Hello Everyone,
I’m M.L. Guida and I’m so excited to be on the Hot
Mojave Knights’s blog. Can you believe it? The conference is only a couple
weeks away.
Do you like things that go bump into the night? Or
drawn to scary movies? Or even campy Syfy movies? Yes, Sharknado is one of my favorites. Have any of you seen it?
Alpha men rule my family. I’m Italian. So, it’s no
wonder I write about them. Supernatural’s
Dean and Sam Winchester are the epitomny of alphas. I’m a Sam girl. And you?
I love the supernatural and grew up reading
mysteries and horror. Alfred Hitchcock used to write a children series called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators
and I read everyone of them. The Mystery of the Green Ghost was a big hit in
the third grade.
I write paranormal romance and it leans toward the
dark side. I like to torture my characters before they reach their final goal.
Recently, I released a new series called Legends of the Soaring Phoenix. The
first one is called A Pirate’s Curse
and I will be bringing copies to Hot Mojave Knights.
Here’s an excerpt from A Pirate’s Curse:
Captain Kane O’Brien peered through his spyglass aboard the
deck of the Soaring Phoenix. “Bloody
hell.”
The waxing moon and blazing firelight lit up the black
ocean. The cursed Fiery Damsel loomed
over a burning, half submerged flute ship, slowly circling its broken mast.
Water spilled into cannonball-size holes. Fire licked the white sails, and wood
crackled and snapped.
He gritted his teeth. A red-headed giant towered over the
terrified sailors. His beard hid his face and his eyes burned red. Quinton
Palmer. The sailors had the same look of horror when he met Palmer. ’Twas
during the Irish Confederate War. He’d have been sixteen years old, a whelp,
when Quinton Palmer forced him to become a man.
Kane’s hero had always been his father, Finn O’Brien, an
honorable and courageous man. And Finn O’Brien relished freedom. When the
British approached their home town of Wexford, burning their fields and homes,
taking their livestock and raping their women, Finn rallied the men in the
village to fight.
Kane and his father had hid behind an overturned wagon.
Shells exploded around them. Kane shrank. Smoke stung his eyes.
He peered around a spinning wagon wheel. An Irish setter
limped out onto the road. A beast of a British soldier, Palmer, held a bayonet
in his hand and a sick smile crossed his face. Ten years old, Michael O’Shay,
ran over to the dog, screaming. He wrapped his arms around the dying dog’s
neck.
Palmer stabbed little Michael in the shoulder. Michael
yelped, releasing the dog. Blood streamed down his chest. The dog snapped and
growled. Palmer flicked the bayonet, slicing the dog’s throat and the animal
collapsed onto the road, blood pooling around him.
Palmer’s cruelty had sickened Kane and bile rose up his
throat. He gripped his sword, but his legs refused to move. His heart pounded
and sweat drenched his back.
“Kane,” his father ordered. “I want you to remain here. Do
you hear me, lad?” He gripped Kane’s shoulder and shook him. Kane nodded as
shells exploded around them, ringing his ears.
Kane had swallowed his fright. “Aye, Pa.”
Raising a cutlass over his head, Finn O’Brien charged Palmer.
Palmer took a step back, but whipped out his pistol and
fired. His father staggered, but regained his step. Palmer was almost a head
taller than his father, but Finn O’Brien never shied away from a fight.
Palmer fired again, but this time, Finn spun around and
fell on his knees.
Palmer raised his bayonet.
Kane had forgotten his fear. He screamed a war cry, running
with his sword high over his head. But his legs failed to move fast enough. The
blasts of cannons blocked out his yells. Sweat dripped in his eyes and bile
burned in his gut.
Palmer stabbed his
father in the heart. Eyes wide open, Finn collapsed onto his back. Palmer
smiled and threw his bayonet onto Finn O’Brien’s lifeless body.
He jerked out the embedded sword and lunged at Kane, knocking
Kane’s sword out of his hand. Kane clenched his fist and swung, but Palmer
grabbed him and threw him down next to his dead father. He raised the bloody
sword. Kane sucked in his breath. He was dead.
“Something
to remember me by boy,” Palmer promised. He slashed Kane’s face. Pain slid over
him. He’d never forgotten Palmer’s promise, or his cruelty, or his smile.
Kane fingered his bumpy scar on his left
cheek. Hate boiled inside him as Palmer spoke to a man. The terrified lad shook
his head. Angered, Palmer slammed the man into the nearest mast. The poor
fellow slapped at Palmer’s hands, but Palmer crooked the man’s head to the side
and sank his bloodstained teeth into his throat.
