Mandy M. Roth's Blog, page 75

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We’re having a contest and 25 lucky winners will be sent Raven temporary tattoos! Do you want a chance to show off your RAVEN? If so, comment below. We’ll select winners at random and then mail you your temp tattoo so you can take a pic wearing it somewhere on your body (be sure to keep it FB and twitter friendly) LOL.

Let the Raven pride contest begin!

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Intereview up at Romance Reviews Today (Reagan Hawk)

My pen name Reagan Hawk has been interviewed at Romance Reviews Today. Please stop by and say hi. CLICK HERE

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The Untold by Rory Michaels

Contemporary Western Threesome Romance

A Macon Valley Ménage 2

Cody and Everett have the kind of relationship that others raise a brow at. It’s not easy keeping it secret in a small town like Macon Valley. People talk and Nicole, Cody’s new bride, hears their whispers. She knows there is something between the men—something more than mere friendship. When they confess their desire to have a threesome, she’s stunned. She doesn’t want to be like the women they’ve used and discarded in the past. However, it’s clear this is what her husband needs. She can’t deny him and knows the men will give her a night of passion the likes of which she’s never imagined. What she doesn’t realize is the men aren’t aiming for a one shot deal. They’ve got their sights set on sharing her for good, regardless what the people of Macon Valley think.

Warning: This short story contains ménages a trios, explicit sex, strong language and cowboys who will melt your socks off. This short story also has explicit, graphic sexual content and is not for the faint of heart.

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Guest Blogging and Author Interviews Tips and Tricks

Guest Blogging and Author Interviews Tips and Tricks

When invited to guest blog on another’s blog it’s important you make the experience as painless as possible for the person hosting you that day. I know what you’re thinking “but I’m the author, it should be me, me all about me”. Odds are, the person you’re going to be visiting that day is also an author, if you’re lucky one with a very large following or steady fanbase—or they’re probably in the industry somehow. Regardless, they are doing you a favor. They are helping you reach more people, even if it’s just a handful, they are helping.

Here are some pointers to help you make your blog post as “user friendly” as possible. While it may take you a few extra minutes it will make you appealing as a return guest blogger. And you never want to lose marketing avenues.

Tips and Tricks:

Due Date: Be timely and don’t email a bunch of times with various questions. If you have questions, put them all in one email.

Forms and files: Fill out any forms you are given properly. Example: If they have a spot for name and you leave it blank do not be surprised if they accidentally use your real name (on your email if you sent from non-author name account), or if they leave your name blank. I’ve seen this happen before. Not effective marketing in the least.

If no form was sent to you and you’re winging a blog post be sure it’s more than just a shameless “buy my book” self-promo plug. That will turn off readers and do the opposite of what you’re wanting. There is nothing wrong with including a buy link to your book or even mentioning your book but do so in a way that “fits” with a post.

Example: In my upcoming release (name of title) I tackle the age old question of blah blah blah and find that in today’s society blah blah blah. Go on with some related relevant info or discussion starters.

Linkage: Provide proper URLs. This does not mean you type in www.yourweb.com and expect it to link perfectly later. You must type in http://www.yourweb.com (or whatever the exact url to your site is).

Be sure you provide your website addy and that your website is up to date. There is a chance people who are reading the post will in fact click through the link. Nothing worse than having them show up on your page to find it’s totally outdated. Stay current and make it easy for them to navigate around. Once you have them there, the goal is to keep them there a bit not frustrate them into leaving. And ALWAYS make your buy links on your website easy to spot, understand and access.

Cover/Photos: Some bloggers ask that you send the cover to them and they in turn handle sizing and what not. More often than not, they will ask you to provide a URL link to your cover. It is important you send the url to a cover that is sized properly for a blog post. Another words, do NOT send them to your full high res on the web or your jumbo-sized low res. You will often find your cover left off the post if this is the case because they deal with many guest bloggers and time is a factor.

Don’t know how to find the URL of your cover? It’s easy. Simply find your cover on your website or your publisher’s site. Right click on it. Click on view image. The image should then become the only thing you see in the window. If so, go to top of the navigation page and copy the URL in the title bar. Paste this into your form or email. That’s all there is to it. I make sure I have three sizes on my website of each cover. A thumbnail size often shown while browsing online bookstores, the web res, the slightly larger (and most used on the web for blogs) size and then my larger low res. This is rarely used but I still have a “ghost” page on my web that hosts only my covers in various sizes so I can go to it and get the urls for the size I might need.

Does the blogger want you to send them a separate file of the cover at a smaller/different size than what you have and you don’t know how to resize your cover? That’s easy. I made a step by step video on the matter. You can watch it here.

Only provide one cover/url link to cover unless specifically asked to send more. Don’t assume the blogger wants to have endless photos of your covers on their blog. Don’t send a bunch and say use what one you like and if it’s not sized properly, don’t expect a cover on your post. And please, please, please send professional looking covers and photos. Glamour shots are a thing of the past. Pics of your cleavage—not really the “face” you want to put forward to be taken seriously in this industry.

What if I don’t have all the info for my post yet, like I don’t have cover art yet or a book title?

Honestly, pick another book to feature. If you can’t, politely ask the blogger if they would mind you sending this info at a later date. Do not assume they will be fine with this. Many pre-load the posts, meaning they spend several days going through and loading their blog for several months out and do not want to stop again and again to enter or tweak posts. If you really want to feature a book that doesn’t have all its info be SURE you keep YOUR website up to date. So if anyone clicks from the post when it comes up they will then see the cover and the buy links and the title and…. Well, all that good stuff.

This info is all well and good but I’m having trouble finding blogs that will let me do a guest post or interview me. How should I go about this?

You should have a network of peers. It’s very important you be out there, be it facebook, twitter, etc getting to know other authors in your genre. I’ve said this too many times to count but we, as authors, need to support one another. Writing does not have to be the solo career they make it out to be. That means, get talking with other authors, pay attention when they post they’re guest blogging somewhere or if they’re looking for people to guest blog on their site. Read their posts. Read their info and bios and learn from them—buy their books. I know this sounds stupid to type out but really, authors are readers too and what better way to know the industry than to study it from the inside out. Plus, I’ve gotten more readers by recommending fellow authors than I can count. Readers like knowing you’re not all about you—that you’re a team player. If you can’t play well with others, I suggest you get out of the business because at some point you will need the help of the fellow authors you’ve snubbed and then what?

Another way to find places to guest blog/be interviewed is to troll the net. Find blogs that deal with what you do and see if they have guest bloggers or do interviews. Read them to be sure you “fit” with what they do. No point if you write inspirational fiction and you’re on an erotic fiction blog. Not really your target market. Next step: contact them and politely ask to guest blog or be interviewed. Be sure to provide a brief bio, your website, author name, all that good stuff so they can peek and see if you fit what they’re looking for. Don’t be upset if you don’t. Move on to the next one. There are plenty more out there.

What should I do when my interview posts?

You should tell your readers that you’re guest blogging and give the link. Put it in your newsletter, mention on your website, your blog, your author board. And for heaven’s sake, even if NO ONE comments (which is actually quite common bc many people get a blog feed and do not go directly to the blog site) you still need to comment–even if just to thank the host for having you. And if people are there commenting, comment back.

Pay it forward or back or sideways: If you have a blog, open it to the people you’ve guest blogged or interviewed at. The worst they can say is thank you but no. Many will welcome the exposure even if your blog doesn’t generate much in the way of views or hits just yet. Make it easy for them to guest blog or be interviewed by you—have a ready-made form to send them. Keep it light, simple and to the point. Give them a clear date of when it will post.

If I missed anything be sure to tell me and I’ll try to answer it. I’ve been blogging for over 8 years and a published author for 8 years. My background is art and marketing and when you put it all together I’d like to think I know enough to “get buy”.

Mandy M. Roth

Mandy M. Roth grew up fascinated by creatures that go bump in the night. From the very beginning, she showed signs of creativity—writing, painting, telling scary stories that left her little brother afraid to come out from under his bed. Combining her creativity with her passion for the paranormal has left her banging on the keyboard into the wee hours of the night. Her books have won numerous awards, including an RT nomination for Best Paranormal Erotic.

Mandy lives on the shores of Lake Erie with her husband, their three boys and a boxer pup named Hercules. When Mandy is not writing, she’s doing cover art for various places with a super double secret brush name. She also co-hosts a live talk radio show, Raven Radio, which was recently mentioned in Romantic Times Magazine and has given several marketing workshops for authors. She has a Bachelor of Science and is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Marketing.

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Excerpt from Denial of Service (Cyber Sex) coming soon from Reagan Hawk

Planet Fengaria, in the Bagune Galaxy

Admiral Jonas Myers kept a close eye on the brothel owner as he swiped the credits token. On more than one occasion the shady men had tried overcharging him for droid sex. This price seemed in line with the others and he’d paid for enough to know.

The brothel owner, middle-aged, balding and with a gut that didn’t quite fit into the shirt he’d tried to stuff it in, handed the token back to Jonas. “Last room on the right at the end of the hall. It’s the XT model you wanted.”

“Thanks.”

“You planning to invite buddies or something?”

Jonas stared at the man. “Why do you ask?”

“Because the XT model is for multiple partners. If you’re gonna have your friends fucking my droid too, you need to pay extra. And don’t go double-stuffing any holes. It’s a bitch if they get stretched out. Only one dick per hole at a time, got it? I don’t care if you tag team it but don’t double-stuff the same hole.”

Jonas eyed the man, wondering if he’d always been a sleaze or if this was relatively new. As he raked his gaze over him, he suspected he was born that way. “Got it.”

“You know the rules?” the man asked. “When you’re done, put the droid in the decontamination chamber to disinfect her for the next guy. No burning ’em, no beatin’ ’em and no takin’ apart to see their insides. You break it, scratch it or dent it, you buy it.”

Rolling his eyes, Jonas nodded. He knew the rules. They were the same at brothels universally. Hell, brothel owners had less rules when you asked to fuck an actual girl rather than their droids. Guess it really did come down to the bottom line and droids cost more than human women to replace. A sad truth on most planets, present one included. “Yeah, yeah, I know the spiel.”

The owner pulled a vial of serum out and popped it into a standard issue medical injection gun. “Arm.”

Jonas put his arm on the counter, allowing the brothel owner to inject him with serum specially made to help a man achieve multiple erections over the period of several days. There was an instant rush as the chemicals were absorbed into Jonas’s bloodstream. Warmth spread through his body, centering in his groin. His cock pulsed with need and he knew his walk to his rented room would be stiff and slower than he’d like.

