Dragon Mine (A Hidden Novella) (10 page)
Read Dragon Mine (A Hidden Novella) Online
Authors: Jaime Rush
He had to be careful about what he revealed. Knowledge was dangerous to Caidos. “Ironic, isn’t it? We don’t want that attraction. In fact, we hate it.”
“That’s why you stay in these ivory towers and never mingle with anyone.”
“Correct.” Sitting on a bed with a half-naked Dragon Crescent made that even more important.
“But you’ve touched me.” Her hand went to her neck, to exactly where he’d touched her at the bar. His touch
had
left an impression on her. “So how is it fair that you can touch me, but I can’t touch you?”
“Who said life was fair? Look, I won’t touch you either. That should even things up.”
He didn’t like her expression that indicated she was trying to figure him out. She was smart, this one. Her desire pulsed at him in waves, physically pulling at him before he pushed back.
She cat-walked across the bed toward him, stopping inches from where he stood. “It’s okay. You can touch me.” Her voice was husky.
“No, I can’t.” His fingers curled, fighting the need to do as she said.
“But you want to. You know how I can tell? Your eyes are shimmering the same way they did back at the bar.” She took his hand and placed it against her neck. “When you did this.” Then drew it down to rest against her collar bone.
He couldn’t breathe. Even muffled by being in full wing, desire rushed through him as it had at the bar. He’d nearly lost it then, until the pain grew too harsh. He pulled his hand back. “Don’t. I have no interest in getting involved with you. Or anyone.” He took the washcloth, still in her other hand. “I have to figure out who sent wraiths after us. We picked them up at the nightclub, which means someone’s watching us, probably has been since we left Jeremy’s apartment.” He wiped the blood—her blood—from his chest.
Lyra settled back on her heels, hands on her thighs. Hurt played over her expression and his heart. Let her think he was an ass, like most Crescents did. Those snobby, asexual Caidos who think they’re better than anyone else because they came from those closest to Luca, the highest god on the island. They also paid the biggest price for betraying Him.
His wings brushed the wall. For certain skills, like healing, he had to transform to angel. Now that she was healed, he had to become human again. “Excuse me a second.” He swallowed any expression of discomfort and pulled in the energy of his wings.
She was watching in fascination. “Did you shred your shirt?”
Archer sank to the edge of the bed, fatigue gnawing at him. “It’s in tatters with your clothes in the garage. We’ll pick everything up when we leave.” Fortunately, he still had on his pants.
“It probably looks like there was a sex frenzy down there.”
And thank you for putting that particular picture in my mind, me tearing off your clothes…
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Those things were creepy. You said wraiths were dead Caidos.”
“If a Caido isn’t properly interred after his death, his soul becomes a wraith.”
“I hate to even say this, but could one of those wraiths we fought be Jeremy?”
Archer’s stomach tightened. “I thought about that, too. There’s no way to tell. All of a Caido’s individual features are gone, everything that makes them who they are.”
“But they had a will. They definitely wanted to kill us.”
“As though they were following orders.” His gaze fell over her, remembering her fighting them. His emotions—fear, desire—pressed uncomfortably against his soul. “Do you still want to go into your memory?”
“Yes, please. Maybe if I know the note contained nothing incriminating, my brother and Ellie will forgive me.”
“You said the note was at your bakery. It would be optimal to go there.”
The farther away they could get from his bed the better. Because the temptation was getting to be way too much.
Since the accident that nearly took her life, Chloe suffers from acute agoraphobia. Living alone above her family’s bookstore, she spends restless nights terrified by strange visions…until a mysterious stranger appears and offers her salvation. Chloe is drawn to the ethereal, gorgeous Nathaniel—but her haunted soul warns her there is more to him than meets the eye.
An archangel who roams Earth collecting souls of the newly departed, Nathaniel is the sole witness to the accident that should have taken Chloe’s life. Seduced by the purity of her soul, he defies Providence by saving her life. But his attempt at kindness marks Chloe for damnation, and makes her an unwitting pawn in a game of unholy ambition. Now together they must fight the demons of Hell itself—for a love that defies the boundaries of Heaven and Earth.
* * *
As the Collegium council’s top sheriff of the southeastern United States, Valeria Banning doesn’t just take her job seriously, she takes it personally. So when a notorious traitor wanted by the authorities suddenly risks his life to save hers, she has to wonder why.
As a mage, Griffin is sworn to protect innocents from dark magic, which is how he finds himself fighting side by side with the beautiful Valeria Banning. But when the council finds out the two have been working together, they’re both left running for their lives—from the law, the threat of a ghoul takeover, and a possible Collegium mole.
* * *
Niccolo DiConti has faithfully served as leader of Her Majesty’s army for over a millennium, but he’d rather sunbathe in the Sahara than spend another grueling day under his demented queen’s command. However, no one has ever left her side and lived to tell. So when a powerful goddess prophesies he will meet his salvation—a human woman he must turn into a vampire with her consent—he eagerly rises to the challenge. After all, how hard could it be to seduce a human female into taking the immortal plunge? Harder than he thinks. Because his mate won’t be born for another three centuries, and when he wakes up in the goddess’ tomb, not only is his life a mess, but his destined female isn’t about to settle for a coldhearted vampire. Can he win her over before it’s too late? Not if his enemies have anything to do with it.
* * *
On the night Helena Strauss meets the fierce, devastatingly handsome vampire who saves her life in the jungles of Mexico, she knows her world will be forever changed. Because an attraction this mind-blowing only comes along once in a lifetime—or existence. And when he claims she is his one true mate, destined to be his for all eternity, it’s a fairytale come true. So what if her knight in shining armor is a vampire? Nobody’s perfect. But discovering the powerful, overbearing immortal doesn’t “do love”? Deal breaker. Helena will flee and set out to accomplish the impossible…sever the otherworldly bond between them. And it turns out, Helena is just the leverage Niccolo’s enemies need to break the mighty warrior and wipe out his people.
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Copyright © 2013 by Tina Wainscott
Excerpt from
Dragon Rising
© 2013 by Tina Wainscott
Cover design by Christine Foltzer. Cover photo by Claudio Dogar Marinesco. Custom lettering by Ron Zinn. Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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ISBN 978-1-4555-2799-1