Excerpt Monday with Angelique Armae
The winner of Angelique's prize is: Linda Henderson. Congrats, Linda! I'll send Angelique your email address. Thanks to everyone who participated.
SHADOWS OF THE SOUL
(Book 1 of the Paradisian Chronicles)
By Angelique Armae
When a Grigori prince and a demon huntress team up to find the antidote to a supernatural disease, the balance between good and evil is forever altered.
A fallen angel...
A human scholar...
A race against time...
Isabel Godfroie Heart is a Paradisian Scholar-an immortal human trained in the ways of Heaven and Hell-who's suffering from memory loss. During her last battle, a dark force erased specific portions of her past life memories. Now she remembers little of times past, save for the fact she's a demon slayer mentored by the archangel Gabriel. When ordered to a new post to help translate a volume of ancient text from a forbidden verse, Isabel is forced to work with the dark prince Nicolai Valentine, a soul who may or may not be responsible for her memory loss. If only she didn't find the tempting creature so hard to resist...
Born to a fallen angel and a mortal mother, Nicolai Valentine is a prince of the Grigorcov, the children of the fallen sons of God. Searching for the lost chalice that will save his kin from eternal damnation, Nicky unknowingly unleashes the Hadean Virus, a dark entity targeting members of the Grigorcov. Now the entity has been unleashed on man's world and Nicky's in a race against time to find the antidote that will stop this deadly parasite. But in order to keep the Hadean virus from attacking again, Nicolai must enlist the help of Isabel Godfroie Heart, the Paradisian Scholar he was unable to save from the wrath of Hell centuries ago...
Chapter One
(Book 1 of the Paradisian Chronicles)
By Angelique Armae
When a Grigori prince and a demon huntress team up to find the antidote to a supernatural disease, the balance between good and evil is forever altered.
A fallen angel...
A human scholar...
A race against time...
Isabel Godfroie Heart is a Paradisian Scholar-an immortal human trained in the ways of Heaven and Hell-who's suffering from memory loss. During her last battle, a dark force erased specific portions of her past life memories. Now she remembers little of times past, save for the fact she's a demon slayer mentored by the archangel Gabriel. When ordered to a new post to help translate a volume of ancient text from a forbidden verse, Isabel is forced to work with the dark prince Nicolai Valentine, a soul who may or may not be responsible for her memory loss. If only she didn't find the tempting creature so hard to resist...
Born to a fallen angel and a mortal mother, Nicolai Valentine is a prince of the Grigorcov, the children of the fallen sons of God. Searching for the lost chalice that will save his kin from eternal damnation, Nicky unknowingly unleashes the Hadean Virus, a dark entity targeting members of the Grigorcov. Now the entity has been unleashed on man's world and Nicky's in a race against time to find the antidote that will stop this deadly parasite. But in order to keep the Hadean virus from attacking again, Nicolai must enlist the help of Isabel Godfroie Heart, the Paradisian Scholar he was unable to save from the wrath of Hell centuries ago...
Chapter One
Midtown Manhattan, present day...
Trouble greeted me the moment I entered Saint Gabriel's Abbey. The church bell tolled midnight, but the left alcove was lit like daylight. Six hundred sixty six candles illuminating on their own is never a good sign. I knew that specific number, because the archangel Gabriel insisted that the task of keeping the count exact fall only to me. Otherwise I might've been able to play ignorant to that little greeting from the Devil.
My name is Isabel Godfroie Heart and I'm a Paradisian Scholar.
I make my living fighting evil. Damned, non-human entities are my constant companions.
Toying with them entertains me.
So when Gabriel asked for a bit of help in the housecleaning department, I was happy to oblige. Dark souls don't belong on hallowed ground. And I do a damned-good job at sending them off with a bang.
Built as a sanctuary to accommodate mortal regiments trained by angels, the abbey had recently become the favored hot spot for demons and cursed entities. A few damned souls wouldn't have been much of a concern. After all, Gabriel does allow the Devil a bit of elbowroom every now and then. But lately Satan pushed his brother's hospitality to the limits. The flood of sudden unexpected guests from the ethereal plain alarmed me and despite days of searching for answers, I still hadn't a clue as to why they picked here and now to show themselves.
My experience told me that Hellish spawns rarely enter man's world without warrant, and failing to find the reason why disturbed me. The situation also didn't sit well with my mentor Gabriel, the abbey's namesake and guardian. Concerned, he assembled the Gothic Garrison and handed out orders to each member.
He designated the graveyard shift as mine and mine alone. One hunter to a thousand demons. The archangel's twisted rationale just forced me to love him. No one else would've assigned a single scholar to a field laden with dark evil souls and not even warned them with so much as a 'watch where you step'.
Gabriel knew me well and he always obliged me. He also provided for my uncommon needs without question and tonight was no exception.
Stepping further into the abbey, I unclasped the leather wrist cuff from my right arm, forcing the brand underneath to swell. The skin-puckering action, accompanied by a searing sensation, made my flesh tingle. Raising the mark revealed my presence to unseen entities incapable of viewing the world as mortals did. Cursed creatures don't use their eyes to see; they sense other souls.