He nodded his thanks and headed down the dark, dank hall in the direction of his rented room. The door to the room was wood and the paint was peeling from it. Spending almost all his time on space vessels and space stations, Jonas often forgot what wooden doors were like and wasn’t sure why anyone bothered with them anymore. He twisted the knob and entered the room. A woman spun around, her expression guarded at first.

 

Coming April 2013!

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Misfit in Middle America by Mandy M Roth

Paranormal Romance

Police Chief Adam Sisel has problems. He’s got three dead bodies, a murderer on the loose, a teenage son who’s as Goth as they come, an estranged wife, and the hots for a woman who doesn’t seem to know he exists. At some point, something has to give, and when it does, he finds out there is more to the tiny town of North Maple Ridge than meets the eye.

Warning: This short story was previously published at another house. It has been expanded by 6k words and now contains Beth’s POV. This short story contains graphic violence, explicit sex, adult situations, extreme gore, and is not for the faint of heart.

EXCERPT

Must be 18 years and older to read this. If not, please leave this site.

Misfit in middle America

Mandy M. Roth

Dedication:

To my mother who never once stopped pushing me to dream regardless what I was doing, and who told me that little girls can grow up to be whatever they want to be.

To my stepfather, who dedicated thirty years to law enforcement and who has been a member of our family for eighteen of those. And to my father whose scary movie marathons helped me to grow into the freak I am today.

Chapter One

Adam

North Maple Ridge—a tiny town, tucked safely away in the middle of nowhere America. Bad things didn’t happen here. I’d know. I’d been the chief of police for ten years. I’d brought my son here with the knowledge hateful, ugly crimes didn’t reach this far into oblivion. The carnage around me provided how very wrong I’d been. This was worse than anything I’d seen being a big city detective.

I’d known Jonathon Williams since I’d come to town. Never did I dream that accepting the job of chief of police in a tiny, rural Midwest community would amount to this. If Jonathon’s brother, Robert, hadn’t been a witness to the crime, I’m not sure I’d have believed the body was Jonathon’s. It was mutilated, torn to shreds. We’d need to wait for official word from testing, but I knew in my gut the remains were human and they belonged to Jonathon.

The boy had grown into a man before my eyes. It seemed like only yesterday he was coming over to build a fort with my son, Justin. I could still hear the two of them smacking sticks together, pretending to be defending the universe from evil invaders. Now only silence filled the air. I’d have given anything to hear the echoes of past play, of excited children, innocent of all evil.

Jonathon, two weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday, was now dead. His life senselessly cut short, and it was my job to figure out who or what did it and why.

“It’s days like this that I hate my fucking job,” I whispered as I walked back to my SUV. Jonathon wasn’t the first victim. At the rate things were going, he wouldn’t be the last, and I was no closer to an answer than I had been weeks ago when the first killing occurred.

“Chief, do you need to see anything else, or can we bag ’em up?” asked Officer Braun. His light brown hair was cut close, as was often the case with new officers. Many thought it gave them a certain look, an extra edge of authority. Others just wanted to be sure that their hair was regulation so they went overboard. Braun struck me as the latter. He was a pleaser—the type of guy who always wanted to make someone else happy but always fearful of taking the lead.

He was new to police work. He’d only been in it a year now. The pay here was decent but he could have done much better in the city. His father had been an officer with our department and that meant something. These people tended to keep things local. Bringing me in as chief had been a big deal. For nearly a year it was all anyone seemed to talk about. Thankfully, those days had passed. Now, the only topic on anyone’s mind was the murders.

Braun looked a little green. I couldn’t say I blamed him. The prospect of bagging up a body that’s in pieces will make the best of men fall to their knees. This wasn’t our first and I feared it wouldn’t be our last, so I nodded my head for him to finish up.

Might as well learn to handle it now, I thought to myself as I walked away.

I opened my SUV door to head to the Williams’ house to inform them of their son’s death. Robert would need their support now, and I was pretty sure Mr. Williams would be able to offer it. Mrs. Williams, on the other hand, would more than likely be too distraught over the loss of her oldest boy to be much good to Robert. The boy had managed to survive a brutal attack and make it to the highway to flag down help. The paramedics were amazed that he was doing as well as he was. He’d lost a ton of blood. If he survived the night, it’d be a miracle. The last thing any of us wanted was for the Williams to have to bury both their boys.

“Excuse me, Chief Sisel, can I ask you a few questions?” I heard Beth Murray’s voice before I saw her. I thought about jumping in my SUV and driving off, but that would only add to the hysteria. Plus, I’d look like a pussy. The last thing I wanted to do was be cornered by her. Beth was the town’s lead reporter. Come to think of it, she was the town’s only reporter.

Pushy, demanding and sexy as all get out. Just being near her had a tendency to make my dick hard. Hell, thinking about her did the trick. She and I had a history of not seeing eye to eye. I’m not sure how it was we’d gotten off on the wrong foot but it had happened.

She’d been born and raised here, and she knew everyone. I knew that she’d gone to some fancy college on the east coast for a while, but after graduation, she headed home. I wasn’t a native here, but I knew the area’s appeal. I also knew that in Beth’s world I was a primary source for fact verification and that was it. If the town had had automated police records, I was sure she’d never bother to speak to me. She’d skip me and look it up herself.

“You can ask,” I answered succinctly. “Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

“I’d expect nothing less, Chief,” she said, a forced smile pressed to her lips. “I’ve learned to lower my expectations when dealing with you.”

I wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. I watched her coming toward me with her blue jeans and tan sweater on. My gaze scanned the length of her body. I wished she’d wear clothes that fit her better. The ones she had on were too loose for my liking. Of course, if I got a say, I’d say she skip the clothing altogether.

I’d accidentally seen her once wearing a tiny black bikini. Well, wearing most of it that is. She was sunbathing in her backyard and I had responded to a call about a missing dog. I leaned over the fence to see if he’d run that way and found Beth lying there with the strings undone, leaving her pink nipples partially exposed to me. I could still remember the curve that her hip took, and the way her navel wanted to poke out, but didn’t. She wasn’t stick thin like so many women were now. Maybe if she showed off her figure a little bit more, it’d hide the fact she had some serious personality quirks. I doubted it though.

By the looks of her now, she’d been awakened out of a deep sleep to try to get the scoop. I had to laugh when I saw tiny wisps of her blonde hair come loose from its hair tie. During the day, she was always so put together, but in the middle of the night, she was as real as the rest of us. That was good to know, although I had fantasized many a night that she slept in tiny black silk panties with a garter belt and fishnet hose. But hey, what guy didn’t think about that?

Beth was nine years my junior, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about her—obsessing to be exact. Karen, my wife, had been gone since Justin was three. She said we’d married too young, and she needed her freedom. I agree, we did marry too young. We were both just eighteen when she got pregnant. She saw it as the end of our lives. I viewed it as the beginning. It was hard for the first couple of years. Damn hard.

I’d enrolled at the academy and was taking classes all day and working security at night. When I wasn’t at school I was working. It was hard for us, but I knew it’d be better on us in the long run. Two weeks after I started my first police job, Karen walked out on me. She dropped Justin off at the sitter’s and I hadn’t seen her since. Now, Justin was about to turn eighteen and getting ready to graduate, and I was chief of police. Maybe it had been for the best that she’d left.

As I watched Beth come closer to me, I wondered why I wasn’t dating more. I wasn’t old by anyone’s standards. I’d just turned thirty-six and had a better build than most of my son’s friends. Still, I didn’t feel right dating. Karen was gone, and I didn’t love her anymore, but I’d never gotten a divorce. At least I hadn’t yet. It hadn’t seemed important to me. My job consumed most of my time, and Justin was too high a priority to make room for a woman. I wasn’t a monk either. I’d had sex since Karen walked out on me, but I’d never had a relationship. Until Beth, I never thought I wanted one. Something about that feisty little blonde made me want to force her to commit.

My mind raced back to a week earlier when I’d run into the city for a seminar. It was a two-day planned event that left me having to get a hotel room for the night. A few of us had decided to go to a bar for a drink. I ended up meeting a hot little number whose boyfriend was out of town for the weekend. I could still feel her lips around my cock. She was one of those women with extra full lips. The kind that make you wonder what sort of work she had done to achieve such perfection.

She spent most of the night on her knees making remarks about how ‘gifted’ I was. I nearly grinned thinking about it. She’d been one of the rare few who begged me to come all over her face. I did, of course.

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Civil Twilight (Project Exorcism) by Mandy M Roth

Futuristic Sci-Fi Shapeshifter Vampire Paranormal Romance

Linked to the following Project Exorcism Books: Paranormal Payload, Force of Attraction, and Point of No Return

Stegian is a man held prisoner in his own body by a demon. A demon hell bent on ridding the planet of all Janelles. He rules by fear and he rules well. But, when a mysterious, gorgeous woman arrives late one night, tempting him, claiming to want to save him from himself, everything changes. He longs for her and wants to believe her words are true—that she can separate him from the vampire he carries within. Dare he hope? Dare he believe?

Jacquelyn Janelle is no longer held to the same rules that apply to her people. She’s ascended and gained valuable insight into the universe and its plans for one thought lost to evil. More than that, she’s fully aware who he is to her—her true mate. She’ll stop at nothing to assure she saves him, even if it’s from himself.

Warning: This novella contains explicit sex and violence. It is a story about redemption against all hope and about how love can transcend time and space. Plus, it has hot sex scenes for those unconcerned with the frilly stuff.

EXCERPT

Must be 18 years and older to read this. If not, please leave this site.

Civil Twilight

Mandy M. Roth

Author’s Series Note

Each book in the Project Exorcism series is written to stand alone; however, I do recommend reading them in order to maximize reading pleasure. To aid any who have not, as of yet, read the other books, or any who are simply looking for a refresher, I thought this introduction might help.

Series background: Twenty-third century—Man has long since achieved space travel. Almost all planets in the known universe are part of the Commission, an intergalactic governing body that oversees the well-being of all within its quadrants.

Supernatural creatures were discovered among us in the twenty-first century and witchhunts quickly began to rid Earth of them. A battle broke out and Earth’s human population dropped. In the end, humans were victorious, but only because a few select figureheads in the supernatural world agreed to the terms of a peace treaty. The terms were simple. The supernaturals were to be escorted off planet Earth and relocated on other planets, ones that were not part of the Commission’s territory. Ones that were agreed upon ahead of time, and ones on which the supernaturals would not be a threat.

