Chosen by Nina Croft

 

     
    Chosen by Nina Croft
     
    Breathless Press
    Calgary, Alberta
    www.breathlesspress.com
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
    persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    Chosen
    Copyright© 2011 Nina Croft
    ISBN: 978-1-926930-24-4
    Cover Artist: Victoria Miller
    Editor: Clarissa Yip
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in reviews.
     
    Breathless Press
    www.breathlesspress.com
     

     

     
     
     
    Chapter One
     

     
    “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
    The words of the First Law whispered through Tallon’s mind as he stood in the shadows, studying his prey.
    Clearly at the end of her strength, her body wilted, each movement slow, almost painful. But then, he had been hunting her for days, driving her relentlessly into the wilderness north of the city.
    He watched as she unfastened her cloak and shrugged out of it, laying it on a fallen tree trunk. Underneath, she wore a simple peasant’s dress, but the rough gown only served to accentuate the patrician blood clear in her fine-boned features, flawless but for the crimson mark high on her right cheekbone. She was tiny, much smaller than he’d expected, with long, dark red hair glowing against the pale luminescence of her skin. Looking at her, unexpected emotion twisted Tallon’s guts. She was twenty-two, but appeared younger, more girl than woman. And the thought of all that youth and beauty reduced to ashes sent a shaft of pain knifing through him.
    He’d killed many in his position as Enforcer to The Order, but never a Witch or a woman. And for the first time, he allowed himself to acknowledge the truth that had plagued him for days; he didn’t want to do this. He closed his eyes and remembered the reasons why it had to be done. He knew the rationale behind the law; however young and innocent this girl appeared, she still possessed the power to destroy their world. More than that—if The Order was correct, then her very existence was slowly poisoning Arroway, draining the land of its power.
    Tallon no longer believed all The Order told him, and he’d come to suspect that the Laws were merely a means of maintaining control over the masses. But still, he only had to glance up at the night sky to see that something was very wrong on Arroway. Now was the season of the Witches’ moons, and they hung, slender crescents against the darkness. Tallon remembered a time when they had pulsated with life, bathing the land in their warm crimson radiance, but no more. For years the light had been fading, diminishing until only a dull, blood-red glow remained.
    He turned back to the witch. She loosened the drawstring at her neck. The dress fell, pooling at her ankles, and she stood clad in a thin under-shift. Tallon’s breath caught in his throat. The shift was almost transparent. Through it, he saw the swell of her full breasts, her nipples taut peaks in the chill air. His gaze shifted lower, over her flat belly to the shadow of dark curls at the junction of her thighs. His sex stirred at the sight, and he cursed silently.
    She stepped towards the stream, obviously intending to wash. He should end this now. Instead, he stood transfixed in his hiding place within the trees.
    Kneeling by the running water, she reached over to scoop it up, gasping at the first icy touch. She drank then splashed her face before sitting back on her heels. Tallon was reminded of the position the pleasure slaves of The Order adopted, and his cock hardened in his pants, his balls aching. But he’d been taught to control and subdue his sexual impulses, and he paused to run the familiar mantra through his mind.
    She was humming, soft and sweet,