Read Dark Callings (Phoenix Intelligence Agency) Online
Authors: Taige Crenshaw
Dark Callings (Phoenix Intelligence Agency)
A Total-E-Bound Publication
www.total-e-bound.com
Dark Callings
ISBN # 978-1-78184-293-5
©Copyright Taige Crenshaw 2013
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2013
Edited by Tina Burns & Rebecca Douglas
Total-E-Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Published in 2013 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a
heat rating
of
Total-e-burning
and a
sexometer
of
1.
This story contains 85 pages, additionally there is also a
free excerpt
at the end of the book containing 10 pages.
Phoenix Intelligence Agency
DARK CALLINGS
Taige Crenshaw
Book Three in the Phoenix Intelligence Agency Series
When faced with your destined bond, you either accept or face the consequences
.
Harmony Davis knows what she wants. No one, not even Lennox himself, will stand in her way. Lennox might think it is best to not pursue their attraction but she has foreseen that she cannot be without him. Now she must convince this stubborn man, who would rather be alone in the shadows than face their combined destinies. She has a plan, but he is not cooperating. Subtlety goes out of the window and she confronts him, giving him no retreat from what must be.
Lennox S’chaech longs for her touch, enjoys her wonderful spirit and giving nature, yet he knows he cannot taint her with his darkness. He hasn’t counted on Harmony’s stubbornness. She finds ways to intertwine their lives so he has no escape. Although, if he would admit it, he wasn’t fighting too hard to get away. But he will not take that final step and meld them in that irreversible way.
When resistance meets determination, it will melt under a
Dark Callings
.
Dedication
To my mother, who has always been my number one fan. Although you are no longer with me, I know you are smiling down at me getting published. To my sister, who is like a second mother
—
thanks for believing in me and for that first book that opened the world of adventure, romance and my imagination.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
The Flintstones
: Hanna-Barbera Productions
Gargoyles
: Disney Television Animation
Law and Order
: NBC
The History Channel: A&E Television Networks
Dodge Nitro Shock: Chrysler Group LLC
Chapter One
Lennox S’chaech slammed down his pen, then stood abruptly from behind the desk. He stalked to the floor-to-ceiling windows that faced the human world. He braced his hands against them, staring out at the sunlit day. The fury that was always just below the surface since his return from Shadow World earlier in the week filled him. Blagden, the Shadow King, had betrayed them, forsaking his duty to the shadows and increasing the fear of their race. Lennox didn’t mind the heightened fear. After all, it was one of the weapons the Shadowers used to keep other beings at a distance. It worked to keep their mystique alive. It gave them power to control the
Xielie
—the veil that kept the nastier side in Dlrowlleh Realm.
The issue was that Blagden’s duplicity would only add to the distrust and hate all Shadowers faced from many of the other races—races they would need for the upcoming battle with Blagden and, God forbid, if he freed A’rm Ageddon. With one tear of the
Xielie,
what he’d set in motion had started to taint the other dimensions. The other beings that didn’t have to deal with the nastier side of things would see all the Shadowers hid to protect them. They were in for a rude awakening. The Shadowers had to give up the physical Shadow World, to make it the new
Xielie
. The Shadowers left were reinforcing the veil between Shadow World and the
Vilemuin
, another realm that separated the Earth Realm from all other beings. Some beings could live on Earth, but others could only survive in
Vilemuin
or
Xielie
.
Lennox lowered his gaze, studying the people moving rapidly many floors below, going about their business in the Wall Street area of New York City. If Blagden succeeded, the realms would merge. The people on the street wouldn’t know how to deal with
others
in their midst. Humans viewed themselves as if they were the only important things in the world. The agents of the Phoenix Intelligence Agency worked to ensure they didn’t know any different.
A limited amount of humans knew about the agency. The people on the street below saw only a building with a thriving law firm. From the outside, the building was deceptive, not because the sign said it was a law firm, but because it was larger than it appeared. It had been specially designed to look like any other Wall Street building.
Lennox moved across the room to another window. The view showed the centre area that was within the protective circle formed by the buildings. On each floor, the various division heads and their team leaders had offices, which were always part of the circle. Being as close as he was to the head of the agency, he knew the reason was for a line of defence. Directly below was the atrium that ran the whole circumference of the building. The inner part consisted of parking areas for the employees, or visitors who knew what the agency really was.
Lennox turned his head towards the window for the human side, then back to the one he had been looking out of before. One was the human world, and the other was the other beings community. The agents of the Phoenix Intelligence Agency protected both. He belonged to neither. Hell, even in Shadow World he was considered an outcast.
Then why did Fyodor ask you to be his second? Why has he been conferring with you as if you already accepted, when you have not?
He had no answer. Lennox crossed his hands behind his back, his thoughts on all that had transpired. By Shadower code, Fyodor, who was Blagden’s son, should not be the new Shadow King, but he was. Lennox, when he’d visited, had been shocked that Fyodor had been chosen. He had even demanded proof that Fyodor had come to power by true means. To do so should have meant death for Lennox, yet Fyodor had surprised him and let him have free rein of the Shadowers who were left. Lennox had asked questions and checked there wasn’t coercion. It was why he had taken so long to return from Shadow World.
Each day there had been torture. He had seen the damage done to their world, felt the malevolence in what had once been a protective place. It had seeped into his soul, making him doubt his sanity. In the end, he couldn’t find any subterfuge in the choice. Then Fyodor had again shaken his assumptions by asking him to be his second—basically, Prince of the Shadowers. Lennox hadn’t known what to say. Fyodor would be a better king than his father.
Fyodor had asked the inter-council for amnesty for the rest of the Shadowers left in their world, and those in hiding on Earth and in other dimensions. They were still waiting to hear if it would be granted. Even if it wasn’t, Fyodor and the others were working to ensure that
Vilemuin
and the Earth Realm would be protected. Fyodor’s passion for his people and his drive to make them more visible, as part of the other community, had gained Lennox’s respect.
“You really shouldn’t think so hard. It’ll make your brain hurt,” a sultry alto stated behind him.
Lennox breathed out, fighting his instincts to sweep her up into his arms.
She is not yours to have
, he berated himself.
Without turning, he replied, “Is there something I can help you with?”
He felt her presence across his skin as she moved towards him. As she arrived by his side, her scent, tantalising his nostrils, reminded him of a crisp spring day.
“Are you still peeved that Eve wouldn’t scan you?”
“Peeves are for minor things. This is serious.” Lennox glanced at her.
A small smile was on Harmony Davis’ face. Her cat-like, hazel-green eyes studied him. She ruffled her short, pixie-cut, dark-brown hair with one delicate hand then relaxed against the glass next to him. Involuntarily, Lennox’s gaze dropped, taking in her full breasts, her ample cleavage visible from the sweetheart neckline of her pale yellow dress. The rest of the garment flowed around her curvaceous frame, highlighting each delicate line of her body. His mouth went dry as he spotted her bare feet, with toes painted the same colour as her dress. Harmony hated shoes. Whenever she could get away with it, she got rid of them as soon as she could.
There were so many beings at the agency, and some who couldn’t or chose not to wear shoes, so it wasn’t such a big thing. Lennox was used to it, and really didn’t notice it on others. Yet with Harmony, it was all he could do not to get down on the ground and kiss her dainty-looking feet, lick along her caramel flesh to see if it tasted as good and felt as soft as it looked. He brutally shut down this line of thinking, raising his head.
The usual expression of amusement, fondness and knowing was on Harmony’s face. The first he was used to, but the other two still baffled him, as did almost everything Harmony made him feel.
