Margo Bond Collins's Blog, page 30
January 12, 2016
Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop ~ Legally Undead ~ $.99 #ebook #sale
Welcome to the weekly blog hop featuring paranormal stories. From witches to werewolves, vampires to berserkers, you name it, we have it. This blog hop is open to authors and writers whose work is published or unpublished. We also welcome works-in-progresses/WIP’s! Join us each week and check out all the cool stories!
This week, I’m featuring my novel Legally Undead, currently on sale for $.99. So check out the snippet below, then be sure to HOP back to check out the rest of this week’s entries!
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire draining the blood from her fiancé Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs–not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning around to face them, Elle discovers that Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.
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Excerpt
The worst thing about vampires is that they’re dead. That whole wanting to suck your blood business runs a close second, but for sheer creepiness, it’s the dead bit that gets me every time. They’re up and walking around and talking and sucking blood, but they’re dead. And then there’s the whole terminology problem–how can you kill something that’s already dead? It’s just wrong.
I was twenty-four the first time I . . . destroyed? dispatched? . . . a vampire. That’s when I found out that all the books and movies are wrong. When you stick a wooden stake into their hearts, vampires don’t disintegrate into dust. They don’t explode. They don’t spew blood everywhere. They just look surprised, groan, and collapse into a pile of corpse. But at least they lie still then, like corpses are supposed to.
Since that first kill (I might as well use the word–there really isn’t a better one), I’ve discovered that only if you’re lucky do vampires look surprised before they groan and fall down. If you’re unlucky and miss the heart, they look angry. And then they fight.
There are the other usual ways to kill vampires, of course, but these other ways can get a bit complicated. Vampires are notoriously difficult to trick into sunlight. They have an uncanny ability to sense when there’s any sunlight within miles of them, and they’re awfully good at hiding from it. Holy water doesn’t kill them; it just distracts them for a while, and then they get that angry look again. And it takes a pretty big blade to cut off someone’s head–even an already dead someone–and carrying a great big knife around New York City, even the Bronx, is a sure way to get arrested. Nope, pointy sticks are the best way to go, all the way around.
My own pointy stick is actually more of a little knife with wood inlay on the blade–the metal makes it slide in easier. I had the knife specially made by an old Italian guy in just about the only ratty part of Westchester, north of the city. I tried to order one off the internet, but it turns out that while it’s easy to find wood-inlay handles, the blades themselves tend to be metal. Fat lot those people know.
But I wasn’t thinking any of this when I pulled the knife out of the body on the ground. I was thinking something more along the lines of “Oh, bloody hell. Not again.”
Buy Links
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Waking Up Dead, Taming the Country Star, Bound by Blood, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
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Connect with Margo
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Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
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January 11, 2016
Week 6 Teaser: Asleep, by Krystal Wade
Happy Teaser Tuesday! Today is the sixth installment of ten weeks of teasers to get you ready for the release of ASLEEP by Krystal Wade. This spine-chilling YA psychological thriller is the debut novel from Blaze Publishing, set to be released February 16, 2016, and answers the question of what happens when Sleeping Beauty meets Freddy Krueger. If you missed the first teaser, don’t worry! You can still find it and other great content on the Blaze Publishing blog. Pre-orders are available now from Amazon. Mark your calendars, and be sure to add the book to your Goodreads list!
“To cure fear, you must use fear.”
Rose Briar claims no responsibility for the act that led to her imprisonment in an asylum. She wants to escape, until terrifying nightmares make her question her sanity and reach out to her doctor. He’s understanding and caring in ways her parents never have been, but as her walls tumble down and Rose admits fault, a fellow patient warns her to stop the medications. Phillip believes the doctor is evil and they’ll never make it out of the facility alive. Trusting him might be just the thing to save her. Or it might prove the asylum is exactly where she needs to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
AUTHOR. CHICKEN (AND DOG) LOVER. MOTHER. WIFE. DREAMER.
I’m happily married to the love of my life (don’t gag) and raising three beautiful children in the gorgeous state of Virginia. We live just outside Washington, D.C., and every day I wake up to find myself stuck in traffic trying to get there.
