Ruby Shadows
Authors: Evangeline Anderson
Tags: #vampire, #demon, #paranormal romance, #werewolf, #paranormal erotica, #angel romance, #spicy romance, #demon romance, #evangeline anderson, #demon lover
Born to Darkness
Book 3: Ruby Shadows
Evangeline Anderson
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Evangeline Anderson Books on Smashwords
Born to Darkness
Book 3: Ruby Shadows
Copyright © 2015 by Evangeline Anderson
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Dedicated to my Aunt
Treasure. You may be gone but you will never be forgotten. Thank
you for always being so supportive of my writing. I love you and
miss you so very much.
Author’s Note #1:
To be
the first to hear about new releases, join my new
newsletter
. I promise no
spam—you will only get email from me when a new book is out for
either preorder or for sale.
Author’s Note #2:
I'm
so pleased to let you know that the Kindred series is slowly but
surely being put into the audio format. Claimed is available in
audio and Hunted is out in audio as well. Sought and Found are
following later in 2015. The books are performed by the very
talented Anne Johnstonbrown whom I hand-picked to read the
series.
Listening to the books on audio is like
reading the story for the first time all over again. Audio is
wonderful for long commutes, exercising at the gym or just
listening while you're cleaning around the house. Just be sure you
wear your headphones--Anne really brings the steamy scenes to life
and you'll be blushing if your family hears what you're listening
to! : )
Hugs and Happy Reading and Listening to you
all,
Evangeline Anderson May, 2015
Other Books by Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred
books (in order)
Claimed
(also available in print and as an audio book)
Hunted
(also available in print and as an audio book)
Devoured
(also available in print)
Targeted coming Summer of 2015
Forgotten coming Fall of 2015
Born to Darkness
Paranormal series
Cardinal Sins (coming soon)
***
The above books are just a
small sample of Evangeline's work. For a complete list of books
from all publishers, please visit her
website
***
Born to Darkness 4: Cardinal Sins excerpt
Prologue
When you’re dealing
with demons, nothing is for free.
Believe me—I found that out the hard way.
My name is Gwendolyn LaRoux and I’m a
witch. Not a green-skinned cackling old hag with a hump on her nose
and a skinny black cat kind of witch, though. I’m actually quite
modern, thank you very much—a typical twenty-something just trying
to make her way in the world.
Well, except for one
minor detail—I’m still a virgin.
But lest you go thinking it’s because I’m a prude, let me set
the record straight. Witches need to keep themselves intact until
they find someone to form a love bond with. No love bond equals no
sex
. That’s
because casual encounters and one night stands without love
involved will half a witch’s power and greatly diminish her
potency, which leaves her vulnerable to attacks by rivals and other
supernatural creatures who might wish her harm.
This particular rule doesn’t apply to warlocks—male
witches—though. It’s just those of us with girly parts that have to
keep our legs crossed. Not fair, right? No, not a damn bit but
that’s the way it is and
, as my Grams keeps reminding me, I have to stay pure
to stay powerful. Though she doesn’t say it, I know what else she’s
thinking—stay pure to stay protected. She always worries about me
so much and I can’t say I blame her. The women in our family aren’t
known for being able to stay out of trouble.
Take my mom, for instance. She got on the wrong side of a fire
demon back when my sister
Keisha and I were just little girls. Grams always
says she went too far toward the darkness and just couldn’t come
back. Unfortunately, it ended up killing her, which left Grams to
raise us.
After that, I promised Grams I would stay pure.
Keisha did the same but
unfortunately, she couldn’t resist a certain boy in high school who
promised he would love her forever. She gave in and lost half her
power along with her virginity—no surprise since he was a player
who never really cared for her in the first place. It takes two to
form a love bond and unfortunately, Keisha judged unwisely. After
that her life just got worse until… well, I’d rather not say any
more about her.
As
for me, I’ve had my share of ups and downs—not that I would let my
Grams know. Well, she
does
know I
used my power to form a soul eater for a local vampire by the name
of Corbin—but that was for a good cause. And he offered me his
blood in payment, which I happened to need for a spell.
