Dark Sacrifice (30 page)

Mama senses me hovering. She rolls onto her backside and holds out her hands.

“Don't just stand there gawkin' like an idiot, help your mama up,” she says.

With a heavy sigh, I trudge to her side. I grit my teeth and lift her to her feet while she flops like roadkill. Upright, she lists sideways. A strong wind would blow her over. The vomit-and-stale-beer stench of her breath makes my nose crinkle when she throws her skinny arm around my shoulders.

“What you been up to today?” She tries to trail her fingers through my ponytail, but they snag on a knot I missed. She jerks her hand free, uncaring that it causes me pain since she's purposely deadened her own feelings with booze. Mama can't cope with her life without a bottle of liquor in one hand. It's like the chicken-and-the-egg question. Which came first? Was her life shitty before she became an alcoholic, or had booze made it worse? I can't see how it could be better, but maybe I'm naive, or as stupid as she always calls me.

I rub at the sting on my scalp. “Why are you home so early?”

She sways. “Can't I miss my baby girl?”

“Missing me never slowed you down before. What makes tonight any different?”

“Why you so squirrelly? You act like you don't want me here.” She pulls back far enough to look me over. “Expectin' someone or you all dressed up with nowhere to go?” She cackles, slapping her leg like she's told the funniest joke ever.

“Georgie Dubois's coming out.”

“Why? I know the deputy's not comin' to see you.”

I grit my teeth on the snappy comment that hovers on the tip of my tongue. “Found a dead girl floating in the bayou.”

Mama pulls her arm back and strikes cottonmouth quick.

I end up flat on my back with stars dancing before my eyes. My cheek burns. I blink several times, trying to clear my head, then focus in on the shadow hovering over me with clenched fists. “God damn it! Are you crazy?” I roll over and stagger to my feet. She steps forward again, fist raised.

“Don't you dare, Mama!”

“Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Or threaten me.”

“I haven't threatened,
yet
. But I swear, you hit me again, I'm out of this rat hole you call a house. I've earned enough scholarship money to move into an apartment.”

“Why you sayin' such things, Malaise?” Tears fill her eyes.

Money.
The only thing that still touches Mama's fickle heart.

“You just backhanded me, Mama! What? Do you expect me to keep turning the other cheek until you break it? Or accidentally kill me like that girl I found…”

Mama's mocha skin drops a shade, and she sucks in a breath. I don't think it has to do with any feelings of regret. No, it has to do with the girl. She hit me after she heard about George coming out for the body.

“Why do you look so scared?” Suspicion makes my voice sharp. “What did you do?”

Mama staggers toward the house.

“Don't walk away from me,” I yell. “What's going on? Georgie will be here any minute. If I've got to cover for you, then I need to know why or I might let something slip on accident.”

Mama makes it to the stairs and collapses onto the bottom step. She buries her face in her palms. Shudders wrack her body. “I need a drink, Mala. There's a bottle in my bottom drawer. Bring it out to me.”

“That's not a good idea…”

She lifts her head. Her dark brown eyes droop at the corners, and I see the faint trace of fine lines. Strangest of all, her eyes have lost the glazed, shiny appearance they held a few minutes earlier.
The news shocked her sober.

“I'm not askin' again, Malaise. Get in there if you want to hear the story.”

Angie Sandro was born at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Within six weeks, she began the first of eleven relocations throughout the United States, Spain, and Guam before the age of eighteen.

Friends were left behind. The only constants in her life were her family and the books she shipped wherever she went. Traveling the world inspired her imagination and allowed her to create her own imaginary friends. Visits to her father's family in Louisiana inspired this story.

Angie now lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, and an overweight Labrador.

“A vivid and entertaining storyteller, Sandro is an exciting new writer to watch.”

—J. A. Redmerksi,
New York Times
bestselling author

 

 

 

From rising star Angie Sandro, a steamy Southern gothic romance that will appeal to fans of
Beautiful Creatures . . .

Deep in the Louisiana bayou, Mala LaCroix cannot escape the mysterious things she's seen. Haunted by her otherworldly past, she only wants to hide her special abilities and care for the man she's come to love. But the dark swamp she calls home holds more than just Mala's secrets, for a killer is leaving behind ghosts trapped between worlds, hungry for vengeance . . .

Landry knows Mala could never turn her back on those in need. It's part of what attracts him to her. But now that he's wrestling with his own demons—and losing—he fears that just being near the woman he loves endangers her life. And that traps him in a terrible dilemma: leave Mala alone to catch a murderer by herself or stay close—and risk entangling her in the brutal battle for his very soul.

 

Beyond the limits of sight, magical beings live in the Forbidden Realm. The two worlds were once connected, but the desires of man forced their separation. Now desire may bring them back together…

Aliya is a mermaid with an obsession. Though contact with humans is strictly forbidden, she can't seem to stay away from the incredibly handsome Devin, who visits her lake night after night. Her body and soul have never before been drawn to anyone like this. Deciding that her longing for Devin is worth the risk, she goes to him. As their lust for each other deepens, Aliya grows to need his touch as much as she needs water.

Devin believed Aliya was a perfect fantasy his mind created—until the breathtaking mermaid swims to shore. Courtesy of a magical wish, Aliya is newly human, and she and Devin give in to their passion again and again. But Aliya's mortal form is only temporary. If they don't have the strength to part ways when the time comes, their illicit love could rock the balance between the realms forever…

 

 

When her best friend disappears, bioengineering student Eris Jones embarks on the quest of her life. Her search leads to a secluded estate where she experiences visions of a powerful winged creature who's transformed into a tall, dangerously sexy man at her touch. But the feel of his rock-hard abs and lean, sinewy arms tells Eris this is no dream…it's real.

Niko Drakon is dangerous and he knows it. When the call to mate is too strong, he has no choice but to lock himself away in his basement safe room. Otherwise, people get hurt. The moment Eris walks into his home, nothing can keep him from claiming her. However, she could also be the key to bringing down the dragons' greatest enemy, which leaves Niko with a devastating choice: keep Eris for himself or lose her to the cause he's served for most of his life…

 

 

Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past—and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she'll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.

Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He's never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime…or if they were meant to live a world apart.

 

 

Flirting with danger is reporter Grace Grainger's modus operandi. But she's learned the hard way not to grow attached to the soldiers she's embedded with in Afghanistan. To escape from her pain and loneliness, she fantasizes about the hot night she spent with a gorgeous stranger three years before in D.C. Grace never thought she'd see him again—let alone need him to rescue her…

Air Force Master Sergeant Josh Travers knows journalists are nothing but trouble. So when he has to risk the lives of his team to save some reporter who's been separated from her patrol, he's not happy—until he recognizes her stunning eyes and delicious curves. Josh has never wanted a woman like he wants Grace. Even in an Afghan cave with a sandstorm and enemy troops closing in, he can't deny the desire. This might be the end for both of them—or one hell of a beginning.