MUSE MONDAY
Tina Donahue has a brand new release!
They’re fighting for their lives, freedom, and love…in the realm of the dead.
Eeete, a pleasure slave, thought she’d found freedom in an underwater colony until a hated Palace guard abducted her for his carnal pleasure. Swept with him through a portal into E3, she faces danger from the deceased, grotesque monsters, and a dimension where few things are as they seem and nothing can be trusted…including her own desire.
Running from sure death, she comes upon Makam, another guard, sentenced to E3 for treason against their dimension’s depraved ruler. She’s determined to hate him—as she does all men who imprisoned her in the Palace—but survival depends on them fighting together.
Curious about Makam’s seeming honor and tempted by his untamed allure, she soon falls under his sensual spell, their nights filled with unrestrained passion, their days spent trying to stay alive…an increasingly impossible struggle.
When all appears lost, an unexpected chance allows hope for them to flee together toward a promising future.
Until a shocking secret threatens to tear them apart forever.
TEASERS
Her breath spilled out.
She trembled, her teeth chattering.
The pods halted then
turned to the sound.
With her hand pressed
against her mouth, she warned herself not to panic or give up. She never had in
the Palace no matter what she’d faced. She’d survived.
If she expected to do so
here and return to Zekin and Paige, she’d have to figure this realm out on her
own.
First, though, she needed
to eat. Dizzy from hunger, her mouth cottony and needing water, she struggled
to her knees in the narrow hiding place but didn’t leave.
The pods drifted into and
out of her sight, their numbers reduced over time. Whether minutes or hours had
passed she didn’t know.
Once alone and unable to
wait any longer, she crept from the crevice then searched the surroundings,
hoping to find a drop of water, a plant, or whatever would make her throat and
stomach stop hurting.
Red globes speckled a
grayish mound. They reminded her of berries she’d eaten in the Palace.
Her mouth watered,
wanting their succulent sweetness.
She plucked several free
and crammed them between her lips.
A grainy texture greeted
her, the globes hard.
Rocks, not berries.
She spit them out and
swiped tears off her cheeks. Crying wouldn’t help her find a portal to get out
of here. Caution and a thorough search would.
After edging around the
rocks, she stopped at a tiny pool resembling water. How to tell for certain
though without tasting it.
Hunkered next to the
puddle, she sniffed. There wasn’t an odor, the same as water. Still…
Not yet convinced she
could drink it, she used a longish rock to stir the liquid, hoping insects
wouldn’t rise to the surface.
They didn’t.
Hissing and spitting, the
liquid ate away the end of the rock.
She dropped the stone and
scooted back on her ass.
“Hungry?”
The thin voice resembled
whistling wind.
On her feet, she gaped at
the pods that followed her here.
The male, who led the
rest, released his arm and hand from the pod. “Hungry?”
Her stomach rumbled in
answer.
“Try this.” Blinking
slowly, like the rest, he peeled off his bottom lip.
She shuddered, bile
rising to her throat.
The male smiled, the area
where his lower lip had been leaving a gaping, bloodless hole. “It’s good. The
best bread there is.”
“That’s your lip, not
bread!”
Shocked at her outburst,
she covered her mouth, wanting to run.
The swaying pods
mesmerized her, keeping her in place.
“No, this is bread.” He
offered the pale flesh to her. “Soft, warm, and sweet. Try it, please. No need
to go hungry.”
Her stomach cramped worse
than earlier. She licked her parched lips.
“Eat this and I’ll give
you more…however much you want.” He peeled off his top lip.
No, not his lip, a piece
of bread. She recognized it now. The same as the rich, chewy kind rulers and
elites ate in the Palace.
Starving, she accepted
both pieces and lifted them to her mouth.
“No!”
The tall guard from
earlier slapped the food from her hand. “Don’t ever touch that.”
The bread landed in a
dank puddle.
Eeete growled. “What have
you done!?” Her throaty voice—unused to speaking that hadn’t been allowed in
the Palace—was clear and hard now. “Stay away. That’s mine.”
She scrambled after the
food.
He tugged her back.
“Don’t you understand? The dead will lie to you.”
“But you won’t? Bastard.”
A word Paige used for men she loathed. “You’re lying to take my food. Find your
own.”
Eeete rammed her shoulder
against his chest.
He lost his balance and
windmilled his arms to right himself.
She dove for the bread.
He was on her in a
second, shouting, “Eating any of the dead will doom you to an eternity here. A
place a thousand times worse than what you knew in the Pleasure Palace.”
TRAILER
Thanks for hosting me, Brenda! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Tina. Thanks for guesting!
ReplyDelete