Category Archives: paranormal

What’s up Next? Time to Catch up, My Friend!

 

Let’s see…I’ve published a few books since I last posted.  The Lion, The Leopard, and The Wolf camperf5.000x8.000.indde out In the beginning of October, WERECAT Fever came out the beginning of this month, November, and The Moon, The Madness, and the Magic is scheduled for the first week in December. All of them are available at most eBook retail outlets. The covers are beautifully done and published under the Scarlet Rose division of the Wild Rose Press Publishing. 

“The writing style is addictive and the book is very easy to read.”

“I loved it that the writer didn’t hold back on the scenes.”

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” I really loved how the author was able to bring so much emotion into this book. The story really revolved more around the characters and less about the story…”

“Really enjoyed this second chance romance with some twists and turns.”

“…great read with characters with great chemistry. This book starts with amazing heat form the very beginning.”

“…a good well written read that sucked me in and kept me hooked right until the end I cannot wait to try the rest …”

Here comes the next… The Moon, The Madness, and The Magic available for PreOrder November 20th. Delivered December 2nd.

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…And on the lighter side of paranormal with an odd twist there’s the next novella in the As the Chair Turns series.

Banner copy

A Witch’s Curse, which I expected to complete in March, April, May… I guess I wasn’t feelin’ it. This is a series I write for fun, so if it isn’t fun…I’m not writin’. In any case, life settled down and became a giggle fest again so I could remember the funny parts. You get the point …this is now on pre-order at most outlets.

A Witch's curse copy

That means it will be available for you to read on Christmas Eve if you buy it now. I have the rest of this time to polish it up and shine it just for you. Buy it now and carve out some time for yourself to read it once the gifts are wrapped and distributed on December 24th.  It’s time to find out what happened after the Christmas party last year, isn’t it?

HERE’s WHERE YOU CAN BUY IT NOW

 

What’s up Next? Time to Catch up, My Friend!

 

Let’s see…I’ve published a few books since I last posted.  The Lion, The Leopard, and The Wolf camperf5.000x8.000.indde out In the beginning of October, WERECAT Fever came out the beginning of this month, November, and The Moon, The Madness, and the Magic is scheduled for the first week in December. All of them are available at most eBook retail outlets. The covers are beautifully done and published under the Scarlet Rose division of the Wild Rose Press Publishing. 

“The writing style is addictive and the book is very easy to read.”

“I loved it that the writer didn’t hold back on the scenes.”

perf5.000x8.000.indd

” I really loved how the author was able to bring so much emotion into this book. The story really revolved more around the characters and less about the story…”

“Really enjoyed this second chance romance with some twists and turns.”

“…great read with characters with great chemistry. This book starts with amazing heat form the very beginning.”

“…a good well written read that sucked me in and kept me hooked right until the end I cannot wait to try the rest …”

Here comes the next… The Moon, The Madness, and The Magic available for PreOrder November 20th. Delivered December 2nd.

perf5.000x8.000.indd

 

 

 

 

 

 

…And on the lighter side of paranormal with an odd twist there’s the next novella in the As the Chair Turns series.

Banner copy

A Witch’s Curse, which I expected to complete in March, April, May… I guess I wasn’t feelin’ it. This is a series I write for fun, so if it isn’t fun…I’m not writin’. In any case, life settled down and became a giggle fest again so I could remember the funny parts. You get the point …this is now on pre-order at most outlets.

A Witch's curse copy

That means it will be available for you to read on Christmas Eve if you buy it now. I have the rest of this time to polish it up and shine it just for you. Buy it now and carve out some time for yourself to read it once the gifts are wrapped and distributed on December 24th.  It’s time to find out what happened after the Christmas party last year, isn’t it?

