Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 110
October 23, 2011
Heart of Darkness - first review is in
The first review for my new long vampire romance book is in and it's a five star!
"Once again Felicity has awed me! This was one amazing read. I swear I love the way this woman writes. She knows how to create an emotional whirlwind, suck you in, and keep you there craving more and more... As with any of her other books we get a great storyline and plot which is brimming with action, suspense and of course love. There are so many great characters and scenes in here, and I swear you will love everything about it. I know I did. It would be blasphemous to say otherwise!" Madame D, Madame D's Boudoir -- 5 Pearls -- Read the full review
Awesome, huh?
Heart of Darkness
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
Read the excerpt: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
"Once again Felicity has awed me! This was one amazing read. I swear I love the way this woman writes. She knows how to create an emotional whirlwind, suck you in, and keep you there craving more and more... As with any of her other books we get a great storyline and plot which is brimming with action, suspense and of course love. There are so many great characters and scenes in here, and I swear you will love everything about it. I know I did. It would be blasphemous to say otherwise!" Madame D, Madame D's Boudoir -- 5 Pearls -- Read the full review
Awesome, huh?
Heart of Darkness
Felicity HeatonA vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
Read the excerpt: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
October 22, 2011
Heart of Darkness - vampire romance book available now!
It's finally the release day for my new vampire romance novel, Heart of Darkness. This time it's a stand alone book so it isn't part of a series. Great news if you haven't managed to read all my series yet, or you're new to me and want a taste of my writing without committing to a series.
Heart of Darkness is a very emotionally intense, passionate, and action-packed vampire romance book so be prepared to sit down for a long time and have tissues on hand.
Here's more information about the book and where you can buy it in ebook format. The paperback will be available soon, I promise! I'll blog about it as soon as it becomes available. Heart of Darkness will also reach the Apple iBookstore, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Sony and Kobo stores soon. I'll also blog when it becomes available there. It generally takes a couple of weeks.
I'll be posting the first six chapters of this book over the next few weeks so be sure to come back every Saturday to read a little more of the book if you don't buy it straight away.
Heart of Darkness
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 130000 words
rating: sultry
released: October 2011
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
EXCERPT - CHAPTER ONEIt had been an easy kill.
Aleksandr Nemov stood over the body of the vampire hunter, their blood splattered across his black shirt and saturating the leather and metal vambraces that protected his forearms. It coated his fingers and the curved dagger they gripped, and the sweet scent of it heavily tainted the crisp night air. Strong moonlight caressed his back, throwing his shadow out long in front of him, across the hunter's corpse.
A female.
She hadn't been strong enough to fight his kind. Too young and inexperienced to best him. It had been foolish of her to try.
Aleksandr raised his hand and swallowed at the sight of the blood glistening on his fingers. It tempted him to taste it.
He dragged his eyes away and settled them back on the female laying on the grass of the small public space, her blood warming the frozen earth. He hadn't fought a woman in a long time and hadn't expected to find a hunter so soon after arriving in Prague.
The fountain nearby bubbled regardless of the frigid temperature, defiant of the frost that caused the grass around it to glitter.
Aleksandr glanced at his bloodied hands again and then closed his eyes against the temptation. He took no thrill in the hunt. Yet he found no calm in its aftermath. There was only the threat of unending darkness that beat within his chest and encroached upon his soul. It bled into his eyes. He could feel the jagged points of black that speared the red. He had too much blood on his hands but he couldn't give up now, not when he was so close to attaining his vengeance.
With great effort, Aleksandr sheathed his dagger against his left hip and wiped the blood away.
The smell of it still permeated the air, taunting and filling him with the dark urge to feast on the hunter's remains. He refused to obey the voice within that commanded him. His kind had fought hard against it and no Nemov had turned to the darkness. They were stronger than that, and he would die before it happened to him.
"You… what are you doing here?" A light female voice shattered the darkness within him.
Aleksandr glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She stood with the fountain at her back, the cascade of water providing wings that completed the vision of beauty. Moonlight bathed her skin, turning her round eyes dark and her hair as black as the uniform she wore.
An angel.
The red bled from his eyes, returning his irises to grey, and he straightened to his full height, desiring to look his best even when he looked his worst.
She brought her right hand up to reveal the blade clutched tightly in her fingers, held backwards with the blunt edge tucked against her forearm, ready to slash at him if he made a wrong move.
"I won't ask you twice." Her strength surprised him.
Such a beautiful creature.
Before Aleksandr could find his voice, she was gone. He turned, blocked her attack with the metal covering his left vambrace around his forearm, and attempted to disarm her. She dodged his counter-attack with ease and came around behind him. He spun and blocked her again, and this time managed to get a hand on her before she leapt backwards, out of his reach, and bared her fangs.
His heart beat harder.
She attacked again, her cry piercing the silent wintry night, and brought her blade down hard. It was difficult to block it. She was strong and skilled for a female. He strafed left and right to avoid her knife, trying to find an opening that he didn't really want to take. She was fascinating. Beautiful and deadly. Everything a vampire should be, yet there was something more to her. She turned and brought her leg around in a swift kick. The heel of her black knee-high boot smashed into the side of his head, sending him down.
Aleksandr rolled onto his feet and blocked her again. Why couldn't he bring himself to fight her? He could barely bring himself to defend.
Her red eyes narrowed on him and she growled, exposing her extended canines again. His cheek throbbed where she'd caught him. He would bear a bruise there before the hour had passed. She lunged at him and he barely avoided her blade. If he survived the fight that was. He ducked when she swung at him and swept his leg around to take hers out. She jumped it and rewarded his effort with another hard kick to the head, sending his brain spinning out of control. The darkness threatened to return, goading him into attacking. He didn't want to. He would not attack another vampire, especially not a female.
Definitely not her.
She huffed as though disappointed. Was it because he wasn't fighting or wasn't falling? Aleksandr kept his arms in front of him, blocking her swift attacks with his vambraces, and staring at her face the whole time. Fascination wasn't the right word for what she did to him.
The warmth he felt, the intense attraction, the abject desire to look into her eyes forever, even when they only promised him a slow death. It was more than fascination.
He wanted her.
"I do not wish to fight you." Aleksandr leapt backwards, away from her, and raised his hands.
Her grip on her blade tightened and she attacked.
He left himself open to see what she would do. Her clothing was formal—a black military-style jacket that only reached her waist and tight black trousers coupled with polished riding boots. She looked like a guard. If she were, she surely wouldn't kill him.
If she weren't, he was making a terrible mistake.
The moment she neared him, she sheathed the blade, threw herself forwards so her hands pressed into the dirt, twisted and launched herself at him feet first. Had he wanted to defend himself, it would have been impossible. The speed at which she locked her knees around his neck, sending him falling backwards with her momentum, and slammed him into the icy earth knocked the breath from him.
Aleksandr stared at her where she perched on his chest, straddling it with his arms trapped in the crook of her knees and her blade against his throat.
He laid beneath her, sprawled out, his back aching and freezing.
Utterly in love.
She leaned forwards. A single strand of her dark hair had fallen out of the tight bun at the back of her head and grazed her cheek. Her soft breath against his face carried the enticing scent of her blood. Her eyes went from darkness to a lighter colour that the moon stole from him. Beautiful.
Aleksandr swallowed, causing the knife to grate his Adam's apple through his thick beard. He wished that he had cleaned up now before coming to Prague. She wasn't exactly catching him at his best.
"You will answer for entering my bloodline's territory." She pressed the blade harder against his throat. "I'm taking you in."
"No need to be rough." Aleksandr smiled slowly. "Unless you like it that way, of course."
She was off him in an instant, her weapon still held at the ready.
Clearly, she wasn't into the rough stuff like so many of his kind. With the thrill of hunting denied them, they had to find excitement elsewhere. Dancing with death through sharing blood was the most intoxicating thing a vampire could do without risking their humanity and many of them did it often. He had never been into that sort of thing.
Aleksandr sat up, grazed his fingers over the silvery scars on his wrist, a reminder of why he was tracking and killing vampire hunters, risking his humanity, and then got to his feet.
The female backed off a step, but remained close enough that she could easily attack him if he tried to leave. He didn't want to, but if he did, she wouldn't be able to stop him. A woman was no match for him.
First a female hunter and then a female guard. Prague was a modern progressive city, or the world was changing faster than he realised. He had noticed it for a few years now and had been struggling to adjust ever since. He hadn't expected the change to happen within vampire society too. The males had always been the ones to take care of the females. His gaze settled on her. Now there were females capable of taking care of themselves. It was both disturbing and intriguing.
Aleksandr went to move but she was in front of him before he could take a step.
"Can I at least gather my belongings?" He motioned towards the coat and bag that waited near the fountain.
She looked at them and her gaze tracked back and settled on the corpse. Her pupils narrowed and then she frowned. Had she only just noticed that he had killed someone? She sniffed and then looked at him, her pale eyes falling to his shirt and then his hands, carefully taking all of him in. He liked the assessing edge to her gaze, and the way it lingered on his body a moment before coming up to meet his. She stared into his eyes, long enough that he felt as though she was renewing the spell she had cast on him, and then nodded.
"I desire an audience with your master." Aleksandr crossed her path and picked up his long heavy black coat. Her gaze remained on him, intent and focused.
He put his coat on, picked up his black bag and slung it over his shoulder. When he turned to face her, she was looking at the dead hunter again. The way she stared at it, studying it closely, made it clear that she hadn't seen a fresh kill in a long time.
Or she hadn't seen anything quite like the butchery that had happened tonight.
Aleksandr clenched his fists and reined in the dark hunger that the memory evoked. He was in control now, not his instincts. The hunt would continue until he had avenged her and had rid the world of her murderer's progeny.
He would not surrender until then.
For four centuries, he had tracked and killed them, his anger still fresh in his heart, the pain of losing her still raw. He would not surrender until he had killed the last of the hunter's line and protected his people.
The woman stepped forwards and his attention was back with her. The second his gaze locked with hers, the darkness inside him receded, washed away by the light in her eyes and her beauty. He had thought of nothing but the hunt for four hundred years, had closed himself off to society and focused on his duty, but the woman before him stole his attention away from it so easily. It drifted to the back of his mind with the darkness, unknown to him in this moment while her eyes held his. She wasn't afraid of him. She had fought him without fear, and with strength and skill that he had never expected to find in a female. She enthralled him.
Looking into her eyes, Aleksandr realised something dreadful. He was too close to the edge. The feelings she evoked in him were ones he had long forgotten existed. It was strange to feel warmed inside by happiness to have met her, desire to make her belong to him, and hunger for the feel of her bare body against his. He had not felt such positive emotions in decades.
He was losing himself.
"Follow me," the woman said and he did, using her as a distraction from his dark thoughts.
She was young. He placed her at barely over two hundred years old, her appearance somewhat of a human in their mid-twenties. She was at least six inches shorter than him, and slender. Her strength had surprised him because of those facts alone. Young females were often weak and needed protection. She had strong blood in her veins.
Aleksandr ran a hand over his matted long dark hair and then rubbed the several months' worth of beard on his face. What did he look like? He felt like a mess now, both inside and out. She had definitely caught him at his worst. If he had looked as he had back in his days at court, he was sure she would be looking at him differently.
He was sure that she would recognise him for who he was.
She walked swiftly ahead of him, not once looking back to check if he was still there. She had mastered her senses then. He could feel them fixed on him. How strong were they? He had honed his to perfection through years of training and hunting, but he hadn't sensed her approach. He had been too lost in the darkness.
His gaze slid down to her small backside and the way it moved as she walked mesmerised him.
He hadn't really wanted to meet her master, but saying that he did seemed like the easiest way of remaining near to her.
Aleksandr lost track of how long they had been walking. He looked up when he sensed the presence of more vampires. Black wrought iron gates punctuated an endless grey stone wall ahead. Beyond them stood the extensive bleak façade of a mansion. Light emanated from many of the rectangular windows marking the three storeys, at least on the left side. On the right, they were mostly dark hollows. Two male guards at the gate saluted the woman and then eyed him with suspicion as he passed through.
Who was his escort? She was strong, spirited, and these men ranked lower. If she weren't dressed as a guard, Aleksandr would have placed her as a lady of the bloodline. A female guard. He still couldn't quite comprehend it.
He followed her up the gravel drive to the house, walking on the left side of the wide expanse of frosty grass that stretched into the distance in both directions. It was a habit of his to mask his footfalls. It had saved his life more than once. The long grey stone front of the mansion was imposing and cold even in the moonlight. The size of it told Aleksandr that this bloodline held the power in the city, or they were the only one resident.
They crossed the large parking area in front of the house, passing a fleet of identical black Mercedes-Benz limousines. This bloodline was definitely doing well for itself. Judging by the fact that the woman had been in the city whilst wearing her uniform, it had to be masquerading as a military school of some sort. Many bloodlines bought privacy from the local government by donating large sums of money and setting up such a front. The humans never questioned them. It had been the easiest way to keep their species secret for many centuries. At least some things hadn't changed since he had left society.
The moment she entered the house, Aleksandr's attention was back with her. She hurriedly smoothed her warm chestnut hair back into the tight knot, fixing her appearance. In his opinion, she didn't need to fix it at all. The slight wanton edge her messy hair gave her was alluring to say the least. His gaze drifted to her throat and he frowned when he spotted her bloodline's mark on the back of her neck. It was an elaborate black ink crest with a stag incorporated into the design.
Černý.
They passed another pair of male guards and Aleksandr glanced at the back of their necks. The mark was visible above the collar of their short black jackets. A strong bloodline.
He had forgotten who ruled Prague. Perhaps they would be able to help him after all and his coming to their master would prove beneficial in more than one way.
His grey eyes slid back to the woman. She looked over her shoulder at him, her aquamarine eyes briefly fixing on his before she turned away again.
Aleksandr quickened his pace and fell into step beside her. She glanced at him again and then looked forwards. His gaze remained on her as they walked along the elegant gallery at the front of the house, heading towards the lit area he had seen on the left of the building. She had soft features—youthful and graceful. Her oval face, pale skin, and rosy lips set his heart racing again, quick enough that it almost matched a human heart rate. A flicker of a frown wrinkled her brow and her eyes darted to him and then away. He steadied his heart, aware that she could hear the effect she had on him. Her heart was beating at a restful pace, a soothing patter in his mind.
She moved ahead, entering a large red drawing room. The vampires relaxing in it were powerful but none of them were stronger than he was. He carried on without glancing in any of their directions, following his temptress. She turned right in the room, heading towards a guarded set of dark wooden doors. When she reached them, she faced him, her expression stern.
"Wait here," she said and the guards stationed on either side of the doors opened them for her.
Aleksandr lowered his black holdall from his shoulder. The two dark-haired male guards eyed him. He smiled but it didn't relieve the tension. It only made it worse. The one on his left cast a glance over him and Aleksandr was thankful that his long coat hid his dagger from view. The female's voice drifted through the open doors to him and he looked at her. She stood in the middle of a dark green room, the back of a gilt-framed green velvet couch in front of her. A male spoke to her in Czech, his voice a lazy drawl.
Tired of waiting, Aleksandr walked into the room, his knee-high boots heavy on the polished wooden floor. The woman's blade was at his throat again in the space of a breath. Aleksandr halted and looked at the man her body had shielded from view.
He was young to be leading a bloodline, only in his late twenties in terms of appearance, meaning he was little more than four hundred. He would have been born around the time that Aleksandr had begun his hunt.
The man leaned back into the green couch opposite the one near to Aleksandr and the woman and crossed his long black-clad legs. He smiled without any trace of charm or meaning and preened his short sandy hair back.
"This man desires an audience with you, Master," the woman said and Aleksandr glanced down into her clear blue eyes. She looked away, towards the leader of her bloodline.
"Then allow him to introduce himself so I may know with whom I speak," the master said in English.
Aleksandr was familiar with both English and Czech. He had understood everything the master had said to the woman. He wasn't interested in guests and wanted him gone. His opinion would change once he knew who Aleksandr was. It always did.
Aleksandr's gaze met the guard's again, holding it for long minutes. Whenever he set eyes on her, he was struck by her beauty as though it was the first time he had witnessed it. He willingly accepted her blade against his throat because it meant she was near him. Soon she would be this close to him without a weapon. He was sure of it. He would ask for sanctuary and the master would grant it. It would give him time to clean up his appearance and then he would start a new hunt. One for this woman.
His gaze slid across to the master and locked with his hazel one, silently showing the younger vampire that he wasn't the most powerful in the room by a long shot.
"I am Aleksandr Nemov," he said in a calm measured tone.
The female's shock rippled through the knife at his throat, which was gone an instant later. She stepped back.
"You will not mind me requesting proof of that claim," the master said.
Aleksandr smiled behind his beard. It was to be expected. He had been absent from society so long that many probably thought him dead.
With a flourish, he unsheathed and presented his bloodstained dagger. The curved silver blade caught the warm light of the fireplace to the left of the couches. That same light made the gold handle shine brightly. Only a Nemov carried such a weapon, and it had been given to him at birth, inscribed with his name so those who died by it knew who had taken their life. When the man nodded, he sheathed the blade and took hold of his black shirt above his right hip. He pulled it free of his trousers and revealed the mark he bore there on his pale skin.
The mark of royalty.
The woman's eyes widened, fixed on the crescent moon on the shield of his bloodline.
Aleksandr lowered his shirt and she slowly raised her eyes to his. She blinked, fumbled with her own knife, and then looked away. The shy sparkle in her blue eyes added to her beauty and his desire for her, momentarily stealing his attention away from the other occupant in the room.
"You will stay a while with my bloodline. It would do us great honour." The master stood and crossed the room to Aleksandr.
The woman stepped to one side, her eyes still downcast.
The master grinned and held his hand out. "I am Ladislav Černý, and I welcome you to my home. I hope you will be able to enjoy our hospitality for a long time."
Aleksandr shook his hand. Ladislav was young but wise enough to see a way to gain more power when it was standing in front of him. Being favourable to a royal would grant him more leeway with the law and more privileges in court. It was a shame then that Aleksandr had long since surrendered such authority. No matter how many times he reminded society that he was no longer royalty, it still insisted on treating him that way. In this sort of situation, he usually reminded them that he had given up his title, but this time he couldn't bring himself to mention it. He wanted to remain here and pursue the woman, and for that reason alone, he would tolerate Ladislav's mistake.
"We will hold a ball tonight to celebrate," Ladislav said, his English thickly accented.
This man was no fool. He would serve Aleksandr well. His gaze slid back to the woman. Her eyes were on him again but darted away when his met them. How well would she serve him?
"Then I will need to freshen up." Aleksandr removed his hand from Ladislav's grip.
"Any room in the guest wing you desire, and I will arrange whatever you need." Ladislav motioned to the woman. Her expression blackened for a moment, as though escorting a guest was beneath her, and then she saluted.
Aleksandr picked up his bag and smiled at the woman. She answered it with a frown and then walked out of the room. His smile widened and his gaze raked over her.
She was going to be an interesting hunt.
But he would be the victor.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
Heart of Darkness is a very emotionally intense, passionate, and action-packed vampire romance book so be prepared to sit down for a long time and have tissues on hand.
Here's more information about the book and where you can buy it in ebook format. The paperback will be available soon, I promise! I'll blog about it as soon as it becomes available. Heart of Darkness will also reach the Apple iBookstore, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Sony and Kobo stores soon. I'll also blog when it becomes available there. It generally takes a couple of weeks.
I'll be posting the first six chapters of this book over the next few weeks so be sure to come back every Saturday to read a little more of the book if you don't buy it straight away.
