About The Book:
Author: Brian & Juliet Freyermuth
Pub. Date: November 1, 2023
Publisher: Middark Press
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages:
321
After defeating the Green Man, you’d think there wasn’t
much else for me to be afraid of in this world.
But then again, you never met my family.
When my mother’s attacked, Thelma and I are whisked off to
Las Vegas to find out what happened. The whole thing stinks, especially after I
found out a deep, hidden secret three months ago. A secret that explains why my
childhood was filled with alcohol and pain.
But secrets are the name of the game in the City of Sin.
And it turns out the attack on my mother is linked to a name I’ve been hearing
in whispers for months now. A name associated with demons and ancient forest
gods. Someone who is a myth, even among the gods and goddesses that walk the
earth.
Evan Constantine.
Now with the help of my voodoo practicing girlfriend, a trickster spirit and a crazy goddess who might just help me or chop my head off (depending on what her pet lizard tells her), I need to find out who’s after my mother.
I just know it’s going to take a good amount of luck to survive Vegas.
Especially when the house always wins.
Warning: This urban fantasy contains snarky gods and goddesses, action, mythological beasties, and a good ole’ murder mystery. If you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs or Seanan McGuire, you’ll love this brand new world where ancient forgotten gods walk hidden among us, and angels and demons fight for our very souls.
EXCERPT
Chapter One
I’ve
faced demons, insane mobsters, and ancient, prehistoric gods,
but nothing prepared me for telling my friend I was dating
his sister.
“What the hell are you thinking!?” Jake yelled. He had a
death grip on the countertop, and his dark
sunglasses gazed at a point beyond my right shoulder. Most
people saw only the thin, five-foot six frame, the dark skin, and the
blindness. Or they skipped right over him like he didn’t exist.
But
I knew better. A couple of years ago, he went head-to-head with a two-ton
dragon, set him on fire, tossed him in the air like a rag doll, and then asked
if I wanted a latte. Mercutio never cheated him at poker again.
“Jake,”
I said quietly.
He stopped.
“We’re telling you as a courtesy,” I said. “But it will
not stop me from seeing Thelma.”
“Oh, I have a few things that’ll stop you,” Jake growled as
he took a step forward.
His dark sunglasses glared in my general direction, and I
could feel the power radiating off him.
“Jake!” Thelma snapped. “What the hell’s wrong with you?
Nick’s your friend. Not to mention, I didn’t say anything when you dated that
kleptomaniac, Shala.”
“He
was my friend. And how could I know Shala was going to rip off Marie
Laveau’s chalice from
Aunt Sindhu? But that’s not the damn point!”
“Then what is?” She stepped between us, hands on her hips.
Right now, she was as formidable as her brother. She had a good two inches on
him, and she glared down at him with the full force of her own anger.
“You
remember that demon fiasco? That whole thing happened because this one”—he
waved in my direction—“killed some woman’s brother and she went all homicidal
on his ass.”
“Hey,”
I said defensively, “she also helped her husband’s career by killing a bunch of
prostitutes and trying to
kill a little girl, if you remember correctly.”
“See?
Trouble follows him around like a cosmic STD!” Jake bellowed.
“STD?” I said, my anger flaring.
“Okay, you both need to calm down,” Thelma said as she
reached toward him.
“Calm down?!” Jake slapped her hand away. “First his wife
dies, then his sister-in-law gets sent to hell.
You really want to follow in their footsteps?”
Both Thelma and I stopped. I couldn’t believe the words had
come out of his mouth. Rage flooded my system to the point of overload but also
mixed with a little bit of guilt. Jake must’ve felt something shift in me
because his eyes fell downward.
“Look,
man, I didn’t mean it like that. I just…”
“You
just what?” I asked, the Beast leaking into my tone.
My vision had started to go red before I knew it.
The jingle of the bell above the African Queen’s door
interrupted my rage.
“We’re closed,” Thelma snapped.
A rancid odor assaulted my nose as the stranger ducked his
head under the door of Thelma’s coffee shop and entered. His long, shaggy hair
draped around his threadbare Pantera T-shirt. Mud caked his heavy, black beard
and his torn jeans. His nostrils flared as he surveyed the room. On one hand,
he radiated the hostility of a predator, yet he looked like he would bolt at
the slightest provocation.
A twinge of pain struck the back of my brain. A small
little pinprick migraine, come and gone, but I recognized it. There was some
mind mojo going on, and it was all centered on Mr. Big-Grungy-and-Mean walking
through the doorway.
“This is Neutral Ground, buddy,” I said. “Or didn’t you get
the memo?”
“You smell nice,” the intruder said in a voice so deep it
vibrated my bones.
Jake stepped up next to me, his anger redirected to this
new threat. “And you smell like shit. I suggest you turn around. Like he said,
this is Neutral Ground.”
“I’ve been asleep for many, many years.” The man inhaled
deeply as he ignored Jake.
“And you all smell real nice.” He licked his lips.
With that, the enormous man rocked back and spread his arms wide. A cacophony
like ripping paper shredded the air. Flesh flew away in chunks as his hands turned
into two split hooves. His head ripped apart as two huge antlers burst out of
his scalp in a spray of blood. His face elongated like someone pulling a string
of taffy until his head was a thick elk muzzle with round, dark eyes. The rest
of his body remained human.
“Okay, that’s new,” Thelma said.
“Listen, you,” I said, looking up at the giant mutated elk
minotaur… thing. “Seriously, what the hell are you? This is Neutral…”
He interrupted me by slamming his hand-hoof across my face.
I spat out a glob of blood from my torn lip as my adrenaline spiked. Thelma
dove behind the counter. I couldn’t see Jake, but I heard him chanting behind
me. He had some serious Voodoo mojo, and Thelma had her own weapons,
but I was the one who could take a pounding. As long as
this Freakshow focused on me, they’d have my back.
As the Elk Man hit me again, I turned to the side and used
his own momentum to fling him sideways. Tables blew apart into pieces. The
plaster cracked, and an African mask fell to the ground with a snap of wood.
Damn. I hope Thelma wasn’t too attached to that one. Before Elk Man could recover, I was on top
of him. Both of my fists slammed down on his back with the
force of a pickup truck. He stood up,
as if I were nothing more than a fly on his backside and
shook his furry head.
A sachet flew from across the room, hitting the creature in
the head. The small pouch broke open,
showering him with a fine white powder. The creature
stumbled as his eyelids grew droopy.
I looked over to where the pouch came from. Jake
frantically stirred up something in one of those
insulated coffee cups that doesn’t need a sleeve. That’s
Thelma for you. Even her to-go cups can be used for protection in a pinch.
“Nick, grab some hair from that asshole!” Jake called out.
I gave the guy a roundhouse kick to the chest, sending him back across the
room. He crashed into the wall and slumped to the ground.
I ran over and grabbed some hair as Elk Man shook his head
and started to get up. Shit. Jake’s mojo should have knocked him out. I
punted him once more in the head, before running over to Jake with the hair.
By the time I turned around, Elk Man was on his feet,
charging like a minotaur. “Shit.”
I jumped sideways. My foot connected with his jaw, flinging
him across the room into another mask.
Dammit, it was Shango. That mask was Thelma’s
favorite.
“Why won’t you stay down?!” I said as the creature
struggled to get up. Jake tried to sprinkle something on him, but an antler
caught him in the middle, lifted him up, and threw him across the room. Plaster
broke as Jake’s unconscious body slid down the wall.
“Jake!” I yelled.
The thing just snorted out blood and stood up again. It
glared at me, and I tensed, but gunshots rang out. Blood poured from the
creature’s chest.
He spun, lightning fast, and headed toward Thelma. The
bleeding stopped. Thelma let out three more rounds from her Desert Eagle.
Adrenaline spiked again, and I leaped onto his shoulders.
He didn’t seem fazed, not even when I slammed a fist into
his skull. He reared back and tossed me
through the shop window. Glass tinkled around me as I
struggled to get to him before he reached Thelma. He hit her, sending her into
the wall next to Jake.
“You son of a bitch!” I launched myself toward him through
the window, grabbed a couple handfuls of thick hair, and tossed him sideways,
sending him through the open frame and out into the street. The Elk Man
landed next to a group of teenagers. One of them, a kid with black hair and
thick-rimmed glasses, stood awestruck, recording with his cell phone. Good.
That should bring the Watchers.
“Go!” I screamed as I leaped through the open window. The
teenagers scattered, and the kid with the cell phone ran across the street,
still recording.
