Frost & Shadow

FROST & SHADOW HOUSE OF FROST BOOK 2 M.J. MERCER Copyright © 2023 by M.J. Mercer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CONTENTS 1. The Cave – Part 1 2. A Room with No Windows 3. You Were Right 4. The Dark Witch 5. Sisters 6. Unit 11-22 7. The Shapeshifter 8. Fine Wine 9. The Reunion 10. The Billionaire 11. Angry Vampires 12. The Best Laid Plans 13. Shadow 14. He Knew You 15. The Partner 16. The Message 17. Moving On 18. Games 19. The Last Piece 20. Bound 21. The Warden 22. The Ring 23. Flip of the Coin 24. The Night Sky 25. Choices 26. The Priest 27. The Shadow on the Floor 28. Justice 29. The Future 30. The Healer 31. A Possible Lead 32. The Laboratory 33. The Trickster 34. The Watcher 35. The Second Path 36. The Cave – Part 2 37. Purpose Frost & Fury About the Author Did you like this book? Acknowledgments 1 THE CAVE – PART 1 Outside North Berwick. United Kingdom. House of Frost. Jess Bryant was having a full-on panic attack. There was no other possible explanation. Her chest was tight. Her breathing rapid. It was impossible to concentrate even though she had an incredibly disciplined mind. A little more than a week ago, she’d learned the world she thought she knew was only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. There was an entirely different reality – one she’d walked by every day and had no idea existed. Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. Shapeshifters. Even angels. They were all real, and her life as a decorated FBI agent had collided with them when she’d inadvertently found herself chasing a member of the Nephilim, the half-human, half-angel descendants of the Watchers – the fallen angels who’d been expelled from the dimension of light. It was much more than any of this, though. Jess Bryant, the woman who’d put her career above all else, the woman who’d sworn she’d rather be alone than tied down to someone, had fallen hard for a man named David Woods. The tall and charming Englishman had broken down the walls she’d spent a lifetime building brick by brick. That wall had been slowly constructed because Jess harbored her own secret. It had taken her well into her childhood to discover her power to read other people’s thoughts was anything but normal. She even had the ability to see and talk to the deceased. As a psychic, she’d withdrawn into herself, and she’d used her hidden skills to excel in her law enforcement career. Her powers seemed more like a curse everywhere else, though, including her love life, especially when she could read the less-than-impressive thoughts of every man she’d ever dated. Predictable and disappointing had been the name of that game. Her inability to read David’s thoughts had been intriguing, another mystery to solve. At first, she’d found David’s confidence off-putting. It even bordered on arrogance. Check that. There was no bordering about it. The man was an egotistical ass, but he had every reason to be. David was the top soldier for the House of Frost, one of the most powerful houses in the supernatural world. Their leader, the silver-haired and intimidating Sera Frost, was the leading voice of the Council of Twelve, a collection of the other top houses comprised of vampires, witches, werewolves, shapeshifters, and the Nephilim. Frost and her family had been betrayed by Charles Webb, the ruthless adversary of Frost. He’d waged war against the House of Frost, and Jess had almost died in the process. She’d lost count of how many times she’d escaped death in the past several days, and each time her protector had been David. He always seemed to have a way of showing up when she needed him the most. He’d become more than her guardian, though. He’d become her lover, and their passion was unlike anything she’d experienced before. Jess thought she knew what he was – the son of an angel and a human woman. He’d already lived several lifetimes, but somehow, he’d made her feel that his life hadn’t really begun until they’d met in Washington, D.C. Everything had changed just a handful of minutes ago. There was more to David’s story, much more. His father was no ordinary Watcher. He was the greatest angel of them all. He was the dark king. The one spoken about in ancient tales of good and evil that had been around since humans walked the earth. He was known as Lucifer. Satan. The Serpent. And Jess had fallen in love with his son. She had to escape the castle and get as far away as possible from David and his powerful family, but where was she going to go? It wasn’t safe to leave the grounds. She had no car, no cell phone, and her money and identification were back in the bedroom, the same place David had been when he’d finally told her the truth. Jess ran from the castle and behind a tree. She couldn’t hide from David forever, but she needed time to catch her breath, to form a game plan, to get the hell out of Scotland and back to her townhome in Washington, D.C. She pressed her back against the tree. The moisture soaked through her clothes and sent a shiver through her body. The bark was wet from the thick fog that always seemed to hang over the estate in the early hours of the evening. She’d thought it had made the land look like a painting by a master artist. Now she realized it was like everything else with the House of Frost. The fog cloaked everything in secrecy. “Come on, Jess. You’re not a child. You’re strong.