Donovan vs. Lugh

 We're getting ready to release the final book in Season One of The Sidhe, and the big, anticipated run in between Lugh and Donovan is about to happen from the Unseelie point of view. Uprising is the title of the fifth book in the Rise of the Unseelie series, and it is jam packed with twists and action we hope answers some of the burning questions from Season One, and opens a new can of worms for Season Two.

Speaking of cans, this song from Sick Puppies is about the can of whoop-ass that Donovan intends to open on Lugh when they meet up for the first time since the Collapse of the Mounds. I hope you agree that it is awesome!

enjoy: Sick Puppies - You're Going Down

Sneak Peek - Keeper of Secrets

Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5

 Chapter One

With each of Lugh’s long strides, the footsteps that trailed him drew closer. In the pre-dawn shadows of the city, little stirred, as if the night held its breath. The darkness about Lugh aroused the darkness within—that taint of black enchantment that blended and corrupted the light of his innate magic. Like a drop of ink into a crystal clear pool, twisting and dividing, finding its own pattern and flow as it poisoned the whole in an inevitable spread. Yet only a drop. Only a hint. A flavor. A whispered suggestion that fixated with the same hypnotic coil as the ink in water.

Far from the eclipse of the sun. A manageable urge that throbbed within, with cravings of its own. The shadow of the beast it could become. The beast he could become.

Even in the dark denim jacket and jeans, the street lamps found Lugh in the night, casting shifting shadows that moved about him as he passed through shafts of light. Timing his backward glance, Lugh caught his pursuers in the light pool. Two of them. Large males. Not vampires. These men moved like wolf-kin. Werewolves, as they called themselves now. Heads down, following by scent as much as by sight, shoulders hunched forward with aggression.

Across the street and not far ahead of Lugh, a man rose from a bench, his slow crossing of the street timed for an interception.

And ahead, two more emerged from the alcove about a doorway.

Lugh slowed, the werewolves encircling him.

The shadow within him rose with the sense of danger, summoned forth with bloodlust as if by the beating of war drums. In his mind’s eye, the corruption within transformed into the sleek, muscled beauty of a black panther. Its venomous green eyes a brilliant, illuminated emerald that glowed from within. Craving violence and carnage, the beast merged seamlessly with Lugh, blending with his soul in a dark possession.

One of the wolves growled, “Nothing smells like Sidhe.”

“Nothing tastes like Sidhe, either.” The dark-haired man who’d been on the bench moved closer, unchallenged by the others. The alpha.

Lugh angled himself so he faced the alpha. Two wolves penned him from either side. “Think you to sample my blood? To feast upon my flesh?” The darkness within Lugh twisted the amused hint of a smile that graced his Sidhe-handsome face. “Rather, I foresee your broken bodies sprawled at my feet. Shall we test conclusions?”

Warrior-trained and centuries of battle-honed reflexes reacted with the onrush of attack, fueled by the wicked violence surging within his beast. The wolf to the farthest right reached Lugh first. He backed out of the path of the charge. Bringing up his right arm, Lugh hooked the man from under the jaw with his fingers, digging into the soft flesh beneath his tongue. Catching the jawbone, he jerked back and down with force enough to lift the man from his feet and spin him as he fell, snapping his neck. The falling body continued by momentum into the wolf-kin to Lugh’s left, knocking them back.

Dropping down to a knee, Lugh struck upward at the second wolf on his right, with his fingers straight and stiff as a blade, driving his hand hard into a muscled abdomen, directing all the force into a nerve bundle just above the navel. The scream of excruciating pain proved the strike hit true on his target— no doubt killing the wolf’s appetite once he ceased doubling over and retching up bile.

While he was down, the alpha flung himself onto Lugh’s back. His arms grappled around Lugh’s shoulders. The weight of the alpha meant to drive Lugh to the ground.

