QSFer Martha J. Allard has a new paranormal MM romance book out: “Speak My Name.”
Before time began, Frank was an Angel who followed his beloved Lucifer into battle. They were defeated, Frank lost his wings and was cast downward. He’s been falling ever since. Now he’s the sole tender of Darks, a bar at the edge of reality that is owned by hell. He longs for the company of his brother demons, the scorch of Lucifer’s heat. Instead he spends his nights serving drinks, tempting souls. Every night that passes is the same night. Each human that stumbles in is the same. Lost. Desperate.
Mica is neither of those things. Human, but able to see through Frank to all his true forms. Mica seems sure of what he wants; not a savior, not an annihilator of souls. He wants Frank.
But Frank is still tethered to Lucifer and Hell, and he knows that demons are made for destruction, torment, not love. Until Mica touches him, he’s never wanted for more. For Frank to find the humanity he needs to return Mica’s love, he must travel back to the depths of hell to break the bond Lucifer set in his heart. But when he gets there, Lucifer has already released Frank. Now his attention is fixed on Mica’s soul.
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Excerpt
I kissed Lucifer’s cracked lips, tasting burnt flesh, blood, and nothing of my Dark Master left. Now there was only cruelty, evil, pain. I forced his mouth open, searching for Mica’s green-leaf soul within the wreckage. He cried out again, and the soul shifted. It came to me gladly, and I pulled harder on Lucifer’s mouth, his wail piteous as it passed into me. Something in me wanted to relent.
I lowered him back to the rock floor of the cavern, knowing I couldn’t. Lucifer had truly brought it on himself. I looked down at the demon-fetus that convulsed back in on itself at my feet. There would never be another war in Heaven. Lucifer was never going to be more that what he was now. He would never even regain what he had been.
“If you leave me now you can’t come home.” Lucifer ground out. “I won’t…”“Hell’s not my home anymore.” I shook my head. I left the cavern, feeling the soft touch of Mica behind my collarbone
Author Bio
Martha J Allard is a writer of contemporary and dark fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines like “Talebones” and “Not One of Us.” Her story “Dust” won an honorable mention in “Year’s Best Science Fiction,” 19th edition, edited by Gardener Dozois and her story,”Phase” was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award.
She was the editor of “Nice Tattoo, the Magazine of Shadow Fiction,” and co-editor of the short story collection “Out Of The Green, Tales From Fairyland.” Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies “Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect” and “Deaths Garden.”
Her novel, “Black Light” is a tale of love, sacrifice and rock and roll in the 1980’s. Her short story collection, “Psychic Surgery” is about love and magic in unexpected places. Look for the “Black Light” prequel, “Your Cruel Fingers Will Close My Eyes,” soon.
You can find her at marthajallard.com.