The
Reaper's Sacrifice
Deathmark, #2
By Abigail Baker
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Entangled Otherworld Select
Release Date: June
27, 2016
It’s been two years
since I tried to overthrow Death...
Now, all I have to
show for it is a life in exile without my lover and personal Grim Reaper, Brent
Hume. He bargained his soul for my safety. If I could get him back, I would,
but I don't don't have the first idea how. So I live for the night when Reaper’s
bring nightmares to the living—and Brent visits me in mine. Doesn’t make for a
good night’s sleep, but I’ll take what little of him I can get.
When Death comes
calling, sending me into an old foe’s camp as a spy, my inner rebel awakens
once more. If I play my cards right, I might improve upon my growing Master
Scrivener powers and finally free Brent so that we can be together for good. I
know he’ll do anything to keep me safe—even if it means I’ll never see him
again. And that scares the Hell out of me.
I started to drift
off, and then I felt him watching me. Ollie, he said in that old world Kentucky
drawl. Ollie, hear me?
“Brent?” Within
this dream, I sat rail straight in the plastic lawn chair as crickets chirped
nearby. He’d never been able to speak directly to me in the dreams before. My
eyes welled with tears on hearing him again. But the dark presence I had come
to know as Brent was nowhere. He had never failed to show himself in my dreams
since we’d parted. And I was still asleep, right? From one side of the yard to
the other, I searched. Nothing. “Brent, where are you?”
Ollie… His
voice was closer, but he wasn’t there. I miss you. His voice broke.
My eyes watered.
Immediately tears poured rivers down my cheeks. It didn’t take much to make me
cry these days. But this…his voice, the anguish in just three little words, was
enough to crack me wide open. “I miss you, too. Where are you? Are you here? In
Montana?” Please, please, be here, Brent.
He grew silent, but
was near. I waited for the entire world to grow still in anticipation of his
reply.
What do you miss
most? he asked.
Somehow I laughed
at the question, which felt too common and boring for this method of
interaction. I rubbed my eyes in the vain hope he’d appear before me as the
Kentuckian backwoods lumberjack that I loved. “I miss the way you feel against
me. I haven’t forgotten.”
How could I forget?
Electricity had buzzed between us. Little sparks jumped from my body to his
when we were close. That was not a feeling that could ever be forgotten. And it
was one of the rare things that kept me going. I had to believe I would feel
this again one day, and I would lose myself in it for eternity.
“What do you miss
about me?” I asked.
If I listed
everything, then you’d laugh at me. If I told you I missed everything, darlin’,
right down to those freckles on your cheeks, would that be enough? Too much? Invisible
fingers, icy, as death should be, fluttered across my forehead. There was
nothing there for me to see. Brent was so close but still millions of light
years away.
I’m trying to bring
change, he said, moving from anguish to business. But it’s not happening fast
enough. I’ll need your help soon. Are you ready?
“Just tell me what
you need.”
Soon. His presence,
usually dark and ominous, grew faint. He didn’t feel as powerful as he once
had, and that terrified me. Nonetheless, I’d rather have him near, even if for
only this moment. I wanted to grab ahold of him, dig my fingers into the flesh
around his wrists, and pull him straight through the dream wall between us. I
wanted to but…I Couldn’t.
“Will I ever get to
see you again?” I had to know the answer, and I held onto the question and my
hope like a vise, like I was holding onto him alone.
You’re being set
up. Don’t trust them…
“Brent, what do
you—”
Don’t trust them,
Ollie.
“Who?!”
Coldness trickled
like rainwater down my shoulders and spine.
They’re coming for
you. They’re here.
Book
One: The Reaper's Kiss
Abigail Baker
shares her home with a Siamese cat endearingly named “The Other Cat” and two rescued
mutts with mundane human names that people think are cute. In addition to
writing about rebellious heroines, she enjoys hiking, discovering craft beers,
baking the perfect vanilla bean cupcake, and rock climbing (going as far as
scaling 800 vertical feet to the summit of Devil’s Tower National Monument in
2013).
Abigail won first
place in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s 2010 Colorado Gold Writing Contest
for Romance for THE BLOODSUCKER and first place in RWA’s Golden Network’s 2011
Golden Pen in Paranormal Romance for TATTOO OF YOUR NAME ACROSS MY SOUL (now
THE REAPER’S KISS, Deathmark Book One). She regularly blogs about life
observances, lives at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and can be easily found
hiking any of Colorado’s best trails.
Thank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this! xAbby
ReplyDelete