By Cynthia Eden
Playing With Fire
Once Bitten, Twice Burned
Burn For Me
Angel of Darkness
Angel Betrayed
Angel in Chains
Avenging Angel
Immortal Danger
Never Cry Wolf
The Wolf Within
Eternal Hunter
I’ll Be Slaying You
Eternal Flame
Hotter After Midnight
Midnight Sins
Midnight’s Master
Read more from Cynthia Eden in these collections
Howl For It
The Naughty List
Belong to the Night
When He Was Bad
Everlasting Bad Boys
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Copyright © 2009 by Cindy Roussos
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-2607-5
ISBN-10: 0-7582-2607-1
First Kensington Trade Edition: April 2009
First Kensington Mass Market Edition: September 2018
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-4068-2
eISBN-10: 0-7582-4068-6
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Printed in the United States of America
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Contents
Prologue
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
Prologue
So this is what death feels like.
Maya Black struggled for breath, struggled to fight the creeping cold that swept through her body. Jesus. She hadn’t wanted to go out like this. Hadn’t wanted to die in some damn dirty, stinking alley.
She’d been born in an alley like this, and she sure as hell hadn’t planned to die in one.
“Ummm, you taste so good.” The sick monster above her licked his fangs, freaking fangs, and she noticed that her blood coated his lips. “Poor little cop, I think I’ve drained you dry.”
Her heart was slowing, the hollow beat barely echoing in her ears. The ground was hard beneath her, the moon shining brightly over her. And hell looked back at her from the creature’s eyes.
A vampire. She knew what he was. She’d seen his kind before. Others thought things like him were just myths, but she knew better. She knew demons were real, knew the devil was real. Evil lurked in the world, she’d known that fact for years.
“Beg me,” the vampire whispered, leaning over her and gazing at her with his soulless black eyes. “Beg me to change you, beg me to let you live.”
To change you. No, oh, hell, no. She didn’t want to become a monster. And she would never, never beg.
Not again.
He slashed his wrist open with the edge of his fangs. Shoved the wound to her mouth.
No!
She turned her head away, trying to spit out the blood. Her hands fumbled in the trash beside her. Where was her weapon? The vampire had jumped her, thrown her against the wall, sank those razor-sharp fangs into her throat, and then had her on the ground in less than a minute.
She’d dropped her gun. Where was it? Where—
Her fingers closed over the barrel of her Glock. She pulled, struggling to bring the weapon closer. It felt so heavy in her hand, so—
He laughed
