Category: snippet

Here’s another snippet from chapter thirteen of Nightmare City. Eden and Vaughn Taylor, allegedly the Order’s best shade hunter, are like oil and water. They’re both hunting the same shade – but can’t agree on the best way to collaborate…

The shrilling of the phone shocked me awake. I focused on the clock through the blur of my eyes. Almost six in the evening. Fudge. It was probably Cecelia, wondering why I was late for dinner.

I grabbed the phone with a heavy hand. “‘Lo?”

“It’s Taylor,” came the gruff answer. “Is this Eden Maybrey?”

I fought down a yawn. “If she were awake.”

“Typical freelancers, sleeping through the day while the real hunters do their job for them. Guess there’s no need for me to ask how the chase is going.” Continue reading “4th Snippet Nightmare City – Best Enemies Forever” →

In this third snippet of Nightmare City, Eden is trying to find Greyson, the – literal – man of her dreams, who she manifested from a nightmare. 

I closed my hand around the knob and pushed the door open. Empty concrete greeted me as I slipped inside. I spotted a light switch just before the door clicked shut behind me, and hit it. A dim bulb hanging from a cable in the ceiling illuminated the stairwell. Concrete stairs wound upwards, disappearing around the bend. I could only see a few steps ahead. Greyson – if he was there – would hear me coming up the stairs. I wasn’t going to try to sneak up on a hunted man.

I took a deep breath, gathering courage. “Greyson?” I called upwards. “Are you there?”

Nothing stirred. I waited one heartbeat, two, three. Anticipation and dread jittered through my stomach like electrified marbles. “Greyson?”

Maybe he was sleeping. Or wounded. He’d looked unharmed on TV, but that had been hours ago. If he’d faced those hellhounds again, he might have been hurt. And he had been shot right after manifesting. Maybe he was bleeding to death up there. Maybe he had already bled out.

Continue reading “3rd Snippet Nightmare City – Man Of Her Dreams” →

Here’s a snippet from Chapter Six of Nightmare City, in which Eden is sent to confront a client’s manifested dream – and gets more than she bargained for. 

A nightmare stood on Rodeo Drive. With its heavily muscled neck, the square head, and powerful jaw, it might have been mistaken for a real dog. A giant mastiff perhaps. But the eyes gave it away. I felt the heat of their ruby glow fixed on me, as if the creature knew I had come to eliminate it. No natural animal’s eyes shone from within, like windows into a volcano.

“Hellhound,” my sword named it, mirroring my thoughts.

From its dreamer’s description over the phone, I’d been hoping it was one of the dumb, one-purpose kind of shades – easy to approach and eliminate. Not many shades had the intelligence or self-preservation to run from a shade hunter decked out with an assortment of weapons. But it was clear from the way this creature watched me that it considered me a threat. It wouldn’t stand still while I laid my hands on it and unmade it.

“This one’s going to fight,” Aunt Vy agreed, delighted at the prospect of bloodshed.

“Fine.” Like my sword, I loved a good fight. I rolled my shoulders to loosen up and flipped my long dark braid behind me. “The hard way it is.” Continue reading “1st Snippet Nightmare City – Hellhounds” →