Author: Jennifer Ortiz
Title: Chosen
Series: The Chosen Chronicles, #1
Pages: 275
Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance
When his strained relationship with his father causes Cal to leave the Hunters, a series of events is set in motion that causes him to discover secrets about himself, his family, and his future that he could never have imagined. In the midst of trying to decipher the pieces left from this chaos, Cal reconnects with Gabrielle Morgan, the only girl he’s ever loved, after a nearly seven year estrangement.
But Cal is Chosen – and that has far reaching ramifications, not only on himself but on those he loves as well. When Cal is faced with the ultimate deception, he begins to realize that he will need to choose where his loyalties, and his love, lie…and the seduction of darkness is almost overwhelmingly alluring…
I was probably going to die.I really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, when you hunted evil, supernatural creatures, getting killed was sort of an occupational hazard. But I was good at what I did – really good. And I figured I was still going to die.I watched the Abassy, an iron-toothed man-eating demon, approach riding a dragon. The Abassy was seriously tough shit…and it only had one arm, one eye, and one leg. To make matters worse, its mount was a two-headed, eight-legged, two-tailed dragon. These things were supposed to solely be creatures of the Underworld so how the hell they had gotten out, I had no idea. I had been trying to banish them back, which, despite how powerful the Abassy was, should have been fairly simple. Only what should have been a pretty quick mystical banishment had turned into an all-out clusterfuck of a fight. I laid in the dirt that was slowly being turned to mud, courtesy of all the blood seeping out of my way-too-many wounds. I knew I was in bad shape when I tried to lift my left arm and couldn’t feel anything on that entire side of my body. Breathing slowly in and out, I focused on the sweet musk of the earth all around me and ignored the prevalent metallic twang of all the blood (MY blood) that was every-freaking-where. Forcing myself to stand up…or at least stand hunched over, I decided to wait for the Abassy to make a move rather than expend energy in chasing it.Clearly I had caused some injury to the Abassy and its dragon since I could see that they limped towards me but, even with my enhanced vision, between the pitch black of the night and the dark skin of the creatures I couldn’t see any obvious wound. I figured I had one decent attack left before my body just completely gave up. My right hand gripped the banishment crystal and I willed my left hand to curl around my dagger. The crystal was going to have to do most of the work so my best hope was to distract with the weapon – thankfully I’d had a semblance of foresight to bring an enchanted blade along, which should sting the Abassy even more, provided I could make direct contact.The Abassy stopped and we engaged in a Western-movie-type stare down. For a nanosecond, I almost felt like John Wayne. But before I had time to blink, it rushed at me. I didn’t think, I didn’t breathe. I stabbed blindly with my dagger hand and slid my right hand up towards the Abassy’s chest, underneath the Abassy’s stretched out arm, while twisting my body to avoid the dragon. Searing, jolting pain shot through my body as the Abassy’s dragon clamped down on my right leg with two of its own. I heard muscle rip and felt bones snap. My world started to go dark – even I couldn’t stay conscious after the vicious ass-kicking I had received.
