Ascendance is available here!
For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared. Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th.
I STROLLED through an unfamiliar garden, not remembering how I’d found my way there to begin with. Flowers bloomed in some Wonderland mystery, towering above my head. The sound of water flowing nearby relaxed me to the very core of my being. Bugs as large as me passed, ignoring me in favor of their work. The ground beneath my feet shifted like freshly turned soil, yet I seemed to float over it without stumbling.
Wandering through the towering flowers, I watched the sky’s dark-blue light weave between the giant blossoms and leaves. It changed to day gradually, like a slow-moving picture. The world spun as though it were moon free, restrictive magnetic waves gone. The change could have taken me at any moment, only I feared I’d trample some of the divine growth, so I fought it. Everything glowed with power, life, and strength. I used the light of the blooms above to guide my way, though I had no idea where I was headed.
“Lost?” a masculine voice asked me.
I jumped back a step and looked around until I found a man leaning against the large stalk of an overgrown daisy. He almost seemed to blend in with the stem, though his skin was a pale cinnamon tone and his hair blood red. He wore only a pair of loose-fitting pants of some soft material that clung in places I was sure it had to be cheating to look at.
His arms, shoulders, and chest were defined like a man who worked out regularly but not obsessively. His stomach was flat, with only the faintest outline of muscles, which led to straight hips, a nicely outlined package, and long legs.
“Like what you see, Alice?” he teased, forcing my eyes back up. His smile was bright. He shook his head, sending a cascade of his long red hair rippling down his back like some shampoo commercial.
“Alice?” I couldn't help but study his face, triangular in shape. It bordered on beautiful with just the slight edge of handsome that saved him from really looking like a woman. His dark eyes, framed by a soft fringe of lashes, met mine without hesitation. Somehow I’d gotten closer to him, just feet away.
“Like the story. The little girl who got lost in a forest of oversized adventures.” He shifted and closed the distance between us. “I don’t think my ‘drink me’ potion is going to make you bigger than the flowers, but I’m sure I can show you a good time.” He looked to my crotch. “Maybe it will make you a little bigger. Temporarily, at least.”
Contest winner will be drawn tomorrow!
For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared. Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th.
Using my cellphone as a flashlight, I searched the walls until I found a light switch. When light flooded the main foyer, I stood in awe. This put my mom’s house to shame. The wide-open area housed a large oak tree. The leaves had fallen, scattered around the scarred wood and tile floor and the staircase that curved around it to the second level. But the trunk was wide enough around to look like one of those ancient trees you could drive a car through. Branches stretched across the room and around corners into other areas.
I touched the base and let the power wash through me. Peace, utter, nondisruptable peace. The tree napped, earth telling me it was time for most trees to rest and renew. My watch beeped 3:00 a.m., and I figured I should probably sleep too.
I carefully made my way upstairs, opening doors, revealing a mass of rooms, one after another. This place
wasn’t a house, it was a mansion. At the end of the hall to the left, a door made me pause. The faded old sign on it read:
Peace to all who enter, in heart, spirit, and soul.—Dorien
The black ink was faded, but the scrawl still had an elegant flair. My dad wrote this. Was this his bedroom? I opened the door, found the light, and stared at the room. Sadly it didn’t appear much different than any of the other rooms I’d passed. My bright yellow bag stood out as modern and loud compared to the very traditional furniture.
A little red bug that looked like a large ladybug landed on the bag and crawled around a bit. The dust made me sneeze a dozen times. The bug didn’t move. I wondered how it had gotten inside, but I opened the window and carefully let it crawl into my hand so I could let it outside. The damn thing bit me before it flew out into the darkness toward an overgrowth of weeds in the back of the house. Obviously not a ladybug, then. Must have been an Asian beetle or something. At least with the window open, the soft breeze eased the musty smell of the house.
The bed was already stripped of linens, but covered with a dust cloth. I carefully peeled it back, then dug in all the closets until I came across sheets that didn’t smell like they’d been put away for years, and made the bed. The bathroom needed dusting too but was otherwise clean.
I stripped out of my clothes and slid into bed, too tired to think about anything else. Sleepiness took over even while I missed Gabe’s arms around me. Some adventures just weren’t lollipops and rainbows, and that was okay. I closed my eyes and let sleep take the self-doubt away.
Now Available! Click here for your copy!
For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared. Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th.
By the time we got home, I expected Gabe to be waiting for me in the condo. He wasn't. Everything was dark and cold, or at least it felt that way to me. The time was past nine and surely not that late for a vampire, but late for me. Jamie dropped my stuff off for me. He and Kelly left for his place upstairs, looking like they’d be having some good intimate time together.
