Dark Dreams: HarperImpulse Paranormal Romance

When she reached the bottom of the next flight she had to choose left or right. She could see some kind of light coming from the end of the hall to her left and so she went in that direction. As she approached she could hear multiple voices coming from the end of the hall. If she got close enough, she would be able to take a read of their emotions. Sometimes, when there weren’t too many people in a room, she could even tell before she entered how many there were in it by the emotions running through them.

She got a little closer, and she could feel four or five distinct personalities. She went further down toward the room and saw a large armoire with glass shelving. She crouched down behind it, and in doing so was able to see the whole room through the glass. Unless they knew to look for her, they wouldn’t see her sitting there. They weren’t shouting, but there was an atmosphere of seriousness in the room and voices were being raised; a heavy debate was taking place.

The room was very Goth socialite – a little bit rustic Rococo. It smacked of monsters with money. Furnished with heavy wooden antiques and expensive-looking paintings of fleshy pale nudes, the room had a color scheme of dark reds, deep blues, and gold. Rich burgundy tapestries hung around windows, which stretched upwards two full stories and were surrounded by intricately carved walls. Somehow the furniture managed to look oversized and cozy, a neat trick for the old French and Italian theme. Jade had an image in her mind, due to the expanse of the place and the interior furnishing, that at least a few flying buttresses held the whole building up and stone goblins stood guard outside.

There were actually five of them in the room – one woman and four men. Two of the males stood behind the couches. Most of the heaviness seemed to be coming from a huge, amazingly hot, dark-haired male. He looked similar enough to Nias that Jade knew this must be one of the siblings he had spoken of, but this guy looked more rugged, more muscular. While Nias was tall, with heavy arms and shoulders, he managed to be sleek; he always came off like the predatory cat she had first seen. This man was still tall and lean but more pure warrior. She could see him in the old country with a dirk or present-day muddy on a rugby field with torn clothing and a mass of injuries that didn’t bother him a bit. The second man, who seemed to be doing his best to negotiate between Big and Rugged and the girl, was about six feet tall and blond. Much softer-looking and softer-spoken, he seemed far more reasonable than the others. The two men standing were both between six two and six four, still gorgeous, but not so much as the others. They stood silent, almost to attention, and seemed to be waiting for orders.

The girl was dwarfed by the men. She seemed to be around five four. But even with her small stature, she was holding her own. She had long dark hair pulled back tight in a low ponytail. Jade could see the familial gold eyes shine out of her beautiful, almost perfect, features. She wore black combat boots, black jeans and a tight fitting black t-shirt. She wasn’t made up, but she carried herself like she knew she didn’t need it, and didn’t seem the kind of girl to care that much anyway.

“We need to figure out what is going on and we need to do it now before it gets worse!” the largest male boomed.

“I agree, Phaeton, but don’t go out there on a killing spree before we have a chance to find the source of the chaos,” the girl countered, and went on. “The Shaitan never do anything without being told to do it. We need to know what Iblis is planning. Why would Hamartia be above ground? I can hardly believe that sick bitch could walk away from her closest companions – bloodshed, pain, and misery – for even a day.”

“Ella is right. We should find out how we can stop the whole, not kill the few. Hamartia’s presence signifies something completely different is happening. We have to find out what.” The blond simply stated things matter-of-factly, without elevating his voice at all.

The girl, who obviously was named Ella, continued, “Don’t get me wrong, Phaeton, we will stop them from doing harm, with the same force we always use. I don’t want them to suspect anything is different in the way we are approaching this latest assault. I will lead the Sentry to the streets, as I always have. I wouldn’t want to let a day go by without our usual body count. But I will not simply injure the body of the beast and allow the head to grow again.”

“I will join you on the street. My abilities will speed the process of finding the Shaitan and learning about their plans; besides I haven’t had the opportunity to end nearly as many of the scaly low lives as I would like recently.” Phaeton smiled.

“We would be honored to have you with us. We could benefit from your tracking, they could be anywhere in the world by now. If you can get us to the right city, we can easily flush them out by scent and sound.” This was spoken by one of the standing men, one whom Jade assumed to be part of the Sentry they spoke of.

“If Nias is successful at bringing Joss out, or when we find this mission has failed, the Sentry will move in force into the Unseen. We will fight until we achieve our purpose or Iblis finally takes us down for good. We begin tomorrow scouring the streets for the information you believe is necessary, Ella. Start with all the major cities; if you smell and hear nothing in twenty-four hours move to your next location. You lead your Southern group through Europe; I will take the North Corps and start in Asia. Do not let the humans see you transcend, as always. Let one Sentry settle first, find an appropriate location and then the rest can settle safely. Locke, you are home base for now. I believe Nias has persuaded the girl into helping us and will begin training her soon.”

Jade was a little shocked at Phaeton’s assuredness. She had definitely decided not to help. Or had she? If so, why wasn’t she trying to escape? Instead of moving and trying to find a door, she was crouching here listening to them plan their assaults, and finding herself wondering if these beings could indeed help her find a key to reversing her curse.

Then she felt a familiar heat come up behind her.

Chapter 7

“Hello Kitten … learn anything of value?” He could smell plums and almost taste her in his mouth again when he came up behind her.

Jade screamed and jumped at the same time. Everyone in the room turned to look at her. Her face became completely red as it was apparent she had been spying.

