Pax Demonica (24 page)
With her super powers, Zoe can do just about anything … except make Taylor fall in love with her.
For that, they’re both going to need a different kind of magic …
Mortal Tracy Tannin has always felt like the most ordinary girl in the world, especially since she’s lived her whole life in the shadow of her Hollywood superstar grandmother. But when she finds an antique belt in her grandmother’s attic, everything changes. Suddenly everyone wants Tracy—or maybe they just want the belt.
Superhero Hale is more than happy to do his job protecting mortals. But get emotionally close to one? Absolutely no way. Which is why he’s thrown a bit off his game when he suddenly finds himself craving the mortal woman he’s been assigned to protect. But that must just be the effect of the magical belt he’s supposed to retrieve, right?
Because there’s no way that a guy like Hale can fall for a girl like Tracy.
Or is there?
Order Aphrodite’s Passion now!
Shapeshifter Jason Murphy spent six years captive to the most notorious Outcast in the Protector world—Hieronymous Black, who also happens to be Jason’s father. Worse than his unfortunate parentage and the fact of his captivity, though, is the distrust that his absence put between him and the love of his life, Lane.
Lane knows only that the father of her child disappeared just moments after she told him she was pregnant, and she’s spent the last few years struggling as a single mom, raising her exceptional son and trying to find a man who will do what she believes Jason didn’t—put her and her son ahead of everything else.
Now Jason’s determined to win back his family. But to do that, he’s going to have to face his father one last time. And he’s going to have to tell Lane the truth—and hope that this time she’ll see him as a hero.
Mordichai grew up under the shadow of the baddest bad guy out there—Hieronymous Black—and he’s used his power to conjure fire to help Daddy Dearest in numerous nefarious plots. But he’s reformed now—and just in time to meet the woman of his dreams.
Isole Frost knows all about Mordi’s past, and she believes him when he says he’s truly reformed. Trouble is, she also believes that Hieronymous truly wants to give up his dark ways and join the good guys, and nothing Mordi says can sway her. He may be the dark-haired, green-eyed man of her dreams, but she’s sure that he’s wrong. And when they’re forced to work together, they’re either going to prove that fire won’t mesh with ice—or that the inevitable result is a whole lotta steam!
Who says Mom knows best?
Jennifer Martin has worked with enough Protectors to know that she has absolutely no interest in dating—much less marrying!—the arrogant superheroes. Too bad her mom has a completely different view on the subject … and is determined that Jenny marry one of those perfectly “perfect” men.
Starbuck is undercover, pretending to be a mortal as he searches for a spy who’s selling Council secrets to the biggest bad guy of all, Hieronymous. Falling for Jenny is not only a distraction from his job, it’s also going nowhere. Because even if she likes him as a man, he knows damn well that she’s not going to like him as a Protector anymore than she will appreciate the lies he’s told in order to get close to her.
Order Aphrodite’s Embrace now!
(Meet Deena & Hoop in this prequel to the Superhero series!)
There are people in this world who believe in magic, who search for the possibility in their daily lives . . .
Focused attorney Nicholas Goodman is not one of those people. A rising star in a major law firm, Nick has all the pieces of his life in order: a great career, financial success, and a girlfriend whose father is one of his major clients. Everything in his life is neat and orderly—until the day Nick opens his door and finds a green-eyed, dark-haired beauty standing there. And she happens to be totally naked.
To these people, love is just as magical as a unicorn in your driveway . . .
Maggie is one-hundred percent, head-over-heels in love with Nicholas. He’s kind and smart and sexy, and she’s certain he’s the man for her. There’s just one problem: Maggie’s not exactly human. But through the power of magic, she’s given a chance. She has one week to make Nick fall in love with her.
One week to make “happily ever after” a reality.
Please enjoy this excerpt from
Aphrodite’s Kiss
, book 1 of Julie’s bestselling Protectors (Superheroes) series…
Venerate Council of Protectors
1-800-555-HERO
Protecting Mortals Is Our Business!
