Enthralled: Tainted Book Four

1. Tease

Kerry Harker

If hope was a woman, she'd be one of those exotic strippers at that high-end club downtown. Exciting and beautiful and desirable, but only a tease in the end.

I'd just recalled Spin and his team when Travis found out the exact location of the only other Alchemist we knew about. Christopher Remington was going to be at a big, fancy party tomorrow night in Boston, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I had Spin redirect to Massachusetts with strict orders to grab Remington if he could or at least get a tracker on the guy.

So that messed up my plan, and it got messed up even more when the wolves arrived.

The day before we met Darius, Hank had gotten a call from his best friend, Angelo del Vecchio, who was better known as Angelo della Morte or, in my part of the city, the Angel of Death. Seemed Angelo recently mated into a werewolf pack somewhere down south, and a coupla wolves caught the scent of a neph, a dark witch, and something Diabolical prowling around the pack border. Angelo's alphas had asked him to investigate, seeing as he had so many connections in the dark world, and he'd called Hank first, hoping to identify the neph.

I hadn't been too keen to get involved in any of it, but the second Hank had showed me the photos taken by one of the pack's security cameras, I'd changed my mind real quick. I'd recognized Bennie the witch and her 'special friend' Runa immediately.

After I had confirmed their identities and that they were here in New York, Angelo had said he'd be arriving as soon as possible with his crew to search for a she-wolf that Runa had stolen as a newborn right outta her hospital crib nearly eighteen years ago.

Then Hank had shown me the rest of the photos, and I'd to reel in my power when I saw Samuel Castle's too-familiar face as well as the shadow prince.

Those son of whores can't die soon enough to satisfy me...

"Dude, you're growling."

I glanced at my best friend and tried not to snarl at him.

Jax Kostas had assigned himself to be my keeper almost from the day I met him, and I usually appreciated it since I wasn't too stable at the best of times. Being possessed by a demon for ten years'll do that to anyone, I reckoned, but I'd been making progress in the seven or so months since the exorcism.

And then my girl was kidnapped.

Twice.

This last time, a djinni took her. Not just any djinni, either. This one was enslaved to a human who drank the blood of nephilim and was best buds with a demon prince.

So, yeah, the only stable I knew now was the kind where horses lived.

I woulda started looking for my angel right away, woulda dragged myself along with my fingertips if I had to, but the fight with Solomon's djinn had drained me for the first time in my life. I'd been so weak, I couldn't even lift my head from the pillow.

Those few days were some of the worst I'd ever endured. My body was outta commission, but my mind wasn't, and all I could think about was how I'd failed my girl again.

Jax kept reminding me that we'd rescued our friends - himself included - and destroyed City of the Future so no other neph would ever go through the torture dealt out there. I guess he thought that was supposed to be comforting, but my angel mattered more than anything else in the world to me, and I would crave blood and death until I found her.

And after I do, I'll track down every son of a whore who had a hand in taking her away from me and end them. But they'll suffer first. Oh, yes. They will suffer—