The horrid commute gives me plenty of time to zone out and think about my characters in full, brilliant details (I’m a safe driver; don’t worry). Stories give me a way to forget about the sometimes smelly strangers sitting next to me on the fifty mile trek into town (I pick up hitchhikers every day. True story. Check out http://www.slug-lines.com if you don’t believe me).
I’ve been a part of organized hitchhiking for nearly fifteen years, but that’s just one small aspect of my oh-so-large life. When I’m not working, commuting, or chasing after my three children (four if you count the man), you can usually find me outside talking to my chickens like they’re the cutest things in the world (they are), or training my amazing dogs how to herd said chickens (which they love), or curled up on the sofa with a good book (why can’t that be 100% of the time?).
I hope you love my stories (or just like them a little; that would be okay, too). And I hope that one day you find your passion, because there’s nothing in life better than doing what you love while surrounded by people you love.
Krystal
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ABOUT BLAZE PUBLISHING:
Books with Heart for Teen and Young Adults
At Blaze, we’re committed to bringing you high-quality, hard-hitting books full of heart. Whether the story is a mystery, a thriller, horror, steampunk, or some goofy comedy, there will be a message woven into the pages for readers to find and fall in love with. We want you to walk away inspired, in awe, or just happy to be alive. Or maybe you’ll look at other people differently, in a less negative light. Whatever the case, you will find heart in our stories.Our goal is to bring you four or five amazing works of fiction in 2016, and six in 2017 and each year after. We’ve already lined up a few and can’t wait to see what comes across our desks next!Do you have a submission you’d like to send us? We’d love to see it! You can find our submissions guidelines on our website.
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Cover Reveal: Raining Down Rules by BK Rivers
Raining Down Rules
by B.K. Rivers
Release Date: February 9th 2016
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Limitless Publishing
Summary:
Jemma Bowers hasn’t kissed anyone in over a thousand days. She knows—she’s counted.
For twenty-year-old Jemma, rules are not meant to be broken…even if she’s the one who created them. Friendships have boundaries, relationships mean trouble, and don’t even get her started on sex. Haunted by the death of her mother and her father’s abandonment, Jemma finds herself hungry for something meaningful and permanent, but is afraid of what may happen if she pursues it.
Jordan Capshaw can’t fight his addiction. Not even if it will cost him his career…
When Jemma finds Jordan drunk and barefoot in the street, she convinces him to get in her car. Aside from the fact he’s the lead singer of her favorite band and pretty much the rock star of her dreams, she quickly realizes his addiction is a monster neither of them can control.
Who knew choosing between a rock star and a fireman could be so difficult?
Emotions run high as Jemma soon finds herself caught between the troubled rock star and her growing affections for Vic Harper, a swoon-worthy firefighter from her past. But when her grandmother passes away, leaving her with no other family, Jemma’s world falls apart.
To save herself from further heartbreak, she risks it all by breaking her own rules, and putting her heart on the line.
After all, the heart just might be the biggest rule breaker of them all.
About the Author
BK Rivers grew up riding through rolling fields of grain on horseback, driving hay trucks and catching frogs in a silver creek. She traded country life for the big city when she married the love of her life, but the heart always returns to the country.
BK, her husband and three children live in the Phoenix suburbs on their own mini farm surrounded by crowing roosters and the low nicker of horses. When she’s not writing, she can be found baking anything sweet, in fact it’s been said her brownies are so good they save marriages.
The inspiration for her novels comes in many forms, but mostly from her Gotye channel on Pandora. She writes young adult and new adult novels to the beat of Gotye, Snow Patrol and many others.
Author Links:
Happy Release Day! Coach Maddie and the Marine, by Blaire Edens
He’s the one man she refuses to fall for…
After the combat death of her Marine husband, grief counselor Maddie Westerfield has thrown herself into helping other families—leaving no time for dating. Which is just fine with Maddie since falling in love again, especially with another man in uniform, is out of the question. No matter how gorgeous he is. Plus, she’s busy looking after her eight-year-old nephew for her deployed sister.
For the last eight years, Lieutenant David Sterling has lived with the guilt of losing one of his soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan. So when the opportunity presents itself, he jumps at the chance to help the beautiful widow coach her nephew’s football team. But keeping things strictly professional between them is harder than he expected. And even though he knows a relationship with Maddie will only lead to heartbreak, he can’t help falling for her.
