Fated for Sacrifice: Inherited Damnation, #5

By Claire Ashgrove

When Reese Hamilton is abandoned in the snow-laden woods, she must find her way to Dáire McLaine’s cabin—a friend she’s known for years, and the man who makes her pulse triple. Little does she know that a cozy night in the woods will lead to passion they both have been longing to explore. But with the new change in their relationship comes something darker and more terrifying, and Reese must confront danger, even death, before she can be free to love.

Dáire McLaine will do anything to escape his demonic blood and attain mortality, even if that means defying nature’s laws and manipulating Reese’s thoughts for his own means. But when he delves into her hidden secrets, the staggering emotion he encounters makes it impossible to deny the forbidden longings of his own heart. He’s yearned for Reese over the years. Yet to love Reese will demand the ultimate sacrifice—his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Untamed Spirit Publishing
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513075808

Book preview

Dedication

To Erin, for always being there.

Acknowledgements

Without the support of my family, there would be no books, no novellas, no nothing—thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything. Boys, Mom—I love you!

Thank you to Heartland Romance Authors and Midwest Romance Writers for your continued support and the family you've become.

~ 1 ~

You really think a camping trip in twenty-two degree weather is going to fix everything? You just don’t get it at all, Tom.

Reese Hamilton chucked another log onto the campfire, then huddled into her shearling coat. She was angry enough she didn’t need the roaring flames, but if she didn’t throw the log there, she’d launch it right at Tom Martin’s face. Not only did he fail to grasp why their relationship was a farce, but he failed to understand anything about her.

To her left, Tom jammed a wool blanket into his newly purchased, arctic-grade sleeping bag. What I understand, Reese, is that you’re a selfish child. Without looking at her, he rolled the heavy material up and snapped the elastic bands in place. "You’re the one who likes to camp. You’re the one who likes the outdoors. You suggested we do this in Alaska two years ago. Now, when I give you want you’ve wanted, it’s not good enough." Huffing out an angry breath, he stood up straight. His glare burned as hot as the glowing red coals in the fire pit.

"Me? I’m the selfish one?" Reese’s voice rose an octave. Of all the ridiculous, self-centered, completely unfounded remarks! She opened her mouth to spit out a litany of all the times he had used her as a trophy, all the times he’d put his political aspirations before her desires. But the rebuttal lodged in her throat as Tom beat her to the punch.

Yes, you. Just yesterday, my campaign manager informed me you’d written another blog post contradicting my stance on coastal developments. How do you think that looks? He cocked his head with a condescending snort. When he spoke, his tone mocked. "Representative Martin’s girlfriend speaks out yet again. I’m done. This was a mistake." He fisted his keys from his pocket and took a stride toward the luxury SUV parked just beyond the trees.

Reese blinked. He wasn’t…he couldn’t…

Anger threatened to override her ability to form coherent speech. "So what, you’re leaving me because I have my own opinion?" Not that she minded the idea their relationship was over—it had been history in all but word for too many months to count. No, it was the immediate prospect that he was leaving her here, in the woods of Maine, at night, and in twenty-two degree weather.

Tom kept on walking.

Scrambling to gather the rest of her belongings, she shoved everything inside her sleeping bag. But she couldn’t move fast enough. As she grabbed for her travel pillow, the driver’s side door slammed shut. Her head snapped toward the ominous sound just as the engine roared to life.

Tom! she bellowed. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t leave me out here. You’ve got the firewood! I’ll freeze to death.

His elbow poked through the open window an instant before his dark head leaned out. You’re already an iceberg. Have Dáire take you home. I’m done.

With that, the headlights blazed across their makeshift campsite and tires crunched on the hard-packed gravel. Before Reese could stop gawking, she stared at retreating taillights.

Of all the rotten, low-down, unforgivable…

Anger blistered to the surface, and she hurled her sleeping bag aside. Bastard! This was beyond reprehensible.

Wonder what his precious reporters would say about his leaving me stranded.

She heaved a sigh and sat down on the cooler, her head dropping into her hands. A low groan worked its way free. Over the last five years together, they’d had their share of knock-down drag-out fights. Tom could really be an ass when he wanted to be, but she’d never imagined he could stoop this low. Likely he wouldn’t have if they weren’t camping on their mutual friend, Dáire McLaine’s, property. He wouldn’t rat out Tom. No one would spill what a loathsome, sorry excuse for a human being, Representative Tom Martin was.

Unless she did.

But while that was beyond tempting, ruining his political career required far more energy than she wanted to put into Tom. She was just glad it was finally over. No more appropriate appearances, no more biting back her true thoughts, no more faking it because she didn’t know how to start over.  No more being afraid to confronting the world alone. 

She might as well accept she’d end up the bad guy in the media somehow. And she might as well accept that unless she wanted to freeze to death out here in the woods, she’d have to hoof-it to shelter.

Pushing off the cooler, Reese scanned the trees where the SUV had been parked for a sign of Dáire’s cabin. They’d passed it less than a mile before they arrived. Dáire had even stopped to greet them with his devil-may-care grin and his all too intoxicating sky-blue eyes. Damn shame she’d accepted Tom’s dinner invitation first, five years ago. If she hadn’t, if she’d waited just a couple hours longer, things might have turned out so differently.

She hadn’t though, and she’d spent a large portion of those last five years infatuated with the friend who could never be more. Even now, with Tom completely evicted from her life, she couldn’t entertain the idea. An involvement with Dáire would be too complicated, given his friendship with Tom. Not to mention, they were total opposites, and he was just a little to…wild to ever be appropriate.

Reese blew out a breath that stirred her uneven bangs and glanced at her sleeping bag. No sense dragging it along with her. Dáire could drive her back and help her collect her things before he drove her back to her beachfront rental house.

