Eversworn: Daughters of Askara, Book 3 (33 page)

“Come, partisan.” I curled my fingers. “Help me bathe, then take me to your home.”

I heard him swallow. “As my maven wishes.”

War tore them apart. Betrayal could bring them together…

Brightarrow Burning

© 2011 Isabo Kelly

Layla Brightarrow’s world fell apart the day the Sorcerers invaded her city, intent on using her fellow humans’ pain to augment their spells. Worse, the neighboring elven kingdom declared neutrality, effectively abandoning her people to struggle for survival.

Then some of the elves break neutrality to trade with the Sorcerers, and Layla is ordered to assassinate Althir, brother of the elf lord she has secretly loved all her life.

When Ulric of Glengowyn uncovers his brother’s plot—and that Layla is one of the assassins sent to stop him—his first instinct is to protect her from all possible harm. He’ll even use seduction, if necessary, to get her into a position to talk some sense into her.

Years of pent-up desire is too much for Layla to resist…and one touch unleashes an unquenchable fire that changes everything. Leaving Layla caught between duty and a love that could be her destruction. Or her salvation.

Warning: This book contains evil sorcerers, a scarred heroine, a sexy elf hero, naughty language, and an intoxicating and addicting pheromone that leads to wildly hot sex. Plus traitors, deadly magic, bespelled baddies, and a really, really rotten brother.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Brightarrow Burning:

She sucked in a deep breath as she listened. The air was sharp and humid in her mouth, tasting faintly of ash and mist. “So most of the elves would still leave us humans to die.”

He was silent for long enough she knew she’d hit a soft spot.

“I’m not one of them, Layla,” he murmured. “I believe we should be involved.”

“But on which side?”

His hands clamped down on her shoulders and she was whipped around so fast her feet twisted beneath her, costing her balance. He brought her up flush against his body before she could regain her footing.

“How can you ask me that? I’m betraying my own brother to protect you.”

The feel of his hard muscles pressed against the length of her body made her stomach tighten. Blood pumped faster through her veins. Swallowing to rewet her throat, she opened her mouth to speak, closed it, swallowed again, then forced a few words out. “You expect me to trust you?”

“Yes,” he hissed.

“Yet you still talk to Althir.”

He brought his face closer, his breath brushing hot against her mouth. Her lips parted without her permission and need welled up to flow through her. His scent was impossible to ignore now. Something about it called to her, and she found it harder to resist the longer they stood this close.

“I talk to my brother to keep you safe.”

“And that’s the part that makes no sense,” she said, her voice low and harsh from a lust she could barely control. “Why would you work so hard to protect
me
?”

“Because I care about you, damn it.”

Her head spun as tension tightened in her gut. She blinked to force back the dizziness. “But only after I nearly killed Althir,” she pointed out, as much a reminder to herself as to him. “Before that, you weren’t here keeping me safe.”

“I was forbidden by my king and queen.”

She frowned, trying to see the lies around the haze of want fuzzing her brain.

His voice softened. “I tried to leave Glengowyn. To help you. King Varim forbade it. Until the other elves defected, I was stuck by their ruling.”

His grip relaxed and he cupped her face in his palms. A shiver raced along her arms and up the back of her neck.
Step back
, she thought.
Get away while you can.
Instead, she dipped a breath closer. She barely felt in control of her body. So easy to just let go, to allow him to seduce her, to give in to what she’d wanted for more years than she could bear to think about.

“Layla.” His voice dropped an octave. “They had to physically keep me away.”

She shook her head and shifted her gaze from his, though his hands stayed in place. She couldn’t bring herself to dislodge his hold. “No. That’s…that’s wrong. You never… Not before. I can’t…” Why wasn’t her brain working? Now she couldn’t form a coherent sentence? She faced him again, intent on arguing, but as soon as her gaze met his, all the words evaporated.

Her pulse sped, and as she watched, his pupils dilated, nearly overtaking the blue of his eyes.

Suddenly she understood. Elf-fire. The pheromone that elves exuded whenever they were about to have sex, or at least wanted to very badly. The drug that drew humans to elves and was said to make the sex so amazing, humans often became addicted—which was why the pheromone was also nicknamed elf-tears.

Elf-fire couldn’t be faked. It was a physical response, completely out of an elf’s control. But they had to actually be attracted to their partner. While elves could have sex without attraction, though they rarely did, they could never pretend to have an elf-fire reaction.

Which meant, whatever else Ulric was after, he wasn’t pretending to want her.

As she studied his eyes, watched the black widen more, the reality of the moment pierced her resistance. He was as affected by her as she was by him. She wasn’t sure why. She just couldn’t imagine what he saw in her to invoke lust. But in that moment, it didn’t seem to matter. She’d dreamed about having him for so long. Even if it was just this one night. Even if she couldn’t trust his other motives. She could trust his desire. And for a few hours at least, she could give in to her own.

“Elf-fire,” she murmured aloud. She raised a hand to his cheek, then trailed her fingers along his neck, watching in satisfaction as he sucked in a breath. His hands tensed on her jaw, edging her closer.

“Now do you believe me?”

“I believe you want me.”

A low growl escaped as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’s about damn time.”

His mark could bind her forever—or finally set her free.

Demon Bait

© 2011 Moira Rogers

Children of the Undying, Book 1

Fifty years after a demon apocalypse devastated the world, summoners still bear the bulk of the blame. Marci lives in secret, hiding the gifts that could cost her a secure spot in one of humanity’s underground cities, and access to their virtual world. After all, her chances of avoiding the genetic-testing lotto are better than her chances of surviving topside.

