Showing posts with label werewolves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label werewolves. Show all posts

Thursday, October 6, 2011

What Part of Paranormal Peaks Your Interest: A Guest Post by T.M. Hobbs

I suppose this is a legitimate question which could be asked of every writer who has written a paranormal romance.  My answer would have to be in the definition of paranormal itself - unable to be explained or understood in terms of scientific knowledge.
I find it a challenge to try and come up with scenarios that are unique or that do not quite fit the mold everyone is used to in the paranormal community.  However, when I wrote my first novel length book, Wings of Fate, which was published by The Writer's Coffee Shop in March of 2011, I did use a familiar characterization, that being werewolves. 
For me, the werewolf has always held a certain fascination.   The ability to change from a human form into that of a wolf is intriguing.  That coupled with the creature's seeming oneness with nature is what prompted me to use this particular element when writing my book.
Early on in the book, I needed to develop a past, a back story, for the group of people I was centering my story around, which were the Woodland Cree People in Canada.  I needed this story or legend if you will, to tie the past to the present. 

In doing so, I created the legend of Mahihkan (wolf) and the Maiden.  The Maiden finds the injured wolf and takes him into her home.  Although food is scarce, she shares what she has with the wolf.
He has no way to repay her other than; well here are some excerpts from Wings of Fate to further explain:
“As he began to heal, Mahihkan wanted to repay the young woman’s kindness and generosity, but the only thing he could offer her was himself.  So he lay down beside her each night and kept her warm with his thick fur.

“In time, Mahihkan found that he had feelings for the young maiden, but he was at a loss what to do, for he was a wolf and she was a young woman.  So he limped outside one night, leaving his companion’s side only briefly and howled up at the moon, hoping Kisemanito, The Great Creator, would hear his plea.

“Kisemanito looked down upon Mahihkan with kindness and asked, ‘what do you seek my son?’ Mahihkan answered that he had fallen in love with the young maiden and wanted to be with her.  He wanted to be her lover.  Kisemanito took pity upon Mahihkan and saw that his heart was pure and full of love for the young woman who had cared for him, in turn He granted his request, but only until the night of the seven moons, which gave him three days to be with the young maiden."

When I wrote this, I experienced such an overwhelming satisfaction that I had written a legend, one that might have been told by an ancient people and handed down from generation to generation as most legends or fables are.  Although this is a fictional tale, it felt real to me and that is what I hope my readers will feel when they are reading, not only this legend, but the rest of my book as well.

The legend of Mahihkan (wolf) and the Maiden, however, enabled me to bring meaning and reason to why my characters turned into wolves.  I did not want them to be blood thirsty, wretched creatures whose only objective in life was to take lives.  I wanted their existence in my novel to have meaning.

I have not only been fortunate to have my book, Wings of Fate, published, but I also have two other short stories available in e-book format.  My first short story, Crystal Tears Forever, a sci-fi romance, was published by Books to Go Now in November of 2010, followed by my second short story, Born Free, a romance about taking the chance of a life time and finding happiness, also published with Books to Go Now in April of 2011.

My second novel length book, To Cry For Dakota, is slated for release in late December.  It too is being published by The Writer's Coffee Shop.

If you are looking for a copy of one or more of the titles I have mentioned above, you may find them at the following locations:


Wings of Fate
TWCS Publishing House
Amazon
Barnes & Noble








Crystal Tears Forever
Books to Go Now
Amazon
Barnes & Noble




Born Free
Books to Go Now
Amazon
Barnes & Noble








My books can also be found on Android Market, LibraryBin with Overdrive Library, LuLu Marketplace. I hope you will pick up a copy today.

Thanks ParaYourNormal for having me as a guest blogger.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Interview with Nancy Holzner

This week's interview guest, Nancy Holzner, is giving away one ebook. Make sure to read through the interview and excerpt to find out how to enter for a chance to win!

Tell us about you, do you have a routine for your writing?

I suffer from the curse of being a night owl who works best in the morning. That means I stay up late reading (often until 2:00 am) then stagger out of bed the next morning, fill a mug with coffee, and try to get some writing done. It's not a bad method, because I find I can make a lot of progress when my mind is in that half-awake state, before my conscious mind takes over fully. As long as I stay off the Internet, I do fine. I do sometimes enjoy reading the news online with my morning coffee, but that's a danger. When I let myself do that, I look up to find an hour or two have passed, and I have a hard time then turning to my writing.

Now on to the important bit, your book. Tell us about your characters.

