Snippet Saturday – Author’s Choice
Oct
1
2011

How about something from HEART OF DARKNESS? Just a month away now!!!

From USA Today bestselling author Lauren Dane comes a white-hot new series of a dangerous family legacy, and sensual paranormal passions played to the death on the knife-edge of darkness…

Meriel Owen, next in line to control the largest organization of witches in the country, is asked to investigate the owner of a notorious club reportedly siphoning magic from the font of the Clan. It’s a direct violation of the Clan Code of Conduct, but one look at Dominic Bright and Meriel’s willing to make a deal. One taste of the sexually feral outlaw witch, and she’s eager to go further: he’s her bond mate, a legal conduit into the world of Clan witches and their magic.

Playing by the rules isn’t Dominic’s style, but bonding with Meriel—night after explosive night—is. However, Meriel has unwittingly invited someone else into her world: Dominic’s mother, a dangerous and poisonously influential magic addict whose lust for death and power corrupts all she touches. Now her shadow is closing in on Meriel, her Clan, and the man Meriel loves, and it’s casting them all into the inescapable heart of darkness.

Bound by Magick: HEART OF DARKNESS by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2011, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing in mass market paper and digital November 1!

“Enough about me for a while.” She waved a fork his way. “I want to know more about you. What did you do before you came here to Seattle? From what Nell and I could divine, you just sort of popped into existence.”

He allowed the topic to be dropped. She’d shared a lot and he’d be satisfied with that. For now.

He grinned. “I have my skills.” He paused, wondering how he could make it sound less um, criminal than it was. It was important to him, probably for the first time with anyone, that she not see him as a loser.

“I’m looking forward to seeing just what those skills are.”

“I keep attempting to show you but you keep telling me I have to wait.”

She laughed. “Just make it really awesome when I finally give you the green light, then. How did you end up running a nightclub?”

“I ended up in New York City with a friend. We’d spent some less than law abiding years together and he’d pulled his act together and started a business. I joined him and he gave me a job. I was good at it.” He shrugged.

“Good at what? I don’t doubt you doing a good job, but what is it that you were doing?”

“I started with clean up.” He snorted. “Took trash out during busy shifts. Kept the bars wiped down. Over time I learned how to do the books. How to get people paid. How to hire and fire staff. Marketing.” Evan had let him learn every part of the job until one day Dominic had realized he knew enough to do it on his own. Which knowing Evan had been the plan from day one.

“So you came out here to steal from my font and set up your den of inequity.”

Not much sexier than a sense of humor in a woman.

“I’m all on the up and up now, aren’t I? But yes, it was time for me to leave the east coast and come back here. I stayed with Tom for a while as I searched for a good location and then eventually found the space. Simon and I had known each other a while. He had some money and wanted to buy in. As it happened I needed both a partner and some more capital.”

“Did you always know? That you were…different from the other kids in school?”

“Tom started my training relatively early.” Some of his earliest memories were of being taught how to erect shields around his magick. “So I knew. But obviously there are gaps in my knowledge.” Which he tried not to let bug him and managed. Not entirely, but enough. “You obviously did. Growing up in a clan and all. What was that like?”

“It was just how I grew up. I didn’t know how unusual it was until I went to college. I’m going to say it was the same as not growing up in a clan but you’re going to disbelieve that.” She grinned. “My parents had dinner parties and friends. Those friends had kids my age. We went on vacations together, when my mother actually let go for enough time to leave that is. Some people are foodies. Some people like the beach. My family had one major thing in common with their friends, just like other groups of people have. It was just about magick instead of NASCAR.”

“Did you go to public school?”

She shook her head. “No. From kindergarten through high school graduation I attended a private school the Clan runs.”

“Ah, now I get the college comment. The first time you were confronted by non-magickal people?”

She shook her head again. “No. While I didn’t go to school with anyone other than witches, we still had neighbors and went to the grocery store and that sort of thing. For the first time at college I had to hide what I was far more than I didn’t. But it was a good lesson.”

“I haven’t yet been in a situation where I don’t have to hide what I am more than not. Even at the club I’m having to hide everyone from the outside world.”

“Which is why you support coming out so strongly? You’re not in a clan, why haven’t you just told people if you’re bothered so much?”

“I don’t think you know me well enough to say that.”

“I didn’t say anything. I asked. Big difference. If you don’t want to say so, that’s fine too.”

“I’m sorry for snapping. I support coming out because I think it’s time. I believe it will come out and soon. And I’d rather be in control from day one than have to clean up in the aftermath of someone else’s behavior.”

Be sure to visit today’s other Snippeters!
Anne Rainey
Jody Wallace
Selena Robins
Eliza Gayle
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Mandy M Roth
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Selena Blake
Vivian Arend
Alison Kent
Beth-Ann Mason
HelenKay Dimon
Shelli Stevens
Lauren Dane
Lacey Savage
TJ Michaels
Shiloh Walker

5 comments to “Snippet Saturday – Author’s Choice”

  1. Christine
    October 1st, 2011 at 5:46 am · Link

    I love it. Great exchange btw. Dominic and Meriel. Can’t wait to read more



  2. Mary
    October 1st, 2011 at 9:02 am · Link

    Oh wow can’t wait just a month away!



  3. Diane Sadler
    October 1st, 2011 at 9:26 am · Link

    Not long to go now!



  4. Viki S.
    October 1st, 2011 at 11:16 am · Link

    Thank you :).



  5. Robbye
    October 2nd, 2011 at 10:27 am · Link

    Looks like it will be another winner.