Cover Reveal - Stories For Halloween by Joy Kamen n Yolanda Renee Et al

Halloween Special

Stories For Halloween
by Joy Kamen, Sabrina York & Yolanda Renee, Et al
Special short story collection
Trick or Treat for UNICEF the paranormal romance way.

Available only through Halloween 2013

Thirteen original stories and book excerpts by thirteen authors ideal for Halloween featuring vampires, werewolves, ghosts, fantastical characters, witches and warlocks, the grim reaper, genies, and serious psychos. Some are suspenseful, creepy, paranormal, romantic, and steamy romantic stories.

Only $1.00 and every penny from this fundraiser is going to UNICEF (less a small vendor download fee).

Original story authors include Joy Kamen, Lauralynn Elliott, Sara Barnard, Jenny Twist, Yolanda Renee, Tara Fox Hall, Elle Bright, and G.D. Steel.

Excerpt authors include Sabrina York, Daniel Black, Maureen Willett, Yolanda Renee, and Julie L. York.

With a special bonus unpublished excerpt from an upcoming release from Mary Moriarty

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Content/Theme(s): Suspense, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches
Release Date: October 2013
Format: PDF
More on each story & excerpt

Special Purchase link:   Add to Cart

Original Short Stories

The Third Wish By Lauralynn Elliott
Beth was prepared to spend Halloween alone giving out candy to Trick or Treaters. Little did she know, when a young girl left a beautiful bottle on her porch, that her life was going to change forever.

Desperado By Sara Barnard
Texas teen Shelby accidentally conjures the ghost of an Old West desperado while on a family camping trip. It is up to Shelby to discover what the desperado is seeking, before the Old West ghost drives them into the afterlife with him.

As I Was Going Down The Stair… By Jenny Twist
An older woman confronts a dark presence.

Happy Halloween By Yolanda Renee
Halloween night turns horrific for a young woman crushing on her mysterious neighbor. This short story won runner up in a Flash Fiction contest.

Drive By Tara Fox Hall
All Jodie wants to do is dance, to forget her recent divorce in music and revelry with her friend. But a stop at the wrong house leads to a nightmare edge of your seat drive with a killer bent on getting deadly revenge.

Come Back To Me By Elle Bright
Some ghost stories are worth believing in... Navy wife, Andy Davenport would give anything to change the past and make amends with her husband, Tyler. The only problem is, he never made it back from deployment. Could a little magic on Halloween night be her chance to make things right?

Moon’s Path, Water’s Edge By G.D. Steel
Mannan MacLir of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, God of the Sea does not really know what love is, but he is obsessed with one Irish lass. Usually he loves them and leaves them, but something about Minerva has always drawn him to her.

Minerva thought she saved a drowning man and fell in love. Now there are consequences for her one day of folly for her seaman was no ordinary man.

The Goddess Danu, The Mother of all of the Tuatha wants her son to find love and her grandchild to be safe from the greed of man. Can she help prod love along? Can this mortal girl teach a God about love and family?

The Beast Curse By Joy Kamen
While on an autumn getaway at her late grandma’s lakeside cottage, Lindsey Rose falls for a reclusive biker with a dark secret.

Story Excerpts
I’ve Been Waiting For You By Mary Moriarty
The year is 2010 and Odin Mac Muchada is assigned as one of the body guards for the daughter of future Queen of their kind. Her name is Sally and Odin knew from that moment he saw her, she was his… he would have to wait two years to tell her “I’ve been waiting for you…” This is the explosive sequel to “One Thousand Years to Forever.”

Trickery By Sabrina York
Though seducing a mortal is expressly forbidden, novice witch Willow Ostreth wants Austin. Bad. Unbeknownst to Willow, Austin—the glorious, delicious specimen who makes her heart pound and her body weep—is no mere mortal. He’s really Damien DeWinter, a powerful warlock, a man determined to lure Willow—and bind her—to his bed.

When the luscious Willow breaks the rules and uses her magic to ensnare him, Damien—rebel, renegade, outcast from the Witching World—figures he has carte blanche to pursue her and seduce her using any means possible. And his arsenal is vast. What neither of them realizes as they tempt and torment each other with pleasure is that there’s a greater magic at work here. One that could bind them together, forever.

The Death of Magic By Daniel Black
In the excerpt “Thor and Sif,” as Thor recovers from his trauma induced coma, his wife, a fellow god, tells him about the son and family he never knew he had, and to help him understand the new world they are in and their place in it.

