A Wild Hunt: an Aether Vitalis Novella by Mercy Loomis

Author:Mercy Loomis
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: madison, vampires, shapeshifter, paranormal romance, halloween, paranormal, ley line, fantasy, aether vitalis, pookha, dark urban fantasy, psychic, skinshifter, vampire, romance, faerie, gabriel chapel, urban fantasy, wisconsin, fairies, faery, dark fantasy, mage, fae, summoning, faeries, fairy, urban dark fantasy, adventure
Publisher: Mercy Loomis
Published: 2011-10-17T13:31:22.523869+00:00

THE END

Read on for a preview of Scent and Shadow, an Aether Vitalis novel set in Madison in 1999.

Chapter 1 (Scent and Shadow Sneak Preview)

Madison, Wisconsin

Friday, May 14th, 1999

The itch burned in the base of his skull, dangerously strong, as Gabriel Chapel watched his prey through the haze of cigarette smoke.

She sat at the bar with her back to him, her face in shadowed profile as she talked to her two friends. Gabriel had no trouble finding her scent amidst the smells of smoke and sweat and beer that permeated the place; the absence of his scent-mark on her was a provocation he found increasingly difficult to ignore. He stifled the need to get up, to go to her. It had been hard to wait, but he wanted her undivided attention when the time came, needed to keep the disruption to her schedule as unobtrusive as possible.

She wasn’t smiling tonight. She was jittery, playing with her drink, shifting in her seat, sensing his scrutiny as she’d begun to do over the last couple of weeks. Gabriel reached out with a psychic caress, the thought brushing over her defenses like a breath of wind against closed shutters, and noted with satisfaction the shiver she couldn’t quite suppress.

Her searching gaze slid harmlessly past him, foiled by the low-level psychic broadcast he was projecting. Look elsewhere, that insidious mental whisper said. You never even saw me. His prey was just as susceptible as any other human, and yet, as she passed over him there was a hesitation that hadn’t been there before.

He leaned forward, watching her, his lips curling upward just at the corners.

She was learning him already and he hadn’t even started.

* * * *

Amanda Bairnes found herself scanning the faces around her—again—and wondered who she was looking for.

The bar was packed with University of Wisconsin-Madison students celebrating the end of finals, just as she and Brandy and James were doing. Normally, Amanda liked the press of people, the odd mix of camaraderie and anonymity that was part and parcel of State Street on a Friday evening, but tonight she couldn’t shake the itching between her shoulder blades, the hint of a breath on the back of her neck.

“You know, I thought once the Business Law exam was out of the way I’d stop feeling so paranoid,” she commented to Brandy.

“I told you your professor wasn’t out to get you specifically.” Brandy poked at the sunken cherry of her brandy old-fashioned, the tiny black straw too small to be used for much besides fishing out muddled fruit. “Have another drink, you’ll feel better.”

Amanda shook her head, the very thought making her shoulders hunch defensively. Her gut said she needed her wits about her, and she trusted her instincts. Even if my instincts have been saying the same damn thing for the last week or more. “I have to work tomorrow.”

“At noon.” James leaned over the bar so he could see her around Brandy, just to make sure Amanda couldn’t miss the eyeroll. “It’s not like you have to drive home.

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