Crimson Midnight (A New Adult Dark Urban Fantasy Series) (The Crimson Series Book 1) (37 page)

SNEAK PREVIEW OF CRIMSON DARKNESS

PROLOGUE

November 1
^st
00
:08am:

Robert looked up at the sky. It
seemed really dark, darker than night normally was. He was sweating, and taking
a moment to gather himself before replacing yet more rails just outside London
Bridge Station.

He hated working weekends. His job
would be perfect if he didn’t have to work weekends. And if working a weekend
wasn’t bad enough, it had to be a night shift! That’s what you got working on
the railways in London; weekend engineering works.

I could murder a fag…

He felt the ground tremble a
little.

“Phil?”

His supervisor turned to face him.
“Yes, mate?”

“Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

The ground shook again.

“That.”

“What was that?” Phil frowned.

Robert noticed the lights of The
Shard, the tall glass tower, flicker and then glanced down at the ground; it
was vibrating.

Some of the other men had stopped
work too; they were glancing about, looking confused.

“Phil…”

“We’re getting off here and getting
some people to come and have a look. I don’t know what this is but we’ll stop
till we get it checked out. Come on, Rob.”

The rails bent, screeched, and
popped off their sleepers, lifting from the ground and falling back with a loud
clang.

“Get off the tracks!”

Robert didn’t need telling twice.
No one did. He moved quickly, avoiding each rail that broke free. A bolt struck
his head and he stumbled.

“Shit!”
He fell to his knees, blood streaming from his forehead and trickling down his
face.

Phil spun round. “Rob! You all
right, mate?”

Before Robert could answer, a rail
burst upward from behind Phil and impaled him through his stomach. Blood and
shredded entrails spilled to the ground. Phil’s eyes went wide. Blood spewed
from his mouth. And then the top half of Phil’s body fell forward and hit the
ground with a horrible crunch.

Robert screamed and gagged and threw
up all over himself.

There was a cracking sound, a
strong deep vibration beneath him. The ground felt suddenly loose and unstable.
Before he could react, his body was in the air, hurtling towards The Shard.

Robert Green’s last thought was a
question - where were the stars? He died in flight. His heart gave out as he
flew through the air at record speed, gaining height. Being spared the impact
was a blessing. He struck The Shard in an explosion of pink and red. Part of
the glass surface of the building fractured and cracked. Pieces rained free,
plummeting to the ground in a killing descent.

November 1
^st
0:15am:

“Man, you look fucking hot in that
outfit,” Sean breathed huskily into her neck.  Sarah squirmed against him
partly in pleasure and partly in discomfort.  The bricks in the wall were
digging in to her back.  Sean’s lips found the pulse at the base of her throat
and he licked and nipped his way up her neck, across her jaw-line, finally
stopping to claim her mouth in a hungry kiss.  Sarah forgot all about the wall
and gave herself up to the moment. 

His hands were hot and demanding,
tugging at her mini-skirt until it was bunched up around her waist.

“Wait.” Her breath was short and
shallow. She could feel how wet she was; the sheer fabric of her knickers was
stuck to her sex. “Maybe we should go back to the hotel.” She rubbed herself
against his hand, moaning in pleasure as he pushed her knickers aside, his
fingers finding her clit.  “Oh, Sean! Oh, God! Don’t stop!” She whimpered in
pleasure. 

“Fuck, Sarah. You’re so fucking
wet.  I want to taste you.” And then he was slipping down her body, his hands
gripping her waist, his lips planting fiery kisses across her hips, her pubic
bone.

She tensed in anticipation.

His tongue lapped at her, sending
fiery impulses flashing through her body, her back arched against the wall as
his mouth claimed her and he sucked hungrily. She was close, so close…

She threw her head back and watched
the moon through slitted eyes.  “Oh. My. God.” The orgasm ripped through her
with a ferocious intensity that knocked the breath from her lungs. 

And then the moon went out.

Something scrambled in the dark to
their left.  “Sean, what was that?” Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she
looked down on him. The pounding of her heart was now due to fear more than
extreme pleasure.  A primal part of her was urging her to flee but the rational
part held her steady.  “Sean?” She shook him, pulling his lips from her skin.

“What?”  Sean looked up, his
usually bright blue eyes consumed by shadow, his lips glistening with her
juices.  It was suddenly too dark to see. The moonlight was gone, and the only
illumination filtered weakly from a street lamp outside the alley on the other
side of the road. She felt suddenly claustrophobic. She wriggled. She wanted to
get out of here, back to the hotel.

“Sean, we should go.” Her voice
quivered.

“In a minute.” Sean reached up to
caress her breast but his hand never made it because something leapt out of the
darkness and ripped it away. 

Sarah choked on a scream as Sean
was suddenly swallowed by darkness.  She stood braced against the wall, her
skirt around her waist, her fingers digging into the brick work, legs trembling
with fear.

 “Sean?” she whispered, her eyes
scanning the almost absolute dark.  When had it gotten so quiet?

Something caressed her leg, licking
its way up her calf.  She stood paralysed by fear, tears of impotence trickling
down her cheeks. 
Move, dammit! Move!
Her legs refused to obey and she
could do nothing but watch in horror as a lizard-like creature wound its way up
her thigh.  It stopped when it reached her crotch and raised its head, dull
obsidian eyes stared up at her and its head split open to reveal row upon row
of razor-sharp teeth.  It whipped back its head and latched on, and the scream
locked inside her throat finally found release.

November 1
^st
00
:20am:

Everything was dark, so fucking
dark!

Everyone was running, pushing,
shoving. She couldn’t see anything, her head was spinning. Damn those
cocktails!

Something shrieked, there was a
sharp pain in her side, and then she was on her back. She waited for the feet
to trample her but they didn’t. Instead, sharp things scraped her cheeks, hot
inhuman breath toxic to her senses. She didn’t cry out, didn’t scream. She was
numb. Instead she laughed. It was all too funny, too bloody messed up. Damn
cocktails! She’d had too many. Piss head! Go on, have another Sex on the Beach.
Or was that have another Shag on the Beach? Ha! She wished! Bloody John and his
wandering eye, or should that be his wandering Third Eye? She’d got him good
though, real good. And that made her happy.

The smile didn’t leave her face
even as half of it was torn away.

Want
more Crimson? Then click below to purchase your copy of CRIMSON DARKNESS, the
thrilling second book in the Crimson series.

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About the Author

Amos Cassidy is the pen name for Richard Amos and Debbie
Cassidy. Amos is a 31 year old Diva and Cassidy a 38 year old mother of three;
well, four if you include the husband. A common love of all things Joss Whedon,
Urban Fantasy, and a tug of war over Jensen Ackles, brought them together, and
one cold February afternoon, over nibbles and coffee, their partnership was
born.

You can find Cassidy hard at work in her fortress of solitude
which has eaten up the majority of her garden, and Amos...well he's still
trying to get the invisibility gizmo he got off a friendly alien in exchange
for a pair of earphones to work. Funnily enough, he hasn't been seen around
much lately...

Frequent doses of sugary snacks, coupled with regular
injections of caffeine, aid in their production of a unique brand of
cross-genre tales. They are always writing, but are happy to take a break to
chat to their wonderful readers, so drop them a line at amoscassidy.com, or
just pop over to see what they're working on and they'll bust out the biscuit
tin.

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