Jocelynn Drake is the author of the New York Times Bestselling Dark Days series, with the final book, Burn the Night, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, June 28. For this guest blog to celebrate summer, she is providing a small original snippet featuring the two main characters from the Dark Days series, Mira and Danaus, taking a look at Mira’s least favorite day of the year.
Jiggling his keys absently in his hand, Danaus walked up the front steps to the town house and unlocked the door. He paused at the security keypad near the door as he was shutting it and noticed that the alarm had already been turned off. A swift check with his own powers confirmed what he had already guessed; Mira was up and about for the night. He and Mira had been living together in her town house for a couple of months and it was still taking some adjustment on both their parts. While he had lived with the members of Themis at the Compound for a couple of centuries, this was still vastly different and far more intimate, but not necessarily in a bad way.
Standing at the foot of the stairs with his hand on the banister, Danaus scanned the house once again and was surprised to find that Mira was in the basement. Once she rose for the night, she turned off the security alarm and then went to the top floor for a shower and a change of clothes before heading into her office. She almost never returned to the basement unless she was going to bed for the day. Frowning, Danaus completed one last check to make sure that no one else was in the house before he pocketed his keys and descended the stairs leading to the basement.
Mira was pacing the living area, weaving her way around chairs and the sofa. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she chewed on her bottom lip, lost in thought. Danaus paused at the bottom step, watching her.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded, silently coming toward her.
Mira’s head snapped up, surprised that she hadn’t heard his approach. She forced a smile on her lips and dropped her arms back down to her sides. “Nothing. Everything’s fine. What are you doing here? I thought you said you had to work tonight.”
Danaus’s brow furrowed slightly as he watched her. “Knox closed the place. I’ve got the night off.”
“Oh, that’s right. Full moon,” she murmured, turning back to her pacing. The Dark Room, where Danaus worked as a bouncer and bartender, catered to both the nightwalkers and lycanthropes of Savannah, but when the moon was full, the lycanthropes were absent as they retreated to a nearby stretch of woods so they could shift in peace.
“Knox has never closed on any other full moon,” Danaus countered. “Besides, when the moon is full, it’s the one night of the month that is popular among the nightwalkers. Are you honestly going to tell me that the American nightwalkers actually celebrate Fourth of July?”
Mira flinched at the question, scowling at Danaus over her shoulder. “Hardly,” she said with a snort.
“So, nightwalkers aren’t particularly patriotic.”
“It’s not that,” she snapped as she turned on heel to face him. “The nightwalkers in the United States were mostly American when they were turned. They still have a lot of patriotism and would prefer to celebrate the Fourth of July.”
“But…” Danaus prompted when she paused.
“But the night sky is filled with flaming balls of death!”
“The fireworks?” he asked, one side of his mouth crooking in a smirk.
“Yes, and don’t you dare laugh. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, nightwalkers aren’t exactly flame retardant. There are plenty of horrible things that could happen. A firework could go wild and strike someone. A house could get set on fire. Hell, after the firework explodes there’s a cascade of floating, burning ash that could fall on you. We don’t take chances. This is the one night of the year that you won’t catch a nightwalker outside.”
Danaus struggled to school his features in a vain attempt to suffocate the laughter that was bubbling to the surface, as he didn’t want to antagonize Mira much further. In all the centuries that he had hunted nightwalkers, he had never noticed that they were house-bound on the Fourth of July. Of course, he had spent very little time hunting nightwalkers within the U.S.
“What I don’t understand,” he started when he had his voice back under control, “is why you’re so upset.”
“All the reasons I just listed.”
Danaus couldn’t stop the little chuckle that escaped him as he finally stood before her. He reached for Mira, but she jerked out of his grasp and continued to glare at him. “Mira, love, you’re the Fire Starter. You’re the one person on earth who has nothing to fear from a little firework.”
“Nobody ever claimed that a phobia was rational,” she said tartly. “Besides, I’m not worried about just me. Nearly everyone I know is in danger tonight. Damn fireworks. What if something happens to Knox?”
Danaus captured her arms, holding her still when she would have started pacing again. “I’m sure this isn’t Knox’s first Fourth of July. He can take care of himself.”
“You’re an ass, you know that.”
