Title: Ill Fated
Author: Rachel Rawlings
Series: Maurin Kincaide #6
Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy
Publisher: R Squared Publishing
Release Date: Feb 11 2015
Edition/Format Available In: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
Some things are destined to end in death.
After the first attempt on her life Maurin wasn’t scared. Hell, she was almost
flattered. But someone put a price on her head and things are getting complicated.
Trouble is brewing in the fae courts and it’s spilling over into Salem. The
UnSeelie Dark Guard have answered the call for her head on a platter and people
closest to her are disappearing.
Can Maurin master court politics and find
her missing men before someone claims the bounty on her head?
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~ * ~
Excerpt:
No one should be awake at four in the morning. Especially me. I ripped the plug for my alarm clock out of the wall around three-thirty.
No one should be awake at four in the morning. Especially me. I ripped the plug for my alarm clock out of the wall around three-thirty.
I forgot about the batteries.
The numbers on the clock taunted me like a
green-eyed devil until I finally got out of bed. I fumbled in the dark to make
a pot of coffee, refusing to turn on the kitchen light and formally acknowledge
the day. I pulled my favorite mug out of the cabinet and filled it before
settling at my table.
The dream came every night - technically
morning - at three o'clock. I was used to running on little-to-no sleep, this
bordered on ridiculous. Yesterday at the range I shot a target in the lane on
my left. Fortunately, it had been Mason's and I played everything off by
exaggerating my sharp-shooting skills. Someone else could have had me banned.
As it was, Mason thought I was being a competitive brat.
I wasn't sure I preferred that to being a
sleep-deprived danger to others.
I scratched my neck, pausing when I felt
the delicate silver chain. I followed it down to the apple branch charm which
rested on my chest. Weird. I could have sworn I took it off last night. I slid
the charm back and forth as I went over the dream. Again.
After the first week, I’d broken down and
started analyzing it. According to Freud, I had mommy issues. No surprise
there. I seriously doubted my relationship - or lack thereof - with my adoptive
mother was the cause of the recurring dream.
I fired up the laptop, unwilling to cease
my search for answers. Instead of the trippy New Age sites I checked out last
night, I went back to my trusty Google. I nodded off twice as I scanned the
results.
What the hell did an old woman washing
clothes in a river have to do with me? I might have written it off as paranoia
or a side effect of all the spicy food I'd been eating, if not for the haggard
old woman crooking her bony finger at me and called my name - every time.
I finally got a hit on an obscure mythology
website. Bean Nighe, the washer woman of the Highlands. She scrubbed the bloody
linens of those doomed to die. Knowing she was fae bothered me more than the
knowledge the clothes she washed every night were mine. Impending death I could
handle. Hell, I'd slipped through the Reaper's grasp more than once. The Fae on
the other hand, well they could be tricky
The phone rang just as I got up for a
refill. The fact someone else was not only awake at this ungodly hour,but
calling me, meant it was bad news. No one who valued their life called me
before noon unless it was an emergency - one of the perks of my new position as
Regulator.
I was now in charge of one investigator,
two trackers and a team of cleaners. It was a lot like it sounds. We
investigate, we track and we clean up. We clean up everything, no loose ends.
You don't ever want to find yourself in need of a cleaner. Late hours came with
the new job, hence the “no calls before noon” rule.
I glanced at the screen before answering
and recognized the number immediately. It helped I had been dialing it for the
last four years - it used to belong to Captain Matthison. Of course Mason, my
fae boyfriend and member of the Wild Hunt, was the captain of SPTF now.
We'd been officially dating for a couple
months, moved well past first base. Hell, I had a key to his apartment. Granted
I hadn’t used it since the night he gave it to me. I'd been dragging my feet,
leaving deep ruts in my wake where our relationship was concerned. My track
record wasn't all that great. I'd rushed in before, once because I was spelled
and once because I wanted to.
Neither ended well.
Things were going great. I was afraid if I
labeled it, changed it in anyway, the change would be catastrophic. Thankfully,
Mason was a patient man.
Except when it came to a four a.m. phone
call. My phone stopped then immediately started ringing again.
My answer was short and to the point.
"Morning."
"You're awake?" He sounded more
than a little surprised.
"I'm not really sure the state I'm in
qualifies as awake."
"Here I was, terrified to poke the
dragon, and you're already drinking coffee and talking in complete
sentences."
I snorted and took a sip of the aforementioned
liquid gold. "Are you always like this in the morning?"
"If you'd let me sleep over you'd
already know the answer to that question. Why aren't you asleep?"
In general or just tonight, I silently
wondered. "Bad dream. I've been tossing and turning all night. I finally
gave in and got out of bed."
Papers rustled in the background and when
he spoke again, his voice was lower, intimate, "You want to talk about
it?"
"Something tells me my nightmares are
the least of our problems."
"You have no idea. I need you to come
down to my office."
I sighed. "Can it at least wait until
after sunrise?"
"Would I be breaking the ‘no phone calls before noon’policy if it
could wait?"
“There really is no rest for the wicked, is
there?”
He laughed and the sound warmed me more
than a hundred cups of coffee. "Apparently not, in your case. Now, there's
a dirty chai latte and a croissant for you if you're here before Amalie. I
can't promise real coffee and pastries will survive beyond five minutes of her
arrival."
"It's four-thirty in the morning, Mas.
If you know what's good for you, you'll make sure at least one dirty chai and croissant remain unmolested."
"I'll see you soon." He was
laughing as he hung up the phone.
Three hours ago, I’d practically crawled
through the doorway, exhausted from cleaning up after a newbie vamp who’d
broken the Jus Sanguinis Intergentes when she killed her donor. The blood pact
between people and vampires had a clear ‘no killing, no exceptions’ clause.
