Title: Dead Wrong
Series: Thorns and Fangs, Book Four
Author: Gillian St. Kevern
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: February 26, 2018
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 110100
Genre: Paranormal, LGBT, vampires, werewolves, alternate universe, demons, occult, suspense
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Synopsis
Nate’s no supernatural expert, but even
he knows a murdered man coming back to life to kill him can only mean one
thing—the necromancer is back and out for revenge.
Recruited by Department Seven in a
desperate attempt to stop Peter before he claims new victims, Nate quickly
realizes he’s in way over his head. His powers are failing him, he’s haunted by
Peter’s ghost, and he can’t even remember how he stopped Peter the first
time—or why he feels that someone very important is missing from his life.
Ben is fighting for his afterlife.
Trapped in the supernatural version of solitary confinement, he knows freeing
himself will destroy New Camden’s fragile peace—but what choice does he have?
The longer he spends in his magical prison, the harder it becomes to resist his
inner vampire. But if Ben wants to help Nate prevent Peter taking over the
city, he has to prove himself to his sire—Saltaire, a thousand-year-old vampire
with no qualms about using his immense power to suppress Ben’s free will.
As the casualties mount and the city
descends into chaos, Ben and Nate must overcome their worst fears and
impossible odds—or be written out of existence entirely.
Excerpt
Dead Wrong
Gillian St. Kevern © 2018
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
The afternoon had all the gloom of a
funeral. The pavement and the drab external walls of the surrounding buildings
extended to the gray sky above. Nate and Aki stood in silence in the alley
beside their apartment building and contemplated the dead.
Nate, at six feet tall, had to bow his
head to look down at them. “You’re sure it’s not, I don’t know, some kind of
vampire cat?” He winced. The question sounded even worse out in the open.
Aki looked up at Nate, his hazel eyes
flat. “You’re kidding me. Have you ever heard of a vampire cat?”
Nate made a helpless gesture toward the
bodies. “Look at them.” There were two desiccated rats and, nearby, a shriveled
up bird. “Animals don’t eat like this.” He turned the nearest rat over,
noticing what looked like a puncture wound. He crouched to get a closer look.
“Maybe they were sick. Rats are riddled
with disease, and pigeons are not any better—don’t touch them!” Aki made a
disgusted noise. “Ugh. Keep your gross, infected hands away from me.”
Nate set the rat down and turned his
head, giving Aki a speculative look.
Aki stepped backward. “Touch me and I
promise I will dump you.”
Nate snorted, turning his attention back
to the dead animals. “You can’t dump me. We’re not dating.”
“I can friend dump you—and I will.”
“I co-signed the lease. You’re stuck
with me.”
“I’m pretty sure Grant can find me a
legal loophole involving pestilence.” Aki stuck his hands in the pockets of his
plaid trousers. He drummed one foot against the pavement, the movement making
his keychain rattle. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Nate stood slowly, still looking down at
the animals. “There’s got to be some kind of explanation for this. Maybe we
should call Department Seven?”
“They’d laugh in your face. This isn’t
even a case for animal control.” Aki heaved a theatrically loud sigh. “If
you’re that desperate for excitement, ask George to take you hunting. She’d
jump at the chance.”
Nate frowned at Aki. “I’m not desperate
for excitement.”
Aki raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you? This
is the longest we’ve gone without any supernatural mishaps since you got mixed
up with the necromancer, and for the last month, you’ve been glancing over your
shoulder, listening to sounds that aren’t there, and watching the news for
anything paranormal. If that’s not desperation, I don’t know what is.”
Nate shivered. How to explain to Aki
that for the last month, he’d had the constant suspicion that there was
something there, just on the edge of his awareness? “I’m not desperate.”
“Then why are we hanging out in a
shadowy alley, acting like revenant bait?”
Nate blanched. Revenants were the most
basic form of the undead, recently deceased with a taste for blood and no
thought beyond acquiring it. Nate had been closer than he wanted to hungry
revenants. “Bait implies I want to find one. I don’t.”
“Then can we please leave before one
finds us—”
Something crunched in the shadows beyond
the dumpster.
Nate’s breath froze in his throat. He
didn’t dare turn his head to see what Aki was doing, concentrating all his
attention on the shadows.
He heard a second crunch, as if
something shifted on the stones beyond the dumpster. Nate stepped toward it.
“Don’t.” Aki grabbed his arm. “Please,
Nate. This is a seriously bad idea.”
“Stay here.” Nate disentangled himself.
“Get ready to call Department Seven.”
“And after that, I’ll call the funeral
home.” Aki had his phone in hand. “I’m having them put ‘I told him not to do
it’ on your gravestone.”
“Quiet.” Nate knew a revenant couldn’t
kill him. At least he was pretty sure he was safe. His experience with the
necromancer had woken Nate’s own supernatural side. Being part plant could be
inconvenient at times, but it did mean that he was impervious to things that
were fatal to ordinary humans. But being a card-carrying psychic wouldn’t
protect Aki from becoming monster chow. Nate edged his way around the dumpster
carefully. If it was a revenant, he’d have to act fast to stop it preying on
Aki.
