Of Claws and Fangs (Jane Yellowrock) by Faith Hunter ~ #BookTour #Excerpt

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Of Claws and Fangs

 

New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter presents a stunning collection of stories from the world of shape-shifting vampire hunter Jane Yellowrock and beyond.

Collected together for the first time, this volume contains shorter works featuring heroines Jane Yellowrock and Nell Ingram, as well as a host of other characters from the Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series. Faith Hunter is “an expert at creating worlds filled with intriguing supernatural elements and exciting scenarios”* and her skills are on full display in this collection. From a vampire-filled Halloween evening in New Orleans to the searing tale of how a certain were-leopard first got his spots, this collection has something for everyone, and each story is sure to put the super in supernatural.

With eighteen stories in all, Of Claws and Fangs will enrich and entertain—it’s a must-have for Faith Hunter’s readers and all lovers of fantasy.

Preorder links:

Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Books-a-Million – IndieBound – The Book Depository – Kobo – Google Books – Apple Books

 

 


Anzu, Duba, Beast

First published in WERE–, an anthology from Zombies Need Brains (2016). It is in the timeline somewhere before Jane becomes the Dark Queen.

The note read “Jane, We will hunt. Ready yourself. We leave after dusk, Gee.”

I hated orders. But I owed Girrard DiMercy—the vampires’ Mercy Blade—a hunt, which he had won from me in return for information. Gee had a good memory, but his timing sucked.

I flicked the note against the fingers of my other hand, thinking. With vamps and their playthings, you have to be one step ahead, and thinking things through had proved better than attacking first and asking questions later.

Gee expected me to shift into something like a hawk or an owl and hunt at his side, while he shifted into the thing he really was under layers of glamour. If that happened, he’d set all the parameters and I’d be little dog to his big dog—earth bird to his Anzu. So far as I knew, the feathered Anzus were not native to Earth and had once been worshipped as storm gods. Big honking storm gods with claws, wings, a raptor’s beak, and bad attitude.

“Does Leo know about this invitation?” I asked, crumpling the note. Leo was the fanghead-vampire Master of the City of New Orleans and my boss. Gee’s boss too, in a way.

The blood-servant-messenger’s face broke into a smile that said I had asked a question he could answer. “Yes, ma’am. He knows. My master said, ‘May your hunt be bloody. May you rend and eat the flesh of your prey.’”

“Well, crap.” I had plans. I was spending a four-day weekend with my sorta-boyfriend, eating and sleeping and everything my heart and body desired, in bed. Plans. And the following Tuesday, I was flying to Asheville, North Carolina, to spend a few days with my BFF Molly, to see the ultrasound of her baby, the one where the doc tells if it’s a boy or a girl. And then I was gonna pick up my Harley, Bitsa, from the repair shop in Charlotte. Finally. Big plans. Leo liked jerking my chain, and he would feel just peachy messing with my life.

But . . . it was only Wednesday. The hunt we bargained was for twenty-four hours. I should be back by Thursday night. Friday morning at the latest. I’d still have a few days to myself and my honeybunch, Bruiser. Plus, Gee didn’t know that I had aces up my sleeve. Well, not exactly aces. More like jokers, both of them wild, cards that didn’t belong in the deck of cards the Mercy Blade expected to deal. “Hmmm,” I said.

The helpful human said, “Mr. DiMercy and the Master of the City have requested the courtesy of a reply.”

“Did they, now. Well, tell them I said this.” I shut the door in the servant’s face. Turned the lock. Pulled my official cell phone, the Kevlar-cased one that allowed the Master of the City to track me, listen in on me, and read all my texts. It was daytime and he was probably in bed, but no way could I just take this. Vamps had a thing for pecking order. I couldn’t refuse the invitation, but I was neither blood in Leo’s fangs nor at the bottom of the suckhead hierarchy. I was the Enforcer to the MOC. This required more finesse than my usual hammer-and-machete style of retort.

I scrolled for Leo’s number. It was listed under Chief Fanghead.

As a skinwalker—a supernatural being who can shape-shift into animals, provided I have enough genetic material to work with—I’ve actually flown, and not just in planes. But Gee might not know that. A familiarity with flight was my first wild joker.

Deep in the darks of my mind, my Beast huffed. Eat order from Gee, she thought at me. Beast didn’t like it when I took the form of an animal other than hers—the Puma concolor—the mountain lion. She especially didn’t like flying.

We made a promise, I thought back at her. I wandered to my room as I punched Leo’s number.

Promises are stupid human things. We are Beast. Eat note.

 

 

Faith Hunter is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She writes dark urban fantasy, paranormal urban thrillers, paranormal police procedurals, and science fiction.

Her long-running, bestselling, Skinwalker series features Jane Yellowrock, a hunter of rogue-vampires. The Soulwood series features Nell Nicholson Ingram in paranormal crime solving novels. Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy series, features Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in an alternate reality. She also writes a Scifi novella series: Junkyard Cats. 

Under the pen name Gwen Hunter, she has written action adventure, mysteries, thrillers, women’s fiction, a medical thriller series, and even historical religious fiction. As Gwen, she was part of the WH Smith Literary Award for Fresh Talent in the UK, and won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award in 2008. Under all her pen names, she has over 40 books in print in 30 countries. Faith has won numerous awards and Curse on The Land won an Audie Award for 2017.

In real life, Faith once broke a stove by refusing to turn it on for so long that its parts froze and the unused stove had to be replaced. She collects orchids and animal skulls, rocks and fossils, loves to sit on the screened back porch in lightning storms, and is a workaholic with a passion for white-water kayaking, and RV travel. She prefers Class III whitewater rivers with no gorge to climb out of, and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain’t. 

For more, including a list of her books, see www.faithhunter.net, www.gwenhunter.com To keep up with her, like her fan page at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter

 

 

Tour-wide Giveaway!

There’s a tour-wide giveaway open to US residents!

  • 2 winners will receive a limited-edition leather Soulwood bracelet
  • 1 winner will receive their choice of a $50 gift card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

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I'm an outdoor sun loving reader living near San Fransisco. I’m a mother, wife, animal & book lover. I'm the owner, reviewer & mind behind Angel’s Guilty Pleasures. My favorite animals are horses & dogs. As for reading I love all things paranormal & urban fantasy & my favorite shifters are dragons.

3 comments on “Of Claws and Fangs (Jane Yellowrock) by Faith Hunter ~ #BookTour #Excerpt

  1. I haven’t read this but I think I would like these stories.
    Happy mother’s day.
    Mary Kirkland recently posted…Apartment Life #303My Profile

  2. I loved this book. It is exceptional.
    Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Of Claws and Fangs by Faith HunterMy Profile

  3. I didn’t know she had a new book!