Heart of Darkness
Felicity HeatonA vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 130000 words
rating: sultry
released: October 2011
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
EXCERPT - CHAPTER ONEIt had been an easy kill.
Aleksandr Nemov stood over the body of the vampire hunter, their blood splattered across his black shirt and saturating the leather and metal vambraces that protected his forearms. It coated his fingers and the curved dagger they gripped, and the sweet scent of it heavily tainted the crisp night air. Strong moonlight caressed his back, throwing his shadow out long in front of him, across the hunter's corpse.
A female.
She hadn't been strong enough to fight his kind. Too young and inexperienced to best him. It had been foolish of her to try.
Aleksandr raised his hand and swallowed at the sight of the blood glistening on his fingers. It tempted him to taste it.
He dragged his eyes away and settled them back on the female laying on the grass of the small public space, her blood warming the frozen earth. He hadn't fought a woman in a long time and hadn't expected to find a hunter so soon after arriving in Prague.
The fountain nearby bubbled regardless of the frigid temperature, defiant of the frost that caused the grass around it to glitter.
Aleksandr glanced at his bloodied hands again and then closed his eyes against the temptation. He took no thrill in the hunt. Yet he found no calm in its aftermath. There was only the threat of unending darkness that beat within his chest and encroached upon his soul. It bled into his eyes. He could feel the jagged points of black that speared the red. He had too much blood on his hands but he couldn't give up now, not when he was so close to attaining his vengeance.
With great effort, Aleksandr sheathed his dagger against his left hip and wiped the blood away.
The smell of it still permeated the air, taunting and filling him with the dark urge to feast on the hunter's remains. He refused to obey the voice within that commanded him. His kind had fought hard against it and no Nemov had turned to the darkness. They were stronger than that, and he would die before it happened to him.
"You… what are you doing here?" A light female voice shattered the darkness within him.
Aleksandr glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She stood with the fountain at her back, the cascade of water providing wings that completed the vision of beauty. Moonlight bathed her skin, turning her round eyes dark and her hair as black as the uniform she wore.
An angel.
The red bled from his eyes, returning his irises to grey, and he straightened to his full height, desiring to look his best even when he looked his worst.
She brought her right hand up to reveal the blade clutched tightly in her fingers, held backwards with the blunt edge tucked against her forearm, ready to slash at him if he made a wrong move.
"I won't ask you twice." Her strength surprised him.
Such a beautiful creature.
Before Aleksandr could find his voice, she was gone. He turned, blocked her attack with the metal covering his left vambrace around his forearm, and attempted to disarm her. She dodged his counter-attack with ease and came around behind him. He spun and blocked her again, and this time managed to get a hand on her before she leapt backwards, out of his reach, and bared her fangs.
His heart beat harder.
She attacked again, her cry piercing the silent wintry night, and brought her blade down hard. It was difficult to block it. She was strong and skilled for a female. He strafed left and right to avoid her knife, trying to find an opening that he didn't really want to take. She was fascinating. Beautiful and deadly. Everything a vampire should be, yet there was something more to her. She turned and brought her leg around in a swift kick. The heel of her black knee-high boot smashed into the side of his head, sending him down.
Aleksandr rolled onto his feet and blocked her again. Why couldn't he bring himself to fight her? He could barely bring himself to defend.
Her red eyes narrowed on him and she growled, exposing her extended canines again. His cheek throbbed where she'd caught him. He would bear a bruise there before the hour had passed. She lunged at him and he barely avoided her blade. If he survived the fight that was. He ducked when she swung at him and swept his leg around to take hers out. She jumped it and rewarded his effort with another hard kick to the head, sending his brain spinning out of control. The darkness threatened to return, goading him into attacking. He didn't want to. He would not attack another vampire, especially not a female.
Definitely not her.
She huffed as though disappointed. Was it because he wasn't fighting or wasn't falling? Aleksandr kept his arms in front of him, blocking her swift attacks with his vambraces, and staring at her face the whole time. Fascination wasn't the right word for what she did to him.
The warmth he felt, the intense attraction, the abject desire to look into her eyes forever, even when they only promised him a slow death. It was more than fascination.
He wanted her.
"I do not wish to fight you." Aleksandr leapt backwards, away from her, and raised his hands.
Her grip on her blade tightened and she attacked.
He left himself open to see what she would do. Her clothing was formal—a black military-style jacket that only reached her waist and tight black trousers coupled with polished riding boots. She looked like a guard. If she were, she surely wouldn't kill him.
If she weren't, he was making a terrible mistake.
The moment she neared him, she sheathed the blade, threw herself forwards so her hands pressed into the dirt, twisted and launched herself at him feet first. Had he wanted to defend himself, it would have been impossible. The speed at which she locked her knees around his neck, sending him falling backwards with her momentum, and slammed him into the icy earth knocked the breath from him.
Aleksandr stared at her where she perched on his chest, straddling it with his arms trapped in the crook of her knees and her blade against his throat.
He laid beneath her, sprawled out, his back aching and freezing.
Utterly in love.
She leaned forwards. A single strand of her dark hair had fallen out of the tight bun at the back of her head and grazed her cheek. Her soft breath against his face carried the enticing scent of her blood. Her eyes went from darkness to a lighter colour that the moon stole from him. Beautiful.
Aleksandr swallowed, causing the knife to grate his Adam's apple through his thick beard. He wished that he had cleaned up now before coming to Prague. She wasn't exactly catching him at his best.
"You will answer for entering my bloodline's territory." She pressed the blade harder against his throat. "I'm taking you in."
"No need to be rough." Aleksandr smiled slowly. "Unless you like it that way, of course."
She was off him in an instant, her weapon still held at the ready.
Clearly, she wasn't into the rough stuff like so many of his kind. With the thrill of hunting denied them, they had to find excitement elsewhere. Dancing with death through sharing blood was the most intoxicating thing a vampire could do without risking their humanity and many of them did it often. He had never been into that sort of thing.
Aleksandr sat up, grazed his fingers over the silvery scars on his wrist, a reminder of why he was tracking and killing vampire hunters, risking his humanity, and then got to his feet.
The female backed off a step, but remained close enough that she could easily attack him if he tried to leave. He didn't want to, but if he did, she wouldn't be able to stop him. A woman was no match for him.
First a female hunter and then a female guard. Prague was a modern progressive city, or the world was changing faster than he realised. He had noticed it for a few years now and had been struggling to adjust ever since. He hadn't expected the change to happen within vampire society too. The males had always been the ones to take care of the females. His gaze settled on her. Now there were females capable of taking care of themselves. It was both disturbing and intriguing.
Aleksandr went to move but she was in front of him before he could take a step.
"Can I at least gather my belongings?" He motioned towards the coat and bag that waited near the fountain.
She looked at them and her gaze tracked back and settled on the corpse. Her pupils narrowed and then she frowned. Had she only just noticed that he had killed someone? She sniffed and then looked at him, her pale eyes falling to his shirt and then his hands, carefully taking all of him in. He liked the assessing edge to her gaze, and the way it lingered on his body a moment before coming up to meet his. She stared into his eyes, long enough that he felt as though she was renewing the spell she had cast on him, and then nodded.
"I desire an audience with your master." Aleksandr crossed her path and picked up his long heavy black coat. Her gaze remained on him, intent and focused.
He put his coat on, picked up his black bag and slung it over his shoulder. When he turned to face her, she was looking at the dead hunter again. The way she stared at it, studying it closely, made it clear that she hadn't seen a fresh kill in a long time.
Or she hadn't seen anything quite like the butchery that had happened tonight.
Aleksandr clenched his fists and reined in the dark hunger that the memory evoked. He was in control now, not his instincts. The hunt would continue until he had avenged her and had rid the world of her murderer's progeny.
He would not surrender until then.
For four centuries, he had tracked and killed them, his anger still fresh in his heart, the pain of losing her still raw. He would not surrender until he had killed the last of the hunter's line and protected his people.
The woman stepped forwards and his attention was back with her. The second his gaze locked with hers, the darkness inside him receded, washed away by the light in her eyes and her beauty. He had thought of nothing but the hunt for four hundred years, had closed himself off to society and focused on his duty, but the woman before him stole his attention away from it so easily. It drifted to the back of his mind with the darkness, unknown to him in this moment while her eyes held his. She wasn't afraid of him. She had fought him without fear, and with strength and skill that he had never expected to find in a female. She enthralled him.
Looking into her eyes, Aleksandr realised something dreadful. He was too close to the edge. The feelings she evoked in him were ones he had long forgotten existed. It was strange to feel warmed inside by happiness to have met her, desire to make her belong to him, and hunger for the feel of her bare body against his. He had not felt such positive emotions in decades.
He was losing himself.
"Follow me," the woman said and he did, using her as a distraction from his dark thoughts.
She was young. He placed her at barely over two hundred years old, her appearance somewhat of a human in their mid-twenties. She was at least six inches shorter than him, and slender. Her strength had surprised him because of those facts alone. Young females were often weak and needed protection. She had strong blood in her veins.
Aleksandr ran a hand over his matted long dark hair and then rubbed the several months' worth of beard on his face. What did he look like? He felt like a mess now, both inside and out. She had definitely caught him at his worst. If he had looked as he had back in his days at court, he was sure she would be looking at him differently.
He was sure that she would recognise him for who he was.
She walked swiftly ahead of him, not once looking back to check if he was still there. She had mastered her senses then. He could feel them fixed on him. How strong were they? He had honed his to perfection through years of training and hunting, but he hadn't sensed her approach. He had been too lost in the darkness.
His gaze slid down to her small backside and the way it moved as she walked mesmerised him.
He hadn't really wanted to meet her master, but saying that he did seemed like the easiest way of remaining near to her.
Aleksandr lost track of how long they had been walking. He looked up when he sensed the presence of more vampires. Black wrought iron gates punctuated an endless grey stone wall ahead. Beyond them stood the extensive bleak façade of a mansion. Light emanated from many of the rectangular windows marking the three storeys, at least on the left side. On the right, they were mostly dark hollows. Two male guards at the gate saluted the woman and then eyed him with suspicion as he passed through.
Who was his escort? She was strong, spirited, and these men ranked lower. If she weren't dressed as a guard, Aleksandr would have placed her as a lady of the bloodline. A female guard. He still couldn't quite comprehend it.
He followed her up the gravel drive to the house, walking on the left side of the wide expanse of frosty grass that stretched into the distance in both directions. It was a habit of his to mask his footfalls. It had saved his life more than once. The long grey stone front of the mansion was imposing and cold even in the moonlight. The size of it told Aleksandr that this bloodline held the power in the city, or they were the only one resident.
They crossed the large parking area in front of the house, passing a fleet of identical black Mercedes-Benz limousines. This bloodline was definitely doing well for itself. Judging by the fact that the woman had been in the city whilst wearing her uniform, it had to be masquerading as a military school of some sort. Many bloodlines bought privacy from the local government by donating large sums of money and setting up such a front. The humans never questioned them. It had been the easiest way to keep their species secret for many centuries. At least some things hadn't changed since he had left society.
The moment she entered the house, Aleksandr's attention was back with her. She hurriedly smoothed her warm chestnut hair back into the tight knot, fixing her appearance. In his opinion, she didn't need to fix it at all. The slight wanton edge her messy hair gave her was alluring to say the least. His gaze drifted to her throat and he frowned when he spotted her bloodline's mark on the back of her neck. It was an elaborate black ink crest with a stag incorporated into the design.
Černý.
They passed another pair of male guards and Aleksandr glanced at the back of their necks. The mark was visible above the collar of their short black jackets. A strong bloodline.
He had forgotten who ruled Prague. Perhaps they would be able to help him after all and his coming to their master would prove beneficial in more than one way.
His grey eyes slid back to the woman. She looked over her shoulder at him, her aquamarine eyes briefly fixing on his before she turned away again.
Aleksandr quickened his pace and fell into step beside her. She glanced at him again and then looked forwards. His gaze remained on her as they walked along the elegant gallery at the front of the house, heading towards the lit area he had seen on the left of the building. She had soft features—youthful and graceful. Her oval face, pale skin, and rosy lips set his heart racing again, quick enough that it almost matched a human heart rate. A flicker of a frown wrinkled her brow and her eyes darted to him and then away. He steadied his heart, aware that she could hear the effect she had on him. Her heart was beating at a restful pace, a soothing patter in his mind.
She moved ahead, entering a large red drawing room. The vampires relaxing in it were powerful but none of them were stronger than he was. He carried on without glancing in any of their directions, following his temptress. She turned right in the room, heading towards a guarded set of dark wooden doors. When she reached them, she faced him, her expression stern.
"Wait here," she said and the guards stationed on either side of the doors opened them for her.
Aleksandr lowered his black holdall from his shoulder. The two dark-haired male guards eyed him. He smiled but it didn't relieve the tension. It only made it worse. The one on his left cast a glance over him and Aleksandr was thankful that his long coat hid his dagger from view. The female's voice drifted through the open doors to him and he looked at her. She stood in the middle of a dark green room, the back of a gilt-framed green velvet couch in front of her. A male spoke to her in Czech, his voice a lazy drawl.
Tired of waiting, Aleksandr walked into the room, his knee-high boots heavy on the polished wooden floor. The woman's blade was at his throat again in the space of a breath. Aleksandr halted and looked at the man her body had shielded from view.
He was young to be leading a bloodline, only in his late twenties in terms of appearance, meaning he was little more than four hundred. He would have been born around the time that Aleksandr had begun his hunt.
The man leaned back into the green couch opposite the one near to Aleksandr and the woman and crossed his long black-clad legs. He smiled without any trace of charm or meaning and preened his short sandy hair back.
"This man desires an audience with you, Master," the woman said and Aleksandr glanced down into her clear blue eyes. She looked away, towards the leader of her bloodline.
"Then allow him to introduce himself so I may know with whom I speak," the master said in English.
Aleksandr was familiar with both English and Czech. He had understood everything the master had said to the woman. He wasn't interested in guests and wanted him gone. His opinion would change once he knew who Aleksandr was. It always did.
Aleksandr's gaze met the guard's again, holding it for long minutes. Whenever he set eyes on her, he was struck by her beauty as though it was the first time he had witnessed it. He willingly accepted her blade against his throat because it meant she was near him. Soon she would be this close to him without a weapon. He was sure of it. He would ask for sanctuary and the master would grant it. It would give him time to clean up his appearance and then he would start a new hunt. One for this woman.
His gaze slid across to the master and locked with his hazel one, silently showing the younger vampire that he wasn't the most powerful in the room by a long shot.
"I am Aleksandr Nemov," he said in a calm measured tone.
The female's shock rippled through the knife at his throat, which was gone an instant later. She stepped back.
"You will not mind me requesting proof of that claim," the master said.
Aleksandr smiled behind his beard. It was to be expected. He had been absent from society so long that many probably thought him dead.
With a flourish, he unsheathed and presented his bloodstained dagger. The curved silver blade caught the warm light of the fireplace to the left of the couches. That same light made the gold handle shine brightly. Only a Nemov carried such a weapon, and it had been given to him at birth, inscribed with his name so those who died by it knew who had taken their life. When the man nodded, he sheathed the blade and took hold of his black shirt above his right hip. He pulled it free of his trousers and revealed the mark he bore there on his pale skin.
The mark of royalty.
The woman's eyes widened, fixed on the crescent moon on the shield of his bloodline.
Aleksandr lowered his shirt and she slowly raised her eyes to his. She blinked, fumbled with her own knife, and then looked away. The shy sparkle in her blue eyes added to her beauty and his desire for her, momentarily stealing his attention away from the other occupant in the room.
"You will stay a while with my bloodline. It would do us great honour." The master stood and crossed the room to Aleksandr.
The woman stepped to one side, her eyes still downcast.
The master grinned and held his hand out. "I am Ladislav Černý, and I welcome you to my home. I hope you will be able to enjoy our hospitality for a long time."
Aleksandr shook his hand. Ladislav was young but wise enough to see a way to gain more power when it was standing in front of him. Being favourable to a royal would grant him more leeway with the law and more privileges in court. It was a shame then that Aleksandr had long since surrendered such authority. No matter how many times he reminded society that he was no longer royalty, it still insisted on treating him that way. In this sort of situation, he usually reminded them that he had given up his title, but this time he couldn't bring himself to mention it. He wanted to remain here and pursue the woman, and for that reason alone, he would tolerate Ladislav's mistake.
"We will hold a ball tonight to celebrate," Ladislav said, his English thickly accented.
This man was no fool. He would serve Aleksandr well. His gaze slid back to the woman. Her eyes were on him again but darted away when his met them. How well would she serve him?
"Then I will need to freshen up." Aleksandr removed his hand from Ladislav's grip.
"Any room in the guest wing you desire, and I will arrange whatever you need." Ladislav motioned to the woman. Her expression blackened for a moment, as though escorting a guest was beneath her, and then she saluted.
Aleksandr picked up his bag and smiled at the woman. She answered it with a frown and then walked out of the room. His smile widened and his gaze raked over her.
She was going to be an interesting hunt.
But he would be the victor.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
October 21, 2011
Halloween Spooktacular and vampire romances
It's been a busy week for me. I've been preparing for the release of my new vampire romance book, Heart of Darkness, while fighting a cold/cough and trying to keep on top of everything else that I needed to do. It's basically been manic.
On top of that, I've put in motion an event I'll be hosting here at my blog from October 28th-31st. This year, I'm having a Paranormal Pandemonium Halloween Spooktacular here at my blog. There's going to be plenty of posts to keep you all entertained over the four days, all of them about vampires and werewolves, and other paranormal romance lovelies. I'm interviewing lots of my characters, writing new exclusive flash fiction pieces for the event, putting together some fantastic giveaways, and hunting down some paranormal hotties to share with you all! It means writing a lot of blog posts, almost one every four hours, but it's going to be awesome and well worth the pandemonium!
It does mean that I have to get my head down and get a lot of the Heart of Darkness leg of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour ready and sent out well in advance to give myself time to write all the posts for my Halloween event. Add to that the fact that I'm supposed to be working on the second draft of Masquerade ( Vampires Realm romance series #10 ) next week and the week after and you'll start to get a feel for how busy my next few weeks are going to be.
But that's next week. This week I have been working hard on getting everything ready for the Heart of Darkness release day on Saturday 22nd October. That's less than a day away now. The book is already available at Amazon Kindle in the US and Amazon Kindle in the UK, All Romance eBooks and Smashwords. I always get the book sent there in advance as it sometimes takes a few days for the process to complete and the book to appear.
I have also been putting together the paperback version of this vampire romance book and that should be ready to order soon. I had to send them a query about the cover as it looked wonky in the example image they sent me. I've had a similar problem with CreateSpace before and they fixed it when I emailed them, so hopefully this will be resolved quickly and I can get the book out in paperback.
The Heart of Darkness blog tour has already kicked off with an introduction to the book and a giveaway at Romancing the Darkside. To see the other dates of the tour, head over to my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour page at my website.
My next stop on the Heart of Darkness blog tour is at Romance Book Junkies tomorrow, 22nd October, and then I'm reverting back to talking about my angels and the Her Angel series at Reading Between The Wines Book Club on Sunday!
I've also been putting together some more promotional items, such as new book cover postcards, bookmarks, and even some paranormal romance trading cards this time! I've just received the new book cover postcards. This time they're in full colour. The smaller items between the covers are magnets that I ordered too...
When I receive the bookmarks and other items, I'll take a picture of them too and post it here. I normally reserve all my bookmarks and cover flats for use in giveaways, but I've had a few people ask whether or not they can give me some p&p and get some sent to them. I'll have a think about it. I will probably be selling the trading card sets on my website, along with my paperback books. I just need to find the time to make the pages for them!
What do you think of the cover postcards? Would you love to have them added to your collection?
On top of that, I've put in motion an event I'll be hosting here at my blog from October 28th-31st. This year, I'm having a Paranormal Pandemonium Halloween Spooktacular here at my blog. There's going to be plenty of posts to keep you all entertained over the four days, all of them about vampires and werewolves, and other paranormal romance lovelies. I'm interviewing lots of my characters, writing new exclusive flash fiction pieces for the event, putting together some fantastic giveaways, and hunting down some paranormal hotties to share with you all! It means writing a lot of blog posts, almost one every four hours, but it's going to be awesome and well worth the pandemonium!
It does mean that I have to get my head down and get a lot of the Heart of Darkness leg of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour ready and sent out well in advance to give myself time to write all the posts for my Halloween event. Add to that the fact that I'm supposed to be working on the second draft of Masquerade ( Vampires Realm romance series #10 ) next week and the week after and you'll start to get a feel for how busy my next few weeks are going to be.
But that's next week. This week I have been working hard on getting everything ready for the Heart of Darkness release day on Saturday 22nd October. That's less than a day away now. The book is already available at Amazon Kindle in the US and Amazon Kindle in the UK, All Romance eBooks and Smashwords. I always get the book sent there in advance as it sometimes takes a few days for the process to complete and the book to appear.
I have also been putting together the paperback version of this vampire romance book and that should be ready to order soon. I had to send them a query about the cover as it looked wonky in the example image they sent me. I've had a similar problem with CreateSpace before and they fixed it when I emailed them, so hopefully this will be resolved quickly and I can get the book out in paperback.
The Heart of Darkness blog tour has already kicked off with an introduction to the book and a giveaway at Romancing the Darkside. To see the other dates of the tour, head over to my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour page at my website.
My next stop on the Heart of Darkness blog tour is at Romance Book Junkies tomorrow, 22nd October, and then I'm reverting back to talking about my angels and the Her Angel series at Reading Between The Wines Book Club on Sunday!
I've also been putting together some more promotional items, such as new book cover postcards, bookmarks, and even some paranormal romance trading cards this time! I've just received the new book cover postcards. This time they're in full colour. The smaller items between the covers are magnets that I ordered too...
When I receive the bookmarks and other items, I'll take a picture of them too and post it here. I normally reserve all my bookmarks and cover flats for use in giveaways, but I've had a few people ask whether or not they can give me some p&p and get some sent to them. I'll have a think about it. I will probably be selling the trading card sets on my website, along with my paperback books. I just need to find the time to make the pages for them!
What do you think of the cover postcards? Would you love to have them added to your collection?
October 20, 2011
Her Guardian Angel - angel romance now available in paperback!
Her Guardian Angel, my angel romance novel and the fourth book in my best selling
Her Angel romance series
is now available in paperback from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's also now available at the majority of ebook retail sites, including Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstore and others.
Here's more information about the book and where you can buy it from in paperback and ebook, plus the official excerpt to give you a taste of the novel.
Her Guardian Angel
Felicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance book
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel romance series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herguardianangel-607692-140.html
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1104775871
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1463788363/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
EXCERPTMarcus stretched his left arm out above his head on the pillows of his double bed, buried the fingers of his right hand into his overlong black hair and stared into the inky dark of his bedroom. The open window to his left allowed pale light to filter in from the street far below but it barely cut through the gloom and it wasn't the reason he had lifted the sash around midnight. The stifling summer's day had given way to a humid night that showed no sign of cooling down before dawn broke and heralded the next unbearably hot day. A light breeze washed in through the open window, refreshing him as it caressed the left side of his bare body. The heat wasn't the only thing robbing him of sleep.
The banging came again, more persistent this time, and Marcus clenched his teeth to contain his growing irritation, his focus wholly on the hall outside his apartment. The man had been attacking the door of his neighbour for almost twenty minutes now, rousing Marcus from sleep and throwing him straight into a bad mood that had gradually deteriorated into a desire to beat some sense into the mortal.
He drew in a long breath, held it a moment in a vain attempt to regain control of his temper, and then exhaled slowly. The man hurled another string of impotent threats at his neighbour's door and Marcus's anger spiked right back up. His silver-blue eyes slid towards the digital clock on his bedside table. The display mocked him with the ungodly hour this man had chosen to air his bitter disappointment to not only the female but the entire apartment block. Three in the morning.
Because of the humidity that showed no sign of abating and had made it impossible to get comfortable, Marcus had only been asleep for a scant few hours. He hated waking early, especially when he was stuck in the hell known as the mortal realm.
The man banged again, rattling the wall with a tremor that reached Marcus. He was no threat to the woman because she wasn't foolish enough to answer her door, but it grated on Marcus's nerves nonetheless.
His temper frayed when the man shouted foul accusations at her.
All of them false.
Marcus had known Amelia all of her life, although she had only known him this past month. He had watched over her and she was a pure soul with terrible luck when it came to men, and the man knocking down her door didn't deserve her.
Unable to bear another second and sensing Amelia's increasing fear through the wall that joined their apartments, Marcus rose from the bed and slung on a pair of dark grey jogging bottoms. He walked through his unlit apartment with ease, not bothering with the lights as he could easily map a safe path around the furniture without seeing it, and unlocked his front door. He yanked it open and stepped out into the dull cream hallway on the other side, his gaze immediately fixing on the mortal that was daring to break his sleep and threaten Amelia.
The dark haired man looked at him.
Marcus coolly stared back.
"What's your problem, mate?" The man's fingers curled into fists at his sides. Marcus noted everything about him in under a second.
He was drunk. He was itching for a fight. And he was a fool who thought this sort of abuse would win Amelia back. On the surface, the man wanted to upset her and hurt her, but Marcus could see beyond the façade to the pale hope in this man's heart that Amelia would be his again.
That was something Marcus would never allow.
"You." Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbed sleep from his eyes, and then leaned back against the doorjamb, folding his arms across his bare chest and crossing his legs at his ankles.
The man regarded him for a moment and then turned back to Amelia's door.
"I think you should leave now." Marcus stepped forwards, bringing the man's attention back to him so he wouldn't bang on the door again and cause Amelia's fear to increase. "Before things get out of hand."
The man smiled, amusement touching his dark brown eyes. "What you gonna do about it? She's my girlfriend… not yours. Piss off back inside and get your nose out of my bloody business before I break it."
Marcus sighed. He had warned the man. He had done everything by the book. His patience wearing thin, he looked the man over again, taking in his dark jeans and the loose t-shirt that covered a physique half his own and the way his fists shook as he shouted at Amelia's door. Without resorting to violence, Marcus wasn't sure how to convince the man to leave. He could compel him, but using his powers on such a base creature was beneath him and would do nothing to teach the man a lesson in manners towards women.
The man banged on the door again before Marcus could stop him, hard enough this time that the white painted wood creaked under the attack, and he heard Amelia gasp.
"That is it." Marcus took another step forwards and the man swung at him. Marcus dodged his fist, clamped his left hand down on the man's wrist, and twisted his arm behind his back. The man bent forwards to stop his shoulder from popping out of its socket, facing away from Marcus, and grunted in pain. Marcus glared at the back of his head. "I said to leave."
The man struggled in his grip but stilled when Amelia's apartment door eased open a few inches and she peered around it. Marcus stared at her, frowning at the tears that streaked her flushed cheeks and the fear in her grey eyes, and tightened his grip on the man's arm until he let out another deeply satisfying grunt.
"What do you want?" she whispered, voice hoarse and trembling.
It wasn't like Amelia to look afraid of anything. Marcus had seen her fight it out face-to-face with her exes without showing a trace of fear but this one had rattled her. Weariness shone in her grey eyes, lending them a cold edge he hadn't seen before. Her gaze tracked up Marcus's arm, lingering a moment on his bare torso, and then reached his face.
"I'm sorry if he woke you." Her gentle tone dissolved some of his anger.
Marcus loosened his grip on the man's wrist but held on to him. "It's not a problem. I couldn't stand by and do nothing."
The man twisted enough to look back at Marcus over his shoulder and then turned his head towards Amelia.
"Oh, I see how it is. Dump me and then move on to the next bloke, right? You've probably been fucking him from the moment he moved in. Well, I'm sure Mr Muscle is a great catch…" The man wrenched free of Marcus's grip and stumbled forwards a few steps before righting himself. "But I'm gonna have to fuck up that pretty face of his."
Marcus reacted on instinct and launched his left fist at the man to counter his attack. The moment he did, he felt the strength drain from his arm and pushed harder. He had been holding back to avoid seriously injuring the mortal but now that Heaven had stripped him of his immortal strength he needed to do the opposite and give it everything he had.
He leaned back to avoid the man's punch while still pushing forwards with his own and slammed his fist hard into the man's jaw, cracking his head to one side and sending him crashing into the cream wall. The man bounced off it, hit the dark banister opposite and then collapsed into an ungainly heap on the wooden floor of the hallway.
"Shit." Pain shot along every bone in Marcus's hand and up his arm to his elbow. It had actually hurt.
The man groaned and dragged himself to his feet and Amelia hesitated in the doorway of her apartment, looking as though she couldn't decide whether to assist him or keep back. Marcus shook his hand and waited for something to happen. Instead of the instant punishment he had expected, there was only silence as the man stared hard at both him and Amelia, and then stumbled down the stairs to the next floor.
Marcus still waited.
Part of him couldn't believe that he had struck a mortal and the rest couldn't believe that he wasn't being punished.
Heaven had limited his power the moment he had subconsciously decided to hit the man, leaving him with only the strength of a mortal and therefore open to attack himself. The punch had hurt him. Perhaps that was punishment enough. Perhaps all of this was punishment for his misdeeds.
Marcus sagged against the wall and blew out a sigh, clutching his injured hand to his chest, convinced that Heaven would call him in to reprimand him soon enough. He had committed an act of violence against what could be considered an innocent human. Marcus couldn't think of the man that way. He was vile and cruel, seeking to scare Amelia and hurt her. Marcus had only done his duty by protecting her.
He opened his eyes and looked across at her where she stood at the banister peering down into the stairwell, her hands clutching the wooden railing.
His gaze drifted down over her shoulder-length straight dark hair to the plum-coloured slip that only emphasised her sensual curves, to the lean lengths of her legs. She was so soft and pure. Delicate yet strong of heart. Her fear was gone now, leaving behind the confident woman he was used to seeing in her.
She looked across at him and his eyes dropped to her bare feet. He frowned at the tattoo on her left ankle. A cherub? The plump winged babe sat just above her ankle bone, staring back at him. He smiled. Is that what she thought his kind looked like? The image humans had of angels couldn't have been more wrong. It amused him, stealing away his pain and pushing it to the back of his mind.
His strength returned and the pain dulled further, leaving only a gentle throbbing and bruised knuckles behind as a reminder of what he had done.
"I really am sorry about that." Amelia's soft voice stole into his thoughts and he glanced up at her. She crossed the hall to him and peered at his left hand. "You should put some ice on that."
Marcus studied his red knuckles. Is that what humans did in this sort of situation? In his world, they had angels with the ability to heal others. Such an angel could easily fix this issue for him. Even if he couldn't find one, the red marks would be gone in less than a day, his body's superior healing ability quickly erasing them.
"Would you like to come in for some coffee or a drink? It's the least I can do as payment for being my hero."
Marcus stared at her. Coffee was payment for being a hero? He hadn't indulged in such drugs in a long time and while he knew about the sexually stimulating effects that caffeine had on his kind, he had no interest in drinking coffee with Amelia. If he did that, he wasn't sure what would happen between them, but it would certainly be embarrassing for him.
"No, thank you," he said and when she looked as though she needed a reason for his refusal, he added, "It will keep me awake."
She still didn't seem satisfied. She shifted foot to foot, her gaze darting down to her hands in front of her, and then looked right into his eyes again.
"How about I ice those knuckles instead then?"
Marcus glanced into her low-lit apartment and then back at her, and caught the fear in her eyes as she looked down at the stairwell. She was afraid that the man would return and begin harassing her again. He would accept her offer but not because he needed her to assist him with his healing. He would go with her because he could see that the man had won and had shaken her up, and that she was asking him to stay with her a while because she was scared.
It was his duty to protect her. Tonight, that duty could extend to guarding her a little more closely than usual. Once she had settled and was comfortable with the idea of being alone again, he would take his leave.
He nodded when her attention returned to him.
Amelia led the way into the apartment, leaving him to muse what he had done tonight and his duty.
She deserved better.
A better life.
That was the reason he was here—to keep her safe and watch over her. To protect her from the creeps and from something else.
To give her that better life.
He was sure of it.
Marcus followed her towards the kitchen, noting that the layout of her apartment differed slightly to his as he passed through the pale square lounge. There were no windows in it, just like his one, because the bedroom and bathroom lined the exterior wall opposite him. Their positions in the apartment were reversed in his. He stared through the open door of the room to the right. Her bedroom was next to his and the head of her bed rested against his wall. She slept so close to him, yet he couldn't feel her when he was in bed, couldn't sense her on the other side. At such proximity, he should have been able to even when her signature was dulled by her sleeping. His gaze fell to rest on the long cream couch angled towards the television set to his right in the corner of the lounge. A pillow occupied one arm of the sofa and a scrunched up dark blue blanket sat at the other end.
Did she sleep on the couch?
He looked through into the bedroom again, frowning at the smooth covers on the double bed.
Was that why he couldn't feel her when he was in his bedroom?
Back when he had been watching over her from Heaven, she had always slept in her bed. Had something happened recently to change that? If it had, it must have occurred in the past month when he had been in the mortal realm. When he was here, he couldn't watch over her as he had in Heaven, able to view her through buildings using the power granted to the angels of his division. He had to physically see her.
Amelia came back out of the room to his left. He dragged his gaze away from the bedroom and the bathroom next to it, and finished crossing the room to the open double doors that led into the kitchen. Her small kitchen was brighter than his, the cupboards a pale type of wood, with stainless steel appliances.
Some former owner of his apartment had deemed it stylish to have a dark kitchen. Marcus deemed it impractical. It was a nightmare to keep clean so he had given up feeding himself shortly after moving in and had resorted to eating take away food, instant meals or eating out.
Marcus leaned against the kitchen counter, his hand throbbing. It had been a while since he had felt physical pain. He couldn't remember the last time it had hurt to punch something.
He couldn't remember the last time he had fought someone.
Amelia placed a red and white chequered tea-towel down on the side and emptied out several trays of ice cubes into it. She gathered the ends and twisted the bulk of the cloth around to keep the ice in, and then came over to him. He started when she took hold of his hand, gently slipping her fingers under it so they brushed his palm, and raised it. Heat travelled up his arm and it had nothing to do with pain this time.
She rested the ice pack on his knuckles and he didn't feel the cold at all. He stared at their joined hands, urgently trying to decipher how she had warmed him with only a light touch and alarmed by the hard beat of his heart against his chest. She looked up into his eyes, her grey ones full of warmth again, softening her delicate features and holding his attention.
"Thank you." She glanced away again, her gaze briefly dropping to their hands and the ice pack, and then met his eyes. His pain faded in an instant, driven away by the heat of her touch and her concerned expression, and he marvelled at the effect she had on him. It wasn't real. It couldn't be. She was his duty and that was all she could ever be. Once he had fulfilled his mission, he would finally request his transfer and would never see her again. Her thumb brushed his and fire shimmered over his skin. "I really am sorry that he woke you and that you had to hit him."
"I said it was nothing." Marcus hadn't needed to hit the man. He could have compelled him to stop but he had reacted on instinct, and for some reason that instinct had been to punch him. He could think of a million situations with mortals when he had been in danger and had compelled them. Why not this time?
Had Amelia's presence as a witness deterred him?
Or was she the reason he had struck the man?
He had been consumed by anger, enraged by what the man had said about himself and Amelia, driven to violence by a handful of words.
He was Amelia's protector. Her guardian.
He was not her lover.
Her fingertips grazed his palm as she removed the ice pack and inspected his left hand. A shiver tripped up his arm and down his spine, and his shoulder blades itched. He took his hand away from her and rolled his shoulders, trying to relieve the tension building there.
His wings wanted out.
"How are they feeling?"
Marcus's head snapped up, his eyes immediately locking on Amelia. His wings? She nodded towards his knuckles and relief swept through him.
"Fine," he said absently and breathed slowly to steady his racing heart.
There was no way she could know about his wings but, for a moment, it had felt as though she had been reading his mind. It had been a while since his wings had wanted to come out. After five centuries of living with them sealed away, he had grown used to them not being there. It had been strange becoming accustomed to them again when the binding curse had started to lose effect over thirty years ago. Most of the time, he was content to physically put them away as he was now. It took concentration to maintain their disappearance but it used less energy than hiding them from human eyes with a glamour, and it was far easier to move around in the mortal realm without worrying about accidentally knocking things over with them.
"Are you alright?" Amelia ducked towards him, interrupting his view of his knuckles and replacing it with an altogether more pleasant one of her face and her cleavage.
Marcus stared at her plump full breasts, his pulse picking up again, and then averted his eyes. Women had no shame. It was little wonder his master had decided that they should not serve him. They were wily, manipulative, a distraction, and considered by most as the source of all sin.
"Fine," Marcus repeated and took the ice pack from her, ramming it onto the back of his hand when all he wanted to do was stick it down his jogging bottoms to bring his libido under control.
His fellow warriors had warned him about women, especially ones as beautiful as Amelia, and he wholeheartedly believed every word that they said. Women were dangerous. He would not falter though. Amelia was his mission and his allegiance was to his master, his loyalty to his duty, and nothing would change that.
Once this irksome mission had ended, he would return to Heaven and request his transferral as originally planned, and would join the ranks of the soldiers who protected the realm of Heaven from intruders and wars. He would defend that which he believed in. Not this mortal world, but his world.
He had never physically guarded a human before but was certain that his assignment to act as her next door neighbour was a sign that his mission was progressing and soon he would be free of it.
He couldn't wait to return home.
"How are you feeling?" Marcus took the ice pack away from his hand and set it down in the stainless steel sink beside him.
Amelia shrugged. "Better, I guess."
She didn't look better. The weary edge was back in her eyes, draining them of warmth, and he found himself desiring to comfort her.
"He won't come back." His words had the desired effect and she brightened for a brief moment and then it faded again.
"You don't know that." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I do pick them."
Marcus turned and ran his hand under the cold water, letting it wash away the trace of blood on his knuckles. When he reached for the tap to shut it off again, he felt Amelia's eyes on his bare back, boring into his shoulders, and lingered a moment. Would she mention the marks he had revealed by carelessly turning his back on her?
"It won't be long before I drive you away too."
Those words, softly spoken, caused him to look over his shoulder at her, a frown drawing his dark eyebrows tightly together. She dropped her gaze and then met his with resolution that didn't surprise him. This was the Amelia he had come to know these past three decades. Strong, able to face anything head on, unflinching.
"What makes you say that?" Marcus turned back to face her, aware now that he was bare from the waist up and was probably only encouraging any attraction she might feel towards him. He should have put on a t-shirt before leaving his apartment but he'd had one thing on his mind—getting the irritating bastard in the hallway to shut up so he could sleep.
Or was it purely so he could sleep?
He stared at Amelia, taking in the way her cheeks coloured as he did so and how she couldn't hold his gaze.
He had thought only of protecting her.
Defending her.
"The last bloke who lived alone next door to me left only a couple of months after moving in."
