His Reaper’s Passion by Michelle MacBride
It is early August of 2017. Merc Pritchett and her family have just made their big move to Prince Rupert, a small port city in Canada. It was a fresh start. It was a chance to establish themselves as an ordinary, functional, and most importantly, HUMAN, suburban family.
Merc is a determined twenty-one-year-old, with an admittedly odd name, who is not going to let her true nature dictate how she should live her life. Being the daughter of Death – and the first human/reaper hybrid – is not an easy existence. It is a legacy she didn’t ask for.
Paul Ward is her next-door neighbor. His very presence in her life starts to complicate things. Merc wants to keep her distance, but somehow fate seems to want to bring these two closer together. A disaster occurs, and this man learns the terrifying secret that the Pritchetts keep. There is no turning back and Merc is forced to let him in.
She doesn’t even want to contemplate who is the threat behind the scenes that is threatening the balance she is working so hard to keep.
-A 23,000 word slow burn paranormal and fantasy romance.
Description
Find more from this author on:
Amazon
Facebook
TwitterAbout the author:
Michelle MacBride is a young Canadian woman who is currently attending university. She is a pleasant, easy going person who loves consuming fiction and binge watching her favorite shows. She has a penchant for the paranormal and macabre in particular, enjoying shows like American Horror Story and Supernatural. She has read countless books in the genre and dreams of starting a serious writing career of her own. Michelle is channeling that interest in the novella series she is writing.
Here is a short sample from the book:
Prologue
A continuous crackle and grind disturbed the tranquil atmosphere as the gravel driveway became host to a slowly reversing red minivan. The beeping of the vehicle, accompanied by its flashing curtain of red light, instantly became the center of attention in the sparsely lit residential neighborhood.
Several houses lined both sides of the two-lane asphalt street. Those visible in the night light were either one or two stories high, with a garage and a neatly cut lawn. The front yards that stood out were littered with ornaments or topiaries trimmed in an odd fashion. One property on the far end of the street had a boat parked on the driveway.
A front window curtain shifted to reveal a face peering at the minivan reversing onto the driveway of the soon to be occupied suburban house next door.
The flashing lights and noise stopped as the minivan screeched to a halt a few feet away from the closed garage door. The back door facing the decrepit hibiscus shrub on the edge of the property flung open.
A tall, gangly figure, obscured by the poor lighting, emerged from the vehicle and then sprinted towards the front porch.
Several more doors opened after the engine noise abruptly died down. A childlike figure appeared and skipped the distance between the vehicle and house. Shortly after, two average height individuals, who vaguely resembled a man and woman, met each other on the lawn and stood there, seemingly chatting with each other.
The observer in the window shifted the curtain further aside to get a clearer view of the strangers outside. Unbeknownst to said observer, someone else was actively spying on the neighboring households.
A black cotton blanket slipped to the ground as the last passenger stepped out of the vehicle. Kinky locks of hair nearly touched the gravel as the young female bent down to pick it up.
Arms reached out towards the dark sky as the short woman groaned, as if she was ridding herself of muscle pains gained from her time as a passenger in the family vehicle. To the man in the window it looked like harmless stretching. Merc closed her eyes while she spread her arms and inhaled the fresh night air.
"Come to me," she whispered with a fragile breath.
Distantly moaning shadows, which were undetectable by human senses, sprung to life from multiple corners of the street. They raced along the surface of the earth towards the standing female. Within seconds, the ground beneath Merc's feet resembled a spiraling black hole, until it dispersed immediately in compliance with a sharp dismissive gesture.
Paul Ward glared in confusion at the strange movements of the girl on the driveway, in the middle of the night.
Huh, he thought. Freaky.
Before he could contemplate why several members of this new family were just basking in the moonlight, he felt a sudden bout of nausea. Paul's head began to spin, nearly causing him to rip the curtain in an attempt to steady himself. It didn't last more than ten seconds.
"Maybe I really do need those iron supplements," Paul grumbled as he quickly brushed off the experience.
After regaining his composure, the young man decided to turn in for the night and leave the new neighbors be. His hand gripped the satin material gently, as it was his mother's handmade accomplishment.
Before fully covering the glass window pane, he shot one last glance at the property next door.
He could have sworn that strange girl was looking right in his direction and making direct eye contact with him, though that was impossible with the darkness surrounding her.
