Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 111

Teaseday - Winter's Kiss - vampire werewolf romance book

Autumn is well and truly here now and it's almost Halloween, so I'm in a vampire sort of mood. Contuining with the Vampires Realm series theme, I'll be posting a chapter from my vampire / werewolf romance book Winter's Kiss today for my Teaseday. If you like heart-wrenching stories of forbidden love, then you'll definitely enjoy this one. It packs quite the emotional punch.

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!



Winter's Kiss
F E Heaton
Their 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 a vampire and she is becoming a werewolf, and love between their species is forbidden—the penalty death.

Winter's world is shaken beyond salvation and his allegiance to his bloodline tested as he watches the woman he's fallen for turn into a werewolf. His heart demands vengeance and that he protects her, both from the werewolf now hunting for her and from himself, but she tempts him more than he can bear and it isn't long into their journey before he's torn between upholding the law and succumbing to desire.

Will Nika be able to convince Winter to leave his world and stay with her or will she spend eternity dreaming of Winter's kiss?


ebook price: $2.99
paperback price: $7.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance book
length: 78000 words
rating: sultry
released: June 2009
Book 8 in the Vampires Realm series

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Winter's%20Kiss
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000802090/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Winters-Kiss/mix-SbRY0TdPE0-Zl8QkcSDTzA/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7932
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/winters-kiss/_/R-400000000000000254325

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489895/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489895/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/F-Heaton/e/9781456489892/



EXCERPTA scream rent the still night air.

Winter raised his head. The brush in his right hand paused against his horse's sleek black flank. He frowned, calculating the distance from where he stood in the stable courtyard to the person who had shrieked. The human female voice could carry for miles on nights as calm as tonight. If she screamed again, he would be able to pinpoint her location to within one hundred metres.

A Watchman of the Validus bloodline, Winter had spent years honing his skills in tracking, hunting and killing to the highest echelon of perfection. They gave him the ability to ascertain that whoever the victim was, she was over three miles away.

He returned to his work, lovingly stroking the huge beast's glossy coat and murmuring soothing words to him. It had been too long since he'd had the chance to ride. The rotation of duties within the household and Hyperion's plan to spread their empire wider across Europe had left him with longer shifts at the gate. It was an honour to protect his lord, but long nights spent braced against the freezing winds that scathed the landscape in this part of Russia were tiring and left him little time before dawn to ride. His eyes closed. Honour wasn't the only good thing to come of standing guard from sunset to sunrise.

He saw her more often.

An image of her flashed across Winter's mind. Pale blonde hair hanging in waves down her back. Sparkling green eyes that glittered under the moonlight. A cherub's rosy lips that promised sweet kisses and an imp's smile that spoke of mischief. That image had branded itself on his mind the first night he had seen her as an adult. Every night that she passed and looked at him out of the corner of her eye, she burned her face a little deeper into his heart.

His horse kicked impatiently at the floor, scratching the scattered hay away from the dirt and leaving a long groove.

Winter patted Midnight tenderly on the neck and placed the brush down. Gathering the large black saddle, he positioned it on the horse's high back and let his thoughts wander while he buckled the straps.

They instantly roamed back to her. Many years had passed since Winter had first seen her. She had been a little girl then. Now she had become a beautiful woman. Perhaps soon she would find the courage to speak to him for longer. She had stopped a few times, always singling him out even though his black armour covered him from head to toe, leaving only the section across his eyes exposed. She had spoken to him tonight, asking him why he wore armour and guarded the mansion. He hadn't answered her. He had no place talking to humans when he was on duty.

There had been a beautiful lack of fear about her. Not even the sight of the naginata that he and the other Watchman held bothered her. Perhaps one day he could turn her. He cursed under his breath and tightened the last strap on the saddle. Those were not thoughts that he should be entertaining. His loyalty was to his lord and his bloodline first and foremost. He had a debt to repay. Once he felt as though he was worthy of asking his lord for permission to court the girl, he would, but until then he had a duty to do.

And that duty came first.

No matter what his feelings for her were.

A ride would clear his head.

A wolf howl sliced through the night.

Winter tensed and instinctively brushed his long heavy black cloak aside and reached for the sword hanging at his side. His fingers closed around the hilt as he calculated the distance to the howl.

Three miles.

Was the wolf after the woman?

Another scream shattered the returning silence. This time, it was a word.

"Niet!"

