by Cassi Carver
Dedication
For my parents—who always believe, always support, and always love.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my writer friends. You inspire me every day with your creativity and professionalism, and I’m blessed to have you on my team. Who said pink elephants couldn’t fly?
Thank you to my editor, Jennifer Miller. Your enthusiasm for Kara and her crew made this journey possible, and I’m so grateful for you. I have learned so much and grown as a writer because of your guidance.
Thank you to my agent, Becca Stumpf. It doesn’t get better than talking with you on the phone about Gavin and Kara as though they’re flesh and blood friends of ours. I know they appreciate how you always have their backs.
And thank you to my family, including my sweet children and my amazing husband. You make this writer’s life complete.
Chapter One
Kara dropped into a crouch behind the leaves of a giant bird of paradise as her claws silently pushed through the tips of her fingers. Her thigh muscles burned from the continued strain, but they could catch fire for all she cared. He wasn’t going to get her. Not this time.
When the sound of furtive footsteps approached, crunching softly through the thick, tropical undergrowth, Kara grabbed onto a low-lying branch and swung herself up, then quickly scaled the side of the tree. Her heart beat full-throttle, hammering so hard she hoped he couldn’t hear it. But if his hearing was that good, even the shallow breaths she took might give her away.
The buckskin-clad shape came closer. Head to toe, he wore a suit made of animal skin with a leaf pattern hand-drawn on the material. It was a hunting suit. But Kara didn’t feel like being hunted tonight.
She waited until he was directly under the tree where she hid. His chest and back were strapped with weapons that slowed him just enough to put him at a disadvantage. With a silent, decisive breath, Kara leapt.
Claws extended, she pounced on his back from above, flattening him to the ground under her, crushing a mass of fern fronds under his thick chest. She pulled a knife from his back strap and held it to his throat.
Smiling, she leaned down to whisper above his hooded ear, “Give up, big guy?” If it came out a little throaty and seductive, she couldn’t help it. Victory was a major turn-on. But then again, when it came to Gavin Cross, just breathing the same air was enough to get her hot and bothered.
He shifted under her, and his hulking body had no problem moving her with him. With her knees straddling his hips, she lifted up to allow him to roll onto his back.
“Lady Kara…” the man began, “you have need of me?”
Kara dropped the knife and jumped off, falling to one knee and clobbering a sprig of wild orchids in the clumsy maneuver. “Who the hell are you?”
“Patrick. You don’t remember me?” The warrior sat up and searched her eyes for a moment, but then his confusion cleared, as though he’d finally caught on to what was afoot. “Ah, you really don’t remember me, do you? You simply have need of a man. I don’t mind, my lady. I would be honored to service you.”
It still bothered Kara that his offer lit fuses all up and down her body. If she hadn’t grown up as a regular gal, she probably would have taken him up on his offer. Right here. Right now. Already, his substantial interest was growing.
She stood and brushed the debris from her black jeans. “I’m so sorry, Patrick. I really didn’t intend to…jump you. Lord Gavin and I are doing training exercises out here, and I thought you were him. You may want to hunt somewhere else until we’re finished.” When his brows rose, she added, “Finished training.”
Patrick stood, assessing her with a wry smile, then he retrieved his knife and returned it to its sheath. “Lord Gavin, you say? But he was the one who ordered the hunt.”
“He did what?” But just as she said it, something slammed into her from behind, carrying her blindingly fast through the maze of trees and vines until the blurred image of a clearing appeared.
In the next instant, she crashed into the tall grass face first and rolled onto her back—or was flipped, more like it. The hulking form above her blocked out the light of the moon with his massive silver wings. Her back pushed into the soggy soil, the moisture soaking through her shirt, and a root of some sort pressed against her ribs.
She glared up at Gavin, but with only an inch separating them, his hazel eyes were huge, eclipsing everything else in her vision, and his grin seemed to stretch as wide as his wings. “Gotcha.”
“What was that?” she demanded, but it was hard to yell at him with his lips so close to hers.
He brought a hand to her neck and ran his finger slowly across her throat. “If I had a knife, you’d be dead. I win again.”
Kara’s hands found his waist of their own volition. “No you don’t. You cheated. You sent a horny hunter into our training ground. I thought he was you!”
His breath was sweet and spicy, and the corners of his eyes crinkled with soft lines as he smiled. “Cheating is irrelevant when it comes to life and death, princess. Don’t expect integrity from those who want you dead.”
Her hands raked over the bare skin covering his ribs, until she curled her fingers into her palms to keep from touching him again. “Okay, that one doesn’t count.”
Gavin laughed and pulled her to her feet. “It counts. That’s three hundred sixteen for me and seven for you.”
“Shit,” she ground out. “Let’s try again.”
He reached out and adjusted her damp black T-shirt so that it lay smoothly against her chest. “You’re not ready, Kara.”
She batted his hand away. “So I can’t flash like a silver-wing. That doesn’t mean I’m defenseless.” She’d killed his brother, who was incredibly strong for a silver-winged fallen angel—but she didn’t think there would ever be a right moment to throw that in Gavin’s face. Besides, he’d just tell her that his brother hadn’t been an almost invincible black-wing like the beast they were planning to bring down now.
