fighting than she does. I swing the knife, and
it connects.
She staggers backward, clutching her
stomach. Fresh blood seeps through her fingers. She looks
stunned.
For a human, it would be a
death-wound.
Why do I suddenly feel the ringing in
my ears, worse than before?
She drops to her knees, still glaring
at me. What have I done?
Then, with obvious effort, she draws
herself back to her feet.
She curses at me.
As I watch, the very shape of her face
changes, sharpens. She hisses at me, and I can see her elongated
canines through her parted lips.
Her vamp is as hot as the rest of
her.
But judging by the flash in her eyes,
she's still pissed at me. Time to change the game.
Shadow Allegiance releases December 15, 2013.
If you want to be the first
to know when it hits shelves, sign up for my email blast
here: http://bit.ly/1cDgKWT .
If you missed the story
that started it all, Unholy
Alliance , turn
the page…
Prologue -
Maggie
More than one hundred and fifty years
on this planet and this is the strangest night I’ve spent
yet.
Strange good , because I’ve never been this
happy before. Normally I worry too much about getting involved with
humans, male or female, to let go and enjoy myself. But tonight I
can’t seem to find that usual wariness.
Strange bad , because someone else’s pain got
me here, and my mission for the last eighty years or so has been to
improve the lives of the kids passing through E.W. House. I can’t
help feeling a niggle of guilt that I’m benefiting from one of the
teens’ situations.
“ Wells! Yo, Maggie!” A
voice calls out my nom de plume above the pounding bass and
chattering couples surrounding me. Even after five years as Maggie,
and ten as Peg before that—I always choose variations of my given
name—I still listen for the name I was born with.
Margaret.
In the patterned light from the disco
ball—one of the dorm moms’ additions to the gym-turned-dance-club
décor—I spot Candy Brown rushing toward me. The fourteen-year-old
is one of my protégés, one of my favorites out of this crop of
girls. She’s cute and sweet and despite her past she has a real
chance at giving herself a normal life if she can keep on path she
doesn’t know I’ve mapped out for her. So far, she has.
“ What’s up?” I ask. In the
back of my mind I can’t forget he is coming back to claim the next slow
dance.
“ There’s something wrong
with Janet,” the younger girl gasps, clearly having run straight to
me with this problem. “She’s in the bathroom throwing up and
crying.”
“ I’ll handle it,” says a
familiar voice from behind us. My best friend and the resident
witch at E.W. House, Hannah Morgan, joins Candy and me and gives
the kid a reassuring smile, and it’s impossible to doubt the peace
in her soft brown eyes. She will handle things.
“ It’s my turn
anyway.” And You-know-who is looking for
you, Mags. Can’t keep his eyes off you tonight, hmm? Her light touch on my forearm fades and so does
her voice in my head. Telepathy is just one of Hannah’s
talents.
I mouth a “thank you” to her as she
follows Candy away. And then I can’t help myself—I turn to look for
him.
The heat and pulsing blood of this many
bodies should be making me crazy. Bloodlust can be a tricky enemy,
after all. But I’ve never been a normal vampire. Through all the
rapid heartbeats on the dance floor I zero in on the one I can’t
seem to ignore, no matter how hard I try.
Shane Campton.
My eyes track to the
guy-who’s-not-my-date-but-I-really-wish-he-was, and I glimpse his
stylishly-mussed chestnut hair across the dance floor. Our eyes
connect, his sparkling blue to my green.
Every time. Every time he looks at me I
feel something. Like alive. How does he do that?
I raise my glass to him. But he doesn’t
smile or wave, like I expect. He freezes and a look of horror
crosses his face, but before I can tell what’s happening, someone
dances between us and I lose
it connects.
She staggers backward, clutching her
stomach. Fresh blood seeps through her fingers. She looks
stunned.
For a human, it would be a
death-wound.
Why do I suddenly feel the ringing in
my ears, worse than before?
She drops to her knees, still glaring
at me. What have I done?
Then, with obvious effort, she draws
herself back to her feet.
She curses at me.
As I watch, the very shape of her face
changes, sharpens. She hisses at me, and I can see her elongated
canines through her parted lips.
Her vamp is as hot as the rest of
her.
But judging by the flash in her eyes,
she's still pissed at me. Time to change the game.
Shadow Allegiance releases December 15, 2013.
If you want to be the first
to know when it hits shelves, sign up for my email blast
here: http://bit.ly/1cDgKWT .
If you missed the story
that started it all, Unholy
Alliance , turn
the page…
Prologue -
Maggie
More than one hundred and fifty years
on this planet and this is the strangest night I’ve spent
yet.
Strange good , because I’ve never been this
happy before. Normally I worry too much about getting involved with
humans, male or female, to let go and enjoy myself. But tonight I
can’t seem to find that usual wariness.
Strange bad , because someone else’s pain got
me here, and my mission for the last eighty years or so has been to
improve the lives of the kids passing through E.W. House. I can’t
help feeling a niggle of guilt that I’m benefiting from one of the
teens’ situations.
“ Wells! Yo, Maggie!” A
voice calls out my nom de plume above the pounding bass and
chattering couples surrounding me. Even after five years as Maggie,
and ten as Peg before that—I always choose variations of my given
name—I still listen for the name I was born with.
Margaret.
In the patterned light from the disco
ball—one of the dorm moms’ additions to the gym-turned-dance-club
décor—I spot Candy Brown rushing toward me. The fourteen-year-old
is one of my protégés, one of my favorites out of this crop of
girls. She’s cute and sweet and despite her past she has a real
chance at giving herself a normal life if she can keep on path she
doesn’t know I’ve mapped out for her. So far, she has.
“ What’s up?” I ask. In the
back of my mind I can’t forget he is coming back to claim the next slow
dance.
“ There’s something wrong
with Janet,” the younger girl gasps, clearly having run straight to
me with this problem. “She’s in the bathroom throwing up and
crying.”
“ I’ll handle it,” says a
familiar voice from behind us. My best friend and the resident
witch at E.W. House, Hannah Morgan, joins Candy and me and gives
the kid a reassuring smile, and it’s impossible to doubt the peace
in her soft brown eyes. She will handle things.
“ It’s my turn
anyway.” And You-know-who is looking for
you, Mags. Can’t keep his eyes off you tonight, hmm? Her light touch on my forearm fades and so does
her voice in my head. Telepathy is just one of Hannah’s
talents.
I mouth a “thank you” to her as she
follows Candy away. And then I can’t help myself—I turn to look for
him.
The heat and pulsing blood of this many
bodies should be making me crazy. Bloodlust can be a tricky enemy,
after all. But I’ve never been a normal vampire. Through all the
rapid heartbeats on the dance floor I zero in on the one I can’t
seem to ignore, no matter how hard I try.
Shane Campton.
My eyes track to the
guy-who’s-not-my-date-but-I-really-wish-he-was, and I glimpse his
stylishly-mussed chestnut hair across the dance floor. Our eyes
connect, his sparkling blue to my green.
Every time. Every time he looks at me I
feel something. Like alive. How does he do that?
I raise my glass to him. But he doesn’t
smile or wave, like I expect. He freezes and a look of horror
crosses his face, but before I can tell what’s happening, someone
dances between us and I lose
Similar Books
