 This week's excerpt is from Shifting Chaos, book 4 of The Sleepless City. Series co-written with Anne Barwell.  “Why us?” Ben asked. “There is a whole town full of people, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m feeling very singled out right now. Forge and Declan went to the Coate compound to investigate the killings there. Forge and Lucas are involved in some way in all of the investigations, and we all played a part with the city hall shootings. It’s messed with all of us, other than Blair, who sees it. Why take over Forge?” Ben shrugged. “There’s plenty of other vampires to hijack.” Declan sat down and rubbed his arm. “He’s a police detective. Not on either Council and has access to practically every part of this town, as well as confidential and possibly valuable information. Why not him? In fact, he’s a great target.” “Blair, what did you tell us about the place the cambion took you?” Simon grabbed a pad of paper from one of the drawers in the computer desk and picked up a pen. “There were rogue werewolves. You also told us there were other people, but you never had contact with them.” He stopped for a second and pointed the pen at Blair. “And, you said there was something else there. It was dark, frightened you, you were able to sense it but never got a good look at it. The same thing we determined, after the fact, was a demon.” “Yeah,” Blair said. “The same demon?” “It would make sense,” Lucas said. Simon put the pad on the table and wrote Declan and Forge memories not hallucinations. Underneath that he wrote Blair contact with sigil and demon. “You did handle that thing a lot more than the rest of us,” Declan said. “As well as had contact with the demon. Real, direct contact before any of this started.” Blair was standing to the side, his hand on Jonas’s file, flicking at the edge with one thumb. “Blair? Are you all right?” “Shit.” Blair darted around them and ran to the other side of the basement. “Hey, no, what are you—don’t open that!” Lucas chased after Blair but wasn’t fast enough. Blair punched in the lock code and pulled the door open, at the same time saying, “It’s gone.” Jonas came tumbling out. His clothes were ripped, and his face and hands were a mess of bruises. Blair slid next to him and stopped him from landing face first on the cement floor. He grabbed hold of Blair with both arms and wheezed out, “Blair,” before his entire body shuddered and he collapsed, unconscious. Lucas helped Blair ease Jonas to the floor. “It’s really gone?” Simon asked. He knelt beside Jonas, resting one hand on his chest. “He’s out cold.” “Yes,” Blair dropped to his knees on Jonas’s other side. “As long as I’m with him, I’ll see it if it comes back.” He looked around at the rest of them. Moose sat beside him and licked Jonas’s hand. Simon stood and moved to Jonas’s head. He sighed heavily and reached down, hoisting Jonas up with both hands under his shoulders. “C’mon, Lucas, help me. We can’t leave him on the cold floor. Let’s get him upstairs.” Lucas picked up Jonas’s legs and groaned. “Shit, he weighs, like, a million pounds.” “Quit complaining and we’ll get him upstairs faster. Then you can put him down,” Simon grumbled. “Look at Lucas’s room,” Ben said. Declan leaned over his shoulder and sucked in a breath. The room had been assaulted in a way Lucas, in a full-moon shift to complete werewolf, had never done. The padded walls were shredded. Long scratch marks had been gouged into the stone covered with lead-and silver-infused paint. Even the inside of the door was scratched and slightly dented. While Blair, Simon, and Lucas attended to Jonas, Declan and Ben began repairs to the room Lucas would need in less than a day. Shifting Chaos is available in eBook, paperback and through Kindle Unlimited.    
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
 Welcome to My World
|
RSS Feed
