Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

This month, I’m sharing the first chapter of Blood and Roses, which will be available at Samhain tomorrow!

—

I was not the only man in the parlor that night, but I was one of the few not looking for a whore.

The girls sat about, mostly, combing their hair or bent in gossip with one another. There was little else to do; it had been a slow night, and patrons came in a discouraging trickle. Occasionally a girl would spy someone she fancied, rise, stretch, and amble over so as not to betray her interest too readily. I sat by a window where the breeze might reach me and played draughts with Elise. There were too many of us in the parlor, crowded and overheated, not enough patrons culling our ranks to keep the numbers at a reasonable level. The chair put my back to the door, and Elise was to spy over my shoulder and give a signal if any patrons seemed to be the sort who might find me a more suitable companion than one of the girls.

I was bent over the board studying my next move when a collective shiver seemed to overtake us all as one. I straightened and saw Elise staring over my shoulder, leaning to get a better view. The other girls, those who I could see, were already scrambling to their feet, idle pursuits cast aside, tripping over their skirts as they rushed to greet this newcomer.

I rose from our table, one of only a handful not already flinging myself at this newest patron, and cast a brief glance behind me, wondering who it was this time the women were making fools of themselves over.

I did not have to wonder what it was. Only one thing turned these working women to sycophants at a mere glance.

Vampire. The king himself might have walked through our doors and not received such a welcome.

more…

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

This month, I’m posting another except from Copper Kiss, to celebrate it’s release today from Liquid Silver Books! You can read more excerpts here and here, and if you like what you see, head on over here to buy it.

—

Logan’s car was in the driveway when they pulled up, and lights glowed within the house. Reina’s heart started to flutter with hope, until she saw Kynan walking towards the house from the car. His shirt was ripped and stained with blood, his face and arms smeared with it.

“Oh my God.” Reina threw herself out of the car before it had stopped moving. She ran to him. “Kynan! Are you all right?”

He took her arms, held her still when she might have whirled off in a hundred different directions. “I’m fine, Reina.” He hesitated and glanced towards the house.

She didn’t wait to hear more; she ran for the door.

Inside, the house was in an uproar. People ran from one place to another, shouting to others as they went. Everyone bore wounds, but all were on their feet and more or less intact.

Everyone but Logan, who sat on the couch in a daze, the eye of the storm of activity. Reina ran to his side. She dropped to her knees in front of him, took his hands in hers. “Logan?” Her voice wavered, caught, broke like ice on the pavement.

more…

Welcome to Excerpt Monday! If you want to join in the fun, you can stop by the Excerpt Monday blog for more information.

This month’s excerpt is a scene from my current work-in-progress, Iconoclast:

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It had been a very long time since Samyazaz was a child. He remembered it as a quiet time, a time of study and learning, marked by the wonder of discovery and the somber honor of his duty. He had never even been so careless as to rip a garment, to his recollection.

The first time Sariel and Baraquiel had brought their young daughter to him, her palms scraped raw and dirty scuffs upon the hem of her skirt, he had been speechless with appalled surprise.

Now, years later, as he ushered her into his workroom yet again, he thought ruefully that he had ceased to be surprised by her. Weary resignation had taken its place.

“I was in a hurry,” she said by way of explanation, and remained standing even though he motioned for her to sit upon his table. “Father said we were having the Council over for supper and I must be well-presented, but I lost myself in the library and before I knew it—”

“You were running,” Samyazaz said grimly, stretching out her arm. The shoulder of her sleeve was in tatters, its edges stained with flecks of blood. Through the rent camisole he could see that her arm was abraded and inflamed. A few long cuts had gone deep enough to break the skin.

“My feet flew right out from under me.” She sent him a sheepish grin, which he countered with stern disapproval. It was not lost on him that she had not rebutted his statement, but had not conceded to it either.

“It is unbefitting a Watcher to run through the halls of her own home,” he scolded her, not for the first time and surely not for the last, as he drew a dagger from his drawer. He turned in time to catch her making a face.

more…

It’s that time again! Excerpt Monday! This month I’m sharing an excerpt from Sacrifice, my upcoming release from Liquid Silver Books.

When an unnatural eclipse hangs in the sky, portending doom, Ryllana is chosen to be sacrificed to ensure her land and her people’s survival. She expects her fate will bring a swift, violent death at the claws of Teppal’s beast. But though the beast comes to claim her, he does not devour her. Instead, he carries her away to his castle.

There, she waits for him to return and demand the sacrifice required of her. In the meantime, she finds a companion in the beast’s human servant, Draig, who surprises Ryllana with his tenderness and compassion. Despite herself, she begins to fall for him — but the beast still waits, and the secrets Draig is keeping might destroy everything she loves.

