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All content copyright Sydney Somers, 2004-2007 |
| "...an exciting, erotic love story." - The Romance Studio "Unbreakable is one of my all time favorite romances." - Fallen Angel Reviews * Author's note: This book was previously released and has been re-edited and slightly expanded for its Samhain Publishing release. |
| UNBREAKABLE - Shadow Destroyers Book One Jordan McAdam leads an unusual double life. Police officer by day, vigilante by night. But Jordan isn’t interested in the average criminal. She stalks Shadow Demons, creatures who prey on the innocent, creatures whom she suspects are responsible for a string of bizarre sacrificial murders. Creatures who killed her partner and lover. Gage Campbell has spent the last few years on an elite team of Shadow Destroyers, hunting down the demons who changed his life—and his DNA. Then an assignment leads him straight back to the woman he hasn't been able to stop thinking about for five long years. The woman he had no choice but to leave behind. Is the man before her a mimic demon bent on tormenting her, or is it Gage returned from the dead? All Jordan knows is that the raging desire between them is real. Standing between them are years of secrets and hurt, and a love that just might have the power to bring them together. If the murder case they're working on doesn't separate them…permanently. PROLOGUE “Jordan, wait.” Jordan McAdam didn’t so much as glance over her shoulder, let alone stop. She damn well would have taken the rear door out of the precinct if she’d known Officer Gage Campbell was going to be hot on her heels. She thought he was tied up with their captain. In fact, she’d been counting on it. Jordan burrowed her chin deeper in her coat to keep warm, annoyed with herself for not realizing Gage would have been watching for her. She should have known better. The man possessed an uncanny—and irritating—ability to track her down no matter how hard she tried to elude him. “Jordan.” Ignoring him, Jordan crossed the street, mindful of the slushy puddles the dark November night might conceal. “Hold up, damn it.” Feeling him within a few feet, she stopped. He would only grab her arm in another second and bring her around to face him. He’d made it a predictable habit in the last three years. On a normal day, his touch usually drove her to distraction. Given her current frame of mind, if he so much as blinked at her the wrong way, she’d take a swing at him. “What?” she bit out. With short, sandy brown hair and playful blue eyes, Gage had driven her crazy since the day they met when he shot his mouth off at her on their first day in the academy. From the beginning, he made it his mission to either push her buttons, or watch her with such blatant hunger burning in his eyes she never knew if she’d rather knock him out or climb into bed with him. Maybe if he hadn’t been so damn tempting, she wouldn’t have finally given in and slept with him a few months ago. Since then their relationship drifted from easygoing to downright volcanic, depending on whether they were shooting a game of pool or tearing each other’s clothes off. Gage crossed his arms. “Still pissed, I see.” Jordan arched a brow, the only response that didn’t involve losing control of the anger that still snapped through her bloodstream. “You were out of line today.” “The hell I was.” She clenched her fingers into a fist, her nails biting into her palm. His expression softened. “We’re supposed to be the good guys. The ones people count on.” “Spare me, Gage.” They’d already had this conversation after they made the arrest. “Did you take a good look at what he did to her?” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “It was hard to miss.” “Then don’t stand there and act like you didn’t want to hit him as much as I did.” “Maybe. But I wasn’t the one who punched him. And I’m not the one who might have screwed up a conviction because I lost my head.” “I did not lose my head. He resisted arrest.” “Bullshit. You took one look at him and all you saw was your father.” “Don’t.” It was the only warning she would give him. Out of everyone he knew not to go there. He pushed a tense breath through his lips. “I just don’t want to see him get off on a technicality.” “He won’t.” “What if the wife only cares about what you did to him? You know the statistics, Jordan. You know how few of them press charges. What if you scared her off?” “The neighbor witnessed it.” Gage took a step towards her. “I need to be able to trust that my partner is going to play by the rules.” “Well, maybe you need a new partner,” she snapped without thinking. His eyes narrowed. He closed the distance between them and backed her into the brick wall of a shop front. She