“We’ve done enough for one night. Let me take you home. It must be almost three pm in San Diego, and you said you had to work tonight.”
Now that Kara was officially part of the Mercury Clan—a band of more than three hundred fallen angel hybrids—Gavin had finally confided that Mercury Island was located in the Seychelles chain of islands. Albeit, with all the wards and defenses, there wasn’t a good chance of a fisherman or passing cruise ship catching on to that fact.
Being halfway around the world from San Diego, it was almost twelve hours off from where she called home. Three pm in San Diego meant she’d kept Gavin up all night here on Mercury Island.
“Yeah, I do have to work. And you need to get some rest.”
He wrapped his arms around her, preparing to flash. “Have you thought about my offer?” As he asked, they began to dissolve. He carried her through the inky tar, and a moment later, they were standing on the balcony off her living room overlooking downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
She let the nausea and the boneless feeling pass before she answered. “I can’t.”
He growled and released her. “No lady of the Mercury Clan needs to work. I have enough resources to keep you comfortable from now until the Armageddon. Did I ever mention that Teras’s daughter working at a bar for minimum wage and paltry tips is just plain absurd?”
“Only about a dozen times. Don’t you ever get tired of this subject, Daddy Warbucks? I know I do.”
“Your father was my king, Kara. How can I hold my head high when I’m not caring for his only daughter?”
Kara reached up—way up, given Gavin’s six-foot-seven-inch frame—and patted his cheek. The dark blond stubble along his jaw was just starting
to poke through and it tickled her palm. “You’re so cute when you go all protect-and-provide on me, but I gotta get ready for work now. Bye.” When she wiggled her fingers in farewell and turned to enter the apartment, Gavin slapped her on the rump. She yelped and dashed into the living room.
“Brat!” he called after her, and then he flashed.
And with the sting his hand left on her ass, he was lucky he did.
She growled and swallowed down her body’s reaction to her golden-haired protector. Since her lover, Julian, had called things off three weeks ago, bringing Kara’s sex life to a screeching halt, her starving body couldn’t handle even grappling or sparring with Gavin without her wanting to unstrap his weapons belt to unsheathe his broadsword.
She sat hard on the edge of the sofa and ran a hand over the side of her throbbing backside. What if she did quit her job? What if she took her place on the island as a lady of the clan? What would it be like to trade her boots and jeans for island wear and an ever-present supply of men eager to do her bidding?
As it was, she wondered how long could she pine for Julian, hoping he’d reconsider—and not just for the sake of her broken, humiliated heart, but also for how effective his attention was at helping her control her raging libido.
Truth was, females of Kara’s kind didn’t do well with abstinence once they’d reached her age. Hell, they didn’t even attempt it. And now more than ever Kara could see why.
She began to pull off her boots, but her face was angled toward the balcony window, pointing towards Mercury Island however many thousands of miles away. “Celibacy sucks!” she shouted.
But unfortunately, rolling around with Gavin Cross in a totally different exercise couldn’t happen until they’d accomplished their primary objective—sending that black-wing bastard Brakken to the Abyss before he got hold of Gavin’s only child.
Gavin appeared in the Land of Desolation and looked around to get his bearings. Of all the regions of the Shadowland, this place drew the fewest visitors—and gazing at the dreary backdrop, it was easy to see why.
Julian’s lair was small, but it stood out in the vast gray landscape. Gavin flew low under the water-laden clouds and tried to alight on the balcony, but his feet went straight through the illusion. It was still strange to him that out of anything Julian could have conjured, he’d chosen to create an almost exact replica of Kara’s small apartment.
Gavin glanced through the glass doors of the living room. “Julian? May I speak with you?”
He felt something at his back and spun. Julian hovered above him, his black wings stretched wide and his face a stony mask.
“You startled me, brother,” Gavin said. “I thought you might be inside.”
Gavin kept his voice calm, but it cooked his feathers that Julian still hadn’t warmed up to him in all the months he’d brought Kara to visit. Julian had never made a secret of his jealousy, but it baffled Gavin that the bastard could be jealous of him.
Gavin got the insufferable training and Kara’s defiant attitude, he touched her without truly being able to touch her—but Julian had enjoyed the softer parts. The caresses and kind words. The laughter and lovers’ whispers in the dark.
“Why are you here?” Julian asked.
It looked as though he’d allowed his black hair to grow since Gavin’s last visit. It was tied now at the nape of his neck, and he wore soft black leather pants that molded to his legs instead of the tan buckskin they favored on the island. Small changes…but interesting, nonetheless, as though he was finding himself and no longer content with being told what the old Julian preferred.
“I thought it was time to discuss Kara,” Gavin replied.
“I’m listening.”
“She’s still planning to be part of the attack. I can’t dissuade her.”
With a sweep of Julian’s hand, the apartment vanished and two wooden chairs replaced it. “Sit.”
It wasn’t a request, but Gavin sat anyhow. The chair felt strange. Spongy. As though Julian still hadn’t mastered bringing substance to his creations.
Julian sprawled in his chair and regarded Gavin with an expression more empty than blank. “This was never Kara’s fight.”