Danaus just laughed as he bent down and dropped Mira over his shoulder. Despite her protests, he carried her into her dark, windowless bedroom and dropped her onto her bed with a bounce. As she was trying to right herself again, Danaus crawled onto the bed between her legs while placing his hands on either side of her head.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, staring up at him.
“I thought that since you’re obviously stuck in the basement for the night that we would start our own Fourth of July tradition,” he murmured as he lowered his head and nuzzled his neck. Mira relaxed against him, her hands going up to clasp the front of his polo shirt and pull it from where it had been tucked into his black slacks. “Just you and me. No fireworks.”
“No fireworks,” Mira repeated, running her hands along his chest under his shirt.
Danaus pulled slightly away from his love and stared down at her beautiful face. The earlier tension was gone and a smile toyed with her full lips. “Out of curiosity, if you hate the Fourth of July so much, what is your favorite holiday?”
“Halloween.”
Danaus threw his head back with a surprised laugh. “Halloween? With all those horrible costumes and people pretending to be vampires? I thought you’d be insulted.”
“Do you know how many drunken costume parties there are for Halloween? It’s like the city has lined up a freaking buffet. You almost never have to erase a memory because no one recognizes you in the costume and you just go with the flow of the alcohol. It’s wonderful.”
“Drunken costume parties?”
“And no fireworks.”
Danaus growled in the back of his throat as he wrapped his arms around Mira and rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. “I’ll show you fireworks!” he growled into her neck while Mira squirmed against him. Mira laughed, throwing her arms around his neck. She welcomed the fireworks that Danaus brought into her life. It was going to be a good summer.
The End
Win 1 of 2 SIGNED Copies of “Wait For Dusk”
To Enter:
Leave a comment about anything on the post above.
Extra Entries in The Comments WILL NOT COUNT!
INTERNATIONAL!
Extra Entries:
- +50 Write a Blog Post about the event
- +25 Add the event button to your blog {Grab the Button HERE}
- +10 Google Friend Connect Follower {Follow Publicly}
- +10 Networked Blogs Follower
- +10 Subscribe to The Blog by Email {Form near the top of the Right Sidebar}
- +7 Follow me on Twitter {@larissa_sarah}
- +5 “Like” Larissa's Life on Facebook
- +5 Be my friend on Goodreads
- +1 For spreading the word {+1 per link - Twitter, Facebook, etc – Please add links to the Form of the Giveaway you are entering}
- +1 Add all your entries! {including this one!}
Don’t Forget to Vote for the Theme for
My TOP 5 Sundays Post on the Poll at the left sidebar!
Check Out The OTHER BHSV GIVEAWAYS:
Check Out My Design Blog:
Great Anti-Piracy Badge Up for Grabs!
*Great Freebies Available!
&
Sign Up for…
Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you soon!
xoxo,
I enjoy this author a lot. I have only read the first two books of the series bit I enjoyed them immensely. This post was a great reminder in the goodness that I have to read!
Thanks for the great post .. I wish I could have continued reading the whole book :-) ! I don't know the series yet, so this is a great chance!
Wicked awesome giveaway!!! I have a few of these in my TBR pile; I can't wait to start this sereis!!!
Good reading ~ Escape by Fiction :)
Jocelyn Drake is an awesome writer. She has great humor in her books.
Thanks for the great giveaway.
Teresa K.
tcwgrlup41(at)yahoodotcom
Great excerpt. I can't believe I still haven't started this series, although I have the first three books.
Love this series, would love this latest (and last) book.
I have not seen these books before but I enjoyed reading the bit here. I shall have to put this series on my 'want' list!
irgl7(at)bonzo15(dot)plus(dot)com
Oh wow, I love this series and would enjoy winning this book. Thanks for the great giveaway!
LadyVampire2u AT gmail DOT com
I have two of these books on my shelf been meaning to read them but hadn't yet I think I just might need to really soon.
Love! Love! Love the comments! Thanks so much. Please, jump into this series. Mira and Danaus are wonderful fun. While the series is rather dark, I think the romantic tension between Mira and Danaus is great. It's a nice, slow burn. Thanks again for all your support!
I enjoyed the writing style of the snippet, but have not read the series and felt a little lost. It is on my wishlist and I thank you for hosing this event and the opportunity to win the giveaway.
Noo! The series is going to end :(
Love the teaser though. I guess Nightwalkers don't get out at New Years either..
I actually haven't read this series yet....but I plan too!
