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  There’s no danger greater than falling for your enemy...

  The Nephilim are bound. Their powers cursed. But half-angel Kasdeja will do anything to free them from Heaven’s tyranny. When Kas is approached by a striking, mysterious woman, she tells him his greatest enemies hold the key to his freedom.

  Mariel keeps herself shrouded in secrets, using them to hide her true self. For she is not just employed by the Renegades—enemy fallen angels—she is a double agent, working on the sly for Heaven. Her directive is to seduce the gorgeous Nephilim—despite her insecurity about such sensual acts.

  For Mariel is playing a dangerous game, and falling for Kas could only cause trouble; her assignment isn’t just seduction. It’s destruction.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover the Angel Assassins series… Angel Kin

  Discover more Entangled Select Otherworld titles… Hellsbane

  Unchained

  Angeli

  Out in Blue

  Undying Hunger

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Tricia Skinner. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Select Otherworld is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

  Edited by Robin Haseltine

  Cover design by Fiona Jayde

  Cover art by Fiona Jayde Media

  ISBN 978-1-63375-269-6

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition June 2015

  Dedicated to Sgt. Robert A. Fairchild, an angel of a soldier. Rest in peace.

  Chapter One

  The theme from The Empire Strikes Back filled the server room where Kasdeja worked. His padded stool squeaked as he shifted to reach the fried controller board, but the cell phone continued to play. Focused on his task, he unscrewed the bottom of the device. The phone went silent. A moment later the Empire returned.

  Kas eyeballed the ringing device, then the broken parts he held. Fixing tech was his job in the Bound Ones, but so was answering his phone. The ringtone meant an informant was calling in, but the longer their server was out of commission, the greater the risk of system-wide trouble. He debated for only a few seconds, glanced at the caller ID, tapped the speakerphone, and kept working.

  “Thought you liked to sleep late, G,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “I’m touched.”

  Gratien’s soft chuckle filtered through the line. “You not pay while I rest, mon ami. I am a humble homme d’affaires.”

  Kas grunted. The French Canadian vampire was a sly businessman who dealt in blood payoffs. He was also one of the best info dealers in the Midwest. “What do you know?”

  “Your enemy remains in Detroit, but I have location later today.”

  The hum of the server room vanished behind the blood jolting from his heart to his ears. “An address to the hideout?”

  “I will be close enough to know if shutters or drapes cover the windows,” Gratien said, the satisfaction in his tone evident. “Expensive information, mon ami. Perhaps more than your fraternité can afford.”

  The last remark zinged by Kas unanswered, because he focused on what he’d believed unattainable.

  The Renegades were fallen angels, enemies of his employers in Heaven. His team of half-angel assassins were sworn to take them down at any cost, but finding their headquarters in the bustling metropolis hadn’t been easy.

  In an instant, his usual laid-back attitude vaporized, replaced by a pure professional. He pushed off the stool and hastened to the tablet on his desk. “Where’d the lead come from?”

  “My sources are my own, mon ami.”

  Kas let the inquiry drop. The vampire’s lead was dangerous information if word got out. Dangerous enough to put the Bound on the defensive if the Renegades learned their hidey-hole was no longer safe.

  “When’ll you have the location?”

  Gratien hummed into the phone. “Perhaps four hours.”

  “Rendezvous?”

  The vampire laughed a little. “Your French not so poor. Later, I text you location. You come and we talk, yes?”

  Kas confirmed the plan and shoved his phone into his jeans. He tapped the video link on the tablet and shared the details with Tanis, the team’s leader. Two days of fixing the toasted server were about to give way to a mission he’d been born to.

  Today, he and his adopted family would confront the fallen angels responsible for their existence.

  …

  Kas whistled and walked across Woodward Avenue, headed toward Gratien. The location texted to him was an odd choice for a meeting. Like him, the vampire preferred conducting business at night, not early evening, and right now he’d prefer a dark bar and a beer over family movie night.

  Groups of humans and Others with their excited children had blocked most of the sidewalk skirting the glittering marquee outside the Fox Theater. He read the sign and doubted the children would appreciate The Absent-Minded Professor.

  Before Gratien’s text arrived, Kas gathered the team in Tanis’s office. His brothers, Jarrid, Cain, and Nestaron, were primed and eager. Even Tanis, the only full-blooded angel they trusted, had an aura of excitement as they’d suited up. Now, the Bound Ones were a few blocks away in the mobile communication van ready to scan for Grace trails, the energy signals emitted by an angel’s soul. Even fallen angels retained those sparks. The team only needed the hideout’s location, and they would be ready to roll.

  Kas stepped around a father and son and called to Gratien. “What up, G?”

  The vampire’s thin body swayed and turned to face him. Red, glassy eyes blinked like the shutters of a camera lens, and Gratien’s first row of fangs dripped saliva. The informant’s gaze darted around the area.

