For this past week I’ve hosted an excerpt from each story in the Sensational Six Box set. If you’ve been following along, and you read those excerpts and comment on them, you have a chance to win your choice of book from my Backlist (Includes print books if available! Print books will only be shipped to North America) or a $10 GC from either All Romance eBooks or Amazon. TO be entered in the draw, all you have to do is simply say something in any of the posts comments this week. Ask the author a question, leave a comment, on their story, or simply say hi.
I’ve been running this all week, and the winner will be announced here on Sunday, December 6th. You’ll have 48 hours to claim your prize or I’ll pick another winner.Today is your last day to enter.
The Night Beat Promo and Excerpt
The majority of Prosaic City’s residents don’t know that their town exists on top of another place — Necropolis, City of the Undead. For the most part, the two planes of existence manage to remain separate. And when they don’t, Necropolis Enforcement has beings in place to ensure the general human population remains blithely clueless.
Victoria Wolfe is more than just a policewoman. She’s an undercover werewolf assigned by Necropolis Enforcement to work Prosaic City Police’s Night Beat. Victoria’s comfortable working the shift where all the weird comes out to play, especially since her partner is also her perfect man. Or would be, if Victoria could ever work up the nerve to tell him she isn’t like other girls.
It’s hard enough being a werewolf in disguise, but when a creature from the Depths of Hell shows up in an alley preferred by junkies, bums, and hookers, it’s going to take more than just Victoria’s special gun and werewolf skills to subdue the ancient Sumerian demon. Especially when the demon is merely the start of what appears to be a major takeover attempt by the Prince of Darkness.
Soon all of Necropolis Enforcement’s Undead Brigade is involved in the fight to stop the Prince’s Major Minions from taking over Prosaic City and the rest of the human plane. But it’s Victoria who has to face the Adversary and figure out what intricate plan Lucifer has up his wings before everyone she cares about is destroyed.
In other words, it’s just another day on the Night Beat.
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
We pulled up to the scene of the crime. Such as it was. An alleyway in downtown, filled with trashcans and darkness.
“What do you think?” Jack asked as we got out of the ugly sedan that was supposed to fool the criminal class into thinking we weren’t undercover cops. So far as I could tell, it had never worked in the history of law enforcement, but we kept on perpetrating the illusion.
I looked around. There was an amazing lack of activity. There was also a lack of anything that looked even slightly crime-like. Not that this meant anything. “See, that’s what I love about you. We haven’t even taken a look at the crime scene, and you’re already asking me what I think about it.”
He shrugged. “You have good instincts.”
Yeah, if he only knew. Then again, I didn’t want him to know.
I sniffed. “Something smells awful.”
Jack pointed. “Well, those overflowing trashcans might be the stench culprit. Can your tender senses take it? Don’t want you fainting on me again.”
“Like you didn’t love it.”
He grinned. “Yeah, well, I’ll admit getting to act all heroic was kind of fun. But, damn, you come out of a faint nasty.”
Jack had been lucky I’d come out of the faint feeling sick, not hungry. Then again, I was lucky, too. Good partners are hard to come by. Good-looking ones who are also single and might, possibly, one day be interested in a high-excitement relationship were as rare as virgin groupies. Which, per some of my friends, meant very rare to potentially extinct.
I shook myself to get my mind back on the matter at hand. What I’d smelled wasn’t trash. “Why are we alone here?”
“No idea.” Jack pulled his gun as he reached into the car to grab the radio. “Darlene, this is Detective Wagner. Weren’t we supposed to have a couple black and whites here?”
The radio crackled. “Yes. Two cars, four uniformed officers.” Darlene sounded mildly worried. I was already past that.
I sniffed again. I didn’t smell anything living, though the trash could be interfering. But the stench I was picking up wasn’t trash, and the odds of anyone alive being in this alley were slim moving to none. I moved into the alley slowly, all senses on the alert.
“Victoria, get your damn gun at the ready!” Jack didn’t make it sound like a suggestion.
He was right, and I knew it. But I took out the special gun I kept at the small of my back. It was smaller, but the projectiles were more effective. I sniffed the trash bins as I went by. I also activated my wrist-com. I was far enough away from Jack that he wouldn’t hear. “This is W-W-One-Eight-One-Niner.”
“Good evening, Agent Wolfe.” The Count’s voice was silky as always. He had unperturbed down to an art form. In all the years I’d known and worked for him, he’d never once lost his cool. “Status?”
“Four uniforms and two squad cars missing. Downtown alley, loaded with trashcans and stink. Special stink.”
“We have so many varieties of special stink, Agent Wolfe. Truly, make a selection and advise.”
“Snacked on the uniforms as appetizers and ate the cars for roughage kind of stink.”
“Ah. Do you require backup?”
“Ya think? It’s just me and my partner here. My human partner.”
“Yes, the human partner you pant after.”
“Funny. The human partner I want to both keep alive and keep in the dark. I’d like to see the sunrise, too.”
The Count sighed. “It’s overrated. Fine. Aerial support on the way. Underground support already activated by Agent Goode.”
Good old Monty. I thanked the Gods and Monsters for his rebel attitude. He didn’t like to follow orders but he was all over following me. He said I always landed the best cases. If his parts didn’t fall off on a regular basis, we might be an item.
