Hi all!
Please help me
welcome Author Karen Greco to my blog today!
About the Author:
An award-winning playwright, Karen Greco has spent close to twenty
years in New York City, working in publicity and marketing for the
entertainment industry. A life-long obsession with exorcists and
Dracula drew her to urban fantasy, where she can decapitate characters
with impunity. HELL'S BELLE is her first novel.
Hell's Belle
Hell's Belle Series Book One
Hell's Belle Series Book One
Karen Greco
Genre: Urban
Fantasy
Date of
Publication: June 17, 2013
ISBN: 1484830202
Number of pages:
238
Word Count: 74,722
Cover Artist: Jeff
Brennan
Book Description:
Half vampire, half
human, Nina Martinez spent most of her life underground as part of an elite
secret team of government agents that quietly take down rogue monsters, the
human world none the wiser. She moves back to her hometown of to keep an eye on
the recent uptick in supernatural activity, and to help run the bar she co-owns
with her aunt. Her attempt at a “regular” life, not to mention a budding
relationship with smoking hot FBI agent Max, is cut short because of a string
of ritual murders targeting the city's community of witches.
But Nina's
investigation unearths deadly secrets from her long buried parents. Now the
target of supernatural assassins, could Nina be the most dangerous vampire
hybrid to ever exist? No wonder she can’t get a date.
An urban fantasy set in a decaying Providence, Rhode
Island, HELL'S BELLE is a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled roller-coaster ride
through a city on the cusp of becoming an urban wasteland. HELL'S BELLE is an
energetic, expansive, and cinematic beginning of a new series in the urban
fantasy genre.
Excerpt:
I was wearing the wrong damn
shoes. Bounding through the pitch-black overgrown empty urban lots, my legs
were long past aching and well into screaming territory. I gulped in the crisp
fall air and forced myself to sprint harder.
"Do you need me to
carry you?" My partner Frankie, the vampire I was trying to keep pace
with, shouted over his shoulder. His voice was thick with sarcasm.
I slowed down just enough to
yank off my heels, carrying one in each hand. I wasn't expecting to play decoy
tonight, and I'd be damned if I was going to lose my shoes in some godforsaken
overgrown lot in the middle of Newark, New Jersey. These were custom-designed
heels from SteamTropolis in Seattle, after all. These vampires would have to
pry them from my cold, dead hands before I let them go.
Newark had a pretty major
vampire infestation. The despair and decay that the city had fallen into over
the past several decades lured us, and the population was exploding.
Frankie and I had spent the
last three weeks here, advising the Mayor on how to eradicate the pests. We are
part of a small but efficient top-secret task force of hunters that handle
rogue supernaturals for the Defense Department. The program had the highest
security clearance. Even the President had no idea we existed, or that the crew
Frankie and I assembled to help eradicate their vampire pest problem was flying
in to join Newark's finest the next day.
So Mayor Cory Booker, head
of a crime-soaked New Jersey city, had one up on the Commander-in-Chief. We
only let the mayor in on what we were doing because he walked in on a vampire
sucking the life out of one of his staffers in his office in City Hall. Even
more shocking, Mayor Booker kicked the vampire's ass before driving a stake
through his chest. Not only was he unflappable politically, but Mayor Booker’s
wild adrenaline surge also made him a first-rate vampire slayer. With that kind
of muscle, he deserved to know the truth.
It was our last night in
Newark and, to show his thanks, Mayor Booker threw us a bon voyage party at his
home. I busted out my best outfit for the occasion: a beautiful strapless
number that looked like long silk bandages crisscrossing over each other. The
addition of a bustier underneath made my usually small boobs appear more ample.
And, of course, finishing the outfit were my fabulously impractical heels.
Since Mayor Booker was the
newest threat to the vampires’ stronghold, a vampire nest crashed the party.
Six very motivated vamps thundered feet first through his front window. Clearly
whoever was in charge considered it a suicide mission and sent out his
flunkies. Dressed like a cheap imitation of a Hell’s Angels biker gang, it was
vampire amateur hour at the Booker household. They actually brought human
weapons in with them, including a submachine gun. Some waved metal pipes.
An amateur vampire is still
a vampire, and still just as deadly. Between the fangs, the pipes and the gun,
not to mention the glass shrapnel from the window, the place was a bloody mess.
