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Category: Erotica/Erotic Fantasy
Description: The follow-up to A Strange New Breed! Charisma is a siren, the last of her kind. She is running from a man who wants to use the sirens' songs for evil purposes. Kadian James has his own special powers. He hunts down the beautiful redhead who bumped into him, wanting to save her from her own hell. But when the evil catches her, will Kadian be enough to save her?
eBook Publisher: Phaze, 2009
eBookwise Release Date: June 2009

69 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [287 KB]
Words: 68097
Reading time: 194-272 min.

The blade almost seemed to sing, flashing silvery-blue under the harshness of the street lamps. The crowd gathered around the two combatants took a few steps back as one body fell, tripping over his own feet, a nick spouting blood that dripped to the cement in quarter-sized globs.

"You pissy little cunt," the man on the ground shouted. "You fucking stuck me."

The girl was half his size, her sword almost longer than she was tall. She smirked, innocently bringing her hand to her mouth and looking at him with guiltless green eyes. "Oh, mister, I'm so sorry. Are you okay, mister? Maybe I should have just stood here and let you attack me?"

"Bitch!" the man said, bracing his sword against the pavement to help him up. He drew the tip around him in a semi circle, the blade causing sparks to shoot from the cement. "I'm going to kill you."

Charisma Snow drew back a single step. She nodded at the blue and red colored lights headed rapidly in their direction. "You might want to change your mind about that."

"When I tell Hood what you've done," the man began, his tone threatening, "there'll be nowhere for you to hide."

Charisma opened her mouth and a few words of song fell from her lips. She glanced around the crowd as she continued to sing, noting the dazed looks growing upon the face of those she sang to. Stepping closer to the man who'd tried to take her, and would have if she hadn't looked up at the right time, she hit a high note. His eyes fogged and a small drop of blood appeared from his nose. Going closer, she stood on tiptoe to reach his ear. "You'll never tell anyone anything, fuck wad," she sang straight into his ear.

She stood back, watching him fall, his eyes still open but growing blind with death's arrival. Then she left, running down the alley and out the other side. She couldn't afford another run in with the cops.

Sliding her sword inside the long black leather duster she wore, she climbed up the fire escape quickly and easily, taking it to the roof. These roofs were fantastic for getting away. The buildings had been built so closely together that only a small leap was needed to get from one to another. She should know, she'd been living and surviving in this section of the city since her parents were murdered, fifteen years earlier.

On a whim, she backtracked to the place where the fight had been, staring down at the cops who'd cordoned off the "crime scene" and were talking to witnesses. A smile touched her lips because each would give a different accounting of the assailant, from a seven-foot black male to a three-foot midget. No one would be able to describe her with any accuracy. The order to forget had been in her song.

"Why the fuck we got to go down when the cops are already there?" Marcus complained, rubbing his eyes like a tired child. Dating a vampire meant sleeping during the day and he hadn't quite gotten used to the change in hours.

"Because," Shadow began. "The cops have no clue what they are up against. So when Sergeant Bittle called to ask for our help, I couldn't tell her no."

"Bittle's going to be there?" Marcus said, his eyes brightening.

"Oh I better not have heard the tone I thought I heard, Wings." Angel barged into Shadow's office, blue eyes glowing as she stared down at her winged God. "I'd hate to pluck you like a chicken and then..."

"I know, I know," Marcus said with a grin, grabbing Angel around the hips and pulling her close despite her protests. "You'd boil me into soup for the homeless. You know no one can turn me on the way you do, baby."

"I might get sick," Callie said, following Angel in. She grinned over at Shadow, giving him a wink. "So what is this with Bittle?"

"We won't know until we arrive. She's getting us full access to the crime scene." He rose, shooing Marcus and Angel ahead of him before dropping a quick kiss on Callie's full lips. "I missed you this morning," he growled in her ear.

"Couldn't be helped," she sighed, enjoying the way his hand ran over her body, even on top of the leather suit she wore for ASP, The Agency for Supernatural Police. It fit her body like a second skin. She groaned when he found her zipper, sliding it down just a bit to let him cup her breast. "Daddy is still upset about Dorian Amante and Aidan Kent."

"And unhappy about you carousing with your boss as well, I'll bet," Shadow said, giving her nipple one final squeeze before zipping up her suit.

She turned, her hand sliding down the front of his pants to where a long, hard ridge showed his interest. "Great Aunt Sally's granny panties aren't going to do anything for this, my love."

"Callie Anne Wolfe," he growled, his eyes narrowed. "You are going to undermine my authority if I can't stop getting hard-ons around you."

"Aww, that was the sweetest thing you've said to me all day." She let him go, turning and putting a defiant swish to her hips as she walked out of his office in front of him.

Shadow stood where he was for a second, thinking of the case, of Daniels, of anything beside Callie. In the end, he settled for gathering his coat around him and followed her out.