As you can tell, I’m a bit excited about the
conclusion of The Earth Angels miniseries published by Carina Press, so bear
with me, please. ;) This four-part series
has been building toward this action-packed finale, and I just can’t wait to
share what happens with everyone.
In fact, why wait?
Here’s a glimpse of the edge-of-your-seat conclusion to the demonic
apocalyptic story arc that is... The Earth Angels. :)
“Oscar, you’re being
a dick,” Nikita muttered to the storm. In response, it seemed to take personal
offense and pelted rain down on Kyle’s car all the harder. It was the main
sound in her world now that the muscle car’s powerful motor was silent, the
engine ticking as it cooled while she sat in the empty parking lot of a dry
cleaners across the street from the sprawling Cobalt Apartment complex. She
tried to shut out the storm’s violence, but since it couldn’t be any wetter
than if she’d parked under Niagara Falls, that was pretty much impossible. Logic
told her that since she could barely see beyond the windshield, she should
abandon the spot and look for cover, like a gas station with a convenient
overhang.
Logic could go to hell. She wasn’t about
to distance herself any further than necessary. The dry cleaners would have to
do. As she maintained her position about a football field’s length away from
where Kyle and the others lay in wait to pounce on Bambi and her keeper, Nikita
had no doubt it would be a clash that neither heaven nor earth would soon
forget. With something that bad going down, she had to be far enough away so
that Dantalion couldn’t feed on her, while at the same time be close enough
should Kyle need her.
Ha. Now there was a joke if she’d ever
heard one. Like Kyle would ever need
her help. With a derisive twist to her mouth, she glanced at her phone to
reread his last text after she reported her position: “Make sure to stay out of the way. We’ve got it from here.”
Nice. Always the charmer, that Kyle.
With a short huff, Nikita shoved the
phone into her pocket so she wouldn’t look at it again. Looking at it only made
her feel sorry for herself, because it cut right to the heart of her new
reality. For years she’d labored under the illusion that she and Kyle were on
equal footing. But surprise, surprise—the man was playing with a genetically
stacked deck. There could never be equal footing with a man who had no equal.
Just her luck, to fall for such an
impossibly magnificent man.
The floor of her stomach dropped at the
wayward thought, just as two shadows emerged from the blinding gray sheets of
rain. Horrified by the notion she might have fallen in love with Kyle while the
world was doing its damnedest to come to an end, she hastily pushed it to the
back of her mind as the two people almost crashed into the hood of the car. A
ragged gasp tore from her throat when she saw it was a half-drowned Kyle with
none other than an equally soaked Bambi Dominguez in tow.
“I don’t believe it.” Frantic, Nikita hit
the button that unlocked the car even as Kyle reached for the back passenger
door and flung the elusive Bambi Dominguez inside. “I can’t believe it, that was so fast! Are you okay? Is everyone—”
“Drive. Just drive.” Kyle dived into the
passenger seat, wiping the water out of his face as he slammed the door behind
him. “The farther we get Dantalion’s meat puppet away from here, the easier
it’ll be for the Nephilim to send him to hell.”
“I thought you said Dantalion could leach
energy off of anyone—it doesn’t have to be just his proxy.”
“Do you really want to sit here and
argue the matter?”
“Good point.” She wasted no more time in
heading back down Biscayne Boulevard toward the closed causeway, with no real
destination in mind. “So what happened out there? Is it finally over?”
“Over?” From her place in the backseat, Bambi
let loose a high-pitched, eerie laugh that went right along with her oddly
sing-song tone. “Over for me, over for you, it’s all over for you-know-who.”
“Good grief.” Risking a glance in the
rearview mirror at the other woman, Nikita couldn’t see much of her except
dark, lank hair covering half of her too-thin face, and an ear-to-ear grin that
would have done The Joker proud. “I take it our little jump has gone around the
bend and straight into la-la land?”
“Oh, yes. Dear little Bambi is long
gone.”
Nikita couldn’t help but feel a twinge
of pity. No matter what a user Bambi was, no one deserved to be twisted inside
out by a demon. “Poor girl. I know it’s a small thing at this point, but I
suspect Dibby Biers is going to take that news pretty hard.”
“Dibby is a twin.” As Nikita maneuvered
the car around a lake-sized puddle, she chanced another look at their passenger
only to find the disquieting vision of Bambi chewing on a wet hank of hair
while rocking side to side in her seat. “A real
twin. Not a fake twin. The fake twins are the tricksy ones.”
“You don’t say.” Not altogether
comfortable with having a conversation with a lunatic while driving through a
hurricane, Nikita decided to focus on Kyle. “I was surprised to see you show up
so quickly. Somehow I thought it would take much longer for you to shut
Dantalion down. But I guess with the five of you guys together, one little
demon didn’t stand a chance, yeah?”
“Little
demon? After all you’ve come to learn, this is how you refer to a Great
Duke of hell?”
“Easy.” Caught off-guard by the heat
behind his words, it was all Nikita could do to keep from gaping at him. But
after a moment’s consideration she supposed she could forgive him for being a
tad edgy after busting all kinds of humps to avert a demonic apocalypse. “Just
relax. No need to get your shorts in a twist.”
Bambi let out a piercing bray of
laughter. “Twisty, twisted shorts. I think I have snakes in my brain.”
Wow. “Kyle, I’m not diminishing your
victory here, believe me. I’m only beginning to grasp just how difficult this
was for the five of you to pull off.”
“Things haven’t gone exactly according
to plan, I’ll give you that,” came the absent reply. “My timing has been
slightly off from the moment I started this endeavor. I had assumed that by the
time the strongest of the Nephilim finally managed to fumble their individual
ways to me, I would have attained the power to wipe them all out in one fell
swoop. But, since I’ll have it in the next few minutes, it’ll all end up the
same.”
“What are…” Her heart froze from the
inside out as the words sank their poisonous teeth into her brain. With
understanding dawning like some hideous cancer, Nikita turned to look at the
thing wearing Kyle’s face. Before her disbelieving eyes, that face she knew so
well melted like wax and reconfigured itself until she was looking at the image
of her mother.
“Well done, Nikita.” The thing that
wasn’t her mother smiled its rabid approval while the oily twisting in her
brain began, until it was all she could do to keep from crying out. “Thanks so
much for getting us away from there. Good thing I stumbled across you sitting
here, thinking such loud thoughts about the Nephilim lying in wait for me at my
meat puppet’s apartment. I would have walked right into that ambush if it
hadn’t been for you, and all of my plans would have been for naught.”
“Fake twins are tricksy.” Bambi laughed
again. This time, though, Nikita heard it for the scream it was.
***
Sound interesting? Here’s the blurb for DANGEROUS ANGEL, up for
pre-order now:
Book four of the Earth Angels series
Miami's best bounty hunter, Nikita Tesoro will do anything to collar a
fugitive, including stepping into a stripper's stilettos for the night.
Outsmarting her rival Kyle Beaudecker is just a bonus. Despite the sexual
tension sparking between them, Nikita keeps a professional distance from
"Hurricane" Kyle. After all, she can't get hurt if she doesn't care.
A descendant of the archangel Barakiel with the power to harness
electricity, Kyle should be focusing his energy on tracking down a demon that
may be hiding in the human realm. But he's a lover, not a fighter, and he'd
much rather use his special talents for pleasure: specifically Nikita's. And
teaming up to find a bail jumper means spending lots of time together…
But when their case takes a turn for the demonic, Kyle can no longer hide
his true nature from Nikita. He'll do whatever it takes to win her heart—even
stop the apocalypse. But he can't do it alone.
80,000 words
Buy links for pre-ordering DANGEROUS
ANGEL:
