It’s release day!!! Mind Scrambler is here!
I find it really hard to know what to write about a book 2 in a series. Mind Scrambler is about a new case without any connection to the one in Soul Eater. There are different main characters too, here we get to follow Kol Jaecar and Elijah Long, and Soul Eater was about Thaddeus Ezax and Sandulf Hunter. And yet, I think it’s best you read book 1 before you read this one.
I plan for one more, so it’ll be a Rockshade’s Paranormal Investigations Department trilogy.
In Mind Scrambler, we get to meet Elijah Long who is Elora’s brother. He’s gone missing, and Elora wants time off to look for him. The problem is that everyone but Jaecar and her is off since they got called in during their vacation time in Soul Eater, and Thaddeus is still on sick leave.
Jaecar, who hates sitting in the office, sees Elijah’s disappearance as a chance to do something, so he goes with Elora to search. Soon they find that he’s been abducted, and the main suspect is Elijah’s abusive wolf-shifter of an ex.
Excerpt:
Before long, Elora was back with a canoe strapped to the roof of the car.
“That was fast.” He grinned at her as she hopped out of the car.
“Yeah, old man Frank lives up the road.” She gestured at the woods. Kol nodded, inhaled, and stiffened.
“And he’s a leopard?” He didn’t want to get into any fights while they were here looking for Elijah, but he couldn’t come unannounced into a leopard’s territory and expect to be welcomed.
“What? No. Frank is an old man.”
Kol studied her for a few seconds. “Shifters grow old too.”
“Yes, but… He’s Frank.”
Kol nodded. “Yes.”
“He would never harm Eli.” Her dark brown eyes pleaded with him.
“I never said he would, I said he’s a shifter.” Kol frowned. “I’d never harm you, but I’m still a shifter.”
“Yes, but…” She looked across the lake. “We need to get going.” She went to unstrap the canoe, and Kol helped her get it into the water.
“Does Elijah have any medical conditions?”
“Other than being an empath, no.”
Kol stared at her. “What? It’s a medical condition?” How could it be a medical condition?
“No more than turning into a giant cat is.”
He nodded. She could have answered with a no.
“Except, he can’t be around too many people.”
Too many? How many was too many? “Will he attack us when we arrive?” Kol scanned the island as best he could from this distance. There were several places where a sniper could hide.
“Attack?” Elora gave a reluctant chuckle and shook her head. “He’s an empath.”
“I know, but he lives on an island. He could have put land mines all around it, have snipers in good places.” He gestured at some trees growing larger by each oar stroke.
Elora turned to stare at him. “He’s an empath! What about that don’t you understand?”
“He’d still want to defend his home, wouldn’t he?” Any sane person would want to defend his or her home. Kol relied a lot on his senses, but lately he’d been thinking about putting some things in place for his cabin. Nothing too crazy, only a few…things.
“He moved to an island.”
“And all you need is a canoe to get there.”
Elora steered them toward a small jetty with a tiny motorboat tied to it. “He’s here.”
Kol sniffed the air, scenting wolves, but it was faint which told him it had been a couple of days since they’d been there. “Does Elijah have wolf friends?”
Elora froze. “No.”
“Are you sure? You didn’t know Frank was a leopard.”
“Eli doesn’t have friends.” She climbed out of the canoe and more or less jogged up the slope toward the small house. “Be calm.”
Kol gave her a blank look. “I’m always calm.”
“I meant emotionally, not what you portray. I know you have a calm facade, but be calm.” She patted her chest.
Kol stared at her. What the hell did she mean?
The door was unlocked, which had Kol frowning. Perhaps it was normal to leave the door unlocked if you were at home, but not if you couldn’t defend yourself.
“Eli? Are you here?” Elora walked into the house, and Kol followed. The scents of the wolves were here too, but no one had been in the house for two days at least.
“There’s no one here.”
Elora looked at him. “You’re sure?” She swallowed audibly. “And no one…dead?”
Kol took a deep breath, scenting the air. “I can’t scent anyone from here, no.”
Elora stared at him, her eyes so wide Kol wanted to hug her.
She took a deep breath. “We’ll go through the house, see if anything is out of place. We’ll find him.”
A simple enough plan and Kol nodded his reply.
The house was clean, everything in order, but when Kol walked into the laundry room a sense of unease crept up his spine. He couldn’t say it was the scent, there was none, but it was…something. There had been a wolf shifter in the laundry room, but it wasn’t what had him pausing. “Elora?” He raised his voice to make sure she heard him while she was in the bedroom at the other end of the house.
Fast steps approached. “Yes?”
“Is Elijah on any drugs?”
“He doesn’t do drugs.” She glared at him.
“I meant medicine.”
She shook her head. “No, nothing.
“I think he was drugged. There is no distinct scent, but there is…something. And a wolf has been in here.”
“Fuck.” Elora slumped against the door frame. “We need to check his sock drawer.” She turned and walked back toward the bedroom.
“What?”
“Eli and I, when we were kids, we always wore mismatching socks.”
“Why?” Kol only bought black socks, so they’d always match.
“So one was left behind.”
So one could be found. Kol nodded. “You want to do it in the bedroom?”
“I never thought you’d ask.” She snorted, and he could tell she was scared.
He took her hand in his. “I’ll keep you safe.”
Mind Scrambler in the JMS shop
Giveaway:
I’ve set up a giveaway over at kingsumo to celebrate. I’m giving away an ebook copy of Soul Eater + an ebook copy of Mind Scrambler to one lucky winner, so hop on over there and enter!
Years ago, empath Elijah Long made a bad decision, and he is still paying for it. He’s kept hidden from his abusive werewolf ex for years, but when he wakes in a dark room, cuffed to a wall, he knows he’s out of luck. Elora, his psychic sister, will come for him, he just has to endure long enough to give her a chance to find him.
Captain Kol Jaecar of Rockshade’s Paranormal Investigations Department detests slow times at work, so when Elora wants time off to search for her brother, Kol treats it as if it’s a real case and starts an investigation. What he assumed was a brother not picking up when his sister called turns out to be something else.
Elijah experiences people’s emotions so strongly, it prohibits him from living a normal life. Spending time in the city is out of the question, yet it’s where Elora takes him once she finds him. Elijah does his best to keep his distance, especially from the growling man Elora brought to his rescue. Elijah will never make the mistake of getting close to a shifter again.
The moment Kol smells Elijah, he knows he’s his mate, but how to get close to someone who doesn’t want to be near you? The man who abused Elijah is still on the loose, and Kol calls in the entire team to hunt him down. But how are they to keep Elijah safe when he can’t be around people? And how will Kol stay sane if he can’t touch his mate?
Ofelia Grand 