Lucky 13 Trick-or-Treat Blog Hop

Are you ready? The holidays are coming! Halloween is just around the corner and to get in the swing of things I'm participating in a Halloween blog hop.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. No surprise since I love reading and writing about angels, demons, vampires, werewolves...pretty much anything supernatural. As part of the blog hop, I'm giving away a print copy of HELLSBANE (the first book in my urban fantasy series) and these adorable stuffed teddy bears--one angel bear (in honer of my Hellsbane series), and one witch bear (in honor of the season.)

To be entered to win, just leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite treat was as a kid when you went trick-or-treating.

Open to US residents only.

Now...to help me celebrate the season of spook, I've invited Emma Jane Hellsbane, the heroine of HELLSBANE, my urban fantasy series, to share a story with us. If there's anyone who knows about all things creepy and supernatural, it's Emma Jane.

Hi. I’m Emma Jane Hellsbane. (Yes. I know it rhymes. Let it go. Seriously.) I guess since Paige wrote that book, HELLSBANE, about my life people think I’m just some literary character and all the stuff in the book about me being a nephilim (half-human, half-angel) and being marked to hunt and kill my angelic father is just something she pulled out of thin air. Don’t I wish! And the stuff about fallen angels raping human women, demons being brought up from the abyss to kill people like me, the constant attacks, the sword fights, the severed heads, is all just made up. Right. *snort* Whatever gets your snooze on at night.

Am I real? Are fallen angels and their demon minions real? Have they been known to rape human women? This urban legend just might help you make up your mind. Ever hear of the Sri Lankan Grease Devil?

            Okay, so here’s the thing, about a year ago I was surfing the web and came across this urban legend sight talking about some trouble going on in Sri Lanka.

I’ve had a soft spot for the place ever since my magister—uh, he’s kind of my angelic mentor...my hot, totally off limits angelic mentor—took me there on a heart stopping, romantic world wind tour to get a feel for the powers that come with being half angel. So when I saw the story about the creatures, the locals were calling Grease Devils, who were sneaking into the homes of single mothers and widows at night, biting and raping them, I knew I had a job to do.

As a marked nephilim it’s my job to banish fallen angels and their demon minions to the abyss. So I knew it was a demon the people of Sir Lanka were dealing with. After all, fallen angels had been seducing women since the beginning of time. Heaven had warred over it, thousands of angels had been banished for it, and it’s why people like me existed.

Demons were just fallen angels who’d been banished to the abyss eons ago and brought back by the newly fallen angels to serve them. Once they’re back in the world old lusts inevitably rise again except time in the hole changes them and their desires get twisted. That’s what was happening in Sir Lanka. An old angel turned demon wanted sex, he lusted for human flesh in every way and it would only get worse.

The police and government officials weren’t any help. They were calling him a prowler, saying he was just a normal man dressed in his underwear, who’d covered his face and body with grease to avoid capture. Even a facebook page started by some concerned locals didn’t help change their minds. Maybe there were a few run-of-the-mile human perverts who’d taken advantage of the demon’s MO to get their jollies. Or maybe it was the other way around. Didn’t matter. Vigilantes did what they had to. People were dying—whether they were guilty or not. But still the demon was running free. Even if they managed to catch him they wouldn’t be able to stop him. Demons are too strong, too fast. Stopping him was my job.

Being half angel means I can travel at the speed of thought. Well, almost the speed of thought. My human half slows me down a little. But one second I was in my house in Pittsburgh and the next I was in Sri Lanka, walking the almost desolate island road sometime past midnight.  I took a deep breath, taking in the sweet evening air, cool and moist after a light rain with just a hint of rotting eggs.  Except it wasn’t rotten eggs, it was brimstone.

Most people can’t smell demons, but to the marked they stink of the abyss. Made it easy to track him to a small two room house. The back door was open and I followed the stench of the demon through the kitchen and into the bedroom. I didn’t even see the woman at first, my gaze going straight to the demon still in human form kneeling on all fours against the wall three feet off the floor. He was oblivious to me, so crazed by sex and blood and human flesh. And then I saw the helpless woman under him, naked, legs and arms spread wide, neck ripped and bloody, held to the wall by demonic power. She’d been rapped and now she was being eaten. Bad had gotten worse.

I pulled the hilt of my sword from the special sheath at the small of my back, willing the blade to materialize, to gather matter from this plane and the other, to form sharp and gleaming. Faster than the human eye can track I moved on him, swinging my sword, aiming steady and sure for his neck. A half second before metal met flesh the fiend’s head snapped to me, face white with grease paint, eyes wide, mouth and chin dripping with blood. An instant after that my blade passed through meat and bone. His head was gone, bouncing along the floor to roll under the bed, thump, thwap, thump, thwap, thump.

His body dropped in a heap, the head already smoldering. Body and all would melt in a matter of minutes, disintegrating into a pile of black goo that reeked of rotten eggs. It took another minute for the demon’s power to release the woman. She fell with an ungraceful thud, crumpled and lifeless. The demon had killed her, but at least she’d be the last to die at his hand. The Grease Devil of Sir Lanka, the real Grease Devil, was dead.

Okay! Well...that was different. Thanks Emma Jane. If you'd like to read more about Emma Jane and her seriously screwed up life dodging demons, fighting fallen angels and trying not to fall for the one guy--angel--she can't have, pick up a copy of the latest book in the series, HEAVEN AND HELLSBANE here. Or start from the beginning with HELLSBANE, here.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered for a chance to win a print copy of HELLSBANE and these hug-able Halloween bears!

To be entered to win, just leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite treat was as a kid when you went trick-or-treating.

Open to US residents only.

After you leave a comment, you can visit each of the blogs on the stop for a chance to win more author prizes. But first enter the rafflecopter giveaway to win an awesome trick-or-treat book bundle!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What was your favorite trick-or-treat get as a kid? Did you actually do any "tricking?"