Banewolf Dark Siren Series Book Two by Eden Ashley Interview & Giveaway

Dark Siren Series

Book Two

Eden Ashley

Genre: paranormal romance, young adult

ISBN: 9780989963237

ASIN: B00GTT3RDI

Number of pages: 395

Word Count: 90,000

Cover Artist: Nathalia Suellen

Book Description:

New enemies are made.

New allies must be forged.

Kali is beginning to regain her memories. In doing so, she discovers old secrets and betrayals that threaten to unravel her present and shake the foundation for Rhane’s belief in her innocence. While her maturing abilities present unique challenges, a bigger problem arises when Kali learns her ex-boyfriend has made a misguided deal with the enemy in order to win her back—a decision that may ultimately cost him his humanity.

Keeping Kali safe has become a full time job for Rhane. And struggling to gain control of the immortal Banewolf isn’t making that task any easier. The power to eliminate the growing threat against Kali lies at Rhane’s fingertips, but using it means risking his friends to the insatiable blood lust of a monster. So Rhane is forced to forge a shaky alliance with creatures he has sworn to destroy. Despite these new allies, the danger pressing on their borders intensifies, culminating in a heartbreaking and shocking finale.

The strength of the bond between young and ancient lovers will be tested…and if Kali and Rhane are to survive, they must find a way to be unbreakable.

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Excerpt from Banewolf

I Want You to Remember…

After seeing the Cal who wasn’t Cal, Kali’s mind was far too harried to focus on class. Skipping the last block of the day, she went to the swimming pool and sat at the bottom for a long time. Her eyes were closed. Her body was motionless. The pressure of the water became a loving caress, helping to relax everything except her mind. Those anxious thoughts just wouldn’t let go. Even with all Rhane had revealed, the past remained hidden like it had never existed.

But you didn’t forget.

That was right. An entire lifetime…taken. And it wasn’t just her life with Rhane. Kali had lived well over a dozen lives in stolen human bodies. Yet she couldn’t remember a single one of them. Each of those little girls had been stripped from the arms of a family who loved them, only to be replaced by a soul-sucking, fire-setting siren. And for what reason? If Rhane knew, he wasn’t telling. Why won’t he talk to me? I’ve proven my trust.

Well, she amended the thought. I did push him away at first, but only for like fifteen minutes. Then Gabriel showed up and started ripping more of my life to pieces.

Kali took a breath and then another, but not with her lungs. Her skin absorbed oxygen from the water and exchanged it for carbon dioxide waste in her blood. The process didn’t come automatically. It took a lot of focus to make underwater breathing happen. In her two weeks on the lam, she’d discovered this new talent. And it had proven very useful, practically allowing her to live in the water. Holding her breath was certainly easier, but that came with time limits. After twenty minutes, she had to surface.

She was determined to master underwater breathing. Concentrating on the task left her brain severely limited in the number of other things it could worry about. And that was a plus.

Feeling the faintest tremble in the water, she opened her eyes. The lights were flickering. After a few cycles of an ebbing and surging glow, they went out completely. She tried not to panic in the darkness, expecting the underwater lighting to illuminate soon. But instead, there came a muted thud. All of the lights suddenly flooded the pool arena. And Kali screamed.

Bodies were everywhere. Hundreds of them littered the swimming pool floor. Parts of their skin were burned. Charred chunks broke apart from decaying flesh. Tentacles of black liquid snaked into the water. The body of a child rose up, a bloated mass set adrift in a nonexistent current. Kali stared into the film of the corpse’s dead eyes with absolute horror. Black hair floated around his head in a dark halo of death. Even with blanched, greying and puckered skin, Kali saw in the child a startling resemblance to Rhane. Bubbles spurted from her mouth as she screamed again.

She kicked hard, trying to get as far away from the corpse as fast as she could. When her back slammed into solid concrete, she turned to scramble up the pool wall. Fingers slipping on the wet ledge, she finally managed to pull herself out and flop onto her stomach. Trembling with a dozen more screams welled up inside, Kali shook with the effort of not releasing them.

Pushing to her feet, she looked down into the water, needing desperately to believe she was not going crazy. There were no dead people. There was no dead boy. The pool was empty.

#

Icy water pounded from the showerhead, streaming into her eyes as it washed the chlorine from her body. All Kali could see was the boy. His lifeless face floating before hers, dark and grey and distorted in death. It took both hands to smother her sobs. She couldn’t understand what was happening. Was it possible that the vision was a real memory like the nightmares of the horseman had been real memories?

The lights in the shower room flickered and went out just as they had in the pool auditorium. Her breath caught in her chest as she waited for what would happen next. She didn’t have to wait long.

“Kalista,” a male voice sighed into the darkness.

“Darkesong.”

This time the voice was closer. So close, she could feel the whisper against her skin. She knew it was the thing pretending to be Cal. Kali bit her lip. She was too frightened to scream. But screaming wouldn’t have helped anyway.

At first, his touch was light. Kali reacted, flinching away violently. Then “Cal” grabbed her. He was an irresistible force shoving her against the wet shower wall. His hard body pressed against hers. The heat from him completely dispelled the cold that fell around them.

