"You are going to have a great time with this Green-Eyed Demon, as long as you live through it."
Reviewed by Loa Ledbetter
Posted February 22, 2011
Fantasy Urban
Sabina Kane has tempered herself to be a ruthless assassin;
masking emotions that would be useless and allowing her
anger to fuel her blood rages. Within the short period of
three short weeks however she has had to learn to control
the anger, the blood rages, the need for revenge, and
instead learn to be patient, in control, and wait for the
right moments. It hasn't been an easy task, combined with
learning how to use her mage abilities and getting to know a
twin sister she never knew existed, but she doesn't give up,
not even when her sister gets kidnapped by their own
grandmother; the biggest bitch in the US vampire nest.
Sabina knows Maisie's life is on the line, so with the help
of one mischief demon, Giguhl, and handsome mage Adam
Lazarus, she strikes back at the vampire Domina Lavinia by
taking one of her sisters for leverage in getting Maisie
back alive; at least that was the plan. All good intentions
get shoved when the Domina they grab begins to work with the
Fae queen, who still isn't Sabina's best fan.
So the threesome track Maisie's whereabouts to New Orleans
where they make some unlikely alliances to help battle
Lavinia Kane and the Caste of Nod before the vampires
unleash an evil that will make killing Sabina and her sister
seem like a favor. Sabina will have to overcome her lone
wolf mentality and work with others, or watch everything she
has suddenly built feelings for be destroyed.
Green-Eyed Demon is the third installment of Jaye Wells
Sabina Kane series. She has a wonderful cast of characters,
and you aren't completely in a dark, brooding world as some
vampire novels like to put you. The hairless demon cat aka
G with an addiction to shopping channels and the character
of Brooks will brighten things up from time to time, and the
not quite there yet romance between Sabina and Adam give the
reader a meatier casting than the previous novels with more
emotional turmoil than before. Fights scenes are intense;
however pay attention in the end. You can get caught up in
the action and get a little lost if you are not careful
there, but for me, that's a good thing. If you like
conflict, fervid action, romance? (not going to tell...)
with a little cross dressing southern hospitality thrown in
for flavor, you are going to have a great time with this
Green-Eyed Demon.
SUMMARY
Things to do: 1. Rescue sister.
2. Murder
grandmother.
3. Don't upset the voodoo
priestess. The clock is ticking for Sabina Kane. Her
sister has been kidnapped by her grandmother, the Dark Races
are on the brink of war, and a mysterious order is
manipulating everyone behind the scenes. Working on
information provided by an unlikely ally, Sabina and her
trusty sidekicks—a sexy mage named Adam Lazarus and Giguhl,
a Mischief demon—head to New Orleans to begin the hunt for
her sister. Once there, they must contend with belligerent
werewolves, magic-wielding vampires and—perhaps most
frightening of all—humans. But as much as Sabina is
focused on surviving the present, the past won't be ignored.
Before she can save those she cares about most, she must
save herself from the ghosts of her past.
ExcerptCHAPTER ONE
On my extensive list of enemies, the top two spots
belonged to Lavinia Kane and time. One I planned to kill as
soon as possible. That is, if I didn’t run out of the other
one first.
The dashboard clock flipped to 10:01. The ones mocked me
like two extended middle fingers. Impatience was my third
enemy.
I’d already been sitting in the white van parked on a
windy stretch of road near Pacific Palisades for twenty
minutes. The hood of the van stood open, but the engine
idled in preparation for the ambush.
“Giguhl, any visual on the car yet?”
“Negative.” His voice crackled through the earpiece, but
his body was perched in a tree just outside the Dominae
compound.
I sighed. “Okay, thanks.”
“Don’t you mean ‘roger’?” he responded.
“Whatever,” I said. “Let me know the minute the gates
open.”
“Hey, Sabina?”
“Yeah?” I said a tad more impatiently than I intended.
“Why can’t I have a gun again?”
I rolled my eyes. “I might be crazy, but I’m not stupid,
G. Now focus.”
“I live to serve,” he grumbled.
I settled back into the seat. Outside the van, the
landscape offered little distraction from my impatience.
Scrub brush, low stone walls, and roadkill speed
bumps. Light from the City of Angels rose above the shadowed
hilltops like a dusty halo.
Los Fucking Angeles.
Whoever said you couldn’t go home again was full of shit.
