Excerpt

The air felt thick—almost too thick to breathe.

The woman who'd walked through the door stopped ten feet from me, a signal she intended to talk rather than attack. Really, it was unnecessary. If she'd meant to harm me, I'd never have seen or heard her coming.

She pushed back the hood of her black rain slicker. Her blond curls had grown all the way to her shoulders since the last time I'd run my fingers through them. The only makeup she wore on her porcelain face was a pale pink flush of lipstick; her dark blue eyes were sharp on me.

Sunday Sloan. Once upon a time, my salvation.

The halo around her body held a tint of rose red, life force flavored with a strong, blinding passion that she harnessed in everything she did, including her kills.

One look in the eyes of her victims, and she could literally blind them if she chose. She had a touch of the traditional psychic as well, not enough to actually see the future, but enough to guess what might happen that would affect her most and allow her to act accordingly.

The same magical gifts infiltrated her personal relationships. Her faults became hard to see. And once she made up her mind about a cause or a person, she gave them her unconditional, undying—blind—loyalty. I'd been on the receiving end of that loyalty. I'd thrown it away when I'd left the Order without saying goodbye.

Sunday Sloan was the Order's MVP. Or MVO—most valuable operative.

If she was here, I was in deep trouble.