Guest Post: Meet the cast of WAR by Tara Fox Hall + giveaway

Thank you for having me here today, I Smell Sheep! My name is Tara Fox Hall, and I’m here to promote my new Lash Series Book, War, the third installment in this paranormal fantasy action series with historical elements. So without further ado, let’s meet the cast of War!

Lash (Books 1-3) 

MEET THE CAST

LASH

My name used to be Trystan Valeras a few decades ago. I left it behind, like my old life. Now there is just the careful maneuvering of the world of vampires, trying to help Devlin retain control of the United States against the up and comers. I never wanted this life, but I’m getting used to it. Hell, I’m good at it, so I might as well make the best of the easy money. But now war is brewing over in Europe, where my ex, Nancy, left to begin her new life. My nephew, dumb schmuck that he is, has already enlisted. Now I’m going to have to go over there and extract them both before they get themselves killed. I’ve got years of experience killing, so handling a war shouldn’t be that bad. I’ve got weapons, aliases, a trunk of cash in various currencies, and I’ve done my research. It shouldn’t be any problem for me.

NANCY

I took Lash’s offer years ago of being his mistress, sure that I could change him and take off his rough edges with a little TLC. It was obvious no woman had ever given him her affection, only her body. I hoped and dreamed of so many things with him, but he never wanted to meet me halfway. So I eventually left him and the United States, and married an Italian weresnake, Pierre. I even converted to Judaism for him, out of respect for his family’s wishes. Now war has begun, and word has come that my valiant Pierre is dead. But out of this terrible ending, Lash has mysteriously come back into my life as an unasked for protector. He has some tie with the Germans, who are more terrifying to my fellow Jews by the day. Faced with this, I have nowhere to turn but Lash, who has become my lover again. Yet I’m scared that things will be like they were last time, that he only wants me as his mistress. Time will tell. Until then, I’ve got little choice.

DEVLIN

I have lived through wars, both foreign and domestic. Blood and death on the battlefield is never glorious, though history often depicts conflicts with such bright and glowing terms. I did not want Lash to go, but could not order him to stay, not when there is much good he might to against the Nazis, on behalf of the Allies. Now word has come to us that Lash is fighting on the side of the Nazis, that he has become SS. I publicly denounce him, even as I tell myself this must be some trick, some plot of my friend to sow discord as a double agent. I let him go into this. I’m not going to abandon my best friend now, no matter what he has done.

DIETER

I’m a German SS soldier, part of the Vipers. While I don’t believe in much of what my superior officer von Kessel tells us, I am loyal to my country. We Germans have waited a long time to be the conquerors. Maybe Jews aren’t everything that Hitler says they are, but that doesn’t matter to me. I spent a lot of years being poor and seeing them in their fancy clothes looking down their noses at me. They think they’re better than the rest of us, and it is past time someone taught them they aren’t. At least, that is what I thought at the beginning of this war. But now von Kessel has come to Lash and I, telling us of the Final Solution, and the part we are to play in it. There is no honor now, just genocide. Maybe I and a lot of other Germans have been fools, and that’s all this fight has been to Hitler since the beginning. All I know is that I’ve got to get Nancy out of here. I’ve fallen in love with her, and she’s pregnant. We’ve got to escape, before it’s too late.

THEODOR VON KESSEL

I was mortal until I was twenty-one. Then I had the ill fate to journey to Somalia, and was bitten. I became a wereserval a month later. Climbing the German ranks was easy, in comparison. So too has been the conquest of Europe so far. But the United States will not abstain from the fighting forever. When they come in, I must have Lash on our side, not theirs. Happily, I have his Nancy as hostage. She and Dieter failed in their escape plans, something Lash will be aware of shortly. Then he will be begging me for the return of his SS uniform, to be allowed back into my ranks of Vipers. Until then, I’ll keep her with me, as insurance. To lose this war would mean the end. I will not let that happen without a fight.

