Daemon Uprising Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Kudos for Mariah Ankenman

  Daemon Uprising

  Copyright

  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

  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

  Chapter 36

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Just because I think you’re not a monster doesn’t mean I like you.”

  “There’s the Tabitha I know.” He chuckled.

  “Come on,” she said, putting his arm over her shoulder. “Let’s get you to bed.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  She snorted, a small smile curling her lips. “Alone.”

  “Party pooper,” he mumbled.

  She swayed with the weight of supporting him. He stumbled slightly then regained his balance, moving his feet in line with hers as they made their way across the library to the door.

  “How much did you drink?”

  “Enough to tell you how beautiful I think you are,” Kiernan’s hot breath whispered in her ear sending chills cascading through her.

  She shivered, trying to put a damper on the feelings he brought out in her. “It’s just the dress.”

  He stopped walking, causing her to stop as well. Strong arms pulled her to him, wrapping around her like a big, warm, electric blanket. His head bent. She smelled the whiskey on his breath. His lips were mere inches from hers, and she couldn’t take her gaze off their sensual fullness. She remembered how they felt pressed against hers and damned if she didn’t want another taste.

  “It’s not the dress, Tabitha. It’s you.”

  She didn’t know what to say. Turned out, she didn’t have to say anything. Before she could even take in a breath to respond, Kiernan’s mouth came down over hers.

  Kudos for Mariah Ankenman

  2013 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist

  ~*~

  Author of The Peak Town Colorado Series,

  also released by The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Daemon Uprising

  by

  Mariah Ankenman

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either 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.

  Daemon Uprising

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 by Mariah Ankenman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Debbie Taylor

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Black Rose Edition, 2017

  Print ISBN 978-1-5092-1229-3

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-1230-9

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To my sisters.

  Thanks for always being there for me

  and for all the trauma-inducing teasing

  that I now use for inspiration, love you all!

  And to my Prince Charming.

  Thank you for fixing the computer

  when I want to smash it into the wall.

  Chapter 1

  “Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of cashmere?” Tabitha shouted in frustration.

  Bringing her arms high above her head, she slashed downward. The razor-sharp sword in her grasp whistled as it sped through the air. It met its intended target, and sliced clean through the neck of the Kakodaemon in front of her. His head sailed through the air, landing with a thunk a few feet away, as his body collapsed at her feet.

  The corpse slowly decomposed into a pile of mush with no response to her inquiry. Her brand new sweater, the perfect fit, in the perfect color, that just happened to be on sale, now covered in dark sticky blood. She sighed. Damn her luck. She really shouldn’t have bought the sweater to begin with. She bought the garment on impulse. Not once in her life had she been accused of being impulsive. That should teach her—go against the grain and it always came back to bite you in the ass.

  Tabitha kicked loose dirt over the now-reduced puddle of mush. “Why can’t you guys just turn to dust?”

  “Well, first off, they’re not Vampires. And second, this isn’t some late 1990s television show.”

  Fan-freaking-tastic.

  The cherry on top of the crap sundae of her night. She growled at the all too familiar voice behind her, turning to confirm what she already knew, Kiernan. He wore a smug smirk on his face as he leaned his impressively built frame against a large pine tree. How she hated that haughty little smile. She’d like to kick it off his arrogant face, but they technically fought for the same team, for now anyway.

  Tabitha wiped the blood off her sword and pushed the button to retract the blade. She shoved it in the holder on her hip and gave the Euadaemon a withering stare.

  “Well, I remember a lot of Demons turning to dust on that show as well.”

  Kiernan’s ice-blue gaze narrowed, his body stilled, tension radiating off him in waves. She knew it impolite to call a Daemon a Demon. Two different species entirely, though the unknowing mass population didn’t know that. They didn’t even know either one existed. Most people believed Demons, Vampires, and other mythical-like creatures only lived in stories or popular media forms. The ones with an inkling of their existence were either crazy or everyone labeled them as such.

  The stuff of nightmares and pop culture did, in fact, exist. Though, many of the popular theories about them were wrong. Nothing was immortal. No matter how hard a Vampire tried to convince you otherwise, everything died eventually.

  “Low blow. Even for you. You know there is a world of difference between Demons and Daemons.”

  Yes, she did, but Kiernan irritated her to no end. It might be childish to insult him, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself. And since he was over two hundred years old to her twenty-eight, she was a child. Relatively speaking.

  “What do you want, Kiernan?”

  He relaxed, his smile falling back into place. “Racine wants to see you, Tabby Cat.”

  “I told you not to call me that.” Her hands curled into tight fists.

  Same team, do not punch him.

  “Why?”

  He shrugged, brushing imaginary dirt off his coat. “Don’t know. Didn’t tell me. He just said to fetch you, and bring you back to headquarters.”