Newark’s police chief had a nasty gash on his throat, the vampire missing his
jugular by mere centimeters. I was able to stake him with a broken broom handle
before he could kill the poor man. Shattered window glass embedded into the arm
of the Mayor’s press secretary. Vampire Moron started shooting up the place, so
blood was flowing freely. The carnage appeared to be a violent political hit
gone wrong. It’s shockingly easy to hide a supernatural attack.
It was bedlam. Frankie and I
distracted the hit squad so the Mayor's security forces could get him out of
there. It was a good reminder of why I don't usually get dressed up.
After kicking my heels off,
I closed the distance between me and Frankie. I could barely make out his
aristocratic profile in the sliver of moonlight peeking through the dark
clouds. Frankie still looked impeccable in his fitted black blazer, skinny
trousers and dress shoes, which he was running around in just fine.
"You need me to carry you, old man?" I huffed, throwing
his earlier sarcasm back at him.
Frankie laughed, the rich
sound echoed down the alleyway we had turned into. He wasn't the least bit out
of breath.
Wait. Echoed? Shit.
I reached out and grasped
Frankie's forearm and squeezed. We skidded to a stop, gaping at the brick wall
in front of us. My eyes darted around. There was a fire escape about 15 feet
above us. Frankie could probably jump it. But there was no way I would make it
up there. And Frankie wouldn't be able to jump it with me on his back. Too much
weight for a straight-up vertical leap. At over 500 years old, Frankie was one
of the strongest vampires I had ever met. But a jump like that was pushing it.
I bent over at the waist,
grasped my kneecaps and sucked in air as my mind raced through scenarios for
escape. None of them were good. We were going to have to fight our way out of
this.
Reluctantly dropping my
exquisite shoes on the ground, I reached down the front of my dress and pulled
a silver-tipped stake from my bustier.
Frankie's eyes were wide.
"Nice tailoring." He nodded appreciatively and peered down my dress.
"What else do you have in there?"
I smacked him upside the
head. "Focus!"
The five vampires appeared
at the mouth of the alleyway.
I crouched low, trying to
pick out the weakest link in the dim light. With my mixed blood, I was stronger
than a regular human, but I had to be realistic.
"Second from
right," Frankie whispered, nostrils flaring. He knew my limits too.
"Pretty new dead. Still smells almost human. But watch your back."
I nodded, my eyes now on the
man. He looked close to 50, an ill-fitting denim jacket accentuated his
middle-aged paunch, his long curls coarse and gray. His brown eyes glowed
rabidly, appearing almost yellow. Crap. He was really new dead. I almost
preferred going up against someone Frankie's age than a recent turn. They were
always unpredictable.
With a howl, the pack of vamps
charged us. Frankie stepped in front of me and pushed most of the pack out of
my reach, leaving me with my one opponent. The vampire charged me blindly,
fangs gnashing out uncontrollably. Passing the stake to my left hand, I brought
my right around and backhanded him in the face. It sent him reeling and put a
little distance between us. But it also pissed him off.
The vampire football-tackled
me, hitting me hard in the stomach. The tight corset worn under my party dress
(the one that also stored a small arsenal of stakes) impeded my breathing all
night, which saved the wind from being knocked out of me. I skidded on my ass
about four feet, his head still pressed in my stomach. I dropped my elbow into
the back of his neck and heard a satisfying crack of it breaking. I scrambled
out from under his limp body.
Then I turned to the melee
beside me. Frankie was cracking two vampire's heads together. A third came up
behind him and pushed a knife into his back.
"Frankie!" I
charged at the pile of vamps. At the sound of my voice, the knife wielder
turned towards me and my eyes focused on the sweet spot: his heart. I tossed my
silver-tipped stake into my right hand, and with a primal scream, I pushed it
in. The bones in his chest splintered with several loud cracks, then I felt the
stake glide into the meat of the heart. He slumped to the ground.
Yanking the knife out of
Frankie's back, I shifted to the left when something slammed into the side of
my face. I landed on my side, and heard the tell-tale zrrippp of my skirt
tearing.
Rubbing my sore cheek, I
tried to get up, but the vampire grabbed me by my hips, dragging me backwards.
The pavement shredded both my expensive fishnet stockings and the skin on my
legs. Sticky, coagulating blood glued the threads from the stockings into my
torn skin. The metallic scent of blood hit my nostrils a few seconds later.
Twisting, I kicked out and
knocked my attacker in the kneecaps. These asshats were ruining my favorite
outfit. The satisfying crunch of his kneecap shattering made me grin. Before I
could lash out again, Frankie's hands gripped me under my arms and he pulled me
closer to the brick wall, just as the one in the leather vest brought down a
pipe aimed at my head. Sparks flew when it hit the pavement.
