Jordan had received an honorable discharge from the military and had applied for a program to study forensic anthropology alongside her. He was ready to investigate ancient crimes instead of modern ones. He wanted to come in after the blood was long gone, when mysteries were intellectual puzzles and not emotional ones.
Such a life offered them a future together.
And not just for the two of them.
Jordan kissed her palm, his lips lingering there, sending a warm tingle up her arm. She buried her hands in his blond hair and pulled his lips up to hers, wanting to kiss him, to taste him, to lose herself in him. His hands slid down her back to settle on her silk-clad hips. One palm shifted to her belly.
She stared down, wondering if she was showing yet.
“Do you think your mother knows?” Erin asked.
“How could she? We didn’t even know until after we got back to the States. It’s just our secret for now.” He gently rubbed her stomach. “But I think my mom is going to figure it out in about seven months. Especially with twins.”
Erin placed her hand next to his on her belly.
Twins . . . a boy and a girl.
Erin relaxed in his arms, imagining a little blond boy with Jordan’s blue eyes and daredevil attitude . . . and an amber-eyed girl who would read everything she could get her hands on.
“I was thinking,” Jordan said. “How about the name Sophia for the girl?”
She smiled up at Jordan and kissed his lips softly. “That’s perfect.”
She happily rested in his arms, but a worry still rose in her.
Once back in the States, she had a battery of tests performed. Everything had come back normal. She had conceived when Jordan was carrying angelic blood, which raised a concern about what he might have passed on to the babies.
Or what I might have?
While pregnant, she had briefly died and carried strigoi blood.
Jordan sensed her fears and kissed her again. “Everything will be fine.”
Erin drew strength from the certainty of his voice, trusting him.
A small, insistent voice shouted from across the lawn. “It’s time to cut the cake!” That would be Olivia, Jordan’s niece, whose sweet tooth was notorious. “Hurry up, guys!”
Jordan grinned, his lips lingering over hers. “And for the boy—”
“Let me guess. You were thinking of naming him Christian.”
“No, I was actually thinking Thor. It’s very manly.”
“Thor?” Erin pushed him back and stood. “Let’s get some cake in you. See if sugar will bring you back to your senses.”
She took his hand and led him out onto the sunlight grass. They passed through the scent of spring roses and toward the sweet promise of cake—and a life together.
James would like to thank his writing group, who have stood steadfast on this journey from the deserts of Egypt to the gates of Hell. I could not want a better team at my side: Sally Anne Barnes, Chris Crowe, Lee Garrett, Jane O’Riva, Denny Grayson, Leonard Little, Scott Smith, Steve and Judy Prey, Caroline Williams, Christian Riley, Tod Todd, Chris Smith, and Amy Rogers. And of course, both David Sylvian and Carolyn McCray, who have been my right and left hand, from the first step to this last leap. A special acknowledgment must also be extended to the people instrumental to all levels of production: my editor, Lyssa Keusch, and her colleague Rebecca Lucash; and my agents, Russ Galen and Danny Baror (along with his daughter Heather Baror).
Rebecca would also like to thank her writing group, including Kathryn Wadsworth, David Deardorff, Judith Heath, Karen Hollinger, and Ben Haggard for their numerous reads and for all the times they caught mistakes and put the book back on track. Also, a special thanks to writers, friends, and agents who helped me along the writer’s journey with this book: Andrew Peterson, Joshua Corin, Shane Gericke, Sean Black, JF Penn, Alexandra Beusterien, Mary Alice Kier, and Anna Cottle. I appreciate greatly having friends like you. Finally, and most important of all, a giant debt of gratitude to her husband and son for their patience while she went off to battle monsters both real and imagined. The cat, Twinkle, gets no thanks as she is never helpful.
James Rollins is the New York Times bestselling author of thrillers that have been translated into forty languages. His Sigma series has been lauded as one of the “top crowd pleasers” (New York Times) and one of the “hottest summer reads” (People magazine). Acclaimed for his originality, Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets at breakneck speed.
New York Times bestselling thriller author Rebecca Cantrell’s novels include the award-winning Hannah Vogel mystery series, the critically acclaimed YA novel iDrakula, which was nominated for the APPY award and listed on Booklist’s Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth, and The World Beneath, the first book in an exciting new series and the winner of an International Thriller Writer award. She, her husband, and son currently live in Berlin.
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Also by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
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Sandstorm
Ice Hunt
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Deep Fathom
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BY REBECCA CANTRELL
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A Night of Long Knives
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The Kill Switch
Credits
Cover design and illustration by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photographs © by Elena Schweitzer/Shutterstock
Photograph of James Rollins by David Sylvian
Photograph of Rebecca Cantrell by Angela Marklew
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLOOD INFERNAL. Copyright © 2014 by James Czajkowski and Rebecca Cantrell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-234326-0
EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2015 ISBN 9780062343284
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