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Book Two is out!

Well almost. The e-book format is now up for pre-order on Amazon, paperback to come, for the June 25th release! And in celebration of the second book, Mystic Bonds is on sale for 99 cents until release day.

Here’s the cover and synopsis for book two, Mystic Journeys, and if you are interested in becoming an ARC reader and getting a free e-book copy for an honest review, click here!

Amina Langston, life mage extraordinaire, is on the verge of a break down. Bent on seeking revenge for the death of someone close to her, handling her estranged relationship with her werejackal boyfriend, and defending a friend arrested for murder; she’s at her end. To add to her troubles, she’s forced to compete in the ultimate magic competition against her new enemy, Phillip Leal. The loser will have to give up his or her freedom to the winner and being that Phillip is a cruel and ruthless egomaniac, Amina can’t afford to lose.

However, Amina and Phillip are magically banished from home with no ability to get back. Forced to team up to survive, the reluctant duo must fight off ghosts, dark fairies and other paranormal beings who were all sent to kill them. Can Amina and Phillip put aside their differences, solve the mystery behind their attackers and get home before they get themselves killed?

As always, if you’ve read book one please support and leave a review/rating on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you!

Mystic Bonds: Snippet

My urban fantasy ebook, Mystic Bonds, is now out! If you’d like a teaser check out my previous posts in my blog. However, here is another excerpt. I’m also looking for betareaders for Book 2. And if you have already read the book please leave a review!

Snippet:

Charles handed me his basket and pulled out his handgun from his holster. We carefully walked towards the soldier, looking down the aisles on our left as we passed them. I looked to my right, checking the front registers and photo area. I stopped. A dark figure suddenly appeared behind one of the cash registers. Then, he or she, disappeared in a blink.

“Charles, there was someone near the register,” I whispered, still staring at the front, willing the figure to reappear.

When I didn’t hear Charles walking over, I turned my head but there was no one. Just the down soldier. I spun around, panic quickly taking hold of me. “Charles!” I shouted.

“He won’t hear you,” said a familiar male voice.

I gasped.

David.

I felt like my heart went into my throat. My legs were weak and I dropped the baskets. Painful goosebumps appeared on my arms. He was behind me. I could feel his presence. I didn’t want to turn. Didn’t want to face that nightmare just yet.

“Phillip,” I whispered without thinking. I didn’t know why I called his name. Perhaps because he had helped me in all my other times against David. However, there was no answer.

“It’s good to see you,” David said. I heard his footsteps walk closer to me and I tensed all over. “Looks like you’re doing well. You look stronger.”

“Where the hell is my brother?” I said in a tight voice.

“Just taking a little nap.”

Amina! Phillip called in my mind. Get out of there. Don’t let him touch you!

“He has Charles,” I whispered back. I looked up at David. “If you hurt him—”

“Then he’ll be hurt.” He was right behind me now. I could feel his breath on my neck and I fought the urge to spin around and rip his heart out. I needed to find my brother first. I balled my fist to control my rage.

“We’re not going back,” I spat.

He pulled my hair back from my neck and leaned in to whisper. “I don’t want you both.” He kissed my neck and my shoulders hunched in disgust.

Amina, you’re strong now. Phillip said, calmly in my mind. Kick his ass!

I sucked in a breath, spun around, and aimed my fist for David’s face but he blocked it with his hand. He was faster and stronger than before. I wondered how many people he drained dry to get to this level.

Use your powers, mi Corazon! Phillip implored.

David gave me a tightlipped smile, his ice-blue eyes almost translucent and dead. I wouldn’t be scared. I was stronger too. I was a bad ass.

I focused my mind on pushing his eyes out of their sockets slowly.

David frowned then broke out in a pained cry, covering his eyes with his hands. I smiled as he hunched over now, screaming in agony.

“Where’s my brother?” I shouted.

“I have people who will kill him if I don’t come back!” David screamed.

I stopped my magic. David ceased screaming and slowly stood up, wiping his eyes. His blue eyes were now bloodshot and streaks of blood ran down his face.

“You have gotten much more powerful, Amina. Oh, yes. I want you back.” He was grinning and his eyes had become wide and crazed.

I felt like throwing up. “I would sooner die.”

“And so, your brother will too.”

Shit. I wasn’t in a position of power here. David was too far gone to value his own life and I had no idea who else he was with. If I killed him, then they could kill Charles in return. “Fine! I’ll go back with you. Release my brother and the prisoners from Pittsburg.”