Marcus knew for a fact that the man had been forcibly evicted due to a minor error in payments caused by Heaven's intervention but had later won money on the lottery that had allowed him to place a down payment on the house of his dreams. The young man had been the easiest target to remove in order to place Marcus close to Amelia. The old lady who lived in the apartment on the other side of Amelia was frail and had lived in the building for over twenty years and relied on those around her to assist her. She also slept heavily, meaning that Amelia's ex-boyfriends didn't wake her when they came to knock down her door. Marcus would have had a contender in the guardian stakes if the young man had remained living next to her and they had moved the old lady.
"You do live alone, don't you?" There was a tremble to that question.
Marcus nodded without thinking and then considered the implications of his answer when Amelia's grey eyes warmed again. A loaded question. She had cleverly used it to discern his availability.
He briefly considered making up a girlfriend in order to obliterate any attraction she might feel towards him so he could continue his mission in peace but couldn't get the words out when he looked into her eyes again.
The space between them shrank until it felt as though she was barely inches from him. Her soft breathing filled his ears, drawing his attention down to the sensual bow of her dusky pink lips. The tip of her tongue swept across them, leaving moisture in its wake, luring him in.
How long had it been since he had kissed a woman?
Not in this lifetime, that was for sure.
Marcus dragged his eyes away from her, shutting down his emotions at the same time. Amelia was a mission. He couldn't allow things to become complicated. Not when he wasn't even sure why he had to protect her.
He couldn't get involved with her.
He had to maintain his distance.
No matter how impossible that seemed now.
No matter how much he wanted her.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herguardianangel-607692-140.html
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1104775871
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1463788363/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
Here's more information about the book and where you can buy it from in paperback and ebook, plus the official excerpt to give you a taste of the novel.
Her Guardian AngelFelicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance book
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel romance series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herguardianangel-607692-140.html
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1104775871
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1463788363/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
EXCERPTMarcus stretched his left arm out above his head on the pillows of his double bed, buried the fingers of his right hand into his overlong black hair and stared into the inky dark of his bedroom. The open window to his left allowed pale light to filter in from the street far below but it barely cut through the gloom and it wasn't the reason he had lifted the sash around midnight. The stifling summer's day had given way to a humid night that showed no sign of cooling down before dawn broke and heralded the next unbearably hot day. A light breeze washed in through the open window, refreshing him as it caressed the left side of his bare body. The heat wasn't the only thing robbing him of sleep.
The banging came again, more persistent this time, and Marcus clenched his teeth to contain his growing irritation, his focus wholly on the hall outside his apartment. The man had been attacking the door of his neighbour for almost twenty minutes now, rousing Marcus from sleep and throwing him straight into a bad mood that had gradually deteriorated into a desire to beat some sense into the mortal.
He drew in a long breath, held it a moment in a vain attempt to regain control of his temper, and then exhaled slowly. The man hurled another string of impotent threats at his neighbour's door and Marcus's anger spiked right back up. His silver-blue eyes slid towards the digital clock on his bedside table. The display mocked him with the ungodly hour this man had chosen to air his bitter disappointment to not only the female but the entire apartment block. Three in the morning.
Because of the humidity that showed no sign of abating and had made it impossible to get comfortable, Marcus had only been asleep for a scant few hours. He hated waking early, especially when he was stuck in the hell known as the mortal realm.
The man banged again, rattling the wall with a tremor that reached Marcus. He was no threat to the woman because she wasn't foolish enough to answer her door, but it grated on Marcus's nerves nonetheless.
His temper frayed when the man shouted foul accusations at her.
All of them false.
Marcus had known Amelia all of her life, although she had only known him this past month. He had watched over her and she was a pure soul with terrible luck when it came to men, and the man knocking down her door didn't deserve her.
Unable to bear another second and sensing Amelia's increasing fear through the wall that joined their apartments, Marcus rose from the bed and slung on a pair of dark grey jogging bottoms. He walked through his unlit apartment with ease, not bothering with the lights as he could easily map a safe path around the furniture without seeing it, and unlocked his front door. He yanked it open and stepped out into the dull cream hallway on the other side, his gaze immediately fixing on the mortal that was daring to break his sleep and threaten Amelia.
The dark haired man looked at him.
Marcus coolly stared back.
"What's your problem, mate?" The man's fingers curled into fists at his sides. Marcus noted everything about him in under a second.
He was drunk. He was itching for a fight. And he was a fool who thought this sort of abuse would win Amelia back. On the surface, the man wanted to upset her and hurt her, but Marcus could see beyond the façade to the pale hope in this man's heart that Amelia would be his again.
That was something Marcus would never allow.
"You." Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbed sleep from his eyes, and then leaned back against the doorjamb, folding his arms across his bare chest and crossing his legs at his ankles.
The man regarded him for a moment and then turned back to Amelia's door.
"I think you should leave now." Marcus stepped forwards, bringing the man's attention back to him so he wouldn't bang on the door again and cause Amelia's fear to increase. "Before things get out of hand."
The man smiled, amusement touching his dark brown eyes. "What you gonna do about it? She's my girlfriend… not yours. Piss off back inside and get your nose out of my bloody business before I break it."
Marcus sighed. He had warned the man. He had done everything by the book. His patience wearing thin, he looked the man over again, taking in his dark jeans and the loose t-shirt that covered a physique half his own and the way his fists shook as he shouted at Amelia's door. Without resorting to violence, Marcus wasn't sure how to convince the man to leave. He could compel him, but using his powers on such a base creature was beneath him and would do nothing to teach the man a lesson in manners towards women.
The man banged on the door again before Marcus could stop him, hard enough this time that the white painted wood creaked under the attack, and he heard Amelia gasp.
"That is it." Marcus took another step forwards and the man swung at him. Marcus dodged his fist, clamped his left hand down on the man's wrist, and twisted his arm behind his back. The man bent forwards to stop his shoulder from popping out of its socket, facing away from Marcus, and grunted in pain. Marcus glared at the back of his head. "I said to leave."
The man struggled in his grip but stilled when Amelia's apartment door eased open a few inches and she peered around it. Marcus stared at her, frowning at the tears that streaked her flushed cheeks and the fear in her grey eyes, and tightened his grip on the man's arm until he let out another deeply satisfying grunt.
"What do you want?" she whispered, voice hoarse and trembling.
It wasn't like Amelia to look afraid of anything. Marcus had seen her fight it out face-to-face with her exes without showing a trace of fear but this one had rattled her. Weariness shone in her grey eyes, lending them a cold edge he hadn't seen before. Her gaze tracked up Marcus's arm, lingering a moment on his bare torso, and then reached his face.
"I'm sorry if he woke you." Her gentle tone dissolved some of his anger.
Marcus loosened his grip on the man's wrist but held on to him. "It's not a problem. I couldn't stand by and do nothing."
The man twisted enough to look back at Marcus over his shoulder and then turned his head towards Amelia.
"Oh, I see how it is. Dump me and then move on to the next bloke, right? You've probably been fucking him from the moment he moved in. Well, I'm sure Mr Muscle is a great catch…" The man wrenched free of Marcus's grip and stumbled forwards a few steps before righting himself. "But I'm gonna have to fuck up that pretty face of his."
Marcus reacted on instinct and launched his left fist at the man to counter his attack. The moment he did, he felt the strength drain from his arm and pushed harder. He had been holding back to avoid seriously injuring the mortal but now that Heaven had stripped him of his immortal strength he needed to do the opposite and give it everything he had.
He leaned back to avoid the man's punch while still pushing forwards with his own and slammed his fist hard into the man's jaw, cracking his head to one side and sending him crashing into the cream wall. The man bounced off it, hit the dark banister opposite and then collapsed into an ungainly heap on the wooden floor of the hallway.
"Shit." Pain shot along every bone in Marcus's hand and up his arm to his elbow. It had actually hurt.
The man groaned and dragged himself to his feet and Amelia hesitated in the doorway of her apartment, looking as though she couldn't decide whether to assist him or keep back. Marcus shook his hand and waited for something to happen. Instead of the instant punishment he had expected, there was only silence as the man stared hard at both him and Amelia, and then stumbled down the stairs to the next floor.
Marcus still waited.
Part of him couldn't believe that he had struck a mortal and the rest couldn't believe that he wasn't being punished.
Heaven had limited his power the moment he had subconsciously decided to hit the man, leaving him with only the strength of a mortal and therefore open to attack himself. The punch had hurt him. Perhaps that was punishment enough. Perhaps all of this was punishment for his misdeeds.
Marcus sagged against the wall and blew out a sigh, clutching his injured hand to his chest, convinced that Heaven would call him in to reprimand him soon enough. He had committed an act of violence against what could be considered an innocent human. Marcus couldn't think of the man that way. He was vile and cruel, seeking to scare Amelia and hurt her. Marcus had only done his duty by protecting her.
He opened his eyes and looked across at her where she stood at the banister peering down into the stairwell, her hands clutching the wooden railing.
His gaze drifted down over her shoulder-length straight dark hair to the plum-coloured slip that only emphasised her sensual curves, to the lean lengths of her legs. She was so soft and pure. Delicate yet strong of heart. Her fear was gone now, leaving behind the confident woman he was used to seeing in her.
She looked across at him and his eyes dropped to her bare feet. He frowned at the tattoo on her left ankle. A cherub? The plump winged babe sat just above her ankle bone, staring back at him. He smiled. Is that what she thought his kind looked like? The image humans had of angels couldn't have been more wrong. It amused him, stealing away his pain and pushing it to the back of his mind.
His strength returned and the pain dulled further, leaving only a gentle throbbing and bruised knuckles behind as a reminder of what he had done.
"I really am sorry about that." Amelia's soft voice stole into his thoughts and he glanced up at her. She crossed the hall to him and peered at his left hand. "You should put some ice on that."
Marcus studied his red knuckles. Is that what humans did in this sort of situation? In his world, they had angels with the ability to heal others. Such an angel could easily fix this issue for him. Even if he couldn't find one, the red marks would be gone in less than a day, his body's superior healing ability quickly erasing them.
"Would you like to come in for some coffee or a drink? It's the least I can do as payment for being my hero."
Marcus stared at her. Coffee was payment for being a hero? He hadn't indulged in such drugs in a long time and while he knew about the sexually stimulating effects that caffeine had on his kind, he had no interest in drinking coffee with Amelia. If he did that, he wasn't sure what would happen between them, but it would certainly be embarrassing for him.
"No, thank you," he said and when she looked as though she needed a reason for his refusal, he added, "It will keep me awake."
She still didn't seem satisfied. She shifted foot to foot, her gaze darting down to her hands in front of her, and then looked right into his eyes again.
"How about I ice those knuckles instead then?"
Marcus glanced into her low-lit apartment and then back at her, and caught the fear in her eyes as she looked down at the stairwell. She was afraid that the man would return and begin harassing her again. He would accept her offer but not because he needed her to assist him with his healing. He would go with her because he could see that the man had won and had shaken her up, and that she was asking him to stay with her a while because she was scared.
It was his duty to protect her. Tonight, that duty could extend to guarding her a little more closely than usual. Once she had settled and was comfortable with the idea of being alone again, he would take his leave.
He nodded when her attention returned to him.
Amelia led the way into the apartment, leaving him to muse what he had done tonight and his duty.
She deserved better.
A better life.
That was the reason he was here—to keep her safe and watch over her. To protect her from the creeps and from something else.
To give her that better life.
He was sure of it.
Marcus followed her towards the kitchen, noting that the layout of her apartment differed slightly to his as he passed through the pale square lounge. There were no windows in it, just like his one, because the bedroom and bathroom lined the exterior wall opposite him. Their positions in the apartment were reversed in his. He stared through the open door of the room to the right. Her bedroom was next to his and the head of her bed rested against his wall. She slept so close to him, yet he couldn't feel her when he was in bed, couldn't sense her on the other side. At such proximity, he should have been able to even when her signature was dulled by her sleeping. His gaze fell to rest on the long cream couch angled towards the television set to his right in the corner of the lounge. A pillow occupied one arm of the sofa and a scrunched up dark blue blanket sat at the other end.
Did she sleep on the couch?
He looked through into the bedroom again, frowning at the smooth covers on the double bed.
Was that why he couldn't feel her when he was in his bedroom?
Back when he had been watching over her from Heaven, she had always slept in her bed. Had something happened recently to change that? If it had, it must have occurred in the past month when he had been in the mortal realm. When he was here, he couldn't watch over her as he had in Heaven, able to view her through buildings using the power granted to the angels of his division. He had to physically see her.
Amelia came back out of the room to his left. He dragged his gaze away from the bedroom and the bathroom next to it, and finished crossing the room to the open double doors that led into the kitchen. Her small kitchen was brighter than his, the cupboards a pale type of wood, with stainless steel appliances.
Some former owner of his apartment had deemed it stylish to have a dark kitchen. Marcus deemed it impractical. It was a nightmare to keep clean so he had given up feeding himself shortly after moving in and had resorted to eating take away food, instant meals or eating out.
Marcus leaned against the kitchen counter, his hand throbbing. It had been a while since he had felt physical pain. He couldn't remember the last time it had hurt to punch something.
He couldn't remember the last time he had fought someone.
Amelia placed a red and white chequered tea-towel down on the side and emptied out several trays of ice cubes into it. She gathered the ends and twisted the bulk of the cloth around to keep the ice in, and then came over to him. He started when she took hold of his hand, gently slipping her fingers under it so they brushed his palm, and raised it. Heat travelled up his arm and it had nothing to do with pain this time.
She rested the ice pack on his knuckles and he didn't feel the cold at all. He stared at their joined hands, urgently trying to decipher how she had warmed him with only a light touch and alarmed by the hard beat of his heart against his chest. She looked up into his eyes, her grey ones full of warmth again, softening her delicate features and holding his attention.
"Thank you." She glanced away again, her gaze briefly dropping to their hands and the ice pack, and then met his eyes. His pain faded in an instant, driven away by the heat of her touch and her concerned expression, and he marvelled at the effect she had on him. It wasn't real. It couldn't be. She was his duty and that was all she could ever be. Once he had fulfilled his mission, he would finally request his transfer and would never see her again. Her thumb brushed his and fire shimmered over his skin. "I really am sorry that he woke you and that you had to hit him."
"I said it was nothing." Marcus hadn't needed to hit the man. He could have compelled him to stop but he had reacted on instinct, and for some reason that instinct had been to punch him. He could think of a million situations with mortals when he had been in danger and had compelled them. Why not this time?
Had Amelia's presence as a witness deterred him?
Or was she the reason he had struck the man?
He had been consumed by anger, enraged by what the man had said about himself and Amelia, driven to violence by a handful of words.
He was Amelia's protector. Her guardian.
He was not her lover.
Her fingertips grazed his palm as she removed the ice pack and inspected his left hand. A shiver tripped up his arm and down his spine, and his shoulder blades itched. He took his hand away from her and rolled his shoulders, trying to relieve the tension building there.
His wings wanted out.
"How are they feeling?"
Marcus's head snapped up, his eyes immediately locking on Amelia. His wings? She nodded towards his knuckles and relief swept through him.
"Fine," he said absently and breathed slowly to steady his racing heart.
There was no way she could know about his wings but, for a moment, it had felt as though she had been reading his mind. It had been a while since his wings had wanted to come out. After five centuries of living with them sealed away, he had grown used to them not being there. It had been strange becoming accustomed to them again when the binding curse had started to lose effect over thirty years ago. Most of the time, he was content to physically put them away as he was now. It took concentration to maintain their disappearance but it used less energy than hiding them from human eyes with a glamour, and it was far easier to move around in the mortal realm without worrying about accidentally knocking things over with them.
"Are you alright?" Amelia ducked towards him, interrupting his view of his knuckles and replacing it with an altogether more pleasant one of her face and her cleavage.
Marcus stared at her plump full breasts, his pulse picking up again, and then averted his eyes. Women had no shame. It was little wonder his master had decided that they should not serve him. They were wily, manipulative, a distraction, and considered by most as the source of all sin.
"Fine," Marcus repeated and took the ice pack from her, ramming it onto the back of his hand when all he wanted to do was stick it down his jogging bottoms to bring his libido under control.
His fellow warriors had warned him about women, especially ones as beautiful as Amelia, and he wholeheartedly believed every word that they said. Women were dangerous. He would not falter though. Amelia was his mission and his allegiance was to his master, his loyalty to his duty, and nothing would change that.
Once this irksome mission had ended, he would return to Heaven and request his transferral as originally planned, and would join the ranks of the soldiers who protected the realm of Heaven from intruders and wars. He would defend that which he believed in. Not this mortal world, but his world.
He had never physically guarded a human before but was certain that his assignment to act as her next door neighbour was a sign that his mission was progressing and soon he would be free of it.
He couldn't wait to return home.
"How are you feeling?" Marcus took the ice pack away from his hand and set it down in the stainless steel sink beside him.
Amelia shrugged. "Better, I guess."
She didn't look better. The weary edge was back in her eyes, draining them of warmth, and he found himself desiring to comfort her.
"He won't come back." His words had the desired effect and she brightened for a brief moment and then it faded again.
"You don't know that." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I do pick them."
Marcus turned and ran his hand under the cold water, letting it wash away the trace of blood on his knuckles. When he reached for the tap to shut it off again, he felt Amelia's eyes on his bare back, boring into his shoulders, and lingered a moment. Would she mention the marks he had revealed by carelessly turning his back on her?
"It won't be long before I drive you away too."
Those words, softly spoken, caused him to look over his shoulder at her, a frown drawing his dark eyebrows tightly together. She dropped her gaze and then met his with resolution that didn't surprise him. This was the Amelia he had come to know these past three decades. Strong, able to face anything head on, unflinching.
"What makes you say that?" Marcus turned back to face her, aware now that he was bare from the waist up and was probably only encouraging any attraction she might feel towards him. He should have put on a t-shirt before leaving his apartment but he'd had one thing on his mind—getting the irritating bastard in the hallway to shut up so he could sleep.
Or was it purely so he could sleep?
He stared at Amelia, taking in the way her cheeks coloured as he did so and how she couldn't hold his gaze.
He had thought only of protecting her.
Defending her.
"The last bloke who lived alone next door to me left only a couple of months after moving in."
Marcus knew for a fact that the man had been forcibly evicted due to a minor error in payments caused by Heaven's intervention but had later won money on the lottery that had allowed him to place a down payment on the house of his dreams. The young man had been the easiest target to remove in order to place Marcus close to Amelia. The old lady who lived in the apartment on the other side of Amelia was frail and had lived in the building for over twenty years and relied on those around her to assist her. She also slept heavily, meaning that Amelia's ex-boyfriends didn't wake her when they came to knock down her door. Marcus would have had a contender in the guardian stakes if the young man had remained living next to her and they had moved the old lady.
"You do live alone, don't you?" There was a tremble to that question.
Marcus nodded without thinking and then considered the implications of his answer when Amelia's grey eyes warmed again. A loaded question. She had cleverly used it to discern his availability.
He briefly considered making up a girlfriend in order to obliterate any attraction she might feel towards him so he could continue his mission in peace but couldn't get the words out when he looked into her eyes again.
The space between them shrank until it felt as though she was barely inches from him. Her soft breathing filled his ears, drawing his attention down to the sensual bow of her dusky pink lips. The tip of her tongue swept across them, leaving moisture in its wake, luring him in.
How long had it been since he had kissed a woman?
Not in this lifetime, that was for sure.
Marcus dragged his eyes away from her, shutting down his emotions at the same time. Amelia was a mission. He couldn't allow things to become complicated. Not when he wasn't even sure why he had to protect her.
