Monday, December 1, 2014

Guest Blog and Giveaway with Aoife Marie Sheridan



HUNTERS PLAYLIST

1. Another Love By Tom Odell

2. Seven Nation Army By White Stripes

3. Swedish House Mafia

4.Watchtower Delvin Feat - Ed Sheeran

5. Clown by Emeli Sande

6.Runaway By Linkin Park

7. In the End By Linkin Park


8. Talk By Kodaline


Hunters – Taken From Chapter Four – Memories (Abigail)


***
That night, I dreamt of before.
My mother had been always sad. That’s how I remembered her. I didn’t have one memory or a photo of my mum happy. My memories start from the age of four, people say it’s not possible, but I have them and my mum has been always sick. I remember sitting on the stairs and the doctors talking to my father. I wasn’t sure at the time what they were discussing, but later I learned it was because my mother wasn’t getting better.
Dad had to work, there was no two ways about it so mom took care of us. The first day, my dad was worried when he left me and my brother, who was only three at the time, in my mother’s hands. That first day, I was five. I stayed in my room and kept my brother with me, playing a tea party with Mr. Bear and Diana, my rag doll. Hunger was one reason for leaving the room. I would pass the sitting room door where my mother sat, staring out the window. Her brown eyes darted to me, freezing me to the spot. I was afraid to move, but I didn’t know why.  I just felt afraid of her. I would make a peanut butter sandwich for myself and some Ready brek for Sam; I had seen dad make it before so I was careful. It took me a while as I pulled the chair around the kitchen, reaching the presses and the microwave. I turned to go back upstairs, but my mother blocked the door. I stood still, hoping she wouldn’t see me.
She was always so quiet, but on this day, she spoke, “If your dad thinks that I don’t mind you and Sam, he will send you away and you’ll never see us again.”
She knelt down, taking the food from my hands and placing it on the floor. Her face softened and she hugged me. I didn’t hug her back. She cried, saying she was sorry for everything. She pulled back and handed me my food and returned to her seat in the sitting room. I raced up to Sam. His food was cold, but he ate it. He was quiet for a child, well, I realized later on that three year olds are not always as good. We would play up there for the rest of the day until Dad got home from work. I would race into his arms and hug him tightly, knowing everything would be okay.
“Did you have fun with your mum, today?” Dad asked.
 I thought of what mommy had said to me; I didn’t want to go away from Daddy or Sam. So I nodded, smiled and went back to playing with Mr. Bear. This became our routine for the next month.
Memories flashed through my mind, snippets of talking to Sam, playing games, saying goodbye as Dad left for work and greeting him when he got home. My mother’s empty eyes, and then the memories stopped, slowing down to another one.
“Sam, I’m going to the toilet, you stay here with Mr. Bear.”
 Sam nodded and continued to pour tea for us all. I closed the bedroom door behind me so he would stay in. He was too small to reach the handle. I raced down to the bathroom. The door was open. My mother was lying on the white tile floor. The tiles were red. She looked so white and the knife Daddy always told us not to touch lay in her hand. I noticed that her arm was cut real badly. I didn’t run to her or cry as I was too afraid of what stood in the corner of the bathroom.
A dark figure, like a big man, with a cloak over him stared down at my mum. He scared me. My breath came out in small puffs of cold air. I could see the water that dripped from the tap was frozen solid, held in midair. I looked back at the man, frost was starting to grow on his cloak. He wasn’t the bad man that was always around Mommy. He was different, but still he felt wrong.
 I ran back to Sam and closed the door, pulling him into the corner of the room. It was getting so cold that our breaths were visible in front of us. Sam started to cry, but I pulled him beside me while crossing my legs so I wouldn’t pee, but it was so cold and it took Daddy a long time to get home and I didn’t want to go into the bathroom where mommy and the man were.
I could hear my daddy’s scream before he burst into the room, gathering me and Sam in his arms. He was crying. I had never seen daddy cry before.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I wet myself,” I said.
 My dress was ruined. I loved this dress. It made me feel like a princess.
“Did you go into the bathroom?” Dad asked, his voice sounded scared, maybe he’d seen the bad man, but then I remembered all the times he said that it wasn’t real, and that I shouldn’t make up stories, so I didn’t say anything about the man. I didn’t want daddy to lock me in my room again.
“Mommy’s hurt and she was near the toilet I couldn’t go”
He held me tightly and, at the moment, I thought everything would be okay, but I was so wrong.
***


Hunters
Book One
Aoife Marie Sheridan

Genre: Paranormal, Romance

ISBN: 9781495430725

Word Count: 62,000

Cover Artist: Airicka’s Mystical  Creations

Book Description:

Abigail is nineteen, her job she hunts demons.

Her life so far has been tough, having witnessed her family’s death and her mother’s suicide she’s taken in by a priest, who believes her when she says she sees ghosts. Father Peter trains her as a demon hunter with three other members, one being Daniel, who isn’t what he seems.

But when a possession goes wrong, and ghosts start to attack Abigail, the tight rope she had on her emotions soon starts to loosen.

