Larissa Ione - Passion Unleashed

Special thanks to the fabulous staff at Grand Central Publishing, from the cover art department to my copyeditor and editor, Amy Pierpont. I’m so very lucky to be working with such talented people.

And a huge thank you to Justin Knupp of Stonecreek Media, for being so great to work with and for being such a big, visible part of the Demonica world.

Finally, a big “love ya, gals,” to the Writeminded Readers Group and the Writeminded blog ladies, Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Amy Knupp, and Stephanie Tyler. You are my much-needed support group!

The Aegis —Society of human warriors dedicated to protecting the world from evil. See: Guardians, Regent, Sigil

Carceris —The jailors of the underworld. All demon species send representatives to serve terms in the Carceris. Carceris members are responsible for apprehending demons accused of violating demon law, and for acting as guards in the Carceris prisons.

Council —All demon species and breeds are governed by a Council that makes laws and metes out punishment for individual members of their species or breed.

Dresdiin —The demon equivalent of angels.

Fakires —Derogatory term used by vampires to describe humans who either believe themselves to be real vampires or who pretend to be vampires.

Guardians —Warriors for The Aegis, trained in combat techniques, weapons, magic. Upon induction into The Aegis, all Guardians are presented with an enchanted piece of jewelry bearing the Aegis shield, which, among other things, allows for night vision and the ability to see through demon invisibility enchantment.

Harrowgate —Vertical portals, invisible to humans, which demons use to travel between locations on Earth and Sheoul.

Infadre —A female of any demon species who has been impregnated by a Seminus demon.

Maleconcieo —Highest level of ruling demon boards, served by a representative from each species Council. The United Nations of the demon world.

Orgesu —A demon sex slave, often taken from breeds bred specifically for the purpose of providing sex.

Regent —Head(s) of local Aegis cells.

Renfield —Fictional character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Also, derogatory term for any human who serves a vampire. A vampire groupie.

S’genesis —Final maturation cycle for Seminus demons. Occurs at one hundred years of age. A post-s’genesis male is capable of procreation and possesses the ability to shapeshift into the male of any demon species.

Sheoul —Demon realm. Located deep in the bowels of Earth, accessible only by Harrowgates.

Sheoul - gra —A holding tank for demon souls. The place where demon souls go until they can be reborn or kept in torturous limbo.

Sheoulic —Universal language spoken by all demons, though many species speak their own language.

Sigil —Board of twelve humans known as Elders, who serve as the supreme leaders of The Aegis. Based in Berlin, they oversee all Aegis cells worldwide.

Swans —Humans who act as blood or energy donors for vampires, either actual undead or fakires.

Ter’taceo —Demons who can pass as human, either because their species is naturally human in appearance, or because they can shapeshift into human form.

Therionidryo —Term a were-beast uses for a person he or she bit and turned into another were-beast.

Therionidrysi —Any survivor of a were-beast attack. Term used to clarify the relationship between the sire and his therionidryo.

Ufelskala —A scoring system for demons, based on their degree of evil. All supernatural creatures and evil humans can be categorized into the five Tiers, with the Fifth Tier comprised of the worst of the wicked.

Classification of Demons , as listed by Baradoc, Umber demon, using the demon breed Seminus as an example:

Kingdom: Animalia

Class: Demon

Family: Sexual Demon

Genus: Terrestrial

Species: Incubus

Breed: Seminus

There were three things Wraith did well: hunt, fight, and fuck. He was going to do all three tonight. In exactly that order.

Crouching on the rooftop of a shop run by immigrants who had probably come from such a shitty country that the violence in the streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn, didn’t faze them, Wraith waited.

He’d spied the gang members earlier, had scented their aggression, their need to draw blood, and Wraith’s own need to do the same stirred. Like any predator, he’d chosen his target with care. But unlike most predators, he didn’t go for the weak or the aged. Screw that. He wanted the strongest, the biggest, the most dangerous.

He liked his pint of blood with an adrenaline chaser.

Unfortunately, Wraith couldn’t make a kill tonight. He’d already met his one-human-kill-per-month limit set by the Vampire Council, and no way in Sheoul would he go over.

Strange that he worried about it, given that ten months ago Wraith had happily gone through his s’genesis, a change that should have made him a monster who operated only on instinct—an instinct to screw as many demon females as possible, with the goal being to impregnate them. An added bonus of the s’genesis was that male Seminus demons became so focused on their sex drives that they cared little for anything else. But in Wraith’s case, he was also a vampire, so killing things was in his blood. So to speak.

Eager to get started with his new life, Wraith had found a way to bring on The Change early. Unfortunately, it didn’t change a damned thing. Oh, he wanted to screw and impregnate females, but that was nothing new. The only difference was that now he could impregnate them. Oh, and he also had to shapeshift into the male of their species to do it, because no female on Earth or in Sheoul, the demon realm in the planet’s core, would knowingly bed a post-s’genesis Seminus demon. No one wanted to give birth to offspring that would be born a purebred Seminus despite the mixed mating.

So yeah, a few things had changed, but not enough. Wraith still remembered the horrors of his past. He still cared about his two brothers and the hospital they had all started together. Sometimes he wasn’t sure which was worse.

Wraith scented the air, taking in the recent rain, the rancid odors of stale urine, decaying garbage, and spicy Haitian cuisine from the hovel next door. Darkness swirled around him, cloaking him in the shadows, and a cold January breeze ruffled his shoulder-length hair but did nothing to ease the heat in his veins.