All Entangled Eve, A Halloween Hop

This Halloween, get SpOoKy, get FuNkY.  Get down this October with AlL EnTaNgLeD EvE.

Entangled Publishing is hosting a massive blog hop.  With over 50 authors participating! Make sure you follow the links below to visit all the stops and have a chance to win a ton of awesome prizes!

 Welcome to my stop on the hop. For you first time visitors, my name is Paige Cuccaro and I'm the author of Entangled Select's urban fantasy series, HELLSBANE.

Someone’s killing angels and turning the half human, half angel illorum warriors against their angelic supporters. If the supernatural baddy behind the attacks isn’t stopped soon, Heaven itself could fall victim. The Council of Seven has called in the best they’ve got to find the killers, and no one’s more surprised than Emma Jane Hellsbane when it’s her phone that rings.

But when her own angelic mentor—and off-limits hottie—Eli is targeted, Emma takes it personally. With Emma hot on the trail of the growing army of assassins, though, hackles start to raise around her. Everyone wants to know if she’s in it to protect all angels or just one in particular. The Council has their suspicions…and so does Emma’s boyfriend.

Now Emma isn’t just fighting off demons, rogue nephilim, and Fallen angels, but she’s defending her honor as well. The problem is even Emma Jane isn’t sure of her motives. One thing she does know: if she doesn’t figure out the killers’ identities soon, she may not live long enough to know what, or who, she really wants.

It’s all in a day’s work as Heaven’s ultimate bounty hunter.

To help get everyone into the spirit of the holiday I'd like to share my own personal ghost story... But first, as part of the blog hop, I'm giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card and these two adorable stuffed teddy bears--one angel bear (in honer of my Hellsbane series), and one witch bear (in honor of the season.)

For a chance to win, tell me if you've ever had a supernatural experience. Ever see a ghost? Tell me about it in the comments and you'll entered in the drawing.

 Okay, so it was years ago, back when I was seventeen or so. My family’s home is out in the boonies—farm fields surrounded by deep forest. One night me, my best friend, Dee, her boyfriend, Steve, and his best friend, Gerry, were hanging out near my home on a tiny one lane bridge off a dead end road. The dead end road passed beside a long open field. At the other end of the field (maybe a quarter of a mile long) was a small brick building owned by a local company. They manufactured something…I was never sure what. But it was just a small one story building with six normal sized windows on each side.

Growing up I’d heard the stories about the horrible accident that happened in that building. Rumor was a worker had gotten caught up in some of the machinery and had been mangled so badly he died. Who knows if that actually happened? But there were all kinds of stories about lights turning on and off at night when no one was there and people seeing someone passing across the windows when the business was closed. The point is the place was supposed to be haunted by this poor dead employee. 

So, this dark night Steve and his friend Gerry were riding Gerry’s dirt bike and it’d broken down at the edge of the building’s parking lot. My friend, Dee and I had driven them in my car to Gerry’s house to get some tools, then back to the bike. I should mention that in the country there aren’t many street lights. Some people have what we called Dusk to Dawn lights provided by the power company, but you don’t really find them along wooded roads or in open fields. The point is, it gets really, really dark.

The building had two lights though and Gerry had left his dirt bike leaning against the pole of one of them. Like I said, it was a small business, small building and therefore a small parking lot—gravel covered. So the tall light was only about ten feet from the corner of the building. Dee and I dropped them off right next to the bike, then drove the quarter mile to the dead end road at the other end of the field to wait for them.

I parked my car right off the main road and Dee and I sat on the little bridge to wait for Steve and Gerry to ride through the field on the repaired bike. It was dark, but we all lived in the area so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

We’d been waiting about thirty minutes when we heard this weird moaning sound. It kind of sounded like a wind up siren that wasn’t quite working right. Dee and I got really quite, listening, trying to figure out what it was.

Then suddenly the sound of feet rushing through knee high grass joined the weird moan, and someone said, “Keep going. Just keep going.”

Dee and I peered through the darkness in the direction of the voice but couldn’t see anything until Steve and Gerry were about 15 feet away…no bike, no tools, both running full tilt through the black night.

They flew over the big steal gate that closed the entrance to the field, ran up the road toward us, ran passed us, over the bridge right up to my car and jumped in. As they raced by I heard Gerry yell. “Get in the car! Get in the car! Get in the Car!”