put her arm up to hold him back. He plowed right through it, trapping her hands between them, and positioned his leg in front of hers to prevent her from kneeing him should it cross her mind. He knew her too well. “Is this what’s going to happen? We have a rough day and you’ll pull our personal relationship into it?” “What?” She didn’t know what was more frustrating, that he had her pinned to the wall, that he’d brought up her father, or that she didn’t know if she could handle both a professional and a personal relationship with him. “You don’t think it’s written all over your face?” “What the hell are you talking about?” She tried to squirm free and got nowhere. “Complications. You think things are getting too complicated.” As far as Jordan was concerned they had passed complicated a long time ago. Right around the first time he talked her into going for a beer and ended up kissing her when he dropped her off afterwards. She could have stopped things right there, before she got caught up in the need that raged inside her. A need she’d been so careful to keep locked away where it couldn’t come back to bite her in the ass. But she’d gotten tired of pretending she didn’t want to know what his mouth tasted like, what his hands would feel like slowly peeling her clothes away. What it would feel like to let go and just…fall. Needing space, Jordan shoved at his chest. “Back off.” “No.” “Gage—” “Complications or not, you’re stuck with me.” “Let me go.” Her voice came out softer than she intended. He was starting to get to her and they both knew it. Gage shook his head. “I didn’t spend the last three years trying to get you into my bed so you could walk away at the first rough spot.” “Believe me, it’s not the first.” Hell, most days they spent more time arguing than anything else. “Do you know what I thought today when I saw those kids? I thought of you. Of what it must have been like to watch your father beat your mother before he came after you and your brother.” Jordan shook her head. She wouldn’t let him feel sorry for her, wouldn’t let him take her back to a time she’d fought hard to put behind her. “I might have taken a swing at that bastard today if you hadn’t, but in that split second, I was too busy thinking about how much I wanted to find your father and hurt him the way he hurt you.” “Gage…” She trailed off at the intensity in his gaze. “Don’t.” He cradled her jaw in his palm. “This…us… Damn it, Jordan, you’re the first truly good thing in my life. Don’t shut me out because I piss you off. Chances are I’m going to do it again anyway. Might as well find a better way to channel your frustrations.” His intentions flickered over his face before he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. The slow slide of his mouth melted away the last of her anger. Beneath the gentle coaxing, she felt the fierce possession within him waiting to break loose, but he held back. His determination to comfort rather than conquer tugged at her heart. Jordan pushed aside the hideous doubts, the fears that this wouldn’t work out between them—that the only hopeful part left inside her heart would shrivel and die without him in her life. She thought she’d been doing all right before he strolled into her life. With his cocky smile and lethal charm, he’d slowly eroded the walls she’d cemented around her heart. Walls that she didn’t even know desperately needed to crumble until he showed her what it was to really feel, to love. She drew back slowly. “Any suggestions for helping me channel those frustrations?” “I might have a few.” He slanted his mouth across hers. Hungrier now, he teased her lips apart, swallowing the needy sigh that trembled off her lips. The rich seductive taste of him loosened the tension in her muscles, and she relaxed against him. Silky threads wove through her belly at the first stroke of his tongue. Jordan sank into the kiss, needing it, needing him in a way she had never needed anyone else. Gage slowed the feverish pace and eased away from her. “But they don’t involve taking you against the wall on the sidewalk.” He caught the hand she’d splayed across his chest and had been moving lower. “So you might want to cease and desist.” Jordan grinned. “Whatever you say, Officer.” “We okay?” “At least until you bring it up when we go back to work tomorrow.” His lips spread in a knowing smile. “Well, I should take advantage of our truce while I can then, shouldn’t I?” Jordan threaded her fingers through his as they started down the street, but stopped herself from resting her head against his shoulder. She may have given up far more of her heart than she planned, but she certainly didn’t have to be all mushy about it. A scream pierced the chilly night air, bringing them both to a full