Page 1 of Kiss the Dawn
Chapter 1
Someone once told me about places called amusement parks. People used to go there to be amused, I guess. There’d be delicious food and games to play if you paid to participate. Prizes to be won and rides on metal contraptions with tiny carts that people would climb into, eager to be shaken, flung, and swung around. But there was always one huge contraption at each of these parks where everyone climbed into connecting carts to be hauled up high on a metal track only to be dropped onto a course of undulating ones. Up and down in a series of varying highs and dips they’d go, screaming in delighted terror.
They called them rollercoasters, and there was an archaic phrase related to them.Life is like a rollercoaster.
The phrase came to mind as I stared at the box containing neat squares of Edwin’s and Padma’s skin.
Lorenzo’s voice was a low hum in the background, the world a soft, buzzing place as I focused on the logo on the cardboard.
Succulent Delights.
They’d gone to the bakery to get treats, and the bastard Shay had kidnapped them. The bounty hunter couldn’t be working alone. No way would he have overpowered both Padma and Edwin. Which meant he also had a team.
There was a bounty on my head, and they wanted it. Edwin and Padma were caught in the crosshairs, but like hell would I allow them to stay there. “I’m going to kill him.” I set the box on the counter, chest tightening. “I’m going to fucking kill him.” My voice shook with anger, and my eyes burned with it, because how dare he? How dare he attack my friends? Heat gripped my neck, dark rage rising.
“Orina…” Merry lightly touched my arm. “Breathe. We’ll figure this out.”
I blinked down at her, noting the concern on her face. Concern for me when we should be worrying about Edwin and Padma. I couldn’t lose my shit right now. I wouldn’t be a problem.
I exhaled, letting the rage go because it served no purpose here. “I’m fine.”
“Good. I left a message for Crush.”
Shay was a friend of Crush, and as far as I was aware, Crush had been searching for him ever since I’dtold him about the bastard attacking me. At least we knew why now. “Let’s hope he can help.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” Merry asked.
“Give Lorenzo a chance,” Holly said. “He has contacts.”
I glanced over at Lorenzo who stood by the window, his back to us, phone pressed to his ear as he spoke low and urgently. Thank goodness he was here.
He’d taken off his coat and slung it over the counter, and his dark hair, which had been windswept and tousled when he’d arrived, was now raked back from all the agitated combing he’d done with his fingers while waiting to be connected to the correct contact. Someone who could help us resolve our fucked-up issue.
The fact he was high up in the mageri ranks meant that if anyone could help with this, he could. The serpent of panic in my belly ceased its writhing.
Lorenzo ended the call and turned to face us. “They’re contacting the tower on the Isle now to get word to the Bloodmere House about what’s happened here. Someone will call us back shortly.”
So now we waited on two calls. One from Crush and one from the mysterious Isle that was governed by witches. A breed that hadn’t been wiped out as we’d been led to believe, but one which had a whole island under its control.
I was still wrapping my mind around the fact that I’d been born there to human parents I’d never had thechance to get to know. The parents who’d raised me weren’t my biological family. I’d been stolen away, probably by the Order, and now these Bloodmere people were looking for me, and had been doing so ever since I was taken, it seemed.
But they didn’t want me back out of love or anything sentimental like that; they wanted me for my genes. For the immunity my bloodline carried, which in my veins was strong enough to be passed on to a witch bloodlineifI procreated with them.
I was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and my human family wanted to breed me in the hope of producing witches that also carried the immunity to a strange virus running rampant on their Isle.
The whole thing was a mindfuck, and now…now two of my friends had been taken and it was all related. All linked to me.
The urge to hit something surged up to choke me. My nails bit into my palms, and I sucked in a breath and exhaled, forcing back the tide of darkness that wanted to come out and play.
Now was not the time to succumb.
“Holly, would you be kind enough to make some coffee?” Lorenzo asked. “Maybe we should sit down.”
Merry nodded jerkily, hands clasped in front of her. “Yes. Let’s do that.”
Holly set to making coffee, and the three of us wandered into the office. I sat at my desk, then stoodup and began to pace because sitting down felt too constrictive right now.
“It will be all right,” Lorenzo said calmly.
