REDEMPTION: Angel Rising Book One by LaVerne Thompson

REDEMPTION: Angel Rising Book One by LaVerne Thompson

To walk the earth she must feed her hollow soul.


Some of the most beautiful people in the world are not human. They have no soul, feel no emotion and are pure evil. You can tell by the color of their dark, dead eyes. Samuel Glaus knows this. He is after all the son of a human mother and soulless father. He is, half human and a hunter of the soulless. He is also in love with one who cannot love him back.

Thalya is a soulless creature, but unlike others of her kind, she does not kill to feed her hollow soul. She hungers only for emotion and above all she hungers for Samuel’s love. Her enemy. Her redemption. And she’s willing to kill for it.

BUY IN KINDLE   ***   READ THE EXCERPT   ***   WATCH THE VIDEO

Excerpt:

Thalya stood alone on her balcony, hands braced on the wide stone railing overlooking Central Park. The wind picked up, blowing her chest length curls away from her face and cutting through the material of her thigh high sleeveless silk dress. Bitter cold accompanied the end of January or so she understood. She would love this time of year, if she could, even the cold. Too bad, she couldn’t feel any of it. No matter the external temperature, her body heat never changed.

Winter boasted her most fulfilling time of the modern year. The onset of depression. The time mortals realize they’ve spent way too much of the money they did not have over the holidays and now owed more than they could afford. Then, maybe they have gained twenty pounds during those holidays on top of the twenty already making them overweight. Or how about the woman, who at thirty, not only didn’t get an engagement ring for Christmas, but also by New Year’s, she no longer has a boyfriend?

To walk the earth she must feed her hollow soul. Yes, this time of year kept the void inside her full of emotion. The kind she craved. Mortals were so ripe for plucking. Hunger had her licking her full cranberry-colored lips in anticipation…the void within would soon be filled.

Opening up her senses, she sniffed out the most depressed in the city block around her. While she had no human sense of smell, the scents of emotions to her were as potent, as humans would say a bouquet of freshly cut roses. She could have gone out and canvassed a wider area but her favorite show, Being Human, would start in a half hour. She never liked recording the program if she could help it, so she tried not to miss an episode.

Thalya preferred to live in the moment, because she’d had enough of the past. Besides, she didn’t have to go far, plenty of depression existed right around her. Why, right across the street a man entered the park. The scent of his depression floated right to her on the wind. Hot, potent and yummy, she would feed on it for a few days. There were no others of her kind in the area, so she wouldn’t have to warn anyone off. Although, quite a few soulless resided in New York, the size of the area ensured she didn’t run into others if she didn’t want to, which she usually didn’t.

Going back inside her penthouse condo, she walked across thick sand-colored carpet. Her artist friend, Franklin, would have both loved and hated the great room. Loved it for the cool colors—reds, beiges, and golds. Those had been his favorites, but then she’d stuck a long, extra-wide black leather sofa smack in the center of it. He hated leather and black.

Franklin, long gone…just another from her past.

She changed her mind about recording her show and headed for her entertainment control pad sitting on the low side table. The pad came with the flat TV. Picking up the control, she programmed it. Just in case. A long, dark chocolate colored leather coat lay over the arm of the sofa. She grabbed the coat, put it on and headed for her private elevator. She didn’t need it but she wanted to blend in. No jumping from her balcony or moving too fast for any mortal eyes to see. Tonight she would act normal. Normal, at least for a human. As an additional benefit, when she walked through her lobby to get to the street, she would open her senses to her immediate surroundings, sampling a taste of surface emotions as she passed by. A nice appetizer before her main course.

Not all of her kind could suck out emotion without touch but as an olden, one from a time long past and more powerful than most, she could. But other things also set her apart from those like her. She did not need to kill her providers or have them kill others to satisfy her needs. Draining humans of their depression, her emotion of choice, more than satisfied her. Why, she didn’t even have to cause it. Humans carried it in abundance. She merely put her providers to sleep and afterwards, they usually woke up feeling less depressed. Hers represented a more symbiotic relationship. She actually helped people, much like a psychiatrist would. Only, instead of talking them out of their depression, she drained it right out of them.

The elevator door opened and she got on.

The hotel where she lived also housed private residences, but a few guests milled around the lobby for the evening. Just enough people around with some serious issues to make her grin and tremble within her ankle-length leather coat.

“Delicious,” she purred, savoring her version of oysters on a half shell. Red knee high stiletto boots clicked as she crossed the polished marble floor. She ignored the appreciative looks of the men and women as she glided among them, intentionally projecting a do not approach compulsion. Look but don’t touch, unless she was the one doing the touching.

The doorman opened the door for her and smiled. “Good evening. Cold one tonight.” Bundled in layers and with a wool cap on his head, he stood directly beneath a heating vent to stay warm.

He always spoke. She rarely did and tonight, she didn’t. She flashed him some teeth in the semblance of a smile. At least she hoped it looked like a smile and not a grimace. Happiness. It rolled off him in waves. She’d never tried draining that emotion from her providers, although over the centuries she’d met a few of her kind who preferred it. Anything to fill the void in the soulless place. But stealing someone else’s happiness always seemed unnecessary to her. Depression worked just fine.

Out on the sidewalk, the scent hit her again. Like a shining point of light in dark woods, the depressed man she’d sensed beckoned her to follow him. After crossing the street, Thalya entered the park. It didn’t take long to find him.

He sat on a bench at the other end of the park, leaning over with his head in his hands.

She wouldn’t be able to read his thoughts until she actually touched him. No matter, she sensed his depression.

He’d picked a bench away from the lighted path, but they didn’t have complete privacy. A few people walked through the park at the other end and they weren’t far from the street. Still, she could not resist. No more than the moth could fight being drawn to a roaring flame. They were secluded enough for her purpose. Besides, anyone could look in their direction any time, but no one would see anything alarming. Just a beautiful woman sitting with a man. Even if they did notice, it wouldn’t prevent her from doing what she must. Her survival demanded it.

She sat on the bench next to him; he didn’t even bother to look up. Thalya placed her hand on his shoulder and her inner feminine muscles contracted to the point, she almost had an orgasm.

Depression, and so potent.

“Mmm, good,” she murmured.

At her touch, he raised red-rimmed eyes in her direction.

Finally, she had his attention.

He pulled back slightly, some form of self-preservation kicking in. “Who—are you?”

“Shhh. It will be all right. I promise,” she whispered.

The man sat up and she wrapped her arms around him.

Unable to help himself, he let her.

Hmm, handsome. She always seemed to gravitate toward the young, good-looking ones, although she’d never sleep with any of them. Well, hardly ever. She nuzzled the side of his neck. Under the alcohol he’d indulged in, he exuded a nice clear human scent. Given his emotional state, she’d expected the scent of alcohol to be stronger. Surprisingly she only caught a slight whiff. No more than a beer. Maybe he just started on his drinking for the evening. Didn’t matter. Whatever he’d ingested, she didn’t care about.

“What—?”

She didn’t give him a chance to say more. Instead, she made her way to his mouth, which opened as soon as she pressed her lips against his. Unleashing her powers, she inhaled his depression into the starving emptiness that should have housed her soul, and at the same time, began to read his memories.

