Rituals & Runes Author Feature Posted on July 30, 2022 | by C.D. Gorri All your favorite sexy creatures of your dreams are waiting for you in Rituals & Runes, a tantalizing collection of paranormal romance and urban fantasy tales. The authors of this anthology have a series of interviews regarding our box set. Today, please welcome author Piper Stone to discuss her sexy tale, Dark Reign, which is only available in the anthology! Author: Piper Stone Book: Dark Reign R&R: You have described your story as a dark little piece in the anthology, tell us why this is an apt description? Piper: My hero is a very bad man, both with regard to the fact he’s a powerful mafia leader and that because of a vicious curse, he’s forced to live his life as a vampire. And our heroine is the fixation of his desires, incapable of refusing his desires. R&R: What a hot, intriguing story readers can look forward to! What do you think readers will like most about the love interest? Piper: I think that our heroine is very strong, a fighter who refuses to give in. However, our hero does have a soft spot, more humanity than you might think a dead mafia king might have. R&R: Layered characters make a story great and engaging. We can’t wait to read it. Can you give us some insight into what makes your main characters tick? Piper: For our hero, it’s all about the fact he was cursed by a witch, forced to live as the undead. For our heroine, she’s compelled by her instincts and spiritual gifts to explore the realm of witchcraft, a trait inherited by her grandmother. R&R: Those are the types of challenges that make characters relatable and draw us in as readers. What qualities does your female, main character possess? Piper: All the feistiness of a true heroine, including a strong will to live. She also has dark desires that ultimately become impossible to ignore. R&R: I bet she will give that vampire a good run around! What about you as an author. Do you have a favorite place to write? Where is it? Piper: I have an amazing office full of books and music where I write every day. R&R: That’s an author’s dream come true! Very lovely. What books do you have coming out that are not involved in the anthology? Piper: I have a release every two weeks, including additional stories from the dark mafia world of Sinners and Saints, a sexy reverse harem involving oil riggers, and a hot little sci-fi about a human thief. R&R: Those are quite a few amazing titles readers can get their hands on! Congratulations! If you chose three people for a dinner party, who would they be, and why? Piper: Stephen King, Bentley Little and Dean Koontz because I’m a horror junkie. R&R: That makes total sense given your slant toward the dark side in your writing. Very nice. Would you rather travel to the same place once a year or move every month to a new place? Piper: I’d rather travel to a new place, enjoying the culture and excitement of the people, indulging in their food and customs. R&R: Awesome! Sounds like an adventure like your books. Thanks for joining us. If you’d like to find out more about this story, read on for more information and a juicy snippet. Blurb: She is my salvation, innocent and vulnerable. Now, she belongs to me. As the firstborn of the Bartholomew mafia family, I’m used to getting what I want, no matter the savagery I’m forced to use. However, when a single miscalculation leads to a damning curse, not only is the powerful hold on my empire threatened but my mortal life as well. Sequestered in the darkness, I’m plagued with an insatiable thirst only human blood can quench. The moment Rayne Ward enters my life, my hunger becomes something else entirely. Predatory. With a single whiff of her intoxicating scent, I realize she’s the only one who can break the horrific spell. She can fight the burning desire, the electricity sparking between us, but she will never be free. My beast will claim her, but the man will keep her forever. Excerpt A delicious scent filtered across the street; the floral perfume laced with just a hint of exotic spices. Inhaling, I filled my lungs and closed my eyes briefly. Hunger roared through my system, but it wasn’t my usual craving for blood that had drawn me to this location or to the luscious creature. It was her feminine scent, delicate and sweet, that had inspired my dark cravings. I dragged my tongue across my lips, my breathing labored just from the mere sight of her alone. She had no idea that a predator was watching, waiting patiently for the right time. Tonight was the night her life would change, surrendering to my carnal needs. I’d studied her for some time, absorbing her habits, her long hours spent at job that was beneath her intellectual abilities. With few friends, her time spent alone entailed burying her nose in a book, obviously longing for a better life, one that could provide excitement like the heroines in the romance novels she devoured. I was the man who would provide everything she’d ever wanted, fulfilling her darkest fantasies. Rayne. Her name rolled across my tongue as I whispered it, igniting the kind of fire I hadn’t experienced in years. Then I would sink my teeth into her porcelain skin, savoring the taste of her blood as I extinguished her life. The thought pushed my throbbing cock against my trousers, the hard pinch creating an ache that would remain until I buried my shaft deep inside her pretty, pink pussy. She was very organized, ensuring the lock on the library door was intact before walking down the aging stone steps, tugging on her light jacket. The girl who’d walked out beside her chatted away, her drivel regarding whatever cute young man who’d visited the hallowed halls of the establishment boring my luscious flower. I could sense Rayne was attempting to be polite while longing for the dark hair girl to shut up. A part of me wanted to become her hero, removing the troublesome girl from Rayne’s life, leaving her bloodless body on the cracked sidewalk. But I would refrain from indulging at least for now. I moved closer, longing to gather a stronger whiff of Rayne’s delicious fragrance. Exotic, spicy and when combined with the scent of her aching pussy, my desires bordered insatiable. When the useless girl finally walked away, Rayne began her walk, the same one she took every night. This part of New Orleans was safe, so she’d been led to believe after returning to her hometown. Little did she know the kind of danger she was in. She would soon learn that monsters lurked in the shadows, prepared to take what belonged to them at any time. Tonight was the night. Soon, Rayne Ward would belong to me. Body and soul. Author Bio: Amazon Top 100 Internationally Best-Selling Author, Kindle Unlimited All Star, Piper Stone writes in several genres. From her worlds of dark mafia, cowboys and marines to contemporary reverse harem, shifter romance and science fiction, she attempts to delight readers with a foray into darkness, sensuality, suspense and always a romantic HEA. When she’s not writing, you can find her sipping merlot while she enjoys spending time with her three Golden Retrievers (Indiana Jones, Magnum PI and Remington Steele) and a husband who relishes in creating fabulous food. Dangerous is Delicious. Where you can find her: Newsletter Link http://eepurl.com/c2QvLz Home https://www.facebook.com/authorpiperstone/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1868206103443965/ http://www.instagram.com/authorpiperstone/ http://amazon.com/author/piperstone http://bookbub.com/authors/piper-stone https://www.tiktok.com/@piperstoneauthor piperstonecreations@gmail.com Get more magical & paranormal-themed stories like this in Rituals & Runes! Universal: https://books2read.com/rituals Amazon: https://amzn.to/3oz9aGJ