Snippet Saturday – Bad Boys at Night
Mar
24
2012

How about a snippet from HEART OF DARKNESS?

Bound By Magick: HEART OF DARKNESS by Lauren Dane
Copyright 2011, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

“What the hell are you doing out here?” he asked the man standing near the loading dock. “No employee smoking where clientele can see you.”

The icy claws of someone else’s magick dug into him. A dark, oily energy that slithered through him. Poisonous. It drew his energy from his body. The pain of it like a thousand sharp pins.

Not magick, no, this was not natural at all.

The mage made a very big mistake and stepped in closer to take a better look at Dominic where he’d slumped against the door. And when he got close enough, Dominic whipped his fist out and slammed it into the mage’s jaw, sending him backward, reeling down the steps and onto the asphalt below. His magick might have been crippled by the spell, but his fist hadn’t been.

“You stupid motherfucker.” Dominic kicked the mage in the side and then used his magick to hold him in place. “Simon, out back, now,” he barked into his phone.

But even as he heard the thomp, thomp, thomp of Simon’s boots as he ran toward them, Dominic was hit with a big blast of magic so nasty it tore at his insides.

He threw out a shield and the air stank of ozone from his energy sliding against all that wrong, dark sludge. Shoving the nearest mage back with one hand, Dominic punched him in the nose and then gave him another jab in the eye.

As expected, the fool hit the ground, holding his face. The clawing in his guts began to lessen and his head stopped throbbing. His phone buzzed in his back pocket. He knew it was Meriel and he needed to keep her far, far away from this.

A roar sounded over his left shoulder as Simon leapt over the railing from the loading dock ledge and down where Dominic was. The two injured mages managed to pull back and erect their own shields as three human flunkies joined them and rushed Simon and Dominic.

Simon didn’t need to transform to take his wolf form. He was powerful enough as a man and one fist the size of a rump roast slammed into one of the thugs’ belly so hard he lost his footing.

Dominic let the haze take over. Let the violence rush up and through him, to his fists and into his brain. This was like homecoming. This was where he knew the lay of the land. The law of the fists.
He showed his teeth to the human who’d been edging toward him and rushed him, knocking him to his feet as Dominic delivered a beating while straddling the man.

Someone, most likely the remaining human, hit him from the side, knocking him off his prey.

The clawing began again and his head hurt so much he could barely see. The magick rushed up through the ground and tore from his body, draining away.

And then he knew she was coming. He felt her moving toward where they were. Panic warred with admiration as the well of her fury boiled the air and she was there on the landing.

Dominic managed to wrest his body up from the asphalt of the parking lot and to standing again. Just so he could punch the human one more time.

Still on the landing, Meriel looked like an angry goddess, one arm out, her magick swam past him like a guided missile.

Nell ran around where Dominic managed to choke the thug out and onto his knees. He knew just how long to hold, watched as unconsciousness began to take hold.

“Out,” he whispered and then the man went limp.

Shit. He’d just knocked the guy out with his magick?

Dominic saw Meriel moving toward him. Knew he was yelling at her to get the fuck back. He could only hear the drumming of his heart and briefly wondered if he was having a stroke.

She touched him and spoke, her lips against his temple and the pain was gone. The furious pain of those claws in his gut were gone.

“Get out of here. The mages are here,” he heard himself ordering her some moments later.

“No, they’re gone.” She kissed his knuckles, whispered over them and the throb of the abraded skin eased back.

“It’s not safe. The cops—”

“Are so not coming.” Simon heaved himself to stand and then gently helped Meriel up and finally Dominic. “So much magick out here they won’t see or hear a fucking thing. Want to fill me in on what the hell just happened?”

And then Dominic threw up.

Be sure to visit today’s other snippeters!

Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Mandy M Roth
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
Shiloh Walker
TJ Michaels
Zoë Archer

Today’s prize is a copy of HEART OF DARKNESS! How do you like your paranormals? Light, Dark, In between? I’ll choose a winner from the comments to this post and announce on Monday, March 26!

25 comments to “Snippet Saturday – Bad Boys at Night”

  1. Christine
    March 24th, 2012 at 6:46 am · Link

    I don’t mind my parnormals to dark as long as they aren’t to grusome.



  2. Louise
    March 24th, 2012 at 8:16 am · Link

    Sigh! Dominic is such a bad ass, prickly and protective, oh, and yummy, don’t forget the yummy! Can’t wait for Simon and Lark’s story. Just love these guys. 😆



  3. Viki S.
    March 24th, 2012 at 9:11 am · Link

    I like them in all :). I just don’t like when they’re excessively evil. There is a limit to the torture I can handle.
    Thanks for the snippet.