He couldn't get involved with her.
He had to maintain his distance.
No matter how impossible that seemed now.
No matter how much he wanted her.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herguardianangel-607692-140.html
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1104775871
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1463788363/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
October 19, 2011
Paranormal romance books at All Romance eBooks
For those of you who prefer to purchase from All Romance eBooks, you can now buy most of my titles from there. I have a couple more to add but the majority of my paranormal romance books and science fiction romance books are now available from that romance ebooks site.
Here's the blurbs and links to the books I have available there. I've done them in alphabetical order with the paranormal romance books first and then a separate list for my science fiction romance ebooks.
.blogbookwrapper, .blogbookwrapper .blogbook {width: 460px; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbook {padding: 10px 0 10px;} .blogbookwrapper h2 {font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 0; margin: 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookcover {width: 140px; padding-right: 10px; float: left;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation {width: 310px; float: left;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p {font-size: 12px; padding: 0 0 10px 0; margin: 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p.blogbookdetail {font-size: 10px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #666; padding: 0 0 2px 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p.blogbookreadmore {padding: 10px 0 15px;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation h3 {font-size: 14px; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 7px;}
A Promise of PassionA dark, sensual and action packed story of two hearts, united in their passion and desire, but divided by their blood, A Promise of Passion is guaranteed to get your heart racing. Alicia is a vampire hunter, unable to find a man strong enough to...
paranormal vampire romance book15091 wordsreleased: October 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
AscensionA witch on the verge of achieving phenomenal power, Lealandra must turn to her half-breed demon ex-lover Taig for protection from the dark force that is after her and also from her own magic. With her Counter-Balance dead and her coven against her...
paranormal / urban fantasy romance book91000 wordsreleased: April 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Embracing the WolfKat, a hunter with the Werewolf Control Forces, fled her alpha werewolf lover, Amon, when he told her that she too had the gene in her blood and would one day mature into a werewolf—into his mate. Four years on, Kat has now matured. Each night...
paranormal werewolf romance book20200 wordsreleased: November 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Forbidden BloodIn a dark world where vampires exist and where Source Blood, a rare human blood type, can bestow godlike powers upon them, the vampire Venators of the Sovereignty fight to protect the humans by banishing those who drink it to the endless dark...
paranormal vampire romance book126000 wordsreleased: June 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Heart of DarknessA vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister... Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him...
paranormal vampire romance book130000 wordsreleased: October 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Dark AngelAn angel without a mission, Apollyon lives trapped in Hell guarding the bottomless pit. Surrounded by endless darkness, he longs to fly free on Earth once more but his master hasn't called him in centuries. When the call finally comes, it's to...
paranormal angel romance book30000 wordsreleased: August 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Fallen AngelAnnelie fell for Lukas the moment he walked into her pub three years ago. He's stunning, his vivid green eyes lending to his otherworldly beauty, but he's seriously out of her league. When he tells her that she's beautiful and confesses that he...
paranormal angel romance book30000 wordsreleased: October 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Guardian AngelA guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings...
paranormal angel romance book110000 wordsreleased: July 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Warrior AngelEinar is one of Heaven's best hunters and he's on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life...
paranormal angel romance book36000 wordsreleased: November 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
In HeatA heat wave isn't the only thing making London too hot for lawyer Kim. She's been spending each night with a man who sets her body and heart on fire. The problem? He's a man that always sprouts black fur and purrs, and he's only a dream. Walking...
paranormal shapeshifter romance book63200 wordsreleased: June 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
In Heat: Mating CallThe English winter weather has no chance of cooling Kim down when her dreams of Erik return, and this time they're hotter than ever! Having spent the past two years waiting to be in heat again so she can mate with her black panther shape-shifter...
paranormal shapeshifter romance book63000 wordsreleased: December 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Love ImmortalRescued from werewolves by the most breathtaking man she's ever seen, Lauren is dragged into the fight of her life and a dark world she never knew existed. There, she discovers that she's the latest reincarnation of a goddess and must drink the...
paranormal vampire romance book157000 wordsreleased: January 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks![Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2] - Paranormal Vampire Romance Book](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380468480i/3010483.jpg)
Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2]The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an...
paranormal vampire romance book109500 wordsreleased: April 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks![Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1] - Paranormal Vampire Romance Ebook](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449271i/1835348.jpg)
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever. Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable...
paranormal vampire romance book135000 wordsreleased: March 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks![Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3] - Paranormal Vampire Romance Book](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380468480i/3010484.jpg)
Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3]An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses...
paranormal vampire romance book116000 wordsreleased: May 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Seventh CircleBorn with powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a...
paranormal vampire romance book106112 wordsreleased: November 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
SpellboundWhat's a girl to do when the two men she loves are suddenly her love slaves? A vampire and leader of her bloodline, Prophecy celebrates her Death Day in style with a two night ball. Everyone is there, but all she can think about is getting her mate..
paranormal vampire romance book17550 wordsreleased: October 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Winter's KissTheir lord drinks blood and they are dead men walking. The tales of the mansion don't stop Nika from falling for one of the guards, but when wolves attack her and he rides to her rescue, she discovers that her knight is anything but saintly. He is...
paranormal werewolf romance book78000 wordsreleased: June 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a CommanderLieutenant Amerii, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, wants nothing more than to prove herself to her captain and the army without her father, Captain Lyra III's, help… except maybe one thing. Van, Count of Aeris and attendant to...
sci-fi romance book33664 wordsreleased: August 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a MercenaryPrincess Miali, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, is an ambassador for Lyra. Her true identity is kept secret to protect but it's her beauty that puts her in danger when slavers attack her ship while she's in cryo-sleep. When she...
sci-fi romance book26835 wordsreleased: July 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a PrincePrincess Renie, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, loves nothing more than exploring space with her twin brother, Rezic, but when they venture too close to the Black Zone, the barrier between Vegan space and the rest of the galaxy...
sci-fi romance book30896 wordsreleased: August 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an AssassinPrincess Natalia, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, has spent her whole life on Lyra Five behaving just as a princess should, except for one thing. After her daily duties she sneaks out at night to sing in the bars of Lyra Five...
sci-fi romance book27283 wordsreleased: September 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an EmperorPrincess Sophia, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, has had it with the never-ending row of suitors that her father, King Sebastian Lyra I, has lined up for her. When the latest suitor turns out to be the emperor of Varka, a...
sci-fi romance book21392 wordsreleased: June 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: Fight For LoveLieutenant Lyra IV is as sinfully handsome and irresistible as his elder brothers, but the one woman he wants seems to be immune to his charm. Every man in his squadron is falling over themselves to win her. Literally. When the reward is getting...
sci-fi romance book15274 wordsreleased: July 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks [image error] Sons of Lyra: Runaway HeartsHeir Prince Lyra I hates his life, and it's only getting worse. Not only do Sebastian's parents force him to remain on Lyra Prime with them and control his life, now they've gone and arranged his marriage. Unable to stand the thought of getting...
sci-fi romance book16111 wordsreleased: June 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: Slave PrincessCaptain Lyra II, known as Balt to his family, is one of the famed sons of Lyra, the handsome princes with passionate hearts that every girl in the galaxy wants to catch. The second eldest son, he's content with the freedom and adventure that life...
sci-fi romance book16111 wordsreleased: May 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: StrandedCaptain Lyra III is known for his vicious attitude and brilliance in battle. Second youngest of the infamously passionate and handsome sons of Lyra, he's a born leader and doesn't take no for an answer. Except this time. Acer is facing a future...
sci-fi romance book12129 wordsreleased: August 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Here's the blurbs and links to the books I have available there. I've done them in alphabetical order with the paranormal romance books first and then a separate list for my science fiction romance ebooks.
.blogbookwrapper, .blogbookwrapper .blogbook {width: 460px; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbook {padding: 10px 0 10px;} .blogbookwrapper h2 {font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 0; margin: 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookcover {width: 140px; padding-right: 10px; float: left;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation {width: 310px; float: left;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p {font-size: 12px; padding: 0 0 10px 0; margin: 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p.blogbookdetail {font-size: 10px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #666; padding: 0 0 2px 0;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation p.blogbookreadmore {padding: 10px 0 15px;} .blogbookwrapper .blogbookinformation h3 {font-size: 14px; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 7px;}
A Promise of PassionA dark, sensual and action packed story of two hearts, united in their passion and desire, but divided by their blood, A Promise of Passion is guaranteed to get your heart racing. Alicia is a vampire hunter, unable to find a man strong enough to...paranormal vampire romance book15091 wordsreleased: October 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
AscensionA witch on the verge of achieving phenomenal power, Lealandra must turn to her half-breed demon ex-lover Taig for protection from the dark force that is after her and also from her own magic. With her Counter-Balance dead and her coven against her...paranormal / urban fantasy romance book91000 wordsreleased: April 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Embracing the WolfKat, a hunter with the Werewolf Control Forces, fled her alpha werewolf lover, Amon, when he told her that she too had the gene in her blood and would one day mature into a werewolf—into his mate. Four years on, Kat has now matured. Each night...paranormal werewolf romance book20200 wordsreleased: November 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Forbidden BloodIn a dark world where vampires exist and where Source Blood, a rare human blood type, can bestow godlike powers upon them, the vampire Venators of the Sovereignty fight to protect the humans by banishing those who drink it to the endless dark...paranormal vampire romance book126000 wordsreleased: June 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Heart of DarknessA vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister... Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him...paranormal vampire romance book130000 wordsreleased: October 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Dark AngelAn angel without a mission, Apollyon lives trapped in Hell guarding the bottomless pit. Surrounded by endless darkness, he longs to fly free on Earth once more but his master hasn't called him in centuries. When the call finally comes, it's to...paranormal angel romance book30000 wordsreleased: August 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Fallen AngelAnnelie fell for Lukas the moment he walked into her pub three years ago. He's stunning, his vivid green eyes lending to his otherworldly beauty, but he's seriously out of her league. When he tells her that she's beautiful and confesses that he...paranormal angel romance book30000 wordsreleased: October 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Guardian AngelA guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings...paranormal angel romance book110000 wordsreleased: July 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Her Warrior AngelEinar is one of Heaven's best hunters and he's on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life...paranormal angel romance book36000 wordsreleased: November 2010Read more at All Romance eBooks
In HeatA heat wave isn't the only thing making London too hot for lawyer Kim. She's been spending each night with a man who sets her body and heart on fire. The problem? He's a man that always sprouts black fur and purrs, and he's only a dream. Walking...paranormal shapeshifter romance book63200 wordsreleased: June 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
In Heat: Mating CallThe English winter weather has no chance of cooling Kim down when her dreams of Erik return, and this time they're hotter than ever! Having spent the past two years waiting to be in heat again so she can mate with her black panther shape-shifter...paranormal shapeshifter romance book63000 wordsreleased: December 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Love ImmortalRescued from werewolves by the most breathtaking man she's ever seen, Lauren is dragged into the fight of her life and a dark world she never knew existed. There, she discovers that she's the latest reincarnation of a goddess and must drink the...paranormal vampire romance book157000 wordsreleased: January 2011Read more at All Romance eBooks
Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2]The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an...paranormal vampire romance book109500 wordsreleased: April 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever. Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable...paranormal vampire romance book135000 wordsreleased: March 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3]An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses...paranormal vampire romance book116000 wordsreleased: May 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Seventh CircleBorn with powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a...paranormal vampire romance book106112 wordsreleased: November 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
SpellboundWhat's a girl to do when the two men she loves are suddenly her love slaves? A vampire and leader of her bloodline, Prophecy celebrates her Death Day in style with a two night ball. Everyone is there, but all she can think about is getting her mate..paranormal vampire romance book17550 wordsreleased: October 2007Read more at All Romance eBooks
Winter's KissTheir lord drinks blood and they are dead men walking. The tales of the mansion don't stop Nika from falling for one of the guards, but when wolves attack her and he rides to her rescue, she discovers that her knight is anything but saintly. He is...paranormal werewolf romance book78000 wordsreleased: June 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a CommanderLieutenant Amerii, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, wants nothing more than to prove herself to her captain and the army without her father, Captain Lyra III's, help… except maybe one thing. Van, Count of Aeris and attendant to...sci-fi romance book33664 wordsreleased: August 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a MercenaryPrincess Miali, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, is an ambassador for Lyra. Her true identity is kept secret to protect but it's her beauty that puts her in danger when slavers attack her ship while she's in cryo-sleep. When she...sci-fi romance book26835 wordsreleased: July 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a PrincePrincess Renie, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, loves nothing more than exploring space with her twin brother, Rezic, but when they venture too close to the Black Zone, the barrier between Vegan space and the rest of the galaxy...sci-fi romance book30896 wordsreleased: August 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an AssassinPrincess Natalia, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, has spent her whole life on Lyra Five behaving just as a princess should, except for one thing. After her daily duties she sneaks out at night to sing in the bars of Lyra Five...sci-fi romance book27283 wordsreleased: September 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an EmperorPrincess Sophia, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, has had it with the never-ending row of suitors that her father, King Sebastian Lyra I, has lined up for her. When the latest suitor turns out to be the emperor of Varka, a...sci-fi romance book21392 wordsreleased: June 2009Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: Fight For LoveLieutenant Lyra IV is as sinfully handsome and irresistible as his elder brothers, but the one woman he wants seems to be immune to his charm. Every man in his squadron is falling over themselves to win her. Literally. When the reward is getting...sci-fi romance book15274 wordsreleased: July 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks [image error] Sons of Lyra: Runaway HeartsHeir Prince Lyra I hates his life, and it's only getting worse. Not only do Sebastian's parents force him to remain on Lyra Prime with them and control his life, now they've gone and arranged his marriage. Unable to stand the thought of getting...
sci-fi romance book16111 wordsreleased: June 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: Slave PrincessCaptain Lyra II, known as Balt to his family, is one of the famed sons of Lyra, the handsome princes with passionate hearts that every girl in the galaxy wants to catch. The second eldest son, he's content with the freedom and adventure that life...sci-fi romance book16111 wordsreleased: May 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Sons of Lyra: StrandedCaptain Lyra III is known for his vicious attitude and brilliance in battle. Second youngest of the infamously passionate and handsome sons of Lyra, he's a born leader and doesn't take no for an answer. Except this time. Acer is facing a future...sci-fi romance book12129 wordsreleased: August 2008Read more at All Romance eBooks
Teaseday - Seventh Circle - vampire romance book
It's chilly today. There's a frost on the ground and the air is so cold I can see my breath when I'm outside. Autumn has just announced itself. We're a week closer to Halloween, so my vampire mood is increasing, especially since the release of Heart of Darkness is this weekend!
I'm contuining with the Vampires Realm series theme and posting a chapter from my vampire romance book Seventh Circle today for my Teaseday.
My Vampires Realm series is full of stories of forbidden love, not only between vampires and werewolves but also between the different vampire bloodlines and humans too, even vampire hunters! If you like vampires that drink from the vein, are kick arse, and dark and mysterious, then this series is definitely for you!
Seventh Circle
F E Heaton
Born with powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a vampire.
Lincoln is a powerful pureblood with a problem. He's caught up in a prophecy and has little time left to unravel the mystery of the contract between his lord and the Devil before he dies. When witches foretell that a vampire hunter will save his life, he's prepared to work with his most hated enemy, but he isn't prepared for the forbidden desire he feels when he meets her.
Their mutual attraction becomes difficult to deny as they work together but when Lincoln reveals the truth about her powers, will Lilith find the strength to embrace a side of herself that she wished didn't exist? And when they discover Lilith's role in the prophecy, how far will Lincoln go to save her?
Dark, sensual and fast-paced, Seventh Circle is a story of forbidden love so strong that it will save the world.
ebook price: $2.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 106112 words
rating: sultry
released: November 2008
Book 7 in the Vampires Realm series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Seventh%20Circle
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO68/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seventh-Circle/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000800973/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Seventh-Circle/mix-ZGYNJZH8-kmDBm5GV0YlJg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7734
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/seventh-circle/_/R-400000000000000249275
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460978579/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1460978579/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seventh-circle-f-e-heaton/1021362622
EXCERPTBlood.
No matter where she looked, she couldn't escape it. It spotted his face and arched over his jaw from the wound on his throat. It seeped into his damp blond hair, darkening the whole side of his head. Turning away, she swallowed her desire to be sick and stared at the ground. Crimson coated the grass until it glistened under the harsh sodium streetlight on the cemetery path. The acrid smell thickened the air, filled her nostrils and choked her lungs. Cold stole through her, rising up from her knees where they pressed into the wet dirt close to his body, chilling her as it swept towards her soul.
"Jackson!" Lilith's frantic patting of his cheek did nothing to rouse him. Her rough, erratic breathing and the thundering beat of her heart filled her ears as she stared down at him. Panic consumed her. "Jackson, don't you die on me, Jackson."
His eyes opened, igniting a spark of hope inside her. The darkness of despair extinguished it when they closed lazily again a second later.
She was losing him.
"Jackson." She patted his cheek again, faster this time, a constant drumming that matched her pulse. Her other hand pressed the wad of material harder against the wound. Sticky, warm blood coated her fingers, sickening her. "Don't give up. I won't lose you!"
He convulsed and his face contorted into a look of sheer agony. A thin line of darkest red crept from the corner of his lips. She held him down, restraining him in the hope of stopping him from killing himself, and her eyes widened as the crimson trail eased down towards his ear.
Everything became still.
Her ears rang with it, with the numb and icy cold filling her, sending sweeps of shivers over her skin as what was happening finally sunk in.
This was no way to feel, so drained of life and welcoming death with open arms, watching for it. Not when the creature that had done this was still nearby.
Waiting.
She focused again, searching for it while applying more pressure to the wound on Jackson's throat. Was it to stem the flow of blood, or the flow of hope as it left her?
There was no way she could save him.
He was pale now, barely breathing. Tears blurred her eyes, hot against her cold face. Not five minutes ago, he'd been so full of life, full of jokes that had always annoyed her for some reason. Funny how it could disappear so quickly. You thought you were strong, indestructible. In reality you were as fragile as a butterfly when faced with one of them–one of the pure bloodlines.
A low laugh sent a shudder through her.
She knew what it found so amusing.
Jackson was dead.
She closed her eyes, touched his cheek as a goodbye and prayed that he had found a better place on the other side.
Picking herself up, she shut down the side of her that wanted to throw itself over his body and cry her heart out for him, and for her own loss. She had a job to do. He'd understand. It had been his job too.
She stood and stared down at him. The world seemed strangely blue and quiet. Cold. He looked peaceful lying there on the grass, darkness shrouding his body while the streetlight crowned his head in golden light.
Almost angelic.
Her gaze fell to her hands as she brought them out in front of her, palms facing the heavens. She frowned at the dark liquid coating them and then at the torn sleeve of her shirt. So much blood but she felt nothing as she stared at it. This was no time for mourning. She could do that later. Right now, she had business to attend to.
She wiped her hands on her black combat trousers and then retrieved her wooden stake from the grass.
A breeze.
A sigh.
The world blurred as she turned on a pinpoint and blocked the vampire's attack.
It grinned at her, teeth sharp and eyes bright, challenging her to make a move. She knew what it wanted. It wanted her to run, or scream, or at least give it a good fight before it finally killed her. It was playing with her.
Well, she wasn't about to play with it.
This man, this thing, was going to die for what it had done to Jackson.
It turned and the streetlights caught its eyes, making them flash like mother of pearl. She gave no quarter, turning with it and keeping their arms locked. Its weight pressed against her and she pushed back, her eyes never leaving its. It could throw her if it wanted to. It was far stronger than she was.