Thus began Project Exorcism. Five vessels set out on this mission. Only one arrived at its chosen destination. The others were thought lost during the meteoroid shower that occurred shortly after takeoff. Man now faces a new threat, only they are unaware of it. By shipping the supernaturals off, they unknowingly gave them access to other planets’ resources, including added magikal abilities, the ability to breed with their inhabitants, and so very much more.

Prologue

Nearing planet Sargaidia, onboard one of the Project Exorcism vessels, year 2056…

Vessel sirens continued to blare, announcing what Stegian already knew, the ship was in trouble. It had gotten swept into what he could assume were stellar remains. The ship had been plagued with issues since its launch. Stegian knew why. Those who had forced his kind from Earth cared little about their safety, only that they left the planet. The brains behind Project Exorcism had thought as far as getting supernaturals off the planet and out of the range of Earth. They’d sworn in negotiations that the planets they’d sought out were safe havens and new starts for the supernaturals. It, like everything else, had been lies. He was sure of it. He’d been a fool to believe them—to think mankind had an ounce of decency left in it.

Now, countless light years from home, their ship was damaged because of stellar remains. The pilot of the vessel swore the anomaly was rare and not showing on his instrument panel. Stegian believed the young vampire. He had nothing to gain by lying. He was as trapped on the ship as the rest of them were. Problem was the young vampire wasn’t as trained as he should have been. None of the supposed pilots were. They’d been put through a crash course on the matter prior to their departure. As had all members of the crew.

Stegian scanned the panels, doing his best to assess the damage to the ship. Two of the port side thrusters were completely gone and failing to respond in any way. Already the ship had begun to list to one side, something it should never do—that much he was sure of. It wasn’t like space travel was totally foreign to him. He, like any other well-to-do resident of Earth, had visited other planets for vacation—though he was careful to select ones that didn’t have much in the way of sunlight. Being a vampire left him unable to wake in the sun’s rays. He missed it but couldn’t dwell, not when the ship he was onboard was in such dire jeopardy.

Varying people on board moved quickly from location to location, none seeming to know what to do. Pandemonium broke out. Several of the banshees onboard continued to wail, as if everyone around them wasn’t smart enough to figure out people were going to die. They didn’t need a supernatural alarm stating the obvious. A shifter spun quickly, knocking one of the banshees out cold. Stegian wasn’t big on violence but even he’d wanted to silence her.

People rushed around like mad as the ship pitched hard to the right and then shook violently. He had to reach out to steady himself or he too would have fallen, like so many others had. Sirens blared and alert lights beeped. The computer continued to read out different, yet equally as depressing outcomes.

“We’re gonna die,” one of the men yelled.

Another snorted. “We’ve been as good as dead since the day they loaded us onto this ship like cattle,” another returned.

Stegian staggered towards the control panels. The young vampire pilot was hurt and currently having his wounds tended to. While he would eventually heal, there was no fresh blood at the ready so the medical staff needed to try to stop the rapid rate of his blood loss. A fill-in pilot, one with limited training, was doing his best to gain control of the ship. It wasn’t working.

“Life support systems are down,” Stegian said, remaining calm in the face of certain death.

“I can try to land it,” Yunoc, the young male shifter who was doing his best to pilot the vessel, said. “At our excepted rate of entry and with the velocity we are traveling at, there is a good chance we could burn up in the atmosphere.”

“Do your best,” said Stegian, bracing himself in the co-pilot chair. A planet came into view and Yunoc focused on aiming the craft in that direction. “No promises.”

A natural leader, Stegian was often who the people aboard the spaceship turned to. He’d been instrumental in negotiations with the humans on Earth and had done his best to prevent anymore loss of lives due to ignorance and fear of supernaturals. “Try to land us.”

He sucked in a hasty breath and prepared for rapid decent. It came with a vengeance. He was thrown free of the pilot area and slammed face first into a wall. Pain exploded throughout him, and he was fairly certain he’d broken multiple bones, and they hadn’t even impacted yet. It came with a shuddering, thundering thud and all around him went black for a moment.

Stegian pushed off of the unforgiving inner shell of the vessel he’d been banished to one year prior. The smell of smoke and charred remains coated the area. While he didn’t quite know the extent of injuries on the ship, his senses told him they were grave and many. As if the ship’s crew hadn’t been through enough already.

He snarled at the thought of the ignorant humans who had herded him and the other supernaturals like cattle onto the vessels, hoping to rid Earth of them for good. Their fear of what they did not understand prompted sanctions and even saw death squads coming to be. These squads had one mission, find and eliminate supernaturals. Stegian and a few select other figureheads had tried to reason with the humans. He’d tried to make them understand they did not have to live in fear of them. That supernaturals would police themselves as they had always done, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears. Soon, backlash from the death squads rippled through the supernatural community and attacks on humans began. From there, it was all downhill.

Now, one year later, but in truth, many a light year later, thanks to the courtesy of accelerated speeds and state-of-the-art highly efficient thrust-to-weight ratios, Stegian and his people were far, far from Earth and its reaches. They were, according to his calculations, far off their original course as well.

They’d encountered meteor showers shortly after departing Earth and had never quite been able to get their navigational maps back up and running to standard. No surprise. It wasn’t as if the people running the vessel were top notch. They’d been lucky to have anyone on board who could pilot the ship. Two of the vessels the supernaturals were herded upon had men who had to be trained on the spot to fly them. It wasn’t as if humans would risk or give up their valued human, qualified pilots.



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Excerpt: Daughter of Darkness by Mandy M. Roth

Daughter of Darkness by Mandy M. Roth

Paranormal Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance

Good or Evil? How’s a girl to choose?

Gwyneth Stevens, born of magical descent and raised by humans, fully understands that creatures of the night exist outside of books and movies. When her job leads her to Necro’s Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park, she meets Pallo, an Italian vampire so captivating, so perfect and so familiar. Before she can fully explore her feelings for him, fate steps in, bringing with it a sexy bounty hunter who makes Gwen’s insides tighten and her body burn. Caleb instantly lays claim to her heart.

Torn between her love for two men, Gwen finds herself caught in a triangle shrouded in passion, lust and immortality. In a world where humans live in ignorance and supernaturals are a sub-culture, anything is possible.

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EXCERPT

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Prologue

I lay in the field of flowers taking in the glorious scents. Violas were littered around me acting as a warm blanket to shield me from the cool night. The beauty of the shades of glowing purple and yellow pulled me to them. I plucked one up, put it to my lips and took in a deep breath. Their fresh scent soothed me, making me feel at one with the earth.

Small white clouds formed against the sharply contrasting royal blue sky. I traced the edges of one with my fingers. I wanted to reach out, grasp it and cuddle it to my body.

Rolling onto my stomach, I propped my chin up with my arms. My hair got caught under my elbow, and I freed it to relieve the tension on my head. From the corner of my eye I caught the fluttering of a small butterfly. It hovered above me a moment and I put my hand out towards it. Perching lightly upon my wrist, it sat motionless.

The white cottony clouds that I had been so desperate to hold turned gray. Suddenly, the sky grew dark and ominous. A crackle of thunder made the earth beneath me vibrate. Wind circled around me, pulling at the tiny blue sundress I wore.

There was a sharp pain in my wrist. I looked down—a gold snake lay in place of the butterfly. Like two tiny daggers, its fangs were firmly planted into my skin. Most people would flick the thing off, right? Well, I’m not most people. Besides, this wasn’t my first go around with the dream. I’d been having the dream long enough to know what was to come. I braced myself. The ground below me gave way and I found myself spiraling into a bottomless pit. Darkness surrounded me, and I knew better than to bother to scream.

The familiar sound of a woman’s voice whispered to me. “You are the balance. You will bring light to the darkness.”

Chapter One

I pulled up outside of the main gate. The blood red sign that stood high in the air read “Necro’s Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park”. I hated the idea of being here but you do what you have to do to make a living. Prior to working as assistant to the City’s Chief Paranormal Prosecutor, I hadn’t been able to keep a job to save my life. I’d tried a little bit of everything, from being a marketing director to stripping.

Hey, a girl’s got to make a living, right?

My friend Sharon got me the job at the Paranormal Regulators Law Offices. She’d worked with my boss and now ex-fiancé, Ken, enough to pull some strings and get me an in. He hired me as his personal assistant, sight unseen. After a year of working for him, he caught on to the fact that I had some special skills. I wasn’t your ordinary girl next door—hell, I didn’t even qualify as human, though my exact label escaped even me.

Focusing on the task at hand, I took a look around Necro’s Magik World. It had only been open for business six years, but in that short time frame had managed to corner the market on ticket sales for theme parks. Someone had come up with the brilliant idea of having a theme park that revolved around the supernatural. By doing this the area had become a Mecca for the undead and magikal creatures. At the park, demons didn’t have to hide who they were. They were able to live among humans without fear of persecution and mass pandemonium. I’d even seen some of the “employees” walking around downtown one night. No one looked shocked to see a vampire roaming the streets—they just ran up and asked for his autograph.

Teenagers were heavy into imitating the undead, and of course, dead attire was all the rage. I wondered if creatures of the undead ever thought of sending thank-you notes to rock stars that ran around looking like death on stage. The more I thought about Hollywood and rock stars, the more I wondered how many of the images weren’t an act. I knew that there had to be a few celebrities who fell into the category of supernatural, I just didn’t know which ones they were.

Necro’s Magik World was huge, or so I’d been told. While the park spanned over four hundred acres, it wasn’t all developed yet since they’d left room for expansion. They’d picked the location wisely. They were close enough to the city to generate business, but far enough out to remain secluded and away from the watchful eye of others. People were eating up the idea of a supernatural theme park to the point that various spin-offs were popping up all around the world. There were restaurants, clothing stores, and, believe it or not, websites and social networking sites all devoted to helping the living challenged or human alternatives find love and happiness.

A computer literate vampire, funny thought. I still had issues text messaging on my phone and here they were surfing the net.

The park only operated during nighttime for obvious reasons. I didn’t know too many vampires willing to sit out in the sunlight to greet guests. Here’s your ticket, excuse me while I burst into flames.

I still wasn’t sure about the outfit I had chosen. I’d decided on a pair of dark blue flare bottom jeans that made my legs look longer and at five foot five I took all the help I could get. I’d debated on wearing long sleeves or short because of how cool the summer nights could get, and finally settled on a red short-sleeved top. I’d chosen jeans because I always felt most comfortable in them. I’d also been told that red brought out my best features—my eyes and my hair.

