Sterling: A Carolina Reapers Novel

by Samantha Whiskey

  “Just stay there.” I looked to Hawke. “Call Xavier now. Tell him if a demon puts a finger on my sister, I’ll—”

  “You’re being ridiculous, but I’ll wait right here, as ordered.” She muttered, “jackass,” before the line went dead.

  “Fuck!” I shoved the phone in my back pocket, then reached under my leather jacket and unholstered my Glock as I looked at Lachlan and Ransom. “We go now.”

  I focused on the trees just behind the cotton candy cart in Briarwood Park and wended. My skin embraced the ice of the between in the seconds it took to shift places, and then the scent of sticky sugar and a hundred subtle variations of human blood filled my nose.

  The park was in the center of Edgemont City, and of the three million humans that lived here, there were less than a few hundred that knew of our existence, all of whom were compelled to keep their mouths shut. The Opera House was at the center of it all, and she was on the wrong side of it.

  I took a deep breath, sorting through the scents in an instant. Citrus, iron, cannabis, and apples. Vanilla and cinnamon hit me especially hard. My fangs descended despite having fed only a few hours ago. I pushed past that tantalizing warmth I knew had to be a human and caught the light hint of freesia that was Avianna.

  “There.” I started down the path at a normal walking pace. The Covenant’s first commandment was to never expose the world of immortals that dwelled alongside the humans. Besides, it would have taken precious time to compel any human to forget they’d seen us if we did anything that brought undue attention.

  “Son of a bitch.” There was a demon just ahead, moving in the same direction as Avi’s scent, passing an oblivious human jogger.

  I wasn’t surprised the jogger looked unbothered by the set of horns that had just blown by. Demons wore permanent glamours. Their supernatural features were invisible to the human eye.

  My pulse galloped at the thought of Avi in demon hands, and I increased my pace. We came around the corner of the curved path to see the blue-horned demon shove a human woman out of his path, revealing a dagger in the moonlight.

  My heart fucking stopped, as if the scent of vanilla and cinnamon was a physical fist around the blood-pumping organ. The blonde hit the pavement with a sharp cry, a stack of books skittering around her.

  Avianna was only a hundred feet away, just beyond the next curve. I could smell her from here, and yet I was powerless against the overwhelming, unbreakable urge to make sure the demon hadn’t killed the human. The cleanup was a pain in the ass.

  I didn’t have time to stop, and in the seconds it took to reach her, I battled the primal, base instinct that called me to the human…and I lost.

  I fucking lost.

  “Go,” I ordered Ransom and Lachlan, pointing to the path ahead.

  They didn’t question the command—they valued their lives more than that. Lachlan would grumble at me privately, but never in front of anyone else.

  I stopped suddenly in front of the human woman, dropping to my haunches and running my gaze over her frame in less time than it took my heart to beat. The scent of her blood made my mouth water, and I gritted my teeth against the craving. I ordered my fangs and my cock to stand down. Damn, I hadn’t even seen the woman yet, and I was hard—she smelled that good.

  “Asshole!” she shouted down the path where the demon had run.

  Obviously, it hadn’t been a death blow.

  “Are you okay?” I growled, annoyed as fuck at myself for checking on a human when my sister was in danger.

  She shoved her mass of blonde hair out of her face and looked up at me with widening green eyes.

  Fucking beautiful. I took in a breath reflexively, then wished I hadn’t, because all I could smell was her.

  Oh shit, I was fixating, which was as good as draining the woman right here. A fixated vampire hunted his prey no matter the consequences. The craving was too strong to deny, and it would drive us mad if we didn’t satiate it.

  Fixation, that’s all this was…right? Her blood called to me.

  “I’m fine,” she said, her gaze flickering down the path again. “He barely got my forearm. But that asshole was chasing two other girls.”

  Avianna.

  I blinked, trying to free myself of the fixation, the craving, but I didn’t lunge or pounce on her as fixated vampires did. Instead, I took her wrist, testing her pulse. Quick, but strong, and given the change in her scent, flooded with adrenaline. Fuck, her skin was warm and soft. Perfect in every way.

  Gravity shifted.

  My chest tightened like a damned vise.

  Electricity coursed through my veins.

  Every cell in my body screamed one word—mine.

  Wait. What the actual fuck?

  “See? It’s not bad.” She lifted her arm, showing me the cut, and I bit back a growl. That demon had sliced into her delicate skin and—what if it was laced with poison?

  A scream pierced the silence, and we both snapped our heads toward the sound.

  Avianna. My heart lurched, worry quickly replaced with icy rage.

  “Get out of the park,” I ordered the human as I took off. “It’s not safe.” My sister’s cry must have broken the fixation because my body was my own to command again.

  “He was wearing a black hoodie and a Halloween mask with blue horns!” she called after me.

  I sprinted faster than I should have and turned the corner in time to see four demons— including the one who’d attacked the human woman—advancing on my sister and her bodyguard.

  Lachlan shot the first.

  Ransom took out the second.

  The remaining two stared at me with horror, but not surprise. They knew exactly who Avianna was and one of them had her under his knife.

  I saw red, disappearing and wending, materializing in front of a yellow-eyed demon. “You attacked what is mine, and the sentence is death.” I wrapped my hands around his neck and twisted, breaking his spine. “Justice served.”

  The last demon, the blue-horned one who had attacked the human, wended, leaving the three bodies behind.

  I was going to fucking kill Xavier for this.

  “Alek!” Avi cried, her slim figure racing toward me.

  “Avi.” I swept her into my arms and clutched her to my chest, cradling the back of her head. I’d lecture this one later. Right now, I just wanted to feel her breathing.

  Guilt was heavy and sour in my mouth. How the fuck had I let myself get distracted with that human while Avi was in danger? I’d almost let my parents down. Let our entire species down. The loss of one female was tragic, but the loss of the princess? Unforgivable.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her, cupping her cheeks and looking into her eyes. They were pale blue, just like mine. Just like our mother’s.

  “I’m fine, I promise.” She gave me a shaky smile.

  “Benedict is almost here with the car,” Lachlan told me quietly as Ransom argued with Avi’s bodyguard about the safety of the park.

  “We need to get out of here before someone reports the gunshot,” I told Avi. Humans were a nuisance, not that they could even tell the difference between demons—

  The breath froze in my lungs.

  She had. Cinnamon and vanilla. Blonde. Green eyes. Impossible. But she’d seen him. Even told me what he’d looked like.

  A human had seen the demon’s horns. Horns that by demonic nature, were hidden from human eyes by glamour.

  I took a deep breath.

  “Fuck.” The distance of her scent told me she was long gone.

  But I also knew I’d be able to track that scent anywhere in this city.

  And I would.

  Connect With Me!

  Text SAMANTHA to 77222 to be the first to know about new releases, giveaways, & more!

  Text VAMPIRE to 77222 to get all the paranormal news first!

  Sign up here for my newsletter for exclusive content and giveaways!

  Follow me on Amazon here or BookBub here to stay up to date on all upc
oming releases! You can also find me at my website here!

  About the Author

  Samantha Whiskey is a wife, mom, lover of her dogs and romance novels. No stranger to hockey, hot alpha males, and a high dose of awkwardness, she tucks herself away to write books her PTA will never know about.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my incredible husband and my awesome kids without which I would live a super boring life!

  Huge thanks must be paid to all the amazing authors who have always offered epic advice and constant support! Not to mention creating insanely hot reads to pass the time with!

  Big shout out to A.H. for making this shine. And thank you to each and every single one of you AMAZING readers who love the these books as much as I do!