I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the BLOOD AND FIRE by Kim Mullican Blog
Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours.
Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Author: Kim Mullican
Pub. Date: January 17, 2022
Publisher: Syn Publishing
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 161
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle
Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited Membership!
I am Maia Delacroix and I hunt people
and relics. My life does not lack excitement or danger. I have it in spades.
Then the Mageri surprised me with an orphan...yes, an orphan. I can’t even keep
a house plant alive, let alone a kid. It turns out that I’m her only living
relative, and even though we’ve never met, I’m her only hope. Great. Can I feed
her after midnight? What does she eat? I have no idea what I’m doing.
They tell me this little witchling will need care for a few years until she
comes of age. The bizarre fire leaking out of Elaina’s hands is a pretty good
indicator that she is no witch.
Then the coven comes—they want her back. Necromancers show up, turning my
vampire friends into enemies. If that isn’t bad enough, I have a demon problem
now too.
Join me, and see if we can make it out alive!
Book Trailer:
Excerpt:
“She
was beautiful, wasn’t she?” Maia asked, scaring the crap out of me.
As
my heart tried to resettle in my chest, I grabbed the framed photo from her to
look. “Wow, you look like you could be sisters. You have all of her features
except maybe the chin. She was a beautiful woman. Elaina, do you know where the
leader of your mother’s coven lives?”
She
nodded. “I know the address.”
“How
much packing will you actually need to do?”
She
shrugged and looked around. “It shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”
“I
have a proposal for you, but I want you to hear me out.” I pulled a chair out
for her. “Have a seat.”
She
sat, and I reclaimed my chair. “I’m going to go question the witch. At first, I
considered leaving you here. But I think you can actually help.”
Elaina’s
eyes widened as her head bobbed up and down. “How can I help?”
“Well,
how good of an actress are you?”
“I
have no idea.”
I
shook my head. “Can you lie?”
Her
face reddened. “If I have to.”
“Good,
I’m going to try to goad that old witch into telling me something about your
mom and her death. She likely won’t want to say it around you, or she’ll have
others there to try to keep us from seeing her. I need you to be the
distraction. Throw a toddler’s tantrum if you have to. But I need to see that old
tall lady. The one who was in charge. She has answers.”
Elaina’s
face brightened. “Only if you promise to tell me everything. I want to know
everything if I have to leave the room or whatever.”
“Deal.”
I grinned. “I was also thinking that maybe we can crash here tonight. You know,
give you one last night here before you leave. If you want to, that is.”
“I’d
like that,” she said quietly.
“Okay
then. Let’s go interrogate a witch.”
Elaina
gave me the address. I set the GPS on my phone and we drove in silence for a
while. We were in the middle of bumfucked nowhere, Indiana. It looked like we
were headed to a decent sized town though.
She
was practically bouncing in her seat.
“We
have to play this right,” I said. “I’m going to be myself. Usually when on the
hunt, I’m rather aggressive. You are the poor little orphaned girl.” When she
looked incredulous, I held up my hand. “I’m saying you need to play that up.
Pull at heart strings. She was a member of their coven. Someone has to have
some compassion. If you have to, cry. That should be easy, you’ve been through
enough shit this week.”
“The
challenge isn’t crying...it’s trying not to cry,” she admitted.
When
we pulled up to the house, I hopped out of the truck and slammed the door. I
stomped up the sidewalk and pounded on the door. “Open up!” I yelled.
A
neighbor lady rounded her house. “Excuse me, Miss?”
“Yeah?”
I barked, noticing Elaina standing behind me with her arms crossed over her
chest.
“She’s
not there. She has meetings Tuesday evenings.” The older woman was using a
walker, which made me feel like shit.
“Thank
you, ma’am. I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”
As
we climbed back in the truck, Elaina said, “I know where the coven house is.
It’s where they meet. A few witchlings live there. It’s where I was kept after
she was killed. Go straight.”
Elaina’s
voice had changed. She sounded...angry and determined.
I
followed her directions until we came to a large Victorian house. Several cars
were parked out front. I lifted my chin and concentrated on my inner light.
Witches were more dangerous in groups.
Repeating
my earlier performance, I bailed from the truck, slamming my door. I took
purposeful, heavy steps to the house. When I went to pound my fist on the door,
it opened. A witch of about thirty stood there. She had long blond hair that
fell in loose curls. “Miss Delacroix, please come in.”
Determined
not to let the woman disarm me with her pleasant smile, I moved forward like a
raging bull. “Where’s the witch in charge?”
“High
Priestess,” the lady corrected, “that’s what we call her. She’s indisposed at
the moment.”
She
turned to Elaina, “How are you doing, dear?”
“I’m
okay, Cindy. Thanks for asking. Can we see Charlene, please?”
Elaina
was doing an excellent job looking like the poor little orphan.
Cindy
chewed her lip. “Why don’t we go to the sitting room? I will see what I can
do.”
When
we were ushered into the sitting room, I chose to stand. Cindy poured a cup of
tea for herself. “Tea?” she offered.