Poor thing. Karl, yes…Karl Hammer. He’d recently lost his job and his wife, pregnant with their first child, didn’t know about it. He’d swallowed his pride and asked his blood uncle of sorts for help. Except Karl hadn’t spoken to his uncle in years. Mmm, interesting. She probed for the reason why.Samuel and the others like him lived a dangerous life. Samuel, a master hunter of the soulless and Karl, merely—bait.

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY IN KINDLE 

THE WARRIOR Box Set by Rebecca Royce

THE WARRIOR by Rebecca Royce

The Warrior Series by award winning author Rebecca Royce - Initiation, Driven, Subversive, Redemption, and Justice - all in one place.

Rachel Clancy was born to fight the monsters that go bump in the night. In a post-apocalyptic world, she and her fellow Warriors are all that stand between what is left of humanity and the monsters who stalk them. Her destiny seems written--fight or die. Until one fateful trip Upwards changes everything. Follow the story as one sixteen year old girl changes the course for human kind forever.


INITIATION 
Initiation is the story of sixteen year old Rachel Clancy, born with a specific set of genes that let her fight monsters, she has trained her entire life to kill Vampires and Werewolves. Knowing since birth what her destiny would be has not made the onslaught of emotions she faces as she journey Upwards any easier. It doesn’t help that her father is drunk and her best friend just doesn’t get ‘it.’

Rachel isn’t prepared for the level of deception she faces, and before long she will find herself on a quest she is in no way prepared to handle. What happens next will alter not only Rachel’s life but the lives of everyone she knows. She will learn beyond a shadow of a doubt that sometimes the monsters we know are worse than the ones we don’t and that love can surprise us when it comes from somewhere we never anticipated it.

If she lives, she will be a Warrior. If she doesn’t, no one will ever remember her name.


DRIVEN 
When Rachel Clancy turned sixteen, she inadvertently changed the lives of everyone around her. Now, six months later she has to figure out how to live with what has happened.

Sent back into the wilderness—this time with a new love—she will find herself face-to-face with two people she never thought to see again: the boy she thought she loved and the man who wanted to destroy her since birth. If Rachel can learn what drives her forward, there may be a chance for everyone to start again. If she fails, all is lost.


SUBVERSIVE 
Rachel Clancy has been through a lot. With a mission to fight vampires, while losing two boyfriends—one to a vampire and one because of his daddy issues—she is in charge of a secret revolution that could change Genesis, her home, forever. Her confidence is shot, her hands are shaking, and she hasn’t felt a real emotion, except for anger, in a long time.

But Rachel should never be counted out. She sees things others can’t, even if her ideas are considered downright traitorous. The life destined for Rachel is to lead in the world, filled with vampires and werewolves instead of romance and flowers—always forced to fight to stay alive and vanquish any threat to her friends and family. But no matter how many times she’s won, the evil that has stalked her never forgets her name….


REDEMPTION 
Rachel Clancy made a decision to erase herself from the lives of her friends and family. She did this, she believes, to free herself up to make some hard decisions. Only to realize out she was manipulated by a master into doing just what he wanted. Now, she is alone with no one to turn to for help.

But fate isn't done with Rachel. When she is thrust back into the path of her former people—who have no idea who she is—she will find that life gives second chances. Will she gain redemption? Or is it too late…?


JUSTICE 
My name is Rachel Clancy, and if you’re reading this, chances are I am dead. I have returned to Genesis, my family and Chad. I think I might even be happy. But you know, happy endings aren’t for everyone least of all me.

BUY THE BOX SET   ***   READ AN EXCERPT   ***   WATCH THE VIDEO


Excerpt from Book One - INITIATION 

“My mother used to call this apple cider weather.”

I had been doing my best to pretend I was unaffected by Jason’s presence, but I wasn’t. He felt warm, even the distance we walked apart, like he was a hot presence in a world of freezing cold eventualities.

“I know what apples are. We get them sometimes. What is apple cider? Some kind of drink?”

“Breaks my heart that you live in a world with no apple cider.” The grimace on his face was a huge indication then he meant what he said. He really was…beautiful, in a way most guys, or even grown men, were not.

Jason seemed to light up from the inside out. Maybe it came from actually being outside all the time but his skin glowed with freshness. Or maybe it was a Werewolf thing, a monster thing.

“Do you do this all the time? Take on Warriors and not tell them why you’re holding them prisoner?”

He raised an eyebrow, his lips quirking into a smile before falling straight again. “Do you feel like a prisoner?”

“Do you answer every question with a question?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I did promise you answers. But first, tell me if you feel better out here? Less likely to hurl away all that fine turkey?”

I stopped walking and turned to look at him. “I feel much better, thank you.” I got my first look at the house we had just exited. I covered my mouth with my hand to suppress my gasp and I looked again. It wasn’t really a house—it was a giant tent—standing in front of a dozen giant tents just like it. I could see from where I stood how it was built. The walls were solid, but only because large beams in the ground held them up. I hadn’t thought to feel the walls earlier. Why would I? They had looked like concrete, but they weren’t, they were actually cloth and something else—vinyl, maybe?

“You guys are prepared to leave at any time, aren’t you?”

“We’re nomadic. We never stay anywhere very long.”

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard sadness in his voice. I could ask him about it. He’d put his emotion right out there for me to hear it, which begged the question: just how well did I want to know Jason?

At some point, I was going to turn a corner with this Werewolf where I was going to start thinking of him as a living, breathing, cognizant being whose head I wouldn’t be able to cut off. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that.

And yet…

“Would you rather stay put?” I spoke the words.

"Maybe. See, I can still remember what it was like, to have a house that was a home, to have neighbors, to go to school."
LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOX SET

ODD STUFF by Virginia Nelson

ODD STUFF by Virginia Nelson

Odd Stuff Series

Janie Smith tumbles through the paranormal world making mistakes and not keeping her sharp tongue in check. Pretending to be normal is what she has spent her whole life perfecting. But when her best friend, a witch named Mia, gets tangled in a murder investigation, Janie tries to stick to her guns and solve it without any “extra” help, be it supernatural or sexual.

The hitch is that Mia is suspected to have murdered a vampire...and how do you prove you haven't killed someone who has no pulse?

BUY THE eBOOK *** READ THE EXCERPT

~Excerpt~

          The man stood, looking like he had died last week. His eyes sunk into his face and were surrounded by shadows so deep they looked like bruises. And they glowed. Shit you not, they glowed. An eerie blue shone out from the waxy, white skin. His face seemed dried out somehow, pulling the skin tight, and his lips seemed shrunken because of this, showing teeth that had horribly distended canines. His hair hung nearly to his waist in a knotted black mass that had dust and God knows what tangled in it. His clothes had either mud or dried blood on them and both seemed equally possible.

And he stunk. Like death. Like dog shit. Like dead dog shit.

All of this took less than a second to imprint on my mind as I shrieked and fell gracelessly to my ass. I scrambled in a crab walk as far as I could, against the far wall.

And now, two seconds into my encounter with whatever was rummaging in the refrigerator-It hissed at me. It seemed wrong, somehow, to think of this creature as a him. It wasn't a him. It was a nightmare.

I shrieked again in terror. Not that screaming had done much good the first time, but just because that seemed to be the only thing I could think to do right then.

