Today I am hosting Keri Lake, who is celebrating the release of her new novelSOUL AVENGED
Barnes & Noble
Amazon (Paperback)
I have asked Keri to share the hopes and dreams of her main character, Ayden, with us today.
The silhouette of Detroit’s skyline stood
off in the distance, seemingly quiescent from where Ayden sat perched on a
rotted plank of wood, staring through the broken glass. The city’s fingerprint in the world with it’s
jagged spires that cut through the night, looked as normal as any other city
from her view.
Smoke rose from one of the buildings
below—set ablaze to burn the remains of the lycans she’d killed earlier in the
evening. The winter breeze, carrying the scent of sulfur and burning wood,
seeped in through the opening, brushing against her face like a phantom. Sensations of hot and cold were
imperceptible. Like being numb all the
time.
Rustling from behind caught her
attention.
She swiveled around to a stand, her dagger
propped beneath Gavin’s chin.
He cocked a brow. “Nice to see you too.”
Her muscles sagged and she replaced the
dagger back at her hip. “I thought you
guys had left.”
“You disappear after every fight. Just curious to see what you do after killing
lycans all night.”
Ayden smirked. “Not much.”
She crouched on the plank once more and glanced up at him. “Don’t you have a female waiting on you?”
Gavin stepped on the plank, gave a light
bounce as if testing its strength, then crouched beside her. “I’ve got a few minutes,”—he grinned—“want to
get a drink?”
Shaking her head, Ayden turned her
attention back toward the cityscape. “Think
I’m just going to hang here for a while.”
“What is it with you and these old
abandoned places?” He looked around. “Shithole looks like it’s going to collapse
to the ground any minute.”
Walls had been stripped of anything
valuable enough to sell, leaving ragged sections of crumbled drywall with
blackened studs peeking through. Debris
littered the floor—a dusty coating that covered the black grime beneath. Glittering specks of broken glass peeked like
stars across the weathered floorboards, reflecting moon’s light.
Ayden shrugged. “I guess they just have a way of making me
feel welcome.”
He knocked her shoulder lightly. “You know you’re always welcome.”
“In your bed.” Her tone was flat.
“Well, that’s a given.”
A chuckle escaped her. “Someday I’d like to fix up one of these
places. You know, make it really
dramatic. Make it acceptable to the
world again. Just like any other
building.”
“Are we talking about abandoned buildings
or you?” His grin left dimples in his
cheek.
“The building.” Ayden rolled her eyes. “I’ve given up on trying to make myself like
everyone else.”
“Personally,”—Gavin tipped his head—“I’m
glad you’re not like everyone else. That’d
sure as fuck be boring.”
“So you’re admitting that I put the excitement in your life.”
“More than you know.”
A smile tugged at her lip. “Careful now.
There might come a day when I take you up on that mating proposal.”
Gavin’s gaze fell toward the floor and he stood
up from his crouch. He crossed his arms
over his chest and his eyes trailed to Ayden.
“I know better.” A quick glance
out the window and they were on hers again.
“You love this shit too much.”
His fingertips brushed her cheek and he turned toward the mutilated door
across the room. “Don’t be a stranger,”
he said over his shoulder.
Ayden sniffed and twisted back to the window
view. It was true. She lived for killing lycans. And the ruins of the city would always be home.
CHAPTER
ONE
Ice water.
The frigid
sensation sliced through Ayden’s veins, leaving a numb trail in its wake as she
stepped through the remains of the abandoned factory—one of many havens for the
crack addicts and prostitutes. The old Packard Plant had become no more than a
ghostly haunt for tormented souls.
Shitholes were
cropping up everywhere, much more rapidly than ever before. Detroit, once a
thriving city, brought to ruins. Gray and lifeless like the suffocating
overcast that loomed during daylight.
A vile stench
assaulted her nose, a potent blend of piss, sex and rotted meat, as garbage
crunched beneath her boots. Foundation had collapsed all around where she
stood, crumbled as if the building would fold into the depths of hell.
The graffiti
spattering the walls gave the impression that gangs were the real threat—‘We
don’t die, we multiply.’
Right. Like gangs own any part of this city,
anymore.
A Beretta,
loaded with silver bullets and a silver parrying dagger rested at one of
Ayden’s hips, a silver bullwhip at another, as she moved past comatose bodies
and decaying corpses.
Feeding grounds, like a bait pile.
Deadened eyes
slowly tracked her movement in the darkness, squinting, as though craving the
light that hers didn’t need to see. Humans so strung out on drugs, they failed
to recognize the half-eaten carrion were once their own kind.
Not that
knowing would stop them. They’d apparently chosen to face danger rather than
kick their addiction, roaming the streets every night in search of their next
high.
Lambs.
They were
already dead. Death just hadn’t come to collect yet.
