Jaci Burton. The Darkest Touch
(Demon Hunters — 3)
FOR MOM. I MISS YOU.
He was assigned to find and retrieve the black diamond. Find Angie and Isabelle.
He’d found Angie, so one step accomplished. But damn, he’d just stepped into a whole hell of a lot more.
Pandora’s box had just opened, and he had a feeling he and Angie had just climbed right inside of it.
And despite his anger, his determination to keep his emotional distance, here he sat, with his arms wrapped around Angelique.
And dammit, it felt right.
Not good. Not good at all.
He pushed away and stood, looking down at her. “You okay now?”
She nodded, swung her legs over the bed. “I’ll be fine.”
“Get dressed. Pack what you can in five minutes. We’re getting out of here now before the Sons of Darkness send in round two.”
He pivoted and walked away from her, needing the distance. He’d do his job. He’d protect her and he’d bring back the black diamond.
But that’s all he was going to do with Angelique. He wasn’t going to care about her.
To Shauna Summers and Jessica Sebor at Bantam Dell, for your invaluable editorial advice on this book. Your keen insights were a bright light in the darkness. Thank you.
To the copyediting, marketing, and art staff at Bantam Dell. It really does take a village to put a book together. Thank you for finding my mistakes and making my book sound and look beautiful. I so appreciate your hard work and dedication.
To my wonderful agent, Deidre Knight, my light and my sanity. Thank you for keeping my feet on the ground and answering all my dumb questions.
To the BB’s, who put up with me daily. What would I do without you? I love you guys.
And as always, to Charlie, who stands by me even when I’m not fun (usually at deadline time). Thank you for your love, your patience, and all the fast food.
PROLOGUE
Like the dark, damp cave Angelique Deveraux stood in, Bart’s hands were cold. Icy cold. And he held on to her with a death grip. Try as she might, she couldn’t pull away. She shivered and tried to jerk her arm free, but he held tight to her, rambling on and on about her being a catalyst to empower the black diamond. That she was the one they’d been searching for. He held her hand on the black diamond, that once lifeless rock that now glowed with an undulating mystical blue.
This was wrong. She’d been hired to unearth the black diamond. She’d unearthed it, all right. And a whole mess of trouble to go with it, including finding out that her boss, Bart, who she’d thought was the owner of Diavolo Diamonds, was in fact a demon. A demon!
Now she was held in this giant cave, surrounded by Bart’s minions-gruesome creatures from the bowels of hell-while Bart conducted a ceremony to bring the black diamond to life using her and Nic, another demon hunter, as catalysts.
Only it wasn’t working. As soon as Bart laid her hand on the diamond, the light within the rock extinguished. Bart frowned, looking at her as if she’d caused the light to die, cursing at her, mumbling that she wasn’t the one he thought she was.
What was he talking about? Who or what was “the one”?
Fear snaked its way through her nerve endings. The look Bart shot at her was lethal. Her legs began to shake as Bart’s grip tightened on her wrist.
“You’re hurting me,” she whimpered, trying again to break free of his superhuman hold.
Suddenly, Ryder was there, next to her, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Ryder and those of his group were demon hunters. Could they defeat Bart and these creatures? She hoped so.
Ryder placed his hand over hers, telling Bart he no longer needed Angelique. Ryder extricated her from Bart’s grasp, moving her from the altar and back with the demon hunters. Bart let her go. He let her go! Maybe he had no more use for her, his attention drawn back to the diamond, and to Nic, who remained on the altar.
Angelique took a moment to catch her breath, assess her surroundings. The cave was filled with demons, no way out. She couldn’t run.
As an archaeologist, she’d faced down ghosts of the past, worked alone in ruins, and uncovered skeletal remains, always feeling as if she were surrounded by the long-ago dead. It had never bothered her.
But witnessing a demon ritual, seeing creatures from hell, knowing they existed, that she’d somehow become a part of all of it, was more than she could handle. Her mind didn’t want to process what Bart had said to her.
“Something big and loud is about to happen,” Ryder whispered to her as Bart droned on, conducting some sort of demonic ceremony. “I want you to head out of here as soon as it does. This is your chance to escape.”