The eclipse rose in my window and passed out of sight at midday, so I had no means of tracking the time beyond the number of candles that I burned through. It might have been minutes, or days, when my door crashed open. I jumped, my heart in my throat, and a smile bloomed across my face to see Draig in the doorway. I pushed my books aside and started toward him, but cried out in dismay not halfway across the room, for his tabard dripped with blood and he clung unsteadily to the jamb. His face was ashen, his head drooping forward, as though he hadn’t the strength to hold it upright.

I ran to him and helped him to the bed. He held on to me, stumbling across the rug. I eased him onto the bed, then took his face in my hands and turned it to me. His expression was slack, his eyes half-closed. “Draig!” I cried. “What happened?”

He opened his eyes. It looked as though it took a great effort. “Ryllana,” he breathed, and smiled as though it was a wonderful surprise to see me. Then he grimaced and groaned with pain. “I’m hurt.”

“You don’t say.” I pulled frantically at his tabard. “Draig, help me! I must see where you’re injured.”

He rose up onto his elbow and I began to strip his tabard off, but his strength only lasted a moment before he collapsed back onto the bed. His ragged breathing made fear twist through my stomach.

“A kiss, lady,” he whispered, a thread of sound. “For strength.”

I stared down at him. “Don’t be absurd. Now is not the time.” I gripped his tabard at the throat and tore it open down the front. Draig blinked at me, but didn’t protest. It took another moment to unlace his shirt, and then I had his chest bared.

Four parallel gouges cut across his chest, each as long as my forearm and bleeding freely. I clasped my hands over my mouth, horrified. “Oh, Draig…” I sought out his gaze. “This is bad.”

He nodded, and I saw recognition in his eyes. He knew. He knew, and had come to me. I crouched on the bed and tore strips of fabric from the hem of my robe, trying not to cry. I could clean him and bandage him, but little more. I had meager sewing skills, and no needle or thread in any case. I helped him sit and wound the makeshift bandages around his back, then took his hand in mine and bent over it, pressing a fierce kiss to his palm.

He pulled from my grasp and raised his hand to my cheek. “A kiss, lady,” he whispered again.

I shook my head wildly and dashed tears from my cheeks. “Fool,” I whispered down at him. “How can you think of stealing kisses now?”

“So be it, then.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Will you refuse the last request of a dying fool?”

I covered my face in my hands, protests rising unbidden to my lips. But they were an empty comfort. We both knew the truth. He might die, and there might be nothing I could do to prevent it.

I knelt at his side in the mattress and put my hands to his cheeks. I looked gravely down at him, his face grey and pale, then bent and pressed my mouth to his.

I meant it to be only that, a momentary brush. But when I tried to draw away, he curled his hand around the back of my neck and held me to him with startling strength.

His lips coaxed mine, urging them to part so he could take the kiss deeper. I pressed them together and shook my head. When he persisted, I broke away. “Don’t tax yourself,” I commanded unsteadily. “You’ve better things to save your strength for.”

“Better things than kissing?” He eased back onto the bed with a lopsided smile. “I can only think of a very few.”

“Living?” I demanded.

His smile softened, warmed. “What’s the use of that when pretty women refuse to kiss you?”

Make sure to check out the rest of this month’s great excerpts!

Mel Berthier, Urban Fantasy (PG 13)
and
Bria Quinlan, Rom Com (PG)

Joining us this week:

Kinsey W. Holley, Paranormal (PG)
Caitlynn Lowe, Epic Fantasy (PG)
Dara Sorensen, Paranormal (PG)

Babette James, Fantasy Romance (PG13)
Christina DeLorenzo, YA (PG 13)
Nika Dixon, Romantic Suspense (PG 13)
Bryn Donovan, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Kaige, Historic Romance (PG-13)
Julia Knight, Fantasy Romance (PG 13)
Adelle Laudan, Contemporary Romance (PG 13)
Jeannie Lin, Historical Romance (PG13)
RF Long, Paranormal (PG13)
Rebecca Savage, romantic suspense (PG 13)
Crista McHugh, Paranormal Romance (PG 13)
Michelle Arroyo, Historical Romance (PG 13)

Jax Cassidy, Contemporary Romance (R)
Maya Doyle, Paranormal Romance (R)
Cate Hart, Paranormal (R)
Ali Katz, Historical Erotic Romance (R)
Inez Kelley, Romantic Comedy (R)
Aislinn Kerry, Paranormal Romance (R)
Elise Logan, Fantasy Romance (R)
Cherrie Lynn, Paranormal Romance (R)
Alina Morgan, Urban Fantasy (R)
Vivienne Westlake, Erotic Historical (R)

Stephanie Adkins, Erotic Romance (NC 17)
Evie Byrne, Medieval Paranormal Romance (NC 17)
Kim Knox, Erotic SF Romance (NC17)
Lauren Murphy, Erotic Romance (NC 17)
Kirsten Saell, Erotic Romance (NC 17)