So at The Bradford Bunch on Sundays you can expect to find stuff from any or all of us about new, old and upcoming books, contests, reviews, covers and other stuff.  Since I talked about the release of Vegas last week, I thought I’d post an excerpt from my April release, WITCHES KNOT: CELEBRATION FOR THE DEAD.  Click “read the rest of the entry” to check it out…

WITCHES KNOT: CELEBRATION FOR THE DEAD BY LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave
Releasing April 4!

It felt good to say it all. To let it all go, and Melanie was sure her grandmother would have approved. She’d held onto the pain for ten years. It seemed appropriate with El Dia De Los Muertos approaching to remember her family with love instead of pain for the first time since they all died.

Connor watched her from the corner of his eye. So strong to have endured all of it and yet so soft and fragile too. A bundle of contradictions. He also noted how she’d avoided any talk about the two of them. He’d remedy that.

“So this thing tomorrow, may I come?” Not like he’d let her go alone anyway. Not with how important this El Dia De Los Muertos was to her and certainly not with Anton Perdue on the loose.

She looked at him, assessing him. “You don’t have to come.”

“I know I don’t have to. I want to. I want to be with you, to experience this with you. I want to know you better, Melanie.”

“And you want to be around in case Perdue shows up.”

His heart thudded in his chest. “Do you think he’s here for you?”

“No. But he’s proactive.” She snorted. “I don’t know if he’s close or not. I don’t think he followed me but I was out of it on the drive out here so I wasn’t as alert as I usually am. But he’s going to want revenge for what happened.”

She didn’t say the rest. Didn’t have to. Just months before the Oathbreaker vampire had attacked Simone Charvez, Kael’s new wife. A psychic bond had been formed between Simone and Perdue. Together the vampire Oathkeepers and the human hunters had nearly tracked and destroyed Perdue but he’d kidnapped and tortured several members of the hunter team, Melanie included. Unfortunately Perdue had escaped before they got him.

It was personal for Connor. Simone was family, she was the cousin of his sister-in-law and this bastard had harmed Melanie as well. He shuddered as he remembered how she’d looked when they’d found her at Perdue’s place, tied up, beaten, tortured. But she’d never given up. She was perfect, his woman.

Oathbreaker vampires repudiated the rules that kept them from harming humans. Connor was an Oathkeeper, a cop of his kind, and he would stop at nothing to erase a murderer like Anton Perdue from the face of the planet.

He wanted to protect Melanie. Yes, she was quite capable of doing it herself. She did it before he came into her life and she continued to do it now. But she was his. From the moment he saw her walk into the room in New Orleans when he’d arrived at Aidan’s call she’d wormed her way into his consciousness and stayed there. He accepted that. No one threatened what was his. Period.