My demon-slaying unicorn MS won FIRST place!! Squee!! Wanna show you something ;) To celebrate I'm giving away...

Cover art by Danielle Fine

Hello, my darlings! Happy New Year!! I'm welcoming in 2013 with some exciting news that I couldn't wait to share with you!! 

Running From Shadows has won FIRST PLACE in the Reveal Your Inner Vixen contest!!!! Squee!!!

So to celebrate I'm giving away a $25 giftcard of your choice (Amazon, B&N or Starbucks)!! Just 'like' my FB Author page (here) and tell me that you did.

That's all! Ohh, and if you have already 'liked' my FB Author page, then just 'share' this post and tell me that you did. Easy. Peasy. ;) I'll announce the winner on my Midweek Mayhem blog post next Wednesday, 9th of January!

My certificate and Vixen pin (left bottom corner)!!

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But, wait! There's more... :P Wanted to share (two) pages from my Running From Shadows entry! This is when Pax and Greta first meet (at least, that's when she thinks they first met)....
 

(The second scene in Chapter 2: Marked)

     I didn’t know if I could stand, let alone walk. But I had to get away from here, and the sooner the better. Not making eye contact with anyone, I uncrossed my arms, pushed out from the table and stood, ready to put as much distance as possible between myself and this prison. Adrenaline fed my veins. I ran straight into the hallway and flung open the screen door.

     The cool mountain air prickled my bare arms and legs as I sped down the front steps. At the corner of the house, I paused long enough to sling off my heels, the porch light making my shadow monstrous as it mimicked the movement.

     I ran.

     After passing the sunflower field, I raced toward the willow which wept over the pathway into the forest. Thick, squishy grass below my feet turned into hard twigs and rough ground the closer I got to the edge of the woods. Moonlight washed over the treetops and spilled out along the path in front of me. I pushed on.

     Angry tears blurred my vision. I held them in. I wouldn’t cry over this. This wasn’t happening. No way, Jack. Not to me. There had to be an out. Maybe when I turned eighteen in two months?

     Hell. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t understand why the Trinity would agree to this but, despite it verging on black magick, it was done. The contract was signed. Binding.

     When my feet started to ache, I ran harder. My head pounded, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. This was the second worst day of my life. I still hadn’t gotten over the first.

     My lungs screamed for oxygen. My heart hammered against my chest, driving blood through my veins so fast my ears rang.

     The trees began to clear when I reached a small stream. I paused to catch my breath and search for a shallow spot to cross the water. Sinking down to the ground, I held my face in my hands. All I’d wanted was some closure, a way to atone and move past Jill’s death, find some normalcy in my life. 

Go to UNC Asheville in the fall. Forget about Bain.

     Instead, my coven had sold me to the one person I had good reason to fear. And my mother, my Benedict Arnold of a mother, had betrayed me. I was abandoned to the dark sky splattered with stars. The vastness of it suffocated me.

     Through the stillness of the night I heard a shriek, as if hell had been slit open. The sound of every witch’s worst nightmare, coming to devour her. But shadow demons weren’t real. They were just a legend. A scary story told around séance fires. Right?

     I stood and spun, looking for the source of the hideous sound, hoping I didn’t find it. My dress whirled around me as a biting breeze sent a shiver down my spine. A scream caught in my throat, itching to be freed.

     Suddenly, the sky seemed to shift. Darkness sped toward me. Goddess, it had wings… And talons. I turned to run and it crashed into me, driving me face first to the ground and pinning me down with its cold weight. This was it. My punishment. Justice, finally.

     There was a white hot agony along my shoulder blade. I didn’t fight. I deserved this. She shouldn’t have died. It should’ve been me.

     Darkness pushed into me, ripped at my insides, filled me up. I welcomed death.

     Seconds later, I was scooped up into strong arms, held tight in an embrace that instantly made me feel safe, made me feel…home.

     “Who are you?” I asked, and even I could hear the edge of wonder in my voice.

     He looked down at me and his eyes were silvered by moonlight, and familiar somehow. The world spun around us. There was a name caught like a promise between teeth and tongue, just out of reach.      Then he looked away, and it was just me and this strange boy, who’d come out of nowhere and…picked me up.

     “Who are you?” This time the edge had turned to anger. Suspicion. Thank Goddess.

     His gaze shifted from surveying the forest to me. I shivered. “The guy who’s saving your ass.”

     “From what? What the hell is—”

     “Quiet,” he said before taking off.

     As he ran the stars spiraled overhead, a dizzy kaleidoscope that snatched my breath away. With everything that’d happened, I should be afraid. But I wasn’t. He would never let anything happen to me.

     He gave up everything to protect me. He gave up—

     My head hurt. Throbbed. Goddess, what was I thinking? I didn’t even know this boy. Then why was he racing off with me? Why was I letting him, for that matter?

     Focus, Greta.

     He slowed and I opened my eyes to find a small log cabin ahead. A soft yellow light glowed in the windows as smoke drifted from the chimney. I shivered.

     He held me closer. For a moment, I let the tension in my shoulders melt away. For that stolen moment, it was just me and him. Forever.

     Snap out of it, Greta. You are, in fact, being abducted.