Chapter 12 Gypsy glanced out the window seeing another customer throw their hands up at the closed sign and turn around to leave. She frowned recognizing the lady as the head of one of the local Wiccan groups who tended to spend several hundred dollars during her weekly supply run to the store. She glanced longingly toward the back room where she had a whole box of odds and ends the lady had ordered, but Ren had said no customers until the place was back to its former glory. Sadly… she agreed. The last thing she needed was for rumors to start flying around about her shop. She watched the woman turn away then do a double take and looked back up at the window. Gypsy set the healing crystal down that she’d been polishing and slid from her barstool watching the lady step closer to the front window and touch it with her finger. She cringed when the woman looked at her finger and made a face before heading down the sidewalk. With a worried frown, Gypsy went into the back of the s
Chapter 13 Guy gave Ren a once over. “Glad to see you’re all right. Storm told us what happened with the Demon Blade and said it wasn’t pretty.” Ren nodded his head, “Yeah, hurt like a bitch. Did Storm tell you the demon wielding the blade was the same demon that killed Carley?” “No, he left that little detail out,” Guy growled and made a fist at his side. “Are you sure?” “Without a doubt,” Ren nodded then cocked an eyebrow at Guy’s body language. “You can relax… he’s dead.” Guy’s angry frown melted away and he took a step back, bumping into the counter. “How? Tell me everything. Did he suffer?” While Ren spoke to Guy about what actually happened, Carley continued her little tour of the shop… more specifically what was inside the safe. Her eyes sparkled at the old books and manuscripts the shop owner kept in there and smiled knowing she could read them even after they fixed the safe and locked it. Being a ghost seemed to have more ups than downs. Carley heard the s
Chapter 14 Titus swung his gaze around to glare at the open doorway. Testing him was not the wisest thing for her to be doing at this stage in the game. Hearing her moving around in the living room, he figured it would be best for him to join her since Storm had made it his personal business to maintain her welfare. The sound of something beeping made him move a bit faster wondering what the hell she was doing. “What do you know, it still works,” Jade’s voice drifted in to him. He stepped out of the bedroom and frowned when he saw she was lying back on her window seat with the bottle of wine in her hand and a cordless phone tucked against her ear. He started across the floor to take the house phone away from her. Calling up her admirers to let them know she was back wasn’t going to go over very well if he injured them as they showed up. Feeling Titus approach like an angry storm, Jade lifted her eyes and sent him a glare that would probably have made the paint on the Hummer
Chapter 15 A high wave hit Jade hard and she swung around in the water to look back toward the beach house. She was suddenly getting the feeling that this was probably a bad idea with the storm surge coming in so fast. She made a confused face seeing an ugly green van in the water between her and the beach house. “What the? Where the hell did that come from?” Jade swam forward and quickly closed the distance but drew back when she heard a stream of cuss words coming from the other side of the van. Dirk held on to the van, but with the sand moving under his feet, it was a wonder the damn thing didn’t roll over him. Finally gripping the door handle, he lifted himself into the driver’s seat glaring at the fact that the water was high enough to have already covered the floorboard with a good ten inches of salty water. How the hell was he supposed to back the van up now? Making a sound of disgust, he jumped back out into the rising water and tried to maneuver in front of the ove
Chapter 16 Tasuki leaned back on his sofa with his arms stretched out over the back of it. As soon as he’d gotten home, he had carefully unloaded his newly acquired painting and brought it in right away. After searching his living room walls for a few minutes, he finally settled on the perfect spot… right over the fireplace. It had taken him some time to remove the pictures and knick-knacks from around the mantel and mount the painting, but as he gazed up at it now it wasn’t hard to be satisfied with the results. He had planned on going to bed once he got the portrait hung but couldn't find the willpower to pull himself away from its presence. He glanced over at his bookshelf littered with dream research books. He’d read all of them in an attempt to understand and control them. Others claimed to have succeeded but so far he was at the mercy of the dreamscape. Finally, he decided that he wanted to be looking at Kyoko’s portrait as he fell asleep. Lying down on the soft cushi
Jaded Blood Blood Bound Series Book 10 Amy Blankenship, RK Melton Copyright © 2012 Amy Blankenship Second Edition Published by Amy Blankenship All rights reserved.Chapter 1 Eleven years ago… LA, the Hogo Shrine. Tasuki listened to the silence of the house and it was slowly starting to drive him crazy. He couldn't sleep right now if his life depended on it. Getting out of bed, he flipped his bedroom light on so he could see the picture tucked into the rim of his dresser mirror. The picture was of his best friend’s sister Kyoko and he’d taken it from their house when no one was looking. The photo had been taken at the perfect moment, catching her beautiful emerald eyes in the sunlight. The day it was taken must have been windy because it looked like her hair was lifting around her to frame her sweet face. He’d never wanted a girlfriend before but the little girl staring back at him from the photo was all he could think about. Reaching for the pictur
Chapter 2 Tasuki’s mood hadn’t improved much since returning to the station. All the way here, he could hear other officers over the radio reporting in on demon sightings. It kept reminding him of the first time he had ever seen a demon… the same night Kyoko disappeared. He touched the place on his side where the light had entered him that night and frowned in remembrance of his fear and disappointment when he found the Hogo family gone the next morning. He’d showed up to walk Kyoko to school like he had promised, only to find the house abandoned. It was something that had haunted him for a long time and he still hadn’t gotten over it. Hell, he still had Kyoko’s birthday present. It was a small golden promise ring that his grandmother Mrs. Tully had helped him pick out. For the last eleven years, he’d been having dreams about Kyoko and demons. Strangely enough, as he’d grown up, so had she in his dreams and the dreams were getting more frequent and disturbing. The thought o
Chapter 3 Alicia had just finished making herself a cup of coffee when her cell phone started ringing. Rushing toward her purse, she grabbed the device taking a quick glance at the caller ID. She put it to her ear with a bright smile. “Hey Micah, what’s up?” “Do you have some time to spare for your big brother?” Micah asked turning his back on the other two men in the room so they couldn’t see the relieved expression on his face. He’d half expected Damon to answer her phone. Alicia shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so. Damon went out with Michael and Kane. He probably won’t be back for a while yet.” “Good, because I really need a favor,” Micah began. “We’ve got a she-wolf in one of the holding cells here that we just rescued from a raid on the underground slave trading. She hasn’t shifted back yet, but when she does… she’s going to need a change of clothing. Do you think you can bring something down to the station for her?” Alicia looked over at her huge closet full of clothes