Dark Awakening

• Prologue
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Epilogue
  
• About the Author
  
• More Paranormal Romance by Patti O'Shea
  
• Dedication and Acknowledgements
  
• About Crimson City
  
• Crimson City Novella Excerpts
  

Dark Awakening

Copyright © 2007, 2011 by Patti O'Shea

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

Cover art © 2011 by Hot Damn Designs

Augustin sneered at the human woman sleeping beside him. She was so much less than he deserved. He was Bak-Faru, the strongest and greatest of the demon branches—all should bow before him. Trailing a finger over her cheek, he imagined transforming it into a claw. It would be easy to shred her delicate skin, to cause exquisite agony, and his palm itched with the desire to tear into her flesh. But he could not. At least not yet. He breathed deeply until the urge passed.

For the present, Augustin needed the human. There was a
kijo
in the city; he was powerful enough to have felt her presence, but had been unable to identify her. His bedmate, however, knew who the kijo was and had agreed to assist him—for a price. His contempt rushed back.

He must remember the plan. Later he could kill this woman who would betray not only the kijo, but thought to break faith with him as well. He'd read her thoughts, discerned her scheme to use him to steal the kijo's powers for herself. Such would not happen. As soon as the traitor was expendable, she was dead.

With another deep breath, he forced his fingers to relax. He needed the kijo and her magic. Immediately. None were yet aware that his strength had begun to wane, and although he still held power far beyond any other, he'd not be able to conceal his loss indefinitely. He had enemies, demons who would think nothing of ripping out his heart were they able to do so, and each eve he woke a shade less robust. Whether it was because the portal to Orcus had closed or some other reason, he knew not, but he had to act while he remained potent. Fate had chosen to side with him.

One kijo was born every five or six centuries. That he should find her now was an omen, especially since she had only begun her lessons. He would be unable to take her magic if she were fully trained. Yes, fortune had smiled upon him. He leaned back against the pillows and linked his hands behind his head. Soon his powers would exceed anything even he had known, then he would rule the Overworld and all would serve him.

The previous attempts by the Bak-Faru to take control of this realm had failed because of poor leadership. Most had been killed or banished. Augustin would not make their mistakes. Still, his efforts to organize the remaining demons had largely failed, and he had one servant—a weak Ciretham who'd enslaved himself in exchange for protection. If they were in Orcus he could bend stronger demons to his will, but it was not so easy here in the human world. Once he took the kijo's powers, however, and blended them with his own, few would have any choice save to obey.

He had the spell committed to memory, but in order for it to extract her magic, he had to take the kijo's body by force. Augustin smiled. He preferred nonconsensual sex. In the two hundred years of his life, nothing had ever compared to the release he found as he ravished another—demon, human, werewolf, or vampire; it mattered not.

The memories left him aroused. He shook the blond woman awake, pushed back the covers, and grabbed her hair to pull her to his erection. At first she resisted and his blood surged, but to his disappointment, she quickly complied. As she serviced him, Augustin fantasized about the kijo struggling against his domination. It didn't take him long to find release.

Kimi put the folder in its place and shut the cabinet drawer before grabbing the next file. She couldn't believe a big-time ad agency like Smith and Copeland didn't have all its old campaigns stored digitally. Paper was archaic, and besides, she was supposed to be interning as a copywriter, not a clerk.

She knew why she'd been given this boring job—it was punishment for coming back late from lunch. Could she help it if Santos was having a huge shoe sale? Was it her fault they didn't have enough employees on duty? Of course not. But those black heels she'd tried on had done spectacular things for her legs and she wasn't leaving them behind to hurry back to work. Kimi went still and her lips curved as she imagined how Nic would stare when he saw her in a short, formfitting black dress and those pumps.

Her smile faded, and huffing out a long breath, she yanked open the drawer. He probably wouldn't care what she wore. After all, he'd been avoiding her since shortly after they'd been introduced at Mika and Conor's wedding. That had been eight months ago and now Kimi didn't even know where Nic was—San Francisco? Or had he returned to the Underworld?

With a scowl, she grabbed the next file. Of course, she hadn't realized when they'd met that he was a demon. Kimi hadn't even been aware at the time that Mika was half demon, and Mika was her cousin. Uncle David had been keeping one hell of a secret—Grandma Noguchi was still miffed about it.

Not that Kimi blamed her; she was kind of irritated, too. For more than a year while her mom had been undergoing cancer treatment, she'd lived with Mika and Uncle David, and Kimi had never had a clue. The only one in the family who'd taken the news calmly was her dad, and Kimi couldn't help wondering if he'd been in on it. And she wondered if her dad knew something else. He'd been the one who'd arranged her internship at this firm. At the time her guess was that he'd done it because she'd changed her major three times and was waffling about her current choice—English. She'd believed he was trying to show her the job possibilities if she stuck with it, but now she questioned that. He was a big-shot in the San Francisco advertising community, so why had he pulled strings with a Los Angeles agency? That was something she planned to ask when she went home this weekend, and she wouldn't let him off the hook.

When she'd met Eleanor Inaba, the president of Smith and Copeland, Kimi had learned that the agency was filled with human women who had powers—her boss called them majo, though she always referred to Kimi as kijo and refused to explain why. According to Grandma Noguchi, both words roughly translated to
witch
, but then her grandmother didn't speak Japanese any more than Kimi did.