Steve didn’t really say anything, he was too busy making that weird mewling sound like a broken siren, his arms pumping like a steam train, eyes wide hair—I kid you not—on end!

Dee and I aren’t exactly the brave-in-the-face-of-danger sort, so when our guy friends ran past us, skin pasty white, eyes as big a coke bottles saying, “Get in the car!”

We got in the car!

I think I might have broken the land speed record getting us out of there. We drove to the nearest brightly lit spot—the truck stop down the road—and parked. Steve was shaking like I’d never seen in the back seat. His pale skin had a kind of green tint to it. Gerry was sitting next shaking his head saying, “That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen.”

It took about fifteen minutes for the guys to calm down and when they finally did they told us what had happened after we dropped them off.

Gerry was kneeling down, working on the bike. Steve was standing on the other side handing him tools. Steve’s back was to the building, and Gerry’s view of the building was blocked by Steve. After a few minutes Steve heard a knocking sound. He asked Gerry if he heard it and when he stopped to listen, he said he did.

They stared at each other for a second, listening… knock-knock-knock…knock-knock-knock. Gerry said, “Sounds like someone knocking on a window or something.

Steve turned around and Gerry leaned to the side and both boys looked at the last window nearest them on the building. There, inside the dark building stood a man, light brown hair, kind of long to his shoulders, dressed in a green worker’s uniform. They met his eyes for a half second and then the man backed up four or five steps.

Suddenly his face creased, anger glinting in his eyes and raced straight at the window. The impact of his head against the glass was audible, hitting so hard his skull exploded like a ripe melon. Blood splatter everywhere, gray matter dripping in the mix.

The boys screamed, dropped their tools, let the bike fall and ran. They got maybe twenty feet before they first heard the pound of foot steps behind them. Neither one dared look back, but they knew whoever—whatever was chasing them was gaining fast. Gerry was out in front, with Steve only three or four strides behind. So when something snagged the back of Steve’s shirt, they both knew it.

Steve felt himself jerked back, his feet going out from under before he landed hard on his butt. Gerry didn’t stop. He yelled back, “Keep going! Keep going!”

His friend scrambled to his feet, fighting against the hands pawing at him, trying to hold him down. He didn’t look at what was grabbing him, he just fought his way free started running again. He caught up with Gerry and both boys didn’t stop until they reached my car.

I considered that maybe Gerry and Steve were just messing with us, but if they were, they’re amazing actors. They insisted on leaving their dirt bike and tools in the parking lot where they’d dropped them until the next day, knowing anyone could steal them. So if it was all a trick just to scare me and Dee, they were risking a lot.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared as I was that night. And to this day I still refuse to look at that end window when I drive by the little building.

So that's my story. Creep? It was for us. So now it's your turn. Ever see a ghost? Leave a note about it in the comments and be entered in the drawing to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and these two adorable stuffed teddy bears

The hop runs from October 18th-31st.  Make sure to visit all these authors’ blogs during the hop!  Comment on the various posts, and/or enter for the giveaways based on the author’s instructions.  Discover new-to-you authors.  Discover the awesome giveaways.  They’re spooky.  They’re funky.  You really don’t want to miss it!

Aleah Barley
Rosalie Lario
Nancy Fraser
Bronwen Evans
Natalie J.Damschroder
Robin Covington
Mark Henry
Barbara Wallace
Tonya Burrows
Misty Dietz
Gina Conkle
Callie Hutton
Ophelia London
Rachel Firasek
Paige Cuccaro
Cari Quinn
Lea Nolan
Meg Lacey
Annie Seaton
Jenna Rutland
Lisa Kessler
Kristin Miller
Rebecca Zanetti
Sarah Ballance
Lindsay R. Loucks
Nicola Marsh
Aubrie Dionne
Robin Bielman
Carmen Falcone
Eve Devon
Michelle McLean
Tara Fuller
Amanda Usen
Marisa Cleveland
Callie Hutton
Vicki Wilkerson
Lisa Burstein
Joya Fields
Kendra Highley
E. J. Russell
Diana Quincy
Angela McCallister
Jackie Ashenden
TJ Bennett
Robyn DeHart
Laura Kaye
Wendy Byrne
Victoria Vane
Wendy Watson
Robin Bielman
Elizabeth Otto
Emma Shortt
Elizabeth Otto
Barbara DeLeo
Kay David

EVER SEE A GHOST? COMMENT TO WIN!!