Anya Bast

The grand prize winner is Jennifer Wilson!

The winner of prize one is Diana Fryer!

The winner of prize two is Betty Lewis!

Please email me at anyabast(at)gmail.com within two weeks to collect your prize. Congrats!!

Embrace of the Damned releases today!

Order Print at Amazon | B&N | or your favorite bookstore.

Order eBook formats: Kindle | Nook

A damned Viking warrior.

Centuries ago Broder Calderson committed murder. As punishment, he was given over to the dominion of Loki, the Trickster God, made part of the Brotherhood of the Damned and condemned to an immortal life of battle against the Blight, blood-drinkers from Hel.

A mysterious woman he can’t resist.

One thousand years to the day he was damned, Loki allows him a woman as reward for his good service and repentance of his crimes. Once Broder sees Jessamine Hamilton, he is overcome with need. But Jessa is no ordinary woman, and the truth of who-and what-she is could have dangerous consequences.

A tormented man she can’t deny.

Though a future together is impossible, the warrior’s touch ignites an irresistible passion in Jessa. But every heated kiss pushes them closer to destruction. Forced to return to the brutality of his Viking past to protect her, will Broder surrender forever to his darkest impulses?

Review quote: “A tormented warrior and the woman who awakens his desires…. With vivid storytelling, [Bast] brings readers into the world of the Brotherhood of the Damned with its immortal warriors and blood-sucking demons. This novel grips you from the start.” — 4 stars, RT Book Reviews

Review quote: “Anya Bast has created a dark and thrilling world of demons and damned men. The romance is H.O.T. hot! Embrace of the Damned is completely engrossing; I didn’t want to put this book down.” Kristie ~ Dark Faerie Tales

CONTEST

Usually I do a big contest leading up to a new release, but my life has been way too crazy lately for me to pull that off. I’m running this shorter term contest instead. It’s really easy.

1.) Read the excerpt below and send the answer to the question BY EMAIL TO anyabastgiveaways(AT)yahoo.com. If you post the answer to the question here, I’ll delete the reply and you won’t be entered in the contest.

2.) For a second (third, fourth) chance to win the prizes, post this contest to Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or wherever and post the details here. You get a separate entry for each posting you do, so the more postings the better your chance of winning.

The prizes are as follows:

Grand prize ~ $100 GC to the book store of your choice

Prize two ~ Complete set of the Enchantment series, signed

Prize three ~ Complete set of the Elemental Witches series, signed.

~ Excerpt ~

Set up: Jessamine Hamilton has just escaped a demon attack in a parking garage, rescued by a leather clad man on a motorcycle. The problem is her rescuer seems more dangerous than the demon.

Just as she’d nearly reached the exit ramp, the rough sound of an engine reached her ears and a black motorcycle appeared in front of her car…and stopped, blocking her path.

Jessa slammed on the brakes, sliding on the pavement, hot rubber scenting the air and stopped the car a breath’s space from Biker Guy’s leg–he looked completely unworried.

Her breath shuddered out of her. She gripped the steering wheel and stared through the windshield at the man, taking stock. A chunk of her long hair had come free from her ponytail and lay over her face. It rose and fell with her panicked breaths.

He was tall and he was ripped. The roll of his muscles could be seen easily underneath his clothes. What was worse, and completely inappropriate, was how he made her respond–like a woman to a man. It was instant, primal and wholly unwelcome. This man made her whole body sit up and take notice.

Even so, he was definitely not someone she’d want to encounter in an empty parking garage late at night.

Biker Guy swung off the cycle, leaving the admittedly beautiful thing blocking her way, and stalked toward her, long worn leather coat trailing behind him like the wings of a fallen angel. He walked with anger set into his shoulders and with a hint of menace and easy arrogance in his swagger. That anger made his body seem like it would be hot to the touch, as if he identified so strongly with rage that it affected him physically.

She hoped his eyes didn’t bleed black. She’d have a heart attack and save everyone the trouble of having to kill her.

