Special Excerpt Friday!

Today’s excerpt is an unedited scene from The Soul Jar, my action/adventure romance with a paranormal twist. The Soul Jar was originally going to be released as part of New Concept Publishing’s RELIC II anthology, but is now going to be released as a standalone story. Look for The Soul Jar coming in June, 2006.

Blurb:

When Bree Sennett’s search for the fabled Soul Jar of Ammonptah brings her face to face with Mason “Chance” MacKenzie, the pain of his previous betrayal mixes with the joy of finding him alive. When she discovers Chance is after the Soul Jar as well, she’s drawn back into his dangerous world and into his arms again.

Chance MacKenzie left Bree two years ago, faking his own death to save her life, and his own. Now the woman who stole his heart is about to steal the Soul Jar, but a life he promised to protect hangs in the balance.

Chance can’t expect Bree to forgive him, or to still love him after what he had to do, but can he trust her to help him complete his mission before he loses her forever?


THE SOUL JAR [unedited]

The fine hairs on the nape of Bree’s neck rose and her skin tingled when she saw the jar. Her chest felt tight and the corners of her eyes burned with more unshed tears, but these, at least didn’t embarrass her. To find the mythical Soul Jar – to stand within reach of something that, if all the legends were true, held the life essences of two lovers, punished for an eternity for the sin of wanting each other – was a cause well worth shedding a tear or two. Meeting Chance MacKenzie again, finding out the man she’d once loved more than life itself had returned from the grave, should have paled in comparison.

Or maybe it was the prospect of having to split her profits with him that made her misty eyed. As if she’d make a profit on this mission to begin with.

She blinked to clear her suddenly blurry vision and turned on him. “Well? Did you find what you came for?”

The path of his smoky gaze told her he had.

“If you want it, you’re going to have to shoot me.” Boldly, she turned her back on him again and reached for the jar, but her throat burned with the cavalier threat. She remembered that fateful morning and the tearing pain in the center of her chest when she’d realized her lover had a gun pointed at her heart.

Don’t make me shoot you, luv, he’d said with that charming smile she’d come to adore. Get out of bed nice and slow. Get dressed and get lost. Our little dalliance is over now.

She shoved the vile memory to the back of her mind and reached for the jar. It slid into her hand as though it belonged there. Cool and smooth as an egg, it fit perfectly in her palm. Overcome with the urge to cradle it against her and protect it, Bree glowered at Chance over her shoulder.

He held her daring gaze as she liberated a folded knapsack from under her voluminous sweatshirt and slipped the jar inside.

“What’s the matter, MacKenzie? Don’t have it in you to kill me?” Again, she wanted to add. Her heart had withered and died two years ago. She’d been functioning on autopilot ever since. She’d thought too often afterwards that perhaps she should have called his bluff back then and forced him to shoot her. At least then her pain would have ended swiftly.

“I’m not armed,” he replied, tracking her movements as she edged toward the narrow aisle between the shelves.

“I don’t believe you.” He hadn’t gotten his nickname by being unprepared.

He shrugged. “Try me. If you want to carry the jar out of here, I won’t stop you. But I promise you, luv, you won’t be the one who ends up with it.”


* * *

To find out more about The Soul Jar stay tuned…