Larissa Ione - Passion Unleashed

Rage iced over his dark eyes, and his lips peeled back to reveal daggerlike canines. Any sane human would be terrified, but not Serena.

She had a little secret. She’d been protected by a divine charm for eighteen years, since the day it was bestowed upon her at the age of seven, and no harm could come to her.

Not so long as she remained a virgin.

Marcus lunged for her throat. Serena angled away, and for no apparent reason, the vampire lost his balance, slipped off the seat, and landed in a heap on the floor. The groupies hovering nearby either backed away or rushed in to help him up, but he came to his feet in an explosion of anger.

His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, but he hadn’t avoided being slain by Aegis Guardians for centuries by causing scenes. Wisely, he did nothing more threatening than curse at her, and then he whirled away in dramatic vampire fashion, the crowd swallowing him and his Renfields as they followed on his heels.

Before Marcus figured out she’d lifted his bracelet, she needed to haul ass—

Something flashed in front of her. No… inside her. A crisp pop burst in her ears, echoing from somewhere in her head. A wash of nausea made her break out in a cold sweat. Instinctively, she reached for her pendant, let the cool, smooth orb comfort her.

Except, the comfort was short-lived. The pendant glowed. A warning. Her cloak… compromised. She was exposed.

Jerking to her feet, she stumbled toward the exit on wobbly legs. She needed to get home. Back to Val’s mansion.

Because for the first time in eighteen years of living a carefree, sheltered life, Serena was afraid.

Byzamoth fell back in his seat, panting, body shuddering. Orgasmic waves of power pumped through him, the name he’d just learned breaking softly from his lips.

Serena Kelley.

He hadn’t known the identity of the human he’d been seeking, but everything about her was now as clear as a witch’s crystal ball.

Too quickly, the power fizzled, leaving him weak, but no less ecstatic. His palm burned, but it was a lovely pain, easily endured. He opened his fist, where the cause of the discomfort, a golf-ball-sized orb known as Eth’s Eye, glowed red. Red instead of gold, because it had been used for evil rather than good.

Exhausted, he let his head fall against the seat rest and gazed up at the ceiling of the Israeli house he’d commandeered this morning. The family who’d inhabited it lay at various angles around him, dead eyes staring blindly. The youngest female virgin had volunteered herself as the blood sacrifice Byzamoth had needed to activate the evil capabilities of Eth’s Eye.

“Volunteered” was probably too strong a word, but in any case, Byzamoth had gotten what he wanted. He’d found the most important human in the universe, the one who would be instrumental in kicking off the most significant event in demon history.

“It’s started,” he said to the demon standing in the living room entrance.

Lore entered, a massive male covered from neck to toe, including his hands, in black leather that matched his short hair. He was one of the most efficient killers Byzamoth had come across, a male whose touch killed everything his bare hand came into contact with.

Byzamoth might be immortal, but even he gave Lore a wide berth.

“I don’t give a shit about your war. I want my money.”

“Why the rush?”

“My partner failed to kill the Vampire demon. I need to finish the job.”

Byzamoth waved his hand. “You’ll get your payment, but it won’t matter. Soon, money will be worthless. Pain will be the new currency.”

“Yeah, well, right now cash buys beer, so hand it over.”

Byzamoth smiled. Even now, the underworld would begin to stir with the sense that something was coming, even if that something was still a mystery to them. Few would understand the significance of what Byzamoth had just done, which was to lift the divine cloak of invisibility that had shielded Serena from demon eyes for so long.

For years she had walked the Earth disguised as a normal human, and few, if any, were the wiser. Until now.

Fortunately for her, she was still charmed and still the keeper of the necklace, Heofon, and no one could take either away from her—not against her will.

No one but a select few individuals. Like Byzamoth.

He had every intention of taking them against her will.

And when he was done with her, he’d be in possession of the most powerful weapon imaginable, and demons would finally rule the world.

Doctor Gemella Endri sat in UG’s conference room with her sister and Eidolon’s mate, Tayla, at her right side and Shade at her left. Eidolon and doctors Shakvhan and Reaver sat across from them. Tension thickened the air, growing more oppressive as the night went on with no new, feasible ideas for how to save Wraith

Who had been sedated after Shade and E told him he was dying. Wraith had taken the news surprisingly well, but neither Shade nor Eidolon had trusted him to not immediately take off after the second assassin. They wanted him here, where they could monitor his health, though they had to know that their little brother wouldn’t be held immobile for long. That demon couldn’t sit still, and doing nothing wasn’t in his DNA.

Making matters even worse, the hospital had been plagued by odd equipment and structural failures. All of the windows lining the inside of the administrative area had cracked, the lights in the cafeteria flickered constantly, and the third-wing lava bath had leaked, destroying the sulphur-steam room next to it. Eidolon had been kept too busy with the problems to concentrate on medicine, because every time he fixed one thing, something else would go wrong.

“I had a consult with an Orphmage this morning,” Gem said, “but he was no help.”

She hadn’t expected the powerful Cruentus mage to be of assistance, but it had been worth a shot. Cruenti had a bloodthirsty love of killing that didn’t stop even at their own species, so she’d thought that maybe a Cruentus mage capable of the vilest of death magic would know something about how to interrupt mordlair toxin.

He’d been more interested in how to get some for himself.

“I could try again—” She broke off with a gasp.

A sinister wash of energy rolled over her, followed by several smaller concussions, as if a stone had been dropped into tainted water. She was about to ask if anyone else felt it, but from their expressions, she definitely was not the only one at the table to experience the… whatever it was. Even after the tiny waves stopped, the uneasy feeling remained, a sense that something evil had ripped into the very fabric of life.

Something bad, something very, very bad had been set into motion.

“What the hell was that?” E rasped, seeming more affected than Gem, but then, he was full-blooded demon, and she was half human, less sensitive to the tides of evil.

Gem shook her head, which did nothing to get rid of the impending feeling of doom.

“Reaver?” Tayla leaped to her feet. “Shit!”

All heads turned to the fallen angel, who sat in his high-backed leather seat… convulsing. Instantly, the doctors and Shade, a paramedic, had him on the floor and were assessing his condition, but this wasn’t a medical issue, and both Gem and Tayla knew it.

“Leave him alone.” Tayla’s voice shook as badly as Gem’s hands.

Thanks to their half-Soulshredder parentage, the sisters could see that Reaver had split wide open along the seam of an invisible scar that ran from his throat to his groin.

Soulshredders possessed the ability to see scars, both physical and emotional, that no one else could. Their species used their ability to expose old wounds, exploit them, make them worse. Gem had spent twenty-six years battling her nature, sometimes unsuccessfully. But her nature also gave her a lot of advantages when it came to her job.