About the Author
Blaire Edens lives in the mountains of North Carolina on a farm that’s been in her family since 1790. When she’s not plotting, she’s busy knitting, running, or listening to the Blues. Blaire loves iced tea with mint, hand-stitched quilts, and yarn stores. She refuses to eat anything that mixes chocolate and peanut butter or apple and cinnamon. She’s generally nice to her mother, tries to remember not to smack her bubble gum, and only speeds when no one’s looking. Blaire is the award-winning author of Wild About Rachel, An Officer and a Mermaid, and The Witch of Roan Mountain.
January 10, 2016
Spotlight On: The Twistedly True Tale of Ruby Hood by Stephanie Greenhalgh
The Twistedly True Tale of Ruby Hood
by Stephanie Greenhalgh
Release Date: October 1st 2013
Write More Publications
Summary from Goodreads:
In the small town of Woodsville, self-assured Ruby Hood becomes tangled in more than traditional teenage angst. With the Homecoming Dance looming, everything at Woodsville High appears normal, but things are not as they seem. Ruby meets a cute boy with a lopsided grin, Dylan Hunter. She flirts shamelessly with the football star, Kent Wolf, and finds herself in a barrage of harsh verbal altercations with his stunning yet wicked sister, Kayla Wolf. Thankfully, she finds solace in her friend, Lilly Fair. Through a series of odd and painful events, Ruby discovers her true calling and the responsibilities that come with her new power and position. Despite her heartache and sorrow, will Ruby find the inner strength not only to protect herself, but also to keep the Wood safe at all cost?
Buy Links:
Amazon│Barnes and Noble
Book Trailer:
About the Author
A born and raised Midwestern girl, Stephanie Greenhalgh currently resides in Las Vegas. As an avid reader and writer, literature and learning have always been more of a passion than a hobby. This two time UNLV graduate spends her days teaching elementary school and her weekends and summers writing stories. The first book in her Ruby Hood series debuted in 2013, and the sequel,The Twistedly True Guardian Tale, will release in summer 2015. Stephanie also has four published short stories and a self published novella, If the Silver Slippers Fit. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, friends and lovable Labrador retrievers.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY:
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January 8, 2016
Siren’s Kiss in Our Sexy New Year + Giveaway~ @MySexySaturday #MySexySaturday #MySexyAuthors #Saturday7 #MSS123
Welcome to Our Sexy New Year on My Sexy Saturday ~ the blog hop where authors share seven words, sentences, or paragraphs from their writing! Today, I’m sharing a tidbit from Siren’s Kiss, a short that I wrote for the Blazing Indie Collective’s mermaid collection last summer. If you like what you read, be sure to enter this giveaway and you’ll get a free copy of Siren’s Kiss, along with a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift certificate! Then HOP to check out the rest of the participating authors!
Excerpt:
Adam Clayton’s memories overlay that, as well, the heat of humanity steaming against my own desire both in my mind and against my mouth, until I couldn’t tell if the small, needy noises came from his memory or my own body.
But his hands shimmying down my sides were definitely real—a product of his action, and not merely a memory. As he shoved the sheer fabric of the skirt out of the way, the calluses on his fingers rasped against the tender new flesh of my skin, and I whimpered at the contrast.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured against my lips. “Fingers like sandpaper.”
“No,” I said. “Don’t stop. I like it.” I couldn’t find the words to tell him how much I craved that difference, that initial clear distinction between the hardness of the earth and the give of the water, and the way that moment changes to the one when earth crumbles into water, when water soaks into earth.
But even without words, we found it.
I had meant to give him back his soul—that part of him that I had held in safekeeping for him, that he had given me to use in the comparatively short battle against Epimetheus.
Instead, I found my own as he slid inside me, staring into my eyes in a dance that needed no words.
Be sure to enter to win a free copy of Siren’s Kiss!
The Busy Person’s Guide to Everyday Enlightenment, by Janey Bowyer
The Busy Person’s Guide to Everyday Enlightenment is the perfect antidote to the strains of modern living.