If the demons that invaded St. Gabriel's didn't pick up on my true identity before, they certainly knew now who'd come looking for them.
About the author:
Angelique Armae is a native New Yorker who's as zany as the city she grew up in. As a child her favorite toy was Emerald The Witch, a small doll with green eyes, green hair and purple skin.
Miss Armae's books and novellas have garnered numerous awards and nominations, including the Sapphire Award, P.E.A.R.L. Award and Word Weaving Award. Her books have also been featured on Midwest Book Review's Book Watch TV. Angelique's first novel, COME THE NIGHT, made Fictionwise's Best of the Best list, rounding out the top five best selling dark fantasy books of the year.
Aside from writing, Angelique also dabbles in digital art. She is the recipient and two time nominee of the Dream Realm Award for best cover art.
When not working, Ms. Armae enjoys traveling, learning about the ancient Celts, exploring history and learning new languages. Angelique studied history and French literature at Skidmore College.
For more on Angelique’s book, please visit her website at: http://www.angeliquearmae.com/
Trouble greeted me the moment I entered Saint Gabriel's Abbey. The church bell tolled midnight, but the left alcove was lit like daylight. Six hundred sixty six candles illuminating on their own is never a good sign. I knew that specific number, because the archangel Gabriel insisted that the task of keeping the count exact fall only to me. Otherwise I might've been able to play ignorant to that little greeting from the Devil.
My name is Isabel Godfroie Heart and I'm a Paradisian Scholar.
I make my living fighting evil. Damned, non-human entities are my constant companions.
Toying with them entertains me.
So when Gabriel asked for a bit of help in the housecleaning department, I was happy to oblige. Dark souls don't belong on hallowed ground. And I do a damned-good job at sending them off with a bang.
Built as a sanctuary to accommodate mortal regiments trained by angels, the abbey had recently become the favored hot spot for demons and cursed entities. A few damned souls wouldn't have been much of a concern. After all, Gabriel does allow the Devil a bit of elbowroom every now and then. But lately Satan pushed his brother's hospitality to the limits. The flood of sudden unexpected guests from the ethereal plain alarmed me and despite days of searching for answers, I still hadn't a clue as to why they picked here and now to show themselves.
My experience told me that Hellish spawns rarely enter man's world without warrant, and failing to find the reason why disturbed me. The situation also didn't sit well with my mentor Gabriel, the abbey's namesake and guardian. Concerned, he assembled the Gothic Garrison and handed out orders to each member.
He designated the graveyard shift as mine and mine alone. One hunter to a thousand demons. The archangel's twisted rationale just forced me to love him. No one else would've assigned a single scholar to a field laden with dark evil souls and not even warned them with so much as a 'watch where you step'.
Gabriel knew me well and he always obliged me. He also provided for my uncommon needs without question and tonight was no exception.
Stepping further into the abbey, I unclasped the leather wrist cuff from my right arm, forcing the brand underneath to swell. The skin-puckering action, accompanied by a searing sensation, made my flesh tingle. Raising the mark revealed my presence to unseen entities incapable of viewing the world as mortals did. Cursed creatures don't use their eyes to see; they sense other souls.
If the demons that invaded St. Gabriel's didn't pick up on my true identity before, they certainly knew now who'd come looking for them.
About the author:
Angelique Armae is a native New Yorker who's as zany as the city she grew up in. As a child her favorite toy was Emerald The Witch, a small doll with green eyes, green hair and purple skin.
Miss Armae's books and novellas have garnered numerous awards and nominations, including the Sapphire Award, P.E.A.R.L. Award and Word Weaving Award. Her books have also been featured on Midwest Book Review's Book Watch TV. Angelique's first novel, COME THE NIGHT, made Fictionwise's Best of the Best list, rounding out the top five best selling dark fantasy books of the year.
Aside from writing, Angelique also dabbles in digital art. She is the recipient and two time nominee of the Dream Realm Award for best cover art.
When not working, Ms. Armae enjoys traveling, learning about the ancient Celts, exploring history and learning new languages. Angelique studied history and French literature at Skidmore College.
For more on Angelique’s book, please visit her website at: http://www.angeliquearmae.com/
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Angelique will give away a set of collector cards based on her books (open to US and Canadian residents only) to one commenter. Her winner will be selected and posted on Tuesday evening. Stop back by to see if you won.
posted by Lynda Hilburn at 10:20 AM
7 Comments:
This is a cool contest :-) And a great excerpt!
What a great excerpt. I can't wait to read this. I love all of your books. Did you design the cover? It's definitely eye-catching!
Thanks for the comments Chelsea and Linda! I enjoyed writing this book :)
As for the cover, no it's not one of my designs. But I do agree - it's beautiful. I love it.
Hi,
I was over my friends house reading this to them and we all agreed that it sounded good. I looked up your website is there a book 2 coming out in this series?
After looking up your Come the Night book on Amazon and reading the, I can say I'm going to be looking for it when I go buy new books.
Thanks, Tiffany! Glad you liked the excerpt. I am currently working on the sequel, so yes, there will be more books in my angel series!
I enjoyed the excerpt and look forward to reading this series.
seriousreader at live dot com
Thanks for visiting, Linda!
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