Magic’s
Daughter
By
Ann Gimpel
Publisher:
Liquid Silver Books
ISBN:
978-1-93176-151-2
Release
Date: 4/8/13
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Destined
to be surrounded by magic yet have none of her own, Cassie walks a
thin line. Her mother is dying and her boyfriend has turned into
something that terrifies her. By the time she wakes up to the danger
she’s in, it’s nearly too late.
Her
clairvoyant friend Jeremy warns her about her scumbag boyfriend, but
she’s not listening. Deeply disturbing events unfold. Cassie’s
life hangs in the balance. She and Jeremy join forces to battle the
darkness threatening them. Meanwhile, Cassie warms to Jeremy in ways
she never could have anticipated. Love was always there if she’d
just opened her eyes and looked.
Read an excerpt:
Cassionetta Ceobbinn sat in her old Subaru and
rested her forehead against its steering wheel. Her electronic design
work had ground to a halt an hour earlier and a headache pounded
behind one eye. The garage of the Capitol Hill mansion rose around
her, silent as a crypt. Her mother’s Aston Martin sat off to one
side, gleaming white against the semi-darkness. Cassie girded herself
to open her car door, grab her things, and go inside. “It’s my
house, goddammit,” she muttered to boost her courage. “So what if
he sent me a text message not to come home.”
The garage lights came on, blinding her. The
door leading into the house crashed against the wall. Before the
ringing in her ears subsided, her live-in boyfriend stomped to her
car. Well, the live-in part was still accurate. The boyfriend part
seemed to have evaporated like so much smoke.
“You weren’t supposed to come home
tonight,” he growled. “I texted you hours ago. You can just turn
that piece of shit you drive around and go stay at your mother’s
office.”
Fury boiled up from her guts. She took aim and
opened the car door hard into his midsection, hoping she could clip a
ball for good measure.
“Oooph. You little bitch.” He jumped back
rubbing his hip.
You bet I am.
High heels slapping the concrete floor, she jumped out of her car and
stood eyeball to eyeball with him. “This is my mother’s house,
Tyler MacKenzie. I live here. Or have you forgotten?” Cassie yanked
her shoulder bag and computer case off the passenger side of the
front seat and stormed past him.
He grabbed her arm before she made the steps
leading into the kitchen. “I have people over. It’s the full
moon. I’m leading a séance. Your presence would disturb the
energy.”
She twirled to face him, breaking his grip.
“You mean you have mother’s clients over. Where is she, by the
way?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Haven’t seen
her.”
Cassie turned away from him. He closed his hand
over her arm again, hard enough to make her squeal. “If you don’t
let me go,” she snarled through clenched teeth, “I will call the
police.”
His fingers loosened marginally. “But,
sweetie…”
She heard compulsion beneath his words. Cassie
didn’t have any magic of her own, but she recognized it in others.
When Tyler wanted her to fall in love with him, he’d used honeyed
words all the time. They’d only stopped once she let him move in.
“Can it.” She twisted her head so she could
lock gazes with him. “Let me go. Now.” His hand fell away. “I
want you out of here tomorrow—”
His eyes narrowed. He shoved long, red-gold
hair out of his face and sneered at her. “Fat fucking chance of
that. We’ve had this conversation one too many times for my liking.
I’m here, and I intend to stay. There’s nothing you can do about
it. Unless you want to meet with an unfortunate accident.” A nasty
laugh bubbled past lips she’d actually thought were full and
sensual. “Of course something like that could happen anyway. If I
were you, sweetie,
I’d watch my back.”
Cassie shuddered. She swallowed, but her mouth
was dry. Maybe she’d underestimated Tyler. Once they’d stopped
getting along, she’d seen him as an inconvenience, not a menace.
He’d never sounded quite like this before though. There’d been
threats, but they’d been subtle, veiled in double entendre.
She squared her shoulders and turned to face
him. It was the kiss of death to let bullies know they were getting
to you. “I’m done with your crap.” She infused as much venom as
she could into her voice. “I will call the police. You threatened
me.”