  Headquarters sat a few miles outside Denver, Colorado. Out in the sub
urbs, where more forest than city inhabited the landscape. Covert and secluded to provide cover, but close enough to the city to get the job done. The council’s job was to eliminate Kakodaemons and any other evil non-human preying on the innocent.

  Tabitha had been brought into the council ten years ago after a Kakodaemon attacked her and her kid sister, Krista. She survived. Her sister, well, she was alive. If spending the last decade in a coma was considered living.

  Racine—the current head of the council—had taken Tabitha to headquarters and offered her a chance for justice, to join them in the fight against evil. At first, she refused, after all Racine was a Daemon too, the very thing that attacked her and her sister. A thing, that in all her eighteen years, she had always thought a myth, fairy tale, Hollywood hoopla.

  Racine explained things to her, showed her the difference between truth and myth. He explained how Daemons were much like humans, and they could choose to be good, like the Euadaemons, or bad, like the Kakodaemons. So, she joined the ranks and never looked back. Ten years later, she was far from the naive eighteen year old that first walked through the headquarters’ doors. She’d seen and done things she never imagined in her wildest dreams.

  “Fine. Let’s go.” She marched past him, toward her car.

  “I could get us there a lot faster.” A devilish glint lit Kiernan’s eyes as wings appeared through the hidden slits in his long black duster.

  “It’s ten minutes away.”

  “He said it was important.”

  A cold shudder racked her body as she stared at his now fully expanded wings. She tried to hide her reaction, but by the grin on his face she knew he’d seen it. “I’m taking my car. You do whatever you want.”

  His wings flapped once, lifting him into the air a few inches. He knew she hated flying, especially when the only thing keeping her from falling to a painful death was how tightly she gripped the Daemon. He just liked to torment her for some sick reason unbeknownst to her.

  “See ya there, Tabby Cat.”

  With that, he lifted into the air, shooting straight up into the night sky.

  “Stop calling me that!” She raised a fist to the sky, but he had already vanished.

  She knew he heard her, with his superior hearing and all. Stupid Daemons and their extraordinary powers.

  Sliding into the driver’s seat, she pulled out of the parking lot of the quiet little park.

  Off to headquarters for another assignment.

  She just hoped Racine had someone really nasty for her to kill. In a foul mood, she needed someone to take out her frustration. Her new sweater was ruined, and she had to spend time in Kiernan’s presence. How could the night get any worse?

  Tabitha sped down the street wondering if she just jinxed herself.

  Chapter 2

  After a quick drive, she pulled up in front of the large Victorian-styled house. To anyone passing by, the old house with its bay windows and iron railings looked like any other home in the area, but beneath the seemingly ordinary structure laid a massive underground compound. When the council acquired the house, they also procured the twenty acres of land surrounding the house. The forest out back was protected under a wildlife preservation act prohibiting building upon it. Headquarters was as secluded as they could get.

  From human eyes.

  Tabitha got out of her car and headed up the walk. Kiernan was already there, sitting on the front porch swing, the smug little smirk on his face again.

  “There you are. I started to worry.”

  She stomped up the steps—a little louder than usual—and headed straight for the front door. “Screw you.”

  “Your place or mine?” His deep voice chuckled.

  She would not even dignify that with a response.

  In his dreams. Okay, and maybe a few of her crazy wild, I-ate-too-much-pizza-before-bed dreams too. No doubt Kiernan was one fine specimen. Most Daemons were. All that supernatural juice flowing through their veins. His broad shoulders, strong jaw, dark wavy hair that hung just past his chin in a bad-boy biker style, and ice-blue eyes attracted the ladies everywhere he went. His well-defined muscles and very fine ass helped attract some boys as well.

  For her, his height appealed the most. At five-foot-three, most men were taller than her. She’d always been told she had a bit of a Napoleon complex. She welcomed the challenge of tall men. Most thought they could use their size to dominate her. They soon learned otherwise. No one dominated Tabitha Culver, no one. Kiernan’s six-foot-four stature tempted her like cream-filled doughnuts at a weight-loss meeting. Daemon DNA for ya; tall, built, and sexy.

  He knew it too, which annoyed her to no end. Plus, he was a Daemon. An Euadaemon, sure, but a Daemon nonetheless. Even though she worked for the Euadaemons, Tabitha vowed never to get physical with any of them. Hell, she rarely got intimate with human men. The last one had been so long ago she wondered if it was even worth it. She had more important things to do besides getting laid, like killing evil.

  She knocked on the door, feeling Kiernan’s presence behind her. Hard to ignore a presence like his—strong, sexual, deadly—but she tried her best. Hot breath tickled the back of her neck as he leaned over to whisper in her ear, his deep voice vibrating her back, “Come on, Tabby Cat. I’m just messing with you.”

