Vacation Blog Tour Special Guest Tabitha Shay

WITCH’S MAGIC/BOOK FOUR BY TABITHA SHAY

Witches, werewolves, and vampiresan unprecedented alliance between the species.

Prince of Darkness: The realm of Vampyre is on the brink of a devastating war. In order to save his covens from total annihilation and claim his right to be king, Prince Valerian Radu must find a mate immediately and breed her. However, convincing the feisty witch, Shasta LaVeau, she’s First Bride material is a war in itself—Shasta has but one thought on her mind—drive a stake through his black heart!

Princess of Light: In Shasta’s opinion, the only good vampire is a staked vampire. Half-witch, half-werewolf, she leaves the borders of Ru-Noc to save her best friend, Princess Kali, from the evil fangs of Valerian, only to fall under the hypnotic spell of the sexy vampire.

Witch’s Magic—where four realms collide—and there can only be one winner!


Author’s note and excerpt:

Hi Everyone,

I’m so thrilled to be a part of Cindy’s Summer Blog Tour, but before we get started, let me take a moment to say a big “Thank You” to our hostess…

I’m frequently asked where I got the idea for my Winslow witches of Salem series and of course, like most all of my writing, I’m usually inspired by a song. In this case, it all began one morning when I was listening to an Eagles’ CD, and to the song, Witchy Woman…from there, my imagination took flight.

In the course of writing this series, my witches have done a lot of serious traveling. Saylym, from Witch’s Brew, book one, left London with the intention of moving to a small town called Sanctuary. Little did she know Sanctuary was a magical realm where witches, warlocks and many strange creatures dwelled—it was a journey with many surprises waiting for her.

Heather, from Witch’s Heart, book two, found it necessary to travel to Salem, Massachusetts in order to discover her roots and who she really was.

Kali, from Witch’s Moon, book three, crossed a continent and journeyed to Romania. Little did she know she was going to make this crossing, and that the unplanned trip was going to land her in a world of trouble.

Kirrah, from Witch’s Fire, book five spends a lot of time on her broom traveling around Sanctuary…if only she could manage to learn how to land the darn thing…

And that leads us to Shasta, from Witch’s Magic, book four, and the excerpt I’ve chosen to post today. Shasta is Kali’s best friend, and when she disappeared in Romania, Shasta decided a little action was necessary. Determined to save her friend, Shasta travels to Romania and yes, we know there’s only one way a witch travels long distance…Need I say she ends up requiring a bit of rescuing herself?

I hope you enjoy the excerpt.

Excerpt from Witch’s Magic—Book Four in the Winslow Witches of Salem series by Tabitha Shay:

Shasta paced the floor of her small room at Dracula’s Inn. She’d rented the room in Village Pyre the evening before. Anxious to see a bit of the village and track down her quarry, she’d explored the countryside earlier in the day.

She’d learned the lay of the land and located Valerian Radu’s castle at the edge of the Transylvanian border a few miles away. The castle lay to the south and at the base of the beautiful snowcapped Carpathian Mountains, a region frequently known as the Land of Vampyres, Land of Fangs, Handsome Bloodsuckers, and tragically, a land where young, beautiful females frequently vanished without a trace.

The Village Pyre region was too isolated for major authorities to investigate the disappearances. Even if they attempted, they, too, vanished without a trace. When she asked questions about Valerian, the locals crossed their hearts and warned her away from the castle.

A young male clerk at the desk had flirted shamelessly with her, but he’d been quite serious when he insisted she buy a cross, wear it and stay indoors after dark.

He explained that lately there had been a rash of attacks on young women. Most believed Prince Valerian was somehow involved with the strange happenings since he was the accepted ruler in the area.

Shasta didn’t know why they bothered with warnings. It was impossible to get inside the castle. There were so many wards around it, it was ridiculous. Ha! One might be justified in thinking the vampire feared a stake through the heart.

Well, there were wards around the outer walls, but she bet Prince Valerian hadn’t allowed for the fact someone might scale the castle wall. She was just the person to climb over it...come daylight.

Restless, she was ready for action, but the sun was going down. She wasn’t fool enough to go out in the cold and start hunting vampires in the dark. She’d end up the main course on the menu.

