Tempt_The Pteron Chronicles Page 17

  I smiled. “I’m not going to argue. You know what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “And I’m in.” Cade grinned. “You know I don’t miss out on adventures.”

  “You guys need me. Besides, I want to get rid of my ex once and for all.” Sol slipped his shades down enough to wink.

  “So that’s it then.” Glendale lay on my feet. “The gang is all in.”

  “In for whatever this is we all signed up for.” Cade laughed.

  Everyone else joined in. It felt good to laugh even though it also felt wrong with everything else going on.

  I glanced into the crowd and noticed a flit of something grey out of the corner of my eye. I knew I was likely imagining it, but I couldn’t ignore it once I had my glimpse. “Can you excuse me?” I rushed off without waiting for an answer.

  I hurried in the direction I’d seen the grey. I couldn’t be sure, but it had looked an awful lot like that grey fedora hat the creepy guy from the secret basement was wearing.

  I caught a glimpse again and followed him around the corner. I stopped short facing the back of what had to be the same man. He tossed off his suit jacket and the white shirt he’d been wearing underneath. Large black wings extended from his back and he took off into the night sky.

  I released my own wings and took off after him, but I lost him and found nothing but the smoke-filled night sky. I flew around franticly, searching for any sign of the man. I was out of luck. He’d disappeared. I landed back in the shadows, trying to understand what I’d witnessed. He was a Pteron. By his black wings he’d been aligned with Levi’s family at some point in time, yet I had no idea who he was. I’d never met a Pteron who controlled Shadows and could use dark magic before. I searched through my memories trying to place him, but I kept hitting a wall.

  “Hailey, what happened?” Wyatt waited for me to retract my wings.

  “Didn’t you see him?”

  “Who?” Wyatt’s brow furrowed.

  I noticed something grey lying on the floor. I picked up the discarded suit jacket. “The guy in the Fedora. He has wings. He’s a Pteron.” That realization still hadn’t fully sunk in.

  “Are you sure?” Wyatt took the coat from my hands.

  “You really didn’t see him?” I searched Wyatt’s face for confirmation.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean anything. I was some ways behind you.”

  “He’s a Pteron, and I have no idea what that means.”

  Wyatt wrapped his hand around mine. “It means we can’t trust anyone but ourselves.”

  Thank You

  Thank you for reading Tempt (The Pteron Chronicles #2). I hope you enjoyed it! Please consider leaving an honest review at your point of purchase. Reviews help me in so many ways!

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  Afterward

  The Pteron Chronicles will continue with Taken later in 2018. Want more Chronicles? Check out the other series set in the Chronicles world: The Crescent Chronicles, The Empire Chronicles, The Dire Wolves Chronicles, The Allure Chronicles. The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles, The Forged Chronicles, and the Heart Chronicles.

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  Please keep reading for a preview of Soar (The Empire Chronicles #1) a New Adult Paranormal Romance by Alyssa Rose Ivy

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  Soar (The Empire Chronicles #1)

  In the city that never sleeps the Chronicles continue…

  Serving coffee is temporary, just like Casey's year off from school. She’s going to come up with a plan to stay in New York City and go back to college, and that plan does not involve dating a paranormal creature—let alone two.

  Running the supernatural society of New York is not as fun as it sounds, especially when you still have to answer to your ex-girlfriend’s fiancé. Toby doesn’t mean to bring Casey into the chaos of his life, but he can't resist the girl who makes him smile when he thought no one else ever could.

  Jared's in New York checking out a security risk for his best friend, the king. He plans to return to New Orleans quickly, but not if it means losing his chance with the brunette who pretends she wants nothing to do with him.

  In over her head with a bunch of winged creatures who most definitely are not angels, Casey has to figure out who to trust with her life and maybe her heart.

  Casey

  Glowing Eyes. In the chaos of the moment, the only thing I could focus on were the yellow eyes that followed my every move. They were eerie and seemed more at home on an animatronic creation than on the living, breathing animal that had me cornered in the alley. I knew I was stuck, but I didn’t think about death. It wasn’t an option because I wasn’t ready for it. Realistic or not, I was a firm believer that we make our own destiny.

  I stepped back, convinced that if I walked backward slowly enough, I’d escape. I silently cursed Eric for making me throw out the trash after my shift. He was such an ass of an assistant manager.

  At first, the wolf didn’t move—at least I thought it was a wolf, although it seemed two sizes too big. As strange as it should have been to see a giant wolf in an alley, I’d seen far stranger in my nine months of living in New York City.

  “Easy boy,” I said in a half whisper, more for myself than for the beast now taking slow, deliberate steps toward me.

  All of a sudden, he lunged. Gray fur moved in a blur as I blocked my face the best I could in the spilt second I had. A whimper rang out, and I lowered my arms when the contact never came.

  The gray wolf slowly limped out of the alley. I searched for an explanation as I struggled to regain my breath and vaguely saw another figure disappear into the distance. He could have been any man, except that in my adrenaline-rich state, I could have sworn he had wings.

  My head started to spin, and I reached out for something to hold onto. Then everything went black.

  * * *

  ***

  * * *

  “Hey, Bates! Are you okay?”

  I forced my eyes open, confused about the cause of my killer headache and the fogginess permeating my head.

  “Casey?” Eric bent down next to me with some legitimate concern on his face. “Are you all right?”

  “How long have I been out here?” I glanced around, trying to make sense of how I ended up face down in a pile of trash outside my place of work.

  “Not too long. When you never came in from tossing the trash I got worried.”

  Likely. Eric was probably more worried about being named in a potential law suit.