Official Business
Ms. Zoe Smith Halfling
Los Angeles, California
Greetings and congratulations on your upcoming twenty-fifth birthday:
Enclosed please find your application for membership to the Venerate Council of Protectors (487 pages, excluding affidavits and attachments) and council publications numbers 1758-A(3) and 2987-Z(9), respectively titled “So You’re a Halfling!” and “The Venerate Council: A Brief History in 1,200 Pages.” Please complete the application and return it in triplicate to the council by no later than one month prior to the twenty-fifth anniversary of your birth.
As part of the application process, you may be evaluated through field testing during your birthday week. Such testing is random, and applicants are not informed in advance.
You will be advised of your application status the morning following your twenty-fifth birthday. A decision as to your denial or acceptance will be based on your overall skill level and performance during the tests.
If you are accepted to the council, you will be informed at that time of the date and location of your swearing-in ceremony.
If your application is declined, you will be escorted to the Bureau of Registration, where you will be required to either register as an Unlicensed Protector (Outcast) or forfeit your Protector heritage and undergo mortalization, at which time all memories of your Protector relatives will be removed. (For more detailed information on the mortalization process, including limitations of liability, warranties, and disclosures, please visit our Web site at
www.WeProtectMortals.com
.)
Failure to register as an Outcast or to select mortalization is a violation of Section IV, subpart 2(a)(ii) of the Mortal-Protector Treaty of 1970.
In addition to your formal application, you must submit—by no later than sunset on your twenty-fifth birthday—the enclosed Affidavit of Mortal Disclosure affirming that you have disclosed to your mortal parent your status as a halfling and your decision to apply for council membership.
As you are aware, your Protector parent filed a Notice of Halfling Nascence contemporaneously with your birth, and such information has been periodically updated. Your file currently states that, in addition to the speed, strength, and agility inherent in the Protector genetics, you have also demonstrated a propensity toward the following skill(s)/power(s)/ characteristic(s):
- heightened five senses (including X-ray vision)
As the anniversary of your birth draws closer, you will most likely experience significant oscillation in your ability to control/utilize such skill(s)/power(s)/characteristic(s). Such fluctuations are an unfortunate by-product of your halfling status and are considered normal.
Our records further indicate that you have not yet mastered the following necessary skill(s):
- matter manipulation (a.k.a. telekinesis)
Form 82-C(l)(a), on file with the Office of Halfling Registration, reflects the issuance of the following council-controlled articles:
- propulsion cloak, model C-14A (training model) and
- X-ray blocking glasses, tortoiseshell variety (regular and sunglasses)
Please be advised that at any time prior to the anniversary of your birth, you may formally announce your intent not to submit the affidavit and to select mortalization. Please use Form 93B, enclosed, Intent to Select Mortalization.
Upon submission of such form, you will be immediately escorted to the Bureau of Registration for processing. Please arrange return transportation in advance. Following the mortalization process, you will have no memory of the council or your Protector relatives. A stranded mortal is an unhappy mortal!
Thank you for your attention to this matter—and happy birthday!
Sincerely,
Phelonium Prigg
Phelonium Prigg
Assistant to Zephron, High Elder
jbk:PP
enclosure
Z
oe Smith stared at the chocolate bar,
wondering if it was going to attack. She’d confiscated it an hour ago from one of the students, who knew better than to bring food into the library, and she’d been contemplating the dastardly thing ever since. It looked innocent enough—sitting there on her desk surrounded by children’s book catalogs, order forms, and manila folders.
Zoe knew better.
That smooth, creamy milk chocolate mixed with chewy caramel had it in for her.
One bite, and
Riverdance
would begin tap-tapping away inside her mouth. Two bites, and her head would start spinning while smoke came out of her ears. Three bites, and those urban legends about spontaneous human combustion wouldn’t be legend anymore. Her whole life, Zoe’d had to watch what she ate. Too spicy, too tangy, too
anything
and she’d be jumping up and down, trying to put out a fire on her tongue or otherwise calm her taste buds.
