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Today’s theme is near death experience. I’ve chosen to share an exerpt from my second book in The Jaguar Warrior Series, HIS DARKEST EMBRACE. In this particular scene Skye and Jagger are attacked by one of Jagger’s old enemies and yet the demon Tag has an agenda all his own.

Please be sure to click on the links to the other authors participating this week! They’re located at teh end of this excerpt.

“A demon’s kiss is something everyone should experience at least once in a lifetime.” Its wide mouth opened and the serrated teeth hung heavy in menacingly dangerous rows. They dripped with something akin to saliva, but the liquid was brownish in color.
Skye’s eyes singled in on a drop that clung to the teeth precariously and when it fell away, toward her, she closed her eyes in revulsion, only to cry out in pain as the liquid slid across her cheek.
The burn was intense, the pain sharp, searing.
Skye began to buck wildly, her arms flailing out and when her hand clamped down upon a rock she picked it up, and threw it with all her might at the demon’s head.
It roared in anger and swung its fist toward her, striking her back with an equally vicious blow.
Skye screamed in fury, frustration and plain old fear. Her cheek was on fire and her calf felt like there were a thousand shards of glass ripping through it.
The demon began to lower its head and for that one brief second, Skye could honestly say, she’d never been more terrified in her entire life. It was all encompassing. Immobilizing.
Frantically she clawed at it, trying to arch away but it was no use. Even with her enhanced strength the demon was much too strong.
When its mouth closed over hers, Skye nearly lost her mind. The terror that ripped through her was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
The demon moaned into her and went still, but the pull that Skye felt deep inside of her intensified. Her skull was on fire and her head pounded. It felt like her very soul was being ripped from her body and the cold that seeped into her veins was sharp, as if she’d been dipped into to the deepest, most frigid part of the Atlantic ocean.
It was liquid ice.
She struggled still, but Skye’s vision began to blur and even though she fought like hell, she began to lose hope.
A god awful cry ripped across the darkness that had entombed her and Skye’s eyes flew open. The cry had come from inside her mind and she knew without a doubt, who it belonged to.
Azaiel.
The demon, Tag, broke away and looked down at her. The fear that hung on its distorted features caught at her.
“I knew not…” The demon mumbled, confused and deathly afraid. It then made a series of choking noises, as if it were being strangled from the inside out. Its body began to shake violently and then it collapsed on top of her.
The weight very nearly crushed her and it was all Skye could do to push the body off of her. She rolled to the side, coughing, shivering and feeling like she’d just died. Dully her eyes landed on Jagger, still in animal form, his jaguar panting from exertion.
At his feet lay the limp body of the female vampire. From what she could see through the thick haze of fog that was slowly descending upon her, the vampire’s head had been nearly torn from its body.
Skye was afraid of losing consciousness. Afraid that the demons kiss would claim her, destroy her. Funny, considering where she was going to end up when she finally sealed the portal.
If she sealed the portal.
The feeling of sadness that washed over her brought tears to her eyes and she struggled to see through them, to focus on Jagger.
The cat jumped over Dani’s body as the mist claimed it and it was Jagger himself that knelt over her. His hands touched her face, fell to her chest and then to the rest of her body.
“Why the fuck didn’t you leave?” His words were laden with a pain she’d never felt before.
His whispered words tore through her and if she could, Skye would have done anything to ease his burden.
She stared up into eyes full of pain. They shimmered as the last of his jaguar left his body, the bright green orbs, now solemn and dark.
“I can’t…” The words came haltingly, “shift after dusk.”
Jagger cradled her closer, shaking his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked.
Skye closed her eyes and whispered simply, “I didn’t trust you.”
“Of course you didn’t. Why the hell would you?” Jagger’s voice rose and she flinched, though it went unnoticed as his anger kept pace. “Jaguars have been killing your kind for eons.”
He paused then. “How did you?” His eyes fell to the demon at her side, its innards exposed as sulfuric smoke escaped from every orifice. She could tell he was as confused as she was, but when Skye opened her mouth to answer, no words came out.
Her body was so cold and she began to shiver uncontrollably, her teeth chattering against each other in a relentless rhythm. Her stomach was rolling, her head light.
When the seizure hit it was all she could do to keep her sanity.
Jagger shoved his finger down her mouth in an attempt to clear her airway and turned her onto her side. She struggled to breathe through the attack and the panic that punched her hard in the gut.
Was this the end? Is this what it felt like to die by a demons hand?
The cold whisper that wove its way through her body left every single cell aching and on fire with pain.
Her eyes rolled up and away and then she saw nothing.
The only witness to the large man, cradling the shaking woman was a lone wailer monkey that had made its way up from the canopy below. It had been attracted to the violence and dark energy in the air.
It paused, raised itself up on its back legs and then slowly slipped into the night leaving Skye halfway between the dark and the light.
And a jaguar warrior, a man with no religious conviction at all, left holding her tightly, a prayer falling from his lips, the only sound to greet the now silent jungle.

Moira Rogers
Ashley Ladd
Anya Bast
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro
Eliza Gayle
Victoria Janssen
TJ Michaels