Hearts Aflame Collection: 4-Book Bundle (4 page)

She shook her head, still dealing with the
world-rocking news that Garrett Grayson was not what the Hunters
thought. They had researched him. Studied his habits. He was simply
too good at hiding the bodies. Hunters were always thorough. They
always knew the Loner’s complete history and present before a team
was dispatched to kill or capture.

“You must have killed humans!” The words
poured from her mouth even as she realized they weren’t true. “We
were just unable to find the bodies.

“I am nothing like you’ve ever seen,” he said
roughly. “Don’t presume to know me.”

“It is our way. Those who are alone are too
vicious to live away that way. Join a clan or die.”

“Then join with me. We can be our own clan.
You and me.”

Tahlia gasped. Shocked for the third time
that night. Join with him and leave her clan of sisters and
brothers behind? Never. But a stirring in her chest distracted her
from her vehemence, a recognition. No!

She touched the center his chest where his
heart beat so strongly. Stolen blood pulsing through him, heating
him almost like a human. “Garrett—”

The door exploded open. Splinters flying into
the room and over the bed. Garrett growled, grabbed her around the
waist and thrusting her behind him. Tahlia’s hand flew up to grip
his chest and hold him to her. His heart beat furiously against her
palm and Tahlia’s pounded too with sudden fear at the sight of the
Hunters in the doorway.

Over Garrett’s shoulder, she saw them swarm
into the room, bringing their dark, pulsing energy. The vampire
hunters. Derrick. Colm. Isis. Leopold. Victoria. William. Daniel.
Fitzwilliam. Anise. All wearing black. All scowling. All leveling
their guns on Tahlia and Garrett in the bed. Tahlia’s fists
clenched as the Hunters took in the scene: Tahlia and the Loner,
naked. His arm reaching back protectively around her. The sheets
rumpled from their sex.

She knew they could smell what they had done.
The lingering scent trails of her arousal, Garrett’s blood, and the
seed he had spent inside her body. She wanted to cover Garrett’s
nakedness. Shield him from the way Colm, Isis, and Leopold all
looked at his muscled body and sleeping sex with the sudden avarice
they couldn’t disguise.

It was Fitzwilliam, one of her lovers of
nights past, who broke the shocked silence first. “You fucked
him?!”

He stalked further into the room, the
disintegrator in his hand shaking with his rage. The others fanned
out in the room, surrounding the bed. Even the ones who thought
Garrett’s body so fine as to be worth a second stare. Or a third.
As the moved closer, Garrett pushed her further back in the bed
until her back was to the headboard. He growled at the Hunters, a
continuous and vicious sound that rumbled through his wide chest
and shook his entire body.

“He is a beast!” Leopold cried out in equal
parts warning and awe.

“Stand down or I will kill you all,” Garrett
growled. The warning came through clenched teeth but his voice was
calm as if simply relaying a fact.

“This is what you’ve chosen, Tahlia.”
Fitzwilliam glared at her over his gun. “This rabid dog!” He
gripped the gun even tighter, readying to fire.

“No!” She moved quickly, slipping from
Garrett’s hold to crouch in front of him, protecting him with her
own body.

The gun kicked in Fitzwilliam’s hand but he
jerked it up at the last moment, the energy from the gun exploding
harmlessly at the ceiling, disintegrating nothing that wasn’t
organic.

“Tahlia, are you mad?!” This time it was
Isis, Fitzwilliam’s second in command, who spoke. Her dark hair
moved around her head and shoulders like a cloud as she strode
closer to the bed. “You’ve enjoyed this body, but leave him to us
now. You know he must be killed.”

“No.” Tahlia shook her head, felt heat move
through her face at the betrayal of her vampire clan brothers and
sisters. But... “He and I are joined. You cannot kill him.”

A collective burst of astonishment and denial
burst through the room. Fitzwilliam leveled his gun at Garrett once
again, through Tahlia. “No!” Fitzwilliam shouted. “You are my
woman!”

Garrett stirred again behind her, a new
aggression pouring from him. His fingers dug into her bare thigh.
“Have you been with him?” He grated the question at her ear. “I
will kill him!”

Tahlia patted his thigh. “This is not the
time,” she muttered.

Isis spoke again, stepping in after
Fitzwilliam’s incoherent growls. “You can only join with another of
your kind and there are none...” Her words trailed off. Eyes
narrowed, she looked at Garrett again. “He is a witch who was
turned by the blood? Like you?”

Tahlia sensed Garrett’s surprise behind her.
His fingers dug even more into her skin, but he said nothing.

“Yes,” she said. “There was something about
him I sensed before. I wasn’t sure what it was, but now I know. He
is mine.” Tahlia swept her gaze to every one of the Hunters,
letting them know she would protect what was hers. No matter the
cost.

Isis bit off a curse. “It is done then.” She
dropped her gun into the holster on her thigh and looked over her
shoulder at the others, then at Fitzwilliam. “The sun comes soon.
We must find a place for shelter.” At her example, the other
Hunters put away their guns, except for Fitzwilliam.

Her sometime lover stared at Tahlia with
traces of hurt in his gaze. Then he stared at Garrett and his eyes
burned with hate. “You’ve made a terrible mistake, Tahlia. He will
eat your heart in your sleep. Then it will be the Hunters who will
once again come to clean up the mess.”

“Leave, Fitz,” she said gently. “He is no
longer any concern of yours. He is of my clan now.”

Fitzwilliam scowled at them both, finally
holstering his blaster. Then he turned to the Hunters with a nod.
“Let us find shelter.”

After a moment’s hesitation, frustration at
the denial of a kill they had been tracking for months, the swarm
of Hunters swept from the room, leaving the broken door splintered
and hanging drunkenly from its hinges.