HERE’s WHERE YOU CAN BUY IT NOW

 

A Peek: Mayhem, MAGIC, & Mistletoe & Review: Hair of the WERE & Siren’s Tail

Sit down with a glass of wine or a hot cup of cocoa  and enjoy these quick short stories that will take you into the third book coming in time for Christmas: Mayhem, MAGIC, & Mistletoe. One reviewer had this to say after reading Hair of the WERE then hooked into A Siren’s TAIL…
REVIEW:
“I have just had the awesome pleasure of reading “Hair of the Were” and “Siren’s Tale” by a wonderful and gifted author. Eliza March blends in humor, sexual tension, and more in a can’t put it down book that will tantalize paranormal readers. This tale, pardon the pun, has it all. Think creatures of the night, creatures of the sea, Fae and water nymphs, and you would have the beginning of Adelaide’s journey in “As the Chair Turns” series. They all work in a totally cool hair and spa facility that caters to…you got it, paranormal creatures. And it doesn’t stop there, her best girlfriends ever are witches, and her best male friend is an alpha werewolf that would have her in his bed if she’d let him. Now, you would think with all of the above, that would be enough, but Delia as her friends call her has a chance at a rocking singing career. A career that could be forestalled by a sea-creature’s attack. Now if that don’t make you want to give up swimming, I don’t know what to tell you, but once you lay eyes on the Coast Guard hottie who makes Delia sing all the right notes, you might change your mind. The only other thing I can possible say is WHEN IS THE NEXT SAGA OF AS THE CHAIR TURNS COMING OUT?”

Coming before Christmas…Mayhem, MAGIC, & Mistletoe …More of Delia’s adventures.

Welcome to my world where magic and mayhem coexist. This installment of my ongoing series is about the Luna de la Mar Salon and Spa’s annual employee holiday party on the corporate yacht. Murder and mayhem run rampant when there’s an attempted mistletoe poisoning during dinner and a deadly stabbing before desert.

Kris the Christmas tree had reported that Perry the maître de was kissing the cook in the kitchen under the mistletoe when someone dropped the mistletoe berries in Delia’s salad. But the only witness, the Norwegian pine, is height challenged and claimed he couldn’t see anything above the suspect’s knees. And all would have been fine if someone hadn’t turned up dead.

The unidentified body, dressed in Delia’s red dress and shoes, wasn’t on the guest list. Who is she? And was Delia actually the target?

 

Delia’s Next Adventure is Coming September 14th…

Delia Belaquoit was like any one of us—working hard, living her life, chasing her dreams, and achieving some modicum of success along the way. Great job, wonderful friends, singing in a band. She thought she’d hit the jackpot until everything she once believed in began to unravel…

Delia here… Hi, again! Magic does exist and people in Boca aren’t what they seem. Shh! No one is supposed to know.
When my former well-organized life blew up in my face, I decided I needed answers because the metamorphosis I’m undergoing isn’t following any known pattern. Remember when I used to be a sun worshipper? Now I’m exhibiting symptoms I don’t even want to think about.
Turns out there are certain aspects of my family tree that’re disrupting my humanity. Wait ’til I find my family. Just when I need answers, they disappear. Poof! Vanish. Except Edna, my great aunt. But she’s not talking. Some freakish sea monster stole her voice.
Unbelievable! Right?
They are all so in the doodoo doghouse for keeping everything from me.
Thankfully, my witch friends are charming me through my dilemma and our search for answers. Frankie, our alpha Werewolf boss, is doing his best to keep me safe. The guy is loyal to a fault, even if the wolf in him doesn’t have a faithful bone in his body. So when Aelric, my on-again-off-again-not-really-a-boyfriend, asked him to protect me from sources unknown, Frankie jumped on it. I still think he has ulterior motives.
I’m eventually planning a monogamous relationship, just not yet. Frankie wants to “turn” me, but the monthly waxing effort makes becoming one of his pack out of the question. Aelric, the handsome Coast Guard captain, did make a few serious romantic overtures and almost “sort of” proposed to me, but he hasn’t managed to take me on a first date yet. Nor has he told me exactly what he is. Hope springs eternal. Because he did kiss me senseless, wowed me with an impressive unspeakable power move, then left me again. Now I’m alone with more questions. But I’m determined to get my own answers and find out where the threat to my family is coming from.
Oh there’s more… It just gets better every day. Why don’t you hang with me and see what’s in the cards for this month? The supernatural salon and spa staff, as always, are here to help.”

#humor #fantasy #paranormal #shifter #vampires #faeries #witches #sirens #elves #aqua #sea #werewolves #hairstylists #werecats #sexy

What’s Your Pleasure?

