Civil Twilight: Project Exorcism
Page 7
Christian, Bradi and Marissa tore out of the room. Stegian stood his ground and felt the heavy weight of Jacquelyn’s stare.
“Stegian.”
“I am not a good man, Jacquelyn. Do not think because I…”
“Shut up and kiss me. I really don’t want to do this every day for the rest of eternity.”
Unable to help himself, Stegian smiled and turned to face her. She was breathtaking, even in the state of disarray. She had a warm glow about her. One only a pregnant woman wore. Stegian knew she wasn’t aware of the fact she carried his child and he liked knowing it did not affect her opinion of him.
He went to her side and captured her lips with his own. The kiss was tender and filled with every emotion she made course through his veins. It was strange to have only desire running through him—no need for blood, for pain. No. The only need he had was Jacquelyn.
THE END
Books in recommended reading order
Paranormal Payload
Force of Attraction
Point of No Return
Civil Twilight
About the Author
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. At age five, she had her first piece of artwork published. Writing came into play early in her life as well. Over the years, the two mediums merged and led her to work in marketing. Combining her creativity with her passion for horror has left her banging on the keyboard into the wee hours of the night. Mandy lives with her husband and three children on the shores of Lake Erie, where she is currently starting work on her Master’s Degree. She was nominated for Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Erotic.
Mandy has topped the Amazon bestselling charts more than once and has a loyal and steady following. She does cover art under the brush name Natalie Winters and is very involved with helping authors learn to market their books. In 2009 she and fellow author Michelle M. Pillow started their own self-publishing endeavor named The Raven Books. It spawned from the name of a nightclub in Mandy’s wildly popular Daughter of Darkness Series. In July 2010 they opened The Raven Books to third party distribution and by Dec 2011 had sold WELL over 150,000 ebooks.
Mandy writes for The Raven Books, Samhain Publishing, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Harlequin Spice, Pocket Books and Random House/Virgin/Black Lace.
To learn more about Mandy, please visit www.mandyroth.com or send an email to mandy@mandyroth.com.
For latest news about Mandy’s newest releases subscribe to her announcement list in Yahoo! groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/Mandy_M_Roth
The Raven Books’ Complimentary Material
The following material is free of charge. It will never affect the price of your book.
Misfit in Middle America Extended Excerpt
By Mandy M. Roth
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.
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.
I tried to exchange names and numbers with her, but she’d been the one to insist on not doing it. Turns out her boyfriend was really a husband and she was just looking for a good time. I wasn’t into being a home wrecker, and it had been eating at me since I’d returned home. I should have been pleased to finally get some action. I’d been on a two-year dry spell. It was hard to find someone willing to have a one-night stand in North Maple Ridge. The town was small, and I didn’t need my character to come under assassination for banging the local women. Besides, I’d had my eye on one local since I’d arrived, and I wasn’t even sure she knew my first name.
Beth shot me an odd look. I forgot I was still staring at her. I looked away quickly and tried to pretend I hadn’t been ogling her. She stumbled right in front of me and I reached my hands out to catch her. I felt her toned arms in my hands. She moved slightly, leaving my fingers resting on her full breasts. I drew a breath in and let my eyelids fall lazily closed. It was all I could do to keep from going instantly hard. The last thing I needed was to sprout a full erection while her body was pressed against mine. The woman already had a low enough opinion of me. I didn’t need to add to it any.
“Damn, why can’t these things happen on flat land?” she said under her breath, looking away from me and to the crime scene.
“Well, those of us with hearts wish they wouldn’t happen at all.”
She looked up at me. I knew what she meant, yet I put her in the hot seat. I could tell I’d caught her off guard. Damn. I hadn’t wanted to make it any harder to be around her. It already seemed like the battle lines were drawn the moment we laid eyes on each other. It was her job to try to pry information out of me, and mine to keep everyone’s private matters just that, private.
Beth pulled her body away from my grip a little slower than I would have expected. The edge of my mouth curved upwards. I wasn’t grinning so much as I was sneering. I had to shake it off. I didn’t want to be that guy, the one that creeps women out.
