Deviant Warrior: (Dark Warrior Alliance Book Three) Read online

  Deviant Warrior

  Copyright © 2015 by Brenda Trim and Tami Julka

  eISBN: 978-1-63452-600-5

  Editor: Amanda Fitzpatrick

  Cover Art by Patricia Schmitt (Pickyme)

  *****

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the authors.

  Dedication

  Anyone who has ever written a book from start to finish will tell you that it isn’t an easy task and it’s impossible without feedback. We want to say thank you to our magnificent editor, Amanda Fitzpatrick, who has been with us from the beginning. We value your insight and ideas more than you know. Simply put, you rock and we love you!

  As always, we want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of our readers who have joined us on this thrilling adventure. You’ve enjoyed the Dark Warriors enough to buy the next book, so here it is. Buckle up, baby!

  To learn more about us and our upcoming books, visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TrimAndJulka.

  Table of contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  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

  Authors’ Note

  Other Works by Authors

  PROLOGUE

  Kyran was out of breath and fatigued all the way to his bones. He had pushed himself beyond his limits to get to Mackendra. The second Elsie had uttered Mackendra’s name after her latest premonition, there had been no choice for him but to leave Jace’s mating celebration. Urgency rode him hard and he left without a word to anyone. In fact, he’d simply up and disappeared while the others debated what to do.

  Forgoing a car, he had run and sifted his way across town and through Queen Anne. He had never been more grateful for his ability to move fifty feet in a blink. He could travel miles in a matter of seconds without having to use mundane methods of transportation. It didn’t matter that there was wall to wall traffic on the streets next to him.

  As soon as the smell of smoke hit his nostrils, his worry for her heightened and he reached deep for the energy to sift further than he ever had. He was at least a mile away and knew he wouldn’t make it all the way in a single sift even though his anxiety was telling him he had to.

  He wasn’t accustomed to worry and it chapped his ass that he was so plagued for her safety that he was taking inordinate risk of discovery by sifting across one of the busiest parts of town. He didn’t even care that his brother, the Vampire King, would have no choice but to execute him if he exposed the Tehrex Realm. The closer he got to her house, the thicker the smoke became until he eventually lost his ability to concentrate on his sift. He put on a burst of speed and ran the rest of the way, unable to stop the pounding of his heart.

  He stopped dead in his tracks as his heart skipped a beat at the sight before him. Smoke billowed from the windows and glass exploded. The heat was stifling this close and he saw the flames licking at the walls. She had to be alive. He didn’t know what he would do if he was too late. Not bothering to ponder that thought any further, he closed his eyes and focused. The building was going up fast and he wouldn’t have much time.

  A couple of her neighbors had come out of their houses and were shouting about calling the authorities. He tuned them out and cocked his head, opening his senses fully. The roaring of the fire became deafening and it took several seconds, but he finally located a rapid heartbeat at the back of her house, followed by coughing. Confident that he had her location, he rushed through the front door and ran up the stairs. Angry orange flames were destroying everything in their path, creating billowing smoke that singed his lungs and made it difficult to breathe.

  Panic flared. If it was this damaging to a supernatural there was a possibility that she wouldn’t live through this. His lungs would heal as soon as he was out of the house, but she wasn’t as resilient. He followed the sound of her heartbeat, hating how it slowed with each passing second. His preternatural speed had him at the door to the room where she was trapped. He kicked the door open and ignored the flames that were rapidly consuming the house around him. He glanced around and spotted her crouched on the other side of a bed with a baseball bat in her hand. She pulled her arm back and quickly swung it at the window.

  “Mackendra!” he yelled over the roar. She looked back and her eyes widened in shock when she saw him. For an oddly absurd moment, he relished the hope he saw cross her beautiful face. Her gaze told him he was her knight in shining armor. No one had ever looked at him in such a manner and it made his heart pound even harder. Shaking off his fixation, he didn’t waste any time lunging to her side and hauling her over his shoulder. He heard her scream as he flashed them into her backyard.

  He felt surprisingly strong hands beating on his backside as she screamed at him to put her down. Ignoring her, he looked around for a way to leave the vicinity without encountering the human authorities. The sirens were blaring down the street toward the house and he knew they would help her, but he wasn’t ready to hand her over. He told himself that he had to make sure she was uninjured first. He turned off the voice in his head that told him she was better off not being further exposed to him. She may have damage to her lungs and should be seen by a doctor, but that didn’t prompt him to set her down. Instead, he tightened his hold on her legs, imprisoning them against his chest.

  The fact that her tiny fists hit him with more strength only served to feed his desire to keep her with him. With a start, he realized that her physical objections were turning him on. It disturbed him greatly, especially since normally, he was the one inflicting pain, not the one receiving it. His shaft hardened and instinct drove him to smack her on the ass as he strode through her yard.

