Seduced by Innocence
(The Seduced Saga, Book 1 of Rose's Trilogy)
by
Kimberly Kinrade
Daring Books Publishing
Copyright © 2013 Kimberly Kinrade
Cover Art Copyright © 2012 Dmytry Karpov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edited by Dmytry Karpov
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Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.
For all the star-crossed lovers of the world who think it's impossible.
It's not.
Never give up on love.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Sudden Endings - Rose
Chapter 2 – I Bite My Thumb at You - Derek
Chapter 3 – Seek a Foe - Rose
Chapter 4 – My Heart - Derek
Chapter 5 – No Time to Woe - Rose
Chapter 6 – Talk of Peace - Derek
Chapter 7 – Sin From Thy Lips - Rose
Chapter 8 – Fortune's Fool - Derek
Chapter 9 – Forget to Think - Rose
Chapter 10 – Sweet Sorrow - Derek
Chapter 11 – A Soul of Lead - Rose
Chapter 12 – This Day's Black Fate - Derek
Chapter 13 – Don't Waste Your Love - Blake
Chapter 14 – Stony Limits - Rose
Chapter 15 – The Nightingale - Derek
Chapter 16 – Grief Shows Much of Love - Rose
Chapter 17 – Live or Stay - Rose
Chapter 18 – That I Might Touch - Derek
Chapter 19 – Love is a Smoke - Rose
Chapter 20 – Violent Ends - Blake
Chapter 21 – Sad Hours - Rose
Chapter 22 – Sweet Discourses - Derek
Chapter 23 – Never to Return - Rose
Chapter 24 – Wisely and Slow - Derek
Chapter 25 – Another's Anguish - Rose
Chapter 26 – He Jests at Scars - Derek
Chapter 27 – Known Too Late - Rose
Chapter 28 – Peril in Thine Eye - Derek
Chapter 29 – What Must Be Shall Be - Rose
Chapter 30 – Love's Heavy Burden - Rose
Chapter 31 – Is Love a Tender Thing? - Derek
Chapter 32 – My Only Love - Rose
Chapter 33 – Where Two Raging Fires Meet - Blake
Books by Kimberly Kinrade
Acknowledgements
About Kimberly Kinrade
Available Now from Kimberly Kinrade
Coming Soon
ONE
Sudden Endings
ROSE
These sudden joys have sudden endings. They burn up in victory like fire and gunpowder.
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
LIQUID FIRE POURED into me, filling me with the intimate sense of him as he leaned in to claim my lips with his own. I reached for him, needing him closer, needing to feel his flesh against mine, but my arms couldn't close the distance between us, which grew wider with each hitched breath. So close to finally feeling something real, something carnal and deep, I cried out in frustration, dropping my hands as he disappeared. My cries deepened into a frenzy of panic and my eyes flew open. I clutched my blanket and stilled myself to calm my racing heart.
Just a dream. Always just a dream. It could never be more than that. Not with my dream man, not with any man. Knowing this did nothing to dampen the disappointment that weighed heavy on me each time I entered that one moment where dreams and reality co-existed and I forgot who I really was and what would happen if I ever experienced that level of surrender. But fear replaced my self-absorption when the alarms penetrated my foggy mind. Outside my cottage, footsteps raced through the cold night, crunching on newly fallen snow. Through my frosted window, flashlights wavered back and forth, looking for something, or someone. It's happening again!
The floor under my bare feet felt like ice as I slipped out of bed and fumbled in the dark for my clothes. Sandy, my loyal Alaskan Husky, whined when I moved to leave the cottage without her. I ran a hand through her thick white fur. "You want to come? I have to go check on your puppies. Do you want to see your babies?"
She barked once and wagged her tail.
The alarm shut off, leaving us both in a stunned silence that filled the room. Sandy licked my hand and stood by the door waiting as I pulled on my boots and coat and braced myself for the cold. I rummaged through the basket next to my door, looking for my warmest gloves. At least in the winter I had a ready excuse for covering my hands.
Outside, the black pitch of night greeted me. No one had turned on the floodlights yet, which made me wonder if they'd been damaged. Flashlight in hand, dog by my side, I headed to the main house on our coven's 100-acre property as I sent my magic ahead of me to sift through the energy from the attack.
Before I could get more than a few steps, Blake ran up to me and laid his hand on my arm as he fought to catch his breath. He ignored Sandy's low growl as he pushed me toward the door. "You should go back in. They've broken onto the property again. Bastards slashed the tires on three vehicles and left a deer carcass as a gift."
My heart thumped with extra force at the news. "That's horrible. Whose cars?"
"The property truck, Darren's car and Lauren's." His jaw hardened, and he narrowed his dark eyes, squeezing my arm tighter in his anger. "Bastards will cost us hundreds in new tires. They even smashed out the windows. We've got to strike back. Teach them a lesson."
