“Zyan,” Eli said, his voice sharp.
The gnome’s face grew red, and his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his shriveled, warty head. I knew he was holding something back, and I wasn’t going to let these kids keep getting taken…
“Zy!” Eli shouted, grabbing me by the shoulders.
I startled, my concentration broken. My vision dipped to my hands, which glowed a vivid red. A shiver ran through my body. Had I been casting a spell without even realizing it? Eli’s lavender eyes burned into mine, and I could see my surprised expression reflected in them.
“I’ll take you!” shrieked the gnome. “The kids! I’ll take you there now!”
I drew in a shaky breath and pasted a smile on my lips. “See? Turns out the little guy can talk after all, given the proper encouragement.”
My partner just turned and stalked out of the alley as I dragged the mini criminal to his feet. Fine, Eli could be grumpy if he wanted. We’d gotten what we needed, and if the little wretch of a gnome was telling the truth, we might get those kids home alive after all.
Sometimes, like right now, I seriously questioned my decision to pair up with an angel. Not just an angel, but all the forces of Heaven. We reported directly to the HR (holy representative) of Northwest America, and he reported directly to God for all I knew. So yeah, I was pretty much entrenched. It’d been a little over two months since Eli and I worked our first case together, and we’d gotten fairly close during that time. One would never think a soul thief and an angel could get along, but stopping an invasion from Hell was a pretty excellent team building exercise. The last few weeks though, it seemed we’d backslid. Eli was back to being his stuck-up, judgmental self. I figured it was the demon mark Lucifer had placed on me, not like that was my fault. A sigh escaped my lips. Bartending was probably a better choice. Just thinking of Noir, and imagining Quinn and Riley slinging drinks without me, gave me a pang of homesickness.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it further, however, as Eli and I had to take down a couple demons, return five children to their homes, slam the gnome in a jail cell, and answer questions for some reporters about the rescue. Well, Eli answered questions for reporters. I wasn’t exactly the kind of character Heaven wanted to associate with. They didn’t like to advertise that they had a bartender/bounty hunter, part witch part demon soul thief in their employ. Not so good for publicity.
When Eli finished with the news team, he joined me where I stood off to the side of a police station. Darkness now claimed the sky, though smog dulled the velvety black. The professional, neutral face he’d worn for the camera tightened into a scowl as he approached me.
“Do you realize how much you preen in front of cameras?” I asked, to delay the inevitable lecture. Plus, as not-nice as it was, I still liked to push his buttons. Just a little.
“I do not preen.” Eli frowned. Such pretty lips put to such dismal behavior. “Listen, we need to talk about what happened.”
“Oh, so you’re ready to apologize for jumping my shit?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
He ignored my question. “What was that? Do you even know?”
“Just my witch powers flaring up. You know I’ve been learning how to use them again.”
“And that’s all?” His eyes darted to the mark on my left arm. The partial demon mark that Lucifer had carved into my skin trying to bond me to him.
I knew it.
“Are we really going to go there again?” I snarled. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans and rocked back on the heels of my boots.
“If we have to. Yes.” He took a step closer to me, and his body heat washed up against mine. “I believed you Zy, that your mark wasn’t affecting you, but today…”
I stared up at him. My eyes blazed like the Hollywood stars and my lips parted in a growl. “Clearly all that stuff you said a couple months ago about trusting me was total bullshit if one little power flare has you so scared.”
“I’m not scared,” he hissed with a shake of his head, making locks of golden hair swing back and forth. “Just worried. You didn’t seem yourself.”
“Not myself?” I laughed, short and mirthless. “You guys hired me because I don’t follow the rules. What I do is get the job done. Just because I joined on doesn’t mean I’m going to become a good little angel groupie and drink your heavenly Kool-Aid.”
Eli’s jaw rolled, a sign that he was super pissed. “Why do you have to be so damn difficult all the time? Just admit that something happened tonight and you aren’t sure what it was!”
I opened my mouth to retort and as I did, I took in a deep breath, a breath heavy with the scent of Eli’s soul. Pure and vibrant as a glacier spring, the roots of a mountain, the forever of the sky. It rocked into me and a brutal longing flashed from my lips to my groin. I wanted to drink him, to possess him, to have all of him. I’d never wanted anything more in my entire two-hundred-plus-year life.
Without conscious thought, I stepped forward into the curve of his body, tilting my face up, leaning in…
Eli’s comm device rang, the one that only HR headquarters used. Reality slammed into me. I spun and stalked off, seeing a flash of Eli’s confused face as he answered.
“Eli Whitesong.” A pause. “Yes. Okay. We’ll be right there.”
I heard him disconnect the call and take two steps in my direction. Well, not so much heard it as felt it. As if a line of energy connected us. This was royally fucked.
“Zy?” He sounded unsure for once.
I didn’t speak, but turned around slowly.
A long pause hung in the chill air between us. “The HR needs us right away. One of the special agents has gone missing and he wants us on the case.”
Read Whiskey and Angelfire Today!

