Spotlight & Giveaway: Tempting The Dark by Michele Hauf

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michele Hauf to HJ!

Hi Michele and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Tempting The Dark!

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

A dive into the darkness will stir up wicked desires between a couple who have known each other since childhood. Until a fateful day parted them, and they went their separate ways. One will seek a savior, the other has vowed to fight all evil.

What’s your favorite line(s) from the book?:

Wow, it’s always a good year later, after I’ve written the book, that I find myself promoting that same book. So I’m a few stories beyond that book, and can’t, off the top of my head, come up with a single line that stood out. But a favorite image will always be the hero’s apartment, in which, the walls in the living room are hung with his guitar collection. He is learning to use music to fight demons!

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

The hero and heroine grew up together, so I love that they’ve known each other since childhood. They’ve always been friends, until they were separated for decades. So when they finally come back to one another they have to learn each other all over again.

When you sat down to start this book, what was the biggest challenge you faced? What were you most excited about?

I knew this would be a very dark story going in, and I’m always good with that, but I didn’t want it to get bogged in darkness. The heroine comes from a strange and dark place, so I had to keep her positive and show that light within her.

What, in your mind, makes this book stand out?

It is part of my Beautiful Creatures world, and shows a different part I haven’t explored much, and that is demons and Daemonia, The Place of All Demons. So readers will get a glimpse into that ‘place’ that I have mentioned previously in other books.

The First Kiss…

Is literally her first kiss…ever. 😉

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I’m fond of the opening scene…

Savin wasn’t demon. He wasn’t even paranormal. He was one-hundred percent human. Except for the part about him hosting an incorporeal demon for the past twenty years. That tended to screw with a man’s mental place in this world. But most days he felt he was winning the part about just trying to stay sane.
A sudden whining trill vibrated the air. Pushing up the sleeves of his thermal shirt to expose the protective sigils on the undersides of his forearms, Savin planted his combat boots and faced the sky that flickered in silver and red.
Ed hissed, “Savin, did you hear that?”
“I did. I’m ready.”
Behind them, hefting a fifty-pound sack of sea salt out from the back of a white hearse, Certainly Jones, a dark witch, prepped for his role in whatever might come charging at them.
“Hurry up, Jones!” Ed called. “It’s happening!”
With that announcement, the sky cracked before them. A black seam opened from ground to clouds. From within, a brilliant amber flame burst and roiled. A whoosh of darkness exploded out from the seam.
Savin cursed. That could be nothing but demons. An invasion? He felt the dark and malevolent beings, incorporeal and corporeal, as they flooded into this realm. Cool, hissing brushes across his skin. Wicked alien vocals. The gnashing of fangs and rows of deadly teeth. Tails scything the air. Claws clattering for flesh. And the ones he could not see vibrated a distinctive hum in his veins.
The protection sigils he wore tattooed on his body kept those invisible incorporeal demons from entering his system. As did the bitch demon he’d been serving as shelter to for twenty years. But that didn’t mean he was impervious to an external attack by a corporeal demon. He was strong, but did not hold a weapon.
The only weapons he required were his stubbornness and his innate ability to see and deflect most demons with a few choice warding incantations.
In the inky darkness, there was no way to count their numbers as they spread across the field and whisked through the air above the mens’ heads. Standing center of the freshly-laid salt circle, Certainly Jones began to recite a spell. Ed swung above his head a black bone lariat bespelled to choke and annihilate demons.
For his part, Savin could recite a general reckoning spell that would reach about a hundred-foot circumference about him and send those demons back to Daemonia. So he began the chant comprised of a demonic language he hated knowing.
“There are hundreds,” Ed said as a curse as he avoided the salt circle with a jump. “We’ll never get them all. Savin?”
He couldn’t speak now, for to do so would shatter the foundation of the spell. Raising his arms, palms facing inward—but not touching—exposed the demonic sigils on the underside of his forearms. Savin expanded his chest and shouted the last few words. And as he did so, the power of those spoken words formed a staticky choker between his fingers. He spread his arms out wide, stretching the choker in a brilliant lash of gold sparks. Then, with a shove forward, he cast the net.
Demons shrieked, squealed, and yowled as they were caught by the sticky sparkling net. Like a fisherman hauling up his catch, only in reverse, it wrapped up dozens, perhaps a hundred or more demons, and wrangled them back through the rift in the sky.
“I expel you to Daemonia!” Savin recited. Then immediately prepared to begin again.

