Supernatural Central Short and Quick Interview
Author Jen Colly is stopping by today to answer our three favourite questions.Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.
Dulcina is a wild, willful, and completely uncontrollable woman. She's had a lot thrown at her in her short life. A demon attack, the loss of her parents. She stopped a man from killing her foster mother, helped raise her foster siblings, and saved her foster sister from a demon. Dulcina learned to live above ground and adapted seamlessly to the life of a Stalker, her focus on killing demons. Over a short amount of time she changed her views on demons, and was able to let go of her vengeance. And then I dump Jake in her lap. Not literally, but close enough. Dealing with a mission-focused former cop and Kentucky man is not something she was prepared for, nor would she want the heads up. Dulcina thrives on adventure and adrenaline, lives for the unexpected, and every moment spent with Jake chipped away at the armor she'd placed around her heart.
Do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
I do. I worked at Family Video when I was nineteen. VHS box covers fell off the shelf all the time when no one was in the store. The joke was always that it was the ghost. Covers falling off the shelf can be passed off as someone not putting them back right, but it was impossible to explain hearing children laughing when the store closed after midnight, or the sounds of multiple people running across the ceiling. We always heard these things in pairs, so we all knew something strange was happening. One night we sent a guy up into the ceiling to see who or what could possibly be running around. This guy was over six feet tall and his long legs could hardly stretch across from beam to beam. It was impossible for a human to run up there. One woman swears she saw an apparition on the way to the maintenance room. One morning I set an audit sheet under a game amray and walked away. I heard a clunk, came back, and found my audit sheet on the floor, but the amray still on the counter. So weird. While joking with another co-worker about the morning's ghostly activities, a customer mentioned that the Family Video had been built over the old county hospital. Eek. As the Monkee's sing...I'm a believer.
What titles are you working on now that you can tell us about?
Book 7 in The Cities Below series will be Jovan. Jovan doesn't like to cooperate, he does everything his way without remorse, and he's got a lot of explaining to do for the choices he's made. He's been wayward for far too long, and it's time he found focus, a cause worthy of his abilities. And if he plays his cards right...love.
Book 8 in the series. Well...it was supposed to be The Lost Angel. Gideon Basteen's book. Don't get me wrong, it will still happen, but there is a man screaming in my ear to be heard. He wants his turn, and he wants it now. He's been silenced so thoroughly I didn't know he existed until someone in book 7 shouted his name. The second I knew his name, I had his entire story. This man is so vocal and insistent, he may get his way.
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Excerpt 1:
Dulcina stepped over him and sat, back propped against the wall with legs bent over top of his outstretched legs. Yes, the space was cramped, but physical contact never bothered her, in any form.
Her home didn’t have room for a comfy chair or a breakfast table, so improvisation was a norm. She took the pizza box and set it down to her left, between them.
“Hungry...pet?” Dulcina asked, just barely avoiding the use of his name.
His eyes narrowed on her, then solidly corrected her. “Jake.”
She smiled. So persistent, this man. Dulcina pointed to the box. “It’s all I’ve got.”
“Not a fan of cold pizza,” he said, more of an easy statement than an objection.
“It isn’t exactly cold. Just not hot.” Dulcina shrugged. “Eat or starve. Your call.”
He grabbed a slice, took note of how she'd folded her slice, and did the same. They sat in silence, which gave her time to watch him from the corner of her eye. When he'd finished his slice, he scanned the room thoughtfully, then seeming resolved, grabbed another slice. What had he been looking for? Perhaps a refrigerator. Interesting. He'd rather eat what he didn't care for than waste food.
He was an observant thing. Practical. Another sliver of begrudging respect surfaced, and Dulcina forced herself to admit this man wasn't nearly as irritating as she'd first assumed. Other than the fact that he needed tending.
Dulcina settled a little deeper into her position against the wall, intending to shut off her brain until this show ended. Futile. Every little movement Jake made drew her attention. He glanced at the last slice in the box. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him, practically able to see the war in his mind. Some imagined obligation not to waste food battled with the reality of him being stuffed full, and she could see the signs. Leaning back, he stifled a belch. Why torture himself with more food? Must be a human thing.
Folding the lid on the box closed, she leaned over his legs and tossed it onto the floor. When his questioning gaze met hers, she simply said, “You keep eating and I won't be able to lift your ass at all.”
A grin flashed across his face, and he nodded, unwilling to fight her over something he didn't truly want in the first place. Crossing her arms over her chest, Dulcina stared at the television, avoiding his dashing smile and the things it did to her libido.
For several moments the sound of the TV filled the space between them, and then Jake reached over a rather short distance, and grabbed her foot. Stunned by his impulsive behavior, she met his gaze, subduing the hot flash of wariness at the contact. All he did was grin again.
The heat of his palms wrapping around her chilled foot was a shock to her system, and after the astonishment wore off, she tugged her foot, but the grip of his right hand was far more tenacious than she'd expected. If she'd so desired, she could have easily freed herself from his grip, but she curbed her more violent responses, well aware she could injure him further.
“What are you doing? Let go,” she snapped.
“I haven’t been doing anything for days. I’m finally feeling good enough to move, but I can’t without hurting, and it sucks,” Jake grumbled, flinching slightly as his facial expressions tugged on the scabbed tissue on his lips, the bruises around his eyes. He calmed quickly, lowered his gaze to her foot, and slowly moved his thumb in a circle. “Doing nothing is making me stir crazy. I'm upright, and feeling mostly okay. Just let me have a focus, will ya?”
Dulcina’s jaw nearly dropped at his admission, not to mention the stern scolding. Not because they'd been the most direct words he’d spoken since she’d brought him home, and not at all because he was telling her flat out what he wanted from her, but because she shared those same sentiments. She went positively stir crazy without a focus. Every night. His words resonated with her, and his resolve sparked her interest.
What would he do then, if given free rein to do as he pleased? An experiment seemed in order. Dulcina released the tension in her leg, gave the full weight of it over to his hands.
Jake slowly drew her foot back onto his lap, the positioning more for the benefit of his bruised and cracked ribs than her comfort. Once she adjusted and settled, he pinned her with a ‘pay attention’ gaze and pointed to the TV. Directing her? Interesting. To what end?
Dulcina did as he asked, keeping a sharp eye on him in her peripheral vision. Once he seemed satisfied that she’d obeyed, he set to work on her foot. Jake didn’t watch the TV with her, and he wasn't keen on catching her reaction to his touch. Instead, he truly threw his entire focus into rubbing her foot from ankle to toe.
Sinfully thorough, this man. After he’d taken his time rubbing every inch of her foot with those distracting fingers and drawing bone-melting circles with his thumbs, he cupped his hands around her entire foot with a gentle, firm pressure. The contact was delicious, warming her in a way that had little to do with physical heat.
Jake tapped her shin, and when she looked up, a question on the tip of her tongue, she saw him pointing to the other foot. This was strange. All of it. A man she didn’t know was touching her, taking pains to see to her comfort, while he was still recovering from multiple injuries. This tender, selfless care was something done between mates.
Dulcina flinched. That thought was jarring.
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