Hunted
by
Sarah Biglow and Molly Zenk
Genre:
Paranormal Romance, Alt-History
On
the hundredth anniversary of being turned into a vampire, Edith
Dorset joins her adopted daughters and their friends at the Heartsong
Clan’s annual Live Action Role Play recruitment event where she
meets an eager young man named Dan Paxton. His older brother and
Hunter, Darren, thinks Dan’s merely chaperoning a trip to a nerd
convention, but has no idea he’s partnered with vampires for the
weekend.
When
Darren discovers Dan missing, he follows the only lead he has to the
Heartsong Clan’s residence on Tombstone Row. Edith and Darren’s
first meeting is uneasy because he lies his way into the Clan’s
house, claiming to be there to play on the side of humans. He’s
determined to keep his Hunter instincts in check, rescue his brother,
and get it out of there.
An
impromptu late-night encounter leads Darren and Edith to come clean
with each other about who and what they are. Edith longs to keep
Darren and his brother close, although it goes against Clan rules,
and Darren is finding it harder than he thought to snuff out Edith
and her family. Darren and Edith grow closer as they seek out the
truth from her Sire, Mr. Heartsong.
While
Darren uses all his Hunter skills to free his brother and be the
hero, Mr. Heartsong banishes Edith from the Clan for her behavior
towards Darren. No longer having Clan protection, Edith is faced with
a terrible choice. Just as Darren returns with Hunter reinforcements,
Heartsong and his Clan have vanished, along with Edith and her
family. All that remains is a note from Edith, begging Darren to find
them. And so, the hunt begins.
Amazon
* B&N
* Google
* Smashwords
* Books2Read
Get
the paperback for 50% off from the publisher!
“You shouldn’t be down here,” Edith’s voice called from my left.
I turned to face her. “I was just checking on my brother.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. I was hoping we could speak more. It appears we both require little sleep.”
“What about?” I probed.
“We like to get to know our participants.”
I could tell by the ghost of a smile on her lips she didn’t want to just get to know me. She wanted to keep an eye on me. I hadn’t betrayed my orders to her and Danny was loyal enough to the Hunter Academy to keep his mouth shut. Maybe I could use her to get the information I’d coming looking for.
“If you answer some of my questions.”
“I would be happy to. Perhaps the library would be a more comfortable place for a chat than a hallway?” she suggested.
“Lead the way.”
I followed her down the winding staircase and through a short corridor on the left into a large library. They filled the shelves with fewer books than I expected for a group who had been alive for centuries. Some shelves held no books, only trinkets of eras gone by. No pictures lined the walls which sent up red flags in my mind. They were doing everything they could to hide the truth of their existence from the poor suckers asleep two floors up.
“You said earlier you’ve been doing this thing for five years. Are you aware of the rumors about people going missing from the conventions every year?”
I observed her expression. For a split second her eyes widened at my question. Then her face returned to a calm mask. “I hadn’t heard, no. That’s troubling.”
“Some people say it is people that end up here for your little weekend role play. You sure you know nothing about that?”
“All of our participants leave at the end of the weekend. Do you think we keep them here against their will?”
“I don’t know. But, playing at being vampires seems like a good excuse to add to the ranks.”
“If we were real vampires, perhaps.”
She would not let the pretense slip unless I forced her. “Have you ever heard the name Heartsong?”
“Why?” Her voice shook.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. Tell me about him.”
“I never said…” she trailed off, giving me the opening I needed. Time to get up close and personal.
I closed the gap between us, pulling a short blade from beneath my shirt. She took a step back, bumping into a chair and I had her cornered. My blade came up just below her nose. If she’d been human, her shallow breathing would have fogged the blade. It reflected her face.
“I know what you are. Vampire,” I whispered, my lips centimeters from the cool flesh of her cheek.
She hissed at me like I’d seen in my head, her elongated incisors bared at me. She didn’t attack or try to bite me. Instead, tears fell, leaving damp tracks on her skin. Not the reaction I’d hoped for at all. Anxious energy coursed through my body, begging release. Edith pushed me away with just enough force to make me stumble.
“This is not what you think,” she said and wiped at her eyes.
“So those are fakes, then?” I gestured to her teeth.
“They are real. And you are a very astute man. This weekend is about filling our ranks but we would never harm our guests.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That is your right but I would hope you are also a reasonable man willing to hear me out.” She pointed to my knife. “I would feel much safer if you laid down your weapon and emptied your pockets.”
“Not gonna happen.”
An Interview With Molly Zenk
Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
Molly: I’ve always loved telling stories. I remember being in elementary school and writing short stories in a little notebook. Through high school, it was always something I did for fun as a creative outlet. In college was when I really got serious about writing for publication. I taught high school English, Creative Writing and Poetry for several years before leaving classroom teaching to stay at home and raise my kids. That’s when my writing hobby became more than a hobby.
What do you do to unwind and relax?
Molly: I like to read, watch tv, or listen to the quiet. It’s great to have a little down time when the kids are in school. It’s never quiet when everyone is home.
How to find time to write as a parent?
Molly: I used to write during their nap times. Now I write when they’re in school. My “work” hours are their school hours. I don’t work after school, weekends, or school breaks.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Hunted?
Molly: Hunted is an alt-history vampire tale where vampires live among humans as second-class citizens. Most try to fly below the radar and not do anything to bring the vampire hunters to their door. Others are intent on reviving the Vampire/Human Civil War. At the center of it all is a vampire (Edith) and a Hunter (Darren) who must work together to save his brother from a LARP game with deadly consequences.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
Molly: Darren’s reactions and one liners make me laugh every time. He tries so hard to be a big, tough soldier boy but there’s a softness underneath all that bravado. He’s not your typical romantic lead. I like that.
Sarah
Biglow
is a USA Today Bestselling author of cozy mysteries, urban fantasy
and paranormal romance. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband
and son. She is a licensed attorney and spends her days combating
employment discrimination as an Investigator with the Massachusetts
Commission Against Discrimination.
She
is a self-professed TV junkie and in her spare time (what's that?),
she runs a TV recap blog with her best friend (and sorority sister),
Jen. Sarah currently enjoys an array of TV shows including (but
definitely not limited to) This Is Us, The Good Doctor, Doctor Who,
Lucifer and any show with Chicago in the title by Dick Wolf.
USA
Today Bestselling Author MOLLY
ZENK
was born in Minnesota, grew up in Florida, lived briefly in Tennessee
before finally settling in Colorado. She graduated from Flagler
College in St. Augustine, FL with degrees in Secondary Education,
English, and Creative Writing. She write across genres but primarily
YA, romance, historical, and urban fantasy/paranormal. She is married
to a Mathematician/Software Engineer who complains about there not
being enough "math" or info about him in her author bio.
They live in Arvada, CO with their daughters.
$25 Amazon
Join us for the Book Tour with Guest Post & #Giveaway
#hunted #paranormal #althistory #romance #sarahbiglow #mollyzenk
Comments
Post a Comment