Hot, Hard & Howling

by Mari Freeman

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  Mari Freeman

  Book one in the Hot, Hard series.

  Nell Ambercroft hasn’t done anything wrong. Lately. So why is someone trying to kill her? When a horde of moths lead her to a puzzle box in her basement, the Demon Hafling knows she’s found a clue. The box has some serious mojo working, powerful enough to kill for…and Nell’s at the top of the hit list.

  Enter Werewolf Trent Nicholas. As Prime for the area, it’s Trent’s job to protect Nell and investigate the crime. Nell knows he’d rather investigate her body, which is fine by her; she’s loved the man for years. While the sex is sizzling, Trent continues to go cold every time he leaves the warmth of her body.

  Trent’s always wanted the spunky half-Demon, but the men in his family have a nasty habit of murdering their mates. He refuses to give in to his wolf’s need to claim Nell. If he doesn’t, she might not have to worry about a killer on the loose. She could die by Trent’s hand first…

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  ISBN 9781419932908

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Hot, Hard & Howling Copyright © 2011 Mari Freeman

  Edited by Kelli Collins

  Cover art by Syneca

  Electronic book publication March 2011

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  HOT, HARD & HOWLING

  Mari Freeman

  Dedication

  For my aunt Martha, who took seven years to finish her only novel. Through illness, blindness and loss of her true love, she got the words on paper any way she could. She never stopped writing.

  Acknowledgements

  This book was a long time in coming. I think it was five years ago that the idea first came to mind. Life jumped in, other things become more pressing and then a fire destroyed the outline and notes for the series. When I finally sat back down to spend some time with Nell and Trent, a whole new world bubbled up in my head. It just goes to show, everything turns out the way it’s supposed to.

  Many thanks to Tricia for your thoughts and ideas, as well as the yard full of kids’ stuff that bought me some quiet time.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Cheetos: Frito-Lay Inc.

  Chrysler: Chrysler LLC

  Four Seasons: Four Seasons Hotels Limited Corp

  Mustang: Ford Motor Co.

  Spidey: Marvel Characters, Inc.

  Trix: General Mills Cereals, LLC

  Wet-Nap: Nice-Pak Products, Inc.

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  Chapter One

  Naked, covered in blood and with a dead human on the bathroom floor was not exactly how one wanted to greet guests. Exasperated, Nell tossed the toothbrush aside. All the scrubbing in the world wasn’t going to get that blood out.

  She looked in the mirror. Curly golden hair hung wild after drying on its own as she’d tried to save the grout. Her face was still flushed from the struggle and the scrubbing. Her cheeks and chin were scratched and bloody. The scratches didn’t matter. Small wounds healed quickly for a half-Demon. Nell rubbed with her fingers to try to get smears of blood off her face. She looked around for her robe and found it lying under the dead guy’s shoulder. Nell snorted. “Great.”

  She scanned the rest of the contents of the vanity. Nothing of use left. She’d tried all the cleansers under the sink and none of them were getting the rust-colored stains out. Her gaze crossed the floor. At least the pool of blood there would come up with no problem. She propped her hands on her hips. “Damn.”

  “What’s going on up there?” Her sister’s voice rang from the living room. “I had a funky vision.” Sonja lived several miles up the mountain. How had she gotten there so fast?

  “And of course you rushed right over.” Vision? Great. Nell and both her younger sisters were half-Demon, so their Demon powers were unpredictable at best. The curse of the Halflings, their mi-ma always said. Even their shifts were only partial.

  When Sonja had visions, everyone was wary of the information contained within. The crazy things were so confusing that no one, including Sonja herself, could decipher the images. Evidently this one had been clear enough to send Sonja out into the night to come check on Nell. Hadn’t the girl ever heard of a phone?

  Nell found a dirty t-shirt hanging from a hook on the back of the bathroom door and pulled it on. “Up here. Did you bring bleach?”

  “Bleach?” Sonja’s voice was closer. She stopped at the entrance of the bathroom. “Oh. You know, I almost did.” She bent over the fetal body on the floor to get a better look. “Nell,” she gasped, shooting straight up. “He’s human!”

  “Duh. Do you smell blood magic? I smelled it when he attacked, but since I started trying to save the shower grout, I lost track of the scent.”

  Sonja raised her eyebrow. “Blood magic? Really? How would a human have the smell of that?” She stepped over the body, looking down at the object sticking out of the man’s chest. “Is that a…”

  Nell cleared her throat and let out an exasperated breath. “Yeah.”

  Sonja bit her lip but failed in her attempt to hold back a loud, barking laugh. “You killed a man with a dildo?”

  With that, Sonja lost control over her laughter and let it roll. Tears leaked from her eyes as she leaned against the wall for support.

  Nell straightened her spine. “It was close by,” she protested, gesturing wildly at the dead man. “And I think the scissors actually killed him.” So what? Everybody had toys. She just happened to have a very large collection. “I was in the shower. I had to use what was close.”