I was ticked I hadn’t brought a brush with me. I’d left the house in such a hurry that I hadn’t taken time to blow dry my hair. I fumbled around in my purse until I found a hair tie. Gathering up the front and sides of my hair, I pulled it loosely behind my head. Wrapping the tie around it several times, I did a quick check. Little black wisps fell from it and framed my face. That was just the way I liked it. I’d been thinking of cutting my hair off again. It seemed rather silly because every time I did it, my hair grew back to just above my rear end within two months. My hair liked to be that length and didn’t take kindly to my attempts at doing anything else with it.

Being awakened out of dead sleep by Ken’s phone call did not suit me. I looked like crap. Sure, I was grateful he’d ended the nightmare I was having, but peeved he’d wanted me to go out in the middle of the night to question a master vampire.

I touched my face and decided I didn’t have to fuss with much. I’d been blessed with flawless skin. It was, however, rather pale. I tried tanning beds and hitting the beach every day for a summer, but I couldn’t get myself to burn, let alone tan. I did my best to make up for the lack of color by adding a touch of blush to both cheeks and some lip gloss to my lips. I was so sick of everyone asking if I had collagen implants. I wanted to get a t-shirt printed that read, “Yes, I do see the light of day, and yes the lips are real too”.

Grabbing my purse from the passenger seat, I fumbled through it until I found my eyeliner. I was big on the whole lining of the top lid with black craze. Prior to its recent revival, I’d been seriously out of date with the look, but did it anyway. I loved the way it brought out my eyes, and I was into retro.

Satisfied it was as good as it was going to get, I got out of the car.

When I swung the door shut I thought the car had finally had it. It was an ‘84 Thunderbird and it had seen better days. The roof was dented beyond repair and it had no floor in the back right passenger side. Every time it rained, my seat ended up soaked because the seal on the door was missing. I tried to remember to lay a towel on the seat when I got out, but every now and then I would forget—resulting in a wet butt. My absolute favorite thing about the car was that I had to use my best judgment to find the right gears. When you put the car in park, you were really in reverse and when you put the car in reverse, you went forward. Parking had always been a guess because the spot for it was somewhere above the letters on the dash. The only thing the car had going for it was that it was paid for and it still ran. I was worried about getting my student loans paid off before I bought a new one. I figure I’ll be paying for my loans until I die at this rate, and considering the fact I’m pretty sure I have Fae blood in me that’s funny. Most Fae are immortal creatures of magik. The banks would just love me!

I walked towards one of the ticket booths. It was made to look like a mausoleum. Gray granite rock covered it and mythical creatures were carved into its molding. The boy sitting behind the counter resembled a zombie. The makeup slathered on his face gave him the appearance of rotting flesh and his costume looked as though he had just crawled from the grave—just looking at him made me smile. I assumed they had real zombies working here, but this kid was obviously not one of them.

“Ticket please.”

I tried not to laugh. He sounded so ridiculous. The makeup and wardrobe were one thing—the overdone enunciation of his words was just too much.

“Gwen Stevens. I’m here to speak with Pallo D’Alessandro.” I had to bite my lip to keep from busting out laughing.

He didn’t look amused as he turned to pick up the phone. He hung up and glanced back at me. “Mr. D’Alessandro will see you shortly. Go through the red doors and downstairs. Someone will meet you there.”

Giving him a nod, I headed in the direction he had pointed.

A gigantic limestone building loomed before me. The gray stone exterior formed a sharp contrast to the small, landscaped flowerbeds that lined the walkway leading up to it. They were full of what looked to be lemon verbena and green sage. I thought it odd that someone would grow only herbs in a spot made for flowers. Stone gargoyles stood in the center of each bed. I really didn’t like the idea of being at a place where they prided themselves on scaring the shit out of you, but Ken needed information… bad. I really hated the fact that I was his “girl Friday”.

It only took me a few minutes to reach the red doors. Standing around for a bit, I waited for Sharon or Rick to show. I’d already been at the park for half an hour so I decided to give them another fifteen minutes. Sharon was usually late. She seemed to be on a whole separate time schedule. At the office, we referred to someone who was late as running on “Sharon-time”. Rick, on the other hand, had a military background and was always five minutes early. The fact that he wasn’t here yet should have really bothered me, but it didn’t. I was getting pretty brave in my old age, or pretty stupid, depending on how you looked at it.

My patience level was low considering I’d gotten little sleep due to my-oh-so pleasant dream. The fact I was standing out here in the dead of night waiting for the people who should have been handling this themselves didn’t help much either. I gave up and used my cell phone to try to reach Sharon. I got her voice mail, so I left her a message telling her I was going to go ahead in and I’d talk to her later. I also informed her that if I didn’t call her back in an hour I was probably dead. That was my way of making light of the situation, but my gut told me that there was some truth to the comment.

I glanced up at the red door. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was go into a room full of vamps, but if I didn’t go now I’d lose my nerve. I turned the knob and pulled the door open.

Instantly, I was hit with the smell of dampness. Glancing around, I tried to get the nasty taste of stale air out of my mouth as I got my bearings. I stood at the top of a stairwell, which was lit by several torches sitting in sconces along the wall. The walls were stone and looked like the inside of a castle.

No, make that the entrance to a dungeon.

I wasn’t sure how anyone who owned and operated a multimillion dollar business ended up in a basement, but I trudged onward anyway. When I reached the end of the staircase I found myself in front of a large, heavy, metal door. The medieval theme was getting old, fast.

I knocked and the door opened quickly. A man stood there silently looking at me. His six foot five frame took up most of the doorway. White waves of hair spilled onto his shoulders and large green eyes stared back at me. His face was soft, with baby fine features. The sweet smell of honey filled my head.

I’d heard vampires smelled nice but this was ridiculous. I wanted to lick him just to see if he tasted as good as he smelled but I held back.

Good girl.

He was dressed like he’d just fallen out of the eighties. I half expected him to claim he was the guitarist for one of the big hair bands and not really a vamp at all. He had on black, painted-on leather pants. His white shirt hung loosely from his body and gaped open to the middle of his stomach. Even in the poorly lit stairwell I could see how smooth and pale his skin was. When I glanced back at his face, he was staring at me wide-eyed. He appeared puzzled and a bit surprised. Imagine that—I put a vampire off guard.

“I’m Gwyneth Stevens. Kenneth Harpel sent me down to speak with Mr. D’Alessandro.” I extended my hand to him but he just stared at it.

A few seconds went by in silence. I had the strongest urge to bolt back upstairs and out the door.

“Please come in,” he said, stepping to the side. “We do not get many new visitors here. I apologize for my lack of manners.”

I’d never met an honest to God gentleman before, so it took me a moment to respond. “Thank you. I’m sorry for coming at such a late hour, but Lydia phoned our office requesting I meet with Mr. D’Alessandro tonight.”

His green eyes widened. “Yes, Lydia, umm, come in please. I will get Pallo for you.”

“So, do you have a name or is Def Leppard mega-fan all right by you?” My voice dripped with sarcasm that was coated in a healthy amount of nerves as well.

“I am Caradoc.” He seemed taken aback by my attempt at humor.

“Caradoc, the name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Should it?” he asked as I walked past him.

“No, I guess not. I just got the feeling I knew you from somewhere.”

Caradoc led me into a room with a large stone fireplace in it. Two red sofas sat across from each other. They were trimmed with beautiful gold leafing that made your eye follow the s-curve of the feet. A massive Serapi rug covered the floor. Cherry end tables flanked each end of the red sofas. Candles sat on them and dripped wax down onto the rich wood. I had half a mind to walk up and put a coaster under them to protect the integrity of the tables. I got the feeling that no one else here cared, so I let it be.

The room had several doors in it. I had no clue where any of them went, so I kept my back near the exit. I didn’t like leaving myself vulnerable, but the room didn’t leave me many options.

“Please have a seat.” Caradoc motioned to one of the couches. “Can I offer you anything to drink?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I was afraid to say yes and get a big glass of blood, and afraid to say no and come off as rude.

He winked at me. I wondered if he was flirting or just had something in his eye. My money was on hair spray—that was of course if he held true to his eighties ensemble. “Would you like a glass of iced tea?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Please make yourself at home.”

I watched him exit out the door to my right and sat with my hands folded on my lap. I turned and stared at the large fireplace. Tiny pixies and faeries were embossed in it. They were all naked and each one wrapped itself around the one below it. Standing in a Master Vampire’s living room alone when he obviously had a thing for naked creatures of magik wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had.

Gulping, I rubbed my palms across my jeans, trying my best to keep the nervous sweat that was building to a minimum.

The place let off a strange vibe, yet, oddly it felt more like home than the apartment I’d been living in for the last two years. I’d been in the place for less than fifteen minutes and I already felt like I could throw my feet up on the sofa and kick back awhile. I resisted the urge.

“Sorry to interrupt you, but Pallo will be with you in a moment.” I didn’t sense anyone in the room with me so I was caught off guard. When I turned around Caradoc was standing behind me. He bowed his head slightly. “Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you.”

“No, you’re fine. I’m sorry.” I felt a little silly with a man bowing in front of me so I put my hand out to him. If Sharon were with me, she would have shot me dead on the spot for being careless and trusting a stranger who also happened to be a vampire. I didn’t feel that he posed any threat to me.

The door to my left opened and a man entered. He looked to be in his early twenties but I knew that if he was a vamp he was more likely to be in the hundreds. His hair was short and blond with pink tips. It appeared as though he used gel to spike it. He wore black from head to toe. He had on a t-shirt, jeans and pair of army boots. He definitely had the James Dean look down pat. When he saw me, he froze in place. Gee, I was having that effect on a lot of people lately. He opened his mouth and stood silent for a second. As fun as it all was, I didn’t want to play the game anymore.

“Mr. D’Alessandro, I came here to speak with you regarding the hellhound homicides.” My ability to be all work and no play came so easy. I expected him to start pouring his heart out about what they knew. What I got instead was his face looking even more shocked.

“Blood and sand! Caradoc, she thinks I’m Pallo. What the hell’s going on here? If anyone should remember him, it’s her,” he said, his voice thick with a British accent as he pointed at me.

Shoot. I thought he had to be the head guy—guess I was wrong. That didn’t happen too often, so I was a bit nervous. I usually just knew things that other people didn’t. It had always proved to be an asset until about thirty seconds ago. Suddenly, it seemed rather useless now.

Caradoc stepped forward. It was clear he didn’t want to touch me and that was just fine by me. “I’m sorry, Ms. Stevens.” He put a lot of emphasis on my name and stared hard at the James Dean-looking vamp.

