Ruby Shadows Read online

  Born to Darkness

  Book 3: Ruby Shadows

  Evangeline Anderson

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Evangeline Anderson Books on Smashwords

  Born to Darkness

  Book 3: Ruby Shadows

  Copyright © 2015 by Evangeline Anderson

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Dedicated to my Aunt Treasure. You may be gone but you will never be forgotten. Thank you for always being so supportive of my writing. I love you and miss you so very much.

  Author’s Note #1: To be the first to hear about new releases, join my new newsletter. I promise no spam—you will only get email from me when a new book is out for either preorder or for sale.

  Author’s Note #2: I'm so pleased to let you know that the Kindred series is slowly but surely being put into the audio format. Claimed is available in audio and Hunted is out in audio as well. Sought and Found are following later in 2015. The books are performed by the very talented Anne Johnstonbrown whom I hand-picked to read the series.

  Listening to the books on audio is like reading the story for the first time all over again. Audio is wonderful for long commutes, exercising at the gym or just listening while you're cleaning around the house. Just be sure you wear your headphones--Anne really brings the steamy scenes to life and you'll be blushing if your family hears what you're listening to! : )

  Hugs and Happy Reading and Listening to you all,

  Evangeline Anderson May, 2015

  Other Books by Evangeline Anderson

  Brides of the Kindred books (in order)

  Claimed (also available in print and as an audio book)

  Hunted (also available in print and as an audio book)

  Sought

  Found

  Revealed

  Pursued

  Exiled

  Shadowed

  Chained

  Divided

  Devoured (also available in print)

  Enhanced

  Cursed

  Enslaved

  Targeted coming Summer of 2015

  Forgotten coming Fall of 2015

  Born to Darkness Paranormal series

  Crimson Debt

  Scarlet Heat

  Ruby Shadows

  Cardinal Sins (coming soon)

  ***The above books are just a small sample of Evangeline's work. For a complete list of books from all publishers, please visit her website***

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  Kindred 15: Targeted excerpt

  Born to Darkness 4: Cardinal Sins excerpt

  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Prologue

  When you’re dealing with demons, nothing is for free.

  Believe me—I found that out the hard way. My name is Gwendolyn LaRoux and I’m a witch. Not a green-skinned cackling old hag with a hump on her nose and a skinny black cat kind of witch, though. I’m actually quite modern, thank you very much—a typical twenty-something just trying to make her way in the world.

  Well, except for one minor detail—I’m still a virgin.

  But lest you go thinking it’s because I’m a prude, let me set the record straight. Witches need to keep themselves intact until they find someone to form a love bond with. No love bond equals no sex. That’s because casual encounters and one night stands without love involved will half a witch’s power and greatly diminish her potency, which leaves her vulnerable to attacks by rivals and other supernatural creatures who might wish her harm.

  This particular rule doesn’t apply to warlocks—male witches—though. It’s just those of us with girly parts that have to keep our legs crossed. Not fair, right? No, not a damn bit but that’s the way it is and, as my Grams keeps reminding me, I have to stay pure to stay powerful. Though she doesn’t say it, I know what else she’s thinking—stay pure to stay protected. She always worries about me so much and I can’t say I blame her. The women in our family aren’t known for being able to stay out of trouble.

  Take my mom, for instance. She got on the wrong side of a fire demon back when my sister Keisha and I were just little girls. Grams always says she went too far toward the darkness and just couldn’t come back. Unfortunately, it ended up killing her, which left Grams to raise us.

  After that, I promised Grams I would stay pure. Keisha did the same but unfortunately, she couldn’t resist a certain boy in high school who promised he would love her forever. She gave in and lost half her power along with her virginity—no surprise since he was a player who never really cared for her in the first place. It takes two to form a love bond and unfortunately, Keisha judged unwisely. After that her life just got worse until… well, I’d rather not say any more about her.

  As for me, I’ve had my share of ups and downs—not that I would let my Grams know. Well, she does know I used my power to form a soul eater for a local vampire by the name of Corbin—but that was for a good cause. And he offered me his blood in payment, which I happened to need for a spell.

  What Grams doesn’t know is that I called on a minor demon for help in forming the soul eater. I promised her I’d only use my powers for light and stay away from the darkness that ate my mother, but I had to make one little compromise—just one.

  Unfortunately, that one little compromise came back to bite me in the ass. The demon I called goes by the name of Laish and ever since he helped me, he’s been all up in my business. It’s incredibly irritating—especially considering that he’s ridiculously good looking with coal black hair, a big, muscular body to die for and these weirdly attractive ruby-red eyes.

