Dariel's Friday Feature: Character Interview with Mia Darien and "The Adelheid Series" Cast

Sit back and enjoy getting to know the "Adelheid Series" cast! First, take a look at Mia Darien's great cover for the three book bundle, "Welcome to Adelheid," then we'll treat you to an unusual character interview featuring several of the series' main characters. In this interview, you are the interviewer. After reading the interview, you'll be ready to check out the rest of her books (really). Her characters may be a bit frightening, but you'll love them anyway :-)

Welcome to Adelheid, CT. Freak central. Unofficial capital of legal preternatural creatures in the Northeast. Focal point for anti-preternatural sentiments in the United States.

Who would ever guess that this otherwise sleepy New England town houses many of the most powerful beings known to exist?


Interview

The group you're faced with when you sit down is an intriguing one. There are four of them, but only one is a man. He doesn't look at all uncomfortable with this fact, however, slouched slightly into his chair with a touch of insolence to his expression. The tall woman next to him looks unapproachable, to say the least, and the woman on his other side is expressionless, but with scars like that on her face, it doesn't really matter.

Only the woman on the far end looks friendly at all. She's the one that speaks first.

"I wish I could say that we don't bite," she begins with a small smile, "but it would be a remarkable lie." The smile widens and you briefly catch a glimpse of a pair of sharp, gleaming white fangs. Your eyes roam to the tall woman, who grins wolfishly, and the man, who also flashes fangs. Only the scarred woman doesn't smile.

"Thank you all for agreeing to sit with me today," you begin, a little nervously. It's been more than a year since Cameron's Law "outed" preternatural creatures and made them legal, but that doesn't make it any easier to sit in a room full of them. There is a painfully distinct feeling of being prey amongst this group.

The nicer looking woman, despite having fangs, smiles again without the teeth and inclines her head. "It's never a bad thing to gather a little publicity for my business."

You nod. "Could you tell our readers a little more about it?"

"My name is Sadie Stanton, and I'm the owner of the Stanton Agency here in Adelheid, Connecticut," she begins. She sounds very professional and looks very cool and collected, very poised as she sits in front of a reporter. You know that she did this a lot during the legality trials, as she was something of the "face" of the issue. "After Cameron's Law, I felt that there was a hole needing to be filled. A business that could bridge the gap. We cater to both the preternatural population, and to the human populace to help them with preternatural matters and the community."

The tall woman speaks. Her voice is hard, but strangely not unpleasant. "My name is Dakota and I'm the hunter." The wolfish grin returns and you resist the urge to put your hand to your throat and chest, to protect them. "Just because we're legal doesn't mean we all behave, like not all humans do."

You nod. "Naturally," you agree, although you feel a little hard pressed to think of anything you'd disagree with her on, simply for your own safety.

"When they need tracking down and catching, and the cops can't handle it, they call me."

"Do you enjoy your work?" The question is asked before you can take it back.

The man laughs. "She likes any job that she gets to jump on people and toss them around, or gets to use her freakish shape-changing abilities."

She looks at him and hisses. It sounds exactly like a rattlesnake, and that's unnerving, to say the least.

"Children," Stanton cautions quietly, sounding just like a mother talking to the kids in the backseat.

"I'm D," the man says, forestalling any more chastisement from Sadie or description from Dakota. "If Dakota handles the supernaturals gone wrong, I handle the humans gone wrong." He pauses and lets you try to figure that one out for a few minutes before he explains. "Cameron's Law made a lot of enemies for our kind. Our animator gets harassed on the job, usually by LOHAV. The League of Humans against Vampires are right bastards, and hate all preternatural beings equally. Don't let the name fool you. I'm the bodyguard who keeps them from giving our animator a hard time."

You nod slowly. Despite the attitude and job, you can't help but be a little more frightened of the hunter and the way she watches you without blinking. "Animator?" you ask. "Could you tell us a little more about that?"

