Healing Portals (The Universe Chronicles Book 5) Paranormal Romance by Claire Davon ➱ New Book Release with Rafflecopter
At the critical moment of danger, will their talent save them?
Or will they lose it all in a fiery cataclysm that dooms their hearts—and their lives?
Healing Portals
The Universe Chronicles Book 5
by Claire Davon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
When
Katrina Paul is summoned to rescue an agent in the middle of the
night, she does so without hesitation. The last thing she expects is
her old flame Derek to come tumbling through her hasty portal. She’d
left Toronto—and Derek—behind when she’d relocated to Richmond
for good reason.
If
not for Katrina’s ability, healing talent Derek Forester would have
been trapped in a mission gone wrong. He hadn’t expected to see
Katrina again, but he had never forgotten the way she made him feel.
He’d done the right thing, but seeing her again made him question
the wisdom of that choice.
Almost
as soon as he arrives, mysterious entities begin plaguing them.
Someone is trying to keep them together and engineered his rescue to
Richmond. It has the touch of the mysterious new entity Whisper, but
why?
Soon
they are on the run, keeping one step ahead from energy beings that
find them no matter where they go. When a crisis triggers a new,
hidden talent between them, it becomes clear that this entire
situation has been a setup. Right from the beginning.
As
the truth about their power begins to emerge, Katrina realizes that
she’s never stopped loving Derek. But when they learn that
everything they understood about their past and their present is
false, they wonder if anything between them is real.
At
the critical moment of danger, will their talent save them? Or will
they lose it all in a fiery cataclysm that dooms their hearts—and
their lives?
**Find out about the rest of the series here!**
HEALING
PORTALS - Excerpts
Excerpt #1
Derek caught
Hannah raising her eyebrows, focusing her attention on his jeans pocket. He
took out a slip of paper that read “Roberto Bagnoli. Middle management at Night
Stars, though he thinks he’s higher than that. Quillan’s fiancée’s uncle. The
guy with him is muscle. I’m not sure of his name.”
Nice. Hannah must
have tucked that there when she froze time and checked out the new arrivals. He
hadn’t even seen her move. Then again, that was the point of a chrono talent.
Katrina checked her cell phone and glanced at Hannah.
Roberto stood over
their table. The muscle who came in with him whispered something that had the
occupant at the next table taking his plate and retreating to the counter.
Roberto sat at the next table without waiting for it to be cleared, his
attention still on Quillan. The head of Universe picked up his fork and began
eating his breakfast burrito without conceding the man’s stare.
“This is the guy,
eh? The one who stirred up things this morning.” Roberto said the words with a
dismissive wave.
Derek shot Quillan
a glance, but his new boss made no comment. “You say that like I had a choice.”
He nodded to Roberto. Still Quillan did nothing. “I’m Derek.”
He flipped the
paper over and read “shadow talent” and nodded at Hannah.
“Do you have a
last name, Derek?”
Quillan’s beard
twitched.
“I do.” Derek let
the words stay there, also lapsing into silence.
Quillan cleared
his throat. “This is Derek Forester. News travels fast.”
“It’s been hours
since he ‘arrived’ here,” Roberto said with that same sneer on his face.
“Plenty of time for me to find out what I needed to.”
“Lucinda let you
off the leash?”
Both Katrina and
Derek glanced at Quillan while Roberto glowered. “Local Night Stars head.
Roberto works for her.” Quillan stopped talking and took a bite of his burrito
while Roberto sputtered. The muscle still said nothing, but that was the job of
an enforcer—to be intimidating.
Derek was not
intimidated.
“I came to
introduce myself,” Roberto said, the waver in his voice lending the lie little
credence.
“You were sent to
figure out what happened. Wouldn’t
you like to learn the details?” Quillan stared Roberto down, his face hard.
Hannah’s
too-friendly voice broke into the tableau. “The boss here doesn’t like Roberto,
and it’s well deserved. He tried to kidnap Quillan’s fiancée when she decided
she didn’t want to be a part of Night Stars anymore and defected to Universe.
