First off, thanks to everyone that left a comment on my last post or on Facebook about last Thursday's excerpt. If you missed it, you can still read the post here.

So, if you've been following along, you know I began this journey wanting to create something that would become a part of my readers. I've shared some of the seduction, some of the betrayal, now for a little of the humor...

It was easier to just stay gone...Even if that meant wandering from store to store for hours on end. I walked along the sidewalk; stopping to return the same items I just bought days ago as a way to fill time.

It was late November, most of the autumn colors were gone, and now the days were just cold and miserable as I wandered around. I was convinced I would come down with pneumonia before the first of the year.

“I never took you for a compulsive shopper.”

I turned, and there on the crowded Chicago sidewalk, and miles away from Corydon, stood Poe Corvus.

He stood there with his black hair sticking up in an unruly mess, dressed to casual perfection in jeans and a black trench coat, but all I could do was remember how he looked naked.

I felt the color rise up to my cheeks and my stomach began to churn

“Oh God,” I mumbled, fighting the urge to vomit. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled widely as if amused by my discomfort, “Wow! And here I was worried that you wouldn’t remember me.”

“After what you did, how could I forget?” I snapped, “You should be ashamed of yourself, naked in front of a stranger like that.”

His laughter teased my cold ears, “Yes, I was naked, but you were there telling one man that you loved him...And didn’t you take another man home?”

I blushed and gritted my teeth together, “Not my finest moment.”

Poe lowered his head so that he could look in her eyes and raised one eyebrow.

“Somehow I doubt that,” he said wickedly.

I should be offended, but I could feel myself smiling. “Well I’m too cold to worry about how you even knew about Andrew.”

He shrugged, “Word travels fast.”

“Perfect,” I sighed.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Sometimes the quickest way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”

I blushed, “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

He laughed, “And you shouldn’t do things like that, but I won’t hold it against either one of us.”

“You’re awful,” I said with a grin. “Why are you here?”

“Just boring stuff with the war and vampires—“

“Shh!” I warned and looked fearfully around the quiet sidewalk. “What if someone hears you?”

“What if they do?”

“What?”

Poe turned to a group of approaching people, “Hey did you know I can change into a raven? Some people call it shape shifting or skin walkers...”

The group just stepped around him and kept on walking. Not a one of them even turned to look back at him. He turned again and this time stopped a young couple.

“That’s right,” he said with a bow. “I come from a long line of raven shape shifters. I’m here because all my werewolf-witchy friends and me are at war with the vampires. What do you think of that?”

The couple hurried away, looking back to make sure he was not following them.

Poe smiled and waved at them before turning back to me.

“See?” He said as he pushed his black hair out of his eyes. “No one cares who or what we are anymore.”

“I can’t believe you just did that!” I giggled, “What if one of them believed you and told the others.”

“No one would believe it and who would they tell?” He said with a shrug, “So why are you in Chicago?”

“It’s a long story,” I answered with a jerk of my chin. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”

He followed as I started walking down the sidewalk.

“Well, now you have to tell me,” he said as he matched his long strides to mine. “Don’t tell me that handsome stud you took home that afternoon left you at the alter or something.”

“No, he died,” I snapped. I felt his eyes on me, studying my expression.

“Well, that is tragic, but it doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“People didn’t think I reacted the right way.”

“You didn’t curl up in a ball and die over a one night stand and it offended the old gifted guard”

I pretended to notice the clothing in a storefront that we passed, “He wasn’t just a one-night stand.”

He looked down at her and winked, “I get the feeling you wish he would have been though. Did he stick around when you just wanted him to go away? If so, then it’s just a question of numbers.”

“How dare you stand there and—“

“Tell the truth?” He laughed despite me glaring up at him, “So why are you out here every day shopping?”

I shrugged, “I needed to get out for a while...And how did you know I did it every day?”

“Just a lucky guess. Don’t you like where you’re staying?”

I wasn’t sure to believe him or not, but didn’t care enough to think about it for long. “No, I don’t like it.”

He shrugged and walked with me as I moved to the next window, “So change hotels.”

