Darkness Descending by Devyn Quinn

you make it through another one, you’ve succeeded.”
    A sigh of exhaustion escaped him. “Sometimes I wonder about that,” he said. “With each century that passes, the Telave grow stronger. It often feels as if we’re fighting a battle we can’t win.”
    “We? So where are the others?”
    Maddox let his hand drop. “There are others. You will meet them. Another time.” Reaching for the whiskey, he drained the final dregs. The bottle that had begun the evening half-full was now empty. He lowered it with a thud against the scarred linoleum tabletop. “I’m done. It’s time for bed.” By now his voice had developed a slur, proving he wasn’t invulnerable to the effects of hard liquor.
    Jesse inwardly winced. After Amanda’s murder, her father had crawled inside the bottle, adding yet another stress to her parents’ already-strained marriage. They weren’t coping well, and neither was she. Part of the reason she’d left was for the sake of her own sanity. Everyone was falling apart. Life would never be the same for the Burke family. As much as she missed her parents, she had decided she’d never contact them again. They would never understand the monster lurking beneath her skin. As far as she was concerned, her life had ended the night she and Amanda were taken.
    Though hardly prepared to call the night over, Jesse supposed she didn’t have a choice. Her mind raced, filled to the brim with questions. There was still so much to learn, so much more she wanted to know.
    Don’t push , she warned herself. Right now her position in Maddox’s territory was tenuous at best. True, he’d offered to protect her from his people. But that didn’t mean she was safe—not at all. She’d have to work hard to prove she belonged, to prove to him that she could handle herself.
    Lesson number one had already been hammered into her head: Never hunt alone. She’d just learned the hard way it was better to have some backup.
    Oh yeah. The shotgun might’ve helped, too.
    But there was no time to think of those things.
    Maddox abruptly stood, staggering toward the bed. Exhaustion, coupled with the booze, had obviously affected his system. Stripping off his shirt, he tossed it aside. Still clad in jeans and heavy boots, he pitched forward, landing facedown on the mattress. A moment later he rolled over, arms and legs akimbo.
    “Come to bed,” he invited.
    Jesse’s gaze drifted over Maddox’s prone body. The mellow golden glow emanating from the nearby lamp caressed the masculine angles of his body. Cut to a ragged collar length, a mass of brown curls shaded with red tumbled without restraint around his face. He had a battered profile that suggested the years behind him had been no easier than the endless ones stretching ahead. A long ragged scar distorted one temple, coming dangerously close to the corner of his left eye. He hadn’t shaved in a day, maybe two, and dark stubble mossed his cheeks and jawline.
    Her gaze trekked lower. More scars, many of which hinted at the rough-and-tumble life he’d led, marred his upper body.
    The disfigurement didn’t detract from his rough handsomeness, instead adding to his mystique as a man of shadow and mystery. His shoulders were broad, but not ridiculously bulky. A light smattering of hair matted his chest; a sleek line of it funneled down to disappear beneath the waistline of his jeans. A slab of hard abdomen ruled over an endless stretch of legs.
    Even though he was at rest, an aura of great strength was apparent just beneath the muscle and sinew covering his bones. There was no doubt in her mind he was dangerous, adept at surviving on his wits and nerve.
    Unable to stop herself, Jesse shivered at the delicious sight.
    If nothing else, Maddox deValois was all male. For the first time in months, she felt a little spark of interest jump into her mind. Her body reacted with a sexuality that thumped into her heart, sending a rush of blood to the tips of her nipples, already bead