Featuring easy-to-follow meditations, yoga sequences, techniques and holistic advice that you can apply to even the busiest of lifestyles.
What makes this book different is that it is tailored to recognise in this time of hectic living that we all have the need to nurture, care and centre ourselves, yet we don’t always have the time for long practices to achieve this. Ironically, the very thing we have convinced ourselves we don’t have time to do – looking after ourselves – is what can lead to better health and a sense of inner calm.
Within these pages, you will find easy-to-follow sequences.
This book is a helping hand to those who wish to fit in some me-time self-care even into the most time-starved of lifestyles.
You can learn to…
• Develop techniques in as little as 5 minutes a day that can help you deal with stress
• Turn everyday stressful situations into meditation just by shifting your perspective
• Nourish your body with simple yoga schedules that can help target specific areas or states of mind, no matter how busy you are
• Bring the holistic into the hectic and learn to Zen out when the rest of the world is rushing
• Improve and progress with the help of handy tips
• Enjoy guilt-free self-nurturing
Buy on Amazon
About the author:
I grew up on a hill in the north of England. From a young age, I wanted to live in London. As a child, during the depths of night, I’d often listen to the hum of passing trains. Sometimes I’d run to my bedroom window hoping to catch a glimpse so that I could pretend that I too was travelling on one, speeding along, London bound, like the rest of the world was sleeping.
So one day in my late teens, I bought a one-way ticket and travelled to London with just £30.00 in my pocket and a bit of blind faith.
In my novel The Last Days of Lisa, (that I’m still writing), the main character Lisa mirrors how overwhelming it was for me to see London for the first time through the eyes of a teenager travelling alone….
‘London never rests, she thinks. It’s on speed. A vortex, absorbing everything. Running from its own stench but also basking in it. Seemingly superficial and plastic to those not enchanted by its ambivalent charms. London has a soul; a ravenous appetite that feeds on the egos of the thousands that flock here each day to get closer to their dreams. ‘
Not long after moving to London, yoga and writing graced my life. I think they both saved me. On the writing front the spark came after reading the book, Catcher in the Rye. I’d not had the opportunity to study much as a child but that didn’t matter now as this book blew me away.
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of c—p, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” J.D Salinger
As for yoga, another book in the form of a second-hand yoga book written back in the 1960’s made its way into my mitts via a second-hand bookstore.
As I’d said earlier, to start with I wasn’t very good at either. Dyslexia and lack of flexibility and poor posture were my obstacles. I could see beyond that though as both yoga and writing offered me hope and possibilities that before this I hadn’t ever thought possible. Before yoga and writing I believed I was useless and had nothing to offer the world.
So I worked hard at studying for more than a decade. The author John Harding was the first teacher to believe in me. After studying writing under his inspiring tuition, I even managed to get a few novels published along the way.
On the yoga side, I studied both Hatha and later Kundalini yoga and despite not being naturally flexible nor a person who liked to sit still. It was in India back in 2004 that I had my first awakening experience.
During all this time, I also managed over the years to work my way up from an office junior job to a finally a supervisor position, having worked for most of my life in a string of unfulfilling office jobs. The good news that in October 2015 I left office work to become The Word Sprite full time!
The silver lining in all of this is through my personal experience of having to be creative with my time I came up with the concept of yoga and holistic solutions for modern day living. Hence, this is how The Word Sprite was born!
Read Janey’s awesome article How to Manifest Real, Lasting Love on MindBodyGreen.
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January 7, 2016
Spotlight On: Darkness Brutal + Darkness Fair by Rachel A. Marks ~ #Audiobook Samples ~ #Giveaway
Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle #1)
by Rachel A. Marks
July 1st 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.
In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.
With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?
Buy Links:
Darkness Fair (The Dark Cycle #2)
by Rachel A. Marks
Release Date: February 2nd 2016
Summary from Goodreads:
Against the backdrop of an ancient battle between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness, Aidan struggles to control the newly awakened powers that seem to be his only hope for rescuing his little sister Ava, who is now trapped somewhere beyond the Veil. As he gravitates to Kara, the beguiling and dangerously unstable girl who helped him realize his abilities, a terrible mistake of fate is revealed that points him back toward Rebecca, whose role is becoming more critical to the battle. And no matter what his heart wants, it might be too late to stop the pieces already in motion.
