Ruby Shadows Read online

  Suddenly, though she’d been dead for over ten years, I heard my Nana’s voice speak up inside my head.

  “You do it, Jake,” she said in that no-nonsense tone that meant you’d better listen up or get ready to take a switching. “It’s a second chance for you—a way to get right with the Goddess before it’s too late. If this pretty little girl needs your help and protection, well then, you protect her.”

  “Are you going to send me away?” Eryn’s soft voice broke my train of thought. “If you are, could you at least try to send me someplace Druaga can’t find me? I…I’m so frightened of him. He used to tell me exactly what he wanted to do to me and it was so awful…”

  There were tears in her big eyes again and I wished I knew what color they were—it was hard to see in the moonlight.

  “Hey, now—hey,” I said, reaching out to swipe a tear off her cheek with my thumb. She shied a little at my touch but relaxed when she saw I was being gentle. “You can rest easy, Darlin’,” I told her. “I’m not sending you anywhere. Well—except to another room. You can’t sleep in here with me.”

  “Why not? Please don’t send me away!” She looked at me pleadingly.

  “You’re still a stranger,” I said patiently—or as patiently as I could, considering it was the middle of the night and I was dead tired with a stray angle in my house. “Angel or not, I don’t know you well enough to let you sleep in bed with me.”

  “But what if you put me in another room and Druaga finds me and comes for me?” she whispered. “Will you be able to get to me in time?”

  “He’s not going to get to you,” I promised. “My entire house is covered in protective wards and no trespassing spells.”

  “But Gwendolyn’s magic was able to get past all that or I wouldn’t be here,” she pointed out.

  Well, she had me there.

  “Fine,” I said, sighing. “You can stay in here with me but we’re not sleeping in the same bed.”

  There were two reasons for that. Number one, I’m wary of strangers—always have been. She seemed soft and gentle but she’d come right out of the ceiling—out of Hell if what she was saying was true. I wanted some time to get to know her before I trusted her. And number two, the little angel was just too tempting. I hadn’t been with a woman for longer than I wanted to admit and I had no interest in tormenting myself by sleeping beside such a soft, curvy beauty all night wishing I could touch her and knowing I couldn’t.

  “All right,” she said in a small voice. “I’ll sleep on the floor. I don’t mind.”

  “No, you won’t,” I said, frowning. “My Nana would skin me alive if she knew I’d let a lady take the floor while I kept the bed.”

  “Your Nana?” She frowned. “Who is she? Is she here?”

  “She was my grandmother and she’s dead,” I said shortly. “But she didn’t raise me to disrespect women—or angels either for that matter. So you take the bed and I’ll take the chair.” I nodded at the big old arm chair in the corner of my bedroom. It was a pretty comfortable piece of furniture—I’d fallen asleep there many times before when I was up late, pouring over grimoirs and spell books. It wouldn’t be as good as the bed but I could manage there all right.

  “Are you certain?” Eryn was nibbling her lush lower lip. “I mean, I hate to ask you to leave your own bed.”

  “Believe me,” I said, eyeing the way the moonlight was shining through her thin white gown and outlining her full, luscious breasts. “It’s better this way.”

  “All right,” she whispered. “Thank you, Jake. And thank you for saying you’ll protect me.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I said grimly. “I’m still not sure exactly what we’re up against or what we’re going to do about it.”

  I grabbed my pillow and pulled a quilt my Nana had made out of the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. Then I went across to the armchair and started making myself comfortable—well as comfortable as I could, anyway.

  I heard some rustling in the bed and I saw that the angel had settled down and was snuggling under the blankets. It seemed almost like she could feel my eyes on her because she peeped over the edge of the covers and looked at me for a moment.

  “Good night, Jake,” she whispered in the darkness. “And thank you again.”

  “Welcome, Darlin’,” I said tiredly. “Just settle down and try to get some sleep. If angels sleep, that is.”

  “Yes, we do,” she whispered. “As long as we feel safe.”

  “You’re safe,” I told her. “Nothing’s getting to you unless it goes through me first.”

  “Thank you for that. For being willing to protect me.”

  “Hey, don’t thank me—thank Gwendolyn.” I shrugged. “It was her magic that sent you here in the first place—even though I still don’t really understand why.”

  Eryn nodded and lay her head back down on the pillow.

  I tried to settle down myself but my mind was a mess and my whole life was turned upside down. I had no idea what I was going to do or how I was going to protect the little angel who had literally landed in my lap.

  To be continued…

  Author's Note: Cardinal Sins is coming soon but if you're looking for something to read in the meantime and haven't tried my Brides of the Kindred series, check out the first book, Claimed, which is free for a limited time. And join my newsletter to be the first to find out about new books as they come out.

  Hugs and Happy Reading, Evangeline

  Other Books by Evangeline Anderson

  Brides of the Kindred books (in order)

  Claimed (also available in print and as an audio book)

  Hunted (also available in print and as an audio book)

  Sought

  Found

  Revealed

  Pursued

  Exiled

  Shadowed

  Chained

  Divided

  Devoured (also available in print)

  Enhanced

  Cursed

  Enslaved

  Targeted coming Summer of 2015

  Forgotten coming Fall of 2015

  Born to Darkness Paranormal series

  Crimson Debt

  Scarlet Heat

  Ruby Shadows

  Cardinal Sins (coming soon)

  ***The above books are just a small sample of Evangeline's work. For a complete list of books from all publishers, please visit her website***

  About the Author

  Evangeline Anderson is the USA Today Best Selling Author of the Brides of the Kindred and Born to Darkness series. She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.

  You can find her online at her website www.evangelineanderson.com

  Come visit for some free reads. Or, to be the first to find out about new books, join her newsletter .

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