Excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Bear Cave:

A dark mist covered the black wolf. When the fog dissipated, the black outline of a man stood there. “Come to papa.” 

The two wolves at his ankles let go. The creepy wet voice caused Harry to scramble the last five feet on his hands and knees. Fear-stoked adrenaline helped the severely wounded man to reach up and open the door, leaving bloody prints on the door handle. 

“Don't struggle and I’ll make it quick and painless.” The voice caused him to look back and see the shadow man was now running forward and leapt into the air, landing on the hood of Harry’s police vehicle. “Okay, who wants to magically disappear next?” 

The man repeated everything Harry had said to the donuts. Carter reached into the SUV and grabbed the mic, screaming, “Help me! Oh my God help me! I’m being killed by a pack of wolves.” 

Harry stared through the cracked windshield when the face of Henry Morgan pressed against it. He recognized the man from the wanted posters that had speckled the county for the past few years. Only this Henry Morgan had mud flowing from his eyes. The deputy continued to scream into the mic. 

“I’m not sure if I can eat you all up in one sitting, but I’m sure as hell gonna try!” Henry Morgan repeated Harry’s earlier thought. Then the horrifying man misted back into the black wolf and jumped onto the roof of the SUV. 

Harry looked up at the edge of the roof. The last thing he saw was the glowing orange eyes staring down at him. Then the wolves were on him, tearing the man apart, devouring his body. Deputy Harry Carter never realized his radio was off, because he had turned off the vehicle when he exited it earlier. Nobody had heard his desperate cries for help.

Lair Of The Seductress New Chapter:

Officer Katie Kelsey was rattling on about the meeting at the Ash Task Force Headquarters they had attended earlier today. Greg was hardly paying attention. His eyes had settled on a yellow “post-it” note stuck to his desktop. 

Katie continued to ramble on about Agent Harkins and his inability to look outside of the box. She made a crack about suspecting impotence. Then she started in on theories. “I asked if you had any theories on the killer, Chief?”

Maybe I misread it? Greg rubbed his eyes and reread the little yellow note: 

Meet me behind the Whittis dealership at 8 PM. Come alone or I won’t show. 

 Lilith

“Theories, Greg. Do you have any?” The woman obviously hadn’t seen the note. 

“Huh? Oh, I’m working on it.” He saw it was 7:45 on the digital phone display. Greg grabbed his police jacket. “That was a brutally long meeting. Harkin’s incessant yammering really wore me out. Let’s go home and come back in the morning with fresh eyes.”

“Sure, boss.” Officer Kelsey left his office. He waited for her to drive away, then went out to his Charger. 

Three minutes later, he was rolling through the main entrance of the Whittis Chevrolet Dealership. He parked at the entrance to the alley way. It didn’t escape his attention that he had parked in the exact same spot where they had found Deputy Harry Carter’s body after Morgan’s wolf pack had killed him.

Pushing that from his mind, Greg grabbed his maglight, but kept it off as he quietly edged his way into the alley. His foot accidently kicked a glass bottle and sent it clinking across the pavement. Shit, you dumbass. Not that she didn’t hear me pull up anyways. Then he saw her. 

Backlit by a full moon, a dark, shadowy figure stood at the far end of the alley near the sheet metal wall. Greg closed to within thirty yards, he could see a very feminine figure hidden underneath the woman’s thin black cloak. Short red curls peeked out of the dark opening in the hood which covered her face in shadow. His shoulder tattoo immediately started burning. 

The place’s sinister history, as well as the nostalgic feeling of his long lost friend White Feather, permeated the area. What the hell, Gergory ol’ boy? Don’t go getting all sentimental on me. Focus on the current situation if you don’t want to become another photo on the victim board in the Ash Task Force office. Focus. 

“Lilith, I presume.” Greg rested his hand on his holstered pistol. At least I have her boxed in. She has nowhere to go. The dark figure just stood there. Wrapped in a creepy silence. 

“You called this little meeting. I doubt it was to show me you have a strong silent side.”

“Walk away from this case, Chief, or you will die.” The woman’s eyes flashed red from inside her trench coat hood. 

“Walk away? I’m just an advisor.”

“You're too good, Chief. That’s why I don’t . . . hunt . . . in Wolf Bend.” Her voice was low and sultry, yet it held a hint of age. 

“Hunt? What’re you doing to these men?”

“I take their essence.” 

“You take their what? Do you like hurting them? Do you enjoy killing them?” Come on, Lilith, give me something I can work with.

“Like? Enjoy? You don’t understand.” He could see the woman shaking her head. “I need it. I need their essence. Without it, I cease to exist.”

“You need to kill them?” I’m not buying into her bullshit.

“In your eyes it would be much like lust. It builds and builds until I experience the male essence. I’m drawn to yours even as we speak. But I’ll never take in your town, if you promise to stay off the case. There are plenty of men for me to experience outside of Wolf Bend.”

This is going nowhere. Greg decided to change tactics. “Were you freed when White Feather crossed over?” 

“I was walking amongst you, but that native wizard had my powers bound. When he passed, I was freed and in great need.”

“What if I don’t walk away?”

“Then I’ll have my way with you and feast upon your soul.” The final word came out as a hiss. 

“What is it with you spirit beings and feasting upon souls? First Morgan, then the hag, and now you. Maybe if you just learn to play nicely with the other souls, then I wouldn’t have to keep putting you guys down.”

“So, are we in agreement? You drop this and I give Wolf Bend a wide berth?” Either Lilith chose to ignore his sarcasm, or just didn’t recognize it. 

“How about we do this the old fashion way and I place you under arrest and take you in? You have the right to remain silent and all that happy horseshit. Now get down on your knees and put your hands on top of your head, bitch.” Greg drew Bass, intentionally provoking the woman, but kept it pointing at the ground between them. There’s no way it’s going to go down like that. I’m going to kill her here and now.

“I guess it’s Plan B then. I’m going to treat you to the most incredible pleasure you’ve ever experienced . . . followed by the worst pain.” Lilith took a step towards Greg. 

“Or we could go with Plan C and I just end this now.” Bass came up, spitting bullets as quickly as Greg could fire them. Thirteen bullets struck Lilith dead center, but she didn’t go down. 

Lilith brushed her coat off as if swiping at gnats. “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Greg. You’ve been down this road before haven’t you? Bullets don’t do much against the spirit world, even those coated ones.”

What the hell? How did she know those were the dipped bullets I had left over from Mud Creek? The magic bullets didn’t even faze her. 

“You look surprised they didn’t work. Use that impressive investigative brain of yours, Chief. When you released the spirits from the bear cave you ended the magic of the creek. That includes the magic on your dipped bullets. All you managed to do is ruin my favorite coat.” He thought he heard a sigh from beneath the hood. “You’ve put us on an irreversible path. I’ll be coming for your essence soon.”

With a flurry the slender figure rushed at him. At the last moment she took flight, raking her nails across his face as she half-jumped half-flew over the man and, with very feminine laughter, disappeared into the night sky. The moment she touched him his bear tattoo burned with an intensity that nearly dropped him.

Greg had switched on his flashlight at the last possible second and got a quick look at Lilith’s face. She had Greek goddess-like, almost chiseled features. Smooth and wrinkle free, yet she held an aura of incredible ancient beauty. He had never seen the woman before. Once you saw a face like that, you never forgot it.