Leaning back into the man, Lugh grabbed his trouser legs near the ankle and jerked upward, unbalancing the wolf-kin. With the shifting of his body, Lugh shrugged the man forward, flipping him over his head and onto the ground before him.

As Lugh rose, the two remaining henchmen each hooked their arms around one of Lugh’s. They yanked him up to his feet. Surely, they meant to lift him from the ground, but Lugh’s height defeated that hope. Lugh snarled, bearing his teeth as if he possessed the panther fangs of his beast. Jerking against their hold only made them grip him that much tighter.

Exactly as Lugh intended.

When the alpha regained his footing, Lugh kicked hard from the ground. With fey grace and feline aggression, he flipped backward, using the arms that held him as the fulcrum around which he spun. In the flip, Lugh’s foot caught the alpha in the face, knocking him back once more, with an explosively broken nose.

Lugh’s acrobatics sent him up and over the men that had detained him. Even as he landed behind them Lugh punched out hard, hitting one of the men in the kidney. The impact to such a vulnerable organ might have killed a human. The wolf-kin weren’t so fragile. Even still, the wolf went down with an anguished scream, not to get back up again.

The final man punched at Lugh. A blow that he deflected as if it had been a sword, using his own forearm to redirect the force by impacting with the wolf-kin’s wrist. The were’s forward motion carried him past Lugh, who used the opportunity to latch his arm around the man’s neck. The crook of his elbow looped under the man’s chin and braced his head, then Lugh kicked him in the back of his knee. As his opponent dropped, Lugh jerked upward with his arm, breaking his neck. He released the body to crumple lifelessly to the concrete.

Backing away, Lugh glared down at the four men he’d left dead or wounded at his feet. But only four. The alpha not among them.

Thus far, the wolf-kin had underestimated him. Within the city, they were less likely to risk exposure by shifting into their partial ‘werewolf’ or full wolf forms. Plus the shift took time, longer for the less experienced wolves. But swiftly for the alpha.

The growl of the alpha broke the silence of the night just as he tackled Lugh from behind. Twisting even as they fell, Lugh jerked away from the snap of the canine jaws. The beast within him growled back at the werewolf with animal fury.

The werewolf, a half-man/half-wolf amalgamation of horrifying intent, raked his two-inch claws down the back of Lugh’s denim jacket, hooking into the fabric.

Kicking away from him, Lugh shrugged out of his jacket and the shoulder pack of supplies he carried. If not for the Fade, he’d have teleported away before now, but the expenditure of magic would certainly exceed his reserves. Even the use of Glamour was a luxury that he could ill-afford. But when the werewolf lunged for him again, his longer arm-span extended wide, those deadly claws spread menacingly, and his canine snout curled up in a bestial snarl that revealed teeth meant for rending flesh, Lugh drew upon his personal aspect of magic.

Tapping into the power of the sun, he flared a light so intense as to blind unshielded eyes. It flicked so fast, returning the night to the depths of the darkness, no one’s vision, other than his own, could quickly recover.

The wolf’s pained yip proved the effectiveness of the strike against his senses. The animal drove forward, nonetheless, barreling toward where Lugh had been.

Lugh twisted away, leaving the alpha to bash headlong into the brick wall with force enough to send a spiderweb of fractures through the bricks where his face impacted.

The flaring of the light and dodging the attack had been Lugh. But the beast within him wasn’t satisfied. Possessed of it, Lugh grabbed the unconscious werewolf and shoved him forward again, battering his head into the wall, and this time leaving blood on the impact site. With the third blow, the beast crushed in the werewolf’s skull.

Backing away, he let the alpha fall. His werewolf’s shape slipped back to human without his conscious effort to make it otherwise.

The beast loomed over its victims, snarling a grin. The arousal of aggression still flooding through him, making Lugh’s body ache for more.

“Enough.” Lugh’s own voice sounded foreign to his ears. Deeper. Throatier.