He kept his gaze on her. His head hurt.
Related products
-
Sector 9G by Morris Fenris
In the Southwest England of the near future, an area known to the central European powers in Brussels as ‘Sector 9G’, young IT professional Tim McNamee makes the decision to buy a cyborg bride named Mina. Several years later he tells his story; how his life had gotten to the point where he felt the need to buy a cyborg lover and the ups and downs of having a relationship with an artificially created person who owed her existence to him.
As time goes by, Mina becomes restless and begins to question the nature of her being, a search which leads to an underground religious group known as the ‘Association of God’s Children’. When she leaves her ‘habitation zone’ without permission from CyberG, the company that built her, Tim and Mina’s future together comes under threat.
Soon Mina finds herself caught between Tim, the only love of her short life, and a spiritual search that threatens to reveal more about the nature of her existence than she could possibly imagine. Tim tries to think of Mina as an independent person, but when she begins to claim supernatural powers and with the authorities closing in, will it ask too much of his logical beliefs and sensibilities?
The Hidden – Werewolves and Shifters Part 1 by Ethan Sandlow
There was nothing extraordinary about Amanda Burrage’s life. Working in a library by day and helping out at a homeless shelter a few evenings a week was a lonely existence, but it was an existence that would be lost to her forever!. Her life was about to be turned upside down, as she would find herself walking into a into a storm that would open her mind to a world which belonged on the pages of books and and bad horror movies. She was also about to discover that she wasn’t who she thought she was. Thrust into a world of horror and the supernatural, where figures that should have belonged in the world of fantasy and the paranormal, had come to take her to make use of the gifts that she possessed and until now, had been completely oblivious to. The shifters from The Faction had come first, and they would have claimed her if it hadn’t been for the appearance of Fenris Lyall, a tall, dark, and mysterious stranger
Dear Abby by Peggy Barnett
“Dear Abby” the letters begin, and Abigail has to answer each and every one with hokey travel advice that promotes her company’s package tours. Sure, she gets to experience a dozen all-inclusive resorts every year, but there’s only so much pina coladas and pool-side hamburgers a girl can stand.
So when a beautiful woman begins to pay Abby more than the standard amount of attention, Abby takes notice. After all, a nice vacation affair is just what she might need to liven up her trip. But then things start to get weird. A creepy black mark has appeared on Abby’s palm, Abby’s new lover is growing unusually possessive, and Abby… Abby can’t seem to be able to have sex enough.
And it is great sex. But it’s also just so weird. And sort of unearthly.
Abby’s lover is named after a goddess, but she couldn’t really be one… could she?
Dragonstone: The Future of Caemour by Mara Montfort
Dragonstone: The Future of Caemour is a short story prequel to the Dragonstone Series, a novella series of fantasy, adventure and romance.
True love or instant death such is the blessing and the curse that comes with the powerful Dragonstone, one of the rarest and most magical gems on the earth.
Given as a gift to Sir Aedan of Caemour, next in line to the throne, the Dragonstone was destined to lead him to his true love. But on one fateful evening, he was lured into a trap that caused the stone to leave his grasp, putting his future and all of Caemour’s inhabitants in great peril.
Now he must embark on a dangerous quest to right the wrong that had been wrought upon him and his family. Had he really lost all hope of finding true love? And was there any point in starting a journey that might already be doomed?
The Stone Knight by D.J. Blount
The Stone Knight is a short story surrounding the razing of Middleborough by Elves on a Warpath. Bromwell, a procrastinating half dwarf, will find purpose in the chaos. He and Ki’Mel, a bookish Elf with dreams of becoming a Mage will test their new found mettle against one another.
Aloft by Ben Rovik @BenRovik
Junior technician Ensie Thalanquin is the odd girl out in the Aerial squad. Building flying machines should be an exciting life, but years of being alternately teased and ignored by her fellow Petronauts have turned it into a grind.
Cooper Carper is a hard-working machinist whose boss has made him his personal whipping boy.
Love was the last thing they were looking for when they went to work. But sometimes love pops up in the most unlikely places…
Can they keep a relationship afloat despite the differences in their backgrounds, the meddling of their superiors, and the pressure of a dangerous flight test a few short weeks away?
I’m an author, actor and dad living outside Washington, DC with my wife, baby girl, and a brawling pair of cats.
