His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil) Read Online Free

became a mind-numbing addiction.
    Nikolai could claim Serenity and keep her. That thought swirled acridly in his brain. He hated his brother for the potential. A blazing need to annihilate any man who considered seducing Serenity had him fisting his hands so tight his fingers tingled with needles of pain.
    He massaged his forehead when images of an unfamiliar male poured into his brain, courtesy of Hades. This soul was now slated to be shuttled into the underworld for his many fetid deeds—sins in the eyes of most. Hades only chose the most corrupt, the immoral, the insane, and the evil, to rip out of life early and suck into hell. Initially, Alexi rebelled against being the weapon of the underworld god. He’d learned the hard way that refusal to complete the god’s death dictates was painful. Now he accepted these deaths as a given. These evil persons should not remain free. Some would argue murder was the ultimate sin. He agreed and had no illusions an afterlife that included heaven awaited him.
    A dart hit his arm. Fucking Lebedev.
    He used his gift of short-term future glimpsing and weighed his options. The drug would take much longer to affect him than a human, although in a minute he’d be feeling it. He could annihilate Lebedev’s goons and kidnap Lebedev to get answers later—probably his best plan. Or he could test his bond with Serenity. He wanted to know if she’d come to him when he hung at the precipice of death. No. He wouldn’t put her at risk.
    He pivoted and jabbed the closest would-be kidnapper in the neck, immobilizing him. Another two darts hit him.
    His vision blurred.
    Three darkly clad figures surrounded him. They didn’t want him to kill Serenity. They wanted him to lead them to her.
    As he stumbled from the drug’s effect, one of the guys caught him in a headlock. “The coffee would’ve been easier.”

Chapter Three
    S erenity clicked the Indigo on her watch. Seven fifteen a.m.? That couldn’t be right. She’d conked out for almost ten hours in her alternate dimension. After a quick trip to the bathroom and a gargle of mouthwash, she scrubbed the blood off her wrists and watch. The cuts were superficial, but they burned. She considered her next step. How easily she could shift back to Alexi wherever he might be in what she considered her real world. Tempting, but not enough to ask for help.
    For a moment she allowed herself to consider using him for that one more night he’d offered. All she had to do was think of him and she’d be able to shift dimensions into the same room with him. She couldn’t do a direct dimension hop to any other person, and not for lack of trying. Only to him. She’d bounced into his life a few times, twice inadvertently. But not since eight months ago.
    Mind off Alexi. Her priority right now had to be Liz. She had the laptop. She needed to get back pronto and contact the kidnappers to find out the next level of required bullshit.
    After a speedy shower, she combed her wet hair. It needed to be dyed again. More red streaks peeked through than yesterday, even though she’d dyed it a week ago. She’d started dyeing it when her MI6 handler instructed the red color was too memorable. After years, she’d grown to prefer the darker color.
    Serenity.
    The whisper of Alexi’s voice jolted her with adrenaline. Her hands trembled as if she’d ingested a few cappuccinos. Weird. They never shook. The jitters had to be a product of exhaustion and the anxiety from the past week. They had nothing to do with him . She’d never admit to Alexi he turned her mind to mush and left her nerves raw.
    Bile tickled the back of her throat. Her stomach lurched, threatening revolt. Her brain surged with a powerful instinct to shift. Alexi was in trouble. Her gut knew it, even though rationally she had no basis for that assumption.
    If this was Alexi, then whatever she’d find would be bad. Very bad. She slammed a hand against the wall for support as a wave of vertigo whirled her