Winter's eyes shot wide, an emotion rushing into his heart that he hadn't felt in long years. Fear. The girl. He would know her voice anywhere.

With the preternatural speed and grace of his kind, Winter mounted the horse and bolted straight for the stable entrance. Midnight thundered forward, hooves pounding the dirt in a sure confident gallop. The gates barely had time to open as they approached. Winter tucked into the horse, bringing his feet up behind him along with the stirrups. The half-open wrought iron gates brushed his knees as they raced through, almost knocking the guards over.

Someone shouted something abusive in his direction.

He didn't have time to slow down. The moment they had turned onto the road, he urged Midnight on, lowering his feet again but leaning forwards against its neck. It stretched forwards too, mimicking his move and galloping harder as though it had sensed his desperation.

The bottom of Winter's chest armour dug into his hips as he rode. His long cloak streamed out behind him. The light flurry of snow became bitter darts of ice that cut into his eyes, forcing him to squint. He changed, his eyes turning purple to reveal his bloodline as his senses sharpened. The thundering hooves of his horse were the only sound in an otherwise still world. Winter snapped the reins. Midnight snorted and galloped faster, heading directly for the woods with no sign of slowing.

Winter willed the woman to make another noise, or the wolves to break their silence. He needed to get a fix on their location but it wasn't only that driving him to beg the woman to shout or scream. He needed to know that she was still alive.

He hunkered down against his horse's neck when they entered the thick forest of pines. Snow exploded from the branches as they crashed through them, heedless of the pain it caused them both. His armour would protect him from the whip-like branches of the trees, and his horse, Midnight, would go wherever he bid him to, regardless of whether it hurt.

A branch hit Winter directly across the black leather and metal mask covering his nose and mouth. It smacked the armour against his nose and forced a flinch from him as pain shot out in warm waves across his skull. He turned Midnight to his right and towards a more open area of forest. While the pain didn't bother him, it would dampen his senses and he needed those as sharp as possible.

He pulled Midnight to a halt in a clearing and scanned the darkness, stretching out with his senses and searching for her. The wintry weather hadn't managed to penetrate the dense trees and the ground was clear of snow, leaving him without a visible trail to follow. He breathed deep, catching a faint hint of her scent on the breeze. She had been here. He cursed. Where was she now?

Was she dead?

Had the wolves killed her already?

That thought made a dull ache settle in his chest. Winter refused to believe it. He wouldn't believe it until he saw her body for himself. Another deep breath caught a stronger scent. A growl rumbled up through his chest.

Not wolves.

Werewolves.

His eyes narrowed into dark slits between his black helmet and facemask. He stared into the distance as one hand left the reins and closed around the hilt of his sword. Blood would spill tonight. Not only because werewolves had dared to enter Validus territory. If they had killed her, no, if they had even touched her, they would die by his hand.

A distant scream reached his ears.

He pulled on Midnight's reins.

Midnight reared onto his hind legs, whinnied and then broke into a gallop. Winter sneered behind his facemask, his blood calling for violence.

* * * *

Nika walked the quiet winding path through the woods, wishing she had chosen to wear her thicker coat. Thick fake fur lined the long black coat she wore and it would have been warm enough under normal circumstances in late spring, but tonight was bitterly cold and the icy wind was searching, discovering cracks and places it could sneak into the coat and chill her to the bone. It was strange to have such wintry weather this side of spring. When she had left, the weather had been pleasant enough, and the snow had melted. Now it had come back with a vengeance. She had hoped the weather would be warm and sunny by the time she had returned from the city.

She folded her arms across her chest, trying to keep a little heat in. Her coat and dress reached the floor, both grazing the leaf litter and twigs that covered the path. The wind found its way into there too and blew upwards, snaking around her legs and sending her shivering. Her honey hair blew across her face as she turned and she clawed it away, thankful she'd had the good sense to take two long strands from beside her temples and plait them before tying them at the back of her head. It kept the bulk of her hair in place but left the long strands from that point downwards to dance in the breeze.

At least the snow couldn't make it through the trees.