“I’m not in a hotel,” I confessed. “I’m staying with Andrew’s sister, Melina Wallace.”

“The same Melina Wallace that is married to the love of your life Archer Wallace?”

I glared up at him, “Don’t be ugly.”

He laughed and took my hand, “I won’t say another word about it, but you need to have some fun.”

“What?”

Poe looked down at me, his dark eyes twinkling as he pulled me along, “Something tells me that you’re real tired of doing what you’re supposed to do. What do you say we go break some rules and have some fun?”

I'll be releasing another peek in the next few days, but until then leave and comment here or on Facebook and let me know what you think! Oh! And don't forget to enter the giveaway!

I was about nineteen when I was hospitalized with viral pneumonia. One minute I'm out partying with friends, and the next I'm waking up in the hospital emergency room sicker than I'd ever been in my entire life. 

I was trapped there for about a week, barely able to get out of bed and too sick to really talk with anyone that came to visit. I could barely breathe, let alone talk.

To keep from going mad with boredom, I started reading Dracula. I loved how the story took me away and I could forget where I was and just get lost in it. I remember when I finished it, I sat there in bed with the book closed in my lap and my hands resting on the cover as if I was trying to absorb the story into my skin.

I sat there for the longest time, then I took up a pad of hospital stationary and blotchy Bic ink pen. I started jotting down notes about characters and scenes that were beginning to take shape in my mind.

That was the start of The Gifted and The Damned. I kept it on the back burner, adding and taking away, all the while creating my other two series. With The Gifted and The Damned, I wanted to create my own epic tale, something that would continue to pulse inside a reader's mind long after the book was closed.

So there it is, the crazy place that this story began to take shape and as we move closer to release day, I kept help but to think back to that hospital stay and how placing my hands on that book, set my feet on this path.

Anyway...I'd love to know your thoughts on this, so join in the conversation below or leave a comment on Facebook. Oh! And don't forget to enter my awesome themed bracelet giveaway!

Look at them...One big double scoop of sex...

I admired Marcel and Isaac Garnier from the bar. The two brothers were deeply tanned in that outdoorsy way that just made them more delicious, even though the black haired, black eyed pair were tempting enough already. They were muscled and hard in a way that made my heart skip a beat and my mind instantly go places it should not.

Why do I do this to myself?

“What can I get for you?” The bartender asked, bringing me out of my fantasies and back to reality.

I turned and smiled widely at him despite his thinning hair and thickening middle-aged gut. His blood shot eyes settled on my chest as I leaned in, “Can I get three beers please?”

His eyes glazed over, “That will be—”

“I don’t have any money,” I reached over and touched his hand. “But I want those beers.”

He tried to resist. I saw the conflict in him, but he gave in like they always did. “Sure,” he said with a quick wrinkle of his brow. He handed me the bottles, shaking his head as if he was trying to clear it.

Normals couldn’t resist me; it was my gift and my curse. It wasn’t my black hair or my green eyes. It was just me. I was not beautiful in the traditional sense, but why should I be? As the only siren in a long line of witches, nothing about me was traditional.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, turning away and releasing him from my hold. I wove through the tables and back to where the Garniers were waiting for me.

Marcel flashed a brilliant white smile as he took one of the bottles from me, “See Issac, it still pays to have a siren out on the town with us.”

“Is that all I’m good for?” I asked with a teasing smile.

Taking the bottle I offered, Isaac pushed out the chair between him and Marcel for me and winked, “It’s nice to have you around just to look at.”

I sat down in the chair sideways so that I could lean back against Isaac and thrown one leg up in Marcel’s lap.

Isaac stroked my ebony hair and eyed his brother, even snarling and showing his teeth now and then, while Marcel traced my bare knee with a finger as he returned every glare. I knew there was no real threat between them and only scolded them when it began to wear on my nerves.

Werewolves...Always wanting to mark their territory...If only they could...

The Garnier family were werewolves, descended from the original family from some nowhere place in Europe. They were sexy, animalistic, and forbidden. I couldn’t get enough of them.

