TIME TO WORK ON A NEW NOVEL!!
My two series are complete... now I am working on a standalone, still in the vampire/paranormal vein.
Here's a sample chapter for folks fond of vampire tales.
Warning, it contains demons.
Working title: THE INDWELLING OF TORI BLESSING:
"What if your family line involves vampiric demon possession, and when it's your time to allow it... you don't want to give up your life to their control? Raised from birth in the modern world knowing she would marry her deceased father's successor... what her guardian held back was the truth of it-- when she marries, she is expected to hand over her body to the demons waiting to indwell her. For Tori, this does not seem an option!"
(Y/A Paranormal Fantasy, Demons, Vampires, Language, violence, sexual situations, adult themes, alcohol and/or drug use)
SAMPLE CHAPTER
The screeches were much worse than the screams, and tonight, her husband’s voice carried ear-splitting elements of both. Michele covered her ears and jogged down the hall. When she reached her bedroom, she double-locked the door and collapsed onto her bed. Another loud staccato shout filtered upward from the basement and hugging herself tightly, she curled into a ball.
“Please, please, please don’t let him come up here. Please!” Michele prayed the same words a few more times before wondering to whom she was speaking. God? If so, which one? There were so many, how could she know which to turn to at what times?
A loud crash sounded from beneath her room; splintering wood and breaking glass—Cedric was in the laboratory; the place he ran his experiments, the ones she wasn’t permitted to witness. What he did on the slab in that cold place she didn’t know, but the shrieks of despair he caused were human and predominately female.
Still… he was good to her.
The real Cedric was always good to his beloved wife.
Footsteps in the hallway reached her ears. Cedric’s steel-toed work boots, caked with soil from the surrounding moors, made that sound when he came to her at night. Just as often, it was them. Many nights, they propelled her husband to her end of the giant house. Uncertain which it was, Michele opened her eyes and leapt to her window. It was nearly dawn—that fact sometimes kept him downstairs, for Cedric was cursed and unable to walk in the sun.
“MEEE-SHHH-ELLLL!”
The elongated three-syllable version of her name sent goose-pimples across her flesh. Only Ki’tarit called her that—Mi-sha’el—and of the seven spirits that tormented and possessed her husband, he was the most foul. Michele jerked her gaze to the north horizon fifty miles away, where the mountains towered over neighboring Slovakia. Her east-facing windows had been painted over and sealed, for what purpose, she never knew. Whatever the reason, it mattered little at the moment; Ki’tarit summoned and the sky was still more purple than pink.
“MEEE-SHHHH-ELLLL!” he bellowed, much too close now. Michele jumped at the sound and pressed her hands to her ears. He’d have to come get her. She learned a long time ago that when one of Cedric’s Indwellers spoke her name, it was better to run and hide. Each of them longed to destroy her and only Cedric’s incredible love restrained them from doing so. Michele shivered, and prayed to the unknown God once more.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Michele screamed and her hands clutched the familial amulet Cedric had given her to wear. It gave her little comfort now that Ki’tarit was at the door. Would he be able to open it?
“YOU WILL OPEN THIS DOOR, YOU SELFISH WHORE!” the voice bellowed and Michele cringed backward until her rear was against the wide edge of the protruding windowsill. Fingering the soaring eagle design on her necklace, she scooted onto the sill and looked to the landscaped lawn outside. It was dark, but she was on the first floor, the drop only fifteen feet.
“Michele?” the voice asked softer, with a harsh accent on the first letter, sounding more like MI-shull. This one was Yuli, Cedric’s deceased father. The Gustat family line accomplished immortality by the parent possessing the body of the child. Weary from a millennium of suffering, Yuli Gustat gave up his breath four centuries ago when Cedric was pulled from his mother’s womb. As per their way, the father entered the son when he took his first breath.
In the hallway, the Indwelt knocked again, this time with the sound of a tentative nosy neighbor, tap-tap-tap. Michele held her breath. Yuli was no angel, but he lashed out at her the least. Still, she remained at the window, fingers on the latch.
She called across the room at the bolted door, “Mighty One, get Cedric downstairs. The sun is coming,” she said, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. The tremor in her voice was difficult to erase.
“Come sleep with us, Mi’shull. It’s been so long. Cedric will be back. Trust me.”