“You!” he bellowed through the window. She jumped at the commanding sound of his voice.

“I don’t know you,” she said in a shaky voice, glancing at him, then moving her gaze to fix on the cycle blocking her path. “Move your bike. I gotta go.”

“No.” He paused. “Roll down the window.” Absently, she noticed he spoke with an odd accent she couldn’t place.

Jessa took a deep breath and tried her mojo–funneling all of it she possibly could at the man. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, why she could do it, or, really how she was even able to do it, but if she concentrated hard enough, she could make people bend to her will. Sort of like a Jedi mind trick–this is not the woman you’re interested in. Move away from the vehicle.

The man lifted his brows. “Roll down the window,” he repeated, slower this time, as if she was an idiot.

Damn it! Why wasn’t it working?

When she remained still and unresponsive, completely freaked out and unmoving, he tapped the glass. With effort, she peeled her fingers off the steering wheel and rolled down her window a crack. She glanced up at him. God, he was beautiful. Sculpted, strong jaw, full lips that compelled a girl to want suck on them, deep, oddly expressive brown eyes. Despite all that physical yumminess, he didn’t look friendly. At all. He looked heartless.

“Uh, thanks…for your help. I appreciate it.” She looked at his motorcycle. “Really. I have to go now. Can you move that, please?”

“Why was he targeting you?” The man’s voice was deep and rough, like he didn’t use it very much–like honey and gravel.

“Who? That guy back there? Listen, I’m still processing all that, okay? I have no idea who or what he was, let alone what he wanted to do with me.” She set her jaw. Savior or not, gorgeous or not, this man was starting to piss her off. “Look, buddy, I’m all out of pepper spray, but I’m sitting in a car and I’m not afraid to use it.” She looked meaningfully at the shiny, expensive Harley blocking her path.

His gaze traveled over her, catching on the painful, damaged sections of her skin. “You need healing.”

“Yeah. I’ll go the hos–”

He reached out and pulled her car door off the hinges, then threw it aside like it weighed nothing.

“No. Just no.” Jessa shook her head and scrambled into the passenger side. “No, okay? No.” She opened the passenger side door and prepared to run.

But he was there, blocking her path. “You don’t understand. Where there is one of those things, there are more. You are in danger.”

The man radiated a palpable aura of menace as he loomed over her. She gave him an up and down sweep of her gaze. He still had ice in his hair. “Clearly.”

“You’re not in danger from me.”

“And my father was the Easter Bunny.”

He grabbed her wrist and she yelped. Right below her wrist was one of the light gray expanses of skin. The area had the imprint of Fanged Thing’s fingers on it, like she’d been marked with frostbite by his skin touching hers.

The man laid his hand over the injury and it warmed immediately. When he lifted his fingers, her skin was back to its regular peachy tan color.

Jessa took a step back, her eyes wide. “I didn’t just see that. I didn’t–”

He grabbed her other arm.

“Stop doing that!” By the time she’d uttered the sentence, her other arm was healed. Then he pressed his fingers onto the few places where Fanged Thing’s saliva had dripped on her.

“Anywhere else?” he growled at her.

She shook her head, blinking rapidly with nervousness.

“You’re healed.”

“Thank you.” She tried to step away, but he held her fast. “Uh, you can let me go now.”

He stared at her as though he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. Tipping his head to the side, he examined her with thorough interest. A strange, intense light had entered his eyes and she took a step backward.

There was something about this man that told her to back off–apart from the outward signs, the cycle, the leather, the scowl. There was something inside him that screamed danger, cross to the other side of the street no matter how heart-stoppingly gorgeous he was.

She had the urge to rip her arm away from him, but she stood her ground. He was so close to her that his breath stirred the fine hairs around her face. The heat of him rolled off and she absorbed it into her own skin. Despite the threat he emanated, her body started a slow, sexual burn. She tried to ignore it, push it away. Now was the not the time and this was definitely not the man.

