Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Shopping List:
Buy nail polish remover
Double-A batteries for “B.O.B”
Vodka
Jell-O
Bitch-slap skank vampire
Buy a new pair of binoculars to spy on human male
Kaya sighed as she looked over her to-do list only to wince when she came to the last two items. She may have done a little more than bitch-slap the leech that had been following her human around for the past week.
Not that she did anything that the bitch didn’t deserve, not unless you counted shoving the makeshift stake that she’d made from an old bike frame through the bitch’s chest because Kaya certainly didn’t.
Granted, the bitch’s nest might see it differently, but what was she supposed to do when the leech wouldn’t back off?
She’d refused to listen even after Kaya calmly explained that the human male was under her protection.
When the leech refused to listen to reason, Kaya calmly shoved her head through a cinderblock wall.
That was Monday.
Then, on Thursday, Kaya was forced to once again explain that she didn’t appreciate her human being pursued by a leech. Again, the bitch laughed like she was joking.
She hadn’t been.
Not even a little bit.
That was right around the time when Kaya’s hand “accidentally” slipped and sent the leech flying through a window so that she could enjoy the afternoon sun.
That was three days ago and should have kept the leech busy healing for another week, but unfortunately for her, the leech gorged on blood so that she could heal quicker and stalk Kaya’s human.
Tonight was the last straw.
While she’d been minding her own business, perched on the ledge of the roof that just happened to be across from where the human male liked to play basketball, Kaya spotted the leech through a pair of military binoculars going after her human.
A little over a year ago, she’d realized that fate had screwed her over when she discovered that the mate she’d been waiting over two hundred years for was human.
After all that time, only to discover that her mate could never claim her.
It really was a shame, Kaya thought with a heartfelt sigh.
Her male was perfect with piercing green eyes that appeared to shimmer in the right light and short, black hair that she would love to run her fingers through.
He was also tall, tan, and had an incredible body for a human. She even liked his name.
Trajan.
Of course, her housemates liked to call him Trojan.
For the past ten months, she’d been forced to dodge Trojan condoms being thrown at her from windows, hallways, doorways, and passing cars.
She found condoms on her shower head, her hairbrush, comb, beer bottles, and she even woke up one morning with condoms placed over her small horns.
She’d get them back eventually, she always did, but right now, she was a tad busy with her obsession.
It really was too bad that Trajan wasn’t a demon.
He would have been perfect for her. Granted, she could have allowed the leech to change him, but then she would have been forced to kill him.
So, the only logical course was to allow the human to live and settle for stalking him for the next sixty years.
She’d figure out the rest later. Right now, she didn’t want to think about a life without a mate or children of her own.
Not just yet.
As she pulled onto the long cobblestone driveway, “I touch myself” began playing. She really needed to figure out how Xan kept changing her ringtone, Kaya thought as she glanced down at her cellphone only to sigh with relief when she saw who was calling.
“What’s up?” Zoey asked as soon as she answered the phone.
“I need a favor,” Kaya blurted only to immediately wince when she realized that she’d already screwed this up. Everyone knew the trick to get Zoey to do what you wanted was to make her think that you were doing her a favor. Still, Zoey surprised her.
“Does this have to do with your Trojan man?”
Kaya glanced at the large man passed out in the passenger seat of her SUV.
She winced at the sight of blood dripping down his neck from the head wound that, when all was said and done, was the leech’s fault.
When Kaya came down to remind the leech to keep her hands off her property, Trajan made the mistake of getting between them right around the time when Kaya decided to slam a pipe into the bitch’s head.
It may have, um, missed its mark.
“How did you know?”
“I know everything,” Zoey said in an ominous tone, sending shivers down Kaya’s spine.
In a brighter tone, Zoey continued, “Plus, I’m in your room right now looking out the window.
I see you killed your human.” She tsked Kaya.
“Now, Kaya, you know that you have to treat your toys better if you want them to last.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind,” Kaya said dryly. “Do you think you can heal him?”
“Hmm, I’ve never done a human before. But really, how much harder could it be than a dog?”
“Ummm, you’re not going to neuter him like you did Patches, are you?” Kaya asked as she glanced at the large male next to her. Even if she couldn’t partake of what he had to offer, she didn’t like the idea of him being…altered.
“Fine! But you have to admit that Patches has been happier since he lost his balls.”
Kaya prayed for patience. “I just need him the way that he was before.”
“Killjoy. Fine. Bring him into the living room,” Zoey said, making her wince as she glanced back at the man next to her.
Clearing her throat, Kaya said, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“It’s empty,” Zoey said, taking her by surprise.
“Where is everyone?” she asked, knowing that the living room should be filled with half-drunken demons critiquing serial killer documentaries tonight.
“Oh, in your room, raiding your closet. Where else?” Zoey asked in a tone that told her that it should have been more than obvious. Kaya groaned, realizing that she forgot to double-lock her bedroom door last night.
“Hey! I said I get the black top!” Zoey snapped at someone, followed by “Ow! Not the horns! Damn it, Zoey, I just grew those back!”
Sadly, she didn’t have time for this.
“I’ll meet you inside,” Kaya said before she hung up and quickly climbed out of the car and made her way around the front. She opened the passenger side door and pulled Trajan out of the car and threw him over her shoulder. No response, not even a groan, making her wince as she carried him inside.
The hit had been meant to send the leech flying.
It would have only dislocated the skank’s jaw and maybe taken off part of her skull, nothing major.
For a human, it had definitely been a killing blow.
She was actually surprised the pipe didn’t split his head in two and end up somewhere in his stomach.
“Here we are,” Kaya said soothingly as she laid him down on the couch.
With a snap of her fingers, all the lights in the living room turned on, along with the twenty-four-hour porn channel on the TV.
With another snap, the television was off.
It just didn’t feel like a pool boy marathon kind of moment.
“Please be okay,” Kaya mumbled as she reached over and checked his pulse.
Nothing.
“Oh, God…” Kaya said, swallowing hard as she stood there, staring down at her mate as the realization that he was gone slammed into her.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d waited so long for him, and now, he was gone. She should have just killed the leech the first time that she saw her and walked away, leaving Trajan to live his life, marry a human woman, have children, grow old, and die peacefully in his sleep.
That was the plan, the same one that every demon was forced to make when they found out that they were mated to a human.
It didn’t happen often, but when it did, there was no choice but to walk away.
Demons could live in the human world, blend in, and thrive, but they could never truly be one of them.
While they could potentially live for thousands of years, every human would one day end up being a distant memory.
If all she was going to have was sixty years with her mate, she would happily take it, but she knew that wasn’t a choice.
She would never be able to let him know what she was or allow him into her world, knowing what would happen to him.
He would never be able to claim her. They would never have children and she would never be able to do anything more than watch as he grew old, waiting for the moment when he took his last breath.
Now, she would never have even that, Kaya thought as she stood there, staring down at her mate, wondering how she was supposed to face the next two thousand years alone. She-
Couldn’t help but wonder why he was starting to heal.