Guess what? There are only two weeks until DANGEROUS ANGEL releases!!! *flails* I’ve got a
giveaway planned (more on that later in the week), but in the meantime, it’s
time for another snippet.
Nikita, the heroine of DANGEROUS ANGEL, is about as
pragmatic as they come. Originally from Cuba, she was orphaned during a
dangerous crossing from Cuba to Miami when the craft she and her mother were on
sank. She was the only survivor of that doomed trip, and it was a time in her
life that left more than a few scars. Flights of fancy and fairytales don’t fit
into her no-nonsense way of looking at things, so when Kyle’s Nephilim world
merges with hers without any warning, Nikita has no way of coping with the
insanity that’s unleashed…
“Mama?” Nikita hadn’t meant to speak. To call out to a dead woman was
insane. To see a dead woman standing
no more than a few feet away, smiling in welcome and happy acceptance that had
always glowed in her dark eyes, was lunacy.
This
couldn’t be.
This
shouldn’t be.
“Ah,
Nikita. Look at you, all grown up.” That light in the chocolate-brown eyes she
remembered reached out to twine around her consciousness until it was all she
could see. “I knew you would be such a beauty. A beauty worthy of having the
world at her feet. You make your mama so proud.”
Nikita
shuddered while the words tore a jagged sound from some dark hole deep inside,
that secret place she’d tried to hide even from herself. It was where she
housed the hopeless yearning to hear her mother’s voice. To see her mother’s
smile, a smile that meant everything was going to be all right.
To
have the chance to say, one last time, I
love you.
“Mama.”
Nikita felt something spatter her cheeks, and at first she thought it was rain.
Then she realized that after nearly two decades, the tears she’d never let fall
were escaping at last. “Where… How can you be here? I saw you. I saw what happened to you. To everyone.” Again the screams rang in her ears, while that terrible
feeling of something squeezing her consciousness twisted deeper. Her stomach
somersaulted queasily as the dread and horror came back in a rush, as vivid as
the day when her mother…had…had…
Died.
“You’re
dead.” Shaking. Dear God, she was shaking so hard she didn’t know how much
longer she could remain upright. “I saw you die. I screamed for you to come
back. I screamed until I didn’t have any voice left. But you didn’t come back. You
couldn’t.”
Her
mother spread her arms wide, both a plea and a beckoning. “My bond with my only
child isn’t so weak that it can just vanish. Don’t let the past confuse you,
Nikita. Just believe that I’m here for you now.”
“But…”
Memories of churning, endless water. Screams. Redness. It all jumbled together in
one long ribbon of chaos. Feverishly she clamped her hands to her head before
it could blow apart. “This can’t be real. This can’t be real.”
“Do
you not love me anymore, mi hijita?”
“Don’t
say that.” This time she couldn’t stop the flinch as her hold on sanity eroded,
until she couldn’t remember what she was trying to hold on to. “Please, please
don’t say that. I’ll always love you. Siempre…”
“My
last word to you. You have it tattooed on your back now so you would never
forget.” Again she held out her arms. Her smile was better than coming home. “Come,
Nikita. Aren’t you happy to see me? Didn’t you miss me?”
“You’ll
never know how much, Mama. I’ve been so alone without you.” The grief welled up
like a poison that had no antidote, swamping the last of her reason. This was
her mother, an answer to an old
prayer, the one person she’d longed for with a futility that had crippled her
in her younger years. She’d dreamed of this impossible moment for so long it
had become a wound that had never fully healed
With
a sob of tortured joy, she stepped into the awaiting embrace.
Icy
coldness emanated from the inside out as the arms locked around her. While the
yearning within her cried at last, at
last, a strange alarm sounded through the layers of wanting to believe. Her
mother’s embrace had always been warm, loving. It had never failed to chase the
bad things away.
But
this was…different.
Something’s wrong.
***
Sound interesting?
Here’s the blurb for DANGEROUS ANGEL, up for pre-order now:
Book four of the Earth Angels series
Miami's best bounty hunter, Nikita Tesoro will
do anything to collar a fugitive, including stepping into a stripper's
stilettos for the night. Outsmarting her rival Kyle Beaudecker is just a bonus.
Despite the sexual tension sparking between them, Nikita keeps a professional
distance from "Hurricane" Kyle. After all, she can't get hurt if she
doesn't care.
A descendant of the archangel Barakiel with the
power to harness electricity, Kyle should be focusing his energy on tracking
down a demon that may be hiding in the human realm. But he's a lover, not a
fighter, and he'd much rather use his special talents for pleasure:
specifically Nikita's. And teaming up to find a bail jumper means spending lots
of time together…
But when their case takes a turn for the demonic,
Kyle can no longer hide his true nature from Nikita. He'll do whatever it takes
to win her heart—even stop the apocalypse. But he can't do it alone.
80,000 words
Buy links for pre-ordering DANGEROUS
ANGEL:
Amazon | iTunes | Barnes
and Noble | Google
Play | ARe |
Kobo |
Carina
Press
No comments:
Post a Comment