Rescue Cats   by Cera duBois– thanks for coming by and sharing your personal story!

 This is Penny. She joined the family three years ago when she was a year and half old. We found her at a local shelter and instantly fell in love with her. Although, I think she picked us as her family long before we decided she was our perfect pet. In the meet and greet area of the local Petsmart where the shelter has a kennel for cats, she hopped into my lap and played with my daughter.

She melted my heart, and I had to take her home.

And have never regretted the decision. She’s friendly, never scratches or bites, even when I’m torturing her by cutting her toenails. She hates having her nails cut.

In my latest release, A Hunter’s Blade, the vampire Austin rescues a kitten that was left behind by the previous owners of his ranch. Simpkin, who Austin names after the cat in The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter. A story he had read to his eldest son.

Simpkin was a fun character for me to write. I molded his personality a lot from my Penny. But Simpkin have some characteristics that help rescue Austin and Brigit as well. He’s quite the little matchmaker in the end. Austin needs Brigit’s help where the cat is involved, and she reluctantly agrees despite her hatred of cats. Simpkin doesn’t like the werewolf much either, but they bond after she feeds him and takes care of him for a day.

Simpkin plays an important part in getting Brigit to remember the past and start to deal with the events that had changed her life.

Below is an excerpt featuring Brigit and Simpkin, who just might be the one doing the rescuing instead of being the one rescued…

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A Hunter’s Blade, Book 2 of The Hunter’s Dagger Series

 

Blurb:

 Brigit Wolfe, a born werewolf, hasn’t killed a human in over a hundred years, although now, she wonders if the animal attacking people in Silver Creek, Colorado, isn’t her. But she might have bigger problems when her cowboy neighbor, Austin Calhoun, ambles into her bar. Austin hasn’t been a vampire for long, but he is determined to prove to himself that he’s worthy of his hunter’s dagger. Brigit’s rare beauty and blade-sharp tongue enchants him. She ignites a passion he thought was dead, but is she the killer his master sent him to destroy? During Austin’s investigation regarding Brigit’s involvement in the deaths, an old crime surfaces connected to her human best friend. These two immortal enemies have to join forces to solve the mystery before someone else dies. But can they survive the heat of their own desire?

Excerpt:

“Of all the arrogant…” Brigit kicked the door shut with a resounding bang and turned around.

She stared at the hissing, fur ball in her hands and let go. He landed on his feet and glared up at her. His razor-like back arched and his fur fluffed out.

“Oh, aren’t you just terrifying.” She put her hands on her hips, leaned over and growled.

The kitten jumped, turned-tail and streaked across the living room to hide under the couch. Brigit laughed and shook her head as she headed into the nook that held her kitchen.

She searched her pantry cabinet until she found a can of tuna. That vampire owed her big time for this.

She snatched the can opener from the crock of utensils beside the stove. “The only reason I’m going this is because I can’t give Calhoun more reason to suspect me for those attacks, you know that, don’t you?” She dumped half of the tuna onto a saucer, filled a matching bowl with water and set them on the floor. The kitten watched her from under the skirt of the sofa. His long whiskers twitched as he sniffed the air, strong with the aroma of the tuna. “Don’t think you’re getting an engraved invitation to dinner.”

Warily, the cat scooted out from under the couch. He slithered to the plate of food, peering up at her the entire time. Brigit stood in the middle of the small kitchen and stared down at the skinny bag of fur and bones.

He sniffed the fish. His belly rumbled with hunger and pain filled his aura. Brigit could smell his fear and indecision of whether or not to trust the offering.

The primitive emotions took her back to the night her family had been murdered. The night she was a coward. The vampires Lucas and Vivian Pomeroy, Ian McHenry and two other hunters surrounded the pack’s caravan a little before the rise of the moon. The vampires attacked on the pack’s most vulnerable time—the moment of change from human to wolf.

Her father, caught in transformation and fighting for his life, called out to her to come to his aid, to fight with her sire, her alpha. He touched her emotions as only the alpha wolf could, but she hid like a child in the brush several meters away from the rest of the pack. He must have sensed her fear, her cowardice and instantly pulled away. She knew in that second she’d lost the right to be alpha. She’d watched the black wolf head of her father roll as Lucas Pomeroy sliced through his neck with a silver sword. Next, fell her younger brothers, her mother, her sisters, every member of her family. She transformed into a wolf and was completely alone in the world.

With no one to watch out for her, no one to care for her, no one to relate to.

Simpkin took a tentative lick of the tuna. Deeming it safe, he tore into the meal.

She remembered all too well that first year on her own. As a wolf, she hunted and fed well, but the girl she turned into for the majority of the time lived on scraps and stole to keep the pain of hunger at bay. It sucked being immortal; no matter how long she went without food and water, starvation never came.

After the disappointment she felt in her father before he died, she wanted nothing more than to join the rest of her pack, but she was too much of a coward to go through with killing herself.

Hell, this tiny kitten was braver than she’d been. And cats were known for their cowardice.

