Substitute Excerpt

Today’s excerpt was supposed to be from The Soul Jar, since it was scheduled to be released today, but due to some technical difficulties, all the June 2 NCP releases are being pushed back a week. I will be hosting a contest in connection with The Soul Jar, so I’m going to hold off the excerpt until next week.

Instead, I thought I’d put up an excerpt from Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf. Wolfsbane has been getting some attention lately as both the Readers Weekly Choice at Romance Readers Weekly and as the #4 Best Seller on the Amber Quill list at Fictionwise. Wolfsbane is my first attempt at a werewolf story and it won’t be my last.

5 Kisses! The antagonism between the characters brews into delightful soup as they discover a genuine like for each other and a lot more. Ms. Colgan’s prose is well paced and tight, with a slight thrum of excitement beneath the surface. The dialogue is crisp and the sexual tension palpable. The clever twist near the end highlights some brilliant slight of hand that left this reviewer wide eyed with a grin.— C.C. Ellis, Romance Divas Reviews

Blurb:

Between one fateful full moon and the next, Emilie Swanson and Daniel Garrison discover a little aspect of the wolf will ignite a passion they can’t ignore.


WOLSBANE: ASPECT OF THE WOLF

Emilie felt the cold, black emptiness of the netherworld envelope her as it had once before. She'd vowed the first time to never again put herself through this torture, yet here she was, rooted to the center of the rune circle in the back room of her shop, caught in the throes of evil as Chester Creek's portal to hell struggled to open beneath her feet.

* * * * *
Despite the cold, desolate hollow that crawled up into her gut, she managed to tighten her grip on the potion bottle.

A blur of movement passed through the corner of her limited vision.
She tensed. Had something already escaped from the portal?

The demons that the warlock Creek had brought forth had been small, wrinkled, hairless creatures with gnarled fangs and bat-like ears. Personal-sized nightmares, the kinds of things children feared lived under their beds or lurked in dark basements and dusty attics. The mischief-makers had proven fairly easy for the coven to catch, however, but alone and immobilized by the terrible cold from below, Emilie would be easy prey if one had gotten loose.

Daniel? Where had he gone?

Something brushed against her hand. She found the strength to jerk away from the chilling touch. The words of the incantation she'd memorized formed in her mind, and she spoke them, slow and deliberate, as she squeezed the potion bottle in her fist.

Malachus in severus!
This incantation forms a seal, what lies below to banish.
Bind the power that stirs within
And make the portal vanish!

A screech, like nails raking across a chalkboard, ripped through the room. An icy gust of fetid air followed. Emilie repeated the incantation, louder this time, as the wailing from below rose in pitch.

Malachus in severus!
This incantation forms a seal, what lies below to banish.
Bind the power that stirs within
And make the portal vanish!

In response, the portal convulsed beneath her. Emilie's knees buckled. As she fell forward, she slammed the potion bottle onto the floor with all her remaining strength. At the moment it shattered against her palm, hell hiccuped.

The black liquid oozed onto the cracks that had formed in the floor and mixed with candle wax, crystal dust and her blood. The conglomeration solidified into an unbreakable seal that formed a black sunburst pattern across the floor, obliterating the circle of Chester Creek's satanic runes. One by one the candles guttered as the dark marks faded.

Emilie smiled at her handiwork. Not bad, she thought, just before a bomb exploded behind her eyes.

The world went icy black, and she passed out.
* * *

To find out more about Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf visit: http://www.amberquill.com/Wolfsbane.html