That smile it wore wasn't fading. It was beginning to unnerve her. It curved the vampire's face, cutting across it in a sinful line that exposed the points of its bloodied teeth. Jackson hadn't stood a chance.
She didn't stand a chance.
Neither of them had ever fought one of the pure bloods. Those that did rarely survived to tell the tale. She'd never heard of anyone managing to kill one.
Before she could blink, it had disappeared and she stumbled forwards from the release of pressure against her. She turned sharply in all directions, panic guiding her movements, and then forced herself to slow down. Her senses reached outwards into the inky night, desperate to locate the vampire so it couldn't attack without her noticing.
The early spring breeze tousled her honey hair, sending a shiver dancing down her spine as its cold fingers worked their way under the hem of her black shirt and into her collar. When she faced Jackson, she sniffed back her tears and tried not to look at him. This was no time to lose focus, or she'd be joining him in the afterlife.
Something shifted.
She tensed and then relaxed when it didn't move again.
The graveyard was quiet. Too quiet.
It could only mean one thing. The vampire was stalking her. It had slipped into the shadows to watch her. She could feel its eyes on her, touching her, studying her. It was looking for a weak spot, a momentary drop in her defences when it could slip in and kill her with a single move. Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone at that thought and she steadied her breathing in an attempt to slow it down. Panic made her hands shake and her body threatened to join them.
Her fingers flexed around the stake several times. It did nothing to soothe her nerves as she'd hoped. If she didn't calm down and regain her focus, she didn't stand a chance. The vampire would be able to sense her fear. It would drive it on. It would make it hungrier for her blood. She had to do all she could to maintain control and a steady heartbeat. Only then would she have the slightest chance of killing before she was killed.
Doubts crept in at the corners of her mind, sending the edges of her thoughts black and sinister. She pushed them away, not wanting the distraction that the memory of seeing Jackson killed was bringing, and not wanting to lose her concentration by imagining herself suffering a similar fate.
No one, not a human and definitely not a vampire, was going to bite her neck.
Ever.
She frowned into the distance where the darkness swallowed the trees and nothing but the night reigned. She had nothing to fear. An elite hunter had no fear.
Her training had been the same as Jackson's and the rest of her company, except she'd always excelled where they had merely passed. She'd taken the rank of elite hunter three years earlier than expected. She was one of only a handful to hold that title.
She could defeat this vampire.
She would win.
She had a gift.
Her eyes rolled closed and she released her breath, emptying herself. Her hands came up in front of her, close to her chest, her stake held steady in her right and her left joining it. Her heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her blood rushed through her veins. There was such strength in it if only she'd be brave enough to embrace it.
Her soul surrendered to the call of the night.
The world blackened.
She didn't need to see the change to know it happened. Everything felt different. The air tasted metallic, like blood. The rising of her instincts made her senses razor-sharp and sent painful throbs down her spine from her aching head.
She could only hold this for seconds or she'd fall into the darkness she could feel encroaching at the corners of her soul.
A few seconds would be enough.
A flicker of movement and she could see the world through her closed eyes. Silvery threads outlined everything, scribbled onto the darkness like rough chalk drawings on a blackboard. She saw the trees sway in the breeze. She saw Jackson. She saw death.
Her eyes shot open and she gasped at air to save herself from drowning in the shadows. It filled her lungs, burned them and her blood. She ran regardless.
She ran straight at the vampire.
One hand on top of the stone sarcophagus was enough to vault her over it and she landed with precise grace on the other side, right beside her quarry.
Her hand came down in a blurred arc, so fast that the vampire couldn't fully evade her attack. She missed the heart as the vampire dived to the side. Her stake caught its shoulder, scraped hard against bone. The vampire growled and then roared at her. She flipped backwards before it could attack and gave herself over to the fight, letting her instincts guide her as her senses locked onto the vampire. She could almost see its movements before it made them, a ghost of it shone in her eyes.
Except time was running out.
The lingering effect of her gift would soon disappear, leaving her to fight without these sharpened senses.
She would be vulnerable.
She would be weak from calling on her gift.
That was the price.
She cart-wheeled away, still gripping the stake. The moment the vampire closed in, she stopped and swept her leg around in a fast, hard kick, grunting with effort. The vampire laughed and slid to the side, away from danger. Before she could put her foot down and attack again, it had hit her in the chest with a kick of its own, sending her flying backwards into a tombstone.
Her breath left her on impact, a red hot bar across her back marking where she'd hit the heavy stone. She needed a moment to recover, only she didn't have one. The vampire was on her before she could blink and she was barely able to block it. She crossed her arms against its chest, holding it off her.
It snarled and snapped its jaw.
With each gnash of its teeth and each millimetre closer it got to her, her heart accelerated, until it was racing so fast she had trouble breathing. Adrenaline mixed with the panic coiled deep inside her. For the first time in her life, she could taste death, could see it coming, and it had red eyes and sharp teeth, and a mane of black tousled hair. It bore down on her, its body pressed hard against hers, trapping her between it and the headstone.
She clutched the stake, hands trembling as she weakened.
The vampire growled.
There was no chance of escape, but blind panic and a will to live forced her to try.
She pushed with all her might, shoving her left hand against the flat end of the stake as she drove it forwards.
The vampire sprung backwards the moment the stake made contact with its shoulder. She didn't give it a chance to escape. She threw herself at it in a last ditch attempt to be the victor in this deadly dance.
She tumbled to the floor with it, wrestling for control. The world blurred and sped by. The pain of the vampire's blows barely registered in her tired body as she struggled to keep it away from her neck and get her stake against its chest. The noise was deafening–the rush of her breathing, the snarls of the vampire, and the harsh pounding of her heart.
Then silence.
She was on top.
Her stake plunged deep into its chest.
Her gaze locked with his.
It was a man now in her eyes.
He was breathing, fast gasping breaths. His eyes were wide, wild, as he clawed at his chest and the wooden shaft protruding from it.
She pulled the stake out and stood, looking down on him, watching him die. Her body shook from the adrenaline and the exertion. Her fingers loosened and the stake fell to the grass with a soft thud. Exhaustion surrendered to shock. She couldn't believe it. She'd killed it. She'd killed a pure blood.
His eyes rolled closed and then he began to disintegrate as time raced to catch up with him. Before a minute had passed, he was nothing more than ashes scattering in the breeze.
She swept a hand over her sandy blonde hair and sighed.
It was over.
No, it had only just begun.
She'd never heard of a vampire of the pure bloodlines travelling into this area. There had been reports of hunters meeting them in London, but never out here, so far from the capital. She'd only ever fought vampires from the weaker bloodlines.
What had he been doing out here?
She remembered the flash of his red eyes. A Vehemens? The violent. The last she'd heard, they rarely ventured outside Scandinavia. All the stories she'd heard had been of hunters encountering vampires from the other bloodlines–the Caelestis, Aurorea, and even sometimes Venia or Validus. Never the Vehemens, Tenebrae or Nocens.
So what had brought him here?
She frowned at the patch of dust that represented him now. Maybe she should've asked him. Her superiors weren't going to be pleased with her. A pure blood in her area and she killed it without any attempt to extract information.
A shiver bolted up her spine and she rubbed her bare arm.
The report was going to be hell to write.
What was worse, a voice at the back of her mind was screaming that what she'd done tonight was going to have repercussions. The pure bloods didn't take lightly to hunters killing their kind.
Leaning over, she picked up her stake and pocketed it. Her dark eyes scanned the cemetery, searching the shadows for any sign of danger. The moon broke free of the clouds, illuminating even the darkest corner and chasing the shadows away into the trees. Nothing came to her. It was silent and empty. It filled her with cold and dread.
Her gaze fell to Jackson's body. The pain she'd been stifling all this time broke to the surface.
She would have to file a full report on his death too. How could she write what she'd seen? Jackson hadn't stood a chance. The vampire had torn his throat open before she'd even sensed its approach. She'd had no chance of saving him, not even with her gift.
Her heart ached to see him lying on the grass, motionless and cold. It could have easily been her in his place. Would he have managed to kill the vampire? It didn't bear thinking about. She had survived. Jackson was dead.
She walked towards him and her knees buckled when she reached his side. Their impact with the dirt sent pain shooting up her spine and jolted the tears from her eyes. They dashed down her cheeks, turning into freezing streaks of ice as the wind blew against them.
She let them come, no longer able to hold back the surging tide of her emotions and needing to get them out of her before she returned to the compound. She couldn't let the others see her like this. Reaching into her pocket, she pressed the alarm button on her phone. It would trigger the GPS back at base and send them to her. She had fifteen minutes to gain control of herself. She would need every second.
Her hand found Jackson's and she held it, not caring how cold it felt in hers, or the way it made her feel as though she was touching death itself.
The sobs started out slow but built until she was gasping at air, her throat tight and chest aching as she stared down at Jackson's peaceful face.
She couldn't let them think she was weak.
She was the strongest they had.
Jackson would tell her that if he was still alive. He'd always told her that. He'd always been there for her, getting her out of scrapes and protecting her.
She'd failed to protect him.
Leaning forwards, she rested her head against his still chest and closed her eyes. Silence engulfed her as she lay with him, her mind empty. The night called her. She always felt this way after she'd used her gift–close to the darkness, at one with the shadows. She didn't understand the words drifting around her head or the tugging sensation in the depths of her heart. She felt the meaning though. It wanted her.
She curled up.
It couldn't have her.
She was a hunter.
The elite.
She killed those that heard the call of the night.
She killed any vampire she came across.
Nothing was going to change that.
* * * *
Lilith trudged into the mansion house, desperate for the solitude of her quarters. The team had arrived to find her standing beside Jackson's body, all sign of her emotions wiped from her face. She had given them instruction to take him back to the compound and had then told them that she would walk back. The thought of travelling with Jackson's body in the back of the van had been unbearable. The night had offered her so much comfort, the darkness hiding her feelings from the world, and she'd taken it all. The walk back had been long and had given her time to regain true control of herself.
Only now, she was walking the halls where they'd once walked. It was a painful reminder that only one of them had returned, while the other lay in the morgue below her feet.
No one ever spoke of the morgue.
It was as though by never mentioning it, they could make it go away, make all the deaths of their friends disappear.
"What happened?" A sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she found she was standing in the entrance hall staring down at the floor, seeing straight through it to the cold grey morgue below.
She raised her head, looked Daniel in the eye, and then turned away. Her throat was too tight to speak. If she tried, she would lose what little control she'd regained and would start to cry again. She'd never lost a friend on routine patrol before. She hadn't lost anyone since her sister.
He caught her arm before she could pass him, stopping her dead. She knew better than to break free of his grasp. As her superior, he commanded her respect. Her hands came up in front of her and she stared at her palms, at the dried and cracked blood that still coated them. Nausea swept through her, cramping her stomach, clenching her heart. Numbness followed it, stealing away the sickness until she felt nothing. It was so hard to breathe. Everything was so hard. She was too weak from the fight and the drain of controlling her emotions.
"Jackson. Son of a bitch got Jackson," she said, voice steady and showing no trace of the turmoil inside of her. "We didn't hear it coming. I didn't feel it."
She stared into Daniel's green eyes. The amount of concern in them surprised her. He gave a sympathetic smile, causing crow's feet to surround his eyes. When had he become so old? He seemed so grey now when before he'd always been the young man she'd first known when she had been a child. She looked around the hall, wanting to avoid his questioning gaze. Everything seemed so grey and different.
"It was one of them, a Vehemens," she said. "What in God's name is one of them doing around here?"
Daniel didn't look at all shocked by her news. His expression remained unchanged and he removed his hand from her arm only to place it lightly on her shoulder. She frowned at the strange sensation that filled her–something was wrong.
"Did you kill it?" he said.
"Of course." She went to move past him again. His hand tensed, gripping her shoulder and stopping her. She sighed. "Daniel, I really need a shower and bed. Can't the debrief wait until morning?"
"It can, I wouldn't want to make you talk about what happened until you're ready... but... I need to speak to you about a contract that just came in."
Her right eyebrow rose. It had been a while since Section Seven had been contracted by anyone. They were rare and required only the elite hunters.
It piqued her curiosity and almost made her agree. The ache inside her overruled it though. It had become a dull throbbing and she knew that warning well enough. She was close to collapse.
"Can't that wait too?" she said, hopeful.
"I don't think the client will wait any longer."
Her eyes widened. "They're here?"
"They've been waiting all night for your return," he said. "I know this isn't the best time, but it has to be now. It can't wait."
Staring into his eyes, she could see that he wasn't going to budge on this. She had to meet the client tonight. He was right. It would be rude to keep them waiting until she'd had a chance to get some rest and she didn't want to blow her first contract.
"I'll clean up first if that's okay?"
He nodded. "He's waiting in my office."
She watched Daniel walk away. He? She wondered what kind of problem they had as she walked. Someone was in the first bathroom she came to so she carried on along the hall until she was near the cafeteria. She avoided going in. By now, news of Jackson's death would be spreading and she didn't have the energy to meet her client let alone field all the questions people would have. A couple of men from her company walked out of the room. She dived into the nearest bathroom, desperate to hide from them. Locking the door, she pressed her back against it and stared at herself in the mirror.
She looked like hell.
Moving closer to the mirror, she gingerly prodded the cuts and bruises on her face and arms. The vampire had done a real number on her. At the time, she hadn't noticed. The adrenaline and shock had taken all feeling away. Washing her cuts, she stared into her brown eyes and thought about what had happened tonight. Why hadn't she sensed it? Normally she could sense vampires before they got within twenty metres of her. Normally she was fighting weaklings.
Were those of pure blood really so superior?
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she didn't need to check it to know it would be Daniel. She finished making herself look more presentable and then stared at her torn shirt. She couldn't do anything about that.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she hurried down the hall. She turned the corner that led to the commanders' offices and bumped into a woman from her company.
Her eyes fell to the woman's black jacket. "Can I borrow that?"
The woman hesitated for a moment, looked her over with a raised eyebrow, and then peeled the jacket off. "Important meeting, huh?"
"You could say that. Do you know about the client?"
"I heard someone arrived... walked in through the door with the section chief from London... but I didn't see him."
Lilith slipped the jacket on and buttoned it up.
"Thanks for the loan." She waved idly and walked away, her thoughts now firmly fixed on her client. A man that had arrived with the section chief. Whoever he was, he had to be important to garner that kind of escort.
Reaching Daniel's door, she rapped her knuckles against the mahogany and waited.
"Come in." Daniel's muffled voice drifted through it.
She paused, needing a few seconds to gather herself and push her fatigue and feelings to the back of her mind, and then opened the door and walked into the large office.
Directly in front of her was a heavy mahogany desk. Daniel was leaning against it with his arms folded and a wary look on his face. The tall curtains of the office's two windows framed him. They were drawn. She glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was nearing six in the morning. The sun would be rising by now. It was unusual for Daniel to keep the curtains drawn against the sunrise.
She sensed her client's presence. He was sharp, focused, watching her and studying her movement across the room. There was something familiar about that.
She stopped in front of Daniel. Worry had joined the concern she'd seen in his eyes earlier. He knew she wasn't in the mood for this meeting. If he hadn't been so insistent, she would have continued to refuse his orders until he backed down. His words, however, had made it clear that this client was important and he wasn't one to wait any longer for an audience with her.
Her eyes roamed the room, seeking the man out. They scanned along the packed bookshelves and their leather-bound tomes. They found him masked in the shadowed recess to the side of the bright fire. Darkness shrouded his face and obscured his figure. Her senses spoke to her.
Here was a dangerous man.
Here was one who demanded respect and commanded power.
"Lilith, our client," Daniel said behind her.
The man stepped forwards and the warm firelight instantly chased the shadows from his face. He was young, handsome in a way that had her staring. In fact, she couldn't take her eyes off him. He ran slender fingers over his short black hair and then around the back of his neck, drawing her attention to it. She frowned at the scars there. Bite marks? Was he a victim of a vampire attack? Her eyes darted to his mouth, absorbing the gentle bow of his lips, and then rose to meet his.
His dark eyes met hers and a shiver of recognition bolted down her spine and sent alarm bells ringing in her head.
His mouth became a thin line and tilted into a cruel smile, one that fitted him perfectly.
She'd been wrong.
He wasn't young.
His appearance betrayed his age.
Here was one older than she'd ever met.
She stepped forwards, defiant in the face of him, and reached for her stake.
Anger rose inside her and everything faded until there was only him.
He was no victim.
He was a murderer.
"Vampire." She sneered, assuming a fighting stance.
He growled and she felt that command deep in her soul.
She refused follow it.
To drop her stake would be to leave herself open to attack.
"Lilith!" Daniel said, his hand on her wrist making her tense. He lowered it for her.
She looked at him, stunned. Her eyes slid warily to the vampire, her anger not abating. How had he fooled her? She'd thought him nothing more than a man. She'd found him attractive. Her stomach rolled with that thought. Only the darkness in his eyes had betrayed him and lifted the veil from hers.
"Mr. Lincoln is our client."
She glared at the vampire. He had a name.
They'd never had names before.
They'd been nameless, faceless demons for her to eradicate. Now there was one whose name she knew, and for some terrible reason, it made him seem more human.
The vampire smirked, a challenge, the same as the one in the cemetery had issued her. She amused him. He meant to provoke her.
"I am not working with it!" She flung her arm around to point at the vampire at the same time as she turned to face Daniel. There was no need to look at the vampire to know he was glaring at her. The heat of it caressed her skin until she was burning wherever it touched. She shook the feeling away, and the attraction she'd felt towards him, and focused with all her effort on Daniel. "For all we know this could be bullshit. It could want to drain me dry."
The vampire snorted contemptuously, as though that was one thought that would never cross his mind.
"I'm being serious."
Daniel just shifted position, folding his arms across his chest and giving her the impression that her tirade had fallen on deaf ears. The only one paying the remotest of attention was the vampire. Her eyes roamed to him against her will. A brief glance was all it took to see he was still standing in the same spot in front of the fire, staring at her with intense dark eyes. She told herself that look wasn't making her body burn. It was anger and the fire.
A sigh drew her attention back to Daniel.
When she looked at him this time, she could see that he wasn't happy. She frowned at the floor. The section chief from London had brought Mr. Lincoln to this place to meet with her and Daniel. Daniel had as little choice in this matter as she did. The vampire had cleverly gone over their heads and left her superior powerless, unable to get her out of this mission.
Her eyes narrowed on the vampire. He smirked and nodded. If he'd had a hat, she swore he would've tipped it. Her fists clenched and she wished to God that she could wipe the smug look off his face. Taking a deep breath, she clawed back a little control. He wasn't going to provoke her. He didn't frighten her. She was going to find out what this contract was about and then do everything she could to either get rid of him as soon as possible or get out of it.
"So what do you want, vampire?" she said, striding up to him until she was close enough to see he wasn't breathing.
He was very old then, and he was powerful. At this range, she could feel it radiating off him, sparking her senses and making her instincts kick into gear. They told her to run. She stood her ground.
"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Lilith," he said in a mixed accent. There was a lot of English in there and an equal amount of European too. If she had to guess, she'd say he'd spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and wasn't a weakling.
"What bloodline are you?" Her tone was nothing short of venomous. Her eyes searched his, trying to discern whether he was going to lie to her or ignore this question too.
He straightened to his full height and looked down on her.
"Vehemens."
That one word made her stomach drop and broke the restraints that had been holding her anger at bay. Before she could stop herself, her hand was around his throat and she was forcing him backwards towards the fire. She growled when he planted his left foot against the cast-iron fireguard behind him, effectively stopping himself from moving, and yanked her hand away from his neck.
