Embrace the Desire Read Free Page B

that she is entering the Burning, all bets are off that he won’t figure it out.” For the first time in his long life, Gyth’s heart felt heavy. “There’s something about her that Damon found irresistible. I was lucky to have found her when I did.”
    “Damon? Did she know who and what he was?” Varick slowly sat down beside of him at the bar, his jaw slack. “Where does that leave her?”
    Gyth shook his head as disgust rolled around his stomach. “No, she didn’t know, not until Damon was one step from slicing her throat.”
    Silence hung between them for seconds, mere seconds that felt like eons.
    “But Damon didn’t harm her; he couldn’t for some reason.” Gyth closed his eyes. “That’s the night I found her, naked and in his arms in a dark alley. Her terror was heart shattering. Not until after Damon vanished did I realize just what had been wrought between them. My own flesh and blood was in love with my bitter enemy. I have been protecting her ever since that night because she allows me to, but now, I cannot protect her from the Burning. It is her time.”
    “Because she is part angel, you have to have her permission to protect her and I can only assume, she doesn’t want your protection.”
    Gyth could only nod. His voice lodged in his throat.
    “Has Damon made any move against her?”
    Gyth shook his head. “She is a member of the One Race because my blood runs through her veins, but that also means that only someone with the truest strength of the gods can save her. That leaves her in desperate need to have a Destroyer take her through the Burning.” Gyth reached for the bottle in Varick’s hand and added. “That leaves her in desperate need of Payne.”
    Varick stood, his topaz eyes swirling with power. “And Payne is Damon’s son. The chances of him doing this are zero to none especially if he finds out that she was once Damon’s lover.”
    “He must or Chanta will die.” For added measure, Gyth stood and grabbed Varick’s shoulder. “Your sister, my daughter, will die.”

Chapter 3
    Mounds of books lay scattered across the granite coffee table, littered the floor, and obscured any pathway through the small living room. In these pages, Chanta Timbers had found so many ways to leave the planes of reality. They were her escape. They offered her silence in the wake of so many storms.
    Today, escape seemed impossible. Her thirtieth birthday was just around the corner. Being a member of the One Race had plenty of advantages, if you survived the Burning. And that was a big
if
.
    The Burning would start on her birthday, last a week, maybe two. She would be consumed with confusion, weakness, muscle cramps, headaches, and lust. The drive to have sex would push her right over the edge and send her straight into the Burning. It was biology, simple and complicated.
    Because she was descended from the gods, on her thirtieth birthday, her life as a human would come to an end, literally. Biology would demand her body to undergo major changes, her genetic makeup, which was dormant, would awaken and force the change, the transformation, to take place. Only the strongest descendants survived the Burning because it was an overwhelming physical and mental challenge.
    And if that wasn’t enough, the need and desire to have sex would consume her. If she refused to have sex with another member of the One Race or a Destroyer, she would die. End of game. It was the consequence of being a descendant of the gods. Too bad she didn’t know who or even which one of her parents had passed on the god genes. She had been left at an orphanage, had no memory of either of her parents.
    If she survived, she would be granted special powers—a unique gift, a special ability that was hers and hers alone, as distinct as a fingerprint, and long-lasting life. Chanta could live for hundreds or thousands of years. She would not die of old age, her body would restore itself, never wearing down or causing her demise by