My current projects are the humorous fantasy series “Mechanized Wizardry” and a related series of medium/short length pieces called “Petronaut Tales.” The Petronaut Tales are set in the same fantasy world, but give me license to play with new characters and genres, including romance.
With “Aloft,” I was inspired to write a romance about characters who weren’t especially beautiful, and who spent most of the lives feeling overlooked and out of place. Meeting each other is what lifts them up to do great things, even through adversity and danger.
Why not write about a passion-fest between two supermodels? Because most of the world’s passion-fests are between ordinary folks. I wanted to explore the reactions of two characters who didn’t ever imagine themselves capable of feeling a love that strong, let alone inspiring it in someone else. And I wanted to show how love can make people stronger, which was easier to do with characters starting from a lower-status place.
Sample from Book:
Ensie smoothed out the dog-eared corner of the blueprints for the dozenth time. She shifted her weight on the bench, feeling the warmth of the sun on the back of her neck. She was too poor to own a watch, but she resisted the temptation to duck out into the hallway again and check the sepia-faced clock mounted on the wall. It had been 10:20 on the spot when she’d checked it moments ago. That meant that, by now, twenty-five minutes at most had passed since she’d left Mister Upforth and the rest of his team. And Upforth had said Cooper—or was it Carper?—would meet her in fifteen minutes. But the drafting room might be hard to find, for a civilian who’d never seen the Aerial compound before. And there had been an awful lot of wood left in that cart for just one person to move quickly. Even someone so tall, with those big arms and broad shoulders…
“You need to get a hold of yourself,” she said aloud, pressing her palm against the desk. She closed her eyes.
You’re an Aerial technician. Your ‘naut wants a consultation from a civilian firm. You’ve been trusted with getting information vital to the success of your project. This is Business with a capital B. Not some kind of private—
—and don’t you dare even finish that thought, because seriously: this is Business.
She scratched the space between her too-thick eyebrows as she looked at the door.
And even if it wasn’t Business, the morose thought crept through her defenses, it’s not as if anything’s going to happen. Any friendly vibes you’re getting are because he’s good at his job. Do you really think that there’s anything about you that would inspire unprofessional thoughts in a civilian guy like him? When he’s meeting all the other wisecracking Aerial girls and the Parade squad knockouts on the same day? Count yourself lucky you’re getting to talk to him at all. You’re just—
The door inched open. Ensie leapt to her feet behind the desk. There he was.
“There you are,” she said, rubbing her hands against her hips.
“So sorry,” he mumbled, turning sideways to come through the narrow door. He sounded a little out of breath. “I… I thought I heard you say ‘third building on the right,’ but I must have misheard. That’s actually the, uh, fuel center, I learned, where you guys are doing some crazy things with petrolatum…”
“Oh, gosh, you went to the refinery?”
“Yeah, through a back door. Got a little turned around with the fumes. But then someone—I forgot his name—pointed me here…”
“Spheres, I led you to the refinery without a mask! I am so sorry. I don’t know why I… I meant to say ‘first building on your—’”
“You did. I’m sure you did. I just heard it wrong—”
“No, no, I’m sure I said… I don’t know what I said!”
“Listen, with these ears, all bets are off. It’s a miracle I’m here at all.”
“It is.”
They stood facing each other with their hands flat against their hips. The sunlight illuminated the lower halves of their bodies.
“I’m Ensie,” she said, for no reason.
Why, oh why, oh why do I speak?
He smiled at her. His teeth were a little small and his gums were a little long, so when he smiled he looked like a kid, with a child’s whole-hearted good humor. “That makes, what, the third time we’ve done introductions?”
“I’m sure, probably,” she laughed. She touched her fingertips to the desk and found herself leaning towards him. “My third time, at least. And somehow I’m still not sure what your name is! Carper? Cooper? Caper?”
“Cooper Carper, actually.”
She felt herself smiling like a porpoise. She ordered her lips to stand down. Business. “Nice to meet you, Mister Carper,” she said, very professionally.
“You too, technician.”
She tilted her head at him. ‘Technician?’ Who are you, Sir Tomas? “You can call me Ensie.”
“Well, then,” he said, pressing the door closed behind him with a click, “you can call me Cooper.”
Business!
