Her connection with Marcus is frayed at best, and Gray hasn’t been heard from in months. Her only semblance of peace comes from a new man in her life. When Gray storms back into the picture, her love life goes from incredibly complicated to apocalyptic. Just as Kelsey begins to unravel the mystery, the forces of Heaven decide to take an interest in her actions. Outclassed with these powers in play, Kelsey knows that one misstep could leave the human and supernatural worlds in ashes.
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EXCERPT
“Your Highness,
please back away. In fact, it would be best if you left the room altogether.”
Felix put himself between me and Roberts. “Kelsey, I need you to push her down.
Push her back down for a few moments. Marcus will be back soon and he’s going
to take care of you. Being around those angels unsettled you. I don’t know if
you noticed, but at the end of the meeting, your ward fell off. You didn’t have
it on when Oliver shook your hand. He’s unbalanced and now you are, too. It’s
like a contagion for someone like you. Oliver’s illness has called up your
inner wolf and she’s angry.”
“Perhaps if I
touch her,” Henri began. “I’m an academic. I don’t have the same connection she
has with Marcus, but I might be able to help.”
“I’m not
unbalanced.” It didn’t matter that my hands were shaking and they had been ever
since I’d left the angels behind. “I’m going to talk to the wolf whether you
like it or not. He’s been handling silver. It’s the only reason his hands
wouldn’t have healed. Even then, a couple of hours would have done it. Unless
the freaking silver he held came straight from Heaven. What about it, Roberts?
How did you spend last night?”
The wolf was
shaking his head. “I don’t know.”
That wasn’t an
answer I was willing to accept. I was about to explain that to everyone when
Chad stepped up and got in my face.
“I’m taking him
out of here now,” Chad explained. “You’ll let me or we’re going to have
trouble.”
I was ready for
trouble. I was fairly sure I grinned, the idea of fighting a vamp lifting my
spirits high. For the first time in what felt like hours, I went still. “You’re
not going anywhere.”
Chad turned, his
shoulders squaring, and I felt the world begin to bend around me. Chad belongs
to one of the rarest classes of vampire—the magicians. As far as I knew, he was
the only one walking the night at this time. He could form illusions so real
you could taste food, feel imaginary rain on your skin, utterly believe
whatever he wanted you to believe. I’d come up against him before. I might be
one of the only people in the world who could see through him.
“It won’t work,”
I said calmly as reality seemed to go dark and I heard the hissing of snakes
all around me. “Do you not remember what happened the last time you pulled this
shit on me? It took three tranqs to take me down. I don’t think you have those
on you today.”
“I won’t need
them.” Chad lifted his hand and the world shifted.
“Holy shit,”
Casey said, climbing up on his desk. “What the fuck is happening?”
Snakes were
happening. They were crawling from the woodwork, twitching and hissing my way.
The fibers of the carpet beneath my feet lengthened and formed more snakes
until they were a menacing mass, threatening everyone in the room.
Well, except for
Chad, who had lifted his husband into his arms and prepared to take him away.
I let my wolf
loose a bit. She knew this was all an illusion. That primitive part of my brain
that Chad was accessing, the lizard brain that merely wanted to survive, was
taken over by the wolf inside me. The alpha wolf didn’t want mere survival. She
wanted to dominate, and that meant seeing past fear, trusting her instincts
over what her eyes perceived.
The minute I
opened the door, I felt her surge through me.
“I’m not letting
you go. I can’t. I’m conducting a murder investigation, and I believe your boy here
just became my prime suspect.” My hands twitched, eager for a fight, and I
realized how long it had been since Marcus and I had thrown down.
Too long.
Remember that whole thing about needing sex or violence to feed my inner wolf?
Well, she was hungry and there was a whole lot of violence in Chad’s eyes.
I welcomed it. I
could feel the need rise like a wave threatening to engulf me. This was why I
had a trainer in the first place.
I gritted my
teeth because Chad turned on his power. I could feel those fucking snakes
climbing my legs and sinking their fangs into me. I refused to pay any
attention to them despite the fact that I ached to rip the fuckers off me and
toss them aside. To do that would have given the magician more power. If I
bought into it, if I took my eyes off the only thing in the room that was real,
I would end up like Casey, who was screaming like a girl.
“Let me pass,
Hunter,” Chad said.
I stood my
ground like the good Gandalf I was. Except I kind of wanted to shove my
nonexistent staff right up old Chad’s ass, and then we would see if he sent
snakes my way again.
The anger rose,
rapid and quick, a flash fire coursing through me. I didn’t even realize when I
had reached for the fireplace poker. All I knew was it was suddenly in my hands
and I was going to use it. I could see myself shoving that piece of wrought
iron right through his heart. It wouldn’t kill him. I would need wood for that,
but then again, I didn’t want the fight over so quickly.
I raised the
poker, ready to start.
“Stop it, both
of you.” Donovan stepped in between us, but I didn’t care at that moment. I
hadn’t felt this way in forever, not since Marcus had taken me in. I hadn’t
been so out of control that I didn’t care who I hurt as long as I got to hurt
someone. I would fuck up Donovan, too. All that mattered was seeing blood,
feeling bones crush.
“You see, I told
you she’s far gone and I can’t fix her anymore. I’ve called Gray and he has an
idea of what to do,” Marcus was saying.
I wasn’t
listening.
I started to
bring the poker down Donovan’s way, but I was stopped in mid swing. A hand held
my wrist, an arm going around my middle and hauling me back against muscled
flesh.
“Stop it,” Trent growled in my ear. “You
stand down right this second.”
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
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