Title: Life After Humanity
Series: Thorns and Fangs, Book Three
Author: Gillian St. Kevern
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: January 15, 2018
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 119000
Genre: Paranormal, vampires, supernatural beings, werewolves, alternate universe, cliffhanger ending
Add to Goodreads
Synopsis
Ben is a recovering vampire determined to pick up the pieces of the life that came to a halt when he was murdered over a year ago—even if that means distancing himself from his few remaining friends. Nate, struggling to navigate his new identity as a Class 3 Unknown paranormal, knows it will take more than mastery of his affinity with plants to convince Ben they belong together.When Ben’s application for human status is denied, he must fight to leave the paranormal world behind him while Nate’s generous impulses drag him into conflict with a werewolf pack with designs on ruling New Camden. As Ben’s vampire family draws closer to finding him, his vampire instinct awakens—throwing his continued existence into jeopardy. The hunt for the missing werewolf continues, and Nate and Ben become pawns in Councilor Wisner’s plans to take control of the city. Their only hope is each other—if they can see that before all is lost.
Excerpt
Life After Humanity
Gillian St. Kevern © 2017
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
Someone had broken in.
Ben stood in the doorway of his New
Camden apartment. The door swung open at his touch, even before he’d fished his
key out of his pocket. Beneath his feet, the protective wards laid around the
apartment throbbed like an open wound. Someone had forced their way past Ben’s
carefully laid defenses—someone who was still there.
Damnit. Ben set his briefcase down
noiselessly beside the door. Just one day. One day without anything
supernatural happening. Is that too much to ask?
He didn’t move, using his senses to
probe the darkness beyond the door. Vampire—or werewolf? He hadn’t felt any
interference with his wards until he’d reached his apartment. That ruled out a
magical practitioner or any lesser supernatural being that would have needed to
unpick the spell piece by piece. Please, not another demon. None of the boxes
dotted around the living room were big enough to hide an intruder. Unless they
crouched behind the sofa or pressed against the wall in the shadows, they
weren’t in the living room.
Keeping his attention focused on the
apartment, Ben fished for his umbrella stand and the cane leaning against its
back. It looked benign, as if it had been forgotten by an elderly visitor, but
when Ben twisted the handle, he released the long blade hidden within.
Not Ben’s first choice of weapon—the
blade was too long and too dainty—but it was a weapon, able to stand up to
vampire or demon. If this is a werewolf, I am in serious trouble. The stale air
of his apartment lacked the distinctive ripe odor of werewolf. Still, Ben
couldn’t rule it out.
Why would a werewolf break into my
apartment? True, Ben had a past as a supernatural investigator for ARX and had
killed a few werewolves in his time—but that was the past. There was nothing
linking his life now to ARX—was there?
Ben slipped noiselessly into the dimly
lit living room, heading for the sofa. Nothing there—or in the shadows. He
scanned the room, but everything looked as it had that afternoon when he’d
stepped out to meet his accountant. All I did was my taxes! Where’s the harm in
that?
But bringing his financial records
up-to-date for the year he’d been dead had taken all of the afternoon. Ample
time for whoever it was to find a hiding place. Ben stood motionless in the
living room, straining with his senses for any clue to the intruder.
The open doors of his apartment were in
deeper shadow than the rest of the living room. Reaching for the light switch
was tempting, but Ben’s eyes were now accustomed to the dark. Readjusting would
cost seconds he wasn’t sure he had. His eyes fell on the stacks of paper on his
living room table.
At first glance they seemed undisturbed,
but a closer look revealed a few papers had drifted to the side. Disturbed by a
breeze? Ben turned to the kitchen door. A sliver of light was just visible
through the crack beneath.
A trap. There was nothing of interest to
any supernatural being in the kitchen, so it would be the last place he
searched. His guard down, his senses dull, he’d be unprepared for whatever
waited beyond. Or—Ben frowned as he approached the door—was there another
explanation?
A faint sizzling sound emanated from
beyond the door, followed by the heavy smell of garlic.
Ben’s nose twitched. A werewolf would
not cook an enemy dinner. A demon wouldn’t know how. A vampire might—but a
vampire would not use garlic.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Taking a deep breath, Ben slowly levered the handle down and let the door drift
open. His fear was confirmed.
Nate stood at the counter, his back to
the door. The strength implicit in his broad shoulders and muscular arms was
softened—but not disguised—by the domesticity of his actions. As Ben watched,
Nate lay down the knife and used the chopping board to slide his neatly diced
peppers into the frying pan. At his elbow a pot boiled merrily.
Far more dangerous than any werewolf.