The truth is you shouldn’t go home again. And when I’d
left California, I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t
return. Ever. But Fate— that fickle bitch— made a liar out
of me. Again.
Three days earlier, my twin sister, Maisie, had been
kidnapped from a mage estate in New York. Three weeks
before that I hadn’t even known she’d existed. The
long story–short version is our vampire mother died in
childbirth a few months after our mage father was
murdered.
Because mating between the races was forbidden, Maisie
and I were separated at birth by our vampire and mage
grandmothers to keep the peace. Maisie was raised by the
mage side of the family in New York, and I got the short
straw— a vampire upbringing in Los Angeles. The desire to
meet my long- lost twin was one of the reasons I’d left
Los Angeles.The fact our vampire grandmother, Lavinia
Kane, wanted me dead was the other.
But now the tables had turned. Lavinia had kidnapped
Maisie in an effort to hurt me. So now I would do a little
kidnapping of my own.
Giguhl’s voice bounced off my eardrum, making me jump.
“Big Black is on the move. Should be on your tail in T
minus sixty seconds.”
A sudden rush of blood. My hands tightened on the wheel.
Showtime.
“Be ready when I summon you,” I replied in a calm tone.
“ Ten-four.”
In my previous life as an assassin, I’d disposed of
problem vampires for the Dominae. Therefore, despite the
personal stakes and the adrenaline surge, my body had
kicked instinctively into mission mode.
I shifted the car into drive. The sweat on my palm meant
it took two tries to manage.
“Hey, Red?” This from Adam Lazarus— hottie mage and the
third member of our little team. We used to have a fourth— a
Vanity demon— but she’d been kicked off the team twenty-
four hours earlier after an unfortunate incident involving a
vampire strip club, a large explosion, and a lover’s quarrel
with Giguhl.
“Yeah?”
“Are you ready?” The mage always had a frustrating knack
for breaking through the insulating layers I’d built
around my feelings. Damn him.
Two pinpoints of light turned onto the road several
blocks back. I took a deep breath and willed my heart to
slow. “Are you kidding?” I snorted. “Totally.”
He knew me too well to buy that. “We’ll get her back,
Sabina.” His tone had a hint of unwelcome pity. I ignored
the spark of fear that flared at his words. “Of course
we will.” Not getting Maisie back was not an option. “Okay,
everyone, switching to radio silence. Let’s do this.”
My hands contracted on the steering wheel, my knuckles
pale in the dim light. I tried not to focus on the only
glitch in our plan: We were about to kidnap the wrong
Domina.
In a perfect world, the vampire in that Mercedes would be
my grandmother. When she’d taken Maisie, she’d sealed
her fate with me. Although, to be honest, she was
pretty much at the top of my “ must-kill list” for a host of
other reasons that included manipulation, lying, kidnapping,
attempted murder, and the destruction of my prized Ducati.
Yeah, I know. We make the Manson Family look like the
Brady Bunch.
Anyway, Lavinia wasn’t an option for the kidnapping plan,
because she rarely left the Dominae compound. But Persephone
left the grounds each Tuesday to host a mass for the
plebeian vamps at a temple located in Santa Monica.
And with the war between vampires and mages looming, the
Dominae needed to spread anti-mage propaganda to strengthen
support for the war. Where better to do that than at a
religious service?
Besides, of the three Dominae who ruled the vampire race,
Persephone was the weakest. Weak is relative when discussing
ancient female vampires, of course. But Persephone tended to
be more interested in preserving history and promoting
spiritualism among the vampire bourgeoisie than in crushing
opposition or amassing obscene fortunes like the other
two Dominae. That meant she’d be far easier to manipulate
than Lavinia or Tanith— the Beta Domina, who
controlled their business interests. The plan was to nab
Persephone and deliver her to the faery and mage leaders
for interrogation and a possible hostage exchange.
Simple.
If we survived.
The Mercedes was about two blocks back now. A few car
lengths behind that, I spied the headlights of the beater
pickup we’d boosted. Adam held the truck back at a
conservative distance as he waited for my signal.
“Wait for it,” I said, my eyes glued to the mirror. When
the target was a block back, I tensed my foot over the gas
pedal. “Nothing to see here.” With each turn of the
sedan’s wheels, my heart picked up speed. “Just a
broken- down van.”
Almost there.
