Blade
A Bayou Heat Novella
By Alexandra Ivy & Laura Wright
1001 Dark Nights
Blade
A Bayou Heat Novella
By Alexandra Ivy & Laura Wright
1001 Dark Nights
Copyright 2017 Debbie Raleigh & Laura Wright
ISBN: 978-1-945920-30-1
Foreword: Copyright 2014 M. J. Rose
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Book Description
Blade
A Bayou Heat Novella
By Alexandra Ivy & Laura Wright
Sexy Suit, Blade was held captive and abused for decades. Benson Enterprises was desperate to use his superior blood to create super soldiers. But when he’s finally rescued, he can’t return to the Wildlands with the other prisoners. Not without the female he was forced to watch being impregnated. The female who has gone missing.
Beautiful and broken, Valli just wants to run away and never look back. But with the shocking news of her pregnancy fresh in her mind, she wonders if that’s even possible. Told by her captors that one of the caged animals assaulted her, she knows she must do everything in her power to keep her unborn child safe. But when a glorious male tracks her down and claims her and her baby as his own, will she have the strength to walk away?
About Alexandra Ivy and Laura Wright
Alexandra Ivy is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Guardians of Eternity, as well as the Sentinels, Dragons of Eternity and ARES series. After majoring in theatre she decided she prefers to bring her characters to life on paper rather than stage. She lives in Missouri with her family. Visit her website at alexandraivy.com.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Laura Wright is passionate about romantic fiction. Though she has spent most of her life immersed in acting, singing and competitive ballroom dancing, when she found the world of writing and books and endless cups of coffee she knew she was home. Laura is the author of the bestselling Mark of the Vampire series and the USA Today bestselling series, Bayou Heat, which she co-authors with Alexandra Ivy.
Laura lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two young children and three loveable dogs.
Also From Alexandra Ivy
Click to purchase
GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY
When Darkness Ends
Darkness Eternal
Hunt the Darkness
Embrace the Darkness
When Darkness Comes
MASTERS OF SEDUCTION
Volume One
Masters Of Seduction Two
Reckless: House Of Furia
ARES SERIES
Kill Without Mercy
BAYOU HEAT SERIES
Bayou Heat Collection One
Bayou Heat Collection Two
Angel/Hiss
Michel/Striker
Ice & Reaux
BRANDED PACK
Stolen and Forgiven
Abandoned and Unseen
DRAGONS OF ETERNITY
Burned by Darkness
SENTINELS
On The Hunt
Also From Laura Wright
Click to purchase
MARK OF THE VAMPIRE
Eternal Hunger
Eternal Kiss
Eternal Blood (Especial)
Eternal Captive
Eternal Beast
Eternal Beauty (Especial)
Eternal Demon
Eternal Sin
BAYOU HEAT SERIES
Raphael & Parish
Bayon & Jean-Baptiste
Talon & Xavier
Sebastian & Aristide
Lian & Roch
Hakan & Severin
Angel & Hiss
Michel & Striker
Rage & Killian
Ice & Reaux
WICKED INK CHRONICLES (New Adult Series- 17+)
First Ink
Shattered Ink
Rebel Ink
CAVANAUGH BROTHERS
Branded
Broken
Brash
Bonded
MASTERS OF SEDUCTION
Volume One
Masters Of Seduction Two
INCUBUS TALES
SPURS, STRIPES and SNOW Series
Sinful in Spurs
Acknowledgments from the Authors
We would like to thank, from the bottom of our hearts, the two fearless leaders of 1001 Dark Nights, Liz Berry and MJ Rose. They welcomed us into their family, and we have come to adore the whole tribe. Thank you so much to our editors, cover artists, PR wonders and formatters! You are angels from heaven!
And of course, as always, we would be nothing without our readers. You make us excited to get to the laptop each day. May you love the Pantera forever. Just as we do.
