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Chapter One

The auction house on the outskirts of Chicago didn’t look like a cesspit

Behind the iron fences the elegant brick structure sprawled over the landscape with a visible arrogance The roos that boasted beautiful ant chandeliers And on the advice of a professional, they had been decorated with thick ivory carpets, glossy dark paneling, and hand-carved furniture

The overall atmosphere was the sort of quiet hush that only money could buy Lots and lots of money

It was the sort of swanky place that should be peddling rare paintings, priceless jewels, and museum artifacts Instead it was no more than a flesh market A sehere de pleasant about the slave trade Not even when the trade was demons rather than humans It was a sordid business that attracted every decadent, demented slime ball in the country

They caht deuards Those who lusted after the more exotic sex slaves Those who believed the blood of deic or eternal life And those who purchased demons to be released into their private lands and hunted like wild animals

The bidders were h money to sate their twisted pleasures

And at the top of the dung heap was the owner of the auction house, Evor He was one of the lesser trolls whoupon the misery of others with a smile on his face

Someday Shay intended to kill Evor

Unfortunately it would not be today

Or rather tonight

Attired in ridiculous harem pants and a tiny sequined top that revealed far more than it concealed, she paced the cra raven black hair had been pulled to a braid that hung nearly to her waist Better to reveal her slanted golden eyes, the delicate cast to her features, and the bronzed skin thatother than human

Less than two months before she had been a slave to a coven of witches who intended to bring Ar was preferable to being their toady as she helplessly watched their evil plotting

Hell, it’s tough to top genocide

It was only when she had been forced back to the power of Evor that she understood that death was not always the worst fate

The grave was really nothing coht Shay struck out with her foot, sending the lone table sailing through the air to crash against the iron bars with astonishing force

Froard the s behind a chair in the far corner

Levet wasn’t rotesque features Thick gray skin, reptilian eyes, horns, and cloven hoofs He even possessed a long tail he polished and pahtening appearance, he was barely three feet tall and worse, as far as he was concerned, he possessed a pair of delicate, gossa on a sprite or a fairy than a lethal creature of the dark

As if to add to his humiliation his poere unpredictable under the best of circu in action

It was little wonder he had been voted out of the Gargoyle Guild and forced to fend for himself They claimed he was an embarrassment to the entire community, and not one had stepped forhen he had been captured and made a slave by Evor

Shay had taken the pathetic creature under her protection the moment she had been forced back to the auction house Not only because she possessed a regrettable tendency to leap to the defense of anyone weaker than herself, but because she knew that it aggravated Evor to have his favorite whipping boy taken away

The troll ht hold the curse that bound her, but if he pressed her far enough she would be willing to kill him, even if it meant an end to her own life

"Cherie, did the table do so to teach it a lesson?" Levet de French accent

Not at all the sort of thing to ioyles

Shay se, they do not greatly reseave a ridiculous wiggle of his thick brow "In that case, I do not suppose you are iood, but not that good, gargoyle"