Nika hummed quietly to herself while she walked, thinking about how nice it would be to arrive home and sit down in front of the fire. The thought of that warm blaze made the cold feel distant. She wasn't far from the village now. Soon she would be safe in her family's home, out of the frigid night and bleak woods. It felt like months rather than weeks since she had gone away to St. Petersburg. A smile touched her lips when she recalled walking past the mansion. He had been on guard duty again, silent and sentinel outside the gate with another man. She knew it was him. Those beautiful dark eyes had spoken to her as they always did, telling her words that her heart loved to listen to. He never looked at her, but there was always a strange emotion in his eyes when she stopped in front of him. The cold emptiness that used to fill them disappeared, leaving what her heart interpreted as warmth behind.

She didn't know who he was, or even what he looked like beneath his armour, but she knew one thing. She wanted no other man in this world.

Her heart lightened as memories of him came back, always protecting the gates of the large mansion. On the few occasions that she had plucked up the courage to speak to him, he had never uttered a word back at her. He hadn't even spoken tonight when she had mentioned the tales about the man he guarded. Terrible tales they were. Stories of demons and death, of bloodshed and violence. Her whole village whispered of them. They were right in a way. There was something different about the men there. In all the years that she had passed those gates, that man had never changed. Not when she was a child and not now that she was an adult. It was the same man. He hadn't aged one year in the twenty she had seen him. She was sure of it.

Through the trees, pinpricks of light flickered in the darkness. The village. She doubled her pace, thinking only of the warm fire and seeing her father again.

A howl sliced the night in two.

Nika froze to the spot, ears pricked and heart thundering.

Perhaps it had been the wind.

Low growls made her head snap around. Seven large dark shapes slinked out of the shadows. Their fur spiked in a line down their backs, wriggling like a snake when they shook themselves and growled at her. They stepped onto the path between her and the village. These were no ordinary wolves. She remembered them from her childhood. They had killed half of the village.

The one in front lowered its head and stared at her with bright amber eyes that promised a painful death. It snarled to reveal huge canines.

Nika screamed.

Before it could attack, she turned, dropped her bag and ran. She grabbed the front of her coat and skirt, lifting them so she could sprint unhindered, and headed through the woods in the direction of the mansion.

It wasn't long before her legs were beginning to tire. Their muscles strained under the pressure of running over the uneven ground and seized up as the fear broke into her mind, sending panicked thoughts pounding through her skull.

She was going to die.

The voice at the back of her mind told her to give up, but she wouldn't. She wasn't ready to die. It was something that happened to someone else, not to her or the people she loved. If she could make it to the mansion, she would be safe. The men there would fend off the wolves. The man would protect her.

Nika shrieked again as she tripped on a branch hidden beneath the frozen leaf litter and hit the ground hard. She immediately scrabbled to her feet and ran blindly into the forest, desperate to escape the wolves. Behind her came their thundering feet and heavy panting. They were closing in.

In the blink of an eye, it was over. The full weight of one of the wolves hit her in the back, sending her tumbling to the floor. Another howled. She turned and wrestled the wolf off her, scrambling across the dirt away from it. One of them grabbed her ankle, the thick leather of her boot the only thing protecting the delicate joint. It growled. Nika screwed her eyes shut and brought her hands up in front of her face as the others leapt at her.

"Niet!"

Nika kicked the wolf off her ankle, eliciting a whimper from it, and pushed against the others. Breaking free, she got to her feet and ran again. Moonlight broke through a gap in the trees some distance ahead of her, illuminating a small shack.

Her heart willed her to make it there. It was her only chance.

She screamed again when one of the wolves snapped at her, trying to grab her arm. She punched it across the face and kept running, desperate to survive.

A thundering sound joined the cacophony of wolf growls and snarls and her rough breathing. Nika looked ahead of her to see the shack and then a large black horse with rider. She reached out to him, a silent plea for him to help her, and then fell when the wolves pounced on her. Pain erupted in her leg. Her heart missed beats as claws and teeth tore through her clothes.

Her last hope left her when she found herself face to face with the largest wolf. Hot breath washed her face, stealing her own. She sent a prayer to God and stared into the wolf's yellow eyes, into the eyes of death.

The thundering hooves stopped. Above her the horse's legs appeared, kicking out as the huge black beast whinnied and snorted. The wolves scattered, leaving her pressed into the dirt and frozen leaf litter, petrified and in too much pain to move.

The horse snorted again as it came down onto all four feet beside her and the rider appeared in her tear-blurred view.

"Hand," he said in a muffled Russian voice and extended his towards her.