She steeled her resolve and forced aside her anger. Straightening her spine, she huddled into her shearling coat and stalked toward the packed-gravel road. Once there, she buried her chin in the thick fleece at her collar and ducked her head against the wind, striking out on the miserably cold journey.

Time passed like molasses as she trudged down the gravel, making her way along the downhill path. The wind whistled through the trees, rustling leaves that refused to fall. It slashed across her face and cut between the buttons on her coat. What she wouldn’t give for her cozy, oceanfront townhouse and a blazing fire.

But the longer she walked, the more a sense of unease settled on her shoulders. She stopped and squinted through the light fall of snow. It was too quiet here. By now, she should be hearing the muffled roar of the freeway. She turned in a small circle, scouring the trees for some sign of life.

Damn, she muttered as the tingling in her toes reached her conscious awareness. She must have taken a wrong turn. But…where? How far back? Or was it just the cold playing with her mind when she hadn’t really gone that far at all?

Another five steps forward, and ever-so-faintly, the sound of a blaring car horn reached her ears. Despair welled. It wasn’t close enough. Even at the campsite she could hear the highway more clearly.

Now what? She was alone in the woods, no idea what direction she heading, and no sign of life anywhere. She couldn’t even catch a whiff of smoke on the air from the campfire she’d abandoned.

Damn it, she was well and truly lost. In the woods. At night. Perfect bait for the wildlife, perfect candidate for a human Popsicle. And she couldn’t feel her fingers anymore.

Maybe this was how things were going to end.

Her heart stumbled several beats as fear prickled the nape of her neck. Dying out here—what would her second graders think when they learned she’d frozen to death? Who would help little Adam Perkins now? Reese’s principal had already dismissed her concerns that things were right in Adam’s home. How long would it take for Reese’s replacement to recognize the emptiness in Adam’s green eyes?

Reese rounded a thick gnarled tree trunk and turned sideways to the wind. She closed her eyes, breathed in deep to calm the panicked beat of her heart. Don’t be silly. You’re not going to die out here.

If she yelled, someone was bound to hear her.

She opened her mouth to do just that. But as she lifted her gaze, the wind picked up again. In front of her, branches swayed and shimmied. They bent at an angle that defied logic, almost a full ninety-degrees. Reese blinked, certain the cold was playing tricks on her mind.

Maybe it was. Maybe the odd twist had been a product of her frosty imagination. The hulking, oblong shadow beyond the branch, however, was not.

Reese’s pulse skipped a beat as hope thrummed through her veins. There, nestled in the overgrowth, shutters barred against the elements, sat a cabin.

An old, abandoned cabin with a sagging roof, but shelter nonetheless. She balled her hands in her coat pockets and struck off at a jog. Please let the door be open.

Luck proved to be on her side. When she reached the dilapidated front porch and picked her way over broken floorboards to the front door, the knob turned easily in her frozen fingers. The thick scent of must hit her nose. Crinkling it against the pungent tickle, Reese pushed her way inside. She fumbled along the wall until she encountered the raised nubbin of a light switch. When she flicked it, though, only a faint click registered.

No power. Okay she could deal with the dark. Thankfully, even as a child, she’d never feared a lack of light. But maybe whoever had been here last had left behind firewood. Darkness or not, she needed warmth.

She tucked her shaking hand inside her coat pocket and produced the long campfire lighter Tom had tossed at her earlier. With one click, the tiny flame flashed from the metal tip, illuminating the area before her. A small sleigh-style bed occupied the far corner beside a rather boxy nightstand. In the center of the room, a plain round table sported two equally uninspired chairs. At the opposite end, she identified a fridge and a stove.

Her gaze skidded to a halt directly opposite the front door, zeroing in on a hearth of stone and a small, precious stack of dust-covered cut logs. Beside the pile sat a bundle of aged newspaper.  She closed the door, then crossed to the hearth and knelt by the firewood. As her knee touched the wood plank floor, she pulled off one glove with her teeth. Aged and dried as the firewood was, it shouldn’t take much for them to catch.

Despite the unsteadiness of her hands, in a few short minutes she had wood on the raised iron grating in the hearth, and she clicked the lighter on. When she touched the flame to the paper, it caught with a startling whoosh. Seconds later, red embers glowed along the curling bark.  Now, to figure out where she was, and more importantly, how to get home.

* * *

Dáire followed the faint set of boot tracks through the light covering of snow, wishing for the first time in his centuries-old life, that he possessed his brother Belen’s gift of being able to locate people by their energy patterns, instead of his ability to influence minds. If he could, he wouldn’t be wasting time hoping the tracks he followed were Reese’s, praying he would find her before his youngest brother Taran did.

Since Tom Martin had blared his horn in Dáire’s driveway, dragging him from a brief nap, Dáire had been trying to find her. There were just some things a man didn’t do, no matter the circumstances. Leaving a woman alone in the cold—especially in these woods—fell into that list of never-dos. Dáire didn’t care if Reese had confessed she’d been cheating on Tom. There was no excuse for this.

She should have been cheating on Tom anyway. Why she put up with him, Dáire couldn’t explain. Though they were what Dáire would loosely consider friends, Tom Martin was an arrogant, self-involved, manipulating asshole who only cared about his political career.

Reese on the other hand…

A knot of worry fisted around Dáire’s lungs, and he moved more quickly down the rocky incline to the heart of his property. Reese Hamilton was beautiful. Not just on the outside either. She possessed a heart the size of Texas and grace that could rival any number of the English royalty.

The last thing he wanted to do tonight was find her in Taran’s vile clutches, her expressive