Demons Series by Marina Simcoe 💕 Series Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Paranormal Romance)

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They are big, strong and silent. Their faces are hidden behind masks and their bodies are enclosed in armor suits. They took me from my home in the middle of the night and have been holding me in isolation for months. I don't fully understand the purpose of my captivity. No one explains anything to me. No one even talks to me.

Nearly driven to madness with no more hope for freedom, I no longer care if I live or die.

And then he speaks to me. Just a few words . . . He throws me a lifeline and helps me find my way back to sanity. He becomes my only companion. My light in the darkness.

I suspect they may not be entirely human. What's worse is that he may be one of them.
New Edition, 2018

Warning: Demon Mine is a paranormal romance with dark elements. It contains sexual situations, graphic descriptions of intimacy, and potential triggers. Intended for mature readers.

He brushed loose hairs away from my face and peppered light kisses on my forehead.
Calming under his caresses, I was slowly regaining the clarity of thought. His breath felt like a minty-cool breeze against the skin on my temple, leaving behind a subtle chilling sensation like melting snowflakes. And I recognized the reason of my unexpected calmness—he was taking my stress and worry away from me, soothing me in the most efficient way possible.
“Don’t, Sytrius!” I gasped, recoiling away from him. “You can’t afford to get sick right now.”
But, he drew me back to him. “None of your feelings could ever hurt me again. We are one and the same, Alyssa. You and me.”
The door opened, and Andras walked in. Lost in each other, neither of us offered him any greeting.
“You don’t have to go through with this.” Sytrius’s voice sounded firm, as if he had made a decision. “We’ll leave. I’ll take you away from everything here.”
“What?” I exhaled in shock. “We can’t—”
“What is going on?” Andras stood behind Sytrius.
“I need to get Alyssa out of here. We’re leaving the country,” he replied to Andras, without taking his eyes off me.
Andras’s chest rose with a deep inhale.
“You may never get another hearing.” He frowned, but his voice remained even.
Sytrius ignored him.
“We’ll leave. Right now.” He made a move to get up.
“Sytrius, what are you talking about?” I stopped him, my mind reeling from the sudden change in him.
“I’ll take you far away from this place. We’ll never have to come back.”
Was it possible? Did a place where we could be truly safe exist? Could we raise a family in peace? Would they ever leave us alone?
I desperately wished with all my heart for it to be true.
“They will never stop hunting you,” Andras said gravely.
Sytrius paid him no attention.
“Eighty years, Alyssa. You’ve asked me for eighty years, and I’m giving them to you. We can hide. I will keep you safe.”
Run, again. Hide.
I glanced at Andras.
“Do you honestly believe we have a good chance tonight?”
He met my gaze straight on.
“No one would guarantee it. But I do believe the mood in the Council is sympathetic, yes. I would never urge you to come if I believed it was hopeless, Alyssa.”
“This is not just about me, is it?” I replied slowly and turned back to Sytrius. “Not even about us. The hearing, tonight . . . It may help others—”
“I don't care about others.” Sytrius’s voice rose, his fingers dug into my arms. “Don’t you see, Alyssa? You are the only one who matters to me. You are my everything. Your happiness is my mission in life, my purpose. Without it, none of it makes sense.”
“Sytrius.” Andras stepped closer. His frown deepened. A note of steely determination cut through his voice. “If you don’t show up tonight, you’ll have both Councils on your heels. There is no place on Earth where they won’t find you. Sooner or later—”
“Eighty years, Andras,” Sytrius threw over his shoulder. “I can outrun them for eighty years.”
“And then?” I whispered, sensing that his resolve was born from desperation.
“Then, it doesn't matter.”
“It matters to me. Your life, your happiness matter to me, Sytrius. If we run, they may forget about me after a while, but they’ll never forget about you. Sooner or later, they will find you. And they will punish you.”
Capture him, sentence and torture him . . . And, I might not even be around by then to be able to make any difference at all.
“Alyssa. Look at you. I don’t need to have the insight of a demon to see that you’re terrified. You’re shaking. Your face is white like the walls in this room. And I’m supposed to drag you right into the snake pit tonight?”
“It’s not about me!” I repeated, louder this time to match the volume of his voice.
No, it was so much more than me. Even more than I had thought. Now, there was a baby, too. What would he do if I told him about the baby right now, frantic as he was? Would anyone be able to reason with him at all? At the moment it seemed the news of this magnitude would just send him into a tailspin, stripping him of any control.
“Everything is about you, Alyssa!” He bellowed, rising to his feet. I could see his body vibrate with strain as he began to pace in front of me.
“Sytrius. You need to calm down.” Andras’s words had the exact opposite effect. Sytrius spun on his heel to face him.
“Calm? Calm!” He roared, his hands fisted at his sides. “Calm is lack of emotion, Andras. A void. An absolute nothingness! I’d spent centuries in it before she drew me into the light. I’m not risking a hair off her head for either demons or humans.”
Andras’s eyes narrowed, and his hands formed tight fists, too.
Anxious that their fists might be put to work next, I jumped off the bed and circled my arms around Sytrius’s middle, pressing my face to his back.
“Don’t. Please.”
His chest heaved, his heart thundered frantically against my cheek, and I squeezed my eyes tight. How on Earth could I spring my news on him now, even if it tore me apart to keep it inside?
“You need to calm down, Sytrius.” Andras repeated, inhaling deeply himself. “I understand more than you realize what you have at stake. But tonight, you need to keep a level head. It may mean all the difference between your freedom and incarceration. Between her life and death.”
Sytrius’s back stiffened under my cheek, and Andras continued before he could interrupt him.
“The hearing is your chance. Both of you. I give you my promise to get Alyssa out of there safe and sound, no matter what. She will be safe.”
Sytrius held still in my embrace, even as his body shook with tension. I wished I could do for him what he had done for me so many times—take his stress and his worry. I would gladly suffer his pain for him.
He had been my rock—my constant source of hope and strength—ever since he came into my life. Now, it was my turn to be strong, to give him faith.
I braced myself before voicing my decision.
“We’ll go to the hearing tonight,” I started. He stirred in my arms, but I tightened my hold around him, not ready to meet his penetrating gaze yet. I needed to rein in my emotions first, before I could let him see them.
The baby.
The thought shot through me again, and I forced it back with everything I had.
Not now.
I couldn’t tell him now. I had to believe that tonight would be the beginning of our new life and that I would have the chance to share the news with him when all of this was over. I needed to have this faith, because I had to give it to him now to help him win tonight.
“Together, Sytrius. We’ll go through all of this together.”
“Alyssa.”
Finally, I let him turn around in my arms to face me.
“It’s our chance for freedom, Sytrius. Yours and mine.” I let him stare at me, my emotions on display. My decision made, the messy hurricane of fear, worry, panic, and anxiety was still there, but it was now buried under a solid concrete block of focus and determination, which I used to strengthen my voice as I spoke. “If we run, we’ll never be free. Living in hiding, constantly looking over our shoulders in fear of being captured and separated would be just another kind of jail.” I raised my hands to his face, letting my voice cradle him in softness now. “We need to have faith, my love. I believe in you.”