And she’d thought
that
was inconvenient . . .
Ha!
That was nothing compared to what her ridiculous senses had been doing recently. These days her senses had been shoved into the touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound version of
The Twilight Zone.
Sometimes perfectly calm, perfectly stable. Other times more unstable than a psychopath on a bad day. In other words, totally whacked-out.
At least her X-ray vision could be blocked by simple glasses. So far at least, Zoe hadn’t discovered any easy way to wrest back some control of the rest of her senses.
Her brother Hale had said she just needed to get used to it—that after a while she’d become more acclimated.
Yeah, right.
Zoe was pretty sure that Hale’s ability to understand animal-speak and turn invisible didn’t hold a candle to what she went through if she tried to eat spicy Mexican food. Or the noise when a hundred or so conversations popped into her head unannounced. The unexpected drone of voices was bad enough; trying to sort them out and hear just one conversation was exhausting.
Besides, since Hale was a full-fledged Protector, he’d never had to deal with this sudden increase in powers. Instead of sporadically peaking like an adolescent boy’s voice, his powers had developed calmly and slowly as he’d grown up. So Zoe doubted he had any idea just how overwhelming her megawatt senses really were.
As far as Zoe was concerned, at that moment her life was in a state of total chaos. Her senses were whacked-out, she still couldn’t levitate worth a darn, she could barely steer her propulsion cloak, and in just a few days she had to tell her mother that she was a halfling and about to join the Venerate Council. You
see,
Mom,
I just never got around to telling you that I’m a superhero.
Oh, yeah. That’s gonna go over big.
She tapped her fingers on the desk, considering the candy bar. Maybe Hale did have a point. She needed to start somewhere, and she’d certainly never get used to this new hyper-aware state if she lived on rice cakes and oatmeal. Maybe she should put a little effort into acclimation.
Squinting, she leaned forward until she was nose-to-wrapper with the devious confection. “Okay, Mr. Goodbar. It’s you or me.” Slowly, ceremoniously, she peeled the wrapper away, waiting for her nose to start twitching as the decadent smell of chocolate surrounded her.
Nothing.
A good sign, maybe?
Experimentally, she touched the tip of her tongue against the candy. It was chocolate, all right. Yummy, delicious, fattening chocolate. But—so far, anyway—not in the least bit spaz-inducing.
Well, in for a penny and all that.
Before she had time to think about it, she opened her mouth, shoved the candy bar in, and bit down.
Heaven. Pure heaven in a bite-size package.
She closed her eyes, letting the chocolate melt on her tongue, the crunchy sensation of peanuts mixing with the pure, rich decadence. Delicious and wonderful, but not overwhelming. Just your average, everyday choco—
Uh-oh.
Big-time,
major
uh-oh.
The world tilted on its axis, spinning faster and faster as the superfragilistic taste of chocolate grabbed hold of her taste buds and refused to let go.
Colors. She was tasting colors. Pinks and purples and yellows exploded in her mouth, forming and re-forming into kaleidoscopes of sensory delight, seeping into her blood and making her entire body flush. She tried to look around, tried to tell whether anyone could see her, but the rainbow blocked her vision.
She thought the library was empty, but what if someone came in? What if someone saw her losing her mind because of a chocolate bar?
What if someone thought she’d spiked a brownie?
Frantic, she dropped to the floor and scooted under her desk, pressing her hands against the solid wood as vibrant sensations ricocheted through her body. Deep breaths. That was what she needed. Lots and lots of deep breaths and no more chocolate.
Ever.
The worst of it passed, and she dug in her pocket for a tissue and tried to wipe any remaining chocolate off her tongue. The procedure left little bits of paper in her mouth, but since paper was a heck of a lot blander than chocolate, she couldn’t exactly complain.