Embraced 04 - Blood of the Damned.pdf - Anya Bast - SilverWitch

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Blood of the Damned

ISBN # 1-4199-0484-1

Edited by Briana St. James.

Cover art by Syneca.

Electronic book Publication: January 2006

This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written

permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-

3502.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales

is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Warning:

The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This book has been

rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-

rotic), and X (X-treme).

S- ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

E- rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall

word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find

objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated

titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as

“fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

X- treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles,

stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

T HE E MBRACED :

B LOOD OF THE D AMNED

Anya Bast

Chapter One

Harcourt Maximum Security Penitentiary

Zhejiang Province, China – Sometime tomorrow

Jade’s heavy boots clanged on the metal walkway as she trekked across the heart of

Harcourt Prison. All around her men stood at the bars of their cells catcalling and

shouting obscenities. Thirteen levels could be seen in the cellblock she walked through,

each floor lined with at least three hundred rusted iron cells, and every single prisoner

in them seemed riled up by her presence.

But she was only interested in one man here.

She ignored the rest of it. Ignored the sound of their voices, and the noise of the

clanging iron bars and the metal walkway beneath her boots. She closed her senses to

the stench of the place—unwashed human body, rotten food, old semen and blood. Jade

closed her extrasensory perception to their emotions as well, their rage, their

desperation at being out of control. She cut herself off from all of it. Fifty years of

training as a Priestess of the Morrigan gave her that ability.

She approached the end of the walkway and the armed guard who waited for her.

The red-haired prison guard had bad teeth and a profane grin. His gaze trailed from her

heavy combat boots, up her leather-clad body to her face. Apparently the prisoners

weren’t the only ones who hadn’t seen a woman in a while. She flipped her long black

leather coat open so he could see the two weapons—two high-caliber pistols—holstered

on her waist. His grin faltered.

To further dampen his spirits, she reached into her back pocket, pulled out her ID

and release order, and flashed them at him. “Jade Xiang, officially empowered by the

International Federation. I’ve got a remand order for Niccolo Romano. Take me to him.”

The guard snorted, expelling a bit of spittle that Jade moved to the side to avoid.

“That crazy fuck? You can have him.” He peered behind her. “But I don’t see any

Federation agents with you. You sure you can handle this guy on your own?”

She stared at him as she slid her documents back into her pocket. “Let me worry

about that.”

He looked at her doubtfully and shook his head. Then he turned and led her down

a row of cells. Jade made sure she walked close to the railing on her left to avoid the

inmates’ grasping hands. If only she could avoid their spit and their words as well. A

lot of them growled out things they were thinking about her, things she didn’t want to

hear. Her close proximity seemed to whip them into an even greater frenzy. She

couldn’t wait to be out of here.

The guard led her down a hallway, away from the inmates’ housing. They took an

elevator down several floors, and then walked down a corridor lined with heavy steel

Blood of the Damned

doors. Her gaze flicked to the small viewing slits set in each one as she walked past.

This was solitary confinement, Jade guessed.

It was quiet here. All Jade could hear were their footsteps and the guard’s

breathing. The quiet was a blessed thing to her ears and senses. Even so, she could still

feel the tormented souls who clung to this place, the ones who lurked in the shadows of

the living and screamed soundlessly. They were imprisoned here for eternity in

anguish.

The guard stopped in front of one of the doors, punched in some numbers on the

lock by the knob and the door swung open. “There he is,” the guard said.

Jade stepped into the nearly pitch-black room. It took a second for her eyes to adjust

to the darkness. The floor and walls were concrete. The ceiling appeared to be

constructed of that same ancient steel that comprised the rest of the prison. No furniture

decorated the cell. There was nothing at all.

Except him.

The man she sought knelt on the floor, his arms strung out on either side of him and

bound at the wrists by thick chains attached to the walls. They’d left his chest bare and

his dark head was bowed. Long, straggling dark hair and a beard shadowed his face.

They’d put him in an uncomfortable position, obviously designed to punish. Though

Jade figured this vamp hardly felt the pain.

“Why is he restrained this way?” she asked sharply of the guard.

“Killed an inmate last week. Some asshole stupid enough to mess with an

Embraced.” The guard spat on the floor. “Saved us the cost of executin’ him.”

Niccolo Romano raised his head and let his gaze slowly rove her in the same way

the guard’s had earlier. He parted his lips a little and she saw his fangs—white and

sharp—in his mouth. She stifled the urge to kick him in the face. Had they been feeding

him synth-blood to keep him sated? Or maybe blood hunger had been how he’d killed

the inmate. Maybe Romano had drained him.

“Leave me alone with him,” she said without looking at the guard.

“You sure—”

Keeping her eyes on Romano’s face, she ground out, “I said leave me alone with

him.”

She heard the guard turn and leave.

Romano just stared at her. His long black hair hung around his well-chiseled face.

The darkness of his hair seemed to swallow up all the light around his head, giving her

the impression he thirsted for it…or maybe she was just projecting. She’d done her

reading on this guy, knew what a hard history he’d had.

She knew a lot about him, but they hadn’t told her what the Embraced would look

like. She hadn’t been expecting this. Even dirty and unkempt this man radiated power,

strength and overall physical perfection. She let her gaze trace over his muscled legs,

torso and arms. The man had to be unstoppable in a fight. She was preternaturally

Embraced 04 - Blood of the Damned.pdf

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