It came at me. I dove for the butcher block full of knives, but the Thing was faster. I found myself pinned to the counter, then before I could think, It had whirled me around and had me pinned to the wall, facing It.

Dear God, I was going to die.

I concentrated on breathing as the monster's cold, slim fingers moved at my waist, fumbling at my jeans. I pinched my eyes closed, and I breathed in the stink of the monster. The fingers slid a bit down my thigh, and I wondered if I was going to get raped before It ate me. Monsters never raped first then ate the victim in the movies. My mind tried to work its way around this, and I didn't even notice that the hand had found my key ring and attempted to remove it.

I shrieked for the third time, and the Thing spoke.

"Open your bloody eyes."

Huh. The monster spoke. I tried to open my eyes. Nope, couldn't do it. When I was a little girl, I had been sure that as long as my eyes were closed and every part of my body was under the blanket, no air even getting in, the monsters couldn't get me. Some part of this had come back now. So long as I did not open my eyes, this wasn't happening.

"Open your eyes, dammit."

The voice was like rusty air. Hardly any sound at all. Just a raspy air sound that barely formed words. I shivered at the lack of humanity in the sound and the fear that choked me.

"I can't." I finally managed to say and was happy that I had a voice at all. My voice, when I spoke, was hardly louder than the creature's.

"Why the hell not? I can't get it off. Take it off."

Take it off. Oh God, I was going to get raped before It ate me.

"Girl! Do you hear me? Take it off before, ohhh."

The last part came out a sigh.

"Type O positive."

Huh?

Lips nuzzled at my neck. The reek worsened and the nasty cloud of hair tickled my face. I choked on the rank musty smell of him.

I whimpered weakly.

The door leading downstairs opened, and I finally managed to pry apart my eyelids. Sven barged into the room. "O-mi-God, Vance!"

The creature murmured into my neck. I wondered why Sven was calling for Mia's friend when we had a situation, here.

I flapped my arm at Sven. "Sven! Help! Run away! Get Vickie and run away! Help!"

I wasn't sure what I wanted. Sven caught the monster by the shoulder, and pulled him back like he weighed nothing. Then again, to Sven, maybe the monster didn't.

"Dude! Everyone thought you died!" Sven hugged the monster thing.

Okay, I fell asleep because the store was so slow, and I am having a dream. A very weird dream.

"Can't you smell her?" The thing asked, trying to get to me. I jumped on the counter top and backed up to the cupboard doors, one foot sliding into the sink.

"What?" Sven reached up and grabbed the key ring off the belt loop of my jeans. He pulled the Thing to the fridge and unlocked the drawer that held all of the blood.

"Dude, why didn't you just rip the friggin' drawer out?"

The Thing dug its teeth into the bag, gulping frantically.

When the bag was emptied, the Thing threw it in the garbage and gracefully wiped his face on his arm. "I did not want to ruin Mia's pretty kitchen. Gimme another bag."

I stared at the creature. Was it just me or was It looking more human? Yes, the face was fuller, and a rosy color tinged the monster's skin. Even Its hair glistened more. The monster's lips had filled out into sensual curves. Long, curling lashes framed heavily-lidded eyes and enhanced a graceful brow. The Thing in the kitchen had transformed in less than five minutes from dead looking monster to Greek god.

Somehow the transformation made the Thing more terrifying and less real all at once, which somehow worked out as a mood changer for me. I found myself making a transformation of my own-from terrified blubbering idiot to pissed off-in less time than it took the Thing to finish the second bag.

I jumped off the counter. With a butcher knife in one hand and a steak knife in the other, I lunged at the Thing.

 

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE eBOOK

BLADE SONG by J.C. Daniels

BLADE SONG by J.C. Daniels

The Colbana Files

Kit Colbana—half breed, assassin, thief, jack of all trades—has a new job: track down the missing ward of one of the local alpha shapeshifters. It should be a piece of cake.

So why is she so nervous? It probably has something to do with the insanity that happens when you deal with shifters—especially sexy ones who come bearing promises of easy jobs and easier money.

Or maybe it’s all the other missing kids that Kit discovers while working the case, or the way her gut keeps screaming she’s gotten in over her head. Or maybe it’s because if she fails—she’s dead.

If she can stay just one step ahead, she should be okay. Maybe she’ll even live long to collect her fee…

BUY THE eBOOK *** BUY IN KINDLE *** READ THE EXCERPT

~Excerpt~

Two hours.

No luck.

And it was getting dark.

As we cut back up the street, I had to admit that Keeli, whoever she was, just didn’t want to be found.

Okay.

Maybe we’d try to come back—

“Hey.”

I heard the low, wasted rasp of a voice and looked down the alley.

Damon caught my arm.

I stopped and glanced at him. I wasn’t an idiot.

Popping my wrist, I turned to the sound of the voice and waited.

A shadow moved. “Hear you’re looking for Keeli.”

“You’ve got good ears.” Or you’ve just been in the area for the past few hours, I thought sourly.

The shadow crept closer. Light reflected off a man’s face before he eased back into the shadow.

“I can tell you where to find her…but it will cost you.”

Wow. What a surprise, that.

Fishing a bill out of my pocket, I knelt down on the ground and found a rock. I wrapped the bill around it and tossed it into the alley. “There.”

Silence stretched out. “That’ll do, kid. But…trust me. You don’t want me shouting this news.
You’re looking for news on the Alpha’s boy, right?”

Damon tensed at my back.

“What do you know?” I asked, staring into the alley.

I could see him.

Dirty face. Young. Grimy.

He smiled at me.

“I know all sorts of things, girl,” he murmured.

My skin crawled, but if he knew something…

I slid Damon another look. His eyes were glowing. His hand gripped my arm. But when I stepped forward, he was right there by me.

They went for him first.

Through the roar of blood in my ears, I heard Damon swearing. That was kind of funny. There were four of them and he was cussing them out?

But then one of them howled… A death scream. One that made the skin on my nape crawl as I slashed through the air with my blade.

She was made like a rapier, but heavier. I could hack away for hours if I had to, and the fool in front of me was bleeding from more cuts than even I could count; he was either too weak or too underfed to heal them well. He made another lunge at me and I drove the blade through his heart, twisting it and jerking upward. Skin smoked as it met the silver and I watched as the life in his eyes faded.

Jerking my blade free, I turned, braced for another attack.

All I saw was Damon. Walking toward me with blood dripping off him, falling in fat drops from his fingers.

“Show off,” I muttered.

A flash of white appeared in his face. I almost thought he was smiling.

But that faint smile was gone in another second as shadows came rushing at us from all around.
I found myself shoved to the ground.

There was a rumbling sound—something I couldn’t identify.

And another sound—one I could.

The ground was shaking, I thought. As I pushed up onto my elbows, I saw a giant shape rushing into the alley.

Goliath.

Hell was about to break loose.

Then a cat roared and I heard somebody scream. Maybe it already had.

As the fighting raged over my head, I rolled to the side and flexed my wrist. My blade was gone. I managed to get my back to the wall of the busted, broken building behind me, using it for support and shadow as I surveyed the mess in front of me.

Five, six, seven—yeah. Seven scraggly wolves fighting Goliath and Damon. The wolves had shifted. Damon and Goliath hadn’t. Two wolves were trying to take Goliath down and he casually caught one, ripped its head off. My gut went a little queasy at the sight.

