Coming In Hot Box Set

by Gina Kincade

  Never had she been so eager to sleep with a man. Not since her ex—the one that nearly got her killed.

  “I love you,” he said to her once he pulled away from their kiss.

  Stunned by such a revelation—one that had never been stated, she found that she couldn’t access her voice. The shock of it overwhelmed and delighted her.

  No one had loved her before. No mortal, that is.

  Alice beamed but kept silent as she took his hardened shaft in her hand and stroked the tip.

  “You’re going to ruin me, aren’t you?”

  “Of course.” She nodded. “In the best way. The way you like it.”

  “You’re not going to tell me you love me, are you?” Collin asked and she bit her bottom lip

  She wanted to say it, but fear left her silent. The last time she felt love, she’d almost died for it.

  Instead of pressuring her, Collin pulled her thong to the side and slid inside of her. Waves of pleasure washed over her and she let her head fall back as she clutched him. With his mouth on her neck, she leaned back until she was flat on his desk. He stood and held onto her by her slender thighs.

  This was liberating. In all of her years on earth, she’d not felt such an attachment to a human. She’d also never felt such pleasure that made her want to give up on immortality—just to experience it within the normal span of a human.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Tell me about your weekend,” Alice said to her last patient of the day. “How about we start with that?”

  Lisa, a fourteen-year-old bulimia patient, twirled her short brown hair around her finger, her eyes cast to her sneakers. “My mom came to visit,” she said with a sigh.

  “That’s good,” Alice said, watching Lisa’s micro expressions closely. “How did she make you feel?”

  “The same. Guilty. I know it costs a lot to keep me here, and she thinks that I can just turn it off.” Lisa’s eyes rose to Alice’s. “But I can’t. Every time I look at myself, that monster is there. The fat one with the huge thighs and droopy chin.” She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her red jacket. “I hate the girl in the mirror.”

  No, sweetie, Alice thought. Her heart broke from all of the pain she felt emitting from that young girl. You are beautiful. She wanted to say those things to her, to heal her from within. She was so lost, and Alice could help her. She had the power, just not the courage to go down that road again.

  Too many times had she put herself in danger by using her power.

  Alice would have to use her knowledge as a psychiatrist to help Lisa this time. So, she took her notes, prescribed more anti-anxiety meds, and told her they would talk again in a week. It was draining to beat around the bush when Alice could just use her power to heal Lisa and show her the truth.

  After Lisa left from her session, Alice drank the rest of her tea and checked her emails. She was disappointed that there was no word from Crescenita. The girl had been staying with her for a week after her initial orientation to the human world, and now she’d been missing for two days.

  She sighed and sat back in her chair, rolling it toward the window that looked over the city.

  Alice headed out of the door of her private office in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Something caught her attention.

  A letter.

  She lifted a bright blond brow and paused, staring at it. If it had been a normal envelope like the countless ones she got in the mail, it wouldn’t have perplexed her so. This one had a red emblem on it, an emblem she recognized too well.

  Her heart thumped in her chest, her face paled, as she reached for it.

  Her hands shook as she lifted the flap to open it. She pulled out the card and didn’t bother to read the message. Her eyes went directly to the signature.

  Luke.

  Her ex.

  He’d found her.

  She clutched the letter, too afraid to read it. Her eyes darted from one end of her office to the other, afraid that he was in there, hiding and waiting.

  Instead of waiting around to find if that was true, she hurried to leave her office, not even bothering to lock it up. If some crazy person wanted to get in there badly enough, they would find a way.

  Alice had more dangerous scenarios on her mind.

  Her heels clicked along the linoleum floor as she hurried to the elevator.

  Once inside, she watched the doors close. Her scream was caught in her throat as the lights flickered out. In the darkness, someone pressed her to the back of the elevator.

  She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t move.

  That was the first hint that this was a premonition, and not yet a reality.

  It isn’t real, she said to herself. It is not real.

  Too bad that it felt real, and as she felt her assailant’s cold breath on her neck, she knew who was doing this to her.

  “Leave me alone, Luke,” she pleaded. “Please.”

  Instead of replying, his chuckle in the dark turned her blood cold.

  “Alone? No, love. Never.” His bony knuckle ran along her jawbone, and all she could see was the white light in his eyes as they searched hers. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t missed me? Not one little bit?”

  “No,” she shouted. “I left for a reason. Why can’t you just let me go?” Her words came out more like a plea, and she hoped that Luke didn’t take it as a weakness. He was the master of exploiting one’s weakness, and she just wanted to be left alone.

  His kind of love was too intense, and she had worked hard to escape him.

  He clutched her neck, his fingers tightening around her throat. “Because you belong to me. Don’t you remember? I own you while you are in this world. And while I own you, I will love and protect you no matter how much you fight it.”

  With those words, he vanished, and within seconds, the elevator was lit and Alice was by herself with only the blinking of the floor she was to get off on and her own racing heartbeat.

