Sometimes the most enchanting monsters are the ones you can’t see, only feel…
I am a survivor. For the past ten years, I’ve been forced to give every part of me to sinister vampires in a feeding community. But when I touched an ancient book and recited a spell out of sheer desperation and zero arcane knowledge, a dark entity came to me. Rescued me. Mrak helped me escape.
I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. But Mrak has been at my side for the last three months—well, inside me, anchored to my existence and lovingly tender with his ethereal touches. It’s not quite possession, not quite a haunting. But it’s real, it’s sexy as hell, and he’s mine. Or I’m his. Either way, we’re now in this life together.
Mrak is distracting, seductive, and powerful, but he’s also keeping a secret. One that’s now put me in immense danger despite his claims he’ll do anything to protect me. Because the cops have come calling. Bodies have turned up. And despite his reassurances, I’m starting to wonder if Mrak has a hidden agenda that he’s somehow kept secret from the inside.
My life might be in my monster’s debt. My body might be his for pleasure. But my future is mine no matter how much he wants and uses my body. I’m no longer the weak woman he saved from a vampire lord, and it’s time to take my body—and my life—back.
MONSTER INSIDE is the first of a M/F paranormal monster romance duology.
Excerpt
Panic caught in my throat. I returned
my attention to the ancient book before me and skimmed the pages faster.
Cassius’s heavy footsteps resounded through the room. As my eyes raced across
the text, the strangest thing happened: the words became English. This was
a spell book! And this… the more I read, the more convinced I became that these
pages in particular were a ritual of some sort. The page had an old
illustration, faded some, that appeared to show a shadow forming from nothing,
coalescing into some more solid, vaguely humanoid shape. Around it, runes
spelled out the magic words.
“Please let this be a spell to become
shadow,” I muttered as I began to read the text aloud. I’d gladly live out the
rest of my days as shadow or smoke if it meant escape from Cassius in this very
moment—and from Lazarus’s inevitable wrath once his amusement had run out. I’d
seen him sic a half-dozen vampires on one male feeder for less.
The words seemed to rise from the
page as I read them. Cassius stormed up the steps toward me. He was a tall,
bulky man, the most aggressive of Lazarus’s elite, and right now, he was
charging at me like he planned to rip my head off.
“Gods, help me!” I cried out as I
stood, continuing to read the spell with a shaky voice lost to fear as I backed
up. The bag of gems on my wrist swayed haphazardly. The more I spoke, and the
closer Cassius got, the clearer the smell of smoke became. It wasn’t until I
broke eye contact with Cassius and looked down at the page that I found the
page burning in my hands and fire on my fingertips.
My eyes widened and I yelped,
dropping the book as I finished chanting the spell.
Cassius froze where he stood, gaping
up at me. “Y-You—”
I threw up one hand. “Stay away! I
hate you!”
Fire poured from my palm in heavy, orange-white torrents toward Cassius.
It lit books on fire. The rugs. Desks. Everything on its way to Cassius and all
items around him.
Cassius leapt at the last minute off
the balcony, landing on the first floor with a look of utter shock on his face.
“Lazarus will see your end.”
He was afraid of me. Why? Because of a little magic?
I froze as a silky, smooth voice
whispered in my ear. “He fears what’s
come to answer your call, Aisling.”
“What?” I whispered. “Who are you?
Seeking tendrils slid up my ankles. I
yelped again, shuffling away from where I stood and looking down. Nothing was
there. Not a single tendril or anything.
But I could have sworn something had been grabbing me!
“Only you
can sense me,” the voice intoned. “I am within
you. I’m answering your call.”
“What call?” I spat.
“Lazarus!” Cassius yelled out of the
broken library door.
I stumbled back a few more steps, but
it felt like I’d run into someone. I spun around—no one was there. “What is
happening?”
“That book,” the voice said. “You summoned me to aid you. I heard your
call for freedom. For safety, Aisling.”
My eyes went wide. “My what?” I’d just read a spell. An ancient
one that looked like it was just going to turn me into a shadow or something,
and then I could hide forever. Be free. Escape. Be safe.
I gulped as I realized it. The voice
was right. But… “Are you the shadow in the image?”
“Yes,
Aisling.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know
everything about you.”
My gaze darted between the now-burned
book I’d been reading and Cassius, who had begun storming up the stairs to me
again now that the flames had gone away. Blood dripped from my neck onto my
fingertips. Crimson. The only currency in a place like this.
There had to be more to life than blood and vampires.
“I don’t know what I did,” I started
as Cassius approached once more. “But I accept your help. If you can get me out
of this fucking hell, I’ll owe you for life.”
A soft chuckle reached my ears—darker
than I should have been excited about. “As
you wish, Aisling. I help you, you help me. For life.”
Author Bio:
River Starr writes books that help you escape, especially fantasy romance full of magic and supernaturals. Favorite things: coffee, wine, chocolate, and a heavy dose of books to chase away the dark... or invite delicious darkness in.
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