Nika feebly raised hers towards him. She wanted to take hold of that black gloved hand and escape this nightmare. He shook his impatiently. She struggled to move faster, weak from the white-hot pain burning inside every inch of her body. He bent forward on the saddle, caught her hand, and pulled her up into the air as though she weighed nothing. He settled her on the saddle in front of him. Pain shot up her leg and lanced her stomach. It stole her senses, filling them until she knew nothing but the warm pulsing throb. She was vaguely aware of his arm against her back and his hand on her waist, and the wolves closing in.

He turned the horse. Nika gritted her teeth and leaned into him. Each step of the horse's gallop jostled her on the saddle. The pain was unbearable, wracking her to the depths of her bones with each movement, but the alternative made her cling to consciousness and life. The wolves growled, closer now. The horse suddenly stopped and the man lowered her to the ground. Her legs buckled beneath her. He caught her before she could collapse and held her close to his hard chest.

"Run!" he said and she hazily wondered if he was talking to her. She didn't think that she could run. The pain in her leg was too intense, blinding. The horse whinnied. Was he talking to it?

Her heart beat faster, each pulse sending stabbing needles sweeping around her body. Darkness encroached at the edges of her mind, sending her thoughts fuzzy and her body numb. The man carried her into somewhere and set her down on something soft but lumpy. The sound of wood scraping and heavy objects slamming made her open her eyes. She frowned, vaguely aware that they were in the small shack she had seen and that he was barricading the door.

A wolf howl sounded just outside.

She flinched in pain when she curled up, the wounds on her body stinging. Her left leg burned as though it was on fire. She couldn't move it. She left it lying limp in front of her. The man looked at her and then around the small hut.

"Do not be frightened," he said, as though those four words could erase all her fear.

It crushed her chest and stole her breath. She struggled to suck in air, panic closing her throat and pain making the slightest thing too hard. Her leg was wet. She could feel the steady slide of blood down her arms. Oh God. She was going to die.

Her panic only increased when the dreadful sound of claws against wood filled the small shack. Snarls came in under the door and growls made her skin crawl. She tried to back away but the sound surrounded her, leaving her nowhere to go. The man stood at the door, his tall figure a black shadow in the low light. He didn't move. He stood sentinel with his hand on the hilt of the sword at his side.

The blade of which gleamed when he began to draw it.

The wolves scrabbled faster at the door and walls, as though they were trying to dig their way through. Nika reached out to the man, numb and petrified. He stepped towards the door and her heart slammed against her chest.

The two small windows on either side of the door exploded, showering her and the man in glass. The wolves leapt high, paws scrambling for purchase on the windowsill. They disappeared again only to attempt another go at getting into the building.

The man fully drew his sword.

She extended her hand further towards him. "You can't fight. There's too many!"

A terrible scream made them both jump. She had never heard such a horrifying and inhuman sound. A chill swept over her back and down her arms. The scream came again amidst a discordant symphony of growls and snarls. She closed her eyes and used the last of her strength to cover her ears, not wanting to hear the horse as it died.

Dreadful silence fell.



Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Winter's%20Kiss
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000802090/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Winters-Kiss/mix-SbRY0TdPE0-Zl8QkcSDTzA/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7932
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/winters-kiss/_/R-400000000000000254325

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489895/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489895/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/F-Heaton/e/9781456489892/

Prophecy Trilogy - new covers reveal!

I have been wanting to change the covers on my Prophecy Trilogy books for a while now but I just couldn't find  a picture that worked for me for all three books, and I wanted to keep the different colours for different books in the trilogy scheme that I was using before.

Today I found the perfect picture for the books, so I set about creating new covers for the books. I'm really excited about this as I feel these covers suit the books so much more, and the characters and their love too. Yeah, I'm a sentimental fool, but I love a nice tender romantic embrace on a cover, and I think this one really speaks for the love that Prophecy and Valentine share. I hope you think so as much as I do!

Okay, so enough chatter. Here are the new covers for my Prophecy Trilogy, which also make up the first three books in the Vampires Realm series .






So, what do you all think? Do they suit the couple / books? I haven't rolled them out yet as I'd love to get some opinions on them!

Her Demonic Angel - Her Angel Romance Series #5

I've mentioned this a few times on my Facebook but I thought it was about time that I confirmed that I will be writing another story in my best selling Her Angel romance series. If you've read Her Guardian Angel then you've already met the hero of the next novel.

