by Ayer, T. G.
CONTENTS
Title
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
The SkinWalker Series
Blood Magic Excerpt
Retribution Excerpt
Acknowledgments
T.G. Ayer’s Full List of Books
About the Author
Connect with Tee
BLOOD
PROMISE
Copyright 2015 by T.G. Ayer
All rights reserved.
Find out more about T.G. Ayer at
http://www.tgayer.com/
http://www.tgayer.wordpress.com/
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Cover art by T.G. Ayer
Cover art © T.G. Ayer. All rights reserved.
Edited by Gracie O'Neil
***
Kindle Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
***
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER 1
I FROZE AGAINST THE WALL, my fingers grazing stone slick with blood, my heart punching angrily against my ribs.
Why in Ailuros' name had I agreed to take this case, again?
I had a limited time offer from the Elite High Council, the overseeing body of all paranormals, the older oldest and most respected group in our known history, and I'd wasted five of those days thinking. And right now, I was leaning heavily in their direction. Beats the hell out of working for the peons, which was what Sentinel and Omega were.
A glance to my left confirmed Sentinel Agent Cassandra Monteith was still hunkered down beside me, the metal of her comms glinting in the weak light as she slammed her own bloodied fingers against the screen of her tablet. She'd been doing that for a little too long now.
"Where the hell is he?" I threw the question at her between clenched teeth, held that way because the cold, the intermittent rain, and the elusive vampire-demon were sufficient to chill any girl to her bones.
It was two in the morning and we were standing, backed up against the wall of a house at the edge of a village, huddled there beneath the low eaves of the thatched roof. The meager protection against the drizzle was a relief against the rain. Not that it made me any less wet as drops slithered down the back of my neck, making their way down my spine and into my shirt, dampening what little warmth I had left in my body.
I edged closer to the corner of the wall to peer out across the Scottish moors, and snorted through a nose already partially Panther. "And here I thought your outfit knew what they were doing." A sniff of the wet air produced nothing. As frustratingly nothing as the last time I'd taken a whiff of good Highland air.
"We do. It's just this damned blood."
Behind me, rough fingertips scraped against the fabric of her jeans as Cassandra tried to wipe off the still-slick blood. The mess belonged to the vamp-demon we'd spent the better part of the last day tracking.
Unsuccessfully.
Cassie had gotten off a shot with her fancy demon-revolver, but had only managed to spill some of his blood. And all that got us was confirmation of what his species was, not to mention fingers stained with his disgusting blood. Vamp demons were a strange sub-species, their hemophiliac condition only amped up by their vampiric cells - cells which consumed them from the inside unless they fed regularly.
I grunted, more than a little pissed off. "Freaking demon's got a sixth sense or something." I glared at Cassie as if it was her fault. "He seems to know where we are, and when we're about to grab him. Disappears like a freaking ghost at the last minute, every single time."
Cassie narrowed her eyes at me. "I thought you'd amped up your demon-tracking skills thanks to your sister's visit to the Greylands?"
She had a point. Saving Greer from the demon lordlings who controlled the dead world had enhanced my awareness of my own skills. Probably the reason Sentinel wanted me on the job in the first place.
And here I was thinking it was my winning personality.
Too bad for this demon that I wasn't just a wraith-hunter anymore. He could run, but he couldn't hide. Not from me.
"It looks like it's time to break out the big guns." My voice, though grim, fell flat on the moist Highland night. I straightened and leaned my head back against the cold stone.
Cassie rose from her crouch and faced me, her usually straight blonde hair frizzed by the wet air.
"What exactly do you mean?" Her steel-gray eyes flashed a wary, what-the-hell-are-you-thinking look.
I unzipped my sodden parka and dropped it on the driest patch of ground I could find, then knelt to unlace my hiking boots. "We're just wasting precious time. My panther can catch him faster. With all this rain, my nose alone isn't up to the job."
Cassie squinted at me. I ignored her as I unzipped my jeans and slid them off my hips, hissing as the air slapped a coat of icy wetness over my pasty thighs.
She made an odd strangled sound in her throat and looked away. "I'm particularly glad I'm not the one bare-arsed naked in this bloody weather."
She slid past me, swapping places as I wrangled my black jeans off my bare feet and began to slide out of the dark turtleneck sweater which was my last barrier against the climate.
She peered around the corner and gave a frustrated groan. "Still no sign of him. Where the hell is he hiding? I swear he's using some kind of magic. It's likely the only thing able to help keep him hidden from us."