Using my gloved hand, I eased his fingers off of me. He flinched at the touch, despite the layers of protection. Good thing I had a thick skin, sort of. I kept my voice calm, even through my own rage. "That's not a decision you can make on your own. We'll all talk about it when we meet tomorrow morning."
He waved his flashlight over his watch and smirked. "More like a few hours. It's 2 a.m. The meeting's in two hours. Where's Ocean?"
"She's on a date, and I'd better check on the puppies and try to get a bit more rest." I stepped around him to continue walking, but he blocked me with his large body made of the kind of muscle you get, not from the gym, but from manual labor day in and out. He smelled of pine needles and snow, a scent that would have been appealing on anyone else but him.
"Rainbow wants everyone inside except the security team. The puppies are fine," he said.
I'd thought about it a lot, what it was about Blake that revolted me so much. Easy on the eyes, dedicated to our coven, though lacking magic of his own, he would have been a safe choice, if I'd had any choice at all. He'd even indicated an interest on more than one occasion, and the only almost-kiss I'd ever experienced had been with him on my thirteenth birthday. But his touch made my skin crawl, even through clothing. I shifted away from him. "What about my sister? She must be scared."
"She's sixteen, Rose, not a little girl
anymore. She's not as helpless as you think. Just go back inside. We'll handle this." He smiled to soften the command in his voice, and I sighed and walked back into the cottage.
I'm not a little girl anymore, either. Guess no one got the memo.
Not for the first time I wished for a lock on my house, but none of us had locks, despite the recent string of break-ins. I shed my winter gear and gloves and toweled off the snow from Sandy's paws. Knowing I'd never get back to sleep, and frustrated that I'd been dismissed by Blake like some kid, despite the fact that I was nineteen and he was only twenty-one, I searched my one-room dwelling for something to occupy my time until our daily pre-dawn meeting.
My favorite romance novel sat on the dresser next to my bed, and I reached for it, grateful that I could at least breathe in vicarious passion through the lives of others, if not my own. My hands stilled on the book as shivers of energy traveled through my body, connecting me to the earth, to my coven and to my family. Mother's voice called out to me through one of those lines. "Rose. Help! Hurry!"
We almost never communicated telepathically. The drain on energy and resources was just too much, and, with the modern convenience of cell phones, unnecessary. Besides that, most members of our coven didn't have enough power to do it. Heart racing in my chest, I ran out the door and through the dark with Sandy at my heels, straight to the lower level of the main house where Mother lived. The air crackled with fear and desperation and the ramped up emotion of it all forced my gut into uncomfortable knots.
As leader of the coven, Mother commanded the most power and respect. She'd never reached out to me for help before, which made this all the more alarming. I forced my legs to pump faster, Sandy running at my side, as I navigated through the icy paths masked with shadows of the night.
There should have been others out with flashlights, checking the property, but I didn't see or feel anyone. Perhaps the mental cries of Mother drowned out everyone else?
When we reached her door, I hesitated. Mother didn't like people barging in on her. While everyone else in the coven had a default open door policy—meaning literally anyone else here could walk into your house without knocking—Mother was immune from that. To some extent, so was I, but only because my coven feared an accidental touch. Only in my own home could I go gloveless. My best friend and roommate, Ocean, was the only person in the coven not scared of me and my dark gift.
Sandy whined and clawed at the door, jarring me out of my thoughts. Inside, something clattered to the ground, and Mother screamed. I pushed the door open and tried to mentally ready myself.
But nothing could have prepared me for what I found.
A giant brown wolf stood before Mother, baring his teeth with a low, throaty growl that sent shivers of fear up my spine. Mother cowered in the corner of her couch, eyes like saucers as she backed away from the wolf with her hands in defense position. She made eye contact with me as I walked in and yelled, "Help! Rose, help! He attacked me."
Sandy growled and the puppies in the kennel barked and yipped. Sandy stood in front of her puppies, ready to attack this new threat, hackles raised on her back.
Feeling utterly useless, I shouted at the wolf. "Get away from her!"
It turned its head to me, large golden eyes glowing in the dim light. For a moment I felt a connection to the beast, as if he was trying to tell me something, but the moment shattered when Mother shrieked at me. "Do something, Rose."
What did she want me to do? I didn't know self-defense… no one would let me study it. I had no weapons… other than myself. Mother, who—even cornered by this magnificent beast—looked in control and poised, with her midnight black hair in an up-do and her face made up with flawless makeup, glanced down meaningfully at my hands.
This couldn't be. She couldn't possibly want me to use my power on the wolf. It didn't even work on animals.
But this wolf, three times the size of even a large wolf, felt more than animal. Something tickled at the back of my mind. Something I should have known but had forgotten. It hovered on the edge of my memory, teasing me with knowledge just out of reach.