The second one didn’t fare much better.

Damon wasn’t quite so casual.

Quick, brutal.

But for every one they took down, several more came crawling out of the shadows.

What the hell—

Panting for breath, I flexed my wrist and called my blade.

Off to the side, I heard a snarl.

The wolf came for me just as I turned to face it.

I never even got my blade up.

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE eBOOK

CAFE MAZON by Crystal Hubbard

CAFE MAZON by Crystal Hubbard


The tables are turned on a serial rapist and his dimwitted accomplice when they attack a woman unlike any of their previous victims.


BUY THE eBOOK *** READ THE EXCERPT


Excerpt:

He'd first seen her the last time he was here, after he'd been interrupted by strange voices and footsteps. He hated being interrupted, especially since he'd been having such a good time, but in the end it all worked out. If he hadn't taken the time to pound Terry for getting distracted with that damn magic book, he wouldn't have seen his latest flame. She'd rounded the corner and headed straight for the café.

Dee and Terry had eaten there a few times. Dee didn't much care for the aloof manner of the staff or the snooty misspelled French name, but the food was good and you got a lot of it.

Terry had complained the whole time, but Dee had sat in the car all the rest of the night, waiting for his new target to leave the diner. She didn't come out until after the lunch rush.

Dee followed her to the subway, then took Terry to McDonald's for a few Happy Meals. Later that night, they went back to see if she'd return to the diner.

She did.

Every night, same time, same corner, same routine until Dee couldn't stand it anymore.

Now, he finally had her. He pulled out his hunting knife, thrilled with the clean grab.

He used the tip of his knife to trace the center seam of the back of her pants. The halves fell away, revealing two rounds of golden flesh. If her ass wasn’t God’s finest work, it had to be in the top ten.

“No panties, huh?” Dee smirked. “You dressed for our date, I’ll give you points for that.”

She glanced over her shoulder as the blade lightly moved along her spine. "Are you about finished?" she asked with a slight yawn.

Her voice was a low, silky, disinterested growl. To Dee, it was as sexy as it was annoying.

"Baby," Dee sneered, slicing through the backstrap of her bra, "I haven't even got good and started."

She turned around, slowly lowering her arms. "Three women have been assaulted and killed around here. Your work?"…

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE eBOOK

ADAM by Jacquelyn Frank

ADAM by Jacquelyn Frank

The Nightwalkers- Book 6

Haunted by magic, beset by evil, the Nightwalkers face their darkest hour yet. And when they unthinkable happens, only one legendary male has the power,
the will, to save them: Adam....

FOR 400 YEARS HE WAS LOST TO HER, BUT HE IS HERS TONIGHT...

From their first tantalizing touch, Jasmine knows he is different. What other lover could unlock her tight control, flood Vampire senses jaded by a lifetime of decadent self indulgence? Centuries ago, when he disappeared without a trace, she had given up hope of ever fulfilling the promise of incomparable passion. But here he is, against the very laws of nature, ready to bring down their most vicious enemy, ready to bring her blood to the boiling point.... If she will only let him.

BUY THE BOOK *** BUY IN KINDLE *** BUY IN NOOK *** BUY IN AUDIO *** READ THE EXCERPT

Prologue
Samhain 2008

“There’s too many of them!” Isabella cried out after a moment wasted in catching her breath. The dark ebony cloud of her hair was flung around her head in a wide arc as she whipped it around to look at her companion: her mate and husband, the father of her daughter, not to mention their son, whose impending existence they had only found out about a week ago. He guarded her back just as she guarded his in this fight, and together they were protecting the thing most precious to them both. “Jacob!”

The female Druid was forced to turn her back on her attackers as she saw that the odds she faced were nothing compared to his. No matter how strong and skilled she had become as a fighter over her years beside him, no matter how powerful an Earth Demon he was, they would never survive against such forces. Not alone. But Jacob would not relent.

He could not relent.

It was not only because they were the Enforcers and it was their duty to fight these foul aggressors with every last breath in their bodies. It was because their daughter, Leah, was secreted away only a few yards distant from the ground they currently defended. Jacob would sacrifice his last breath before he would see his family harmed. Isabella would do no less.

“Bella!”

Jacob reached for her between one smooth strike at the enemy and the next. He linked his arm through hers, and like the perfectly fitting cogs of a watch, she rotated over his back, her legs windmilling in dual strikes that stunned and stumbled enemies. When her feet hit the ground, she instantly stepped back so the heel of her left foot touched the heel of his right.

They braced themselves in that back-to-back position as the forces around them circled like vultures. Fortunately, both fighters knew that baser instincts would prevent these Transformed Demons from organizing themselves with intelligence, cunning, or strategy. The situation was critical enough with their bloodlust berserking; if they were to work in tandem, they would have a horrifying advantage.

Even as Bella struck a mark with a petite arm that packed far more punch than would be expected in one so small, Jacob spread his hands out parallel to the earth, his fingers curling as if they were burying into the soil that, in actuality, was a good four feet below the thick stone under their feet. Shattered quartz and rich loam spewed up toward those commanding hands, starting in one place and rapidly exploding in a circle around him and his wife until they were being swallowed by a perfect cylinder of dirt, rock, and debris.

Isabella wasn’t afraid when the ground caved in beneath her and the earth literally sealed its lips above her head and swallowed her up. She instantly dropped down into the chute of the tunnel being burrowed through the soil, her husband sliding swiftly beside her as they fell. Even though she could see and hear the rumble of clean fill collapsing above their heads almost as fast as they fell, she was not intimidated. On the contrary, she was relieved. The monsters above them could never catch them now. It was all Jacob; every grain and every pebble being manipulated around them was under her husband’s artful command. He was the most powerful Earth Demon alive. The oldest of his kind.

None of the Transformed Earth Demons above them could match the speed and accuracy Jacob used to manipulate the Earth around them, or the way the soil was repacked above them tighter than nature herself had originally done. Now their enemies would have to figure out how to find their way through tremendous amounts of earth in order to find them.

Finally they passed through what was once solid limestone before bursting out of the Demon-made tunnel and into a nature-made cavern. Jacob manipulated gravity so they landed gently on their feet, even giving Isabella an extra moonwalk bounce that made her laugh briefly in spite of their dire circumstances.

Then she turned sharply around to face her mate.

“The baby!”

“Easy,” her husband reassured her. “She’s just through the caverns. I pulled her down, too. What did you think I was going to do?” He reached out and swatted her backside as she hurried in the direction he had indicated. But despite the playful gesture and her smart look over her shoulder, they were both very aware that they weren’t safe yet. Granted, most of those above could not follow them, but some . . .

Some could.

“I pulled Jasmine into the caverns as well, but she’s hell and gone from here,” he warned his wife. “It’s going to take some time for her to reach us.”

Bella threw up a hand of acknowledgment, even though he already knew she had heard him and understood him. Understood they were on their own.

Isabella’s speed as she ran along the twisting corridor still amazed her. It had been six years since she had evolved from a human into a Druid, or rather, a hybrid of human and Druid. The power that had come with that alteration in her genetic makeup, including her ability to run with incredible speed, had been one of many blessings in her life since then. As she rounded a corner, she saw one of her blessings indignantly dusting off the soil the other blessing in Bella’s life had caused to get on her dress.