Roberto, and Night Stars, made it difficult.”
Roberto waved a
hand over the table. The waiter came over to say something, but Roberto did
something and the man froze. Perhaps he had more command over shadows than
Derek had assumed. Derek couldn’t be sure. Nor did he care. Shadows couldn’t
hurt him.
Humanity did
enough of that.
Excerpt #2
The old growth
trees stood tall, casting shadows over the houses and street. Katrina frowned,
trying to make sense of the image. All was normal, in her mind—for a few
seconds.
Then she
understood what Derek meant. Those shadows moved
with urgency and not just as
random flickers of light. Derek remained rooted to the spot, staring at the
area he had pointed to. It had to be a trick of the imagination, or a branch
shifting that she wasn’t aware of.
“That’s what you
mean?” She backed up, watching as Derek took one forward. “Derek, don’t.”
“The spaces
between the trees are moving.”
“Yes. What we’re
seeing can’t be shadows—only talents like Jiana can see them. If this was them,
we wouldn’t see what was happening. This is something else.”
The branches of
the oak in the next yard rustled, covering the street in myriad shapes. Katrina
might have detected a groaning, but could also have been the wind.
She hoped.
“Get inside,
Katrina.” Derek took a second step forward, focusing on the tree. Was it her
imagination or were malign dark spots creeping toward them?
“Bullshit to that,
Derek. Not unless you have a second power that is a lot more interesting than
healing.”
The thing
slid closer. She imagined rustling, like someone speaking just below her
ability to hear it. She shivered, the hairs on her forearms rising.
“Nope. Just the
one. I can handle this. Go inside.”
“Screw that. We
stay and fight, or run like hell, but whichever it is, we do it together. This
was waiting for us. Which means it’s someone who knows we are Universe.”
“All the more
reason to remain where we are. We can’t show fear.”
While his words
held a certain logic, Katrina couldn’t help but think a flaw was buried in
there somewhere. This had all the hallmarks of a trap. With them in the middle.
“None of this is
logical. We’re not shadow manipulators. These spaces should be invisible to us.
Something isn’t right here. I don’t trust what’s happening.”
He glanced from
the dappled movement to her. “Do you have intuition, then?”
“Nothing but good
old street sense. When a wrong thing is in front of me, I take action.”
“Gotcha. What do
you recommend?” He returned to where she was and they watched as the thing
continued to advance.
Then, from behind
them, a sound started from their shared porch. The howling sent prickles
dancing up her spine in a primal fear that made her long to bolt. She was a
Universe operative, and didn’t act on the instinct.
“Derek?”
“I hear it,” he
said without taking his gaze off the thing moving in their direction. “Man , Katrina, holy crap.”
When she pivoted,
a new shape was visible on the property, one that hadn’t been there when she
collected the mail that morning. The thing was ethereal, with the house visible
behind it, reminding her of the way shades and spirits were portrayed in media.
“What is it?”
She swallowed,
fear dancing across her senses, and darting over her skin. She tried to pick
out features but all she could make out was a form drifting across the porch.
Katrina had never believed in ghosts, but something was approaching them.
“A ghost,” she
said, aware of how crazy that sounded. During this middle of the day much of
the area was quiet. Still, certain neighbors worked from home, or didn’t work
at all, and dogwalkers were always around. The main street was two blocks over.
Someone should be on the street besides them. Yet all was still, like the
things accosting them had put a damper over the area.
“I don’t believe
in that kind of afterlife.”
“Neither do I,”
she said. Unease filled her in a rising wave until all she wanted to do was
scream. “I think my second plan is the best one. Let’s get out of Dodge.” An
additional shade or spirit hovered by their car, cutting off that line of
escape.
“Maybe you’re
right.” He turned to the shadow, which had separated from the tree and was
floating in the air, wafting their direction.
