Angels blood guild hunte.., p.1
Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter), page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
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
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Blood born
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Angel of Blood
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Change
1
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF NALINI SINGH
Mine to Possess
“Fierce . . . Paranormal romance at its best.”
—Publishers Weekly
“With its intense characters, story line, and scenery, Mine to Possess is quite a read. It showcases Singh’s talent and shows her to be a writer that will no doubt shine for some time.”
—Romance Reader at Heart
“If you’ve been looking for a book that will entice and entrance, look no further. The very talented Nalini Singh has yet again proven that her books are gems, true treasures that are intriguing, multifaceted creations that just get better and better . . . Don’t miss Mine to Possess!”
—Romance Reviews Today
“Excellent urban fantasy romance.”
—Midwest Book Review
“A heart-tugger from the very beginning . . . I eagerly await the next story of this series.” —Road to Romance
“An outstanding paranormal romance . . . Mine to Possess grabbed me from the first, and I couldn’t put it down until the very end. Ms. Singh has created a very addictive series, and I can’t wait for the next book.”
—Once Upon a Romance
“[A] rich and unique world . . . Mine to Possess is another intense, sensual, and complicated story that leaves little doubt that Nalini Singh is at the top of her game.”
—BookLoons
“Singh has done it again. Mine to Possess grabs you and never lets you go. This may be the best book of an already outstanding series.” —Fresh Fiction
“The desire that this couple has is an inferno and smoking only begins to describe it. Suspense comes into play and will have you hurriedly turning the pages to see what will happen next. Nalini Singh has penned another wonderful installment to the Psy-Changeling series and readers will want to get on board to see what enticing plots she will come up with next.” —Romance Junkies
“As plot points fall into place, it’s evident that clever, mega-talented Singh has truly spectacular things in store.”
—Romantic Times (4½ stars)
Caressed by Ice
“A fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat romantic paranormal that will pull you straight into the story and into the amazing Psy-Changeling world!” —Romance Reader at Heart
“The paranormal romance of the year.” —Romance Junkies
“Craving the passionate and electrifying world created by the mega-talented Singh? Your next fix is here! . . . One of the most original and thrilling paranormal series on the market . . . Mind-blowing!”
—Romantic Times (4½ stars, top pick)
“A sensual, dangerous adventure not to be missed.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh
“Nalini Singh continues to dazzle and ensnare new readers with each addition to the Psy-Changeling series.”
—A Romance Review
“A compelling read with wonderfully developed characters and the strong world-building that has made Singh a star. Readers will revel in this latest installment with two of the most riveting secondary characters from the previous novels.” —All About Romance
“With a truly inspired mix of passion and danger, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat. [It] will surely earn itself a place among your favorites.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“Delivers increasingly inventive world-building, intrigue-filled plotting, and a complicated and satisfying love story—and will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.” —BookLoons
“A mesmerizing series.”
—The Road to Romance (Reviewer’s Choice Award)
“This is a wonderful story and I cannot recommend it highly enough!” —ParaNormal Romance Reviews
“Ms. Singh is sure to win new readers with this release. I highly recommend the series and Caressed by Ice to all fans of paranormal romances.”
—The Romance Readers Connection
Visions of Heat
“Breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal. I wished I lived in the world Singh has created. This is a keeper!”
—USA Today bestselling author Gena Showalter
“This author just moved to the top of my auto-buy list.”
—All About Romance
continued . . .
“Brace yourselves because the second installment of the Psy-Changeling series will set all your senses ablaze and leave your fingers singed with each turn of the page. Visions of Heat is that intense!” —Romance Junkies
“Visions of Heat is penned with an intensity that only Nalini Singh can give to a story . . . If you’re a paranormal reader, this is one book that you have to read!”
—Romance Reader at Heart
Slave to Sensation
“I LOVE this book! It’s a must read for all of my fans. Nalini Singh is a major new talent.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan
“An electrifying collision of logic and emotion . . . An incredible world where fire and ice mix to create an unforgettable sensual eruption. Slave to Sensation is a volcanic start to a new series that’ll leave you craving more.”
—Romance Junkies
“AWESOME! . . . A purely mesmerizing book that surely stands out among the other paranormal books out there. Slave to Sensation is captivating from beginning to end. It’s a must read for any paranormal fan!”
—Romance Reader at Heart
“Superb science fiction romance . . . Readers will enjoy Nalini Singh’s excellent futuristic thriller and demand more tales from this fascinating realm.” —Midwest Book Review
Berkley Sensation Titles by Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter Series
angels’ Blood
Psy-Changeling Series
slave to sensation
VISIONS OF HEAT
caressed BY ice
mine to possess
hostage to pleasure
Anthologies
an enchanted season
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
the magical christmas cat
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
ANGELS’ BLOOD
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Nalini Singh.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only auth orized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
eISBN : 978-1-101-01953-5
BERKLEY® SENSATION
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY® SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
http://us.penguingroup.com
For the real Ashwini,
who is definitely not all kinds of crazy
(except when I drive her to it).
Best friends—and sisters—
don’t come any better than this.
1
When Elena told people she was a vampire hunter, their first reaction was an inevitable gasp, followed by, “You go around sticking those sharp stakes in their evil putrid hearts?”
Okay, maybe the actual words varied but the feel was the same. It made her want to track down and exterminate the idiot fifteenth-century storyteller who’d made up that tale in the first place. Of course, the vampires had probably already taken care of it—after the first few of them ended up in whatever passed for an emergency room back then.
