“I have an acquaintance there who might help with our little Society problem,” said Vic.
“Another vampire?”
“Sure,” said Vic.
Johnathan did not like that answer.
He shifted in his suit. He didn’t know where Vic found it. It fit him perfectly, but his skin itched beneath the material. The clothes were too thick, suffocating, and made him sweat profusely. It left him with an unpleasant swamp-like sensation, but it was a small price to pay for civility. The goggles would be the harder adjustment. They muted his vision to shades of dark gray and limited his field of vision, but they were a necessary evil due to the unfortunate state of his eyes.
The train lurched into motion. Vic bowed his head. Alyse hadn’t come.
“Could she follow us to New York? Maybe something held her up,” said Johnathan.
“Perhaps.” Vic sucked in a breath. “Did I ever tell you about the time I hid from the law in a brothel for six months?”
“What? No!” Johnathan watched the landscape begin to scroll along, the train picking up speed. “Why were you running from the law?”
“A trifling matter, but let me tell you, those ladies were devastated to see me go,” said Vic.
Johnathan laughed, even though Vic’s words were surely exaggerated than true and brought a rush of heat to his cheeks. “I would be devastated to see you go as well.”
Vic leaned closer and pinched Johnathan’s chin. “Not a worry you have to face, John.”
A smile tugged at his lips. Johnathan sighed, the sound of relief curling away into the air as the train sped them toward their new adventure.
From the shelter of the station, out of sight, Alyse watched the two figures standing at the back of the train until they were minuscule specks on the horizon.
She kissed her fingers and pressed a hand to her heart. “Until we meet again, my loves.”
The train bound for Boston would depart in an hour.
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Sneak Peek of Cinders of Yesterday
By Jen Karner
For some people, comfort came from a hot cup of coffee and a warm blanket wrapped tight against the cold. For the hunter, it had always been adrenaline; the thrill of a fight, a blade in her hand, and a smile that promised death to the wicked.
Anyone else would have turned back two miles ago when the sun still hung low in the sky, and they could see the trails ahead clearly. In the misty rain and fading light the deep furrows in the ground were almost invisible, almost. Dani stopped at a tree torn in half and looked for tracks. For months a monster had been slicing its way through hikers, and she was here to stop it.
Exhilaration pulsed through her. She hadn’t felt this alive in a long time, not since Alabama and the fire and everything that followed. She was doing her job, not looking back over her shoulder for signs she was being followed.
Most hunters didn't tussle with the talented: humans with unique abilities, internal reservoirs of power and magic. The problem being that when they went bad; they turned into something else and evolved into monsters. Like the one that had murdered her partner, Graham, in front of her.
She’d needed a run-of-the-mill job and tracking down a talented gone wrong was right up her alley. Dani chuckled darkly, hunting a monster in the rainy woods—totally normal way to decompress from too much stress.
An inhuman screech cracked through the air and she stopped short. Dani looked like Mortimer’s type: young, dark haired, and alone. Then again, the shotgun probably ruined the look. She licked at her lips, trying not to let the grin threatening at the edge of her mouth take over. He wanted her alone and afraid and off the beaten path in the woods. She’d give him that to look him in the eye and be sure everything that had been human in him had burned away. Then she could blow him away and leave his bones for whatever animals were living up here. Talented this far gone had a habit of more less dissolving when you killed them, proving they were more monster than human.
As she slinked through the trees, her thoughts drifted to the monster who had ripped the life from Graham. Spectre. He was as old and as nasty as they came Far as she could tell, far as every hunter she knew could tell, Spectre's ass just couldn’t be killed. But Mortimer? Him, she could put down, keep someone else from feeling what she endured each morning when she woke up, and her partner was still dead.
"Little girl get lost?" a hoarse voice croaked from behind her.
Dani stopped in her tracks. Every muscle quivered, the moment between action and inaction. The rain coated her skin in a cool blanket. She counted her heartbeats. One. She held the shotgun steady in her hands, and she shifted her weight to her back foot. Two. She pivoted, swinging the barrel up so she could look right down the sight. Three. Stock braced against her shoulder, she looked into the dark eyes of Mortimer Hawthorne as he growled at her. Where irises should have been only dark pools of cold fire remained. There was nothing human left inside them. Her finger curled over the trigger, and she bared her teeth in a vicious smile.
"Oh, sugar. I'm not lost."
The modified shotgun with its riot magazine of ten rounds kicked like a mule. She racked it as his chest exploded in a spray of crimson. He snarled as the impact threw him back. One of his clenched fists transformed into a deadly blade of bone as he lurched back to his feet. He charged at her but Dani was waiting. She fired again, racking another round into the chamber as he was thrown backwards again.