“Daddy, I’m dirty,” the five-year-old complained, the hands on her tiny hips and the jut of her lips all too reminiscent of her mother’s infamous gestures of pique. She completely disregarded the fact that she’d been in any danger.

“Sorry, angel,” Jacob apologized halfheartedly as he looked up toward the cavern ceiling, sensing the danger looming above them. “We have to make haste,” he said softly as he leaned in toward Bella’s ear.

Isabella was already scooping up her daughter as her husband’s hand fell into the small of her back to guide and hurry her.

“Mommy, I can walk,” Leah reminded her with her trademark stubborn independence, just as she always did when Isabella tried to carry her.

Of course, Leah let her father truck her around everywhere from dusk to dawn if that was his wish, and she never complained then, Isabella thought.

“Mommy is faster than you are, sweetheart, and we have to run,” Bella explained as she began to do just that.

She didn’t lose patience with her daughter’s distorted priorities. It wasn’t that Leah didn’t understand that there was peril around them, because she did. However, Leah had grown up watching her parents run into battle at the slightest threat to their home and homeland, their friends and family, or their monarch’s people. She was speaking like a child who wasn’t worried in the least about her safety because she knew her parents to be a mighty force, an undefeatable army of two that would never fail to protect her for as long as she lived.

There was a bursting change in the cavern’s air pressure, one that all three of them recognized; although in Leah’s experience, the force that created that sinus-snapping aftermath was always friendly. This one was not.

Isabella skidded to a halt, shoving her daughter behind herself so suddenly that Leah’s dress hit the dirt once more.

Bella and Jacob squared off to face the traitorous Demon Ruth, who had become a powerful enemy as she’d added potent necromancer magic to her already vast repertoire of ability as an Elder Mind Demon. It was she who had betrayed and Summoned the Transformed Demons Jacob and Isabella had left up above them, layers of earth and rock away.

Worse yet was the presence of the Vampire named Nicodemous, who now shared her power, just as he seemed to share her black magic abilities. Ruth had caused devastating death and destruction when she had defected, first with her daughter, and then, upon her daughter’s death, on her own. Now, mated to a Vampire of such age and avaricious might, she was an unfathomable force of evil.

They both were.

The only small thing in the Enforcers’ favor was that Ruth’s Transformed minions couldn’t immediately come to her aid. That wouldn’t last long, however.

Ruth only needed a moment of concentration before she could begin teleporting them down to her side a bucketful at a time.

Isabella refused to give her the advantage. The Druid released the tight rein she always kept on her ability to dampen the power of any Nightwalker. This was by far her most powerful ability, and it was also the most unpredictable and dangerous to her personally. She even forced herself to acknowledge the unknown damage it could do to the delicate fetus she carried.

But she didn’t see that she had a choice with the lives of the rest of her family at stake. Even with Jasmine on her way to back them up, the female Vampire was only one person, and it would take an army to defeat these two evil creatures if their powers remained intact. They had learned much about how to use them over these past few years. And it was only going to get worse. Bella and Jacob had to strike now, while they had a chance. And besides, the traitorous bitch was coming after her child. Bella would see to it Ruth paid for even daring to think about touching Leah. Damn the painful consequences she might suffer. If Bella didn’t do something, they all would die anyway.

Clearly Jacob felt the same, or he would have volubly protested her impending actions through the telepathic link they shared with one another. He knew what potential harm there was to his wife, but while he’d argued against it in the past on many occasions, there was no time to argue now.

And so she opened herself to the dangerous unknown and drew it into her vulnerable mind and body. Bella had absorbed the power of a female Mind Demon before, but nothing like this blackness of soul. It was sucked harshly into her like acrid ammonia.

She had taken the power of a corrupted Vampire before. He had stolen the lives of other Nightwalkers, gathering their power into himself through the drinking of their blood. But she knew instantly that this Vampire was tainted well beyond that, the stain of necromancer magic on his soul as well. It was like imbibing a double dose of pure, liquid evil. She felt the cloying blackness of dual channels of power from the twin sources; they seeped into her like thick oil and tar. The evil twisted together inside her, suffocating her from the inside out. Her eyes, normally a beautiful violet color, blacked over and she looked down at herself to see pitch liquid oozing out of her skin. She did not realize the vision was only in her own mind.

Jacob felt his mate scream in horror long before she actually found the voice for it. He saw what she saw, just as he knew her every waking thought every moment of the day. He knew she was seeing a hallucination, and he couldn’t help the instinct that had him leaping into her mind to convince her of what was real and what was not. He whirled around to catch her in a single strong arm as she lurched in a back-arching seizure.

Leah watched with wide, frightened eyes as her mother was flung backward by an unseen force. Her young heart leapt into her throat as her father spun to catch her mother, the long brown-black tail of his hair whipping like that of an agitated horse. She felt her heart seize fitfully with incomprehension as she watched him quickly ease his beloved wife to the ground as gently as he could, considering the violent contortions of her body.

That was all the time it took for the enemy behind him to strike.

It was the Vampire that moved. Leah watched, paralyzed with shock and fear as he reached with blinding speed into his long, dark coat, grabbing for something that looked sharp and deadly. Even Leah’s immature Demon senses could smell the sudden tang of rusted iron, the poisonous metal that was deadly to Demons.

A moment later the Vampire leapt onto her father’s turned back and drove the iron spike between rear ribs and shoulder blade.

Leah watched as if through someone else’s eyes as the spike burst through her father’s chest, spearing him straight through the heart. The inconceivable sight of her sire’s blood exploding out of his chest was nothing compared to seeing him fall to his knees in total shock, his face full of outrage and a clear frustration that only those who loved him would understand. Jacob looked up into his little girl’s violet eyes, so like her mother’s, and felt his failure to protect his family so sharply that the last sound to leave him was a keening cry of utter remorse.

Then he fell forward onto her mother, the last exhale of his breath echoing in the suddenly silent cavern.

“Daddy!”

Leah screamed for her father as the Vampire reached to yank him off her mother, baring his fangs. He hissed and then threw Jacob away so violently that Leah heard her father hit the near wall with a sickening smack.

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK

TAINTED BLOOD by Stacey Kennedy

TAINTED BLOOD by Stacey Kennedy

The Dark Element Book One

Darkness is settling over San Francisco - vampires in the throes of blood lust are taking innocent lives. One witch will need to see past her fear, and trust her Guardian, before everyone is in danger, including herself...

Earth Witch, Sabi, has been gifted with the ability to see premonitions of the darkness that threatens human lives. Safe in the Otherworld, she adjusts to these new visions...which isn't going so well. Luckily, she's got the sexy Guardian, Ryker to help her work through these visions. He's intent to show her how to distance herself from them and help her gain control of life. Not that it's really helping. The visions are leaving her crippled and unable to help pinpoint the killer's locations to stop the acts from happening.

If that's not enough to deal with, she soon begins to see vampires on a killing rampage in San Francisco. Vampires are being born and left to fend for themselves, resulting in innocent lives being taken while they're in the throes of blood lust. But as Sabi's visions begin to kick up a notch, personal matters need to be put aside. And as the mystery begins to unravel, Sabi will begin to see that these visions are getting far more dangerous and that humans are not the only ones at risk - she is.