Gavin’s jaw muscle ticked. “I agree, but something must be done about Brakken. If you care for Kara, you need to understand what a danger he is to her.”
“If I care for her? How dare you question my loyalty. If I were less devoted and put my desire to be with her above her safety, you would be bringing her to me tonight, like the good little courier you are.”
It took everything Gavin had to call his claws back when they began pushing at the tips of his fingers. “She won’t truly be safe until he’s gone. Your help would be a great benefit to the cause…not for me, but for Kara.”
Head held high, Julian glared down his nose at Gavin. “If not for her, I wouldn’t reveal this to any man…but the rules of the Shadowland continue to elude me. It takes all of my concentration to hold that chair together so that you may sit upon it. No matter how much I agree that Brakken deserves the Abyss, until I master this realm, I can’t help you.”
“Have you tried gaining control over your powers?”
“Of course I’ve been trying! I’ve done nothing but try.”
Gavin’s brow furrowed. “There is Mazeki. He’s Aniliáre, like you, and he helped Kara’s father once. I’ve spoken with him regarding your predicament, and he’s willing to help you explore your gifts.”
Julian snorted. “Why would he do that? I don’t know him.”
“He knew you before your rising, but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be reason enough to gain his assistance. He will consider it only after I bring Kara to see him here in the Shadowland.”
The clouds darkened, and the sound of thunder pealed across the skies. Julian stood and his chair winked out of existence. “No. I won’t allow it. With Brakken’s scout tracking Kara’s movements, bringing her to this realm is too dangerous.”
Gavin, too, rose from his chair and stood with his feet set apart. “I agree, but the fact remains—I need your help, Julian. To send Brakken to the Abyss will require more energy than I myself can provide. And don’t be deceived, brother…if you want to keep Kara safe, there is no other way. You must learn to channel your powers and learn it quickly. If not Mazeki’s instruction, then whose?”
“I don’t want Kara stepping foot in the Shadowland again—not even to speak to this Mazeki. I didn’t send her away only to risk her life now. If you want my help, you’ll have to find another way.”
Gavin glanced up at the darkening sky and took a deep breath. “I don’t know another way. No other black-wing will help me do what has to be done. You, my brother…are my only hope.”
Julian laughed. “Brother, brother. You are so free with this word when it suits your purpose, Gavin Cross. You don’t think I see how you look at Kara? If you could run a blade over my throat and seal me back in that grave, I have no doubt you would.”
Of everything this new Julian had said in the months since his Shadow Rising, these words were the worst. They struck Gavin like a physical blow. “In a thousand years of life, I never had a friend as dear to me as you were. You may not remember—hell, you may even despise me now—but you will never take away the memory of my friend and brother.”
When Julian paused, seeming unsure of what to do in the face of Gavin’s strong emotion, Gavin forged ahead. So many words he’d wanted to say and never a right moment to say them to this cold bastard. “You’re right to notice how I look at Kara.
“When you were in your grave, I admitted to her that I loved her. I told her that I’d share her with you if I had to—that I’d even change the laws. And then I waited. Out of respect for you, I waited to see what you would decide after you’d regenerated. I couldn’t have guessed that the man who rose wouldn’t be the man I knew.”
Julian’s eyes were so dark, his irises seemed to be bleeding black along the edges. “Are you saying you thought I w
ould actually agree to that insanity?”
Gavin chuckled, feeling balanced at his tipping point, teetering toward out-of-control. “We shared women before, Julian. Just never a woman we were both in love with. Never a woman we both wanted for all time. But for a life with my best friend and the woman I loved, I was willing to take a chance.”
Julian sighed and shook his head. “You are a strange, strange man.”
Gavin shrugged. He couldn’t disagree that since he’d met Kara, some of his decisions were strange, indeed. “Will you help me?”
Julian crossed his arms over his chest and regarded Gavin for a long time before he finally spoke. “Keep her safe on the surface where she belongs. Do this for me and you have my word—even if the Abyss snaps open its jaws and swallows me whole, I will do my damnedest to take Brakken with me.”
Chapter Two
The Office of Paranormal Affairs was after Kara. She was sure of it.
The same brown-haired guy was sitting at the same spot at the bar for the third night this week. Some muscle-head, body-builder type who looked too young and stupid for his own good. He’d even purchased a touristy Hoolecha Inn T-shirt at some point, as though wearing one helped him blend in. No one wore a Hoolecha Inn T-shirt to the Hoolecha Inn—unless they had the misfortune of working here.
The guy didn’t talk to other patrons. He didn’t try to make small talk with Kara. He just sat, nursing his beer, as though disinterested in life. But when she turned around, she could almost feel his gaze boring holes in her back.
She’d reached out with her mind plenty of times, and she felt something, but she didn’t feel any evil intent like she might with a psycho stalker. And that’s how she knew he was O.P.A. Who else would be so curious about her?
She adjusted the charms under her shirt that she could use to summon her friends in two seconds flat, but decided against using them. When she’d had enough, she finally set her bar rag down in front of him and glared straight into his eyes. “Shouldn’t you have a notepad or something?”
