Falling isn’t so bad, it’s the landing that hurts.
After being trapped out of space and time, Dr. Noemi Gastineau finally discovers her true nature and the amazing destiny that awaits her. However, danger surrounds her on every side. A rogue angel, an insane nymph and a wily demon would be enough for any woman to deal with for one day. Unfortunately, Azrael, the Angel of Death, is now on her tail, too, and he’s one of the good guys.
How’s a succubus supposed to get any quality time with her men when the whole universe is out to get her?
Reader Advisory: This book contains M/M, MF and M/M/F scenes as well as the use of a tail.
Publisher's Note: This book was previously released elsewhere. It has been re-edited for re-release with Pride Publishing.
General Release Date: 27th October 2015
In the darkness, the true measure of a man or woman can be weighed.
Noemi Gastineau lay on her side, curled tightly into a fetal position, allowing the other presence in her mind to run rampant, to succumb to blind panic. She refused to give Anahita a voice, though. The succubus could indulge in her fear, but not a sound left her throat. After seemingly endless hours spent buried in the darkness of an unknown cave, Noemi calmly, assertively took over, forcing the other half of her psyche to submit to her control.
She took a deep breath, then another.
“Okay, girls. This isn’t a new situation for us—for me.” She slowly relaxed her muscles, stretching out and sitting up. “In fact, compared to waking up in a glacier, this is a picnic.” She opened her eyes wide, hoping to catch some vestige of light, something that would reassure her that she really, truly wasn’t buried alive, sealed in a cave deep under the ground. The stygian blackness of the cave was unrelieved and Noemi shivered, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I guess all the years trapped in that glacier would explain why I hate getting cold.”
Anahita didn’t answer, and why should she? Noemi was Anahita. In a sense, they were three—the doctor, the succubus and the whole woman.
That knowledge brought a slightly hysterical laugh to Noemi, and she fought the urge to curl up again like a baby in the womb. But Noemi was strong. Noemi hunted and fought demons.
Noemi hadn’t known what lived within her all this time.
“No, Anahita, you don’t have a voice. We are the same person. I accept that, just as I accept your memories as my own.”
With that admission, Noemi’s mind skipped through the recent and distant past. She vividly recalled the many times she’d honed in on Rex’s bright, vivid life-light, returning to feed from him again and again. She also recalled Rion’s fearful reaction to her presence. The confusion and guilt and near despair she’d felt at his rejection.
But he came back to me. Even though he doesn’t remember, in his heart he knows who I am.
“Yes, Anahita, he knows. I’m sure of it.”
Satisfaction pulsed through the succubus. Her relief was nearly painful to experience. Anahita’s love for the men carried the sharp edge of desperate fear. She had pursued them relentlessly, yet sacrificed all to their well-being. Her greatest fear was losing them, yet she’d set Orion Hunter free when his fear of the succubus grew overwhelming. When he’d taken Rex to China, Anahita had stayed behind, knowing her kind were feared and loathed within Chinese culture.
Sacrifice. In an abstract sense, Noemi had always believed love was meaningless without the ability to be selfless. Basic and primal as she was, Anahita never thought twice about the sacrifices she made for Rion and Rex.
As she evaluated the shadow existence she’d lived in the hours while Anahita controlled her life, Noemi felt some degree of pride. The succubus was anything but evil. She had evolved into a strong, ethical person, even when freed from Noemi’s conscious control.
“And why shouldn’t Anahita be a good person? She… I sacrificed myself all those years ago. I Fell a second time to avoid hurting anyone.” And she allowed herself to remember the slow advance of the darkness that had crept into her soul. The hatred and anger and fear wound together in a corruption of who she’d been. Noemi remembered the day when Anahita had looked at her reflection in a shallow puddle of water and seen the inception of evil. In that moment of clarity, she knew she would soon become truly evil. She would be dangerous to all around her.
Dyffyd had been long gone, away at war, so her wings had grown back. The white feathers were laced with greasy-looking gaps of black membrane. She’d been corrupted in both body and soul. Though she’d been crippled by starvation, weak with her fear, Anahita had climbed into the heavens then plunged downward into icy, fiery pain. As horrible as it had been, she’d never found the oblivion she’d sought.
Deep in the grip of memory, Noemi barely noticed when the darkness began to soften around her. Golden light tinged with red glowed within the chamber, allowing her to see her prison.
In confusion, she looked around for the source of the illumination, only to discover that it came from her body.
“Damnation,” she whispered.
She deliberately relaxed, letting the light swell. Her long, straight hair suddenly seemed heavier and more luxuriant. Her dark skin had a distinctly golden gleam.
A convulsive gasp pulled through her chest and pain blossomed deep in her back.
Wings, she thought, and they came forth. Great, black-feathered wings, edged with molten light. Noemi slowly stood and flexed those massive wings, a smile lighting her face as power and strength radiated through her body. Anahita was triumphant.
It’s been so very long since I was whole.
Belinda is an award-winning, top-selling author of erotic romance, speculative fiction and LGBTQ romance. She lives in far Northern California with her family, a pack of Siberian Huskies and a rogue Saluki.
A graduate of CSU Chico, she managed to attend the notorious party school without once getting drunk, arrested or appearing in a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ video. Her main focus of study was classical and archival history, cultural anthropology and theatre arts.
After several years in the workforce. Belinda purchased a laptop computer and from there, knew that her childhood dream of being an author would come to life.
Belinda's books are available at all the typical distributors as well as on the publisher's homepages.
You can check out Belinda's website and find her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
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