Psy & Changelings 05 - Hostage to Pleasure

option.”
    Startled by the unexpected act, she closed her hand to help slow the bleeding. “Why not?”
    “I want you to do this,” he responded, as if that was reason enough. And for an archangel, it was.
    “What’s the job? Retrieval?”
    “Yes.”
    Relief began to wash through her like the rain she could feel so close. But no, it was his scent, that fresh bite of water. “All I need to start with, is something the vampire wore recently. If you have a general location, even better. If not, I’ll get the Guild’s computer geniuses to track public transport and bank records, etcetera, while I hunt on the ground.” Her mind was already at work, considering and discarding options.
    “You mistake me, Elena. It’s not a vampire I want you to find.”
    That halted her in her tracks. “You’re looking for a human? Well, I can do it but I really don’t have any advantage over a good private investigator.”
    “Try again.”
    Not vampire. Not human. That left . . . “An angel?” she whispered. “No.”
    “No,” he agreed, and once again, she felt the cool brush of relief. It lasted until he said, “An archangel.”
    Elena stared at him. “You’re joking.”
    His cheekbones stood out starkly against the sun-kissed smoothness of his skin. “No. The Cadre of Ten does not joke.”
    Her stomach curdled at the reference to the Cadre—if Raphael was any example of their lethal power, she never wanted to meet that august body. “Why are you tracking an archangel?”
    “That, you do not need to know.” His tone was final. “What you do need to know is that if you succeed in finding him, you’ll be rewarded with more money than you can hope to spend in your lifetime.”
    Elena glanced at the bloodstained napkin. “And if I fail?”
    “Don’t fail, Elena.” His eyes were mild but his smile, it spoke of things better not said aloud. “You intrigue me—I’d hate to have to punish you.”
    Her mind flashed to that image of the vampire in Times Square, that broken mess that had once been a person . . . Raphael’s definition of punishment.

Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series continues with
    Branded by Fire
    Coming in summer 2009 from Berkley Sensation!
     
 
 
“I’m going to kill you.” It was more hiss than sound.
    Riley bit her.
    In the soft, sensitive place between neck and shoulder. Mercy felt her entire body shiver from the inside out at the blatant show of dominance. “Stop it.” It came out husky, nothing like the rejection she wanted it to be.
    He took his mouth from her. “I’ve pinned you.”
    “That’s wolf shit. I’m a cat.”
    “You’re still trapped under me.” He nuzzled at her throat. “And you smell all hot and wet and hungry.” His voice was dropping, going wolf on her.
    And the heat between her thighs was turning into a pulsing drumbeat. Her stomach twisted in a vicious wave of need. God she was hungry, so sensually hungry. And Riley had taken her, his hold unbreakable. At that moment, the leopard didn’t care that he wasn’t a cat. It just cared that he was strong, sexy, and aroused.
     
Read the full chapter excerpt at www.nalinisingh.com !