by Nora Ash
He should never, ever, have slept with her, because the onslaught of emotions that washed over him afterward had completely blindsided him.
Every instinct in his body was roaring for her, even after he’d sated his desperate desire inside her tight little cunt.
Nothing had ever terrified him quite so much.
There she lay, this fragile, soft little human, asleep in his arms and safe in the knowledge that he would protect her against all evil in this world. It wasn’t the bone-deep understanding that he would give his life to protect her that terrified him, even if he didn’t know why. It was the knowledge that she would count on him to keep her safe and protected at all times, and that he might fail.
There was so much evil in St. Anthony, so many people who could kill her in the blink of an eye, if he turned his back for even a second.
And if he failed her, and she died…
Lightning didn’t understand the violent churn in his chest and gut at the thought of her death, but he vaguely recognized the feeling of terror mixed in with it.
She made him afraid.
In the middle of all the confusing emotions and raging instincts, he had resented her for turning him into someone who was scared.
He’d tried to snuff it out by making it perfectly clear to her that he had no intentions of any sort of romantic involvement with her.
The results had been… less than ideal.
Not only did it not make his newfound fear go away, it added another, new concept to the exhausting range of emotions battering at him from the inside: guilt.
His dismissal had hurt her, and now he felt guilt.
It was infuriating.
Lightning rubbed a hand against the roof he was perched on, overlooking the ribbons of light moving with the traffic on the street below. Her roof.
He’d lasted, what, maybe eighteen hours?
Given how much his entire being ached for her, it was pretty damn impressive.
With a sigh he slipped out of his crouch and swung over the side of the building to enter her window. He had no idea what sort of explanation he would give her, but he’d think of something. Whatever mood she was in, he needed to be with her, and she would just have to deal with that.
Her apartment was dark and quiet when he slipped in through the window, and he frowned as cold tendrils of worry sprouted from the same place in his chest that housed the rest of the confusing emotions linked to the human girl he’d claimed.
She was probably just out for coffee, or meeting with a friend…
His heart spasmed unevenly at the thought of how he’d met her the first time—during a robbery at a coffee shop. Lightning pressed a fist to his chest, trying to force the unruly organ to relax.
This was getting ridiculous.
He wandered slowly out from the kitchen. At least he could spend the time until she came back looking through her things. Maybe even her bedside drawer.
Lightning smirked as he headed for the bed. She was so tight around him. Her pussy had clung to his shaft for each thrust. Whatever she kept in those drawers, maybe he should replace it with something bigger… call it mandatory exercise in between his visits.
His cock pulsed in agreement, but before he made it past her desk, his attention was caught by a small symbol carved into the wood.
The letter “B,” surrounded by an angular design. Faint power shone from it, where the superhuman had infused it with enough of his essence to attract the eye of another supe.
Lightning’s heart stilled in his chest while he stared at the symbol. It seemed to illuminate the empty apartment the longer he stared at it, emphasizing how lifeless and cold it was without Kathryn’s warming presence.
A small note was neatly folded beside the carved letter. Lightning reached out and snatched it off the desk, unfolding it with one hand.
* * *
Shade, Lightning,
* * *
I will bring her to the council meeting on the 23rd.
If you want her back, come claim her. Together.
Next Book
Follow Kathryn’s story in
Shades of Darkness
* * *
Pain. Violation. Degradation.
That’s what getting involved with two magic-welding rivals has brought me. And the longer I stay with them, the deeper I’m sucked into the infested web of corruption running through every layer of my city.
I should try to escape—find a way out and away. No human can survive the demands of two such powerful men using her body as their battle ground.
But they are the only key I have to saving my city from the powers threatening to lay it to ruin.
* * *
And when the rest of the supe community learns of my existence, my two protectors have to decide what's more important: their age-old strife... or my life.
* * *
Excerpt
LIGHTNING
Rage. Blistering, all-encompassing rage mixed with fear so overpowering Lightning’s knees nearly buckled as he stared at the note in his hand.
The glowing “B” carved into her desk was as good as leaving a business card, and it made Lightning’s insides twist. Bright, the sociopathic supe who had risen out of nowhere two years ago to one of the top ranks in their hierarchy, had broken into Kathryn’s home and fucking kidnapped her.
The anger was easy enough to deal with—he would just save it up until he found the scumbag, and then unleash it all in one, lethal round.
The fear… the fear was not so easy to manage.
He knew enough about Bright and the methods he’d used to climb the ladder for his stomach to knot at the thought of Kathryn—soft, breakable Kathryn—in his cruel hands.
A deep snarl tore him from the horrific scenarios the mere thought produced, and he spun around just in time to see a large, dark-clad figure crouch into a defensive position by the window.
“If you’ve hurt her, I’ll rip your throat out!”
The Shade. The fucking Shade.
Lightning’s hands flexed with desire to close around his enemy’s neck, and the rage from realizing that his claimed human had been abducted took over, spiking his adrenaline with a primal urge to kill.
The note rustled with his hand’s movement. Lightning paused, muscles tensed to strike. The note.
If he wanted Kathryn back, he needed The Shade.
A growl he couldn’t control forced its way out of his chest as he straightened from his hunched pose. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was disappointment of not being able to rip into his enemy, or if it was from the sickening knowledge that he needed The Shade’s help to reclaim his human.
“Bright’s got her.”
The same shiver he’d felt himself when he spotted the carved “B” went through The Shade.
