Happy Halloween! by Monette Michaels/Rae Morgan

Happy Halloween!  I first would like to thank Annie for inviting me again this year! Once again, it’s the time of the year for all things spooky much like what Chicago resident Sian York experiences one November evening while walking to her apartment from her parking garage. She soon learns that it’s the humans who are scarier than the shadowy creature lurking in the darkness of the early winter night.

The excerpt is Sian’s first encounter with Kai’s preternatural powers; up to this point, she only knows him as a security specialist who frequents her coffee shop and she is definitely attracted to what she does know about him. Then she is attacked by men hired by an enemy from her past. Kai rescues her in his shadow-form and unintentionally scares her even more than her attackers had. 

Don’t worry, Kai and Sian are meant for each other and love will conquer all once Kai takes care of the threat from Sian’s past.

I hope you enjoy this little taste of “Evanescence.” 

Some lucky visitor to this year’s Paranormal Romantics Halloween blog will win a free download of my second Gooden and Knight paranormal mystery, written under my Monette Michaels name, The Deadly Séance.

Good luck! – Monette Michaels/Rae Morgan

http://www.monettemichaels.com

Evanescence, a novella by Rae Morgan, from The Edge of Night,
http://www.liquidsilverbooks.com/books/edgeofnight.htm, Liquid Silver Books:

Blurb:

Security specialist Kai Axton blends into the night, a mist-like, shadowy image of his human form. Because of his freakish nature, he feels doomed to live his life alone - - until he meets Sian York.

Sian is not who or what she seems; her past shrouded in a veil of mystery.

As Kai prepares to make his move to claim her, Sian’s past explodes onto the scene, forcing Kai to reveal his darkest secrets.  Can Sian accept Kai’s nature, or will he be doomed to live in the shadow world, forever alone?

Excerpt:

            “Let her go.” A dark, gritty voice boomed from the alleyway. “And you might live.”

            “Saul?” Roy’s voice sounded shrill as if someone had his testicles in a vice. “What’re we gonna do?”

            Saul’s answer, if he had one, was cut off as he was enveloped by something like black fog.  The amorphous mass swirled and rapidly surrounded the man until Sian could no longer see him, only hear his terrified shrieks.

            After what seemed like hours, but could only have been minutes, Saul’s bloodcurdling screams ended.  Roy stood as if frozen to the street, low moans and gibberish coming from his mouth.  But he never let up on his excruciating hold on her. 

            “Run, you idiot,” she whispered in a harsh voice that she failed to recognize as her own.  Fear must have frozen her larynx, too. “We need to get away from that . . . that . . . whatever it is.”

            Roy ignored her - - or maybe in his terror he didn’t even hear her.  Hovering mere feet from Roy and her, the unearthly cloud shimmered, undulated, and glowed darkly against the night like black satin against dull black velvet. 

            What was it?  Was she seeing things? She blinked several times, but nothing changed what she saw.  What was this dark specter that could cause grown men to screech with fear then go deathly silent?  And more importantly, whatever it was, would it be her savior or her worst nightmare?

            Sian shoved against Roy’s imprisoning arm. “If you don’t want to run, at least, let me go so that I can.”

            Roy held on as if she were his lifeline.  He kept her between him and the spectral mist. And finally, he began to back away, slowly so as not to draw its attention. 

            But the lethally silent cloud followed, cutting off their retreat, herding them toward the blind alley from which it had emerged.

            Roy’s hand shook so hard that his knife sliced her tender flesh again and again.  Sian whimpered from the pain, but managed to match him step for step, afraid that if she struggled the sharp knife would cut her jugular. 

            “Let her go.” The same rumbling voice ordered.

            A sense of familiarity niggled at her mind, but any chance at placing the voice was lost as Roy stumbled over something on the street.  He barely managed to keep both of them upright. His knife cut deeper and she screamed. 

            The dark cloud rumbled like thunder and snaked toward them. Roy cried out a strangled, garbled litany of words.  His arm squeezed her against his body so hard that she bit her lip to keep from screaming out in pain.

            Sian strained her neck away from the punishing knife.  She gasped  for every breath she took now.  Spots and flashes of light floated across her field of vision.  If she couldn’t take a full breath soon, she’d expire on the spot from lack of oxygen.

            Roy’s grasp on her loosened.  He gibbered away, fear making his words unintelligible and shrill. She couldn’t care less about his fear.  She could breathe once more.  She dropped her head, sucking in air.  It was then that she saw what had caused Roy to jabber in terror.  It was Saul’s body.  He lay on the ground.  Motionless. 

            Was the man dead?  Would Roy and she find two other corpse-like bodies in the alley?  Because that was where they headed, their only path of retreat from the slow-moving darkness.

            They entered the alley, followed closely by the lethal apparition. On the ground and vaguely revealed by the green glow of an EXIT sign over her building’s service entrance lay two human-shaped masses.  Neither body moved. 

            Sian shuddered and felt an answering tremor race through Roy’s body.

            “One more time . . .”  The voice from the cloud boomed. 

            The amoeba-like shape quivered, slithered closer, then cornered Roy and her between it and the alley’s dead end.  The glow of the EXIT sign bathed the unusual stand-off between her captor and a roiling, hovering mass of effervescent dark matter.  Roy  - - or she - - couldn’t get to the street and safety without going through the darkness. 

            “. . .  let her go.”  The words rumbled like thunder chasing lightning. 

            “No!” shrieked Roy. “You’ll kill me like you did the others.”

            “Kill?”  The cloud wiggled wildly as the sound of its laughter ricocheted within the small area.  “They aren’t dead, only unconscious.  You’ll know death soon - - and it won’t be an easy one - -  unless you let Sian go.”

            Sian shuddered at the cold certainty in the threat - -  and at the mention of her name. This cloud or whatever it was knew her.  It seemed to want to protect her. 

            Roy whimpered and squeezed her hard against him. “Stay back.  I’ll kill her.  I will.”

            The pressure on her ribs was excruciating. Her breath escaped in a garbled scream.

            “Sian!” The dark cloud’s voice roared. 

            The roiling mass surged forward.  Moving like a thundercloud propelled by tornadic winds, it tore her from Roy’s grip.  And despite the force of its forward momentum, the misty darkness lay her gently on the ground before turning back to Roy who had begun to back away. 

            Sian made an attempt to stand, but the pain in her ribs defeated her struggle.  She collapsed to the alley’s filth.  Leaning weakly against a trash bin, she watched as Roy’s attempt to escape failed. 

            Within the closeness of the alley, Roy’s terrified shrieks vibrated across her skin like hundreds of crawling spiders.  She shuddered, closed her eyes and clenched her teeth against the unceasing agony.  Roy’s escalating screams of terror accompanied her into the welcoming darkness of unconsciousness.