He grimaced. “I’m a little busy right now.”
“Either you talk to the nice lady or I punch your lights out.” His eyes went to Raoul, so I added, “Oh, don’t look to him for help. He’s like the UN. He’ll bitch and whine about my behavior, but he’ll sit back and let me do the dirty work because, in the end, he knows I’m the one who’s gonna save the world.”
Raoul growled, “That was a low blow.”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry. I know the Eminent ties your hands a lot. I just tend to get pissy when people try to kill the guy I love.” I looked up at him. “But I do appreciate you coming when you did. Great timing, as usual.”
I shoved the phone toward Aaron. “The threat still stands, mainly because I’m highly ticked off and I wanna hit something. It’d be so great if you gave me an excuse.”
Aaron took the phone, staring at me suspiciously as he said, “Hello? Yes. No.” He listened for a while before his face puckered. But he managed to master the emotion Cassandra had pulled out of him before he said another word. Which was “Thanks.”
He handed the phone back to me. “Well?” I asked the woman on the other end who deserved a respectful ear, both because she’d survived nearly a thousand years on this earth, and because she’d chosen to spend the next fifty or so with my brother.
Cassandra took a deep breath. “I can’t be sure without touching the boy, but I consulted the tarot while he and I were speaking. It points to the same signs the Enkyklios has been showing me. I have to do more research. But it would be best if I could touch him—”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“Whatever you do, don’t hurt him,” she said, unknowingly echoing Raoul’s advice. “I believe that, in another life, he was Vayl’s son.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks so much to my agent, Laurie McLean, whose unfailing enthusiasm keeps me feeling optimistic. Orbit is a fab publisher, so I must thank all of my partners there, who include my editor, Devi Pillai, publicity geniuses Alex Lencicki and Jack Womack, and my copy editor, Penina Lopez. Love and gigantic hugs to my readers, Hope Dennis and Katie Rardin. Thanks to Roxanne Montgomery Trahan for introducing me to Jimmy Buffet’s great song “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.” Anouk Zijlma was a wonderful source of information about Marrakech, so thanks to you, dear lady. I deeply appreciate your help! And to Jazfans everywhere—you rock!
Table of Contents
FRONT COVER IMAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EXTRAS
MEET THE AUTHOR
A PREVIEW OF THE DEADLIEST BITE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
JAZ PARKS NOVELS
PRAISE FOR THE JAZ PARKS SERIES
COPYRIGHT
JAZ PARKS NOVELS
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Another One Bites the Dust
Biting the Bullet
Bitten to Death
One More Bite
Bite Marks
Bitten in Two
The Deadliest Bite
Praise for the Jaz Parks series
“If you’re in the mood for fast-paced supernatural adventure, the Jaz Parks series never fails to deliver.”
—sfsite.com on Bitten to Death
Bitten in Two
Jennifer Rardin
www.orbitbooks.net
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Rardin
Excerpt from The Deadliest Bite copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Rardin
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Orbit
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First eBook Edition: November 2010
Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
ISBN: 978-0-316-12173-6