If your hero had a sexy-times play list, what song(s) would have to be on it?

He likes blues guitar, so something soft and bluesy, for sure.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I hope they fall in love with the hero Savin Thorne. He first showed up in An American Witch in Paris and the heroine in that story did not have a strong opinion of him (even though he was showing his heroic ways even then). So now, reluctant as he is to actually be a hero, he will rise in this story.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?

I’m writing for Harlequin’s Intrigue line now. With the demise of Nocturne (last book, by me, out in December 2019) I had to focus on a different kind of story. And you know? Writing about ‘real’ people, and not demons or vampires and werewolves, is kind of hard! I can’t make up as much stuff as I’m used to. I have to get the details and research right. So I’m loving this new challenge.
Currently finishing up my 2nd Intrigue (still untitled).
September ’18 – Tempting The Dark
December ’18 – This Strange Witchery
March ’19 – Storm Warning (1st Intrigue)
Sept ’19 – untitled Intrigue.
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I have 3 paperback copies of Tempting The Dark for 3 winners (US only, please)

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Excerpt from Tempting The Dark:

Savin wanted to go directly to talk to Ed. And when Jett volunteered to walk home alone again, he didn’t argue. He needed the distance, actually.
She was, or had been, a queen. What were the implications of that? Would Daemonia send troops after her through the newly-reopened rift? It was something he had to keep in mind.
The two of them…had something. It was a beginning. A new chapter to their lives. And yet, a strange plot twist had been introduced now. His best friend, survivor of the most heinous horrors, was a demon queen.
Those demons who escaped Daemonia, and caused trouble in the mortal realm, then became his problem. Not that Savin expected Jett to cause trouble. Ah hell, so he’d already taken the leap to believing she was dangerous?
He should probably tell Ed about Jett. But then would the man want to send her back? Even if she had taken on demonic attributes, she didn’t belong in The Place of All Demons. Jett was an innocent. She belonged in the mortal realm. With him.
Up on the tenth floor, Savin strode into Ed’s office. The clean interior boasted black marble walls and the entire outer wall was lined with windows. A massive conference table stretched half the length of the room. Ed’s desk sat before the windows. On shelves along one wall were interesting objects that Savin knew were magical artifacts Ed had either collected or been gifted. Edamite Thrash’s girlfriend was a witch, and apparently, he was smitten.
Ed stood waiting for Savin, leaning against his desk, arms crossed high over his chest. His slicked-back black hair revealed tattoos that crawled up his neck. On his hands he wore the ever-present half-gloves, which exposed his fingers, but covered the poisonous thorns on his knuckles inherent to all corax demons.
“I just finished interrogating a bi-morph,” Ed said.
Savin nodded. Those sorts were mighty ugly. But they had a strange penchant for lemons. He suspected, now that he got a whiff of the air, that Ed had employed that tangy treat as a means to twist the screws.
“The captive seems to know that there is only one means to securely close the rift to Daemonia.”
“Which is?” Savin asked.
Sighing, Ed stood upright and splayed out his hands. “Apparently, one of the legion queens has gone missing. And until she’s back where she belongs, upon her throne in Daemonia, the rift will never seal.”
“A queen of Daemonia.” Savin rubbed his jaw. What the hell? And Jett just revealing to him that she was once a queen? How to play this one? He wasn’t going to lay out all the cards until he knew if he could trust Ed. But he hated lying to his friends. “Are you familiar with such royalty?”
“I know every realm has their various royalties. There are dozens of legions in Daemonia. Like countries here in the mortal realm. The Casipheans—whom I’m most familiar with—descended from angels. But they are a dying breed. And the bi-morph didn’t think this specific queen was Casiphean.”
“So there’s many?”