  “I know you didn’t just slap my ass. You may have saved my life, but you’d better put me down right now, you buffoon,” she admonished him.

  A smile curved his lips and he kept his steady pace. “Your sweet ass is a temptation I canna resist,” he replied easily and smacked it again. A heartbeat later he was surrounded by foreign magic, and the world as he knew it disappeared.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Kyran stumbled when gravity left him and almost had him dropping his precious cargo. His grip tightened around her legs as the familiar sensations of stepping through a portal engulfed him. The last thing he wanted to do was lose her in the ether. Between one step and the next, bright white lights flared and the smell of smoke abruptly disappeared and the noise of the house-fire and sirens ceased.

&nbs
p; He steadied himself and glanced around as he was swamped by warm, humid air. The world around him was completely different and entirely foreign to him. Even the moon in the sky was different. Insects chirped and buzzed around them and he noticed the foliage was unlike anything he’d ever seen. He may not know where they were, but his senses told him they weren’t near civilization. The calm of the night was shattered when Mackendra began yelling at him.

  “Put me down you oaf! What the fuck just happened? Stop walking already and put me down!” she demanded.

  “Shut up. My name isna oaf, ‘tis Kyran and I’m trying to figure oot where we are,” he explained as he tilted his head to the sky. The moon shone a deep purple in the dark sky and he was infinitely grateful they hadn’t walked through to sunlight or he’d be toast. He wondered if there was a daytime where they were and if so what their sun was like because one thing was certain to him, they were no longer on earth.

  When he heard her draw in a breath, he spanked her again. “You doona want to fuck with me right now,” he informed her. Surprisingly, she kept quiet, but crossed her arms over her chest so they rested between his back and her chest.

  He scrutinized their surroundings. They were encircled by trees with lush vegetation covering the ground. He smelled salt water in the distance, as well as, the scent of various animals, many of which he didn’t recognize. He contemplated where they could possibly be.

  Portals between hell and earth had recently been opening and allowing various lower-level demons through. He had no idea if they had crossed to hell, but he needed to be on alert and on the lookout. It was entirely possible they had landed in one of the nine circles of hell. There was much lore about the nine circles of hell and not all of them were the fire and brimstone of human legend. Needless to say, he had no idea what they were going to encounter.

  He looked over his shoulder and saw the portal they had just come through was marked by an engraved stone archway. The symbols were foreign to him, but the power there was unmistakable. The stone was covered in vines and worn away in many places. Moss covered the rocks and the underbrush wasn’t disturbed. This place was old, many centuries older than his seven hundred fifteen years, he guessed.

  Typically, you could cross back through a portal and return to your place of origin. Despite the fact that he was fairly certain the one they’d just crossed through had closed, he turned on his heel and strode back through the archway. He made it about five steps before he ran into a cliff wall covered in detritus.

  The infuriating female pounded on his backside again. “Keep that up, lass and I will strip you bare and give you a lashing you willna forget.” Her soft gasp of shock made him smile, while at the same time, he barely held back the groan the image elicited. He liked the idea of that more than he should. He never dallied with humans because their bodies were too weak to handle his deviance.

  “Touch me and you die, jackass. Now, put me down.” She struggled in earnest and flailed in his arms. He had to admit, she was strong for a human female and he couldn’t help but admire her courage in the face of the unknown. Most would crumple into a ball of tears in her situation. She had to be aware that they weren’t near her house anymore. He wondered if she had the insight to suspect something magical had occurred.

  When her combat boot connected with his balls, he tossed her off his shoulder and hissed at her. The pain had him doubling over as he cupped himself, rubbing the tender area. That shit hurt and his first instinct was to snatch her hair in a firm hold and punish her for her affront. He had saved her from burning to death and she repaid him by kicking him in the balls? She needed to be taught a lesson and he’d enjoy teaching her.

  She scrambled to turn over and he smiled when he read her shirt. Only someone with a sardonic personality could pull off a shirt that said, ‘Heavily Armed, Easily Pissed.’ He noticed the backpack she was wearing and wondered when she had grabbed it. He hadn’t seen it in when he’d grabbed her in her house.

  She was up on her feet in the next instant, her face flushed red with her anger, no doubt ready to give him hell. He cut her off before she could get a word in, “Come on,” he grabbed her arm and began tugging her away from the area. “We need to get oot of here. The creatures of this realm will have felt our arrival. And, I doona want to be here when they come looking. We need to get somewhere safer and figure oot our next steps.”

  That drew her up short and her eyebrows pulled in tight with her obvious confusion. “What do you mean this realm? Where did you take me? And, for the record, I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, pulling her arm from his grasp.