  Kas neared and noticed Gratien’s perspiration-coated pale brown face and tensed, but before he could mutter a what the fuck, the vamp shuddered and lunged at a passing woman, ripping a child from her hand. The mother’s screams ruffled the hairs along his nape, and he pulled his guns, both barrels aimed at the predator. When the woman made a run at her daughter, Kas looped his arm around her and planted her at his side.

  The crowd dashed in all directions, leaving Kas’s arms full of a hysterical mother begging God to help her. The pain in her pitched voice struck him deep.
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  Few moments in life had ever scared him. Captured as a young boy when his interspecies family was murdered, he’d lived among angels and been treated like an unwanted mongrel dog. Kas was the grim reaper for targets chosen for breaking sacred law. Now, the bone-deep chill crusting his spine responded to a bloodsucker nuzzling a preschool girl in a Hello Kitty dress.

  The mother clawed his arm with shaking fingers. He angled her behind him as she sobbed and squeezed tighter, and the air in his lungs weighed down his chest.

  “Hold it together,” he said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. “He’s dead before I let him hurt her.”

  The sobs continued, but her grip loosened. The woman remained by his side, which kept her in the danger zone.

  “Back away,” he said. Her hand clenched his arm again. Kas pinned his gaze on the vampire and his little hostage. “Stay, and I’ll have to choose between saving your kid’s life or yours. Move away from us.”

  Gratien started to hum and turn in half circles. His beady gaze fell on Kas, and a spark of recognition flickered. Around him, the gasps of onlookers mixed with the mingled stench of excitement and fear, but the mother did as told and stumbled back.

  He studied the brown-haired child shaking in the arms of her captor. Tears spilled down her face. “Let the kid go.”

  How had the evening morphed into this nightmare? Outside the theater, the man he’d expected to deliver long-sought information began to sing. It was a French nursery rhyme, one that added an extra layer of eerie to the scene. The bloodsucker clutched the child close, her tiny legs dangling, while he swayed to his song.

  “You hear me, G?”

  Gratien’s blank gaze washed over him, and then he continued his song. Kas tapped his earpiece. Enough negotiation. “Situation hostile.”

  Tanis immediately replied, “Status.”

  “One target, one hostage.”

  “Target ID’d?”

  Kas ground his jaw. “Gratien. Confirmed.”

  A tick of silence followed by tapping. “Someone called the police. DPD en route. You should hear them soon.”

  A curse slipped past his lips. If you wanted a hostage situation to spiral out of control, just call the local police. Kas watched the vampire’s movements closely. Gratien had to be doped to his hairline, which made him even more unpredictable. Cops and a deranged bloodsucker equaled an explosive combo.

  “I’m sending Jarrid and Nesty for backup,” Tanis said. “Cain and I will run interference with DPD. I’ll tell them you’re on scene.”

  Finally, his evening looked less holy shit and more we got this.

  “Keep him talking. Try to keep him calm,” the angel said.

  Before Kas replied, sirens shrieked through the darkening area. He glanced away from the twirling, singing vampire to watch the approaching police. Three squad cars screeched to a stop and doors burst open. The first officer used the engine block for cover. The backup units began clearing the immediate area.

  Another two patrol cars arrived and positioned at the front of the theater to cut off Gratien’s escape. Not that he appeared ready to leave. Farther back, two red-and-white EMS vehicles parked behind the fire department’s regal red engine trucks.

  “Gratien, we got an audience,” he said, low enough for only the informant and the girl to hear. “This attention ain’t how I do business.”

  When he heard his name, the vampire stopped twirling and slitted his glassy eyes. “C’est toi, bâtard? Tu viens jouer avec ma petite fille et moi?”

  Ah, hell. The guy was high as a crackhead and had gone full-on French Canadian. Caught off guard, Kas’s brain took a second to translate the words. He spoke fifty-five hundred languages, a perk of living for over two thousand years. “That you, half-breed? Come to play with me and my little girl?”

  A loud voice over a PA drowned his reply. “This is the Detroit Police Department. Place the child on the ground, back away, and lie down with your arms extended away from your body.”

  Kas sneered at the cop’s by-the-book demand, smooth and calm like a tidal wave in a hurricane. He had to act fast before the man requested a SWAT unit and a hostage negotiator.

  Once again, his concern switched to the child. The girl’s breathing came in short bursts, her colorless skin tight with panic. Another fine job, cops. Scare the kid even more. He softened his tone. “Give her to me, G.”

  The arm around the small body tightened, crushing her dress. “But I sing to her such pretty songs. See how she smiles?”

  Movement off to the left side of the building drew his attention. Two police officers had slipped into an attack position. Kas swore under his breath and tightened his grip on his guns. A glance over his shoulder offered a quick assessment of the rest of the cops.

  They were too far away to risk a shot at the tilt-a-whirl vampire and his human hostage, and it didn’t help he stood in the way. Then again, the DPD wasn’t as friendly to the Bound after they’d had trouble with Cain and his supposed-to-be-dead twin, Abel.