"Either that, or somehow he knows we're coming," I said dryly. Dropping my final pieces of clothing onto my backpack, I straightened, fe
eling a few unmentionable bits begin to slowly freeze over. I gave a quick shudder. "Right. Here goes. I'm going to shift. Once I've transformed, keep your distance. You'll be familiar to me, but animal instinct can sometimes override my human awareness, so no sudden moves. I can't be held responsible if I eat you."
When I tilted my head to Cassie, and caught a glimpse of her face, it was enough to tempt me to break what little cover we had and burst out laughing.
I didn't give in. "I'm kidding."
Cassandra breathed. "Heavens. You're so terribly funny."
"I try."
An inelegant snort burst from her regal nose. "Next time, please don't."
I smiled and began the shift.
Muscles tightened, icy hot. Skin grew taut, and stretched slowly. Pain ripped through every inch of my body, from the tips of my ears as they lengthened and grew fur, to the hollows of my eye sockets as human gave way to full feline, night vision changing the countryside to varying shades of sharply contrasted grays.
A few strangled, painful minutes later, I stood on all fours, a mere two feet off the ground, giving my massive black panther body a relieved shake.
I gave Cassie a cursory glance, noting the tightness in her neck, and her scent that stank of nerves. That it didn't stink of fear was a true credit to the woman. I liked her even more now than I had when she'd helped save my ass from Illyria the wraith-bitch not too long ago. Her ability to shape-shift had been a true asset to us in the past, and we'd become friends.
The scent of vamp-blood tainted my paws and I strove hard to ignore it, to compartmentalize that area of my brain that wanted only to give in to the call of the wild.
Regardless of species, demon blood had a particular scent. My advantage was that this demon was a vampire, a blood-sucking creature that didn't hesitate to break the law and slide through the veil to partake of the warm offerings that many an innocent female, or male, would willingly provide.
Too many people were so gaga over vampires they fell easily for the charms of the demon-vamps instead of looking harder for the real thing.
As I slinked past Cassie, I brushed against her. Too late, I hoped it would be a reassuring contact rather than making her wet herself with shock. Then I turned the corner and set off in a loping run.
My paws hit the ground, sliding on the smooth stones as I sprinted along the narrow path that cut through the moor. A low stone wall appeared on the rise and I launched myself over it, the move smooth and elegant, as if I'd done it a million times before.
Only recently had I begun to allow my panther more face time. Since Greer's death, I'd slowly learned to appreciate my feline side, my sister's troubles having made me understand the true value of what I had inside me, more now that I'd lost my sibling forever.
Icy rain began to pelt my long back, hitting my fur with vicious slaps, as if frustrated it couldn't penetrate to my skin. Now that I was no longer cold, I felt a little righteous, my shift a middle finger to the universe.
Strangely enough, the downpour didn't hinder my sight, I blinked and ran, my gaze fixed out on the rolling dark hills that surrounded the shallow valley. A small forest of trees grew to my left and I headed up across the grassy hillside.
I drew in a deep breath as I reached the top of the rise and caught the faint trace of demon-blood mixed with cold ash. I frowned. It was probably only the residual odor of the blood that had been on my fingers. I would've preferred not to have touched the substance but doing so had helped me know how warm it was and whether our prey had survived his injuries.
Pity he had.
The heavens decided, at that moment, that they'd had enough of throwing buckets of water upon our heads and dried up so suddenly I found myself squinting up at the dark night. It was probably totally natural here, but to me everything seemed strange and foreboding, and wrong.
Where I was concerned suspicion tended to be a good thing.
It usually saved lives.
I concentrated on the smell, breathing a little deeper, staring that much harder into the darkness. Something blurred to the right of the valley below and I moved slow and careful down the hill. My paws made little noise on the wet grass, and my body seemed to slide between the low growth without making a sound.
At the bottom of the hill stood a drab, dilapidated old hut, its gray surface broken, its mortar so crumbled that many stones had fallen out and left gaping holes in the wall. The roof too showed a number of missing sections, like tired mouths yawning to the open heavens.
The tap-tap of water dripping onto stone told me the hovel would be just as cold and wet inside as out here. Guess our demon wasn't on the smart side at all.
Somewhere along the hillside an animal cried, and my panther ears pricked to attention. It was a cat's cry and though I couldn't be sure what feline species it belonged to, it sounded more like an invitation than a warning. But I held myself stiff, cutting through my panther's temptation to investigate.
I padded around the broken wall to where a half-open door hung precariously from a rusted hinge. A mere breath from me would be enough to send it to the ground. The narrow space was just wide enough for me to slide inside the darkened interior without having to test my breathing theory.