Her Demonic Angel features Veiron as the hero and he's going to have a journey that takes him to Hell and back, literally. The story will feature other cast members from the Her Angel series too, including Marcus and Amelia, Apollyon, Einar and Taylor, plus a new angel. The new angel is another exciting twist and may potentially get his own novel. I can't wait to introduce him to you all, but for now I have to keep him under wraps. So, not only am I announcing that there will be another novel length book in the series, but that there is likely to be another novel after this one too.

I'm still debating whether Serenity, Annelie and Lukas will make an appearance in this one. In my head, those three are fairly tied up with personal stuff. Remember I mentioned in the series that Serenity and Annelie want to take the trials necessary for achieving immortality for themselves so they can live with the angels they love for longer? Well, that's what they're doing right this minute in my mind. Lukas promised to help Annelie and watch over her during the dangerous trials, so I think that he would be out of the picture with the other two. Maybe they'll make an appearance, but I don't think they'll have a huge role to play this time.

You can find out more about the hero of Her Demonic Angel, Veiron, and get a sneak peek into what the future holds for him and what his story will be about by reading the interview I did with him for Bitten by Paranormal Romance's month of character interviews. The post will go up tomorrow and I'll be sure to blog about it and mention it on my Facebook and Twitter! I'm also doing a giveaway with the post.

As for when Her Demonic Angel will be released. It will probably be summer 2012, with the final novel in the series following in summer 2013 if I decide that the angel I'm introducing in Her Demonic Angel warrants his own story.

What do you all think? Shall I write a story for him too? Are you all still in love with this series enough to want more than just one more novel?

Vampire romance books

It's been a busy few weeks for me and I've fallen off my usual blogging schedule. I've been super busy writing new stories, and proofing or editing other ones. All of them are vampire romance books!

At the moment, I'm working hard towards getting the four novellas in my Vampire Erotic Theatre series completed in first draft. I have book one (Covet) and book two (Crave) completed in first draft now, and I will work on writing Seduce and Enslave once I have done the second draft of the next Vampires Realm novel, Masquerade.

I have finally proofed Heart of Darkness, which is a stand alone vampire romance novel that will be out on October 22nd in Ebook format, and hopefully out in paperback shortly afterwards. Heart of Darkness now has a blurb too so you can finally learn more about the book!


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?


This book will be released on October 22nd, so there's not too long to wait for it now!

I've proofed Heart of Darkness and now I'm getting the formats ready for adding them to sites just before the release day and putting together the paperback cover and inside so I can get that created too.

Next on my list is Masquerade second draft, which is the tenth book in my popular Vampires Realm series. I've let the book sit for a while whilst I proofed Heart of Darkness and wrote Covet and Crave. Now I'm ready to get going on it. It's all printed out on A4 paper at the moment, waiting for me to do my initial read through. Once that's done and I've put all my comments and change ideas into my word document, I'll get cracking on the second draft. It'll probably take me a few weeks. This means that it won't be released until early 2012. I know people are waiting for the next Vampires Realm book but it's really important that what I give you is the best it can be and that means taking my time over it rather than rushing to get it out there. Sorry about that. It is coming though, promise. It will probably be out in January rather than December, so only a month's delay. It'll be worth the wait. I'm hoping to get another Vampires Realm story written soon so I can keep rolling with the series and eventually release two books a year for it. I have around another 10-15 ideas for Vampires Realm stories so there's plenty to keep me going.

I'm going to be having a little more time between novel releases in the future. Part of it is about giving myself enough time to effectively promote each novel, but it is also about giving myself more time in general. I just need to allow a little more time with my schedule so I can keep on track with everything else being an author entails too, like blog posts, networking, promotion, etc. At the moment I'm just not allowing enough time for those things and it's really important that I start doing that so I can continue to build my author name and reach new readers with my stories. I really have been slacking on that front recently. There's a lot of things that I should be giving priority to that would benefit me but I just haven't had the time. I've been a full time author for over six months now so I need to get my schedule sorted and working for me, and get it all back on track. As much as I would love to spend every day either writing or editing, it just isn't possible. Everything else needs to be done too and I'm not famous enough that I have a PA to do all the other stuff for me. Lol. Besides, I really enjoy getting out there and talking about my books and sharing with you guys.

In other news, I've heard back from the editor at the Spanish publisher who have offered me a contract for translating the Her Angel series in Spain. I got back to them with some requests for changes to the contract the other week and it seems they're happy to accommodate most of my requests. We're discussing a February 2012 release date for the anthology of Her Dark Angel, Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel in Spanish (ebook and paperback) which is exciting. They're very excited about the series and I'm hoping this can pave the way for other books being translated into Spanish, and perhaps other languages too.