The beast, its violent desires served, skulked back into the shadows of his mind. Appeased for now, but not vanquished. It grinned with wicked amusement at Lugh, knowing its advantages. They wrestled now, but the beast won ground each time they battled. And eventually, Lugh would forget himself in its animal haze.

It had happened to Lugh before. The eclipse, as the fey called it.

And if he lost himself into the dark lusts, then all he’d fought for since the Collapse was lost.

That… and that alone… strengthened Lugh to forestall the black passions of his beast.

Lugh snatched up his torn jacket and the shoulder pack and continued on his way, leaving the wounded to recover enough to make off with their dead or be discovered by the waking city in a few hours, as fortune would have it.

Read the rest of the adventure in...

Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5
Available from
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords!

New Release!

 Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5

The shadow within him rose with the sense of danger, summoned forth with bloodlust as if by the beating of war drums. In his mind’s eye, the corruption within transformed into the sleek, muscled beauty of a black panther. Its venomous green eyes a brilliant, illuminated emerald that glowed from within. Craving violence and carnage, the beast merged seamlessly with Lugh, blending with his soul in a dark possession.

Poisoned with dark magic and suffering the Fade, Lugh’s fighting a battle within himself. One that endangers everyone around him. And if he can’t complete his quest for the new fey realm before the dark corruption possesses him, all hope for the fey may be lost.

Captivated started the cascade of events in the season finale of The Sidhe. Now Keeper of Secrets takes that momentum and explodes with dark intensity that will jeopardize everything. With high octane action, and some OMG! moments, Keeper of Secrets brings the Champion of the Sidhe series to a powerful close and sets the stage for the massive conclusion to Season One, coming in Uprising - Rise of the Unseelie #5.

Now Available on Amazon!

New Release!

 Touched

 The first mini-series collection from Season One of The Sidhe is now available on Amazon! 

London’s got a handle on life, even with vampire for friends and werewolves for clients. A couple of weeks ago, she even branched out and did a job for a wizard. So when a drop-dead gorgeous Sidhe, one of the more dangerous races of fey, wants to hire her, London Eyer hasn’t a clue just how out of control her life will become. Just one Touch, and she’s cursed for life. The addictive magic of the Sidhe shreds her like nothing she could have imagined. Leaving her with only the question… Will she serve the Sidhe? Or hunt them?

~54,000 words of intense Urban Fantasy action and adventure!~

Note: Touched is one of three companion series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe. These three storylines take place concurrently, and have cross-overs and interweaving storyline threads that closely bind the three mini-series. The Champion of the Sidhe mini-series follows Lugh’s story. The Rise of the Unseelie follows Donovan, Malcolm, Kieran and the other earthborns.

P.S. - Don’t get confused! All 15 episodes from all three mini-series are also available in a 2 volume collection (Scattered Magic and Remnants of Magic). So why do we have the episodes released in different ways? Some folks only want to read one or two mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the stories YOUR WAY!

Slipping Into Darkness

 The lovely @LizasArt has suggested an awesome song for Lugh as we prepare to release his next book with Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5. As we saw in his last episode, Protector of the Light, and in London's latest story, Captivated, Lugh's dark magic corruption is beginning to spread. We get to see the struggle with the beast within in Keeper of Secrets. Hope you are looking forward to it.

enjoy: Muse - Madness

New Release!

 Scattered Magic - The Sidhe Collection #1

 An act of treachery brings the Mounds, the fey realm, collapsing in upon itself. The survivors flee to the surface world, but modern day Ireland isn’t safe for the fey. Predators like vampires, Changelings, wizards, and enchanted humans are everywhere, and they all crave the Sidhe…

Two Sidhe strive to save the fey from extinction.

Donovan, a former assassin for the Unseelie Court, struggles to rescue the untrained Sidhe youths known as the earthborns from the clutches of those who feast upon their blood, bodies, and magic.

Lugh, Champion of the Sidhe and proponent of the Seelie Court, searches for the lost relics that might restore the fey realm, and the source of fey magic, before all the fey die of the Fade.

