Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
She gulped. “Why me?”
“You’re an enhanced human female, and we’re fated. It’s that easy.”
Nothing was that easy. “Enhanced?”
“Psychic, empathic, magic—I don’t know. You’re beyond a normal human.”
Her skills lay in strategy, but she often felt what others did. Empathy? “What if I say no?” Although, what did a word mean? They were in the middle of nowhere, and she could barely breathe.
“Then you’ll die, I’ll live until I’m around four hundred years old, and then maybe I’ll see you in the afterlife.” He brushed snow off his dark pants. “There’s more.”
“Of course there is,” she said dryly, pressing a hand to her aching abdomen. Her organs felt liquified. That blast should’ve killed her. Still would. “What is it?”
“My family is cursed, like I said. Mates have to meet up and exchange blood. I’ll need yours to survive, and you’ll need me even more. Terribly. Your body will crave me.”
Arrogant words, yet she believed them. Her body already reacted to just his voice. “I want to live. I won’t crave you.” Was she really considering this? The good she could do in Poland, to help the war effort, as an immortal? It was unthinkable. She’d taken an oath, and she’d do her duty. “I’ll get blood to you. Somehow. Save my life now, and I’ll ensure you have blood when you need it.” Was any of this real? Her brain even felt burned.
This could all be an illusion.
His chin lifted, and swear to the saints, need pounded through her body. Top to bottom, hitting every feminine spot on the way. His voice deepened when he spoke again. “We can live that way for a while, especially since we both have missions right now, but not forever. That kind of life isn’t sustainable. At some point, Leah, I will come for you.”
She reached for the buttons on her coat. Might as well leave this world with passion under a snowy sky. Unless he’d issued the truth. Then? She’d be unstoppable—and alone with no risk to her heart. She was finished loving people and watching them die. “Only if you can find me, Jasper.”
Chapter One
Present Day
A solitary plant with crusty brown leaves and a hint of green piled over a second-story windowsill in the tall building on the east side of the alley. Rubbish spread across the worn and uneven cobblestones, and while the stucco building on the left showed signs of life with a few hints of light permeating the windows, the other loomed in darkness.
Leah shivered but kept her head down as she continued walking.
“This is a bad idea,” the male on her left said, hunched in a black sweatshirt and jeans. “Nobody should be on the Porte de la Chapelle this late at night.”
“That is why I brought you,” Leah snapped, noting the four shifters angling in a decent formation around her.
“It might not be worth the cash,” the guy on her right said.
She was pretty sure his name was Bonzo or Bonzeq or something like that. Frankly, she didn’t care. She’d only hired them for this job, and considering they were all twice her size, they needed to earn the cash she’d provided. “Just keep walking.”
Bonzo scratched at an obvious rash on his left wrist. The fool had made a move on her the night before, even though he should have known she was mated—an unfortunate side effect that Jasper had not told her about back in 1944. Once they mated, neither could touch anyone else of the opposite sex without generating a horrific—and possibly deadly—rash in both parties.
Although, with her various professions, that fact had kept her safe through the years. Well, one profession with many aliases. That of a spy—until very recently. The fact that she didn’t age had gotten in the way, so she’d gone private.
The wind picked up, and the stench of rotten eggs and spoiled cabbage filled the air. She turned her head to the side and coughed, making sure her hood still covered her hair.
“Why do we have to be in this place?” Bonzo muttered.
It was a good question, really, but she figured it would be easier to kidnap her in one of the seedier towns. She had to be on the Kurjans’ radar by now. She’d been parading around Paris for two days, knowing they had sensors in place for enhanced females. The asshole she sought worked as a partner with a human trafficker—one she’d take out next. But the bigger fish drew her first.
A drug deal took place up ahead. The exchange went down smoothly without any concern for subterfuge.
She ignored the participants as well as the sex workers down another alley, conducting their business for the night. “Remember, I need one Kurjan alive,” she said to any of the four who happened to be listening.
“Got it.” The shifter on her left snorted.