Don’t do that, Amina. You can get your brother back. We can find the others. Kill this man.

David laughed and the sound stabbed at my stomach. “You are the most powerful being I have ever encountered and I can imagine you have untapped gifts still to come, but that is far from a fair trade. You for your brother. That’s all I’m willing to do.”

This was a chance to try to help the others in the most peaceful way. I had to get David to agree. Even if it was a long shot. “No, for everyone. I’m surrounded by soldiers. You aren’t getting out of here alive.”

He tilted his head and frowned. “I’m not worried.”

Why wasn’t he? How did he find us? Had he been in hiding near the hospital and followed us here? Was he not alone? Were the other soldiers and Erik, several stores down at the supermarket, also fighting off these enhanced humans? Were they dead?

The worry made me dizzy. More importantly, without knowing the safety of my brother, I had no real power to bargain with this asshole. “I need to see my brother before I go with you. I need to make sure he’s okay.”

If you go back with him, you’ll never get out. Just hold out.

“How do you know?” I whispered back to the Phillip voice in my head.

“He’s with an associate in the back,” David replied, eyeing me curiously.

“Take me to him,” I demanded, ignoring Phillip’s pleading voice in my head.

David smiled again and pointed to the aisle in front of me. I slowly walked down the row of cards and magazines; he followed closely behind me. I would see my brother and say goodbye, but Charles would find me. It would be okay.

I felt magic enter the pharmacy before I saw anyone and prayed it was one of the good guys. Hopefully, David hadn’t picked up on it. I didn’t believe that the blood potion gave regular humans the ability to sense magic.

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Snippet from my new novel

The past year and a half I’ve been working on a new writing project. An apocalyptic  supernatural series that will be published by late winter/early spring. In my mind it is The Walking Dead meets True Blood.

In the meantime, here is an excerpt from the novel and I’m always open to beta readers so message me if you are interested. Thanks to those who have edited, read and provided feedback to me already. Live your best life folks and if there is any accomplishment that you want highlighted in the newsletter, please contact me!

Mystic Bonds

Five Page Excerpt…

Main Street, USA. Most towns had them. Located in the suburbs, it was a street with a mixture of quaint shops, offices, restaurants, and bars.

Charles turned down the street and parallel parked on the right side in the middle of the strip. The area looked desolate; a few storefront doors and windows were bashed in and broken. From what I could see behind the thick, dark-green plant overgrowth on the buildings, there were deep brownish red stains of varying sizes on a few of the store porches, streets, and sidewalks. Some of the building signs hung crooked or had long given up the fight and were now on the ground. The street in front of our car was cracked and broken up as if construction was breaking ground before everything went to hell, but no work trucks were in sight. The broken ground stopped right in front of where our car was parked but that wasn’t the disturbing part.

Charles opened the car door and frowned. “Phew, I’d ask what died out here but I can guess by the broken up skeleton parts.”

“Jesus,” I whispered, looking out the front car window.

I leaned towards the dashboard and squinted. In this world I’d seen this scene before. Pass the hole in the ground were skeletal parts covered in dirt, caked blood, and dried skin. There were torsos, unattached legs, arms, and skulls.

“Whatever jacked up the road, did a superman lift off, right there.” Charles got out of the truck and pointed to where the destruction to the pavement ended in front of us. “Because I don’t see the stores demolished beyond this broken up area. Whatever did that, if it were going into a building, it pretty much would have knocked it down. And same goes if it leaped on top of a building. So, it wasn’t a gargoyle.”

I got out of the truck, looking around. “This must have been done earlier on in the change for these bodies to be this decomposed. These poor people.” I let out a cough and covered my mouth and nose with a shirt I got from my backpack.

Charles nodded, surveying the area. “A place like this could have a lot of what we need, assuming no one else has wandered here.” He walked over to a clothing storefront that contained a bit of plant life around it and peered in. “I’m thinking the plant life was also a deterrent. It’s probably poisonous.”

Upon hearing that, I turned to Charles just in time to see a snake-like vine wrap around his ankle. “Don’t move, Charles,” I shouted. If he did, the vine would grow tighter. I’d seen plants strong enough to rip a limb out of a person’s socket.

Charles’ body stiffened. “There’s a man-eating plant around my ankle isn’t there?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“Possibly. Relax.” I moved a little closer and saw the vine tighten. I looked up at the clothing store and saw the second level was covered in moving, wiggly, deep-green leaves and vines. I hadn’t noticed the vines moving earlier and perhaps it purposefully hadn’t. Did I forget to mention that in the new world plant life was smart? “Son of a bitch,” I whispered.

