Escape Into Romance & Danger

Did you ever have one of those days? Or a lot of those days? Days when you thought your head would explode at the monotony of your life? You rise at the same time each day, go through the same morning ritual, then it’s onto your job. Maybe you’re a corporate drone and cubicle dweller as I was. Mind-numbing. Boring.

Many a morning as I drove to work, I’d fantasize about something extraordinary happening to relieve the boredom. I don’t mean any earth-shattering event, or anyone’s getting hurt. Just something different. Like I’d come upon a bank robbery in progress and be taken hostage by one of the robbers. Oh, wait, I could get hurt. I didn’t want to escape my cubicle-dwelling world that badly. Maybe the robber is really a sexy undercover FBI agent. That led to other kinds of fantasies I won’t go into. But you get my drift.

Escape, romance, danger. Don’t we all need a little of that in our lives? My life isn’t altogether boring, and of course, I’ll take mundane over dangerous. But isn’t it fun to escape once in a while?

That’s where reading comes in. It gives me the escape I crave. As a child, I devoured everything I could find to read – cereal boxes, billboards, clothes tags. It didn’t matter. If it had words on it, I was hooked. Reading opened a whole new world to me and allowed my imagination to soar.

Within the pages of a book, we can be the FBI heroine fighting a deep secret from her past while trying to bring the bad guys to justice. Or we can be the ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances, caught up in international intrigue and murder. Or we can go back in history and be a young, unmarried daughter of a duke who wants freedom from the constraints of the rigid mores of her class.

And then there are time travels. I love them. Don’t you? I love fantasizing about going back to a time before modern conveniences and learning to deal with a more primitive way of living. I’d probably fall apart if I time-traveled, but the heroes and heroines in the time-travel romances I read always cope with their new environment. And they find love along the way. Pure escapism.

 

Paranormal books and movies offer another hot escape. There are the Twilight movies and books, Harry Potter, the vampire shows on TV, and the very popular zombie apocalypse shows. Some pop culture experts say the uncertainty in the modern world makes people gravitate toward the supernatural. Maybe they’re right. Or maybe the paranormal taps into that dark part of us that civilization can’t completely suppress. I enjoy reading paranormal romances. I love witch stories and shifter stories and fallen angel stories. Vampire stories—not so much. I’m afraid of vamps and believe they exist.

Regardless of what sub-genre I read, a good love story is central. I crave happy endings as much as I hanker for escapism. If, in addition to the romance, the book also has twists and turns, a mystery, maybe a murder or two, and a ghost, werewolf, or witch, that’s even better.

Do you sigh when reading a hot romance and imagine yourself in the arms of that handsome rake of a duke, that sexy tortured werewolf, that pirate who wants to plunder your charms? Then you know what I mean.

Do you ever fantasize about escaping your routine world? And when you do, do you pick up a book and allow it to fly you to exotic places? I hope you do.

If I feel like going to Regency England today, I’ll read that book about the duke’s restless daughter. Tomorrow I might want to sigh over a sexy werewolf. And after that, I may just meet that hunky FBI agent who’s working undercover and takes me hostage.

What about you? What are you reading?

To help you escape into danger and other worlds, two of my books are on sale now for only 99 cents, for a very limited time.

Murder, Mi Amore, multi-award winning romantic suspense.

 Italy. Danger. Desire.

Murder, jewel thieves and terrorists intrude on an American woman's Roman holiday; can she trust the sexy, mysterious Italian man who comes to her aid? 

Lexie Cortese is in Rome to forget. The last thing she expects is to meet a sexy Interpol agent who suspects her of being part of a terrorist plot involving a stolen diamond. Suddenly thrust into a world of murders, muggings, and kidnappings, Lexie doesn’t know what to think—or who to believe. 

Dominic Brioni’s assignment is simple. Befriend the American and bring her to justice. Only Lexie seems the most unlikely terrorist Dominic has ever met. Sweet, determined, and direct, she faces life with courage and fire, a fire that sparks his protective instincts and a longing for something more—something he allowed himself to hope for only once before. 

But that woman betrayed him, and his boss isn’t about to let him forget it. With his career on the line and Lexie in danger, will Dominic learn to trust his heart before they both get killed? 

