Devils Among Us
by
Mandy M. Roth
Devils Among Us © Copyright 2013-2015, Mandy M. Roth
Cover art by Andrea Depasture © Copyright 2013
First Electronic Printing May 2013, The Raven Books
Second Electronic Printing Feb 2015, The Raven Books
Edited by Suz Gower
Final Line Edits by Dianne B
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
All books copyrighted to the author and may not be resold or given away without written permission from the author, Mandy M. Roth.
This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.
Published by Raven Books
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Raven Books and all affiliate sites and projects are © Copyrighted 2004-2015
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Mandy M. Roth Featured Books
Mandy M. Roth, Online
Devils Among Us
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
The Raven Books’ Complimentary Material
Strength in Numbers by Reagan Hawk
Critical Intelligence (Immoral Ops Series) by Mandy M. Roth
The Barbarian Prince (Dragon Lords 1) by Michelle M. Pillow
Mandy M. Roth Featured Books
Immortal Outcasts (Part of the Immortal Ops World)
Broken Communication
Damage Report
Wrecked Intel
Isolated Maneuver
Intelligence Malfunction
Immortal Ops Series
Immortal Ops
Critical Intelligence
Radar Deception
Strategic Vulnerability
Tactical Magik
Administrative Control
Separation Zone
Area of Influence
Desired Perception
Carnal Diversions
Zone of Action
PSI-Ops Series (Part of the Immortal Ops World)
Act of Mercy
Act of Surrender
Act of Submission
Act of Security
Act of Command
Act of Passion
Act of Engagement
Act of Pride
Act of Duty
Shadow Agents Series & Crimson Sentinels Series (Part of the Immortal Ops World) Coming Soon!
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Devils Among Us
Book One in Devils Among Us Series.
Keane has lived for centuries—taking what he wants, doing as he pleases. When a beautiful young woman catches his attention, he finds himself drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He knows better than to expect more than pleasures of the flesh from her, yet he can’t seem to stop himself. Seducing her will prove to be a dangerous challenge. Keeping her will prove nearly impossible.
Hannah’s new secret admirer is more than she bargained for. As a slayer sworn to police the demons who dare to roam the earth, she has enough to worry about. She doesn’t need some mysterious guy trying to seduce her—especially one who puts her at odds with what she was born to do. She’s no match for Keane’s seductive powers, and when his brother, Janco, announces he too is drawn to her, she knows she’s in way over her head. But she can’t stop herself. She wants them both and they want her.
Note: This title was previously released under another title and under the pen name Darby London.
Dedication
To my readers, for believing in me.
Chapter One
“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” ~ C.S. Lewis
Hannah opened her eyes slightly, her lids still heavy from sleep. Her bedroom ceiling came into focus, slowly. She stared up at the crown molding, taking a minute to wake from the deep sleep she’d been in. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
She wasn’t alone, though she should have been. She sensed someone with her in the room. She’d have reached for her weapons, but this wasn’t the first time this had happened with this particular person. She doubted it would be the last. She had a secret admirer. Someone powerful enough to get close to her without her knowledge—until he was well upon her—and powerful enough to protect her without showing himself.
A constant in her life anymore.
My protector.
She didn’t fear him, yet she was cautious. Her lifestyle left little room for anything but. To blindly put her trust in the unknown could very well mean her death. A death she wasn’t ready to meet just yet though she knew it would inevitably come—sooner than most people’s.
Part of the job description, she reminded herself.
She glanced down to find her short nightgown lifted high over her hips, showing off her low-cut lace panties. The red material was bright against her pale skin. A single gold coin lay on the swell of her lower stomach. She knew without looking what was engraved upon it.
The devil on one side and an angelic figure on the other.
She caressed the coin, her finger skimming over her sensitive skin. His power still emanated from the object, humming against her body. He’d left the coins for her before. Too many times to count. At first they’d baffled her. Anymore they made her feel a connection to him. She wanted him and she’d never even met him.
Her inner thighs were slick with cream, reaffirming the fact she’d been dreaming of being pleasured by her mystery man. He consumed all her thoughts of late—awake and asleep. She didn’t bother inventing a face for him. She already had a sense he’d be tall, dark and dangerous.
Everything a girl like her could hope for in a man.
With a groan, she lay back, drawing the coin up her body slowly. She let out a long, tense breath, staring around the room, positive someone was there, watching her. The mirror above her dresser cast a soft reflection. Had she not known it was her, she would have wondered. The woman staring back at her looked so different than Hannah remembered herself being.