Kane shoved the spy glass back into his breeches. “What the
devil are you up to Palmer?”
“Och, may the devil take Palmer, but I don’t have to tell
you that Capt’n.” Kane’s best friend and boatswain, Sean Mallory, slapped the
railing. He’d been with Kane through the Irish Confederate War. Despite his
angelic face and long blond hair, his towering stature intimidated Sassenachs,
like an avenging archangel.
“He wants something.”
“How do you know?”
Kane gritted his teeth. “Because Palmer never asks his
victims anything before he kills them. Prepare to board ‘er. Ready the guns.”
“Aye, aye, Capt’n,”
Sean called over his shoulders. “Ready the guns. Prepare to board ’er.”
Footsteps pounded on the deck as Kane’s crew rushed to
their stations. Kane gripped the bow railing. Acid pitted in his gut. “Revenge
is mine, Palmer.”
The Soaring Phoenix
sailed steadfast and true, the crew ready to board the Fiery Damsel. Kane pulled out his sword and pistol. “Fire!” Kane
shouted as the Soaring Phoenix closed
in on the Fiery Damsel. Cannons
thundered and hit the hull of the Damsel’s
starboard side. The circling bats sped toward the Phoenix, but then landed on the Damsel,
changing back into men.
“Ahoy, Capt’n, off
the starboard bow. ’Tis a lad and a man!” Amadi shouted. Kane glanced up at the
crow’s nest where Amadi pointed. Night or day, he swore Amadi possessed eagle
eyes whether man or vampire. Amadi pointed at some broken wood, but Kane peered
closer. Two figures clutched two pieces of drift wood. Palmer must be losing
his touch.
Palmer ran to the side of the sinking ship. He jumped into
the air and dove toward the man and the lad. Without thinking, Kane called upon
his vampire powers, leaped into the air and the condensing sensation of his
body shrinking, his muscles contracting and his bones shortening, shot through
him. Kane’s arms transformed into wings, his vision grew keener, and his body
shifted into a large bat.
Lucky he was able to transform. Sometimes the waxing moon
allowed him to use his vampire powers. If it had been a crescent moon or a half
moon, he’d never been able to call forth his powers and the victims would be
good as dead. Although he was immortal, he didn’t have the ability to fight
Palmer when Palmer was at full strength.
“Capt’n,” Amadi yelled. “No.”
More crewmen joined in the protest, but Kane ignored them.
He wanted to foil Palmer’s bloodlust.
He sped toward Palmer. The lad ducked under water, but the
larger, swag-bellied man remained slumped over a piece of wood. Inches away
from the man, Palmer skimmed the water and soared into the sky. As he whirled
around, Kane collide with him, wrapping his wings around Palmer’s body,
trapping Palmer’s wings. Kane bit the back of Palmer’s neck. Palmer screeched
and arched his back, but Kane held on. The ocean, night sky and ships swirled
around as they plunged into the warm water the way sea eagles clash over prey.
Palmer arched again and broke free. He whirled around and bit Kane’s wing,
tearing his flesh. Pain seized Kane and he sucked in sea water.
Palmer soared out of the water. Ignoring the blinding pain,
Kane darted into the air and pursued him. Cannons thundered. A cannonball
whisked toward him. Kane darted to the left, narrowly missing the shell.
“Captain,” Amadi shouted.
“What the blazes are you doing?” Sean cried.
Others joined Amadi and Sean into yelling at him to return
to the Soaring Phoenix.
Palmer glided toward the Fiery Damsel. Blood dripped onto the ocean. Damn! If Kane chased
him onto his ship, Palmer’s men would not hesitate to sever his head and he’d
join the floating corpses.
A movement in the water caught his eyes. Damn sharks.
The pain throbbed in his wing. He turned around and headed
back to the Soaring Phoenix. Kane
spread his wings wide, landed on the deck, and transformed back into a man. He
half smiled at the holes marring the hull of the Fiery Damsel as she turned and headed back out to sea.
Sean stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Capt’n, what the devil were you thinking?”
Kane rubbed his throbbing shoulder. “Denying Palmer his
pleasure.”
Yes, Kane is my version of an alpha male and hope
you liked the excerpt. I look forward to meeting all of you at the conference.
ML
About ML Guida:
You can contact me at my website: http://www.mlguida.com.
