Deadly Liaisons (35 page)

Anatola shrugged. “Because you are a fledgling. You have the power, being the one he loves and respects now above al others. Do you not see how we might feel petty about it? Either you accept your fate and grow with it or you give up our prince.”

Daemon stood across the room, as formal y dressed as before. Although his clothes were similar to most, he stood out as the prince of his people with his elegant posture and charming manner. Others spoke with him, but his dark brown eyes fixed on her and Anatola. She was sure he was trying to hear their conversation, but with al the telepathic and voiced communications swirling about them, she figured he couldn’t make out what they said. She attempted to keep her expression neutral so he wouldn’t feel obligated to leap in and protect her. If she were to win his people over, she’d have to stand up to them without his help.

Tezra squared her shoulders and raised a glass of wine. Before she spoke, al conversation ceased. She declared with heartfelt surety, “I am Daemon’s lifemate.”

Daemon lifted a brow, his dark countenance quickly turning light. Their gazes locked, and she blew him a kiss. “For al eternity.”

The arrogant smile curving his mouth said he already knew.

Before she could end the conversation with Anatola, Daemon appeared at Tezra’s side.

“To my lifemate, who al shal respect and protect always.” Daemon raised his glass.

Everyone toasted to them, and Daemon and Tezra drank their wine. He slipped his arm around her waist, warming her to the marrow of her bones. How could she have stubbornly resisted him for so long?

“This cal s for a celebration, love.”

“We’re already celebrating, Daemon.” She knew ful wel what he was up to and was glad for it. “If you intend to whisk me away to someplace quiet…”

He leaned down and kissed her lips. “You have agreed to be my mate, which means we have to seal the bargain.”

She laughed, loving the way he was so sexual y attuned to her. “We have sealed the bargain many times already. Besides, what wil your people think if you leave the party?”

His lips hiked up devilishly. “They wil be most pleased. When the prince and his mate leave, the guests are free to do as they like.”

“In other words, the sooner we vacate the premises, the happier your guests wil be?”

“That’s the gist of it.”

“Wel , hel , Daemon, whisk me away then. I’l do whatever it takes to please your people.”

“
Our
people, and now that you’re here to stay, they wil find me a much more agreeable leader and wil know the reason.”

“Our people.” Tezra’s heart swel ed with pride. She hadn’t won them al over, but she was making headway. Most importantly, Katie was wel on her way to having a good life and Tezra was too.

He kissed her hand and slipped a ring on her finger, a sparkling emerald and diamond-clustered beauty that stole her breath.

“To replace the Mickey Mouse watch you got as a youngster when you wanted your birthstone ring like Katie’s.”

Tears fil ed her eyes, but before she could tel him how much she loved him, blackness surrounded her. She knew as soon as they “landed” she’d be soaring the galaxy in Daemon’s arms again.

Only this time—as lifemates forever.

About the Author

To learn more about Terry Spear, please visit www.terryspear.com. Send an email to Terry at [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as wel as Terry!groups.yahoo.com/group/Terry_Spear_News Look for these titles by Terry Spear

Now Available:

The Vampire…In My Dreams

Love bites when a seventeen-year-old vampire and witch tangle.

The Vampire…In My Dreams

© 2007 Terry Lee Wilde

Marissa Lakeland faces her worst nightmare one dark and misty night when she chases a gorgeous hunk of a guy to prove he’s a vampire. So why does the thought of tal , dark and vampiric appeal to Marissa, when there’s no way a vampire can compel a witch to do his bidding? At least that’s what she’s read in vampire lore. But lore can be mistaken.

Fledgling vampire Dominic Vorchowski knows Marissa’s the only one who can save him. Only why does she have to be a witch? Fate has thrown him together with the bewitching Marissa and if he gains her trust, he’l have his life back again. Except for that whole eternal thirst for blood thing. And the fangs. Not to mention the aversion to intense sunlight. In any event, he’s set his sights on one girl who’s total y off the menu.

The centuries-old vamp Lynetta wants Dominic to replace the lover she lost, and no teenaged witch is going to take her guy away. Dominic and Marissa must stop the vampiress from winning the battle of the night…but time is running out.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Vampire…In My Dreams:

“Watch wel , witch,” the woman cal ed back to me as she squeezed Dominic’s throat. Dressed in a black spandex shirt, matching jeans and a pair of high-heeled, thigh-high boots, she looked like a regular teen.

