“Nope.Never.”Hawkyn had been assigned a lot of distastefulscumbags in his hundreds of years of service, and he’d managed just fine.
But he had to admit that getting assigned horrible beingswho delighted in the pain and deaths of others wasn’t pleasant.At times it wasdownright infuriating.He’d secretly wished for the excruciating demise of morethan one of his former Primori.He’d even celebrated when they were removedfrom Primori status and finally met the brutal ends they deserved.
He might even have facilitated their brutalends.But he’d keep that to himself.
“Razr’s coming back.”Cipher jerked his head in the otherfallen angel’s direction.“Better get your head on straight or I’m gonna kickyour ass again.”
Hawk snorted.“I was just warming up.Prepare for abeating.”And then after he knocked Cipher around, he was going to pay hisleast favorite Primori a visit and fantasize about doing the same to him.
Someday, he swore silently.Someday.
The best thing about grocery shopping at midnight wasthat the stores were relatively quiet.As someone sensitive to life-forceenergy, Aurora Mercer liked that.But sometimes the lack of activity wasn’t agood thing.
Likenow, asshe walked hergroceries out to her car.Fog common to Portland, Oregon in the fall had rolledin, obscuring everything farther than about forty feet out.She’d parked herdark blue Mercedes close to the building and under a light, but as she openedthe reardoorshe was unnerved to see a black van pullnext to her, blocking her faint view of the store—and blocking employee viewsof her.
The van’s windows were blacked out.
She laughed nervously.It was probably nothing.Serialkillers didn’t drive anything so obvious, right?
Right?
Still, she picked up her pace, not caring that she was allbut throwing her groceries in the back seat and food was spilling everywhere.She could salvage the cherries on the floor when she got home, and raspberryjuice stains on cream leather wouldn’t lookthatbad.
Not as bad as blood.
She finished and slammed the door closed.But shit...thecart corral was several stalls away.Her heart started racing at the thought ofgetting that far from her car and the light.Screw it, she could leave the carthere.She hated when people did that, but avoiding death was as good an excuseas any to be lazy.
Hastily she pushed the cart in front of her car, secured itover a concrete tire block—
“Fog’s bad, isn’t it?”
She spun around with a startled yelp.An attractive man,maybe six-four with a Celtic cross tattoo on his neck, stood between her andher driver side door.How had he gotten there so fast?
Stay calm.
Easier said than done, but she’d give it a shot.“Excuseme,” she said firmly.“I’m in a hurry.”
He didn’t budge.“I’m sure you are.”
As casually as she could, she reached into her purse for herkeys and the attached canister of pepper spray, but as she fishedaroundshe realized she’d left them on her back seat.Herheart skipped a beat and then pounded so fast and hard she could feel it in herears.
Deep breaths.You don’t have your pepper spray, but youaren’t weaponless.
The man smiled as if he knew she’d come up empty of pepperspray and was happy about it.“Problem?Something I can help you with?”
“No.Thank you.”She dredged up a smile of her own andprayed it looked genuine and not like she was scared out of her mind.“Ifyou’ll step aside, I’ll just go—”
She broke off as, out of the corner of her eye, she detectedmovement.Another man-shaped shadow stepped out of the fog behind the van, andher throat constricted with terror.
Jesus, there’s two of them.
Never beforehad she used herabilities in an emergency.She’d always wondered if she evencouldusethem.What if she froze in the face of danger?But now, as adrenaline careenedthrough her body, she drew on the ancient magic, and with a single word,“maleseum,” she struck out with her most powerful weapon, one her peopleusually reserved for only non-humans, like demons.
An intense, almost overwhelming pulse of ecstasy rocked herfrom inside out, triggered by the activation of magic.It was a curse—orgift—of her species, one that required them to either release their energythrough sex or magic, but either way, the result was pleasure, even,apparently, during life-or-death situations.
Through the haze of themorgasm, as many of herfriends called it, a bar of searing light blasted from her palm, striking thenewcomer like a sledgehammer.He flew backward into a light pole and crumpledto the asphalt with a sickening thud.But in thetimeit took to neutralize the second man, the first moved on her.Pain shatteredher face as his fist cracked against her jaw.The parking lot spun as shewheeled around and then hit the ground hard.
Despite the pain and the screaming inside her own head sheheard him mutter something like “Thank you for that” as he looped some sort ofrope or cord around her neck.She gasped for air, clawing at her throat, awarethat he was dragging her toward his vehicle.
