Hi everyone.  A few weeks ago I posted the first chapter of Black Moon Rising, the sequel to Crimson Dawn.  If you are unfamiliar with Crimson Dawn, it is the first book in my DarkLife Saga and revolves around a pureblood vampire named Valeria Trumaine.  The first book introduces readers to not only Val, but her best friend Irulan, and a host of other supernatural beings.  It follows the two women as they try to apprehend Val’s ex-fiance turned rogue.  I must admit that I take the ladies on a wild ride as they race top stop Tristan from killing and turning innocent people.

Black Moon Rising picks up three months after the events in Crimson Dawn and it’s a new ballgame for Val and Irulan.  Val goes through many changes in Crimson Dawn and has to deal with some of the ramifications of those changes in B.M.R.  Readers will also get to know some other members of Valeria’s family such as her twin brother Valerian and her adopted son David, whom readers were introduced to in Crimson Dawn.

Black Moon Rising, I hope, will prove to be just as thrilling a ride as Crimson Dawn is.  I am deep into re-writes, but decided to post a few sneak peeks anyway.

If you missed the first chapter of Black Moon Rising, you can read it here: http://frogenyozurt.com/2011/12/dark-life-saga-book-2-black-moon-rising-sneak-peak/

You can read more about Crimson Dawn here: http://crimsondawn.copperhillmedia.com/

Crimson Dawn: Darklife Saga Bk 1, is available now from Copperhill Media in paperback and ebook format at Amazon, All Romance EBooks.com, Barnes and Nobles.com, and other places books are sold.

Never Again: An Irulan Short, UnSpoken: A Val and Irulan Short, and Faerie Wishes andJaguar Kisses: A DarkWorld Novella, are available on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Nobles.com

You can read more about all my DarkLife/DarkWorld titles and my other works at my website http://www.ronniemassey.com/.

Or by checking out my post here at http://frogenyozurt.com/.

So without further ado, here is Chapter 2 of Black Moon Rising: Darklife Saga Book II

Black Moon Rising: Chapter 2 Sneak Peek

We found the psych ward easy enough. Once we got to the secured area of the hospital, Valerian pressed the com unit. “Valerian Trumaine here to see William Baker.”
The unit crackled as his message was played on the other side of the closed doors. We expected an immediate reply but the only thing we heard was the sound of someone breathing. They were there; they just weren’t acknowledging our presence.
I reached past Valerian, eager to give the little box a piece of my mind, but he grabbed my hand. “Not yet Valeria. Let me try again.”
He pressed the call button again and leaned towards the microphone. “This is Valerian Trumaine, council for William Baker. I’m here for our scheduled interview.”

The heavy mouth breather on the other side of the door continued to ignore us. I pleaded with my eyes. “Let me Vedo, please. I promise I won’t go overboard.”
Valerian held up a finger as he tried diplomacy one last time. “I can hear you breathing over the speaker, so I know you’re there. Whoever you are, you need to open these doors so I can come inside and conduct an interview with my client. I have the means to let myself in, but I‘d prefer not to use them, if at all possible.”
Valerian leaned away from the intercom and waited a few more moments. When there was still no reply, he shook his head and softly laughed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said to the intercom. “Go ahead Val.”
I smiled to myself as I lay my hand against the glowing keypad on the wall. If this door had been in my way three months ago, I would have simply ripped it out of the wall. Granted, it would have cost Trumaine Enterprises thousands of dollars to replace it, but sometimes it’s worth it.
Lucky for them, I was a kinder, gentler, Valeria. Not to mention powerful…when I could control it. I pulled a small amount of energy from the stores inside of me and directed it down and out through my palm. The black charge connected with the keypad and fried all the circuitry within. The doors slid open as alarms started wailing all around us. Another quick burst of energy killed the alarms as quickly as they started.

 
“After you,” I said with flair, full of pride that my little stunt had actually worked the way I wanted. Valerian spared me a brief smile before he wiped all emotion from his face and waltzed through the ruined doors. We didn’t make it two feet before an army of pissed off nurses and security guards blocked our path.

 
The smallest nurse, a woman who looked like she was maybe four foot six, stepped forward and crossed her hands over her chest. “I don’t know what you did to our doors, but that was totally uncalled for. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

 
To stress her point, three guards stepped closer to her and each one of them pulled stun baton’s from their utility belts. I wasn’t impressed.

Valerian held up his arm and took a long look at his watch before frowning at her. “I beg to differ on the necessity of our actions Ms. Reid. We were kept waiting for over ten minutes, when there was clearly a staff member at the desk who could have let us in. I have an appointment and I hate being late.”