“Cut
the shit, Cindy. I want to see your High Priestess. Now. I didn’t take a
twelve-hour drive to be avoided.”
She
cleared her throat. “Yes, of course.” She left the two of us and went somewhere
in the house.
“Ready?”
I whispered.
Elaina
nodded.
“What’s
the bitch’s name again?” I asked.
“Charlene,”
she said.
I
inhaled a deep lung full of air and yelled, “Charlene!” Then I started storming
through the house. I used a bit of magic to amplify my voice with the next
bellow. “Oh, Charleeeeene. Come on out, you old witch. I have questions for
you.”
Elaina
covered her ears. “Holy crap. How do you do that?”
“I
know you’re here,” I yelled, amplifying my voice louder. “And I know you can
hear me.”
“China
can hear you,” the old biddy said as she came from the hall. “Lower your voice.
We have witches trying to study.”
I
smiled. “Let’s have a chat.”
She
shook her head at me. “In the study. How are you, Elaina? Are you eating
enough, dear?”
“Yes,
ma’am.” Elaina sounded sheepish. Perfect.
We
entered a room with a large wooden desk, the kind you might see in a
professor’s office. It had ornately carved legs and a thick solid top. Shelves
lined every wall, filled with books, scrolls, and jars full of herbs. She
closed the door behind her.
“Next
time you want to visit, please call ahead. We are doing important work here.”
The old woman tried to scold me.
“I
want to know how, exactly, Elaina’s mother was killed. Your story doesn’t add
up, and Elaina wants answers. She deserves them.” I clasped my hands behind my
back and began gathering energy. I had a feeling I needed to be on guard.
She
pursed her wrinkled old lips. “I told you already. A demon killed her.”
“In
order for a demon to have killed her, it had to be a higher demon. A witch
simply doesn’t have enough power, all on her lonesome, to call a higher demon.
So again, I call bullshit. How did she die?”
The
High Priestess, Charlene, sighed. “Elaina, won’t you be a dear and visit with
Cindy in the sitting room while your guardian and I have a chat?”
“Okay,”
she said softly.
Once
the door was closed, I stepped closer. “Start talking.”
“I
can’t see why the Authority thinks you, of all people, are a good option for
that young girl. You have the manners of a bull, you dress like you’re on the
way to some godforsaken rock concert, and your language is abhorrent.” She
eased herself in a chair behind the desk. “Elaina’s mother was starting to
practice black magic. I’d heard whispers about it a few years ago. Witches can
be catty, so I tend not to pay much attention to gossip. But when the others
started to distance themselves, I took the rumors more seriously.” She pursed
her wrinkled old lips.
“She
still could not have summoned a higher demon, even with black magic. And, as I
told one of your other witches, there’s no such thing as black magic. It’s all
just magic.”
The
woman pointed to a shelf behind me. “Third shelf from the bottom. The book with
the eye on the spine. Bring it to me.”
I
wanted to tell her to get off her decrepit ass and get it herself. In the
interest of time, I pulled the book off the shelf and walked it to the desk. I
put it down and stepped back.
She
slid the book to her and opened it. After flipping through a few pages, she
spun the book back to me.
I
looked down and was immediately frozen in place. Shit...I couldn’t move. The
page was moving, like water. It rippled.
“Foolish mage,” she growled. “You think because you’re a mage that you’re stronger than me? I’ve been around for almost a century. I’ve studied my craft, acquired spells. While you were looking for this book, I cast a binding spell on you. I could slit your throat, take my time doing it, and you couldn’t do a thing to stop me.”
About Kim Mullican:
Kim Mullican is an international woman of mystery and mayhem. As an ex-CIA operative and former Navy Seal, she’s toured the world slaying the doers of dastardly deeds. Following her brief time with the government, she pursued a lucrative career as a full-time stand-up comic and part-time assassin. Bored with that endeavor she applied to be a ninja but was turned down due to her overall paleness and lack of athleticism.
This fallacious bio must be forgiven, of course. Because she’s actually a fictional author with a wild imagination.
In reality, she writes, farms, and ingests copious amounts of
Starbucks...brewed at the home of course. Five bucks for a cup of joe...fucking
not!
Kim pens romance under the name Anita Cox.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Giveaway Details:
1 Winner will receive a Kindle with built in light, US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
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2/14/2022 |
Kickoff
Post |
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2/15/2022 |
IG
Post |
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2/16/2022 |
Guest
Post/IG Post |
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2/17/2022 |
Guest
Post |
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2/18/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
Week Two:
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2/21/2022 |
Review |
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2/22/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
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2/23/2022 |
Review |
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2/24/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
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2/25/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
Week Three:
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2/28/2022 |
Review/IG
Post/TikTok Post |
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3/1/2022 |
Guest
Post |
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3/2/2022 |
Review |
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3/3/2022 |
Review |
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3/4/2022 |
Guest
Post/IG Post |
Week Four:
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3/7/2022 |
Guest
Post/IG Post |
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3/8/2022 |
Guest
Post/IG Post |
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3/9/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
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3/10/2022 |
Guest
Post |
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3/11/2022 |
Review/IG
Post |
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