My heart lodged in my throat while my blood turned to ice, but I wouldn’t run and hide.

“See what I wil do to you next!” She turned her attention to Dominic. “Do you think a scrawny thing like her can kil me? Do you?

She’s trembling in her sneakers as we speak. Wel , as
I
speak.”

I froze to the concrete sidewalk, unsure what to do next to save Dominic from the vampire. I wanted to pound her into the ground, but the way she held Dominic tightly in her grasp, I knew I couldn’t physical y best her. I suspected none of my spel s would work against an ancient vampire, and though the woman looked only to be my age, seventeen, she seemed older than time in her actions and speech.

She leaned over and licked Dominic’s cheek, and his expression turned from concern for me to hatred for her.

None of Dominic’s own words had emotional y stirred me to save him like the unbridled actions of the vampire at his throat.

Lynetta bared her wickedly sharp pointed canines and hissed. Her long black hair hung wildly to her hips, tangled and teased by the breeze. She was petite like me, but as strong as a male bodybuilder, her grip on Dominic remaining iron tight. Her soul ess black eyes, vacant and without a care, real y ate away at my heart.

I surveyed the yard for any kind of a weapon I could use against the vampire. My heart surged when I spied a colorful whirligig attached to a wooden stake embedded in my mother’s pampered pansy garden nearby. Without a second’s hesitation, I dashed for it and yanked it out.

Running at the vampire, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “Death to the bloodsucking vampire!” Which gave me some courage. It wasn’t every day I had to beat one vampire off of another, when they didn’t even real y exist. Who’d ever thought I’d have to tel Kate she was so right?

Al I could think of was aiming the stake at the vampire’s heart—at least that’s what the books said would work on them

—except Lynetta used Dominic to shield her. I ground my teeth, dancing around them, taking aim at the vamp anywhere that I could strike, praying I wouldn’t hit Dominic by accident.

With great relief, I thwarted her enough that she was unable to bite him, and I imagined she thought me a pesky, insignificant gnat, just as hard to strike down while she was trying to maintain her grip on Dominic. She snarled in anger, baring her fangs at me. My heart raced, sending the blood coursing through my system while I concentrated on striking the vampire again and again.

But the distressing notion kept running through my mind,
I am a failure
. I had messed up tons of potions and spel s at school, caused an explosion in the lab, and turned a teacher into a baboon. How could someone as inept as me save Dominic from this fiend? Why didn’t he find another witch who had top honors, like Kate, to help him? By choosing me, he’d sealed his fate.

Yet, for now, he had no one else to aid him and I had to squash the sense of hopelessness that ate away at my confidence. I would save him…somehow.

Dominic struggled to get free, and I assumed Lynetta’s grip on him had loosened while I distracted her. Gritting my teeth, I struck the stake at her shoulder as hard as I could, al the while chanting ancient words, “
Malachon, revelist, baraths,
chalmeon
!”

She screamed out in pain, but the stake wasn’t sharp enough to cut her. Now on me, I’d have bruises the size of Texas, but I wondered if a vampire would bruise that easily.

“Witch’s spel s won’t work on me, you little…little witch!” she yel ed at me.

I couldn’t help smiling the way she cal ed me a witch in such a derogatory way, which meant she was losing her cool and I was winning some of the game. In our dancing back and forth, my attempts to strike the vampire and Dominic’s struggles to get free, I moved us closer to the edge of my front porch. If we could reach my house, I’d invite him in. The vampire couldn’t get to him then, at least for the time being, I didn’t think.

Suddenly, Dominic broke loose, grabbed my arm, and shoved me to the door. “Do it!” he shouted, as if he thought I knew al of the rules about being a vampire. Maybe the books were right.

I screamed back, “Come in, Dominic!”

I fumbled with the key in the lock, then jerked the door open. Dominic wrenched himself free and dove in, carrying me with him.

Both of us fel on the tiled entryway, but Dominic managed to break my fal with heroic effort. Lynetta hissed at the doorway, baring her fangs. The look she gave us was like she was the Medusa herself—minus the writhing snakes shooting out of her head, but able to turn a body to stone anyway.

