The Siren Series 1: Ember by Marata Eros Page B

Mer threw the demon into a light post
that buckled in a hot bend of metal from the contact. He stood, the
twin holes smoldering as the blue blood of the Mer ran down his
body.
    Madden threw himself into the battle against
their age-old enemy with a zeal that had been lacking in recent
times. That the demons did not adhere to the treaty was not a
surprise to Madden. The one who was apart from the others struck
Madden as different somehow. He did not have long to dwell on the
renegade demons as they circled him and the other warriors like
sharks. He could hear the clear call for the Mother from Ember and
thanked the sea for her assistance.
    In light of what they would have done to her, it
was a gift they did not deserve. If Madden would not have allowed
it. He harbored a secret love for the princess that went against
every precept of the Mer-- to own a breeder, a royal, for his own.
Desmond had made it clear that more royals were needed, and his
sister was the vehicle for that eventuality. Madden wasn't sure
that he could have shared her.
    Then the demon's were on him and he fought.
    For Ember.
    For the Mer.
    Ruby watched as the air became thick with steam,
the demons fighting the Mer, the flesh of war melting before the
ice and heat of the sea that Ember brought and the hell that
followed her father.
    Brandon beheaded two demons that approached Ruby
and she backed away, trying in vain to search for Brolach.
    When a demon grabbed her from behind with a
triumphant snort Ruby mewled, the abuse of her former life
suffocating the sounds that arose from her throat.
    Ruby didn't want to be blanketed again by
other's whims of brutal innovations.
    Then Brolach was there, sliding through the
heated fog like he belonged to it, three demons at his heels, a
weary and outnumbered Druid vampire working over the Mer and demons
who approached them.
    Ruby could not hear what Brolach said for the
din of the battle.
    Instead she threw herself toward him as the one
behind her sunk a sharp talon into her shoulder and Ruby gave a
short scream of boiling agony at the stabbing entry when he ripped
her backwards with his claw embedded in her flesh.
    Brolach bent over her and something warm burst
around Ruby like a downy cage, shielding her from the demons and
all others who approached. She buried her hands into the soft heat
and opened her eyes.
    Ruby was curled into a fetal position with
Brolach's face an inch from her own, the press of feathers all
around her.
    Safe from the battle like being inside the eye
of a great storm.
    The demons stopped cold from what had happened,
from what Brolach was.
    The fighting ground to a halt as a rare
revelation manifested before the supernatural's eyes.
    Brolach stood, his secret revealed in a searing
moment of instinctive protection of a female that was his lost
half, though Ruby did not realize all that she was.
    Brolach did, and it was enough.
    Ruby whimpered as the others stared
incredulously at Brolach and he half lifted her against his chest,
one of his wings folded around her, the tips of the feathered ends
grazing the ground where Ruby stood.
    The other inky wing, a pure and unadulterated
black, was levied against a sky that matched the sooty ebony color
of the night perfectly.
    “The battle is over, yet the war has just begun,
Angel breeder,” Damon conceded into the ominous silence.
    Ruby cowered against Brolach as her father's
voice dripped with venom.
    For her.
    Brolach looked at the demon kin that cowered
before him, backing away and inclined his head in return.
    Brolach answered the challenge. “Then let it
begin.”

THE END

A Note of Gratitude to my Readers:
     
    I began TDBs with the encouragement of my
husband and continued because of you, my Reader. Your faithfulness
through comments, suggestions, spreading the word and ultimately
purchasing my work with your hard-earned money gave me the
incentive, means and inspiration to continue.
    There are no words that are sufficiently
adequate to