Shasta paused and eyed Pinky. “Is that a cross around your neck?”

Pinky flinched because anything pertaining to the mortal’s religion was so not their religion. Not that Weres or witches had anything against mortal beliefs, it just wasn’t the witch world’s way in believing, or the Were’s.

“Yes, Missy, although I’m not a religious pig, and I’m a magical creature, and oh, damn, the cross kind of burns, but Pinky afraid vampire might hurt him worse. Missy need wear a cross, too. Good juju magic.”

“What’s the matter with you? You know a witch or Were can’t wear a cross. We have our own religions. Mortals believe in one true God, nothing wrong with that. We all have a right to our beliefs, but witches and Weres believe in many gods, so we can’t wear a cross for just one. Why, I wouldn’t know which of the witch gods a single cross represented. It would only piss off all the other gods, anyway.” She paused, biting her lip. “Did you get a spare cross, Pinky?”

Pinky grinned. “I did, Missy.”

He dug in his pocket and pulled out the dainty cross with a delicate gold chain and held it out to her.

Shasta drew it over her head. “Stop grinning, Pinky. It’s temporary. What are you scared of, anyway? We’ve been here a night and a day and about to go into our second night and we haven’t seen a single vampire.”

“Then why Missy wear cross?”

“Well, you know…just in case. I think all that vampire crap is a bunch of hoopla to pull in tourists, but it’s best to play it safe. If it means wearing a cross, then…”—she shrugged—“there’s nothing wrong with wearing a cross. Humans believe, so why not me?”

Pinky shuddered. “Missy best hope we keep right on not seeing bloodsuckers. Pinky wanna go home.”

“We aren’t going home, not until I’ve managed to get inside that crumbling old castle. Did you see the disrepair? How could anyone, even a vampire, live in such squalid conditions? It’s a disgrace. That castle needs a woman’s touch.”

“Don’t be getting ideas. It best you leave vamp-man alone. I hear velly bad things about evil vampire in area who feeds and feeds for the pleasure of the kill. They call him Mr. Rogue Vampire. The villagers be very frightened. If this be Missy’s vamp-man, you headed for velly big trouble. You be Mrs. Rogue Vampiress ’fore you know it.”

“He’s not my vamp-man.”

“Pinky not care. Pinky velly upset Missy force him on this bad, velly bad trip. Gonna tell Master Creed. He be velly pissed at you, too.”

“You aren’t telling Creed anything. Swear it, or I’ll cut out your tongue! Worse, I’ll donate your feet to the pickle plant.”

“Squee!” Pinky looked at her through his thick fringe of bangs. “They have pickling plant here?”

“Yes!”

“You lie! Missy lie when it suits her purpose. Pinky refuse to swear any word. Do your worst. Go ahead, pickle my feet.”

“I will!”

“Squee! Pinky velly upset. Pissed at Missy. Warning. Warning. Velly pissed. Gag. Gag. Puke. Puke.”

Shasta shook her head and returned to nibbling on her thumbnail. Flying all the way to Romania on her broom from the Wing Academy had been one hell of a trip. She still had flight-lag. Still felt a bit disoriented. All she wanted to do was sleep.

She’d slept through last night once they arrived and secured a room, and most of today. The entire day, her sleep had been disturbed by a male’s voice calling to her. She hadn’t answered, because she knew it was simply the flight-lag causing her to imagine it.

Shasta eyed the three brooms standing in the far corner. Like Pinky, they hadn’t stopped trembling since they discovered where they were flying to. The brooms could be spiteful when they weren’t happy, and they hadn’t been happy for several hours now. In flight, they kept trying to turn back to the academy.

She’d finally had to threaten to set fire to their switches if they didn’t obey her commands. Oh, they’d obeyed, all right. They’d given Pinky and her one hell of a ride as punishment, zooming through the air like streaking banshees. She wasn’t too happy with their display of rebellion.

Poor Pinky squealed the entire trip...upside down on the broom.


Visit my website at
http://www.tabithashay.com
http://www.tabithashay.blogspot.com
http://www.moongypsypress.com
http://www.eternalpress.biz

Thanks, Tabitha! Join us tomorrow for Morgan’s spotlight on Denyse Bridger’s blog!