Excerpt: Blood and Snow

Every thousand years the Vampire Queen selects a new body, always the fairest in the land, and this time she's chosen Snow White. Snow isn't an ordinary girl. She doesn't know that yet. When Snow gets bitten by a Hunter, her life is thrown into a whirlwind of change where instead of worrying about what to eat, she has to fight not to drink the blood of fellow high school students. She becomes a revenant - not quite human, not quite vampire. With the help of an eccentric old Professor, his seven adoptive sons, and her best friend, Snow learns to control her blood craving. Sort of. She drinks a bloodlust tea, but she'd rather drink from her Hunter. Or, a human. She also discovers a whole other realm, one filled with fairies, dragons, and magic. And not only does the Vampire Queen want her, but there's a pendant called the Seal of Gabriel created for Snow by the Vampire Queen's twin sister. And Snow's supposed to use it to restore balance to all magical creatures. Including vampires.

As part of the blog tour for Blood and Snow, I have an excerpt from the book:

“Welcome to my secret fortress, Silindra,” Titan said. 

I grunted my response, walking past him to the doorway in the mountain, its entry bursting with light. The surface my feet touched was smooth and hard, like polished rock. But it wasn't rock. It was some kind of iron. It swayed slightly, and I grabbed hold of the rails.  

"This is incredible," Snow White said. 

I agreed wholeheartedly. Metal catwalks crisscrossed each other, reminding me of a spider’s web. Tall beams rose to the ceiling where millions of lights shone. It was as though Titan harnessed a portion of the sun, and somehow held its ray’s captive within. 

In the center of the mountain, and vertical, reaching the top and I guessed touching the bottom, was a thick grated tube. Inside the tube were two sets of stairs. One used to walk up, and the other for down. A steady flow of occupants used them; exiting through archways onto walkways like the one I was on. The walkways led to large, cylinder-shaped holes carved into the mountain. 

Cautious, I glanced over the side and felt my throat drop into my stomach. A seemingly endless amount of walkways weaved from the center stairs, and downward. 

I took a deep breath, noting the tang of something sour, like curdled milk. The voices of thousands echoed as trolls, fairies, gremlins, and other magical creatures busily rushed around. Like a strange city. 

“What is this place?” I finally asked. 

“This is Varden. The place where all the scientific magic happens,” he responded, pushing his bulky body past me, walking briskly along the path. The metal shuddered under his weight, and I held my breath. Snow let out a tiny scream. 

I tried to calm my nerves and Snow’s. 

"It’ll hold him," I told her and myself. 

And I hoped I was right.When he reached the stairs, he turned. “Do you want the strength of a troll or not?” 

Lifting my chin, I said, “Of course I do.”

Blood and Snow can be bought from: [Amazon]