Intuition
Psychic
Crossroads
Book
Two
Anna
Durand
Genre: paranormal romance
Publisher: Jacobsville Books
Date of Publication: 6/15/2015
ISBN: 978-1-934631-71-3
ISBN: 978-1-934631-74-4
ASIN: B00XK88MB8
Number of pages: 270
Word Count: 106,000
Cover Artist: Lisa A. Shiel,
Five Rainbows Services
Book Description:
Book
2 in the multi-award-winning Psychic Crossroads series
Ultimate power comes at the
ultimate price.
Torn apart by their haunted
pasts, Grace Powell and her fiancé David Ransom are struggling to reclaim their
passionate bond. She yearns for a normal life — one without danger and
paranormal powers — but David can't renounce his obsession with hunting down
rogue scientist Karl Tesler, who abducts and tortures psychics. David endured Tesler's
tactics himself, but despite what Grace believes, he's not out for revenge.
Tesler covets her unprecedented
abilities and her connection to a vast and mysterious source of psychic energy
known as the Golden Power. He will stop at nothing to possess her, and David
will do anything — even abandon and lie to her — to protect Grace from the mad
scientist.
With a psychic stalker on her
trail, Grace charges into a desperate mission to uncover the truth about
David's obsession and his secret past. But Tesler's agents are closing in on
her, and a terrifying new enemy is rising…
As events drive Grace and David
toward a battle of epic proportions, they must risk everything — their
relationship, their lives, and even their souls — to defeat an enemy who wields
unspeakable psychic power. Can a bond borne of true love save them, and the
world?
Excerpt:
Grace Powell
slammed the front door. The cool air inside the house flushed away the sultry
October heat pasted to her skin. She stalked across the living room, down the
hall, and into the bedroom. She fumbled for the light switch, her fingers
slipping off the plastic. Dammit. No one but David Ransom detonated her temper
like this. She flicked the switch, and light flooded the room. The bed stood
empty, the sheets crumpled at the foot.
They'd fled the
house in a near-panic, racing from their home to the Cincinnati airport with
tires screeching, all because of a thirty-second phone call David received at
one a.m. Another tip from a questionable source. Another threadbare clue in his
quest for vengeance. Another search that yanked him away from Grace. Away from
their home, their life.
The emptiness of
the bed tore at her heart like tiny claws. Sharp. Hot. Fresh tears pricked her
eyes, and she gnawed her lip to stave off the downpour. No crying.
She fingered her
engagement ring. A tear sneaked out of her eye to roll down her cheek, painting
a hot trail on her skin. No crying, dammit.
She resisted the
impulse to tap into their telepathic bond and check on her fiancé. It was an
invasion, one she understood all too well, but how else could she know David
was all right? She had to trust their latent connection, however faint, to warn
her. If he stumbled into trouble, though, what could she do from here, over a
thousand miles away?
Her heart
clenched. Losing her parents ripped her world asunder. She could not lose David
too. Her head told her she wouldn't, yet the fear chilled her down to the
essence of her being.
She trudged into
the bedroom, kicking off her shoes. The lonely tear crept into her mouth,
infecting her tongue with a salty tang. She tugged the cell phone out of her
jeans pocket and tossed it onto the bedside table. Her muscles, stiff and sore,
begged for a rest. She collapsed onto the mattress on her back. Her gaze hit
the ceiling, where little acoustic balls clung to the paint, stuck there
against their will. I know the feeling.
When they'd
reached the security checkpoint at the airport, she'd longed to plead with
David to stay. Instead, she cranked her lips into a smile, pecked a kiss on his
cheek, and all but shoved him through the gate. Her stomach wrenched into knots
recalling that moment, as he strolled into the main terminal. When he paused to
glance back, she prayed he would change his mind. But he simply waved, then
strode out of sight.
Grace rolled
onto her side. Her nose bumped into David's pillow. She drew in a long breath.
The spiciness of his aftershave flooded her senses, along with another scent—a
subtle, masculine smell unique to David. Indescribable. Delicious. Warmth
suffused her, seeping into her heart and mind, smoldering in parts of her that
ached for him. She inhaled another draft of his scent, her body responding as
if he were there, caressing her. He may drive her nuts at times, but…
Oh, the way he
kissed. Her lips tingled from the memory of it.
A chill
whispered over her skin. Every hair on her body stiffened. Her sixth sense
burst out of its slumber, clanging alarm bells in her psyche. Someone is here.
She bolted
upright and whipped her head left and right. Nobody there. She swung her legs
off the bed and pushed up onto her feet, nabbing her .357 Magnum revolver from
the bedside table. A chill trickled down her spine. Eyes watched. Invisible,
ethereal, but real. She turned toward the doorway. Nothing lurked there.
Why couldn't she
pin down the source of the sensation? Her paranormal radar was blanked out, as
if overwhelmed by input.
Psychic energy
crackled through her. Behind you. She whirled around, thrusting the gun up,
clamped in both hands, and confronted—
The lamp.
Hell. She'd let
her unease blossom into paranoia. Nobody hunted her anymore. Probably. Tesler
wouldn't find her here.
Her cell phone
buzzed. A text message had arrived.
David. She
snatched up the phone, tapping the screen until the message popped up. As she
scanned the words, a shiver rattled through her.
"Come to
me," it said, "I can help you. 1325 Meroz Road."
She didn't recognize
the phone number the message came from, and no name was given. Oh sure, she'd
rush right out to the address texted to her by an anonymous whackjob.
The phone buzzed
again. Another text message: "Your lip is bleeding."
Her lip? She
dabbed a finger on her mouth. It came away wet. Blood stained her skin. How did
the texter know she bit her lip? Her heart pounded. Without moving, she
searched the shadows for a figure, a camera, something to explain this, though
she knew she'd find nothing. A thick curtain shielded the window. The person
sending the messages could either see through solid objects or had another
means of viewing her. Extrasensory means.
The phone
tumbled from her hand, clattering on the floor.
No, she was
jumping to conclusions. An intruder must've stolen into the house. With the
revolver in hand, she sprinted out of the bedroom, down the hallway, through
the kitchen, and into the living room. Vacant. All vacant. She rushed back to
the bedroom and dug through the closet, scoured the dresser, even dropped onto
her belly to investigate the space under the bed. No cameras. No stealthy
intruders. Not a damn thing. Which left her with one unthinkable possibility.
Maybe she should
call the police.
What for? They
couldn't help her with this kind of problem.
"You belong
with me."
She jumped. Her
head smacked into the bed frame. She clutched the gun tighter. Where had the
voice come from?
No, no, no, not
again. Nausea swelled in her stomach, bile rising high in her throat. The voice
did not originate in this room, or from outside. The source was much, much
closer. Someone rammed the words into her mind.
A psychic
intruder just hacked her brain.
About
the Author:
Anna Durand is a
multi-award-winning writer, a freelance librarian, and an audiobook addict. She
specializes in sexy romances, both paranormal and contemporary, featuring
spunky heroines and hunky heroes. In her previous life as a librarian, she
haunted the stacks of public libraries but never met any hot vampires hunting
for magical books.
Website: http://www.annadurand.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnnaDurand
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/annadurand
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Anna_Durand/
Authorgraph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/TheAnnaDurand
Butterfly-o-Meter Books Author Interview Questions
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to any and all authors, the second - dedicated to self-published authors in
particular, and the third - fun facts, dedicated to any and all authors.
If the title we're promoting has been self-published, please
consider answering a few of the self-pub dedicated questions.
For each section, answer the questions you feel like.
In all, please make sure you have a minimum of 23 questions answered, or answer all of them if you'd
like.
After you've decided what questions to answer from each
section, please delete the ones you didn't and renumber the ones you did, so
once completed, each section of the interview will have the answered questions numbered 1, 2, 3,
etc.
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xoxo,
Livia
Please answer these questions with the title we're
promoting in mind:
1. If you were to describe your e-book/book in only one
word, what would it be? Redemption.
2. What would you say inspired you to write it? This is the
second book in a series, and after finishing the first book (Willpower), I knew Grace and David's
story wasn't finished yet. They'd rediscovered their love, but they still had
some issues to work out.
3. Have you ever been hit by the infamous “writer’s block”?
What did you do to escape it? Everyone has days where they can't get in the
mood, but for me this is really an issue of motivation. I crank up my favorite
tunes and make myself start writing anyway. Even if I'm struggling at first,
eventually the words begin to flow. I treat writing like a job, instead of
waiting for inspiration to strike.
4. Your all time favorite book? I can't choose one book, but
the one series that stands out is Rachel Caine's Weather Warden books. The
heroine is awesome, and I love her djinn boyfriend, plus all the terrific
secondary characters. I could read the series over and over without getting
tired of it. And the audiobook versions are fantastic!
5. What’s the longest time you’ve spent working on a
project? I first wrote Willpower back
in 2001; it wasn't published until 2013—so, twelve years! I work much faster
these days.
6. Would you say becoming an author has changed you? In what
way? I've been a published author for over a decade, and I've noticed my
thought processes have evolved over the years. Even when I'm doing something
else, my brain is always working on stories and popping out ideas. I also find
that when I watch movies or read books, I wind up thinking "If I wrote this,
I would've done it this way…" This happens whether I loved the movie/book
or hated it.
7. Was there ever a time, during your work on the
e-book/book, when you felt like giving up? What made you change your mind? Last
summer, I started entering Intuition
in contests—and the first couple resulted in horrible scores and nasty comments
from the judges. But I got great advice and support from workshops, and then I
wound up winning first and second place in two contests, as well as receiving
high scores and wonderful comments from judges in the contests where I wasn't
even a finalist. I realized some judges just hate my kind of story, but most
people who've read Intuition loved
it, so I must be on the right track.
8. Is this title part of a series? Without giving us
spoilers, of course, what can we expect from the next e-books/books in the
series? Intuition is the second book
in the Psychic Crossroads series. I've already got the seed of an idea for the
third book, which will feature one of the secondary characters from the first
two books. Sean Vandenbrook, who was a teenager in Willpower and Intuition,
is all grown up now—somewhat wiser, much hotter, and in a heap of trouble.
9. What do you have stored for us in the future? What are
you working on/planning on next, aside this title/series? I've got tons of
stories in the works, everything from more paranormal romances to a hot
contemporary romance about friends struggling with their feelings for each
other. I'm almost done writing The Mortal
Falls, the first book in a paranormal romance series about elemental
beings, fae, gods, and the mortal woman who must battle to save two worlds
while fighting her attraction to a mysterious sylph.
Fun facts:
1. Name your favorite fruit. Strawberries. Red, juicy,
delicious, and they go with just about everything.
2. Coffee or tea? Ginger tea, with a splash of cranberry
juice.
3. Favorite season? Summer, because after a long and cold
winter, we really deserve sunshine and flowers!
4. Latest book you’ve bought and read? The last one I
finished was Devil's Bargain by
Rachel Caine, but I'm currently reading Hunter's
Moon by Lisa Kessler.
5. Do you collect things like stamps, or key chains, or
shoes? When I was a kid, I had a rather unusual hobby of collecting business
cards. I still have them all, but I no longer collect new ones. I do have some
strange ones—like a coffin-shaped card for a funeral home.
6. Favorite color, you know you want to tell us! Pink. All
shades. Everyone who knows me knows to give me pink stuff as gifts.
7. Drama or comedy? Depends on the story. I hate sad
endings, which is why I love writing romance fiction.
8. Have a fav quote or personal motto? Shakespeare said
"To thine own self be true," and that's how I try to live my life. If
other people don't like who you are, then they aren't people you want in your
life anyway.
9. Cats or dogs? I have both, as well as horses. Oh, and we
can't forget the wolves, deer, bears, squirrels, and myriad birds.
10. What song have you listened to most recently? "Trust
You" by Rob Thomas. I just bought the song, and while writing these
answers, I had it on repeat. It's addictive!
Full Disclosure:
1. Your top secret, uber guilty pleasure is... Movies and TV
shows where muscular men take their shirts off on a regular basis, or at least
show off their muscles by wearing tight-fitting outfits. Yes, I'm a sucker for
eye candy. Hey, I write steamy romances, so what do you expect?
2. Your oldest memory is... When I was three or four,
sitting on a swing kissing the little boy who lived next door.
3. If a character from any book could become real and you
could spend a day with them, it would be... from the book... Adam Black from The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie
Moning. He's bad, he's good, he's just so much fun.
4. The one thing that always brightens your day is...A silly
joke. Humor is the best medicine.
Thank you for hosting me on your blog!
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