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mi-Amore/dp/B009UEVVP0/?tag=carmaraut-20

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-mi-amore-cara-marsi/1103364955?ean=2940016033266

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/murder-mi-amore/id599801756?mt=11

Cursed Mates, dark shifter romance.

Scorching. Suspense. Sexy.

"What if you were honor bound to kill the man you love?" 

Nick Radford is a reluctant werewolf who’s been fighting the Beast within for nearly 500 years. He’s never killed a human, but the Beast is gaining strength and Nick may not be able to ward off his inner demon much longer.

 
Kyla Yaeger is an elite were-hunter with a scarred past. Her life’s mission is to slay the werewolves that slaughtered her parents. Her quest has brought her to Maine, where she’s been summoned to destroy the werewolf terrorizing the quaint little village of Heavensent. The last thing she needs is to get distracted by her mysterious—not to mention hunky—new neighbor, Nick Radford.

By the time Kyla learns Nick is her target, she’s already fallen for him, making her task of killing him that much harder. She is torn between her love for him and her duty to kill her sworn enemy. Nick fights his forbidden love for Kyla, knowing she is duty-bound to kill him. Kyla and Nick must join forces to fight an even bigger threat—one that will destroy all humanity. Only by their combined powers, can they destroy the evil and bring an end to a centuries old curse.

http://www.amazon.com/Cursed-Mates-Cara-Marsi-ebook/dp/B00JK5AHLS/?tag=carmaraut-20

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cursed-mates-cara-marsi/1104197347

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/cursed-mates/id858952514

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The Halloween from Hell! by Sam Cheever

If I were going to create the consummate Halloween party, I'd invite all the characters from my Bedeviled and Beyond series. The list of attendees would include halflings, which are creatures made up of devil and angel DNA, Guardian Angels, Royal Devils, demons, gargoyles, witches and warlocks, dragons, fairies, werewolves and just about anything else you can think of from the darker side of magic. That would be an interesting party, yes?

As you can imagine, my heroine, Astra Q Phelps would have her hands full keeping everybody in line. Good thing she's been groomed since childhood to handle dark world inhabitants. And with my favorite holiday, Halloween, coming up in just a few days, I'd like to share the story of one of Astra Q Phelps' early Halloween experiences.

Beware...this Halloween story is not for the faint of heart! Bwahahahahaha!

 ΨΨΨ 

October 31st. All Hallows Eve. The devil's Mardi Gras. Within walls painted with the scarlet broth of human life, in Devil King Nerul's court, buried deep within the bowels of an unsuspecting Earth, All Hallows Eve is celebrated in a way that brings to mind the human holiday, Christmas. Beneath the holiday tree in Nerul's court however, the only gifts are corpses, wrapped in their own stink, and tied with the roiling ribbons of their newly claimed maggot hosts.

Within these walls all manner of horror waits in rabid anticipation of the culmination of the grand scheme, which was born as long as 2000 years ago, and comes to fruition on this night.

Halloween, 2015. In the spirit world, the year of the devil.

As young, fresh-cheeked toddlers and adolescents choke down their dinners in their eagerness to don their costumes and hit the streets, their evil counterparts gather below with putrefying smiles and plan their evening's delights, preening flesh-clogged claws and razor edged fangs in preparation for the coming carnage.

The word had spread like wildfire through the spirit world. It had passed with the tenacity of long told tales and hero's songs. On this Eve, the proclamation tells, a life could be regained for a life lost. For a brief time, ending exactly at midnight, death's cold, filthy grasp could be traded for the warmth and joys of life. The rules, proclaimed by Nerul, were simple and grave: Kill a young human in its prime, and life and beauty would be yours again.

Brutality among the court's demons, devils, and gargoyles was not a problem. They regularly paid death its due through excessive carnage. They only feared the good in man. Goodness served as both a lure and a killing frost to their type of evil purpose. It was as acid to their flesh, unutterable despair to their spirits. And in this unwelcome trait, the sweet, untainted child was of particular danger to them.

