The Hunted (Guild of Assassins Book 1)
Read The Hunted (Guild of Assassins Book 1) Online
Authors: Shannan Albright
Shannan Albright
A druid sworn to protect and nurture.
Leigh Simon, a druidic healer, lives a peaceful existence among her nomadic tribe. She practices the healing arts and communes with the earth—until her estranged mother’s death turns Leigh’s life upside down. Leigh is now heir to her mother’s worldly possessions, including one dark, brooding demon.
A demon sworn to revenge.
Taren’s rage against witches is all that keeps him going. Forced into the beholden vow, magically binding him to the witches’ Guild of Assassins, he bides his time until he can find a way to break the vow. The key to his freedom comes in the form of one curvaceous female who knows nothing about the violence, hatred, and fear his kind has lived through.
A hunt to the death.
Leigh’s shocked at the brutality Taren endures at the hand of the Isis Guild of Assassins. The only way to right the wrong is to enter an antiquated, lethal challenge called The Hunt. If they can evade a deadly squad of assassins for twenty-four hours, they’re home free—something no one has done for hundreds of years—and falling in love only makes the need to survive steeper. Now, they’re not just fighting for Taren’s freedom, they’re fighting for love.
The Dark Breed Enforcers
Dark Passions Rising
Passions Flight
Dark Hunter (A Novella)
Dark Desire
Knights of Excalibur
Beloved Wizard
The Knights Druid
The Kings Lady
The Guardians of Drakkan
Soul Fire
Learn more at
www.shannanalbright.com
.
Shannan Albright
Copyright © 2016 by Shannan Albright
Formatted by The Romance Geek
Edited by The Romance Geek
Cover by The Romance Geek
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons (living or dead), actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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As always, to my husband, my guiding light which never wavers lighting my path along the way.
Acknowledgments
I wrote this as an introduction to a very complex world of gods and demons, angels and witch assassins. This is the first book in my series
Guild of Assassins
. Watch for
Demon Bewitched
, coming in 2017. This is a re-release from an anthology titled
When the Night Comes
. Omitted scenes have been added, and I hope you enjoy the extended version.
Writing isn’t done without the support of those who believe in you. I wish to thank Nara Malone, who has been my rock and guiding light through a tough year. And to Brandi Evans, who I’m delighted to have as my awesome cover artist and editor. My heartfelt thank you, Brandi, for your help getting this story back out into the world. I couldn’t do it without you.
And lastly, to Gypsy, my dear friend who is always there in a pinch with words of encouragement.
Chained though no links of heavy metal impeded his movements. No shackles cut into his wrists or ankles, but he was trapped all the same. Only these restraints were far stronger than anything of this earth.
Nothing could set him free of the beholden vow.
Taren watched. Waited. Plotted. A low throbbing pulse, much like a heartbeat, came from the dual brandings on his shoulder blades. On one side was a wing symbolizing Isis and, on the other, a cat’s paw for Bast. As if he needed an unending reminder of his status. As if he could ever forget the day he was forced to utter those hateful words. The day, fifteen years ago, which had brought him to his knees, stripped him of his pride and social standing as Infernal—a demon free of any vow—of everything he was.
But it saved Natilla.
A dark familiar voice whispered the thought through his mind. The reason for his sacrifice filled him with grim resignation. Yes, for Natilla, he’d suffered—would continue to do so—to give her a life free of the hell he existed in. He prayed his sister found happiness with a loving, devoted man and a large
kith
to protect her. A
kith
, or as humans called it
family, always held high importance in his culture, each member taking on the task to teach the younglings and to aid the elders when they grew too weak to help themselves. As the eldest sibling, and head of his
kith
Taren had given his sister the only thing in his power to give.
Freedom.
His time, though, was near. The sound of several feet crunching over the graveled walkway alerted him to the Polariate’s arrival. The door opened without a knock. Why would she knock? He was only a lowly Enfertiti, barely higher than a beast in the eyes of the Guild of Isis.
Two guild assassins stepped through the door, one fair-haired, the other dark. Both dressed in unrelieved black slacks and matching tunics, their features were as cold and emotionless as granite. Both held wickedly curved knives in their hands, a promise of pain to come. Taren tensed, ready for an attack. His body flooded with adrenaline, his gaze never wavering from the females. He relished any opening to inflict pain on his captors. Only the sudden appearance of the Polariate dropped his aggression a notch, yet he remained tense, ready for any threatening move.
