[BOOK ONE: THE AVGO GEMSTONE]

Under the dark LA sky, a grapnel hook swung onto the balustrade and locked into place.

From the right side of the building, a figure swung over to the left and landed on the rooftop of the lower building.

She was a dark shadow, covered from head to toe in a tight-fitting black bodysuit.

It hid her identity, but it couldn’t hide her heat signature, nor could it hide the shadow figure her luscious tight body threw on to the wall across the street.

She ran across the rooftop to the far edge of the building and with a flying leap, jumped across the expanse to the next building.

It was a done deal. Her getaway helicopter was waiting for her. Two more minutes and she would be up and soaring away from the sewer beast that was LA.

As her legs reached out for the ledge of her target building, something dark flew at her from the right side.

“Ooooofff!!!”

She grunted as her body was slammed in midair.

Suddenly, she found herself caught in viselike arms, soaring above the pitch black sky.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!

“Aaaahhhh!!!” She screamed and quickly regretted it as a vice band whipped over her throat, almost cutting off her windpipe.

For a moment, she thought about fighting her captor, tooth and claw. But then sanity hit her upside the head as she realized something horrifying.

She was high up above the city, looking down at the twinkling lights of the buildings below.

Fighting and clawing at the captor would only result in either being dropped at that height and dashing into pieces on the ground, or worse yet, being squeezed to death by what felt like hard iron bands that were squeezing the life out of her lungs.

She was being carried from behind, like a raptor carrying its prey. Her arms were locked in place, and so was her neck. She could not turn to see who her captor was.

In this position, all she could do was catch glimpses from the edges of her peripheral vision; glimpses of large powerful wings soaring on the night wind.

She couldn’t tell if the wings were bird-like or bat-like, but at the very least, she could determine with some accuracy that the body and arms of her captor were at least human.

Male even.

Her back was shoved up against a large broad expanse of rock solid chest muscles. He was definitely male.

She grimaced.

There was no give to his chest at all. It was almost as if the man was made of rocks!

She glanced down at the arm that was squeezing the life out of her diaphragm and making her gasp and fight for every little breath she could take in. It was a strong muscular arm like a huge tree trunk and just as gnarled.

Unable to take in anything more than a few gasps of breath, she was starting to black out.

Fight it girl! Don’t black out! Don’t black out or you will die!

Just when she thought she would die of asphyxiation, he landed on top of a tall building and threw her onto the hard concrete surface of the rooftop.

“Aaaahhh!”

She gasped as she laid there, gasping and heaving, trying to catch her breath.

Her face scrunched up into a grimace. Her hip had slammed into the hard ground and her head had also hit pretty hard.

She reached out and touched her head. It didn’t feel as if it was cracked or anything, but it hurt like hell!

She glanced up at the man who had carried her to this godforsaken place. His face was in shadows but she could see his wings gleaming in the pale moonlight.

There were no feathers.

No feathers meant he was no angel.

This was some demon with dark leathery looking bat wings. The thumbs of those wings were huge claws that looked like the scythe that the Grim Reaper carried.

His body was over-muscled but he at least was wearing something akin to clothes. She gave a thankful sigh.

It would have been far worse if she had to look upon the ugliness of a bare-butt naked demon with all his parts hanging out.

Before she could do or say anything, six other demons appeared from the cover of darkness.

“Who are you people?” She tried to scream, but her throat had been constricted so it came out as more of a hoarse gasp.

“So this is the thief?”

“Yes. I saw her taking it and then making a run for it, so I grabbed her.”

“Hmmm. It is indeed a woman.”

“Yes, very much so. She did not put up much of a fight though.”

“Were you surprised? You carried her up into the sky. Why would she fight to get away from you? She would have never survived a drop from that height.”

As the demons talked amongst themselves, it was almost as if they had forgotten that she was still on the ground, still gasping for air.

If she moved quickly, she could make a run for it.

But then she dropped the idea. Where could she run to? She was on top of a sky scraper.

“Woman.” One of them turned to her. “Who are you working with?”

“No one.” She spat. “I work for myself.”

The demon came closer.

She held her breath and stared into the dark void of his face. She didn’t know what she was expecting.

Didn’t demon faces have lumps and bumps? Wasn’t it red and gnarled with hooked noses or pointed chins? It definitely wasn’t this black void that showed no features.

She swallowed her fear down.

If these demons wanted her dead, she would have been dropped from the heights as they were flying above the city, or hacked and clawed to death as soon as she landed on top of this building.

The fact that she was still alive meant they wanted something from her.

“What is your name?” The demon asked. His voice was deep and gravelly, just as she expected a demon’s voice to be.

“Can—Candi.”

“So. Cancandi. Out of all the baubles in that exhibit, you knew exactly what to take. What do you know about it?”

“Candi.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s not Cancandi.. It’s Candi.”