  I’ve never dated outside my race before—to be honest, I’ve never dated much at all—but Laish would tempt me to give it a try. If he wasn’t a demon, that is.

  I don’t know how Grams would feel about me dating a white guy but I do know how she’d feel about me dating a demon. Especially one so sinfully attractive he makes me feel hot and cold all over every time we’re in the same room together.

  Laish has this deep, smoky voice and when he looks at me with those ruby eyes I feel like I’m naked. He’s always calling me annoying little French nicknames—mon chatte, and mon ange—which I’m sure is a dig at my Creole heritage. Naturally I don’t give him the time of day. Demons don’t have souls so you can’t bond with them—not that I
would trust Laish to form a bond with me. He just wants to get under my skin and into my pants and take whatever he can get—that’s his demonic nature.

  I shouldn’t even be telling you about him anyway. After my last little adventure where I rescued a vampire friend from the depths of the Abyss, Laish showed up after the fact and yelled at me. His point was that it’s strictly forbidden to snatch a soul from Heaven or Hell and dangerous to enter the Abyss, even in spirit form, which was what I had done. He further reminded me that if I’d left the door I opened into the afterlife’s darkest pit cracked, even the tiniest bit, there would literally be Hell to pay.

  At that point I told him to leave me alone and never come back. I know my business. I know I closed that door.

  I’m pretty sure, anyway.

  To make a long story short, (I know, too late), I got rid of Laish forever. It’s now been several weeks since I gave him the heave-ho and he’s stopped popping up everywhere, asking if I need help and calling me by those irritating little French nicknames that drive me crazy.

  I don’t miss him a bit—really. I’m just trying to get back to the business I’m best at—being a witch and helping my Grams run her magic supply business in Ybor City. At first I was a little worried but things have been quiet and calm. I can almost forget about the dabbling I did in dark magic and the fact that I went way past the line any witch who wants to keep her magic strictly white and good should have.

  Well…except for the dreams.

  I keep on dreaming of a thing made of shadows—a thing with no head. No head but somehow it still has sharp, crooked yellow teeth. And it’s hunting me—looking everywhere for me. Trying to track me down…

  Sorry! There I go again, letting my imagination run away with me. After all, a few bad dreams are to be expected considering what I’ve been through lately. And anyway, it’s not like they’re a warning that something really evil is stalking me…

  Are they?

  Chapter One

  Gwendolyn

  “So Victor’s excited to be a dad?” I asked, pouring myself another cup of wine and topping off Taylor’s sparkling water.

  “He’s over the moon about it,” Addison said. “No pun intended,” she added dryly.

  “Very funny.” Taylor elbowed her in the ribs good naturedly.

  “I know—over the moon—get it?” Addison giggled.

  Taylor was pregnant and it was her man, Victor—who happened to be a huge-ass cursed werewolf—we were talking about. Which explains Addison’s bad pun. Well, that and the bottle of white wine she’d had been chugging.

  “Well tell me more—details, girl.” I made a “keep going” hand gesture with my wine glass, nearly spilling the contents all over my lap. “Whoops!”

  “Whoops is right.” Addison giggled again. She had definitely had more than enough wine. Not that I minded, it had been entirely too long since I’d enjoyed myself this much.

  I had invited my new friends Taylor and Addison over for a wine and pedicure party and somehow the time just flew. Of course, once the wine started flowing we sort of forgot about the pedicure part of it. I had managed to get at least one coat of cherry red paint on my toes but Addison’s were only half done and Taylor’s were pretty messy.

  That was because Addison insisted that her pregnant best friend shouldn’t be breathing paint fumes (even if they were just fingernail polish paint) and offered to paint Taylor’s toes herself. However, this was about three glasses of wine into the evening and the effect looked like…well, like someone who’d had three full glasses of white wine had done the job. Not that Taylor seemed to mind—she was enjoying herself as much as Addison and I were, even if she was sticking strictly to non-alcoholic beverages.

  For a vampire and a Vampire Auditor (I know—weird combination, right?) they were pretty fun girls. They had a few little inside jokes since they’d been friends since college but they never made me feel like an outsider. And we had plenty to gossip about, considering everything the three of us had been through in the past month. Right now, though, all anyone wanted to talk about was the baby.

  “I swear Victor talks at least as much to my tummy as he talks to me,” Taylor told us, rubbing her belly and grinning.

  “And why not? He’s got to get to know his daughter.” Addison patted her best friend’s tummy, which was already beginning to get a tiny bit rounder. “He’s gonna make a great dad, you know.”

