Extraits

Prologue

The smell of my fear was intoxicating to them. I couldn’t seem to stop my pulse from racing or the light sheen of sweat wanting to develop on my palms. Both had started the moment I’d sensed the threat.

I’d foolishly been preoccupied with thoughts of attending a birthday celebration for a three-year-old boy and had allowed the group of were-panthers to get the jump on me. I knew better than to believe I could have a night without violence. A night without being stalked by creatures of the dark who wanted nothing more than to see me dead. After I helped them find their dark prince.

As if I even know who the dark prince is.

Three years was a long time to live in fear. I’d pulled back from the public eye, hoping to avoid incidents such as this but it hadn’t helped. No. They were attacking at an alarming rate. Where once it had been random, yet violent, it was now bordering on nightly.

Low growls sounded from the shadows, the places the security lights didn’t reach, reminding me I wasn’t alone. I’d counted four of them but I’d been fooled before. Two lay in bloody heaps less than ten feet from me and two more stalked me. Their supernatural senses no doubt heightened to the point they could hear even the slightest intake of breath on my part. I lacked the ability to shape shift. Part of me was glad, less shaving and all, but another part was envious. I was tired of them having the advantage. While I wasn’t weak, I wasn’t exactly a die-hard killing machine. I knew enough to get by but “getting by” seemed to be harder as of late.

I stared down at the blood-covered, colorfully wrapped birthday present. The tiny train pattern was perfect for a little boy turning three, or had been prior to me bleeding all over it. I’d found Rickie a group of engines for the wooden set he’d be opening at his party—a party I’d sworn I'd be at but would not make. Even if I somehow managed to survive, I couldn’t show up in my condition. I wasn’t sure of the extent of my injuries, being immortal tended to skew my judgment when it came to what one would consider mortal wounds, but I knew I was in bad shape.

Already, I’d lost feeling in one arm but I was thankful. Before I’d managed to kill two of them, they’d slammed me off the hood of seven different vehicles. The white-hot pain in my shoulder had now eased to a dull ache. I did my best to stay upright but went to one knee all the same. I could feel them moving in on me. They were close but still put off by my display of power. I hadn’t intended to use as much magik as I did but was grateful I had.

My gaze flickered to the dead men. I should have felt remorse for taking lives. If I lived through the night I just might have guilt. Though, with the rate they’d been attacking and what they’d stolen from me in the past, I doubted I’d have too many issues with it all. My vision blurred at the same moment I felt a familiar presence closing in on me. It radiated safety. It was also the only solace I had as I gave in and collapsed completely to the hard surface of the parking lot. I blinked and forced my gaze upwards. I didn’t want the last thing I saw in this world to be a dead were-panther. The moon would work nicely as a substitute.