What Grams
doesn’t
know
is that I called on a minor demon for help in forming the soul
eater. I promised her I’d only use my powers for light and stay
away from the darkness that ate my mother, but I had to make one
little compromise—just
one
.
Unfortunately,
that one little compromise came back to bite me in the ass. The
demon I called goes by the name of Laish and ever since he helped
me, he’s been all up in my business. It’s incredibly
irritating—especially considering that he’s ridiculously good
looking with coal black hair, a big, muscular body to die for and
these weirdly attractive ruby-red eyes.
I’ve never dated
outside my race before—to be honest, I’ve never dated much at
all—but Laish would tempt me to give it a try. If he wasn’t a
demon, that is.
I
don’t know how Grams would feel about me dating a white guy but
I
do
know how she’d feel about
me dating a demon. Especially one so sinfully attractive he makes
me feel hot and cold all over every time we’re in the same room
together.
Laish has this deep, smoky voice and when he looks at
me
with those ruby
eyes I feel like I’m naked. He’s always calling me annoying little
French nicknames—
mon chatte,
and
mon
ange—
which I’m
sure is a dig at my Creole heritage. Naturally I don’t give him the
time of day. Demons don’t have souls so you can’t bond with
them—not that I would trust Laish to form a bond with me. He just
wants to get under my skin and into my pants and take whatever he
can get—that’s his demonic nature.
I
shouldn’t even be telling you about him anyway. After my last
little adventure where I rescued a vampire friend from the depths
of the Abyss, Laish showed
up after the fact and yelled at me. His point was
that it’s strictly forbidden to snatch a soul from Heaven or Hell
and dangerous to enter the Abyss, even in spirit form, which was
what I had done. He further reminded me that if I’d left the door I
opened into the afterlife’s darkest pit cracked, even the tiniest
bit, there would literally be Hell to pay.
At that point I told
him to leave me alone and never come back. I know my business. I
know I closed that door.
I’m
pretty
sure,
anyway.
To make a long
story short, (I know, too late), I got rid of Laish forever. It’s
now been several weeks since I gave him the heave-ho and he’s
stopped popping up everywhere, asking if I need help and calling me
by those irritating little French nicknames that drive me
crazy.
I don’t miss him a
bit—really. I’m just trying to get back to the business I’m best
at—being a witch and helping my Grams run her magic supply business
in Ybor City. At first I was a little worried but things have been
quiet and calm. I can almost forget about the dabbling I did in
dark magic and the fact that I went way past the line any witch who
wants to keep her magic strictly white and good should have.
Well…except for the
dreams.
I
keep on dreaming of a thing
made of shadows—a thing with no head. No head but
somehow it still has sharp, crooked yellow teeth. And it’s hunting
me—looking everywhere for me. Trying to track me down…
Sorry! There I
go again, letting my imagination run away with me. After all, a few
bad dreams are to be expected considering what I’ve been through
lately. And anyway, it’s not like they’re a warning that something
really evil is stalking me…
Are they?
Chapter One
Gwendolyn
“
So Victor’s excited to be a dad?” I asked, pouring myself
another cup
of
wine and topping off Taylor’s sparkling water.
“
He’s over the moon about it,” Addison said. “No pun intended,”
she added dryly.
“
Very funny.” Taylor elbowed her in the ribs good
naturedly.
“
I
know—over the moon—get it?” Addison giggled.
Taylor was pregnant and it was her man
, Victor—who happened to be a huge-ass
cursed werewolf—we were talking about. Which explains Addison’s bad
pun. Well, that and the bottle of white wine she’d had been
chugging.
“
Well tell me more—details, girl.” I made a “keep going” hand
gesture with my wine glass, nearly spilling the contents all over
my lap. “Whoops!”
“
Whoops is right.” Addison giggled again. She had definitely
had more than enough wine. Not that I minded, it had been entirely
too long since I’d enjoyed myself this much.