One human, cursed by the Touch of the Sidhe, fights to reclaim control of her life against the forces of magic that threatens to rip her apart.

One Dangerous World… Three Intense Storylines…

Scattered Magic - The Sidhe Collection #1 contains the first half of Season One of The Sidhe. It features the first books in the Rise of the Unseelie, Champion of the Sidhe, and Touched mini-series in the recommended reading order. Almost 80,000 words of intense Urban Fantasy action and adventure!

This volume includes the following episodes:

In Whom You Trust
End of the World
Aftershock
Cursed
Champion of the Fey
Addicted
Scars of Silver
Defender of Magic
Eyes of Magic

The second half of Season One of The Sidhe can be found in Remnants of Magic - The Sidhe Collection #2 - Coming in Feb 2013

P.S. - Don’t get confused! The three mini-series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe are also available as individual collections. (Touched, Rise of the Unseelie, Champion of the Sidhe) These three collections contain the same 15 episodes as Scattered Magic and Remnants of Magic. So why do we have the episodes released in different ways? Some folks only want to read one or two mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the stories YOUR WAY!

Scattered Magic is now available on Amazon!

Sneak Peek - Captivated

 Chapter One

Tall, blond, and delicious heading your way.

London blinked at the text message that woke her from a fitful slumber. Only the soft glow from the kitchen illuminated her living room, where she’d crashed on her sofa. Double-checking, she slid her hand between the cushions, finding the comforting, cold metal of her pistol. Sleep didn’t come easy when Donovan and his cadre of Unseelie wanted you dead.

The text message came from Selena, of course. Four in the morning was prime time for vampires. London texted her back. Did he say anything about me?

Since being cursed, all that mattered was getting her life back. Working for Lugh in exchange for the Touch was a major part of that plan. At least it had been up until Lugh went off with a wood elf that knew too much about London’s less-than-brilliant past. She truly regretted her mistakes, but that didn’t buy her forgiveness. The Unseelie death sentence was a case in point.

But London had never met anyone like Lugh. For the first time, she had a slim hope. And after journeying through denial, anger, and stupidity… hope, no matter how thin, was a vast improvement.

Still in the sweatshirt and pants that she’d worn the evening before, London wedged herself up off the sofa. The gun, she transferred to the coffee table and covered with a magazine. Not an extraordinarily complicated hiding place, but easy to access should an Unseelie or a Changeling or any other bad-n-nasty bloke decided to invade her flat. Coffee seemed like a good idea, so she wouldn’t come across as bleary eyed and befuddled when Lugh got there. The coffeemaker just began to brew when the phone played the ringtone for Selena.

London answered, “Too long for a text message? Should I be worried?”

The vampire’s smooth voice glided over London’s senses like silk. “I just spent a very interesting evening with Lugh.” Her sigh practically dripped with satisfaction.

“No details, please. I’ve not even had a cup of coffee yet.” Vampires indulged all their lusts with a relish few other creatures could match. Except the fey, whose reputation for casual sex rivaled even that of the vamps. And among those fey, the Sidhe especially seemed made of equal parts magic and sex appeal. The pairing of a vamp and a Sidhe might seem like rampaging hormones taking their course, if not for the fact that vampires preyed upon the fey. How Lugh and Selena hit it off, London didn’t know, but she certainly didn’t need the sticky blow-by-blow account of the bedroom negotiations.

“London, luv. Promise me that you’ll take precautions.” And London could tell from her tone that Selena wasn’t talking about condoms.

“Why? What’s happened?” The coffee cup slipped from her grasp and banged down on the counter. “What did he say?”

“It wasn’t what he said as much as how he acted. More aggressive than before. Darker.” The vampire laughed, low and seductive. “Not that I didn’t like the rough play.”