It was up to the maker to ensure their
child was ready to feed unsupervised. If something went wrong and the Council
found out about it, we cleaned up the mess and the sire was subject to heavy
fines and possible revocation of their rights to expand their blood lines.
She’d been quite literally a bitch to track and take down.
It had been a long night and it was shaping
up to be an even longer day.
I wasted little time getting dressed,
opting for a slip-on black jersey dress, eighteen hole Docs and a leather
jacket. Jewelry was a hindrance in my line of work. My meeting with Mason could
easily turn into a run. Choked with my own chain? No, thank you. Unclasping the
necklace, I set it in a glass dish on my bathroom counter. I ran a brush
through my hair, a toothbrush over my teeth and slipped into the Between. I
stepped out of the alley two buildings down from the station and walked the
last block and a half.
Amalie was swarmed by detectives trying to
get at the goodies she brought over from the Daily Grind. She greeted me with a
warm smile, shaking her head when I offered to pull her out of the fray. She
had managed to endear herself to the entire department in record time. All it
took was real coffee and fresh pastries. I pointed to Mason's office. She'd make
her way over once the starving masses had their fill.
Mason was so engrossed in the file on his
desk he didn't hear me come in. He looked as tired as I felt - too many double
shifts. Despite an uptick in activity, SPTF was short-staffed due to budget cuts.
Without enough man power to staff the shifts properly, overtime was mandatory.
"Is that for me?" I pointed at
the to-go cup and white paper bag on his desk.
He finally looked up and gave me a smile
which lit up his whole face. "As promised."
I stole a quick kiss, grabbed the coffee
and croissant, and settled in the chair across from him. I took a long sip of
my latte, savoring the delicious mix of tea and espresso. "Man, I needed
this. Is that the case you're working on?"
"Yeah, we've got a real problem on our
hands."
"Don't we always." I tried to
peek at the file.
Mason closed the manila folder. "I'd
rather wait until everyone is here."
"Who else is coming besides
Amalie?" My curiosity was definitely peaked now. I reached across his
desk, hoping to grab the file.
"You look exhausted. Tell me about
your dream while we wait."
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.
"I see this for the obvious distraction it is.” Sighing, I rubbed my
temple. “However, I'm exhausted, too exhausted to argue. So I'll tell you.
Prepare to be confounded."
He listened intently as I filled him in on
the nightly visits from the weathered old woman who washed my clothes and
hauntingly called my name. I expected him to laugh and tell me it was just a
dream, that I had nothing to worry about.
I didn't expect him to look so stricken.
"Bean Nighe." He whispered the
name.
"You've heard of her?"
"Of course I've heard of her. How long
has she been coming to you?"
I stared at him curiously. "A few
weeks. Why?"
When I agreed to give this thing with Mason
a chance I also agreed to some conditions. No more flying solo, no more rash
decisions or rushing off to play the hero. We were a team, in everything. This
was just one of many setbacks.
"A few weeks and this is the first I'm
hearing of it?” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, obviously struggling
to control his temper. “We talked about this. No holding things back,
remember?"
"I thought it was just a dream.” I
shrugged. “Honestly, I didn't think it was a big deal."
"It was a big enough deal for you to
research it." Agitation rolled off him in waves.
"I got curious, did a little digging.
Until tonight, everything I found pointed to deep-seated family issues,
particularly with a mother figure. I've told you about my childhood, does that
dream analysis surprise you?"
His growl told me he wasn’t in the mood for
reasonable explanations. "When did you discover the true meaning of the
dream? How long have you known about the Bean Nighe?"
"Tonight. This morning. Before you
called me." I held up a hand to stop the tongue lashing I knew he wanted
to give me. "I would have told you. I got the impression on the phone
there were more pressing matters than my insomnia."
"Is this why you won't let me stay at
your place?” His gaze roamed over my face, searching. “Why you never stay at
mine?"
"Is that the real reason why you're so
upset?" I arched my brows. “Because we’re not having sleepovers?”
"I stayed at your lovely apartment the
first night we met."
I turned to watch Aidan glide into the room,
stopping behind my chair. Rolling my eyes, I snorted and muttered, “In the
closet.”
Mason's jaw twitched, but he didn't take
the bait. "Aidan."
"It's almost sunrise. Shouldn't you be
hunkered down for the day?" I sighed, wondering what he was doing here. I
was too tired to deal with Aidan and Mason and their combined testosterone.
~ * ~
About the Author:
I
was born and raised in the Baltimore Metropolitan area but my family is
originally from Rhode Island. I spent summers in New England with my
grandparents, which probably sparked my fascination with Salem, MA. I started
writing fictional stories and poems in middle school. In fact I had notebooks
and notebooks full of incomplete stories and poems. One of which I managed to
hold on to and is safely stashed in a box under my bed. When I was in seventh
grade I entered a poetry contest in the back of an Archie comic and won, after
that I was hooked on writing after that. Amazingly it took almost two decades
to find a voice for my snarky, ass kicking heroine Maurin Kincaide and complete
my first length novel. Meeting the love of your life and raising three amazing
children together must have caused a rift in time because I still can't believe
it's gone by so quickly. I'm fortunate to have a loving and supportive family
who don't mind sharing me with all the other people in my head.
Author Links:
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads
Hollowread's Blog
Hallowread’s Website
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Twitter
Website
Blog
Goodreads
Hollowread's Blog
Hallowread’s Website
tsū
Website
Other Books by Rachel Rawlings
Maurin Kincaide Series
The
Morrigna #1
Witch
Hunt #2
Wolfsbane
#3 Novella
Blood
Bath #4
Mistletoe
Meltdown #5 Short Story
Ill
Fated #6
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