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One
Click here to explore
FOREVER WICKED by Shayla Black
CRIMSON TWILIGHT by Heather Graham
CAPTURED IN SURRENDER by Liliana Hart
SILENT BITE: A SCANGUARDS WEDDING by Tina Folsom
DUNGEON GAMES by Lexi Blake
AZAGOTH by Larissa Ione
NEED YOU NOW by Lisa Renee Jones
SHOW ME, BABY by Cherise Sinclair
ROPED IN by Lorelei James
TEMPTED BY MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian
THE FLAME by Christopher Rice
CARESS OF DARKNESS by Julie Kenner
Also from 1001 Dark Nights
TAME ME by J. Kenner
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two
Click here to explore
WICKED WOLF by Carrie Ann Ryan
WHEN IRISH EYES ARE HAUNTING by Heather Graham
EASY WITH YOU by Kristen Proby
MASTER OF FREEDOM by Cherise Sinclair
CARESS OF PLEASURE by Julie Kenner
ADORED by Lexi Blake
HADES by Larissa Ione
RAVAGED by Elisabeth Naughton
DREAM OF YOU by Jennifer L. Armentrout
STRIPPED DOWN by Lorelei James
RAGE/KILLIAN by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright
DRAGON KING by Donna Grant
PURE WICKED by Shayla Black
HARD AS STEEL by Laura Kaye
STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian
ALL HALLOWS EVE by Heather Graham
KISS THE FLAME by Christopher Rice
DARING HER LOVE by Melissa Foster
TEASED by Rebecca Zanetti
THE PROMISE OF SURRENDER by Liliana Hart
Also from 1001 Dark Nights
THE SURRENDER GATE By Christopher Rice
SERVICING THE TARGET By Cherise Sinclair
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Three
Click here to explore
HIDDEN INK by Carrie Ann Ryan
BLOOD ON THE BAYOU by Heather Graham
SEARCHING FOR MINE by Jennifer Probst
DANCE OF DESIRE by Christopher Rice
ROUGH RHYTHM by Tessa Bailey
DEVOTED by Lexi Blake
Z by Larissa Ione
FALLING UNDER YOU by Laurelin Paige
EASY FOR KEEPS by Kristen Proby
UNCHAINED by Elisabeth Naughton
HARD TO S
ERVE by Laura Kaye
DRAGON FEVER by Donna Grant
KAYDEN/SIMON by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright
STRUNG UP by Lorelei James
MIDNIGHT UNTAMED by Lara Adrian
TRICKED by Rebecca Zanetti
DIRTY WICKED by Shayla Black
THE ONLY ONE by Lauren Blakely
SWEET SURRENDER by Liliana Hart
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1001 Dark Nights story
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Table of Contents
Book Description
About Alexandra Ivy and Laura Wright
Also From Alexandra Ivy
Also From Laura Wright
Acknowledgments from the Authors
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Three
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Four
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Discover More Alexandra Ivy and Laura Wright
An excerpt from Pretend You’re Safe by Alexandra Ivy
Special Thanks
One Thousand and One Dark Nights
Once upon a time, in the future…
I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.
I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and
the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast
library at my father’s home and collected thousands
of volumes of fantastic tales.
I learned all about ancient races and bygone
times. About myths and legends and dreams of all
people through the millennium. And the more I read
the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered
that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually
become part of them.
I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher
and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I
would not be telling you this tale now.
But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off
with bravery.
One afternoon, curious about the myth of the
Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to
see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar
(Persian: شهريار, “king”) married a new virgin, and then
sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written
and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,
the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand
women.
Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived
in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged
places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had
never occurred before and that still to this day, I
cannot explain.
Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have
taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can
protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to
protect herself and stay alive.
Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.
And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a
point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.
And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that
he might hear the rest of my dark tale.
As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new
one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before
you now.
Chapter 1
It was the prickle on the back of his neck that warned Blade he was being followed.
Slowing his steps, he forced himself into a casual stroll as he checked out the streets of Bonne, Louisiana. He feigned interest in several glass storefronts that lined the town square, nodding toward the occasional pedestrian who studied him with blatant curiosity—and if he wasn’t mistaken—which he rarely was—a thread of fear.
Clearly, the small town thirty miles south of Baton Rouge didn’t get many visitors.