Elena didn’t stake vampires. She tracked them, bagged them, and returned them to their masters—the angels. Some people called her kind bounty hunters, but according to her Guild card, she was “Licensed to Hunt Vampires & Assorted Others”—which made her a vampire hunter, with the attendant benefits, including hazard pay. That pay was very healthy. It had to be to compensate for the fact that hunters occasionally had their jugulars torn open.
Still, Elena decided she needed a pay raise after her calf muscle started protesting. She’d been stuck in a cramped corner of an alley in the Bronx for the past two hours, a too tall female with pale, almost white hair and silver eyes. The hair was a pain in the butt. According to her sometimes friend Ransom, she might as well wear a sign announcing her presence. Since dyes wouldn’t work on it for longer than two minutes, Elena had a great collection of knit caps.
She was tempted to pull her current one down over her nose, but had a feeling that would only intensify the malodorous “ambience” of this dank piece of New York City. That led her to thinking about the virtues of nose plugs—
Something rustled behind her.
She swiveled . . . to come face-to-face with a stalking cat, its eyes reflecting silver in the darkness. Satisfied the animal was what it seemed, she returned her attention to the sidewalk, wondering if her eyes shone as freakily as that cat’s. It was a good thing she’d inherited dark gold skin from her Moroccan grandmother or she’d have resembled a ghost.
“Where the hell are you?” she muttered, reaching down to rub at her calf. This vamp had led her on a merry chase—through his own sheer stupidity. He didn’t know what he was doing, which made him a little hard to second-guess.
Ransom had once asked her if it bothered her to round up helpless vampires and drag their sorry asses back to a life of virtual slavery. He’d been laughing hysterically at the time. No, it didn’t bother her. Just like it didn’t bother him. The vamps chose that slavery—of a hundred years’ duration—the instant they petitioned an angel to Make them almost-immortal. If they had stayed human, if they had gone to their graves in peace, then they wouldn’t have found themselves bound by a contract signed in blood. And while the angels did take advantage of their position, a contract was a contract.
A flash of light in the street.
Bingo!
There was the target, chomping away on a cigar and boasting on his cell phone about how he was a Made man now and no prissy angel was going to tell him what to do. Even with several feet of distance between them, she could smell the sweat pooling under his armpits. The vampirism hadn’t yet advanced enough to melt away the fat he wore like a spare coat, and he thought he could run out on a contract with an angel?
Idiot.
Walking out, she pulled off her knit cap and stuffed it in her back pocket. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders in a soft cloud, distinctive and bright. It wasn’t a risk. Not tonight. She might have been well known by the locals, but this vampire had a distinct Australian accent. He’d recently arrived from Sydney—and his master wanted him back in that city, pronto.
“Got a light?”
The vampire jumped and dropped his phone. Elena barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. He wasn’t even fully formed—the canines he’d flashed in surprise were only baby teeth. No wonder his master was pissed. The bonehead had to have scuttled after not much more than a year or so of service.
“Sorry,” she said with a smile as he retrieved the phone and weighed her up. She knew what he saw. A lone female with bimbo blonde hair, dressed in black leather jeans and a form-fitting long-sleeved top in the same color, no visible weapons.
Because he was young and stupid, the image made him relax. “Sure, sweet thang.” He reached into his pocket for the lighter.
That was when Elena leaned forward, one hand sweeping behind her back and under her top. “Tut-tut. Mr. Ebose is very disappointed in you.” She’d retrieved and locked the necklet into place before he processed the meaning of that huskily spoken censure. His eyes bulged red, but instead of screaming, he stood silently in place. A hunter’s necklet had a way of freezing a man. Fear was a live thing skittering across his face.
She’d have felt sorry for him if she hadn’t known that he’d torn out four human throats in the course of his escape. That was not acceptable. The angels protected their get but even they had limits—Mr. Ebose had authorized the use of any and all force necessary on this one.
Now, she let that knowledge bleed into the open, let the vampire see her willingness to hurt him. His face lost what color he’d managed to retain. She smiled. “Follow me.”
He trotted behind her like an obedient puppy. Damn, but she loved the necklets. Her best friend, Sara, liked to shoot the targets with honest-to-god arrows—the arrowheads were doctored to contain the same control chip that made the necklets so effective. The instant it touched skin, the chip apparently emitted some kind of an electromagnetic field that temporarily short-circuited a vampire’s neural processes, leaving the target open to suggestion. Elena didn’t know the science of it all, but she knew the limits and advantages of her chosen method of capture.
Yeah, she did have to get closer to her targets than Sara, but conversely, there was no chance of missing and hitting an innocent bystander. Which Sara had once done. It had cost her half a year’s pay to settle the lawsuit. Lips curving at the thought of how pissed her friend had been at not making the shot, Elena opened the passenger-side door of the car she’d parked nearby. “Inside.”
The baby vamp squeezed in his girth with effort.
Making sure he was belted in, she called Mr. Ebose’s head of security. “I’ve got him.”
The voice at the other end instructed her to drop the package off at a private airstrip.
Unsurprised by the chosen location, she hung up and began driving. In silence. It would’ve been a bit redundant to try to make conversation, as the vamp had lost the ability to speak the instant she clamped him. The muting was a side effect of the neural straitjacket created by the necklet. Before the inception of the chip-embedded devices, vampire hunting had been something of a suicidal career choice, as even the babiest vamps had the ability to tear a human to pieces. Of course, according to the latest research, vampire hunters weren’t quite human, but they were close enough.
