Witching Hour (Blood Magic #3) - L.H. Cosway Page 0,101
him.
His attention went to the woman. “Alora, come back here now. You are being completely unreasonable.”
Alora flinched at the sound of Ridley’s voice and took a step toward me.
“Please, don’t let him take me. It hurts … he hurts me too much.”
At this statement, my protective instincts kicked into high gear, and I pulled her to stand behind me.
“You hurt women, eh?” I asked, levelling my stare on Ridley. “Why don’t you try hurting me instead? See how well you fare?”
Ridley huffed out an angry breath and raised his hand into the air, on the verge of casting a spell. Luckily, Ira leapt at him with a snarl and clamped his big teeth down on Ridley’s hand before he got the chance to finish. I winced when he didn’t just bite him, but jerked his head and tore the hand clean off.
Well, Ira did have some, uh, issues with magic, so I couldn’t really blame him for overdoing it slightly.
An almighty wail erupted from Ridley. He stared down at his now handless arm in horror as blood gushed out. Ira dropped the hand to the ground with a wet thump and walked away with doggy style disinterest. Yep, I just said doggy style. It’d been way too long since I last had a woman beneath me.
“I’m going to kill that fucking dog,” Ridley screamed.
“You’ll be killing no one unless you get yourself to a hospital real soon, my friend,” I called out, grimacing at the sight of his severed hand.
He swore profusely, picked up his hand, and hurried back to his limo. The door slammed shut and the vehicle tore down the road. I turned to see Alora running away from us now, in the opposite direction of the limo. Gabriel and Delilah stared after her, dumbfounded. Ira sat by the side of the van, licking the blood off his paws, and Alvie still sat inside, too shaken by the night’s events to get involved.
I guessed it was my job to go after her then. I ran down the road, but she must’ve heard me coming because she quickened her pace. She was in her bare feet and I knew it had to hurt running without any shoes. A second later, I caught up to her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her to a stop. She wriggled in my hold, struggling to break free.
“Let me go, please,” came her throaty cry. It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “I need to get as far away from him as possible. I need to find my family.”
“Hush,” I whispered soothingly. “You’re not going to get very far in your state. Let me help you.”
She went still when I spoke and turned in my arms to look up at me. Her eyes, which I now decided were far more gold than hazel, continued to roam in an unfocused way. Suddenly, I realised why. She was blind.
Now that she’d stopped struggling, I took the opportunity to study her more closely. Her eyes were amazing. I’d never seen gold eyes in a human before, only in vampires. I felt like a dick noticing, especially since she was in obvious distress, but she had a fantastic rack and plump, heart-shaped lips. Her skin was lightly tanned and smooth, and her hair was a mass of silky curls. In other words, she was beautiful—and still trembling in my arms.
“I know your voice,” she whispered, her forehead crinkling in thought.
“I don’t think so, baby. We’ve never met before. I would definitely remember meeting you.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand …”
“Are you hurt?” I asked. “What were you doing with that son of a bitch Ridley anyway?”
Her soft breath hit the base of my throat as she breathed frantically. “He kidnapped me when I was on my way home from work two years ago. I haven’t seen the outside of his house until tonight.”
“He kidnapped you?” I asked in disbelief. “Why? Is he some kind of sicko?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking. He called you a slayer. Does that mean you know about supernatural creatures?”
“Yes, you can speak freely,” I replied.
She exhaled in some kind of relief, and then her small hands were cupping my face, moving over my features in concentration. “Can I trust you?” she asked as she tried to see me through touch. I stood stock-still, utterly entranced.
“Of course you can. I’m one of the good guys, Goldy.”
She seemed to blush at my response but continued moving her hands over my face. Next, they slid down my neck before resting on my shoulders. I swallowed hard, struggling not to get turned on. As I said, it had been a while since I’d been with a woman.
“I’m half-elf,” she said then, presumably concluding that she could trust me. “I have the talent of seeing into the future. At first, Ridley tried to drain my power to use it for himself, but he didn’t succeed. The spell went wrong and ended up blinding me. He decided to keep me prisoner so that whenever he needed a prediction, he could use my ability.”
“Christ,” I muttered, staring at her with wide eyes. “I bet you’re glad my friend Ira bit off his hand, eh?”
“Hearing his pain was a small revenge,” she said, nodding. “Where are we? Can you bring me back to the city? My parents live there.”
“The city’s a no-go area at the moment. You probably don’t know this, but there was a reason why Ridley was leaving. The vampires have taken over. They’ve been slaughtering humans, and there’s also been some magical business making the humans go crazy and kill each other. You don’t want to go there for a while.”
Suddenly, tears sprang to her eyes. “Are all the humans dead? My parents …”
“No, no, they’re not all dead, but it’s still not safe to go there yet. Not with the vampires so bloodthirsty. Oh, and there’s a mad sorcerer on the loose.”
She slumped in my arms, her small frame resting against me. I guessed what I just recounted was a lot to take in.
“Come on, stay with me for a little while, and we’ll figure out how to return you to your family.”
She nodded, wiping at her eyes. “Yes, thank you. I appreciate your kindness and help.”
“It’s no trouble. Listen, I’m going to carry you back to my vehicle because I don’t like the look of those bare feet on the road.”
“Oh. Okay,” she said, nodding. She gave a soft gasp when I slid my arm under her legs, scooped her up and carried her back to the minivan.
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Meet the Author
Greetings! ‘Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is L.H. Cosway and I wrote the book you just read. I hail from Dublin, Ireland, where I live with my husband and two tiny dictators of the canine variety. My favourite things in life include daydreaming about fictional characters, eating in fancy restaurants, looking at dresses online that I’ll never buy, having entire conversations with my dogs, listening to podcasts and of course, reading books. I happen to believe that imperfect people are the most interesting kind. They tell the best stories.
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Books by L.H. Cosway
Contemporary Romance
Painted Faces
Killer Queen
The Nature of Cruelty
Still Life with Strings
Showmance
Fauxmance
Happy-Go-Lucky
Beyond the Sea
The Cracks Duet
A Crack in Everything (#1)
How the Light Gets In (#2)
The Hearts Series
Six of Hearts (#1)
Hearts of Fire (#2)
King of Hearts (#3)
Hearts of Blue (#4)
Thief of Hearts (#5)
Cross My Heart (5.75)
Hearts on Air (#6)
The Running on Air Series
Air Kiss (#0.5)
Off the Air (#1)
Something in the Air (#2)
The Rugby Series with Penny Reid
The Hooker & the Hermit (#1)
The Player & the Pixie (#2)
The Cad & the Co-ed (#3)
The Varlet & the Voyeur (#4)
The Blood Magic Series
Nightfall (#1)
Moonglow (#2)
Witching Hour (#3)
Sunlight (#4)