With this knowledge in their tortured thoughts, Nerul's monsters gathered with a mixture of fear and gleeful anticipation. For the sweet syrup of human goodness was a wine they rarely dared to drink. These dwellers of subterranean dark generally set their sights on those of human form whose souls had long ago been bartered away for temporary riches, whether monetary or of the flesh. Those humans who took the downward spiral in their humane growth, and passed beyond the hope of ever finding their way back, were ready and tender targets for Nerul and his kind. This type of victim the hosts of human nightmares understood and readily hunted.


In contrast, their prey on this most important of nights would be heavily protected from the monsters' lures. The good were constantly guarded and watched by their guardian Angels. And once they had been separated from their guardians, their sweet natures would still burn as acid until it was tainted by evil. It was this task that would prove the most difficult. Luring the good into evil so that they could be subdued.

As dusk gathered like a mask across the land, children and monsters alike left the cover of their dwellings and walked out, gleefully anticipating the coming Halloween delights. Children greeted each other with high-pitched, Angelic voices and taunted their elders for homemade tidbits and sweet-tasting treats while tripping happily over their ghostly sheets and bewitching finery. Among them, short, jolly monsters with bloodied, latex faces and glowing, green plastic eyes danced from house to house, swinging bags that bulged with gastronomic delights and sang out a childish challenge to all that they passed. None of them dreamed that behind the next tree, beyond the next hill, the stuff of true nightmares awaited them, watching for the opportunity to drink greedily of their potent human wine.

Hovering watchfully above these sweet human targets, the Angels of God trained careful, probing eyes on their charges and cast their web of goodness around the unsuspecting children like a protective wall. While Nerul's monsters could boast freely to each other of their indifference to the Angels' powers, nary a one thought to test those powers when they were gathered en masse as they were this special night. After a human hour's passage of time, the monsters, disgusted and repelled by the wall of goodness they'd encountered on those lively streets, retreated to council beneath a fat and taunting moon. Deep in a cold foreboding wood, where displaced spirits danced their fearful dance across the wind-stripped limbs of winter's trees, the monsters bent their terrible heads and began to plan.

Encircling a fire that shot upward from a hole in the earth at the center of their evil council, they argued and pierced each other with gore-touched claws and blood-slimed teeth. Then, at last, heads nodding in agreement, they doused the fires of Hell in their midst and moved out into the night, to make real the nightmare they'd hatched in that dark, cold wood.

As the monsters settled into place in the shadows just beyond the light, calling to their king to bend his special powers to fulfillment of their plan, a lone child emerged from a darkened house, clutching her nanny's work-roughened hand. The child was very small, with bright green eyes and hair that was a scarlet spark under the efficient, white glow of the streetlights. Her name was Astra and, although she was very young and very small, she moved with the purpose of the very old and her eyes were filled with an understanding that surpassed time. She was followed by a single, bright Angel whose name was Myra, and whose scowling countenance foretold the night to come.

As the child moved through the unsuspecting revelers, she looked often to her Angel and smiled a bright, childish smile as if to offset the celestial creature's stern countenance. Angel Myra's response was to scowl more thoroughly and scan the area around them with increased intensity. The ghoulish hunters could not avoid being drawn to Astra. Their red-rimmed eyes followed her tiny form down the streets with a mixture of hunger and dread. For her part, Astra gathered her treats rather carelessly, and without apparent joy, as if she were simply playing a part that could not be avoided. Her weary caregiver trudged along beside her, yawning widely and offering sleepy smiles to the treat givers they approached.

One ravenous demon, drawn in by the child's sweetness and apparent fragility, stepped from behind a large oak and stared down at Astra through glowing, dead eyes. As Myra reared back to strike, Astra held up a small hand and frowned. With a pucker of her soft, pink lips, little Astra blew a tender kiss at the monster and then laughed childishly as he scurried away with a roar. The child's nanny, not at all convinced of the harmlessness of the thing they'd just encountered, jerked her young charge into the brighter lights and, looking over her shoulder with a shiver, pulled Astra along to the next house.

Myra followed, scolding the child softly and with great intensity. Astra accepted her scolding with a soft smile. "It was just a costume, Myra." She said in soft tones when her nanny was distracted. With this Myra scowled all the more deeply and said, "You know better, Astra."