“Any day now, Mina,” Charles stated through clench teeth.

I could throw magic over anything natural and, like it or not, even the supernatural was part of that now. I recalled how I first controlled the ten-foot monster dog that disrupted my cousin’s wedding when the world first went to hell. I’d controlled other inhuman things since then. I usually did so to get them to leave us alone and not eat or kill us. The lesser the lifeform, the easier it was to control. And less painful for me.

I threw my hands up and then balled them into fists; forcing my energy into the plants and envisioning them drying out, breaking off and dying. I’m not sure if I really needed the hand work but it helped me focus on what I was aiming my magic to do.

Tiny points of pain pricked my skin all over. Soon after that, the plant life started to change from a bright green to burnt brown, then it crumbled and broke apart. The vine around Charles’ ankle fell away and shriveled.

I let out a deep sigh and my minor pain went away.

Charles turned around to face me, eyes wide. “Took you long enough. Thanks, sis.”

I rolled my eyes again. “You know better than to run off like that.”

“I was still in eye range, mom. Plus, the plants didn’t look like they were moving. Just poisonous.”

“Well, clearly they were playing games.”

“I’ve never seen plants do that before.”

I looked down the street to my left. It was after twelve in the afternoon. Since it was early summer we still had a good amount of sun left but we had to watch our time carefully so that we wouldn’t be caught out in the dark.

“I think we should know by now that the only certainty around here is that everything is uncertain. All right, let’s search this place but stay on your toes.”

We searched every establishment together. It took a while but we were finding a gold mine here. A gory gold mine but a gold mine all the same. We tied some scarfs from a clothing store around our faces to help block out the stench of decaying, dead flesh and spoilt food, and went through the work of gathering supplies.

I focused on practical items. Jackets and gloves for later seasons and undergarments from the clothing stores, a first aid kit from a bar, some non-perishable food, lighters and a few more toiletries we were in need of for our day to day. We had to build our base all over again. There would be no going back to our old complex, it had been raided and destroyed by David and his gang months ago.

“I think we have enough time to hook up some lunch from one of those restaurants before the plants get to be dangerous and the sun goes down,” Charles surmised, eyeing a barbeque restaurant across the street.

I glared at him.

He shrugged. “What? I’m hungry. You can magically cook us up a meal and I can get this laptop working and search for a government town,” he stated, waving a silver laptop in the air.

While I tried to make a meal out of whatever I could gather in the kitchen of one of the restaurants, Charles made magic happen on the laptop and gained access to the very limited internet. Nowadays the internet was mostly a ghost town of sites that were abandoned. The only active sites were the informational ones, social media, and of course what was left of the government had an active site. The only way we even knew of the government’s resurgence was by searching the former White House website and Twitter page. From there, word spread from others who had the same idea.

“Okay, so there’s a government backed town in Hagerstown. A little under three hour’s drive. We go there first. See if they can help. If they can’t, we push on to Silver Spring,” Charles stated bringing his laptop over to me in the kitchen.

After lunch we were on our way back to the highway when we spotted trouble on the side of the road.

A man stood, pulling thin legs out of the ground in front of a tree-lined area off the main road. The legs the man held appeared to be female. The torso attached to the legs was halfway in the ground.

“What. The. Hell!” Charles exclaimed, slowing the car down as we passed them.

“Stop the car,” I ordered, straining past Charles to get a better look.

“Why?”

“Clearly, we need to help them. The woman is stuck in some, I don’t know, quick sand-like dirt or something.”

“What if it’s a trap? I mean, that guy looks like he’d swat us like flies. I’m not up for a fight. We have to focus on saving our friends.”

I looked to the man. He did look imposing, with a wide and muscular frame. Still, something was telling me to help. “What if it’s not a trap? And we’re looking for people to help us get our friends. Maybe they’ll help us if we help them, so stop the car!”

“This is how we got caught last time.” Charles came to an immediate stop in front of an opening to a shopping plaza and I jumped out. “Don’t be stupid, sis!”

Out of habit, I looked both ways before crossing the vacant street. I didn’t bother wasting time asking the man what happened. The situation looked pretty clear.

I raised both hands and focused on the ground around the now thighs of the female. She was getting swallowed up quickly and I was sure she wasn’t able to breathe. If this was a trap, it was a dangerous one.

 

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