BUY THE eBOOK   ***   BUY IN KINDLE   ***   READ THE EXCERPT

Excerpt:

Ryker took another step toward her, but Sabi raised her hand to stop him.“Don’t give me that smoldering look. I mean it, if my dessert goes in the garbage again, there will be hell to pay.”

“I’m only interested in comforting you.”

“Sure you are.” She continued to step away from him. Her stare focused on his, and good heavens, they burned with desire. The one part of their relationship that had never been an issue was the spectacular passion between them.

“Now come on, I only want to hug you.”

She knew him all too well. “A hug will lead to nakedness, and the dessert will be forgotten.”

He continued to approach her, moved her out of the kitchen as she backed away from him while he gave her his sexy grin. “You think so little of my restraint?”

“I know you don’t have any,” she retorted, suddenly aware her legs were stopped by something. She glanced back to find he had herded her into the bedroom. “I mean it, Ryker. You’ve ruined too many of the treats I’ve made for you.”

He pinned her, leaning his body against hers, and his gaze said he enjoyed the position he put her in. “May I remind you, I’ve said to stop all this baking and let me just enjoy the taste of you.”

Classic Ryker—bold, yet somehow charming. He could say something dirty and make it sound endearing. He closed the distance between them, raised his hand and ran a finger down her cheek. “What if I touched you here, would this change your mind?”

“No,” she said, determined. Oh, she would fight him, and ignore how sexy he looked in his Guardian gear—all warrior—all man. She enjoyed baking for him, liked doing nice things for him, and he’d made it a habit to let her efforts burn to a crisp. No, she would hold her ground and refuse him. They needed to wait forty-five minutes, if that, and then they could play.

“What if I did this?”

He ran his thumb over her lips, and on instinct, her lips parted as her breath followed in a whoosh. “No, my mind would not be changed.”

He grinned, and she almost succumbed to him. The confidence oozing from him, the pure sex appeal emanating from him, plus his gorgeous face―she was screwed.

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK

HUNT THE MOON by Karen Chance

HUNT THE MOON by Karen Chance

A Cassandra Palmer Book

Cassandra Palmer recently defeated a god, which you'd think would buy a girl a little time off. But it doesn't work that way when your new job description is Pythia - the world's chief clairvoyant.

Cassie is busier than ever, trying to learn about her power, preparing for her upcoming coronation, and figuring out her relationship with the enigmatic sexy master vampire, Mircea.

But someone doesn't want Cassie to become Pythia, and is willing to go to any lengths to make sure the coronation ceremony never happens - including attacking her mother before Cassie is even born.

BUY THE BOOK *** BUY IN KINDLE *** BUY IN AUDIO *** READ THE EXCERPT

Chapter Two


The thought cut cleanly through the gibbering in my brain. People had been trying to kill me in elaborate ways for months, yet if I didn’t get a grip, my epitaph was going to read: she drowned in the tub. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t, because I was damned if I was going to go out like that.

Only it didn’t look like I had a lot of choice.

The more I struggled, the more my body seemed to shut down. Trying to move was like battering against the lid of a coffin from the inside. I cried out furiously, but the shout stayed locked in my numb throat.
The worst part was the silence. Death was supposed to be loud—gunshots, explosions, screams and thunder. Not this eerie quiet that wrapped around me like a shroud. I couldn’t hear anything but the water lapping at the sides of the tub, like a watch counting down the seconds I had left.

And a harsh voice echoing in my ears: Assess, Address, Act.

For a second, the words just hung there in my head, refusing to connect to anything. And then I remembered Pritkin’s damn three A’s. I grabbed at the thought like a lifeline, before it could skitter away into the white noise of my panic.

Okay, I thought wildly. Assess. What was the problem? That I couldn’t fucking breathe.

Address. What could I do about it? Nothing. Not when my own body refused to follow my commands, when it seemed almost like it was under someone else’s—

Wait, wait. I didn’t need to move physically to use my power, which was independent of my human form. And my power could—

I shifted before I finished the thought, ending up outside the tub, with my bare ass several feet above the bathroom floor. Gravity took care of that, dumping me onto the cold tile before I’d even managed to get a breath, along with about forty gallons of tepid water. In my panic, I’d shifted the entire contents of the bath, which foamed over the floor, drenching the fuzzy rug and breaking against the walls like a miniature tide.

I barely noticed. I lay on the water-slick tile, sucking harsh gulps of air into my screaming lungs, while Billy hovered around me. He looked a little panicked now, I noticed irrelevantly, right before a hand clenched around my throat.

It took me a second to realize that it was mine.

Fortunately, I have small hands, so the one trying its best to choke the life out of me wasn’t having much success. It might have done a better job if it had had some help, but my other hand was locked white-knuckled around the standing towel rack and it wasn’t letting go. I stared at it, dazed and uncomprehending, and my own wide blue eyes stared back at me from the bright chrome surface.

“What the hell?”

The question echoed the one in my head, but it hadn’t come from me. It took me a second to realize that Billy had slipped inside my skin, the way he did when feeding. It gave him access to my power, something I’d learned to put up with but never to like. Today, I grabbed him in a metaphysical clench, almost sobbing from relief.

“Help!”

“Help how?” he demanded. “What’s happening?”

“Possession.” The word stopped me, since my conscious mind hadn’t connected the dots. But my unconscious seemed to be more organized, because that sounded about right. I’d had some experience with possession in recent months because it was one of the Pythia’s chief weapons, but I’d never before had it turned on me.

I decided I wasn’t enjoying the experience.

“By what?” Billy demanded.

“Like I know! Just do something!”

“Yeah, only what I can do depends a lot on what exactly is—”

“Billy!”

“Okay, okay. Don’t worry, Cass. I got this,” he told me. Right before he was thrown out of me, across the bathroom and through the wall.

I watched him disappear, a look of almost comical surprise on his face, and belatedly realized who’d had control of my other hand. Because it immediately went numb and joined the choke party at my neck. But amazingly enough, that wasn’t my biggest problem.

There were a limited number of things that could possess a human. Ghosts were one of them, but unless they were welcomed inside like I did for Billy, they had to fight their way through the body’s defenses. And that meant a much weakened spirit by the time they finally got in—if they did.

But that hadn’t been weak. Whatever-it-was had exorcized Billy while maintaining its grip on me, and no mere ghost could do that. Which narrowed things down to the Oh, Shit list.

A fact that was demonstrated when the towel rack tipped over and tried to bash my head in. My hand wasn’t on it anymore—no one’s was--but it was going nuts anyway. It shattered the mirror over the sink, then ricocheted off and slammed into the tub, sweeping the jar of bath salts into the floor and turning the soggy tile fluorescent pink.

The result was enough noise to wake the dead, one of whom started hammering on the bathroom door.
“Miss Palmer. Are you all right?”

I didn’t know the voice, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t answer anyway. All I could think about was getting to the source. The vamps might not know any more about this than I did, but they could at least pry my damn hands off my neck.

I tried to shift, but this time, nothing happened. Maybe because the room was starting to spin and my vision was graying out and I was slowly sinking to my knees. And then Billy was back, looking pissed.
He slipped inside my skin, and immediately I felt a very familiar energy drain. “You’re feeding now?” I asked incredulously.

“I have to have energy to fight this thing, Cass! And I’m almost bottomed out.”

“And what do you think I am?”

