DRAWING DEAD
Devin
endured Hell for a long, long time and has come out literally a changed man.
Now a demon, he hunts for the one thing that can make him remember something of
what it was to be human—however unfortunate that might be for his
prey.
He
stumbles upon James Goodman, who tugs at the nearly extinguished memories. The
pair enter into a relationship that evolves into something more as Devin grooms
James for his pleasure.
Though
Devin is a demon and James merely human, who holds the power in their
relationship is in question, and, in the end, who holds the winning hand may
surprise them both.
ACE IN THE HOLE
Months
later, Devin is imprisoned and James remains reluctant to face him. Torn and
conflicted, he’s still reeling from the experience of living at the side and in
the bed of the man his family has spent several lifetimes hunting.
James
tries to find solace in the bosom of his family, but it leaves him dissatisfied
and wanting, unable to fulfill the newly born cravings even he’s not sure he
understands. Finally forced to serve his stint as Devin’s jailer, James returns
to the place of Devin’s imprisonment, only to find his confusion grow with
every day he spends with Devin.
And
Devin may not be entirely out of cards.
Unbeknownst
to the Goodman family, Devin’s influence extends far beyond the ten- by twelve-foot
room in which he’s confined.
James
comes to the realization that perhaps his great-grandfather’s plan hadn’t been
for the family to save Devin after all, but instead to repay a debt owed—a soul
for a soul.
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Excerpt
It was bad enough in the unforgiving light of day, when he had no excuses, but the dreams were a weakness from which he couldn’t run. James could keep Devin at bay and out of his head when he was awake, but at night he was vulnerable, incapable of defending himself from whatever Devin threw at him—all too often leaving James with come-wet sheets and memories of pain fading along his limbs. So he had tried to exhaust himself in any way possible, to make those dreams a trivial reality so they had no hold on him; but even when every last bit of his energy was tapped and unconsciousness violently dragged him under, he still found himself dreaming of Devin.
Not
that he recognized everything in the dreams. Some of it was… different—a
different Devin with a different face, full of more affection than lust, set in
places James had never been.
That
was almost worse. It was in those dreams that James knew the Devin he had
always heard about as a boy, but had never seen—the Devin he had begun to doubt
had ever truly existed.
The
Devin he had always imagined as a child, hero-worship heavy in his
heart.
With
another breathless pant, James stared at the ceiling and debated going upstairs
to slip into bed with Joanne. No matter his wishes or his level of desperation,
he knew that would not work—it hadn’t any other time he had attempted it—so
instead, he rose from the couch and padded quietly to the bar on the other side
of his study. With ritualistic ease, James poured himself a shot of whiskey and
slugged it back. He took the bottle with him as he slumped on the couch,
settling it beside him like an old friend come to call.
It
looked like yet another night with no sleep, his brain’s roughened edges dulled
only by the soothing persistence of the liquor. If he were lucky, he would pass
out too deeply for Devin to find him. If he weren’t, he would be too weak to
fight back.
James
was not sure which he preferred—the blankness of oblivion, or the excuse to just
give in.
Book Trailer
About the author
Call
her ZANNE. She lives in beautiful, sunny Southern California, which is ironic
since she tends to avoid the sun like it might incinerate her on the spot.
While her colleagues often refer to her job as zookeeping, the technical title
is actually middle school teacher. Misfit
Prophets Beneath a Bankrupt Sky was her first published
novel and her short story “Persephone Is Bleeding” was published in
the Hungry Hearts anthology with
Inkstained Succubus Press.
ZANNE can be found
at:
Website: http://lvfp.tripod.com/zanneiam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zanneiam