“Great news.” I was at the end of the alley. No more trashcans, no sign of anything. Murky darkness in front of me. I pointed my gun into the center of it. “This is Prosaic City Police, drop your weapons, put your hands up, and come out slowly.”
No movement, no noise. No surprise. I sighed. I couldn’t risk a look over my shoulder. I hoped Jack was still at the other end of the alley, covering me. “Fine, have it your way. This is Necropolis Enforcement. Drop any non-organic weapons, put your arms, flippers, claws, tentacles, or any other extremities up, and walk, slither, stomp, crawl, et cetera, out of the darkness or be exterminated with extreme prejudice.”
The murky darkness started boiling up and moving. It was still murky and dark, but it was forming into a shape. I stared at it as the hair on the back of my neck started to rise. My nails extended and so did my teeth. Some things you can’t stop, even if you want to. Fight or flight is in every living being that’s got mobility. And even beings like me have a fear of the dark, the old dark, built into us.
“Count?”
“Yes?”
“We are in so much trouble.”
Chapter 2
“Jack, stay back and take cover!”
I heard him shouting for backup. Great idea, but not under these circumstances. I tried to figure out how to tell him to belay that without explaining why, while at the same time backing slowly to keep out of reach of the monster in front of me.
The sound of large wings floated on the wind and I wasn’t alone any more. “Vic, what’s up?”
“Um, Amanda, I thought vamps had the best night vision and all that.”
“I was just being casual and human-like in my form of greeting.” Amanda Darling was both a vampire and my best friend. She was older than me and sometimes had trouble letting go of the old-speak. “I can see what’s in front of us. Unfortunately.”
Someone behind me snorted. “She’s so cute, isn’t she? Pathetic, but cute.” Maurice swished into view. He didn’t have to swish, but he really enjoyed it. Unlike his sister, Maurice adapted to whatever age and mores he was in without a blink or a twitch. We all envied and hated him for that ability. “What have we here? A big, manly slime monster from the bowels of the earth? I’m all a-flutter.”
“You know, Maurice, a gay vampire is so clichéd.”
“But, Vicki, I do it so well.” Maurice and Amanda looked alike. That was it in terms of proof of real blood ties. Then again, for our kind, blood ties were made as easily as born.
The slime monster was undulating. I didn’t think that boded well for us. “Someone needs to distract Jack.”
“Ooooh, I will!” Maurice said. “He’s so tall, dark and handsome.”
Amanda and I risked it and exchanged the “he’s such a jerk” look. “Maurice, Jack’s straight,” she said. “And he’s Vic’s.”
“Not yet,” another male voice said. Ken Colt was one of the younger vamps, but he was a natural. He did the whole turning to mist and hover invisibly thing as easily as breathing. Easier, all things considered. “But I agree, the human needs to be distracted. Who do you want to do it, Vic?”
“You.” Ken wasn’t gay, wasn’t female, and Jack knew him. He knew him as my ex-boyfriend, but that wasn’t important now.
Ken sighed. “Figures. Jealous to get you back or just chat sports?”
“Whatever, Ken. Kind of busy here.”
“Doing nothing. Fine, fine, going off to distract and protect the human. I think I’m going with mind-control, though. We want all those human snacks sent back to police headquarters.”
“Good, good. Carry on.” The slime monster was forming tentacles. “Count, we’re going from bad to worse.”
“Slime monsters are difficult, Agent Wolfe, but hardly worth the panic in your voice.”
“How about something that looks like a slime monster, but isn’t. You know, something with tentacles and no face and that sort of fun thing?”
“Ah. How big?”
“Pretty damned.” Amanda and I said that together. Because it was growing.
“I think we need to call in H.P.,” Maurice said in a small voice. Maurice didn’t scare easily.
The Count sighed. “The professor is resting.”
“This is his area and we’re not equipped for this,” I snapped. “Slimy here has eaten four of Prosaic City’s finest, eaten two of our snazzy squad cars and, most likely, several bums, hookers, and drug dealers. For all I know he has some pigeons in there, too.”
“Rousing the professor now. He’ll be to you shortly.”
“What about Edgar?” Amanda asked.
“Not his forte,” Maurice said dismissively. “He’s better with the human side of things.” This was true.
The slime monster that was more than a mere slime monster continued to form. I continued to shift into full attack form. Nails an inch long and razor sharp? Check. Fangs ready to rip and tear? Double-check. Eyes and ears altered to see and hear better? You got it. Damned fur all over my body, doubling as camouflage and protection? Sure. Problem was, in this day and age, fur wasn’t camouflage any more. Fur was a sign you were odd at best, and a werewolf at worst.
I was both. I was also out of options. The monster finished forming. It was twelve feet tall if it was an inch, and almost as broad as the alley. I aimed for what was likely either its head or its main organ area and fired.
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Gini Koch: The Night Beat, Necropolis Enforcement Files #1
It’s time to kick icky butt and take unpronounceable names… A routine patrol for undercover cop and werewolf Victoria Wolfe turns into an epic battle between the undead forces of good against the Prince of Darkness’ most powerful lieutenants and his Army of Evil — the outcome of which is dependent upon Victoria’s abilities to guess what plan fallen angel Lucifer set in motion centuries earlier.
Gini Koch writes the bestselling fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she’s made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch. Buy her books — her meds don’t come free, you know. You can reach Gini via her website: www.ginikoch.com
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Can’t wait for Night Music!