About Face is Available!

About Face is out!

The fifth novel in the Wolf Within series, this time Stanzie plucks up all her courage to go to Dublin, Ireland.  She wants Murphy back, but of course it's more complicated than that.

The conspiracy is darker, deeper, and more desperate than ever.


Here's an excerpt:


“You’re not listening to me at all, are you?” Tears scalded my eyes. “What is the point of
asking me for my objections if you don’t intend to pay any attention to them at all? Why don’t
you just tell me to shut up and deal?”
“Shut up and deal,” Allerton said.
 “You do this and I quit. I won’t be your Advisor if you go through with this bonding,” I
declared, and Jason’s face darkened.
“So be it. You are released as my Advisor,” he said. And just like that our nine-month
association was severed. Everything I’d accomplished for him and the Great Council all meant
shit next to his pride.
I threw my napkin on the table and jumped to my feet.
“Stanzie.” Maybe there was a glimmer of regret in his eyes, but it was too late. He’d said
it. Just as my bond mate Murphy said it to me almost four months earlier when he’d walked out
on me and just as my Alpha, Paddy O’Reilly said it to me when he’d left with Murphy.
Three for three. No job. No bond mate. No pack. I was alone. Again.

About Face

More from the Circle 2 Vampires

Sneak Peek Sunday!  More from my vampire novel, The Circle 2.  I'm happy to say the first book in the series, The Circle, is still out of submission and I'm crossing my fingers I hear good news about it soon!

***

“I don’t choose the memories. They just come to me.” I didn't recognize my own voice. I batted away the tissue and tried to move away from Andre, but he wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me close. His touch and body heat anchored me and I wanted to bury my face in his shoulder and block out the rest of the world, but I forced myself to stand still. Oliver was watching.

“I’m sure that’s a comforting thought to Ursula.” Bastard. Parker always enjoyed someone else’s humiliation. He strolled to a sofa and nonchalantly retrieved Ursula’s coat and purse. “She might want these.”  He gave us all another smirk and left.

“Come on, Neal.” Gareth found their coats and tossed Neal his. Neal didn't catch it and had to stoop to pick it up off the floor, but only after Gareth gave him a not so gentle nudge.

“Hang on,” he muttered as Gareth all but shoved him out the door.

Oliver waited a beat before he looked at me and Andre and gestured to his office. His expression was ominous.

***

“Show me your Circle mark.” A command not a request. Oliver’s cognac-colored eyes were stormy dark and I knew I shouldn't make him wait, but I was paralyzed with fear. Terror spiked through my veins, cold as winter wind.

“Claire,” Andre murmured. He stood by the closed door, his face blank. Game face, we called it. Whenever we gathered in Oliver’s conference room for our quarterly blood exchange with each other, we tried to maintain our game faces. Blank, expressionless, devoid of emotion. So no one could fuck with us. Except I could because I was an Enhanced vampire. I could read minds, influence behavior, and now, apparently, share frigging memories. 

***

If you want to read other fabulous snippets from a variety of great authors, check them out here: More Sneak Peek Sunday Offerings

Sneak Peek Sunday - More of My Vampire Novel, Circle 2

Here's the next six paragraphs of my vampire novel, The Circle 2.  The Circle, the first novel in the series, is out for submission, so wish me luck!

Without bothering to collect her bright red cashmere coat or her Gucci purse, Ursula flounced to the door, shoved Neal aside, and left.

Neal stared after her, speechless.

“Claire. What the fuck just happened?” Gareth tried not to shout at me, but he was clearly agitated. He stared at me just like Ursula had. As if I was a freak. And I was.

Andre appeared at my side with breathtaking abruptness. The man moved like a fucking cat. He had a bar napkin in one hand which he used to mop Ursula’s spit from my face. His stunningly gorgeous face was fiercely protective and he shot Gareth a death glare.

“I’m serious.” Gareth’s tone took a placating edge, but his eyes were filled with agitated confusion.

“Did you see that?” Neal’s voice shook. “Ursula got stabbed. She was mortal. It was like watching a fucking film or something. Did you do that, Claire?”

“Of course she did.” Parker answered for me. He’d recovered himself for the most part and an amused smile quirked his lips. He was still pale though and his extraordinary blue eyes were a little glassy. He gave a small laugh. “Nice going, sweetheart, picking such a mortifying blast from our Ursula’s past.”

Sneak Peek Sunday - More from The Circle 2

Here's the next six paragraphs from my paranormal romance about vampires

Ursula's flashback/shared memory is over and her reaction is less than forgiving...

***

“You cunt.” Ursula’s blue eyes were huge, hate-filled holes in her face. I swallowed reflexively. The taste of her blood was tantalizingly sweet.  We stared at each other, aghast, until the lights in Oliver’s conference room flared on and we screwed up our eyes in protest.

“What the fuck just happened?” Neal demanded. He stood by the light switch, blood smeared across his face and bare chest. Multiple bite wounds stood out on his throat.

Parker and Gareth stood so close, their bodies brushed. Parker’s lips were rouged with Gareth’s blood. Both of them looked drugged by shock.

Andre, my master and trigger, sat by himself on the edge of a leather sofa at the end of the room. Blood stained his half unbuttoned blue shirt. He visibly struggled to overcome the haze that had enveloped him during our blood exchange.

Oliver stood by the black lacquer conference table. Proud and devastatingly powerful, he simply stared at me, his gaze calculating.

“You. Fucking. Freak.” Ursula shrieked the last word and spat a bloody wad of phlegm at me. Hot and wet, it splattered across my face, but I made no move to wipe it away. She ached to punch me, I could tell by her contorted face and clenched fists, but some small shred of self preservation clung to her senses. No fighting in Oliver’s conference room. I had a lousy feeling she’d lay in wait in the underground garage though. 

More from The Circle 2 - Ursula's Flashback

It's Sneak Peak Sunday again!   Here's the last of Ursula's flashback and you finally find out what happens to her.  She is a vampire flashing back to her mortal days when she was a prostitute.

Ursula holds her wrist to her nose to smell her perfume. “Jesus Christ.”

            The man’s flat is empty. The windows are covered with swaths of black fabric. A tiny fridge sits beneath a grimy counter with a hotplate on top.

            “Where the hell is the bed?” She turns to ask the man, but he’s fast. He knocks her down to the cracked linoleum, his weight crushing her. “Fucking bastard!”  She aims a kick at his shins, but she’s positioned all wrong. He jerks her arm behind her back and her scream is huge inside the empty room.

            “No bed, love,” says the man and stabs her in the back viciously with a knife he takes from his jacket pocket.

            Ursula shrieks. The sour stench of blood fills the air.

“No!  No, don’t!” Tears track down her cheeks, blobs of black mascara dot her face. He raises the knife over his head to stab her again and his face contorts. He drops the knife, grabs his chest and, with a shocking suddenness, topples over, striking the back of his head against the linoleum. He sprawls, still and silent.

Bleeding, Ursula crawls for the door, leaving bloody smears in her wake. “Oh, please,” she whispers. “Please someone help me. Please. Someone.”

***

About Face ARC Contest

Hey Everyone!

Today marks one month until Stanzie's fifth (and possibly most heartbreaking) adventure, About Face, is released by Lyrical.

Lyrical is running a month-long contest to win an advance copy of the book, so if you want a chance to win, here's the link: 

About Face ARC Contest at Lyrical Press

Good luck!