Blood Slave
Realm Walker Series, Book 3
Kathleen Collins
Can she find a killer in a town where the basest desires are allowed to run free?
There are zombies in the Dead Zone and Juliana Norris is sent to take care of the problem. And for there to be zombies, there had to be bodies. When vampires are found to be the culprits, Juliana is sent undercover in the red light district of Kansas City. Lying to her mate, Thomas Kendrick, isn’t something she wants to do, but she’s in another vampire’s territory and Thomas would not be pleased. Besides, she’s more than capable of doing the job and she needs to prove it to everyone. Most of all herself.
Charles Morgan is in control of the Kansas City area, making a rich living off his various enterprises. Juliana goes undercover at the strip club Lust and gets sucked into his dark, decadent world. More victims turn up and the Agency is positive they’ve got their man, but Juliana is not so sure. When the Agency refuses to listen, she reluctantly turns to Thomas for help. He intervenes but finds Juliana unaware of the danger she is in and discovers she may just be too deep for him to save.
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Excerpt
The zombie Pomeranian yipped at Nathaniel in between growling and tugging at the leg of his jeans. Juliana pulled her foot back to kick the creature away from her friend and made ready to bring her sword down on it as soon as it was clear.
“Don’t,” Nathaniel protested as he held up a still-clawed hand. “You might hurt it.”
Her brows arched up into her hairline. “That would be the general idea.” The thing growled again and she looked down at it where it was doing its utmost to gnaw a hole through Nathaniel’s jeans. And she wasn’t entirely sure it would stop when it got to skin. I realize you have a particu-lar kinship with all things canine, but it’s gnawing on your leg.”
“Just my jeans.” Now back in fully human form, he bent and disengaged the dog from the denim.
“Easy there, boy. Good dog.” When the Pomeranian continued to express its displeasure with the situation in general and Nathaniel in particular, he lifted the beast above his head, looked at it nose to nose and growled back. Evidently recognizing an alpha even in its altered state, the dog curled in on itself and whimpered before darting its tongue out to lick Nathaniel’s nose. Juliana grimaced. Zombie breath couldn’t be pretty.
“See, he doesn’t mean any harm,” her friend said as he tucked the abomination under one arm. Their scruffy brown hair made them look surprisingly similar.
“What?”
“She. Name tag says Fifi. Last time I checked that was a girl’s name.”
Nathaniel snorted in derision. “Fifi. What a prissy name.”
“Hate to break it to you, partner, but that is a prissy dog. And it smells like mold.”
The zombie Pomeranian yipped at Nathaniel in between growling and tugging at the leg of his jeans. Juliana pulled her foot back to kick the creature away from her friend and made ready to bring her sword down on it as soon as it was clear.
“Don’t,” Nathaniel protested as he held up a still-clawed hand. “You might hurt it.”
Her brows arched up into her hairline. “That would be the general idea.” The thing growled again and she looked down at it where it was doing its utmost to gnaw a hole through Nathaniel’s jeans. And she wasn’t entirely sure it would stop when it got to skin. I realize you have a particu-lar kinship with all things canine, but it’s gnawing on your leg.”
“Just my jeans.” Now back in fully human form, he bent and disengaged the dog from the denim.
“Easy there, boy. Good dog.” When the Pomeranian continued to express its displeasure with the situation in general and Nathaniel in particular, he lifted the beast above his head, looked at it nose to nose and growled back. Evidently recognizing an alpha even in its altered state, the dog curled in on itself and whimpered before darting its tongue out to lick Nathaniel’s nose. Juliana grimaced. Zombie breath couldn’t be pretty.
“See, he doesn’t mean any harm,” her friend said as he tucked the abomination under one arm. Their scruffy brown hair made them look surprisingly similar.
She blinked at him in disbelief before taking another look at the creature in question. When she bent closer, it growled and she straightened with a huff. “She.”
“What?”
“She. Name tag says Fifi. Last time I checked that was a girl’s name.”
Nathaniel snorted in derision. “Fifi. What a prissy name.”
“Hate to break it to you, partner, but that is a prissy dog. And it smells like mold.”
Author Bio
Kathleen Collins lives and works in Missouri. By day, she labors in the local prosecutor's office. At night she writes while surrounded by her husband, two boys and two loveable mutts. She is constantly thinking of her next project and loves to connect with her readers. You can fine her most often on Facebook or on her website.Guest Post
Please welcome Blood Slave author Kathleen Collins to Diane’s Book Blog.
Research: Love it or hate it?
I have a friend that loves to do research for her books. She will spend days, weeks, months even buried in research. Everything from prison maps to wedding dresses is fair game. She writes with dry erase marker on her patio doors and makes diaries and indexes of all the information she finds, most of which will probably not make it into the book. She is meticulous and detailed. A part of me envies her dedication.
The other part of me thinks she’s crazy. I hate doing research. Don’t get me wrong, I love to learn about new things and read books on obscure topics, but I hate researching for a story. For me, writing is a purely creative effort and research pulls me out of that. Part of the reason I write urban fantasy is that the world is whatever I want to make it. The rules are my own. I don’t need to research what the laws are for search and seizure in California because in my world the laws are different. It’s very freeing.
Too much freedom can be a bad thing, however. World building requires its own kind of dedication. I keep notes about rules of magic, what things are called, types of creatures and their characteristics. If you just continually make it all up as you go along and don’t refer back to what you’ve already created, your readers will call you on it.
I love my world because I don’t follow the expected, even for the paranormal creatures I write about. My vampires aren’t undead, their lives have been unnaturally extended through the use of blood magic. When they drink blood it feeds the spell. My leprechauns are shape shifters that can be six feet tall. My heroine is half mage, half dark fae and her father is the dark fae god of death. Why do I do write these things? Because I can and it is oh so fun.
The book I’m working on now is completely different for me. It’s a contemporary romance set in Montana. I made up the town where the story takes place, though I nestled it at the base of a real mountain. I have had to look up laws about what hours a bar can operate in the state and what sort of divisions they have in the law enforcement offices in the state. I’m forced to follow other peoples rules and guidelines and that makes telling my story a little harder but no less fun. Hopefully I’ll still be able to surprise my readers even if I have to follow the rules.
So what about you? If you’re a writer, do you like to research? If you’re a reader, do you like it when an author puts their research about the world they’re writing in into the book? Does it bother you when they haven’t done their research and they should have?
Research: Love it or hate it?
I have a friend that loves to do research for her books. She will spend days, weeks, months even buried in research. Everything from prison maps to wedding dresses is fair game. She writes with dry erase marker on her patio doors and makes diaries and indexes of all the information she finds, most of which will probably not make it into the book. She is meticulous and detailed. A part of me envies her dedication.
The other part of me thinks she’s crazy. I hate doing research. Don’t get me wrong, I love to learn about new things and read books on obscure topics, but I hate researching for a story. For me, writing is a purely creative effort and research pulls me out of that. Part of the reason I write urban fantasy is that the world is whatever I want to make it. The rules are my own. I don’t need to research what the laws are for search and seizure in California because in my world the laws are different. It’s very freeing.
Too much freedom can be a bad thing, however. World building requires its own kind of dedication. I keep notes about rules of magic, what things are called, types of creatures and their characteristics. If you just continually make it all up as you go along and don’t refer back to what you’ve already created, your readers will call you on it.
I love my world because I don’t follow the expected, even for the paranormal creatures I write about. My vampires aren’t undead, their lives have been unnaturally extended through the use of blood magic. When they drink blood it feeds the spell. My leprechauns are shape shifters that can be six feet tall. My heroine is half mage, half dark fae and her father is the dark fae god of death. Why do I do write these things? Because I can and it is oh so fun.
The book I’m working on now is completely different for me. It’s a contemporary romance set in Montana. I made up the town where the story takes place, though I nestled it at the base of a real mountain. I have had to look up laws about what hours a bar can operate in the state and what sort of divisions they have in the law enforcement offices in the state. I’m forced to follow other peoples rules and guidelines and that makes telling my story a little harder but no less fun. Hopefully I’ll still be able to surprise my readers even if I have to follow the rules.
So what about you? If you’re a writer, do you like to research? If you’re a reader, do you like it when an author puts their research about the world they’re writing in into the book? Does it bother you when they haven’t done their research and they should have?
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