Zoey Rogue - By Lizzy Ford Page 0,1

the rest of his body. Her attacker’s body was on one side of her, his head on the other.

“Stay right here,” the woman in black told her.

Too shocked to register much more than the dead man who had tried to rape her seconds before, Chrissy sat in a daze, unable to move if she wanted. Her rescuer wore a black, military-style uniform with night-vision goggles perched on her forehead. She was of average height, toned and shapely, her bronze curls in a bun on top of her head and her blue eyes sparkling. She was armed with two long knives and a smile that made her round face appear cherubic, sweet. She saluted with one of the knives and darted further into the house.

Covered in her attacker’s blood with a shin that was surely broken, Chrissy just stared after her, shaking.

Zoey left the young woman and darted towards the sounds of fighting, where her best friend Vikki was probably lopping off heads. She almost smashed into another of the men as she barreled through the kitchen. This one had blood on his hands, which meant there was at least one more victim in the house. The second victim was probably a college-aged girl like the one Zoey rescued. Although the woman in the living room had been stripped naked, she was otherwise unhurt, aside from a limp.

She got off lucky.

“I’ve got five!” Vikki’s breathless voice came across the communications piece in Zoey’s ear. “Ten bucks says I finish them off before you get here!”

One of the two other members of her team – Team R – present for the raid, Vikki was Zoey’s main competition every time they went out. The third member, Ginny, monitored the operation from the van parked across the street.

“You’re on. Be there in a few.” Zoey answered. She blocked a strike from her opponent. “That the best you can do, asshole?”

Zoey felt the sex magic in the air that the creature before her was trying to use to manipulate her. It made her blood move faster, and she drew it into herself. Instead of influencing her, it was like a drug, one that left her intoxicated – and able to use as a weapon against him.

He had a kitchen knife in one hand and lunged at her. She pushed him back with his own magic then slashed twice with her pewter daggers. He slid to the floor without a sound.

Her phone vibrated. She glanced down and saw the phone number of her boyfriend flash across the screen. She hesitated. He tried calling twice before their op tonight; maybe something was wrong. She answered and continued through the house, seeking out more of the rapist bastards – known as Cambions. Born to human mothers and Incubus fathers, Cambions existed for one purpose: to gather sex magic by any means necessary. Sex energy was a drug to them, one that made them frenzied with the need to collect it.

“Hey, Eric,” she said.

“Hi. I’m guessing you forgot the list?”

Zoey paused mid-step, wracking her brain for what list she was supposed to remember.

“You said you were going grocery shopping after studying. Kinda hard without the list,” he said, laughing.

“Oh. Um, I, uh got caught up with stuff.” Shit! Where had she told him she was studying this night?

Zoey heard sounds from the basement. The door was open, the lights on. She smelled something … bad. Familiar. Something that told her they were going to need more body bags than she had in the van.

“Basement,” she said into the microphone.

“Got it,” Vikki responded via the earpiece in her right ear – the one connected to their communications devices for the operation.

“You got caught up in the basement?” Eric’s voice came through the other earpiece.

“Oh, no. I mean, we, uh, found something intriguing in the basement of the library, and I was in such a hurry to get here, I forgot the list,” she managed.

Before she was able to charge down the stairs, an armed Cambion leapt out of the doorway. Zoey ducked a blow.

“You sound out of breath.” Eric sounded both puzzled and frustrated. “Is studying at the library a full contact sport now?”

“Sometimes -”

Block

“- when you’re reading -”

Jab

“- about the Mayans.”

Slash.

The Cambion dropped. Able to overhear what Zoey said through her microphone, the two other members of Team R were laughing into one ear, almost drowning out Eric’s words.

“I thought the library closed at seven.”

Zoey glanced at her watch. It was nine.

“Well, not when Vikki is sleeping with the