Books? Paperback? Audio? Ebook? Audio is next…

Trade PAPERBACK available at CreateSpace

Hair of the WERE: Luna de la Mar Salon and Spa

Authored by Eliza March

 
List Price: $7.99
6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
164 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1717395429 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1717395422
BISAC: Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy

Magic is real. The fix is in when Delia lands the hairdressing job of a lifetime. After one taste of faery nectar, the fae knowledge banks open to her. Who knew the town was filled with supernatural beings just fitting in? Rescued from a riptide by Aelric, a Coastie who looks like Thor, Delia is also being pursued by Frankie, her hot Italian boss. Unfortunately, he’s a Werewolf with a pack of females to look after. The massage therapists are catshifters, her best friends are witches, and Delia prefers being human, but her life is about to drastically change.

SMASHWORDS – Any of my ebooks, in all formats, are available for download

Dear Diary Post – The Day After

The day after a book release we sit and count the comments and bite our nails hoping this experiment works. It’s not about the money (Though who wouldn’t be excited about that?) It’s about the approval.

Writing is like giving someone a gift. You hope it’s a good choice. That they like it. That they can use it. That it’s exactly what they need at that particular moment.

I read Nora Roberts Whiskey Creek recently and gave out a sigh on the first page remembering why I enjoy reading her writing so much. It felt like coming home.

That’s why I enjoy writing. I want to give someone that experience of melting into my book. Escape from the moment.

I next turned to JR Ward’s The Chosen. Again, different author, different style, different genre…still that wonderful moment of escape. Relaxation. My drug of choice is reading.

This weekend, try something I wrote just for you. You can find something to take you away on my Amazon Author page.

 

I Blame Harlequin for this…

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As the Chair Turns (a paranormal, tongue-in-cheek romance series) by Eliza March begins with Hair of the Wolf, Book One coming this Fall.

Anyone who’s ever read my writing knows I have an underlying sense of snide… Is it humor? Or sarcasm? Or scattered brain cell patterns from working with too many chemicals and inhaling too much hair spray?But funny? I’m not so sure. Lately, maybe more so than ever.  Nevertheless, I was a reader (and, also apparently a drinker) before I was a writer.

I belonged to Harlequin’s “books of the month club”. Not sure what it’s really called. But I got additional gifts when they arrived. Purple wine glasses I had to use while I read the books they sent. I had a book a day habit and the purple glass always looked full … too bad it wasn’t. My wine habit couldn’t keep up with my reading or I’d pass out before I finished the book…and four books, Harlequin? That didn’t keep me satisfied. I went to the used book store to supplement my reading addiction, ordered books online, and then discovered a few small ebook presses. Whala! I would never go without something to read again…and I could download at 2 AM! Book two in the series completed? Ah! Book three is available immediately! Yea.

Soon, the series didn’t satisfy, the authors couldn’t write fast enough, I’d imagined the story twist differently, the characters reactions differently, and I had an idea…write it myself. At least I couldn’t drink and type at the same time.

When I first began writing, one of my stylists suggested As The Chair Turns for a title, and with her blessings I am going to use it. The series was originally intended to be reality based and a serious, non-fiction fiction. I just couldn’t do it. Fifty years in this business, in one capacity or another, didn’t allow for it.

What I didn’t suspect at the time was that:
1. I’d ever write it.
2. It would be paranormal.
3. It would be funny.

Karsley, “like Parsley,” thank you.  Now that I’m finally going to use it, I hope you find it up to your title suggestion. I doubt Karsley ever suspected it would be something like this. But she has a great sense of humor so I think it will be perfect.

I’d started out writing romantic suspense, then for a while, found my niche in erotic paranormal romance. And I was pretty darned good at it, too. The only thing funny about that is the idea of me writing erotic anything. My husband suggested I write what I know. I have had one husband, five children, the beauty industry, and reality for experience. That was more what he had in mind. But hey, Problem was I read lots of fiction. Don’t forget that book a day habit. And I read sexy fiction. Paranormal fiction.

I guess he didn’t expect me to stray off to my wild imaginary, sexy-shifter worlds. Uh-duh…that had become my escape reality. Who needed more of what I did every day? I refused to consider writing about the industry I’d been immersed in for…well…forever. (Fifty years is close enough to forever to qualify, I believe.)