  “I’m fine… I think.” I struggled to remember what had happened. The only memory I had couldn’t be real. It involved a wolf and a strange guy with wings. Evidently I managed to pass out and hit my head on a trash can. Because that’s normal.

  “Are you sure? Do you think you can walk?”

  “Yeah, I can walk.” The alternative was to let him carry me inside. Despite his good looks, Eric’s personality nullified any desire to have him hold me, even if walking seemed like an insurmountable task at the moment. Out of necessity, I accepted his outstretched hand and leaned heavily on his shoulder. My head continued to throb, and all I wanted to do was get home and lie down.

  He put me down on the couch in the break room. The worn sofa wasn’t a place I ever wanted to lay my head, considering it was twenty years old and had probably never been cleaned, but I didn’t have a choice. The world was spinning.

  “Did you hit your head?” Eric asked, taking a seat next to me. His muscular arm blocked my
view of the room.

  I reached up and touched the knot forming on the back of my head. “Yes. I have no idea how.”

  “Only you would do something that ridiculous.” He routinely made fun of me, but something was off. Then again, I’d hit my head so maybe everything was off.

  “Can you get my purse? It’s in that locker.” I pointed around him to where I’d stowed my stuff.

  “Sure.” He walked across the room and retrieved my ancient knock-off Gucci. He handed it to me, and I fished out my phone.

  “Are you calling someone to get you?” He settled in next to me. The couch sunk down from the extra weight.

  “Yeah. My cousin.” I hit Rhett’s name on my contacts list.

  “Casey?” Rhett answered after two rings. Five years older than me, Rhett and I didn’t hang out much, but he was being seriously awesome by letting me crash in the spare bedroom (read closet) in his apartment in the Village.

  “Any chance you could walk down to Coffee Heaven?”

  “Sure…but is there a particular reason why?” He sounded distracted, which probably meant he was buried in his research. A twinge of guilt went through me when I thought about bothering him, but asking Eric to walk me home was out of the question, and we were the only two closing.

  “I kind of passed out and hit my head.”

  “What?” Shuffling, followed by a door slamming, let me know he was on his way. I worked a few blocks from Rhett’s place, so I knew it wouldn’t be long. “Hold tight. I’ll be right there.”

  “I could have walked you home.” Eric stood up, probably getting ready to unlock the front door for Rhett. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say more, but he quickly shut it.

  “Rhett doesn’t mind.”

  Eric mumbled something incomprehensible before stomping off through the doorway. I didn’t really get him. He was a jerk to me most of the time, but then other times he got almost protective.

  Eric returned minutes later with Rhett on his heels.

  “You okay, Case?” Rhett kneeled down in front of me. As usual, his brown hair was all rumpled, and it looked like he hadn’t showered yet. It was ten o’clock at night.

  “I think so.”

  “What happened to her?” He looked at Eric, an unspoken accusation hanging in the air.

  “I’m not positive. She went out to toss the trash and when I came out to look for her, she was on the ground.”

  “Next time, throw out the trash yourself.” Rhett helped me up. “Casey won’t be coming in to work tomorrow.”

  “Hey. I will so. I need the shift.” My savings were dwindling, and that didn’t bode well for going back to school the next semester.

  Rhett shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

  “I do. Eric, don’t find someone to cover me. I’ll be in.”

  “See you tomorrow, Bates.” Eric blatantly ignored my cousin and called me by my last name. No matter how many times I reminded him that I preferred he use my first name, he disregarded the request.

  “Night,” I called just before the door closed behind us, leaving us in the brisk night air.

  “You’re a glutton for punishment, kid.”

  “Who are you calling kid?” I linked my arm with Rhett’s as we walked past Washington Square Park. I was feeling better but was still light headed.

  “You’re nineteen. You’re a kid.”

  “I don’t feel like one.” Working full time and trying to support myself on only a step above minimum wage had been an eye opening experience, even with the ridiculously cheap rent I owed Rhett.

  “Usually you don’t act like one. Rushing to get back to your crap job is acting like a kid.”

  “It’s the only job I have, and I need it.” Beggars can’t be choosers in New York when it comes to making money with only a high school diploma and almost no previous work experience. Funny how working at a summer camp doesn’t do much for a resume.

  “Or you could pick a less expensive school and not worry so much about financial aid.”

  “Says the guy working on his PhD at NYU?”

  “Hey, they pay me now.” He opened the exterior door to our building.

  “They didn’t when you were an undergrad.”

  He let go of me so he could unlock the inner door. You had to tug on the door at the same time you turned the key or it didn’t work. The super was supposed to fix the temperamental lock months before. “True, but my scholarship covered most of it.”

  I stood just inside the entryway. “All right, can’t argue with that.”

  “Can you make it?” He gestured to the stairs. We lived in a third floor walkup.

  “Maybe.” I headed toward the stairs that currently looked like mountains. “It’s worth a try.”

  Ten minutes later, I was propped up on the couch with a bottle of water. Rhett worried over me for another few minutes before I made him get back to work. I flipped through the channels, hoping for some random movie. There was absolutely nothing on, so I settled for the local news.

  Another animal attack has been reported in Bryant Park. Authorities have not released the names of the victims, but once again citizens are urged to use caution when frequenting outdoor areas after dark.

  I’d seen two other news reports just like it that week, although both reported attacks in different parts of the city. I thought of the wolf in the alley. It must have just been my overactive imagination messing with me. I needed sleep, and lots of it. I switched off the TV and closed my eyes. I didn’t even have the energy to move to my room.

  Soar is available now!

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