 
The spitfire nurse cut her eyes at her coworker at the nurses station. The young woman flinched under her hard gaze and quickly dropped her head. When Nurse Reid turned her attention back to us, the anger marring her face was gone. “I must apologize for Jenny. She’s new here and rather spirited. Her personal feelings shouldn’t have affected her work performance.”
She waved away the crowd of people behind her as she continued. “She shouldn’t have kept you waiting Mr. Trumaine, be that as it may, willful destruction of hospital property is not acceptable.”
Valerian looked towards the nurses station at the young woman who was doing her damndest to hide behind a row of charts. “I agree we could have handled it in a different manner but in light of the attitude of your staff, I’m glad we did. Discrimination against Extras is against the law you know.”

 
Nurse Reid was quick to speak up. “Oh no. Jenny has nothing against you personally Mr. Trumaine. We’re all actually really big fan’s of your family.” Her face turned beet red as she continued, “It’s just…well, Fee Baker worked as a volunteer here for years. Many of us are having a hard time with this whole thing. Having William here and all.”

 
Valerian’s face stayed blank. “I wasn’t aware of the victim‘s connection to this hospital. Under the circumstances I believe I’ll petition to have my client moved to a different facility.”

 
Although she didn’t say it out loud, I saw relief flood every inch of her face. While I was thoroughly irked at our being kept waiting, I sympathized for her. Having Valerian’s client here couldn’t have been easy. She nodded her head, “If you believe that’s best.”

 
He pulled a card from his breast pocket and held it out. “This is my card. I’ll be glad to cover the cost for repairs. Now if you could lead me to Mr. Bakers room.”

 
Now that all the excitement was over, the crowd thinned out considerably. Following the demure nurse through the ward was like walking through a mental battleground. There were so many emotions fighting to get inside my head, that I completely locked down my shields, leaving no room whatsoever for anything to slip through cracks.

 
Valerian gasped. It was a sound so soft, Nurse Reid didn’t hear a thing. He cut his accusing eyes in my direction, questioning the metal knock I’d just given him. Not one to quickly admit what I saw as a weakness, I ignored him and kept my eyes straight ahead. He should have felt that.

 
Once we reached our destination, she swiped a key card and stepped aside. “He’s expecting you.”

 
Staying true to my assignment, I was the first one through the door, making sure there wasn’t any danger to Valerian. I slowly stepped inside the stark white room and took a quick assessment. The only furniture to speak of was the bed and small table and two chairs. The window was smaller than I expected, no bigger than a laptop. There was a TV set high into the wall, and that was pretty much it.
The rooms occupant, William Baker was sitting in one of the chairs with his back to the door, rocking back and forth. I looked back and waved Valerian inside.

 
Valerian set his briefcase on the small table and loosened his tie. “Mr. Baker, my name is Valerian Trumaine. I’m a lawyer and I was asked to meet with you today.”

 
Baker’s rocking stopped. A wracked moan slid from his lips and he fell forward letting his head fall into his upturned hands. Valerian moved to stand in front of him and dropped to his eyelevel. “Mr. Baker, did you hear me? My brother Constantine asked me to come talk with you.”

 
At the mention of Constantine’s name, the sobbing ceased and William slowly raised his head. “Did you say Constantine? And you’re a Trumaine?” He shook his head and backed away from Valerian. “No, that doesn’t make sense, they never said the lawyer was a Trumaine. Why would he send someone…unless.”

 
He jerked upright into the chair and leaned away from Valerian. “You’re the prosecution. You’re here because you think I did it and this is Constantine’s way of punishing me.”

 
Baker grabbed the sides of his head and shot up from his seat. As he put some distance between himself and Valerian, I was able to get a good look at him for the first time. William Baker looked like he was around sixty years old. His salt and pepper hair was cropped short around his heart shaped face. He had a full beard and mustache that was greyer than the hair on his head. And then there were his eyes…his eyes pulled my attention straight to them.

 
His wide brown eyes were full of so much sorrow, pain, and confusion, that I knew the instant I looked into them, this wasn’t a man that was guilty of killing his wife of so many years. This was a man that was wild with grief and close to cracking under the strain of being accused of murder.

 
Valerian caught my attention and I raised my shields enough to let him inside my head. “This man isn’t a murderer,” he said.

 
“Duh, tell me something I don’t know,” I replied.

 
William Baker might have been close to cracking, but he was far from slow. I don’t know how he knew, but he caught the quiet exchange between us and pointed an accusing finger in our direction.

 
“You two need to cut that out.  If you have something to say, then say it out loud where I can hear you.”

 
While it was true most all pureblood vampires could affect people’s minds in one way or another. The bond that Valerian and I shared was unique. Not rare, because I shared the same connection with my wife Irulan, but it was unique non the less. To say I was surprised that he knew what we were doing was an understatement.

 
“How did you know we were talking with each other?” I asked.