The child's brave defiance when confronted by a living, breathing nightmare spurred the monsters on. With renewed vigor they called upon Nerul to help them set their plan into motion. As the revelers squeezed the last of the bounty from the dying night, as lights and candles winked off all around them, and footsteps turned wearily toward home, Nerul raised his awful countenance and drove his massive powers into the rock and dirt that formed the roof of his court in the bowels of the Earth. In response, the very street the children walked upon began to tremble and crack. With a thunderous roar, the street ripped apart and flew skyward to expose the fires of Hell beneath.

With screams of surprise and then terror, children scattered or were whisked away by their guardians. The children who had been standing in the place where the jagged edges of the fiery pit emerged, teetered and screamed and fell into it, landing in the hard, leathery arms of their worst nightmares. While Hell's flames lapped hungrily at soft, cringing flesh, the monsters bent their terrible heads to whisper words of temptation into the tender, captive ears. Many of the small victims succumbed to evil's promise and gave way. These the monsters dove upon and devoured. A few, good, brave children shook their tiny heads in denial of Hades' pledge. These the monsters rejected with a roar of terror and disgust, flinging them from the fires of Hell, where they were gathered up, once again, by their frantic guardian Angels.

By the hundreds, the guardian Angels left their charges and flew into the pit to save the howling children. And as they fought the demons of Hell, the Angels called to the heavens in crystalline tones of supplication. Demons, devils, and gargoyles; taking advantage of the children’s newly unguarded state; emerged from the shadows and carried them off, whispering terrible words of temptation and threat into their helpless ears.

In the midst of it all, Astra stood quiet and calm, arms outstretched, and called selected children around her. At her calm insistence, even the most terror stricken of the chosen few moved to stand quietly at her side. The demons, seeing in the small child a power greater than theirs, made no attempt to breach her circle of control and the thirteen, specially-picked children she'd called to her side were spared.

Moments later, the bells of St. Michael's church on the corner began to strike the hours of Midnight. As each hour chimed away, the edges of the earth began to knit themselves back together and the smoke began to clear. The screams died away to muted cries and then silence, and the world began to right itself. As the midnight hour was reached, the revelers seemed to shake themselves off and take a collective, deep breath. They blinked and moved to retrieve lost bags filled with sweet delights, resuming their measured steps toward home. Neighbors shook their heads and returned to their homes, wondering what trick of fate had brought them out of their warm beds and into the cold, quiet night.

Young Astra looked up and smiled sadly as Myra settled once again at her back. Quietly they made their way home, dragging Astra's exhausted nanny behind. Once there, young Astra made an excuse to her mother and stood outside for just a moment longer, glancing at her Angel with a sad frown.

"How many do you think, Angel?"

Myra shrugged and her habitual scowl deepened. "At least a dozen I fear."

"How many did you save?"

The Angel's soft lips took a downward turn, "Not nearly enough."

Astra nodded and touched her Angel's pale, translucent hand. "Will their parents know?"

Myra shook her golden head and sighed. "They see what they want to see, Astra."

Astra lowered her head and turned to enter her house. One by one the lights of the street winked off and keys turned in locks. Inside the homes, sleepy children kissed their parents' cheeks and trudged wearily off to bed. If some of these small, sleepy faces seemed somehow different...somehow colder...somehow sharper...their parents didn't notice.

The day was spent. The air outside was clear and cold. The moon lay fat and smiling in the sky. It was time to put aside the cares of the day. Small forms settled down to sleep in down-covered beds, with softly glowing nightlights at their heads to protect them from the monsters under the bed. But many of the monsters had moved from under the bed to rest upon it. In many beds innocence no longer slept. In these beds, eyes that had been bright with childish delight that morning, now glowed with an unearthly fever, demonic with the pleasure of humanity gained. Until at last, two by two, these cold eyes closed in restless sleep, to foster dreams of celebrations to come.

October 31st, 2016. In the spirit world, the year of the demon.

