THIS TIME (The Grace Allen Series Book Three Paranormal Romance) by Alisha Basso

spawn of a whore had gotten what he had
always wanted.
    I laughed
mirthlessly to myself. At least it all finally fell apart.
    Ann was
the one who had thought up the plan. I smiled to myself.
    She’s a
crafty one, that Ann.
    She had
sent out the rumor that we were headed into Hell itself, tired of waiting,
cutting out the middle man, so to speak. She cleverly let it slip that we
planned to leave the casino, taking every trace of our existence with us. Then
we proceeded to disappear from Grace’s home, Lucian’s home and every place we
knew that the Devil would look. With the help of Jamie and Lucian’s spells, we
became untraceable. We succeeded in leading Lucifer to believe that we planned
to infiltrate his home and set up an ambush while his influence was gone and no
guards stood at his gates. He would believe that we would take Grace the moment
he stepped into Hell.
    It worked
better than we had hoped. He left in such a hurry that he placed only a single
demon at her side. Taking over the plane had been simpler still. It took a
great sum of money but that was no problem. Humans were loyal to coin.
    I shook my
head remembering her face. Christ , the way she had looked at me. Her
eyes so dead, like a doll’s, as she tried to remember my face. I wanted so
badly to touch my lips to hers. She knew me. In that small moment, she had
recognized me. Drugging her was the last thing I wanted to do.
    “She wants
me dead.”
    A shudder
rippled along my flesh and I fisted my hands at the sound of his voice.
    “Funny,” I
turned slowly, “I happen to agree.”
    I glared at
him and then turned my back again, dismissing
him.
    “Your hate
beats at me like a wall,” he sneered and I turned back.
    Arching a
brow I regarded him.
    “Lucian,”
my gums tingled as the desire to tear out his throat overwhelmed me, “I would
kill you now were it not for the obvious, yet
baffling love she has for you.”
    His eyes
filled with moisture and he quickly wiped it away. I curled my lip. Such
weakness in a man tended to make my dick
shrivel.
    “Crying
all over everyone has yet to do any good. Tell me, when do you suppose you
might grow a cock and stop your sniveling?”
    He
flinched back and I felt a sudden, sharp stab of pain in my chest.
    Lucian
glared. “ Nice . I guess you feel all warm and fuzzy when you think of the
torture you put her through?” He folded his arms, flexing his muscles, as if
showing me his size would somehow cow me.
    My teeth
ran out as my lust for this particular man’s blood seized me in its all
too familiar grip. I closed my hands in tight fists by my sides as I tried to
speak through the blood lust.
    “She has
suffered nothing from me,” I met his eyes, “except perhaps too much pleasure.”
I smiled and gritted my teeth, aware of his unease as he focused on the weapons
he had no hope of matching. “Would you like me to expound?” I offered.
    “No. I
know how often you and she…” his words broke off and he squeezed his eyes
tight.
    I watched
him struggle with his jealousy, shaking my head at his pitiful self-inflicted
suffering. If he stopped to look at what he really had. At how easily he could
wipe me from their lives…
    But of
course, I didn’t want that. If Lucian were to discover his true strength, I
fear there would be nothing I could do to keep them apart.
    His hands
shook as he ran them over his face. The fool. He had no idea what I had suffered the day she had chosen him over me. The morning I rose for the
first time in over three hundred years, only to find my newly discovered
heart ripped from my chest. This man was my undoing. Hate was too mild a word
for what I felt. He should crawl on his hands and knees, thanking the heavens
he so adores for the love of that woman.
    My
coven should have bled him dry .
    “Well,
you’ve hurt her plenty and you know it,” Lucian choked out as he sat, his hands
covering his face.
    “We have
been through this.” I shook my head and, folding my arms, I