  “Suit yourself. Stay here and get eaten, female.” He glared back at her, wishing he wasn’t so attracted to her stubbornness. He preferred his females submissive and this one didn’t have a submissive bone in her body. He turned and walked away from her, leaving her behind.

  “Get eaten by what?” she asked. He looked back and noticed she was scanning the vicinity. She was a warrior, he realized, with her ready stance and clenched fists.

  “I doona know. That’s the point. It isna safe to stay here, the creatures who live here are closing in.” He heard wings beating in the distance and something traipsing through the jungle that surrounded them. She must have heard it, too, because within minutes, he heard her pounding after him. For a small thing, she was louder than a herd of elephants.

  He spun around and bared his fangs at her. “For fucks sake, lass. Turn the volume doon. You will lead them right to us.”

  She gasped and her eyes bulged. In the blink of an eye, her hand had disappeared behind her back and came back, glinting in the purple light of the moon. She cried out and lunged at him, “You’re one of those fucking vampires,” she spat and plunged her blade into his chest. The cold metal cut through his heart like butter.

  The pain and shock of her act stunned him and had him gasping. He fell to his knees unable to remain on his feet. “Why aren’t you dead? You’re supposed to turn to ash…there’s not supposed to be blood…” she trailed off, looking horrified. Her eyes settled on the wound that was bleeding around the blade.

  “I’m no’ a skirm,” he said panting between breaths. He looked down at his injury and grabbed hold of the knife. He braced himself for the pain he knew was coming. Before he yanked the blade from his chest, he heard her take off running. He let her go for the moment. He’d need a few minutes for the wound to heal enough so that he wasn’t bleeding all over the jungle. The last thing he wanted was to leave a trail of blood for creatures to follow.

  They hadn’t made it far enough from the portal for his peace of mind. If any of the creatures that inhabited this realm felt the magic of their arrival, the first place they would look was the portal. First things first though. He clenched his jaw and pulled the blade out of his chest.

  He fell forward and lowered his head, breathing through the pain. He was losing blood rapidly as his heart pumped it out of the gaping wound. He tried to stand up, but ended up on his ass. He crawled several feet before he collapsed, unable to move. As spots winked in his vision, a smile crept over his face. This female was as courageous as any warrior, strong and stubborn.

  He closed his eyes and felt the edges of his flesh stitch back together. As the hole she’d made in his heart sealed shut, he let himself imagine how sweet it would be to break her. He listened to her as she put distance between them, confident she couldn’t get far. He took a deep breath of her unique citrus-vanilla scent. He was going to enjoy hunting her.

  *****

  Mackendra was trapped in a nightmare, a terrifying nightmare. That was the only explanation for what was happening to her. First, she had woken to flames eating up the walls of her house. She was choking from the smoke and had been about to jump from her second-story window when a strange man appeared in her room. At first, she thought he was a fireman, especially when he gathered her around the waist and hauled her over his shoulder. Everything was a blur of flames and smoke and then she found herself
in her backyard.

  As all the blood had rushed to her head, she felt her stomach dip dangerously. It took her two seconds to realize that the guy wasn’t a fireman. He didn’t put her down immediately upon taking her to safety despite her demands that he let her go. When he didn’t comply, she began hitting a body so heavily muscled it felt like she was pounding a wall.

  Within seconds, it felt like she was free-falling and she thought he had tossed her away. She braced herself for impact with the ground while at the same time she was blinded by bright lights. The sudden absence of noise and light told her something had happened. She went on immediate alert. She knew better than most that nothing was as it seemed in this world. There were creatures in the darkness that terrified most.

  She wasn’t sure when she had shut her eyes, but she had opened them to foreign surroundings and had no doubt she was no longer in her backyard. And, she was still over the shoulder of the man who had saved her.

  She wasn’t one to be easily overcome by a good-looking guy. After all, it didn’t matter how attractive a person’s face, it was who they were on the inside that mattered. But, she had to admit that he had the most exquisite ass she’d ever seen. It had been nearly impossible to focus on her demands to be put down when her fists kept encountering his firm flesh.

  Initially, when he had appeared in her room, her relief had her mistaking him for a fireman, but now she recalled where she had seen him. He had been with her friend Elsie at a meeting. He hadn’t stayed at the meeting long, but she certainly remembered him given how rapidly he had departed.

  When he had growled at her in his sexy Scottish brogue and then had the audacity to smack her ass again, she forgot how she’d met him and fought harder to be put down. She didn’t care how hot any guy was, they didn’t have the right to put their hands on her.

  She felt no guilt when she had kicked and her boot connected with his groin. She hadn’t been surprised when she had landed on her backside. She couldn’t help but smirk as she watched him wince in pain. Dude got what he deserved. Ready to get back home, she stood up, but when she glanced around she had experienced the second major shock of the night.