Trinkets (etc) – sneak peek – excerpt #2

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

EXCERPT #1

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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I scanned the immediate area. I could feel the vampire nearby, but he had a super annoying ability to somehow contain or cloak his magic, so that I wasn’t sure of direction or proximity. I couldn’t pick up any trace of the green-haired werewolf. Kandy moved way faster than me through the forest, so she’d probably found the end range of my dowser senses. Plus, she had practically inhaled — even while driving — the dozen cupcakes I’d brought for the hike before we’d even parked the SUV at Alice Lake, so she had a lot of fuel to burn.

A shimmer of sunlight caught my eye … no, not sunlight. What was that? I was done with the sulking and on my feet before I even made the decision. Wow, that was me in a nutshell.

The glimmer of magic beckoned from the side of a cedar tree, as if something supernatural had brushed against it at shoulder height. I usually didn’t see such incidental traces, but I was learning to just go with the heightened-powers persona instead of freaking out about it all the time.

“Gotcha,” I murmured, thinking Kandy had inadvertently left me a clue. Though I wasn’t totally clear if I was actually playing hide-and-seek with the werewolf or if she’d just gotten fed up being around the vampire and had taken off. Both scenarios were equally possible.

Except that as I got closer, the glimmer didn’t look exactly like Kandy’s magic … its base color was green, but leafy, not grassy. It was too dim for me to pick up any taste —

“The foremost magical authority …”

I actually jumped as the vampire’s cool voice sounded right next to my ear. God, I hated it when he did that. I spun around but the immediate area was vampire free.

“The foremost magical authority,” Kett prompted again. His voice floated in from the right, but I stopped myself from spinning in that direction. Everything was a test with him, but I couldn’t complain because I’d asked for it. Yep, I had promised to treasure hunt for the vampire if he agreed to fill in some of the holes in my magical education.

There were a lot of holes. And Gran was still spitting mad about bargaining with a vampire. If she’d had her way, Kett would have been ash three months ago. Hell, she probably would have let the untethered magic of Sienna’s pentagram just swallow him.

Ah, Sienna. What was that? A full five minutes without thinking of my foster sister and the black magic that destroyed her? I shoved the ache in my throat back down to its permanent place in my heart, then turned to scan for Kett’s magic.

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