Death's Seduction (Liz Baker, Book 7)

By Christie Silvers

Liz Baker is tired of her supernatural life. She simply wants to settle down with her friends and enjoy the life of a rich woman. She has fought, and defeated, so many villains in the past year, but it never feels like enough. She sold her beloved bar and moved to the Atlanta estate she was bequeathed by a family friend just to get away from everything, and it still wasn’t enough.

When Liz wakes up strapped to a hospital bed with no recollection of how she got there, she realizes her supernatural problems have begun again, and this time she’s pissed! A lost friend returns to assist in her escape, and inform her that she has been missing for weeks! Not only had she been abducted, but important members of her family are also missing.

Now Liz has to figure out how to save her people from the ultimate monster, even if that means sacrificing herself in the process!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christie Silvers
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463056097

Christie Silvers

Award-winning internationally published indie author of urban fantasy with a touch of naughtiness. Vampires, werewolves, and witches...oh my!

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Christie Silvers

Death’s Seduction, Liz Baker Bk 7

Liz Baker, Book 7

First published by Christie Silvers 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Christie Silvers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Christie Silvers asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Christie Silvers has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Cover art by Kelly Shorten

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Contents

Acknowledgement

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One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Epilogue

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About the Author

Also by Christie Silvers

Acknowledgement

First off let me start by saying thank you to everyone who waited patiently (or not so) for this long awaited book. It has been five years since the last Liz Baker book released, and even though I have published since then, Liz has a special place in all our hearts. It has been far too long!

I would also like to acknowledge my loving Mr. Silvers. He supports everything I do, even if it’s some absurd idea that will never come to fruition in a million years. He will stand by, help me with anything I ask of him, and never questions my insanity. :D Thank you for being by my side for the last 25 years, my wonderful husband!

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One

How did I get here? Where did my day go wrong? Last I remember, I was spending an especially seductive night with my hottie of a boyfriend, Chad Langford, after dealing with an especially trying evening of bar destruction, and then I woke up here. I don’t know where here is, but even in my drugged and groggy state I can tell I’m surrounded by medical equipment. The random beeps sound like shrill alerts to the straps around my ankles and wrists, keeping me from leaving the confines of a hard, semi-reclining bed. Reminiscent of my time spent in the hospital after that first encounter with Marcus Vroc—my first meeting with a vampire—in the graveyard. It felt like an eternity ago, even though it has been less than a year.

A lot has happened in the last year. I lost loved ones, gained new ones, inherited a vast fortune, as well as an unknown amount of vampiric powers, defeated my inner demon bitch, in the process of selling my beloved bar, and even met the leader of an immortal army based out of Atlanta. Of course, her arrival couldn’t have come at a better time since she and her hunky man could help fight off my newest attackers. It seems I have a new one every couple of months, and it’s starting to make me wonder if it’s me. When the year began I certainly never expected any of this to happen.

Christmas had come, with lots of love from my new family, when Manville, the leader of The Society, busted up the celebration to say Lamia, a. k. a. Demon Dolly, had escaped. Against Chad’s disagreements, I told Manville that once I’d turned Lamia over to him she was his problem. I didn’t want to have anything to do with The Society or Demon Dolly ever again. I wanted to live a peaceful life without those kinds of problems. So I left the estate and returned to my small home in the small Georgia town of Tremmel Crossing, with Chad in tow. I simply wanted some peace and quiet with my man while working on selling the bar and figuring out my life.

However, given my current circumstances, a peaceful life wasn’t in the cards for me at the moment. That’s when I met the immortal woman and discovered I had a new enemy named The Master. And I wasn’t any closer to actually figuring my life out than I was before this current abduction. Supernatural life sucks most of the time. Or at least from my limited experiences.

Turning my head to the left, squinting at the blaring light of the noonday sun coming through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, I realized I may have spoken too hastily when Manville came to see me.

I pulled at the restraints on my wrists, but they didn’t allow me to raise my hands more than a few inches off the bed. The same went for my feet. My adrenaline exploded, pumping through my veins and clearing my head one second at a time until, with the shake of my head, I could finally see a little more clearly after a few blinks. A mild headache radiated behind my eyes from the medication in my system.

The room was bland, and I was in the center of it. My captors had placed a small sofa across the wall at the foot of the bed, with about two feet of clearance between it and the bed. In the corner to the right of the sofa was a small sink station with hand-washing supplies. A few feet to my right, on the wall at the head of the bed, was a door marked Restroom.

A rolling cart with medical supplies was pushed up against the wall between the sink and the room’s main door. I noticed there was a keypad to the right of the door’s handle. A red light flashed steadily next to the 9 button.

With its beige walls, white tile floor, and nothing but the decor of hospital equipment to feast your eyes on, the only thing of any interest was the scenery outside the wall of windows a few feet to my left. From the height of the bare tree limbs outside the windows, I could tell the room was at least two or three floors above the ground. Even if I could get free, there’d be no way to escape through those windows.