 
“Because your brother was always talking about you two when I took his class. About how you used your bonds to get yourself out of trouble with your father.”

 
Valerian chuckled, “Well actually she used it for that a lot more than I did.”

 
I cut my eyes towards my brother, “That’s beside point. You were my brothers student, that doesn’t explain why he procured Valerian for your defense. Why is this so personal for him?”

 
This time it was William Bakers turn to be surprised. “Wait a second,” he said, his face full of confusion as he pointed at Valerian. “He sent you to represent me. He thinks I’m innocent?”

 
Valerian sat down in the extra chair and opened his briefcase. “He must, or he would have never asked me to defend you.” He pulled a notepad out, “Now if you wouldn’t mind answering her question.”

 
Baker absentmindedly shook his head as he began to talk. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me before…” His voice shook and fresh tears began to fall from his eyes as he talked. “Before everything that’s happened, before they accused me of…I’m the man that stole his fiancé from him over forty years ago.”

 
“I’m sorry come again,” Valerian said with mild surprise.

 
“You heard me just fine. Fee and I were students of Constantine’s when he was professor at Cooke University near Shreveport, Louisiana. He was in love with her, and I‘ll admit, she loved him more than she ever loved me. But in the end, she wasn’t willing to give up her humanity for him, so I won by default. Constantine wasn‘t to happy about loosing her to me; in fact I spent two months in traction. Because of what he did, Fee never spoke with him again.”

 
I didn’t know what to say. I was face to face with the unknown reason behind Constantine’s move. For a long time we thought that he never leave Louisiana, he’d lived there almost two hundred years, and claimed that nothing could pull him away from the colorful state..
Close to forty years ago he showed up on my parents door and said he was moving back home. Valerian and I never knew the reason behind his sudden change of heart, but I would have never guessed it was over a woman. My brother was to reserved to let a woman shake him like that, or at least I thought he was.

 
As I tried to reign in my surprise, Valerian poked at my shields. “Constantine had no business putting me in this position. I have every mind to refuse this case and refer him to another lawyer.”

 
“Constantine has his reasons Vedo, besides, any human lawyer is going to take one look at his file and assume guilt, you know that as well as I do.”

 
William Baker frowned and slapped his hand against the table. “Don’t do that! If you’re going to talk about me, at least do it in the open so I can defend myself.”

 
Valerian strummed his fingers against the table as he considered his thoughts. “Alright then, you want to know what’s on my mind. Well one, my brother shouldn’t have put me in this position. Your previous relationship could be cause for the prosecution to cry conflict of interest if things don’t go their way. And two, while I’m quite certain of your innocence, proving it in a human court by human means is another thing all together. I wont lie to you. All the evidence says you’re guilty. I’m not in the habit of taking loosing cases.”

 
Valerian was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He was a champion for the underdog. My brother loved lifting up the downtrodden and less fortunate. He did a lot of pro bono work in his spare time. Why he was lying William was beyond me, but as soon as we were out of here I was going to make him tell me what he was up to.

 
William laughed bitterly. “So that’s that then.” He waved his hand toward the door and turned away from us. “Whatever. Leave me to the prosecution, when they execute me, at least I’ll be with Fee again.”

 
I was just about to give Valerian a piece of my mind when I felt Valerian buzzing in my mind. “Give me some privacy Val, you see that everything is o.k.”

 
“I’m suppose to stay with you the entire time Vedo.”

 
“Yes, IF, the situation warrants it, I‘m fine.”

 
I reluctantly agreed and left the room. I wiggled my fingers at the ladies behind the nursing station and strolled past the maintenance crew that was trying to repair the fried panel. I couldn’t help but laugh at the confused look on one guy’s face as he held up a blackened panel with all it’s melted wires and circuits for the others to see. If the look of disbelief wasn’t so funny, I might have felt a little guilty about the whole thing.

 
I didn’t go far, just outside the doors to a chaise lounge that was against the wall. I agreed to give him some space but I wasn’t comfortable with being to far away from him when I was suppose to be guarding him.

 
I sat there for who knows how long, bored to death.  No sooner than I decided to go back and see what Valerian was up to, Robyn began blaring from my phone. A man walking by dressed in scrubs shot me a disapproving look and I shrugged. “What,” I said defensively as I pulled the phone from my pocket. “It’s my mate.”

 
I hurriedly slid my finger across the screen to silence ’My Only Reason’.  “Talk to me,” I said, as quietly as I could to keep the natives at bay.
“Val how many times…You know what I give up.”

 
I chuckled and turned my back to the probing eyes of passerby’s. “I figured you would sooner or later. So what’s up Ire?”

 
Irulan huffed on the other end and I smiled in spite of myself. I could almost see her rose colored skin turning another shade of pink with frustration. “Val, it’s almost ten baby.”