Without knowing the sacrifices that will be required of them, Aidan and his motley crew of friends—each with their own role to play—must face the demon threat head-on. They’re the only ones keeping the growing army of Darkness at bay, and if they fail, the future of humanity could be lost.
Pre-order Links:
About the Author
Rachel A. Marks is an award-winning author and professional artist, a cancer survivor, a surfer and dirt-bike rider, chocolate lover and keeper of faerie secrets. She was voted: Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, but hopes she’ll never have to test the theory. Her debut novel is DARKNESS BRUTAL, the 1st installment in The Dark Cycle. Book 2 releases February 2nd, 2016 and is titled, DARKNESS FAIR.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY:
Faeries and Fantasy YA Hop
![faries and fantasy giveaway hop[2][1]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1452274059i/17671706.jpg)
Welcome to the Young Adult Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway Hop! For this hop, I’m giving away an ebook copy of my novel Fairy, Texas, and one paperback ARC of the forthcoming book Flightless, #2 in the Fairy, Texas series. So check them out below, enter to win, and HOP to see the rest of the participants!
Laney Harris thinks there might be monsters in Fairy, Texas.
She’s right.
When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that “boring” would have a whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym class. Boring takes on an entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.
If she’s going to survive in this small town, she’ll have to learn to wing it.
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Buy Fairy, Texas
E-Book:
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Texas-Margo-Bond-Collins-ebook/dp/B00I7BTMJ4/
Paperback:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Texas-Margo-Bond-Collins/dp/1495419800/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fairy-texas-margo-bond-collins/1118584512
Books a Million: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Fairy-Texas/Margo-Bond-Collins/9781495419805
Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Fairy-Texas-Margo-Bond-Collins/9781495419805
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Laney Harris never meant to hurt anyone—least of all Josh, the beautiful, glimmering-eyed boy with the silver wings she met when she moved to Fairy, Texas. But her good intentions didn’t help save Josh’s wings when he stepped in to help protect her, and now her guilt is almost as overwhelming as his pain.
Josh Bevington doesn’t know how to survive in Fairy, Texas without his wings. He’s no longer the golden—or in his case, silver—child, destined to become a leader among his People. Instead, he’s damaged, broken.
Flightless.
Worst of all, Josh doesn’t know how to stop blaming Laney for his misery, especially since she seems to have gained everything he’s lost. But when Laney’s biological father shows up in Fairy, determined to use his daughter’s newfound powers for his own ends, Josh and Laney will have to overcome their problems and work together—or risk losing everything they care about.
Coming Spring 2016 as part of Enchanted: The Fairy Revels Collection (a Blazing Indies Boxed Set)
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Taming the Country Star, Waking Up Dead, Fairy, Texas, and Legally Undead. She lives in Texas with her family and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal fiction of any genre, and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them.
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Connect with Margo
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MargoBondCollins
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Spotlight On: Bad Timing by Nicky Peacock
BAD TIMING
Battle of the Undead #2
Nicky Peacock
Parnormal, suspense, urban fantasy, vampires
Evernight Teen Publishing, 30K words
“You know now that monsters are real. Whether they have recently risen to reach for your flesh, or have chosen now to step from the shadows; you are surrounded by them. You also know that I am one too, but I’m all you’ve got and time is running out…”
There’s no rest for the wicked, especially in a zombie apocalypse. Britannia has used every vampire skill at her disposal to keep those she cares for safe, but with old enemies and unseen adversaries moving against her, she will have to push herself to both her physical and ethical limits to survive. Britannia is changing, but will it be for the better?
**Please note this is the second book in a series that should be read in order. **
Buy Links: Amazon Evernight Teen
Follow the entire blog tour HERE
14+ due to violence and adult situations
Excerpt:
“If there’s someone there, you’d better show yourself. Unless you want me to cleave off your head,” I shouted. I heard a cough and saw a tall, well-built man slip from the shadows. He wasn’t bad looking, but his dark hair was styled with cement-like gel and his eyes were far too blue to be natural.
“Apologies. I wasn’t sure if you were friend or foe.” He nodded at me.
