Born of Stone (22 page)
Authors: Missy Jane
I tried to relax and focus on him, but the bell over the door chimed as Clark and Santino walked out, and fear sprang unbidden through me. It was impossible to never be alone with a vampire. Whether customers or Joe, it happened from time to time. However, I avoided it as much as I could, especially with complete strangers. This vamp might be a cop but I didn’t know him and he was a lot bigger than me. I stood and took a step back, pressing against the counter and creating more space between us.
He stilled and inhaled slowly before speaking in a low, calming tone. “Hello, ma’am, I’m Detective Gregory Parsons. I have a few questions to ask about the…incident you witnessed a couple of hours ago.”
I shrugged and leaned back against the counter in feigned indifference. “Yeah? The biting incident.”
The wariness turned to something else for a heartbeat before he quickly masked it. His jaw tightened the slightest bit and my pulse sped up minutely. He’d hear it as well as smell any fear I couldn’t temper. It didn’t matter. Who the hell wouldn’t be scared of one vamp after witnessing another suck a human dry? He’d know my nonchalant pose for the farce it was, but if he could play along, so could I.
He cleared his throat and slipped his hands into his pockets. “Yes, ma’am, the biting incident. You witnessed it in its entirety?”
I worked to look into his eyes without trembling. It had been a few years since I’d seen my last biting incident. I would be having nightmares for months after this.
“Yes, sir. From start to finish. I told the last two cops everything and they even wrote it down. Do you really need to hear me repeat it?”
If he felt any sympathy for me he was damned good at hiding it. I wasn’t really a victim, I guess. Nothing had physically happened to me. So what if the scene outside had been too damn close to what had happened in my past? I pushed those memories away again and straightened my spine, determined to get through this as quickly as possible.
“Yes, I do, Miss…”
“Stonewell. Zaria Stonewell.”
His brow wrinkled and his gaze ran over my face as if looking for a familiar feature. I knew I’d never met him before, but he might have already been a cop the last time I’d been through this. I put him in his late twenties, just past my own twenty-five years of age. He shifted his stance, seemingly uncomfortable on his feet. It had probably been a long night for him to still be up at this hour. A glance out the window confirmed the sun was well on its way to high noon. I had an idea of how to avoid any more time alone with him
There’s no easy cure for a love of epidemic proportions.
A Breath of Winter
© 2013 Hailey Edwards
Araneae Nation, Book 4
Zuri and her mercenary brothers had a simple mission. Transport a captured harbinger to Erania and collect the bounty. But this job turns out to be anything but easy.
Their welcome to the northland is nothing short of frigid. A scuffle with border guards and her prisoner’s attempted escape leave Zuri injured—and she and her brothers stuck in quarantine. Worse, the bounty comes with silken strings attached. Strings held by a scientist with a daring, dangerous plan.
Because Zuri and her prisoner barged in before his fail-safes were in place, Henri had no choice but to lock them all down until he’s sure there’s no risk of spreading plague. He’d planned to study the harbinger, but it’s the mercenary holding the leash who intrigues him the most.
When Henri’s experiment goes awry, they learn they’ve all been pawns in a plan with one goal: bring the Araneae Nation to its knees. Zuri is forced to make a choice that could sign her death warrant—or sacrifice everyone she loves.
Warning: This book contains a chair-bound heroine who won’t let anyone—least of all a man—push her around. Expect tea-drinking, net-tossing, and knife-wielding. Should you feel compelled to indulge in a bear ride, please keep your hands on the reins and your feet in the stirrups. Author not responsible for possible maulings.
Enjoy the following excerpt for
A Breath of Winter:
Six hours, he said. Well, I slept twelve. “You should have waked me instead of letting me sleep the day away.” By the time I joined Henri in the laboratory, all my tasks had been done for me.
Henri had tended to the third and fourth crates, plucked the next batch of petals, crushed them in oil and resumed his usual position at his regular table, hunched over three tiny glass vials and a syringe, leaving Asher to admit me. Henri was so lost in his work, he didn’t acknowledge my arrival.
Turning to the male paying attention, I asked Asher, “Why are you here?”
His gaze skittered toward the open hatch, as if he meant to step through it, so I blocked him.
“Kaleb and Tau decided to stay with Ghedi to lessen the chance of passing the plague on to you. Fynn joined Malik a few hours ago.” At my growl, he added, “Fynn wants to help out, and he’s well enough. Braden and I are swapping shifts between the stables and bastille until we’re sure those two can handle it.” He smirked. “Wouldn’t want your brothers trying to pet the pretty lady, would we?”
“Asher?” I curled my finger until he bent down. “Don’t talk about my brothers.” I threw all the force I could muster into punching him in the gut. He gasped, but he was already bent over, so it was hard to judge whether I had made my point.
I was about to expound when Henri decided that I did, in fact, exist. He straightened slowly with a rusty movement that made him wince.
“Asher’s on his way out.” Henri left neither of us any doubt he had meant it as an order.
