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Chapter 1

Laylah was tired

She was tired of the dark, cra beneath the northeast corner of Missouri that she’d been running through for the past two days She was tired of being chased by an ene with hunger and her li a sers through the short, spiky strands of her brilliant red hair, her black eyes searching the shadows for her pursuer

Not that she expected to actually catch sight of the frigid pain in her ass

Vath, but they could shroud the them impossible to sense, even to most demons It was only because she had the power of Jinn blood running through her veins that she could detect the relentless leech following her h the tunnels

What she didn’t knoas …

Why

She shivered, herso clever when she’d initially allowed the va with the other intruders, away from Caine’s private lair

Not that she gave a damn about the cur, but she’d hidden her most precious treasure at his estate, and she couldn’t afford to allow any creature with the superior senses of a vampire, or even a full-blooded Were, near her secret She’d thought the derow tired of the ga to Hannibal or even St Louis

But her hasty plan had fallen apart right from the start

The Were had continued on his path to Caine’s lair, and the vaive up, no matter how far or how fast she’d run

Now she was too weak to call upon her shadoalking powers, and too far from Caine to call for his help

"Oh, screw it," sheher chin in unspoken defiance "I know you’re followingchill thickened the air, prickling painfully over her skin

"You think you can give me orders, half-breed?" A dark, sinfully beautiful voice filled the cavern

Laylah’s heart missed a beat Even with her demon blood she wasn’t immune to the ruthless sensuality that was as s

"What I think is that I’o chase soed to leadher suddenly dry lips He couldn’t know No one kneay fro," the dark voice drawled "It reat importance"

Laylah forced herself to suck in a deep breath, refusing to panic The stupid va to press her buttons Everyone knew that they loved to toy with their prey

"I don’t knohat the hell you’re talking about"

"Hers brush her nape, the cold touch ironically sending a bolt of heat straight to the pit of her stomach She whirled around, not surprised that the predator had disappeared

"The bird?" she rasped, belatedly wishing she earingsoher feel oddly vulnerable

Not that clothing would halt a determined vampire

It wouldn’t matter if she were dipped in cement and wrapped with barbed wire

"When a predator approaches the nest, theand dash away to lure the danger fro to speak directly into her ear

She instinctively stumbled backward, her mouth dry with a sudden fear

"The only quail I care about are baked and served on a bed of rice"

"What are you trying to protect?" There was a deliberate pause "Or is it who?"

"I don’t knohat the hell you’re talking about"

"Is it a lover? A sibling? A child?" His soft chuckle grazed her cheek as the sharp leap of her pulse gave her away "Ah, that’s it Your child?"

Laylah bunched her hands into fists of frustration He was getting too close She had to distract the bastard

"I thought vae," she deliberately taunted, willing to risk a battle she couldn’t win if it would keep her secrets "Are you such a coward you have to hide in the shadows?"

The chill thickened, the danger a tangible force in the air Then, the shadows directly before her stirred, and the va as if she’d just been punched in the gut

All vampires were beautiful And sexy Wickedly, indecently sexy But this one …

Reaze to skiant features that revealed his Polynesian ancestors, lingering on the slanted eyes that were a brilliant shade of honey and the inky black hair that had been shaved on the sides, leaving the top to foraze lowered, that vicious awareness twisting her gut at the sight of his half naked body barely covered by a pair of khaki shorts

Da leech

Had he deliberately left his body on full, wondrous display? After all, he had to knoould ate the so down the flat plane of his stomach …

Lost in her helpless response to his sensual beauty, she was jerked back to the danger of her situation as the de the curve of her neck

"Have you never been told the dangers of provoking a vampire?" he murmured