The Siren Series 1: Ember by Marata Eros Page A

And I hate to be repetitive but I'll
tell you what I told your comrade: The females are for us. Fuck.
Off.” Con gave his most charming smile. “I don't feel that I can be
much clearer,” he said, sliding a glance to each demon and giving a
small flutter of talons in an insultingly dismissive wave.
    The new male demon clenched his fists as Ruby
came awake.
    She was drowsy at first until her eyes fell on
the new male, missing Brolach entirely in her fear of
discovery.
    “Father,” she breathed in abject horror,
scooting backwards until her back hit Brandon's shins.
    He gave a low chuckle of such evil that it
slithered up the spine of all who were present.
    “Yes... I have come, my Ruby.” His eyes bored
into her like deep blood red jewels of burning hate. They scorched
her wherever they landed. “And I have brought my minions.” He
snapped his fingers and Fred, her perverted, chick-beating boss,
came to stand behind him.
    Ruby's mind tried to make sense that it was her
father... yet not. He was something new. It was as if the shell of
her father had been superimposed with the devil: complete with
horns, tail and smoldering skin of a light red.
    “You have that little dollop of Mer blood that
allowed you to hide from me. Then you fell into the lascivious line
of work... so perfect for a demon female. Yet...” he looked up at a
sky banked by stars tossed into black velvet, “you are still the
virgin. Not that Fred did not try to remedy that!” Her father
clapped his hands together in glee. “No matter, we shall make quick
work of that pesky obstacle now that you are safely within my
sights.”
    The men that had been poised to rape Ruby in the
seedy dance club came forward, seven men, masking their true
nature.
    Now they stood before Ruby: seven pointed tails
with matching horns, evil expressions of hardened resolve.
    They'd never been human, just demons waiting for
their opportunity to assault her. With the devil's blessing.
    Brolach's voice broke the despicable spell cast
on the diverse group, “You do not follow demon protocol...”
    “Damon,” Ruby's father supplied as she used the
leather pants of the Druid to climb to standing, her eyes following
the strange conversation between her horror of a relative and
Brolach like a ping pong match. Brandon's arms went around her
protectively and she stayed where she was.
    All the while wanting to be near Brolach.
Consumed by him. His eyes sought hers as if he'd heard her.
    Ruby knew he would fight for her. She felt his
burning regard of her like an unspoken promise, it heated her blood
to molten fire as he stared at her face with his crimson eyes of
flame.
    “Damon,” Brolach inclined his head in a barely
contained mockery of acknowledgment.
    “We do not hold to the standard of Demon
Hierarchy,” Damon said in a bored voice.
    “Clearly,” Constantine said. “Now, I do fancy a
renegade, old meeting of the demon spawn and such but we have
females to take and later screw. So be off with you... or die.”
    Con smiled in a come hither invitation of battle
lust that any warrior would be hard pressed to ignore.
    The Mer warriors chose that moment to pour
themselves into the breath of battle as it exhaled between the
Druid vampire, former Faction and Demon breeders in a tumultuous
slide of fangs, talons, heat, barbed tails and an ocean called to
the forefront.
    For the males had forgotten Ember.
    She was a princess of the Mer, and as such, not
as defenseless as they'd supposed.
    *
    Ember
     
    Ember tipped her head back, letting the delicate
bones of her jaw relax and drop. A singing peal of bells that was
silent to humans and amplified to the Mer, released from her small
body as her arms outstretched.
    The first demon minion came for Ruby and a
warrior of the Mer stepped in front of him, the horns on his head
spearing the muscular torso of the Mer. He grabbed the flank of the
demon, steam rising and hissing at the contact of their opposing
flesh and with a grunt, the