One morning I woke up with my hero and heroine in my head in a scene in a salon.  Deja vie. They were sexy. New addition. Nice. But they were funny. Too funny. I didn’t write funny. I’m not funny …or I wasn’t, anyway.

i thought for a moment and suddenly realized in recent years,  I’ve started having comic-strip visions in my head when people speak or I read something. The intent changes and I see the hysterical side of life.  Everything has a humorous side, right? The visions I have usually include little clouds of dialogue pointing to the characters’ (sometimes cartoon animals’) heads. Often, I have to bite my tongue to stop the hee-haw response I feel swelling up inside me. You experience that too, don’t you? No? I’ve wondered why my imagination for story-telling waited so long, but it was probably for the best while I was doing personal things to people’s hair and bodies.

Here’s an except from Hair of the Wolf from Book One of As the Chair Turns. To set up the scene, Dela is the only human working in Frankie de Wolf’s world renowned salon and spa in Boca Raton, FL. They are going to a hair show in Vegas…Dela is the responsible one until the slot machines start singing…

All rights reserved Copyright 2017 Eliza March

…Our group filed past the flashing lights, then the digital billboards caught my attention. Suddenly, I had a change of heart. My gambling release switch flipped off and desire did a happy dance in my pants. Images of gyrating, shirtless men from “Down Under” put me in a different frame of mind.

Vegas. Sin City. I began thinking of all the potential sin and felt my lips curl. I was here to party. What happens here…yadda yadda yadda…right?

“Earth to Dela. Are you ready for a couple of those in your lap?” Selena, the female cat shifter, purred, pointing to the Chippendale poster.

Frankie didn’t look at me, waiting for my answer, but I noticed the way his ears perked up. They sort of twitched in my direction. I weighed my answer carefully, reconsidering my previous let-it-all-go moment, and just gave the shifter my non-commital smile.

I had enough on my plate with this raucous bunch of supernatural species, who, under normal circumstances, did their best to look human and contain themselves. Here, I’d already seen evidence of their loss of control. Eye shapes and colors were the first signs. Contacts were a good explanation since shimmering silver eyes weren’t a color humans were naturally blessed with, but that was just for starters. Some of their other traits weren’t as easy to explain. The younger vampires were already setting off smoke when direct sunlight hit them and one of the younger werewolf’s ears sprouted hair.

Never mind. You get the gist.

Controlling them at Luna de la Mar promised to be easier than keeping my staff’s identities secret in a town filled with them…. In Boca, being the only human in charge of every paranormal species unknown to the local inhabitants was harder than making them seem eccentric or weird instead of different. Here, I had a feeling my boss and the staff were going to be, not only uncooperative but, downright bad influences.

By the time I rounded up transportation for everyone and gave directions to the hotel and instructions regarding where to pick up the hair show tickets, I’d lost half the group and all their attention.

Whatever! The staff were all adults of a sort. They could fend for themselves. After all, I wasn’t their caretaker this weekend. They were powerful, magical, and gifted. I, on the other hand, was merely human. “Screw it,” I mumbled to no one in particular. Only a handful of the staff were still nearby, close enough to hear me anyway.

“You need a drink and entertainment, sweetie.” Jen, the witch, slipped her arm around my neck and scrunched her magical nose at me. Before I could argue, one of my favorite witches prepared to glamour me right there in the taxi line, in front of fake Elvis, a poster of Neil Diamond, and God knows how many witnesses.

I gasped and held up my hand to ward off Jen’s magic, then realized she was right. “What the hell? Do your worst!” I opened my arms wide as she doused her magic over me.

Hell, the six-inch red stilettos didn’t even hurt my feet. Wow. I could get used to this. I liked the taller illusion. The view was pretty awesome. I just hoped I didn’t topple over what with all my cleavage piled up in front like this.

Carrie, my other witch-bitch, just grinned up at the billboard. “We need three or more of them…” She pointed at a digital video of bare-chested Chippendales.

Chippendales and Thunder From Down Under?

Be still my thundering heart. How would I ever get through the weekend? With a low moan, I clenched my jaw and turned away from the smorgasbord of flesh and muscle. Calculating the idea of  “more” … my right brain did the math while my left side did the architectural planning…

There’s more, so much more so if you liked this excerpt and want more, sign up for my Newsletter HERE  at http://eepurl.com/buCZLf  You’ll be the first to get them and hear about the release date.

