Peridot is a YA novella in progress that is not yet available for sale. 

Genres: Paranormal, fantasy, horror, young adult

Synopsis:

"Welcome to Peridot" the blue sign read. When Rue Briggs, a teacher trying to save enough money to pay for her EdD, first drove through the town, she missed it completely. Accepting a job as a private tutor for the McFarlane family, she was shocked to discover the McFarlane children independent of any parental control. When she began to teach the forty children, she discovered that something seemed off about the miniature town of Peridot. 

Eternal staircases, midnight parties, and miracles were laughed off as figments of Rue's imagination by the dark-eyed children, but Rue was convinced that something was amiss. Peridot is not yet available for sale. 

Excerpt:

There once was a daughter of hell, the bastard child of Lucifer and another fallen angel, who was born into the Dark Ages of the world. During the era she grew and prospered, feeding upon the souls of the doomed, nurtured by the praise of the pagan warriors of the Saxons. Her father had no time for her, and her mother had been murdered in one of Lucifer’s fits of rage.

She was not the only child of Lucifer, and others tried to vanquish her several times before her coming of age, but she had always been strong. As she matured further, her powers and abilities manifesting themselves within her, the daughter easily overpowered the others, gaining the favor of her father. Time passed in the mortal realm, but had little bearing on the world of the supernatural.

However, as the day of judgement grew nearer, Lucifer began to frighten, sending his children out into the mortal realm to bring others closer to his side. This they did, corrupting more angels to take their places beside the true master. The daughter fared the highest and brought back the most, and gained further praise from her father, and further anger from her siblings and distant relations. 

One day, she was sent down to Earth again, searching for more souls to carry away with her, when she encountered a Christian man who offered her a deal. If he could protect from her spell all people that he had ever lain eyes on before, he would give up his life to the daughter to serve her alone, not Lucifer, without complaint. 

The daughter was intrigued by the deal, and succumbed to the man's flattery of her. As a gift, she gave him an additional three months to say his goodbyes before she would take him away to live with her eternally. The man accepted gratefully, and they parted ways, the daughter to watch the other's actions from above. 

He did not waste even a minute talking to his family. He merely wrote a note, tucking it away, and set out through his street, saving lives by merely glancing at people. He went around his entire city the next day, calling on people, and the daughter of Lucifer watched on, bemused, certain that he would shortly give up on his noble cause. What man could look death in the face and carry on in such a way? It simply should not be done. 

The next day, he did the same thing, covering as much ground as he could, laying eyes on everyone possible. The daughter could have allowed others to kill and steal the souls of the ones that the man sacrificed so much to protect, but instead she honored the spirit of the deal, leaving her mark upon them, warning her siblings not to tamper with them either. 

And after a month had gone by, the man had traveled throughout the entire country, and he moved across the world, making stops in various locations to protect the inhabitants thereof. 

Now, the siblings of the daughter saw what had occurred, and one went to the Christian man and took on the form of a seducer to discover what deal had been made with the man. He nearly fell into the demon's grasp, but turned away upon the last second, and the daughter's mark upon him prevented the other from harming him. 

The other demons continued to affect the man with all manner of illusion and seduction, but he was impregnable. 

Finally, the end of the third month came, and the daughter came to claim her prize. She looked the man in the face and moved to take his soul to live with her eternally. But her oath stopped her from doing so, and surprised, she met his eyes, wondering how this could be so. 

And it became clear that she had been outsmarted, and the first person he had looked at had been the reflection of himself in the mirror, and she could not harm him in any way. Demons watched this exchange, hidden in the shadows, and before the daughter could stop them, they ran away to report to Lucifer what had occurred. 

Lucifer was furious when he heard, and the daughter was cast before him to atone for her transgressions. She did not plead for mercy, even as Lucifer railed himself against her. And when he moved to strike a blow, she met his eyes, and the look there caused even the Devil himself to pause short, before beating her to bloody smithereens. She did not try to fight back, even as her siblings tore into her flesh, devouring it greedily. 

When she was on the verge of death, the devil stopped his demons from finishing the deed, and gave her what he thought a fate worse than death: she was to live with the mortal she had made an oath with for the rest of her life. 

Cast out of hell, even the First Great Lord ignored her presence, deeming her a lesser worry. Forced to assume the appearance of another, she sought out the Christian man, but he did not believe her to be who she said she was. He cast her out of his home as a sorcerer, using this to explain why his faith no longer worked against her. 

And the daughter's siblings delighted in the mortality of their arch nemesis, and banding against her, sought to infect all those she came into contact with. They named her for the dead Queen Isabella to mock her fallen status among them. Eventually, she retreated into a desert town far away from the rest of the world, the Christian man's influence rubbing off on her. 

And in this voluntary isolation, she contemplated her long life, this time thinking of things more than the end of time and fallen demons. With the end for herself near, she no longer cared about the long term goal, and her alliances turned.

Her siblings had grown bored of taunting her when she lived by herself, and she escaped from her meadow dwelling, searching out the Christian man again. He listened to her this time, telling her of his religion, and it felt like she was viewing it from a new light. When she accepted that Christ could save her too, a fallen demon, thunder crackled above, as if the world was unsure what to do with her. But a peace came over her, and she convinced the Christian man to come away with her. 

Together they returned to the meadow dwelling, and the two of them were untouchable. They married and had children. And while the children exhibited demonish abilities, they were taught to praise the One True Lord. 

Those were the beginnings of the McFarlanes, Emery, the Christian man, and Isabella, the nicknamed demon. Ever since, the line has continued. However, every year when the descendants turn twenty two, their power disappears, and they are left as just another mortal human. 

We are misunderstood. But you won't misunderstand us, will you?