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The CALLING
JENNIFER ASHLEY
PROLOGUE
Adrian's dream shifted from the fantasy of a naked woman on the other side of a soapy bath to a
nightmare of haunting familiarity. The curvy young woman in his dream lost her smile, vacant eyes
widening, and she vanished in a popping of soap bubbles.
The bathroom itself disappeared, and Adrian found himself on a wooded slope, naked and freezing in
an arctic wind. He knew where he was-northern Scot-land seven hundred years ago, after a battle to
drive the monsters called Unseelies back into their own dimension. Adrian and his brothers could not
keep them away forever and they knew it, but they could at least force them back through the gap they'd
ripped between their world and the humans', and close it up behind them.
Adrian hated this dream, which could smite him un-expectedly and which always ended the same.
You’d think after seven hundred years I’d get over it.
He heard sounds of the battle just out of sight where his brothers enjoyed themselves sealing up the
Unseel-ies. Adrian's naked skin prickled as the wind cut him, his dreaming brain refusing to conjure
clothes. His hand went to the silver snake-shaped band that clasped his upperarm in sinuous curves. At
his touch Ferrin un-wound himself, lengthening and straightening into a long silver sword.
His brother Hunter used to make jokes about Adrian's "extending weapon," and Tain had always leapt
to Adrian's defense. If not for Ferrin, you’d be dead ten times over, he'd growl at Hunter. Show some
respect.
Hunter would reply with the usual obscene gesture, and Adrian would say, Lighten up, both of you. Go
find a woman or something.
Their bantering voices seemed to echo through the woods, fading before the knifelike wind. If the
dream ran true to form, he wouldn't see any of them. He hadn't seen his brothers since the day Tain
disappeared.
Adrian!
His youngest brother's voice ripped out of nowhere, screaming for help, the futility in his cry
 unbearable. In the real incident, Tain hadn't called for help. He'd simply disappeared. No body, no trace,
no message, no hint, nothing. A witch had taken him away-that wasthe story the only witness had told
him, and the witness had died moments later. Tain screamed for help only in the dreams.
Isis, make it stop.
Tain's face appeared out of the darkness, his once handsome visage twisted in agony. Adrian, help me!
Naked and alone on the Scottish hillside, sword heavy in his hand, Adrian shouted into the wind.
"Where are you?"
The sounds of battle, of his brothers, of the dying, fleeing monsters faded, and all was silent but for the
wind. "I'm trying to find you," Adrian called. "Help me find you."
Adrian!
Tain's scream was that of a being in horrible pain. Immortals could not be killed by normal human
weapons, but they could be hurt and suffer as much as or more than the humans they resembled.
Someone was torturing Tain. But as much as Adrian had searched the world for seven hundred years,
he'd never found a trace of him. Adrian only had the dreams that reminded him, like a new wound on top
of an old one, that he'd failed.
Adrenaline pumped through Adrian's body, raising his temperature beyond what a normal human
would be able to tolerate. He wanted to fight, to kill-where was a good demon to slay when you wanted
one? Creatures of death magic, those that fed on death, that were undead themselves-the vampires,
demons, monsters of the dark imagination-all were fair game for Immortals.
Adrian braced himself for what would come next. Tain solidified in the air before him, still wearing the
tattered remains of surcoat and mail from the battle long ago. Tain's body bled, his garments were
soaked in blood, and blood leaked like tears from his eyes. "Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you
come?"
"Tell me where you are. Damn it, I'll help you now."
"I trusted you," Tain spat at him. "I loved you. You're my brother."
"Tain, I swear to Isis I'll find you. I swear this on my blood."
Thin grabbed the blade of Adrian's sword, crimson streaking his fingers as the blade cut him. "It is too
 late. You have killed me."
With amazing strength, Tain jerked the sword forward.
Adrian couldn't stop it, and with a hideous feeling of futility, he watched the point slide straight into
Tain's heart.
Tain screamed with all the anguish of the worlds, and Adrian jerked awake.
Half awake. He was aware that he lay on his ultra-comfortable bed in his Los Angeles home, the cool
sheets bunched around his bare thighs, the air conditioner blowing a stream of chill across his body.
But the dream was not over, or at least it had changed. He seemed to see an incredibly handsome man
hovering over him, fists supporting his weight oneach side of Adrian's head. The face was handsome
enough to border on beautiful, and the man's long, silken hair spilled onto Adrian's chest.
The man's eyes were dark, almost black, his smile seductive. He had the hollow cheeks and sensual
lips a male model would kill for, but his dark eyes held evil. He reached out a well-shaped finger and
drew it down Adrian's face from forehead to lips, a seductive touch.
