Demon Marked

destroying a specified target. Both the French and the Liberé officers sneered when she’d claimed that her only loyalties were to her crew and the gold, but they used her when they didn’t have anyone good enough or fast enough to do what she could.
    Then the war had ended—fizzled out. All of the same animosities still simmered, but there wasn’t enough money left in the treasuries to pay for it. So Yasmeen had left the New World, returned back across the Atlantic, and carved out her niche by taking almost any job for the right money.
    Lately, that meant carrying a lot of passengers over Horde territory in Europe and Africa—a route that most airships-forhire would never take. Sometimes she acted as a courier, or she partnered with Vesuvius when that ship carried cargo that needed airship support, and then fought off any ships that tried to steal it from them.
    A routine life, but still an exciting one—and the only kind of settling down that she would ever do.
    Yasmeen flicked away her cigarillo, smiling at her own fancy. Routines, excitement, and a particular version of settling down. She’d have to record that thought and send it to Zenobia—along with an account of the little excitement that was about to take place.
    Someone was following her.
    A man had been trailing her since she’d left the tavern. Not some drunken idiot stumbling into a woman walking alone, but someone who’d deliberately picked her out—and if he’d seen her in the tavern, he must have known who she was.
    But he must not have been interested in killing her. Anyone could have shot her from this distance. Instead he tried to move in closer, using the shadows for cover . . . but he was very bad at stalking. He paused when she did, and though he tried for stealth by tiptoeing, his attempts only made him more obvious. Of course, he couldn’t know that Yasmeen was at her best during the night—and that she had more in common with the cats slinking through the alleys than the lumbering ape that had obviously birthed him.
    She’d only taken a few more steps when he finally found his balls and called her name.
    “Captain Corsair!”
    The voice was young, and quivering with bravado. He’d either taken a bet at the tavern or was going to ask for a position on her ship. Amused, Yasmeen faced him. A ginger-haired boy stood quivering in the middle of the—
    Something stabbed the back of her leg. Even as she whipped around, her thigh went numb, her leg rubbery. An opium dart. Oh, fuck. She ripped it out, too late. Pumped with this amount, her mind was already spinning. Hallucinating. A drunkard rose from a pile of rags, wearing the gaunt face of a dead man.
    No, not a drunkard. A handsome liar.
    Archimedes Fox.
    Yasmeen fumbled for her guns. Her fingers were enormous. He moved fast—or she was slow. Within a blink, he caught her hands, restrained her with barely any effort.
    She’d kill him for that.
    “Again?” he asked, so smooth and amused. “You’ll have to try harder.”
    The bastard. She hadn’t tried at all. And though she tried now, she sagged against him, instead—and for a brief moment, she wondered if she’d fallen against a zombie. Each of his ribs felt distinct beneath her hands.
    But zombies didn’t swing women up into their arms. And they didn’t talk.
    “My sister sends her regards,” he said against her cheek. “And I want my sketch.”
    “I’d have given it to you.” She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Her words slurred. “You just had to ask.”
    “Liar,” he said softly.
    Ah, well. He was right about that.





Titles by Meljean Brook
    DEMON ANGEL
DEMON MOON
DEMON NIGHT
DEMON BOUND
DEMON FORGED
DEMON BLOOD
DEMON MARKED
     
    THE IRON DUKE
     
    Anthologies
     
    HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Shiloh Walker)
WILD THING
(with Maggie Shayne, Marjorie M. Liu, and Alyssa Day)
FIRST BLOOD
(with Susan Sizemore, Erin McCarthy, and Chris Marie Green)
MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, and Ilona Andrews)
BURNING UP
(with Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, and Virginia Kantra)