  “Get Cain to order the cops back. Two positioned south of me.”

  “He sees them,” Tanis replied. “Status?”

  Kas checked the area for a better vantage point. “No clear shot.”

  “Jarrid and Nesty are almost in position. Retrieve the intel if you can.”

  He listened to the scuffle of feet and eased a smile to his lips. Cain, with his ability to control minds, had sent the two cops away.

  Distraction averted, he tapped off the earpiece. One slow breath and Kas summoned his Grace. The cool ripple of his angelic power flowed through his body. Heaven constricted his half-angel soul, and he’d pay for using too much of his ability, so he focused on tapping only a small portion.

  If the Directorate, the ruling angel board, weren’t such dicks, he and the rest of the team could use all of their power.

  As the vamp spun again like a goddamned carousel, Kas sent his power into the informant’s mind. Black and white flashed, a strobe light of confusion and fear. He couldn’t make sense of the chaos, so he withdrew his probe and peered at the vampire he’d worked with for years. The guy wasn’t half bad, but this shit had to end.

  “The Renegades let me drink special blood.” Gratien’s eyes darted and a tremor rocked his body. “Angel blood… Tasty.”

  Kas’s skin numbed. Now the vampire’s uncharacteristic behavior made sense. Angel blood was a straight shot of meth to a vampire.

  “They live like kings. Wealthy and powerful and beautiful.” Gratien stopped whirling and turned his wild eyes at him. A crazy man’s smile stretched his thick lips away from his fangs, and a second row of razor-sharp teeth slipped into the wet grooves between the first set.

  The vampire could crack the child’s spine before his first bullet hit. He tapped his earpiece.

  “Jarrid?” He slipped one hand behind his back, retrieving two throwing stars.

  “I’m in position,” his brother replied.

  Kas took in the angles of Gratien, the child, the police, and the lingering crowd. All bad. He’d keep talking, maybe—

  A black curtain fell over his vision, followed by a shudder and a stretching sensation that invaded his limbs as if muscles tried to pull away from bones. He stumbled back. This couldn’t be the Act of Contrition—the punishment for using his ability. He hadn’t used much of his power. With a shaking hand, he touched his face, and then he refocused on the vampire. Their gazes locked.

  Out of time.

  The next few seconds blurred together as Kas aimed his Desert Eagle Mark XIXs and yelled, “Now!”

  Gratien’s head drew back, positioning the girl’s small neck for his strike.

  Jarrid rushed across the sidewalk, arm outstretched. An energy pulse shimmered around him and then formed an invisible cocoon over the girl. Kas’s fingers pressed the triggers.

  The first bullets blew holes into the informant’s shoulder and chest. The child fell from his arms, and Jarrid sent a trio of bullets into the target’s abdom
en, but he refused to stay down. Kas closed in, releasing a bullet with each step.

  Gratien’s knee split, and he crashed to the pavement. The vampire craned his head toward the screaming child. A bullet hole appeared in his other leg, then his arm.

  Jarrid’s eyes and body glowed with his Grace. He reached for the child, and his energy shield flickered.

  “Shit, shit, shit.” Kas got to his brother the same moment the Act of Contrition struck.

  Back bowed, Jarrid dropped to his knees with the little girl grasping for him. Kas snatched her away as his brother grabbed his midsection and slammed his shoulder into the pavement.

  “What in the name of God…” said a police officer who’d moved in to assist.

  This wasn’t the God of All’s work. The Directorate had held a tight rein over the Bound’s powers for too long.

  “We’ll move him to the van,” Cain said, arriving with Nesty. They scooped Jarrid up. Kas watched them go, lowered his guns, and glared hard at the vampire coughing up black blood.

  “The hideout?”

  Gratien wheezed, and his body shuddered. He blinked repeatedly, his mouth oozing blood. “They are close. The city. North.”

  Kas knelt and eyed the damage. “Where?”

  Another hard cough splattered blood on his jeans. The vampire’s ink-stained hand reached for him, so he gripped it and squeezed. Not quite friends, but never enemies. Gratien’s eyes closed.

  Kas let go and remembered the girl. He saw her head tucked into a cop’s shoulder. A cry from her mother was met with a wail as he turned away and walked to his truck. Happy endings belonged to police and paramedics, not half-breeds like him.

  Behind the wheel, he peered out the windshield at nothing. He sank into the seat, wrung out from a simple assignment gone bad. He also remembered the odd feeling that had struck him before engaging Gratien. In those brief seconds he’d felt fractured, and nothing in his experience made sense of the phenomenon.

  The emergency vehicle’s flashing lights highlighted the dark blood on his hands. He clenched his fists around the nearly empty gun magazine. Death was part of the job, but sometimes he hated being the son of a bitch.

  For fourteen years Gratien had been his informant, and in all that time, the vampire had been as close to honest as his kind got. He’d never broken a deal, and he sure as hell never snatched little girls off the street for a quick snack.