Nate rounded the corner.
Nothing there? The newspaper was spread
out as if someone had been sleeping rough—never a good idea in New Camden, the
city with the largest monster population in the world—and it crackled under
foot. Was the sound just the wind rustling through its pages? Nate turned to
leave and caught a dull glow out of the corner of his eyes. He grinned. “Aki,
come and look at this.”
“Is it more dead animals? Because I can
pass.”
Nate crouched down. “Here, kitty. I’m
not going to hurt you.”
“A cat?” Aki snorted, and Nate heard his
footsteps on the stone behind him. “All that over nothing.”
Nate clicked his fingers. “Come on.”
The cat watched him balefully. She
stretched, displaying her claws, before taking a step into the light. She
flicked her tail, watching Nate out of her one good eye. Her left eye was milky
white, with the lines of an old scar above and below. She was skinny, her fur
bare in patches, and her tail was crooked. Part of one ear was missing, looking
like a tattered flag on a pirate ship, with her prominent ribs the hull.
“Whoa. That’s the ugliest cat I’ve ever
seen.”
“She can’t help that. Poor thing. Who
knows how long she’s been living out here?”
Aki smacked Nate’s hand away from the
cat. “Stop risking animal diseases! Look at it. Probably crawling with fleas!”
“It’s just an old stray cat.”
Aki scoffed. “I was wrong. That’s
definitely some variety of hell beast.”
Nate clicked his fingers, succeeding in
drawing the cat closer to him. “You’re so mean. Just because she’s been on the
losing end of a few fights…”
“More than a few. It’s probably got
every disease in the book.”
Nate extended his hand, and the cat
cautiously sniffed it. “I think she likes me.”
Aki leaned against the dumpster to
watch. “Haven’t you learned anything from the disaster that was you adopting
the last stray?”
Nate looked up. “The last stray turned
out to be Grant, who we saved from his evil stepdad, getting you a boyfriend in
the process.”
“We’re not dating,” Aki said
immediately. “If you’re so stuck on Grant, ask him out yourself. I don’t want
him.”
Nate smiled to himself, stretching out
his hand to the cat’s tattered ears. She hissed, and before Nate could react,
sunk her teeth into his hand. He jerked his hand back. “Ow!”
“Ha! Told you!”
Nate sat back on his heels, nursing his
hand. “Are you grinning?”
“It’s called schadenfreude.” Aki nudged
Nate with the toe of his sneaker. “And you deserved it.”
Nate looked back down, but at his
exclamation, the cat had darted back into the shadows. She squeezed into the
narrow gap between the dumpsters. All he could see of her was the gleam of her
dead eye. “You’re a bad best friend.”
Aki just shrugged. “You should have
checked the fine print. It’s too late now. You’re stuck with me.”
Nate stood, dusting off his hands on his
jeans. “Maybe Grant will find me a legal loophole.”
Aki elbowed him. “Not allowed. It’s
‘best friends forever.’ Not best friends until Aki hurts my feelings.”
Nate draped his arm over Aki’s
shoulders. “Since when is BFF legally binding?”
“Well it is. So it’s a good thing I plan
on keeping you around.” He leaned comfortably against Nate’s side. “That’s your
cue to say there’s no one you would rather be stuck with.”
Nate paused, guiltily conscious
something wasn’t right. There was something—someone—missing.
“Nate?”
Nate realized he’d stopped walking.
Aki was watching him with an expression
of concern on his face. “I was only joking.”
Nate grinned. He leaned over, tapping
Aki on his shoulder. “Got you.”
“You!” Aki demonstrated his feelings of
friendship by trying to kick him.
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Meet the Author
Gillian St. Kevern is the author of the Deep Magic series, the Thorns and Fangs series, the For the Love of Christmas series, and standalone novels, The Biggest Scoop and The Wing Commander's Curse. Gillian currently lives in her native New Zealand, but spent eleven years in Japan and has visited over twenty different countries. Her writing is a celebration of the weird and wonderful people she encounters on her journeys. She is the co-founder of the New Zealand Rainbow Romance Writers, and a member of RWNZ.As a chronic traveler, Gillian is more interested in journeys than endings, with characters that grow and change to achieve their happy ending. She's not afraid to let her characters make mistakes or take the story in an unexpected direction. Her stories cross genres, time-periods and continents, taking readers along for an unforgettable ride. Both Deep Magic and The Biggest Scoop were nominated for Best LOR story in the 2015 M/M Romance Groups Member's Choice awards. Deep Magic also received nominations in Best Cover, Best Main Character and Best Paranormal, while The Biggest Scoop was nominated for Best Coming of Age. Thorns and Fangs came third in the 2016 Rainbow Awards Bisexual Paranormal/Historical category.
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