My Deadtown series features Victory Vauhn, a shapeshifter who kills other people's personal demons for a living. Vicky lives in the Deadtown section of Boston. Three years ago, a plague turned two thousand Bostonians into zombies. The plague's quarantine zone became Deadtown, home (by law) to Boston's paranormal population. Deadtime's zombies aren't the shambling, brain-munching kind you see in horror films. They retain their personality and volition; it's just that they're super-strong, can't go out in sunlight, and go into a socially awkward feeding frenzy when they catch a whiff of fresh human blood. Vicky is training Tina, a teenage zombie, as an apprentice demon-fighter. Vicky has an on-again, off-again relationship with Alexander Kane, a werewolf activist lawyer who's trying to establish paranormal rights at the federal level. As a shapeshifter, Vicky can change three times per full-moon cycle, and she can shift into any sentient creature. Her race, the Cerddorion, is descended from the Welsh goddess Ceridwen. Even though Vicky's job focuses on personal demons, she often finds herself fighting the bigger, nastier kind--including the demons of her own past.

How did you come up with the title for your book?

The titles in my series have always been a collaboration between my editor and me. The working title for the first book in my series was Zombie Town, but since zombies are secondary characters in that book, the editor wanted a different title. Eventually we settled on Deadtown. Once that title was established, I wanted the titles of the other books in the series to resonate with it. So I look for compound nouns of two syllables that are between eight and 10 letter long: Deadtown, Hellforged, Bloodstone, and Darklands (2012). This gives the series' titles the same look and feel on the covers.

Is this your first book?

Bloodstone is the third book in my Deadtown series. My very first novel was a mystery (nonparanormal) titled Peace, Love and Murder that was published by a small press. That novel is available in hardcover and as a 99-cent ebook.

Do you have plans for more?

The fourth Deadtown book, Darklands, will be released next summer. I hope to continue the series for 2-3 more books after that, but those aren't yet under contract, so we'll see. I'm also writing some short stories set in Deadtown's world, as well as a sequel to the mystery, to publish as ebooks.

Which comes first, the character or the plot?

Plot is basically character in action, so the two are intertwined. I can't understand my characters until I see them going things and interacting with others. In a series, though, I get to know the character better with each book, so as the series progresses I probably focus more on plot. That's because I can trust my characters to be true to themsevles by that point.

Is there a certain author that influenced you in writing?

I used to be an English professor (medievalist), so I've had a liftetime of reading that's influenced my writing. That doesn't mean that I think my genre fiction is Literature with a capital L. It's just that I've been a reader my whole life and read a wide variety of books, and along the way I've been inspired to try to tell fun, entertaining stories, myself.

What's the best advice that you've been given when it comes to writing?

Write every day. It's so easy to lose touch with the world of your story if you don't.

What book are you reading at the moment?

Threshold by Caitlin R. Kierman. It's a Lovecraftian horror story set in Birmingham, Alabama. I read Kiermans' wonderfully creepy Gothic novel The Red Tree a while back and loved it, so I wanted to check out some of her other books.

What was the hardest scene for you to write?

I find scenes that have a lot of action very challenging. I enjoy writing dialogue, but my action scenes don't have much of that. I find it a challenge to balance description and action with pacing concerns. I probably go over (and over and over) the action scenes more than any others.

The anticipation is killing me! Let us read a little.

Here's an excerpt from Bloodstone. In it, Vicky goes to Creature Comforts, a monster bar in Boston's New Combat Zone, in hopes that is owner, Axel, can give refuge to an injured friend:

Any hope that Axel was having a slow night fled as soon as I opened the front door. Laughter and music blasted out. Creature Comforts was packed with women, dressed for a night of partying. The filled all the tables and spilled out of the booths. As I stepped inside, I was hit by the bar's characteristic perfume of beer, tobacco, and a slight whiff of human bloos--shot through tonight with a strong scent of musk. On tables at the back, two half-naked male dancers, humans, performed an athletic bump-and-grind routine.

Oh, great. I'd walked into a wereworld bachelorette party.

Massachusetts was one of a handful of states that recognized marriages between paranormals. Other states had passed laws restricting marriage to humans only. Although some norms in "Monsterchusetts" objected to paranormal marriage, no one seemed to mind the money it brought the state. It had become fashionable among werewolbes to have a norm-style wedding in addition to whatever ritual they performed at the full moon. In Boston, a whole industry had sprung up offering destination weddings to werewolves.

I scanned the crowd, but didn't see a face I recognized. I knew most of Deadtown's werewolves through Kane. These were definitely tourists.