Of course, it was possible that the men stared because he was six foot four with the hard muscles of a trained athlete that flexed and rippled beneath his faded jeans and ivory thermal shirt. And the women...well, their gazes were clearly trained on his short gold hair, midnight eyes, finely chiseled features, and those wide lips that normally smiled with a charming ease, but were now pressed together with grim determination.
Turning onto a side street, he thankfully found it all but deserted. The town had obviously never been a bustling metropolis, but over the years it’d faded to a sleepy village. Which meant he could deal with his stalker without unwanted attention.
Maintaining his leisurely saunter, he passed by an abandoned gas station that was next to an empty lot. The breeze tugged at his short hair, chilling his skin.
Louisiana had two seasons. Hot and humid. Or cool and humid.
Today it was the latter.
Come on, my friend, he mused to the male who was tailing him. Just another couple of blocks and we can...chat.
At the edge of town, it didn’t slowly ease from commercial to residential to suburbs like most places. It just ended. As if the thick woods ahead of him refused to give way to progress.
Turning, his back to the stand of trees now, he folded his arms over his chest and studied the seemingly empty street.
“Show yourself, Hiss,” he commanded in a low voice.
The male emerged from the side of a small church with peeling paint and a steeple that tilted at a precarious angle.
He was easily as big as Blade, with black hair that had grown long and shaggy over the past two months. His eyes were dark gray, but as the late afternoon sunlight splashed over them, there was a glimmer of amber deep in their depths. An indication that Hiss’s puma had enjoyed the hunt.
Both men were Pantera, a mystical race of puma shifters who lived in the depths of the Louisiana swamps, in a once-hidden community called the Wildlands. Created by twin Goddesses, they were creatures who were neither human or animal, but a mixture of the two. Faster and stronger than normal humans, their senses were hyper-acute. And when surrounded by the magic of their homelands they were capable of shifting into pumas.
Over the past year they’d battled the dying magic of the Wildlands, exposure of their kind, and a group of humans, led by Christopher Benson, who were determined to use the Pantera’s magical blood for their own profit.
No longer were they safely hidden behind their magic. Everything and everyone was suspect—the lives of their kind always hanging in the balance.
“Hello, Blade.”
“Sloppy,” Blade drawled at the Suit. “I picked up your scent as soon as you entered town.”
Hiss shrugged. “I started following you over an hour ago.”
“An hour?” Blade’s brows snapped together. “Seriously?” That meant Hiss had been behind him since he’d left New Orleans and jogged his way north.
He could have driven to Bonne, but he was searching for a particular scent. He hadn’t wanted to risk missing it.
“Not so sloppy, eh?” Hiss demanded, his lips curving into a smirk.
Blade felt a jolt of anger. Not at Hiss, but a
t himself. What the hell was his problem? How could he have been so careless? He better than anyone understood the necessity of being constantly on guard. Fuck. Hadn’t he already paid a high enough price for his stupid, arrogant assumptions that he was invincible?
“No, it’s creepy,” he snapped. Later, he would beat himself up for letting Hiss make a fool of him. Right now he just wanted to know why the male had tracked him from New Orleans. “Don’t you have a new mate to stalk?”
Blade had been in one of the basement cells of Benson’s lab with Hiss when the older male had found the female destined to be his mate.
Hiss’s expression softened. “I do, and I’m pissed as hell that I’m not currently making her purr with pleasure.”
“Not as pissed as I am that you’ve been following me,” Blade countered. “What do you want?”
“A chat.”
Blade sneered. He’d been off the radar for weeks, which meant that Hiss had devoted a lot of time and effort to finding him.
No one did that just for a chat.
Hell, they were Pantera males. Chatting was bullshit.
“I don’t have time for this,” he said.
“You can talk to me or you can talk to Raphael.” Hiss shrugged. “Your choice.”
Blade grimaced. Raphael was the head of the Suits, which was the diplomatic faction of the Pantera. Since Blade was also a Suit, that meant Raphael was his leader. And among the Pantera, “leader” wasn’t an empty title. It meant that Raphael gave orders, and then kicked ass when they weren’t obeyed.
“That’s a threat, not a choice,” Blade growled.
Hiss smiled, nodding his head toward the nearby woods. “Let’s take a walk.”