In a world where humans hate witches, there’s no one who hates them more than Jameson Tyler – they are the reason his mother and little sister are dead. Then one morning, he wakes to find those he’s hated for his entire life are now his only hope to understanding his new identity, his new life…as a witch.
Jameson has to get to the witch’s side of town – a place he’s never been and has loathed his entire life – and give up everything he’s ever known before the Witch Special Forces (WSF) captures him. On top of avoiding the WSF, when his new Headmistress attacks him, things get even more complicated.
He must accept his new fate and life before being killed, letting the Magical Community fall into the wrong hands. Can Jameson put his hatred aside or will he let his prejudice destroy them all?
“Who are you?” I stammered, trying to sound more confident than I felt. The guy was still walking toward me, weaving his way through the students and staff frozen in place.
“I’m Terin,” The guy said, as he came to stop in front of me. “What do you want?” I asked. “You.” I winced.
“Me? What do you want with me?” “Wow, you really don’t know who I am, do you?” “No…” “I’m Terin.” “You said that.” “I did, but you didn’t ask the right question. So whose fault is that?” I glanced around me, more than a little confused. I finally shrugged. “It’s yours. Now that’s two things you’re responsible for.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “I mean you didn’t ask the right question and you also froze everyone in this
school. See? One. Two.” My mouth dropped open. I stood there staring for what felt like ages. Terin
stood there, with his hands behind his back, calmly waiting for me to get over my shock. He finally cleared his throat and I shook my head. He rocked slightly on his heels.
“What are you playing at? I didn’t freeze everyone here. Only a witch would be able to do something like this and witches aren’t allowed on these grounds,” I said. I glared at him, wanting him to leave. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
“Oh, Jameson. You really don’t know anything about witches, do you?” Terin said, shaking his head. I let out a bark of laughter.
“I know everything I need to – they’re vile, freaks of nature and they should be exterminated. Why would I need to know anything else?” I spat.
“Well, for one thing, it’ll help you learn how to control the power you just sent ricocheting throughout your entire school. For another, it’ll help you actually be productive in your new classes,” Terin finished.
He waved his hand around us, gesturing to everyone who stood silently and unmoving. He turned back to me, where I was silently freaking out. I didn’t want to be here anymore.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Sure you did. When you released your anger in that little temper tantrum, you sent out your power. You were able to send a shock wave through your entire school and freeze everyone here. Must have been really pissed about something to have frozen that many people with your first spell. Quite impressive really,” Terin looked around at the people standing around us, looking mildly amused.
“I don’t understand,” I shook my head, still not connecting the dots. Terin sighed and said the three words that ruined my entire life: “You’re a witch.”
Falling in love with a vampire bites—and sometimes loving a human bites back.
Dorian Villeneuve is an unlucky vampire from the slums of Devil’s Row. He makes ends meet for himself and his emotional support Chihuahua by working sleazy bars and nightclubs, doing what it takes to get by. Cash Leroy is a monster hunter from East Texas with a golden voice and an unrivaled devotion to Stevie Nicks. Hunting does not leave time for friends, let alone love.
When their paths cross during a bloody run-in with the vampire mob, Cash upends Dorian’s life—and takes Dorian under his wing to teach how to hunt monsters.
The unlikely pair become partners, and soon, best friends. However, their deepening bond grows complicated when Dorian falls in love with Cash. Their friendship is too important to throw away over an interspecies attraction, especially in a career that is already nasty, brutish, and short.
And things become even more complicated when Cash finds himself returning the vampire’s affections.
When an unusually deadly case lands in the hunters’ laps, their ill-fated affair takes a backseat. A pair of man-eating weredeer are on the loose taking victims’ hearts. With the pressure on to end the killing spree, Dorian and Cash must set aside their feelings and hunt down the blood-thirsty deer.
Can Dorian and Cash’s friendship survive this monstrous romance, or will they lose their hearts in the process?