The bastard son of a terrifying incubus, lust heats Gabe’s blood and sex fuels his magic. Innate charm and charisma help him navigate the cultural gap between the outcast town he calls home and the human settlements he infiltrates for trade. His latest mission nets him an unexpected asset—a summoner strong enough to soothe his darkest needs.

Trust a half demon, especially one who uses a lockdown to trap them together? Not in this lifetime. Yet Marci can’t resist Gabe’s offer to see her safely to a selective outcast settlement where she can live without fear. The journey alone is as dangerous as the way Gabe makes her heart race, but it could be her one hope of a real life.

If only she could be sure Gabe’s telling her the whole truth…

Warning: Contains a virtual world where humans flee to escape the demon-infested earth, a dangerously seductive half demon with sex magic to burn and a network-hacking summoner brave enough to make herself vulnerable to him.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Demon Bait:

His senses were more alive, his own voice like gravel in his ears. “What do you know about binding?”

Her lips parted, and her gaze locked with his. “I know I’d be powerless. Completely at someone’s mercy. Is that what happens in Rochester?”

Flushed cheeks, glazed eyes, short little breaths… She was nervous
and
aroused, and his pants were too fucking tight. “It’s always what happens. A literal deal with the devil. The mark keeps you safe from every other demon.”

Her brows drew together, though the desire pulsing through the room didn’t abate. “I don’t like not having a choice.”

“Who said you don’t have a choice?” It took everything in him not to reach across the table and touch her. “You give your partner the power. They don’t take it.”

“You can’t tell me no one would hassle an unbound summoner.”

“They wouldn’t do it twice.”

That broke the spell—mostly. “So the alternative is to get someone killed for trying to convince me? No, thanks.”

He felt his eyebrows trying to climb again. “If all they were doing was trying to convince you, they wouldn’t get killed. We’re not savages. Halfbloods would try to get to know you, and try to prove their worth. It’s courtship, not a hassle. But if it became known that you weren’t interested, they wouldn’t hassle you, because it’s against the rules.”

“Okay.” She leaned toward him, her eyes alight with challenge. “I’m not interested. Now is it against the rules for you to put the whammy on me? ’Cause that’s what you were doing a minute ago, right?”

It took effort not to back down and apologize. “Yeah. If you come back to Rochester with me, you can get my ass in serious trouble. Good enough reason, huh?”

She met his volley with silence, then shook her head. “You’re a tricky one.”

“Sometimes.” Gabe let himself smile as he leaned back in his chair. “I slipped. It happens when we’ve gone too long without taking care of business, but that doesn’t let us off the hook for it. Halfbloods are expected to behave themselves or get help.”

“Taking care of business.” Marci pushed away her mug. “Do you mean sex in reality, sex in the network, or plain old self-supplied orgasms?”

Somewhere, the gods—or demons—were laughing at him. “Honey, if jerking off solved that little problem, I’d have spent the last two hours with my hand around my dick.”

She blushed—hard—but didn’t look away. “And virtual sex?”

“Only makes the itch worse.” The urge to tease her rode him hard, but the need to make her understand the truth was even more important. “It’s not just about sex, though. If you’d been trained, you could wrap me around your little finger.”

Her tension didn’t ease, but the corner of her mouth kicked up. “Now
that’s
a mental picture.” Her amusement faded, and she gave him a thoughtful look. “I’m willing to try it, you know. On the off-chance that it works.”

His mouth went dry.

The demon purred.

“It’s—” He had to clear his throat and shift positions in his chair in a hopeless attempt to ease the uncomfortable pressure of arousal. “I wouldn’t know how to explain it. They fold magic around us somehow. Like a blanket.”

“I have—I don’t know how to explain it, either,” she said helplessly. “But I think I know how. It’s a…a sort of gathering. A force. I can feel it a little already.”

He’d been gone from Rochester for more than a week. Eight days without sex or soothing contact of any kind, and he didn’t know which need was going to swallow him first. “It feels different to everyone. For me it’s…sharp edges and water.”

Marci rose and rounded the table with determination, stopping to stand behind him. After a single long moment, she laid her hands on his shoulders. When she spoke, her breath stirred his hair. “Do you have to let me in?”

He was going to blow. Come in his pants like a teenager who’d hacked his way into an adult sector and discovered naked women. Just the touch of her hands set his pulse to pounding, half of the struggle tied up in how hard it was not to let her feel it. Trust was so fragile…

Too fragile for anything but honesty. “If I do, I can’t promise you won’t feel everything I’m holding back.”

Her breath hitched. “I thought you said this didn’t have to be about sex.”

“It’s not,” he whispered, closing his eyes. “Soothing the itch isn’t about sex, but the original condition sure as hell is. You might feel it before it goes away.”

Her breath caught again, her hands shook—and he realized she was laughing. “You mean I’m going to feel like a voyeur?” She stroked her thumb over his shoulder.

“You’ll feel—”

The words choked off as magic pounded into him. Not slow or subtle, but an uncontrolled, glorious wave. She wasn’t a babbling brook, smoothing away edges over time. Marci was the ocean, powerful and wild, smashing rocks into sand.

He shuddered and closed his eyes, tasting her aura as it spun around him in dizzy circles. She was smart, but he’d known that. Cunning too—again, no surprise. She’d hidden herself amongst humans, had blended in until no one suspected she wasn’t one of them. And beneath that…

Hunger. Passion. Wild curiosity and a sensuality that was pure in a way that made him wonder if a man had ever touched her outside the network. Sex in the Global was clean. Sterile, which was the point, but it left the wildest orgies a fleeting dream that might never have happened at all.

His demon half was putty in her clumsy hands. His cock was hard as steel.