Creole Nights Anthology PRE-ORDER NOW!
99 CENTS 10 Paranormal Stories that bring the heat.
Ten original sexy tales from ten best-selling authors. When the sun goes down in New Orleans the heat will rise. Take a sensual exploration of those Creole nights with our hosts of humans, witches, vampires, shifters, wolves, sorcerer, ghost, reapers, voodoo priestess, warlocks, demons, priests and angels. Find out who lives, who dies, who loves for once in a lifetime. Read their sides of the story.
Excerpt-
PRELUDE
1650
“Where is she?” the woman wailed.
The man clasped her to his chest. His arms wrapped tightly around her, restraining her while tears streamed down his face and she tugged at his arms. “She coming Taabia, dey bringing her. Prepare youself.”
Taabia’s gaze snapped to his. “She dead?”
He hesitated then shook his head slightly.
Taabia understood though. Her daughter, her youngest child was dying. “Let me see her, I want to see her.”
A noise broke the stillness of the night and two men walked out from around the cabins.
By the light of the full moon, Taabia could see they carried a body between them. The clothing hung off the young girl’s slender form in tatters, like it had been ripped from her. Her blood watered the dry ground with each step the men made with their burden. Taabia drove her fear inward, her screams were internal now, she didn’t wait for them to come to her, shoving away from the man restraining her, she rushed to the others.
She stopped the men carrying her child and gathered her daughter into her arms, the man, her lover, the father who’d come to warn her took the child’s legs, helping to carry some of the weight.
Taabia kissed her daughter’s bruised and bloodied face. Her tears mingling with the blood. “I got ya, I got ya,” Taabia crooned.
“Mama?” The voice was weak and weary sounding much like a small child, even though she’d seen fourteen summers.
“Yes, chil I’s here.”
“I’m sorry Mama, sorry. I shoulda listen.”
“Shh…none o’ dis your fault.”
They took her back to the cabin, Taabia shooed all the men out of the room.
Two of the women skilled in healing on the plantation came running when they’d heard. Even though none were as skilled in Vodou or natural and unnatural arts as Taabia, a priestess of Damballah. It was not enough.
She cleansed her daughter’s body, but it had been damaged beyond even her repair. Sometimes when a soul was badly damaged, it no longer had the strength to live in the body. But it takes the body with it before it departs. This was her daughter. She could see her life essence flickering, dimming where once, it had been vibrant and full of enough light to brighten up a room.
Her baby died in her arms that night.
“They will pay,” Taabia whispered as she lay her daughter upon the funeral pyre and set the branches to flame. Standing silent watch, surrounded by her lover and the other slaves on the plantation as the fire consumed her child’s body.
She meditated for the rest of the night and the day, gathering her strength, calling upon the older gods of her motherland, the ones who hated man, the light and dark powers that be.
At midnight when the storm she’d called broke and Jakuta the Lightning God and the others of storms ruled the skies, she left her hovel. Taabia walked out into the night making no effort to shield herself from the elements, in fact calling all of them to her, their powers fueling hers. Embracing the night. At first, heavy clouds hid the full moon from sight, but still she called upon Arawa, Goddess of the Moon for vengeance. Until a sliver of its lunar light broke through, bathing her in its rays.
She stood in front of the manner house, as she raised her arms and face to the sky. Lightning flashed above the house, the storm battered at her hair and clothing but she stood firm in her need. When she spoke, the wind amplified her words for all within the walls of the house to hear.
“I curse you Clyde deNuit and you brothers. I curse you and all you beget. Each generation one son be born. One son only. At the turn from child to man, he be ruled by the call of the full moon. You act like selfish beasts, then let you be beasts. On all fours shall you crawl the earth until the pull passes. Every cycle from moonrise to moonset, your beast will rule. Until the day one of mine deem you selfish no more.”
Thunder rumbled overhead bearing her words to the heavens. The oldest of the deNuits stood at the window and watched the crazy slave woman. His brothers were passed out in their rooms down the hall, but the thunder had awoken him. He sneered at his slave daring to threaten him. He thought he’d have the overseer whip her for her bullshit in the morning. Meanwhile, he turned away to go back to bed with his wife, wishing he had that young slave girl again. He and his brothers had shared between them the night before. The way she’d fought them making him hard all over again. Too bad she died. Well, there were more where she came from. He’d just closed his eyes when the house seemed to shake like it had been hit by lightning.
When the moon next traveled around the earth and sat in full illumination like the sun, the deNuit men dropped to all fours and turned from men to beasts. The next morning when the sun sat high in the sky and the men woke up naked and in the fields covered in blood, they had reason to fear the witch woman’s word. But it was too late for them all. She’d taken her secrets to the grave where the overseer had put her; almost a month to the day after the master had her whipped to death.
Also featuring:
Warlocks: The Creole Coven- Latrivia Welch USA Today Best-selling Author - Love is the greatest magic of all.
Phoenix Daniels Blood Ties - You can’t run from who you are.
When the Beautiful Awake: Thakathi Awakening- Angela Kay Austin- You can't hide from us.
The Elixir of Life, Legacy: Origin- S. Campbell Williams- There is never an end, but always a new beginning.
Falling for the Reaper- Adrienne D'nelle Ruvalcaba- He had seen death before, but this time is different.
Love Bites- Twyla Turner - Be careful what you wish for.
In Another Time- Sage Young - My love I will find, in another place, in another time.
His to Claim - Stephanie Morris- He's got everything under control and she likes it that way.
Reserve your copy today at the Pre-Order price of 99 CENTS FOR A LIMITED TIME.
Amazon- amzn.to/2tSX3VF
Visit all the blogs linked below that are part of the collection. Leave a comment and on Sunday 19th a random winner, who has commented on all of the blogs, will be chosen to receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card and 4 e-books from the authors of Creole Nights. Thanks for visiting.
Blog links on the tour to visit:
