Love After Dark features nine bestselling authors who create worlds and love within them. Not only will you find love between the pages but new content relating to their fabulous series! This bundle will include Brina Courtney, Ella James, Quinn Loftis, A.O Peart, Alivia Anders, HeatherHildenbrand, Julia Crane, Melissa Pearl and Beth Shelby.
4. Illumine by
Alivia Anders
The nerves returned once more, and I
shifted in my shoes, uncomfortable. “You do know what you’re
doing, right?”
“Of course,” he said, sounding
assured. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I’ve never seen anything like
this. What if we accidentally open up a portal to Hell, or summon a
demon, or curse me with boils for life?”
Chase laughed. “Relax. I read
about this in a book I picked up from a little Wiccan shop outside
the city. You won’t come out with boils on your face.” He came to
a stop near the end of the circle, leaving a small patch free of
salt. He set the bag down and stepped into the circle with me. Gently
he took one of my hands, and I watched as he pressed a kiss to the
palm. “You’re going to be just fine.”
“We’re going to be just fine,”
I corrected him, smiling nervously. “After all, this is happening
to both of us, right?”
He nodded, rubbing my palm with his
thumb in slow, lazy circles. “More or less, yes.”
I started to ask what he meant when
I felt the pain pulse in my palm. Immediately I yanked my hand back
from his and cried out. “What the hell, Chase?” I looked at my
hand, stunned to see a bubble of blood that began to run along my
wrist like a ribbon. It was then I noticed the small, silver dagger
in Chase’s hand, the blade tip coated in blood. My blood.
My head began to spin, and I swayed
in my spot. Chase backed away with remarkable speed, and by the time
I found focus, the circle had been closed in completely.
“Chase,” I said, hearing the
weakness in my voice. “You’re scaring me.”
His eyes had turned to the small
bowl of water in front of the circle, where he dipped the blade tip
into until the water turned a light shade of pink. “Sorry, love. I
should have said it might hurt a little bit.” He glanced up at me
as he crouched before the water dish, and in the candlelight he
looked possessed. “You know what they say. The best things in life
come with a little pain.”
“Who the hell said that?” I
challenged back, shaking. I started to move toward the edge of the
circle, keeping pressure on my hand. The blood had started to run
over my fingers, the sticky liquid nauseating. “This is sick, you
know that? I’m not doing this, I take it back. I don’t want to
bond with you.”
A figure stepped out from the
shadow, all glitter and beauty. Her voice was charming, even when she
was cruel. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Cassie?” I practically cried.
“Oh my gosh, Cassie, go get the hotel staff, call for the police!
Chase is out of his mind over here—” I paused, repeating her
words in my head. “Wait, wouldn’t do what?”
Her eyes flickered to Chase, and she
crossed the room to him, cupping his face lovingly. “I’m sorry it
took me so long. You really hurt me, you know.”
“I always hurt you,” he said,
practically sneering. “You get too sensitive when we linger around
mortals. I like you better when you take my heat and fire it back at
my heart like you used to.”
“Funny. Last time I did that, you
whined that you’d find another Necromancer to keep your sagging
excuse for a body alive.” She pinched his cheek, tsking. “How’s
that working out for you, darling?”
Chase pushed her aside and muttered
something under his breath, and Cassie cracked a dark grin. Her eyes
turned back to me as she folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t
take this personally, Essallie. We’ve been sacrificing people for
decades. It comes with the deal we made forever ago.” She stepped
closer to the edge of the circle, and I inched closer. “I’d chalk
it up to bad luck. Normally, we’d just pluck some drunken idiot off
the street or from a homeless shelter. But once Chase found out what
you were—”
“Cassandra,” he said warningly.
“You are forbidden from telling her.”
She sneered back at him. “I know,
I know. Always the party-pooper.” Cassie flicked her eyes back to
me, smug. “Let’s just say, your blood is worth all the riches in
the world.”
They continued to bicker back and
forth, lighting candles and pulling out various small bags from
different corners of the room. I didn’t know what to think at this
point. My ex-boyfriend and best friend had to be insane. They thought
magic was real? That they had to sacrifice someone? I thought back to
Cassie’s words about picking up drunks from bars, and started to
wonder if the men she had taken to her place after our nights out
ever made it back home. They were mad, absolutely out of their minds.
And I wasn’t going to stick around for them to kill me in their
insanity.
I spotted the dagger at the edge of
the circle and moved for it, reaching out to grab the hilt. As soon
as my skin hit the edge of the circle, the salt lining it erupted
into a wall of fire, striking my skin. I screamed and fell back onto
the ground, cradling my burnt arm against my chest. What the hell was
going on?
