Playing with Passion Theta Series Book 1 (50 page)

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What’s next?

Coming June 17, 2015:
Yielding to Pleasure
-
Book Two in the Theta Series

Can be preordered now. Release date
June 17, 2015

Go here for links to
preorder or purchase:
http://www.gayleparness.com

Synopsis =
Yielding to Pleasure
:

Matteo, a street theta
from Brooklyn, has done his best to keep his neighborhood safe from
the violence that’s plaguing New York City. It’s rumored that a
grass roots rebellion has sprung up, but he’s heard it’s being run
by
troupers
—a
group of thetas he has good reason to mistrust. Ten years ago
Matteo’s father was murdered and his sister Bella was taken to a
theta training institute, so every spare ounce of energy Matteo
possesses is focused on the promise he made his family: To find his
sister and avenge his father.

Anne has escaped from her
Connecticut theta troupe and is hiding out in Manhattan, but she’s
barely surviving. When she’s attacked, she thinks her life is over,
but waking up in the apartment of a sexy Latino street theta
determined to nurse her back to health, is not exactly her vision
of the afterlife—although it could be way worse. Even though Anne
is enjoying the attention, she knows she has to keep her identity a
secret, or else both their lives will be in danger.

Gene is now the leader of
the rebellion against The Director’s tyranny, recruiting new thetas
wherever he can find them. When Matteo and Anne need his help, he
does his best to convince them to become part of his team. But when
a former enemy tries to form an alliance, and a trusted friend goes
behind his back, his long-term plans begin to collapse.

Read an excerpt
here.

Also by Gayle
Parness
: Two Young Adult Fantasy
Series

The Rogues Shifter
Series

Rebirth – Free at all
vendors!

Stalked

Twisted

Blown Away

Caught Between

Torn Apart

Cut Off

The Triad
Series
:

Breaking Out

Copyright Playing with Passion 2015
by Gayle Parness

Yielding to Pleasure
excerpt copyright 2015 by Gayle Parness

Thank you for purchasing an authorized
edition of this ebook.

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places and incidents are either the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or
locales are coincidental.

Yielding to
Pleasure

Prologue

Matteo's papa fell to his knees on the
kitchen floor, clutching his chest, the dark spot beneath his hands
growing larger. Two of the demons who'd splintered the apartment
door were sprawled next to him, deathly still, bloody from knife
wounds no longer bleeding. The third had stabbed his father with a
curved blade, snatching up his little sister Bella and tucked her
under his arm. She was screaming and wiggling, trying to get away,
but he ignored her struggles.

"Matty!" she screamed, her face
scrunched up in terror. "Mama!"

Matty and his mother watched the scene
play out on the small screen his father had installed when he'd
built the safe room a year ago. His mom was weeping, holding her
ten-year-old son in an iron grip as he tried to wrench himself away
and open the door of their shelter. Bella and Papa needed help. He
had to do something. He'd promised.

"Let go, Mama."

"Shhh." She placed a tear-wet hand
over his mouth and held on.

How had this happened?

Only twenty minutes ago he and his mom
had been baking Bella's favorite cookies as a special surprise for
her doing so well with her reading. Bella loved stories, so two
days ago they'd walked the twelve blocks to the library to get as
many books as they could carry. The libraries had all been shut
down and boarded up, but the neighborhood kids snuck in through
broken windows to take books and then return them, all on the honor
system. Mama and papa said it was important for everyone to have a
chance to learn to read.

He and Bella had never
attended school. The few schools open in Brooklyn were private, and
cost too much money. The humans who'd survived
the steal
by turning traitor and
working for the demons, made enough money to send their kids to
those private havens. Those children probably had houses that were
warm in the winter, and lots of food to eat.

But they were traitors. Matty would
never be a traitor, even if the demons tried to force
him.

Sometimes, when Bella was hungry, he'd
hold her tight and whisper in her ear. "When I'm big like papa,
I'll build you a house with a fireplace in every room and we'll eat
lots and lots of chocolate and hamburgers and pizza, too. But you
haveta cook it." Then they'd get out a pad and pencil and draw the
house they wanted to build.

Last fall, his dad had pulled him
aside to have a serious talk. They'd sat together on the lumpy blue
couch that he and Bella loved to jump on. His father always smelled
like the harsh soap he used to clean his hands, the grease from the
bikes and the shuttles he repaired in his garage difficult to get
out from under his nails. Mama used to tease him about it, but she
never minded either. To Matty, he smelled safe and strong. Maybe he
smelled that way to Mama, too.

Papa placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Matty, you're ten years old. I need to talk to you like you're a
grown-up. Can you listen like one?" He'd nodded, eager to hear what
his father had to tell him. Maybe Mama was going to have another
baby. A brother would be cool.

He'd never expected what his father
said next. "You and Bella have powers that the demons want to use,
especially the archdemon they call The Director."

"'Cause we're thetas, like Mrs.
Flynn's son. right?" Mrs. Flynn's son had been kidnapped by two
demons when he was only two and a half years old. They'd broken her
arm and her nose when she'd tried to stop them. Mrs. Flynn didn't
have any other children, and a vampire had killed her husband the
year before.

Matty’s mom and dad hadn't told him,
but he'd heard it whispered around the neighborhood that Mrs. Flynn
had been found dead in her bathtub, too sad to live any longer. It
had been hard to sleep for the next couple of weeks after
that.