"Hey!" One of the women stood up and pointed at me. She wore a tight, super-short, low-cut black dress and a crooked tiara sparkling with pink and white rhinestones. She flipped her glossy blond hair back over her shoulder, managing to make it look like an act of aggression. "This is a private party. The bar's closed."

Damn territorial werewolves. When the traveled in a pack, even out-of-towners acted like the owned the place.

I ignored her and walked toward the bar.

She was in front of me before I got halfway across the room. Her nostrils flared as she sized me up in a few sniffs. She bared her teeth--not a very impressive gesture in her human form--and growled. "I said it's a private party."

"Do I look like I'm here to crash your party?" I gestured at my ruined dress.

She didn't look at my outfit. She stared at the sword in my hand, the one I'd taken from the Old Ones.

Oh, that. Well, yeah, I could see how that might be interpreted as a threat.

I didn't have a sheath for it, so I stuck it under my arm, where I hoped it seemed less dangerous. I stepped to the left, intent on getting around her. "I need to talk to Axel."

She growled again and dropped into a fighting crouch. Jesus, the full moon was still three weeks away and she was going into feral overdrive.

"You want to challenge me? Fine." I dropped my purse on the floor and shifted the sword to my right hand, ready to use it. I wouldn't have minded two blades in a fight with a werewolf, but I wanted to teach her some manners, not kill her. Besides, it was bad form to rummage through your purse for a dagger at the start of a fight.


Where can readers connect with you?

My website and my blog are at http://www.nancyholzner.com/. I have both a personal Facebook page and an author page. I'm on Twitter, and I also participate in a group blog called Dark Central Station.

Where can readers purchase your book?

Bloodstone is available at bookstores, as well as online through Penguin, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

If you'd like to win an e-copy of Bloodstone, please leave a comment on this post in the following format: parayournormal(at)gamil(dot)com. If you'd like to learn more about Nancy, she'll be chatting with us via Blog Talk Radio this Wednesday at 3:30 PST. To set a reminder, click here

