Wicked Wind (Solsti Prophecy #1) by Sharon Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

of a blond toddler girl, smiling but thin and pale, sitting on a blanket outdoors.
    Nicole came to stand beside him. “Those are my sisters.” She pointed to one of the frames of her with the two women. “Brooke and Gin.” Gunnar recognized the sister she called Brooke as the woman he had seen her with last night, fighting in the run-down neighborhoods. “And these are our adoptive parents.” She nodded at the older couple.
    “Do they live nearby?”
    “No.” A trace of sadness flared in her smile. “They passed away a few years ago.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “No need to apologize. They led full lives. I barely knew my birth parents, and my adoptive ones were awesome. Though I don’t know if they realized what they were getting into, taking all four of us in.”
    “Four?” He turned to her, brows raised.
    She pointed to the blond child in the smallest frame. “That’s our youngest sister, Alina. She died when she was small. She was born with a heart defect.”
    Gunnar gazed at the shadows that flickered across her bright green eyes. “So much loss,” he said softly. She had buried two sets of parents and a sister. Admiration flooded his mind. Others in her situation might simply withdraw from life. Not Nicole.
    “Yeah,” she murmured. “So Brooke, Gin, and I–we stick together. We have to.”
    “It’s good that you have them.” Appreciation for her family welled in his gut. She hadn’t been alone in life, and she had others who cared deeply for her. The slender blonde before him had love in her life to balance the grief. Unlike the two hundred years of his own existence, many of which had seen him living on the streets. For so many years he fought just to survive in the blighted, grimy underbelly of his city. Any other creatures he encountered were never friendly, just competition for food or shelter.
    She nodded and a tiny smile tugged at her lush lips, pulling him from his thoughts. “Ready?”
    They walked the few blocks to his Escalade. From steel sidewalk grates grew full, leafy trees that had yet to change color. Some people walked dogs and others pushed strollers. A few brave souls attempted to do both at the same time. Grocery delivery trucks double parked in front of the brick buildings.
    “Where the hell do you park your car, anyway?” Gunnar glanced up and down the block.
    “My condo has an underground garage for residents.”
    He snorted. “Another unguarded entrance.”
    “No, it’s not. You have to punch in an access code.”
    “A good thief or hacker won’t be stopped by that. Neither will an unfriendly demon.” They got into his car and threaded their way through the busy Lincoln Park streets, toward a thoroughfare that would take them north and out of the city proper. Unable to shake the feeling that she wasn’t safe, three words popped into his mind. Protect her always . He rubbed his chest as an odd, warm feeling bloomed behind his ribs. What the hell?
    He blinked and focused on the road. Protection was his job. He stole a glance in her direction, and couldn’t hold back a smile. Her luminous green eyes returned his gaze, studying him. Damn . As heat seeped from his chest into his limbs, the knowledge dawned that she was much more than a creature to safeguard. And that was unfamiliar territory.

C HAPTER 4

    B ITING INTO HER blueberry muffin, Nicole peeked at the man sitting next to her. AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” churned from the satellite radio. Coffee, tender words, and eighties metal were the last things she expected from a demon. Not that she would have thought of them anyway, because she hadn’t known demons existed until last night.
    A little voice in her head told her this was all too strange to believe, but it was drowned out by the sheer presence of his steely, muscular body next to her. The SUV was big, but so was he, and he seemed to fill up all the space inside it. He didn’t look particularly dangerous this morning, in a charcoal gray