I’ve been abducted, twice in as many months.
The world of my captors is a dark and mysterious place, but for me it also holds forbidden pleasures I’ve never experienced before.

Still, when I get a chance to run, I take it.

A rebel and a convicted criminal, he has spent most of his existence suspended between two worlds, in a state his kind call Deep Sleep. Nearly forgotten by all.

Until I disturb his slumber.

The touch of a demon awaken is always dangerous. And for me, it turns out treacherous in more ways than one.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. LET THE SLEEPING DEMONS LIE.

Keller sat, stretching his legs in front of him. “Your situation is not normal. Women taken by this particular group don’t, usually, get to leave.”
“You mean I was supposed to stay here forever?” I balled my hands into fists to prevent them from shaking as dread trembled through me.
“Things have changed.” He waved me off. “Everyone is being released. All you’ll have to do is to remain quiet about what happened to you here.”
“Why would I?” I snapped. “Kidnapping and forceful confinement are serious crimes. So is sexual assault. Those responsible will have to be punished.”
“You’re not capable to bring any punishment on their heads, Kitty.”
“The police—”
“—know nothing about them and never will. Trust me. The best thing in your situation is to stick with the plan of your release, get back to your life, and never speak about this place or the creatures who populate it.”
Creatures?
“Why should I believe anything you’re saying?”
“I hold an official position with the Priory of Grimien.”
“Never heard of it.”
“And you never would have, under normal circumstances. The Priory is a secret organization. It was created with a sole purpose to gain and keep control of the . . . um, individuals who took you.”
“Well, you’ve been doing a poor job of controlling them then. How are they getting away with all of this?” My voice rose, as my patience thinned. “Who are they?”
He drew in a deep breath.
“They are . . . not from this world, Kitty.”
“What?”
“Surely, you’ve noticed some unusual things about them during your time here.”
“You mean besides them being perverts who like to watch?” I scoffed.
“Believe me, they can do far more harmful things than watching.” His gaze shifted back to the guards again. “They’ve been part of our world for over a millennium, and they had wreaked havoc during their early centuries on Earth, before we found a reliable way to control them.”
“Who are they?” I insisted.
“Demons.” He leaned to me from his chair, his voice low. “In flesh and blood.”
Was he out of his mind?
I shrunk back, all the way to the wall, worried for my own safety now, being one on one with a clearly insane man who seemed to honestly believe in demons.
‘Surely, you’ve noticed some unusual things about them.’
Their eyes.
The blood-red glow I’d witnessed once. The flashing blue lights I’d noticed on more than one occasion. Could there be a more sane, normal explanation to that?
“You don’t have to believe me, Kitty. Actually, it is irrelevant if you do or don’t.” Mister Keller leaned back in his chair. “All I want from you is your cooperation in keeping their existence a secret from the general population.”
“Why would I do that?”
I definitely need to get to the closest police station as soon as I’m able, to let the proper authorities sort this mess out.
“Because, really, you don’t have a choice. What good would it do for you to go public with your disclosure? No one would believe you. If you insist, you would be likely declared insane.”
“There is plenty of evidence of their existence. This place—”
“Is a private property with no complaints against it. I guarantee you will never be able to obtain so much as a search warrant for it. The Priory would make sure of it.”
“Why would any human organization cover up the crimes of these . . . demons?”
“This should not be of your concern. You will be provided a suitable compensation, appropriate counseling, and means to return to normal life as soon as possible. From this point on, our organization will guarantee your protection from the demons here.”
“How?”
“The Priory agreed to go forward with a more agreeable alternative to our previous arrangement with them, which was suggested by their Councils. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have any particular affection for one of your guards?”
“What? God, no!”
“Good.” He turned to leave. “I’ll leave you rest then. Needless to say, there won’t be any more . . . um, nightly sessions.”

Marina Simcoe likes to write sweet and sexy love stories about characters who may or may not be entirely human. She firmly believes that our contemporary world could use a little bit of the extraordinary.
She has lots of fun exploring how her out-of-this-world characters with their own set of beliefs, values, and aspirations fit into our everyday life.