, she was covered in it, but it wasn’t her own. She screamed.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s just a dream.”
Her eyelids shot open. Edge turned her head in the direction of the voice. “Ethan.” She raised her hand and touched his face. Even in the dark room, she could still see him. He looked a lot better than when she’d gotten him home and put him to bed. “Hold me,” she said.
“You okay?”
“I will be. I just need you to hold me.”
She’d called Cole earlier and reported to him what had happened.
He told her he’d take care of the rest. There would be an autopsy as well as an investigation into the explosion. He’d see to it the results of the autopsy showed the cause of death placed as a result of the explosion and any investigation into the explosion would only indicate the generator set off the explosion because the bilge pump wasn’t running at the time. Yes, there was a back up because the automatic system had failed to come on. Not an unusual enough occurrence with these boats to look any further. Especially, since the prime suspect in a murder investigation had been on board.
Ethan wrapped his arms around her while thoughts of boats and explosions no longer held her attention. “How are you? All healed?” she asked.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“About what happened?”
“I’m okay with that too. I have to be.”
Edge pulled him to her and kissed him. He rolled over her and took the kiss deeper. Giving her exactly what she needed, all that she needed. Making it clear, he still wanted her to give them a chance. She had no choice…her cat had chosen him and his her. She purred beneath him. “Make love to me, my lion.”
“You’ll stay here with me?”
“Yes.”
A squeal followed by a loud splash had Ethan glancing around him, as one of the kids landed in the center of the pool. The place resembled a water park. Little kids in bathing suits and Floaties everywhere. He grinned, stepping out of the way, as Edge’s neighbor, Mrs Yule, walked past him with a plate loaded down with a hamburger, hotdog, potato salad and beans. She smiled at him.
His heart felt so full he thought it wouldn’t be able to expand enough to hold all the happiness inside. His gaze scanned the crowd. He saw Alice’s father just coming out of the pool house with her mother. Who, he must have finally talked into changing into a bathing suit. Emily Edgewater still looked fantastic in a bathing suit. She had nothing to worry about. He smiled even more at the thought of Edge in another twenty years and after a couple of kids. He’d be damned if they weren’t his kids.
George Edgewater came over to him and hugged him. “I want to thank you again, Ethan, for letting us host the start of summer barbecue here at your home.”
Edge’s mother hugged him next. “Yes. It’s very sweet of you.”
Arms wrapped around his waist from the rear, but he would know the feel of those arms anywhere, even before he caught her unique scent. He raised his hands to cover hers.
“Yes, it was sweet of him,” Edge said kissing his ear before coming around to stand beside him. Their arms remained wrapped around each other while both of her parents smiled. Edge raised her left hand to place on his shoulder and the ring he put there earlier that morning gleamed in the sunlight.
They’d finally come to a compromise. They couldn’t be without each other. Edge would remain as a bounty hunter, but she would only hunt humans. She stepped down as an executioner for the Clan. He could live with that, because the alternative to not live with her—unthinkable. Besides, the faster he could get her pregnant—the faster she would have to take time off. Ethan grinned, not going to be a hardship at all.
The End
Coming Soon
Continue the Clan Series in book two, Rebel With A Cause coming soon.
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LaVerne Thompson is a USA Today Bestselling, an award winning, multi-published author, an avid reader and a writer of contemporary, fantasy, and sci/fi sensual romances. She also writes romantic suspense and new adult romance under her alter ego Ursula Sinclair.
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The Warrior’s Curse
Book One in the Seraph Wars Series
Tigris Eden and Misha Elliott
The struggle between good and evil is never-ending.
In the greatest battle that has been waging since the world began, one warrior comes face to face with a shocking truth…
His destined mate is alive.
Follow Isaiah and Dalila as they battle their undeniable attraction and uncover the shocking truth of their pasts. One that will unlock the key to saving not only their survival, but also the fate of the world.
Dedicated to the men who hold up our wings and encourage us to fly. You go by many names: hero, love, friend-husband.
Prologue
Temple Philae
Sometime during the 5th Dynasty
Lilith stood, arms crossed in defiance against the ghosts of her past. She tipped the corners of her lips into a grin. What they’d done to her set her on a dark path to chaos.
She stroked Ophidian’s scaly tapered head with her thumb. “I will end their entire existence for what they did to me.” Lilith spat the words. Acid filled her veins as she gave voice to her plans–the words airborne, a poison, lying in wait for their victim as they floated through the air.
This would be a great loss, which they would feel until the end of all time.
They would suffer greatly. How could she not punish them, after the pain she’d suffered at the hands of The Order? The warrior class of Angels, known as Se
raph’s or the ‘burning ones’ as they were called in the sacred scriptures. They attended their god in all things, which included escorting the damned to their place in hell. They also carried out executions. Asomodeus, her mate, hadn’t even stood trial, his life taken without a backward glance. He was the twin of Samael and rightful heir to the underworld. His death still haunted her dreams.
Standing outside the temple, she glanced around for sentries. The women hadn’t even seen fit to place guards outside the ceremony. Fools.
The Temple’s surface pristine, desert-honey walls were covered with timeless art. Gold markings etched tributes and victories, showing favor to the goddess, Isis.
Lilith stood below the stairs in front of the west colonnade and sneered at its walls. These images depicted victories won in the name of the bitch goddess, Isis.
Today the wrong done to me will be righted. She’d fought and lost, and for what? To watch her loved one fall. He’d been beheaded right before her eyes, over something considered as trivial as taking souls.
Yes, today, the mating ritual of two who would cherish one another for eternity would take place. Today was as good a time as any to seek revenge. All of them clueless of her plans.
Anger coursed through icy veins. Only spilling celestial blood would come close to satisfying her thirst. The madness of it shone in her eyes, as if it were her birthright, “Come, my pet, let the death begin.”
A stream of linen gathered at Lilith’s waist encasing her body in shades of red., As she walked, trails of red followed behind her in waves. Ringlets of blue-black hair fell to her hips, the darkest abyss waiting to swallow anything in its path.
Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection Page 183