 
“Huh?” I spared a glance at the face of my phone and frowned. “Hump, we’ve been gone a lot longer than I thought.”

 
“What?”

 
“Nothing baby, I’m just out of the office for awhile, go figure. I forgot to call and tell you.” For the past few weeks Irulan had been calling me every night at ten to break the monotony of my boring nights. “I was getting on Tam’s nerves so he sent me out with Valerian as an escort.”

 
“Well that’s good, at least you’re not stuck in your little cubby hole complaining.”

 
“Yeah, I guess.”

 
“What’s the problem Val? You don’t sound as enthusiastic as I thought you would be at getting out.”

 
I turned to place my back to the nosey passerby’s and cupped my hand over my mouth. “It’s not that Luv; it’s the case that Vedo is taking.”

 
“Marcus didn’t give you any shit about being on the grounds did he?”

 
“That’s just it Ire, we’re not at the CMS. We’re at a hospital and the client is human.”

 
I could hear the sharp intake of Irulan’s surprise loud and clear. I knew what she was going to say even without our bond. “Constantine asked him to defend the guy,” I said, cutting her off before she could ask. “Without our fathers knowledge,” I added. “This is going to be a tough case if he decides to pursue it.”

 
“What do you mean if? He’s there, why would he turn it down?”

 
“I can’t really explain it here, but I’ll fill you when I get home.”

 
“Alright baby, have a good night and come home as soon as you can. David wants to talk with you before the day sleep takes him.”

 
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and stood to go and check on Valerian, when came walking out of the busted doors. He walked by me without a single word. The lines of his face were tense and rigid. I could feel the edge rolling off of him. I fell in place behind him and for a second considered drawing some of the tension off of him but decided against it.

 
Frying the doors was one thing, if I tried to feed from Valerian and couldn’t control it, I could end up hurting him unintentionally. As we stood there waiting for an elevator, it took every ounce of control I had not to jump into his head and see what was bothering him. All bets were off once we were behind closed doors.

 
“So are you going to tell me what happened? Are you going to represent him or not?”

 
Valerian straightened his tie and looked at me with a deep frown. “Of course I’m going to represent him. Would I have came here if I wasn’t?”

 
“So why the act? What purpose did it serve?”

 
“I needed to gauge his reaction Val.”

 
“The man just lost his wife Vedo, he’s ready to die. He doesn’t need you pulling his chain, jerking him around.”

 
Valerian rounded on me, his eyes were on the verge of blacking out. “And I don’t need you telling me how to do my job Valeria. I don’t stand over your shoulder and commentate on your fucking TV screens do I?” His voice was a few octaves short of yelling.

 
I hissed and took a step forward. “No, but you didn’t have any problems showing up on my door with daddy a few months ago and telling me what case I was and was not going to take.”

 
Valerian huffed, “Oh don’t try that shit with me, you would have been assigned to Tristan’s case anyway.”

 
“That may be true, but you and daddy took away my option to refuse.” I pressed my palm to his chest and pushed him against the wall.

“You’re pissed at Constantine for putting you in this position. You’re pissed because this case looks like and impossible win. You need to slow your roll and quit taking it out on me. I‘m not your punching bag Valerian Donatello Trumaine, I’m your sister.”

 
His back knocked into the wall as I pushed away from him with a little more force than I should have. There was probably a dent in the elevator walls, but he deserved it.

 
We rode down the remaining floors on silence. Valerian didn’t utter a single sound until we were in the truck and well on our way back to the office.

 
“You’re right,” he finally admitted under his breath. I turned the radio up and ignored him. “Come on Valeria, I said I was sorry alright.”

 
I should have made his suffer awhile longer but I could never stay mad at him for long.  “You’re damn right I’m right. You care to tell me what else is bothering you?”

 
“William Baker is going to the gas chamber if I can’t prove his innocence, but trying the case in a human court is going to make it damn near impossible.”

 
I already knew that. “So get it switched to the judicial system within the CMS.”

 
“I thought about that, but there has to be at least one member of our community involved for me request a change of venue.” He pulled out a notepad and began copying information onto a fresh sheet. “I need to ask you a favor Val.”

 
“Whatever you need.”

 
“I need you to run an investigation, but it’s got to be on your own time. I don’t want father to know about this just yet.”

 
He didn’t have to ask. I was already planning on looking into Williams coming and goings myself. “Not a problem.”

 
We made it back to the parking garage and I tossed Valerian the keys. “I know my shift isn’t over yet, but would you mind covering for me with Tamerlane. I need to get home early tonight. David needs to talk.”

 
He snatched the keys out the air and waved me away. “No problem, it’s the least I can do after the way I acted tonight.”
I headed for my car, glad to be leaving work behind me.