Without being fully aware of her actions, she knelt before the kitten. He was young, three or four months old. “So, you like tuna. You’re lucky I had that in the pantry. I’m not much of a fish lover.”

Simpkin glanced up at her, his bright eyes watchful, but the total distrust was gone.

“Eat, you silly creature. I can almost see through you.”

Simpkin licked the plate clean and lapped some water. When he was finished, he licked his nose and whiskers, looked up at her, and meowed his gratitude.

She laughed and reached out to pet him between his ears. “You’re welcome,” she said in Romanian. “Now, let’s get those burs out of your fur. I hate when that happens to me.”

Available now at Amazon and everywhere January 2, 2013.

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A Hunter’s Angel, Book 1 of The Hunter’s Dagger Series

 

Blurb:

 The serial killer stalking Clayton, Pennsylvania, isn’t all that has Chief of Police Grace Wallace worried. For a year, she’s tried to forget Special Agent Ian McHenry and now he’s the expert the FBI sent to catch the killer. She can’t stay away from him, but something primal is telling her to run to save much more than just her heart. Despite the strict code of ethics Ian vowed to follow as a vampire hunter, he craves Grace’s blood above all others. If he chooses to stay, Ian risks losing his chance at divine forgiveness. But if he leaves Grace unprotected from the evil he’s hunted for over a century, he loses more than just his soul…

Excerpt:

 

Part of Grace desperately wanted to look up, and a bigger part of her dreaded this moment. She couldn’t hide for long. After all, she was in charge of this shindig.

Standing, Grace sucked in a fortifying breath and rubbed her sweaty palms together. Everyone stood respectfully when she moved from around the table to the front of the room. “Please. Be seated.”

 Determined not to look at the woman and three men standing off to the left, she stared straight ahead. Her heart raced, and her scalp itched where perspiration gathered. “In order to better protect the citizens of our communities, I called this meeting to ensure we’re all on the same page regarding the investigation of the murders. Although I’ve been in contact with all of you since the first murder, four weeks ago, and have led the investigation, the FBI has sent a crack team of experts to assist us in hunting down the murderer.” Her voice betrayed nothing, but her mouth was dryer than the dog days of a Pennsylvania August. “Special Agent in Charge Ian McHenry?”

She looked at Ian and her heart stuttered over a beat. How could he be so calm and act as if nothing had happened between them?

How could he lead her on? Hadn’t the chemistry between them been instant and intense enough for them to throw caution and office taboos out the proverbial window?

 Did he forget all those times they’d gone out for drinks and dancing? They’d spent weekends antiquing the countryside of Chester County. He’d taken her horseback riding at his magnificent country estate he’d inherited from his uncle. What about the beautiful necklace he’d given to her for Christmas, had it meant nothing?

He’d always been such an old-fashioned gentleman and seemed interested in her as a person and not just for sex. She fell so deeply in love with him it hurt. Had it all been a ploy to get her into bed for a one-night stand?

 Why did you leave me?

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The muscles in Ian’s back tensed as Grace’s silent question ricocheted around his head as if she’d screamed it at him. He forced a smile and looked around the room. “Thank you, Chief Wallace. I’d like to thank all of you for coming today to meet with us. Now to introduce my colleagues.”

 With a gesture of his hand, Ian indicated an attractive, thirty-something, dark-haired woman and the dark-skinned, younger man. “This is Dr. Beth Otto and her assistant, Mark Hazelton. They will be working closely with Coroner Swartz. They both specialize in forensic pathology.” He then pointed toward a tall man dressed as Ian in dark pants, shirt and blazer. “And this is Special Agent Brad Morris. He and I will be working closely with the rest of you.”

Ian let Beth take the first round of discussion. An excellent medical examiner, she had worked with him and Brad for the past four years. Now was one of those times, he wished she wasn’t part of his team. She was extremely hard to fool. She’d never discovered anything that pointed to a vampire, and even if she had, her scientific mind would discredit it. But Ian always had a harder time coming up with reasons for the inconsistencies when things didn’t add up.

 Available Everywhere E-books are sold:

The Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

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 Bio:

Cera duBois has a strong belief in never giving up on your dreams…

Although Cera was unable to read due to dyslexia and a learning disability until she was in the fourth grade, she always had a story to tell. She wrote her first novel in eleventh grade when she had to keep a journal for her academic English class. Since her life was far from exciting growing up as a farm girl in West Central Pennsylvania, she decided to rely on her imagination to give her something to write about. Over the course of the school year, she wrote a tangled romance set in the Deep South during the Civil War.  Becoming an author was her ultimate dream. Despite holding a BS in secondary social studies education from Penn State University, she currently works full-time as a medical secretary. A mother of a teenage son and pre-teen daughter, she lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband of nearly 20 years. If she isn’t sitting in a quiet corner with her laptop, warm days will find her in the English garden surrounding her house. Cera loves to read and is interested in history, romance, science fiction and the paranormal. She also writes contemporary Westerns under her real name of Sara Walter Ellwood.

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