Purity (Pure and Tainted) (42 page)

Even if it meant taking off the
suit.

Read on for a sneak peak at Ruby Shadows, the third book in the
Born to Darkness series, coming in
Fall
of 2013…

Ruby Shadows

Prologue

When
you’re dealing with demons, nothing is for free.

Believe
me—I found that out the hard way. My name is Gwendolyn LaRoux and I’m a witch.
Not a green-skinned cackling old hag with a hump on her nose and a skinny black
cat kind of witch, though. I’m actually quite modern, thank you very much—a
typical twenty-something just trying to make her way in the world.

Well,
except for one minor detail—I’m still a virgin.

But lest
you go thinking it’s because I’m a prude, let me set the record straight.
Witches need to keep themselves intact until they find someone to form a love
bond with. No love bond equals
no
sex because casual
encounters and one night stands without love involved will cut a witch’s power
in half and greatly diminish her potency, leaving her vulnerable to attacks by
rivals and other supernatural creatures who might wish her harm.

This
particular rule doesn’t apply to warlocks—male witches—though. It’s just those
of us with girly parts that have to keep our legs crossed. Not fair, right? No,
not a damn bit but that’s the way it is and as my Grams keeps reminding me, I
have to stay pure to stay powerful. Though she doesn’t say it, I know what else
she’s thinking—stay pure to stay protected. She always worries about me so much
and I can’t say I blame her. The women in our family aren’t known for being
able to stay out of trouble.

Take my
mom, for instance. She got on the wrong side of a fire demon back when my
sister Kiesha and I were just little girls.
Grams always says
she went too far toward the darkness and just couldn’t come back.
Unfortunately, it ended up killing her which left Grams to raise us. After
that, I promised Grams I would stay pure. Kiesha did the same but
unfortunately, she couldn’t resist a certain boy in high school who promised he
would love her forever. She gave in and lost half her power—no surprise since
he was a player who never really cared for her in the first place. It takes two
to form a love bond and unfortunately, Kiesha judged unwisely. After that her
life just got worse… I’d rather not say any more about her.

As for me,
I’ve had my share of ups and downs—not that I would let my Grams know. Well,
she
does
know I used my power to form a soul eater for a local vampire
by the name of Corbin—but that was for a good cause. And he offered me his
blood in payment, which I happened to need for a spell.

What Grams
doesn’t
know is that I called on a minor demon for help in forming the
soul eater. I promised her I’d only use my powers for light and stay away from
the darkness that ate my mother, but I had to make one little compromise—just
once.

Unfortunately,
that one little compromise came back to bite me in the ass. The demon I’d
called goes by the name of Laish and ever since he helped me, he’s been all up
in my business. It’s incredibly irritating—especially considering that he’s
ridiculously good looking with coal black hair, a big, muscular body to die for
and these weirdly attractive ruby-red eyes. I’ve never dated outside my race
before—to be honest, I’ve never dated much at all—but Laish would tempt me to
give it a try. If he wasn’t a demon, that is.

I don’t
know how Grams would feel about me dating a white guy but I
do
know how
she’d feel about me dating a demon. Especially one so sinfully attractive he
makes me feel hot and cold all over every time we’re in the same room together.
Laish has this deep, smoky voice and when he looks at me I feel like I’m naked.
He’s always calling me annoying little French nicknames—
mon
chatte,
and
mon ange—
which I’m sure is a dig at my Creole heritage.
Naturally I don’t give him the time of day. Demons don’t have souls so you
can’t bond with them—not that I would trust Laish to form a bond with me. He
just wants to get into my pants and take whatever he can get—that’s his demonic
nature.

I
shouldn’t even be telling you about him anyway. After my last little adventure
where I rescued a vampire friend from the depths of the Abyss, Laish showed up
after the fact and yelled at me. His point was that it’s strictly forbidden to
snatch a soul from Heaven or Hell and dangerous to enter the Abyss, even in
spirit form, which was what I had done. He further reminded me that if I’d left
the door I opened into the afterlife’s darkest pit cracked, even the
tiniest
bit, there would literally be
Hell to pay—literally. At that point I told him to leave me alone and never
come back. I know my business. I know I closed that door.

I’m
pretty
sure, anyway.

To make a
long story short, (I know, too late), I got rid of Laish forever. It’s now been
several weeks since I gave him the heave-ho and he’s stopped popping up
everywhere, asking if I need help and calling me by those irritating little
French nicknames that drive me crazy.

I don’t
miss him a bit—really. I’m just trying to get back to the business I’m best
at—being a witch and helping my Grams run her magic supply business in Ybor City.
At first I was a little worried but things have been quiet and calm. I can
almost forget about the dabbling I did in dark magic and the fact that I went
way past the line any witch who wants to keep her magic strictly white and good
should have.

Well…except
for the dreams.

I keep on
dreaming of a thing made of shadows—a thing with no head. No head but somehow
it still has crooked yellow teeth. And it’s hunting me—looking everywhere for
me. Trying to track me down…

Sorry!
There I go again, letting my imagination run away with me. After all, a few bad
dreams are to be expected considering what I’ve been through lately. And
anyway, it’s not like they’re a warning that something evil is stalking me…

Are they?

About the Author

Evangeline Anderson is a registered
MRI tech who would rather be writing. And yes, she is nerdy enough to have a
bumper sticker that says “I’d rather be writing.” Honk if you see her! She is
thirty-something and lives in Florida
with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for
her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try
and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to
get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and
Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.

You can find her online at her
website www.evangelineanderson.com Come visit for some free reads and to find
out what’s coming soon. You can also connect with her on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/evangeline.anderson.773