Inside, the hovel was silent. A glance upward showed me the once well-thatched roof was now bare straw, moldy and broken, over rafters swollen and split in so many places that I'd bet it would collapse under a sparrow's weight.
Up near the rafters something shifted, and pale light gleamed on a ragged spider's web. The shifting image morphed into the web's now seven-legged owner. Even higher up, scurrying flashes of darkness confirmed the presence of rats.
Great.
Even in panther form, I hated the vermin.
Demons I could handle.
Rats? Nope.
I clicked across the floor, my sharp claws hitting the wet stone and echoing loudly around the room. Another doorway, this time free of anything remotely door-like, led to an inner room, this one no drier.
I froze, suddenly sure I'd heard something move. I felt, deep in my gut, the presence of someone or something. I tasted his scent on the air, and it led me to the far corner of the room, drawing my attention up toward the shadows within the high thatched roof. I squinted, the world a multitude of shades; gray and shadow and night, as my panther located the demon, and conveyed it to my human brain.
I'd discovered long ago that panther sight and hearing could overwhelm me, so I'd learned to blend it well. Now the sensations were not a total shock to my system.
Helps when you finally accept the panther side of you, doesn't it?
My eyes narrowed. My prey crouched on an old cracked rafter so swollen from the rain that it looked ready to burst into shards of toothpicks especially with the demon weighing it down.
He watched me too, his head tilted to the left, his demon eyes glowing amber. It was clear that he wasn't sure what to make of me.
I smelled no fear on him either. And that was certainly a mistake. He should be afraid of me.
His white protruding canines - yes, vamp-demons had them too - glinted as he grinned down at me.
It was easy to see why humans mistook this creature for the legendary vampire. His glamour didn't help either. Soft blond hair that hung to his shoulders, deep green eyes, a muscled tanned physique that would make him instantly sexy. He'd have plenty of fodder on the streets of Glasgow, let alone in cities as big as London or New York.
It certainly made sense that Sentinel would want to be rid of him. I found it refreshing that they hadn't requested we bring him back to headquarters. Omega had that particular requirement on all the missives they'd sent my way. Not a palatable job when I was forced to hand over a potentially innocent person - demon or otherwise - to Omega. They possessed a stained track record for experimenting on their own, one I wasn't comfortable with.
But, as pleasing as the instruction was, it didn't contain fine print regarding innocents. Something I planned to discuss with t
he higher-ups the first chance I got.
The barest hint of sound drifted to my ear. It wasn't much, probably the shifting of a stone against the path, or the brushing of clothing against the stone wall that surrounded the abandoned hut.
Cassie.
When the demon stopped grinning and simply disappeared, my panther's gut churned with the same fear my human self experienced.
I spun around and loped to the nearest window. I launched myself through the bare casement, its glass and framing long gone, and landed smoothly on the bare sand outside the hut. I stiffened as both my sense of smell and sight worked in tandem.
Across the yard, the shape of the demon shifted.
He'd stopped running and disappeared into a shifting smudge of darkness, only to reappear halfway up the hill to the left of the house, as if he'd taken a mere step away.
We'd been right about his uncanny ability to elude us.
He'd Jumped.
CHAPTER 2
NOW IT MADE SENSE HOW the slippery vamp-demon had managed to evade us for so many days. He'd disappeared off Cassie's radar one too many times for it to be a coincidence, and it had bugged me to a point that I'd begun to suspect that Sentinel, or someone else, was setting us up.
Paranoid much?
On the plus side, we'd managed to get close enough earlier that evening--by walking past him in a run-down old pub over in the next town--to place a tracking device on him. Vamp-demons didn't seem to mind when chewing-gum got stuck under their shoes. Or, in his case, army boots.
He still hadn't found the bug, but since Sentinel's equipment appeared to be on the fritz, it hadn't helped us locate him.
Gritting my teeth, I scrambled across the yard, knowing my midnight dark fur would make me melt into the evening. I flew across the low stone wall, landed softly on padded paws, then slunk toward a stand of trees on the hillside up ahead.
Vamp-demon scent drifted down toward me, proof that he wasn't smart enough, or experienced enough, to at least remain downwind. Either that or he thought he was too smart. I'd put my money on the latter.
But right now, Cassie was my first concern. Although her main role with Sentinel was as an Appereo, a rare type of mage with the ability to shapechange and turn herself invisible at will, she was still essentially human as most mages were. I could smell her human scent pretty strong on the soft breezed that filtered down the hill. The demon would close in on her faster than I was able to run.