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

PYN Review of Werewolf Descent

The Last Witch Series: Werewolf Descent by Elizabeth Kolodzeij 
Review written by Morgan Wylie
Blurb from the book:
Last witch in the world, Faith Scott, and her Irish vampire boyfriend Trent have just come back from fighting for their lives to recover the Vampiric Blood gem and Werewolf Moon gem. Thinking they could finally relax and work on the romance growing between them, they now meet a mysterious psychic vampire named Vincent who has his heart set on being with Faith.
Soon bizarre killings of Zou Tai’s werewolf pack begin, with rumors of an alchemist possessing the famed philosophers stone being the assailant; which, causes Faith to turn to Vincent for help in figuring out why the werewolves are being murdered.
It isn’t long before all those around them test Trent and Faith’s love, along with their abilities, once again. It is all Trent can do to keep Faith safe by his side while both go up against a deadly alchemist, deceptive gods, and having to rescue the werewolf prince; yet, after a deal with the God of Werewolves will Trent be able to save himself too?
~~~~~
Werewolf Descent is the second novel in The Last Witch Series. It’s a paranormal with some romance that is sure to curl your toes. Then again, how could it not when a sexy, overprotective Irish vampire is involved? Enter Trent. He is everything you want in a vampire boyfriend, especially when it comes to newbie witch, Faith- the last witch in the world. 
After the intense conclusion to Vampyre Kisses, the first in this series, Faith is trying to recover and just beginning to get a handle on everything new in her life when new chaos begins to unfold. Enter Vincent. A psychic vampire that adds a new level of craziness to Faith’s already complicated life, in more ways than one. He feeds off the life energies of others and can’t seem to work his magic around Faith without draining her as well. Unsure if he can be trusted, Faith sets out on a journey for information that only Vincent can help her with, until a great deception is revealed along with a multitude of emotion. 
There is a lot going on in this novel and I had some trouble following along as the point of views change. It’s a great story with a lot of potential; and the tragedy of this conclusion keeps you on your toes as what could transpire in the next book. There are some great characters and I love Oran, the cat and Faith’s familiar; their connection is great. I give this novel 4 out of 5 fangs.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Interview with Elizabeth Kolodzeij, Author of Werewolf Descent


Welcome to our interview with Elizabeth Kolodziej, author of Werewolf Decent, a paranormal romance following the journey of the world’s last witch and her vampire companion. Did we mention the vampire is Irish? #ohyeah :-) Elizabeth is giving away two copies of her eBook so make sure to leave us a comment after the interview. Are you ready to meet the author?

So, tell us a little bit about you. What makes you tick?
I’m going to say my heart. Haha. A little about me? I grew up as a city girl in L.A. loving to read and write and the reason for that is due to my parents. I am roller derby girl under the name of Kitty Vampyre. I am a total commitment phobe when it comes to guys and what I consider my kids are my dog Sherlock and my cat Ahmemotep. Oh! And I love anime.

Now on to the important bit, your book. Can you tell us about it?
The series is titled The Last Witch Series, the first book being Vampyre Kisses and the second being Werewolf Descent. It involves a young woman named Faith who find out she is a witch and falls in love with a vampire. The first book shows her growth from a woman needing saving to one doing the saving while the second book is more adventurous and mysterious. The third book in the series is going to be Witch Devotions, which I am currently in the process of writing and plan to have it out by 2012.

What inspired you to write in this genre?
I blame my mother. Haha. I grew up on loving the paranormal/supernatural world because it was something that was always around me due to her. She loves vampires and was very much in to the masquerade, Ann Rice, Buffy, all the biggies. I guess I fell in love with it for that reason and began studying all of it, especially witches. So in the end it feel natural to write what I know best.

 Do you have plans for more?
I have at least two other books planned so that will make four total. I have to see where the characters take me so I don’t know exactly how many books will be in this series.

Which comes first the character or the plot?
For me, the character or at least 85% of the time. It starts with a small idea of what if this happened and it grows from there with the character telling me the plot.

Describe your main characters in a single word.
Faith: Caring. Trent: Protective.  

Okay, now you can tell us more about them.
LoL. Faith is the type of girl that wants to see the good in everybody and killing is always the last resort. Faith will help anyone in need. At the same time she is coming into her independence as a witch (if that makes sense). Trent on the other hand is a vampire so he as this need to protect Faith at all cost since she is the love of his life. Trent goes through the problems of trying to figure out when to let Faith go and when he needs to stand his ground with her, which I find hilarious in the second book.

What made you put a vampire and a witch together?
It never really crossed my mind not to put a vampire and witch together. I’ve always had that idea in my head since I was young and I guess it just never went away.

What was the hardest scene to write?
The last scene of Werewolf Descent was the hardest. I cried. I will totally admit it, I cried and I am not a crier. But what was done had to be done. The third book is going to be even more interesting for it.

What is your favorite scene?
That is so difficult to answer! LoL. I love the scenes when Zou Tai and Trent are going back and forth with snide comments. If I had to pick one off the top of my head I think I would go with the scene where Louis comes to Faith’s house. Here is a clip:

There was only fifteen minutes left until sunset. I had just finished spreading sage throughout the house to cleanse it and in the hopes of wiping away any scent of Vincent on me. I wasn’t sure if it would work, and that made me wonder if I should start experimenting with things that might cover up scents from a vampire.
I smacked myself on the forehead. “No need to do that. You don’t need to keep anything from him.” But then I thought about it more, and it might just prove useful in the future. With that in mind, I pulled out a few sticks of lavender and nag champa. If it worked I’d know at least one of the three was right.
Oran was already hiding out on the patio away from the strong smell of sage. I couldn’t understand why; I loved the smell. Before I could find my lighter, I heard a knock at my door and put down the sticks of incense before answering it.  
“Louis?” His blue eyes were bright from the light on the porch.
He let his pearly whites show with a smile that would make angels tingly all over. “Hey, Faith.”
A few short breaths escaped me before I asked, “How did you know where I lived?” Did anyone follow him? Did he let anyone follow him?
“Calm down. I just so happened to follow you home that one night we met up.”
“You followed me home? Why the hell would you do that?”
“To make sure you got home safe. You were meeting with me, and if the wrong people had seen that they might have tried something.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him or not. He was a slayer and all, but at the same time he was a longtime friend, and a friend would have done what he did. “Come in.” I finally backed away from the entrance to let him through.
“Thanks.” As he passed by me, I noticed he had let his hair grow out a little more. The spikes were much longer now. He was dressed in a suit and tie like at the restaurant, and I smiled at the fact he was wearing a tie with little hearts on it. “Nice place you have here.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s the smell?”
“It’s not a smell, it’s a beautiful scent, and it’s sage.” I smacked him on the bicep and made my way to the kitchen.
He took in a few sniffs. “Ah, now I see.” He rubbed his nose and I giggled.
“Would you like some coffee or tea?”
“Jack?”
I laughed some more. “How did you guess I would have some around?”
“Daughter like mother and all that.” He quickly bit his lip. He must have seen the shocked expression on my face. “Sorry.” 
“I’m nothing like her.” I bent down and came back up with the Jack I kept in one of the pots-and-pans cabinets. After reaching up for a couple of shot glasses, I looked at his face. He seemed upset.
“She wasn’t that bad.”
“Hmm. Being in the same business as her, I can see why you would say that.”
“Faith.” He stretched out my name in almost a whine. “Let’s just…agree to disagree.” He took one of the shots of Jack from the counter and raised the glass. “To your mother.”
“To my father,” I countered and downed my shot. After feeling like I was breathing out fire, I was finally able to speak again. “Want another?” He nodded and I poured us both one more.
After that shot, I took his glass and turned around to rinse them both out. With the water running I asked, “So what brings you here, Louis?”
Turning back around I was shocked to see Trent holding Louis up by his throat. Lucky for me he had worn his boxers while sleeping this time.
“Trent!” I screamed at him while rushing over. Louis had both his hands on Trent’s wrist. “Let go of him!”
His blackened eyes met mine. “He is a slayer, Faith.” His fangs showed through every word.
“I know that.”
His expression became perplexed. “What?”
“This is Louis, that slayer I told you about.” I heard a few gags come from Louis, and I looked up to see his face starting to turn a pastel bluish color. “Let. Him. Go,” I demanded with enough emphasis that he must have known better than to disagree with me.
“Fine.” He let Louis go, but not in the way I’d intended. He fell to his feet and lost his balance, sending him to his butt.
“That was not what I meant and you know it!” I went to my knees and put both hands on either side of Louis’s face. “Are you okay?”
He put a hand to his throat and rubbed the reddened area. “I’ll be fine,” he choked out. “So this must be your vampire boyfriend. He seems nice.” I rolled my eyes and linked an arm through his to help him up. “It’s okay, I can do it.”
While Louis got to his feet, I noticed Oran run by and onto Trent’s shoulder. Trent looked at him with as much amazement as I did.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
I agree with Trent.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” I blurted out without thinking.
Trent looked at me and then at Oran before a righteous smile found its way to his face. “I guess he agrees with me.”
“Bite me.”
“Maybe later.”
“Faith, you don’t…” Louis let his words trail off.
“It doesn’t matter.” I was looking at Louis but talking to both of them.
“It will when he brings his little swarm to your place. We are going to have to move again.”
“No, he won’t,” I said while sighing. “I trust Louis. He helped us.”
Trent took a few steps closer. “Did you ever stop and think that he helped us to further his own plans?” I looked at Louis, but before I could say anything Trent added, “And by the way, Louis…” He said his name in a mocking way. “She is nothing like her mother.”
Crap. How much had he heard? The phone rang and I was glad for the interruption. It was Trent’s cell phone coming from his bedroom. He stormed off to answer it.
“I only came here to give you some information about Lilith. I was sure you would want to know about her.”
“What information?” My anger was lost in my need to find the vampire who’d saved Morgan.
Louis just shook his head. “He has a little bit of a temper.” Louis began making his way to the door.
I followed behind him. “Well, you are a slayer and all, out to kill him and all of his kind.”
“Is it any wonder we want to kill those monsters off? He just attacked me for no reason.”