Right. I'm off to do the final corrections to Heart of Darkness and then get cracking on creating the different formats for my website, Amazon, Smashwords, CreateSpace etc!

Manday hottie - becomes hump day hottie

I've been manic this week, crazier than last week, so I forgot to post a slice of Manday goodness again. Sorry about that. Here's a scrummy yummy man double whammy to make up for the lack of posting on Monday and last week. I promise I'll do better next week :D






I think my theme this week is leaning... lol... love the biceps. *purr*

Wallpapers - October features Hunter's Moon

Do you want to see that lovely slice of sexy man back that is my cover for Hunter's Moon whenever you're surfing the net or working at your computer? Well, October has a treat in store for you.

My desktop wallpaper this month is Hunter's Moon and you can download it in various sizes direct from my website. There's also a version of each wallpaper without the calendar element so you can have them on your desktop at your leisure.

Just click on the sample image of the wallpaper below to go to my site and find the size right for you!




If you want wallpapers with or without a calendar, I have them available for my books in the Goodies section of my website. At the moment, I have ones available for: Hunter's Moon, Love Immortal, Her Guardian Angel, Forbidden Blood, Ascension.

Yummy!

Teaseday - Prophecy: Child of Light - vampire romance book

It's been a while since I shared a chapter from one of my Vampires Realm series books so today I'm going to share chapter two of Prophecy: Child of Light . Prophecy: Child of Light is the first book in my popular vampire romance series so it's a great introduction to the series, and since it's only $0.99 it's a bargain too. Why not pick up a copy and see for yourself why so many readers are enthralled with this series?

If you like adult vampire romances with vampires that behave more traditionally and thirst for human blood and take it straight from the vein, vampires that are dark and mysterious, with powers and a society separate from our own, then this is definitely a series that you'll enjoy. I write dark vampires, ones who can kill without regret in order to survive, and who feel intense emotions even when the object of their affection is forbidden fruit.



Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
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 to ignore the vision of them that he saw in her blood, Valentine goes against his orders to execute Prophecy and kidnaps her instead. The attraction between them grows as they search for the truth behind the prophecy, battle a dark evil that threatens to destroy the world, and attempt to evade their families and the Law Keepers.

When the truth about her is revealed, will Prophecy be strong enough to face it? Will they discover a way to save the world from Hell? And will they finally see past the hatred bred into them by their families and surrender to their love?

The first novel in the Vampires Realm series , Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.


ebook price: $0.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 135000 words
rating: sultry
released: March 2007
Book 1 in the Vampires Realm series

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
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EXCERPTWhen he approached them, Valentine nodded at the two guards that were flanking the main entrance of his family's house. The rain was falling fast now, the wind driving it hard against the façade of the old mansion and saturating the heavy black coats the guards wore. He mused that they wouldn't provide much protection against the weather tonight.

Stepping out of the darkness and into the brightly lit hall of his home, he unbuttoned his long coat while he walked along the corridor and through the entrance reception room. Shaking the excess water off his jacket, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the vixens of his household as they called to him. He didn't have time for making sport tonight.

Tonight he had more serious business to attend to.

His thoughts drifted to the female vampire. She had been slim, her dark tunic top and trousers clinging to her figure as she'd defiantly stood before him in the rain. Her long hair had been soaked and had hung in loose tendrils. The darkness of it had made her face seem even paler than it probably was, drawing his attention to it. Her round dark eyes had spoken volumes to him, but all in a language that he couldn't understand. There had been something about her that had drawn him in until he'd been powerless to resist seeing what she held in her blood. Little had he known that what he would see would only confuse him. If instinct had told him that, he would have let her go.

Let her go?

By the Devil, he wished he had.

He wished she'd answered his damn questions, wished he'd never laid eyes on her.

He stopped just short of the heavy wooden doors that led into the main reception room.

What was he doing?

He almost laughed aloud at himself while he tried to make sense of the thoughts that were running riot through his mind. He shut them down. To think such things was mutinous, disloyal. His hands curled into tight fists, his nails digging into the softer skin of his palms while he stared unseeingly at the dark doors. It was his duty to report this. It didn't matter what he'd seen in her blood.