 

 

The POWER OF THE LIGHT – The 1st Journey in the Gemini Prophecy series

Before the Gemini Prophecy, the World of the Fae and Underworlds clashed. Here is one ins300px-Fortingall_Yewpiring photo of the ancient yew that I wrote about in the story. Many of the old stories are derived from folklore, but this tree has stood in this place throughout the times the tales were told. Fascinating.

235px-Dunedin_Andr_Mem_Chapel01This old church reminds me of the one I wrote about as far as shape and size, but the location and material was off. irish SO with further research here is the one in Ireland I imagined; white-washed walls, mold, and ancient cemetery included.

Now how did I come up with the cliffs, you ask? I envisioned the Cliffs of Mohr with trees and a stone circle. Caves and wooded forests filled the images I had of the outskirts

power-of-the-light
Coming SOON

of Washington, DC. The location where the psychic was killed may have looked like the image at the bottom of this mock-up cover for the first book in the series; POWER OF THE LIGHT. Certainly, the Traighon is aptly portrayed here. Blue skin and all.

 

Have you read the prequel? The Fae Myth may be a good place to begin before the first book in the series is released. In the coming months look for Power of the Light, followed by Power of the Sea…then two more books in the series will be following in 2018. Each is a stand-alone story.

The Gemini Prophecy final copy

Where to BUY

AMAZON

 

Fae Myths of the Gemini

the-gemini-prophecy-final-copyThe Gemini Prophecy: Psychics and profilers all over the world are being killed. Who or more precisely what is targeting them, and why? 

Before the Power of the Light, a modern fantasy suspense and the first book in the Gemini series, there is a long history of life, love, death, and destruction. Without retelling all the ancient tales, this prequel will give you some background into what came before Graeme met Morgan.

Coming this spring.
~~With the completion of the convocation, the fae queen began… “Each Gemini is entrusted with a gift to be shared and passed down throughout the ages, until one day, reborn together, the Gemini will forge the power of the light, the sea, the earth, and the air. I command you to return the elements to the Stone of Fal, lift the Veil, and reopen the portals between fae and earth. This is the promise of the Covenant.” copyright Eliza March, 2009.

As you can see, this series has been a long time coming. each book is a stand alone story, but each tells part of the story about the eventual battle between the Gemini and the Dark Mystics.

Everything begins here, in the ancient past where the breaking of sacred vows to the gods leads to the destruction of the peace between the fae Seelie and unseelie and where mortal’s lives are endangered by those who hunt the Gemini, descendents of the royal fae and ancient druid priests.

Sign up here to get special unpublished excerpts from me and a chance to win a FREE ecopy of the book when it is published.

Meet Morgan and Brianna: 

From her place beside the willow in the world beyond the Veil, the white witch Tapestry, weaver of souls, watched the girls run to the top of the hill, heading to the ancient cemetery beyond the old pagan stone circle. Brianna’s red hair reflected sparks of gold as she ran like a rabbit caught-up in the chase, zigzagging, aiming haphazardly for the field beyond. Her coloring reminded her of a druid priestess who one night stood on this same knoll calling down the power of fire and fertility from the gods. The ancient unconsecrated ground held mystery for the girls, but not so for her. After a millennia of existence, the woman knew well the magic here.

Morgan, the raven haired beauty shouted out to her friend, with her head thrown back and her arms open wide, twirling. “Brianna, this is my favorite place in the world.”

Tapestry could barely suppress a cry of delight when she heard the girl claim this place in her heart. Except for her slanted eyes which belied her fae ancestry, Morgan looked so like her druid forefather, her heart almost burst with longing for her own lost love. She sighed as her lips curved into a contented smile.

Ah beloved gods of old , the mortal child has accepted her place here on sacred pagan soil where all her mortal ancestors’ souls lie waiting—here in this long forgotten cemetery—here where it all began.

This old resting place, nestled far behind the new cemetery, was the burial ground accepted by Morgan and her family for generations upon end. They’d avoided the one most recently consecrated by the proud bishop, and fenced beside the church. Her druid forefathers favored the family’s traditional pagan cemetery where they believed the old spirits still danced by moonlight. Here is where Morgan’s father laid to rest, the last druid priestess, his wife, ten years before.