I rolled aside and let Asher leave with a twinge of regret for my actions.
I should have led with my other fist.
“What are you up to this fine afternoon?” I pointed to his desk. “Is that the preventative?”
He chuckled as he stood. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”
I watched him pocket the syringe. “Curiosity is a professional failing of mine.”
“I’ve noticed.” He walked a slow circle around me. “Yet it’s a trait I admire in you.”
I forced myself to hold still. “What are you doing?”
A scuffling sound made me think he had knelt. “Checking the chair for signs of wear.”
“Ah.” My nape prickled under his regard. “Is its condition satisfactory?”
“It appears to be holding up well,” he said from much too near my ear. “I just need to…” He jostled me while making some adjustment or other. Metal groaned and I jumped at the rapid succession of clicks that raised my seat. After many tense minutes passed, the chair stopped rocking.
I waited a heartbeat before asking, “Are you finished?”
He leaned over my shoulder, and his breath fanned my throat. “It depends.”
My pulse spiked when he toyed with the hairs at my nape. “On?” I turned my head a fraction and caught him as he stared down the front of my gown. Wicked female that I was, I arched my back in what was dangerously close to invitation. “I can see you.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I think…you might be the only one who does. See me.”
I nuzzled his cheek. “You mean you’re usually stealthier when staring down females’ shirts?”
He must have smiled. I felt the scraping of his teeth against my skin, and my sight went blurry.
“Henri.”
We jumped apart at the sound of Asher’s voice. He was braced in the doorway, panting. We had been too lost in conversation to hear the hatch open, but I felt the draft from the hall seeping in now.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Henri sounded less flustered than I would just now. Yet when he braced on my good shoulder, his thumb caressing my pulse, his hand trembled.
“Braden said I ought to take a spare room to stay close, but I headed to my room in the stables.” Asher’s shirt was slicked to his body, and his chest pumped while he gasped for air.
“What happened?” I peered behind him, into the hall.
“The animals,” he panted. “I blamed the storm. They always get wild when the weather turns.”
Henri poured Asher a glass of water and put a hand on his shoulder. “Slow down.”
“On the way to my room, I heard this thumping sound and went to investigate. It was Noir. She was throwing a hissy, ramming her stall door with her shoulder like she was trying to bust it down. Paladin Rhys warned us, said his brother favored the mad sow. I tried calming her, nothing worked.”
“Noir is temperamental.” Henri told me, “So is Farrow for that matter. It’s in the bloodline.”
Asher nodded. “I stuffed those herbs you left us for sedating trouble boars into a slab of varanus steak and tossed it to Noir. On my way to bed, I heard the noise again, this time near the exit hatch.”
“The one we used to enter the stables?” I asked.
“There’s only one exit hatch,” he snapped.
Henri cleared his throat.
Asher scowled at me. “I mean, yes. The noise came from the same hatch I led you through.” His breathing slowed. “I figured it must be one of the guards wanting to pass a message through. After I saw what that thing did to Ghedi, I wasn’t about to open so much as the post slot to receive a letter. I climbed the ladder and used the lookout to see what I was dealing with. A male was banging his fists on the hatch. At first, he seemed all right—frantic—but if more of those things might be out there…”
Henri became very still. “Did you open the hatch?”
“No. I didn’t get the chance.” Asher’s knuckles whitened. “Another male joined the first. When I didn’t let them in, they began snarling at one another. They attacked each other. That first one—he tore out the other’s throat and fell on him in the snow.” Asher blinked his wide eyes. “I’ve seen a lot in my time, all Mimetidae have, but nothing as brutal as those two. What are they? Why are they here?”
“They’re risers—corpses,” Henri said. “As to why they’re here…”
Our eyes met in the same moment, but I was the one to say, “They’ve come for her.”
Born of Stone
Missy Jane
Within a body strong as stone beats a heart ready for love.
Gargoyle Masters, Book 1
For seventy years, Orestes and his twelve gargoyle brothers have done their duty to protect King Kadmos’s realm. There’s only one annoyance in his life—humans.
He’s content to leave them to their idol worship. Until he notices a small, frail woman serving at his table, doing her best to remain invisible. Something about her calls to him like no human before.
Astrid is terrified. Not only of the powerful magical creature with inhuman strength, but of the staff overseer’s lash for calling attention to herself. Instead she is whisked away to paradise, bathed, fed, and made love to by Orestes as if she is his reason to live. But she isn’t naïve enough to believe she is anything more than a temporary diversion.
When Orestes is called away to search for a missing brother, Astrid is kidnapped by a traitor intent on using her to bend Orestes to his will. Little do the lovers know that the connection between them is no weakness, but a strength their enemies would be fools to underestimate…
Warning: This book contains paranormal fighting, steamy sex scenes, strong-willed females, and men made of stone who prove to be soft as butter in the right woman’s hands.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Born of Stone
Copyright © 2014 by Missy Jane
ISBN: 978-1-61922-023-2
Edited by Holly Atkinson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: May 2014
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