Buch lesen: «Raise A Little Hell»
Raise a Little Hell
Cathryn Fox
MILLS & BOON
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Gifted with a sixth sense, Nicole James has always felt different and alone in the world. She has no idea what her abilities really mean—until she experiences Lucifer’s erotic charm when he tries to claim her.
But Nicole has a protector in Paranormal Task Force Officer Connor McClain. From the moment he sees Nicole, he craves her in a way no mere mortal could understand. And Connor has a plan to break Lucifer’s hold over Nicole: by seducing her and putting her under his own sensual spell…
Chapter One
Amber eyes glowing with rage, Lucifer lunged from his stone throne and threw back his mutilated horned head. With his nostrils flaring, he spanned his long arms and unfurled razor-sharp claws. A low tortured moan rose from the depths of his throat as fiery flames shot from his fingertips and licked over the charcoaled walls. Dry blistering heat whirled around the room, the energy feeding the red-hot coals in the dilapidated fire pit embedded in the floor before him. Waves of heat leaped upward from the deep rock crater as chunks of aged and pitted stone collapsed under his angered assault, a few fragments splintering to the blackened floor.
Kneeling at his feet, Lucifer’s female playthings squirreled backward, veiling their naked bodies from the bright orange glimmer emanating from the hot stone hearth. As they camouflaged themselves in the darkened corners, frightened by his sudden outburst, his anger exploded like a round of shrapnel and he spun around to flick his henchmen a glance.
Useless.
The entire lot of them.
Totally. Fucking. Useless.
Lucifer drew a breath, pulling the aromatic scent of rich sulphur residue into his lungs, letting the bouquet pet and soothe his volatile temper in a bid to relax himself. He needed to think with logic, not emotion, when calculating his next course of action.
Honestly, did Cage and Brand—his mutinous henchmen—really think there’d be no price to pay for escaping purgatory and betraying their master?
Restless and edgy, Lucifer angled his horned head and stroked his corneous protrusions. He began to pace. The sound of his hooves clattering on hell’s rocky surface was the only audible noise in his unusually quiet lair.
As he considered the unexpected situation he’d found himself in, his mind raced, searching for a solution, coming up with only one. One that brought on a fierce shiver. He fought it off and bit down another burst of fury as it rose from his darkened core.
Making his way to the long jagged opening in his rock wall, Lucifer ran one razorlike claw over the blazing hot stones and cursed himself for his temporary lack of good judgment. He should have known better than to trust Cage, or even Brand, with the simplest of tasks. All Cage had to do was “guide” Jadyn until she submitted to Lucifer. Then she’d be under Lucifer’s command for an eternity. But oh no, Cage had to go and fall in love with her, and it was that love that tore them from Lucifer’s grasp and landed them both on earth. And Brand, well, in Lucifer’s bid for revenge, all Brand had to do was sleep with Cage and Jadyn’s daughter, Kaylea, and mark her soul for hell. But he couldn’t pull off even such a menial task. And after creating a child with Kaylea, he, too, had cemented himself a place on earth, out of Lucifer’s reach.
Fuck, he never should have given his servants such latitude, trusting them to follow through with his plans. Hadn’t he learned long ago that if he wanted the job done, and done right, he had to do it himself?
But that meant traveling to earth. Lucifer shivered just thinking about stepping foot on such a vile, place—a vile mortal place where his powers were limited and after a mere forty-eight hours his body would weaken and materialize back in hell, giving him little time to hunt, torture and mark those who’d proved most disloyal to him. Him. Their master.
Of all the fucking nerve…
But if he wanted to reclaim Cage and Brand, and make them pay for their treachery, he had no choice but to travel to earth himself. After all, he couldn’t for one second let his other henchmen think such insubordination went without punishment. Brutal punishment. Consequences would be paid, and the payment would be most costly.
Lucifer balled his hands. As his sickle-like claws bit into his palm, the pain brought little to no comfort as his mind whirled. The souls of Cage and Brand belonged to him, dammit, and he sure as hell planned on reclaiming them, along with the women who stole them from his clutches.
But how?
Lucifer peered into the guarded portal embedded in his wall, a portal that carried marked souls from one realm to the other. He glimpsed a watery picture of Kaylea, a pure soul, along with her best friend, Nicole James, lunching at a curbside café called Halo. As he studied the image longer, there was something about Nicole that triggered a reaction inside him. A strange, excited tingle danced along his spiked horns, and renewed energy moved through his veins at lightning speed, prompting his dick into action.
Midnight poker-straight hair matching the color of his black soul framed deep green eyes that seemed far more speculative and aware than any mere mortal’s should. Intrigued to the point of distraction, he continued to study her.