“What?” Anger clearly won out for the villain. His eyes blazed as he shifted, pulling the swords mounted on his back out of their scabbards. “What? What did you do?”
“Nothing, you imbecile. I just got here and found this.” He pointed to the desk, where the carved letter shone faintly in the darkened loft.
The Shade glanced to the desk. He clenched his hands around the sword handles, making a barely detectable tremor travel down the blades.
“He left a note.” Lightning dropped the piece of paper on the desk and stepped back to let his rival inspect it.
The Shade cast him a dark look before he stepped over and snatched it up.
His mouth spasmed once as his eyes flickered over the text. When he looked back up, the seething anger was mixed with concern—a rather startling expression on the infamous supe. “How did he know?”
Lightning rubbed a hand over his scalp, trying to ease the unpleasant prickle underneath the mask. All his hyped up senses were on full alert, making his suit feel restrictive.
“I don’t know. Maybe he came to check her out because of that fucking article, maybe he has spies at the mayor’s mansion and got curious when he saw her with me. Right now,
it doesn’t really matter. He’s got her, and if we don’t get her back…” He let the rest of the sentence hang suspended in the already tense air between them. There was no need to complete it—they both knew their society’s rules. If a supe relinquished ownership of their human, it was the end of the road for her. It was the only way of ensuring their secrets were not exposed to the human world. If they didn’t show up for the Council meeting, it would be the same as renouncing their claim.
“He has some balls.” The Shade’s growl was low and filled with the promise of murder. “After I’m done with you, I will rip them off before I kill him.”
As much as Lightning’s body ached to rise to the challenge, he clamped his jaw shut around his responding snarl in an attempt to stay in control of himself. “That’s great. And after you’re ‘done with me,’ how are you going to convince the Council that she belongs to you? That’s why he’s got the balls to do this—technically, she doesn’t belong to either of us without the other. The fucker knows we have to both show up and explain how we’re sharing her, if we want her back.”
And he also knew that it would be a cold day in hell before either of them admitted to being bound so tight by a mere human that they’d deign to work together, even for the duration of a Council meeting. Lightning glared at his enemy. Fuck. Not only would waltzing in there, hand in hand with The goddamn Shade, be the most humiliating thing he’d yet to endure—it would also broadcast with unwavering clarity that Kathryn was his one weak point. She’d never be safe again.
But if they didn’t, she was as good as dead.
“Fuck!”
“She was all mine, until you marked her again.” The Shade flexed his hands, probably to ease the same sort of agitation as was coursing through Lightning’s veins at that moment. “He would never have gotten away with kidnapping a claimed human who only carried one mark.”
Lightning narrowed his eyes into slits. “I claimed her first, if you recall. Don’t remind me how you forced her to submit to you, or I’ll forget I need you to get her back.”
“If you had marked her properly, I could never have claimed her. You were too weak to take her, and you are too weak to give her what she needs. You want her back? She wasn’t yours to begin with. You left her—twice!”
Guilt—that uncomfortable, new sensation in his gut—pulled on Lightning at The Shade’s words. Yeah, he’d left her, because he was scared of her power over him, and now she was in danger. Again. The girl was a fucking magnet for trouble, and he should have stayed by her side, fear of the churning emotions she brought out in him be damned. Knowing she was in the hands of someone like Bright was much, much worse.
The guilt and shame tipped into anger, and he gratefully grabbed on with both hands. Anger, he knew how to deal with.
Lightning bared his teeth at The Shade. “She was mine when you took advantage of her fear and marked her, and she is mine now. And once she is safe, I will ensure that my mark on her neck is the only valid claim on her.”
The Shade’s nostrils pulled up with his responding snarl, but he nodded in acceptance of the challenge. “Once she is safe. But I’m warning you now—this time, I’m not holding back. You fight me for her, and you will die.”
Despite his anger and the primal instincts pounding in his head, Lightning couldn’t help but roll his eyes. They had fought more than once over the years, and there had never been a clear winner—which was the only reason they were both still alive. The hatred between them was too deep for mercy.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself. Until then, we need to focus on Bright. He isn’t going to make it easy.”
The Shade nodded again and crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s undoubtedly hoping to humiliate us, possibly because he’s heard I’ve been asking about him. And I suspect he’ll attempt to convince the rest of the Council that because of the unique nature of her mark, our claims are invalid.”
Lightning paused. The Shade was investigating Bright, too? “Why are you asking questions about him?”
The Shade leveled a condescending stare at him. “You think because I don’t care who casts themselves up to be our leaders, I don’t take notice when rumors start to circulate of a ‘new order’? Everything seems to come back to him. I imagine you’re doing your own snooping.”
Lightning nodded and pursed his lips. “The only way Kathryn’s getting out of there alive is if we acknowledge that we share her.”
* * *
CONTINUE READING
* * *
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Also by Nora Ash
ANCIENT BLOOD SERIES
Origin
Wicked Soul
Debt of Bones*
* * *
DARKNESS SERIES
Into the Darkness
Hidden in Darkness
Shades of Darkness
Fires in the Darkness
* * *
DEMON’S MARK SERIES
Branded
Demon’s Mark
* * *
FERAL SERIES
Obsession
Despair
Torment
* * *
ALPHA SERIES
Taken
Masquerade
Mated
* * *
MADE & BROKEN SERIES
Dangerous
Monster
Trouble
