Please welcome Jill to The Mystique!
Jill comes with us today with her book Dangerous Shift AND a giveaway!
So leave those comments to win a copy of her e-book here today!
Also enter the tour wide contest below to win:
2 print copies at end of tour
1 $25 Amazon gift card at end of tour
Dangerous Shift
By Jill James
By Jill James
Genre: paranormal romantic suspense
ISBN: 9781476499673
ASIN: B008RDPN72
Number of pages: 222
Word Count: 76,000
Cover Artist: Elaina Lee, For The Muse
Designs
Book Description:
HE IS MR. BY-THE-BOOK, WITH A SECRET...
Shapeshifters live among us but remain
unknown to most people except for the highest echelons of law enforcement, the
military, science, and medical fields—until now.
SHE IS A LOOSE CANNON WITH AN ATTITUDE
PROBLEM...
When a fatal virus strikes Shapeshifters
all over the West coast, including members of the Shapeshifter Task Force in
San Laura, California, reinforcements are called in from around the United
States.
TOGETHER, THEY JUST MIGHT CATCH A KILLER
Lt. Nikki Hill of Missouri comes to San
Laura and is partnered up with Lt. Sean Evans. They quickly butt heads on
everything from proper police procedures to the moral ethics of euthanasia.
They can’t seem to get a lead on the serial killer even as members of their own
families are stricken with the virus. In their grief they turn to each other
and hope they have time to discover if their relationship stands a chance or if
they might just be the next victims of the species extinction disease.
Excerpt
Prologue
Fort
San Laura Army Base
San
Laura, California
May
2017
Sean
Evans turned away as tears rolled down his ex-partner Colin Rodriguez’s face.
The man sat by his fiancée’s bedside, her hand clasped in his, waiting for her
to die. The sound of boot heels echoed up and down the hospital corridor. All
marched past the closed door, none brave enough to stop at this room.
Sean
stared at the dying woman. Paulette’s red hair was the only color in the
monochrome-toned hospital room. Colin’s hand shook as he brushed the hair back
from Paulette’s sweaty face. The virus wreaked havoc on the young woman.
Sean
swallowed bile rising in his throat as the young Shapeshifter in the bed
screamed. Her flesh boiled, roiling beneath the surface, and she screamed again.
Her back arched off the bed. For months now, the Shapeshifter Task Force had
been working to track down the cause of the virus and it struck close to home,
killing two of their own. First, his own partner, Barry, and now, Paulette.
Her
fingers turned into talons that dug into Colin’s hand. Blood dripped from the
cuts onto the crisp, white sheet. Colin held her hand; the only sign of his
pain was the grimace on his tanned face.
Sean
rubbed his burning eyes, surprised to find tears on his own cheeks. He scrubbed
the wetness away and raked his fingers through his hair. His tears wouldn’t
help Paulette or Colin. Nothing could help them now. His hands clenched into
fists at his side. He ached to punch a wall, anything to kill the tension in
the room.
A
scream built in his throat. Just last week he had sat here, forced to watch the
young man, new to the task force, breathe his last. He stared into the ceiling
lights, his eyes watered with the brightness. He repeated his personal mantra
of calm and cool until his emotions mellowed, until they no longer threatened
to overwhelm him.
He
turned his head back as Paulette’s screams died down to whimpers. She had lost
all control of her shifting. She grew fur and it disappeared. Her head changed
shape as she shifted into a canine form, then a feline form, then back to her
own. Her limbs flopped against the mattress as she convulsed. The shifting now
happened every few seconds.
Colin
threw himself across her body as if he could stop the tragedy from its
conclusion.
“Noooo.”
His voice ricocheted across the room and down the hall.
Sean
rushed to his best friend’s side and ripped him up off of the dying Shifter. No
one had discovered yet how the virus was transmitted. They didn’t need masks
and gloves anymore, not in the last several months at least, but no one wanted
to find out what full-body contact might do.
Colin
struggled against Sean’s hold. Tears blurred Sean’s vision as Paulette
struggled to breathe, and Colin’s cries became anguished sobs. His shoulders
shook under Sean’s hands.
The
monitor blared as Sean searched Paulette for any life signs and found none. Her
chest didn’t move. She was gone. Just like Barry. Just like all the other
Shifters in the past few months.
Sean
turned away as Paulette’s flesh jellified and sank into the mattress, only a
slight bump under the covers to show a living being had been there.
Colin’s
anguish pierced his soul, and when Colin threw himself across the bed
again. Sean didn’t bother to stop
him. What did it matter when his friend
had just lost his partner and the love of his life?
The
sounds of harsh breaths and sobs still echoed in Sean’s ears when the door
opened and the Captain of the Task Force rushed in. Sean turned to the man and
shook his head.
Captain
Connors motioned for Sean to talk to him outside. Sean shot a quick look to
Colin and followed the captain outside to the hallway.
“Lieutenant
Evans, with Robertson’s death today, added to the others, the task force is low
on numbers. We will need to send word to the other task forces and ask for
reinforcements.”
Sean’s
hands formed into fists at his side. The human captain made no bones about his
dislike of Shapeshifters, but Paulette’s body wasn’t even cold yet and he
drudged up business decisions.
He
took deep breaths and relaxed his hands. As the Lead Lieutenant in the task
force, business took priority. Even over death.
“Will
you send a request to the Southwest office in Las Vegas?” Their own task force
office covered the Northwest—Northern California, part of Nevada, and all of Oregon,
Washington state, and Idaho.
The
captain shook his head. “A few cases have been reported in Los Angeles. We
can’t risk it. I’ll request someone from the Midwest. No cases have been
reported yet out there. There is a small task force in Columbia, Missouri, an
hour outside St. Louis.”
Author Bio:
Jill James didn’t start out wanting to be
an author. Along the way she wanted to be an astronaut, President of the United
States, a lawyer, and a doctor. Once married with children she realized she
could be all those things in the pages of the stories she wrote.
She lives in Northern California with her
husband, who is the inspiration for all her romance novel heroes.
5 comments:
Thank you for dropping by! A very wonderful tour to you!! And good luck to all those who enter!
Great post thank you for sharing :)
Mila, thank you for having me on your blog. Very lovely.
Loretta, thank you. Good luck in the drawing.
Thank you for the post and giveaway. I love paranormals and am always eager to find new to me atuhors.
June, thank you for stopping by and visiting. I love paranormals too!
Post a Comment