Tapestry hid, concealed in the overgrown vines. Although the limestone church, affectionately known to locals as the Kirk by the Sea, had been recently whitewashed, mildew still raised its grungy head, poking through the white paint, taking hold, thriving from the constant damp of the ocean mist and the rain. The wet season seemed to last most of the year up here on the cliffs. Through eons upon eons of time, this place remained sacred to many races of people. For here in the tumbling stone circle was the last open portal between the mortal world and the Otherworld. Here on the cliff, more than one set of slanted, fae eyes watched from behind the Veil this day as the preordained events of the prophecy resumed. The fate of all the Worlds rested on the shoulders of this child of the Gemini, one in a long line of gifted offspring of the forbidden love between the fae and the druids.

Morgan collapsed to the damp grass, smiling, taking a series of deep breaths, and recounted the cemetery’s importance to Brianna. “This is where I come to be with my family since Mum passed. The old ones are all here as well. Me Mum always said their spirits listened, waiting to be called upon when I had need of them.” She tossed her black mane and gave a quick look back at the church. “And having Jesus, Mary and Joseph right over there in the church, does’na hurt either.” She grinned wide.

Brianna giggled at the heretical remark before she caught herself. Her mouth dropped open in shock when she realized her sin. “Blasphemy. How could you, Morgan?”  Quickly, she shushed her friend, tracing the sign of the cross over her torso.

Morgan flopped to her back, laughing, her eyes gazing up into the light streaming through the trees as Brianna pulled the oilcloth covered tome from a crevice in the stone and with slow methodical precision that nearly drove her to distraction, she unwrapped it.

“Go on now Bri, please stop stalling and get on with it. You promised to finish telling me the story of the fae and the prophecy. The day and the place for the telling are perfect.” She snatched at the book and scooted beside Brianna, sitting closer on the grass so she could see the illustrations in the book. But Bri slapped at her hands and backed up.

“I’ll not tell you anything if you don’t show a bit of patience.”

“Come now, let’s have a look. You know how I’ve come to enjoy the pictures.” Morgan seemed to love the description of the fae. “…so breathtakingly beautiful that to look upon them hurt a mere mortal’s eyes’. Ah, I long to see such beauty. ”

Tapestry knew about the dreams and about the boy…the fair beauty of the boy who came to her in dreams, with his pale hair, golden skin, and silver eyes. 

Morgan ran her hand over the picture of such a boy in the ancient book and sighed.

Brianna smiled back with an accusatory glance at her friend who usually pooh-poohed romance and took life too seriously.

“Ah, I’ve caught you. Is this a romantic streak I glimpse? Have you one, after all? It seems you do, and now I know your taste runs to fae love tales with tragic endings.”

“Go on with you, I was just looking.” Morgan stiffened and glanced away, but not for  long.

Brianna held the tome of ancient myths the girls discovered under the sacrificial stone the previous month. She put on her lecture face and began translating the old language.

“Here in the land of mortals, we sometimes forget there are other planes of existence. But at one time all the Worlds shared doors that opened between them. Anyone who wanted could venture into other realms through these portals. The fae lived in the Otherworld, and they were called the Sidhe, the people of the tuatha da danaan. They held all the powers of the elements, protected and kept them safe in the Sacred Stone of Fal.”

Gemini copyright Eliza March, 2009  No reproduction without the author’s permission.

I hope you are enjoying the little teaser. Now one for the first book in the series.

POWER OF THE LIGHT  coming December 2017

“Should the Traighon achieve his final goal and the Dark Mystics succeed in their ultimate quest, the sun will not rise and the rains will not fall and the flowers will not bloom again. All the Worlds on every plane will cease to exist—all will be lost to the blue-green planet.”

There’d been a time when Graeme could have walked the path from the mailboxes to the entrance blindfolded. Closing his eyes, he visualized the area in his head. For a minute he let himself imagine a twelve-year-old Sharon waiting for him on the fence with her legs wrapped around the post, her saucy grin taunting him, and her pale blonde pigtails covered with her red bandana. He tried to get his bearings, then reopened his eyes and started walking. Intuition? Who was he kidding? He wasn’t ready to share his ability with the FBI, but it was more than intuition. His abilities, the ones he never admitted to, were often his best tools. 

Suddenly, a familiar flowery fragrance wafted in the air, interrupting his thoughts. A hint of her perfume. Dense fibrous vegetation crisscrossed the old path. Sharon had pushed through somewhere near this spot. A small break in the bushes indicated she made her way past the densest weeds. He followed through the same opening into a clearing on the other side. From there the old path was only a thin visible line in the tall grass.

