Dawn Treadway - Dark Dreams - HarperImpulse Paranormal Romance

He silently cursed Jibreel and the other Goddesses for asking him to locate Jade Shear. Oh yeah, that girl would definitely be trouble.

A slight queasy ache swelled from the pits of his stomach. He straightened his bearing back to that of the warrior he was, returning to his now-comfortable state of numbness.

Nias turned to survey the street. Humans, with their matching white paper coffee cups, sat a little nervously now, lounging and taking in the sun. An ordinary blond couple opened the wooden and glass door and moved into Jade’s establishment. Resting his hands in the front pockets of his faded jeans, he found peace in his old habit of surveillance, and slowly the feelings began to subside.

None of the scattered few had noticed him appear. No wide, stricken eyes or signs of panic were visible. Only the common human reaction of shifting as an anxious tension swept through them. But it always did when a strong high-caste Daemon was near.

His memory shifted to the last image he had of her as he exited the store. She was kneeling on the ground, a disheveled mass of books surrounding her, on her hands and knees in the middle of it. She was a beautiful disaster.

This was the female that was supposed to help him traverse Sheol and rescue his brother?

“Unbelievable,” he grumbled.

He had spent ages, millennia even, in Sheol. He didn’t need assistance. Arousing or not, that clumsy human was going to get them both killed. She couldn’t even manage to stand on her legs; how the hell was he supposed to traverse Sheol with her? Much less kill multiple caste-leveled Shaitan in blazing underworld heat. And he was there to seek her help? The woman on her hands and knees, knocking things over and tumbling to the ground – she was supposed to be able to protect him from the Shaitan ? He realized his teeth were grinding.

Nias had a flash, a sudden, intense desire to leave her, to never see this female again. This is a really stupid plan. People are going to die; this girl is going to die.

Now he had to return to Jibreel and her sisters and tell them he had found her. This day just kept getting better and better.

“I am fucked,” he said to himself and transcended out.

Nias opened the immense white door and stepped through for the second time in a scant few hours, taking long strides over the cloudlike path toward the Goddesses. Bathed in a bright light, the area consumed him in a powdery whiteness. He kept his head down, raising a hand to his brow and using the front sheet of his hair like a shield against its radiance.

Djinn were rarely asked to meet with the Goddesses, and almost never here, at the Temple. And so, when he received the summons that morning, curiosity got the better of him, and he transcended immediately to the place of worship. Now he returned with a pit in his stomach to tell them the “good” news.

Three of the High Goddesses stood facing him, the edges of their figures wavering against the light that Daemon could barely gaze upon. “Eternally beautiful, eternally dark, it has always been curious how he made your kind. If he were capable of love, or even remote affection, I would say it was used during your creation.” The center Goddess tilted her head of glimmering white hair to the side, using her hands to trace his outline when she spoke to him.

“Thank you, Goddess, your compliments honor me, as always.” Nias, although playing the subservient to their vanity, couldn’t help but curl the side of his mouth in a flirty smirk, his golden eyes flashing with a hint of mischief. He continued walking, moving close to her and leaning in toward her ear when he spoke next. Lowering his tone to something just north of a whisper, “Jibreel, thank you for inviting me back into your home.” He couldn’t help but tease them. They were without true male companionship in Arcadia.

She sighed and then noticed the other two Goddesses looking at him as well and stood up straight to regain an authoritative posture. “Our creatures in the Unseen tell us Joss is being held by the Empusa; this is good news for you. It gives you plenty of time to train the girl and prepare her for your journey into Sheol.”

“Train the girl for our journey into Sheol? You have to realize what you’re saying is absurd.”

The ethereal blonde to his left immediately became more animated. “Djinn! You will not speak this way to Jibreel! With a wave of my hand I could end your life. It would, in fact, be a pleasure. I do not share Jibreel’s affection for creatures like you. Whether above ground or below, I would end you all. I see how dangerous you all are. And you, specifically, Nias.”

I dare you to try, he thought, but made sure not to show his feelings about her threats openly. He spoke to them with a deep, composed voice. “You know as well as I, no living human belongs in Sheol.” He inwardly shuddered at the memories of his time there … of what he was tasked to do. “I can certainly handle anything they can throw at me. What possible good can come from me training her?”

“You are the most capable warrior available. You know why Phaeton cannot go; he needs to retain his position as Sovereign of the Djinn Sentry. To leave the humans unguarded would bring chaos. We require your help, and your brother needs you.”

The Goddess Eeia had intentionally used Phaeton’s new title to gauge Nias’s reaction, he knew, and was sure she was not disappointed as he bristled at the sound of it. “Unquestionably I will go for Joss, but the woman, I don’t need her. I won’t take her.” Do not order me to take her, come on, girls, do not make me take the beautiful trouble, Nias silently pleaded.

“If she has retained the Gifts she will ease your passage. For your brother, for the balance, you will take her. Are her powers legitimate? Could you feel her?” Oh yeah, he was feeling her all right, way too much, in fact.

“Yes, yes, she has powers.” He knew then he had lost this argument. For his brother he would take the girl. “She is stronger than I have ever felt from a human. The empathic Gifts granted to Jade are definitely potent.” Speaking of the girl brought on a reaction in him he didn’t know what to do with. He found himself shifting from one cloud-covered combat boot to the other. I do not shift uncomfortably, he thought. He corrected himself once again, retaking his typical firm, masculine stance. Gritting his teeth, Nias lowered his head slightly and exhaled, resigned to the course the Goddesses had set him on.

Damn.

Jade figured she must have blacked out, because one moment she was walking home from the bookstore after staying, despite Matt’s protests, and the next she was inside what looked to be a large amazing loft space. She was inside someone’s home. She dropped to her knees, hitting a cold, hard floor, and then she fell into a kind of shock.

She started muttering to herself, “Okay, this is too weird. I was just outside, and the sky was dark. Now I’m in somebody’s loft, where I can plainly see out that window,” she pointed a dizzy finger toward the floor-to-ceiling casement, “the sun isn’t even down; it is clearly twilight out there.” She was talking to herself out loud, to hear her own voice more than anything. She turned her body to figure out exactly where she was, and her chin ran smack into the denim-covered legs and steel-toed combat boots of the man who was responsible. And she screamed as loud as she could.

Nias fell to his knees and put his hand over her mouth.

“Woman, you are obviously upset, and at this point I can understand that, but if you would stop with the screeching and remain calm, I can explain everything.”

That was good because she wanted some answers. “Where am I? How did I get here? Did I pass out? Did you give me drugs? Are you some kind of kidnapper? If you are, I will let you know now you definitely have the wrong girl. I haven’t a dime in the world, so you might as well just save yourself the trouble and let me go!” Her words came out rapid-fire, a battering tempest of chatter that she could see nearly overwhelmed him.