The only problem was once they mated with any person of gifted blood, it was forever, and if one of them chose me, they would have to kill the other since they would be a rival.

Damn the luck...

So, instead of enjoying a fun romp with one or both of them, all I could do was flirt and nothing more. I sat between them teasing and tempting them, but it could never go further. I wondered if they found it and our lives in general as frustrating as I did.

There was an undercurrent of mystery steeped in tradition swirling between the three of us. We were uncommon creatures trying very hard to pass for common beings, raised to hide our gifts and to blend in among the normals, an idea handed down from the hard lessons learned in Salem and later in the sideshow tents of carnivals. For those with gifts, it was better to be unseen, admired, but never noticed.

“What’s the plan for later?” Marcel asked as he dared to stroke the curve of my thigh. “Do you want to go over to Louisville or something?”

“I hate going to bars over there with the two of you,” I scolded with an exaggerated pout of my lips. “You two always do something to cause a scene and draw attention to us.”

Isaac leaned down so that his lips brushed the edge of my ear, “So?”

I shifted away from him and took my leg from Marcel’s lap. “So, I don’t want to deal with all the trouble it causes. You two go out, make a spectacle of yourselves, and get everyone around here in an uproar and then the whole place goes on lock down. No thanks.”

“Oh, none of that is going to matter soon” Marcel smirked with a wave of his hand. He leaned closer so that he could whisper, “The vampires are going to force everyone out of hiding and then everything will be different.”

I rolled my eyes and slouched back against my human pillow, “Oh people have been talking about that forever and a day. Nothing ever happens.”

“Well, it’s going to happen this time,” Isaac warned with an eager smile. He pushed my hair back so he could put his lips against my ear, “Vampires all over the country are telling anyone who will listen that their days of hiding are over and they are calling all of us out for living among their prey.”

I sighed with impatience, “It’s the same thing people have been saying for years. People love to talk about how the vampires want to take over and how they warn that if you’re not with them you’re against them. It’s always the same and it’s always been the same since we were little kids and our parents told us those stories to keep us afraid of the dark.”

Despite my exasperation with them, I curved my lips into a teasing smile. The brothers immediately forgot about the vampires and refocused all of their attention back to me...Just as I intended.

“So Ruby,” Isaac began as he twirled a coal colored strand of my long hair in his fingers. “Are you still afraid of the dark?”

My smiled deepened, “Wouldn’t you love to know?”

“What about me? Will I be finding out?” Marcel moved his hand up my thigh, ignoring the snarls of his brother. The two glared at each other, each holding me tightly.

I wished they would get on with it, and just go ahead and take me out to their black four-wheel drive pickup truck and off to some remote location.

I could picture it, sex with the two of them. I saw enough when we all went swimming at the quarry earlier in the summer to know Marcel and Isaac would look amazing naked. Their broad, muscular shoulders and rock hard abs would give way to slim hips. From there, I imagined impressive members protruding from manscaped perfection.

Oh yeah...That’s what I’m talking about...

Perhaps Marcel would move his hand further up my leg, teasing me through my shorts. Maybe he would move his fingers in a circle, or perhaps back and forth, either way he would know just how to take me far enough...Almost there, but not quite.

Maybe then Isaac would start kissing my neck, nibbling my ear in that way that drove me wild. He would cup my breasts as Marcel removed my shorts, holding me in place and tweaking my nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.

Oh, how lucky to be at some hidden place! We would be too far from houses or streets to be seen. I could take them home to my apartment over the garage, but it was better here, in the cool shade and the delicious scent of summer.

I would slide down from the truck and onto the grass, facing Isaac as I opened his pants and freed him. Marcel would position himself behind me, holding my hips steady. Yes, both of them, then and there.

I would hover over Isaac, ready to take him, and Marcel would move and--

“Are you going to the Wallace’s party tomorrow?” Marcel asked, interrupting my fantasy.

“I don’t have much of a choice,” I replied, fanning my flushed face. “My family would disown me if I didn’t. I don’t know why everyone makes such a big deal about it.”

