Sunday, July 23, 2017

Read the Prologue, Vampire Series Re-Release from Little Roni Publishers, Post #1

Sit back, turn on a light, and read the prologue from Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider, by Ellen C Maze.
PG-13, Violence

Have fun down the rabbit hole! ~ Ellen













Rabbit: Chasing BethRider By Ellen C. Maze ©2017 Excerpt from the KINDLE EDITION

Prologue


The monster had him boxed in, and it wasn’t even close to sunup.
“Rabbit! Give it up! You don’t have a chance!”
Schaffer cringed at the sentiment and tiptoed faster along the corrugated tin wall. Up ahead, he could see the exit, a huge door that emptied into the dark night beyond. The warehouse sat on the river’s edge—how far from the pier was he? Maybe fifty feet once he cleared the threshold. There was a good chance he could jump into the water and swim away. Didn’t these aberrations of nature abhor running water, or had that been an evil joke? He had been in their clutches long enough to question his sanity at every turn. Schaffer didn’t have time to ponder. Taking one deep breath to gather his nerve, he burst forward suddenly, commanding his legs to propel him faster than they ever had before. However, it wasn’t fast enough. Not by a mile. Schaffer slammed into the outstretched arm of his enemy after four short strides.
“Oops,” the monster giggled. “Down you go.”
Schaffer struggled to find his feet, but the creature grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back the way they had come. His boot heels plowed the red clay in the dirt parking lot, making furrows no one would notice.
“Silly wabbit. Come on, we have a big night ahead of us.”
Schaffer wrestled against his attacker’s grip to no avail. The creature that held him fast was not his master, but he was still one of them. One of the Brethren. A Rakum. A devilish miscreant with ancient roots no one remembered, whose strength was outdone only by his cruelty. They would be sure to punish Schaffer for the stunt he pulled against their Elder, Rufus.
Schaffer fought futilely until they reached the monster’s aged Dodge pickup parked in the unlit abandoned lot. He got a glimpse of the Rakum’s face; it was not one he recognized, but that mattered little. Once marked as a Rabbit, they would come from all over.
“In ya go, Rabbit.”
The Rakum grabbed Schaffer’s belt along with his collar and tossed him into the passenger seat in one fluid motion. Schaffer grunted with discomfort as his attacker zip-tied his hands together. He then zip-tied his wrists to the headrest behind, yanking his arms up above his head. Schaffer cried out, but only a few syllables escaped his lips before the monster shoved a greasy rag into his mouth.
“Where’re your matches now, Rabbit?”
Schaffer shivered at the Rakum’s question; he had set Rufus on fire. It had been a glorious sight, but he didn’t get away fast enough. Schaffer blinked back tears, gagged, and watched with round eyes as his attacker settled into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition.
“Might be fun to burn you up, Rabbit. See what that smells like.”
Schaffer moaned. An hour after he set Rufus aflame, he’d been captured and marked by one of the Elders. The creature told him to start running.
Schaffer looked out the window as they sped through a thick forest. If only he’d planned an escape route. Now this monster was taking him to his private killing field. As the morbid thought crossed his mind, an Airstream trailer emerged from the woods ahead.
“Oh, my. All for me.”
The Rakum hit the brakes hard and didn’t bother to come around to extricate his catch. Instead, he jumped down and reached in to yank Schaffer out the driver’s side. The stiff plastic ties raked across his flesh and he yelped through the filthy towel as his skin gave way. His wrist bones fractured as his hands popped free of the bonds. The Rakum chuckled and tossed Schaffer bleeding and crying over his shoulder and headed for the trailer.
Schaffer watched the weeds go by in the moonlight, his bloodied fingers dangling off and on in his line of vision. They no longer stung, but he was too terrified to notice. They entered the trailer, the door closed and was locked, and he was dropped onto a tattered yellow couch. Schaffer grimaced as he hit the sofa hard, but one glance at his wrist and he could see the skin was not ripped as he had thought. Was it the dim light?
“Now you’re in my house, Rabbit. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Do you know what happens to Rabbits around here?”
Schaffer’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head. His tongue pushed at the rag in his mouth, but it wouldn’t budge. He watched his attacker’s face and vainly pleaded with his eyes.
“We eat Rabbits around here. Yep. But we take our time.”
Schaffer cringed as the monster approached and stopped only inches from his sweating face.
“And Rufus wants to be sure you suffer.”
Rufus? In the present tense? Are they fireproof? Schaffer choked back a scream as the monster withdrew a knife from outside his vision and brought it up to his chin.
“We ain’t in no hurry, Rabbit. We can go all night…” The sharp blade pressed into Schaffer’s throat until it broke through the skin with stinging pain. Blood coursed from the wound and spilled out from before him onto the monster’s chest. But as his assailant hovered over him, an evil grin on his dark face, Schaffer felt something else entirely. The fiery pain in his neck subsided and was replaced with a peculiar tightness. The blood that spurted forcefully from his body ebbed and then stopped completely. His knife wound had healed. –As if he was one of them.
The marking procedure did this! Horrified as the gravity of his situation sunk in, Schaffer violently leapt aside. The Rakum backhanded him into place and straddled him on the couch, holding him down with his body weight.
“See, Rabbit? Now you get it.” Schaffer straightened up in his bonds as the monster raised the knife and slashed him again, this time across the chest. The wound was deep and the dark oxygenated blood oozed down his shirtfront. Once again, the pain subsided and the flow eased. Schaffer’s face twisted into a mask of horror.
“Yep. That’s right. We’ll go on all night. And tomorrow night. And the night after that...” 
Schaffer watched as his attacker brought the bloody knife tip to his mouth and cleaned it with his red tongue.
“Oh, shit, that...is...so...” he whispered, closed his eyes and smiled. After a moment, he sought Schaffer’s terrified eye. “And Rabbit,” he said and paused drunkenly. “When I get tired of you…we’ll have my brothers over and let them see what fun you are.”
The knife rose again and plunged into Schaffer’s middle. He grunted, his gag still preventing him from screaming no matter how his lungs fought in his chest to expel his terror. The Rakum’s gory tongue circled his lips, not coming close to clearing the expelled blood from his chin.
“We’ll never get tired of you,” he whispered, obviously intoxicated by the ingestion of Schaffer’s blood. The knife came out and was thrust in again, this time into his side, into his ribs. “And you’ll never die. You’ll never die, Rabbit. Never.”
As Schaffer felt the skin tighten and knit itself together in his middle, he knew the monster was right. His punishment would go on.  Schaffer was in hell. And his hell would last forever.
______________________________________________

Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider
Book One of the Rabbit Trilogy


(Be sure to purchase the Little Roni Publishers Version—ISBN: 978-0615678306, Kindle and PB, for the Newest Edition with BONUS “Easter Egg” Chapters)

BACK COVER: What if your novel attracts the wrong kind of attention?

Author Beth Rider's vampire novel has hit number one, but her fictitious plot puts her in the crosshairs of an ancient race of vampiric beings known as the Rakum. Spreading evil among mankind for thousands of years, the leadership of this bloodthirsty race now has a singular focus: catch Beth Rider—her very life in mortal jeopardy as she goes on the run, a rabbit desperate to escape the worst of predators.

Facing the most terrifying trial of her life against creatures known only in fables, one simple woman will unintentionally threaten the very existence of a powerful and accursed people. In the climactic mêlée, it is a race to the death—or if Beth has her way, a race to the life—of every Rakum who makes the choice.

Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider By Ellen C. Maze ©2017
Excerpt from the KINDLE EDITION
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the authors, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, to factual events or to businesses is coincidental and unintentional.
Print Edition ISBN-13: 978-0615678306
Also available LARGE PRINT format
Little Roni Publishers, Byhalia, MS www.littleronipublishers.com
PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This prologue provided to prepare the fans of the Rabbit Trilogy for the release of Book Three, Rabbit Redemption. Blogger/Book Reviewers, Contact the author at ellenmaze@aol.com for a complimentary copy of the books for your reviews.