The Mercedes’ dark-as-midnight windows prevented me from
counting heads. Looked like we were going to have to
do this the hard way, as usual.
“Now!”
I punched the accelerator. The tires spun for a moment on
gravel before jumping out onto the road. Squealing
brakes and a blaring horn. Every muscle rigid as I
braced for impact. The scream of crunching metal. Vertigo
and pain as the van tipped and slid several hundred
feet. The seat belt dug into my skin but kept me from being
tossed around like loose change in a dryer. When the
world stilled again, ominous silence reigned. Scratch that,
not silence exactly. The van’s radiator hissed, and
someone was groaning.
Oh, right. That was me.
“Now, Giguhl!” I grunted. With a punch of the button, my
seat belt spat me at the passenger’s door.
A burst of light flashed outside the van, signaling
Giguhl’s arrival. Shouting and gunfire commenced on the
road. I crawled into the van’s cargo area. The cooler
I’d stashed earlier lay near the door. I wrenched it open
and grabbed a bag of blood. My fangs made quick work
of the silicone casing. For once, the chemical taste of the
blood didn’t bother me as I gulped down the vampire
version of a healing potion and energy drink in one.
The van’s back doors wrenched open. I tumbled out and
landed at Giguhl’s hooves. He didn’t waste time asking if I
was okay. Instead, he hooked his claws under my arms
and lifted. When my feet hit pavement and I swayed, he
steadied me. Nodding my thanks, I pulled a gun from my
waistband.
I turned to survey the scene. The Mercedes was
trapped between the van and the pickup, which now
sported an accordion for a fender. Just beyond, Adam
approached the Mercedes from the rear.
“Go,” I said to Giguhl. He moved so fast I could barely
track his movement. The next thing I knew, he was crouched
next to the Mercedes. I aimed my gun at the driver’s side
and pulled off two rounds. Only instead of shattering
the windshield, the bullets left spiderwebs on the
bulletproof glass.
The Mercedes’ engine roared and the van lurched a few
inches forward. The car’s wheels spun, kicking up a
plume of smoke and gravel. “Adam?” I called.
“I’m on it!” The hair on the back of my neck prickled as
he cast a spell over the lurching car. The engine emitted a
loud death rattle before finally dying.
“Look alive, that’s probably one-way gla—”
A bullet exploded from the passenger’s side of the
windshield. I ducked and rolled, coming up in a crouch near
the intersection of the Mercedes and the van’s
undercarriage.
“Now, G!”
With a predatory smile, the demon punched a hole through
the driver’s window. Crucial design fl aw of bulletproof
glass? It can’t keep out a determined demon.
Using one massive claw, Giguhl reached in like a cat into
a fi sh tank and pulled out the wriggling vamp from behind
the wheel.
“Giguhl! Catch!” Adam yelled. He tossed an applewood
stake at the demon, who caught it with his free claw.
Two seconds later, the vamp ignited as his soul escaped
and his ashes scattered to the wind.
“There’s a metal partition. I can’t get to them this
way,”
Giguhl yelled as he reached in for the passenger.
“Got it!” I sidestepped my way toward the back door.
Adam approached the one on the other side. A couple more
bullets zinged at us through the glass but went wide.
That’s the problem with one-way glass. Bullets can get
through from the inside, but the layered glass makes
anything but point- blank range inaccurate.
At least that’s what I thought until Adam yelped and his
head dropped out of sight behind the car.
“Shit! Adam?” My heart thudded in my chest like a piston.
It’s one thing to shoot at me, but it was something else
to hurt the mage.
“I’m okay. Just missed me.”
My pulse slowed from panicked to pissed.
More shots exploded out from the rear windows. I ducked
next to a quarter panel, trusting the car’s armored walls to
protect me.
“Giguhl!”
“Got my hands full,” he grunted. I looked over and saw
him crouching under the busted window. Two bullets zinged
over his horns. While the driver had been taken by surprise,
the passenger was using Giguhl for target practice. Time to
end this shit. I banged a fi st on the hood.
“Come out with your hands up and no one else gets hurt.”
Two shots exploded from the back window. I cursed under
my breath. Looked like we had ourselves a regular Mexican
standoff until someone ran out of bullets.
“Sabina?” I barely heard Giguhl over the constant barrage
of gunfire.
“What?”
“If I create a distraction, can you take this guy out?”
I nodded. “Be careful.”
