the human…and I lost.
I fucking lost.
“Go,” I ordered Ransom and Lachlan, pointing to the path ahead.
They didn’t question me—they valued their lives more than that. Lachlan would grumble at me privately, but never in front of anyone else.
I stopped suddenly in front of the human woman, dropping to my haunches and running my gaze over her frame in less time than it took my heart to beat. The scent of her blood made my mouth water, and I gritted my teeth against the craving. Ordering my fangs and my cock to stand down. Damn, I hadn’t even seen the woman yet, and I was hard—she smelled that good.
“Asshole,” she shouted down the path where the demon had run.
Obviously, it wasn’t a death blow.
“Are you okay?” I growled, annoyed as fuck at myself for checking on a human when my sister was in danger.
She shoved her mass of blond hair out of her face and looked up at me with widening green eyes.
Fucking beautiful. I took in a breath reflexively, then wished I hadn’t, because all I could smell was her.
Oh shit, I was fixating, which was as good as draining the woman right here. A fixated vampire hunted his prey no matter the consequences. The craving was too strong to deny, it would drive us mad.
Fixation, that’s all this was…right? Her blood was calling to me.
“I’m fine,” she said, her gaze flickering down the path again. “He barely got my forearm. But that asshole was chasing two other girls.”
Aviana.
I blinked, trying to free myself of the fixation, the craving, but I didn’t lunge or pounce on her as fixated vampires did. Instead, I took her wrist, testing her pulse. Quick, but strong, and given the change in her scent, flooded with adrenaline. Fuck, her skin was warm and soft. Perfect in every way.
Gravity shifted.
My chest tightened like a fucking vise.
Electricity coursed through my veins.
Every cell in my body screamed one word—mine.
Wait. What the actual fuck?
“See? It’s not bad.” She lifted her arm, showing me the cut, and I bit back a growl. That demon had sliced into her delicate skin and—what if it was laced with poison?
A scream pierced the silence, and we both snapped our heads toward the sound.
Aviana. My heart lurched, worry quickly replaced with icy rage.
“Get out of the park,” I ordered the human. “It’s not safe.” My sister’s cry must have broken the fixation because my body was my own to command again.
“He was wearing a black hoodie and a Halloween mask with blue horns!” She called after me.
I sprinted faster than I should have and turned the corner in time to see four demons— including the one who’d attacked the human woman—advancing on my sister and her bodyguard.
Lachlan shot the first.
Ransom took out the second.
The remaining two stared at me with horror, but not surprise. They knew exactly who Aviana was.
That one. He’d taken a knife to her like she was nothing. I saw red, disappeared and wended, materializing in front of the blue-horned demon. “You attacked what is mine, and the sentence is death.” I wrapped hands around his neck and twisted, breaking his spine. “Justice served.”
The last demon wended, leaving the three bodies behind.
I was going to fucking kill Xavier for this.
“Alek!” Avi cried, her slim figure racing toward me.
“Avi.” I swept her into my arms and clutched her to my chest, cradling the back of her head. I’d lecture this one later. Right now, I just wanted to feel her breathing.
Guilt was heavy and sour in my mouth. How the fuck had I let myself get distracted with that human while Avi was in danger? I’d almost let my parents down. Let our entire species down. The loss of one female was tragic, but the loss of the princess? Unforgivable.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, cupping her cheeks and looking into her eyes. They were pale blue, just like mine. Just like our mother’s.
“I’m fine, I promise.” She gave me a shaky smile.
“Benedict is almost here with the car,” Lachlan told me quietly as Ransom argued with Avi’s bodyguard about the safety of the park.
“We need to get out of here before someone reports the gunshot,” I told Avi. Humans were a nuisance, not that they’d even seen the demons—
The breath froze in my lungs.
She had. Cinnamon and vanilla. Blond. Green eyes. Impossible. But she’d seen him. Even told me what he’d looked like.
A human had seen the demon.
I took a deep breath.
“Fuck.” The distance of her scent told me she was long gone.
But I also knew I’d be able to track that scent anywhere in this city.
And I would.
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About the Author
Samantha Whiskey is a wife, mom, lover of her dogs and romance novels. No stranger to hockey, hot alpha males, and a high dose of awkwardness, she tucks herself away to write books her PTA will never know about.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my incredible husband and my awesome kids without which I would live a super boring life!
Huge thanks must be paid to all the amazing authors who have always offered epic advice and constant support! Not to mention creating insanely hot reads to pass the time with!
Big shout out to A.H. for making this shine. And thank you to each and every single one of you AMAZING readers who love the these books as much as I do!