A vast tree-line stretched across the horizon in the distance, with a large lawn filling the space between here and there with its winter-dried grass longing for warmer days to brighten its coloring. I couldn’t see anything closer to the building without being able to get up from the bed I was strapped to, but it was definitely still winter and extremely sunny out there. Granted, the sunshine could be deceptive in the north Georgia mountains, but it was pretty, nonetheless.

With the abduction, shackles, height of the room, and a keypad at the door, someone was most definitely determined to keep me here. Nausea washed over me, rolling my stomach and causing a cold sweat to break out on my upper lip. My mouth watered and the sour sensation rose in my throat.

A sudden, shrill beeping startled me, pulling my attention to the rolling IV tower to my right. Someone had placed a line in the crook of my right arm. Deep red fluid flowed from a half-empty bag into the vein in my arm. The fluid looked thick, moving sluggishly through the system and into my body. The screen on the unit flashed in unison with the beeping; letters and numbers that meant nothing to me, blinked on the screen.

Soon I realized, the longer I stared at the thick liquid entering my body, the more familiar it became. The way it sluggishly flowed; the red color it left behind in the nearly empty IV bag; and even the slight copper scent lingering in the air. Whoever had me strapped down was giving me a blood transfusion.

Had I been in another accident? I remembered nothing after my time with Chad and then waking up here. I took a mental inventory of my entire body, rolling and stretching every muscle and joint. Nothing was hurting, other than the marks the restraints were making at my wrists and ankles. There were no bandages or casts. Nothing felt off.

Actually, I felt pretty good, other than the nausea. The grogginess was wearing off rather quickly and my vision cleared to perfection. My senses seemed heightened. Looking around the room, the colors were brighter; the medical smells were thicker; and the air was soft against my skin, caressing every exposed inch, smoothing over every hair with the gentleness of a new mother cradling her baby’s head.

Something pulled my senses to the door. A slight swish of rustling fabric alerted me to the arrival of another creature on the other side. My hearing was almost animalistic in the minute sounds I could pick up. My mind conjured images of rubber-soled nurse shoes with each soft thudded step the other person took. The movement of a polyester fabric rubbing against itself made me itch all over from childhood memories and the clothes my mother dressed me and my sister in for holidays. A shiver ran down my body, but I shook it off just as the jingle of keys pushed into the door’s lock.

The door eased open slowly, and I saw the woman’s hand on the knob before I saw the rest of her. Long slender fingers wore a bright blue polish, and I watched as she pulled the key from the lock and pushed the door open wider. She slipped in rather quickly, spinning around so I couldn’t see her face, and closed the door quietly behind her.

She wore all blue, the same shade as her nails. Polyester pants with an unshapely scrub top. The fabrics didn’t match, but the colors did. Her shoes were definitely white leather nurse shoes with thick rubber soles. It was a plain ensemble that wouldn’t draw anyone’s attention to this petite woman. She could go anywhere in a hospital setting without raising suspicion.

With her back to me, she pressed her ear to the door and listened without making a sound.

I saw her whole body jump when I said, No one else is out there. She waiting a moment longer without speaking. Seriously, no one’s out there. I’d hear them if there was.

Shhhh…

Excuse me? Did she just shush me? You came into my room, lady, so don’t be shushing me up in here.

I yanked at the wrist straps because I have a tendency to talk with my hands and lots of pointing fingers when someone gives me attitude, but the straps reminded me what was actually going on here.

Hey, whoever you are, get me out of these straps! I demanded loudly.

The woman spun around quickly, her face scrunched up in frustration, blue eyes blazing mad. Damn it, Liz, shut the hell up, she hissed with that serpent-like tongue to match the tail she had when in her true form. I’m trying to get you out of here.

Camilla? Is that you?

Two

She moved with the smoothness and ease of a jungle cat. Her lithe form—that I knew all too well—was hidden beneath the shapeless fabrics in her signature shades of blue. Camilla rushed over to the bed and pulled at the straps on my wrists, freeing them quickly before moving to my ankles.

What are you doing here? I thought you and Randall were gone for good. Running off to play house, or something.

I threw off the blanket covering my legs and swung my feet over the edge of the bed. My toes barely grazed the cold, hard floor below. Without a word, she slipped an arm under my left arm, slipped it across my back, and slowly helped me stand. As soon as I was upright, it felt like all the blood in my head rushed to my feet. My vision blurred and a sway took over my body. My knees buckled and I would have hit the floor if not for her strength supporting my weight.

Whoa there, Liz, she whispered. Take it slow. You’ve been sedated for quite some time. With my eyes closed I waited for my body to steady. It took a moment for both that and the realization of what she’d just said to hit.

But I felt fine, I stammered. Wait… What?

Camilla shook her head and pulled me against her side. Come on, we have to get going before anyone sees us. The sun will be down soon.

No, wait! I pulled away from her and stumbled back toward the bed. She caught me by the hand and pulled my body to hers again; this time tightening her grip.

There’s no time to wait. We have to go before anyone sees us. I steeled my body against her force; she stopped pulling and looked at me with a stern look on her face. "We don’t