His black lips spread into a grin. “Yes, ma’am.”
He held up a claw. He counted down from three with his
talons. On one, he leapt up onto the roof of the car and
began rocking it side to side. I jumped toward the
open window. The vamp’s attention was on the ceiling of the
car as he held on for dear life.
“Hey!” I yelled. His head turned, and his eyes widened a
nanosecond before I delivered a bullet into the center of
his forehead. His body ignited, making a mess of the
Corinthian leather.
“Nice!” Giguhl said, pumping a fi st as he jumped off the
roof.
I wiped a hand across my brow. “Too early to start
celebrating, G.”
As if to support my claim, a new volley of gunfire came
from the back of the car. Giguhl and I squatted down and
duckwalked toward the front bumper. I met the mage’s eyes
over the hood. “Any ideas?”
“None that don’t involve one of us gaining an extra
orifice.”
Toward the end, his voice sounded unnaturally loud.
That’s when I realized the gunfire had ceased. The sudden
silence jarred me into stillness. I narrowed my eyes
and watched the back door. The car started rocking
again, but this time from inside. Something was going down
in the back seat.
I scooted along the side of the car toward the back,
careful to stay out of sight. Muffled shouts leaked from
bullet holes in the window. Two voices— one male, one
female— argued with increasing volume. The car continued to
shake until, suddenly, a single gunshot cut off the
male’s shout. Little wisps of copper- scented smoke leaked
from the holes.
“You okay, mancy?” I whisper-shouted at Adam in the
unnatural silence that followed.
“All clear,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t mind someone
telling me what the fuck is going on.”
That made two of us.
Two seconds later we got our answer when the door next to
my head fl ew open. The panel knocked me on my ass.
The gun slicked against my palm. My breath came out in
pants as I raised my aim up the height of the door.
A mop of kinky mahogany curls cleared the top of the
door. And below, a foot clad in a low- heeled black pump
stepped onto the blacktop, followed by its twin. Next,
a slender, milky hand with bloodied cuticles grasped the
doorframe.
When the face came into view, my stomach dipped with
dread. Persephone’s classically beautiful face didn’t
feature a Roman nose, two beady black eyes, or a butt-
cleft hin. No, only one Domina was cursed with such mannish
features.
Tanith.
I suddenly wanted to vomit all over those sensible but
unattractive shoes. Besides being the ugliest of the three,
she was also the smartest and a mistress of the
bitchly arts. In other words, she was a complication I
didn’t need.
With a shaky hand, I kept the gun’s unblinking eye
trained on the Domina. “Tanith? What. The. Fuck?”
The businesslike smile accentuated Tanith’s unfortunate
features.
“Sabina,” she said. “Forgive my presumption in killing
the final guard. But time is money and the wait was growing
tiresome.”
I blinked in surprise. Giguhl came up behind my back.
His claws hooked under my arms and lifted. My feet hit
the ground without my aim ever straying from its target.
Adam skidded around the trunk to take up position
behind one of the most powerful vampires alive.
“Why did you kill your own guard?”
She scowled and crossed her arms. “Your ambush was an
unwelcome surprise at first, but as I sat there waiting for
my guards to dispose of you I had a sudden flash of
inspiration.” She shrugged. “Killing that last guard was the
most expedient course of action.”
“What did this flash of inspiration entail exactly?”Adam
asked.
The Domina barely spared the mage a scornful glance. With
her eyes on me, she said, “Before we discuss that,
perhaps you should enact the escape portion of your
plan before the backup those guards called arrives.” She
paused and narrowed her eyes at us. If she’d
been wearing spectacles, she would have lowered them down
her nose.
“You do have an escape plan, don’t you?”
Even with my gun, a demon, and a mage surrounding her,
she stared us down like we were incompetent underlings.
“Of course we have an escape plan. But I’m seriously
considering aborting this mission altogether unless you
explain yourself. Why did you help us?”
She tilted her head like something I said didn’t compute.
“I’m helping myself. Or rather, you will be helping me.
I assume your plan is to trade me for your sister?” I
squinted at her, neither confirming nor denying. But her
unmitigated gall left me speechless. Like I’d ever help a
Domina again after everything they’d put me through.
“Do you honestly believe Lavinia will agree to a trade?”
Tanith snorted. “Of course you do. You get that naiveté from
your mage side.”