The blissful
sigh of a hopped-up junkie reached her ears. She snarled her lip. “Enjoy it
while it lasts, asshole.”
It’d be one
thing if they were homeless. Hell, she might’ve fired a warning shot to
evacuate.
The homeless
didn’t come here, though.
Neither did
the police—making it the perfect spot to get wasted and hustle some money.
Shots fired
would’ve been nothing more than a momentary distraction before their minds
slipped back into their ignorant state of euphoria.
Screw ‘em.
For any other
girl, the place promised very bad things—an opportunity for a sadist to live
out wild fantasies without ever getting caught.
For Ayden? Humans
posed no threat. Their fragile bodies would shred like paper dolls against the
work of her hands. Luckily for them, she sought something else to sate her
thirst for bloodshed, something far more threatening than their most
psychopathic criminal—and she’d tracked it right to the surrounding cornucopia
of human flesh.
A thin, black
mesh hoodie beneath her jacket concealed her face while the shiny black leather
covering her body acted as a beacon in the moon’s light.
Full moon.
It didn’t
matter.
Contrary to
the fairytales and movies, they didn’t need a full moon to change.
Werewolves, some called them—like a supernatural Bigfoot on the loose. Nothing
more than fodder for the tabloids, not to be taken seriously.
Lycans is how those ‘in the know’ referred to them.
The bastards
could transform at will. In the middle of the day, if they wanted. Though, like
a true predator, they’d evolved throughout the centuries, eluding humans by
hunting them at night, catching their prey in their most vulnerable state.
Ayden reached
a door in a darkened corner. The stubborn panel held stiff against the push of
her palm, giving way only beneath one heave backed by exceptional strength.
Beyond, a spiral of stairs wound above and below. Visuals flashed through her
mind as she imagined the stairwell bustling with men in suits who passed each
other with carefree visages—every one of them ghosts that roamed the
destruction.
A quick scan
showed no movement.
She tipped her
head back and inhaled the repugnant scent the beasts had left behind.
They’re close.
Her feet took
light steps, hardly making a sound against the concrete as she descended
further into the pit of hell otherwise known as the lycan’s lair.
With each
step, she wished her heart would pound wildly in her chest, or that her pulse
rate would surge—both human reactions to fear. Neither of them did.
What fragments
of her human soul remained had been stripped bare the night the Alexi made her
one of their own. Even that, as tortuous as the unrelenting pain that seared
through her body while it underwent its transformation, was a memory she could
hardly summon anymore. Only a silent blackness dwelled in the place where
snapshots of her life would have roamed free, a void that she couldn’t see
beyond, separating her present from past.
She’d become
one of them: an Alexi soldier. A cold and remorseless killer designed to
eradicate in one sweep.
A noise piqued
her sensitive ears.
Two flights below.
It could’ve
been the skittering feet of a mouse beating against her skull like a base drum.
The thirst for
blood moved like a dark storm cloud through her veins, a mix of raw adrenaline
and something else—the something that came with her transformation.
Destroy.
Her feet moved
on impulse, carrying her closer to whatever it was, rendering it nothing more
than a thread-width away from its death.
In the corner
of a landing, he sat hunched over on himself, body convulsing.
A grin skated
across her face as she approached her first kill of the night.
Keri Lake's Author Bio:
Keri Lake is a married mother of
two living in Michigan. She writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy and
loves a good, tragic love story. Though novels tend to be her focus, she
also writes short stories and flash fiction whenever distraction manages to
suck her in to the Land of Shiny Things.When she isn’t toiling away on plots and protagonists, she enjoys reading, music and travel. If she could create mystical powers for herself, she’d have the ability to flash to anywhere in the world. And if she could flash to anywhere in the world at this very moment, she’d be staring at the ocean from her adirondack chair on the shores of North Carolina.
You can find Keri here:
Keri is also taking part in the Fire & Ice Hop and has some terrific prizes up for grabs to celebrate the release of Soul Avenged. Simply fill out the Rafflecopter entry below for your chance to win!
Grand Prize:
(Valued at approximately $280)
1-Kindle Fire HD
(approximate value $199)
1-Signed Paperback
Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1)
1-Sons of Wrath
t-shirt
1-Sons of Wrath
coffee mug
1-Soul Avenged
Notebook
1st Runner-Up: (Valued at approximately $75)
1-$25 iTunes
giftcard
1-Signed Paperback
Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1)
1-Sons of Wrath
t-shirt
1-Sons of Wrath
coffee mug
1-Sons of Wrath
notebook
2nd Runner-Up: (Valued at approximately
$35)
1-Signed Paperback
Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1)
1-Sons of Wrath
t-shirt
3 comments:
Looks like a good Lycan story. Love the cover
ciara(at)ciaraknight(dot)com
Another excellent little bit to give us a further glimpse at Ayden.
Thanks so much for hosting a tour stop!
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