“Trust your instincts,” the soft voice, not Sharon’s, murmured softly in his mind.

Focusing on Sharon, all he heard was the sound of a beating heart pounding wildly in his ears. Where are you?  his mind screamed. 

The link they usually shared remained cold. A deadly chill crept up his spine. He needed their old mental link to find her.

“Stop making yourself crazy. Relax.” The familiar female voice in his head was back. At times, he couldn’t separate his thoughts from hers. Mental images from this woman often intruded his own. She’d been his imaginary friend. The Irish girl he’d called Morgan. What had suddenly made him think of her? And why now?

In any case, her presence in his mind strengthened him and forced him to focus. He pulled himself together.

“Track the signs with your heightened sense of sight and smell.” On the right track now, he increased his pace. Observation and evidence, in contrast to instinct, was hard to dispute.

“Do not deny your instincts.” The female voice roared in his mind. “Together, your instincts and observation make you the quality investigator you are!”

Graeme wanted to curse, pausing only when he came to a downed tree blocking the path. Instead, he didn’t waste time analyzing anything. He put both hands on the limb and vaulted over. When his collar tightened around his throat practically choking him., he unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and tore off his tie, picking up his pace.

Despite the sweat forming on his forehead and upper lip, another shiver slid up his back. The shadows and something else in the deep woods kept the air cool.

“Hurry!”

A startled covey of birds flew from a nearby bush. “Damn!” He flailed his arms in surprise, shouting at himself or at them, he wasn’t sure. Graeme repeated the low trembling curse and gathered his fear around him, closed his eyes, and instinctively sensed her path. 

A blood curdling scream pierced the quiet forest like a soul-wrenching insult. 

“SHAAAARRROOOOONNN!” The cry resonating in his head hurt his ears—but even worse, there was no answering reply. Barely able to catch his breath, his heart pounded harder. His fear slowed his thinking. He took off running, tearing through the dense underbrush, jumping over downed limbs, pushing aside wide branches as if none were there.

“Sharon. Sharon. Sharon.” The drum-beat of her name repeated silently on his lips, a prayer. He chanted the mantra as he fought his way to the cave.

His lungs burned, and every muscle coiled tighter as he ran. His arms pumped like pistons for added speed. But before he rounded the path to the yawning mouth of the cave, the world shifted beneath his feet. Somehow he knew. His best friend was gone. He sensed her life force drain from him and a light went out.

“Too late…” The sympathetic voice ended with a mental sob. 

Then Graeme saw Sharon on the ground.

A muscular young man wearing jeans and a black T-shirt kneeled over her body. Blood covered the intricately carved handle of the dagger in his hand, and the rest of the scene played out, frame by sick frame, in slow motion. When he leered at Graeme, his image rippled, warped, and faded, morphing into someone—no, some thing else. A fiend. A daemon. A monster of epic, nightmare proportions.

In the afternoon light, the killer’s skin appeared blue. The image in front of him looked to be well over seven feet of solid, naked blue muscle covered in swirling tattoos. Graeme shook his head and blinked his eyes trying to focus.

The monster’s eyes flashed red. Not blood-shot. The whites were white. It was his irises that were red, blood-red. 

Like any rational-thinking man, Graeme’s first reaction was denial. Caught in the illusion, he forced himself to play out the scene and stay in the moment. His mind staggered at the prospect.

The killer smiled. Fangs flashed inside his mouth before they lengthened and he bent over Sharon’s limp body, sank his teeth deep into her neck, draining what blood was left. When he lifted his head, fangs dripping, he opened his mouth over hers and inhaled.

A pale golden light rose from Sharon’s body as the monster took her essence into his own. The daemon turned, leered at him, and tossed the blood-drenched dagger. The blade flipped end-over-end as droplets of Sharon’s blood flew through the air like red mist.

Graeme instinctively reached up and caught the knife, then flipped it into his right hand, and rolled his shoulders. Tempted to let his emotions run wild, his cold professional habits forced him to control his actions. Spreading his feet wide for balance, he flexed his arms in front of him, and tensed for the attack. The muscles in his legs bunched as he assumed the defensive stance.

Gemini copyright Eliza March, 2009  No reproduction without the author’s permission.