Abigail draws the unwanted attention of the Vatican, and she finds out a lot more then she was willing to learn.

Knowledge is power, but for Abigail it’s her undoing, and the only thing keeping her together is Daniel.



Available at Amazon


Prologue



I sat outside her apartment like I did every night, keeping an eye on her door.

Watching.

Waiting.

 I knew the day would come and I wanted to be ready. One thing I knew, he would never take her from me, he would have to get through me first. A small smile crept over my face, how I would love to tear him apart. I growled, feeling frustrated; he was one of the main threats now and I needed to eliminate him. I pushed off the wall, pulling my black hoodia closer to my eyes, a few people were around, but none paying attention to me, they were too transfixed on their own wants; a syringe giving them a pass on reality, or an encounter with a female making the sounds of pleasure heighten. I pushed all the noises aside and focused. She was moving around, her angry footsteps hitting the wooden floor in her bathroom. The water turned on, my body came alive, the want for her was too much at times and I growled for a second time.

“You okay, Man?” a junky asked from a few feet away from me, I didn’t give him an answer, just threw him a look to silence his talk. I couldn’t understand why she lived here. Maybe the chaos made her feel more normal, but that was something she would never be. A hiss made my head jerk up and then her intake of breath. My hands balled into fists, I wanted to go to her and take the razor from her hand, but I couldn’t, she would hate it if I knew.  It was her own release, I didn’t understand it fully, but it made her focus on the pain instead of the real problem. A cold breeze made me study the door that led into the apartment buildings more closely; it wasn’t just cold it was ice cold.

“Nicolas!” I whispered and moved across the thirty paces that stood between her door and me in a second. I didn’t care if anyone saw, they were too far gone to understand, they would assume it was their drugged up minds seeing things. The air in my lungs now was freezing; I could feel him coming. I felt the excitement bubble inside me, a fire raged through my veins as he materialized before me. I didn’t give him a moment, but pulled the sword from the air and swung for his neck, he was quick; ducking and coming up with his own sword, they met with a loud clang.

“Daniel, great to see you.” his hard face was set like stone, his black eyes wanting blood, not mine but hers. I let the anger boil and withdrew my sword, striking his with all my force, it met its target and he stumbled back, but he regained his footing quickly. Allowing him to come at me with his body weight behind his swing, I dodged to the side in a blur and arched my sword, swinging for his back, but it met the metal of his own sword.

“Have we been practicing?” I asked in a mocking tone while taking another swing.

“Maybe you just lost your touch,” he spat back and struck my sword, metal struck metal and small pieces of ice flew towards me, I moved but a few struck my left arm, piercing me like small pieces of glass. I ignored the pain and gave him a sneer.

“Playing dirty, are we?” I asked, letting the fire heat my blade until it grew red.

“You never play nice, Daniel.” Nicolas face radiated the hate he has for me, and I returned it, letting my sword burn before I took a swipe, knowing he would block it. So I did what he wouldn’t expect, I slide towards him on the partially frozen ground and passed his legs in a blur, cutting below his knee before flipping up and swinging my sword at his back, it sliced into his flesh and he roared in pain, falling to his knees. I raised my sword, aiming for his neck, it swung high into the air, the red flame lighting up the sky, but before it made contact, he disappeared. I stood there for a moment, my blood still boiling with adrenaline. However, it fizzled and the pain in my arm came alive.  Rain started to pour, and I let my sword dissolve along with my anger. He wouldn’t be coming back tonight and I needed to rest and heal. My phone buzzed as I moved away from the door.

“Daniel,” Father Peter’s voice filled my ear.

“Yeah, you got a job for me?” I asked, pulling the hoodie over my face again as I walked deeper into the shadows.

“It’s a possession; I don’t want her doing it alone.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pick her up, I’m in the area anyway.”

I could hear him sigh with relief; he cared about her more than I had believed at the start. I was about to hang up when he spoke again.

“Thank you, Daniel. I’ll ring her now.”

“Okay, No problem.” I said before ending the call. I hadn’t gone far before the heavy rain stopped. A freak shower.  I took off at the speed of light to change and get my bike, before I picked her up, she would be pissed, I smiled. She was always pissed.



About the Author:

Aoife Marie Sheridan has loved reading from a very young age, starting off with mills and boon's books, given to by her grandmother her love for romances grew, by the age of 14 she had read hundreds of them. 

Aoife had a passion for writing poetry or in her eyes her journal entries. It was something she did throughout her teens and into her twenties. Aoife won first place for two of her poems and had them published at a young age of just nineteen. Realising she needed to get a real job (What writing isn't) she studied accountancy and qualified working in that field for many years, until her passion for reading returned and she found Maria V Snyder. Poison study one of her favourite books has been read and re-read countless times.

Aoife's first book Eden Forest (Part one of the Saskia Trilogy) came to be after a dream of a man and woman on a black horse jumping through a wall of fire and the idea of Saskia was born. Now with her first novel published and taking first place for Eden Forest with Writers Got Talent 2013, Aoife continues to write tales of fantasy and is currently working on her third book for the Saskia Trilogy amongst other new works.



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