stop. With little more than an exchange of glances, they tensed and automatically moved towards the alley across the street. Gage unzipped his jacket and retrieved his gun from the holster under his arm. He moved ahead of her while she bent to grab the one she kept tucked next to her ankle. She clenched her off-duty weapon in her hand as adrenaline whooshed through her system. Ahead of her, Gage edged down the narrow passageway. Jordan scanned the shadowed doors and windows facing the alley between the closed flower shop and a jazz club. Mellow music floated on the air, an eerie contrast to the goose bumps that crawled across her skin. A scraping sound echoed in the dark, the sound of something being dragged. Gage stopped. “We’re police officers. Stop whatever you’re doing and step slowly towards us.” In front of them a shadow moved. A man, Jordan realized as the figure straightened and faced them. A flash of light glinted off metal. The man was definitely armed. Gage’s deep voice rang out. “Hold it right there. Hands where I can see them.” The man strode towards them. The sword in his hand… Jordan blinked. He was carrying a sword? Her stomach twisted. The silver metal was already stained with blood. Jesus. Light from a window above flicked on, illuminating the alley just enough to let her get a good look at the man’s face. There was a wild look about him, desperate, lips curled in a snarl, pupils dilated until little more than black pools stared out at them. A junkie. And high as a kite. He stopped moving. Jordan tensed. Something in his expression—something too calculated. He wasn’t high, she realized with an instinctual certainty. He knew exactly what he was doing as he slowly tipped the blade back and forth. As if suddenly aware of his audience, his face relaxed, transforming his expression from strained to complacent in the space of a heartbeat. He used his sword to trace an invisible pattern in the air, like a child using a stick to draw a picture in the sand. A ghost of a smile teased his mouth. “Drop your weapon,” she ordered. The man’s gaze slid from Gage to her. He arched a brow, his expression bordering on disdain before he actually grinned at her. Crazy bastard. Gage took a step closer to Jordan. “I’m only going to tell you one more time. Put it down.” A low animalistic sound ripped through the alley. Right before he charged them. “Fuck,” Gage snapped. He took a shot. The wound to the man’s leg didn’t slow him down. Gage shot again. He kept coming. The door next to Jordan flew open. “Get back inside,” she shouted to the people crowding the doorway. She didn’t take her eyes off the man who was headed right towards her. “Move.” Gage shoved her to the wall. The impact jarred her shoulder, but she didn’t tear her gaze away from Gage as he jerked to the side, barely dodging the slashing arc of their attacker’s sword. With the man’s back to her as he carried through, Jordan took a shot. The bullet struck his back, but he didn’t acknowledge it with anything more than a look over his shoulder. Evil. The word wrapped its icy arms around her shoulders and slithered down her spine, making her shiver. He turned and stalked towards her. Jordan fired, emptying the clip and the one left in the chamber, all with no effect. Heart in her throat, she sidestepped, tripped on something, and pitched forward to land on her knees. In stunned horror she watched Gage slam a fist into the man’s jaw, then grab his wrist, twisting around to snap it back. Growling, the man dropped the sword and staggered back a step. Gage shot forward and jerked Jordan to her feet. “Gage!” Her shouted warning was useless as the man threw himself at Gage. His high-pitched screech of anger scraped her eardrums. Gage stumbled and a howl of pain broke from his lips. Blood spread across his neck and shoulder, staining his jacket and his white T-shirt a dark red. Cursing, he tossed the guy over his shoulder, then straightened, his hand going to the wound. “The son of a bitch bit me.” Jordan searched the alley. “Where the hell did he go?” Nothing moved. Just shadows, the sound of Gage’s strained breathing, and the frantic rhythm of her own heart filled her senses. She glanced at her feet and noticed the sword was no longer on the ground. A breeze moved past her ear and she whipped around, feeling someone breathing down her neck. No one was there. Had they frightened him off? After one last glance around, she turned back to check Gage’s injury, studying the ripped and bleeding flesh. Her stomach clenched. “You’re going to need stitches.” “Shit.” “Hey, it could have been worse.” “No!” Gage thrust her to the side. Jordan slammed into the wall. Unable to prevent her head from striking the brick, she blinked through the pain that