Now that pissed me off. “Wait a minute.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face me. “He only attacked you because you are a slayer, and even though it isn’t your sworn duty to kill a witch, it wouldn’t be the first time one tried to take my life. Trent was only protecting me.” By the way his mouth dropped open, it looked like I had surprised the hell out of him. “Now, what information do you have on Lilith?”
The anger in his eyes faded away. “Be safe, Faith. I will check in with you at another time.” He pulled the door open. “When you’re not surrounded by undead monsters like him.” He slammed the door behind him and a few seconds later I heard a car start.
Maybe he is a dickhead.
Trent came rushing out of his bedroom and into the living room. “Faith, we need to go.” He handed me my shoes and finished buttoning up his shirt. “Zou Tai was kidnapped.”
As if my life couldn’t get any worse. I raced to put my shoes on. “Give me one second.” I dashed to my bedroom and grabbed my spell book.
“Why are you bringing that?” He gave me a curious look.
My mouth twitched before I admitted, “Just in case you’re right. I wouldn’t want them to take this.” I gave him a weak smile and he grabbed the keys for the car off the tiled countertop.
He kissed me deeply and smiled. Oran was still perched on his shoulder. I fumbled with my keys until I found the one to the front door.
“By the way,” Trent said while walking to the car. “We will discuss why you smell like Vincent later.”
I twisted the key in the lock and finished zipping up my hoodie. Mental note: scratch sage off the list.    

~ * ~

We’d like to thank Elizabeth for stopping by to chat with us. Tune in on Wednesday at 3:30pm Pacific for our live Blog Talk Radio interview. Set a reminder for the show on our channel here.

Now it’s your chance to win a copy of Werewolf Descent. Leave us a comment below with your email address for a chance to win one of the two eBook copies. You have until Saturday at midnight Pacific Time to enter. We’ll announce the winner on Sunday.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

A New Vampire Twist: Guest Post by KC Blake

In my book, Vampires Rule, seventeen-year-old Jack gets a second chance to live a normal life.  But what’s normal about a hunter-girlfriend, a brother who wants to stake him just to be on the safe side, and a homicidal werewolf building an army to destroy the world?

Below, you can read an excerpt from Vampires Rule.  I chose a scene that takes place between Jack and Silver (the hunter) after he wakes up to discover he is no longer a vampire.  This happens in the third chapter after Jack tries to save Silver from a werewolf and almost gets himself killed.  Hope you enjoy it.


The next time Jack woke it was morning, and his hand felt oddly warm.  A nagging voice deep in the recesses of his mind slowly connected the dots.  He had experienced this soothing heat before, but it had been so long ago he couldn’t pinpoint the source.  Whatever it was, it was bad.

Jack cracked his eyes a slit.  His hand rested comfortably on the pillow beside his head.  Light streamed through the open curtains and rested on his unprotected skin.  His eyes widened as the truth dawned on him.

With a yelp, he jerked his hand out of the light and dove under the covers.  Sunlight and vampires did not mix.  Any second now he would burst into flames, and it would all be over.  Where was he anyway?  He searched his recent memories.

An amused voice spoke from the doorway.

“It’s okay,” Silver said.  “You’re fine.  I opened the curtains this morning, but I watched your skin carefully for any signs of burning.  The sunlight can’t hurt you anymore.”

He struggled to breathe through the suffocating covers and mumbled, “What are you talking about?” 

“You’re not a vampire.”

“What?”  Oh yeah, she’d lost her mind.  Or maybe this was a trick to get him to commit suicide.  She was the enemy after all, albeit a beautiful one.

She yanked the covers off the bed and him with one quick sliding motion like a magician revealing his final trick.  Silver was fully dressed, hair combed, and eyes sparkling.  She flashed him a quick grin.  “You don’t need to hide from the sun.  You are no more a vampire than I am.  See?”  She motioned to the window.

“You aren’t catching fire or exploding.  Isn’t that enough evidence for you?”

He crawled to the edge of the mattress in wonder and stared at the beauty known as dawn.  Tears blurred his vision for a moment.  Incredible.  It had been too long since he’d seen golden sunlight.  He’d forgotten how breathtaking a sunrise could be.  Logic argued with his physical senses.  He pushed his fingers beneath his upper lip, felt the gums.  No telltale bumps beneath the skin.  He jumped off the bed and grabbed Silver, pressed his face against her throat as he tried to smell her blood.  Nothing.

She giggled.  

He released her and went to the window.  Before he had the chance to change his mind, he thrust the glass pane up and stuck his hand outside.  The most amazing warmth caressed his skin.  A cool breeze wafted inside, stirring the hair against his neck.  His eyes closed, and he savored the sweet moment.  He ducked his head and leaned out the window.  It didn’t hurt.  It didn’t burn.  

“I can’t believe it.”  The words floated out with his pent-up breath.  “I must be dreaming.”

Hard knuckles rapped on the bedroom door.  Jack jumped and hit his head on the window sill.  Pain shot through his skull.  No, this wasn’t a dream.  Definitely not. His hand went to the back of his head, and he absently checked for blood.  Since he wasn’t alone, he bit his tongue instead of cursing.

“Silver, are you up yet?” The deep, masculine voice penetrated the closed door.

She turned panicked eyes to Jack and whispered.  “It’s my dad.  He can’t find you here.  He’ll drive a stake through your heart.” 

“I’m not a vampire anymore.  Remember?”

“Trust me, that won’t matter.  In fact it might make things worse.” She looked at him like he was dumber than dirt.  “You’re a boy, and you’re in my bedroom.  He’s going to kill you.”

~ * ~

For more on KC Blake, visit her blog:  http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter: @KasiBlake

Vampires Rule can be purchased here:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54214
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YZB8XU