It went straight for the stake in her pocket. She grabbed it and lunged at him with it. He caught her wrist and twisted it until she had to kneel in order to stop him from breaking her arm. His eyes darkened. Her heart sped, fear saying he was going to attack.
He surprised her by releasing her the moment her knees touched the floor. She was back on her feet before he could move, the stake still held firmly in her hand.
"Lilith!" Daniel stepped between them, his hand on her shoulder forcing her backwards. She moved farther away and pocketed her stake to show him that she wasn't going to attack again. He went back to his desk. She glared at the vampire.
"Bastard!" She spat it at him with as much hatred as she could muster. "It was your fault wasn't it? You're the reason they were here!"
He looked confused, a trait she'd not witnessed in one before. She hated him even more for it–for attempting to look human by reflecting such emotions. She had no doubt that he knew what she was talking about. It couldn't be chance that two Vehemens had arrived in her city in the same night.
"I wish to discuss the contract in private with you." His words were calm, measured.
Her attack hadn't shaken him in the slightest. The idea of that made her feel weak and fatigue crept in again as she remembered watching Jackson die. She'd been powerless then, and she was powerless now.
"Discuss it in private all you want, but I'll still have to write it all in my report anyway, and everyone will know. Hell, I might post on the bulletin board that you're a vampire and sit back and watch the show." She hoped that her words carried all the spite behind them. It was childish, but she wasn't about to make anything easy for the vampire. If she couldn't attack him physically, words would have to do.
"Lilith," Daniel warned again. She sighed and ignored him.
"Why do you hate my kind so much?" the vampire said. It caught her off guard.
She stared at him, knowing that she looked like a rabbit in headlights and that she needed to recover herself before he realised that he'd rattled her.
"You seem very driven to hate us... to kill us."
Her eyes never left his. She held his gaze even as the barrier around her heart came back up as swift as a dart, shutting out his attempt to peer into her innermost thoughts and feelings. She wished she could shut out the pain as easily. She turned away from him and walked to the door.
"Come with me," she said and stepped outside the office.
Lincoln stared at the open door and the hall beyond. He frowned, dark thoughts stirring at the back of his mind and plaguing him. A glance at her superior told him that he wasn't pleased with the way his subordinate was acting. She seemed headstrong and wilful. Perhaps a little too wilful.
"She openly detests my kind," he said, getting the superior's attention. In his world, a superior wouldn't tolerate such behaviour from one below him. He had never tolerated it. "Are we going to have a problem?"
The man looked thoughtful. "No. Today has been hard on her. She'll work with you as agreed in your contract with us."
"I would like to know one thing."
"And that is?" The man pushed away from his desk and walked around it to sit in the plush leather chair.
"Why does she hate vampires so much?" he said with another glance towards the door.
He could feel her waiting in the hall, knew that she would be able to hear him. She hadn't answered his question, and he needed a reply. The idea that she would hate him contradicted everything he'd been told.
The man sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Her sister was murdered by a vampire," he said and then looked at the open door, "and tonight Jackson was killed. He was Lilith's closest friend and he died at the hands of a Vehemens."
Lincoln frowned. That explained her outburst. She was probably right. Not many of his bloodline lived outside the safe houses scattered across Europe or the family mansion in Oslo. The Vehemens had been here because of him.
"I think it's understandable that she should hate your kind... you." There was so much anger in the man's voice, so much loathing and disgust in his words. He'd never realised the extent of the humans hatred towards his species. "No one here is going to welcome you with open arms... no matter how much you pay our superiors."
He gave the man a dark look, matching his glare and tipping the balance in his favour. The man looked away, turning towards the closed curtains. Lincoln turned towards the door and reached out with his senses, focusing them on the woman. Lilith.
Had they been wrong about her?
Could one so fixated on destroying his kind truly save him?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Seventh%20Circle
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO68/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seventh-Circle/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000800973/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Seventh-Circle/mix-ZGYNJZH8-kmDBm5GV0YlJg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7734
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/seventh-circle/_/R-400000000000000249275
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460978579/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1460978579/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seventh-circle-f-e-heaton/1021362622
I'm contuining with the Vampires Realm series theme and posting a chapter from my vampire romance book Seventh Circle today for my Teaseday.
My Vampires Realm series is full of stories of forbidden love, not only between vampires and werewolves but also between the different vampire bloodlines and humans too, even vampire hunters! If you like vampires that drink from the vein, are kick arse, and dark and mysterious, then this series is definitely for you!
Seventh Circle
F E Heaton
Born with powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a vampire.
Lincoln is a powerful pureblood with a problem. He's caught up in a prophecy and has little time left to unravel the mystery of the contract between his lord and the Devil before he dies. When witches foretell that a vampire hunter will save his life, he's prepared to work with his most hated enemy, but he isn't prepared for the forbidden desire he feels when he meets her.
Their mutual attraction becomes difficult to deny as they work together but when Lincoln reveals the truth about her powers, will Lilith find the strength to embrace a side of herself that she wished didn't exist? And when they discover Lilith's role in the prophecy, how far will Lincoln go to save her?
Dark, sensual and fast-paced, Seventh Circle is a story of forbidden love so strong that it will save the world.
ebook price: $2.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 106112 words
rating: sultry
released: November 2008
Book 7 in the Vampires Realm series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Seventh%20Circle
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO68/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seventh-Circle/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000800973/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Seventh-Circle/mix-ZGYNJZH8-kmDBm5GV0YlJg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7734
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/seventh-circle/_/R-400000000000000249275
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460978579/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1460978579/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seventh-circle-f-e-heaton/1021362622
EXCERPTBlood.
No matter where she looked, she couldn't escape it. It spotted his face and arched over his jaw from the wound on his throat. It seeped into his damp blond hair, darkening the whole side of his head. Turning away, she swallowed her desire to be sick and stared at the ground. Crimson coated the grass until it glistened under the harsh sodium streetlight on the cemetery path. The acrid smell thickened the air, filled her nostrils and choked her lungs. Cold stole through her, rising up from her knees where they pressed into the wet dirt close to his body, chilling her as it swept towards her soul.
"Jackson!" Lilith's frantic patting of his cheek did nothing to rouse him. Her rough, erratic breathing and the thundering beat of her heart filled her ears as she stared down at him. Panic consumed her. "Jackson, don't you die on me, Jackson."
His eyes opened, igniting a spark of hope inside her. The darkness of despair extinguished it when they closed lazily again a second later.
She was losing him.
"Jackson." She patted his cheek again, faster this time, a constant drumming that matched her pulse. Her other hand pressed the wad of material harder against the wound. Sticky, warm blood coated her fingers, sickening her. "Don't give up. I won't lose you!"
He convulsed and his face contorted into a look of sheer agony. A thin line of darkest red crept from the corner of his lips. She held him down, restraining him in the hope of stopping him from killing himself, and her eyes widened as the crimson trail eased down towards his ear.
Everything became still.
Her ears rang with it, with the numb and icy cold filling her, sending sweeps of shivers over her skin as what was happening finally sunk in.
This was no way to feel, so drained of life and welcoming death with open arms, watching for it. Not when the creature that had done this was still nearby.
Waiting.
She focused again, searching for it while applying more pressure to the wound on Jackson's throat. Was it to stem the flow of blood, or the flow of hope as it left her?
There was no way she could save him.
He was pale now, barely breathing. Tears blurred her eyes, hot against her cold face. Not five minutes ago, he'd been so full of life, full of jokes that had always annoyed her for some reason. Funny how it could disappear so quickly. You thought you were strong, indestructible. In reality you were as fragile as a butterfly when faced with one of them–one of the pure bloodlines.
A low laugh sent a shudder through her.
She knew what it found so amusing.
Jackson was dead.
She closed her eyes, touched his cheek as a goodbye and prayed that he had found a better place on the other side.
Picking herself up, she shut down the side of her that wanted to throw itself over his body and cry her heart out for him, and for her own loss. She had a job to do. He'd understand. It had been his job too.
She stood and stared down at him. The world seemed strangely blue and quiet. Cold. He looked peaceful lying there on the grass, darkness shrouding his body while the streetlight crowned his head in golden light.
Almost angelic.
Her gaze fell to her hands as she brought them out in front of her, palms facing the heavens. She frowned at the dark liquid coating them and then at the torn sleeve of her shirt. So much blood but she felt nothing as she stared at it. This was no time for mourning. She could do that later. Right now, she had business to attend to.
She wiped her hands on her black combat trousers and then retrieved her wooden stake from the grass.
A breeze.
A sigh.
The world blurred as she turned on a pinpoint and blocked the vampire's attack.
It grinned at her, teeth sharp and eyes bright, challenging her to make a move. She knew what it wanted. It wanted her to run, or scream, or at least give it a good fight before it finally killed her. It was playing with her.
Well, she wasn't about to play with it.
This man, this thing, was going to die for what it had done to Jackson.
It turned and the streetlights caught its eyes, making them flash like mother of pearl. She gave no quarter, turning with it and keeping their arms locked. Its weight pressed against her and she pushed back, her eyes never leaving its. It could throw her if it wanted to. It was far stronger than she was.
That smile it wore wasn't fading. It was beginning to unnerve her. It curved the vampire's face, cutting across it in a sinful line that exposed the points of its bloodied teeth. Jackson hadn't stood a chance.
She didn't stand a chance.
Neither of them had ever fought one of the pure bloods. Those that did rarely survived to tell the tale. She'd never heard of anyone managing to kill one.
Before she could blink, it had disappeared and she stumbled forwards from the release of pressure against her. She turned sharply in all directions, panic guiding her movements, and then forced herself to slow down. Her senses reached outwards into the inky night, desperate to locate the vampire so it couldn't attack without her noticing.
The early spring breeze tousled her honey hair, sending a shiver dancing down her spine as its cold fingers worked their way under the hem of her black shirt and into her collar. When she faced Jackson, she sniffed back her tears and tried not to look at him. This was no time to lose focus, or she'd be joining him in the afterlife.
Something shifted.
She tensed and then relaxed when it didn't move again.
The graveyard was quiet. Too quiet.
It could only mean one thing. The vampire was stalking her. It had slipped into the shadows to watch her. She could feel its eyes on her, touching her, studying her. It was looking for a weak spot, a momentary drop in her defences when it could slip in and kill her with a single move. Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone at that thought and she steadied her breathing in an attempt to slow it down. Panic made her hands shake and her body threatened to join them.
Her fingers flexed around the stake several times. It did nothing to soothe her nerves as she'd hoped. If she didn't calm down and regain her focus, she didn't stand a chance. The vampire would be able to sense her fear. It would drive it on. It would make it hungrier for her blood. She had to do all she could to maintain control and a steady heartbeat. Only then would she have the slightest chance of killing before she was killed.
Doubts crept in at the corners of her mind, sending the edges of her thoughts black and sinister. She pushed them away, not wanting the distraction that the memory of seeing Jackson killed was bringing, and not wanting to lose her concentration by imagining herself suffering a similar fate.
No one, not a human and definitely not a vampire, was going to bite her neck.
Ever.
She frowned into the distance where the darkness swallowed the trees and nothing but the night reigned. She had nothing to fear. An elite hunter had no fear.
Her training had been the same as Jackson's and the rest of her company, except she'd always excelled where they had merely passed. She'd taken the rank of elite hunter three years earlier than expected. She was one of only a handful to hold that title.
She could defeat this vampire.
She would win.
She had a gift.
Her eyes rolled closed and she released her breath, emptying herself. Her hands came up in front of her, close to her chest, her stake held steady in her right and her left joining it. Her heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her blood rushed through her veins. There was such strength in it if only she'd be brave enough to embrace it.
Her soul surrendered to the call of the night.
The world blackened.
She didn't need to see the change to know it happened. Everything felt different. The air tasted metallic, like blood. The rising of her instincts made her senses razor-sharp and sent painful throbs down her spine from her aching head.
She could only hold this for seconds or she'd fall into the darkness she could feel encroaching at the corners of her soul.
A few seconds would be enough.
A flicker of movement and she could see the world through her closed eyes. Silvery threads outlined everything, scribbled onto the darkness like rough chalk drawings on a blackboard. She saw the trees sway in the breeze. She saw Jackson. She saw death.
Her eyes shot open and she gasped at air to save herself from drowning in the shadows. It filled her lungs, burned them and her blood. She ran regardless.
She ran straight at the vampire.
One hand on top of the stone sarcophagus was enough to vault her over it and she landed with precise grace on the other side, right beside her quarry.
Her hand came down in a blurred arc, so fast that the vampire couldn't fully evade her attack. She missed the heart as the vampire dived to the side. Her stake caught its shoulder, scraped hard against bone. The vampire growled and then roared at her. She flipped backwards before it could attack and gave herself over to the fight, letting her instincts guide her as her senses locked onto the vampire. She could almost see its movements before it made them, a ghost of it shone in her eyes.
Except time was running out.
The lingering effect of her gift would soon disappear, leaving her to fight without these sharpened senses.
She would be vulnerable.
She would be weak from calling on her gift.
That was the price.
She cart-wheeled away, still gripping the stake. The moment the vampire closed in, she stopped and swept her leg around in a fast, hard kick, grunting with effort. The vampire laughed and slid to the side, away from danger. Before she could put her foot down and attack again, it had hit her in the chest with a kick of its own, sending her flying backwards into a tombstone.
Her breath left her on impact, a red hot bar across her back marking where she'd hit the heavy stone. She needed a moment to recover, only she didn't have one. The vampire was on her before she could blink and she was barely able to block it. She crossed her arms against its chest, holding it off her.
It snarled and snapped its jaw.
With each gnash of its teeth and each millimetre closer it got to her, her heart accelerated, until it was racing so fast she had trouble breathing. Adrenaline mixed with the panic coiled deep inside her. For the first time in her life, she could taste death, could see it coming, and it had red eyes and sharp teeth, and a mane of black tousled hair. It bore down on her, its body pressed hard against hers, trapping her between it and the headstone.
She clutched the stake, hands trembling as she weakened.
The vampire growled.
There was no chance of escape, but blind panic and a will to live forced her to try.
She pushed with all her might, shoving her left hand against the flat end of the stake as she drove it forwards.
The vampire sprung backwards the moment the stake made contact with its shoulder. She didn't give it a chance to escape. She threw herself at it in a last ditch attempt to be the victor in this deadly dance.
She tumbled to the floor with it, wrestling for control. The world blurred and sped by. The pain of the vampire's blows barely registered in her tired body as she struggled to keep it away from her neck and get her stake against its chest. The noise was deafening–the rush of her breathing, the snarls of the vampire, and the harsh pounding of her heart.
Then silence.
She was on top.
Her stake plunged deep into its chest.
Her gaze locked with his.
It was a man now in her eyes.
He was breathing, fast gasping breaths. His eyes were wide, wild, as he clawed at his chest and the wooden shaft protruding from it.
She pulled the stake out and stood, looking down on him, watching him die. Her body shook from the adrenaline and the exertion. Her fingers loosened and the stake fell to the grass with a soft thud. Exhaustion surrendered to shock. She couldn't believe it. She'd killed it. She'd killed a pure blood.
His eyes rolled closed and then he began to disintegrate as time raced to catch up with him. Before a minute had passed, he was nothing more than ashes scattering in the breeze.
She swept a hand over her sandy blonde hair and sighed.
It was over.
No, it had only just begun.
She'd never heard of a vampire of the pure bloodlines travelling into this area. There had been reports of hunters meeting them in London, but never out here, so far from the capital. She'd only ever fought vampires from the weaker bloodlines.
What had he been doing out here?
She remembered the flash of his red eyes. A Vehemens? The violent. The last she'd heard, they rarely ventured outside Scandinavia. All the stories she'd heard had been of hunters encountering vampires from the other bloodlines–the Caelestis, Aurorea, and even sometimes Venia or Validus. Never the Vehemens, Tenebrae or Nocens.
So what had brought him here?
She frowned at the patch of dust that represented him now. Maybe she should've asked him. Her superiors weren't going to be pleased with her. A pure blood in her area and she killed it without any attempt to extract information.
A shiver bolted up her spine and she rubbed her bare arm.
The report was going to be hell to write.
What was worse, a voice at the back of her mind was screaming that what she'd done tonight was going to have repercussions. The pure bloods didn't take lightly to hunters killing their kind.
Leaning over, she picked up her stake and pocketed it. Her dark eyes scanned the cemetery, searching the shadows for any sign of danger. The moon broke free of the clouds, illuminating even the darkest corner and chasing the shadows away into the trees. Nothing came to her. It was silent and empty. It filled her with cold and dread.
Her gaze fell to Jackson's body. The pain she'd been stifling all this time broke to the surface.
She would have to file a full report on his death too. How could she write what she'd seen? Jackson hadn't stood a chance. The vampire had torn his throat open before she'd even sensed its approach. She'd had no chance of saving him, not even with her gift.
Her heart ached to see him lying on the grass, motionless and cold. It could have easily been her in his place. Would he have managed to kill the vampire? It didn't bear thinking about. She had survived. Jackson was dead.
She walked towards him and her knees buckled when she reached his side. Their impact with the dirt sent pain shooting up her spine and jolted the tears from her eyes. They dashed down her cheeks, turning into freezing streaks of ice as the wind blew against them.
She let them come, no longer able to hold back the surging tide of her emotions and needing to get them out of her before she returned to the compound. She couldn't let the others see her like this. Reaching into her pocket, she pressed the alarm button on her phone. It would trigger the GPS back at base and send them to her. She had fifteen minutes to gain control of herself. She would need every second.
Her hand found Jackson's and she held it, not caring how cold it felt in hers, or the way it made her feel as though she was touching death itself.
The sobs started out slow but built until she was gasping at air, her throat tight and chest aching as she stared down at Jackson's peaceful face.
She couldn't let them think she was weak.
She was the strongest they had.
Jackson would tell her that if he was still alive. He'd always told her that. He'd always been there for her, getting her out of scrapes and protecting her.
She'd failed to protect him.
Leaning forwards, she rested her head against his still chest and closed her eyes. Silence engulfed her as she lay with him, her mind empty. The night called her. She always felt this way after she'd used her gift–close to the darkness, at one with the shadows. She didn't understand the words drifting around her head or the tugging sensation in the depths of her heart. She felt the meaning though. It wanted her.
She curled up.
It couldn't have her.
She was a hunter.
The elite.
She killed those that heard the call of the night.
She killed any vampire she came across.
Nothing was going to change that.
* * * *
Lilith trudged into the mansion house, desperate for the solitude of her quarters. The team had arrived to find her standing beside Jackson's body, all sign of her emotions wiped from her face. She had given them instruction to take him back to the compound and had then told them that she would walk back. The thought of travelling with Jackson's body in the back of the van had been unbearable. The night had offered her so much comfort, the darkness hiding her feelings from the world, and she'd taken it all. The walk back had been long and had given her time to regain true control of herself.
Only now, she was walking the halls where they'd once walked. It was a painful reminder that only one of them had returned, while the other lay in the morgue below her feet.
No one ever spoke of the morgue.
It was as though by never mentioning it, they could make it go away, make all the deaths of their friends disappear.
"What happened?" A sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she found she was standing in the entrance hall staring down at the floor, seeing straight through it to the cold grey morgue below.
She raised her head, looked Daniel in the eye, and then turned away. Her throat was too tight to speak. If she tried, she would lose what little control she'd regained and would start to cry again. She'd never lost a friend on routine patrol before. She hadn't lost anyone since her sister.
