Trouble in a small town
My latest novel, Immortal Revenge, takes place in present day in a town called Mishawaka. It’s not too small, perhaps half the size of Indianapolis. Maybe. It’s a real town located in Northern Indiana, not too far from Chicago and South Bend. I selected the town for its location. Okay, and I like saying the name.
Katie Dillinger, my
protagonist, lives in Mishawaka with her immortal lover, Kyle. She works as a
bartender at the Tasmanian Devil with her best friend, Jules. The story opens
with Katie discovering Kyle’s headless body burning and the house she'd lived
in is in flames. She’s devastated. But grief turns to anger. She’s not sure who
or how someone managed to find Kyle, but she suspects the murderer was from The
Order of the Legacy, a group Kyle had been hiding from for many decades. Katie
realizes her challenges are steep since the person who destroyed Kyle is a
vampire. Regardless, she intends to destroy the person and she has very little
time to accomplish her goal. The person who exterminated him will stick around in
Mishawaka long enough to ensure all traces of Kyle’s existence are gone, then
the murderer will disappear.
Katie is human and realizes
she can’t destroy a vampire on her own. She contacts Kyle’s close friend,
Riker. Immediately she notices Riker is nothing like Kyle. She has difficulty
getting along with Riker, but he shares information with her. A prophecy. She
doesn’t believe him, but she acknowledges the clues. Meanwhile, Katie also
acquires the help of a police officer friend and her boss at the Devil to track
down Kyle’s killer. Lives are lost as Katie's goal is not easily accomplished.
Although there is a happy ending, Katie believes others will come. Yes, more
trouble will arrive in Mishawaka.
But you’ll
have to wait and find out.
If you're looking for a book with action,
mystery, suspense and humor (is that enough?), I invite you to read Immortal
Revenge. Discover the trouble brewing in Mishawaka.
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By Mary Abshire
Genre: Urban fantasy
Pages: 288
Isbn: 9781616504939
Blurb
Grief
stricken Katie Dillinger is on a mission to claim revenge for the death of her
lover. In a race against time to find the murderer, Katie reaches out to Riker,
a man listed as her boyfriend’s emergency contact. The cold-hearted man comes
to Katie’s aid, but she doesn’t completely trust him. To keep her friends safe,
she insists they leave town immediately. But her efforts come too late. A
friend disappears and a clear message is left in the wake: surrender or more
people will die.
Excerpt
Ravenous
flames devoured the headless body pinned to the makeshift cross in the front yard.
Katie stared, frozen in shock as she sat in her car. Chills shot down her
spine. Her gut instinct told her the body burning was her boyfriend, her lover
for the last nine years.
Smoke drifted
into the car from the vents. One breath triggered bile to rise in her throat.
She shoved the door open and bent. Her dinner came out in a mad gush, flying
onto the driveway. Tears streamed down her cheeks while her stomach muscles
tightened. More of the disgusting fluid rocketed up to her mouth. Pain and
heartache overwhelmed her mind, body and soul. He was gone. Forever. He’d said
the word countless times over the years. The meaning of the word never hit
home, until now.
Sirens
screamed through the night, moving closer by the second. The irritating sound
intensified the deep throb in her head. She vomited again, unable to control
the spasms. Through the thick smoke, she smelled gasoline. Oh God, they’d
poured it on him to make sure he couldn’t survive. As if decapitation wasn’t
enough.
Bright lights
flashed in the darkness as they headed toward her. She’d stopped in the middle
of the long driveway, not far from the burning cross holding her lover. Two
police cruisers rushed from the road and came to a stop behind her car. Large
fire engines blaring their horns passed them and her vehicle. They drove by so
fast her vehicle swayed slightly.
“Katie?”
Officer Hildebrand asked. She recognized his voice from having served him
drinks at the bar every Friday night when he was off duty. “Katie, are you all
right?”
She wiped her
mouth with the back of her hand as she watched him jog toward her. He passed
her and stopped a few feet in front of her car.
“Holy mother
of…” He directed his gaze to the burning cross. “Is that a body?”
Another
violent spasm hit her stomach. Teeth clenched and lips tight together, she held
the urge to barf again, but she couldn’t stop the flood of tears pouring from
her eyes.
“Ben, would
you stop looking at it and help her out,” Officer Charles Donahue said, walking
toward them. His deep smoker’s voice identified him anywhere.
“Katie!”
Officer Hildebrand blurted out as if he’d forgotten about her. He rushed toward
her and stopped short where her dinner lay on the ground. “Are you all right?
Did someone hurt you?”
Unable to
speak, she shook her head. Grief stabbed her in the heart. Why? How? Who?
Something such as this shouldn’t have happened.
Officer
Donahue stopped a few feet to the side of her door and took off his hat. His
white hair gleamed thanks to the bright flames. He stared at the sight on the
front yard. “My God.”
Officer Ben
reached across the circle of puke and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you
injured? Do you need medical attention?”
She shook her
head again as more tears ran from her eyes. Gone. Kyle was gone. How could this
happen? The question repeated in her mind.
“Ben, why
don’t you drive her back to the station?” Officer Charles said. “I’ll take her
car and meet you back there in a few minutes.” He placed his hat back on his
head and straightened it.
“Katie, would
you like to come with me?” Ben asked softly, as if he were a parent speaking to
a young child.
Katie
straightened her tense body. From the gap between the car door and the front
windshield, she stared at Kyle’s farmhouse. Large flames leaped toward the sky
and consumed the structure. Firemen carrying long hoses ran toward her home,
but kept a distance. Clearly they couldn’t save it. God, so many memories. So
much passionate love shared. So much laughter and happiness occurred within the
walls.
“Come on,”
Ben said, wrapping his fingers around her arm.
She grabbed
her purse sitting in the passenger seat. Leaving the keys in the ignition and
the car running, she slowly rose and avoided the disgusting mess on the ground.
Ben kept his
hand on her arm while he escorted her toward his vehicle. She walked with her
head up and as much poise as she could gather, but her heart ached fiercely.
More tears escaped her eyes. Everything she owned and ever cared about was
gone. She had nowhere to go.
Ben helped
her into the passenger side of the police cruiser, opening the door and closing
it once she was situated inside. Katie’s lip quivered as she stared ahead at
the bright flames devouring the home she’d known for the last eight years and
the one man on earth she’d loved. He was invincible, a fighter to the end. He
was strong, smart, experienced, a teacher and lover at heart. He was also
immortal.
About the
Author
Mary lives in Indiana and is a lifetime lover of
the paranormal, sci-fi, and fantasy. When she's not slaving away at her
government job, she is a Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Author. She
creates fantastical worlds with vampires, demons, werewolves, and other
supernatural creatures. Dive into her books and find action, a dash of mystery,
and seductive men with passionate hearts.
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