“I’m on a project now for a concept craft called the Flicker,” she said, brushing the blueprints with her hands as she stared fixedly at the parchment. Cooper came over to the side of the desk to look. His hands floated in space for a moment as he considered resting a big palm on top of the desk to lean over the plans, as she was doing, which would have brought their heads very close together. But instead his hands interlocked behind his back in a sort of parade rest and he just bent his head to look down. Ensie tried not to watch him as she folded the dog-eared corner back into place for the thirteenth time.
She laid out the specifications for the grasshopper-like craft, discussing fuel projections, the airflow models they’d run, and the properties of the alloys they’d debated for the hollow, curved wings. Cooper’s head bobbed up and down, and he offered a succession of mmm’s and I see’s at appropriate times. As she heard herself talk, she fidgeted with the bottom edge of the desk and only allowed herself quick glances up at his face. It was hard to tell if he was following the run-down at all, which gave her a heavy feeling in her stomach.
Burn me. Maybe Mister Upforth had a good reason for wanting that woman Skye to be the one to talk to me…
“So,” he said at last, shifting his weight. She looked up at him. “What exactly do you need us for?”
“Just wanted to, uh, forge a partnership with Upforth’s for a consultation on our ranine apparatus. That’s all.”
Cooper nodded. His forehead was wrinkled with vigorous thought. Ensie folded her hands together and tried not to let her disappointment show. He had the look of someone at an absolute loss for the right thing to say. Please, please, don’t be stupid.
“Honestly?” Cooper said.
“Mmm-hmm?” she said, tucking one of her bangs back into her hairnet.
For a long moment, he just looked at the plans. Then he shook his head and gave a heavy sigh. His hands reappeared from behind his back and he leaned down so quickly their foreheads almost brushed.
“Mister Upforth’s going to kill me,” he said, “but I don’t think you need us at all. The ranine designs you already deploy don’t have any trouble getting a Bulwark Petronaut off the ground, do they? And a Bulwark ‘naut in full armor’s gotta be eighty percent of the weight of this Flicker; maybe even the same, if their suits are steel and this alloy of yours is as light as all that. And I can’t imagine your test pilots are bulked-up the way Bulwark grunts are. I mean, who flies your things?”
“Knighted ‘nauts and expert techs, mostly,” Ensie said, her eyes widening. There was a whole new energy to him.
“So, right! When I think of a burly man or woman in armor jumping through the air no problem, and then I envision someone on the svelte side—like you—piloting a Flicker that, all things being equal, is the same weight but with, you know, better airflow?”
“Hang on,” she said.
“Sure. Sorry. I know I don’t have the right terminology—”
“Did you say, uh.”
She pressed her lips together. Business! But there was no hope.
“Did you say I’m ‘on the svelte side?’”
Cooper’s looked down at her. His face went gray with horror.
“I hope that word means what I think it means,” he whispered.
She looked to the far wall. Cute? Petite? Is that what you meant? She longed to ask him that like a Parade squad nymph would say it, drifting towards him with an archly raised eyebrow and a lazy, kissable half-smile. But just playacting through the line in her head set a swarm of nervous giggles buzzing around in her throat, perilously close to her voice box, and it was all she could do to keep a lid on them.
“You’re.” Was that my voice? The word was a mortifying squeak.
Ensie swallowed and tried again. “You’re right that the aerodynamic profile of the Flicker sure beats an armored ‘naut,” she said, folding the corner of the blueprints back for the fourteenth time. “And weights are comparable. But the jumping action we’re thinking of is on a different scale.”
“Ah, okay. Higher elevations.”
“Yes, but more importantly, jumping’s the primary locomotion for the Flicker. A ‘naut can leap around from time to time, sure, but most of what they do is run. A totally different use of the coils and their, uh, built-in suspensions. Their legs.”
“Whereas the Flicker does nothing but jump,” Cooper said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Jump, and glide, and jump, and glide. You see? That’s why we need to make sure the coil box we build can handle tons of impacts, and launch with tons of force; but not so much force that the pilot loses control. See? It’s tricky.”
“It’s tricky,” he agreed. Cooper raised his hands. “To be honest, though, I’d trust you Aerials more to make it work right than I’d trust us.”
“But, uh.” Was he really going to walk out of her life because he was too honest to land his company a contract? Keep him. Keep him here! a hungry voice blared out somewhere inside her.
“You must have done something this size before,” she said, hurriedly.