“This is Jameson. Master Pallo will be with us momentarily.”

Jameson, James Dean? I shrugged and laughed in my head at the irony. Jameson approached me with speed that no human possessed and extended his hand to me.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Stevens.” With the amount of attention they were giving my name, I was beginning to wonder if they thought it was an alias. Yes, often I run around giving bogus names—geesh. Besides, I would have come up with something more original than Gwen. “Faerie with attitude” had a nice ring to it.

“Nice to meet you too, Jameson,” I said. His hand was cool to the touch. I pulled mine away slowly.

“James. I go by James.” He smiled wide at me and I saw no fangs. I’d never actually met a vampire up close before. I always assumed they walked around with these huge dog-like fangs showing. Guess I was wrong—again.

“Can either of you fine gentlemen tell me where Mr. D’Alessandro is? I’d love to spend another hour being stared at like a circus freak, but a girl’s got to get her beauty sleep you know. So, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, can someone find Mr. D’Alessandro for me?” I turned to face Caradoc. I could sense that between the two, he was higher up on the seniority ladder, but I wasn’t sure by how much.

“He cannot help you find him, but I am sure I can.” The deep exotic voice ran over the room and covered my body. It was familiar to me, soothing, sexy. I turned, expecting to see someone I knew.

A man walked out from behind James. He was around six feet tall and had a head of loose brown curls that hung almost to his shoulders. The guy leaked sexuality. Prior to this meeting, I hadn’t known that was even possible. His face looked as though it was chiseled from stone. His pale skin had only the faintest hint of coloring. He had a strong chin with a small dimple in it, and his lips were full. They looked soft, kissable.

I let my gaze slowly fall down his body. He wore no shirt. His shoulders were broad, and from where I stood it appeared as though tiny freckles covered them. Muscles rippled down his stomach, forming a six pack and forcing my eyes lower. He wore a loose pair of black pants that I wished were invisible. They looked to be pajama bottoms, but I wasn’t sure. I was too busy staring at the way his chest went from being completely bare to the start of tiny black hairs from his navel area down. He wore his waistband extremely low and I was positive he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

I glanced down towards the floor and saw that he was barefoot. I did a quick second look at his body as I retraced my steps back to his beautiful face. The most intense pair of crisp, dark-brown, almost black eyes stared back at me. When I was finished mentally undressing him, I noticed the expression on his face. Gee, what a shocker. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Would you guys please tell me if I have a huge horn sprouting from my forehead?” I was tired and I was sure it was pushing at least three in the morning.

Caradoc spoke first. “No, Ms. Stevens, you’ve not sprouted a horn as of yet. Why do you ask? Is this something we should watch for?” His sincerity made me burst out into laughter. James and the mysterious tall sexy vamp laughed as well.

“Everyone I’ve met so far has stood there staring at me like a deer caught in headlights. What gives? Where is Mr. D’Alessandro?”

“I am Mr. D’Alessandro,” the drop dead gorgeous one said. “Pallo is fine. I am sorry if we’ve upset you, but you remind us of someone we once knew.” He tossed his hair out of his face with his hand and stepped towards me. “My apologies for looking like I just rolled out of bed, but I have been sparring in the gym. I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”

Sparring in the gym? The very thought of it made me drool. Was going weak-kneed and passing out an option? I hoped so, since it was exactly what I felt like doing.

When Ken told me that I was going to meet Mr. D’Alessandro, I pictured a six hundred year old vampire who still spoke like he was in the Old World. Pallo didn’t seem much into using contractions, but his English was perfect, accented slightly, but perfect nonetheless.

“I’d have thought that Lydia would’ve told you I was coming. She phoned and requested that someone be sent down immediately to speak with you. Two others were supposed….” I didn’t finish my last sentence. I wasn’t sure it was wise to spill the beans about being here completely alone with no sign of backup coming. My patience level was growing very thin. The only thing that helped me keep my grip was that I was surrounded by three of the sexiest men I’d ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. Did I also forget to mention the fact that they could probably kill me before I knew what hit me?

Sexy and deadly, just the way I like them.

The room fell silent. Caradoc and James exchanged glances. Pallo was the first to break the silence. “I have not had a chance to speak personally with Lydia in some time now. My apologies. Please stay. I will answer whatever I can Ms…?”

“Ms. Stevens. Thank you.”

“Yes, of course, Gwyneth Stevens. I have seen your name in the Nocturnal Journal recently for your office being involved in the breakup of a Ghoul-fighting ring.” He took a step towards me, “Most impressive indeed, Gwyneth.”

This poster child for the “dead and doable” saying my name made me want to melt, and in some ways I did. I’ve heard that vampires could persuade members of the opposite sex to fall for them with ease. Knowing this should have prepared me for the way I was starting to feel, but it didn’t.

It would be easy to get lost in Pallo’s alluringly dark eyes. I wanted them to be looking down at me, staring at me while his body moved in and out of mine. I wanted to run my fingers through his wavy brown hair, to hold it while he brought my body to its climax. I wanted him now. I had to concentrate on not leaping across the room and straddling him. I pushed the desire down and for the first time felt how strong his pull was. Thankfully, I was stronger.

“Why are you fighting me?” Pallo asked.

“What do you mean?” I thought I’d play the dumb blonde routine for a minute.

“You are trying hard not to come near me, like I mean you harm.”

I guess the dumb blonde routine doesn’t work well, especially when you’re a brunette. “Look, no offense, but you could be a homicidal maniac for all I know. After all, you are a—” I stopped short of saying vampire.

“True. But why would such a lovely young woman come alone to a maniac’s house in the middle of the night?” His smile was so sexy that I had to fight with myself not to jump his bones then and there. Of course, I was willing to settle for a dry hump.

“Okay, you’ve got a good point. I must be crazy to come down here with a room full of vampires anyway, so why even bother with the shenanigans?”

“The ‘shenanigans’ you refer to were merely a test. I do not want any of my staff revealing information to someone not associated with the likes of us.”

I was well beyond the point of feeling the need to be polite. “Well, I’m so happy that I passed your little Club Bloodsuckers initiation test, we can gather around and throw up gang signs later. Right now, I would really like—”

His hand came up suddenly, motioning me to stop. Surprisingly enough, I did. He must have thought my last comment was amusing because he laughed. It was quite possibly the most perfect laugh I’ve ever heard.

“Well I’m so happy to be your entertainment for the evening, thank you, and good-bye!” I headed towards the door. Pallo stepped in my path. Under normal circumstances a vampire standing in front of me would scare the hell out of me. This time it just pissed me off.

He stepped close enough for me to touch. He put his hand out and brushed mine. I flinched a little. Even though I’d mentally psyched myself up for meeting vampires, I couldn’t bring myself to not be scared of what they could do.

I began to pull back, but his touch felt familiar to me. Sensual. Inviting. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it gently. Warmth flowed over my body. Suddenly, my insides felt like a thousand tiny fingers were moving throughout me, caressing me. Pallo’s hands never left mine, yet I could have sworn that he’d just rubbed my most vulnerable spots. I felt it again, the feel of fingers caressing between my legs. I gasped and my body reacted to him. Damp, and breathless, I felt my hair lift up and I saw his do the same. I yanked my hand back, as if I’d been scorched.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said, grinning at me. He’d planned that!

I smiled back, trying to look nonchalant, as if this sort of thing happened often. “Do you do that to all the ladies?”

He leaned in so close that I thought he would kiss my neck, or worse yet, bite it. I put my hands up and touched his chin. His skin was so smooth. Ken had always had a five o’clock shadow by ten in the morning. This guy was like touching a porcelain doll’s face. His cool breath ran over my neck. I wasn’t sure my legs were going to hold out if he got much closer.

Falling on my ass in front of the sexiest man I’d ever seen was not on my to-do list.

“That is reserved for the beautiful ones. And in my two hundred and seventy-five years on this earth I have only met two worthy of that show,” he whispered, his sweet breath promising of endless passion between the sheets. Moisture pooled between my legs and while the idea of a hunky stranger making me cream myself was a favorite fantasy of mine, I thought it unwise to do so with a vampire.

I gave his chin a little push, and he stepped back.

“Can we just get down to business?” I asked, feigning annoyance, but wanting another hair-raising experience. Who wouldn’t?

“I will get down whenever or wherever you would like, Gwyneth. You have but to ask.”

My heart skipped a beat. I was so mad at myself for letting this two hundred and seventy-five-year-old corpse smooth talk me. But God, he was a good-looking corpse. I moved closer to him, filling the tiny gap between us. Two could play that game. I slid my hand across his chest. I really hoped this plan didn’t backfire. If it did I would probably end up dead—so what the hell. They could write, “She couldn’t beat ‘em, so she caressed ‘em” on my headstone. All would know I died a happy death.

I like to think of myself as being semi-attractive, and if he insisted on playing the Mr. Sexy game, I’d play along and then get the hell out of there. I knew before I touched him that he had two tiny scars under his right nipple. This didn’t surprise me. I figured I could have caught a glimpse of them—he did have his shirt off after all. But I knew how he had gotten them.

“Been avoiding picking fights with sailors I hope? It always ended so nasty for you.” Words came into my head and they fell from my lips. I was used to getting random visions of events in peoples’ lives, but this was different. No vision had come to me. I just knew this to be true. I couldn’t explain it. I pulled my hand away from him quickly, completely freaked out.

He looked a little shocked, then smiled. I was beginning to really like that devilish grin, and was dangerously close to naming it his wet-panties smile.

“Yes Gwyneth. I learned my lesson.”

“A punctured lung will do that to you. It’s a shame that it took that to prove it to you.” I grabbed my mouth. For some reason, in my head, I thought this would solve my problem. I never claimed to be smart—just semi-attractive.

Pallo leaned into me, brushing his lips over the back of my hand. My knees grew weaker. Six months without sex had taken its toll on me. “Yes, one can learn almost any lesson if pain is involved.” His deep voice moved over me, around me, through me, caressing me to my core.

Oh, he was good!

He shrugged and smiled. He definitely knew something I didn’t, and he wasn’t about to let on to what it was. The cocky routine was beyond annoying. I was flirtatious by nature, but this was getting on my nerves. I wanted to ask about the hellhounds and go. I wanted to leave this place and never look back. I wanted to run my hand over his chest again and pray that he decided to flex for me. Hey, cut a girl some slack—it’s not very often that the poster boy for every woman’s deepest sexual desire takes an interest in you. The desire won out. I felt his smooth chest one last time and stepped back.