Ed shrugged. “Dozens of queens, yes. But only one is missing with whom we need concern ourselves. I’ve put in a call to Certainly Jones. He knows everything. And if he doesn’t, he can find the answers in that crazy library of demonic lore in the Archives.”
Savin had been thinking the same; to ask CJ what he knew.
“For now,” Ed continued, “I’m going to call it, and put out a hunt for a demon queen. There certainly can’t be many running about Paris. In fact, I’m sure there can be but one.”
And right under their noses. Shit. This was not how Savin wanted things to go down. But… “You need my help?”
“Thought you didn’t hunt demons?”
“I don’t, but I can do whatever you need.”
“For starters, there’s a bi-morph in the basement waiting for reckoning.”
“Will do.” He rubbed his jaw, considering the information about Jett.
“Female problems?” Ed asked.
“Huh?”
“You’ve got that look. You got a woman that’s making you smile and frown at the same time.”
“Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do? Drive we men crazy?”
“In theory. But the good ones will do it with relish and make you love them even more for all the ups and downs.”
“You and your witch have ups and downs?”
“Once in a while. She wants to travel and I’m happy right here in Paris. I’ve got a city to look after. Not that I’m doing a very good job of it lately.”
“The demon queen will be found,” Savin said. “And until she is, we’ll have to batten down the hatches and keep a close eye on the rift. Can CJ put another hex on it?”
“Yes, but it’s like slapping a flimsy plaster over a fatal wound.”
“Right. Maybe I can do some asking around.”
“About what?”
Savin shrugged. “You never know. I’ll talk to people I know. See what information they might have on the local demon scene and if there’s a queen wandering about we’re unaware of. If she’s powerful, she could put a sheen over herself that would—“ Hell. Was he really going to lie to Ed?
“That would what?”
“Huh? Oh. Well, I just think she could walk right by us and we’d never know.”
Ed’s cell phone rang and he turned to answer it. He spoke to someone with half his gaze toward Savin. “Really? All bowed down? Thanks. Did you get a description? Yes, do that. Bye.”
“What’s up?”
“News on the queen already. Apparently she showed up at l’Enfer last night.”
L’Enfer was the nightclub owned by the Devil Himself. It was frequented by demons mostly, and a few brave vamps and werewolves. Jett had gone there?
“My source said she walked onto the dance floor and everyone bowed before her. Started calling her ‘my liege’. Most had never seen her before, but they all instinctually knew.”
“Did they get a description?”
“No.”
Whew! Of course, any description would be of Jett sans sheen. He wondered now what that looked like. She didn’t want him to see her like in her demonic form? He needed to see her truth.
“I’ll head out to l’Enfer tonight,” Ed said. “We’ve got an escapee queen wandering this mortal realm, and it sounds like no one will be safe until she’s sent back where she belongs.”
Savin nodded, swallowed. “Stay in touch, man. You said the bi-morph is downstairs?”
“In the holding cell. You are billing me for all these reckonings?”
“Hell, yes.” Savin nodded and left the man’s office. As he stepped into the elevator he blew out a breath. He did not like concealing the truth from Ed. He was a friend, and his loyalties to him ran deep.
His alliances were now sharply divided.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

His calling…

…might be her destruction

When the door to Daemonia is opened, Savin Thorne is reunited with a childhood friend he thought he’d lost forever. After years of captivity, Jett has escaped—along with hordes of monsters streaming into the mortal realm. With Savin, she has her first experience of desire. But their passion can’t save them. It might even be their undoing…
Book Links: Amazon |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Award-winning author Michele Hauf has published over 80 novels in historical, paranormal, and contemporary romance, as well as writing action/adventure as Alex Archer and erotica as Michele Renae. The launch author for numerous series at Harlequin, she likes writing in a variety of genres and instead of ‘writing what she knows’ prefers to write ‘what she would love to know and do’ (and yes, that includes being a jewel thief and/or a brain surgeon).
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