“Oh, sure. We’ve worked big carriage suspensions. A motorized dais that raised and lowered, too, and had a bunch of dancers leaping around on it for, uh, a play or something.”
“See? So Upforth’s could lend experience with scale, while we figure out the whole ‘aloft’ part.”
“Ensie. I just want to be sure we wouldn’t waste your time.”
Ensie took a deep breath through her nose. “It would take a lot of time,” she said slowly. She curled her hands into little fists, rubbing her thumbs against her fingers as she looked up at him. No giggling. No giggling!
“We’d have to meet, uh… quite a few times, probably.”
Cooper looked down at her. His hands unlocked from behind his back and floated to his sides. “Quite a few times?” he said, quietly.
“Oh, yeah. A big project like this could take hours and hours of collaboration.”
He nodded. One of his large fingers pointed to the desk. “Here?”
As he tapped the surface of the desk, Ensie thought of purposes for the wide flat surface that had never even crossed her mind before. She’d never wanted to get started on a collaboration so badly.
“Or your workshop,” she said. “You know. Whichever sounds more productive.”
“Either sounds good to me.”
“Great.”
“Great. Can I say—”
“I just want to—”
They both spoke up simultaneously, and leaned a little closer at the same time. It brought them many centimeters closer than either had meant independently. Ensie froze there. He was so close that her hairnet was almost brushing the center of his chest. She turned her face up to him and saw something very interesting in his eyes.
“You first,” she whispered.
Cooper took a long moment before speaking. “Can I just tell you that I’m looking forward to working with you?”
“Likewise…” Ensie shifted her hand so their fingertips on the desk were touching. “Cooper.”
He shifted his hand on top of hers. Warm pressure, skin-to-skin, flooded up her arm and into her chest. The contours of his rough palm were fascinating as she explored them through the fine hairs and delicate nerves of the back of her hand. Her vision went a little blurry as she dedicated all her brainpower to experiencing his touch against her skin.
A massive noise clattered through the hallway just outside. Ensie recoiled before she recognized the sound of the tool cart for what it was. Cooper started too, raising his hand up and away. He flushed the color of an overripe apple and he refused to meet her eyes as the tech outside pushed the noisy cart from one workroom to the next.
“I.” Ensie brushed the nonexistent dust off the blueprints again, trying to get her voice under control again. Cooper slowly put his hands behind his back.
“That, uh.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. That was unprofessional of me, and I’m sorry.”
She looked up at him.
“I shouldn’t have… I mean, I didn’t mean anything by, by touching you.”
“You didn’t?”
“Well, I… it’s not… There’s a time and a place, that’s all. Unprofessional,” he rambled, shaking his head.
Ensie felt the grain of the desk beneath her hand. “I made you think unprofessional thoughts,” she murmured.
Their eyes met.
“It’ll never happen again,” he said, something low coloring his voice.
Ensie raised one eyebrow in an unspoken ‘really?’ she would have been very proud of if she had been able to see herself.
Sunlight flooded the room as their lips pressed together.
The Queen of Carleon (The Legends of Avalyne Book 1) by Linda Thackeray
Avalyne is at peace. The Shadow War has come and gone and the kingdom of Carleon is now restored. King Dare, a mortal man has finally wedded his elven love Arianne. As they prepare to usher in a new era of prosperity across the land, the Queen happily announces the impending arrival of an heir.
Arianne’s joy is short-lived when she discovers that an ancient evil has emerged from the wreckage of war with a monstrous plan for her baby. Determined to protect her very mortal husband, Arianne embarks on a quest with her two companions, the warrior maid Celene of Angarad and Keira of the Green, to journey to the far corners of Avalyne before the enemy can plant a seed of evil in the heart of her unborn son.
Welcome to Miami by Robert McCullough, C. M. Bratton, Taymika G. Byrd
This brand new feature from Write On Press is sure to stimulate and excite! Experience three tales of adult fantasy from three of the best new authors of the literary scene today. Robert McCullough brings you a tale of seduction in the temple with Church Music. Ms. Taymika G. Byrd is back with lust in the Big Easy. In the Vieux Carre’ you’ll experience the spiritual plane in a whole new way (bring a wet-nap!). C. M. Bratton brings it all together with a tale of passion and lust in the desert sands. You won’t need three wishes after this one (but you might need a cigarette!).
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.