Author: Margaret L. Carter
A Favorite Autumn Treat: Chili
Featured Book: Sealing the Dark Portal
Blurb:
Almost nothing Rina remembers about her life is true. Rather than an ordinary librarian, she is a sorceress who fled from another world to ours when creatures from an alien dimension devastated her home and killed her family. Now they have pursued her to our world, summoned by a sorcerer who plans to open a portal and invite monstrous entities from the void between dimensions to overrun this planet. Rina’s former bodyguard, a cat shapeshifter who was once her lover and still yearns for her, helps her true memories to awaken. She must come to terms with the truth about her past so that together they can save their new home from the fate of their old one.
Excerpt:
No! I can’t watch this again, not now. Make it stop! She couldn’t stand to see her family crushed to death when she wasn’t even dreaming. She unclenched her fingers and pried them off the pendant, forcing her eyes open at the same time.
As soon as she released the jewel, the scene blurred and dissolved. She saw nothing except her bedroom. Gulping deep breaths, she clasped her hands in her lap. Where had that vision come from? She couldn’t convince herself she’d been under the influence of a hypothetical drug this time, not after spending all day in the house alone.
Just as she unfolded her cramped legs and stood, leaning on the dresser, the blank wall between dresser and bookcase shimmered. She blinked. Eyestrain? Another hallucination after all? Something glittered under the off-white paint. Dozens or scores of things, rather. They floated up through the paint and skittered on the surface of the wall.
A whimper escaped her. Crystal spiders crawled in random circles over the horizontal surface. She backed up. Now they looked three-dimensional rather than flat. Their legs clacked like ice-coated branches rattling in a winter storm. Thank goodness, they didn’t seem able to jump off the wall and attack her.
Then they started chittering in shrill voices that babbled words she couldn’t understand. She backed up and sagged onto the bed, her hands scrabbling at the quilted comforter.
“Go away,” she whispered. “Leave me alone.” The glittering dance of their myriad legs made her eyes burn.
The unintelligible sounds changed to words. A hundred high-pitched voices spoke together but not quite in sync, making her strain to decipher them.
“Give me the necklace. Give it to me, and you will be left alone.”
“What?” She covered the pendant with one hand.
“That is all I want. My messengers will tell you where to deliver it. Then you will be left in peace.”
The cacophony pained her ears. Through the pounding in her head, she could form only one coherent thought. Nobody would take her mother’s necklace from her. “No way. You can’t have it. Get away from me.”
The chittering rose to a pitch that twanged in her skull. She lifted both hands, palms out, and screamed, “Go away!”
Blinding light radiated in a golden sphere around her. She closed her eyes against the starburst. When she opened them and blinked away clusters of gray spots, the spiders were gone. She pulled herself upright, staggered across the room, and rubbed the wall. It felt like smooth plaster. Again she couldn’t find any trace of whatever had assailed her.
Either the crystal spiders had invaded her house and spoken to her, or she was losing her mind. She wasn’t ready to believe she’d gone crazy. So for the moment she would act as if a real entity she didn’t understand was threatening her.
Purchase Links:
http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1990-Sealing-The-Dark-Portal.aspx
http://tinyurl.com/SealingtheDarkPortal
Author Bio
Margaret L. Carter specializes in vampires, having been marked for life by reading DRACULA at the age of twelve. Her vampire novel DARK CHANGELING won an Eppie Award in the horror category in 2000. Other creatures she writes about include werewolves, dragons, ghosts, and Lovecraftian entities with tentacles. In addition to her horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance fiction, she has had several nonfiction books and articles published on vampires in literature. Her stories have appeared in anthologies such as Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “Sword and Sorceress” volumes. With her husband, retired Navy Captain Leslie Roy Carter, she has collaborated on a sword-and-sorcery trilogy, beginning with WILD SORCERESS. Her recent works include LEGACY OF MAGIC (a prequel to the trilogy), PASSION IN THE BLOOD (a vampire romance), “Bear Hugs” (an erotic romance shapeshifter novella), SEALING THE DARK PORTAL (a paranormal romance with Lovecraftian elements), and “Crossing the Border” (horror erotic romance novella).
Links:
Carter’s Crypt: http://www.margaretlcarter.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Margaret-L-Carter/212888768731562
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