Teaser/Excerpt from THE REIGN OF DARKNESS

For my Game of Thrones fans. 😉

Excerpt:

“You…want to be my date to a wedding?” Rose sputtered, her eyes wide.

Kara faced away from Rose as she finished getting dressed. “You’ll need protection.”

“I can kill people with my mind,” Rose muttered. “I can protect myself.”

Kara turned toward her. “Do you not want me as your date, Rose?”

“Of course I do,” Rose said. “I just didn’t think you’d want to come.”

Kara strode toward her with sure, purposeful steps, and Rose took a step back, startled, as Kara invaded her space. But Kara just smiled and reached past Rose, snatching up the weapon belt from the bed. “Why?” Kara said. Her black and blue hair fell over one shoulder as she tilted her head to the side, lifting her eyebrows at Rose. “Because I’m scared of commitment and emotional intimacy?”

Rose stepped back, wincing a little. “I…never said that.”

Kara just shrugged. “You didn’t have to.”

Rose sighed, “Okay.” She straightened, blushing, as she asked, “Kara, will you be my date? At a weird wedding. In a weird place. With weird people.”

Kara crossed her arms, her intense, light blue eyes flashing with mischief. “Rose, you just insulted me. You’ll have to be more persuasive than that.”

Rose blinked in shock. “Umm…”

Kara laughed, “I’m kidding! Just let me grab some weapons.”

“Yep,” Rose mumbled, watching as Kara returned to the dresser, where she’d left all of her weapons. “I’m sure that’s what everyone says before a date.”

Kara glanced back at Rose. “How many weapons do you have?”

“I have my dagger. So, one,” Rose said. “Two, if you count telekinesis.”

Kara laughed, “Your telekinesis counts as like fifteen weapons by itself.”

“Oh,” Rose said. “Well, sixteen, then.”

Kara grabbed a few extra daggers. “You’ll need more.”

“More than sixteen?” Rose asked incredulously. “For a wedding?”

Kara held out a handful of regular-sized daggers. “Here. Take these.”

“Ooh, like flowers. Except sharper,” Rose said dryly. “You know, Kara, I think they just want us to attend the wedding. Not kill the wedding party.”

Kara shrugged one shoulder. “I’m always prepared to kill someone.”

“Not sure that’s a good thing, but okay,” Rose said under her breath. She sighed, “I don’t even know why they want me there. I don’t know these people.”

“Well, they know you,” Kara told her.

“No,” Rose corrected, as she shoved Kara’s daggers into her backpack—because where else was she going to put them? “They don’t know me. They’ve never met me. They just know someone who has glowing, red eyes and godlike power.”

Kara turned toward her, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s you.”

Rose shrugged. “They say that, at any given time, there are seven people in the world who look exactly like you. Maybe there are others who fit the description.”

“You think there are seven people in the world with eyes that glow red, and the power to do pretty much anything they want with their minds?” Kara said.

Rose shrugged—with a little less confidence this time. “Maybe?”

“No,” Kara said simply. “If there were anyone else in the world like you, they’d already be dead. Because I would have killed them. On Aaron’s orders.”

“You didn’t kill me,” Rose pointed out.

“Because we needed your help with Alana,” Kara said easily.

Rose gave her a skeptical look. “That’s the only reason?”

Kara’s icy blue gaze shifted toward Rose. “I’m just saying,” she said, her lips curving, “if you take away Alana, the war, the impending apocalypse, and all of those odd, little things you did that made me fall in love with you, you have a totally different situation. I would’ve sliced off your head and been done with it.”

Rose frowned. “You just slipped a declaration of love inside a speech about decapitating me, and you call me odd?”

Kara stepped closer to Rose, her light blue eyes sparkling. “And for the record, nothing scares me,” Kara said with a smile. “Not even weddings.”

“Clearly, you haven’t read anything by George R.R. Martin,” Rose muttered.

from my upcoming book, The Reign of Darkness

Book Four of the Creatures of Darkness series

© Britney Jackson

…Or Not 😂

I know I said that the last teaser was the last teaser, but…

Total accident, I swear. 😁

Excerpt:

Isaac’s lip curled in disgust. “You know exactly why I don’t like him.”

Aaron exhaled slowly. “Yes,” he began calmly, “but I refuse to acknowledge that as an actual reason…since it’s not!” He’d yelled that last word so suddenly that Isaac immediately took a step back, startled. Aaron took a deep breath and continued in a calmer tone, “I am way too old and way too homicidal to deal with your ignorance, so for your own sake, stop annoying me.”

Rose frowned worriedly. “He’s going to kill him by the end of the week, isn’t he?”

“I really hope so,” Kara muttered. When she noticed the look that Rose was giving her, she shrugged. “What?”

from my upcoming book, The Assassins of Light,

Book Three of the Creatures of Darkness series.

© Britney Jackson

Celebratory Teaser

I’m about 75% finished with the first draft of The Assassins of Light, so, to celebrate, here’s a new teaser! ❤️❤️❤️

(Well, I made it a few weeks ago and never shared it. So, new-ish. 😂)

Talulah moved closer to Rose—close enough that the warmth of her body alleviated some of the cold seeping into Rose’s skin. Rose watched the intimidating vampire warily as she leaned closer, one of the long braids in her hair brushing Rose’s arm. “I don’t mean to speak ill of your lover,” she began.

“Then, you probably shouldn’t say whatever you’re about to say,” Rose muttered.

Talulah continued, “But I’ve known her for hundreds of years. And she’s an amazing asset—with her unique skills and influence—but I’d never trust her.”

