Dark Longing_A Novel of the Dark Ones by Aja James

Author:Aja James [James, Aja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, fantasy, romance
Publisher: Amazon
Published: 2018-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

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Gabriel didn’t bother to close the jacket he was wearing over his naked chest. It was more to make him less conspicuous as he walked aimlessly along the riverside rather than a cover to shield him from the elements.

After all, he did not mind the cold.

The boots he borrowed from Cloud protected his feet from lacerations as he walked over rocks and glass right on the edge of the bank, but he could easily have done without them.

What were a few more wounds compared to the ones he’d sustained already and was still healing from? And besides, his speedy recovery time in his new state of being should take care of any sores on the bottoms of his feet before they rotted off.

Gabriel huffed a dark humorless chuckle.

Maybe he shouldn’t test his healing abilities. After all, if his feet did rot off, he’d have to endure eternity on inconvenient little stubs.

Where was this new wellspring of morbid humor coming from, he wondered carelessly. Maybe he was turning over a new leaf. So much for his ascetic training with the Shaolin monks. The peace and tranquility he experienced there seemed like eons ago.

He’d always been a tightly controlled person. Simple. Sober. Temperate. Now he was the direct opposite of those adjectives.

His life was anything but simple right now. The complexity of his new reality was mind-boggling. His mind had never been muddier, as if he was spiraling endlessly into a yawning unknown. Hardcore drugs probably had this effect on addicts. Maybe he should have tried some in his human life so he could better deal with the dizzying effects now.

And never mind temperate. He’d never felt such extremes of emotion all at once, all mixed together, tearing him apart from the inside out. Hate. Desire. Bitterness. Hope. Anguish. Elation. Fury. And that persistent dark humor that made him want to throw his head back and laugh until his stomach cramped and his lungs could no longer draw air.

After all, he’d cheated death. Wasn’t that worth celebrating? And all he had to do was…

Actually, he wasn’t quite sure what he had to do to remain among the living. Maybe Nana Chastain had been about to cover that part before he attacked her mouth in a frenzy of anger and lust.

Off the balcony went temperance again. He could barely recall what the concept meant.

Did vampires drink blood to sustain themselves? Did they kill their victims in the process? Did they have to hide from the sun in crypts and sleep in coffins? Wasn’t that the sort of thing that pervaded popular literature and media about the bloodsuckers?

Would he at some point turn into a bat?

A corner of his lips tipped up as he conjured the image of his furry, be-fanged self, flapping tiny little bat wings furiously in the air.

Gabriel’s stomach chose that moment to clench hard, almost doubling him over in pain.

He’d been parched and starving for hours, but still he had no interest in water or food, the very idea making him nauseous.

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