Long Shadows on sale August 1-7!
August 1, 2015
“People say I’m beautiful, but they don’t see the monster inside…”
That’s how the second book of the Lycanthropy Files series starts. The feedback I got from readers is that they love the heroine Lonna for her snarky, clever tone. The hero Max is a hot doctor with a Caribbean accent and some unusual talents. Haven’t read the first one? That’s okay – I wrote them as a series but also to be read as standalones as well. If you’d like to start at the beginning, you can read about the first Lycanthropy Files book The Mountain’s Shadow here.
The Long Shadows ebook is available for 99 cents from August 1-7 from:
Samhain Publishing (all formats)
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Anywhere else ebooks are sold.
Being unique isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
By day, Lonna Marconi’s busy career keeps her mind off the fact she was turned werewolf against her will. By night, a dose of wolfsbane lets her inner wolf out to play while her physical body stays safe at home.
When an overheard phone call at work warns her a trap is about to be sprung, she turns from hunter to hunted in the blink of an eye.
She finds refuge with the Ozarks pack she never claimed as her own. Upon discovering a family secret that explains why she’s unique among her own kind, Lonna finds heat in the arms of Max, who’s the one thing she cannot trust—a wizard.
Another kidnapping attempt sends her navigating the treacherous metaphysical borders of a centuries-old war, pursued by rogue sorcerers, a band of ghostly wolves, and repressed memories that prevent her from reclaiming her heritage. All the while, trusting her back to a wizard who demands the price of her heart…who may not have the luxury of giving his in return.
Excerpt:
I hadn’t physically changed since the first time six months before. Then, in a trance, I had opened the front door to my apartment, taken off my clothes, and changed into a wolf with the world watching. Okay, not quite the world. It was pretty late, and my apartment complex was quiet. Since then, I had spirit-walked with the aid of the aconite, which caused me to create an astral projection of my wolf self rather than physically change. Somehow I could still eat what I hunted, and I hoped that wouldn’t translate into bad blood work. Who knew how much wild critters would raise one’s cholesterol? A stupid concern, I know, considering everything else. It’s funny what the mind latches on to.
Now I sat in the living room at Joanie’s and Leo’s house with them, all of us wrapped in sheets, as we waited for the moon to rise and for its light to sing in our blood. We could change without it, but it was easier in its light, which compelled us when it was full. I suppressed the urge to giggle at the sight, like we were at the most boring toga party ever. Joanie caught my eye, and her lips twitched like she thought the same.
The moon rose, its light spilling through the bank of windows.
“It’s time,” Joanie murmured.
My inner wolf stretched and yawned, unfurling to her full spiritual presence.
“We can change? she asked. Really change?”
“Yes, just be gentle with me.” Again I stuffed the urge to laugh. I hadn’t said those words in a really long time.
I gasped when my human spirit shrank. The sensation was that of hurtling down a long hallway, then
landing in a warm pool and expanding within it to fill a new shape. The inner wolf and I became one.
I heard tendons snapping and bones cracking in new arrangements and suspected I would be sore the next day.
A light nip to my shoulder brought me back to myself, and I shifted my weight so I stood evenly on all four paws. Leo, a black wolf, sat and looked at me, his tongue lolling in amusement. Joanie, a petite brown wolf who could probably pass for one of the Arkansas red wolves, had nipped me.
“You were quivering like you were ready to explode with the sensations of it all,” she said telepathically.
“It’s different from when we spirit-walk,” I responded. “I feel heavier but more powerful.”
“Do you remember anything of the first time? When Iain and I chased after you?”
“Only that I wanted to get away and be free. And Gabriel…”
A low growl from Leo halted that line of conversation. Not that I blamed him. Gabriel had tried to claim Joanie first.
“Moonlight’s wasting, girls,” he said but waited for Joanie to lead us out of the house through a—oh, the shame!—doggie door in the mud room.
“It was the easiest solution,” Joanie told me once we were through. I heard the wry smile in her voice.
Once we were fully in the moonlight, the dry brown grass under my paws, I didn’t care that we’d been relegated to the status of mere canis domesticus or whatever the hell regular dogs were. I chased after her, nipping at her flank, and she mock-growled at me. We tumbled and tussled before I drew back.
“When do we hunt?” It came out as a vocal whine.
“When Matthew arrives.” Leo looked around, his ears perked. “He should have been here by now.”
“Maybe he got delayed by something? Too much traffic on the road, perhaps, or the cubs wanting to come with him?” The image of the playful pups didn’t dispel the concern in Joanie’s mental voice, and I remembered Matthew saying they never hunted alone anymore.
Leo paced back and forth on the lawn. “He said he’d be on time.”
A gunshot rang out, and all of us sat up, ears swiveling back and forth.
“What the hell was that?” I asked. “Okay, I know what it was, but what was it?” Human logical processes weren’t exactly working well, but they knew what I meant.
“Danger!” Joanie yelled in her mental voice, and we scrambled for the house, but another gunshot and a puff of wet dirt and grass in front of Leo, who had the lead, sent us toward the woods.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to grab the ebook for 99 cents from August 1-7, here are the links again:
Samhain Publishing (all formats)
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Anywhere else ebooks are sold.
Also, don’t forget that Eros Element, the first in my steampunk Aether Psychics series is now available for preorder. You can learn more about it here.
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