Sweetest Surrender (20 page)

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Excerpt from

First Surrender

by Katie Reus

Copyright © 2013 Katie Reus

Sierra took a subtle sniff of her upper arm as she rode the elevator up to the fiftieth floor of the new Serafina hotel and casino—owned by billionaire Wyatt Christiansen. As head chef at Cloud 9, one of the restaurants at the Serafina, she sometimes smelled like food at the end of a long shift even though she’d changed clothes. Okay, she always smelled like food. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she’d cooked a lot of seafood today. She didn’t scent anything too strong but was sure her friend Hayden would tell her when she saw him. At least she’d changed out of her work clothes and chef’s coat so she was comfortable in jeans and a fitted T-shirt.

He’d started work at the Serafina the same time she had. It had officially opened a year ago. She’d been brought over from one of Christiansen’s other hotels to work here and Hayden had been hired after retiring from the Navy. Christiansen’s wife Iris ran all the security at the hotel, but Hayden was directly under her as her second-in-command. Sierra didn’t know how they handled the stress of security at such a mammoth hotel. She’d go cross-eyed trying to watch all those cameras at once. But, they had a good team with minimum problems.

As the elevator dinged, announcing her arrival to the security floor, damn butterflies took flight in her stomach. It always happened when she was about to see Hayden and she hated it. When she’d first met him, she thought he was a big jerk. A big, scary jerk. Okay, a sexy-as-hell jerk with tattooed sleeves covering both his arms. His tats added to that whole tall, dark and intimidating thing he had going on. As a former SEAL, Hayden certainly had the training for his current profession. But she’d come to learn that he was one of the sweetest men she’d ever known. For the last year they’d hung out constantly as friends and Thursday nights they had a standing ritual of dinner, drinks and sometimes she coerced him into going dancing with her and her friends. Usually he just stood guard by one of their tables and growled at any males who got too close. Which made her adore him even more.

God, she really was a masochist. Hayden was never going to be interested in her romantically but that didn’t stop her from wanting him more and more every day. Hayden could have any woman he wanted and she knew she didn’t fit the mold of his type. It was her freaking curse in life. Growing up and in college she had a lot of male friends because of her ‘friendly’ personality but she never dated any of them. One of her college friends had told her that she was way too ‘the girl next door type’, the type of girl you brought home to your mother—which was freaking annoying. She wanted to be the type of girl who got a man’s pulse pounding out of control. The kind who got him so hot and bothered that he couldn’t think straight. But not just any man. Only Hayden.

Her flat sandals snapped softly against the marble as she entered the security floor. A giant glass wall greeted her. Behind it she could see desks, and too many television screens to count. Some huge, some small, focused on dealers’ hands, patrons, the various bars and pretty much anywhere legal a camera could go. The array of them still astounded her. Stopping at one of the glass doors, she placed her hand on the biometric scanner. Once it scanned her palm, the door immediately opened with a whoosh. She had no business up here but about eight months ago Hayden had programmed her into the system so she wouldn’t have to bug him every Thursday. Sometimes she got off earlier than him and preferred to wait in the security room as opposed to the bar in her restaurant. She was there enough during the week; she didn’t want to hang out in her off time too.

Stepping inside she was inundated with noise and frantic chatter. Men and women were talking into their headsets, some clearly worried. There was normally a fast pace up here but today it seemed different.

Glancing around, Sierra didn’t see Hayden anywhere but assumed he was in his office. Before she’d taken two steps in that direction, Marty, one of the tech guys, jumped up from his desk when he saw her. “Hey, honey. What are you doing up here?”

She normally didn’t like nicknames but Marty called every female honey. She smiled. “Just stopping by to see if Hayden could sneak away early.”

Marty’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh…he’s not here. He said something about a date.”

A date? The word was like a punch to her gut. For a moment she was totally stunned, but she wasn’t going to show it in front of anyone, especially not a coworker. This place was worse than a middle school when it came to gossip. So she pasted on a smile. “Oh, right. He mentioned that, I totally forgot.”

Marty started to respond but Iris Christiansen strode through the glass doorway looking fierce in black pants, a crisp white button down shirt and a sleek, clearly custom-made black jacket. Everything about the other woman was, well, fierce. She was gorgeous but also a little scary, especially since Sierra knew the former Marine was always well-armed. The tall woman gave Marty one look and he scampered away.

Luckily she gave Sierra a bright smile. “What’s up, Sierra? You got a problem at the restaurant?”

Still struggling to find her voice, she shook her head. “No problem, just leaving. See you tomorrow.” Sierra tried to hurry away, but Iris followed her to the elevators.

“What’s going on? You don’t look okay.”

Sierra swallowed hard. Lord, was she that transparent? “Just had a long day. Busy, you know?”
Gah, why wouldn’t the elevator hurry up?

Iris raised a dark eyebrow. “Do I need to kick his ass?”

Staring at her, Sierra frowned. “What? Who?”

“Hayden. What’s he done now?”

The mention of his name made Sierra’s stomach flip-flop. It also pissed her off. If he’d had a date he could have had the decency to tell her. Shrugging jerkily, she breathed out a sigh of relief when the elevator stopped and dinged. “Hayden hasn’t done anything.” And she wondered why Iris would assume this had anything to do with the man. It wasn’t like they were dating.

Iris didn’t respond, but her lips pulled into a thin line as the doors shut behind Sierra. Once she was alone, Sierra didn’t bother to keep up a happy face. Hayden hadn’t mentioned dating anyone in the past year, though she knew the man had to be dating. He was walking, talking sex appeal. Absently she rubbed the center of her chest. So, he was dating. No big deal. Right? Ugh, yeah right. Swallowing back the traitorous tears threatening to overwhelm her, she hurried into the below ground parking garage. Normally Hayden or someone else walked her to her vehicle but she didn’t want to bother asking anyone else. Not when she felt like crying. No way was she embarrassing herself and becoming a source of casino gossip.