Billy didn’t answer, and the drain didn’t stop. But a moment later, my hands sprang away from my neck like they’d been burned. Suddenly, I could breathe again.

I stayed down because I didn’t have the energy to get up, coughing and wheezing as my lungs struggled to drag in air through a throat that felt maybe half the right size. It was burning, and my head was swimming and I really, really wanted to throw up. But I would have cried in relief if my eyes had been under my control.

Unfortunately, they’d rolled up into their sockets and wouldn’t come back down.

“Miss Palmer?” The vamp was sounding seriously unhappy now, but the door still didn’t open. “Why isn’t he coming in?” Billy demanded angrily.

“He doesn’t want to upset me.”

“You and your damn personal space!”

I didn’t answer because he had a point. And because I suddenly realized that I could feel my legs again. It shouldn’t have surprised me. Holding onto a body that isn’t yours and doesn’t want to be held is no easy task. And it looked like whatever had its claws in me couldn’t keep all my appendages in thrall at once while also fighting off Billy Joe.

It wasn’t much of an advantage, but it was the only one I had. I staggered to my feet, wincing when a piece of broken glass cut my heel and almost tripping over the soggy, bunched up rug. I was trying hard not to panic, but it felt a lot like drowning again—being naked and blind and at the mercy of an enemy I knew nothing about.

Except that it wanted me dead.

And it wasn’t too particular about how I got that way.

I hadn’t taken two hesitant steps when my legs suddenly went numb, my body turned and I ran--straight into the nearest wall. My head happened to be twisted slightly, which saved my nose, but my temple hit hard enough to leave me reeling. I staggered back, but only to get enough leverage to ram the wall again.
“Eyes!” I mentally screamed, as I jerked out a hand to break my fall and almost broke the bone instead.

“Working on it.”

“Work harder!” I cried, as the impact sent me stumbling into the side of the sink.

My hip hit the unforgiving marble hard enough to bruise, but a moment later, my eyesight returned. That would have been a relief, except that it freed up my attacker to grab back one of my hands. Luckily, it was the bad one, and it dropped the hair pick it had snatched up before it could stab me in the eye with it.

The pick went down and my other hand came up—along with a jagged piece of the mirror that it used to slash at my jugular. Billy caught it just in time, but the hand didn’t drop. It hovered menacingly in the air in front of my face, shaking from effort, while three different spirits battled for control.

I couldn’t tell who was winning, but I didn’t think it was us. I stared at the wickedly sharp triangle as it slowly edged closer, reflecting back to me wildly matted blond hair, a bone-white face and dazed blue eyes—and the door to the living room over my left shoulder. It was nearer now, and I was still on my feet.

I ran for it.

Halfway there, my body went into spasms and I went down. But I managed to snag a potted fern on the way. The pretty piece of blue and white Delftware was on a pretty little stand, which made a pretty little crash when it tipped over and exploded against the hard tile.

And, finally, that was enough for the guards. The door burst open and three vamps rushed in, stopping in confusion when they saw nothing but a skinny white girl ripping the bathroom apart. And then it felt like something was ripping me, too, a burning, tearing sensation that mercifully only lasted a second before something shot out of me.

A wordless scream knifed through the silence and something shivered through the air of the bathroom. The presence was oily and slick and wrong, but the smell was worse: sickly sweet, thick at the back of my throat, cloying, instantly nauseating. It sparked a feeling of primal revulsion deep in my gut, and it didn’t look like I was the only one. The vamps ducked and pulled guns, despite the fact that there was nothing for them to shoot--except for me, and they managed not to do that even when I suddenly dove through the middle of them.

I wasn’t driving, but I didn’t think the entity was, either, because I could feel every inch of hide getting burnt off as I hit the carpet in the dining area face-first. “Not helping!” I told Billy, just as the remains of the mirror shot by overhead and imbedded themselves in the remaining guards.

I didn’t have time to apologize, because the apartment was going nuts. A decanter set flew up from a nearby cart and slammed into the wall behind me in a wash of booze and expensive glass. The cutlery on the room service cart followed and would have skewered me if a vamp hadn’t thrown himself in the way. And then the light fixture over the dining table ripped out of the ceiling, whirling for me like a crystal tornado.

Billy flung us behind the sofa, which didn’t help, and then rolled us under the coffee table, which did. At least for the moment. All I could see through the glass top was a few hundred crystals, beating against it like an expensive hailstorm, but the view through the side was less obstructed.

I stared around, as much in disbelief as panic, because I’d never seen anything like it. Ghosts find it very difficult to move even tiny things, like a paperclip or a piece of paper. They don’t rip curtain rods off the walls or toss heavy paintings at people’s heads or throw chairs through plate glass windows.
Except for bleeding walls, it looked like something out of the Amityville Horror.

I blinked, finally making the connection. And then I squeezed Billy so hard he yelped. “Cut it out!”
“We have to get to Pritkin,” I told him quickly.

“What? Why? What can he—”

“This isn’t a ghost.”

“No shit!”

“So it’s probably some kind of demon.”

“So?”

“So he’ll know how to drive it out!”

Billy didn’t say anything, maybe because Pritkin was our resident demon expert. Or maybe because the coffee table had just splintered down the middle. He flipped us onto all fours and we scrambled out the other side, just as the chandelier burst like a crystal grenade all over the living room.

It might not have been made for this type of activity, but the dozen or so thick columns of wood flying around looked sturdier. They also looked familiar. I finally recognized one when it slammed through the piano trying to get at me. I stared at one of the legs off the dining set and wondered why the entity would bother trashing that. We were on the other side of the apartment now, so it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

Until I saw one of the guards run past, being pursued by the equivalent of a flying stake. He dodged it—mostly—and it hit his leg instead of his heart. That was lucky, because it punched through flesh and bone as easily as the other pieces did the walls, the furniture and the flimsy sides of the piano.

The vampires who formed my bodyguard were all senior-level masters and, presumably, they’d seen a lot of wild stuff through the years. But it didn’t look like they’d seen this. Vamps who prided themselves on strength and impassivity were running around wild-eyed, attacking the misbehaving furniture as if they thought it was the problem or just trying to avoid being vamp shish-kebob.

But other than for the sound of the suite imploding, it was weirdly quiet. I couldn’t talk and the vamps didn’t need to—at least not aloud. They could communicate mentally with each other as easily as I talked to Billy, something that usually gave them a hell of an advantage in a fight. Except, apparently, for right now.

But at least one guy had decided that they needed outside help, because he’d whipped out a cell phone. He was on the other side of the room from where I was hunkered down behind the baby grand, and I didn’t have control of my vocal chords anyway. So I poked the guy who did. “Tell him to call Pritkin!”
And Billy tried. But between my burning throat and the mortal peril and the deafening noise, nobody paid any attention. “These guys are new—I don’t even think they know who he is!” Billy said frantically.

“Then you’ll have to go get him.”

“How? We’ll never make it to the door through all that!”

“I won’t, but you will. It isn’t after you.”

“Yeah, except if I leave, that thing’ll have its claws back in you!”

“And if you don’t, it’ll beat me to death!” I wasn’t seeing a whole lot of difference, really.

“Okay, okay.” Billy sounded like he was trying to calm down, and wasn’t doing so great. “Say I find the mage. Then what? He can’t see me.”

