Fatal Sight (Harbingers Of Death Book 2) by LeAnn Mason (book club reads .TXT) 📕

just hoped that if she was killed in action yet again, it would be quick and painless. It was the torturously slow demises with painful suffering that she dreaded. Though, to be fair, the resurrection part wasn’t a cakewalk either.

If she did die, it had better not be as a result of whatever was going on between Seke and Aria. Her knuckles cracked as her fists clenched. Relationships were a sore spot for her as she’d lost many to time.

Seke was her superior, and she wouldn’t intervene unless she had to. They’d trained Aria to a T. But if the god was unable to appropriately dissuade the swooning banshee, Ember was sure it would end up being the downfall of Aria’s trial run. If she had to step into the middle of that, she would. Anything that got in the way of their team doing their job pissed Ember right the fuck off.

She closed her eyes and counted down from ten, knowing she’d have to tuck some ice packs from the mini freezer in her room beneath her sheets to avoid setting the fabric aflame while she slept.

Tomorrow, they’d test Aria as a true member of the HDPU. And Ember hoped the only people to die would be their targets.

3

Unlike the melodic tones of Jessica’s siren song, Aria’s screams were harsh and loud… and really starting to grate on the alluring harbinger’s nerves. The girl couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, bless her heart. Worse, it was calling in unwanted attention from the females already drawn to the fight by their rising bloodlust.

“Sugar, can you just shut the front door for, like, two seconds?” Jessica shouted, spinning around to dazzle two oncoming inmates with a thousand-watt smile before bashing their heads together. A dribble of blood leaked from one of their noses, snagging the siren’s attention.

Jessica did a quick scan, cocked her head and, deciding she could risk it, stooped to get just a little… taste. Her tongue snaked out, the tip touching the oozing scarlet liquid. So darn good. She shuddered, wanting more.

“Jessica! Behind you!” Cole’s warning came from far away where he was trapped in the midst of the battle.

A simple chess-match gone wrong in the yard had quickly escalated into a full-fat, butter churn of a gang war. She couldn’t even see the guard’s red-flaring eyes from her position within the meleé. If she couldn’t get to him and help extract him and their banshee, he might resort to his canine form, and then, far more than their targets might die.

Their captain wouldn’t like that. In fact, the Director would downright hate it. It was in direct opposition to the HD’s intentions.

Jessica quickly ducked under the swinging fist that assumed she was on the opposing gang’s side. That’s what Aria brought to the team: the prompt vocalization that she wanted to be a target, to be involved in the fight. What she should have done, like the rest of them, was to stay quiet and obscure on the sidelines, ready to clean up the mess, not stride into the middle of it, wailing. Chaos embroiled them in a shit pile they should just be spectating as if the banshee had walked right in front of a stampede.

“You will work together, and you will look out for each other. If one of you gets hurt because another didn’t protect them, I will be forced to reevaluate that member’s place on this team. Am I clear?”

Jessica hadn’t been much of a fan of their new teammate when Seke originally made that threat her first day at the bunker, but at the moment, the blonde bombshell was going so far as to reconsider the phrasing. Perhaps she didn’t want to be a part of this prison unit.

A transfer to another Harbingers of Death team might be a needed adventure, especially if this one included a naive supernatural who jeopardized them all and needed protecting around every corner.

Hadn’t Seke worked with Aria on these scenarios? Their captain had evidently jumped the gun; their clairvoyant obviously needed more time training before her first official mission. She shouldn’t be here.

But hindsight was twenty-twenty. It was a bit late for that.

“I’m sorry,” Aria managed to call out, finally controlling her banshee abilities. “I wasn’t prepared for the second vision.”

“You knew we had two targets,” Jessica snarled, arching her back to avoid another swing from a meaty fist.

She snaked between the flailing arms and cracked her forehead against the assailant. The woman’s eyes crossed as she crumpled to the gravel as slow as molasses in wintertime.

Who said a lady couldn’t play rough?

A flash of dark feathers swooped overhead. Raven dipped low, pecking and clawing at the nearest bodies swarming around Cole where he’d dived in to back up Ember and Aria.

They were already down to four when Ember fell not long after their first target dropped, and Jessica was madder than a wet hen. Poor Ember seemed forced to regenerate too often with Aria around.

“For Pete’s sake,” she griped through the layers of shark-like teeth that had slipped free as her anger grew.

Opening her mouth wide and tipping her head back, she began to sing.

The grunts, roars, and groans of the rivaling gang members weren’t enough to drown out the dulcet tones of the siren’s call. Soon, those other noises began to abate as well. The atonal scream of the banshee faded.

Jessica dropped her chin. Several faces at the back of the horde turned toward her, dazed looks in their eyes, expressions filling with wanton lust. A few stumbled toward the siren, who swiftly backed away, luring the quickly quieting crowd from her teammates.

Filling her lungs between stanzas, she raised her volume and really belted out the ethereal song in a clear soprano. Prettier than a peach, her looks sealed the deal, even for the straight criminals locked up in this prison.

No human could resist her powers.

However, today, she did not preen under all the attention and sexual interest.

She’d exposed