by ML Guida
Betrayal, Angels of Death is the first book in the series. Scythe tracks his demon brother to Serenity House, a drug and alcohol treatment center. His brother wants to destroy the director, Heather Bowen, but Scythe is shocked to discover she is his angel-mate and now, he must not only save his brother’s soul, but stop him from killing the woman he loves.
The second in the series is a novella, Sinful Delight. Poison has two hours to fulfill orders received from the Archangel Michael: Locate and retrieve the dark Evil Board and capture the woman has been using it to grant wishes. She is determined to succeed. Ringmaster is on a search of his own. He is pleasantly surprised to discover not only the Spell Board he has been tasked to find, but also the fledgling Angel of Death he has yearned to sample. When he learns Poison wants the same woman and board, the persuasive demon makes her a tempting offer – sleep with him and have both.
I also write a paranormal young adult series, Dare to Heal, under the name, J.L. Bowen, published through Featherweight Press. These are not romance stories, but the stories of young adults coming to age and learning how to be resilient.
Healer is the first book. Fourteen year old Armond Costa’s two questions – No matter the abuse, why can I heal in three days and no else in my family can? What am I? – are finally answered. But now he must figure out who is telling the truth – his cruel aunt and uncle or the mysterious Golden Demons.
Ryker’s Revenge is the second book in the series. Gunnar, the Healer of the Dark Demons, wants to escape from his sadist father, the King of the Dark Demons, and return to the Golden Demons, but his father brands him with a dragon tattoo designed to kill Golden Demons. The choice to stay away from his friends is taken from his hands when they launch a rescue operation to save him, only to have one of their own injured by the dragon on his chest while another is captured by his father. Can Gunnar trust his sister, their father's lapdog, and the dragon on his chest to help save his friends and keep him free?
Excerpt from Betrayal:
Chapter One
In her pink nightgown and barefoot, she stood on a rough pebbly ground. A harsh male voice said, “Now, you’ll know what true pain is.”
The red-eyed man glared at her with undaunted hatred. Her feet were rooted on the black tar pavement. Her legs trembled. She shrunk from his glare and wanted to hide, but couldn’t move.
Sweating and moaning, twenty-five year old Heather Bowen tossed and turned on her queen sized bed. The dream faded, and she woke with a start. Perspiration drenched her night gown, and tears streaked her face. The sheets wrapped around her legs. Her thighs throbbed. The iPod alarm clock read three a.m.
She scanned the room, but there was no sigh of the red-eyed man. She sighed, but her relief was short-lived. What did he mean by she would know true pain? Was he kidding? Seriously? Her life sucked.
In her dream, there was something familiar about the bright and buzzing green, red and white flickering lights. But what? She frowned. Gas. She had smelled gasoline in her dream. Oh, shit. 7-Eleven. The bastard was with Rosemary.
She flicked on the lamp and snatched her phone and dialed Rosemary’s cellular. Answer, answer, answer, but a recording came on—“The number you have reached is…”
“Damn it,” Heather said. Why did Rosemary have to have such a piece of crap phone?
She called information.
“This is information,” a bored female voice said. “City and State, please.”
“Westminster, Colorado for 7-Eleven on Seventy-Second and Lowell.”
“I’m sorry I don’t have a listing for this address.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the operator said, “but there’s no listing.”
“Fuck,” Heather slammed the phone onto the oak nightstand.
She jumped out of bed. She tore off her Minnie nightgown and gasped. Three long scratched marred her inner thighs. She winced and wobbled to the bathroom and wet a wash cloth, and dabbed the bloody river on her thighs. How that the hell did that happen? God, her legs looked like Freddy Krueger swiped her with his razor fingers.
Within minutes, she slid into her gray Pathfinder. “Ouch.”
The damn cloth seats pulled on her thighs that still pulsed from the antiseptic. She stepped on the gas. The street lamps glowed in the darkness, and the abandoned street stretched forever as her tires ate up the pavement. She glanced at the clock. Three fifteen. She gripped the wheel and turned on Kipling Street and roared down the road. At the stoplight, there were no cars, including cop cars, so she gunned the pedal. “Hang on Rosemary. I’m coming.”
Except for her speeding SUV, the dark houses remained quiet on the empty streets. With his fluffy tail curved around his body, a red fox sat on the sidewalk and watched. She shook her finger at him. “You stay there.”
Maybe this was a good omen. In animal symbolism, a red fox meant passion and desire, and God knows, she wanted her sister alive.
She peeled onto Seventy-Second Avenue, running another stoplight. Huge green cottonwood trees reached for the sky along the way. Lilium, orange pixie lilies, and long ornamental grasses with whitish plums lined the vacant street. At the end of the street, a streetlight darkened at Majestic Park. Hidden in the shadows was a car. As she sped by, red lights flashed on.
“Shit, no!”
Copyrights
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A Pirate’s Curse: © 2013 by M.L. Guida
Cover design © Kim Killion (Hot Damn Designs)
Digital Edition 1.0
All rights reserved. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Title
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Thank You
Other Books By M.L. Guida
Excerpt from Betrayal, Angels of Death
Copyrights