Dawn was on its way. Tahlia could see it
creeping across the lightening landscape, in the grayness gradually
climbing up from the dark. She stood up to right the door. Garrett
grabbed her and held her back tightly against his chest.

“Do you mean what you say?” he asked, his
breath cool against her ear. “You are mine?”

“Yes.” She turned to face him. “Among my
kind, the vampire witches, we believe that when a woman drinks a
man and finds him the sweetest of all others, then he is her
destiny.”

Garrett frowned. “How many have you tasted to
compare?”

Tahlia laughed softly at the jealously
rumbling through his bare chest. “I don’t have to taste another man
to know that your taste compares to no other.” She put her arms
around him, amazed again at how her fate had changed in just one
night. She had set out to kill an outsider and instead found the
key to her heart. “You are mine now, Garrett. No one will hurt
us.”

“No one can hurt us,” he growled.

His arms tightened around her naked waist and
his beating heart drummed against hers. Tahlia looked into her
lover’s fierce eyes, once again feeling that overwhelming sensation
of belonging, at being finally home, that she had never
experiencing in all the centuries she’d lived with the clan.

“You are mine, Garrett,” she said again. “And
I am yours.”

THE END

Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books
in this collection

Death and Desire

Seduced

Lust After Dark Collection - 3-Book Bundle

***

Falling for an Angel

***

Prologue

Walking briskly through the hallowed halls,
Adrian was high on the energy and adrenaline which usually
accompanied a successful mission. He’d been delayed by close to
forty-eight hours, but he had delivered the message to the lone
woman in Corsica. She had been desperate for the message and he was
now back at the base, heading for a debriefing. As he moved through
the halls, briefly smiling his greeting at the others bent on their
duties, he thought back to the last assignment. He almost hadn’t
made it. He’d been ambushed by enemies and had to fight his way
out. He’d spent more time dodging them and trying to outrun them,
only stopping to fight when there was no other option. That was
when his friend, Kaine had appeared with three other warriors. As
soon as he’d seen an opening, he’d left them to it and gone about
his business. He was a messenger and his duty was to make sure the
messages got to those they were meant for; he was a messenger
angel.

“Welcome, Adrian. Take a seat and wait. Meena
will be with you in a moment.”

He had entered the debriefing room and was
standing in front of Lara. Lara was a petite, blue-eyed angel with
sweet features. But that didn’t fool anyone. She was known among
the messengers as the gatekeeper. She was completely sold out to
her job and even though she was friendly, she did not believe in
chit-chat.

Looking around the bright yellow walls,
Adrian’s eyes focused on the great mural on one of them. Even
though he’d seen the mural almost a thousand times, it never ceased
to catch his attention. It was such a simple scene, that of a
father and his daughter, yet it always stirred such … things inside
him. He didn’t have a name for what he was feeling, but he knew
from speaking with other angels that it wasn’t something that was
common to their kind.

A slight noise brought him out of his
reverie. He turned then and saw Meena, his superior. She was a tall
angel, her hair almost as white as the short dress she was wearing.
She had piercing green eyes and an air of purpose about her.

“How are you, Adrian?” She greeted him
quietly.

“I’m fine, thank you, Meena. I hope I meet
you well?” He asked in their traditional polite fashion.

She merely inclined her head before ushering
him into her office. Adrian frowned in confusion; the debriefing
sessions were usually held in the waiting area. So why were they in
her office? He was curious, but he decided to hold his tongue.

Seated in Meena’s office, Adrian felt his
wings stir with restless energy. He waited for the signal to begin
speaking but it never came. Instead, his superior stared at him
with a considering look, as though she were searching for something
although he knew not what. Finally she began to speak.

“How do you feel about the earth realm,
Adrian?”

He stared at her in consternation. How did he
feel? “I have not thought about it other than as a destination for
most of our messages.” He replied somewhat untruthfully.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, “Well, you
will have to think about the earth realm because you have a choice
to relocate.”

Relocate? A wave of shock went through him as
he sat there, dumbfounded. Relocation was permanent, wasn’t it? Had
he failed in the last assignment? Was he being punished for
something he had no idea about? The questions ran through his mind
as he tried to keep his face expressionless.

“No, this is not about you, Messenger.” She
stated firmly, folding her hands atop her large golden desk.
“Cassel has fallen in love with his mortal and has appealed to the
High Commission to remain with her. The commission has decided that
if his companions, that is, the warrior angel Kaine and you, could
also meet and fall in love with mortal women within two weeks, then
his request shall be granted.”

Adrian stared at her, at a loss for words.
What was there to say? The fact that Cassel had fallen in love with
his mortal was the first shock. A guardian angel falling for their
mortal was not a strange happening, but Cassel… Then there was the
fact that he’d actually cared enough to petition the council and
worse, he was being given a shot at actually experiencing this love
with the mortal. That’s what blew his mind away. But why did Cassel
have to drag them into this? He had no idea he’d spoken aloud until
Meena replied.

“It’s simple, really. The love between
brothers is a strong bond. If it can’t endure this then there’s no
hope that the love he shares with the mortal will endure.”

Adrian failed to see the logic in that but
decided not to argue. “Fine. When does this incarceration start?”
He could not even begin to see it as anything else.

“Immediately, Messenger…you are being
redeployed to earth, pronto.”

“I…What!”

“You have two weeks to meet and fall in love
with a mortal. You are not allowed to use your powers on her and
she must love you back, even in knowing you’re an immortal
being.”

“Two weeks.” He muttered in a daze.

Meena opened her mouth to say something then
shut it again. She took a deep breath, then seemed to make up her
mind.