Demons as Heroes with Guest Blogger: Rosalie Lario

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the Dark Days of Demons Blog Event
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Today we have paranormal author Rosalie Lario and here's what she had to say...

The Rise of the Demon as Hero

I’ve been fascinated with the paranormal ever since my childhood days of watching reruns of The Munsters on television. Tales of vampires, werewolves, and witches thrilled me almost as much as they terrified me. Even better were the less traditional horror baddies like mummies, trolls, or goblin kings. There was something so fun about being able to pretend that these beings actually existed.

When I discovered romance, a whole new love was born. Paranormal creatures as heroes instead of villains? Fascinating! There’s something about taking a tortured supernatural hero and giving him a happily-ever-after that I cannot resist. Maybe it’s the idea that every being needs love that makes this concept so irresistible to me.

Demon heroes are particularly interesting because a demon is normally associated with evil. But there are a lot of great romances out there that take the concept of demons and spin it on its axis. Some of my favorites? The Demonica series by Larissa Ione and the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole.

It was my love of demons as heroes that led me to create my Demons of Infernum series, but I did it with a twist. The demons in my world aren’t evil creatures from Hell, but a race of beings from another dimension. As with humans, there are all kinds of demons: some good, some bad, and some in between.

When Maya, the heroine in Mark of the Sylph (Demons of Infernum, #2), first meets half-demon Taeg, she tries to kill him. She’s got a good reason to. Maya is an Immune, a rare human who can see through the glamours other species invoke. When she was a child, she witnessed demons murder her family, and she’s grown up thinking all demons are evil. Imagine her surprise when he turns out to be nothing like she imagined!

Taeg is a half-demon desperate to free his pregnant sister-in-law, who is spellbound to an indestructible book that will create an army of the undead. He is convinced that an ancient sword can destroy the book and the spell forever, but this relic has been hidden for a millennia by a powerful glamour. The clock begins to run out on his search when an old rival goes after the book and Taeg’s family in his quest for revenge.

Maya is Taeg’s best hope for uncovering the sword. Unfortunately, she wants nothing more than to kill him. As he fights for her trust and to save his family, she is forced to face the truth that not all demons are evil. And the worst part? She might be falling in love with one, too.

Here’s an excerpt, which takes place after Taeg learns about Maya’s ability and tracks her down. Suffice it to say, she’s not happy to see him:

Taeg tightened his hold on her wrist until she dropped the dagger. He grabbed her other wrist and pinned it back. “Look at me.”

Yeah, apparently she wasn’t in an accommodating mood. Because instead of listening she jerked her knee up, catching him square in the junk.

“Ooof.” That freaking hurt.

He let go, hands automatically lowering to protect his goods, and she shoved hard on his chest. As he staggered several feet back, she spun and delivered a stunning roundhouse kick that almost had him admiring her form, right before it caught him in the side and sent him sprawling.

“What’s the deal, lady?”

She grabbed the knife and flew at him faster than he would’ve expected from a human.

Taeg shoved off the ground and sidestepped her attack, and recaptured her wrist. He yanked her arm up behind her as he maneuvered behind her back.

“Shit,” Maya cried. The knife clanged to the ground, and he loosened his hold a fraction.

“Stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Yeah. Right.” Her tone made it clear what she thought of that.

Pushing her to the nearest wall, Taeg turned her to face him. He kept one hand on her shoulder and the other on her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes.

“Calm down, Maya.” The familiar hum of energy in his ears told him his charm was doing its thing. “I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to ask you a few questions.”

Her scowl softened long enough for him to assume his power had worked. He let her go and backed up a few steps. “How do you know what I am? Can you see the real me?”

Rather than answering, she lifted a knee and slid one of her dainty hands into her boot. When she withdrew it, she clutched another dagger, a match to the one on the ground. Suddenly the reason for her boots became quite clear. The woman was a freakin’ walking arsenal.

“Oh, shit.”

She kicked off the wall and leapt into the air in a flying move that Jackie Chan would have envied, adjusting the grip on her dagger. Hand high in the air, she aimed for his neck. The woman was clearly determined to remove his head from the rest of his body. Taeg dropped his legs out from under him, hitting the ground hard.

Maya’s legs struck his back as she flew over him. He untangled himself and whirled around, but damn she recovered fast. She tossed her dagger to the side to avoid jabbing herself as she tucked and rolled. Then she jumped to her feet and faced him with both fists up. Her face was almost expressionless, her heavy panting the only indicator she was battling to the death.

Damned if his interest wasn’t drawn to her ample chest beneath that tight black top.

She smiled, almost as if she were enjoying herself, and came at him with another kick.

He leapt back to avoid being hit. “Damn it, I’m trying to talk to you, lady.”
So what do you think of the concept of demons as heroes?

Want More Rosalie?

Visit her website here: www.rosalielario.com

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