She couldn’t be
sure, but a form might have been in the distance, one that had substance. The
idea that an agent, whoever he or she was, was manipulating these things gave
Katrina the backbone she needed. If they were part of someone’s power, they
couldn’t be real.
Excerpt #3
She shouldn’t kiss
him. It could lead to trouble.
His lips were cool
and dry, bringing the chill of the night air with them before they warmed. For
long seconds all he did was slide his mouth across hers. Friction and a delicious
anticipation curled through her body. Katrina let out a low sound and put her
hand on his head, holding him to her. Derek groaned and opened his mouth,
pressing his tongue inside her. She gave him the pent-up passion soaring
through her. She shifted, meeting his tongue with her desire, tangling them
together. She swayed and Derek collected her in his arms. They were still
seated, their legs crossed, and she groaned in frustration.
“Come. Let’s get
comfortable.”
Katrina swallowed,
aware of their close proximity and the fact that the two of them were alone in
the tent. It would be natural, given their past and her obvious desire, to
think that she would sleep with him. She couldn’t make the same mistake a
second time.
“Derek . . .”
“Just kissing. That’s
all. You and I are getting acquainted again. I am dying to kiss you, Katrina.
I’ll go as far, or as little, as you tell me. It’s not right to start something
with you when I’m not sure where this is going. If we do wind up horizontal, it
has to mean something.”
For a man with no
sensitive abilities, he was pretty damned intuitive.
“That’s what I
need too, Derek,” she admitted, and was glad she could give voice to her
attraction.
“Good. Can I come
in?”
She tried to
laugh, but passion tangled within her and it came out as a soft moan. “I’d like
that.”
“Me too.” He
opened the sleeping bag. She slid in with him and he folded it around them. His
body heat was intoxicating, his warmth and the bag making her cocooned and
secure.
The sensation was
the best thing she’d experienced in a long time.
Derek brushed her
hair back from her face and kissed her forehead before placing a kiss to her
eyelid and lower, across her nose before feathering a second kiss on her lips.
Katrina turned her face to his and asked for more without speaking words. He
was quick to oblige, pressing into the small of her back. Katrina wished she
could abandon all restraint and give in to what her instincts were screaming
for, but she’d done that once and it hadn’t ended well. She had to be smart
this time.
Desire raced
through her. After several heated caresses she gave a regretful sigh and moved
back from him. Her breasts were heavy with need and longing suffused her core
but Katrina still stopped.
He pressed one
more kiss to her forehead before adjusting their bodies so she was lying half
on top of him. Then he put one arm around her waist and the second on her
shoulders. She sprawled over him, sleep already taking her.
“Time for rest,”
he said in a strangled tone. “Thank you, Katrina.”
“For what?” Her
mind was starting to drift.
“For letting me
kiss you. For not holding our past against me. Get some sleep. We’ll figure
things out in the morning.
Claire can’t remember a time when writing wasn’t part of her life. Growing up, she used to write stories with her friends. As a teenager she started out reading fantasy and science fiction, but her diet quickly changed to romance and happily-ever-after’s. A native of Massachusetts and cold weather, she left all that behind to move to the sun and fun of California, but has always lived no more than twenty miles from the ocean.
In college she studied acting with a minor in creative writing. In hindsight she should have flipped course studies. Before she was published, she sold books on eBay and discovered some of her favorite authors by sampling the goods, which was the perfect solution. Claire has many book-irons in the fire, most notably her urban fantasy series, The Elementals’ Challenge series, but writes contemporary and shifter romances as well.
While she’s not a movie mogul or actor, she does work in the film industry with her office firmly situated in the 90210 district of Hollywood. Prone to breaking out into song, she is quick on feet and just as quick with snappy dialogue. In addition to writing she does animal rescue, reads, and goes to movies. She loves to hear from fans, so feel free to drop her a line.
Website * Facebook * FB Group * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Paperback of Shifting Auras (US only),
$10 Amazon (WW)
– 1 winner each!
This looks like a great novel!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds great.
ReplyDelete