The Polariate moved into the room with the grace of a dancer, swathed in diaphanous silk robes the color of golden sunshine. Her dark hair spilled loose around her shoulders in a mass of shiny curls. She was positively stunning, yet it was her eyes, a piercing blue of arctic ice which gave him pause. Her gaze held an ancient wisdom belying the look of youth she wore.
Her lips twisted into a grimace of distaste, a flash of loathing passing through those arresting eyes. He schooled his features into a mask as devoid of emotion as the assassins at her side, yet his mind raced, his heart beating hard He was highly aware of the significance of the Polariate’s visit.
Aegis Doreen, his keeper, would never come home again, and soon, Taren would follow in her stead.
For when a keeper died, his or her vow was nullified, thus restoring him to his Infernal status once again. If the vow was one broken by a sudden death of the keeper…in his case?
It was complicated.
Besides, a free demon was a dead demon if the Guild of Isis had anything to say about it.
“You
are
Taren, is that correct?” The Polariate’s question pulled Taren back from his musings.
“Answer the Polariate, animal.” The blonde assassin snapped, her voice slicing blade sharp.
“I wish a moment alone with Taren,” the Polariate said.
“This is highly irregular,” the assassin argued.
“Do not make me repeat my request.” Steel beneath silk filtered through the Polariate’s tone, grating against Taren’s skin as her power saturated the air between them. He gritted his teeth against the sudden urge to wrap his hands around the smooth column of the Polariate’s throat and squeeze until he heard the sound of breaking bones.
“Yes, Polariate.” The blonde bowed low and followed her fellow assassin out. The door closed, leaving him standing in brittle silence.
“May I sit?” the Polariate asked.
“Of course, Polariate.”
He led her through an arched hallway of ivory marbled floors and pale sand-colored walls, barren of any decoration, and into the simple living quarters. Directing her to a cushioned chair of sky blue, he sat directly across from her, separated by a small oblong coffee table of smoked glass.
Her gaze turned frigid as she studied him, her tone sharp as a finely honed blade. “I know you’re aware of Aegis Doreen’s passing through the ether and why I am here.”
The woman cut to the chase. No mincing of words with this one. He had to appreciate her blunt honesty.
“And you are ready to meet your fate?” she asked.
“Would it matter if I said I wasn’t?” he challenged.
“Only one thing about you matters to me. Your extinction.”
“And you always get what you want?” His voice crossed the edge of belligerence.
“You dare much by speaking to me in such a way.”
He studied the woman across from him. Her power whipped across his skin with stinging force, much like the fire ants he’d accidentally walked through after he first arrived on this planet from his dying world of Demos. “What will you do, have me put to death? You plan to anyway. Yet know this. You may break my body, but you will never take my will.”
“You are a threat. You’re far too powerful…too willful. Your magic’s can destroy the world if not controlled.”
“Keep telling yourself that. But honestly, does it help you sleep at night?” His query held the harsh edge of fury. Impotent as it may be, it still gave him a small amount of satisfaction to see the flash of discomfort in her eyes.
“It didn’t have to be this way. Your kind came to us as the aggressor.”
“And you don’t have a few bad apples within your species?” He ran a hand through his hair in agitation, fingers lightly brushing against the coiled horns which wrapped tight against his head.
“I am not going to get into this debate with you,” she said. “Make peace with whatever deity you pray to.” She stood abruptly to leave, and he watched her with the intensity of a predator and almost smiled at the small tremor in her hands. She feared him.
Good.
When he spoke, his voice matched the arctic ice of her eyes. “How long?”
She gave a deep sigh. “That will depend on my assassin’s daughter. She can take everything but you. As the law states, should she wish to claim a beholden demon with her mother’s other worldly possessions, she would be tested.”
He knew the antiquated law well, just as he knew not a single soul in the past one-hundred years had ever survived the testing. Far better to prepare for his crossing than place any hope on an impossibility.
“Remember the vow, Polariate. Natilla and her
kith
are to be left in peace.”
“It will be honored as long as she never becomes a threat. She must stay far from here, or I can’t protect her and her family and keep my word.”
“Then I am resigned to meet my death.”
It was a lie of course. Inside, he raged against fate, wishing to see his sister one last time.