Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel)

BOOK: Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel)
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CONTENTS

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

The SkinWalker Series

Blood Magic Excerpt

Retribution Excerpt

Acknowledgments

T.G. Ayer’s Full List of Books

About the Author

Connect with Tee

BLOOD

PROMISE

Copyright 2015 by T.G. Ayer

All rights reserved.
 

Find out more about T.G. Ayer at

http://www.tgayer.com/

http://www.tgayer.wordpress.com/

***

Cover art by T.G. Ayer

Cover art © T.G. Ayer. All rights reserved.

Edited by Gracie O'Neil

***

Kindle Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

***

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

CHAPTER 1

I
FROZE
AGAINST
THE
WALL
, my fingers grazing stone slick with blood, my heart punching angrily against my ribs.

Why in Ailuros' name had I agreed to take this case, again?

I had a limited time offer from the Elite High Council, the overseeing body of all paranormals, the older oldest and most respected group in our known history, and I'd wasted five of those days thinking. And right now, I was leaning heavily in their direction. Beats the hell out of working for the peons, which was what Sentinel and Omega were.

A glance to my left confirmed Sentinel Agent Cassandra Monteith was still hunkered down beside me, the metal of her comms glinting in the weak light as she slammed her own bloodied fingers against the screen of her tablet. She'd been doing that for a little too long now.

"Where the hell is he?" I threw the question at her between clenched teeth, held that way because the cold, the intermittent rain, and the elusive vampire-demon were sufficient to chill any girl to her bones.

It was two in the morning and we were standing, backed up against the wall of a house at the edge of a village, huddled there beneath the low eaves of the thatched roof. The meager protection against the drizzle was a relief against the rain. Not that it made me any less wet as drops slithered down the back of my neck, making their way down my spine and into my shirt, dampening what little warmth I had left in my body.

I edged closer to the corner of the wall to peer out across the Scottish moors, and snorted through a nose already partially Panther. "And here I thought your outfit knew what they were doing." A sniff of the wet air produced nothing. As frustratingly nothing as the last time I'd taken a whiff of good Highland air.

"We do. It's just this damned blood."

Behind me, rough fingertips scraped against the fabric of her jeans as Cassandra tried to wipe off the still-slick blood. The mess belonged to the vamp-demon we'd spent the better part of the last day tracking.

Unsuccessfully.

Cassie had gotten off a shot with her fancy demon-revolver, but had only managed to spill some of his blood. And all that got us was confirmation of what his species was, not to mention fingers stained with his disgusting blood. Vamp demons were a strange sub-species, their hemophiliac condition only amped up by their vampiric cells - cells which consumed them from the inside unless they fed regularly.
 

I grunted, more than a little pissed off. "Freaking demon's got a sixth sense or something." I glared at Cassie as if it was her fault. "He seems to know where we are, and when we're about to grab him. Disappears like a freaking ghost at the last minute, every single time."

Cassie narrowed her eyes at me. "I thought you'd amped up your demon-tracking skills thanks to your sister's visit to the Greylands?"

She had a point. Saving Greer from the demon lordlings who controlled the dead world had enhanced my awareness of my own skills. Probably the reason Sentinel wanted me on the job in the first place.

And here I was thinking it was my winning personality.

Too bad for this demon that I wasn't just a wraith-hunter anymore. He could run, but he couldn't hide. Not from me.

"It looks like it's time to break out the big guns." My voice, though grim, fell flat on the moist Highland night. I straightened and leaned my head back against the cold stone.

Cassie rose from her crouch and faced me, her usually straight blonde hair frizzed by the wet air.

"What exactly do you mean?" Her steel-gray eyes flashed a wary, what-the-hell-are-you-thinking look.

I unzipped my sodden parka and dropped it on the driest patch of ground I could find, then knelt to unlace my hiking boots. "We're just wasting precious time. My panther can catch him faster. With all this rain, my nose alone isn't up to the job."

Cassie squinted at me. I ignored her as I unzipped my jeans and slid them off my hips, hissing as the air slapped a coat of icy wetness over my pasty thighs.

She made an odd strangled sound in her throat and looked away. "I'm particularly glad I'm not the one bare-arsed naked in this bloody weather."

She slid past me, swapping places as I wrangled my black jeans off my bare feet and began to slide out of the dark turtleneck sweater which was my last barrier against the climate.

She peered around the corner and gave a frustrated groan. "Still no sign of him. Where the hell is he hiding? I swear he's using some kind of magic. It's likely the only thing able to help keep him hidden from us."

"Either that, or somehow he knows we're coming," I said dryly. Dropping my final pieces of clothing onto my backpack, I straightened, feeling a few unmentionable bits begin to slowly freeze over. I gave a quick shudder. "Right. Here goes. I'm going to shift. Once I've transformed, keep your distance. You'll be familiar to me, but animal instinct can sometimes override my human awareness, so no sudden moves. I can't be held responsible if I eat you."

When I tilted my head to Cassie, and caught a glimpse of her face, it was enough to tempt me to break what little cover we had and burst out laughing.

I didn't give in. "I'm kidding."

Cassandra breathed. "Heavens. You're so terribly funny."

"I try."

An inelegant snort burst from her regal nose. "Next time, please don't."

I smiled and began the shift.

Muscles tightened, icy hot. Skin grew taut, and stretched slowly. Pain ripped through every inch of my body, from the tips of my ears as they lengthened and grew fur, to the hollows of my eye sockets as human gave way to full feline, night vision changing the countryside to varying shades of sharply contrasted grays.

A few strangled, painful minutes later, I stood on all fours, a mere two feet off the ground, giving my massive black panther body a relieved shake.

I gave Cassie a cursory glance, noting the tightness in her neck, and her scent that stank of nerves. That it didn't stink of fear was a true credit to the woman. I liked her even more now than I had when she'd helped save my ass from Illyria the wraith-bitch not too long ago. Her ability to shape-shift had been a true asset to us in the past, and we'd become friends.

The scent of vamp-blood tainted my paws and I strove hard to ignore it, to compartmentalize that area of my brain that wanted only to give in to the call of the wild.
 

Regardless of species, demon blood had a particular scent. My advantage was that this demon was a vampire, a blood-sucking creature that didn't hesitate to break the law and slide through the veil to partake of the warm offerings that many an innocent female, or male, would willingly provide.

BOOK: Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel)
8.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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