The
Eyes of Bast
by Lisabet Sarai is a fabulous, erotic paranormal/shapeshifter romance!
Trust your
heart. Follow your dreams.
Shaina Williams'
grandmother bequeathed her that wisdom, along with a old pendant from the
Islands, carved from an ocelot's tooth. When instinct tells Shaina to visit the
feral cat trap she'd set in Central Park, she listens to that inner voice, She
discovers she's caged a magnificent black tom, but the cat inexplicably
vanishes after she tends to his wounds. Seeking the errant feline, Shaina
encounters instead a handsome stranger whose slightest touch sets her body on
fire. As the day dawns after a night of ferocious passion, her mysterious lover
is forced back into his true shape - the tomcat she'd rescued.
Born a cat, Tom
was transformed into an unwilling shape shifter by a sorceress who craved a
human plaything to satisfy her perverse lusts. Centuries old and irresistibly
powerful, Delphine Montserrat will stop at nothing to find her runaway
familiar. Shaina vows to do whatever is necessary to defeat the vicious but
seductive witch and save the man she believes is her soul mate – even though it
might mean losing him forever.
Buy Links
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Eyes of
Bast was an experiment. I
created the novella as a serial, writing and posting a chapter each month as
part of my regular website update. I've never tried this approach before.
Although I'm usually more of a plotter than a pantster, I had very little idea
about what would happen next. Each month, I'd reread the previous installment,
to help me maintain continuity, and then I'd just sit down and write whatever
came to mind.
The process was
remarkably liberating. I could set my imagination free.
The bulk of what I
write is targeted for a particular publisher and often, a specific call for
submissions. I usually have a predefined theme and both a minimum and maximum
word count. These constraints shape my creative process. My internal editor is
constantly active. Would the publisher object to this language? Was I taking
too long to get to the clinch? Was my take on the theme close enough to satisfy
the requirements?
With The Eyes
of Bast, I was writing for my own pleasure – and of course that of my
readers. The story could be as long (or short) as it needed to be. I could
write sweet or raunchy, depending on my mood. I could introduce plot twists as they occurred to me,
without worrying too much about plausibility.
I was writing
purely for the fun of it. What a novel concept!
I'm actually
pretty pleased with the way the tale turned out. I especially like the dramatic
ending, which borrows a bit from horror tales. And I'm delighted by the depths
my villain ultimately revealed. I have a problem writing bad guys (or in this
case, bad girls). Delphine Montserrat is one of my better evil-doers.
I hope my readers
agree.
Excerpt –
Rated PG
Tom finally broke the kiss and leaned back with a sigh. “Ah,
Shaina! I should never have allowed you near me. But I was so very lonely... I
wasn’t thinking straight. Now I’ve put you in danger too.”
“Danger? What kind of danger?” I reached over to flick the
switch on my reading lamp, so I could read his expressions. Then I seated
myself cross-legged at his feet and clasped his hands in mine. “Tell me, Tom.
Tell me everything.”
“You will not believe me.”
“How could I not believe after – after what I saw this
morning?”
His brows knotted together. “I never wanted you to see – I
was careless...”
“But I did see. And now I know, at least something about
you. But I don’t know enough to help you out of whatever trouble you’re in.
Tell me the whole truth. I promise I’ll keep it private, if that’s what you
want. And I promise I won’t be shocked.”
Tom’s lush mouth twisted in a grimace of disgust. “You might
not be able to keep that promise. But never mind. You’ve asked. I’ll tell you.”
He stared off into the distance, above my head. “I was born
in a small town in coastal Maine, about seven years ago.”
“Seven years...?”
“I was born a cat.”
I choked down my cry of surprise. How could it be...?
“Yes. I was born under a wharf. I spent the first six months
of my life as a black kitten, a stray living off the scraps from the fishing
boats and clam shacks. Then she caught me and made me her prisoner.”
“She?”
“I don’t even want to utter her name. There’s danger in the
very word. She is a witch, centuries old, a practitioner of the darkest arts –
the epitome of evil. Out walking one evening along the rocky shore, she caught
sight of me and wanted me as her familiar. It was easy for her to lure me into
her clutches.
“At first she just used me to facilitate her spells. The
rumored powers of black cats are more than just legend. Before long, though,
she began to experiment.”
His ominous tone sent a chill through my naked body. I
pulled the towel around me.
“You see, her advanced age hadn’t diminished her lust. Quite
the opposite. She wanted a sexual plaything, someone she could use to satisfy
her perverted desires. A male body she could own and control. So she delved
into her books of magic, seeking a spell that would turn her poor innocent
feline familiar into a man – at least when she wanted him that way.
“Her first attempts failed.” Tom shuddered at the
recollection. “She barely managed to save my life. I guess she’d grown fond of
me at that point – in her own twisted way.”
“Oh, Tom...”
“Finally, she found a ritual that would change an animal
into a human during the hours when the sun was banished from the earth. I’ll
never forget the terror of that first transformation, when I found myself
wobbling on two legs in front of her naked body. It was even worse than what
came after.”
“What was that?”
“Oh, Shaina – I
was human, but scarcely a man. I was barely thirteen.”
* * * * * *
About the
Author
When I was a
little girl, my dad would make up stories for my siblings and me, fabulous
sagas about ghosts and monsters, magical races with mysterious powers, heroes
on impossible quests, hidden treasures awaiting only the most courageous
seeker. I blame him for my lifelong fascination with the magical and
miraculous.
Now that I'm grown
up, I create my own tales of wonder, weaving in generous portions of human
desire with its potent enchantments. In my paranormal tales, love works the
most powerful magick.
Find out more
about me and my books at my website, Lisabet's Fantasy Factory (http://www.lisabetsarai.com) and my blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com). I also hang out on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83387.Lisabet_Sarai) and Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/author/lisabetsarai).
I also have a VIP readers email list where I share release and contest
information and run exclusive monthly giveaways. To join, just email me:
lisabet [at] lisabetsarai [dot] com.
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