Taken hostage in Paris...
...but bound by desire
Tired of his desk job, Ethan Pierce decides its time for a more exciting occupation. This straitlaced vampire may be ready for demons and blood magic, but nothing can prepare him for Tuesday Knightsbridge. Shes brash, shes bold and shes the sexiest woman hes ever met. She also happens to be a witch...and the key to saving the world.
MICHELE HAUF is a USA TODAY bestselling author who has been writing romance, action-adventure and fantasy stories for more than twenty years. France, musketeers, vampires and faeries usually populate her stories. And if Michele followed the adage write what you know, all her stories would have snow in them. Fortunately, she steps beyond her comfort zone and writes about countries and creatures she has never seen. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and at www.michelehauf.com.
Also by Michele Hauf
Her Werewolf HeroA Venetian VampireTaming the HunterThe Witchs QuestThe Witch and the WerewolfAn American Witch in ParisThe Darks MistressGhost WolfMoonlight and DiamondsThe Vampires Fall
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
An American Witch in Paris
Michele Hauf
www.millsandboon.co.uk
AN AMERICAN WITCH IN PARIS
© 2018 Michele Hauf
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a Licensed Device) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Version: 2020-03-02
MILLS & BOON
Before you start reading, why not sign up?
Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!
SIGN ME UP!
Or simply visit
signup.millsandboon.co.uk
Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.
This one is for the witch in me.
And its for the witch in you.
Honor your soul for what it has been,
is now and will be. Namaste.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
About the Author
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Authors Note
Extract
Chapter 1
Ethan Pierce stood before a steel-barred cage in the Acquisitions departments clean room. He was the director of the department, which was responsible for hunting, collecting and containing objects of magical nature, dangerous curses and talismans, even volatile creatures that may prove harmful to common humans if left unmonitored in the mortal realm. Ethan sent retrievers out on jobs that canvassed the world, and those adventuring professionals returned with the items.
This latest acquisition, brought in hours earlier by the retriever Bron Everhart, was needed to help locate an even more important item. For what Acquisitions ultimately sought was the blood demon Gazariel, who had stolen the code for the Final Days. If that code was to be activated, all the angels from Above would fall and smother the mortal realm with their smoldering wings. Literally. And the only way to find the demon was with the one thing in this world that wore its sigil.
A witch, Ethan muttered as he paced before the cage.
Behind the steel bars, which were warded to keep in the subject, yet also wired with electricity to keep her docile and hamper any magic she should attempt to use in defense, stood the witch. She was a head shorter than Ethan, thin and dressed in clingy black leggings, fierce-looking black ankle boots with high heels and a silky black shirt that revealed a toned abdomen. Over it all she wore a heavy coat made of what looked like fake gray fur, which was studded with silver and black spangles. Her long white hair spilled forward, concealing one eye, and fell messily over one shoulder to her waist.
The other eye held him intently. It was a blue eye, the iris circled with black as if someone had drawn those eyes to be colored in. And on her eyelids, black shadow granted plenty Gothic melodrama. All together the look was...
Wicked, Ethan thought.
Hatred was too strong a word to apply to his feelings about witches as a species. Not all witches were evil or malicious. Yet hed never completely get over his dislike for witches. Theyd once held a murderous reign over his species, vampires, when their blood had been poisonous. One dip of the fang into a witchs vein could bring an ugly and permanent death. That was no longer. The Great Protection Spell, which had turned all witches blood poisonous, had been broken decades earlier.
Rationally, Ethan knew not all witches were dangerous. And besides, it was the twenty-first century. Things had changed. He worked with a few witches here at Acquisitions and the overseeing department, the Archives. For the most part, witches of the light were safe and trustworthy.
But the dark witches, such as the one standing in the cage before him? A shudder traced Ethans spine.
The witch didnt move, only held his gaze, as if breaking it might arrest her breathing. And he wasnt about to look away. He must show her his dominance. In order to work with the witch to find the demon, she must be kept under control. Subdued. Yet her magic should remain accessible, which would keep the sigil she supposedly wore somewhere on her body open and ready to lure in the demon Gazariel.
Capturing this specific demon would prove a challenge. All perfunctory means of tracking him through Acquisitions database had turned up nothing, though intel revealed that he was definitely in Paris.
Upon receiving orders to obtain the missing Final Days codefrom a highly unprecedented commandEthan had considered all the dozens of retrievers he had on staff. Who could do the job? Most were currently on assignment. None were stationed in Paris at the moment. But that wasnt the problem; any retriever was available and on call 24/7, able to move about worldwide.
The problem was that blood magic may be required to hold the demon once found. And the best one to deal with such magic? A vampire. Of which Ethan had been since his birth in the 1500s. Of course, he wasnt willing to give his own blood for this mission, but he didnt expect he would have to. Hed learned once that his blood could have a devastating effect on another being.
He never made the same mistake twice.
It had been decades, maybe even close to a century, since Ethan had gone out on a job. Hed become complacent, sitting behind a desk, clacking away at reports on the laptop and ordering others around. He loved his job. He did it well.
And yet, the call to adventure, to get out and actually participate in life again, was too strong to resist. Hed once stood alongside his fellow warrior vampires in the Blood Wars of the sixteenth century, defeating werewolves and slaying random witches who would deign to assist the nasty wolves. Then, he had been undefeatable, powerful and virile. He still was. The urge to exercise his soul beyond the paperwork and office politics was strong.
So Ethan had assigned this job to himself. His knowledge on the various demon breeds was minimal, yet he knew Paris, and more importantly, had the determination to root out the target. And he was the perfect partner for a witch. He wouldnt fall under her spell or forget for one moment who or what he was dealing with.
A dark witch who wore the demon Gazariels mark.
* * *
The deflecting vibrations coming off the steel bars were strong, electronic in nature, but Tuesday didnt allow that to bother her. Yet. What was more disturbing was how shed just been sitting in a bar, nursing a pink Panty Dropper cocktail, and then the world had gone black. And now she was standing in a cage.
Had someone roofied her? She always wore protective wards to deflect any silly human trick. And a clasp of the obsidian crystal that hung from a leather cord around her neck and above her breasts confirmed they hadnt removed her grounding and protective wards. That could only mean someone with power greater than hersand was aware of who and what she washad been able to drug her, kidnap her and cage her.
And while that realization was humiliating she had to remain calm and focused. She wasnt about to let the vampire see her sweat. No weakness here, buddy.
She knew the man was vampire because his red, ashy aura gave him away. Very few witches had the Sightan ability to see vampire auras. Tuesday found it more of a nuisance. There were so many vampires walking the world. Sometimes the frequency of red glows in large, overcrowded cities annoyed her. Seriously. The biters were everywhere.