Kali felt his face against her skin. His hot breath steamed next to her cheek.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

Strong fingers slipped around her throat, but their hold was gentle. The lights partially returned, and she could see him. Physically, everything was the same…except for the eyes. Gone was the shocking blue of Cal’s stormy stare. In its place were two red orbs that reflected abnormally in the dim light. She would have recognized those eyes anywhere.

“Gabriel.”

He nodded. His body still had her pinned. His right hand grasped her throat, while the other rested idly against the wall. She waited for him to say or do something, but he didn’t. Nothing happened. Open malice and rage emanated from Gabriel’s still form, but Kali wasn’t entirely sure those emotions were aimed at her.

She inhaled a shaky breath. The action squashed her breasts against his chest. “What did you do to Cal?”

Another unnerving smile slashed his face. “He’s still here.”

“What do you want?”

Pressing his nose into the curve of her neck, Gabriel inhaled a dramatic whiff of her scent. Trembling, Kali tried to push away, wedging her body painfully into the wall. When Gabriel’s left hand moved, she went rigid. But the hand never touched her. It hovered next to her head, holding a tiny yellow stone.

“I want to help you remember.”

The events that followed would remain a blur of varying shades of grey darkness for some time. When Kali came to, she was standing in the rain, completely drenched. Rhane stood in front of her, lips moving soundlessly as he shouted, the words swept away by an unforgiving wind. She had never seen his eyes so black or so deadly focused as he leveled a gun directly over her heart.

About the Author:

Cynic, realist, and hopeless romantic all rolled into one, Eden was born and raised in a small, sunny town in South Carolina, but thunderstorms have inspired her best ideas. There are few things she loves more than curling up with a good book and a cup of coffee on a rainy day, (except maybe chocolate cake. She loves cake.) often reading into the wee hours of morning when something really grabs her attention. She pretty much loves anything with supernatural elements, so writing paranormal romance and fantasy romance seems to be a natural fit.

Interview

Where are you from?

Though I call the capital home now, I’m originally from a small town in sunny South Carolina.

Tell us your latest news?

Two books from the series, Dark Siren and Banewolf, made Amazon’s Bestseller lists in their respective genres over the summer. I have a screenshot of Dark Siren sitting right between Twilight Eclipse and Beautiful Chaos. That was an exciting, surreal moment.

When and why did you begin writing?

A few years ago, I found short stories written in crayon by me from when I was a little kid. Apparently, my muse reared her strange head at very young age. I have always loved the written word and started making up stories as soon as I learned how to properly hold a pencil (or crayon).

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Um…last year? When I published my second book, Banewolf, I said okay, this is for real now.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I had this idea in my head that started as a daydream, and I just couldn’t get rid of it. Eventually, the idea kept growing and evolving until it became a full blown, four-part saga of a love transcending centuries of time.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I try to be descriptive but not wordy with my prose. I keep dialogue as realistic and as tight as possible, writing what would come naturally to the character if he/she were truly alive and placed in whatever situation they have found themselves in.

How did you come up with the title?

The title is the name of an immortal creature that takes center stage throughout the pages of Banewolf. That’s also his face on the cover.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

 This series really explores what truly makes a family and the bonds within them. When the strength of those bonds is tested, people are forced to make difficult choices that may not be for the greater good. I wanted to see where the characters would go if they couldn’t make the heroic choice, if they couldn’t make the sacrifices heroes typically make in order to save the world. How would the chips fall then?

How much of the book is realistic?

The story initially starts off really realistic in the first book with the fantasy world gradually building into a stronger presence through the progression of each book. In personal reading, I don’t like starting a book and then immediately getting slammed with alien terms and descriptions that must be learned in order to grasp the setting of the story, so I try not to do that in my own writing. I lean toward measured reveals and developments, using humor and action to balance out the pace. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have this formula quite perfected in Dark Siren, but Banewolf’s pace has been described as a true page turner by many readers. That’s really encouraging.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

No, not all. These stories are ripped straight from my extremely overactive imagination.

What books have most influenced your life most?

I tend to be a strictly fiction reader who doesn’t let the lovey, dovey happily ever after, rich tycoon or sexy werewolf/vampire alpha wet-dream-in-the-flesh stuff influence my real world. It would just lead to disappointment…or a trip to the nut house!

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

I think Ayn Rand’s stuff is awesome and would love to be able to reach that level of writing but that is a pipedream. I say that, but I really wouldn’t consider her a mentor. I wouldn’t consider any author a mentor. When it comes to writing, I like originality and prefer to think outside the box. That’s just my fiercely independent nature shining through.

What book are you reading now?

I am still working on The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Erin Duffy just released the novel Bond Girl that’s pretty high up on my ever growing to-read list. I used to try to read one work each from a traditionally published author and an indie author every month. I need to get back to doing that.

What are your current projects?

I am currently working on the fourth and final book of the Dark Siren series, Primed Son. It’s still in the brainstorming stages because I’ve temporarily converted from “pantster” to planner for the last book. I really, really, really don’t want to leave any loose ends.

What would you like my readers to know?

Banewolf is the second book in a four part series that begins with Dark Siren. If you’re someone who loves paranormal with your romance and doesn’t mind action, hot sex, strong suspense, or unexpected plot twists then make this series next on your to-read list. I think you’ll love it.

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Tour giveaway

4 Kindle editions of Banewolf and 4 $10 Amazon gift cards

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