And man, oh man. He was every inch a man.

The lines of his face were hard and cold, set in an almost cruel expression. This was a man who was both brutal and beautiful. But even though his expression was harsh, his brown eyes were filled with heat and emotion. It softened him.

As he stood staring at her, his eyes clouded, becoming distant, and a muscle worked in his jaw. As though he might be warring with himself over something. She’d never known brown eyes could look that hot. It made her whole body tighten with sexual awareness. Worse, his gaze probably mirrored her own.

Well, hell.

Then the man reached out, snagged her sweater with one big hand and pulled her flush up against his chest. His body heat rolled off him and enveloped her, making her heart rate speed up.

A huge, strong hand grasped the nape of her neck, the other hand going to the small of her back. She made a small noise in her throat, but it wasn’t of fear–not exactly… not totally. She should have been frightened, should have been fighting him, but there something inside her that thrilled at this man’s touch. She didn’t want to get away, even though that desire made no sense at all.

Pulling her head to the side, he exposed the column of her neck, then slowly lowered his mouth to it. His tongue flicked out, tasting her skin. Goose flesh erupted all over her body and a shiver traveled up her spine.

This was wrong. This was so, so very wrong. She knew that, so why was her body reacting this way to him? He was a forbidding stranger and–

He gently bit her throat, almost as if he wanted to mark her, and she moaned, closing her eyes.

She should have been worried that fangs would suddenly erupt in his mouth. She should have been having post traumatic mental explosions of blood and flesh tearing –of icy, frostbite-giving skin and freezing saliva. Yet all she could think of was bare skin, tangled limbs, a bed….

What kind of magick did this man possess?

Kissing her skin, he murmured words in a foreign language that sounded tender, almost like endearments. His hand traveled up to cup the back of her head, his fingers raking through her long hair. He made a noise in the recesses of his throat, his body tensing, as though holding himself back from tearing her clothes off her. She wasn’t sure she wanted him to resist his impulse.

Question: What’s wrong with Jessa’s skin and what does Broder do to it?

Remember to EMAIL the answer to me at anyabastgiveaways(at)Yahoo.com. Don’t post the answer here. The only thing you post here are the details about where you pimped out this contest in order to get additional entries. Thanks so much. 🙂

This contest is, as always, void where prohibited and you must be 18 years or older to enter.

THIS CONTEST WILL END ON TUESDAY, MAY 8TH. Good luck!!!

A while back, I blogged here about my new series The Brotherhood of the Damned. Well, here’s the cover for the first book, Embrace of the Damned (May, 2012). They let me keep the title, yay!

It’s a bit different than the covers for my Elemental Witches and Dark Magick series, right? Dude, not a lady. And quite a dude he is. Cover artist Tony Mauro has portrayed Broder Calderson well, I think. He even got Broder’s leather coat, which is set with runes to help him sense the presence of Blight (no good at all).

Here’s the official blurb for the book:

Centuries ago Broder Calderson committed murder. As punishment, he was given over to the dominion of Loki, the Trickster God, made part of the Brotherhood of the Damned and condemned to an immortal life of battle against the Blight, blood-drinkers from Hel.

One thousand years to the day he was damned, Loki allows him a woman as reward for his good service and repentance of his crimes. Once Broder sees Jessamine Hamilton, he is overcome with need. But Jessa is no ordinary woman, and the truth of who—and what—she is could have dangerous consequences.

Though a future together is impossible, the warrior’s touch ignites an irresistible passion in Jessa. But every heated kiss pushes them closer to destruction. Forced to return to the brutality of his Viking past to protect her, will Broder surrender forever to his darkest impulses?

I love my kick-ass chick covers, but I’m happy to go in another direction with this series. Other than The Chosen Sin, I’ve never had guys on my covers. I’m kind of interested to see how people react. What do you think?

What are your favorite elements on book covers? Can you name a few of your favorite covers, or does the content of the book trump all for you?