Michele faced outside, looking as far east as allowed by the corner of the house. She would never consent to Yuli’s request and he must realize that. She had slept with her husband one time in his crypt and nothing bad happened, the Indwelt were still. But since then, over the past year, she’d seen enough of their violence that she vowed she would never voluntarily place herself in their clutches. Although Cedric promised that he’d protect her, she found it impossible to put her confidence in his claims.
Knock-knock. A soft rap; he’d changed again.
“Kitten, it is I, your husband.”
Cedric! Michele faced the door and her hand flew to her throat.
When he was present in that crowd of spirits, her heart grew warm within her and she flushed from head-to-toe. Finally, her husband had come forward to wish her a good day.
“Cedric!” Michele breathed and reached the door in four rapid strides. Then, remembering herself, she paused, palms on the wood. “Cedric, should I open the door?”
“Yes, kitten, open the door.”
Michele unlocked two deadbolts and removed the iron bar atop them both. With a pull on the heavy door and a swish of air, she was in her beloved’s embrace. Cedric held her gently and kissed the crown of her head.
“I wanted to wish you a good day, my sweet.”
Michele held him tightly, her face pressed into the lapel of his cool leather coat. It had been three nights since she’d last seen him. When he left Monday at sunset, he hadn’t returned until last night, and she knew better than approach him then. It had been a good call, for as she prepared her dinner, the Indwelt overcame him in the bowels of the house and began the tumult to which she’d unfortunately become accustomed. But he was here now, for a few minutes.
“Are you all right? I missed you,” she whispered against him.
“If you missed me, you will look at me, no?”
Michele smiled and pulled away well enough to look into his face; Cedric’s extreme comeliness never failed to bring tears to her eyes. She considered herself a mousy girl with dull blonde hair she could hardly control and pale blue eyes that were too big for her face. She’d always attracted men too old for her, but Cedric was the first one she’d paid any mind. Painfully attractive, his dark eyes were nearly always at half-mast, hiding centuries of secrets. His mouth was set in a permanent smirk, which only served to convince Michele that he knew everything there was to know about everything and his wisdom would change her world. Raised in a Budapest orphanage since age four, Michele never knew tenderness until she met the walking god who held her now.
“Who was it that put the look of the doe into your eyes?” Cedric pierced her with his gaze, asking questions he could divine if he chose. Michele answered right away so he wouldn’t have to.
“Ki’tarit threatened me. Yuli was only there a second before you were back.”
Cedric nodded. “Yuli and I have come to an agreement. He promised to subdue the others for me, but Ki’tarit is sometimes too much for him when he thirsts.” Cedric brushed Michele’s hair from her cheek and pushed it behind her ear. “I will deal with Ki’tarit today while I sleep.”
“How did you get Yuli on your side?” Michele asked, truly curious. Cedric explained his way early in their relationship, which she accepted on faith. As far as she knew, the Indwelt could not be persuaded by anyone at any price.
“I took him on a little trip,” Cedric’s mouth went to the side, his black eyes sparkling with humor.
Michele didn’t ask for more. The Indwelt were bloodthirsty and murderous; to satiate them, Cedric would have been party to horrendous activities. Cedric put a finger to her chin and bent to kiss her mouth, lingering there long enough that she forgot to breathe. When he stood to his full height, he ran both hands into her hair and held her head gently.
“I apologize that we frightened you.”
Michele smiled, and wiped a tear that had slipped out as they kissed. “Yuli said you wanted me to sleep with you today. Is that so?”
Cedric nodded his head, his shoulder-length black hair catching the light from her room in its loose waves. “You will be safe.”
Michele’s pulse increased a few ticks, but she nodded her head in his palms. “Let me change clothes. Do we have time?”
Cedric looked over her shoulder in the direction of her window, although he could sense the sunrise more easily than observe it. “Seventeen-and-half minutes, kitten. Will that do?”
Michele nodded and backed into the room as he slowly released her. She’d visit the restroom, wash her face, and change back into her nightgown. She normally slept from noon until sunset, but she needn’t worry about insomnia; in Cedric’s crypt, he would put her to sleep gently and fully. Her husband leaned against the threshold and watched her prepare to bed down. It would only take her ten minutes and then she’d accompany him to the basement where he slept away the long Hungarian days. As she slipped her silk nightdress over her head, she begged the unknown God to keep the Indwelt at bay.
(Indwelling expected early summer, 2021. Follow this page or follow the author on Amazon to be alerted when it is out! https://www.amazon.com/Ellen-C-Maze/e/B002YWH2TY 