Pallo reached out and touched my hip. I pushed his hand away lightly, unsure who I trusted less, him or me. He smelled good enough to eat and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to swallow him up. Problem was, I knew what this guy was, and he would think of me as the main course.

Nevertheless, I wanted to know how it felt to have his body pressing against mine. I could feel his lust for me as well. I knew he was thinking of more than just pressing himself against me. I could see it in the way he smiled at me and in the way he moved. His movements were like ripples in water, so smooth, so sure of where they were going, so full of purpose, so making me horny.

I shook my head and cleared my naughty little schoolgirl thoughts. “I’m sorry, but I really just wanted to get some information in regards to some hellhound related incidents that we’ve had recently.”

That a girl—keep focused on work and not on Pallo’s glorious body.

He smiled, and I could tell that he wanted to pursue this newfound attraction more, but when he spoke, he’d apparently decided against it. “What is it that you want to know?”

I was shocked. He was going to give me some answers. “Well, for starters, do you know where we can find the Keeper of the Hounds? He’s managed to elude us so far.”

I caught James giving Pallo an odd look out of the corner of my eye, but decided to ignore it. Pallo’s head fell back slightly and he began to laugh. The sound of his laugh wrapped around my body and made me tingle in places that I didn’t even know I had. I shuddered and fought to maintain control. “I’m sorry, Pallo, but I really don’t see how people being slaughtered by some crazy guy and his puppy slackies is amusing.”

He glanced at me and grew quiet. “I am sorry. It is just that you seem very confident the Keeper is male. Are we really so destructive that you would automatically assume it was our doing?”

“I’m lost—you mean as a vampire or as a guy?”

“I am referring to men in general, Ms. Stevens.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint, but I really don’t have a low opinion of men. I’m not one of those women who run around all day male-bashing. I think you’re… err… they’re just great. I’m just going off of the information I was given, and sources on the street are saying male, so that’s what I’m sticking with.” My tone was definitely harsher than I had wanted it to be, but I was exhausted and horny—never a good combination.

Pallo appeared very smug and sure of himself. He kept pushing a strand of his curly hair behind his left ear. Never in my life had I thought such a scene would be erotic. It was. “Your informants are wrong and I would be very reluctant to listen to them further.”

As great as that sounded, the reality was that informants were getting harder and harder for the PR Dept. to come by. They were disappearing left and right, never to be heard from again. The few that Ken had left would have to do, simply because there were no others to turn to. I got the sense that Pallo picked up on this, because he motioned for James and spoke to me. “Come here tomorrow at dusk and I will tell you more about the Keeper of the Hounds.”

“Can’t we just do it tonight?” No part of me wanted to come back to this place again. There was some sort of funky sexual vibe that seemed to cling to the air and I was afraid it was catchy.

Pallo smiled and motioned upwards. “I’m afraid Mother Nature’s rising sun will prevent me from going into further detail with you tonight. Please come by tomorrow and I will speak with you then. James will walk you to your car, Ms. Stevens.” With that, he turned and walked out of the room.

Hmm, so much for good-byes. Secretly I was hoping for another handshake. Touching his skin made me feel alive. It was official—I really, really needed to get laid.

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Stick a quarter in a guy and he’ll be my bitch

I’ve always liked this song. I don’t know why it appeals to me so much. Maybe its the idea that I could stick a quarter in a guy and he’ll be my bitch. [image error] I thought I’d share it with you. Plus, I get to think about my fantasy of the coin and bitch scenario. What? I have fantasies too you know. My question to you is, what is the first thing you’d have your coin operated stud do? Sadly, in real life it for me it would be “paint my house” or “clean the garage”. Nope these are not special ways to say fuck me like an animal.

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Excerpt: The Enchantress by Mandy M Roth

The Enchantress by Mandy M Roth

Daughter of Darkness 2

Paranormal Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance

When the Siren calls, the men follow. Led by the song of the Enchantress men will do almost anything, including kill the one they love.

When Caleb is called away to track the Enchantress, Gwen is left in the hands of her new best friends, Caradoc and James. Sick, and alone, Gwen finds herself plagued by bizarre dreams involving Pallo and robed monks. The dreams take on a sexual nature, and when Gwen is left mating with Pallo’s vampire side, she finds out things are not always as they appear.

Rating: This story contains mature situations, paranormal elements, graphic violence, gore, strong language, explicit sex, the loss of child, and a women’s love for multiple men. It is not intended for the faint of heart. Author recommends reading The Gwyneth Stevens Series in order of release.

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EXCERPT

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Chapter One

I looked at the giant hole in the ground and stood silent. I’m not sure there is a good word to use when you think that someone’s fallen off the deep edge—in an ‘in love’ kind of way. Pointing it out almost seems cruel, especially when you’re who they are in love with.

I couldn’t believe I’d let Caleb talk me into this. We’d been dating for a couple of months now. It felt more like a lifetime, after all, this wasn’t my first go round with him. I had been betrothed to him over two hundred years ago. Yeah, I know, that definitely takes the prize for the world’s longest engagement.



I stood on the edge of the missing earth and peered into the hole. It was huge. You could easily park at least two cars in it. “I thought you said you were making a tiny Koi pond,” I said, looking down at Caleb. He stood in the bottom of the hole holding a yellow-handled shovel, pitching dirt up and over his head. I watched his muscles harden with each movement he made. His back rippled as the sun glistened off his sweat. This was being done strictly for my benefit and I wasn’t about to start complaining. Although, I would have preferred to have those muscles sweaty and taut above me. He could have dug the hole without any physical labor on his part whatsoever.

Caleb and I are both faeries. I don’t mean faeries in the little pixie type with wings that grant wishes way, or follow boys from Nevernever Land way—I mean faeries as in tall, or at least Caleb was tall, slender, longhaired and pale skinned.

If Caleb had really wanted to, he could have used his magikal power to remove the soil from the ground, and be done in a matter of minutes. No, he had insisted on taking the hard way. He’d been digging the darn hole now for the last two weeks. I knew that he wouldn’t dare risk someone seeing him use magik, even though we were in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t think that a deer on the property would notice a little shift in the wind, or care, but Caleb wasn’t one to take chances. He was conservative by nature and it suited him.

Someone had to balance us out.

I got the feeling that standing shoulder deep in a hole, with a shovel in his hand, made Caleb feel as though he had a purpose. His chosen profession was bounty hunter to the supernatural. If any sort of spook, undead, or out of the ordinary criminal was on the loose, Caleb was the man they called. Bounty hunting is extremely dangerous, but pays well. He loved his job and had been forced to cut his hours back to hang around and baby-sit me.

There had been several attempts on my life a little over two months ago. I’d been attacked by two vicious and smelly trolls. One of the nasty varmints managed to sink its ragged, rotted teeth into my shoulder. Apparently, a troll’s bite is venomous, and packs a hell of punch. It would have killed me if Caleb hadn’t shown up when he did. I was still thinking of starting a campaign to get trolls listed as one of the world’s most deadliest creatures, but that would mean exposing humans to the reality of their existence—no thanks.

Caleb had been tracking the trolls into this realm. He was curious as to why they were coming here at all. They weren’t known for leaving their rat infested swamplands often. When he saw them attacking me, he figured it out real quick. They had been sent to kill me. The acting head of the Fae Sorcha, had ordered my death.

Hey, I could be as much of a pain in the butt as the next gal, but wanting me dead seemed a bit extreme. I am biased, I know, but still.

Turns out Sorcha had her reasons. She wanted to kill me before her son and I could meet. She wanted to make sure that he didn’t end up with me. As far as Sorcha knew, I was just a reborn faerie out to trap her son in a loveless marriage.

Yeah, reborn, I know crazy life, huh! It was a huge shocker for me too. It was still a little hard for me to deal with, and I had found out about two months ago. From what they tell me, I had once lived for over a hundred years on this earth, never looking a day over twenty, and now I was back. The only major difference, physically speaking, was that my eyes had been violet before and now they were navy blue. That was close to two hundred years ago. I know this because I was starting to have more and more memories of that life coming back to me. Not all were pleasant.

Being hunted down by Sorcha’s henchmen threw me for a loop, I had no idea that she even existed, let alone had it in for me. Did I forget to mention that Sorcha is Caleb’s mother? Oops! Sorcha hated me from the day I was betrothed to Caleb. That had not happened in this lifetime, it had happened in the last. Hating someone for close to four hundred years was a long time to hold a grudge. I had to hand it to her, she was persistent. I’m sure that bottling up all that hate for so many centuries was not healthy.

I looked down at Caleb, digging in the hole. I couldn’t figure out how I’d been so lucky to get him. He was a vision of beauty, his six foot four frame was well defined, he was thin, but not too thin, his long shiny-blonde hair hung to his waist. It was smooth and straight. I was so envious of his hair. I had to laugh at the fact that my boyfriend had better hair than me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been blessed all right, but I unfortunately didn’t get to be a blonde bombshell. Genetics dealt me long wavy hair that was black as night.

Yeah, Caleb was beautiful, a little too beautiful. It didn’t matter–every bit of him was man, you can trust me on that. I know this because we had sex the first day we met. No, I don’t normally run around having sex with strangers, but he wasn’t a stranger. We had been together for a hundred years once, so that had to qualify for something.

“Are you going to be doing that all day?” I asked, missing his touch. He’d been consumed with getting the old farmhouse fixed up. It was his new mission. He was one of those people that always needed to be doing something constructive or they’d go mad. I was the complete opposite. I could sit for hours on a rock, observing the wonders that nature had to offer, and never once feel guilty about it.

Caleb glanced up at me. Dirt was smeared on his forehead and cheek. I snickered, and watched him wipe his dirt stained hand across his cheek, effectively blackening out the side of his face. “I’m sorry. I just want to get this filled with cement, before the weather gets too bad. I’m pushing it enough as it is doing it this late in the year. I want you to have this, Gwen. Let me do this for you, then we can sit out here, listen to the water roll over the rocks and maybe,” he wiggled his eyebrows and gave me a half-cocked smile, “we could do a little something else out here as well.”

How could I argue with that? Caleb’s forest green eyes held such love, I wanted to jump down into the hole and kiss him, but getting out would be an issue for me. Standing at only five foot five made it hard to get in and out of there without the aid of a ladder. He was making it seven foot deep, because the Koi needed it deep to survive the harsh winter. I think he did it just to tease me about how short I am.