Shit. Billy was so solid to me, that I had a problem remembering that that wasn’t true for everyone. But Pritkin wouldn’t even know he was there.

It was hard to concentrate over the sound of the piano’s death throes, but I tried. Only the three A’s weren’t doing me a lot of good right now. I knew what the problem was—I needed to get to Pritkin. But I didn’t have any abilities to help me do that.

If I could have shifted, it would have been easy. But his room was five stories down and on the other side of the hotel. And I knew without trying that I couldn’t make it that far. It was hard to shift after Billy had fed even when I wasn’t already exhausted. As it was, I’d be lucky to get five yards, and that wouldn’t—

I stopped, my thoughts reversing. “Get to Pritkin,” I told Billy, over the sound of the blood pounding in my temples.

“I just told you, that won’t—”

“Listen to me! He has Jonas’s necklace. He used it to pull me back to him today when I tried to shift.
You’ve got to get it!”

“And then what? It only works on you when you use your power, and you can’t--”

“I only need to shift—it doesn’t matter how far! A couple inches should be enough to activate it. Now go!”

For once, he didn’t argue, maybe because he didn’t know what else to do, either. I felt him leave and braced myself for another onslaught. But the entity was having too much fun to notice Billy slipping away, and I didn’t give it time to figure things out. I grabbed the top of the piano bench for a shield and started crawling.

A guard was on top of a tipped-over chair, batting at the flying shards of wood with a bloody table leg like a slugger at a baseball game. He saw me and his eyes went round, as if he assumed I must have been skewered ages ago. “Not dead yet,” I croaked encouragingly, and crawled on.

The dining room had been destroyed, but the room service cart had miraculously survived, wedged in the doorway between the bar and the kitchen. I pushed it the rest of the way inside and peeked under the warming lid. Fried chicken, and it was still hot.

There was a God.

I hunkered down behind the kitchen island and concentrated on regaining enough strength to shift on my own if Billy failed. That basically involved stuffing down as much as possible as fast as possible without throwing up. I was making a serious dent in Marco’s vast quantities when something caused me to look up.

Three vamps stood in the kitchen doorway, staring at me. They looked a little shell-shocked, and a glance at the stainless side of the fridge told me why. I was naked and bloody, with tufts of half-dried hair sticking up everywhere and a chicken leg distorting one side of my mouth. I looked startlingly like a mad cave woman.

I removed the leg and licked my greasy lips. “Um. Hi?”

They didn’t say anything. For a moment, we all just looked at each other. And then the creature attacked again and I stopped worrying about the impression I was making and started worrying about getting my brains bashed out against the side of the island. I saw stars and red exploding things that probably came under the category of not healthy.

And then I saw Pritkin staring at me in utter shock.

I didn’t remember trying to shift, but I must have, because instead of cold kitchen tile, my toes were suddenly sinking into the carpet in his hotel room. I’d landed by the bed, which he’d been in the process of turning back. His hair was damp and curling around his neck and a few drops of water still clung to his shoulders. And either he hadn’t bothered to put on pajamas yet or he slept in the nude, which might have been awkward if I hadn’t been in the process of dying.

“Possession,” I croaked, before my hands formed themselves into claws and my body launched itself off the floor, going straight for those clear green eyes.

I didn’t succeed in scratching them out—Pritkin’s reflexes are better than that, even when totally gob smacked—but I did tear an inch-long gash down one of his cheeks. “Sorry!”

“What kind of possession?” he asked grimly, one hand locked around each of my wrists.

“Not ghost, but I don’t—”

I stopped talking, because my throat had closed up, and my body started thrashing against his hold. Pritkin looked startled for a moment, like I was harder to control than he’d expected. But the next second, I found myself on my back on the bed with my hands pinned over my head by one of his. He used his other to summon a stream of little vials from a bookshelf he’d installed, apparently as a sort of filing system for nasty potions.

Most of which were soon all over me.

Some were sticky and some were sludgy and all of them were really, really vile. But I wouldn’t have cared if they’d done anything. But as far as I could tell, the most they accomplished was to stain my skin in blotches without apparently affecting the thing inside me at all.

And then my entire body suddenly went numb and I had maybe a second to think—oh, shit—before the entity used my legs to send Pritkin sailing across the room. I saw him hit and pass through the wall, in an odd mirror of what Billy had done. Only Pritkin’s much more material body took the flimsy sheetrock and hard struts along with him.

And to my surprise, the creature decided to follow. Maybe it assumed that I wouldn’t be much of a challenge if it killed him first, or maybe he’d managed to piss it off. I didn’t know, but I felt when it started to pull away, when all of the sensations of a seriously overtaxed body came rushing back at once, forcing out a whimper that I promised myself to deny if I survived long enough.

And then I felt its shock as I slammed my shields shut, trapping it inside.

I hadn’t been able to expel the thing, but this was a different story. It had managed to possess me in the first place because I’d been exhausted and careless and I’d been expecting Billy any moment so my shields were down. But they weren’t now and this was my body and ownership bestowed some privileges. And I was damned if I was going to let that thing finish off the one guy who had a chance to get me out of this while he was possibly unconscious and—

And it had figured out that my body had become its prison and it really wanted out.

We apparently didn’t speak the same language, but it didn’t matter, because it started showing me a cascade of images like something out of a horror movie: my heart exploding in my chest, my lungs shredding like tissue paper, my brain--

“If you could do all that, you already would have,” I thought back viciously, sending the image of it trying to stab me in the eye with a freaking hair pick. I didn’t know why it could trash the apartment and not me, but every single attack had been external or passive, like holding me underwater while I drowned. It was starting to look like maybe it wasn’t all that strong inside the body.

Or like it wasn’t so used to this possession thing, either.

That didn’t make sense for a demon, who presumably did this all the time, but I didn’t have a chance to figure it out before it started thrashing around inside me. And if I thought I’d been in pain before, it was nothing compared to this. It was determined that I was going to let go and I was determined I wasn’t, because if it killed Pritkin I was dead anyway.

And then he was back, bloody and bruised and reaching through the hole to grab something from his foot locker that he tossed at me. “Cassie, catch!”

My arm shot up automatically and I felt my fist close around something cold and hard. And then I didn’t feel anything else for a long moment as I levitated completely off the bed. Definitely Amityville, I thought blankly, and let go of my shields. My body gave a huge convulsion and I was immediately surrounded by a storm of dark, flapping wings, a noxious odor and an infuriated, screeching cry.

And then I hit the bed and rolled off the side. That was lucky, because a second later what felt like a miniature cyclone burst out through the window and a shower of glass exploded into the room in flagrant disregard for the laws of physics. But most of it didn’t hit me, since I was huddled on the floor with my hands over my head trying not to scream.

Pritkin had crawled back through the wall at some point, because when I looked up, he was crouched on the floor, staring at me. I stared mutely back, panting and limp, every limb shaking in reaction, as a confetti of dust and tattered bits of wallpaper rained down all around us. And then the door slammed open and Marco charged in.

He took in my naked, multicolored self, the hole in the wall, the broken window and the battered, bleeding war mage. “The fuck?” he said distinctly.

I swallowed, licking lips that tasted like dust and copper. “I think I freaked out the staff,” I told him weakly. And then I fainted. 

LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK