Pride Master by
H.C. Brown
Fairies & Fangs
Book 1
Re-release:
Blurb
Dragged into a future realm Leo Marshal’s
erotic dreams become a reality. Has he found his found his dream lover, and
Master in Ashrin of Ecatnie Pride? Life is vastly different in this new sensual
world of sex and discipline. The only problem is, Leo is afraid Ashrin will
love him . . . to death.
Excerpt
"You belong to me,
Leo."
The
voice spilled over him like liquid silk; the man's face a dark shadow in the
twilight. Leo lowered his head to nuzzle the hairless balls, to drink in the
rich, hypnotic scent he craved. Under his palms, strong thigh muscles tensed,
moving under sweat-soaked skin. Leo moved his mouth, pressing kisses up his
lover's long, hard shaft. Strong fingers twisted in Leo's hair, dragging his
mouth to the weeping slit.
"Open your mouth; suck
me." The deep, sensual voice commanded.
Leo
swiped his tongue across the tip, the familiar, rich, musky flavor bursting
across his tongue. His heart clenched; he loved this man with a soul-destroying
passion. This man completed him. His dream lover, his ultimate fantasy. Leo
moaned in bliss. He couldn't wait to taste him again and lunged forward to
slide his tongue across the velvet shaft.
I
don't know your name. Tell me your name.
The
bed began to lurch and roll. The dream faded and he awoke achingly hard and
frustrated. Damn it. Why do I always have
the same dream?
"Winds of up to one hundred
and fifty miles an hour . . . ."
Leo Marshall lifted the baseball
cap off his eyes and yawned. What was
that?
Stretching,
he eased out of the chair and pulled up his fishing rod. The balmy summer day
had vanished, hidden behind a violent, black storm front. Clouds of every shade
of grey charged across the sky. An icy wind cut through his t-shirt and whipped
the once glassy, blue ocean into angry, white caps. In the distance, lightning
brought flashes of the coastline, misshapen behind a wall of torrential rain.
Fuck.
Leo secured his
belongings and ducked inside the cabin. On the twoway, he could hear the
Coastguard giving out warnings. He radioed in his details and position.
"You
won't make it to Harper's Peak; didn't you hear the warnings?" came the
response. "You will have to try and ride it out. We have your position. Do
you have a satellite beacon?"
Leo ran a hand through his hair.
"Yes, I do, thank God."
The
Coastguard signed off and Leo stood transfixed, watching the sea join the inky
blue of the sky and close in around him, plunging him into twilight. The Laura
Jane rolled and dipped, huge waves crashing over her bow. Leo dragged on his
life jacket and pulled his way to the stern to up anchor. Wind tore off his
baseball cap, dragged his long hair from its binding and whipped it across his
eyes. Brushing at his face, he looked up at the savage sky; his eyes widened.
"Holy fuck."
Highlighted
by blanket lightning, a funnel rose from the sea. The awesome beast swirled
high into the clouds and danced across the ocean like a giant hydra. Long
trails of water undulated from its twisting neck with gaping maws. The wind
roared, lashing salty rain into his face and tearing at his clothes with icy
fingers. Leo dropped the anchor on the deck and battled his way back to the
cabin. I've got to get out of here. He
depressed the start button on the engine, once, twice.
Nothing.
He
ran his arm over his face, swiping at seawater stinging his eyes, and tried
again. "Come on girl."
The
motor caught and burst into life. Leo laughed in triumphant desperation and
fought frantically to turn the craft around. A great surge of boiling water
picked up the Laura Jane and dragged the small craft up to the crown of a
gigantic wave. Leo clung to the wheel, water swirling in the cabin up to his
knees. The boat hovered on the crest then surfed down the shimmering wall at
world record speed. Leo looked down the face of the twenty-foot wave and
gasped. I'll never out run it.
The
boat crashed into the foaming water, bobbing like a cork. It lurched to one
side and the crab basket and fishing tackle slammed against Leo's legs. In his
hands, the slippery wheel fought against him, spinning one way and then the
other. The bow dipped sharply and the propeller broke free of the waves, the
engine screaming in protest. The sea roared its discontent, and before him, a
whirlpool opened up, a giant vortex sucking everything to oblivion. Leo
swallowed, fear closing his throat, ears deafened with the roar that sounded
like a freight train. The Laura Jane lay on its side, dark, swirling water
pinning it in its embrace. Whipped into a giant centrifuge in hell, Leo joined
the speeding procession of marine debris. Above, a mountain of spinning, black
water, below, a swirling orifice of black and green sank down to the depths of
hell.
Leo
clung to the cabin door, his legs floating in midair. The howl of a thousand
devils shrieked in his head. The roof of the cabin ripped off in a whine of
twisted metal. He looked up one last time, seeking the heavens. Within the
madness, a strange calmness enclosed him. His fingers grew numb and slipped off
the cabin door. Goodbye, Mom and Dad.
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***
Pride Master’s Slave by H.C. Brown
Fairies & Fangs Book 2
Re:release.
Blurb:
At
midnight on All Hallows Eve, the Gates between the realms are wide open. Good
and evil in equal measure seek to slake their desire. Be careful for what you
wish for Humans, once the Gates shut, there is no going back.
Excerpt:
At
midnight on All Hallows Eve, the Gates between the realms are wide open. Good
and evil in equal measure seek to slake their desire. Be careful for what you
wish for Humans, once the Gates shut, there is no going back.
Chase Drake curled his fingers tighter around the steering
wheel. The sleek
Mercedes'
headlights picked up the white line down the center of the road but little
else. His ears still rang from the insipidly happy voice from the G.P.S. Damn,
stupid woman had sent him into a field and told him he was at his destination.
He had little choice but to keep heading north.
An hour later, the busy motorway
and streams of traffic were a distant memory. The narrow road, flanked on each
side by the odd, stark, trees was as quiet as a cemetery. Chase swore
colorfully and pulled off the road. I'm
fucking lost—great.
Leaving the engine running, he
turned on the interior light, and then searched the glove box until he found
the map. He spread it across the steering wheel. After turning it around
several times, he traced a finger along the line that marked the highway. The
directions from the helpful guy at the last gas station ran through his head.
"It's
easy; take the M3 to Salisbury and just follow the signs for Stonehenge.
There's accommodation available about two miles away in the town of
Amesbury."
Chase
switched off the light and peered into the darkness. "What damn signs?
I've been on this road for over an hour."
He folded up the map, stuffed it
back into the glove box and sat back, drumming his fingers on the steering
wheel. He glanced at the clock in the dashboard; hell, it was only 6:30 p.m.
and already pitch black. What happened to the twilight? Isn't England world renowned for twilight . . . or was that Scotland?
Beats me. He squared his shoulders.
Make a decision man; go back, or stay on
this road.
This All Hallows was important to
him; he had decided to come out and tell the world he was gay. The decision to
travel from his home in California and begin his new life on Samhain had been
an easy one. He had made his wish to Samhain at nightfall. Tomorrow morning, he
would stand at Stonehenge with fellow Pagans. To watch the sun break over the
horizon would finally free his mind of any lingering doubts. He would leave
with a new resolve to follow his heart. Carrying the embarrassment of being a
virgin at twenty-four would soon become a distant memory.
A flicker of light far in the
distance caught his attention. Chase
put the car into drive and with a crunch of gravel, headed slowly toward the
light. The road wound through hills and valleys, diminishing until only a cart
track remained. He drove on, confidant the remote light was a beacon to guide
his way.
Without warning, the Mercedes
groaned to a standstill, and then hissed like a giant reptile. In the
headlights, steam rose and billowed out from under the hood, curling and
twisting before the wind carried it way. Chase turned the key in the
ignition—nothing. Damn rental cars;
they're all the fucking same. What else can go wrong?
He reached in his shirt pocket for
his cell phone and flipped it open. Chase stared at the message on the display
in disbelief. "No signal—what do you mean, no signal?" He pushed the cell phone back into his pocket and
grunted with disgust.
Chase shivered; the temperature
inside the car had dropped considerably without the benefit of the heater. He
reached into the back seat for his overcoat and turned back in time to see the
headlights slowly fade and then blink out completely.
Shit, shit, shit.
Darkness suffocated him in a cloak of black velvet. Wind buffeted the
car, showering it with dry grass and leaves, the noise like sharp talons
clawing over metal.
Immediately, his
mind tormented him with images of ghouls and demons, dragging him from the car
to steal his soul. A loud bump sounded on the roof, and his heart missed a beat. He swallowed with visions of an axe
murderer on the roof, swinging a bloody, dismembered head. He gave himself a
mental shake. Stop acting like a girl.
Chase searched the darkness for the
comfort of that elusive, single light—a torch, he'd imagined, as he'd driven
toward it. There, at the top of the hill, the light paused as if waiting for
him to follow. He had to make it to Stonehenge. Even if he had to walk. Taking
a deep breath, Chase dragged on his coat, then grabbed his backpack and climbed
out of the car. He glanced furtively at the roof and chuckled as he saw the low
hanging branch above it, no doubt the cause of the earlier noise. "I gotta
stop watching horror movies."
Under the full moon, the
countryside, dressed in every shade of gray, appeared surreal. A line of trees
in the distance snaked along a wide, black river dancing with a flotilla of
ghostly boats formed by moonbeams. Above him, the ink-blue sky sparkled with a
thousand diamond-like stars, not one cloud masking its beauty.
Chase pulled his coat around his
body to fasten the buttons. Shivering, he reached into his pockets for his
gloves. The wind buffeted him, sending icy fingers through every gap in his
clothing. He took the flashlight from the backpack and surveyed the area. The
river ran adjacent to the road to Stonehenge. He remembered reading somewhere
how the builders of Stonehenge used it to carry pillars to the ancient site. If
he walked toward the light and kept the river on his right, he should run into
the monument eventually. He slung his backpack over one shoulder and followed
the path. I wish I brought my iPod.
The cart track diminished with
every step and finally disappeared beneath the thick tussocks of grass. Chase
hugged his body. The icy chill had permeated every stitch of clothing. His
teeth chattered like some bad castanet player. If I don't find shelter soon, I'll die of exposure.
He scanned the area. The moon sat
high in the sky like an old-fashioned gas light, changing everything it touched
to silver. Ahead of him loomed a group of trees, their late-autumn leaves
rustling eerily in the wind. In the moonlight, the blackened trunks stood like
sentries, dressed in shadow cloaks, guarding the entrance to a dark glade. They used to put crypts in the woods, or
bury murderers in unconsecrated ground. This would be the perfect place for a
vampire's lair.
Chase shuddered, tentative of his
next step. Coward. He stared at a
dark gap in the trees and turned his head from side to side, certain he could
hear muttering. Before he could blink
an eye, a colony of bats flew out
from the trees and swirled around him. The flap of a hundred, featherless wings
broke the silence of the night. He fell to the ground and covered his face, his
heart pounding against his ribs.
"Are
you injured?"
Chase raised his head and stared
into the face of the cloaked man kneeling beside him. He reared back in shock.
"Where the fuck did you come from?"
"I came from the woods. I'm
sorry to startle you." The stranger helped Chase to his feet and stared at
him in silence.
Growing uncomfortable beneath the
man's steady gaze, Chase brushed the leaves off his clothes. He turned to face
the man and offered his hand in greeting.
"Chase
Drake."
"I'm called Si." He
clasped Chase's arm. "I must say I'm happy that you've answered Dracu's
summon this eve."
Chase shrugged to re-position his
backpack. It was good to meet someone else in this God forbidden place, even if
he spoke a load of nonsense."Dracu? I'm not familiar with that name."
"Dracu
is our Master. Tonight, we celebrate
All Hallows." He inclined his head.
"If you aren't
here for the celebration, why are you
here?"
Did his eyes glow red just then? Somewhere
in the distance, a dog or perhaps a wolf, howled repeatedly, drawing Chase's
attention. Ice-cold shivers slithered down Chase's spine. Bloody scenes from
the Texas Chain Saw Massacre mixed with Alien's man-eating extraterrestrials
played in his head. Facing Si, he stared into his eyes; his dark pools
reflected only the moonlight. You're
imagining things again.
He
swallowed the instinct to run and forced a smile ."I'm here to celebrate
All
Hallows too. I
came from California. Tomorrow will be a new beginning for me."
"How so?" Si walked toward the clump
of trees.
Chase fell in step beside him.
"I'm gay, and after I see the sunrise at Stonehenge, I'm shouting it to
the world. I'm sick of living a lie. After tonight, I'll never be ashamed
again. In fact, just thinking about coming out, here at Stonehenge, makes me
damn proud to be gay."
"I'm happy too." Si
chuckled. "Tonight, my Master
may include me in his final selection."
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