Ria trusted her people to find her a safe passage, and if they came across any Venifucus soldiers, she and her Guard would take them out swiftly and silently.
Unless they were taken out first. So far, that had never happened. Somebody always survived to help guide her out, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t lost a few dear friends along the way. The lucky ones retired with injuries that made it impossible for them to continue as Guards. The unlucky ones went on to the next realm knowing they had done their duty, and she prayed for their souls on the other side of the veil.
Bronson was new to her Guard. He had come of age and finished his training just in time to replace her cousin, Cade. Though she missed Cade, she knew he had earned this time with his new mate, Ellie. Cade and his former fighting partner, Mitch, were both newly mated and now far from her side. She missed them dearly, but didn’t begrudge them their happiness.
Ria had attended Mitch’s recent wedding in Iceland and was truly happy for her former Guard. At that very same wedding reception, Ria had met a striking, startling, altogether scrumptious human male with a decidedly mystical bent. Ellie’s older brother, Jake, had come to the party specifically to meet Ria—or so he had claimed. They had shared a dance and a bit of conversation that had haunted her for months now. He’d said he wanted to meet her because he was going to help her save the world.
Intriguing as that notion was, he hadn’t wanted to elaborate more than that. They had talked of many things that night, but had never returned to that rather outrageous claim. She had felt a bit like Cinderella at the ball. She had spent most of the night with Jake, as he’d told her to call him, but then, right around midnight, when the shifters began taking their furred forms and racing over the snowy, Icelandic volcano, he had disappeared.
She hadn’t seen him since, but her thoughts had turned to him time and time again over the past few months. The simplest little thing would inspire memories of their few hours together and his delicious scent seemed to be forever embedded in her brain. She almost suspected…but no. He couldn’t be her mate. He was human. And weird.
What kind of guy ran off like that? And what about that strange claim that he was going to help her save the world? Who spoke like that? She wasn’t sure if he was as incredibly appealing as she remembered, or just some random fruitcake who led women on with cryptic words and then disappeared into the night, never to be seen again.
But if he was a fruitcake, why did she think of him almost every day? And why did she have this incredible urge to hunt him down? Why in the world did she want to see him again? He’d left her. Abandoned her like Cinderella had left the prince at the ball, holding nothing but a lousy shoe. Now that was some weird role reversal, wasn’t it? And she didn’t even have a smelly shoe to remember him by.
She was doing it again. Thinking about that encounter with Jake all those months ago when she had more important things going on. Right now, she should be concentrating on fleeing for her life.
She was following after Dorian, the point man of her small Guard detail as they headed for the closest of the pre-planned escape routes. Thank goodness her feet still managed to work even while her mind was on that damnable, disappearing man, Jake.
Ria was doing her best to move as quickly and silently as she had been trained, following in Dorian’s wake. Shelly and her partner, Burgess, were on either side with Bronson bringing up the rear. And then Bronson cried out.
Ria spared a glance behind her to see the young man go down on one knee, then pop right back up again—bleeding. He’d been shot in the leg and from the sound of it, the gun was sporting a silencer. That was bad. Pros used silencers.
Bronson spun and began fighting hand to hand with the man who had come up behind him. Ria worried for the young Guard, but knew he was doing his duty and she had to do hers. She had to keep herself from being captured. It sucked being the black panther queen sometimes. Actually…all the time. Ria wasn’t exactly a fairytale princess and doubted she ever would be.
For one thing, she was always on the run and had to watch her friends get hurt and even die protecting her and her legacy. Where was the fun in that? All it did was break her heart and make her live on pure adrenaline half the time, which was something she didn’t really enjoy.
She ran faster, knowing Bronson was either already dead or gravely injured. His sacrifice would be for nothing if she didn’t manage to escape.
Burgess fell back to take the rear guard position as the four of them kept running. They were in a long hallway filled with shadows. High windows on the left—an outside wall—allowed the weak moonlight to filter in from above, painting the scene with bizarre rectangles of light. Off to the right was the occasional connecting hall and a number of locked doors as they sped along. Her Guard knew which of the doors or hallways led to safety.
And then the shadows ahead moved. Dorian didn’t cry out as he fell, but she knew he was down even as she heard Burgess engaging with more enemies behind her. Shelly moved in front of her and half-shifted to her battle form to engage with the enemy while Ria tried to look for another way out.
She didn’t see any. No, they were well and truly trapped in the long hallway and this time, she truly thought her number was up.
Find out more about Jacob’s Ladder and Bianca’s other stories at http://biancadarc.com/String.html.
About the Author
Writing a book was number one on Mari Carr’s bucket list. Now her computer is jammed full of stories — novels, novellas, short stories and dead-ends. A New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller, Mari finds time for writing by squeezing it into the hours between 3 a.m. and daybreak when her family is asleep.
You can visit Mari’s website at www.maricarr.com. She is also on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.
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Other Titles by Mari Carr
Trinity Masters:
Elemental Pleasure
Primal Passion
Scorching Desire
Forbidden Legacy
Sparks in Texas:
Sparks Fly
Big Easy:
Blank Canvas
Crash Point
Full Position
Rough Draft
Second Chances:
Fix You
Full Moon
Status Update
The Back-Up Plan
Never Been Kissed
Compass Brothers:
Northern Exposure
Southern Comfort
Western Ties
Compass Girls:
Winter’s Thaw
Hope Springs
Summer Fling
Falling Softly
Black & White Collection:
Erotic Research
Tequila Truth
Rough Cut
Happy Hour
Power Play
Slam Dunk
Naughty is Nice
In the Running
Just Because:
Because of You
Because You Love Me
Because It’s True
Cowboys:
Spitfire
Rekindled
Lowell High:
Retreat
Covert Lessons
Mad about Meg
Bound by the Past
Wild Irish:
Come Monday
Ruby Tuesday
Waiting for Wednesday
Sweet Thursday
Friday I’m in Love
Saturday Night Special
Any Given Sunday
Wild Irish Christmas
Wild Irish Boxed Set
June Girls:
No Recourse
No Regrets
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