Ben swallowed, finding it hard to speak. He felt as if he were caught in a
spell, unable to do anything but watch.
Absorbed in his task, Nate seemed
unaware of Ben’s presence. He was dressed down, wearing a faded T-shirt that
hugged his torso. The edges of his jeans were frayed, hanging down over his
bare feet. His hair hadn’t been styled, and it curled up at the base of his
neck. Finished adding the mushrooms to the pan, he stirred its contents and
then stretched out a hand to the basil growing in a pot on the windowsill. The
window reflected his smile, inward and alarmingly personal.
Ben swallowed. Nate had broken in—so why
did he feel like the intruder?
Dangerous. Ben dug his fingers into his
arm. Focus! Casual worked annoyingly well for Nate, made more effective by the
knowledge that Nate made a point of looking good. There were few people who got
to see Nate dressed down. But Ben couldn’t think about that, or how right Nate
looked in his kitchen. He had to get Nate out of his apartment before it was
too late.
“What happened to seeing less of each
other?”
Nate started, snatching his hand back
from the basil. He turned, and Ben’s initial flash of triumph gave way to
alarm. Nate’s eyes were a great weapon. Hazel and framed by dark, almost
decadently soft lashes, they radiated whatever Nate felt with an immediacy that
was hard to resist.
“Jesus, Ben! You scared the shit out of
me—” He came to a halt. “Is that a sword?”
Ben looked down at the blade in his
hand. It wouldn’t help him now. “It’s a family heirloom. Used to be my
grandfather’s.” He turned back toward the front door.
“And you just keep it there by the
door?” Nate followed Ben to the kitchen door to watch.
“In case of intruders.” Ben sheathed the
sword and dropped the cane back in the stand. He shut the door. His heart
raced. Ben took a moment to summon all his anger. I was this close to a day
without anything supernatural happening! “You’d better have a good reason for
breaking into my apartment.”
“I do.” Nate stood in the kitchen
doorway, one hand resting against the frame.
“Let’s hear it then.”
“I had a bad feeling this afternoon. A
premonition.”
Not this again! “It wasn’t a
premonition.”
“It felt really real. I was just
watching TV and all of a sudden, these words popped into my mind. You were gone
and I wasn’t going to see you again. It really freaked me out.”
“Enough to add breaking and entering to
your criminal file?”
Nate radiated hurt. He wrapped his arms
around himself. “I had to see you. No one answered the door, so I tried
calling. When it had been a couple of hours and you hadn’t answered your phone,
I—well, I got worried.”
“And that’s when you broke in?” Ben
pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapping in his pin.
“That was an accident. I had my hand on
the door, and I was thinking about how much I wanted to be on the other side,
and the door just…relaxed.”
Eight missed calls… Ben jerked his head
up. “Relaxed?”
“I tried the handle and it opened.”
Nate’s eyes settled anxiously on Ben’s. “Did I break anything?”
Ben looked down at the welcome mat
beneath his feet. He didn’t need to lift it to know what he would find. His
runes, intact but faintly smudged. “Only the natural laws regarding the magical
properties of runes.”
Nate scratched the back of his neck. He
dropped his gaze, shuffling his feet, but was unable to keep from looking up to
check Ben’s expression. “Are you mad?”
Embarrassment looked wrong on Nate. Ben
was reminded of a dog caught doing something he knew he shouldn’t be—and felt
the tight knot of anger in his stomach undo. Curse him! If Ben was going to get
out of this encounter unscathed he needed his anger. “Of course I’m mad. My
apartment is my place. Coming home to find someone’s forced their way in is…not
good.” Not good? That wasn’t going to convince anyone—least of all anyone with
Nate’s perceptive nature.
It was hard to read Nate’s expression.
“I made dinner. As an apology.”
At least he realized he needed to
apologize— No! I have to be firm. “I think your apology is burning.”
“Shit!” Nate ducked back through the
doorway to attend to the frying pan.
Ben took the opportunity to escape.
Purchase
NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Meet the Author
Gillian St. Kevern is spending Christmas in her native New Zealand, where the seasonal festivities include pavlovas, walks on the beach, and a distinct lack of sweaters, seasonal or otherwise. She will almost certainly get sunburnt at some stage.Gillian reads and writes a variety of genres. She’s a huge fan of paranormal with an emphasis on vampires. The third and fourth books in her vampire series, Thorns and Fangs, are due for release in January and February 2018. She also explores Welsh Mythology in the on-going Deep Magic series. In 2018, she plans to explore another beloved genre―vintage mysteries. She loves discovering new books and authors, so please get in touch if you have any good book recommendations to share!
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | eMail | Pinterest
Giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment