Hello, and welcome to The Year of the Snake Blog Hop. Many thanks to Wendy Russo for inviting me to play.


Today we say goodbye to the year of the dragon and hello to the year of the snake. So this hop is dedicated to excerpts of deception, delusion, opportunism, and perhaps simply snakes.
Here's my excerpt.  Enjoy!

(Josie is the antagonist in Crimson Sunrise, and she has a plan that will launch herself in a new seat of power. She's not above using anyone to get what she wants, including her convenient for-now husband.)
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “You knew Dhelis’s matewould drown. Why did you bother telling her you loved Dhelis?”
A thrill of power shot through Josie. She’d been right about hisbeing jealous. Men were so easy. A pull here. A tug there. I’m a freaking puppeteer.
“Because,” she answered with exaggerated patience, “some Tuericouples are telepathically linked. I don’t know if their match hasachieved that connection, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I didn’twant her warning Dhelis—or Brogan for that matter. I wanted tokeep her off balance. Break her concentration through anger.”
There was no way Dhelis, Brogan, and Saari had alreadyachieved that kind of shared power, but Caleb didn’t know that.


“Dhelis’s blood type is a perfect match for me. If Saari hadn’tcome along when she did, I’d be bound to Dhelis and alreadypregnant,” she answered, pouring sweet innocence into her words.
He all but growled with frustration. “I’m a perfect match foryour blood type, too. What do we need him for?”
“For starters,” she reminded him, “You’re only a half-breed—andthe Tueri half isn’t from a Stone Rider. For the abilities to be passedon, I have to get pregnant by a Stone Rider.”
He glared at her.
She tightened her invisible hold. “This is only business, baby.You know that. I’ve already explained this. Chimeras carry multiplestrands of DNA within their own, so we always reproduce Tueriabilities. His mother was a chimera, like me, and his father was aStone Rider, like mine. That means a successful breeding betweenour genetics will produce the highest Stone Riding abilitiespossible. Dhelis is the best choice.”
“So?” he drawled.
“That’s the price for our immortality.”
Caleb’s expression changed as understanding dawned. “Heagreed to turn us? What were your terms?”
“Of course he did.” She ignored the second question and lookedup at him from under her lashes. “Do you think I’d be able to gothrough this without you?”
“How do you know he won’t double cross us?”
Josie smiled. “Because he needs me. I’m his breeding queen. Mygift is passing on Tueri abilities through my progeny—and I healwithin hours of childbirth. So I can get pregnant again immediatelyafter giving birth. Once we combine the gene pool, vampires willhave an immunity, or affinity depending on the perspective, toTueri crystal. And the vampires will be able to give birth. They canreproduce the same immunity.”
“Then he only needs you for the first child, not the rest,” heargued.
“Not true. Genetics are a crapshoot. We’ve established the bestodds by using Dhelis’s genetics mixed with my own: that’s Chimeraand Stone Riding abilities on both sides back eons of generations.But that’s not a guarantee. So, he’ll need us both.”
His mouth turned up in a feral smile.
She’d finally convinced him to play the game. Her nerve endingshummed.
Poor sod. He doesn’t realize I meant Dhelis when I said we’d both be needed.


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Wendy S. Russo Katie O'Sullivan Raven Bower Cindy Young-Turner Rebecca Trogner Lindsey Loucks Sue Ann Bowling S.M. Boyce Constance Phillips Stephan E. Train Stevie Carroll Kelly Seguin Wynne Channing Sherry Soule