Looks good. Great interwiev.
Misha
misadevilgirl@seznam.cz
This series looks really good. Please enter me in contest. I would love to read it. Tore923@aol.com
Love this series!! Jocelynn is amazing!! And such a nice person! Met her at RT 10 and hope to see her at RT 12! Loved this series and can't wait for the finale! And her new series either!!! SQUEE!!! So excited!
I love you guys! Every time I see a new Event come up on GoodReads from you I immediately add it to my calendar & spread the word to my Club members. This was great with Jocelynn! I am a huge Jocelynn Drake fan & I love, love, love Dark Days. I am so saddened to see it coming to and end, but at the same time, can't wait to see what happens! molson0129(at)hotmail(dot)com
This sounds like a really interesting series. I haven't heard of it before, but now I have to add these to my tbr pile that just doesn't seem to get smaller hehe.
I haven't yet read this series, but I'd like to. Thanks for the chance!
These sound like really great books! I can't wait to read them! Great interview and awesome giveaway:)
jwitt33 at live dot com
Great excerpt! Thank you for posting!!! :D I haven't started this series yet, but now I can't wait. >_<
This is one of my favorite series. I had the pleasure of reading the first four books back to back last year, and man I was totally hooked.
Thanks for the chance to win your latest episode, Jocelynn.
caity_mack at yahoo dot com
*sigh* I love Danaus....
ironss [at] gmail [dot] com
Oh i've been wanting to read this one for a while now!
Great snippet! I'd love to read this series!
Just recently getting into paranormal. I've not tried any of Jocelynn's books before but it looks quite interesting. If I'm lucky enough to win (fingers crossed!) would I be lost reading what appears to be the 5th bk in the series?
I'd heard of this series but haven't started reading it. After that excerpt, I'd love to give it a try. It sounds like there is great chemistry between the two leads.
I have heard fantastic things about this author and she is already very high up on my TBR! This makes me even more want to move her up faster!
I would love to have a signed copy of this book :D
This series was the first series I ever bought on my eReader. Lurve it!
cool that you doing this give away
student(dot)caprino(at)gmail dot com
and rogcaprino dot hotmail dot com
Can't wait to read the new release after this tempting preview!
I love this series and can't believe its almost over.
This little short was great.
Great giveaway thank you so much I can't wait to read this book!
I read the first three books in this series and loved them!
awesome series! thank you
How can anyone resist the pull of Jocelyn Drake, she's a wonderful author, and a really neat lady as well.
lady.midnite@gmail.com
Fabulous scene...loved it!!! Thanks for the post.
I love fireworks...of all kinds. ;)
heatwave96(at)hotmail.com
Cool! ♥
Thank you so much for this giveaway!
Rathouska.jana@gmail.com
I enjoyed the except and I think I need to read more! :)
chibipooh(at)gmail(dot)com
I love how their relationship has progressed! From trying to kill each other to boinking like rabbits. And I loved getting inside Danaus' head in book 4. Can't wait to see how it all ends! ^^
Great blog post.
Thanks for making the giveaway international!
Love the chemistry between these two!
sionedkla@gmail.com
Oh wow, Thanks for the great giveaway!
rea0903@gmail.com
What great characters!
robindpdx (at) yahoo (dot) com
Wee, that cover is HOT! And thank you for the post - the books've just landed on my must-read list :P
mikki-mano@hotmail.com
This series looks awesome. I will definitely be playing catch up as soon as I can go to B&N for the first one next week. Thanks for the giveaway.
nayjf@yahoo.com
Vampires afraid of fireworks, that's hilarious :) Great post.
Thank you for the giveaway! Awesome contest!!
Nice excerpt! Thanks for the giveaway!
Kanya
kanyachhetATyahooDOTca
Oh, a sweet short story! Make me want to read about Mira and Danaus!
Thanks for the giveaway!
sawamura_foxman AT yahoo DOT com
Loved the snippet! Really draws me into the story
Wonderful snippet and I love the idea of strong, tough Mira afraid of fireworks.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Loved the snippet! The series is on my tbr list, but still haven't gotten around to them...
So, thanks for the giveaway!
I loved the first books in the series. Can't wait to finish it!
Thanks a lot for the excerpt. I really enjoyed it and wanted to continue reading on :). This is on my wishlist.
pams00 @ aol.com