I did my best to push the thoughts of fucking Beth out of my head and looked around the scene. This certainly wasn’t the place I should be entertaining various fucking scenarios with the one chick in town that I suffered from massive sexual tension and frustration with.
We had the place lit pretty well, considering it was in the middle of nowhere and at night, but it wasn’t the same as daylight. I could clearly make out what was going on and my men had things under control. Beth let out a small noise when she saw one of the blood soaked sheets laying over a piece of the body. I turned to make sure she was okay. I didn’t need anyone else throwing up all over my crime scene. My men had done a fine enough job of that already.
“You all right?” I asked.
“Yes. Thank you.”
The artificial light reflected off Beth’s eyes. I knew from sneaking peeks at her during a town meeting that her eyes were blue. I wondered if she ever bothered to notice mine. I had my doubts.
Beth seemed to live an active social life. She was definitely different from me in that respect. I’d seen her around town with her new boyfriend. He was one of those guys who like to look like they pumped gas for a living. Somehow, he’d managed to make the grunge look work for him. I’d never gotten onto that bandwagon. I liked people to know that I showered and cared what I looked like. This guy that Beth had been shacking up with was from the city and more than likely a musician of some kind. No, I didn’t measure up in that area. I couldn’t carry a tune to save my life. I could carry her if need be, though. My six-foot tall body was fit. Running every day saw to that, but I’d never seemed to be able to catch her eye. Sure, I managed to catch enough backlashes from her to keep me up at night, but that was it.
“So what do we have?” she asked.
I looked over at the area marked off with yellow tape. What we had was a set of murders. Three to be exact. They were all related, without a doubt. We had some psycho running around, tearing the youth of our community to bits—that’s what we had. I didn’t think it wise to put it in those terms, so I softened it up a bit.
“We have another one.”
Her eyebrow rose. “Another one? You mean, like Becca and Christian?”
I nodded and thought of Becca Townsend and Christian Martin. They had been the first two murder victims. Three weeks ago, we’d found Becca’s body near the edge of the river. She had been in the same state as Jonathon—decapitated, disemboweled, and then mauled. It was still up in the air if she’d been raped. There wasn’t a lot of her left, and we’d had thunderstorms bl
ow through the area the night she was murdered.
A week after that, Christian’s body was found further out in the woods. He’d just been accepted to a university with a full ride for wrestling. He was the Martin’s only child, and the last I knew, they were planning to move closer to the college. Guess that wouldn’t be necessary now. I hadn’t spoken with them since I delivered the news of their son’s death. I’m sure they blamed me for it happening. No, I hadn’t been the one to commit the act, but I had been the one who neglected to catch the murderer after Becca’s death.
Three gruesome murders in three short weeks had drawn the attention of the Feds. I’d received a call from them yesterday, letting me know they’d be sending some men down. I welcomed the help to a point and was happy to see more resources coming in. I think my positive tone had caught them off guard.
“Who was it?” Beth asked.
I frowned at her. She knew I couldn’t release that information until the next of kin was notified. She glanced over at Braun kneeling in the bushes throwing up—again.
“It’s bad then?” she asked. I wanted to shake her. Hell yeah, it was bad. One of the three worst crime scenes I’d ever seen. It wasn’t her fault. “Off the record,” she said, looking worried.
Now that was one I hadn’t heard from her before. Beth liked to be the one who kept the town up to date. Promising to stay off the record was a big step for her.
“One of the Williams’ boys,” I offered softly. “The other, Robert, is at the hospital. It doesn’t look good for him. He’s a witness but no way can I question him. Doctors aren’t even sure he’ll make it through the night.”
She grabbed her mouth as a tiny gasp escaped. I’d forgotten her mother was a Williams. That made the boys her cousins. I reached out my hand to her. She moved past it and seized hold of my waist. Her hands slid up my back and she pulled on me tightly. I stood there, too shocked to hug her back, with my arms out in the air. I looked like I was being held up. I’d waited for ages to get her this close to me and then just stood there looking like Deputy Doolittle.