Demon. Adrian's skin crawled. The demon could be part of the dream, or he could be a true demon
trying to manifest by coasting in on Adrian's dreams. Either way, Adrian felt his strength return, and along
with it, glee.
Something I can kill.
As the thought formed, the demon morphed into a beautiful female, all lush black hair and warm
nakedness, tight nipples grazing Adrian's chest. The eyes were the same, black pools of evil, and her lips
curved into a smile. "You like this better?" she purred.
"Sorry, sweetheart, not interested." Adrian touched the cold armband that was Ferrin and started to
pull it off.
The demon glanced behind her as though disturbed by some sound. An expression of vast annoyance
crossed her face, and her fingernails tightened on Adrian's chest. Adrian peered into the darkness behind
her and sensed a presence as well, but the dream was too foggy and he could see nothing. With a quiet
sound, the demon vanished, and Adrian woke all the way.
The bedroom was silent. Curtains billowed at the open windows, the ocean below the house hissing as
 the tide rose. It had been a dream, another nightmare in a long line about Tain.
The demon, on the other hand, might have been real. It had turned its head as though hearing someone
call its name, as though it had been summoned ...
Adrian sat straight up, sheets sliding from his naked body. He reached out with his senses to the place
the demon had fled and found a pinprick hole in reality. And on the other side of that hole, cold, rainy
darkness-and a woman screaming in fear.
The pinprick shut, closing with a snap the portal to wherever the demon had gone. But at least Adrian
had a direction to follow.
He sprang from his bed and began to dress.
CHAPTERONE
Four weeks later
Amber Silverthorne fell onto her back, stunned, as the man in the black leather coat crashed into the
warehouse and started to beat off the demon.
The candles marking Amberss circle scattered, splattering wax across the dirty floor. The magic she'd
invoked sputtered and died. Her terror at the demon's sudden appearance changed to amazement at the
tall man facing her, a look of grim glee on his face, a huge silver sword in his grip.
He held the sword almost negligently, as though it weighed nothing, and as soon as the demon came at
him, he swung it, slicing the blade across the demon's pristine suit. He laughed as the demon retreated,
snarling.
The man's long black hair was bound in a tail at his nape and again halfway down his back, keeping it
well out of the way of the fight. His face was nowhere nearas handsome as that of the demon he fought,
being more hard and square. A warrior's face matching a warrior's body.
The warrior and the demon were evenly matched in strength, speed, and agility. Each focused tightly on
the other, the demon's black eyes sparkling with fury. The man's eyes were black too, like wells of
darkness. The warrior chopped downward with the sword, and the demon spun away, black blood
flying from a wound and splashing Amber's skin like acid.
 Amber scrambled to sit up and gather her crystals to her, chanting furiously to reform protective magic
around her like a bubble. The man in black leather and the demon fought hand to hand, the man's sword
swinging in wide, deadly arcs, the demon fighting back with the steel pole with which he'd tried to murder
Amber.
"Immortal," he hissed.
The man gritted his teeth in a smile. "Good guess.What gave it away?"
"Who Called you?"
The silver sword went straight for the demon's throat. "No one. I happened to be passing."
Amber took her concentration from the crystals for a split second. Happened to be passing? A
deserted warehouse between the tracks and the docks of Seattle? With a sword?
But good thing he was. There was nothing to distinguish this place from the other run-down buildings in
the neighborhood, except that here, Amber's sister had died. Now, four weeks later, the police tape was
long gone, the warehouse deserted, forensics and fingerprint takers finished. But no suspects had
surfaced, and Amber refused to let Detective Jack Simon and the Seattle Police file away Susan's murder
as an "unexplained paranormal death." So tonight she had gathered her supplies and come to conduct her
own investigation.
The demon danced away from the warrior's sword, moving with the deadly speed of his kind.
Undeterred, the warrior shifted his weight to one foot and kicked, catching the demon high on the
shoulder.
Was the man here because of Susan? A boyfriend Amber didn't know about? Detective Simon had let
her look at the notebook he'd found next to Susan. It had contained notes in a script Amber couldn't
read, but she could feel how it tingled with evil. Susan had known damn well better than to mess with
demons and death magic, but the evidence indicated she had done so anyway, and it had likely killed her.
Amber had cast a circle for her protection, calling on the element of Earth, to which her magic had the
greatest affinity, to guard her. She'd used quartz crystals to enhance the vibrations left over from the
murder so she might scry what had happened, plus salt to outline her circle and connect with the bones of
the earth beneath the warehouse.
Not three minutes into the ritual, the demon had walked through the front door and tried to kill her.
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