“Damn it, Nias!” She turned to scowl at him.

He began to laugh, as he found her delightful. Even caught spying on a room full of royal military Djinn, she had the courage to scold him. He actually enjoyed her bravery.

“Nias, how nice of you to come out of your room and join us, we’ve been letting your friend here in on some of our plans for tomorrow,” Phaeton announced.

“What, you knew I was there and you didn’t say anything?” I am so humiliated. With a beet-red face she turned, gave Nias one more dirty look, and introduced herself to the others. “Hi, I’m Jade Shear.”

“Yes, I figured as much when I first heard you sit down, and could smell human. I am Phaeton, Sovereign of the Djinn, and Leader of the Sentry.” Nias had to roll his eyes at his introduction. Even though Nias had stepped down because he no longer wanted to be Sovereign, he and Phaeton continued to have a potent sibling rivalry; an endless struggle of power and ego. He thought back to their last conflict before they finally left Sheol under Nias’s leadership and the memory made him tense.

Phaeton continued, “I thought I heard you come in last night, Nias, but I didn’t know if you had brought our guest. I am pleased to have both of you staying with us. Will you be here long? I know the two of you have a lot to get accomplished in the next few days. That is if Miss Shear has agreed to help us.” Phaeton looked to Jade to see what her answer to his query would be. Nias looked to her for the same reason, having no idea what she would say. He was curious to see how she would handle the situation. If nothing else, it would be amusing. “But before you respond to such a question let me introduce our family, this is our sister, Ella.”

Nias saw the look in his sister’s eyes as she responded and said hello, albeit in a snarling, disapproving tone. “Ella! You will treat Jade with respect; she has been through hell in the past twenty-four hours!” Nias was shocked at his own outburst and reaction, as Ella looked a little stunned and Phaeton raised an eyebrow. One of the other men cleared his throat to break the silence.

“I’m Locke. Not sure what my position is in this family. One day I realized, much to my consternation, that I had been adopted, or taken prisoner, much like yourself. I’m still not sure which. I’ve tried to escape, but they always manage to pull me back in somehow. I guess someday I’ll learn to tell them no, but it’s been several thousand years and I haven’t seemed to do it yet.” Locke stated all of this in his usual irascible tone. Nias smiled at him. They had been best friends for centuries. Locke was friendlier and much less guarded than the members of his own family. “I see Nias hasn’t managed to completely scare you off yet? His personality is a little abrasive. He seems to believe he is the one and only cat, and the rest of us are merely his toys.”

“Locke, it is good to see you too. I’ve missed your lovely sense of humor,” Nias said with a good-natured needling.

“Nias, I shouldn’t expect you to remember as you were only semiconscious at the time, but I saw you yesterday. So I can’t imagine you’ve missed me too much.”

“Yes, my friend, I believe it’s been way too long.” And Nias gave his best friend a slight push at his shoulder.

“I’m sorry for them, Jade. They have been best friends for so long they no longer feel it is necessary to treat each other civilly,” said Phaeton.

“What do you mean by ‘she’s been through hell in the last twenty-four hours’?” Ella had recovered from her surprise and wanted to get back down to business. She was a no-nonsense kind of girl. She always did what she wanted, which at this point was command an entire division of the Sentry under Phaeton. Nias and Phaeton had a soft spot where their sister was concerned. It didn’t matter what she did, how many fiends she could kill in a night, how controlling and demanding her disposition, even the numbers of men, both human and Daemon, she took advantage of, made fall in love with her and cruelly disregarded. They would always treat her like their little sister, always be on her side in any disagreement. Anyone who dealt with the family knew this. No one messed with Ella; she messed with them.

Although in this moment Nias felt the need to protect Jade, and this was getting to be an annoying habit of his. He wanted her to feel safe, always. He wanted her to be comfortable even with his enigmatic and derisive family. The hellion would probably try to run for the door any minute now and he would be the one responsible for bringing her back, but he had started to like having her around. Of course, there was always the lust. There was no way he was letting her go before he had taken her. Long and slow, she would spend several nights, or even weeks, in his bed, willingly, before he was letting her go anywhere.

He also knew the family needed her to help him traverse Sheol. His feelings were starting to make him lose sight of the objective. He should sleep with her soon, he thought, so he could get his mind back to where it ought to be. She was somehow confusing his thoughts.

“Hey, Nias, we would like to be informed of the past twenty-four hours, please,” Ella repeated, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Well, as it will probably clarify her answer to Phaeton’s question regarding whether she has agreed to help us, I would love to explain.”

“Oh, no please, allow me,” Jade said forcefully. His family and friends looked a little shocked at how Jade seemed to treat Nias as an equal; they had never seen a woman he hadn’t won over and dominated immediately.

“I was actually on a walk when I was kidnapped by pretty boy here.” Surprised glares came from all. “Not sure I have to even explain to you all my shock at the whole Daemon thing, so I tried to escape, got captured and sliced up by monsters, at which point Nias showed up, broke one of their necks with as much effort as it takes to break a pencil and sent others to kill the rest. I was torn up and, well, and then brought here.” Nias noticed her look at her feet and grab a curl between her twirling fingers as her voice faded a little at the end.

“Excellent work on your kill, Nias, I had gotten a report of the extinction of a San Francisco nest earlier. What did you see of Hamartia? We are all concerned about her appearance here.”

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