I'm presenting a throwback to a little UF number called Nightmare Ink.
When a friend comes to the shop with a tattoo on the verge of killing him, Isa can’t turn him away. For the first time in years, rather than binding and destroying the tattoo, she fixes it, working Live Ink into her friend’s skin, something she'd sworn she’d never do again. Breaking her vow soon becomes the least of her problems.
Isa is horrified to discover her friend’s body in the shop, but the real nightmare begins when she’s abducted and inked with a Living Tattoo against her will. Now, as she seeks retribution from the man who betrayed her, Isa must figure out how to bind her Living Tattoo before it consumes her completely...
Excerpt:
Isa tripped, landing on the big, sharp-edged stones of a railroad grade, her foot still hooked on one rusty metal rail of the track. The pushes of strength from the alien other inside her skin had evaporated. So Isa crawled, her hair and sheet dragging through foul-smelling puddles. The raven leading her away from her prison hopped in front of her as if afraid to leave her sight. When she paused in a vain attempt to catch her breath, the bird took up a strand of her filthy hair and pulled.
Freedom, the male voice sighed into her head. The Ink.
Isa shuddered. Her strength failed, and she folded to the ground. At least it was dry. Was she lying on sand? Or concrete? How far had she gotten?
Far.
Why couldn’t she remember? The raven shrieked.
Why? the male voice in her head whispered. Why debilitate you?
“To break my spirit,” Isa murmured. “To break my will.”
So I could break you.
“And break free of me, yes.”
He intends for me to kill you.
“Yes.”
Release me.
“No.”
He didn’t break you. He couldn’t.
“Not like that.”