Kimi moved to the next set of filing cabinets. The three weeks she'd spent at this agency had been interesting. Despite the fact that her job so far consisted largely of getting coffee for people, Kimi decided she liked advertising. It was intense, fast-paced, involved creativity and she actually enjoyed coming to work. Mostly. If only things were that exciting with the magic end of the deal. Oh, sure, it was way cool to have powers awakening, but she wanted to actually use them. Her training so far consisted mostly of meditation, learning ethics and hearing about the history of the majo: they were children of the stars, they'd been persecuted throughout history and had subsequently gone underground; they believed,
Harm none
. Blah, blah, blah. Who cared?

Kimi stuffed a folder in a drawer. She already did no harm. She even put spiders outside when she found them in her apartment instead of squishing them, and she loathed those things. Kimi was trying to be patient, but all these endless lessons seemed like a waste of time. Why couldn't she learn to use her magic now instead of at some nebulous future date?

Being the youngest of a boatload of Noguchi cousins wasn't easy. Everything she tried—both good and bad—had already been done more successfully by someone else in the family. Not this time, though. For once, she had something all her own. Kimi grinned. She was a kijo. This was something she intended to be really good at. She wouldn't do anything stupid like use her abilities to clean the apartment or interfere with others' free will. All she wanted was the chance to work with it, to feel her power.

Her smile dimmed. Maybe once she could actually do magic, Nic would be interested in her. She didn't understand why he kept avoiding her. She'd been sure the attraction was mutual. There'd been something in his eyes as he'd taken her hand the night they'd met that made her heart start to thunder, that caused feelings she'd never known to awake, and she was certain he'd been flirting with her—until Uncle David came over and practically pushed Nic aside.

Because she'd been away at Berkeley, she hadn't been able to see Nic often, but the few times she was home, she'd sought him out. He hadn't run from her in the beginning; in fact, there was one occasion where he'd spirited her away and Kimi had been certain he was going to kiss her—until Uncle David had shown up again and ruined the moment.

She couldn't remember him interfering this way with Mika, his own daughter, and short of reading minds, there was no way her busybody uncle could know that Kimi had decided Nic was going to be her first lover. Yeah, she'd fooled around some with the boys she'd dated, but she always drew the line. She'd decided a long time ago that when she had sex, it was going to be with someone who meant something to her, someone she wanted so much, she couldn't say no. Nic got her that wound up, and considering he hadn't even kissed her yet, it had to mean that things were going to be explosive between them.

Yet it was more than that. Their few conversations had left her intrigued. He was fun and fascinating and smart, and everything else she'd ever dreamed of finding in a man. That had made her more determined that he be the one.

Maybe Nic had read her mind—she'd heard some demons could do that—and he'd begun avoiding her because he didn't want to waste time on a virgin. If she could find a way other than shouting it at his at his back as he fled from her, she would have told him she wasn't ignorant or skittish or shy. But the last time... Kimi rested her arms on top of the open drawer and grimaced. The last time she'd seen him, the message that Nic wanted her to stay away had been clear.

It had been the day the family celebrated the marriage of Nic's mother to Uncle David. Mika had been elated that her parents were finally together, and she hadn't been able to talk about anything else for weeks, but Kimi hadn't thought she'd be able to attend the party because she had a test. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how she looked at it—she'd made it. What had happened that evening was indelibly imprinted on her memory:

She'd looked around the room, trying to find Nic. She'd seen him a moment before she'd offered Uncle David and her new aunt her best wishes, but then he disappeared. She frowned. He'd been avoiding her lately but— There he was!

She tried to follow him out of the room, but Grandma Noguchi stopped her, and it seemed to take forever before her mom joined them and Kimi was able to excuse herself. Of course, she'd lost Nic by then, but Kimi wandered the way he'd been headed, hoping she could catch him. When she spotted the open game room door, she picked up her pace. Maybe he was shooting pool or something.

"You promised me she wasn't going to be here!"

Kimi came to an abrupt halt in the hallway outside the room. That was Nic's voice and he sounded angry.

"She was supposed to stay at school; I wasn't lying," Mika replied.

They were talking about her. Nic was pissed off that she had come home. Kimi twisted her fingers together, part of her wanting to walk away, another part wanting to hear what was said.

"It doesn't matter. I'll have to leave." Nic was resigned now, and that was worse than him being mad.

"Mom will be disappointed."

"I know, but Kimi chases me, Mika. I've gone out of my way to avoid her and she's yet to get the message."

Kimi felt as if someone had reached inside her chest and twisted her heart. His words hurt almost beyond bearing.

"It's that Noguchi stubbornness." Kimi thought Mika sounded both amused and sad. "And she feels—"

"I'm aware of what she feels, and that only makes it more difficult for me. You know what it's like for a demon, and I can only take so much."

There was a long pause. "I'll explain your absence to Mom. She'll understand."

Nic laughed. "No, she won't. You know how she is."

"One hundred percent Mahsei," Mika agreed.

Kimi realized Mika and Nic were headed for the door, and that shook her out of her paralysis. Moving as quietly as she could, she high-tailed it back down the corridor and away from them; the only thing that could make this night worse was getting caught eavesdropping and seeing the pity in their eyes.