Snippet Saturday

As promised here is a snippet for Snippet Saturday. And along with it... the name of the 5th book will be Beauty and the Angel. It's recycling th initial title of Willing Destruction, but it just fits so much better.

Here's a snippet from BatA (book 5 of the Galoria Hunter Series):


My phone started to ring and I fumbled through my purse to get to it. “Hello?” I answered.


“We found Drake.”

It took a moment for Ian's voice to register but when it did so did what he'd said.

Devlin Drake was the Vampire King of Europe. He was a rogue that answered to no one and not just because he was a Continental King. He aimed for what he wanted and couldn't see anything else. His target had recently moved to me. Naturally.

My station as Vampire Queen was coveted by many, but the majority of them aren't strong enough or brave enough to launch any sort of attack. Devlin had teamed up with Maxim, King of the White and Smoky's father, to help destroy Smoky. The vampire couldn't care less about either dragon, but the dragon community was full of people – very, very powerful people – who didn't like me much. Helping Maxim was a good way to get supporters.

Dalice – Queen of the Gold, Magdalena – Queen of the Blue, Pearl Weber – the scaly bane of my existence, and Devlin – a man I'd met only twice had banded together to divide and conquer. They put the bomb in my friend's car. That bomb had done exactly what Devlin wanted it to do; it got my attention.

If it had been my car, I wouldn't have been so upset about it, but it nearly killed Joey. Seeing my life-long friend laid-up in a hospital bed with bandages covered his body and tubes running through him lit a fire under my ass and I really wanted to see Devlin Drake dead.

“Sarah?” Ian asked, pulling me out of my head.

“Where is he?”

“Patrick has him at Crystal Lake.”

“Patrick? Why does Patrick have him? Why is he involved at all?”

Sampsa and the rest of our gang had stopped talking and focused on me. The vampires could hear every word but Sampsa was just as much in the dark as Storm.

“Drake is messing with the order of the dragon community... you know how strongly Patrick feels about that.”

Patrick was the only one of my children who could tell you for certain what he was. He was a hybrid like his siblings, but he chose to be a dragon.

My son had always been independent and very self-sufficient. When he was a month old he flew from Stuart, Florida to the Crystal Lake house, scaring the holy bejeezus out of Wendy Folten.

Wendy was a sprite and had been watching over the Crystal Lake house since it was constructed in 1872. She was only 4'2”, but she was tough as nails and wielded magic powerful enough to keep the guys in check, but even she was a bit disturbed when a “mini dragon” flew in the window and started drinking out of the cat's water dish.

“Have you spoken to Patrick or is this second-handed?”

“He knows how much you want to see Drake dead. He called Caden and told him to let you know where he is.”

“Did he say he was alone?”

“He's alone for now, but this won't be secret for long. There is a handful of people who have reasons to beat you there.”

“I'm going to kill him, Ian.”

“I know you are and no one's going to stop you, but you will wring him of every ounce of information first.”

“You want me to torture him?”

“Were you planning on killing him quickly?” I opened my mouth to answer, but it was a rhetorical question. “There are more people involved in this, Sarah. I can feel it.”

“Alright, where are you right now?”

“Doyle has reorganized the Guard and we're back on Rasputin's trail.” I sucked in a breath, gritting my teeth. “Sarah, what do you know?”

“I sort of... I might have killed Rasputin.”

I could hear the wheels turning in his head. “You mighthave killed Rasputin? This isn't something you can be uncertain of. Did you kill him or not?”

“He showed up in Cattie's basement. He's the one that told me that Rybel had taken Sampsa.”

“And you killed him? Sarah, he had information that we-”

“Ian, I was a bit upset at the time. He tried to make a deal with me and it just pissed me off.”

“How did you kill him? He's been shot, stabbed, clubbed, drowned... the Russians tried everything.”

“They didn't have the Dagger of Nyssisi.”

“So you hold the real world's version of the Winchester brothers' Colt. I guess that's a good thing, you being who you are and not crazy and homicidal.”

“Yeah, I guess we should all thank Smoky the next time we see him.” I sighed. “I'll let Dean and Marcellus know that they'll be watching Henna a little bit longer than expected.”

“Will you be picking the musketeers up on the way there?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You don't think Joey would want to be there when you torture the man who tried to kill him?”

“Joey's not the torturing type. Caleb, yeah, he's the torturing type, but I want to keep them as squeaky clean as I can for as long as I can.”

“They're your true protectors, they're going to end up killing people no matter how long you try to protect them.”

“Killing people to protect someone is one thing. Torturing someone is a completely different sin that, no matter the reasons, can't be forgiven. The end may justify the means, but very rarely.”

“I'm not entirely sure if I like the way you talk now.”

“And how do I talk now?”

“You talk like a queen with the full knowledge of how shitty the world is and how much of her kingdom is in peril.”

“The alternative to that is to be naive and I can't afford to be naive anymore, Ian. There is too much that depends on me not being naive.”

He sighed. “I guess you had to grow up eventually. I just hope you keep a hold of some of that innocence. And don't ask what innocence. It's not diplomacy that makes you different from everyone else.”

“It's not?” I asked, chuckling.

“Okay, so maybe it's not as much the difference as your diplomacy, but it's right up there. I have to go tell Doyle that we're chasing after thin air.”

“Good luck, dude.”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

I hit the END button on my phone and looked up at Sampsa, who had been worriedly watching me the entire time.

“Did you hear any of that?” He shook his head. “Man, being an angel sucks,” I teased. “Patrick has Devlin Drake at Crystal Lake. It will get around pretty quickly that he's there and there are about twelve different people that want him dead.”

“Including Jean-Claude,” Sampsa sighed.

“Yeah, he'll definitely be ready to kill him. Ian said that he has to have information so he suggested that I get it out of him.”

“You're going to torture him?”

“Do you have a better way to get information out of him?”

“Well, no, but I just... I never imagined you torturing people. Do you want to call the boys?”

“No, I'm not calling them.”

“Joey is the one who was blown up.”

“Yeah, Ian tried to convince to invite them, but I'm not going to.”

“Rockford isn't that far from Crystal Lake.”

“Sampsa, I'm not calling them.”

“Okay, vauva, it's your decision,” he said before kissing my temple. “So when did you want to leave?”

“As soon as I get a picture of you guys,” I replied, rummaging through my purse again to pull out my camera.

“Oh, come on, my hair's a mess,” Niko cried out.

I stood up and walked backwards until I could get everyone in the shot. “Alright, everybody say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

Sampsa chuckled and shook his head, but then shifted in his seat so he could look over his shoulder and grin at me.Niko put Sampsa's beanie on and crossed his eyes while everyone else simply smiled.