He was a vampire, probably a little younger than me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“My dear, you are the one trespassing on my territory. It should be me asking questions of you.” He gave me a sly smile, as if he was trying to get away with something. Like he’d farted and was waiting for me to smell it.
“If this was truly your territory you’d have attacked me, not slunk in the shadows like a sniveling child.” I pulled my axe back so I held it by the handle and it rested on my shoulder.
He put his hands up; he was unarmed and laughed beneath his breath. “I now understand the Elders rule.”
He was referring to the old, no female vampires rule – misogynistic t scumbags. It was then that I got a good whiff of blood, live human blood.
“Have you got people here?”
“Why yes, we’ve collected a few to take to the Highlands. Would you like to join me for a drink?”
And he’d been openly feeding off them, great!
“No, I’ll give that a miss. Where are they?”
“In the store room, back there. They’re uninfected,” he said with a sweeping invitation with his arm. “I must say, I’ve never seen a female vampire so beautiful.”
Good grief, did he think this was some sort of date? That we would sit back and watch Dawn of the Dead whilst munching on scared survivors? What an asshat!
I narrowed my eyes and walked to the door he was pointing to. He smiled and gestured for me to open it. I did. Now I was fully aware that this could have been a trap, but even if a hundred vampires descended on me, I still had an axe to Red Queen their asses back to Wonderland.
“May I introduce myself?” he said behind me.
“No.” I stepped through the door and was hit with the smell of both old and fresh blood. I took in the large warehouse back quickly: boxes were piled high with electronics, gadgets and God only knows what other useless items, but there were also people crouching by them. They were blindfolded and roped together with a thick unforgiving plastic vine. Some were still bleeding from where he had fed off them. Some were whispering prayers in ragged voices. Some slowly pulled at their bindings, more like they were an itch than a problem. But all cowered when they heard his voice. There was a collective shiver that even caught me in its terrible wake. Whoever this vampire was, he was truly living up to monster status now.
“Here,” he said as he lifted the plastic rope and pulled the nearest person toward us, “have a drink.”
I looked at the young boy bound and blindfolded before me; he had blood all down his Simpson’s t-shirt and he’d pissed himself, probably days ago now. This was what the Highlands were going to be like, just with slightly less feeling and more order.
“My name is Ludwig. What’s yours, my blonde haired vixen?” He pushed the boy at me and I moved so that I was stood between them.
“Britannia.”
“What?” Ludwig’s eyes widened. He’d heard of me, the lack of blue hair had been what had put him off the initial recognition. If I’d looked more like my old self he’d have run from me, or attacked me in the shop. I might never have discovered his little person larder.
“Yeah, I was forced into a make under.” I smiled sweetly at him, “Ludwig, you have something on your sleeve.” I swung the axe so hard that it cleaved his arm straight off. Blood sprayed across me, splattering my face and streaking the front of my hair. Unlike human blood, vampire blood is cool, smells metallic and tastes like sea water, kind of like your blood tastes to you. Some vampires get a taste for their own kind; those were usually the ones that the Elders sent me after.
Ludwig’s look of shock was only matched by his girlish scream. He clutched at his leaky stump and shuddered. I lifted the axe again, this time to cleave off his head, but he must have regained a modicum of resolve, as he caught the axe’s blade in mid-swing. I quickly slipped my hands down the handle and, palms up, slammed it vertically so that its blade crushed against his skull. I heard a sickening crack as bone crumbled against the force. He keeled and stumbled back through the shop’s doors. I edged forward and crouched, sweeping my leg out to trip him over. Once he lay sprawled on the floor, I lifted my axe a final time and off rolled his head. It tumbled down the flat screen TV section.
The tethered humans were now desperately pulling at their bonds. I guess the big bad that had just killed their torturer was probably not someone they wanted to stick around and have tea with – better the devil you know.
I moved carefully toward the nearest boy. I gently took his blindfold from him and he blinked a few times and recoiled at my presence.
“It’s okay,” I said, hands out, palms up, “I’m here to help you. I won’t hurt you.”