  Nell’s Demon gift of telekinesis was as inconsistent as Sonja’s visions and the ramifications were much more immediate when things went amiss. Sometimes she would move the wrong thing or a power surge would send objects hurling off at the speed of…well, a flying dildo. The toy had been on the counter, among other things, and it had just flown with everything else when she’d blasted her power at the attacker.

  “You use those things in the shower? God, Nell. You are the strangest woman.”

  “I wasn’t using it in the shower. I cleaned it before I got in the shower. Don’t you clean yours?”

  Nell was the wild one, the extrovert, the only one of the three sisters who had truly ventured out into the world. She had traveled, explored and experienced things she wouldn’t ever be able to explain to her younger s
isters. Her collection of sex toys came from all over the world, even a few from other realms. The piece currently sticking out of the chest of the human man on her floor was one of her favorites. A beautiful work of art. She’d gotten it from the leader of a Demon sect in India.

  “Death by dildo!” Sonja laughed. “Oh my, Nell. The Prime is going to have a field day with this.”

  “Shut up.” Nell plopped down on the closed toilet lid with her bloody knees pushed together. She let her head drop into her hands. She didn’t want to see the Prime. Not yet. “Did you call Mi-ma?”

  Sonja smiled at her. “Yep. On her way over, and she’s already contacted the Prime.”

  Nell pulled herself off the toilet and started to pick up the scattered mess, snatching up her makeup, another causality of the assault. When she’d used her telekinesis to throw things at her attacker, she hadn’t paid much attention to what went flying. Thus the very long, very ornate dildo currently lodged between his ribs. Maybe if she could extract it before the Prime arrived…

  “Stop, Nell. You killed a human. Blood magic on him or not, you have to report it and you shouldn’t touch the scene.” The tone in her sister’s voice stopped Nell in her tracks. The sudden change from amusement to panic made Nell want to curse again. “You know the rules.”

  Yeah, Nell knew the rules. They all knew the rules. The rules were jackhammered into the brain of every supernatural being from their time of birth or creation. The rules were all part of keeping the magical world a secret and keeping peace between supernatural species. And rule number one was, if you hurt a human, even in self-

  defense, it had to be reported to the Council of Preternatural Code and a Prime Investigator would come a-calling.

  The Primes were like cops, but they could also be judge, jury and hangman if the situation warranted. It wasn’t the consequences Nell didn’t want to face. It was him. Trent Nicholas, the Prime for the area.

  She needed more time. She hadn’t come up with a good plan yet. Even after years of cavorting with some very powerful and amazing creatures, Nell’s knees got weak and other things got moist when Trent was around. The lack of control really pissed her off. She considered it a serious deficiency.

  “I can’t smell the blood magic anymore,” Nell said as she paced into the hall. “I can’t prove it. This guy attacked me and someone or something put him up to it. Do you think the high-and-mighty Trenton Nicholas is going to listen to me?”

  “Calm down. This is his job we’re talking about. He won’t be such an ass while he’s working.” Sonja hesitated. “Well…maybe he won’t be.” She gave Nell a meager smile. “Okay, he’ll be an ass, but we still have to report it.” Sonja headed down the stairs. “Don’t move anything else. Come on down and I’ll make tea and we’ll figure all this out.”

  Nell looked around her wrecked bathroom. The blood would come off the walls and the tub and sink, but she still worried about the old grout. She paused in the doorway to look over the body once more. She didn’t recognize the man splayed on her floor. Didn’t know why he would attack her in her own home. She lived out in the woods, in her father’s old cabin. When he died last year, she had inherited the place. Her sisters got chunks of money and artifacts, but Nell had always wanted the house. It reminded her of Dad at every turn. It still smelled like him. His things still sat where he’d left them. The master bedroom she’d made her own. The rest she’d left as if he still lived here.

  After traveling the world for years, she was more than happy to settle back in the woods of North Carolina and just be home and quiet for a while. The back deck overlooked the side of Grandfather Mountain, so there were no lights from the city to block her view of the stars at night. She loved it here. She loved the solitude, the connection to nature.

  She glanced down at the dead guy. So much for quiet.

  The doorbell rang as she headed down the stairs. Sonja beat her to it.

  * * * * *

  Trent stood stock still as Sonja flung the door open to him without a care.

  Nell Ambercroft was standing on the stairs that flowed into the living room, half-dressed and half-covered in blood. The sight of her stirred him. He had expected it, but not this quickly and not so strong. He bit his tongue to keep from rushing to her.

  Nell complained, “Jeez, Sonja, do ya think you could have checked to see who it was, considering…” The bloody half-Demon motioned to her disheveled state.

  “Well, who else would be out here at three in the morning but Mi-ma or him?” Sonja gestured to Trent. Neither had actually greeted him. “Relax, sis.”

