Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series)

38



LIZ





Liz was incapable of moving. Strix’s body was motionless on the ground, the large staff the cherub once held, was planted in his chest.

He looks like someone went pole vaulting and he was the target…

Even after having witnessed the genocide in Vancouver, she had hoped the wicked creature would disintegrate and turn into ash. Knowing that thing had followed them from Canada was terrifying. At least if he burned up or turned into some kind of sticky vampire goo like in the movies, she would find it easier to sleep at night.

Liz realized she was in some weird state of shock. Braden was up and moving, his own body healing from the draugr attack. As he reached for her, she allowed him to take her into his arms.

“I love you so much, you crazy, crazy woman.”

“I felt you,” Liz whispered, looking into his face. Gone were the white eyes and fangs. Her sweet Braden was with her again, safe, breathing, healed Braden. A little on the pale side, but he was gaining color with each passing moment. “I could feel what was happening, that you couldn’t hold him off for long.” Standing on her tippy toes, she took his face into her hands and kissed him. First his chin, than his lips, ensuring everything was okay between them.

Braden gave her a searching look. “I’m sorry I scared you. It’s our bond. The whole time, I felt your strength, your love. It kept me focused and strong. I would do anything to keep you safe.”

“I know you love me,” she said and it was true. Maybe their attraction initially came about because they were destined to be together, but it had become so much more. Now that they had soul-bound, her heart was his forever, and she wouldn’t want it any other way. “Why? Why did Strix come all the way here to kill you?”

“I don’t know,” Braden answered, his heart pounding with hers. “When he had me pinned down, he was getting off on the violence, but it was the thrill of the hunt that drove him. It wasn’t just me that he came here for. Strix planned on destroying our family.”

“Did he say anything else?” Liz asked, afraid of what the answer might be. Riley’s face flashed through her mind. She didn’t want him to be gone forever.

He has to be okay.

Pressing his forehead against hers, so only their noses could touch, Braden breathed in her in and sighed deeply. “I think my brother is okay,” he said finally. “Strix had some kind of hope the two of them would eventually make some kind of killing team. But, he didn’t mention where Riley was.”

Tightening her hold on Braden’s waist, Liz just held him near. For now, it was enough. Eventually the two of them could decide what to tell the elders about Braden’s brother and come up with a plan to find him. For now, she just wanted to curl back up with Braden in his small bed and cherish how much she loved him. How thankful she was to have him and what a miracle it was that he was safe. They only had a moment to stand like that – arm in arm and face to face, before sounds from next door caught her attention.

Headlights graced the driveway. From across the yard, she could see Donovan, Patrick and Seamus breaking through the tree line as they ran in her direction.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what happened Lad?” Seamus asked, bending down to examine the corpse.

“Are you alright?” Donovan said at the same time.

“We’re fine,” Braden insisted.

As he stood tall before the elders, Liz felt proud of her fate-partner. Although she helped take Strix down, it was Braden that delivered the death blow and fought to keep the vampire from hurting his family.

Donovan patted Braden on the shoulder. “We were just out searching for Miss Ella when the boys called with Liz’s message. It seems Cian’s lassie was a tad resistant about passing it on until her friend, Master Theo, insisted she do so.”

“I’m just glad Fianna and Aileen were all over with your wife looking in on Ruby. If any of them ventured out, Strix would have slain them,” Braden replied.

Climbing out of their cars, Lexie and Torin were followed by a nervous and ready to fight Teagan and Cian. The damphyrs only slowed when they saw the elders standing amid the ruins of what was once Seamus and Fianna’s award quality backyard. The fountain was in ruins and the grass was dug up. Even patio furniture was splintered and in heaps. Most of it occurring before Liz plowed into Strix with her old, dump of a car.

As Braden filled his cousins in on Strix’s unexpected arrival, Liz reached out for Lexie and gave her dearest friend a hug.

“Are you alright?” Lexie said. Just hearing her voice and Liz knew she had been crying.

“I’m fine.”

“I knew it was bad when your message said for me to stay behind, but I couldn’t. I would die if anything happened to you.”

“Nothing happened to me. I knew Braden was in trouble and I had to go. I thought he might need help from Torin and the others, but he did okay.”

Stepping back from her friend, Liz examined Lexie carefully. From the red tint of her eyes and the puffiness of her lids, she knew something else had Lexie crying. “You didn’t find her, did you?”

“No,” her lips quivered, “but I found this at the house.” Handing over a small piece of paper, Liz looked down at Ella’s bubbly scroll. As she read the words, she could feel her heart sink further in her chest.

“Everything okay,” Braden asked, looking directly at her.

Shaking her head no, Liz didn’t bother explaining. Braden could feel what her words couldn’t say.

Ella was gone.

