E-Book Overview
HIS NAME IS DANTE.Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.F.B.I. Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer, and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be "nightkind": in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien DeNoir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer -- and she's pretty sure that link makes him the CCK's next target. Heather must unravel the truth about this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man -- who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire -- in order to finally bring a killer to justice. But Dante's past holds a shocking, dangerous secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny....
E-Book Content
A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix
Praise for Adrian Phoenix and A Rush of Wings “Phoenix slings the reader into an intense world of dizzying passion, tremendous heart, and arresting originality. Sharp, wicked, and hot as sin.” —New York Times bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu
“This one pulled me in from the first page. Heather and Dante are among those rare characters readers so often look for and seldom find.” — Barb Hendee, bestselling coauthor of Traitor to the Blood
“For far too long, Adrian Phoenix has been one of fantastic literature’s best kept secrets. Finally, she has fulfilled all the promise of her brilliant but infrequent short stories with A Rush of Wings. The novel is a fast-paced ride, its New Orleans setting appropriately rich and gothic, its characters both real and surprising. If you read only one debut novel this season, make it this one.” —New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“A goth urban fantasy that moves as fast as its otherworldly characters. A bit like The Crow crossed with The Silence of the Lambs crossed with a voice that is Phoenix’s own, A Rush of Wings is decadent, glittering fun, wrapped up in leather and latex.” — Justine Musk, author of BloodAngel
“A Rush of Wings is a dark, rich, sensual treat, where heroes and villains alike are fascinating and threedimensional. Adrian Phoenix uses a perfect blend of suspense, romance, and lyrical prose to keep readers up until late, late at night turning pages. I can’t wait to read more about Dante and about the complex, multifaceted world in which he lives.” — Jenna Black, author of Secrets in the Shadows
“A Rush of Wings grabs you from the first sentence and doesn’t let go…Adrian Phoenix is one of the best new talents I have seen coming into literature in decades.” —New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith
“If vampires didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them. To do that deed, I’d recommend Adrian Phoenix.” — Gerald M. Weinberg, author of The Aremac Project
Copyright © 2008 by Adrian Nikolas Phoenix DEDICATED TO SEAN PRESCOTT DUUUDE.
Contents Contents Acknowledgments 1 Voice for the Dead 2 Club Hell 3 Without a Word 4 Still Falling 5 The Hard Way 6 Magic and Mystery 7 Closer than She’d Ever Been 8 The Unmaker 9 Unwalked Paths 10 Unforeseen 11 A Breathing Connection 12 An Unremembered Past 13 Keepsakes 14 Lost in the System 15 Whirling into Motion 16 Blood Sworn 17 Born Sociopath 18 All of this for You 19 Elohim 20 The Darkest Heart 21 Descent from Grace 22 Ange