We’re counting down to COURTING DARKNESS’s November release with a snippet from Chapter 2!
You can read the first chapter of COURTING DARKNESS in the back of NIGHT VEIL, or up on Yasmine's site. So we'll be posting snippets from chapter 2 each Monday until the release date. If we find anybody reproducing this on other sites we'll stop and everybody loses out. That means: NO cutting/pasting/copying/sending through email.
Remember, you can pre-order COURTING DARKNESS from Amazon.com or BN.com!
COURTING DARKNESS
CHAPTER TWO Excerpt #2
copyright 2011 Yasmine Galenorn, all rights reserved, do not reproduce
First Chapter
Excerpts Already Posted
“Mind your manners.” He rolled his eyes and headed
toward the door. “I’m going to go release this one outside so
he can go home. Camille, my love, think twice next time. We
could have simply given him a cloak to wear.”
I snorted. “Whatever. It’s not going to hurt him. But hurry
it up because Chase needs us in Tangleroot Park.”
As Smoky carried the struggling mutt up the stairs, I
turned to Menolly. “What are you going to tell your patrons
up there? They have to have some plausible explanation.”
She frowned. “Fire troll?”
“There’s no such thing.”
“Most of them won’t know that. Tonight it’s mainly a
bunch of Earthside Supes and Faerie Maids up there. I could
tell them that dragons turn into pixies and they might believe me.”
I chewed on the inside of my lip. “You’re probably right.
Tell them we subdued him. But we’re going to have to tell
Queen Asteria the truth. That poor elf has a family somewhere
and you can bet, ten to one, they’re back in Otherworld.
I don’t think he’s going to willingly oblige us by being
homeless, without next of kin.”
Menolly chewed on her lip. “Yeah, I know. Let’s go. I’ll
have Derrick bring the body down here until we can identify
him. You guys go on ahead. Call if you need me.”
As we threaded our way out of the bar, it occurred to me
that with our luck, Santa would come riding into town with a
sawed- off shotgun. Considering that I’d met the Holly King
when I was a young girl, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit. He
was a terrifying figure and it never failed to awe me just
whom the FBHs would invite down their chimneys without
asking for references.
Leaving Menolly to tackle the damage control at the bar, we
headed over to Tangleroot Park. The snow was falling
lightly, and the soft swish of my windshield wipers kept up a
lively rhythm. Trillian was riding shotgun, Smoky sprawled
in the back.
I glanced at Smoky through the rearview mirror, wondering
whether it was a good time to discuss what the daemon
had told us, but decided to wait. We already knew Hyto had
it in for us. Mentioning it would only set Smoky off, and I
really didn’t want a pissed- off dragon in the backseat. Even
one whom I loved.
As the asphalt sped by, I thought about the past year. So
much had happened. When my sisters and I were first sent
over from Otherworld, we didn’t have a clue as to what
waited in store for us. We learned the hard way, all too fast.
* * *
I’m Camille D’ Artigo— that’s Dee-Ar-tee-go. At home I’m
known as Camille Sepharial te Maria, because in Otherworld,
Fae take their mother’s first name as a surname. When
we came Earthside, we just started using our mother’s last
name.
Either way you slice it, I’m half- human, half- Fae, and all
trouble, at least according to my husbands and my sisters.
I’m married to a dragon, a youkai- kitsune, and one of the
dark, Charming Fae. Simultaneously. That doesn’t go over
well with some of the Earthside community who call me a
slut and a whore, but I don’t give a fuck what they think. My
mores are my own, and if loving three men is a crime, I’ll
happily play criminal.
By heart, soul, and trade, I’m a witch, recently promoted
to priestess. The Moon Mother rode me on one hell of a rough
trial, but I walked through the shadow and— like Ishtar—
came out of the Underworld triumphant. In the wake of
destruction, a new path opened, upon which I am preparing
to embark.
My sister Delilah— a two- faced Were by nature and a
Death Maiden by calling— is second born. Until recently, I
worried that her naïveté would be her downfall, but she’s
toughened up and come to accept herself for who she is. She
seems much happier now, less angsty. Delilah had a twin
who died at birth. Arial watches over her, in leopard form,
and the two have met in the astral realm.
And then there’s Menolly, who was a jian-tu—a spy/ acrobat—
until she was tortured and turned into a vampire back in Otherworld.
Last winter, we managed to dust her sire, one of the
most vicious pieces of fi th that ever walked the Earth. Menolly
runs a fine line, controlling her predator nature but accepting
who she is. But even in death, she’s my baby sister.
Together with our lovers and friends, we’re fighting a
demonic war, alone except with scattered help from the elves
and a few other Supes we can trust. We’re on the trail of the
spirit seals— nine artifacts broken from a single treasure
formed by the Elemental Lords and the ancient Fae Lords
when Otherworld split off from Earth during the Great
Divide. We’ve managed to find several of them, but Shadow
Wing snagged one, which makes the danger more precarious.
The rest are up for grabs, and we’re trying to prevent
him from getting hold of any more. Every spirit seal the
demon lord possesses brings him one step closer to the day
he manages to break through the portals, to raze both Earth
and Otherworld to the ground.
And we’re the only ones standing in his way.
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