5. Dirty Blood by
Heather Hildenbrand
I
felt the air in the car begin to change as I stared back at him. It
felt warm and thick, like a
humid, post-rain summer
day. And even though we were already touching, palm to palm, I
suddenly had an intense
desire to be closer to him, pressed to him. My muscles ached with it
and I had to restrain myself from scooting across the seat, and
wrapping my arms around his shoulders, and burying my face in his
neck.
The
image wouldn’t remove itself from my mind and I finally had to
wrench my gaze from his to keep from acting on the impulse. I was
breathing heavier, partly because of the thickness in the air and
partly from wanting to touch him. I wondered if he was affected, too,
but I couldn’t look at him again or I wouldn’t be able to stop
myself.
His
hand slid free from mine, and he started the car and busied himself
with checking the rearview and easing us out of the lot. I pressed
the button for the window, letting in a gust of cold air. For once, I
didn’t curse the cold, and was relieved when I felt the tension
melt away.
When
we were on the road, Wes cleared his throat. “Well, that was …”
I
lifted my head from where I’d been leaning closer to the open
window and looked over at him. He was running a hand through his
hair, still searching for a word to describe what had
happened. He’d
noticed it, too. “Different,” I finished.
He
sent me a half smile. “Yeah. Definitely that.”
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Reveal
by Brina Courtney
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with Brina Courtney:
Shay
could be the key to ending a war that humans don't know exist. Of a
race of beings that aren't real, or are they? Shay Tafford's
childhood has been fatherless, filled instead with memories of
speaking to the dead. She is forced to hide her unique ability from
those living around her. That's why it's been comforting to have
Jeremy, a child ghost, as her confidante. But recently he's been
absent, perhaps lost as her father is. When Shay meets Hugh, the guy
she's had a crush on for weeks, and finds he can speak to ghosts too
she's just starting to find a normalcy in her life. But as Hugh
reveals the truth to Shay, about who she really is and about what it
is she can do, he erases all chances she had at a normal existence.
Turns out talking to ghosts is just scratching the surface of her
genetically engineered gifts. Shay learns she may be part of an age
old prophecy that could save the entire race of cryptids. But can
she?
Here
by Ella James
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with Ella James:
Milo
Mitchell's life used to be charmed, but that was before her family
dissolved, she went a little crazy, and her best friends started
acting more like strangers. Spending Saturday morning in a treehouse
with a stun gun for company and a herd of deer for friends is the
only exciting thing in her life...until she shoots a fawn and finds
her dart stuck in a guy. Her gorgeous victim is dressed in a Brioni
tux and armed with a hanky. He has no idea who or where he is. Afraid
her dart caused his amnesia, Milo takes him in, names him Nick, and
vows to help him solve his mystery. Soon the pair find Nick's face in
a newspaper obituary, and Nick beings to have strange, ethereal
memories of Milo--who is sure she's never met him. Suddenly Nick
knows things he shouldn't know and is doing things he shouldn't do.
When the Department of Defense shows up, Nick and Milo run--toward a
shocking conclusion that could destroy both their worlds.
Illumine
by Alivia Anders
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with Alivia Anders:
For
the past five months Essallie Hanley has been trying to forget about
the frightening murder of her boyfriend. Haunted by vivid nightmares
and hallucinations of the event she does anything she can to pretend
she's like every other normal girl in High School. Only Essallie is
far from normal. Able to conjure blue fire and a shimmering
silhouette of wings from her body, she seeks the only known solace
left to her name; her first home in Belfast, Maine. But she soon
realizes that her return home is only the beginning of a long and
twisted road taking her as far from her humanity as possible, with
Kayden, the demon originally summoned to slaughter her, leading the
way. Unable to touch her but oddly curious, he joins Essallie in her
search to find out just what she is. But neither of them were
prepared for the secrets they've begun to unravel, secrets that will
change Essallie and everyone around her forever.
Elfin
by Quinn Loftis
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with Quinn Loftis
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Before
tonight Cassie Tate’s biggest concerns were whether she could pass
Algebra and how she was going to keep Elora, her best friend, from
dressing her in a skimpy fairy costume for Halloween. Her feet were
firmly planted in suburban reality and she had no reason to believe
her life would be anything but that of a typical teenager. That is
until tonight, when Cassie saw something that no human was ever
supposed to see; in the blink of an eye she was thrown into the world
of the Light and Dark Elves.
He
comes from a realm where light and dark have fought for millennia. He
is of a race known to humans only in myths and legends. The darkness
that lives inside him is a part of both who and what he is and it
makes him the most gifted spy and assassin in the history of his
time. His life is not his own; he lives in the service of the Dark
Elf King. He slays who he must, has mercy on no one, is relentless in
his hunt, and never tires of seeing his prey fall. He is Triktapic,
assassin, spy, most feared of the Dark Elves.