Picking up her pace, her sandals slapped quickly across the concrete. As she reached the second row of cars, a tiny scream escaped her lips as a man wearing a mask jumped out from behind her Jeep. The guy was huge, maybe six feet tall, and when she saw the flash of metal—a knife!—in his hands, her chest constricted as a hundred horrible scenarios raced through her mind. Knowing she’d only get one chance she let out a blood-curdling scream at the top of her lungs as she backtracked and started running in the other direction.

Blood rushed in her ears as she continued screaming and digging in her purse for her pepper spray. She knew she wouldn’t be a physical match against anyone and—pain exploded in her scalp as he grabbed her by the hair and jerked back.

Instinctively she reached back to try to stop him and quickly realized her mistake. Using a lot of force, he slammed her forehead against a nearby car. Another burst of pain launched inside her skull as she tried to shove away from the vehicle. He pulled her head back again and she struggled to find breath—suddenly she was falling.

Excerpt from

Darkness Awakened

by Katie Reus

Copyright © 2013 Katie Reus

Finn Stavros didn’t bother to wipe the blood from his blade before turning on another Akkadian demon emerging from the interior of the dark warehouse. Adrenaline punched through him, a hard and vicious surge as he faced off with this monster. He’d already killed two of the demons so that just left two more. He hadn’t planned to shift to his animal form tonight but it looked like he had no choice. He would be more powerful as a wolf and this fight needed to end quickly. Before any nosy or unsuspecting humans stumbled on them.

After following one of these wretched things from his casino, Finn had expected a fast kill. Not to stumble on more of them in this abandoned warehouse.

Dropping his blade to the concrete floor, Finn tensed as his body underwent the change. Gray and white fur sprouted as his bones and ligaments broke, shifted and realigned. The shift was short and momentarily painful, but gave way to a heady rush of raw power that pulsed through him. Seconds later, he stood on all fours, his clothes and shoes shredded around him.

As a born Alpha and leader of his pack, he had a higher element of strength and speed than his brethren. He might be only one hundred and fifty years old, but when he’d killed his treacherous uncle and taken control over his pack, Finn had absorbed his uncle’s strength as well.

The floor was cold beneath his paws and a sensitized awareness flowed through him in steady waves. Every sense was enhanced. The horned, clawed demon creature stared at him hungrily, but Finn would be the only thing walking out of this building alive tonight. These freakish bastards might have the ability to glamorize themselves to humans—making themselves look not only normal, but beautiful—but as another supernatural being, Finn could see their true form clearly.

Some days he
really
wished he couldn’t.

It was disturbing to see a human sidling up to these monsters completely unaware that they’d be the demon’s dinner.

Baring his teeth, Finn snarled at the reptilian skinned being with gaunt cheeks, glowing yellow eyes, clawed hands and clawed feet. This one was only six feet tall but some of them grew to seven feet. Like the last two he’d just killed. And he could smell them a mile away. Their putrid, sulfuric stench was nauseating. The past month had brought out too many of these things for him and his pack to ignore. At one time they’d been the stuff of nightmares. Like the boogie man; scary but in an abstract way. Not anymore.

Locked away in hell millennia ago, they didn’t belong on this plane of earth. After being caged for so long, it seemed as if they were consumed with a powerful bloodlust that robbed them of control once they started to feed or hunt. They were threatening the secret existence of all supernatural beings with their carelessness. Finn didn’t know what had released them from hell, but he planned to find out and make sure they were sent back where they belonged.

With a snarl, the creature extended its claws and advanced. Tensing his muscles and using all the strength in his hind legs, Finn lunged forward, bracing for the pain. He could take being sliced up by this thing. The key to killing them was doing it quick. The key to
any
fight was ending it quick. For some reason these demons liked to fight one on one. So even though he scented another one in the warehouse, it wouldn’t make a move until either Finn or the demon emerged from this battle victorious.

He flew through the air and ripped a chunk of its shoulder clean off. The creature howled eerily but swiped his claws down Finn’s side. The slashing pain burned through him as his flesh ripped away. But the sting only enraged his inner wolf more.

Growling low in his throat, Finn turned in the air before he slammed onto the ground.

Strike fast and hard.

He pounced again. This time he managed to clamp his jaws down on the creature’s throat. Biting down, he tasted flesh and blood. The thick fluid was foul, with more than a hint of sulfur in it.

He ripped through tendons and bone and jerked back, tearing off its head and killing it instantly. Before he could spin around, he felt the impact of the last remaining creature landing on his back. It sunk its claws deep into his ribcage.

Roaring, he twisted and tried to dislodge the thing, but its claws only pierced more deeply. Knives of pain splintered through his body, making his nerve endings scream, but he ignored it. He’d heal. This thing was going to die one way or another.

Rolling back, he used his weight to pin it to the ground underneath him. As it slammed against the concrete, the creature’s claws retracted, giving Finn the chance to dodge away.

Jumping to his feet, he lunged before it had a chance to rise. His jaws opened and clamped on the creature’s neck, severing its head in one clean stroke. Faster than he’d killed the first.

His heart raced as he swiveled in each direction, looking for more danger around the abandoned warehouse. Wooden crates were stacked in two separate corners. Above him a cobwebbed skeleton of steel stretched across the ceiling. Since these things couldn’t climb or fly like some vampires, he wasn’t worried about an aerial attack. Continuing to scan the darkness of the desolate building that was little more than a metal box, his inner wolf slowly calmed when he scented nothing else unusual. He was especially thankful he couldn’t scent any humans. These days it seemed that all of them had phones with video or camera capabilities and the last thing any supernatural beings needed was someone to record what had just happened.