Dark Solace by Tara Fox Hall
Blurb:
With Theo facing deadly odds in a fight to the death, Sar makes a pact with Lash, agreeing to give Devlin another chance in return for Theo’s life. Reforging her relationship with her handsome vampiric lover mends old wounds, even as Theo moves to regain Sar just for himself. But Devlin’s old enemy Ulysses appears, taking Sar prisoner and burning Devlin badly in a surprise attack. Rescued at the eleventh hour by Lash, Sar nurses Dev back to health, Theo bristling at a distance. Yet Lash’s own day of reckoning is here as his long life ebbs to a finale, leaving Sar to face the decision of offering him salvation, knowing that the price is her own humanity.
Series Order:
1. Promise Me
2. Broken Promise
3. Taken in the Night
4. Taken for his Own
4.5. Promise Me Anthology
5. Immortal Confessions
6. Her Secret,
7. Point of No Return
8. Lost Paradise
9. Dark Solace
Excerpt:
Suddenly Devlin swerved, we were leaning too far left, and all of a sudden the motorcycle was no longer beneath me, the ground rushing up to meet us. Devlin twisted in the air, trying to wrap his body around mine to protect me. As we hit the pavement with a bone-jarring crunch, I heard something snap in him. Dev let out a hiss of pain through gritted teeth as we rolled over and over, finally coming to rest on our backs near some bushes.
I lay there breathing hard, thanking God to be alive and promising fervently to never get on a motorcycle again. Devlin lay partly under me, his body still enfolding mine.
“Dev—” I whispered.
His hand covered my mouth in a flash. I went still immediately, waiting in silence, my heart hammering.
“Dalcon,” a voice called. “Get up.”
Our accident had been an ambush. Who was out there? Why the hell hadn’t Devlin said there was someone looking to kill him? I would have insisted on guards if I’d known.
Devlin made no reply.
“Answer me, Dalcon, or I’ll shoot your lady. When you start screaming, I’ll know your vocal abilities are still there.”
God. I felt frantically for my cell phone, then remembered it was in my purse on the front seat of Lash’s truck.
“I’m here,” Devlin said spitefully. “Who are you and what do you want with me?”
A familiar figure walked into the light. “It’s him,” Catherine said, rancor in each word as she stared at us with red eyes. “That’s his Oathed One, Sar.”
Devlin hissed, baring his fangs at her. She gave him a cold look.
A man stepped out beside Catherine. I didn’t recognize his handsome features. He had brown hair to his shoulders, and green eyes like mine. His body was similar to Aran’s, tall and rangy, though his shoulders were narrower, and his waist thicker. He looked to be in his twenties, but if he was vampire like Catherine, he could have been far older.
Devlin did recognize him. He hissed again, baring his fangs. “Ulysses.”
“How gratifying, Dalcon,” the man said. “I thought you had forgotten me.”
“I had, until now,” Devlin said easily.
“Get up, both of you,” Ulysses said.
He had no gun or weapon. Why wasn’t Devlin kicking his ass? We’d lost our gun, sure, but still…
Devlin got up and faced Ulysses, keeping me behind him. “You’re a fool to ambush me. You’ve only brought yourself more misery—”
“I beg to differ,” Ulysses said in a charming manner. “You owe me.”
“I owe you nothing,” Devlin said arrogantly.
“You owe me,” Ulysses repeated with white-hot anger. “Grab them!”
Arms grabbed me from behind, pulling me away from Devlin. I screamed, kicking and pushing, but the limbs were immovable as steel bands. Devlin lunged for me, snarling, but four men grasped him, restraining him as he thrashed.
“Let us go!” I screamed. “You’ve signed your own death warrant—”
Ulysses strode up to Devlin, and shot him in the heart, the brief flash illuminating Devlin’s explosive bullet’s gun. Devlin convulsed with the impact, and went down hard.
Buy Links:
Melange Books:
Amazon:
Print:
Bio:
Tara Fox Hall is an OSHA-certified safety and health inspector at a metal fabrication shop in upstate New York. She received her bachelor's degree in mathematics with a double minor in chemistry and biology from BinghamtonUniversity. Her writing credits include over twenty short stories published in the nature magazines Catnip Blossoms, Meanwhile, and On The River. Her short horror stories have appeared in Deadman's Tome, Flashes in the Dark, Halloween Alliance, and Ghastly Door. She also coauthored the essay "The Allure of the Serial Killer," published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). She divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals of all species, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/TerrorFoxHall
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Thank you for having me at Book Talk Reviews as part of my Dark Solace Book Tour! Have a Fabulous Halloween!
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