Now,
in the midst of his King’s complicated plans to expand the Dark
Elves’ holdings into the mortal realm, for the first time, Trik
finds his loyalties divided. For no Elf, Dark or Light, can turn away
from their Chosen.
Unbeknownst
to the mortal realm, the battle between Light and Dark is being
brought to their doorstep. The only one who can keep it at bay holds
darkness in his heart like a lover, and the one who can sway that
heart must decide if she can look beyond his black past, beyond his
evil nature and see the man he is destined to be.
The
questions must be asked, does love really cover a multitude of sins?
Can true love actually conquer all or will his darkness consume those
around him until all that stands is an assassin with the blood of the
mortal realm on his hands?
Dirty
Blood by Heather Hildenbrand
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with Heather Hildenbrand:
I
killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old
piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not
the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t
seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when
she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All
snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her
lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went
into shock… And that was the moment he showed up. Now, all I can do
is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves
do exist. And Two, I was born to kill them.
Anna
by Julia Crane
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with Julia Crane:
Follow
Anna from Keegan's Chronicles on her own adventure!
Seventeen-year-old Anna is an unskilled, natural witch still seeking
a way to access her magick. When she moves to Seattle for college,
she encounters two powerful witches who need her as much as she needs
them. For the first time, Anna believes she's found someone who can
help her explore her own magick. Her dream quickly turns into a
nightmare. Creatures of the Light have gone missing, and the witches
she admires so well are a part of the mystery. Before she knows it,
Anna is knee deep in the disappearances and trying to forge a
relationship with a certain soldier named Tommy, all while trying to
find her way. Will she have time to save the creatures of the light
or will she become the next victim?
Forged
by Greed by A.O. Pert
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with A.O. Pert:
Two
Seattle 16-year-olds, Jatred and Jasmira, are not your typical
star-crossed lovers. They are not even your typical Shape Shifters.
Sure, they try to live an ordinary life. At least, as ordinary as the
Prince and the Princess of the rivaling ancient Races--the Winter
wolves and the Summer leopards--can live. But eventually they learn
that not much about their existence can be normal. Especially when
the Races' two commanding Goddesses are involved. One of the
Goddesses is on a quest to tilt the scale of power to her side. The
other will never let it happen, even if it means kicking Jatred and
Jasmira's love to the curb. Nothing is off limits, including removing
Jatred's memories of Jasmira. To complicate things even more, there
are the Universe's powers to consider. They are trapped in an ancient
Amulet in order to protect the stability of the world. But the
Universe has a mind of its own, and when the powers are unleashed,
the forces of nature are disturbed; earthquakes, tsunamis, and
volcanic eruptions shake the Earth. All Shifters of both Races are
summoned by their respective Goddesses to fight in the name of, or
against, the normalcy of the world.
Set
In Stone by Anna Cruise
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with Anna Cruise:
Fifteen
year-old Valerie is used to losing things–she lost her dad to his
job ages ago and her best friend moved with no warning...and hasn't
been heard from since. During a weekend camping trip with her
emotionally distant parents, she stumbles upon a hidden, mysterious
stone and she finds herself desperate to keep it, to possess it. Two
strange and beautiful boys have other plans, however. They follow her
home–Leo, warm and seductive, who covets the stone and will stop at
nothing to get it; and Noel, dark-haired and wise, who pledges to
protect her and keep her safe. As she delves deeper into the magic of
the stone and the Celtic lore that surrounds it, Valerie realizes
that she's losing. Again. But this loss might involve more than a
magical stone – this time, she just might lose her heart.
Golden
Blood by Melissa Pearl
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with Melissa Pearl:
Gemma
Hart never knows when her father is going to whisk her back in time.
Her toes start tingling and she has a few minutes to find a secret
haven where she can disintegrate and appear in another time and
place. While “across the line,” her training and skills are put
to the test as she completes a mission that will change history for
the lucky few her father has selected. Gemma's parents are adamant
that secrecy is paramount to her family’s safety. If people knew
what they were capable of, they could be "used and abused",
as her mother always says. Afraid she might accidentally utter the
truth and break the ancient oath of her people, Gemma spends her
school days as a loner. Only one thing can throw her sheltered life
askew... Harrison Granger. Harrison never expected to talk to the
strange Hart girl, but after a brief encounter he can't stop thinking
about her. He begins a campaign to chisel away her icy veneer and is
met with unexpected consequences. As he slowly wins this girl over,
he enters a surreal world that has him fighting to keep his newfound
love and his life.
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