The Soul Stealer by Maureen Willett
Half-human Hunter Blackthorne has almost everything he needs: mastery of magic and the art of deception. Now, all he needs is Malia to complete his destiny. His power depends on her demise. If only he didn't care for her so much. As Hunter lands in Hawaii from his alternate reality, he knows he'll have to set aside his emotions if he is to obtain Malia's soul.

Memories of Murder By Yolanda Renee
"Sarah is damaged by her past but afraid to ask for help, Quaid is ambitious, capable, and worried about his career, but they don't completely trust one another. Put these two complex characters and their complicated relationship in the midst of a truly terrifying mystery and you have the second masterfully written book in Yolanda Renee's, Memories of Murder." ~ Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Solomon Aleph By Julie L. York
For Solomon Aleph: Jamie had no idea that she was special until the day she literally ran into a General. But he wasn't just any General. In fact, he wasn't human. And neither was she. Solomon is the Regional Alpha, in charge of all Weres in North America. After meeting Jamie, his worst nightmare has come true. Decades ago unmated females were taken and killed. Jamie was the end game.

For Defender: Fitzwilliam Pederson might hate his name, but he loves his best friend, Solomon Aleph, fiercely and undeniably. Picked by Solomon to become the Alpha's Lieutenant, eventually, doesn't mean an easy ride. Primed from childhood to become the first University graduated Were doctor, his teasing personality hides Solomon's most vehement defender.


Excerpt: Trickery Chapter One by Sabrina York
“You can’t be serious, Willow.” Skylar Skarsgård tipped her head and gazed over her shaded glasses at the waiter…just as he bent to pick up a heavy box. Two things were supremely evident--his bulging pecs and his tight, firm ass. “He is yummy,” she murmured reflectively. She recalled herself and turned to glare at her protégé, her albatross. “The Council would have a fit. And not just because you plan to seduce a mortal.”

“But he’s so hot.” Willow wriggled in her chair just to emphasize the point.

Skylar ignored her. Ignored her bouncing red curls and glittering green eyes. The pink tongue dabbing at bow-shaped lips. For a moment, she envied Willow’s zest for life, the enthusiasm of the young. But then she remembered her own trials during her early years and snorted. There were costs. In all things. Willow would learn this. Life would temper her. It always did. Skylar hoped for Willow the lessons wouldn’t be too painful…or come too late.

There was a lot at stake here and the burden was on Skylar to make sure disaster didn’t descend. Trouble was, Willow—darling, daring, impetuous Willow—was disaster waiting to happen.

“You simply cannot use your magic to seduce him. It’s against the rules.”

Willow put out a lip. “It’s not fair.”

“No. It’s not.” Most novitiates completed this phase of their training well before they hit puberty, when sexual energy was easily reined in, channeled. Willow had been discovered late. Extremely late. But it had been a joyous discovery for the coven, for the entire Witching World. In a time when technology seemed to be snuffing magic out, it was a miracle to find pure, unbridled and true talent.

Skylar shot a look at her protégé. Well. Perhaps the talent could have been a little more bridled.

She sighed. Willow was a trial. She was willful and impatient and stubborn and, dear Gaia, horny. But the Congregation needed her. Her talent, her magic. Her power. She was the secret to their survival. The Auspices had so decreed.

“It’s not my fault I can’t attract men in the normal way anymore. I don’t understand why Midea had to make me this hideous.” Willow mangled a paper napkin, her attention fixed on the waiter. Skylar could smell her arousal.

She forced her lips into something akin to a smile and patted Willow’s hand. She understood the girl’s pain. When she—or any of the Sisters—looked at Willow, they saw her true self, a bubbly, charming, beautiful woman, a truly talented witch. What others saw, what mortal humans saw, well, it wasn’t pretty. Chin hairs and back fat and googly eyes. No wonder men barely noticed her. Midea had certainly outdone herself with this spell. The Great Mother Witch was determined to keep her little treasure pure.

“Your obscurity protects you, Willow. And not just from random, unworthy men who will want you.”

“And what if I want them?”

“What part of unworthy don’t you understand? Soon you’ll be an Enchantress. You’ll take the vows. You have an obligation to propagate the magic. You can’t just fuck any old,” she waggled her fingers in the vague direction of the screeching espresso machine, “coffee vendor.”

“That coffee vendor is hot.”