Rose scanned the crowd of vampires, looking for Elise or Tom or Erik or…literally anyone who could save her from this deceptively polite interrogation.

“The truth is,” Talulah said, “the only thing constant about Kara is that she always has bad intentions.” She tore her gaze from the stars, finally, and looked at Rose, her eyes blacker than the sky. “Is that who you would trust with your life?”

“No,” Rose said, “because the Kara I know is more than who you say she is.”

“You know as well as I do,” Talulah said quietly, “that after this war is over, once Aaron no longer needs you, he’ll command her to kill you. She’s a warrior, Rose. Where do you think her loyalties lie? With her commander? Or her lover?”

“I really want to like you,” Rose sighed, “but I’m not a big fan of being manipulated. I got my lifetime supply of that from Alana.”

“I can assure you that those are not my intentions,” Talulah told her. She sounded sincere, but Rose remained wary. “I just want you think about this.” She tilted her head closer, so that she could whisper, “I can offer you protection. From Kara and Aaron. If the need arises. All you have to do is…tell me what Kara is hiding.”

Rose spotted Elise—or the yellow-blonde curls that cascaded down her back, at least—and she sighed in relief at the perfect timing. “Sorry!” she yelled over her shoulder, as she ran away. “I have to talk to Elise! About the…cat.”

Talulah frowned. “Cat?” she repeated bewilderedly. “What cat?”

from THE ASSASSINS OF LIGHT

Book 3 of the CREATURES OF DARKNESS series

© Britney Jackson

Teaser: “Dance with Me”

Good Writing Days = Happy Britney, and Happy Britney = Book Teasers. ❤

Excerpt:

Rose blinked. “What the heck, Kara? You can’t just tell someone they’re about to get bombed and then ask them to dance.”

“You’re right,” Kara sighed, shoving her hands into her pockets. “I should’ve kept the bomb a secret.”

Rose frowned. “That is not what I said,” she muttered, “at all.”

“I have everything under control,” Kara assured her.

Rose watched her suspiciously, studying the tightness of her shoulders and the flash of her light blue eyes. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

Kara just smiled. “Dance with me.”

from THE ASSASSINS OF LIGHT

CREATURES OF DARKNESS: Book Three

© Britney Jackson

(This teaser is from my upcoming book, The Assassins of Light, the third book of the Creatures of Darkness series.)

The Darkest Monster of All

What happens when tragedy meets the power of the Eklektos?

No excerpt with this one because SO MANY SPOILERS. But guys, I honestly think that this is one of the most intense scenes I’ve ever written. My heart was pounding the entire time I wrote it. As Erastos told Rose in The Tomb of Blood: If you think you know what the Eklektos is, you’re wrong…

(Teaser is from my upcoming book, The Assassins of Light, Book Three of the Creatures of Darkness series.)

Fighting Hatred

I realized today that I’ve, once again, fallen behind on website updates. I’m so sorry, guys. I am the epitome of a frazzled mother. 😂 I’m going to torture myself with an obscene amount of Post-It notes until I remember to keep everything updated, instead of just Facebook. (On a side note, if you haven’t friended me yet on Facebook, you should. I’m way more active on there. 😊) So, for the next few days, I’ll be playing catch-up with book teasers until the website is caught up with everything else.

This particular book teaser is a bit different from the ones I usually post. Usually, I choose quotes that hint at the main plot or quotes that just make me smile. I post them because I’m excited about the book I’m writing, and I want to share my excitement. ❤️ This one was different. I made a book teaser with this quote because, as I read the news that night, as I listened to people spew unbelievable hate, as I wept and wondered how to respond to such hatred, this part of the book came to mind.

If you’ve read The Tomb of Blood, you probably already know that in this upcoming book, The Assassins of Light, Rose and her friends are facing down an extremist organization that’s founded upon hatred. This organization, known as the Assassins of Light, want to eradicate vampires from the planet, supposedly for the safety of humans.

I live in Alabama, and I can tell you: most of the stereotypes are wrong. But…unfortunately…I have known my fair share of racists. But typically, racists don’t know they’re racist. They make these veiled remarks that they’ve convinced themselves are harmless. And…I know these people. I’m related to some of them. And I’ve always believed, deep down, that even they would condemn white supremacy, if faced with it outright. But then, they were faced with it, and they didn’t condemn it. They defended it. It was heartbreaking. The moment that really broke me, though, was when I heard someone I know defending the man who killed the protester in Charlottesville. Political differences are one thing, but defending a white supremacist and murderer? I usually keep my mouth shut when it comes to politics. I tell myself that it’s to protect relationships, but I think part of it is also to protect myself from the aggressive verbal attacks I’d face otherwise. (People really lose their cool over politics.) But that night, as I cried, and my heart pounded, and I wondered what the right thing to do might be, I thought of Rose.

Because Rose, really, is a braver version of me. We share the same insecurities and fears. She just faces them with more courage than I do. And I thought: what would Rose do? And then, I remembered this scene from The Assassins of Light (the book I’m writing now). And I realized: Rose wouldn’t just cry over the heartbreaking state of the world. She wouldn’t just wish she could soothe the pain in the world. She’d do those things, yes, but not just those things. She would speak out. She would defend the oppressed.

And I desperately want to be that brave.

When you create a nightmare scenario for a dark fantasy novel, you never expect the real world to start mirroring it. But that’s exactly how it feels now. The quote above is something that Rose says in The Assassins of Light (Book Three of the Creatures of Darkness series), and it feels way too relevant right now.

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