Lost Souls Blog Tour! Laurel O'Donnell

 

LOST SOULS: RESURRECTION excerpt

“Christian?” Samantha queried.

“Leave me alone,” he answered through grit teeth without looking up.

“What happened?” Samantha asked.

He whirled on her, his fists clenched.  “I said leave me alone!”  He was off again, running through the night.  He didn’t know where he was going, just running.  Running from the words that scarred his soul.  ‘I never loved Daddy.’  He ran harder, faster, passing through buildings and cars and people without even looking or caring.  He stopped, the hole inside of him open and gaping.  He had given up everything for his beloved daughter.  Tears blurred his vision.

How could she say that?  How could she say that when she was everything to him?

“Calm down, Christian,” Ben advised.

He ground his teeth.  “Why won’t you leave me the hell alone?” Christian snarled, his voice ragged, his fists clenched.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and whirled to meet Samantha’s stare.

Her large blue eyes shone with understanding and compassion.  “It’s not what you think,” she said softly.

Christian shrugged off her hand.  “Not what I think?  She said she didn’t love me!  She said…”  His voice broke and he spun away.  Agony twisted inside him.

“They didn’t tell you everything,” Samantha said.

Christian turned to her, his anger fierce and hot.  “I’m tired of this damned game!  I’m sick to death of it!  I don’t want to faze anymore!  I don’t give a damn about picking up a fucking doll!  I don’t care about the damned Changed.  I just want to be dead and gone.”

“It’s too late for that,” Ben said gently.  “You chose to stay here.”

Christian paced before the line of trains.  For the first time, he realized he was in a train yard, maybe a freight yard.  An empty train stood before him.  Such rage and anger at what he had become, what Aurora had proclaimed, scorched through him.  He grabbed the train car and with an inhuman roar of rage and betrayal and hurt, he tilted it, pushing it over onto its side.  It landed with a loud thud and a puff of dust spewed out from all sides.

Christian stood before the toppled train, unmoving.  His muscles clenched tight, ready to explode.  He wanted to topple a building.  He wanted to rip apart a jet.  And he knew it still wouldn’t be enough to banish the feelings whirling inside of him.  God, he loved Aurora.  How could she say she didn’t love him?

“Wow,” Samantha murmured coming up behind him.  “A train sure pales in comparison to a doll.  That’s impressive.”

“You have to understand, Christian, that whatever happened, whatever you heard, was not your child,” Ben added.

“What the hell are you talking about?  It sure looked like her,” he said bitterly.

Neither replied and Christian straightened, turning to face them.  “Tell me.  I want to know.  Tell me what you’re talking about.”

“The Changed need our energy.  Only the strongest ones, the ones that have gathered the most energy can achieve the Jump,” Ben said patiently.

“The Jump?”

Ben nodded.  “They gather this energy and store it.  And man, you need a ton.  A ton.  It takes centuries to build up.”

“The Changed that had been following you around, the one that attacked you in the street, was old,” Samantha added.  “Very old.”

“It was probably ready for the Jump.”

“What the hell is the Jump?” Christian demanded, not liking the sound of this at all.

“Possession.  They take over human bodies.”

Author Bio:

Laurel O’Donnell has won numerous awards for her works, including the Holt Medallion for A Knight of Honor, the Happily Ever After contest for Angel’s Assassin, and the Indiana’s Golden Opportunity contest for Immortal Death. The Angel and the Prince was nominated by the Romance Writers of America for their prestigious Golden Heart award. O’Donnell lives in Illinois with her four cherished children, her beloved husband and her five cats. She finds precious time every day to escape into the medieval world and bring her characters to life in her writing.

Book 1:

Christian Thompson is killed in a car accident but refuses to pass into the afterlife because of his protective need to shelter his daughter Aurora from her cruel mother. He soon discovers there are others like him, other wandering spirits trapped between the world of the living and the dead. He joins this larger group of Lost Souls in their struggle to destroy the evil endangering their existence.

Unholy creatures threaten both Christian’s new world and his old. They are entities called the Changed, beings who were once Lost Souls but who are now dark, dangerous and disturbed monsters. Their ultimate goal is to return to the land of the living by possessing the body of a human.

Little does Christian realize that his decision to refuse his own death will endanger the very life of the daughter he has vowed to protect.

Book 2: 

Sam and her brother Ben, along with their new friend Christian, have just defied the leader of the Lost Souls. Outcast from their former group, the three of them battle the dark forces of the Changed on their own. With the help of their old friend, Eugene, they investigate the mysterious disappearance of one of their Lost Soul brethren. As the investigation deepens, they come to the chilling realization that their nemesis, Scala, has escaped his centuries-old prison with revenge on his twisted mind. A demonic possession leads to grave consequences and the Lost Souls must make a difficult choice between life and death for an innocent victim.

Who are the Lost Souls? Souls who refuse to pass into the afterlife become wandering spirits, trapped between the world of the living and the dead. These are the Lost Souls. Some of these Lost Souls have banded together, uniting to fight against an evil endangering both their existence and the safety of the human world they once inhabited. This evil has taken shape in unholy creatures called the Changed, beings who were once Lost Souls but who are now dark, dangerous and disturbed monsters. The Changed feed on the energy of the Lost Souls, growing stronger with each Lost Soul they drain. The ultimate goal of the Changed is to harness enough energy to return to the land of the living by possessing the body of a human. The mission of the Lost Souls is to stop them…