Frankie’s fangs were
completely extended and his normally sky-blue eyes were a brilliant cerulean
glowing against his porcelain white skin. His overgrown black hair was matted
with blood. Frankie was terrifying when he was full-on vampire.
Frankie drew my attention back
to the vampires with the point of a finger. Like teen girls at the mall, the
horde moved in a clump, their broken and battered limbs pushing and kicking at
each other. Their heads were twitched and twisting, noses in the air, picking
up the enticing aroma of my Type O Negative.
Headlights turned into the
alleyway, and the shock of light made me lose sight of the vampires just feet
away from me. I tried to shield my eyes from the bright lights as the SUV
shrieked down the alley. It smashed into the vampire cluster, scattering them.
A hulking figure popped out of the open sunroof, wooden stakes in both hands.
It was Mayor Booker, arriving on the scene like a superhero. I half expected to
see a cape flapping behind him.
"Y'all got to get the
hell out of my city!" Mayor Booker's resonant voice boomed down the
alleyway.
He jumped down to the hood
of the SUV. The vampires surrounded his car. With their attention diverted,
Frankie and I needed to move. Mayor Booker may be bad-ass, but there was no way
he could take on five full bloods.
Frankie pulled three stakes
out of his jacket and tossed one to me. Grabbing it one-handed, I reached down
into my dress again and took out my last stake. Frankie, moving faster than me,
staked a young male vampire through the back, going straight through his heart.
I staked my middle-aged vampire in a similar fashion. Two vampires down, three
to go, only one stake left in my hand.
The three remaining vampires
were now on the hood of the car, facing off with the Mayor. Frankie caught one
by the ankles and pulled him down off the car, leaving the Mayor to battle it
out with two. Booker swung a right hook, destabilizing the taller one, before
bringing the stake in his opposite hand directly into the other vampire's
heart. While he shoved the dead vampire off the car, the other reared up and
pushed into the Mayor, sending both onto the pavement with a slam.
The tumble smacked the
Mayor's head into the ground, and he seemed disoriented as he staggered to his
feet. The vampire loomed over him. Grabbing the Mayor by the shoulders, fangs
grinding, his eyes had that sheen of crazy that a vampire gets just before a
kill. He brought his barely 18-year-old face towards Booker's neck.
I sprinted towards them and
launched myself into the air, landing on the vampire’s back. Grabbing him
around the head, I twisted his neck, breaking it. He slumped to the ground.
Good thing he was built more like a basketball player than a football hero. I drove
my last stake into his heart.
With a grunt, Frankie nailed
the final vampire with a stake. "Are you all right, Mr. Mayor?"
"Yes, thank you,"
Mayor Booker said as he rubbed his shaved head, leaving a streak of blood on
his scalp.
The three of us stared at
the bloodbath around us.
"You two okay?"
Mayor Booker asked, trying to catch his breath.
I yanked mournfully at my
tattered skirt. "My outfit is fucked."
Mayor Booker dropped his arm
around my shoulders, "That dress was beautiful."
My heart skipped a few
beats. This man was smart, hot, and could take on vampires. I could feel a
major crush coming on. I glanced at him and smiled shyly.
Frankie gave me a little
shove, bringing me back to earth. "Oh God. Stop being such a girl."
I nodded. "Mr. Mayor,
Frankie and I will clean up. You shouldn't be here for this."
He began to protest, but
Frankie, removing his coat and pulling out a scythe-like knife that was
holstered on his side, intervened. "Nina's right, Mayor. They aren't
completely dead yet. We have to finish them off. And you really don't need to
be party to this."
"How do you kill them,
then?" The Mayor was determined to see this through, but it was time for
him to get out of here.
"We have to cut off
their heads, then remove their hearts and burn them," I said. My
matter-of-fact tone made him look momentarily uncomfortable. "Seriously,
Sir, if someone saw you decapitating something that looks like a human.... Not
good."
"Point taken," he
nodded. "Thank you both. For everything."
He shook our hands, climbed
into his SUV and was off, leaving Frankie and me to do what we did best:
destroy vampires.
Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/karenThegreco
Please thank Karen
for joining us today! Please check out her links and buy a book!
Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce
Thanks for having me, Jodie! (And we have the most fun on Facebook, so that's the best place to join us!)
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