Transcending Darkness
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
About Airicka Phoenix
TRANSCENDING DARKNESS
By Airicka Phoenix
Transcending Darkness ©2013 by Airicka Phoenix
All rights reserved.
www.AirickaPhoenix.com
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the copyright owner and/or the publisher of this book, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover Designer: Airicka’s Mystical Creations
Interior Design: Airicka Phoenix
Editor & Formatter: Kathy Eccleston
ISBN-13: 978-1517123970
ISBN-10: 1517123976
Published by Airicka Phoenix
Also available in eBook and paperback publication
Also by Airicka Phoenix
Games of Fire
Betraying Innocence
TOUCH SAGA
Touching Smoke
Touching Fire
Touching Eternity
THE LOST GIRL SERIES
Finding Kia
Revealing Kia
REGENERATION SERIES
When Night Falls
THE BABY SAGA
Forever His Baby
Bye-Bye Baby
Be My Baby
Always Yours, Baby
IN THE DARK SERIES
My Soul For You
Kissing Trouble
SONS OF JUDGMENT SAGA
Octavian’s Undoing
Gideon’s Promise
ANTHOLOGY
Whispered Beginnings: A Clever Fiction Anthology
Midnight Surrender Anthology
Dedication
To Jessica,
For having my back and not getting me locked up.
TRANSCENDING DARKNESS
Chapter 1
“How badly do you want to be free, Juliette?”
As questions went, it was a redundant one. What sort of person didn’t want to be free of the tether binding them to a lifetime of oppression and abuse? What kind of person thrived on the fear of not knowing if they would live to see another day? But Juliette knew it wasn’t the answer Arlo was after. For him, it was to remind her just how far beneath his boots she stood and how her life was his to do with as he so wished.
“I’m sorry the payment was late this month,” she began, talking to his filthy boots rather than facing the man sitting on the hood of his shiny, black Bentley, or the five other men standing in a perfect circular formation around her, caging her in. “I couldn’t pull enough hours—”
“That wasn’t my question.” Arlo slid off the car¸ disturbing the dirt beneath their feet as he kicked absently at a soda can. The bit of metal clattered noisily in the late afternoon as it tumbled across the parking lot. “Do you want to be free?”
Arlo wasn’t much taller than her. Maybe a foot at the very most, but he had intimidation on his side, which was something Juliette severely lacked. Plus he had the gun tucked into the waistband of his black jeans. The butt stood out against the white material of his t-shirt. It was all Juliette could see despite her best efforts not to stare.
Swallowing the thick chunks of bile pooling at the back of her throat, Juliette nodded. “Yes.”
His footsteps drew closer, deliberately slow as the space between them shrank rapidly. He stopped when she could smell the sharp stink of tobacco on his dark clothes and clearly make out the broken road map scarring his boots. The sweet stench of cinnamon rolls curled into the space separating them to claw across her cheeks. It tangled with the stench of stale beer wafting off his breath and taunted the sickness she was fighting so hard to suppress.
“We had a deal you and I, didn’t we?” He reached up and it took all her courage not to cringe when he plucked a coil of her hair off her shoulder. He wound it around a dirty finger, tight enough to tug strands from her scalp. “You promised to pay the debt your father owed me and I wouldn’t take your pretty little sister as compensation. So far, I have kept my end of the bargain, but you haven’t kept yours.”
“I’m sorry—”
With the speeds of an angry cobra, his free hand shot out and closed around her jaw. Jagged nails bit into tender skin as she was wrenched closer. His foul breath cut across her cheeks, burning her senses. Tears sprang to her eyes and were quickly blinked back; he already held all the power over her. She refused to let him see her cry. Oh, but he tried every chance he got to break her.
“Sorry doesn’t get me my money, Juliette,” he murmured in a taunting whisper that was followed by pressure on her face. His cold, brown eyes sliced into her from amongst a messy cap of equally brown hair. Most would have considered him handsome, and maybe he was with his built frame and rugged features, but all Juliette could see was a monster. “I want my money, or something of equal value.”