According to the note, the teen was with Nicolai, and she didn’t plan on ever coming back.





Soul Kissed

An Erris Coven Novel: Book 3
Coming Early 2013





Find Me

A contemporary YA romance





Coming Early 2013



Fate Fixed

An Erris Coven Novel: Book 1



When Lexie Anderson’s mother suddenly announces she is marrying a Romanian immigrant, Lexie willingly leaves behind her busy life in Connecticut for her penance in “The Moose Capital of the World.” Small town living is strange enough, now Lexie must cope with her overbearing stepfamily monitoring her every move. They disappear into the woods at night and keep a strange secret locked in their shed. Her once calm mother is now having violent outbursts and Lexie’s little sister is hearing sinister sounds coming from the forest behind their new home. Lexie’s biggest surprise comes when she discovers the boy she has been dreaming about since her accident is living in Maine. Despite Torin’s questionable reputation, Lexie cannot resist the physical and emotional attraction pulsating between them. Animals and people in town are turning up dead and Lexie learns the strange new world she lives in has real life monsters. Just when she decides she wants to be with Torin forever, she must fight to protect her mother and sister from being harmed by a formidable evil.


Body of Ash

In the rolling hills of Litchfield County, Connecticut, Brian Jones has everything: an elegant home, a respectable wife and a well-mannered daughter. His position as sole preacher in an affluent church affords him a comfortable income and a tantalizing mistress. Canaan is the ultimate “promised land,” far from his abusive childhood in rural Georgia, but even Brian must learn hidden secrets have consequences. Brian’s 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, may look like she has it all, but feels invisible at home. When Rachel learns her parents are sending her to boarding school, she packs a bag and climbs out her window. Hiding in a nearby city, the last thing she expects is to end up alone on the streets. While her mother, Angela, searches to find her, Rachel begins questioning her religious background, discovering redemption in an unlikely place. Katie Finch is tired: tired of being hungry, tired of going without, and tired of being alone. Ever since her parents divorced, she starves in her father’s absence, skipping school and experimenting with boys and drugs in search of relief. Her mother’s latest fixation is a married evangelical preacher, but Katie isn’t convinced Pastor Jones is the salvation her family needs. What makes it worse is Brian’s daughter is none other than Katie’s ex best friend. Once Marge’s binge drinking and irrational behavior leads to physical abuse and plans for murder, Katie is powerless to stop her mother from destroying what’s left of their strained relationship. After a wild obsession results in death, both teens are forced to evaluate who they are compared to how the world sees them. Finding comfort in their shared pain, Rachel and Katie learn to forgive the past while discovering there is both beauty and heartbreak in growing up.

If you love The Erris Coven Series, you may also like

Something of a Kind by Miranda Wheeler



As a 17-year-old artist, Alyson Glass had her future mapped – she’d go to art school, study in Paris, and eventually make enough bank to support her single mother. The trouble is, things don’t always go as planned – especially a sneak attack of stage-four ovarian cancer. Suddenly motherless and court-ordered to move in with her estranged father, Aly’s forced to leave behind her New York hometown for the oddities of Alaska. Ashland seems like cruel and unusual punishment – at least until her dad ditches her at a local restaurant and she crashes into a super-hot, guitar-playing diner-boy with a horrific home life. Noah Locklear is used to waiting – waiting for his shift to end, waiting until his drunkard parents go to bed, and waiting for the day he can get his sister away from their dysfunctional family. The summer before senior year, the elusive researchers that ruthlessly pry into Ashland’s history shatter a final cord with Noah’s abusive father, one of the town’s elders. Unfortunately, as far as his parents are concerned, the new girl who’s changing everything belongs to the outsiders. With their relationship increasingly forbidden, the struggle of knowing who to trust reveals that nothing is what it seems. As Aly encourages Noah to investigate the legends he’d always written off as stories, they uncover the one thing their fathers can agree on: there’s something in the woods





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


BONNIE ERINA WHEELER is a lifelong resident of New England and University of Connecticut student.

Having grown up in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Bonnie discovered her love of writing early on, but did not begin writing novels until May 2011. The daughter of author, Glen William Ruane, storytelling and world building is a family affair. Bonnie’s daughter, Miranda E. L. Wheeler and son, Robert D. Wheeler, share in the family’s passion and have both published in the last twelve months.

When not in class or working on her next novel, Bonnie enjoys spending time with her husband, Jerry Wheeler. Together the two have been writing their own special love story since marrying in April of 1995. Their children Miranda, Justin, and Bobby give them great joy. Their family is made complete with the addition of Petey, a Spanish water dog they adopted form their local pound.

Bonnie’s plans for the future include writing more novels in the Erris Coven Series, as well as, several contemporary young adult novels that have been in development for some time.