Dani stepped forward with every shot as the slugs tore his body apart and forced him back step by step. That was the way she wanted it; keep him at a distance, far enough away he couldn't touch her, close enough that each slug tore him more to pieces. Five rounds in and he hit the dirt. Six and the light went out of his eyes. But some lessons got learned early. You always kill them a little bit more. She kept firing until the shotgun clicked empty and nothing remained but a mass of flesh and bone sinking into the mud.
The thing that had been his arm, or a weapon, or both, didn't shift back as he died. Happened that way sometimes if a talented was corrupted enough. Dani smiled, a predator's smile, more to warn things off than to invite them in. It took a few minutes, but as his body cooled, the power inside him ate away at the flesh. She spat on the ground next to it as it smoked away leaving a bed of grey ash.
Trekking back down the path took forever, the dark and the rain combining to a treacherous hike back to the truck. She ducked inside and settled the shotgun onto the rack behind the empty passenger seat. Graham’s seat. Memories of his eyes going dark surrounded by fire washed over her and she forced them away. While killing Mortimer had felt good, it hadn’t been enough. Each monster she felled only reminded her of the one she couldn’t kill, the one whose blood she ached for. She couldn’t will Graham alive again, or erase his murder, but she could hunt down the son of a bitch that had done the deed.
She had to stop filling the void with the death of other monsters. It was time to stop running from Spectre.
But how do I kill a necromancer? Dani had worked every lead, talked to anyone who claimed to have any information, everyone, except for the one man she needed to speak to. A single name kept coming back up who might have details on something to help. Just so happened it was the same person she didn't want to face.
Joe's Grill was three hundred miles away and his name the final one on her list, the last hunter hub she hadn't checked in with, At least she hadn’t done so since before Alabama when Spectre had murdered Graham in front of Da
ni's eyes while she was helpless to do anything. But there were no more options. He might have the intel on Spectre she needed, like how to kill him for good.
She had to talk to Joe.
It was time to go home.
Don’t stop now. Keep reading with your copy of CINDERS OF YESTERDAY by City Owl Author, Jen Karner.
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And find more from Kristin Jacques at
www.kristinjacques.com
Want even more paranormal romance? Try CINDERS OF YESTERDAY by City Owl Author, Jen Karner, and find more from Kristin Jacques at www.kristinjacques.com
Paranormal Hunter Dani Black wants nothing more than revenge. Until she meets Emilie.
A year ago, the rogue Necromancer Spectre murdered her partner during a hunt gone wrong. She's been looking for a way to kill him—and keep him dead—ever since.
When rumors of a weapon capable of killing anything surfaces in Dawson, Maryland, she sets out on a mission to get her hands on it. While unraveling a web of clues about her own past, Dani runs into the alluring Emilie Lockgrove, eldest daughter of a magical family inexplicably tied to Spectre.
Emilie Lockgrove survived the catastrophic fire that killed her mother and hospitalized both her and her sister.
Ten years later, she has returned to Dawson, expecting to confront the trauma of her past. Instead, she discovers magic is real, encountering actual ghosts like the necromancer hunting her family for 200 years.
Dani intends to kill Spectre…or die trying. Emilie wants to reclaim her life. To survive, they'll need to work together to confront their pasts, break the spell capturing Emilie's magic, and destroy Spectre once and for all.
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Acknowledgments
Every book I write is a voyage, fraught with wonders and perils. And like every voyage, I couldn’t have reached the final destination without an amazing crew.
Thank you to my fabulous editor, Charissa, for her advice, her patience, and being a champion of this story. Thank you to the crew at City Owl for believing in my cinnamon roll vampire hunter.
Thank you to my Wattchicks for continuing to share your joys and worries and all the little things that have kept our bond strong over four countries and two continents. Thank you Lucy & Nicole for being the listening ear and pillar of support during those many, many moments of existential crisis. Thank you to the Saltmates, MB, Laynie, Candace, Amber, and Sarah, for the laughs and the rants.
And lastly, thank you to my partner, who reminds me not to worry about things beyond my control, and who keeps me grounded even when the ground feels like it is falling out from under us.
About the Author
KRISTIN JACQUES is an award-winning author of speculative fiction for teens and adults. She currently lives in small town Connecticut with her partner, sons, and two gremlins who think they are cats. When not writing, she's usually chasing her boys around or catching some excellent b-horror movies. She is currently working on projects full of magic, mystery, and delight.
www.kristinjacques.com
About the Publisher
City Owl Press is a cutting edge indie publishing company, bringing the world of romance and speculative fiction to discerning readers.
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Escape Your World. Get Lost in Ours!
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A Bargain of Blood and Gold Page 28