Jaci Burton. Taken by Sin
(Demon Hunters — 4)
And as always, to Charlie, for his love and patience.
To my agent, Kimberly Whalen, for her patient assistance with this book and my general hysteria.
To my editor, Shauna Summers, and to Jessica Sebor, for editorial guidance. I appreciate all you’ve done for this series.
To the Writeminded Readers Group, for my daily dose of fun and where everybody knows my name. Heh. You guys rock.
To all those who put up with me, who’ve shared my love and angst about the demon world and the writing world in general-Lara Adrian, Steph Tyler, Larissa Ione, Maya Banks, Jackie Kessler, Lauren Dane and, as always, to Angie, Mel, Shan, and Mandy
Prologue
Hell was chasing them.
Dalton should stay and fight-there was only one mission occupying his world right now-save Isabelle. The only way he could do that was to get her out of here, away from the demons.
Away from hell.
As he jammed the accelerator and steered the SUV full-speed away from the cemetery he caught sight of the blue lines of laser fire in his rearview mirror. They wanted to kill her. His own people. He couldn’t let that happen.
His gut clenched. He was part of the Realm of Light, demon hunters sworn to defeat the Sons of Darkness and their demon minions. He should be back there, fighting. His brothers and sisters of the Realm were right now engaged in battle with demons, and he was deserting them, running off with the woman he’d been assigned to terminate.
There was so much fucked-up about this scenario. He’d never walked away from a fight before.
But he had something more important to do. Instinct told him this was the right thing-the only thing he could do, given the circumstances.
He glanced over at Isabelle slumped over in the passenger seat. A woman he barely knew, yet he was screwing his entire future for her-okay mostly for her. Unconscious, her head resting against the window, she looked so innocent, almost angelic. Her hair fell in soft waves over her shoulders; her lips were half open as she breathed rhythmically. Her hands rested in her lap. There was no fight left in her-unlike a short while ago when she’d battled like a demon.
Because she
Dalton had been ordered to destroy her, and he couldn’t do it. Which was why he was heading away from the battle instead of standing side by side with the other hunters. He’d been told to remove Isabelle from the scene because her sister, Angelique, was there, and Lou, the Realm’s leader, didn’t want Angelique to witness Isabelle’s destruction.
Lou had ordered Dalton to take Isabelle away and kill her.
But how could he? He was responsible for much of what had happened to her. He’d started this chain of events that had led to Isabelle’s downfall. He’d handled it all badly, from the time he stole her diary, to making love to her when he shouldn’t have. It hadn’t been part of his mission, yet he’d found her irresistible.
Hell, he hadn’t wanted to resist. There’d been something about her that called to his dark side. Now he knew why. It still didn’t excuse what he’d done.
When he fucked up, he fucked up big, didn’t he?
So instead of terminating her, he was ignoring Lou’s orders, taking Isabelle away, abandoning the Realm of Light.
All to save Isabelle.
He could never go back to the Realm now. They’d come looking for him and Isabelle. They’d want to destroy her, to do the job he couldn’t. She represented a danger to the Realm. Yeah, there were other half demons within the Realm, but they had proven they could control the demon side of themselves. The others had never taken that step into darkness like she had. Isabelle had embraced the demon within her, had tried to kill her sister, Angelique. Isabelle had sided with the Sons of Darkness. To the Realm of Light, she was nothing more than another demon now.
To Dalton, she was more. He didn’t understand it all himself, but as soon as Lou had given him the order, he’d known it was wrong. For a second back there when he’d stood in front of Isabelle, she’d changed. He’d seen the human side of her warring with the demon side. In an instant, he’d known.
She was just like him. Straddling both light and darkness. He’d seen her look of helplessness, the pleading in her eyes. What he would have given for someone to offer him a second chance all those years ago. It might have made a difference in the turn of events, the direction of his destiny. Now he had the chance to offer Isabelle what he hadn’t been. And at that moment he’d known he’d do whatever it took to bring the human part of her back.
Now he just had to stay one step ahead of the Realm, had to keep the two of them moving and in hiding long enough to come up with a plan to save her. If he could bring Isabelle’s humanity back before the Realm of Light caught up with them, they’d never hurt her. He’d prove to them that the demon inside her had been banished.
Isabelle stirred, moaned, reached up to her temple with her fingertips.
“Isabelle?”
He was prepared to pull over, had a weapon at his side. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.
Her eyes drifted open. She frowned, angled her face in his direction, then looked at him like she had no idea who he was.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, her bottom lip trembling. Her gaze drifted to the laser lying across his lap. Her eyes widened and he saw recognition in them. She snapped her gaze to his.
Tears filled her eyes. She shook her head, shrank against the window.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Isabelle. I’m taking you away from all of this. From them. Do you understand?”
She drew her arms across her chest as if to ward off an attack.
Shit.
Dalton pulled over to the side of the darkened country road. He put the car in park and half turned in the seat, sliding the laser to his left side, out of her sight but still in reach. He didn’t know yet whether he could trust her. Her eyes were clear-human clear-but he knew from experience that could change in an instant.
“I needed to get you away from there. Do you remember what happened?”
She studied him for a few seconds, then gave a quick nod.
“We’re going to get out of here. Just you and me. And then we’re going to figure it all out. I’m going to fix this. Understand?”
She looked so petrified he wanted to fold her in his arms and comfort her. That would be such a bad move right now. Or ever.
“I’m scared, Dalton.”
Isabelle had always been so strong and confident. Now? Lost. Broken. Confused. Her voice, ragged and soft,
