Charmed
The Vitruvian Man, book 2
By Cate Masters
Dark fantasy/paranormal romance
Coming Aug. 30, 2013
Decadent Publishing
Blurb
Brought
together by accident, bound by fate—and magic.
Love works its charm over Bruno DiCesare and Melina Weaver during his
transformation from beast to man. But love likewise blinds them to the secrets
each holds. Bruno thinks his secret will devastate Melina. Melina’s afraid
Bruno will hate her for what she’s become. Neither guess the greatest danger
lurks outside their door – and will force them to decide between love and life
itself.
Excerpt
Wow, so fast. Melina held Bruno’s
hand until his grasp went slack. The treatment seemed to take effect almost as
soon as he’d swallowed it. He shouldn’t react immediately; his body should be
able to handle it better by this time. Unless Eldie increased the dosage?
Suspicion
drew her gaze to the bottle. Of course she couldn’t tell by sight, and she had no
idea what ingredients the sorceress had used in the other preparations. She
shouldn’t have agreed to it so readily, nor trusted Eldie so blindly. In any
other situation, she’d have asked to review the complete specifications.
She
stroked Bruno’s arm. I wanted him cured
for me as much as for himself. If her selfishness harmed him in any way,
she’d carry that guilt forever. Try to make it up to him forever.
For
now, she’d have to occupy her mind with something else or drive herself insane.
His deep breaths meant he’d sleep for at least a day.
A
hushed sigh sounded from the other room.
“Eldie?”
Back so soon?
No
answer came except for a slight rustle. She crept to the curtain. “Who’s here?”
Even as
she asked, she sensed a presence unlike any she’d encountered before.
Everything remained as she’d left it, the lamp glowing in the center of the
table, laptop beside the scattered books. Lucky the sorceress hadn’t seen them.
Luck, or something more.
She
returned to the volume she’d left open. A page rippled, lifted straight up and
fell over. Another muffled sigh escaped. Melina.
The whisper so slight, it was barely audible. Yet without a doubt, she heard
her name.
She
traced a finger down the spine. It quivered beneath her touch like the plucked
string of a guitar. With a gasp, she jerked her hand back.
Uncertain
she hadn’t imagined it, she repeated the move and got the same result.
How?
She pulled the chair close to the table and examined the pages. Nothing out of
the ordinary, except perhaps how finely executed the handwritten entries
appeared, each letter as perfect as the last. Almost like they’d been printed
to fool the eye of a curious reader. An
Italian reader. If only these were in English.
The
longer she studied the text, the clearer it became. The letters blurred,
shimmered, then shifted, rearranging themselves into… English. She didn’t need
to enter the words into the translator site on her laptop, she understood every
sentence.
She ran
her fingers lightly over the page. The letters shifted again, scattering at her
touch, as if she’d disturbed the surface of a pond.
“What
the…” It changed back to Italian, the letters appearing to float. She swirled a
fingertip across the surface, and the words formed a swarm, like a school of
fish following bait. Like fish, they seemed to nibble at the tip of her finger.
Impossible, but it tickled.
Fascinating. But this silliness got her nowhere.
She’d never learn anything if this kept up. “Stop.”
The
scripted words froze in a jumbled, nonsensical order.
She
hovered her hand above the passage, and the letters stretched up off the page
in tall columns to meet it. The pull of the connection reached inside her skin,
as if it had been magnetized.
This is crazy. But obviously it’s not. It’s
happening. It’s real.
Cate Masters has made beautiful central
Pennsylvania her home, but she’ll always be a Jersey girl at heart. When not
spending time with her dear hubby, she can be found in her lair, concocting a
magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her
cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at http://catemasters.blogspot.com and
in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web.
Cate loves to hear from readers! Email her
at: cate.masters@gmail.com
Catch up to Cate
Thanks so much for sharing the cover for Charmed Sara! :)
ReplyDeleteAnother great cover and exciting story! Congratulations Cate!
ReplyDeleteThanks Yolanda! I'm excited that another in this series will be out soon. :)
DeleteThird time's a charm...really powerful cover hon. Looks good and hopefully will get you many sales!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Sascha! I love the cover too. Hope it will charm some readers into buying it, lol
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