“Yes. He is.” He was. Extraordinarily so. He would have to be, to snag Skylar’s attention. She’d been a member of the Congregation for more years than she could count. She’d lost her taste for mortal men, ordinary men. And so would Willow—even super-hot coffee vendors with—dear Gaia. Was he flexing his bicep?

Oh. He was.

Skylar studied the bulging, veined muscles for a moment, let her gaze drift to the cut abs visible through his tight tee shirt. A little drool pooled in her mouth.

She shook her head. What was she thinking? Ah yes. Willow. She, too, would lose her interest in mundane men. If she could just be patient.

It would only take a hundred years or so.

“Darling, that boy is not for you.”

Willow crossed her arms and huffed. “It’s my Coming Out. I don’t understand why I can’t celebrate it the way I want.”

“You’ll celebrate it the way we all do. In the Sacred Circle. The Goddess will select a mate for you and that will be that.” Skylar drained her coffee.

“What if I don’t want someone picking out a mate for me? What if I don’t want him?”

Skylar had to laugh at her naiveté. “You will. You will.” Warlocks could be the most seductive creatures—when they wanted to. During certain times of the year, they were downright irresistible. There was a reason they stayed on their side of the Circle. There was a reason some witches kept their distance. And she wasn’t thinking of one man in particular. She wasn’t. Determinedly, she thrust him from her mind.

She stood and kissed her protégé on the cheek. “I have to fly now.” She shook a finger in Willow’s face. “You be good now, you hear?”

***
You be good now, you hear?

Willow glared out at the street as she watched her mentor disappear. The untutored eye would never have noticed the ripple, the distortion in the Fabric as Skylar disappeared herself and took to the sky, but Willow had seen it.

The Sisters in her coven treated her like a child. It was terribly annoying. They wrapped her in cotton wool and hovered over her shoulder and protected her all the time. All Willow wanted to do was practice her magic, to explore this exciting new power—the power she’d always had but only just discovered.

She’d studied hard, learned all the spells in the standard book and then begun exploring the archives. Midea had a fit when she discovered Willow in there the first time but now she was used to it. Well, kind of.

All her hard work had paid off and she was ready for her Coming Out, the ritual officially welcoming her into the fold. She would become a real witch, with permission to cast any spell she liked.

She bit back a grin. What a lucky thing Skylar hadn’t smelled the spell she’d already begun weaving around Austin. It was a subtle incantation, a dusty mote she’d found buried in the archives. A calling spell. And it was already starting to work.

It hadn’t been an easy enchantment. Calling spells, seduction amulets and lust potions were tricky at best. For one thing, they didn’t work if the target wasn’t, in some dark corner of his soul, willing to be beguiled. So in addition to the tedious work creating and balancing various elements of this charm, Willow had also had to find a way to reveal herself to him.

A man like Austin would never want her unless he could perceive her true self.

It had taken awhile because, damn it all, Midea wove tight, nearly impenetrable magic. But Willow had finally figured it out. Finally poked a hole in the repugnant mask.

Austin approached and Willow’s heart skittered with anticipation. She reveled in the broad expanse of his shoulders, imagining what that exquisite body was like beneath the tightly stretched fabric of his tee shirt.

“Can I get you anything else?” His voice was sexy, a dark dulcet melody. Flirtation glittered in his eyes. Ah. He could see her. The spell was nearly complete. She could taste it.

“No thank you, Austin.”

He grinned. A glorious raft of dimples exploded on one cheek. “Hey, you know my name.”

She pointed at his chest. “It’s on your name tag.”

“Oh. Right.” He laughed and slapped a hand over the metal plate. “What’s your name?”

“Willow.”

“Willow. That’s pretty.” He stood there for a moment gazing at her with his head tipped to the side like a puppy dog. “Say, my shift’s over in a few minutes. Can I walk you home?”

Willow boggled. Holy hell. Surely the spell wasn’t working this quickly? But then again, maybe it was. His expression seemed rather…doting. “W-walk me home?”

He nodded. A thick black curl flopped onto his forehead. Damn, he was cute. “We do live in the same building.”

“We do?” She’d never noticed.

“I think so. I’ve seen you getting mail.”

How on earth could she have missed him? She really needed to pay more attention to things. Certain things, anyway.

“Yeah. That’d be great.”

“Awesome.” He sketched a wave. “I’ll be back in five.”

And as easily as that, Willow lured her first man with magic.

And broke her first cardinal rule.

If anyone found out, there’d be hell to pay.
~~~~~~

Find out more about these authors at:
http://www.joykamen.com/Page_2.html

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