We totally understand the notion of TRY BEFORE YOU BUY - so in the spirit of a test run, check out an exclusive excerpt from The Sign of the Serpent by Majanka Verstraete today before you grab your very own copy! And remember, though it can be read as a stand alone, The Sign of the Serpent is the second in the Adventures of Marisol Holmes Series, so if you love the sample, you may just wanna pick of A Study in Shifters too. Just in case! :)
Excerpt:
I wrapped my arms around myself as I stared at the dead bodies who had been living, breathing people seconds ago. I felt empty. Tears wouldn’t come. Something inside of me was shattered. All I could do was shake. And I was so cold, as if I was walking on the Antarctic.
While my human-self was shaken, the heat of my body had evaporated in seconds, and my jaguar-self roared in fury, the sound echoing through my mind. She sent me mental images of snapping Indra’s neck and mauling Mannix, my ex-lover-turned-nemesis, until he was nothing but a bloody mess.
“We have to sound the alarm.” Saldor backed out of the doorway, disappearing into the hallway as he rushed to the alarm button. Seconds later, the alarm blared from all around us, a Silent-Hill-like sound that went through marrow and bone.
I told him Indra was responsible, and true, she might have killed the Sigil Bearers, but the real mastermind behind all this was Mannix. Mannix, my ex-boyfriend, of sorts. Mannix, who had betrayed me by killing my cousin while trying to perform a messed-up ritual to summon a demon. Mannix, who had lured me into his trap once again by kidnapping one of my best friends, Roan Black. Mannix, who had forced me to choose between the lives of my mother and all the clan leaders, and that of my friend, Wyatt.
Ultimately, I had managed to save both my mother and Wyatt, but being forced to make this impossible choice had wrecked me. Still, what he had done afterward – or made Indra do – was arguably even worse.
A small army of Conclave agents stormed in, alarmed by the blaring sound shattering my eardrums. One of the agents, a girl with fiery red hair and a small posture, stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth opened in a wordless scream, and then she rushed past the dead Sigil Bearers, straight at me. Or more accurately, straight at Balthazar’s dead body.
“Uncle!” she cried out, her voice rising over the alarm. “Uncle!” She pushed me out of the way, and I flinched as I stepped back.
The girl grabbed Balthazar’s shoulders and shook him, trying to wake him from a sleep no one could ever wake from. Seeing the girl cry over the body of a person I used to hate, with more and more Conclave agents streaming in, made it all the more real. Indra had killed them all, and I should’ve stopped her when I had the chance. I should’ve figured out her plan before she wiped the Sigil Bearers out of existence.
“You did this.”
The words were sharp as a knife, and they came from the girl kneeling in front of Balthazar.
“Indra…” The sentence died on my tongue.
The girl shook her head, her eyes drowning in tears. “You should’ve stopped her.”
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