**FREE** TODAY ONLY ~ The Vessel by Ofelia Gränd #Free #GuestPost #Excerpt
Hello everyone! Thank you, Addison, for allowing me to pop on here today! 🥰 I’m Ofelia Gränd, and I write MM romance in all possible and impossible subgenres 😅
Have you been hanging around the JMS Books site this month? No? Are you aware there is an Advent calendar going? Every day from December 1st up to the 24th, there is one not previously published book that’s free from 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST. If you missed it, you can’t go back, so better check it every day!
Today is my day!!! Today, and today only, you can grab my story The Vessel for free 🥳 Tomorrow, it will be available wide for $2.99.
A couple of years ago, JMS Books had a short story call in December called Naughty or Nice. We were to write a story that was either naughty or nice. I, of course, cheated. Or you know… I wrote a story that took place in a nightclub named The Ruby Tooth, which also is the title of the story, that’s divided into two.
The doorman at The Ruby Tooth is a veritas, a species (completely human-looking) that can see into your soul and tell if you’re good or bad. The good are sent to the left and the bad to the right (just like in politics 😉).
In The Ruby Tooth (the story) a man, Ilya, meant to be on the good side, sneaks over to the bad to meet up with his best friend who was shown there. While there, he meets a strange man, Ulric, who claims there are supernatural beings in the world, and he’s a bounty hunter. All Ilya wants to do is avoid nutjobs and go home and eat pie, but that’s not what happens.
Anyway, it’s been two years since I wrote The Ruby Tooth, and I never planned for it to be a series. It was only supposed to be a quick short story and then nothing more. But for two years, the idea of veritas has stuck with me.
So here we are. The Vessel is about Sadek, the doorman at The Ruby Tooth, and Dei, who has escaped from the witch who keeps him as a familiar.
Dei makes it to The Ruby Tooth. He doesn’t have a clue what kind of place it is, but he’s cold and needs to sit for a bit, so he enters. For the first time in Sadek’s life, he doesn’t know which side to send a person to.
Dei isn’t evil, but he reeks of black magic. He can’t send someone with black magic to the left, but at the same time, he’s afraid the patrons on the right will eat him alive.
So he does what any sane man would—knocks him out and hides him in the cleaning closet. Yup, the most logical thing he could have done 😆
If you want to know what happens when Dei wakes up, hop on over to JMS Books and grab a free copy! (if you read this on December 13, that is) You do have to have read The Ruby Tooth to read The Vessel.
The Vessel
by Ofelia Gränd
Paranormal gay romance
17,553 words
The Vessel is free ONLY on December 13 from 12AM Midnight > 11:59PM USA EST
Thereafter, it’ll be $2.99 at JMS Books and at most ebook distributors (but you’ll find other free books at the link each day through December 24)
Blurb
Welcome to The Ruby Tooth, the only nightclub the supernatural council has approved for mixed clientele. Here the pure-souled are shown to the bar on the left, and the rest to the one on the right.
Sadek Verity works as a doorman at The Ruby Tooth. His job is to look into the soul of each club goer and determine if they belong on the naughty or the nice side. It’s an easy job until Dei shows up. Dei doesn’t belong on either side, and Sadek doesn’t know what to do about it.
Excerpt
Sadek was contemplating telling Jack, who was keeping the peace in the line outside the door, that he needed a break. He could go into the kitchen and ask Marilla to walk through the naughty side of the nightclub and assess the guy. Maybe she knew what or who he was.
He smiled as he gestured for a geeky-looking guy in his early twenties to go to the left. Children. Or maybe he was getting old. This job was getting old.
Once the man had disappeared, Sadek took a step toward the entrance to let Jack know he needed five minutes. Before he could reach it, Jack opened it and peeked inside. “Trouble approaching.”
Sadek wanted to groan. “What kind?”
“Don’t know, but it smells like a walking thundercloud. Female, heading in this direction with determined steps.”
Shit. “The guy.” He looked questioningly at Jack.
“The one who came in now?”
“No earlier. The one smelling of ozone.”
“The human someone had bespelled?”
“Was he bespelled?” Maybe it was the explanation, but Sadek had been around bespelled people before, and he’d always known which side they belonged to.
Jack grimaced. “Something had been done to him.”
They looked at each other for a short moment. “I don’t think we should let anyone in before I see how she reacts when she reaches the line.”
Sadek nodded. “Give me five minutes before you let anyone through.”
He moved toward the door on the right before Jack had time to agree. Stepping into the dim light, he nodded at Arthur behind the bar. He worked the right side because it was where Sadek would’ve sent him had he come as a guest, and because he was a bear shifter. They needed people strong enough to break up a fight should one occur, and bears were strong.
Scanning the crowd, he found the man in the corner being seduced by Kasha, a vampire who frequented The Ruby Tooth on a regular basis. Sadek hurried over. “Sorry to interrupt.”
Kasha glared at him.
“I need a word.” He met the man’s gaze and nodded toward the bar. He didn’t plan to go to the bar, but the door next to it. It led into the kitchen hidden behind the wall.
“Oh, of course.” The man stood, looking unsteady. There were no glasses on the table, but it didn’t mean he hadn’t been drinking. “Is there a problem?”
“You tell me.”
The man widened his eyes and pushed past Kasha. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Sadek turned around and walked toward the kitchen door. He didn’t glance over his shoulder to make sure the man followed. Here he was the authority. Once he reached the door, he turned, and the man was right behind him. Good.
“This way.” He held up the door, and as soon as the man had stepped through, he pushed it closed behind them. It took a second for his eyes to adjust from the dim light of the bar to the bright lights of the kitchen. “What’s your name?”
“Dei Vessel.”
Vessel? Hadn’t he heard something about someone named Vessel before? “There is a woman approaching who smells strongly of ozone.”
The color drained from Dei’s face, and relief flooded Sadek. He’d done the right thing to go and get him.
“Marilla!”
It took a few seconds, but then Marilla walked in their direction. “I’m not a dog, Sadek. You can’t call me and expect me to come running.” Funny, since it was exactly how he thought it was in her home. She’d call, and Todd, her mate, would come running.
“Sorry. We have a situation. This is Dei Vessel. I need him to disappear.”
Dei whimpered while Marilla huffed. “I’ve left that line of work, dear.”
Sadek allowed a sigh. “I meant I need him hidden.”
“Y-You can’t hide me. She’ll find me wherever I go. I’ll head back, and she’ll return to the cabin without causing you any problem. I’m sorry. I never meant to get you in trouble.”
Sadek stared, and Marilla chuckled.
“Oh, sweetness, now I’m almost intrigued.” She scratched one of the many tattooed hieroglyphs covering her skin before glancing at Sadek. “Sent him to the wrong side, did you?”
Sadek didn’t move a muscle. He couldn’t have sent him to the left. He wasn’t sure he belonged on the right either, but people always, always, belonged on one side or the other, so he had to.
Dei made a distressed sound. “She’s my master. It was stupid of me to leave the cabin. I only needed some space.”
Master? Master as in… It had been forbidden to own humans for decades.
About Ofelia Gränd
Ofelia Gränd is Swedish, which often shines through in her stories. She likes to write about everyday people ending up in not-so-everyday situations, and hopefully also getting out of them. She writes romance, contemporary, paranormal, Sci-Fi and whatever else catches her fancy.
Her books are written for readers who want to take a break from their everyday life for an hour or two.
When Ofelia manages to tear herself from the screen and sneak away from her husband and children, she likes to take walks in the woods…if she’s lucky she finds her way back home again.
Author Links