  She fled from that elevator, wishing she had someone to turn to, someone to protect her. In a town full of humans, there was no one like that for her.

  As she hurried to her car she thought of the only person she knew she could trust. But, would her old general take pity on her? Once Alice led armies. She commanded warrior men and women into frightening battles that the world didn’t even know were waged right before their eyes.

  She got into her car and chewed her lip, her heart thumping so loudly that she could hear it and the rush of blood to her ears.

  Her old general had to know what she was dealing with. She wasn’t alone in this—not if she didn’t want to be.

  Fallen angels had to stick together.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Collin left the hospital early in the morning when most people were just waking up to get ready for work. The air was cool and the sky was a deep gray.

  A storm was coming.

  He drove along the dark roads with his favorite band playing on his car’s radio.

  His jaw tensed when the radio made a blaring sound, then went silent.

  He sighed. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure I like your tone,” Darcy said, directly into his mind. “Can’t a girl check in on her brother when she needs to?”

  “Just tell me what you need, Darcy. I am too tired for small talk today. Is it important?”

  “You tell me. I received another letter about our registration. Seems the Netherworld Division is threatening to revoke our licenses if we don’t report to the nearest office.”

  Collin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t need this right now.”

  “You think I do? You’re not the only one busy, Collin. But, unless you want to get deported, you better grab your documents and get to the office with me ASAP. And, I don’t feel like going back home. I’ve built a life here, though you don’t give me much credit for it. Not everyone wants to work every day and not have a life.”

  His sister was right. They had to follow the rules the angels set in p
lace if they wanted to stay out of trouble and keep their cover. He just wished that they gave him some credit for saving countless lives each day. Instead, he always had to be alert and on guard.

  That’s just the way life is for a shifter in the human world. There weren’t many of his breed of shifter allowed to even be here, so he would keep his mouth shut and do whatever it took not to be sent back to the Netherworld.

  The supernatural world was a beautiful place, but this—the human world was incredible. Especially the women.

  The thought of Alice gave him more reason to comply. He couldn’t lose her, or risk being sent away. She was worth fighting for in every aspect.

  The day she walked into the hospital, in her favorite pink dress, he knew that there was something special about her. The way her blond hair seemed to glow under the lights and cast a sparkle within her eyes, he would have thought that she was a fairy princess from a storybook. She was much more complex than that. Though she looked like Tinker Bell to him, she had a brilliant mind and a body to go to war over.

  “I know, Darcy. When are you planning on going?”

  “I’m at your house,” Darcy said and Collin’s brows lifted. “We are going today. I’m not putting it off any longer. So, hurry up.”

  “Fine,” he said, exhaling. He was exhausted, but it was probably a good idea to go ahead and get it over with. “You’re driving.”

  “Whatever. As long as we get this over with.”

  Collin turned the corner on the main road to the hidden side road to his house in the woods and pushed Darcy out of his head.

  The radio came back on, and he winced at the sudden blaring noise.

  Turning it off, he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do.

  There was a reason he and his sister had tried to evade the Netherworld Division and their registration checks on supernatural beings for so long.

  Together, they’d broken the number one rule—a rule Collin never wanted to break and vowed to never break again.

  Collin and his twin sister had killed someone, and now they might actually have to account for their actions.

  So much for a normal life. He’d worked hard to become the respected surgeon he was. But, that could all be taken away within seconds, and he and his sister could be sent to the Netherworld, where the king couldn’t wait to get his hands on their breed of shifter.

  They were a rarity in the supernatural world. He hoped that would work in their favor for once.

  Collin pulled into the driveway of his large lake house. Darcy awaited him, a bag on her back, and a glow to her eyes as she watched him pull up. She sat on his front porch stairs, her short black hair, tipped with gray flying around her narrow face.

  She saw him coming and leaped from his porch. She stood at his door and tapped the window.

  Annoyed, Collin rolled his windows down.

  “Took you long enough,” she said, her matching hazel eyes peering into his car. She sniffed the air. “I can smell her.”

  Collin opened the door, giving her a little shove back.

  Darcy moved out of the way as they switched positions and he sighed as he walked over to the passenger’s seat.

  Once inside, she watched him, a quizzical look on her tanned face. “When am I going to meet her?”

  “One day,” he said.

  “She’s pretty.”

  Collin shot a glare at her. “You stop that,” he ordered, pointing a finger at her. “No one told you to poke around in my head, Darcy. I respect your privacy. Please, respect mine.”

  Darcy laughed and backed the car out of the driveway. “Very well. She’s a pretty girl. Good job.” She turned around and headed back out to the road.

  It was going to be a long drive, and he hoped that they could make it quick. He and Alice had a date planned for the following evening.

  “Oh,” Darcy said, lifting a thinly arched dark brow. “A date. Sounds like fun. Can’t I stick around and meet her?”

  “What did I say?” Collin asked through clenched teeth.

  “Since when did you keep things from me? You’re supposed to tell me everything for the rest of our lives. And you are keeping a very important part of your life from me. It isn’t right.”

