Dame Rinda
I am getting very excited and very nervous about the release of Dweller on the Threshold in March. I really enjoyed writing this monster (Over 105k!) and missed finishing the series. I had big plans for Beri and her group of odd friends and now that I get to delve back into her world, I’m just thrilled. The nerves are coming from the knowledge that a few people have been looking forward to this a long, long time. It’s possible the long wait has caused a build-up–the kind that might end in disappointment. LOL! I sincerely hope not. Hope my prickly Beri grows on everyone as she learns more about herself, her capabilities and her ability to love.
So, to celebrate the less than six months to go, I’m sharing an exclusive unedited excerpt today. 
When I did finally sleep, my dreams were fractured. Images of Elsa superimposed over those of every monster I’d come in contact with over the years. The image changed to the room where I slept and I quickly realized I was no longer dreaming, but very awake and very aware.
And very not in my body.
Shit.
This had happened to me before. I knew it was some sort of astral projection, but frankly, it creeped me out. It had been happening a lot more in the last few months, but I had yet to learn to control it. Learn what to do with the thick, silver line that connected my spirit to my body. The last time this had happened, I’d awakened in a tree, the silver cord tangled so badly in the branches, it had taken me over two hours to get myself free. I had looked up astral projection on a few websites and quit reading after seeing that no one ever talked about getting their cords tangled.
At least this time, I was still in the room Elsa kept for me in her house. It was strange hovering over my own body, seeing how I look asleep, my hair in a wild tangle over my face, my breath pushing up strands in rhythmic pulses. One bare foot stuck out from the covers.
A sudden noise made my body here jump.
Oh my God, had that been a mini snore?
And where were Fred and Phro? The slackers weren’t doing their job and watching over me… though technically, it was only Fred’s job.
Another noise sounded but it didn’t come from my body. It came from the corner of the room.
I couldn’t turn my head to look. My metaphysical body felt weightless, without muscles, organs or tendons. But I could feel air touch my skin. Normally when this happened, I could just float around wherever I wanted. This time was different. I tried to shift my eyes toward the shuffling noise, but my body was frozen. It grew louder, this sandpapery, sliding sound– like a sack of wet dirt dragging across the floor.
The noise stopped, but it didn’t ease the terror my spirit shouldn’t even be able to feel. It wasn’t a comforting silence.
An invisible caress brushed over my skin slowly, as if someone softly blew evil across my body.
I could still see myself lying there on the bed, helpless. A shadow crossed my exposed foot. I could only hover and watch as a misty, sinuous form crawled up my legs to straddle my waist. It just sat there, staring down at my face.
Now intellectually, I knew that a spirit couldn’t hurt me. They can sometimes get angry enough to shove enough power at something to move it or at someone to push them out of the way, but physically hurt? No. But something about this spirit pulled my knowledge through a sieve, split it all up into tiny pieces and left nothing but cold doubt and fear.
I held my breath as it leaned forward, ran its tongue over my face. Ew.
My hair wasn’t moved out of the way, there was no tell-tale wetness left behind. My breath let out, or it would have if I had any. It was just a poltergeist… a mischievous spirit, ornery but harmless.
Then it slowly turned its head to look up at me and grinned. It took on face and form and my metaphysical self shuddered in terror. Wispy, out of place features slid around as the form solidified into something out of a childhood nightmare. A small, yet powerful creature with pointed ears and the teeth. Sharp and shiny and too numerous for a normal mouth. This mouth, however, wasn’t normal. It stretched wide, like the Dweller Demon’s mouth had, but this grin pulled the demented elfin face into a gruesome parody of a child. The kind of evil child one saw in those nineteen seventies horror flicks, only worse.
It still grinned and before I could do anything, it pressed knobby hands down on my chest and pushed.
Oh! The third book in my Kithran Regenesis series (erotic romances I write as Dani Worth) Catalyst is up for pre-order! This releases in less than a month. It’s listed as a novella, but is actually closer to 50k in length, so it’s a category romance. And if you want to know what it’s about, I have a blurb up on my website here.