The Zyan Star Series
Reading Order
Martinis with the Devil (Book 1)
Whiskey and Angelfire (Book 2)
Vengeance and Vermouth (Book 3)
Black Magic and Mojitos (Prequel Novelette) (Book 4)
Sorcery and Sidecars (Origin Story Novella) (Book 5)
The Quinn Chronicles (A Zyan Star Spin-off Series)
Death and Dating (Book 1)
Death and Promises (Book 2)
Death and Eternity (Book 3)
Zyan Star Book 6 Coming Soon!
www.AlexiaChamberlynn.com

Other Books by A.A. Chamberlynn
Of Blood, Earth, and Magic
The Timekeeper’s War Series
Huntress Found (Book 1)
Huntress Lost (Book 2)
Huntress at War (Book 3)
The Four Horsewomen Series
A War of Daisies (Book 1)
A Death of Music (Book 2)
A Famine of Crows (Book 3)
A Pestilence of Pride (Book 4)
A Bargain with Angels (Book 5)
A Dance with Demons (Book 6)
A Song for the Devil (Book 7)
www.AlexiaChamberlynn.com
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A land ravished by magic, a circus of rebels, a girl with a deadly secret.
There was a time when the Tribes lived in harmony. Sun, Moon, even the fabled Shadow Tribe. That time is no longer. Now the land has become a wicked wasteland, plagued by strange creatures, enchanted storms, and bubbles of trapped time, remnants of the Shaman Wars. Magic has been outlawed by the Sun, the Moon have gone into seclusion, and the Shadow are all but annihilated.
For Elea, the idea of peace between the tribes is a nothing more than a legend from the history books. She works for a circus of outcasts who travel between the Sun cities. All she wants is freedom: from the circus, to perform her magic, to be herself. But she possesses a deadly secret that makes any
chance of liberty impossible.
Ashe is heir to one of the seven Sun cities. He rebels against his overprotective father by competing in illegal fight dens. Like most Sun, he believes that science is the future, and he's never traveled outside the walls of his city due to the dangers that lie beyond.
When a new kind of evil begins to terrorize the land, Elea and Ashe find themselves thrown into the center of a coup that could destroy Iamar. To fight the enemy, the Sun and Moon must unite, something that hasn't been done in three hundred years. But first they must find the Moon Tribe, and that means crossing Iamar, which grows more and more unstable as the dark magic spreads. Dark magic which has everything to do with Elea and her terrible secret.
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About the Author

Alexia Chamberlynn is a bestselling author of urban fantasy, fantasy mythology, and fantasy Western novels, including the Zyan Star Series, The Quinn Chronicles, The Timekeeper’s War Series, and The Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse Series. She lives in Florida with her son and a menagerie of animals. When she's not writing or reading, she can be found playing with horses, drinking wine, traveling to the next place on her global wish list, or maybe doing yoga. Dr. Who, unicorns, and katanas make her very happy.
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Martinis with the Devil Page 27