  “Relax? Relax? I swear. You don’t know who it could have been. Someone sent that guy here. What if it had been another crazy trying to kill me?”

  “How likely is that?” Sonja asked, drawing her eyebrows together and putting her hands on her hips, still completely ignoring Trent. “The guy in the bathroom has only been dead, what, thirty minutes? Do you think his boss or whatever has even had time to realize he’s gone?”

  Nell took two more steps down. “What if he had a partner? Goddess knows what could have been hiding in the woods.”

  “Would a murderer ring the bell?”

  Gritting his teeth, Trent Nicholas stood and watched the discourse between the sisters. Nothing changed with this family. They were all nuts; Demon nuts, to top it off. He was the Prime for three states and if that wasn’t enough to command respect, he was a high-ranking Werewolf in this community. Finding himself ignored by these two Halflings was just about more than he could take.

  He let his gaze drift past Sonja and back up the stairs once more. As much as he hated it, Nell had always awakened his wolf. For years she had lurked in his fantasies. Tales of her travels, of her living in a Vamp nest in Paris or convincing a Demon in Scotland to take her across several realms, haunted his dreams. Moons only knew what else the woman had gotten up to. She was a wild thing.

  There she stood, arguing and animated, wearing only a tiny shirt that barely covered her. Trent could easily make out her curves and he clenched his fists as his wolf growled in appreciation of her form. She wasn’t a Hollywood beauty. Far from it, even a little on the short side, but that did nothing to diminish the wildness of her personality, which shone through her skin and sparkled in her eyes.

  A mane of golden-blonde curls hung slightly past her shoulders and highlighted eyes the color of a fawn’s coat. A lush brown that darkened as she got angry, Trent noticed. Her legs were well shaped and the shirt almost let him get a look at what he was sure would be paradise. Somehow the little Halfling got to him on a far deeper level than he was comfortable with. He’d fought it, and had hoped the time they had spent apart would cool his desire. It hadn’t. Nell made him want things that could only lead to disaster.

  He eyed the blood drying on her legs, arms and face. There was none on the outside of the shirt. He deduced she had put it on after the incident. He would love to ask, but they wouldn’t—

  “Shut up!”

  “Trent Nicholas, don’t you have any manners?” Sonja asked, her eyes widening at his tone.

  Trent raised his eyebrows at the little imp. Manners? Who gave a shit about manners at a time like this? “Where’s the body?” he all but growled at Nell, ignoring the woman at his side.

  Nell looked at Sonja. “You make the tea.” She shooed her sister into the kitchen then descended the rest of the stairs. “Bathroom.” She motioned for him to enter and stood her ground until he passed. He’d really been hoping to follow her up the stairs and get a peek under that shirt.

  In the bathroom, Trent looked over the scene. Makeup, hair stuff and all manner of girl things were strewn over the floor, some under and some on top of the blood. The human lay on his side facing away, with his feet close to the tub and his head by the door. He looked over the splatter on the walls and the pool on the floor.

  The clean spot on the far wall confused him. “You tried to clean the shower?”

  “I wanted it off the old gr
out before it stained. As you can see, I failed.” She was leaning against the doorframe, letting him have the run of the bathroom. The rooms in the house were very large, even the bath. Then again, her father had been a very big boy in his Demon form.

  Trent nodded at her and reached to turn the body. He pulled the human by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back. Lodged in the ribs of the man looked to be…

  He blinked his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly. “Is that—”

  “Yes. It is.” Nell cut him off. “If you have one thing to say, Trenton Nicholas…” She didn’t finish the threat.

  He held back a wave of laughter as he watched her face tighten and her eyes darken. “You were in the shower when the human came in?” He tilted the man’s head to see the small pair of scissors sticking out of his neck. Probably the killing blow, but Trent would use the dildo to get a rise out of her. He smiled to himself—and then frowned as he imagined Nell, naked and wet. He had no trouble picturing her bracing herself with one hand against the tile, her head thrown back in the throes of passion, that toy rubbing in just the right way between her spread thighs. He cleared his throat. “You use those things in the shower?”

  “It’s none of your business where I use those things,” she huffed as she scratched absently at the blood on her arms.

  Sonja stuck her head in. “You should see her collection, Trent. It’s quite extensive. Sex toys from all around the world and then some.”

  “Don’t you have to go home?” Nell bent and rubbed the tops of her thighs.

  “No.”

  Trent hoped they would argue for a few minutes. It would give him a chance to look around the bathroom and time to get his aching erection to calm down. Maybe the Halfling could handle his animal side after all. If the size of that dildo was any indication, she was more than capable. Casually, he tried to adjust his jeans as he looked for any weapons the human may have carried.

  “Nell,” he said, interrupting the sisters, “what did he attack you with? Did he have a weapon?”