  “I know.” Taylor was absolutely glowing, her cheeks pink and healthy. You would never have guessed that she was a vampire to see her—not that she strictly was anymore. A combination of Victor’s blood and a well placed prophesy meant she was able to do things most vampires couldn’t, like go out in the sun, eat solid food…get pregnant. You know, that kind of thing. “He’s already building a crib,” she continued.

  “What? He’s already putting together the crib? But I wanted to buy you that,” Addison exclaimed, filled with drunken indignity. “You haven’t even had your baby shower yet!”

  “No, no—I don’t mean he’s putting it together from a kit,” Taylor said. “He’s actually building the crib from scratch. He went out and got the wood and sanded it down and stained it…” She shook her head, a fond light in her blue eyes. “It’s going to be gorgeous when it’s done.”

  “Not half as gorgeous as the baby, I’ll bet.” I grinned at her. “If she looks like half you and half Victor, she’s going to be quite a little princess.”

  Taylor laughed. “Victor says he hopes she looks just like me. But I can’t help wishing she’d get his eyes.”

  “The kind that turn wolf gold during the full moon?” Addison asked.

  I thought she might have gone too far but I didn’t say anything. And besides, it was something I’d been wondering too, even if I wasn’t quite drunk enough to say it. Would Taylor’s daughter take after her mother or her father? Or was the kid going to be half vampire and half werewolf—a kind of vamp-were hybrid?

  Taylor looked grave. “I wouldn’t mind but Victor hopes not. He’s afraid if she comes out a were she might inherit his curse.”

  “But if she comes out as a vampire, she won’t be able to go out during the day,” Addison pointed out. “That kind of puts a damper on your play-date prospects with other babies.”

  “Maybe she won’t be either one,” I said thoughtfully. “I mean, really, both you and Victor have a human side—maybe she’ll just inherit that and be purely human.”

  “Then she’ll just be the kid with the weird parents,” Addison said cheerfully and hiccupped.

  Taylor made a face at her and took a sip of her sparkling water. “Look, just because you don’t want kids yourself…”

  “And believe me, Corbin was plenty grateful I don’t,” Addison said. “He was all long-suffering and ready to be willing to adopt with me but I could tell how relieved he was when I told him I’d rather not have any.”

  “Vampires live a long time and you’re tied to him,” I pointed out. “You might change your mind after a few hundred years.”

  Addison shrugged, apparently unconcerned. “Maybe. Until then, I’ll be happy just to be the cool aunt.”

  “Well, the main thing is that your baby is healthy,” I reminded Taylor. “And that was the first thing Grams said when she told you that you were pregnant.”

  “And she’s always right about that kind of thing?” Taylor had an anxious look in her deep blue eyes.

  “Always,” I reassured her. “She’s got one hundred percent accuracy when it comes to anything baby-related.” Which made it a shame that she didn’t have any grandkids to chase after. But since I had to be so careful not to get mixed up with the wrong man—meaning any man not willing to wait until I was absolutely sure of him to have sex—Gram’s house was sadly without the pitter-patter of little feet.

  Hey, you try telling a guy he doesn’t get any nookie until you’re sure he wants to stay with you for life. It’s kind of a first date killer. Or a fifth or a fifteenth for that matter.


  The creaking of the front door pulled me out of my gloomy thoughts and Grams walked into the room with her massive handbag over one arm.

  “Gwendolyn, you didn’t tell me you were having company tonight,” she said.

  “Oh, sorry! We didn’t mean to stay so late,” Addison said and she and Taylor jumped up.

  Taylor came over to greet my Grams. “Your ears must be burning, we were just talking about you—you know, about the way you first told me I was pregnant and said my baby girl was healthy?” She looked at Grams beseechingly.

  Grams smiled—she really had taken a shine to Taylor.

  “Just need a little more reassurance, do you, child?”

  “Well, it’s still too early for an ultrasound and I don’t know what they’re going to see when they do finally do one—” Taylor began.

  “What they’re going to see is a healthy baby girl. Just like the one you dreamed about.” Grams pressed her fingers lightly to Taylor’s abdomen. “And don’t you worry about her taking after you or your man. She’s going to be her own special person with her own special talents. You’ll see.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Taylor’s eyes were shining as she gave my Grams a spontaneous hug.

  Grams laughed and hugged her back. “Just you be sure to bring her over for me to see her when she comes out,” she said. “I love children and I’ll be happy to say a blessing over her for you.”

  “I will,” Taylor promised. She looked at Addison. “Well, we’d probably better get going. It’s late and Victor will be worried.”

  “Not before we help clean up, though,” Addison said, gesturing to the two empty wine bottles (I’m ashamed to admit I killed an entire bottle myself), the sparkling water bottle, and all the pedicure paraphernalia lying around my Grams’ faded floral couch.