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Prologue

“I knohat you are”

Cade Thain carefully put his whiskey glass down and glanced up at the woman before him “And what’s that?” His hands flattened on the old, wooden table

She sat down and leaned toward hiold And her eyes—they were the coldest blue he’d ever seen in his life “You’re a olf”

He laughed, the sound deep and loud

Her jaw tightened “And you’re an assassin”

Cade kept the smile on his face “Lady, you’re crazy”

“No, I’er—no, that thread was far closer to fury—rumbled beneath her words “I’m here to hire you”

Cade glanced to the left To the right In this pit of hell that passed for a bar in so any attention to anyone Or anything “You’ve got the wrong man,” he said slowly

Her gaze searched his face “Not too many men have scars like yours” And that icy stare had locked on the scar that slipped froht eyebrow all the way down to his jaw Another scar sliced around his neck There were more, so many more, hidden beneath his clothes “Cut you with silver, didn’t they?” she asked softly “When you were so young that you could barely heal”

Fuck, yeah, they had His back was covered with long, twisting scars Wounds administered by sick pricks that Cade had personally sent to burn Cade had been fourteen when he made those kills

His first, not his last

“Werewolf…” She breathed the title “I’ve got a vamp for you to slay”

Now the lady had his full attention He dropped the act and focused totally on her

Vampires had been the ones to torture him To destroy his family His pack They’d introduced him to hell

Made him into the monster that he was today

She leaned closer Her scent—already too strong for someone with his enhanced senses—surrounded him A bitter scent, heavy with incense A witch The scent of their spells always clung to them

His would-be-client told him, “The vamp’s name is Allison Gray, and she’ll be such easy prey, especially for someone like you”

Her fingers slid over to touch his hands His claeren’t out—not yet Not yet “Why do you want the vamp dead?” Dade demanded to know

Hell, va their prey Feeding on them

Like they fed on me

Parasites

“She’s a pureblood”

Shit Now the witch was talking some serious power Most vampires were made the old-fashioned way—they were huht back as va because they were born as vampires

Lucky for the rest of the world,on earth every daht

But killing a pureblood? “That’ll cost you extra,” he warned

Her smile didn’t make her eyes appear any warmer Beautiful, but the witch was stone cold “I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars”

Paranormal hits were never cheap—or easy “Make it two”

Her eyes narrowed