Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)

Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)

C.C. Hunter



Dear Reader,

You’ve asked for it, and you’ve finally got it! Since Turned at Dark, Della’s e-story about being inadvertently infected with the vampire virus, was first released, I’ve gotten e-mails from fans begging me to put my Shadow Falls novellas in print. You want to be able to hold that book in your hands, you tell me. You want to see it on bookshelves. And so it is!

Almost Midnight is a compilation of all four of my previously published e-novellas. You can follow Della through Saved at Sunrise where she’s rescued by the hot shape-shifter who vied for her attention. In Unbreakable your heart will break for all that Chase Tallman endured before he became the mysterious and alluring new vampire whose presence stirred up trouble at the camp and caused all kinds of havoc for Della. Ahh, and let’s not forget the lovable Miranda, who until now felt lacking in her supernatural potential. In Spellbinder, you learn that deep down this witch is a force to be reckoned with. And if her ex, Perry, doesn’t come around soon, there’s a new sexy warlock who’d be happy to take his place.

But there was someone else in my fictional world of Shadow Falls who kept tapping on my mind and insisting she wanted her own story. She wasn’t even a likely candidate. Frankly, most of the time, she wasn’t even likable. She was Kylie’s nemesis—someone everyone wanted to root against. Yet even archenemies have stories. Some of them, like Fredericka Lakota, even deserve to be redeemed. In Fierce, you’ll not only get inside this werewolf’s head, but into her heart. You’ll see her struggle to overcome her past, and you’ll see her win the future—and the hot guy—she truly deserves.

Enjoy your stroll through the enchanted world of Shadow Falls—a world where friendship, romance, and laughter make everything a little more magical. And prepare yourself for one last book in 2016, where Miranda’s new powers will be challenged, her heart finally won, and there will at last be a graduation that brings this amazing journey to a close.

Thank you for being a fan.

Happy Reading!

C. C.





Turned at Dark




Sixteen-year-old Della Tsang had never seen a ghost until she saw her dead cousin zip across the street and duck into the alley. If it hadn’t been for the streetlight spitting out its spray of wattage overhead, she might have missed him.

And if it hadn’t been for a scar that ran along his chin, she might have thought it was just someone who looked like Chan. Then again, it was after midnight. But she had spotted the scar. A scar she’d sort of given him when they’d been six, jumping on the trampoline and he’d collided with her head.

Hardheaded Della had been her family nickname after that. Sometimes Della wondered if she’d really been obstinate then, or if the name had just been another thing for her to live up to. Being of Asian descent, there were high expectations, sometimes too high. But because she and her sister were half-white, her father insisted they work twice as hard to prove that their parents’ love hadn’t tainted the family tree.

A pair of headlights moving down the road pulled Della’s attention from the alley where Chan had disappeared. Not that she completely believed it was Chan. Did she?

The car drew nearer, and thinking it was Lee to pick her up, Della stepped off her best friend Lisa’s front porch, leaving the sound of the party still going on behind her.

At least twice a month, Della and Lee tried to sneak away so they could be together for an entire night. She knew her parents would freak if they knew she and Lee were sleeping together. It wouldn’t even matter that they were practically engaged. But at least Lee had gotten a stamp of approval from her father. Luckily, she agreed with him, too. Not that she agreed with her father on everything. However, Lee was everything Della wanted in a boyfriend—hot, popular, smart, and, thankfully for her father’s sake, Asian. It didn’t even bother her that Lee wasn’t totally into the party scene.

She gave the alley one last look. It couldn’t have been Chan. She’d attended his funeral less than a year ago—had seen his casket being lowered into the ground. She remembered she hadn’t cried. Her father had insisted she not. She wondered if her father would be disappointed if he knew that very night, while alone in bed, she had cried her eyes out.

When the car drove closer, Della realized she’d been wrong. It wasn’t Lee. She watched as the car moved down the street, past the alley. She stood there, staring, suddenly feeling alone in the dark, when her phone beeped with an incoming text.

Pulling it out, she read the message. Parents still up. Will b late.

Frowning, she repocketed her phone and her gaze shifted back to the alley. What would it hurt to just … go check? To prove that ghosts didn’t exist.

Moving slowly in the shadows, she neared the alley. The cold of the January night seeped through her leather jacket and the soft tap-tapping of her footsteps seemed loud. Maybe too loud. No sooner had she cut the corner than she heard yelling. She stopped short. Her breath caught at the sight of the fight—or out-and-out war—taking place. The sound of fist hitting flesh filled the cold darkness and she saw bodies being tossed up in the air like rag dolls.

Della might not have been familiar with this darker side of life, but she immediately knew what she’d stumbled on. A gang war. Her heart jumped into her throat. She had to get out of here and fast.