Claws and Effect: A Midnight Liaisons Novella by Jessica Sims

Author:Jessica Sims [Sims, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Jill Myles
Published: 2014-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

He was strong, it seemed, because he was able to carry me all the way in. We tromped through the woods, the only sounds that of my breathing and the crunch of Ellis's feet on the undergrowth as we talked and chatted about the weather, Everett's books, and the kittens. I hugged his neck and clung to him, enjoying just being outside, even if I couldn't see anything.

"All right, we're here," Ellis said at one point. "You can get down."

I peered through the black fabric of my blindfold. "I don't hear anything."

"We're still a short ways off, but you can take the blindfold off now."

I did, blinking at the bright afternoon sunlight. We were still in the woods, but in the distance I could see a plume of smoke from a chimney, and caught the occasional hint of laughter on the wind. We were close. I slid off his back, my feet landing on the ground. "Where are we?"

"Top secret," Ellis said again, and I rolled my eyes. I stuffed the blindfold into his pocket. "Come on," he said. "You can meet the others."

"Other whats?" I asked.

"Shifters, of course. This is a clan party. My family's throwing a shindig to welcome Marie to the cougar clan."

I gasped, stepping away from Ellis in shock. "She did what?"

His brow furrowed as he looked over at me, clearly surprised by my reaction. "My brother Josh changed her into a shifter."

"How does that happen?"

Ellis shrugged. "He bit her until she turned."

I shuddered, my memory full of Andre's sucking, painful bites. "I thought you said you weren't like the vampires."

"We're not," he told me. "I promise. It's very rare that someone's turned. Marie was only turned because she was dying, and Josh didn't care if he got in trouble or not."

He tried to pull me against him to hug me, but I pulled away. My mind was full of flashing images of teeth and fangs and pain. Poor Marie. How she'd suffered. I swallowed hard. And we were celebrating this like it was something good? I didn't understand.

"You okay?" Ellis asked softly, dropping his hand.

"Yeah, just...yeah." I crossed my arms tight over my chest and walked a few paces away from him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.