Did demon's eat children? Some of the
neighborhood kids thought maybe they did.

"You can see how you're different."
Papa's expression was very serious, so Matty paid special
attention. "Your mama and me, we're human, not like you and Bella.”
He placed a hand high on Matty's belly. "You have your own
generator inside you, your own central axis , your own magic. It
helps you move with great speed and it makes you stronger than
others. You must never use that speed and strength to hurt an
innocent being, whether they’re a theta, a human, a werewolf or a
vampire."

“But wolves and vamps are
evil.”

“No. Not all. Make sure you know which
kind you’re dealing with before you pull the trigger.” Papa had
placed his hand on Matty's head, gently mussing his hair. "But The
Director is mostly interested in what you have here. The children
his demons take are trained to use their mind powers, their
psycore. When they’re taken, they never see their parents again,
that's why we need to keep you hidden."

“And Bella’s like me?”

“Yes. She’s very special.”

"Will the demons come soon to take me
and Bella?"

"They've been active in the
neighborhood, searching for young thetas. If they try to get in,
the room I built will keep you safe. It’s been spelled to hide the
door from view. There's food and water, blankets and clothes. A
little money, too." Papa had shown him where everything
was.

"But you'll be in here too, right
Papa? You'll keep us safe."

"They might come when I'm at work.
There's an envelope in the box under the cot and two holotab
numbers to call if you need help. The people who answer will know
how to hide you. You listen to them."

"But I don't want you to go away."
He'd clutched at his dad's shirt, taking in his soapy scent,
enjoying the warmth and the strength of his father's arms. A large
hand stroked his back, reminding him that he was safe.

"I would never leave you, mijo, but
sometimes things happen that we can't control. You might have to
take care of both Mama and Bella. You must be brave for
them."

Matty straightened up, trying not to
look scared. "Okay, Papa. I'll protect them. I promise."

His father kissed his forehead and
released him. "I know you will, son. I'm so proud of
you."

But when the demons came,
Papa had shouted "
Seguro
," their emergency word, and
Matty had run and hid with Mama, like a baby. He hadn't stayed to
fight the demons, to protect Bella like he'd promised. His mother
had tried to go back, but Papa had shouted, "No, Rosa, it's too
late, lock the door." Suddenly Papa was fighting and Bella was
screaming, trying to hide under the kitchen table.

"Oh no. Oh no. Carlos, no." Mama
sobbed, squeezing Matty so hard he could barely breathe. His father
had collapsed fully onto the yellowed, cracked tiles of their small
kitchen, his breath huffing out in rapid bursts.

Matty closed his eyes so hard they
hurt, trembling and clenching his fists, his nails digging bloody
arches across his palm The pain centered him, warming his belly. He
opened his eyes with a new purpose. No matter how awful, he'd be
brave enough to watch, to learn, to remember everything.

The demon had long, dark red hair,
braided with leather and decorated with what looked like small
bones and metal rings. The end of his braid rested against his hip,
not swinging back and forth like human hair. He wore a tunic and
leggings of a very dark purple but his feet were bare and the nails
on his hands and feet looked like claws. His skin held a yellow
tinge, but what stood out was an ugly scar on one arm from shoulder
to wrist. It looked red and bumpy, like the demon had been burned
and hadn’t healed. Matty would remember this demon.

"Matty, please..." Bella screamed
again. The demon slapped her, whipping her head to the side. She
hung limp in his arms, so he dropped her on the floor into a pool
of her father's blood. It began to seep into her dress.

That dress was Bella's favorite, her
princess dress she called it. On some days she'd command Matty to
be her knight and fight the dragon like she read about in fairy
tales. He usually played along.

The scarred demon knelt, using his
curved blade to hack off his father's finger, the one with his
plain wedding band. He pocketed his trophy, placing a hand on each
of his dead comrades in turn, starting the withering process that
turned them to dust.

The demon stood, staring at the camera
as if he'd known it was there the whole time. "I'll be back for the
boy. If you run, I'll hurt him." With a malicious grin he changed
his form to look like an average human male, then picked up Bella,
and disappeared through the door.

Mama's skin was pale. "Stay in this
room, Matty. Don't come out until I say you can." He watched on the
screen as Mama rushed into the kitchen. Papa was breathing funny.
There were red bubbles around his mouth, and a darker red on his
shirt and the floor near his arm.

Against his mother's orders, he crept
out, hoping she wouldn't be mad, but she was so busy with Papa she
didn't even notice him there. The two demons had shriveled up like
the Egyptian mummies he'd seen in a book from the library. Their
stench made him gag, but he forced himself to breath it in. Like
his father's comforting scent, he'd remember.

The neighbor from apartment D, Mr.
O'Hanlon, came running in. He looked at the two dead demons, then
at his father. "He needs a doctor, Mrs. Suarez."

Matty smiled with hope. A doctor would
fix his dad, and then they could go together to get Bella back.
Matty didn't like doctors, but he knew they could help when people
got sick or hurt.

Mama was holding a towel where Papa
was bleeding. It was turning red. "We don't know any
doctors."

Matty had an idea. "I know where to
get a doctor." He ran out the open door and down the two flights of
broken cement stairs to the sidewalk. Mama was yelling for him not
to go out, but he didn't listen. Papa was hurt.