Fuck, what he’d do to mark that little spitfire as his. He knew the only way to claim Nicole was by sleeping with her, since sleeping with the devil himself, or one of his henchmen, was a crime against her gods. It wasn’t as if he could go to earth and simply pull her through the door and keep her as one of his little playthings. Unfortunately, it didn’t work like that. He couldn’t open the guarded portal from their side. Not without a—
Pulling him from his musings, Nicole took a small sip of her coffee, jumped to her feet and reached for her jacket. As Lucifer watched her, taking note of her aura and the rapid spike in her vibrations, his thoughts went haywire.
“What the fuck—”
He faltered backward. His eyes widened and he braced his hands on the jagged portal in a bid to right himself. If he had a heart, it would have leaped from joy, because it just occurred to him that Nicole James was the answer to his dreams.
And the beginning of earth’s nightmares.
Chapter Two
As Nicole James restocked the library shelves on this blustery Chicago morning, a burst of warm dry heat shot from the floor register and helped rent the chill in the air. The damn building felt like a frozen-food storage locker on most days, Nicole mused. Sure, it was good for the books and computers, but it certainly wasn’t good for the early-morning staff who had to open up and kick-start the ancient forced-air furnace. Cripes, her breath practically turned to fog when she exhaled, and that was even after the heat had been running for hours.
With her cool body absorbing the rush of warmth, Nicole grabbed a sip of her coffee, tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, leaned over and whispered to her very pregnant best friend in a hushed voice, “I think he’s the one.”
Fingers poised inches from the shelf, Kaylea West cast Nicole a sideways glance, her blue eyes widening. “Come on, Nicole, how can he be the one? You haven’t even met him in person yet.”
Nicole gave a casual shrug. “I don’t need to meet him in person to know.”
“Sure you do,” Kaylea insisted as she neatly slipped the brand-new book on medieval German literature into the four-inch slot where it would likely gather dust for the next millennium. Kaylea twisted and wagged a warning finger. “Meeting a guy online and meeting him in person is not the same thing. Haven’t we been over this?”
Feeling like a love-struck teenager, Nicole’s insides were bursting with an unusual amount of excitement. She hugged a hardcover book to her chest and spun around. “But he’s so perfect. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a man. Tall, beautiful, sensitive, and he’s a doctor, Kaylea. A doctor. So perfect.” She momentarily shut her eyes and let out a long euphoric sigh. “You know I’m not very religious, but it’s like he was a gift from God. Like he tapped into my thoughts and created the perfect man for me.”
Nicole opened her eyes in time to see a wave of apprehension spill across Kaylea’s face. Body language telltale, her friend furrowed her brow in genuine concern. Kaylea pitched her voice low—to show the severity of the situation, Nicole supposed—and said, “He sounds too good to be true. And you know what they say about that—”
Nicole grabbed for Kaylea’s hand and cut her off. “Come on, after all the losers I’ve been out with, and all the failed relationships, can’t you just be happy for me? And look at Brand. Talk about love at first sight, and he’s been an amazing husband, hasn’t he?” Nicole took that moment to glance at her friend’s big belly. “So damn amazing some would think he was too good to be true.”
After a long thoughtful moment, Kaylea’s blue eyes softened and she squeezed Nicole’s fingers in support, but the underlying worry in her voice hadn’t gone unnoticed. “I am happy for you. I just want you to be careful. There are too many crazies roaming the streets at night and I don’t want you mixed up with any of them.”
Nicole appreciated her friend’s concern, she really did, but after losing her parents at a young age, and being sent halfway across the country to live with a grandmother who cared little to nothing for her, she’d practically raised herself in one of Chicago’s roughest and toughest neighbourhood. Nicole prided herself on being street savvy, that, and she’d been gifted with a sixth sense. For as long as she could remember, she had the ability to read people, helping her separate the good from the bad. She wasn’t sure if she’d inherited the ability from her parents, as Nicole was so young when they died, too young at the time to understand the significance of her extraordinary gift.
“You of all people know I’m a good judge of character,” Nicole reminded her. “And Trent is amazing. We have so much in common.”
Kaylea gave a slow side-to-side shake of her head, her light blond curls bounding with the easy movement. “Jeez, what kind of spell does he have you under anyway?”
“It’s not a spell. He’s just a really great guy.”
“I know you think he’s a great guy, but it’s just that…”
Kaylea’s voice fell off when Nicole raised her arms and placed her palms face out. She cut her hand through the air, shaping the pattern of Kaylea’s body. “And like you, Trent Wheeler has such a beautiful aura about him.”
Kaylea raised a dubious brow. “You could pick up on that from just his photo?”
“Yeah,” she murmured dreamily. “Such a soft and beautiful shade of blue. Just like the color of your eyes, in fact.”
Kaylea leaned against the mobile book rack and asked, “Doesn’t blue mean he’s spiritual?”
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