Marcel looked at me, his dark eyes wide, “Because it’s Litha, the summer solstice. It wouldn’t be summer without it.”

“Besides,” Isaac said with a wink to his brother. “This one is really going to be something.”

“Why would you think that?”

The brothers exchanged conspiratorial smiles. Marcel cleared his throat nervously, “Well, it’s the first one since you and Archer broke up, right?”

“We didn’t break up,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Archer and I are just fine, but he’s in Chicago and I’m here. So, while the cat is away the mice will play.”

“Archer is back,” Marcel mumbled.

“What? When?”

“Um,” Marcel looked to his brother hopefully. “You all really didn’t break up?”

“No,” I snapped.

Isaac chuckled, his chest vibrating against my back. “Does Archer know that?”

“Of course he knows,” I argued and sat up. “Now which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on?”

They smiled at each other once again and managed a quick game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would tell me. Isaac won, paper over rock.

“Well,” he said hesitantly. “I saw Derek Osborne this morning and he said Archer is back from Chicago.”

Did I flinch? I looked up at him blankly as I felt myself go numb. The breath left my body in a painful rush and I had to remind myself to inhale.

“Well,” I said slowly. “He didn’t call me, so there’s no reason we can’t still have fun tonight.”

Marcel walked his fingers along the edge of my leg, “There’s more.”

I forced my clenched jaw to loosen, “More?”

“He met some normal up in Chicago,” Marcel said. “And he brought her back here for the party.”

“A normal?”

“Yep,” Isaac said. “Some girl, I think her name was Melina. Her and her brother came for the party. I took it to be sort of serious.”

I winced, “How serious could it be? He never told me about her and I talked to him on the phone every night.”

They both nodded, but I could see the doubt in their eyes. Doubt and pity.

Oh Archer...What have you done?

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I'm so excited to reveal the cover for The Gifted and The Damned! I've never managed to keep a secret this long!

The Gifted and The Damned

Seduction was her gift...He was her weakness...

In the small town of Corydon Indiana, witches, seers, and shape shifters live hidden from the everyday world in plain sight. They live under the constant memory of the trials of Salem and live by a code of secrecy.

Ruby Malone, the only siren ever born to her family of witches, held the hearts of many men in the palm of her hand, making her the talk of the supernatural community, but there was only one man that she wanted. Making seer Archer Wallace hers was the only thing Ruby cared about until a war between the gifted and the vampires turned her world upside down.

Suddenly, the world that Ruby knows is gone. Archer is off fighting in the war and Poe Corvus, a rebellious shape shifter with a past, tempts her to be the siren she was born to be.


To help me celebrate, I'm giving away a beautiful necklace featuring an actual passage from The Gifted and The Damned! You can enter the giveaway below. There are several ways to enter including signing up for updates about the Gifted and The Damned Release!

The pre-orders should be up on Amazon later today and other retailers by the end of the week (hopefully). Be sure to get yours for the limited time price of 0.99!


Excerpt:
I saw her coming in my mind’s eye even before I answered the knock at the door. I opened it slowly and there she was...My curse, my temptation, the woman I could never forget. Ruby stood in the yellow glow of the porch light holding a large cardboard box.

“Dad noticed last night that some of your window panes were broken,” she said as she hoisted the box a little higher. “I thought I’d bring you some magazines and newspapers to fix them.”

I stared at her, drinking in the way the light caught in her eyes and how I could see the peaks of her nipples through her worn t-shirt. She shifted the box again before I snapped out of my fantasy and took the box from her.

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I took the box and stepped aside. “Come on in. I’m sorry, but Melina wasn’t feeling well. She went on up to bed. I know she’d love to see you, she always looks forward to your visits.”

I was rambling and I knew it. Why was this so hard? It was just Ruby. It shouldn’t be this hard.

I watched as she walked around the near empty living room. I saw her looking around, but I was too distracted by the sway of her hips to care about my blatant poverty. She was beautiful in a strong, earthy way that made me forget everything else.

