A little treat for your winter solstice. 🖤 ~~~ A soft laugh, a feminine contralto that was so close it sent a wave of goosebumps across her waterlogged skin. “So strong,” it held an exotic accent Veronica couldn’t place, “yet so very fragile.” * Fire suddenly seared her vision, and Veronica recoiled from the wall, once again paddling vulnerably in the crimson pool. Candles circled the stone edge, white and waxy, flames lighting their wicks one by one and illuminating the grotto in an amber glow. She whirled to find a woman emerging from the tarn, her bare skin glistening scarlet under the light, slender yet curvaceous in all the right places. Long ebony hair swung in a wet curtain at the small of her back as the woman gathered the strands in a ponytail and wrung out the excess blood. Veronica’s gut lurched as the woman shook out her mane in a seductive sway before sparing a glance over her golden shoulder. * “Welcome to my world, querida.” * Vermilion eyes stared back at her, inky pupils shaped in pointed crosses, like the target on a scope of a rifle. They were framed by a fan of dark lashes and capped with thinly arched brows. Both of the woman’s eyelids were lined black, as if they’d been permanently tattooed, or maybe she’d been born that way. * The Devil incarnate, ascending right before Veronica’s eyes. * Another sultry laugh that echoed off the enclosed rock walls. The woman’s fangs flashed, startlingly white in a bloodstained face, her incisors the longest and sharpest blades Veronica had ever seen. * “You give me far too much credit, mortal. The Devil is all but an illusion.” - FURIOUS ANGELS, L.D. Rose #workinprogress #furiousangels #darkromance #paranormalromance #urbanfantasy #theorderofthesenary #vampires #secondchances #darkandsexy #bookstagram #artthatinspires #writeordie #writerswrite #wordswordswords #fortheloveofwriting #writersofinstagram #saturdaysnippet #wintersolstice https://www.instagram.com/p/B6WrfXXgc6w/?igshid=17plamhmw627e