From the Inside Flap
She seemed so far away and yet she was right there. Her dark hair was ruffled and then I met her gaze.
The red light was coming from her eyes.
I tried to scream, but there was no sound in me. Her mouth opened over my spread legs and her white teeth seemed to drip red.
"First," she finally continued, "there's the devouring."
--Castle Wrath, Karin Kallmaker
The woman moaned. Nadia held her tight, kissing her deeply on the mouth, then letting her tongue glide down over her collarbone and down to the hot indentation between her breasts. If she had the time, she would make love to the woman first, but she was so hungry. It had been days since she'd feasted.
--Running with Stone Ponies, Barbara Johnson
She kissed me hard, biting down on my lower lip til she drew blood. She licked my lips and let out a low, rumbling sound like a purring cat. I was excited, but I was also scared. If it had been Driver's Ed instead of sex, she would have been shoving me out onto the interstate when I had only just learned how to circle an empty parking lot. "Sweet," she whispered," licking her own lips, then leaning down to kiss my neck.
--We Recruit, Julia Watts
She played her tongue lightly over my earlobe, down my neck, and then sucked at my neck. She ran her hands under my T-shirt, feeling my skin, making me squirm. "I wonder, sometimes, if she brings me here just so I might find you. God, Rebecca, I want you so badly--"
I pushed her back, sure of one thing as I seemed to straddle vast gulfs in time. "I'm Rhenné."
--Elsewhen, Therese Szymanski
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
(The opening of Castle Wrath, the first novella) The important thing is that you believe what I'm telling you because, frankly, it's unbelievable from the get go. It's not like it's a long story, or anything, and I still don't know how it ends, but it's completely and totally true.
I took this writing class and they said the important thing was to write what you know and leave out the boring bits. That's two important things, I realize that now, but here's what I know and I'm leaving out the boring part about how it all came to pass: I inherited a castle in Scotland!
You don't want to know about my grandfather's great aunt's adopted son's nephew-by-marriage who died without issue and the long series of accidents that lead to me being the heir--trust me, it's a forty-part episode of Masterpiece Theater. But here I am on a train in the Scottish countryside, trying to imagine the fate that caused all those deaths that let this incredible thing happen to me. It's a bit freaky thinking about karma and fate and payback so I'm not thinking about it.
What I'm thinking about right now is that I can't understand a thing anyone says and I'm hungry. Plus, there's this tall, dark woman who keeps staring at me. I think I saw her at the train station in Glasgow. I had to run for the train and she seemed to be following me because she was running too. She's attractive but hardly my type--too old. Too serious, I'll bet. I trod on her foot when the train started to go and she said "buggery bollocks" and I said I was sorry so I don't know why she's staring at me.
I wonder if she's the other heir.
Sorry, I hadn't gotten to that part. I didn't mean to leave it out as it's not at all boring. See, there are two heirs. We have to live in the castle for thirty nights and then one of us will inherit and the other gets a ticket home.