He caught her arm before she could pass him, stopping her dead. She knew better than to break free of his grasp. As her superior, he commanded her respect. Her hands came up in front of her and she stared at her palms, at the dried and cracked blood that still coated them. Nausea swept through her, cramping her stomach, clenching her heart. Numbness followed it, stealing away the sickness until she felt nothing. It was so hard to breathe. Everything was so hard. She was too weak from the fight and the drain of controlling her emotions.
"Jackson. Son of a bitch got Jackson," she said, voice steady and showing no trace of the turmoil inside of her. "We didn't hear it coming. I didn't feel it."
She stared into Daniel's green eyes. The amount of concern in them surprised her. He gave a sympathetic smile, causing crow's feet to surround his eyes. When had he become so old? He seemed so grey now when before he'd always been the young man she'd first known when she had been a child. She looked around the hall, wanting to avoid his questioning gaze. Everything seemed so grey and different.
"It was one of them, a Vehemens," she said. "What in God's name is one of them doing around here?"
Daniel didn't look at all shocked by her news. His expression remained unchanged and he removed his hand from her arm only to place it lightly on her shoulder. She frowned at the strange sensation that filled her–something was wrong.
"Did you kill it?" he said.
"Of course." She went to move past him again. His hand tensed, gripping her shoulder and stopping her. She sighed. "Daniel, I really need a shower and bed. Can't the debrief wait until morning?"
"It can, I wouldn't want to make you talk about what happened until you're ready... but... I need to speak to you about a contract that just came in."
Her right eyebrow rose. It had been a while since Section Seven had been contracted by anyone. They were rare and required only the elite hunters.
It piqued her curiosity and almost made her agree. The ache inside her overruled it though. It had become a dull throbbing and she knew that warning well enough. She was close to collapse.
"Can't that wait too?" she said, hopeful.
"I don't think the client will wait any longer."
Her eyes widened. "They're here?"
"They've been waiting all night for your return," he said. "I know this isn't the best time, but it has to be now. It can't wait."
Staring into his eyes, she could see that he wasn't going to budge on this. She had to meet the client tonight. He was right. It would be rude to keep them waiting until she'd had a chance to get some rest and she didn't want to blow her first contract.
"I'll clean up first if that's okay?"
He nodded. "He's waiting in my office."
She watched Daniel walk away. He? She wondered what kind of problem they had as she walked. Someone was in the first bathroom she came to so she carried on along the hall until she was near the cafeteria. She avoided going in. By now, news of Jackson's death would be spreading and she didn't have the energy to meet her client let alone field all the questions people would have. A couple of men from her company walked out of the room. She dived into the nearest bathroom, desperate to hide from them. Locking the door, she pressed her back against it and stared at herself in the mirror.
She looked like hell.
Moving closer to the mirror, she gingerly prodded the cuts and bruises on her face and arms. The vampire had done a real number on her. At the time, she hadn't noticed. The adrenaline and shock had taken all feeling away. Washing her cuts, she stared into her brown eyes and thought about what had happened tonight. Why hadn't she sensed it? Normally she could sense vampires before they got within twenty metres of her. Normally she was fighting weaklings.
Were those of pure blood really so superior?
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she didn't need to check it to know it would be Daniel. She finished making herself look more presentable and then stared at her torn shirt. She couldn't do anything about that.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she hurried down the hall. She turned the corner that led to the commanders' offices and bumped into a woman from her company.
Her eyes fell to the woman's black jacket. "Can I borrow that?"
The woman hesitated for a moment, looked her over with a raised eyebrow, and then peeled the jacket off. "Important meeting, huh?"
"You could say that. Do you know about the client?"
"I heard someone arrived... walked in through the door with the section chief from London... but I didn't see him."
Lilith slipped the jacket on and buttoned it up.
"Thanks for the loan." She waved idly and walked away, her thoughts now firmly fixed on her client. A man that had arrived with the section chief. Whoever he was, he had to be important to garner that kind of escort.
Reaching Daniel's door, she rapped her knuckles against the mahogany and waited.
"Come in." Daniel's muffled voice drifted through it.
She paused, needing a few seconds to gather herself and push her fatigue and feelings to the back of her mind, and then opened the door and walked into the large office.
Directly in front of her was a heavy mahogany desk. Daniel was leaning against it with his arms folded and a wary look on his face. The tall curtains of the office's two windows framed him. They were drawn. She glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was nearing six in the morning. The sun would be rising by now. It was unusual for Daniel to keep the curtains drawn against the sunrise.
She sensed her client's presence. He was sharp, focused, watching her and studying her movement across the room. There was something familiar about that.
She stopped in front of Daniel. Worry had joined the concern she'd seen in his eyes earlier. He knew she wasn't in the mood for this meeting. If he hadn't been so insistent, she would have continued to refuse his orders until he backed down. His words, however, had made it clear that this client was important and he wasn't one to wait any longer for an audience with her.
Her eyes roamed the room, seeking the man out. They scanned along the packed bookshelves and their leather-bound tomes. They found him masked in the shadowed recess to the side of the bright fire. Darkness shrouded his face and obscured his figure. Her senses spoke to her.
Here was a dangerous man.
Here was one who demanded respect and commanded power.
"Lilith, our client," Daniel said behind her.
The man stepped forwards and the warm firelight instantly chased the shadows from his face. He was young, handsome in a way that had her staring. In fact, she couldn't take her eyes off him. He ran slender fingers over his short black hair and then around the back of his neck, drawing her attention to it. She frowned at the scars there. Bite marks? Was he a victim of a vampire attack? Her eyes darted to his mouth, absorbing the gentle bow of his lips, and then rose to meet his.
His dark eyes met hers and a shiver of recognition bolted down her spine and sent alarm bells ringing in her head.
His mouth became a thin line and tilted into a cruel smile, one that fitted him perfectly.
She'd been wrong.
He wasn't young.
His appearance betrayed his age.
Here was one older than she'd ever met.
She stepped forwards, defiant in the face of him, and reached for her stake.
Anger rose inside her and everything faded until there was only him.
He was no victim.
He was a murderer.
"Vampire." She sneered, assuming a fighting stance.
He growled and she felt that command deep in her soul.
She refused follow it.
To drop her stake would be to leave herself open to attack.
"Lilith!" Daniel said, his hand on her wrist making her tense. He lowered it for her.
She looked at him, stunned. Her eyes slid warily to the vampire, her anger not abating. How had he fooled her? She'd thought him nothing more than a man. She'd found him attractive. Her stomach rolled with that thought. Only the darkness in his eyes had betrayed him and lifted the veil from hers.
"Mr. Lincoln is our client."
She glared at the vampire. He had a name.
They'd never had names before.
They'd been nameless, faceless demons for her to eradicate. Now there was one whose name she knew, and for some terrible reason, it made him seem more human.
The vampire smirked, a challenge, the same as the one in the cemetery had issued her. She amused him. He meant to provoke her.
"I am not working with it!" She flung her arm around to point at the vampire at the same time as she turned to face Daniel. There was no need to look at the vampire to know he was glaring at her. The heat of it caressed her skin until she was burning wherever it touched. She shook the feeling away, and the attraction she'd felt towards him, and focused with all her effort on Daniel. "For all we know this could be bullshit. It could want to drain me dry."
The vampire snorted contemptuously, as though that was one thought that would never cross his mind.
"I'm being serious."
Daniel just shifted position, folding his arms across his chest and giving her the impression that her tirade had fallen on deaf ears. The only one paying the remotest of attention was the vampire. Her eyes roamed to him against her will. A brief glance was all it took to see he was still standing in the same spot in front of the fire, staring at her with intense dark eyes. She told herself that look wasn't making her body burn. It was anger and the fire.
A sigh drew her attention back to Daniel.
When she looked at him this time, she could see that he wasn't happy. She frowned at the floor. The section chief from London had brought Mr. Lincoln to this place to meet with her and Daniel. Daniel had as little choice in this matter as she did. The vampire had cleverly gone over their heads and left her superior powerless, unable to get her out of this mission.
Her eyes narrowed on the vampire. He smirked and nodded. If he'd had a hat, she swore he would've tipped it. Her fists clenched and she wished to God that she could wipe the smug look off his face. Taking a deep breath, she clawed back a little control. He wasn't going to provoke her. He didn't frighten her. She was going to find out what this contract was about and then do everything she could to either get rid of him as soon as possible or get out of it.
"So what do you want, vampire?" she said, striding up to him until she was close enough to see he wasn't breathing.
He was very old then, and he was powerful. At this range, she could feel it radiating off him, sparking her senses and making her instincts kick into gear. They told her to run. She stood her ground.
"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Lilith," he said in a mixed accent. There was a lot of English in there and an equal amount of European too. If she had to guess, she'd say he'd spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and wasn't a weakling.
"What bloodline are you?" Her tone was nothing short of venomous. Her eyes searched his, trying to discern whether he was going to lie to her or ignore this question too.
He straightened to his full height and looked down on her.
"Vehemens."
That one word made her stomach drop and broke the restraints that had been holding her anger at bay. Before she could stop herself, her hand was around his throat and she was forcing him backwards towards the fire. She growled when he planted his left foot against the cast-iron fireguard behind him, effectively stopping himself from moving, and yanked her hand away from his neck.
It went straight for the stake in her pocket. She grabbed it and lunged at him with it. He caught her wrist and twisted it until she had to kneel in order to stop him from breaking her arm. His eyes darkened. Her heart sped, fear saying he was going to attack.
He surprised her by releasing her the moment her knees touched the floor. She was back on her feet before he could move, the stake still held firmly in her hand.
"Lilith!" Daniel stepped between them, his hand on her shoulder forcing her backwards. She moved farther away and pocketed her stake to show him that she wasn't going to attack again. He went back to his desk. She glared at the vampire.
"Bastard!" She spat it at him with as much hatred as she could muster. "It was your fault wasn't it? You're the reason they were here!"
He looked confused, a trait she'd not witnessed in one before. She hated him even more for it–for attempting to look human by reflecting such emotions. She had no doubt that he knew what she was talking about. It couldn't be chance that two Vehemens had arrived in her city in the same night.
"I wish to discuss the contract in private with you." His words were calm, measured.
Her attack hadn't shaken him in the slightest. The idea of that made her feel weak and fatigue crept in again as she remembered watching Jackson die. She'd been powerless then, and she was powerless now.
"Discuss it in private all you want, but I'll still have to write it all in my report anyway, and everyone will know. Hell, I might post on the bulletin board that you're a vampire and sit back and watch the show." She hoped that her words carried all the spite behind them. It was childish, but she wasn't about to make anything easy for the vampire. If she couldn't attack him physically, words would have to do.
"Lilith," Daniel warned again. She sighed and ignored him.
"Why do you hate my kind so much?" the vampire said. It caught her off guard.
She stared at him, knowing that she looked like a rabbit in headlights and that she needed to recover herself before he realised that he'd rattled her.
"You seem very driven to hate us... to kill us."
Her eyes never left his. She held his gaze even as the barrier around her heart came back up as swift as a dart, shutting out his attempt to peer into her innermost thoughts and feelings. She wished she could shut out the pain as easily. She turned away from him and walked to the door.
"Come with me," she said and stepped outside the office.
Lincoln stared at the open door and the hall beyond. He frowned, dark thoughts stirring at the back of his mind and plaguing him. A glance at her superior told him that he wasn't pleased with the way his subordinate was acting. She seemed headstrong and wilful. Perhaps a little too wilful.
"She openly detests my kind," he said, getting the superior's attention. In his world, a superior wouldn't tolerate such behaviour from one below him. He had never tolerated it. "Are we going to have a problem?"
The man looked thoughtful. "No. Today has been hard on her. She'll work with you as agreed in your contract with us."
"I would like to know one thing."
"And that is?" The man pushed away from his desk and walked around it to sit in the plush leather chair.
"Why does she hate vampires so much?" he said with another glance towards the door.
He could feel her waiting in the hall, knew that she would be able to hear him. She hadn't answered his question, and he needed a reply. The idea that she would hate him contradicted everything he'd been told.
The man sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Her sister was murdered by a vampire," he said and then looked at the open door, "and tonight Jackson was killed. He was Lilith's closest friend and he died at the hands of a Vehemens."
Lincoln frowned. That explained her outburst. She was probably right. Not many of his bloodline lived outside the safe houses scattered across Europe or the family mansion in Oslo. The Vehemens had been here because of him.
"I think it's understandable that she should hate your kind... you." There was so much anger in the man's voice, so much loathing and disgust in his words. He'd never realised the extent of the humans hatred towards his species. "No one here is going to welcome you with open arms... no matter how much you pay our superiors."
He gave the man a dark look, matching his glare and tipping the balance in his favour. The man looked away, turning towards the closed curtains. Lincoln turned towards the door and reached out with his senses, focusing them on the woman. Lilith.
Had they been wrong about her?
Could one so fixated on destroying his kind truly save him?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Seventh%20Circle
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO68/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seventh-Circle/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000800973/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Seventh-Circle/mix-ZGYNJZH8-kmDBm5GV0YlJg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7734
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/seventh-circle/_/R-400000000000000249275
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460978579/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1460978579/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seventh-circle-f-e-heaton/1021362622
Heart of Darkness - Vampire romance book now available at Amazon Kindle!
Well, it's only a few days now until the release of my new vampire romance book, Heart of Darkness. This is a stand alone vampire romance book so it isn't part of any of my series. Good news for people only at the start of my vampire romance series books.
Heart of Darkness is now available on Amazon Kindle, so those of you with Kindles can get your copy ahead of the rest! Be sure to tag the ebook if you buy it and leave a review if you enjoy it.
Here's some information about Heart of Darkness and the purchase links for the Amazon Kindle stores.
Heart of Darkness
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 130000 words
rating: sultry
released: 22nd October 2011
Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
So, head on over to the Amazon Kindle stores to grab your copy of this action-packed, intensely emotional and heart-wrenching vampire romance book!
Heart of Darkness is now available on Amazon Kindle, so those of you with Kindles can get your copy ahead of the rest! Be sure to tag the ebook if you buy it and leave a review if you enjoy it.
Here's some information about Heart of Darkness and the purchase links for the Amazon Kindle stores.
Heart of DarknessFelicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...
Aleksandr Nemov won't stop until the last of the vampire hunter's progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It's the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline's mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince's hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 130000 words
rating: sultry
released: 22nd October 2011
Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
So, head on over to the Amazon Kindle stores to grab your copy of this action-packed, intensely emotional and heart-wrenching vampire romance book!
October 12, 2011
September paranormal romance book news
September continued to be a fantastic month considering it followed the awesomeness that was August. I decided to extend the offer on
Her Dark Angel (Her Angel romance series #1)
as I wanted to get it up on Barnes and Noble, the Apple iBookstore and other sites for only $0.99. A few of the blogs that had helped me out with promoting the special offer price of under a dollar helped me out again, and the novella remained in the top 1000 for the entire month on the US Amazon Kindle Store and in the top 300 on the UK Amazon Kindle Store.At its peak, Her Dark Angel (Her Angel romance series #1) was at #643 on the US Amazon Kindle Store out of over 835000 books and reached the #10 in Kindle Store > Romance > Fantasy and #10 in Books > Romance > Fantasy!
On the UK Amazon Kindle Store, the book reached #145 and was #2 in Books > Fantasy > Paranormal and #2 in Books > Romance > Paranormal! Also, a few times in the month, all four books in the Her Angel romance series were in the top #1000 at the same time! How cool is that?
I know some authors complain about authors labelling a book a best seller when they break into a category on Amazon, but I think that being in the top #10 for a category means that Her Dark Angel is now a best selling book, since it was beating many top traditionally published authors. I get it when people call something a best seller that is listed as #73 in some random category, but you can't begrudge me the pretty label when I've broken the top 10 and was #2 for some categories!
In September I was busy writing. I wrote the first draft of Masquerade (Vampires Realm romance series #10) and also the first drafts of Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series #1) and Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series #2) as well as completing Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness is a stand alone vampire romance novel that will be out on October 22nd, so there isn't long to wait now!
It was great getting back to writing again. I had really missed it because I've been so busy with editing and other author work. I was really thrilled to get Masquerade sorted out too because it's been such a thorn in my side. There's still work to do on it to get it to the standard I like to produce and also get it feeling right to me, but that's what the second draft is for. I'm working on that right now.
I'm not sure when I'll be releasing Masquerade. I had wanted to get it out before the end of the year, but it might be January now as I want to allow enough time to do a good job on the book and don't want to rush it. December is creeping up on me really fast too.
I've had some new reviews to share too... mostly for the Her Angel series , but also for Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators romance series #1) !
"Forbidden Blood is a gripping, dark and sexy ride! From the first sentence to the last I felt so intertwined with the characters and the story that I had to read it in one sitting - unable to break away. The entire story took me through every emotion there is and I loved it... Felicity Heaton has created a story paranormal romance that will spellbind your heart and imagination with the power of betrayal, revenge, love and possible forgiveness. In fact, I find this story worthy of re-reading! Forbidden Blood is that good!" -- Talina, Night Owl Reviews - 4.75 Star TOP PICK! -- click here for the full review
"I highly recommend reading this book in a seat that you can buckle yourself into while having an entire day on your hands. Once you pick up Her Guardian Angel you can't put it down. The anticipation of what will happen next will keep the pages turning as fast as you can read them. Heaton does an amazing job of telling a story that is filled with interwoven destinies, curses, deception and a history that some will fight all to see that it is never repeated again. This book is packed with awesomeness. Readers are giving an incredible love story, heaps of action and fighting and a suspenseful story that you are crazy if you don't run out buy it and read it." -- Vanessa, The Jeep Diva - 5 Stars! -- click here for the full review I think that rounds off the awesomeness that was September! I'll try to make my monthly catch up post earlier next time!
Ask the characters - my Halloween event
I'm putting together a special Halloween event for my blog that will run from October 28th - October 31st. I won't give away too much about the event right now, but there will be some prizes on offer and plenty of fun with my characters.
First things first though. I need your help!
Do you have a question you've always wanted to ask my characters? Well, now is your chance to ask!
I'm collecting questions to pose to the characters during mini interviews and thought it would be great to get your input and get them to answer the questions you would ask them in an interview.
You can ask as many questions as you like too. Just try to avoid spoilers.
Leave your question and tell me who it is for (you can select multiple characters for the same question if you want) in a comment on this post or email me at: author (at) felicityheaton (dot) co (dot) uk
I'm sure together we can make this a fantastic event!
First things first though. I need your help!
Do you have a question you've always wanted to ask my characters? Well, now is your chance to ask!
I'm collecting questions to pose to the characters during mini interviews and thought it would be great to get your input and get them to answer the questions you would ask them in an interview.
You can ask as many questions as you like too. Just try to avoid spoilers.
Leave your question and tell me who it is for (you can select multiple characters for the same question if you want) in a comment on this post or email me at: author (at) felicityheaton (dot) co (dot) uk
I'm sure together we can make this a fantastic event!
October 11, 2011
Manday hottie
It's a late Manday offering again this week but I found the perfect picture for it. The weather is changing and I'm feeling in an autumnal mood this week, and this picture of J.K. fitted that perfectly. Doesn't he look awesome in his cardigan? He almost makes a man wearing one acceptable and sexy!
[image error]
I found plenty new pictures of him during my search so he'll be the Manday hottie for a few weeks to come!
[image error]
I found plenty new pictures of him during my search so he'll be the Manday hottie for a few weeks to come!
![[image error]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1mq3DSB_oqo/TpRwnxGOhkI/AAAAAAAAAO0/46q2XQr-mHg/s1600/jkthrilld.jpg){kind=link}