Dominic jumped to his feet and slammed the door in her face. “Your parents?” he whispered, and helped me to my feet.

His touch was warm and caring and instantly heated my cold, clammy hands. “Away on a trip to Mexico, celebrating their eighteenth wedding anniversary. A witch at seventeen is considered responsible enough to leave alone. Besides, my Aunt Betsy lives two houses down if I have any trouble.”

His dark brows furrowed, and he wiped away some of his long hair dangling at his cheek that had broken loose from the leather strap binding it. “Trouble like me.”

Taking a deep settling breath, I touched the bruises already discoloring his throat in shades of black and blue. “I’m sure no one in my family would have expected me to have
this
kind of trouble, but for your own safety, you can stay here until Friday. How is your throat? Can I—”

“One of the advantages of being…” His words trailed off for a second, then he cleared his gravel y throat. “We heal at accelerated rates.”

“Oh.” I tried to keep my reaction neutral when it came to discussing his—differences, but I’m sure my eyes widened a little.

He kept his distance, though we only stood an arm’s length away, yet he seemed to want to draw closer. Final y he said, “I want to thank you for your help, Marissa. Only my lifemate would have been able to rescue me.”

Although gladdened he felt I was so useful, I real y didn’t feel that way about my capabilities. I’d been lucky, that’s al . “I couldn’t let her hurt you, Dominic.”

“Because we’re connect—”

Silencing him with a shake of my head, I did not want to hear anything more about our fate being written in the stars. I didn’t believe it for one instant. Witches married warlocks and that was that. Any that made the mistake of marrying a human diluted the magical abilities in their gene pool, and their mixed children suffered. Though, my magic wasn’t al that great, and both my parents were magic users—guess it went to show there’s a dud in every bunch. Stil , the idea of marrying a vampiric human was scandalous. What kind of children would that spawn? Or would it even be possible? And why was I even thinking about such a thing?

He gently rubbed his wrists where Lynetta had savagely gripped him. “Where can I sleep?”

“Do you have to sleep with your dirt? Or a coffin?”

At the notion, he grimaced. “A room without rays of sunlight filtering in wil do. And no, I don’t sleep with a pile of dirt.” He shook his head. “Old wives’ tales.”

“You can sleep in the guestroom next to mine. It’s al fril y and purple, but the only other bedroom is my parents’ and—”

The phone rang, jangling my already frayed nerves. I grabbed the phone and read the Cal er ID. “My Aunt Betsy,” I whispered as if she could hear me. I punched the on button. “Hel o?”

“Marissa. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Aunt Betsy. You know Kate. She led me on a wild goose chase searching for vampires.” I winked at Dominic, and he smiled back at me. He had the most gorgeous smile, but not a tooth too big or wicked at al , making me wonder where he kept his fangs tucked away.

Silence met my ear and I knew at once something was wrong. My aunt had never been a worrywart, in fact I was lucky that none of my family had that dysfunction. “Aunt Betsy?”

“Something kil ed five humans and drained the blood from them. The police are trying to keep everyone from panicking. They’re saying it’s some sicko pretending to be a vampire.”

Quinn excels at slaying demons. But betrayal is the one demon she never saw coming.

Stripped Away

© 2008 Sydney Somers

Nothing gives Quinn a rush like hunting and vanquishing the very demons that changed her life. But lately something is off. Way off. Nightmares she can’t explain, irrational fears surfacing at the most unexpected moments. And when her twin sister vanishes, Quinn’s world starts to come apart at the seams.

Since becoming an agent for the Shadow Destroyers, Braxton has excel ed at playing by the rules. Until, in a moment of weakness, he let his common sense desert him for one night in Quinn’s arms. A night she doesn’t remember. For weeks he’s kept their relationship strictly professional, but seeing Quinn so edgy and lost puts his telepathic abilities—and his restraint—to the test.

As the search for her sister intensifies and everything Quinn thought she knew comes into question, Braxton seems to be the one true thing she can hold onto. Until she discovers he’s been keeping a very big secret of his own.

One that may destroy her trust just when she needs him the most.