  She brought her elbow up, connecting with his gut. He let out a whoosh of air and what could have been described as a grunt if he had any air left in his lungs.

  “Stop calling me Tabby Cat.” Her teeth ground together as the door opened.

  Mrs. Buckley, headquarters’ housekeeper-cook-doctor-mother to all, stood in the doorway. The bright smile that rarely left the woman’s face beamed back at both of them. Tabitha liked Mrs. Buckley or Bucky as she insisted everyone call her. From the first time she met the woman, she felt safe, protected, and loved. A mother’s love, something she had not experienced since age seven. Bucky waved them in with a flick of her wrinkled hand.

  She didn’t know the exact age of the old woman or if Mrs. Buckley was even human. Bucky’s species didn’t matter, everyone loved her. But anyone mistaking the woman for all sweet smiles and peach pie would be sorely mistaken. When Bucky got riled up, everyone got out of the way. No one messed with the older woman when she set her mind to something. She looked old and fragile, but appearances were often times deceiving. In Bucky’s case, that went double.

  “Come in, children, come in.”

  Bucky called everyone a child. Not in a degrading way. She just saw everyone as younger than her, and for all anyone knew, they were.

  “Thanks, Bucky.” She kissed the old woman’s age-spotted cheek as she passed into the house.

  Kiernan gave Bucky a kiss on both cheeks as he followed Tabitha inside. “Bucky, you get prettier every time I see you.”

  “Young man, I do not take kindly to lies.” Bucky waved a finger at him, the smile still on her face. “But flattery is always appreciated.”

  Kiernan could charm his way out of anything, another reason Tabitha found him intolerable. She was a firm believer in hard work and following the rules. Kiernan was known for bending the rules on more than one occasion.

  “Is Racine ready for me?” Always to the point, she didn’t engage in small talk. Just another way to delay. No time for trivial pleasantries when there were bad guys to kill.

  Bucky nodded, closing the door. She pointed down the hall to the library. “He’s waiting for both of you.”

  Uh-oh, that couldn’t be good.

  “Both?”

  Once again, the old woman nodded and moved ahead of them, toward the library. Something was up. Her gaze narrowed as she turned back to Kiernan.

  Had he known their boss also wanted to speak to him? What did the Euadaemon know that she didn’t? Judging by the surprised look on his face, he too was as taken off guard. Okay, so obviously he didn’t know what Racine wanted to talk to them about. Or he was a very good liar. She wouldn’t put money on either.

  They followed Bucky
down the hall to the library. Tabitha’s entire studio apartment could fit in the library, twice. Built-in bookshelves lined the walls. A rolling ladder set on a track, circled the room so people without wings could reach the higher volumes. The first time she had seen the library, she thought back to a cartoon she used to watch as a child, Beauty and the Beast. Some definite resemblance.

  Racine sat behind his massive desk in the middle of the room. A plethora of books spread before him. The Euadaemon was a master of research; he loved books more than anyone she had ever met. As head of the Region Seven Council, his job entailed delegating to the Enforcers. The first time they met, Racine was just an Enforcer himself, a member of the party who saved her and her sister Krista. He still blamed himself for what happened to Krista, for not reaching them in time. Tabitha knew he had saved them from an ugly death.

  The attack happened in a dark park on their way home from a movie. At first, she chalked it up to a random mugging. Then she saw the wings. Muggers did not have wings. Humans did not have wings. She had tried to run, but the guy was fast. She remembered the fear, not only for herself, but also for her little sister. Terror still choked her when she thought of that night, her world ripped apart and death had come knocking.

  They hadn’t died. Racine and a crew of Enforcers came to their rescue. Unfortunately, the Kako attacker got away. He hadn’t killed them, but the damage to Krista already occurred. Her soul had been drained so much her mind shut down. She now spent her days in a hospital just outside the city. The doctors said she was in a coma and she would come out of it any day, but it had been ten years and Krista still lay there day after day, not moving. Racine blamed himself; Tabitha thanked him for her sister’s life.

  “Yo, boss man. What’s up?”

  Shaking herself from her memories, Tabitha cringed at Kiernan’s informality. Not that they were a strictly formal operation. Most of the Enforcers were related somehow and respect given to everyone, but Kiernan’s laid-back approach to everything got on Tabitha’s nerves. Someone once told her she was too uptight and stuffy. She took it as a compliment. Sloppiness meant people got hurt, especially in her line of work. She preferred to do everything by the book. A rule follower since birth, she’d never even cut in line before. She loved rules. They made her feel in control. Without rules, chaos reigned. Nothing good had ever come from chaos.