Book 5: Bedeviled & Beyond

Bedeviled & Besmirched

"Sam Cheever never ceases to amaze with the stories she weaves. They continue to be intense, very hot and filled with enough twists and turns to keep the reader amazed and intrigued. The ending is electrifying and you know we have not seen the last of this couple. Beautifully done –" ~ 5 stars from SensualReads.com

Who knew that one little magic hickey could cause so much trouble? Never mind that Astra Q Phelps has no idea how she gave the king of the Royal Devils a Daemon mark. Females aren’t supposed to be able to mark their males. Now everybody’s trying to kill her. Well, half of everybody is trying to kill her. The females on the Devil Court want to know how she did it so they can do it too. And, while Astra’s trying to stay alive, somebody’s making a play for her man and the power he’s about to inherit. It’s a whole lot of stuff for Astra Q Phelps to handle. But, as you probably know by now, she’s…most likely…up to the challenge. Hopefully.

Check out the whole Bedeviled & Beyond Series!

Halloween - Bringing my Muse to Life

I LOVE the time around Halloween. The world around me is growing crisper and more colorful, the sweet smell of cut grass is augmented by the spicy scent of burning leaves, and magic thrums on the air as the days grow cooler and night birds dip and swirl in a last ditch effort to feed before settling down for a long Winter.

During this time of year my muse often gets inspired to write sexy, dark paranormal fiction. It happened to me again this year. I really wanted to write a vampire story to release this Halloween season but I wanted to do something different. Something I don't think anybody else has done. At least not that I'm aware of. So I created my Sangui, royal vampires from a distant planet who are forced to escape to Earth when their planet is destroyed by a plague. I'm so excited to be able to share this fun, new take on the vampire romance.

Here's a little taste of my soon to be released novella, Sangui: Alphas of the Blood:

He’s an elite vampire from a distant planet…an Alpha of the Blood. But he’s no match for one spunky and opinionated Earth woman!

The Alphas of the Blood are an elite, alien race of vampires. They escaped a devastated planet that was overrun with plague-infected beasts and came to Earth for a chance at a new life…a new beginning. The change is bitter-sweet for Zeenon Akba, who lost much of his family in the plague wars and fears his only brother might have carried the infection to Earth with him. But when Zee stumbles upon a pretty human female being stalked by an infected, he’s determined to help her, even if it means killing his own brother. Aware of their many differences and his need to find a blood slave for his mate, Zee doesn’t intend to lose his heart to pretty and spunky Brooke Carlin. So why can’t he get her out of his mind?

~~*~~

“Are you her husband?”

Zee stared at the woman dressed in loose, brightly colored garb that was covered in small cur and other furry creatures, unsure how to respond. He thought a husband was like a mate, only less permanent. “I haven’t determined that yet.” He went on quickly when the woman frowned. “I am considering it, but she has not indicated a preference.”

Far from clearing things up, Zee realized he was making it worse when the woman’s scowl deepened. Though he didn’t know the correct response, he had to assume there was a reason she was asking. He figured it was important, somehow, that he be a husband.

He sighed. “I am her mate…erm…husband, yes.”

The woman’s frown wobbled and then cleared. “I’ll need her full name, date of birth, residence, and a health history." She handed him several sheets of paper clipped to a board. “Do you have insurance?”

Zee frowned. He barely knew the luscious human’s name and that was only because she’d managed to murmur it to one of the med techs as she was wheeled away. “Insurance?”

The woman lifted a thin, blonde eyebrow. “No insurance?” She expelled a breath as though Zee had somehow let her down and shoved a different board with different paper toward him. “Okay, just sign right here.”

She was very judgmental for a woman covered in mongrel cur.

Zee took the slim writing object and scrawled his customary Z on the page where she’d indicated. Unfortunately it was in Sanguinese and probably looked a lot like the gibberish on the walls in the warehouse district looked to Zee. To distract the intrusive female he asked, “I’d like to see her.”

The woman gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “As soon as you give me the information I need you can see her.”

Zee nodded and reached out, placing his fingers over the spot between her neck and shoulders and pinching. The woman’s eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped over in her chair. Zee caught her head before it slammed into the countertop, lowering it gently. “I apologize.”

He turned away, smiling at the woman and small child approaching the counter. “She is very tired, it appears.”

The young mother glanced at the slumped figure and frowned. Zee strolled toward the double, swinging doors through which the lovely Brooke had been wheeled. He would find her himself. Her delightful scent was etched forever in his memory.

Alongside the intoxicating taste of her lips.

Book Page: http://www.samcheever.com/sangui.html