I sighed to the empty room. The luggage at my side had seemed like such a good idea at the time. I’d sort of expected Gabe to be here and see it, then talk me out of going. Maybe this trip was really meant to be.
After detagging and stuffing my new things into the washer, I called the number on the letter that had been sent to me. Jamie told me to leave it for Gabe, but he had other things to occupy him right now, mainly Sam. The lawyer, a man by the name of Jonathon Odagiri, told me he would arrange for a car to pick me up at the airport and take me to the estate. Did that mean the house was mine? What would I do with a house in California?
I worked on laundry, packed, and debated what I would say if someone came back before I left for the airport.
I am continuing the contest for a free copy of my new release Ascendance. For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared. Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th.
Christmas was so not my holiday. My mom, Tanaka Rou, a leader of the Dominion, had always made a show of having a big party for Solstice, presenting a big tree, cut fresh each year, in the foyer, full of decoration. Beneath the tree sat hundreds of multicolored presents for little Dominion girls. The giggling and rushing of fluttery dresses always annoyed me. I remember sitting on the top of the stairs watching those unknown girls tear into gifts from a mother from whom I’d never received a single present.
Gabe paused and turned my way, patting Sam on the shoulder before skipping back to me, eyes twinkling and smile huge. He was just a big kid and Christmas was his thing. “They aren't very big, but they smell nice.”
They smelled like dead tree and cleaner. I just smiled at him. He sighed and pulled me away from Jamie, hugging me tight. “I can get a fake one if you want.”
’Cause plastic smelled so much better than cleaner, right. I shook my head at him, then kissed his nose. I could make compromises too. He wanted a dying tree in his living room, so be it. “Go pick your tree.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.” The faster he picked the tree, the faster I was in the warm car headed for home and maybe some snuggling. A recipe for cocoa sat on the counter next to the stove, a little smiley face drawn on it by Kelly. Nothing said Solstice more than the smell of melting chocolate, cream, and cinnamon.
Here is a snippet from this week's release Ascendance. Available for pre-order here.
“Tresler.” One of the Tri-Mega, head vampires, was calling me. My heart pounded, and my blood felt like ice water running through my veins. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m interested in how you feel about being Gabriel’s focus.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“Of course not. He’s filed all the correct paperwork. We’ve approved his request to form a nest.” He sounded amused. “What interesting vampires will he create, being bound to the most powerful earth witch in the world, I wonder?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m the most powerful witch in the world.”
Tresler’s laughter sounded creepy and intimidating, even over the phone. But I suppose any guy who could probably melt your brain by just looking at you should have a scary laugh. “So unexpectedly modest.”
“Is there something I can help you with?” I finally said after a moment of silent debating on how to reply.
“Have you seen any unusual vampires around lately?”
“No.”
“Good.” The phone buzzed in my ear. What the hell? I shoved it in my pocket and made a mental note to ask Gabe about Tresler’s odd behavior later.
When I walked into my condo, Kelly sat sprawled out on the couch watching football. I went to the bathroom, turned on the jets in the tub, and waited for the steamy water to fill up before stripping down, putting a clear plastic baggy over my reader, and settling into a new book. Surely some hot guy would get his ass pounded by a warrior with a huge rod. That was the kind of escape I needed.
My mind wandered a few times to the letter. My uncle had left me stuff. Why hadn’t he left anything for Jamie? Was Jamie just not telling me he got a letter too? What had my father been like? I knew he’d been one of the leaders of the Ascendance, but everything I knew of the Ascendance reminded me of Andrew Roman, who had been an evil man. Where had the corruption begun? Had my father known? Had his brother been involved with the Ascendance too?
For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared. Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th.
In celebration of Ascendance's release day this week I'm holding a contest. I'll have a snippet of Ascendance up Monday through Friday of this week. Each day you comment is an entry into the drawing for a copy of Ascendance. In addition, if you follow the blog you also receive an entry into the contest. Winner will be announced Saturday November 10th.
So I had the bright idea that I would get up early and get started. Yeah, well that didn't happen. LOL. So I get to work and the internet isn't working, which means it's hard to do my job, so instead of picking up something new I'm fixing Evolution, to make it more YA like it was originally.
I will get to starting with Mica today (meeka) and the apocalypse story.
Got to work this morning, hung my coat and a co-worker came up to talk to me and all of a sudden I notice this huge white spider crawling on my coat. AHHH! My thought was did I drive all the way to work with that spider in my coat or did it jump on from the hook I put it on. OMG. Yeah I should go back to bed.