On edge, yet secure.
An odd combination.
The woman also looked alluring, as if she were on the prowl for a man, something Hannah had never really seen herself as being before. As a virgin, she didn’t exactly do much of anything in regards to sex. She simply did her job, never focusing on her baser wants and needs.
Though no other people were visible, she knew she wasn’t totally alone because the coin had to have manifested from somewhere. It wasn’t as if it had magically appeared.
Or had it?
Besides,
the scents of bergamot and rosemary clung to the air. The scents accompanied the coin, and an inborn knowledge they belonged to the coin’s owner settled over her.
Hannah brought the coin to her lips and hid her smile as she stared towards her bedroom window. Was he there? Was he watching? Was he as she imagined him to be? Dark? Dangerous? The embodiment of sex?
A giggle escaped her and she slid the coin over her lips, down her neck to her upper chest. Energy buzzed in the room and she knew then that she did indeed have an audience. Hannah gave in to the urge to give him a show. She skimmed the coin over her thin nightgown and over the hard pebble-like peaks of her nipples. She kept her gaze on the window, believing her mystery man to be there.
Her body heated and she carried the show on further, reaching down with her free hand and pulling the nightgown higher, stopping just below her breasts. She dragged the coin down her stomach to her mound, rubbing it over her lace-covered sex. Growing bold, she eased her panties to the side, scraping the coin past her shaved pussy. Cream dripped from her and she dipped a finger through it, smearing it on the coin before bringing the object back to her lips. She licked her finger and the coin casually, tasting herself.
There was no doubt in her mind that she still had an audience. She went on, pinching her nipples, positive for a split second that energy began to creep slowly up her legs. The power made it to her cunt and parted her slit, easing the ache.
Hannah ground her hips against the nothingness, moaning as she kneaded her breasts, tugging at them. The air around her grew heavy, oppressive, and her mind fogged. Something blurry appeared over her and she closed her eyes as pleasure like she’d never known consumed her. Hands. Real, flesh-and-blood hands touched her, taking over where she’d left off with her nipples. She squirmed, the aching deep within growing to epic proportions.
“Please,” she whispered, already knowing he was there with her. It was tempting to peek to see who her mystery man was, but she didn’t dare. The feeling might go as quickly as he did.
Hannah was conditioned to expect the unexpected, to accept the unexplainable and to trust in her gut feelings. Questioning everything she’d learned through the course of her life wasn’t something that was likely to happen.
Trust in him, her inner voice stated with ease.
She did.
She opened her legs to his touch, squeezing her eyes shut tighter in the process.
He whispered to her in a language she didn’t understand. Whatever he said sounded beautiful and was so soft, the whisper was more in her mind than in the air around her. Cool lips pressed against her warm ones and Hannah silently begged for more.
The kiss ended and the lips found her ear. “All in due time, my light.”
Her eyes snapped open, but no one was there.
Had there ever truly been someone near her or had her mind finally broke, giving in to the stress of her life? Something fluttered to the floor and she bent. There, lying on the hardwood floor, was a coin, devil side faceup.
Chapter Two
“You watch her from afar too often, Keane. Your obsession with the female troubles the others. They talk of you being weak. Softening in your old age.”
Keane stiffened at the sound of his brother’s voice. The truths Janco spewed forth weren’t what Keane wanted to hear. He’d already struggled with the knowledge a mortal had somehow wormed her way into his existence, making him think of little but her. He didn’t need a late-night visitor bearing harsh reminders of his weaknesses. Of his inability to pull himself from the thrall of a woman he did not truly know—a human woman at that. It was even worse that he was blood kin to the visitor who told such hard truths. Keane could kill a stranger. A family member was something all together different. He had to show restraint.
Damn family.
“I am not obsessed with a human,” he stressed, the lie rolling easily enough off his tongue. “Nor have I ever been.”
It was a blatant falsehood and he knew it. Hell, everyone knew it. There was no question why his brother had come to speak with him while he watched the woman among her own kind. Janco wasn’t one who enjoyed slumming among humans. When he did, it was normally in only the finest of restaurants, or perhaps a well-known show, but never in a public park, as was the case now. Occasionally, Janco could also be found in the bed of a mortal.
Humans were a necessary evil. His kind needed them to survive yet despised them for their fragility and ignorance, but most of all, for the fact they had souls.
Jealousy, no matter how it’s masked, was the same in the end. Humans had something Keane and his brothers never would—a soul—a ticket to redemption.