  “Darcy,” Collin said and she sucked her teeth.

  “Fine,” Darcy said. “I’ll stop reading through your boring thoughts.”

  “Thank you,” he said and leaned his chair back so that he could get comfortable. The fact that the sun was starting to rise didn’t help him get into the mood of taking a nap.

  Collin closed his eyes and forced himself to remove all thoughts from his head. It was a long drive, and he just needed to shut the world—and his sister—out until they arrived at the closest Netherworld Division office in Charlotte, North Carolina.

  ***

  Once Darcy and Collin reached the Netherworld Division office on the outskirts of Charlotte, Collin wasn’t the least bit rested. His nap was riddled with nightmares of flames and death. It had been years since he’d had such dreams. He had no doubts that facing the angels that operated the Netherworld Division had everything to do with it.

  “Rise and shine, bright eyes,” Darcy said, turning his car off. She stretched her arms and tossed her hair. “I hope this is quick. I am starving.”

  Yawning, Collin realized that it was late in the afternoon and that they were now surrounded by a field that stretched for miles.

  The Netherworld Division office was unassuming, as he was sure they wanted it to be. It looked more like an office park for salesmen than warriors from heaven. The one thing that set it apart from a typical building was the lack of windows and glass. Collin was sure that was due to the fact that most of the supernatural creatures in their system were afraid of sunlight.

  Darcy and Collin were lucky in that aspect.

  They had their own weaknesses.

  He wasn’t in the mood he’d hoped to be in, as they walked through the main entrance and were directed down a long flight of stairs to an underground compound. It was odd to see vampires out in the daytime, their pale faces highlighted by the disc lights above. They must have arrived in the night, and now had to wait like the rest of them.

  Inside, the feel of the air changed. The scent of burning embers filled the air. He hated that smell. It reminded him of home, and home was not a place he wanted to go back to. Seeing the guards that stood and monitored everyone further reminded him of the unique system back home.

  The guards were stoic, clad in metallic steel that was fused to their thin frames, with glowing light shining through the creases of their armor.

  Scayors.

  Their eyes were behind masks that scanned the crowd, reading each individuals aura, type, and mood.

  Just knowing that the men and women waiting in line were supernatural creatures put Collin on edge. And an on-edge shifter like Collin was not a good thing. Especially when one of the Scayor’s jobs was to pick out anyone that might be a problem.

  Darcy and Collin signed their names at the front desk and the secretary entered it into the system.

  Too late to go back now.

  While he tried to calm his nerves, Darcy stood in line in front of him, twirling his key chain around her finger.

  Folding his arms across his broad chest, Collin wondered what Alice was doing with her day. He hoped that whatever had been bothering her had been resolved. It pained him to see her fret and worry, even if she insisted that there was nothing wrong. Collin knew better than that. He knew what fear looked like.

  A tall woman with short red hair and big blue eyes stepped from behind the glass doors that everyone was lined up behind. She had a clipboard in her hand and looked at those in line.

  “Collin and Darcy McCray?”

  “That’s us,” Collin said, straightening his posture. He and already stood taller than everyone in the room at six-foot-five, while a much shorter Darcy tried to hide behind him.

  “Shit,” Darcy said under her breat
h.

  Collin nudged her forth. “At least we get to get out of this line.”

  “I guess.”

  The woman looked them over and didn’t bother to give them a reassuring smile. Instead, she motioned for them to follow her. Walking past the others wasn’t pleasant. More than a few angry glares and grunts of disapproval were cast their way.

  Collin was almost certain that this was it. He’d never see Alice again. He’d lose his home, friends, and career. What did the Netherworld have for him? Nothing but bad memories.

  They walked through the glass doors and into a large room with rows of chairs sectioned off by supernatural creature type. Bypassing that room, they followed the woman down a long hallway with several closed doors on either side. Collin had hoped that she would at least tell them where they were going.

  When they arrived at their destination, the woman stepped aside and held a hand out toward the doors. “Go on. He’s waiting for you.”

  Collin and Darcy stood before the double doors, their faces paling as they heard the voice and the British accent that accompanied the voice come from inside.

  There was no doubt in Collin’s mind that this was the end for both of them.

  Inside those doors, behind a desk, sat one of the heads of the Netherworld Division.

  General Halston.

  An angel.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next day, Alice was relieved to have been granted a day off. Wearing her favorite pink dress, she sat on a blanket beside the river behind her house with a glass of wine. She sipped it gingerly as she waited for Collin to come and pick her up for the date they had planned, rescheduled, postponed, and re-planed for weeks. Getting an evening off between the both of them was never easy.

  Although she didn’t feel like going out, she couldn’t resist seeing him…even if her blood still ran cold with the fear of her premonition from the evening before. She watched the rushing water, and couldn’t shake how much she missed home. Gazing at the sky, she sighed, resolved to the fact that she would never be allowed to return, especially after what she’d done.