I took a long cleansing breath through my nose. “How
about you spend a little less time insulting me and a lot
more time explaining why you think I’d ever help you.”
“Because I know where Maisie is. And I have a plan that
not only helps you save her, but also ensures this
distasteful war business is taken off the table forever.”
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“She’s not in Los Angeles. That’s all I’m willing to tell
you until I have certain assurances from both the Hekate
Council and Queen Maeve.”
“Now who’s being naive? Or are you forgetting the army
you sent a few days ago to kill off most of the mages in New
York?”
She held up a finger. “Correction. Lavinia sent that
army.
It wasn’t until after the attack that she told Persephone
and me that she’s formed an alliance with the Caste of Nod.”
The Caste of Nod is a mysterious sect made up of members
of all the dark races. As far as I could tell, their goal
was to cause me a lot of fucking problems. In New
York, they’d orchestrated several attempts on my life
because they thought I was destined to unite all the
dark races. That’s the last thing they wanted, because only
an all- out war between the races would bring on the
second coming of Lilith. In other words, they were total
wackos.
And homicidal ones, at that.
“Assuming I believe Lavinia acted without your knowledge,
why haven’t you confronted her?”
She laughed— an awkward, insincere sound. “Surely you
haven’t been away long enough to forget how things
work here. Confronting the Alpha Dominae is a death
sentence.”
I frowned. “But law dictates the three of you share power
equally.”
“Despite what the laws state, your grandmother has been
the de facto leader of the vampire race for centuries.
Persephone and I assist her in running things, of course,
but she holds all the real power. At best, she could have
the Under Council strip us of our titles. At worst, well . .
.” She trailed off, knowing she didn’t need to finish the
thought.
After all, I used to make my living being the worst- case
scenario for vamps who pissed off the Dominae.
“What about Persephone?”
Worry lines creased her normally smooth forehead.
“Unfortunately, Persephone remains loyal to Lavinia.
She’s too weak to be a real threat anyway. As for why I’m
here, well, it’s simple.” She adjusted the French cuffs on
her white shirt. “I’m double-crossing your
grandmother.” She paused to let the concussion from that
bombshell sink in. “I’m going to help you find Maisie in
return for the Hekate Council and the Queen’s support in my
plans.”
“What plans?” I crossed my arms. This ought to be good.
“My plan to become the sole ruler of the Lilim, of
course.” Tanith’s lips lifted, fl ashing a little fang. “In
order to take control of the vampire race, I need
Lavinia dead and an alliance with the Council and Queen
Maeve in my pocket.”
In the stunned silence that followed that announcement, I
literally had no idea what to say to her. Instead, I glanced
at Adam and waved my gun to indicate I needed a moment
of his time. “Giguhl, watch her. She moves an inch, rip off
her fucking head.”
The Mischief demon cracked the knuckles of his claws and
waggled his scraggly black brows at the ancient vampire.
Tanith tapped her toe on the asphalt but otherwise
remained unimpressed. With one last parting glare at the
Domina, I went to join Adam for a private confab.
“What the fuck?” he asked, crossing his arms.
“That pretty much sums it up for me, too.”
He nodded absently.
I continued, “I don’t suppose we could just kill her now
and save ourselves a lot of trouble.”
He gave me one of his Sabina-be-reasonable looks.
“Red, I know it’s a curveball, but our goal was to kidnap
a Domina, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“The way I see it, we have two choices.” He counted the
options off on his fingers. “We can stand here all night
questioning her motives and risk becoming bull’s-eyes for
more of her guards. Or we can continue with the plan and get
her to a place filled with heavily armed guards of our own
and let the leaders sort it out.”
Twenty feet beyond Adam, Giguhl called. “I vote for C)
Stop yapping and get the hell out of Dodge.”
“I concur,” Tanith added.
So much for talking in private.
Nosy demons and vampire leaders aside, I didn’t like this
one bit. But I wasn’t any more interested in becoming target
practice than he was. “Everyone circle up.”
Tanith’s impatient nod indicated her displeasure over
further delays. I nodded to Giguhl. He grabbed the ancient
vampire’s arms and led her to the side of the road so Adam
could work his magic.
A split second before Adam’s whispered incantations
dematerialized our bodies, a gun exploded from the tree
line. Giguhl yelped, “Not again!” Then, just as suddenly,
darkness and a rush of cold wind swept us away to the Seelie
Court.
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