When Caleb started to help me fix up my farmhouse, we’d bought a bunch of remodeling books and magazines. We sat together, cuddled in our bed flipping through the pages, picking things out that we liked. I had stopped at a picture of an attractive white home, with a large man-made water garden in front of it. I looked at all of the magnificently colored pond lilies and large multi-colored fish. It seemed so peaceful, so serene. The next day I woke to find Caleb missing from the bed. I went searching for him, and found him out behind the house, digging a hole in the ground. He had the magazine opened to the page with the water garden. My heart melted. He was making this for me.

“Well, do you at least want some lunch?” He hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was pushing two o’clock. I didn’t want him getting run down. He had to work this weekend. I hated the idea of Caleb leaving me to head off to wherever it was he went. His job was dangerous, and I worried sick about him the entire time he was gone.

“Gwen, I’m fine sweetie, don’t worry about me. I’m just about done for the day.” He tossed more dirt over his head. I hated this, I knew that he was doing this for me, but I wanted to see him. I wanted to spend time with him before he had to leave.

We’d only been ‘back’ together for two months, but already I felt attached to him. My body ached while he was away from me. I missed his smell—he always smelled so fresh and clean, like the morning air after a rainfall. I had often wondered if they could bottle the smell of him and mass-produce it. Women would dig it—I’m sure.

The wind around us picked up, it sent dried orange and brown leaves scattering about the yard. Caleb didn’t seem to notice, or care about the weather cooling down, he still ran around with no shirt on and a pair of jeans most of the time. It was forever summer to him. I often wondered if he was running a core body temperature that was twenty degree hotter than most. He had that Californian beach-babe thing going and I couldn’t help but love it.

I, on the other hand, had packed my shorts away for the season and pulled out my winter clothes. I was always cold lately. I pulled the sleeves of my Cappuccino colored acrylic sweater down, and over my hands. I had a white knit shirt underneath, but I was still chilly. I coughed a little. Great, I hoped I wasn’t getting a cold. I hadn’t really ever had one before, but I’d seen my friends and coworkers fighting them off. All the phlegm, hacking, and headaches, no thanks I’d pass.

Caleb looked up at me. “Gwen?”

He was always so concerned about me. He was convinced that his mother would never stop trying to sabotage our relationship. I didn’t worry about that too much. I figured my father would look out for us. He was, after all, the King—and no Caleb and I are not related. Sorcha, Caleb’s mother only stepped in to lead in the absence of my father.

Under normal circumstances, Sorcha was just the head sorceress for my father. He took her on for this duty when he saw that she had a young son. Instantly he arranged a marriage between the two of us. I was only days old, and he had only seen me once. Not a good way to start out I know, but things had changed this time around, they were better.

Caleb gave me another questioning look.

“I’m fine. I swallowed some dust or something, really,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to stay home with me. Caleb enjoyed his job, and I didn’t want to take that from him. Besides, James and Caradoc were coming up to stay with me for the weekend. It would be great. They’d turned into two of my best friends in a relatively short period of time. They were both vampires, but that didn’t faze me a bit.

I’d slept with their Master, Pallo, about two months ago. Yep, same time I starting seeing Caleb. Walking in and meeting Pallo had changed my life forever. He had been what jogged my memory of my life before. I had been in love with him hundreds of years ago, when he was still human. I’d even left Caleb for him, well not for him, but for another vampire, yeah, I know, I was totally screwed up in the head. What do you expect? I am, after all, the daughter of the King of the Fae, I’m bound to have some hang-ups.

The phone rang, and I headed into the house to grab it. I ran through the kitchen door and almost knocked a can of paint over. It seemed like Caleb was tackling a project in every room of the house. He had taken all of the kitchen cabinet doors off and sanded them down. He was now in the process of putting another coat of white paint on them. I had to admit, they looked great, like they were brand new. I just wished that he’d finish one project before moving on to the next.

I snatched the phone off the wall. “Hello?” I said, a little out of breath.

“Gwen? Are you alright?”

“Ken!” I was happy to hear his voice. Ken was my boss, and my ex-fiancé. There was a time not long ago, when the sound of his voice made me nauseous—that was when I was still operating under the assumption that he had cheated on me. I had gotten over that, now I just missed him. He’d been distancing himself from me. I could hardly blame him. Things in my life were pretty screwed up right now. “Yeah, I’m good. How about you? How are you doing?”

“Good. I’m doing good. I finally got all moved into my new place. It’s nice, I like it,” he said, his voice low. He was keeping his emotions out of this, I could tell. I also noticed how Ken didn’t offer to show me his new place. I knew that his new little sweetie, Beth, had been the realtor who helped him find it. I’d had issues with Beth from the moment he told me about her. She was the realtor who took us house hunting when we were engaged. How convenient for her that Ken’s apartment had been destroyed by hellhounds, and that his fiancée had left him.

“Sounds nice…How is Beth doing?” I hit myself on the forehead. Why in the world did I bring her into this? Ken had every right to be dating other people, but it didn’t lesson the pain any.

I pictured his athletic body wrapped around hers and it made me sick. I could see Beth running her fingers through Ken’s dark blonde hair. Last time I’d seen him he had finally let it grow out from the crew cut he had always worn. It looked good on him. I bet Beth really liked it too.

“Beth’s fine, but that’s not what I called about,” he said, voice flat.

“Well, what did you call about, Ken? It’s obvious you really don’t want to be speaking to me, so what gives?”

“I just needed to call you and let you know, that you don’t need to come back in.” He was getting at something I was sure I wouldn’t like.

“I told you I’d be back in on Monday.” I’d been his personal assistant for two years. I was his right hand-girl. He never did anything without my approval. I knew that my taking personal time, and telecommuting from home had put a burden on him, but everything was still getting done.

“No, Gwen, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I stood there playing with the phone cord, and my stomach tightened. “Ken, are you letting me go?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice void of any emotion.

My cheeks flushed. I wasn’t hurt. I was pissed. “Well, thanks for having the balls to tell me over the phone instead of in person. I really appreciate hearing it this way. You should have sent me a letter so you wouldn’t have had to speak to me at all. But, I’m probably not worth the price of a stamp, so…” I was furious with him. I didn’t care about the job, that wasn’t it at all, and I didn’t need the money. I’d saved enough over the last few years to get by. I cared about how hard he was pushing me away.

“Gwen, don’t be…”

I cut him off. “What don’t be what? Don’t be mad that someone I care about hates me, or don’t be mad that I still care about you?” I put my hand over my mouth. Did I really just tell him that I still cared for him? What the hell was I thinking? I had Caleb now, and he had Beth.

Ken fell silent on the other end. I didn’t really expect him to say anything, although, a just kidding, you’re not fired would have been nice. I stood there for a second longer then hung up on him. There wasn’t really anything left for me to offer that would be considered polite, so it was better this way.

If you can’t say anything nice…

I walked over to the fridge and took out the pitcher of lemonade. I wanted a glass of wine, but the lemonade would have to do. I set the pitcher on the counter and grabbed two glasses down from the shelf. As I walked back towards the freezer to get ice, the phone rang again. I knew it was Ken calling me back. I didn’t want to talk to him. I’d let the machine get it. I grabbed a handful of ice out of the icebox and dropped it into the glasses. The plunking sound was a nice distraction from the nagging feeling of loss that threatened to consume me.

The phone had just stopped ringing when Caleb walked in the back door. I listened to my voice greeting the caller. It was coming from the answering machine in the hall by the front door. When the machine beeped, I looked up at Caleb. I wanted him to be digging out in his hole again. I didn’t want him in here with me right this minute.

I heard Ken’s voice on the machine. “Gwen, don’t do this. I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time with everything still. I just need some time. You’re not fired, I’m sorry, I just thought… I don’t know what I thought, pick up please…I know you’re there, Gwen? I still have feelings for you, too…Maybe you should take a few more weeks off…I can’t do this right now…I love you too much to watch you with someone…” the machine beeped and stopped recording.

I stared up at Caleb. He stood very still. I’d never really got the expression about hearing a pin drop until that moment. He looked down at me and I could see the anger on his face. “What the hell was that about?”

I tried to avoid eye contact with him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t want to lie to him either. “I love you,” was the best I could come up with.

He reached out and took my hand in his. His hand was rough from all of the manual labor he had been doing. It didn’t matter to me that he wasn’t as smooth as he’d once been, I’d take him anyway, so long as he was with me.

“Gwen, don’t do this, please,” he said, his hand tightened around mine. I looked up at his face. The moment I saw his green eyes, I couldn’t help myself; I started to cry.

Prior to finding out about my past, I was normal, well as normal as a faerie living among humans could get. I didn’t have multiple men at one time. I hadn’t even had sex for six months before I met Caleb. Ken had been the last man I’d been with, and we’d been engaged. Since I began to remember bits and snippets of my past I started to have uncontrollable desires, and I didn’t like the new me one bit.

Caleb pulled me close to him. His body was sweaty, but still smelled wonderful. I took a deep breath in and let his scent calm me. I let him hold me tight against his chest. He was warm, and lately I had been cold all the time. I let my head rest against him, and he stroked the back of my head gently.

“Marry me, Gwen, marry me and this will all stop, I promise,” he said gently to me.

I kept my head buried in his chest. How could he be so sure, how could he know that I wouldn’t leave him again for another man? That’s exactly what I’d done to him my last time on this earth. I couldn’t even think about committing to him, then destroying him like that again. I was having a hard enough time liking myself lately, doing that to Caleb would kill me, I was sure of that.

“I can’t,” I said, between sobs. His hands tightened in my hair—he was just this side of pulling it.

“You mean you won’t.” The hurt in his voice was evident. I wanted to comfort him, but I was crying too hard. I wasn’t going to be much good in the consoling department when I was sobbing like a baby. I went to pull away, but Caleb held me tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you all upset. I’m sorry.”

“I love you Caleb. I love you so much!” I yearned for reassurance that he wasn’t mad, and that everything would be all right. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. He had become everything to me. I wondered if we’d been this way before, and if so, why did I leave him? I wasn’t sure I’d ever know the answer to that.

He kissed the top of my head. “I love you too, Gwen, I love you too.”

I slid my arms around his back and hugged him tight. He was so warm, so loving, do different from any other man I’d ever had in my life. He bent down and touched my forehead lightly with the back of his hand. “Gwen, you’re ice cold. Are you alright?”

I smiled, and felt the tears starting to dry on my face. It was a little like having one of those facial masks drying on you, only without the luxury of being able to peel it off, and as far as I know any exfoliating qualities. I did my best to wipe my cheeks before pulling Caleb’s face down to mine to kiss his lips. The salt from my tears pressed into both of our mouths. I pushed my tongue in, diving, digging for his. When I found it, it was warm and wrapped itself smoothly around mine.

