I got my edits back on NIGHT BLADE…that doesn’t mean it’s close to coming out.  This is just the first step.  After this, it’s got to go through another set of edits and I plan on getting at least one additional line edit this time around.

Plus, I’m still waiting on my cover.

Here’s a snippet…

“Baby girl.”

It was stupid that just the sound of it made me smile.  It should.  But something about the way he said it, that endearment–one that should have been sexist as all get-out–made my toes curl inside the solid, sturdy boots I had on.  “Hey, Damon.”

Over the phone, I heard a grunt.  Then something that sounded like a hiss and a whine.

“You’re busy,” I said.

“Cleaning house,” he said.

His version of cleaning house usually involved bloody fights and sometimes death. Scratch that… it often included death. He’d killed the previous Alpha, a pretty, plastic-looking piece by the name of Annette.  She had looked like a Barbie doll, all big blue eyes, big round boobs and blonde hair and she had been one of the most brutal bitches I’d ever encountered in my life.  And I’ve encountered more than my share.

Annette had ruled over the cat clan in East Orlando and the entire southern region with a tiny, iron fist for more than a century, well before the non-human population had been forced to come out of the proverbial closet.  She’d also been certifiably insane.

Cleaning up was required, according to Damon.  She’d been crazy and cruel and like attracted like, so he was going through and making sure the crazy and cruel that had been left behind were handled.

He wouldn’t kill them unless he had to, but they would still need to be ousted from any positions of power in the clan, which tended to require thorough beatings to accomplish.  Weres didn’t back down willingly.  It took physical force.

Sometimes he came to me so battered, I barely recognized him.  It only lasted for a few hours, thanks to the amazing biology of a were.  The virus in his genes healed wounds that would kill humans, or a half-human like me, in hours or days and minor things like cuts or scratches disappeared in seconds.

I heard another grunt come across the line.  “This is a bad time. I’ll be quick.”

“Nah.  Chang and Doyle are with me.  We’re mostly done.  This is the last of it and I’m letting Doyle handle a lot of it.  Needs to get the shine off him.”  There was another grunt, followed by a roar that hurt my ears even through the phone.  “We’re just about done here.  Only a few hours away.  Have dinner with me tonight?”

“Can’t.”  As I passed around the desk, I grabbed my sword and nudged the cooler with my foot.  “I’m going to be out of town for a few days–courier thing to the Smokies.  MacDonald with the wolves is paying me to deliver some heads.”

“Ah, gimme a second.”

I heard a roar–I recognized that one, a deep, barking sort of roar, unlike anything a lion or tiger would make.  Damon’s creature was a leopard, a rare one, although very few realized just how rare he was.  I knew.  I had no idea if anybody else did.  Chang might.  But for all I knew, that was it.

A few seconds and one scream later, and he was back on the phone. “Did you just say you were delivering some heads?”

BLADE SONG is still one sale for a few more days…  please note, I removed BN from the list because for some reason, the price went back up before it was supposed to, but you can get epub format from ARe.  I’ve emailed my contact to see if they can get BN to readjust the price again but I don’t know if that will happen.  I’m sorry… it’s been my week (season) for weird, crazy things to happen.

Amazon | iBookstore | ARe/OmniLit 

If you read ebooks from Samhain, you might wanna think about joining their newsletter.  Sounds like they offer coupons and stuff for discounts off of ebooks.

To sign up… go here…