The wolf howled, his head high in the air, and more howls tore from the nearby woods, echoing through the cold night.
Then it all clicked and I took a step back. So it was true. All the stories and rumors. The O'Conner clan really could shapeshift, and they were here, on my land, attacking my family.
For months they'd been terrorizing our coven, trying to drive us out of our rural home in Washington. We refused to be bullied by the wealthy Druids who commanded the public favor in the local, and even international, spiritual and business communities.
We didn't have the money to fight them legally.
We didn't have the power to fight them magically.
And we had no idea what they wanted from us.
But they'd attacked relentlessly. Sabotaging our cars, destroying our property, leaving dead animals for us to find. Now, they'd sent someone to hurt Mother. Maybe kill her. Anger boiled inside of me, reaching through me and around me, and the steel traps around my power uncoiled as I took measured steps toward the wolf.
Reason left me. Fear abandoned me. Only rage sustained me as I reached out with a bare hand to touch the flesh beneath the thick fur of the wolf.
With a final push, it flooded out of me. My darkest secret. My cross to bear. It pooled into my hand, turning it into the worst kind of weapon. My flesh turned into a fire only I could withstand, and the wolf howled in agony as his mind, or soul, or whatever part of him made him 'him', turned to ash and left him forever.
I collapsed to the ground, vision blurred, body cold, hardwood floor beneath me shifting and dipping. Blackness pressed in on me, but before it could claim me entirely I saw the wolf shift back to human. A naked young man, no older than myself, lay in a heap of skin, muscle and bone, staring vacantly at me, eyes glazed over with a white haze that indicated he'd never be himself again.
Though his body still lived, I'd killed his soul. And a new kind of darkness squeezed my heart as I faded into nothing.
TWO
I Bite My Thumb at You
DEREK
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
I'D ALWAYS BEEN most comfortable at night. The cloak of darkness allowed me to hide my sins, or flaunt them, depending on the company.
Tonight was a little bit of both.
The leggy waitress sauntered over to the pool table that I'd rented for the night. Lose a few games and everyone wants to show you how it's done. That's when I pull out my A game to cover my expenses for a few more days.
Living from cheap hotels and traveling the country on a motorcycle wasn't everyone's idea of a good time, but it kept me busy and kept me in the company of beautiful women. How could I complain?
She handed me a tall glass full of amber liquid and raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at my choice of a non-alcoholic beverage while everyone else worked at getting sloshed.
"It's all about illusion. People see what they want to see. Right now, they see a cocky prick who drinks too much and bets too much on half-assed games of pool. It's how I keep my edge." Of course, bragging about this didn't exactly work with my stay-under-the-radar plans, but even I enjoyed the admiring glance of a woman who respected my techniques.
"You're like that detective, in those old television shows. Columbo, I think. Acts dumb but is really super smart and always, like, gets the bad guy in the end." She twirled a strand of long blond hair and chewed on her lower lip as she talked.
When she bent over to pick up an empty glass from the table, her cleavage spilled out of her tight blouse, giving me an eye full and making things uncomfortable in my jeans.
She slipped me a piece of paper with a phone number on it and winked. "You have really pretty eyes. They're, like, blue with sunlight in them. Like a cat."
Wrong species. "Thanks, they are a bit unusual."
"I think they're cool."
She leaned in closer. "I get off at closing. Want to give me a ride home?"
"If I'm still around, yes." The most honest answer I could give.
The light of desire dimmed in her eyes a bit, but she smiled and walked away, swinging her hips to the music.
I adjusted my jeans and focused on the game. Daryl, the big guy who'd challenged me, had won the last three games and had bought drinks for his buddies to celebrate. This final game was all or nothing, and for him, it would be nothing. He just didn't know it yet.
It only took me one turn to sink the eight ball and win the game. I put my leather coat on, then reached for the money, well over three hundred dollars, and pulled back just in time to avoid a broken hand as he slammed his pool stick against the table.
"You fucking cheat. Yer a shark." The jowls of his chin vibrated with his rage, and his beady eyes squinted like a rat. "You 'aint getting none of my money, or yours."
It was for moments like these, rare though they were, that my drinks were always alcohol-free.
I relaxed my body and assessed the room around me. Two exits, one in front and one in back. I could get through the back door easily enough and hop on my bike. Daryl had two friends at least as big as him, but their collective mass had more to do with their daily beer intake than any gym memberships.
I could take them, if I had to. But better not to fight, especially in the bar. If the cops showed up before I could extricate myself, it would create a whole new pain in the ass I didn't want to deal with.
I reached for my money again, and he lunged at me. Anticipating his move, I shoved the money in my back pocket as I twisted to the side, then used his weight against him to knock him on his ass.
Seduced by Innocence (The Seduced Saga, Book 1 of Rose's Trilogy) Page 1
