Today I have the privilege of hosting Demelza Carlton on our first day of the Indie Author Event!! Make sure you check out the excerpt of Water and Fire as well as the YouTube video! And, before you ask (since I did already) that is Demelza speaking in the video!
A steamy contemporary medical romance
involving a sexy doctor, a naughty nurse, a midwife on a mission and a
mysterious predator in Albany, Western Australia.
Working
as a student midwife in an Australian country hospital is never easy, but
Belinda finds more trouble than most.
There's
the intern doctor who follows her around like an overgrown puppy, the dangerous
local wildlife and her own secrets she must keep.
When she
finds herself without a place to live, what else can possibly go wrong?
Or is it
time for something to go right?
Meet Belinda- Excerpt
A
screech and a thump were my only whisper of warning.
I sighed. Another suicide.
I rounded the corner. The humped body of
the big buck kangaroo sprawled like a sleeping seal by the side of the road. No
other animal has a death-wish quite like a kamikaze kangaroo. The bitumen
glittered in my headlights, as if frosted over in preparation for the dawn. The
crunch beneath my tyres belied the thought of ice. I knew the sound of crushed
glass.
The tail-lights of the tiny Toyota bled
their glow onto the gravel beneath. The tree toppled between those two red eyes
had folded the roof into a pair of ominous knitted eyebrows.
I slowed to a stop in the gravel behind
it, hoping my help wouldn't be necessary. I left my headlights on to illuminate
the wrecked hatchback. "Hello?" I called.
The answering groan was deep and came
from the car. I peered through the back window, but the inflated airbags inside
made it hard to see. I approached the driver's door.
"Are you okay?" I asked,
knowing the answer already as I surveyed the damage done by both the kangaroo
and the tree the driver had blindly swerved into.
"No," whimpered a female
voice. "I…I can't get out."
Her door had popped partly open, so it
wasn't difficult to pull on the handle to widen the gap. The airbag sprouting
from her steering wheel pinned her to the seat. Under the weight of the fallen
tree, both the roof and the console tightened into a cage around the airbag,
making her car a padded cell in which she started to panic. She struggled to
twist out of her seat, but she couldn't.
I waited a moment, before asking,
"Can you undo your seat belt, or is it stuck?"
She looked at me in wonder and began
fumbling for the seat belt buckle. I clearly heard the click that released her,
before her scream shattered the air.
When she ran out of breath, she panted
for a moment before she spoke. "I'm sorry," she said hoarsely.
I gritted my teeth into a smile.
"Nothing to be sorry about. Let's get you out of there."
I helped her out of the driver's seat
and onto her shaky legs. Only as she straightened beside me did I see the
swollen belly that the airbag had hidden. I had barely a second to recognise
her pregnancy before another contraction seized her. My arms were strong enough
to support her, but her scream was longer this time. I saw the blood and fluid
staining the driver's seat and felt a frisson of fear.
No. Can't
hesitate. I'll do whatever it takes to save her. I won't lose this patient.
When the sound had died away, I said
quickly, "Let's get you to my car, where you can lie down."
I helped her hobble to my car in time
for her to topple into the back seat as her next contraction hit. Her scream
rang in my ears, but I pulled out my phone, ready to ring for help as soon as
she was silent.
I looked down. No signal. I held her
life in my hands and mine alone. No, not just hers.Her unborn child, too.
So be it.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered,
"but I think I'm having my baby, too."
For the first time, I smiled properly.
"Then you're in luck. I'm Belinda, one of Albany Regional Hospital's best midwives
and I'm on my way to work. I guess I'm starting early today, with you as my
first patient. What's your name?"
"Miranda Nelson," she groaned
over the next contraction. A gout of blood soaked the seat beneath her.
"I'll buckle you up and then we'd best
get going," I said brightly, hoping there were no police up yet to catch
me speeding. If I didn't get her to hospital soon, Miranda might bleed to death.
Not on my shift
she won't.
"I'm
sorry," Miranda sobbed, before another scream sounded her next
contraction.
"No need," I replied
cheerfully. I found myself singing under my breath. I lifted my voice a little
so she might hear the soothing song, too. After
all, it can't hurt. She's in enough pain already.
A wail heralded another contraction, Miranda's
panicked panting punctuating the time between. I glanced at my watch. Five minutes. With the contractions so
close, the next one should hit just as we get there.
I braked carefully as we reached the
ambulance entrance, the sound drowned in Miranda's deep groan. I threw myself
out of my door and pelted to hers.
"EMERGENCY. I NEED A
WHEELCHAIR!" I bellowed as a stricken-looking ward clerk appeared at the
door.
"Yes, Belinda," Helen replied
smartly, vanishing back inside. She returned in a moment with the small
hospital's only wheelchair, angling it perfectly to catch Miranda as I levered
her out of the car.
Helen pursed her lips at the sight of
blood in the back seat of my car, but she said nothing. I passed her my keys as
I took hold of the wheelchair. "Can you take care of my car, Helen?"
I asked brightly, already rolling Miranda inside.
With the help of a sleepy orderly named
Rob, I quickly ensconced Miranda in a birthing suite, her wail rising as
another contraction hit her.
"Where's Jill?" I asked Rob,
before he left the room.
"In with Mrs Barker. She went into
labour and won't let Jill leave. Jill and the anaesthetist are trying to
persuade her to have an epidural, but she swears she won't."
Two difficult births in one night – Mrs
Barker and now Miranda. This was going to be harder than I'd thought. I sucked
in a breath, wondering who else would be able to help me. "Where's Dr
Henderson?"
Rob shrugged. "He's not on duty –
he's on the afternoon shift. We got a new intern for the morning shift – he's
shaking in his office. I swear he goes whiter every time Mrs Barker bellows.
Not like you – everyone knows you're the ice queen. Cool, calm and collected –
no matter what."
The last thing I needed was a terrified
intern for this birth. Alone, then.
"Can you send the anaesthetist to me, after he's done with Mrs Barker?
Miranda Nelson was in a car accident, and it looks like she's gone into
premature labour."
Miranda let out another hoarse scream.
"And get someone to call her
husband. He's up in Perth this week, I believe – tell him we'll have her flown
up to King Edward Memorial Hospital as soon as we can. Call the Flying Doctors
for transport, too." I looked at Miranda, straining through another
contraction.
Rob hurried out, leaving us alone.
"Just you and me, Miranda," I
said softly.
"No," Miranda gasped out.
"She's coming. She's coming…urngh!"
Not wanting to believe her, I examined
her as quickly as I could. She was almost fully dilated. There would be two
patients for transport, not one.
And it's up to
me to make sure they survive.
"So she is," I replied,
keeping my voice calm. "It's time to push, Miranda. I hope you have a name
picked out."
Character Profile: http://youtu.be/nGam2cdYbwA
Author biography:
Demelza
Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found
she was afraid of fish.
She has
since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray-drenched
cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in,
shattering a shipwreck below.
Sensationalist
spin? No - Demelza tends to take a camera with her so she can capture and share
the moment later; shipwrecks, sharks and all.
Demelza
now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The
Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by the
Nightmares trilogy.
Purchase
links:
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/water-and-fire-demelza-carlton/1116335879?ean=2940045192323
Water and Fire is on sale for $.99 at most outlets for the weekend!!!
Thank you for hosting Belinda and I - I hope we didn't finish up all of your chocolate.
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