The boy edged further away from me, pulling on all their ropes. He particularly dragged all of the survivors onto the floor. I suddenly had an image of me leading them like a chain of dogs through the streets. If Satan had been on a leash, he’d have died. If I couldn’t do that to a dog, I’d be damned if I was going to be responsible for leading an all-you-can-eat zombie buffet conga line.
“Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but…”
“You’re one of them,” said the boy, looking past me to Ludwig’s twitching corpse. He must have been old; it can sometimes take a while for the magic to leave older vampires.
“We’re not all the same you know.” I stepped to his side and took a blindfold off a nearby woman, “Wait a minute, them?”
The woman gave me a quizzical look, “There’s another one. He had red hair and a posh accent; like from Downton Abbey.”
Okay, now time was of the essence. I pulled out my pink handled knife and sliced the rope between all the humans. I removed all their blindfolds and counted them: twelve.
“Right, here are your choices. You can say here and wait for Red, whoever he is, to come back and drink you dry, or you can follow me and I can get you the hell out of zombie central.”
“Zombies?” they all said together.
“You haven’t noticed the slathering zombie masses?” I asked.
“No,” said an older man, who had managed to pick up a plank of wood and hide it behind his back while I wasn’t looking.
“How long have you been in here?”
The man chose then to swing the plank at me, which I caught and crumbled in my grip. The small crowd gasped and I think they were just about to all fall onto me, when the bell at the door of the shop chimed.
“Oh no, it’s him. He came back for us.” A young girl of no more than thirteen cowered near me. I turned to her.
“I won’t let him hurt you. I told you, we’re not all the same.”
She bit her bottom lip and squeezed out a fat tear that rolled down her ruddy cheek.
“My name is Britannia. I know this is all a bit…” I struggled for the right word, “…weird, but I’ll get you some place safe. You just have to trust me.”
“So, let me get this straight.” The boy whose blindfold I’d took off first edged toward me. “You’re a friendly blood sucking demon, and there are zombies outside. But you’ll protect us? At what price, you gonna feed off and kill us one by one like your friend there?” He motioned at Ludwig’s now still body. I kicked the vampire’s corpse out of the door and into the main shop, out of the eye-line of the humans.
I didn’t have time for this. I needed to get a new radio, some food and get back to the zoo. I needed to tell Tate I was alive and for Josh and Jack to know I was on my way to them. I hadn’t even bothered to ask these humans’ names and here I was trying to protect them, while they challenged my ethical code. I was just about to give the boy what for, when a rumbling groan echoed through the store. I peered out to see a group of zombies shuffling toward Ludwig’s body. Once there, they began to rip him apart like an overcooked turkey. There were stuffing- and cranberry sauce-like substances cascading out of the yawning cracks they were making with their bare hands. I gagged and quickly closed the door.
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**Series is a must to be read in order, make sure to get your copy of #1**
Bad Blood
Battle of the Undead #1
“I am Britannia. I am your protector. I will fend off the hungry hordes of undead hands that reach toward you. I am your steadfast defender. I will stand between you and the zombie masses as they try to taste your flesh. I am strong, unyielding, and dedicated to your survival. All I ask from you… is your blood.”
A 500 year bloody game of vengeance will need to be put on hold if vampires are to survive the zombie uprising. Bitter enemies, Britannia and Nicholas must work together to save un-infected humans, delivering them to a stronghold in Scotland.
Unable to drink the zombie blood, vampires need humans to stay alive. But will they tell the survivors who they are, and what they want from them? Will Britannia be able to hold back her vengeance? Is survivor Josh the reincarnation of Britannia’s murdered true love? And can she bring herself to deliver him to the safe hold?
Survival instincts run deep, but bad blood can run deeper.
Buy Links: Evernight Teen Amazon B&N Print
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About the Author:
Nicky is a published author of both YA and adult urban fantasy, paranormal romance and horror fiction. She lives in the heart of the UK, where she has run a writers’ group for over 4 years to help new writers find their feet on the path to publication. A member of both the Society of Authors and the British Fantasy Society, Nicky has had over 30 stories published in various anthologies. Bad Timing is her second book in the Battle of the Undead series published through Evernight Teen. She loves to talk to readers, so please feel free to either get in touch with her through her blog, or on any of the social media below.
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Giveaway: $10 Evernight Teen GC
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