He snorted. “I’d just deny it. They’ll
believe we had a lover’s spat. Women are so emotional.”
His blue eyes gleamed with an unnatural light.
She blinked. For a moment, he looked like a
demon one of her mother’s psychic friends had raised by accident.
Cassie knew enough about them—interdimensional beings that traveled
from world to world wreaking havoc—to scare the shit out of her.
Don’t be ridiculous.
Ridiculous, ridiculous echoed in her head. I’m
seeing things.
Her heartbeat sounded loud in her ears; her
hands fisted at her sides. “You’d better get back to your séance.
Wouldn’t want any of those high rollers to get away.”
Her face twisted into a grimace. Thank Christ
he spun on his heel and trotted smartly back into the house. Tyler
cut an elegant figure with his richly-embroidered gypsy cape, broad
shoulders, and classically handsome Nordic features. Flowing ruby
silk pants rode low on his slim hips. No wonder she’d been taken in
by him.
Fuming—and scared half to death—she
followed him into the house, but turned a hard left before she hit
the kitchen and took what had once been the servants’ staircase. It
had been stupid to fall for Tyler, one of the dumbest things she’d
ever done, but there was no going back. She couldn’t unravel time
and choose not to tumble into his arms and his bed. That part was a
done deal. If she listened to him, his residency at chéz Eleanora
was a done deal as well.
Shit!
Worry for her mother filled her, obliterating
her fears for her own safety. Eleanora Ceobbinn was—or had been—a
well-known psychic, but she’d apparently made one too many trips to
the far side of the veil. She was still alive, but she hadn’t
spoken a word in nearly a year, rattling around their old house like
a ghost.
Eleanora had come from money—and made plenty
on her own—so at least that wasn’t a problem, but her mother was
definitely fading. It was almost as if someone—Tyler?—were
feeding off what little energy she had left. Unable to shake her
earlier sense of foreboding, Cassie shivered. If she hadn’t been
holding onto her purse and computer bag, she would have wrapped her
arms around herself.
Maybe because she was thinking about her
mother—and the house had a mind of its own—she wasn’t surprised
to find herself beneath a full-sized oil painting of Eleanora. Lush
dark hair ended at knee level and her haunting violet eyes seemed
alive. People had told Cassie she looked like her mom, but she’d
never thought so. Eleanora was beautiful—and ageless. Cassie had
the hair and the eyes and the striking six foot height, but the
effect wasn’t nearly the same.
She still had no idea what had gone wrong the
day her mother checked out. She’d come home from work to find
Eleanora sprawled face down on the Oriental carpet in the séance
room, candles smoking black gouts of greasy flame. If there’d been
clients, they were nowhere to be found.
Her mother had regained consciousness, but that
had been about all. Cassie had known better than to lug her around to
a bunch of other doctors with their uncomfortable questions and
pained silences after the first one had asked, “Your mother does
what
for a living?”
Cassie dragged herself away from the portrait.
When she was a little girl, she’d believed her mother’s painted
eyes were the gateway to a magical world. She’d asked Eleanora and
her mother had smiled shrewdly. “Stranger things have happened,
child,” she’d said. “It’s best not to test this one.”
About the Author
Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Several paranormal romance novellas are available in e-format. Three novels, Psyche’s Prophecy, Psyche’s Search, and Psyche's Promise are small press publications available in e-format and paperback. Look for two more urban fantasy novels coming this summer and fall: Fortune’s Scion and Earth’s Requiem.
A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.
www.anngimpel.com
http://anngimpel.blogspot.com
http://www.amazon.com/author/anngimpel
http://www.facebook.com/anngimpel.author
@AnnGimpel (for Twitter)
Thanks so much for hosting me, Andrea. And for helping give Magic's Daughter an awesome release day.
ReplyDeleteHow does this conform to the rules for AtoZ Challenge? I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteMary at Mary A to Z
I can't stop my regular work just because of the A to Z Challenge. Those posts are labeled with #AtoZChallenge at the beginning of the title.
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