Bound
A Magnus Blackwell Novel, Book Two
by Alexandrea Weis with Lucas Astor
Genre: Paranormal Suspense/
Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Vesuvian Books
Date of Publication: 4/17/18
ISBN: 978-1944109615
ASIN: B079L1Q1KM
Number of pages: 313
Word Count: 93,000
Cover Artist: Sam Shearon
Tagline: You can’t escape the darkness
Book Description:
Magnus Blackwell’s past is about to catch up with him.
An evil force has seized New Orleans. Pestilence, suffering, and darkness cloak the city. The citizens are scared and need their mambo to guide them, but Lexie Arden can’t help anyone. A diabolical presence has taken Lexie’s power and severed her ties with the other side.
Magnus Blackwell is fighting demons of his own. Torn between his devotion to Lexie and a spirit from his past, Magnus’s loyalty is put to the test. He must revisit his sins to uncover the key to the hatred ripping the city apart. If he doesn’t, Lexie’s reign as mambo will end.
Their search for answers leads them deep into the darker realms of voodoo—until a desperate Lexie does the unthinkable, and Magnus can do nothing to spare her from her fate.
Excerpt
Magnus waited outside the cottage, anxious for Lexie.
Vulnerable because he was cut off from her. Something had changed between them.
The thoughts, emotions, and even the actions of the living left impressions in
his head. In the beginning, he’d only connected with Lexie; now it appeared as
if every person he encountered touched him in some beguiling way.
Confounded by what was happening, he went to the green
water at the swamps’ edge along the side of the house. Raindrops created
ripples on the stagnant water. Their concentric circles grew, intersecting in
swells, releasing voices in their wake.
Magnus waited at the slimy green bank, attempting to
make sense of the strange sounds. The cries of men, women, and children rose up
and overwhelmed him.
“Save us!” a woman shrieked.
“Please, help me. I want to be free,” a man’s husky voice entreated.
“Take me away from this hell,” a high-pitched wail
begged.
The voices built around him, crowding his ears,
imploring him to rescue their tormented souls. He had never heard such noises
from anyone.
A vision of his Frannie hurtling over the cliff’s edge
at Altmover Manor replayed in his head. The sound she made as she toppled to
the rocks below resembled the pitiful cries of the spirits around him. Magnus
closed his eyes, disgusted by the memory.
When his eyes opened, he scampered backward. In the
boggy water, hundreds of bodies floated in various stages of decomposition.
Arms, hands, legs, and torsos bobbed on the surface. The woman in black he’d
seen with Lexie stood at the water’s edge, calling to the dead to wake from
their soggy tombs.
Horrified by the agony he saw on their contorted faces,
Magnus wanted to obliterate the vision by returning to his shadowy realm, but
he couldn’t tear himself away. The images of body parts and broken souls held
him captive as bitter waves of anger and anguish rolled off the water.
“Your master’s in
danger.”
Magnus spun around.
A little girl in a long white nightgown trimmed in
yellow ribbon stood next to him. Down the front, a stain of burnt red went all
the way to her bare feet. She held a dirty teddy bear in her arms, but when she
peered up at him, a gaping wound across her throat exposed the bone underneath.
Magnus didn’t know if he could believe the phantom
before him. Spirits had never reached out to him before. This was Lexie’s
realm. Why did he suddenly have her gift?
“Are you real?”
“Yes, sir. Very real, just like you.”
He knelt down beside the child. “What is your name?”
“Mattie. I died in the swamp when I was six. The
mistress has enslaved my soul to do her bidding.”
He touched the nose of the teddy bear in her arms. His
fingers passed through the toy. “What mistress?”
“The Lady La Fay. The one who called your master to
her side.”
Magnus examined her gray skin and sunken eyes. “I
don’t have a master.”
She pointed to the porch steps of the cottage. “You’re
bound to the woman who went inside. She’s your master and the one who controls
your fate. We are all bound to those who work the dark realm. You’ll see.”
Magnus was about to question the child when her eyes
went black and rolled back into her head.
Her mouth opened, and her lips stretched, expanding
painfully beyond her chin and cheeks. The gaping, black hole spread and almost
split her face in two. It covered her entire face, leaving only her flowing
brown hair untouched.
Alarmed, he stood up. Then the child dropped the teddy
bear and held her arms out to her sides.
He searched the swamps for an escape. He found the
souls in the water, their dismembered bodies rising from the surface, coming
toward him. A parade of legs, arms, torsos, and heads covered with algae and
muck approached his spot on the shore.
He faced the girl, her toes floating above the boggy
ground.
A soulless, wretched cackle came from the blackness
covering her face.
“Welcome, Magnus Blackwell,” a woman’s whiny voice
echoed from the darkness. “Welcome to my world.”
Born and raised in New Orleans, Alexandrea Weis grew up in the motion picture industry and began writing at the age of eight. After finishing her Ph.D. in Nursing, Alexandrea decided to pick up the pen again. She has published a number of award-winning novels, and won countless national awards for fiction. A certified/permitted wildlife rehabber with the La. Wildlife and Fisheries, when not writing, Alexandrea rescues orphaned and injured wildlife. She and her husband live in New Orleans.
Visit Alexandrea Weis online at: www.alexandreaweis.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexandreaweis
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandreaweis/
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