Unearthed
The Heights #2
by Lauren Stewart
Release Date: August 19, 2015
Blurb:
“What would you give up for
freedom?”
“Everything.”
“Even if it wasn't yours?”
For
three years, Keira lived in hell on earth, kept and tortured by a psychopath.
He should’ve killed her. Because now she’s looking for payback, to see his face
when she shoves a stake into his chest, to feel his dust under her boot. Then
she’ll finally be free…of everything but the memories, scars, and nightmares.
Unfortunately, when a demon starts hunting the same prey, Keira’s life becomes
less about getting revenge and more about fighting temptation.
For
three tours above the earth’s crust, Davyn has been as close to heaven as a
demon can be. In a few weeks, he’ll go home to be reforged, stripped of all the
humanity he’s accumulated and be reminded of exactly what he is. Of course, in
the depths of hell, nobody “finds themselves” through group therapy and happy
pills. It’s not all bad news though—before he goes, at least he gets to kill a
vampire. Maybe a human too, if that stubborn little hunter keeps getting in his
way. After all, a nice ass can only buy so much of Davyn’s patience.
In
this highly anticipated sequel to Unseen, two people from opposite sides of a
war will discover the price of freedom and what they're willing to pay for it.
But in the Heights, nothing is ever fair. For something they both want, one of
them will pay with their eternity.
*
* *
The
Heights not only protects the secrecy of vampires, shifters, demons, angels,
and other supernaturals, it protects the humans unaware of the world hidden
within their own.
Interested in reading???
About the Author:
Lauren Stewart lives in
Northern California with two of the most amazing children that the world has
ever seen. She reads almost every genre so, naturally, her writing reflects
that. With every book, every story, you'll find elements of other
genres--fantasy, mystery, romance, paranormal, suspense, YA, women's
literature, all with a touch of humor because what doesn't kill us should make
us laugh.
Connect with Lauren:
Excerpt:
Davyn might be big, but he
wasn’t slow. He moved towards the hunter, figuring she’d backup from the
three-hundred-pound demon coming directly at her. Nope. She dropped to her
knees and spun out of his path, almost fast enough. He swung his arm down, hitting
her shoulder. The knife popped out of her grip and shot across the alley,
landing with a “plop” into a puddle.
“Aww, did I break your toy?” he
asked.
They both glanced at it, then
each other. Simultaneously, they moved, except she didn’t go for the knife. She
went for him.
What the fuck? On his way to the ground, he had his very first bout
with shock. The little woman had grabbed both of his legs and squeezed, using
his momentum and bulk against him. He landed face-first on the cement, so
unprepared for the challenge that he hadn’t even put out his hands. The knife
laid three feet away.
The hunter’s boot caught him
under his chest and flipped him over. He grunted as she made a move, something
more like what you’d see in a fake wrestling match than in an actual fight. She
straddled him, her hands on his arms, her feet curled behind her holding his
thighs to the ground.
He’d been more intimidated by kittens. Even
using all her weight, she was never going to keep him down. But he gave her
props because she shouldn’t have been able to get him on his back at all.
Millennia of torture, tests,
ordeals—physical and mental—and he’s outwitted by a girl with a stellar body
and a crusty knife. Not his proudest moment. Okay, fun was over. If she had a
moment, it was because he gave it to her.
“You can’t win this, puppet.”
“I don’t have to win,” she said
breathlessly. “All I have to do is not lose.”
He shrugged one shoulder,
throwing her off-balance enough to reach out and grab the knife. He hissed when
his fingers met the blade, the salt burning like acid. She yelled and threw
herself towards the weapon, but he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her
from reaching it. He flipped it around in his hand so he held the handle and
brought the blade to her throat.
“In case you missed it, this is
you losing.”
She jerked away and rolled. He
grabbed her by the only piece of clothing he could—what remained of her shirt.
When it ripped apart in his hand, she stopped, arms curled in to cover her
chest and eyes opened wide in shock.
“Seriously?” He laughed. “We’re
trying to kill each other. I could’ve grabbed you by the throat and snapped it
just as easily, but this is what
freaks you out? Me seeing your…?” Oh shit, those were nice.
Nope. First thing’s first. With
her hands and mind occupied, she didn’t even try to stop him when he wrapped a
leg around her and used it to flip both of them over so he was on top of her
and the blade was at her neck again. Now, what was that second thing?
Right. When his eyes lowered
from her eyes to her mouth, she inhaled sharply. Her shield slipped for just a
second, long enough to let him know exactly what she wanted. Same thing he did.
“Oh, puppet, don’t tempt me.”
He felt his cock harden, his temperature go up a few notches. Even though she
must have felt both changes, she didn’t flinch, her self-destructive desire
only increasing. His gaze roamed lazily from her eyes and lips to where the
blade dented the skin of her neck, down…
Their bodies fit together in a
very pleasant, very unhealthy way.
Fuck. This was as stupid as it was dangerous. The salt had nothing
on this. The harder his cock got, the hotter his entire body got. He geared
himself up to get away from her. Her chest lifted with every shallow breath.
Hotter.
Just another second and he
would get off her.
In a
second.
She pressed her hips up against
his.
Even hotter.
Thirty maybe.
“Another hot flash?” she asked.
He shot to his feet, tossing
the knife at the wall, shattering it. “I could’ve fucking killed you.” Not with
the knife or even on purpose. He’d lost control of his heat to a degree that
should have made her boil.
“That’s for the tip, Captain
Obvious.” After she’d gotten her feet, she touched the side of her neck where
the blade had almost punctured her skin, her other arm across her breasts to
hide them, instead just making it harder to look away.
“I wasn’t talking about the
blade. Didn’t I—” He looked at the remnants of her pants, then at his. Melted pretty
much everywhere they’d been touching. “Didn’t I burn you?”
“Oh please, you’re not that
hot.” She looked down at her arms and chest. They were red, but not as much as
they should’ve been. If she was entirely human. “Mind giving me my jacket?”
He grabbed it off the ground
and tossed it to her, his breath coming faster, his mind a blur. He’d been
right about how dangerous she was, and it had nothing to do with how well she
fought.
It was way more than that. She
could take his heat. Sure, if he turned himself all the way up, she would burn
just like everything else he touched, but if he held back, just a little…
He wiped his mouth to hide the
beginnings of a smile. Fuck, he could use her body to dispel his heat, vent
through her. Nothing would catch fire or melt, and no one would even notice.
It’d be almost as if he was free from hell, not tied to that horrible heat. He
could go anywhere.
He looked at her. Just looked.
He didn’t have to push into her mind to find what tempted her the way all
demons above the crust avoided setting fires. Constantly having to look for
something to use in people’s head, picking through their stupid thoughts to
relieve the heat.
He didn’t need to do that with
her. He could just…touch her, and she could take it. Take him. Her damage could
be his freedom.
But nothing in their world came
without danger, and he didn’t have to think too hard to figure out what it
could be.
She shifted onto her other hip.
“Are we going to fight or are you going to stand there staring at me?”
“We’re done here,” he said
shakily. “But if you try to use salt on me again, I won’t be as forgiving.”
“Got it—no balls, no salt.
Congratulations on your big win.”
This fight, sure. But every
other way? Fuck no. He hadn’t won—she
had.
Interested in reading???
No comments:
Post a Comment