“Darker?” Forgetting her coffee, London crossed to her research strewn across her kitchen table and shuffled through it. All her sources agreed that Lugh, the Shining One, was the epitome of Seelie. Worshiped as the Celtic sun god, the man was the personification of light and of the Summer Court. Civilized and chivalrous. Even the accounts of his battles never once described him as the least bit ‘dark’ in nature. That just wasn’t supposed to be in his makeup at all. Then again, how much was myth and how much truly reflected the man he was? But rough? Aggressive? London wouldn’t have thought that of the compassionate Sidhe she’d met just the day before, whose tender Touch had filled her with such light and wonderment. “Maybe you just bring out the beast in him, Selena.”

“Perhaps.” A self-satisfied smile colored her voice. “Just thought you should know.”

“Thanks.” London’s head lifted at the sound of a rap on her door. “I think he’s here. I’ll call you later.”

London left her phone on the dining room table. Even as she approached the door, she rubbed the nervous sweat from her palms onto her hips. With a quick check through her peephole, she verified what she’d assumed. Tall, blond, and delicious was on her threshold. But even knowing he was there, the moment she opened the door to him his presence stole her breath.

At something close to seven feet tall, Lugh loomed over her. Leaning forward with his arms braced against either side of the doorframe, he made for an imposing figure. All of the Sidhe were sexy beyond reason, and Lugh was no exception. Athletic, with the toned body of a swimmer, there wasn’t an ounce of extra padding. The snug cotton shirt and jeans showed off his physique beautifully. His blond hair was stylishly cut, leaving just enough length that he could hide his elven ears if he wanted. He wasn’t hiding them tonight. The direct blue of his eyes struck London with nearly hypnotic force. The deep resonance of his voice captured her completely, “I’ve returned, as I told you I would.”

London froze when he reached for her. His casual affections still startled her. Her breath caught as he stroked over her hair. A small gesture, but one that soothed the edge of her anxiety. Even still, until she knew for certain how he was going to react to the truth of her past, nothing could ever really make it go away.

Only on a second glance did she notice the hint of darkness about him, and not just the choice of clothing, which was all black from the denim jacket to his trainers. A slight smudge of dark circles hinted beneath his eyes, as though he were fatigued. And something on his cheek…

London reached up and brushed it away with her finger.

It was blood.

The story continues in Captivated - Touched #5

Now Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords!

New Release!

 Captivated - Touched # 5

Lugh’s hand fisted in her hair, getting her undivided attention. His voice deepened, dangerous and edgy. “No more freelance work.” With a serious tilt of his head and glare that tolerated no argument, he added, “Particularly with wizards or Changelings.”

That stole her spit.

She had to clear her throat before she could ask, “So Kev told you?” And no doubt the wood elf had known everything about her tarnished reputation, given that he’d apparently been hanging around the Unseelie.

“What he did not tell me, I suspected.” With the slow roll of his wrist, Lugh angled her neck. He stared at her throat. Lips parted. Fixated, like a vampire.

London’s had a rough journey and made some bad choices. She’s on the Unseelie hit list and hoping that hooking up with a Seelie is the answer to all her problems. Only now that she’s beginning to get a glimpse of the bigger picture, she finds herself at ground zero of more magical trouble than she ever expected.

As Season One of The Sidhe wraps up with the fifth books, the three companion series collide. Captivated is the final book in the Touched mini-series, and sets up the action and intrigue coming in Season Two of The Sidhe - a creatively innovative serialized urban fantasy adventure.

Captivated is now available on Amazon!

Song About The Seelie, From the Unseelie

 As we gear up to release the last books in the Champion of the Sidhe series and the Rise of the Unseelie series, this song comes to mind. The lyrics really resonate with the way the Unseelie feel about the Seelie in general, and about Lugh in particular.

Donovan and Lugh meet up for the first time since the Collapse in both Keeper of Secrets (Champion of the Sidhe #5) and Uprising (Rise of the Unseelie #5). More awesome urban fantasy goodness coming your way soon!

enjoy: Linkin Park - In Pieces