TSK, TSK, What to Read?: End of Darkness by Jamie Rush

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

End of Darkness by Jamie Rush

Feel the Rush of the Offspring!

(Paranormal Romantic Suspense/Romantic Urban Fantasy/Supernatural Romance)

A group of twenty-somethings live ordinary lives but possess extraordinary psychic abilities. They are the Offspring of parents involved in a mysterious experiment gone awry. Sexy...dangerous...outcasts... They are being hunted by the government and others like them. Together they must find the truth and fight an enemy out to destroy them.

END OF DARKNESS: The dark energy that infects Magnus McLeod's soul draws him to an Arizona town in crisis—and a woman with a dangerous ability of her own. Erica Evrard isn't afraid of much, but suddenly she has much to fear. Like Magnus, whose noble heart brings her to life even as his Darkness could kill her. And the group of supernatural humans whose evil plans threaten the lives of an entire town.

I'm so glad you've come to visit. So you want to know a little more about me? I am the daughter of an exiled king, living a life of both luxury and danger. While ensconced in our palace in our adopted land of Romania, we must be ever-vigilant of the dark forces that expunged us from the beautiful and sacred land that was once called Eden.You can tell I write fiction, right? I wish I could say that I was an airline pilot or a former spy or something exciting, but my life has been pretty ordinary. My mom likes to assure people that I had a nice, happy, stable childhood in her defense of the fact that I kill people for a living. On paper, of course. Since I was a kid, I devoured books on unexplained mysteries and psychic phenomena. I knew I would be published, marry a fabulous guy, and win a Toyota Supra. Missing the romance, drama, and action of my favorite television shows, X-Files, Roswell, and Highlander, I created my own mix in the Offspring series (HarperCollins). A PERFECT DARKNESS (RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award Winner) kicked off my paranormal romantic suspense series.

The Offspring series is about a group of twenty-something who live ordinary lives but possess extraordinary psychic abilities. They are the Offspring of parents involved in a mysterious experiment gone awry. Sexy...dangerous...outcasts... They are being hunted by the government and others like them. Together they must find the truth and fight an enemy out to destroy them. Though the books are part of a series, I've tried to make them as stand-alone as possible. In particular, BURNING DARKNESS, BEYOND THE DARKNESS, and DARKNESS BECOMES HER jump off from the main arc of the first three books. I also have two spin-off novellas, DARKNESS WITHIN and TURN TO DARKNESS. And final book of the series, END OF DARKNESS, will be out January 2013 in ebook format.

I also have an alter ego. Jaime Rush is a pseudonym for Tina Wainscott, my real name. As Tina, I wrote 18 books for St. Martin's Press and Harlequin, some of which have won Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart award, the Maggie, and RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Awards. I am in the process of bringing out many of these books as e-books under Tina Wainscott!

“Her father is from the other dimension. And she was even more special. She held Darkness. So did the man who turned to beast. In the parallel dimension, they aren’t allowed to express their emotions, so they repress them. All those emotions accumulated into this mass of energy called Darkness. Jessie's father and uncle tapped into it and drew it into their bodies. They could channel it to change into an animal of sorts. As you saw.”

“I saw, all right. But why are you still looking at me like I've lost a limb?”

Lachlan's jaw tensed. “The price of Jessie's healing was that she had to infuse Darkness into you. I told her to do it. I made the choice.”

Something inside Magnus went numb as Lachlan's words sank in. “So that…beast is in me?” That had to be the heaviness he felt.

“You can choose what form it takes by focusing on a particular animal. Jessie's dad will work with you. You have to learn to control Darkness, or it’ll take you over.”

“Bloody great.”

Magnus pulled himself to the side of the bed and tested his weight. His legs were shaky. Lachlan moved closer, hands out to steady him. Magnus used the headboard to stand. “Where is Jessie?” At Lachlan’s ever-darkening expression, his chest tightened. “I need to see her.” That need raged through him, making him want to start tearing furniture apart until someone brought her to him.

Lachlan drove his fingers back through hair much shorter and neater than Magnus had ever seen it. “You can't. Darkness has other side effects. It can make you volatile when you experience high emotions. And it makes you possessive and madly jealous to the point of being deadly to anyone you see as a rival to the woman you feel is yours.”

“I don’t feel she’s mine.” They hadn't even kissed, but he did feel…oddly possessive, aye. “It's just that I've spent days of unconsciousness caught in a loop of those last several minutes with her.”

Lachlan shifted from one foot to the other. “She's at Sanctuary.” Their family compound in the woods.

Magnus knew that nervous shift. He’d seen it whenever Lachlan was about to admit he’d broken something, like the time he'd put a ding on Magnus’s sword when they were lads. “Out with it, Locky. What aren't you telling me?”