My distraction was my undoing. The Elk Man picked me up. Slam.
Concrete shattered around my body as I felt him lift me up again. Slam.
A deeper hole formed below me. I struggled to stay conscious as he used me as a
sledgehammer. I managed to get one good kick to his knee before he roared
again and tossed me like a dog’s chew toy.
I flew through the air before slamming into the tree across
the street, cracking a tree limb and a few of my ribs. Everything screamed at
me to stay down as I made my way to my feet.
A low baritone rumbled through the asphalt. It was a
wordless tune, rising and falling like the waves of the ocean. It brought to
mind an image of wind-filled sails and lost loves. I couldn’t think for a moment,
couldn’t focus on anything except the haunting melody. Then a migraine
split my skull, making me wince. The fog in my brain cleared, and suddenly I
was back.
The Elk Man stood, transfixed, with drool hanging from his
muzzle in a long sticky trail. Jake limped forward from inside the shop,
blood trickling from a gash on his forehead. The haunting melody flowed from
his lips. Two more gunshots cracked the air. Thank God.
I couldn’t see her, but Thelma was okay. The bullets hit
their mark, but once again the bleeding stopped as soon as it started. Okay,
I probably had seconds, maybe less. Punching the thing didn’t work. Shooting
the thing didn’t work. There was something, though. In my last showdown with
the Green Man, I discovered a new talent that had taken out a god, so it should
be enough for this bastard. It would kill him, but it might take out the rest
of the block too. If I didn’t, he could kill everyone here and rampage through
Seattle. So, it was time to pull out my last resort.
It
was time to bring the witch fire.
I focused on Jake and Thelma’s bloodied faces. Rage flared
and my vision went red again. I shoved all my anger into my fists, focused on
the energy, and let it stoke the furnace inside my head. My right hand burst
into blue-white flames. With a scream that shook the windows, I aimed the
fire toward the Elk Man. I tried to keep the fire focused only on him. I didn’t
want anyone else hurt. Just him.
The witch fire fanned out in a narrow wedge of white-blue
death. The Elk Man screamed as the flames enveloped him. The heat was so
intense he couldn’t move. He just dropped to his knees as the flames consumed
flesh and bone. I grinned stupidly as the fire left me. My elation turned
to horror when the wave swept past him.
Jake and Thelma flung themselves to the ground. Tables and
chairs exploded like fireworks as the
inferno engulfed Thelma’s shop.
Shit.
I tried to step forward toward my friends, I really did,
but a sudden wave of debilitating weakness
knocked my legs out from under me. Time slowed. The
smoldering corpse of the Elk Man melted.
The teenager lay on the ground across the street, his
camera still clutched in his unconscious hand,
as a group of silent, red-clad figures popped into
existence. I willed my body to wake up and move,
but my eyes rolled up into my head as I passed into dark
oblivion.
About Brian & Juliet Freyermuth:
Brian and Juliet have been partners in crime for over a quarter of a century. The adventure started back in High School, when the two of them were driven to the prom by a mortician. (Although not in a hearse, their parents said no... they asked.) Now they take their love for writing and plotting a good murder to create the Sundancer Mysteries.
They love going to escape rooms with their son and his wife, as well as
going to art museums and traveling to far off places.
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Juliet:
Juliet Freyemuth loves helping people discover their passion and figure out
how to pursue it. She specializes in working with creative people to find
their niche and locate the resources they need to reach their goals. She’s
also the co-author of the Sundancer Mysteries, where she uses her degree in
psychology and social and behavioral science to figure out how goddesses,
vampires, and other mythological creatures survive in a reality that changes
based on popular belief.
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of WITCH FIRE, US Only.
Ends December 5th, midnight EST.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
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11/1/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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11/2/2023 |
Blog Spotlight/IG Post |
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11/3/2023 |
Guest Post |
Week Two:
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11/6/2023 |
Guest Post/IG Post |
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11/7/2023 |
Guest Post/IG Post |
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11/8/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/9/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/10/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
Week Three:
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11/13/2023 |
Review/Guest Post/IG Post |
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11/14/2023 |
Review |
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11/15/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/16/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/17/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
Week Four:
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11/20/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post |
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11/21/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/22/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/23/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/24/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
Week Five:
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11/27/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/28/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/29/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/30/2023 |
IG Review |
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11/30/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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