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CHAPTER ONE
New York City
Present day
JOSEPHINA AISLING PEERED down at the male splayed across the motel room bed He was an immortal warrior, beautiful in a way no mortal could ever hope to be Silky hair of jet, chestnut and flax spilled over the pillow, thethe eye to linger a minute, then a minute moresweet mercy, why not forever?
His na nose and a stubborn chin At six feet four, he was cut with the kind of h he wore stained and dirty pants, she knew a large butterfly tattoo doht side of his hip, the ink thick and black, a little jagged The tops of the wings stretched over the h theled to lift from his skin--or burrow deeper
Either was possible The tattoo was a n of the demon contained inside Kane’s body
Demonshe shuddered Rulers of hell Liars, thieves Murderers They were darkness without any hint of light They lured and tempted They ruined, tortured and destroyed
But Kane wasn’t the dehty Fae, she had spent a good portion of her life studying Kane and his friends--the Lords of the Underworld In fact, at the co, spies had spent countless centuries following the warriors, watching and reporting back Scribes had then printed books with stories and pictures of what they’d witnessed Mothers had bought those books and read therown up, they had made their own purchases, the need to knohat happened next too strong to ignore
The Lords of the Underworld had become the stars of the best and the worst soap opera in Séduire, the realm of the Fae
Josephina always ate up every detail Especially those about the ultra sexy Paris and the devastatingly lonely Torin Kane, the beautiful tragedy, was a close third She could probably recite his life history better than she could her own
He was thousands of years old He’d only had four serious girlfriends in his lifetiless one-night stands He’d fought in bloody battle after bloody battle with his eneed to capture and torture him--and she’d waited, breathless, to hear of his escape
Going back even further, to the beginning, he and his friends had stolen and opened Pandora’s box, unleashing the demons from inside The Greeks had been in power at the ti their bodies into receptacles for the very evil they’d freed Kane carried Disaster The others carried Promiscuity, Disease, Distrust, Violence, Death, Pain, Wrath, Doubt, Lies, Misery, Secrets and Defeat Each creature ca curse
Promiscuity had to sleep with a neoman every day or he weakened and died
Disease couldn’t touch another living creature without starting a plague
Disaster caused catastrophes everywhere Kane went, a fact that sliced at Josephina’s heart and resonated deep Her entire life was a disaster
"Don’t touch me," he s kicked the already battered sheets away "Hands off Stop I said stop!"
Poor Kane Another night you," she assured him "You’re safe"
He calmed, and she released a relieved breath
When she’d first stumbled upon him, he’d been chained to a dais in hell, his chest cavity split open, his ribs spread and exposed, his wrists and ankles hanging on by fraying tendons
He’d looked like a slab of beef at the local butcher’s
I’ll have a two-pound ruround chuck
Gross Just gross I’usted with you Over the years, she’d spent sowith herself had become her only source of amusementand sadly, companionship I would have ordered four pounds of pork loin
Despite his condition, finding hi to ever happen to her He was her ticket to freedom Or possiblyacceptance?
Princess Synda, her half sister and the Fae’s most bestest female ever born, wasn’t a Lord, but she carried the demon of Irresponsibility Apparently, there had beenwarriors, and the excess had been given to the inround prison for immortals Synda’s first husband had been one of those inmates, and somehohen the male had died, the de of the Fae had learned of it, he’d launched a hunt for details about the cause--and the solution So far, everyone had co of the Fae High Court, show hiation has, and ht see me, really see me, for the first time in my life
Her shoulders drooped No, I’ back
Josephina had always been, and would always be the royal whipping girl, there to receive the punishments Synda the Beloved was due
Synda was always due
Last week, in a fit of teround the royal stables, and all of the animals trapped inside Josephina’s sentence? A ticket to the Never-ending--a portal leading into hell