Trinkets (etc) – sneak peek – excerpt #1

Update: Jen won this week’s giveaway! YAY, Jen! Please check the giveaway page for more chances to win.

The following is a (approx.) 450 word excerpt from my upcoming release, Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic. This is not the final proof. Release date: December 27, 2013

WARNING: this MAY contain spoilers for the Dowser #1.

Comment on this post to win a prerelease ebook (eARC). An excerpt and chance to win will be posted every Friday in December leading up to the release date. A new winner will be selected by random number generator after 12noon PST every Friday throughout December. 

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Fully aware that the vampire was watching me from somewhere deeper in the woods, I placed my second to last piece of single-origin Madagascar chocolate on my tongue and lovingly sucked on it. The smooth, creamy, dark-roasted cocoa teased my taste buds and I instantly relaxed.

I wasn’t going to freak out about being stranded in the Squamish forest. I wasn’t going to freak out about being damp from my blond curls to my perfectly painted pink toenails. And I really, really wasn’t going to freak out about running out of chocolate in the middle of bloody nowhere while being harassed by a vampire and stalked by a werewolf.

Okay. I was exaggerating, but only a little. My toes, crammed into clunky, very practical — but ultimately ugly — hiking boots were bone dry.

Everything else was the utter truth, from my perspective at least. Except the werewolf would say ‘training,’ not stalking. And the vampire would — if he bothered to explain at all — call harassment ‘education.’

The last of the chocolate melted in my mouth with no hint of bitter aftertaste, and I opened my indigo eyes, ready to move forward. I was good at moving forward — baby steps, at least — because if I really paused to think or take mental stock, I was afraid I wouldn’t ever get going again.

I was sitting on a fallen, moss-covered tree — a cedar, maybe — surrounded by more trees. Though these ones were still upright and thick enough that I wouldn’t be able to wrap my arms around them. You know, if I felt like hugging trees. I was currently somewhere in a valley that cut between multiple mountains and led eventually, I thought, to Whistler ski resort. I could see three snow-covered peaks without turning my head. Whistler, known for its world-class skiing and fantastic restaurants, would be a great location for a second Cake in a Cup bakery. That is, if I ever got out of this forest and felt like working for more than twelve hours a day, six days a week. I was close enough to a river — the Squamish River, I hoped — that I could hear but not see it. No trails cut through the underbrush. The sun, which had just made an appearance, glinted off water droplets caught on fern leaves. My phone declared the time to be 2:23 p.m., but I had no signal.

So, yeah. I was lost.

The vampire wasn’t in a helpful mood, which was usually fine by me, because whenever he was helpful, it creeped me out. Helpful usually meant he was satiated. And what satiated vampires? Blood. Not mine, so far at least. Not that he wouldn’t fang me in a split second, even if he was all detached with his cool peppermint magic and carved-ice features. A girl just knows — with guys or vampires, though other girls, not so much.

Anyway, lost.

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