Narissa owns an antique store and has run ins with the occasional spirit. Her life turns upside down when a demonic evil hunts her across dimensions and realities. She discovers magic and vampires are real.
The life she knew vanishes.
Narissa must embrace her ancient bloodline and her newfound magic before the demon’s minions find her and use her to unleash the evil not just in her world, but in all worlds.
EXCERPT
The boards creaked on the porch outside. A silhouette passed along the frosted glass of the front door. Narissa grabbed the glass knob to open the door. Her canine dropped his oversized paw on her wrist, swatting her hand away. The person outside knuckled the glass, pounding harder. She moved aside the curtain and glanced through the slim section of clear glass.
The man outside glanced back toward his grimy truck, but she couldn’t see him except the outline of his face and the stubble of his beard, a mixture of honey brown and gray. A long black duster concealed most of what he wore. Shade growled again until his ruff stood even higher. She rested her hand on the top of his head and shushed him. The man turned back and banged on the window again. Shade’s growl sounded like a stuttering motor, vibrating her chest. He barked until her ears split, and she couldn’t quiet him. The man didn’t seem deterred by her menacing dog. Narissa rolled her eyes and suppressed a shiver from the cold in the house.
“I see you inside.” The stranger cupped his hands around his face and peered through the glass.
A piercing chill rolled down the stairs and slammed into her. Shade turned toward the gust and whined sensing another threat from upstairs. Floorboards squealed above in her bedroom as though someone walked around in there. No one else was in the house. What the hell? Narissa had a fleeting thought of going to investigate who was making the sounds above her. The knots in her stomach deterred her from heading up to see.
“If I were you, I’d open the door and let me in. You don’t want them to sink their talons into you, not after all the trouble you’ve gone through to keep them out.”
The bitter wind came again slashing at her back. The footsteps above sounded like a child’s scampering across the warped boards. Shade mounted the bottom step. Silver fur bristled along the sharp ridge of his back. The man pounded on her door again.
“Let me in before they figure out you’re down here. Once they get back to their master, you’re dead,” he warned again.
Who would want her dead? What were the things upstairs? How did they get there? Here and there she caught a glimpse of her grandmother hovering in one room or another. At times the fragrance of her grandfather’s cigars lingered on the front porch. No matter how much her grandmother harped on him to quit, he always had one at night. Whatever the weather, he smoked his stogie looking out at the night, standing guard with the cigar as his weapon. Narissa loved the sweet earthy scent of the tobacco. When she smelled it outside, she knew he watched out for her and the house. Her grandmother’s perfume drifted throughout at times also giving her a sense of protection. None of that warmth permeated the house now. A loud bang shook the house as the bedroom door slammed open and shut. Narissa jumped backward toward the front door. Shade moved back as well.
“Guess you don’t want any help. Good luck being devoured.” The stranger’s boots clomped on her steps as he headed toward his truck.
Narissa let out a breath. It came out in a thick fog. When she inhaled, the same sickly sweet, nauseating odor of burnt honey stuck to her tongue. Above her, the footsteps ceased. A loud bang as something heavy hit the floor made her blood run cold. After that a disquiet settled over the house prickling her skin. A pale white mist like the one in her dream slunk down the stairs. Thin black slashes hovered in the opaque cloud at the top of the staircase. She retreated a step. Her dog growled and backed away until he came to her side. A quiver of fear bloomed in her stomach. No way. I’m not doing this.
“Shade, come on.” Narissa grabbed her coat and purse from the chair and opened the door. She raced out onto the porch after the strange man rather than face whatever was unfolding inside the walls of her home. “Hey, wait a minute,” she yelled.
He stopped midway between his truck and her porch. Shade hugged her side with his heavy paws landing on her feet. “Decided you needed to trust me more than what’s in your house, right?” His cocky smile ignited her anger, layering it with her growing fear.
She closed her fingers into a fist through Shade’s fur to keep from biting the guy’s head off. Whatever filled her house, it hadn’t started until he showed up. She didn’t know if he initiated it, but the thin shadows in the mist resembled her dream too much to be a coincidence. “Look. I don’t know what’s going on or who you are. Maybe you did something to make this happen? Tell me –”
The front door flew open and hit the porch wall, shattering the frosted window. A thick shroud of fog loomed within the foyer invading the room, bottlenecking at the doorway as it tried to slip over the threshold. Her gaze lingered on the spectacle. A thicker shadow zoomed within the brume. The amorphous darkness pressed against the boundary searching for an escape. It came to the threshold. A hand darted out from the miasma and swiped at her with hooked claws. Symbols carved into the doorframe she never noticed flared with a bright purple light. A shriek shattered her ears. A quick flash and the smell of charred meat permeated the porch. The hand dropped to the floorboards, sheared off, and broke apart into tiny shards of darkness.
The man grabbed her wrist. She recoiled and turned back around. “If you want me to explain what’s happening, then we need to get somewhere safe. I don’t know how long the runes will contain them inside of the house.” He gestured toward the glowing symbols carved into the doorframe. “Your dog rides in the back.”
Other Books in the Forest of Bones Universe
Kaya is the only one of her kind: a hybrid vampire and magician. A demon from days past is trying to free its banished brethren from the dark realms by an ancient sun god. Kaya is the key to freeing them.
Valik, her vampire protector, must help her contain the demon. Stavros, the mortal king, will kill any vampire he comes across because they caused the death of his wife and son. Begrudgingly, he takes Kaya as his fiancé. To stop a war, Stavros must join forces with the very thing he hates and keep the demon at bay.
Old ghosts are stirred up. Magic is growing wild. Mysteries from ages past resurface revealing more questions about Kaya’s heritage and how she’s entwined with the demon. Can she reconcile the past?
Or will the demon claim everything she holds dear, including her soul?
Zieka has always healed those who seek her services. When a wounded soldier drags an unconscious Luca to her doorstep, she finds herself embroiled in a battle between good and evil she never knew existed. Even as she joins the fight, her one wish is to regain her true name stolen by her self-appointed guardian, Chelim, a dark demon with their own hidden agenda.
Between crossing realms with Luca to escape his pursuers, Zieka meets vampires, magicians, and Elder gods who all claim they will help her for something in return—her family book which contains the history of her line and all her healing recipes. Chelim warns her against Luca and swears to protect her.
However, Zieka seeks out an Elder god to unravel the mystery surrounding her book, losing her given name, how her awakened ability to cross worlds all fits together in the battle for the book and her soul.
The truth will rattle her very existence, but she must stay strong to find the true villain who wishes her dead.