  4. Pam W.
    March 24th, 2012 at 10:11 am · Link

    I like them any way you write them. Dark, light or in between you always know just the right way to make them just what they should be.



  5. Diane
    March 24th, 2012 at 11:51 am · Link

    I like them all but probably in between is the way I love them the most. 😆



  6. Limecello
    March 24th, 2012 at 12:00 pm · Link

    I like both kinds of paranormals – but it just depends on my mood. Recently though I’ve gone for not quite as dark. Although I think everyone’s opinion or “line” for dark differs.



  7. Jane
    March 24th, 2012 at 12:43 pm · Link

    I like them in between, but I also don’t mind the very dark kind either.



  8. Angie M
    March 24th, 2012 at 12:49 pm · Link

    I like to read paranormal books that are dark but not in the horror film way. I feel that paranormals with shifters have to have both the human view and the animal view. The laws of the jungle are ones that I believe the animal wants to follow! I like emotional darkness in books that I read also.



  9. JenM
    March 24th, 2012 at 1:13 pm · Link

    I kind of prefer mine dark, but with a side of humor to lessen the intensity. I often find the light ones try to hard to be funny.



  10. StacieD
    March 24th, 2012 at 3:26 pm · Link

    I prefer all of my books to be dark, not just paranormals. The grittier the better. I like danger in my romance.

    I don’t read funny romance. There can be funny moments in a story but I don’t want the entire story to be funny. I have the same tastes in TV and movies. I rarely watch comedies anymore.

    Don’t enter me in this giveaway. I have my copy. 😉



  11. azteclady
    March 24th, 2012 at 5:06 pm · Link

    Honestly, I don’t go out of my way looking for dark anything, but I prefer some substance to the characters, so if the reason for the darkness is organic and consistent (no mountain out of a molehill thing, please) I usually prefer those.



  12. Jet
    March 24th, 2012 at 5:19 pm · Link

    I tend to like the darker romances more but I read both light and inbetween as well 🙂 All romance that is written well is good no matter if it is dark, light or inbetween.



  13. Michelle Bledsoe
    March 24th, 2012 at 6:09 pm · Link

    I like them dark but not gory. I find that I tend towards paranormals more than other genres.
    Don’t put me in for the copy of Heart of Darkness as I already have it.
    Thanks,
    Michelle



  14. Angie Hammons
    March 24th, 2012 at 6:37 pm · Link

    I like both depending on my mood. I keep both light and dark in my e-reader so that I have them to read when I need it. This one I have already read several times.



  15. Kris M.
    March 24th, 2012 at 7:11 pm · Link

    I like all sorts of paranormal as long as it has a good storyline. (Also love em when they are HOT)



  16. Linda
    March 24th, 2012 at 7:16 pm · Link

    I like all kinds of paranormal books as long as there isn’t a lot of gory details – I like to be able to sleep at night 🙂



  17. Na S.
    March 24th, 2012 at 8:08 pm · Link

    I like dark paranormals but some humor in between tense scenes can really make it great.



  18. Lisa
    March 24th, 2012 at 8:48 pm · Link

    I like pretty much everything from light to dark, depending on my mood.

    Don’t include me in this drawing, I have it already. 🙂



  19. bn100
    March 24th, 2012 at 9:24 pm · Link

    I like them any way- depends on what I feel like reading at the time.



  20. Pamiam
    March 24th, 2012 at 10:56 pm · Link

    I have to agree with others that I like all forms but prefer not to go the gory route. I tend to trade off. If I have read something particularly dark :twisted:, I will go for light with some humor and vice versa.



  21. Tiffany
    March 24th, 2012 at 11:58 pm · Link

    I like a mixture. A little humor to brighten up the story. All dark, all the time, can make me depressed.



  22. Mariann with Belle's Book Bag
    March 25th, 2012 at 11:15 am · Link

    I love paranormal books. I would probably lean more towards light or in between depending on the story and my mood. Thanks for the chance to win!!! 😀
    Mariann at Belle’s Book Bag



  23. Alaina
    March 26th, 2012 at 7:44 am · Link

    i tend to like them a bit lighter… however depending on the mood ill read the darker ones as well (i dont like too much gore though..)
    thanks for the chance to win! i really liked this book and would love to add it to my collection!



  24. Melanie J.
    March 26th, 2012 at 7:47 am · Link

    I like all books except for horror. I’m not a huge of scary books. I rememeber reading Steven King’s The Shining and literally had a bat next to my bed for weeks afterward.



  25. Melissa Porter
    June 4th, 2012 at 2:35 pm · Link

    Sounds great. Will be checking it out more.
    thanks!1