The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(103)
They watched together, as Lexi followed the others up the cabin steps. Her hair caught the rays of the sun like a shaft of sunlight in winter. It was a brief, crystalline moment in the cold air. Then she disappeared, walking through the doorway that was within a direct line of sight from where Christan stood.
Phillipe turned to look at him. “She’s good for you.”
“She is.”
“Take care of her.”
“I will.”
“And tell her, Christan.”
“Soon,” he said as he started down the snowy slope. “But right now, I need to learn how to play.”
Three weeks later, Christan was stretched out on the butter-soft couch with his head in Lexi’s lap. She was stroking his hair, complaining that it had grown too long and offering to cut it for him in the morning. Christan was trying to figure out how to decline without offending her, since the last time she’d attempted to cut his hair the results had been unfortunate.
Lexi shifted against him now, and Christan pulled her fingers from his hair to his lips, kissed her palm. The night was cold, while a fire glowed in the fireplace. They were watching the news on the big screen television mounted to the wall, and Christan sat up when the female news reader for CNN International offered the teaser for an unexplained murder in the Piedmont.
The story, itself, was carried near the end of the broadcast, since it was more a curiosity than it was newsworthy. The body of a reclusive financier had been found in a remote home—more fortress than chalet—in a mountainous area in Northern Italy near the medieval town of Vogogna. The actual time of death was difficult to determine do to the frigid temperatures in a building half buried in snow. The medical examiner flown in from Milan suspected some form of catastrophic brain injury, although an autopsy had not been allowed; the financier had an equally reclusive family.
Those with unique knowledge understood the message. It took a frightening amount of power to cause total organ failure in an immortal, to sever the brain stem and obliterate all electrical function in a mind that existed in a slightly elevated, telepathic plane. The protective walls in the mind would shimmer beneath the onslaught, finally giving way, sputtering out like a child’s sparkler on that American holiday called the 4th of July before going dark. The body would crush inward, the way a human body was destroyed by a concussive attack. There would be no healing, no resumption of life. No. Nothing. Only a warning.
However, immortals protected their privacy, so that information was never revealed, and as Christan rose up from the couch and lifted Lexi into his arms, he wondered if his mess, this time, had been clean and neat enough for One.
Then Lexi wiggled out of her shirt and he decided he didn’t care.
But others did. They cared about an enforcer who was once a myth, who disappeared for four hundred years and returned, and now was something more.
An enforcer who possessed the power to destroy a three-story building in Zurich and eliminate an immortal financier in the mountains of the Piedmont.
It was a power he should not have had.
And the Calata was not pleased.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
No story comes into being without the assistance of many people, and this novel owes much to the assistant of the following professionals. Melissa Frain, who provided developmental editorial guidance and the insight needed to write the story I wanted to tell. To beta readers, Kristen, Brittany, Shannon and Paige, who were enthusiastic and enriched the development of the story. My thanks to Professor Angela Zagarella, who patiently assisted me with the Italian dialog in this novel and added her personal knowledge. Any errors in the translations or typographical errors are strictly my own.
As always, this book is dedicated to my husband and children who had been unwavering in their support and enthusiasm.
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Enforcer’s Legacy series (the stories around the Calata’s Enforcers) The Darkness in Dreams Christan and Lexi’s trilogy spring 2018
The Fire in Vengeance Christan and Lexi’s trilogy summer 2018
The Danger in Justice Christan and Lexi’s trilogy summer 2018
The Tears in Midnight Arsen and Katerina fall 2018
More to come
READ ON FOR BONUS CHAPTER
THE FIRE IN VENGEANCE
THE FIRE IN VENGEANCE
CHAPTER 1
Wallowa Mountains, Eastern Oregon
The battle was furious and would have been epic if anyone had known about it. The battleground was identified as a cabin hidden in the Wallowa Mountains, the destruction limited to a single room. Fortunately for the combatants—and there were only two—what happened in the Wallowa Mountains remained in the Wallowa Mountains, and dignity was preserved.
The victory, if there was one, should have been awarded to the enforcer of some repute. His opponent was the girl with whom he’d battled throughout several lifetimes. In the first lifetime she’d been Gaia; in the lifetime no one talked about she’d been Gemma. In both lifetimes the battles had been unique, with some debate regarding the winning side, but this battle was considered more significant by far. It dealt with issues neither combatant had anticipated, nor did they want. They were dealing with the consequences anyway, and no one was sure which way it would go.