Sadie takes over, probably worried about what the other two might say. "An animator is a human with a magical ability to raise the dead. Colloquially, to raise zombies, but it's not anything like in the books or movies. They are totally under control of the animator and can only be animated for a short period."

"Unless you're a necromancer," D mutters.

"That's another matter all together," Sadie says coolly and then moves right on. "We also have a summoner and lawyer. The summoner," she explains before you ask, "is one who can summon demons from other astral planes. Not all demons are the biblical sort, or even evil. They just live on different planes of existence and have magical abilities. A summoner can call on one and then make a deal with it to perform a service in exchange for something, but the lawyer makes sure it's a truly binding agreement. All demons can be... tricky. They tend to look down on humans, or anyone that looks like one."

You have to laugh, a little. "It sounds like a day in your office must be interesting."

Dakota interjects, "Or a night, really. Our work is mostly nocturnal. Days are boring as hell."

Hesitantly, you turn to the scarred woman. "What do you do with the agency?"

Her pale eyes flicker towards the others for a moment. "Well, I'm actually on leave from the police department at the moment," she says, "but I'll be working with the agency a lot more soon." She pauses. "I don't want to say too much, though." Her expressionless face actually gains a smirk for a moment. "I'm Nykk Marlowe, and believe it or not, I'm human."

You almost ask how she manages to hang out with this crowd and not fear for being eaten at any moment, but you stop yourself just in time. You want to ask why she's here for this interview if she's not even an employee, but that seems a little rude. So, instead you just nod.

"So, what's your biggest hope for your business, Ms. Stanton?" you ask, turning back to the owner.

She smiles, a little wistfully. "I just hope we can help people. We want to help the human and preternatural communities bridge the gap between them and eventually not have any gap at all. I know it's hard to believe after all the books and movies and television shows, but we're really not that different from anyone else. Sure, I live on a very special diet and can't take a walk on a sunny day, but I still have to do my laundry and go to the bank and work for a living."

Dakota smirked. "Being supernatural does not, sadly, mean you live an automatically exciting life." Suddenly her body and face shift, rippling, morphing her through several appearances before returning to the first. "I can do all that and yet I still have to go to the supermarket if I want to eat food I don't catch myself. And while my animal forms let me do that, it's really a bitch."

"Some of us started out human," D says. "A business like Sadie's can help you find your way when... well, when you're not human any more. I know she saved my undead ass."

Sadie smiles again. "It's what we're here for."

CAMERON'S LAW

Blurb: Vampires are people, too. Cameron’s Law says so. Vampire and public face Sadie Stanton called Adelheid, CT home and it attracts a lot of attention. It attracts a lot more when vampires start attacking werewolves without provocation. Can Sadie keep the community from descending into chaos and war before it brings all of to harm? And can she do it when she herself gets thrust into the spotlight?

Amazon Link: http://amzn.com/B006QETJUG
Barnes & Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/camerons-law-mia-darien/1108192088

WHEN FOREVER DIED

Blurb: Forever is a long time. Even longer when a harrowing past won’t let you be. For bounty hunter Dakota, it’s the past she can’t escape when she has to hunt an ex-lover. And when she takes on a second case after a thousand year old vampire and finds even more ties to her past, can she keep her carefully constructed solitude intact or will her hard-earned survival finally be tested beyond endurance?

Amazon Link: http://amzn.com/B00773IPQE
Barnes & Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-forever-died-mia-darien/1108652042?ean=2940014047630&isbn=2940014047630

VORACIOUS

Blurb: Sometimes, life doesn't begin until you're dead. The predictable life isn't enough for D. Hungry for more, unsure how to find it. Until Cielle, everything he's looking for: new/exciting. A vampire, which he's less crazy about. When new/exciting Turns him, D is forced into the undead life. Adjusting is hard enough, but he's getting more than he bargained for. Will it be enough to sate his hunger?

Amazon Link: http://amzn.com/B008Z968TK
Barnes & Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voracious-mia-darien/1112541265?ean=2940014898423
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