Keane had joined in on many of Janco’s mortal escapades, fucking the women as well, giving them pleasure before sampling their blood. There was nothing better than the taste of blood while he came with a fire only a supernatural could possess.
A suck and a fuck. A perfect end to any night.
Keane rolled a coin—he was rarely without one—over the backs of his fingers, letting it flip over each one. He grinned as the coin fell to one side. The devil. Half-man, half-beast, atop a throne with two figures chained to him. The wicked gleam in the devil’s eyes and the horns signifying evil stared back at Keane. In more ways than one, its meaning applied to him, to events his gift of foresight told him would come to be. He knew he would have to face something dark about his nature, something he may not like but would have no choice in the matter. He would be a slave to an obsession, possibly sexual. He also knew the human female he’d taken to was involved in some way. Perhaps she represented the opposite side of the coin—the angel or, his luck, the obsession.
The part he had difficulty with was the idea that at the end of it all, should he choose to embrace his fate, he would find light amidst the darkness. It was almost too good to be true and a lifetime of letdowns had taught him nothing came without a price.
My inner demons will never cease to torment me.
Janco laughed, tapping the coin and making it disappear with his power. “Those things you play with are the reason you’re here to begin with, dear brother. I find it hard to believe anything would lead you to a human purposely, not unless it was to feed from her.” The disdain in Janco’s voice wasn’t difficult to spot. His brother had an even lower opinion of the race that overpopulated the surface than Keane did. To Janco, humans were simply a means to an end.
They were fuckable fodder.
“Your time with the beast master has pulled away the little bit of fun you used to be,” Keane offered, arching a brow in derision.
The beast master ordeal had ended with Janco safe and alive, even though he’d spent nearly a month locked away at the hands of an evil so great it caused the baddest of the bad to wince upon hearing its name. Whatever had happened to him there, it had left him weakened—vulnerable, even. Bringing up Janco’s time as the beast master’s captive was hitting below the belt, something Keane generally avoided doing in regard to his brothers, but when it came to his new fascination—the human—he found himself doing it more and more.
Janco narrowed his dark eyes and flashed a bit of fang in Keane’s direction. It was plainly a challenge. One Keane would normally accept. He was still aggravated by Janco “willing” away yet another of his play toys. Keane entertained striking out at his brother, forcing him to return what was rightfully his, but there were plenty more coins where that one had come from. Besides, letting Janco know he’d managed to worm his way under Keane’s skin would mean his brother would push harder, perhaps harming the human Keane had taken an interest in.
The very fact he wished to protect her should have made Keane order his brother to handle her, rid him of her pull, but he couldn’t bring himself to allow injury to come to her.
He tugged at the lace sleeves sticking out from under his deep burgundy coat. The edges of the coat were embroidered with silver silk thread, as many coats for court dress were. He’d come from matters of the council—feeling her pull and ne
eding to be near her. Keane smoothed down the front of his dark breeches and stared forth at the young woman walking under the soft light of the moon. While his current attire was hardly fashionable to wear among humans, it was exactly what the others who ruled the underworld wore.
Stuck in time warps.
He chuckled as he thought of his youngest brother’s comments on the Ruling Councils of the Underworld. Perhaps Anton was correct. A change might very well be in order. Maybe the council did need to consider updating, for lack of a better word. However, change always brought a heavy price. As a sinking feeling in his gut arose, Keane knew what the price for him would be. He glanced at the human, unwilling to allow her to be the cost.
“How long do you plan to watch her tonight?” Janco asked, his attention on the female Keane could scarcely draw himself away from. “Do you not grow tired of these games? Go and take what you want from her. I do not think she will put up much of a fight. Pity. I do so enjoy it when they struggle.”
Keane ignored his brother. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t already considered taking the woman for himself and quenching his thirst for her. He could bend her mind, make her desire him and do to her what he longed to—fuck her senseless.
Seemed wrong to try to control her thoughts. And honestly, he wasn’t sure he could. He’d not been able to listen to her thoughts. Her mind was closed off to him during waking hours.
Rare indeed.
He’d already been visiting her while she slept, lurking, watching over her. He’d managed to infiltrate her dreams, but not deep enough for his liking. There was something different about her. Something that would leave him hungry for more than she would be willing to give or than he would be willing to take.
Perhaps I am softening in my old age.
After centuries of ruling the underworld with a band of like-minded supernaturals, the very idea of having a change of heart amused Keane. There was no way he would allow the human to crack his inner shell, the one protecting his blackened heart. No other had succeeded in the feat. It would be impossible for a human to pull it off.
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