“Everything looks so different,” she said as she looked back at me with those green eyes that pierced me right in the gut. I had a sudden vision of her naked body under mine, our limbs entwined.

I immediately blushed and looked away, clearing my throat before I could answer her. “Yeah, there wasn’t much left after the war. The whole place was pretty much trashed.”

She stepped closer, trailing her fingers across the scuffed wainscoting, “It still feels the same though.”

“Not to me.” I dared to meet her eyes, but there came another flash of our naked bodies on the floor.

“It doesn’t really feel the same to me either,” she said with a teasing smile. “I was just being nice.”

I nodded. “Yeah, everyone is always trying to be nice. I’m sick of it actually. Doesn’t it make you mad...The way everything has changed?”

Ruby shrugged, “It doesn’t do any good to be angry. I just try not to think about it.”

“I don’t see how you can do it. All I can do is think about it.”

Ruby crossed her arms under her breasts and shrugged, “If you think about it too much it will drive you crazy.”

I looked up at the ceiling to keep from staring at her delicious cleavage, “I feel like I’m already there.”

“Poor, Archer.” Ruby said teasingly as she reached out and stroked my hair.

I looked back down at her and my breath caught. I loved the way she looked at me, the way her green eyes tilted up. I looked from those feline eyes to those soft full lips that were always mine for the taking.

Suddenly, I had her in my arms. I couldn’t stop myself. I was kissing her and pulling her closer, crushing her against the hardness in my jeans.

Her skin was sweet as I licked at her neck. Her moans vibrated against my lips. She clung to me, pushing her full breasts against my chest.

“I’ve waited for this,” Ruby muttered between kisses. “I’ve dreamed about it every night.”

I covered her lips with mine, tasting her tongue as my hand slid up her side until I cupped the weight of her breast, my thumb stroking her erect nipple through her shirt. I could feel her shudder under my touch.

No bra...She knows how to drive me wild...

She was pulling me to the couch, pushing me down so that I was sitting there as she peeled off her shirt and slid out of her own jeans. Naked she straddled me.

There it was, another vision of us, her crying out as I thrust into her and me kissing her bouncing breasts. Her lips against my ear brought me back to the present.

“Do you want me Archer?” She whispered, “Do you want to touch me?”

Ruby reached out and took my hand. She held it up to her lips, her delicious pink tongue darting out to lick each individual digit. I held my breath as she then guided my hand between her legs and slid two of my fingers up inside of her.

You drive me crazy...

She rocked against my hand, arching her back and moaning. I suckled at her pink nipples as she burst apart again and again.

“You’re mine Archer.” She gasped between spasms, “You’ll always be mine.”

I didn’t argue. I kissed her again and then watched as she surrendered to me again. All I could think of was impaling her wetness.

Oh God...Oh God...

Ruby pulled at my shirt, pulling it over my head and then kissing me long and hard, her tongue darting about in my mouth. She knew how to drive a man to the edge, to take me right to the brink and then pull back.

She was so beautiful, so willing... And so naked. She rubbed her steamy mound against me. I ached with longing, actual physical pain, with wanting her. She pulled me down into the floor, forcing me on top of her.

“Tell me you love me,” she said as she pulled at my pants. “Tell me you love me and I’ll make every fantasy you ever had come true.”

Another vision assaulted me. I could see us making love, I could feel our bodies touching, and then I saw the pale figure appear in the doorway.

Melina...

I stopped, panting and swollen. I pushed up on my arms and looked down at her, “Ruby I—“

“I know that you love me.” She wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me back down on top of her. “I know that you do.”

“Yes, I love you.” I choked out as I untangled from her embrace and rolled off her. “But I can’t do this to Melina.”

“You bring her up now?”

“Ruby...I...”

She sat up and pulled on her clothes quickly, “Damn it Archer...Why can’t you just make up your mind what you want. Me or her.”

“I did make my mind up because I married her.”

“You are such a bastard.”

I hated myself for giving in so easily to my desires. I reached out to her, but she pulled away. Before I could even get to my feet, she was out the door and hurrying down the sidewalk.