NAILS

My name’s Niels Landwehr. But everyone calls me Nails. Yes, I’m a viper, a kingsnake and asp mix, actually. I met Lash while he was looking for a woman he called his mate. I knew that was a lie…because there was much about myself I also kept hidden, until the time came to reveal myself. I am SS, you see, and I have my own agenda for Fuhrer and Fatherland, advancing our cause, the viper cause. But I also will not stand to see a viper, even a traitor like Lash, subjected to punishment from any werecat, especially the likes of that coward von Kessel. Now Lash has finally been brought to me in chains at Nazweiler, my death camp where I alone call the shots. Perhaps I can reeducate him, in time. Perhaps not. We will see.

Excerpt

I made my way into a town just as dark was setting in. It was a husk: the town hall roofless, the houses burnt, and the store windows broken, jagged glass. But it had a church, and that was what counted. Demons couldn't enter hallowed ground. It wouldn't buy me long, but I had no other choice.

There was rubble blocking the road close to a block in front. I’d have to make a run for it. The feeling of impending doom was intensifying.

I turned, my reptilian eyes scanning the dark. Across the square lay a bridge leading out of town. The shadows were thick on that bridge, unnaturally thick. Inside them was movement. As I watched, the shadows began advancing, lengthening towards me. A quick look behind showed that the road I’d come down was already a black smudge. Faintly came the sound of marching feet. Worse, the feeling of dread was all encompassing, so strong it permeated the air. There wasn't one demon coming for me, there was an army’s worth.

I grabbed the weapons and stores off the jeep, and ran for the gaping doors of the church. Some of the bricks were caved in from a tank blast, but the structure was mostly intact. I made it inside, dropped the food, and then shut the doors, upending what rubble I could from the collapsed roof, piling it in front of the doors as fast as I could. Most demons could levitate, but only a few could fly.

I sat there, gun in my hands, and waited. The feet came closer, slow and deliberate.

A clawed red hand reached through the gap in the doors. Raising my grenade launcher, I blew it off. There was an inhuman shriek of pain, and then a deep rumbling roar.

Two huge red hands pushed through the gap. With a shove, they sent the ton of rubble I’d piled cascading back from the door. In walked a monster. He was a demon, but one of the old ones, his body only partially human. His back feet were lizard, dragonlike, the tail thick and steadying as the tip quivered slightly.

I gaped at him. How could he come in here?

“A boy was killed here, after being raped along with his mother,” the thing said, smiling evilly. “He was one of many casualties of war.” He lifted one clawed foot, then brought it down slowly to rest over the threshold. “This is no longer hallowed ground, Lash.”

I fired everything I had at them, until the guns were empty. They healed, and came at me, smiling. I waited until they were close, then threw the glow ball at the group, shouting the words. The blast took down the wall, burying several demons in the rubble. Still more came, and I bit them, making two or three howl in pain. But they got me in the end, stretching me prostrate on the ground. I lay thrashing, waiting for them to cut out my heart or something worse. Instead, there was a bright flash, and then nothing.

War (Lash #3)

Weresnake Lash journeys to Europe on the eve of war, desperately searching for not only his nephew, but also his former lover Nancy. Leveraged into service to Germany by the malicious German werecougar Theodor von Kessel, Lash befriends fellow soldier and weresnake Dieter, even as he secures safety for Nancy. When Theodor divulges the German Final Solution and the part they are destined to play in it, Dieter and Nancy attempt escape to England while Lash orchestrates distraction. Horrified to learn upon his escape that Nancy and Dieter were captured, Lash returns to Europe in a second rescue, banding with another weresnake called Nails and his motley crew of various weremen to free Dieter and Nancy from the camps where they are imprisoned. Caught by demons in an ambush, Lash is imprisoned in a death camp, but breaks free with Dieter in time to join the American Forces near D-day. Resolute, Dieter and Lash fight onwards with Allied forces to Germany itself, their goals to find Nancy, kill Theodor, and survive the final bloody days of World War II.

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Tara Fox Hall’s writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She also coauthored the essay “The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). Her first full-length action-adventure novel, Lash, published in April 2012. Her vampire series begins in June 2012, with the 1st novel Promise Me. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.

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GIVEAWAY

2 winners
First winner: print copy of War
Second winner: Lash tote + ebook

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