radiated across her skull. She turned around in time to see the sword slice through the air as Gage put himself between her and the man attacking from behind. Eyes wide, she heard Gage grunt, watched his face tense. “No!” Jordan launched forward, striking the man’s windpipe with a ruthless blow. His attention off Gage, who slumped into the wall, Jordan turned and brought her leg around and knocked the sword from his grip once more. The man didn’t run this time, but moved much faster than should have been possible. He snagged a fistful of her hair, and dragged her towards him. Her eyes watered under the tearing pain before he threw her to the ground. She tried to roll to her feet, but a foot crushed down on her chest, pinning her in place. Her pulse roared in her head. Terrified for Gage, she stared up at the man looming over her. The edges of his black eyes glowed red. His mouth opened, and the words that emerged were a language she couldn’t understand. She shivered anyway. An unshakable knowledge that whatever he was, he wasn’t fully human tunneled into her mind even as she shook her head in disbelief. The man’s head snapped back, his scream of pain cracking through the air. He flailed behind him to dig at his back before he dropped to the ground next to her. She jerked her face up. Gage stood with the sword limp at his side, his lower body drenched in blood. His knees buckled. Jordan scrambled towards him, catching most of his upper body before he hit the ground. She didn’t even realize she was yelling for an ambulance until one of the few people huddled at the side door darted back inside. “Gage,” she whispered. Blood soaked his ripped shirt. Carefully, she moved it aside to get a look at the wound. A whimper lodged in her throat. The bastard had torn him wide open. Jerking her arms out of her jacket, she bundled it up and pressed it to his abdomen. A collective cry of surprise from the onlookers brought her head up in time to discover the other man was no longer laying the ground. He was no longer even in the alley. Gage squeezed her hand, wrenching her attention back to him. He watched her, his gaze cloudy and unfocused. “It’s gonna be okay,” she vowed. A sound that once would have passed for a laugh turned into a cough that rattled through his chest. “It’s bad.” “No.” She shook her head. “No. It’s not. Help is coming. They’ll get here in time.” “They won’t be able to help,” he argued, his voice little more than a whisper. “I need you to promise me—” “Don’t you dare be cliché with me now, damn it. You’re not dying on me.” She couldn’t lose him. His hand tightened over hers, the once playful blue eyes far too serious. “We can’t always have the things we want.” “Don’t,” she pleaded. Hot tears burned down her cheeks. “Gage, please hold on.” “Jordan—” “No. No promises. You wouldn’t let me walk away. You never did. You always came after me. Now I’m the one who holds on. I’m not letting you go.” Her voice cracked and she clamped her lips together to hold in the sob wedged in her throat. A weak smile curved his lips. “I love you.” “Not as much as I love you,” she murmured, brushing her lips over his. “You never could let me have one up on you.” Jordan smiled through the tears that blurred her vision. She blinked to clear them and lifted her head as sirens echoed in the distance. “They’re almost here. I told you they’d get here in time.” She glanced down to find his eyes closed. “Gage.” Jordan shook him gently. “Open your eyes.” She shook him harder, and when he didn’t respond, she pressed her shaking fingers to the inside of his wrist. No! No! No! “Gage,” she yelled. “Don’t you leave me. Don’t you dare leave me, you son of a bitch.” A choking agony shredded her apart. She dropped her head to his. “Please don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t die.” Her heart pounded in slow motion, her throat tight and aching as one sob after another made it harder and harder to breathe. She didn’t raise her head as footsteps pounded down the alley towards them. In the back of her mind she registered the sirens, but couldn’t move, couldn’t let go of him. Through the pain that constricted her chest and made every part of her body hurt, she knew he was gone, knew it was too late. And through the grief pouring from her so forcefully she could do nothing but cling to him until the paramedics pried him out of her arms, she felt herself being watched, knew that the bastard who killed Gage, watched them. Watched her. Soaked with Gage’s blood, she couldn’t even drag herself to her feet as they rolled the stretcher carrying Gage’s dead body towards the ambulance, couldn’t think about anything else but vowing to find whatever it was. And kill it. |
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