My body burned to be with him, to have him hold my naked body in his arms. I knew he had to get cleaned up and get ready to go, but that didn’t change the fact that I still wanted to lie with him before he left. I loved him so much, and didn’t want to think about the possibility of the last time we talked ending in a fight. His job was dangerous, and there was always a very real chance that he wouldn’t come home. I’d thought that I’d lost him once and that was more than enough to not want to go through it again.

“Gwen, I’m calling Mark, I can’t go in with you like this.” He walked around me and headed out in the hall to use the phone. Mark was his partner. I’d never actually met him. I’d heard Caleb talk about him a few times, but that was it. I asked about him once, but Caleb just told me that in their line of work, the less people knew about them the better. I wasn’t sure I agreed with that, I mean, he was putting his life in this guy’s hands. Didn’t I have the right to at least meet him? Caleb didn’t seem to agree with me on that one.

I didn’t want Caleb to stay home on account of me. He loved what he did. I could always see a spark in his eye when he returned home after hunting down some crazy creature. He loved to tell me all about his adventures. I usually sat there with an aching pit at the bottom of my stomach every time he went into detail about being in danger, but I kept a smile on my face all the same. Caleb was a thrill seeker, that much was plain to see.

“Caleb!” I called after him. He turned around and looked at me. “Hey, I’m fine, you go. Besides you’ll ruin my weekend movie marathon,” I said, grinning at him.

I knew that James would be stopping at the video store before he and Caradoc came. James and I had taken to watching movies. We’d become our own two man critiquing team. Two fangs out or down. It wasn’t the best rating system, but it worked. Besides, James may be the only person more jaded than me. I couldn’t be sure, but maybe. Last week had been our ode to the eighties. We’d spent the weekend watching teen flicks that dealt with serious issues, like paying your paper carrier on time, turning sixteen, and spending a weekend in detention. It was very stimulating.

Caradoc, one the most serious vamps I’d ever met, refused to sit with us and stare aimlessly at the television screen. He always wondered off into the woods or brought a few books to read. I’m sure that he thought James and I were childish. Even though I’d just turned twenty-five, Caradoc still had me by about three hundred years or so, give or take a little.

James on the other hand was a smidge younger than him. He kept his hair cut short, and bleached it blond. I had to laugh every time I saw him spreading hair gel through it to spike it up. I think, no I know, he owns every black t-shirt ever made, and he rarely incorporates color.

Caleb walked over to me and touched my head with the back of his hand. “Gwen, you’re really cool, what’s going on? You’re still taking your pills, right?”

The pills he was referring to were my birth control pills that a Fae doctor, Dr. Brown had prescribed for me. The word Fae, means elf, faerie, or magikal creature. I had to hunt around for a doctor who specialized in this. Going to a normal doctor would have been too risky. Ordinary everyday people didn’t know that faeries, vampires, and other creatures of the night were real, and it had to stay that way.

I had no idea what was in the pills, but they were the equivalent of taking three normal birth control pills at one time. I had to take them twice a day because I was a Fae and was in the reproductive prime of my life. No one knew how long I would remain fertile, it could be hundreds of years, or it could just be a few weeks. It could end tomorrow and revisit me again in a hundred years. There was no rhyme or reason to it all and it made it hard to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Caleb and I had agreed not to have a baby right now. I could have already been close to popping one out right now if I didn’t take the pills religiously. We were matches, and in the life of a faerie, you only got a few of those. A match was someone whose essence was complementary to you, thus possibly producing a healthy offspring. My female Fae body would be very selective on whom it would allow to impregnate me. I never actually got a list of prerequisites for the guy to posses, so I wasn’t sure who all fit the bill. I knew that Caleb did. He wanted to marry me and have a family, I knew that, but he also respected me enough to not push it.

“Yeah, I’m still taking the pills, so no, I’m not pregnant,” I said to him. I noticed his eyes staring down at my stomach. He looked disappointed. My gestation rate was a bit more accelerated than a human was, so if I were to become pregnant I would show in a matter of weeks. I felt bad for letting him down, but this was my body, and right now, I did not want to have a baby.

He looked up at me and knew that I’d caught him fixating on my stomach. He smiled slightly. “I was just…”

I finished it for him. “You were just hoping that I had decided to surprise you. Well I didn’t, sorry.” I hated being like this with him. “Look, I’m sorry, but do you really think I want to get pregnant and watch you head out that door hunting some lethal demon, only to never come back through it? Do you think I want to raise a baby by myself? Is that it? God, Caleb, get real, you can’t expect me to do that, you can’t expect me to say, hey let’s do it, gee we’ve only been a couple for two months, but let’s start a family anyways. Oh, then after I have a perfect little version of you I can sit around and spend the rest of my life mourning the man I loved and lost every time I look into his eyes. I’m not cut out to be a mother. I can’t even take care of myself. I’m a mess and you know it!”

My temper was flaring. I had a nasty one and he knew it. He was always saying how much like my father I was. I wouldn’t really know since the man didn’t raise me. I was raised by two wonderfully loving humans, not the King of the Dark Realm. I’d have to take Caleb’s word on issues that involved my father.

Caleb reached out to touch me. I pulled away from him. “Gwen, I didn’t mean that, and if you don’t like what I do, why didn’t you just say something? I’ll stop, I’ll quit right now, if that will make you feel better about us. I’ll do anything you want, you just have to tell me what the hell it is that you want. I’m not like some, I don’t read minds.”

I rolled my eyes, I didn’t want him to do that, I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. I just knew that I didn’t want to fight about this again. “Forget it, I’m fine. Go, you need to get cleaned up.”

He reached out and grabbed me around my waist. Before I could protest, he’d picked me up in his arms. I grinned from ear to ear. He could always make me smile, no matter what. It was a gift that few possessed. He carried me up the stairs and to our bedroom. We had taken over the master bedroom and he was in the middle of tearing down the wallpaper. The walls looked like something had been clawing at them, shreds of paper hung loosely to the floor. I laughed at the state of the room as he tossed me down on the bed gently.

His hands slid up and under my sweater. He traced his fingers over my silk bra lightly. My nipples hardened. He bent down and kissed me, my mouth welcomed his. I loved kissing him, I loved tasting him—I couldn’t get enough of him. His scent was manly, woodsy, rugged. Faeries came by their smell honestly. I tended to smell like a touch of lavender, and Caleb smelled like the fresh morning dew. It could be traced back to the first faeries who were in charge of watching over all things in nature.

Caleb’s fingers slid under my bra strap and caressed my breast. I reached down and started to pull on the button to undo his jeans. I undid it and slid my hand down the front of his pants. I don’t think the man owned a pair of underwear. I asked him about it once, and he joked that he was always ready for me this way. I had to laugh, he was right. I touched him and ran my fingers over his velvety smooth cock. I always loved the fact that he took no time at all to be ready for sex.

“I can’t get enough of you,” I said, trying to take him in my mouth. He pushed me back gently and laughed.

“No, you can’t get enough sex period. It’s the nymph in you. Your Grandmother was a nymph and you seem to have inherited their appetite for sex.”

“Mmm, would that make me a…?”

I stroked his shaft faster and he grabbed my hand, pulling me away from him gently. “Yes, Gwen… that’s exactly what it makes you,” he said, teasing me.

“Then what’s that make you?” I asked, trying to take hold of him again. He shifted slightly and I grabbed him tight.

Caleb lifted my shirt and sweater up, exposing my stomach and chest to him. “That’s easy…a fool for loving you.”

I continued caressing the length of him—feeling him growing in my hand. He was so hot. It felt good against my cold hand. I wanted to pull him out and bring him to me. I wanted to enjoy him before he left for the weekend. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

I pulled my sweater off and lay back. Caleb always liked me to lay back and let him see me. I didn’t bother questioning him about it anymore. I just did it. He traced the mounds of my breasts, and ran the tips of his fingers down my rib cage. I pulled my arms in, trying to avoid being tickled any further. He grabbed my wrists and put his entire body over mine, leaving my hands to be pinned above my head.

Caleb’s hands were twice the size of mine. He had an unfair advantage in the bedroom. I was no match for him physically, and he knew it. He held both my wrists together with just one of his hands, and used his free one to keep tickling my ribs. My body burned for his. I wanted him to take me, to make love to me, and not be gentle, or playful.

“Caleb…”

He nuzzled his face into my neck. I felt the tiniest start of a beard. It still surprised me each time I felt it. He was able to grow one, but it would take a long time. He seemed to think I’d like him with facial hair. Maybe I would.

“What?” he asked, as he licked the side of my neck.

“Please, Caleb!”

“Please, what?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to make me say it, even if it killed me. I gave in. “I want you inside me.”

He made a small purring noise in my ear. It sent my body into a state of lust for his. I tugged on his earlobe with my teeth and begged him to enter me—to take me and not to be gentle. I wanted it hard, and I wanted it now.

“Say that you’ll marry me, Gwen, and I’ll give you what you want.”

“Caleb.”

“An bpósfaidh tú mé?—will you marry me?” Caleb asked. Hearing him utter those words in Gaelic make my chest tight, and my body ache for him.

His fingers slid down, into my hot channel, and found how very much I wanted him. He held them there and continued to taunt me. He dipped one in, moved it around, caressed me, and then pulled it back quickly, teasing me.

“Marry me, Gwen, and I’ll give you this and so much more for all eternity.”

Could I see myself spending forever with him? Yes, surprisingly enough, I could.

“Yes, Caleb, I’ll marry you.”

He plunged his fingers into me and I cried out. He smeared my juices on his shaft and thrust into me in one fluid movement. I screamed out and bucked against his hips in an attempt to take all of him within me. He strained, trying to keep from hurting me. He knew that his size sometimes made sex uncomfortable for me, but today I didn’t care. No, I wanted all of him in me now. I bit at his chin and he slammed his body into mine.

His mouth came down on mine and we shared a magikal moment together. I felt his power, part of his core, enter me, and mine him. It was the way that faeries sanctified their bond—reaffirmed their commitment to one another. Humans used diamond rings. Faeries used raw power. I had a piece of Caleb now, and he me. When we officially wed, we would surrender our powers over to each other fully, and they would merge forever.

As our powers joined, my orgasm ripped through my body. I contracted around him as he pumped in and out of me. It was his turn to cry out as he emptied his seed into me.

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