Author Description

Amanda Ryder never asked for her special gifts-she'd been born with the ability to see, hear, and sense things around her no one else could. Only her pious family never believed her innocence. Accused of witchcraft, she's thrown out of the house on her eighteenth birthday when the latest exorcism goes horribly wrong.Amanda makes her way to New Orleans, where her psychic abilities are accidentally discovered by voodoo shop proprietress Marian Dupree, coincidentally the leader of a covert, quasi-governmental crime-fighting team: the Academy of St. Joan of Arc. Amanda further vows to preserve her virginity until such time as it is needed to save a male colleague on the verge of death-a concept she can scarcely believe.Amanda's quickly overwhelmed by the impressive paranormal talents of her new coven and begins to doubt whether the Academy could want her for anything but her virginity. Life at the Academy is fraught with complications: her promiscuous roommate is cheating on her boyfriend, on whom Amanda's developed a traitorous crush; her growing antagonism for one team member in particular, to whom she might be called on to surrender her virginity; and the punishing heightened libido all paranormals experience during the full moon, which might prove too powerful to resist.Amanda must also decide where her loyalty lies, for Marian isn't the only one interested in what she has to offer-Hamilton Spencer Nash, head of a local paranormal crime syndicate, wonders if Amanda might be the girl his mother prophesied is the lynchpin of his destiny, and decides he wants Amanda's paranormal gifts for his own nefarious use. As the Academy investigates a suspicious string of arson blazes, Amanda is drawn dangerously close to falling within Hamilton's grasp. Will the Academy be strong enough to protect her?