Cash Leroy could have been a singer but killing paid the bills. He stood at the karaoke machine and bathed in the pink neon spotlight, every inch of him painted in a dusky glow. Mic in hand, he commanded his favorite booth with lowered eyes, splinters of light catching in his fallen lashes as they fluttered against his stubbled cheeks. His voice hit the high notes of ‘Outside the Rain’ in a velvety dither that belied his smoky drawl and taste for Pall Mall cigarettes. In a depth of sound so full, it overshadowed the shrill karaoke track.
Here, on most nights and nearly every weekend, Cash sang Stevie Nicks songs and only Stevie Nicks songs. This was his ritual for the eight months that Dorian knew Cash, but it went well beyond their partnership. Cash was a man of singular interest, and no one else loved Stevie Nicks like he did.
The hunter cradled the mic between strong hands, his booted foot keeping time as he swayed to the music. Onstage, he seemed like a different man from the one Dorian knew the rest of the day. Singing straightened his slouched posture as his voice overtook the room. The stage broke Cash’s even temperament and replaced it with a showman’s presence as he performed for his preferred audience of one. Even the flecks of blood on the collar of his shirt disappeared into the neon. Everything else about Cash seemed to fall away whenever he opened his mouth to sing.
And Dorian, despite his best efforts, was in love with Cash.
Dorian nursed his second beer of the night on the modular pink loveseat across from the karaoke machine. He tried not to watch Cash as closely as he did. It was hard not to watch Cash in all things, both on the stage and off it. Dorian fought to keep his gaze from wandering over Cash’s strong legs in his beat-up blue jeans. The vampire fought harder to avoid staring at Cash’s neck, mouth, and sweep of his dark lashes as he sang.
Because Cash was Dorian’s best friend, roommate, and partner. He didn’t want to be in love with Cash. Loving Cash made Dorian’s life complicated and scary. It put an ache deep inside the vampire’s rib cage, choking on glass whenever the feeling threatened to claw its way out of his throat. Choking it down because they could never be together.
But sitting in a karaoke booth, watching Cash sing, Dorian loved Cash anyway.
Magen Cubed is an Eisner-nominated writer, essayist, and occasional critic, best known for her queer monster-hunting urban fantasy/paranormal romance series SOUTHERN GOTHIC. She has appeared in the critically acclaimed TWISTED ROMANCE comics anthology from Image Comics and has bylines on the award-winning Women Write About Comics. Magen lives in Florida with her girlfriend Melissa and a little dog named Cecil.
Title: The Jade Talisman Author: Alanna MacKenzie Series: The Jade Chronicles #2 Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction/Fantasy
A talisman. A song. A story about time itself, as it moves through each winding branch in the tree of life.
It is the year 2762 in the Empire of Khalendar, and AI Masters rule the civilized world, striving to crush all dissent. But they have not yet managed to quell the Jade Rebellion or its leader, Walter Saltanetska. The Jade Queen, once a prison ship commandeered by the AI Masters, is now a rebel stronghold. Walter and his companions have sailed all the way to Vei’arash, a lush island reputedly home to exiled dissidents and evil shamans. Their mission is to fulfill a pact with their Mage allies—to find animal spirits exiled to Vei’arash long ago by the AI Masters.
As the rebels plunge deeper into the jungle, physical laws are upended. The plants and animals of the rainforest are inextricably linked to divine beings. The most powerful of these beings entrusts Walter with an enchanted gemstone, the Jade Talisman, that warps the basic rules of time and space.
The Talisman allows Walter to gaze into a mesmerizing labyrinth of future possibilities. But the visions it offers up are troublingly dark, giving Walter insight into the deepest recesses of the human soul. While he needs to remain emotionally distant from them, he cannot. The people in these visions are not strangers, but Walter and his loved ones. This gift proves to be a crushing burden, and Walter desperately longs for an ordinary life. But there is no going back…
The gripping sequel to The Jade Rebellion, The Jade Talisman is a tribute to the perseverance of spirituality in a world dominated by the cold logic of artificial intelligence.
Alanna Mackenzie lives in Vancouver, Canada. She holds degrees in History, French studies, and Law from the University of British Columbia. An environmentalist at heart, she believes in using the law as a tool for social and environmental change. When she is not pursuing that passion, she can be found brainstorming the next chapter in her novels, playing Irish fiddle tunes on the violin, and hiking West Coast trails.