Taking a weary step forwards, he pushed the doors open. Everything felt heavy, his limbs, his heart, and his head. It all conspired to make him feel as though he couldn't take another step towards his destination, and that he couldn't tell his lord what he'd discovered tonight.

The sounds of merriment drifted into the background as he pushed on, walking into the room and closing the doors behind him. He could feel all eyes on him and he knew what they were thinking.

He didn't belong here.

He was too young to be a part of this hallowed scene, this sanctum for the elder vampires of his family, this place where they hid themselves away from the idle play of the children. His place was here, whether they liked it or not. He'd worked hard to attain his position. He'd spent over two centuries as a loyal servant to his lord and a dutiful son of his bloodline.

He looked down at his hand, almost seeing the smear of blood that had stained his fingers not thirty minutes ago. Her blood. That's all it was. Just blood. There was nothing more to it. It was responsible for the disquiet he felt inside. It was always a danger when drinking from another of the seven pure bloodlines. They had power, enough to intoxicate the drinker and make them believe the things that the blood whispered to them.

"Good hunting?" A voice cut through the noise and reached his ears.

Peeling his jacket off, he handed it to Cornelius who was approaching him from the side.

"No…interesting hunting," he answered, stopping a few feet inside the room.

Cornelius arched a brow at the soaking wet coat and then neatly arranged it over his arm. Valentine gave him a look that warned him not to complain. The only reason that Cornelius could enter this area of the house was because the young vampire was his aide. That title meant bearing everything that he threw at him—even wet coats. He knew his friend would do almost anything he asked so long as it afforded him such standing amongst their family and so long as he treated him well.

"Did you run into him?" Cornelius asked.

Valentine touched a lone finger to his lower lip, remembering the sweet taste of her blood. He could smell it still, knew it continued to stain his lip for all to see.

"No…a her."

His eyes scanned over the plush plum walls of the room, their height almost reaching forty foot. He ignored all the looks he was receiving while he searched the balcony and then the floor in front of him.

"Who?"

When he failed to find who he was searching for, his eyes fell to rest on an ornate mahogany door directly opposite him. His stomach squirmed for a moment and then settled when he reminded himself of his duty to his family. It was just her blood trying to work its will and contaminate him. That was the only reason he felt this way.

He nodded towards the door. "That would be telling. Is he in?"

Cornelius frowned. "He's engaged with Indigo."

"Not anymore he isn't. This is more important than pandering to that girl's needs." Valentine moved swiftly towards the closed door, continuing to block out the mutterings of his elders.

"What is it?" Cornelius hurried after him.

"You shall hear in time. I have to tell him first. I shall be a dead man if you know before him."

"You already are a dead man," Cornelius said as one of the men guarding the door stopped him and held him back as Valentine passed.

Valentine smiled and continued walking towards the door. His friend always had a habit of wanting to know everything first, but this time he couldn't risk his lord's anger by letting Cornelius know before Kalinor heard.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to relieve some of the tension in his body and then pushed the mahogany door open, striding confidently into the room.

He ignored the alluring smile that Indigo gave him when she pulled away from her mate and slowly covered herself, drawing her black hair down over her bloodied neck. Blanking her attentions, he looked straight at Kalinor.

When his lord looked back at him, Valentine walked quickly towards him. He took Kalinor's hand, pressed a kiss to the ring on his finger and then looked up into his eyes.

"Valentine," Kalinor greeted him dryly with an empty smile that barely masked his annoyance over the disturbance. "Couldn't this have waited?"

"I am afraid not, my lord." Valentine bowed his head. He didn't need to look up in order to see the displeased look that his lord would be giving him.

Kalinor rarely bestowed it upon him though. Usually it was one of the other vampires in the household who was on the receiving end. He'd seen it often enough to know exactly what Kalinor would look like. His lord would be leaning against the large ebony desk, his long arms folded across his chest and his blue eyes watching him intently for a sign of why he was being disturbed.

Risking a glance, Valentine saw that he looked exactly as predicted.

Kalinor preened his sandy brown hair back into place and then scratched under his thin jaw before moving around his desk. He carefully arranged the tails of his long, ornately embroidered black jacket into place and sat down. Valentine watched him wave a hand at Indigo, silently dismissing her, and then found Kalinor's eyes meeting his again.

Valentine moved to the chair on the opposite side of the desk, sat and met Kalinor's gaze.

The elder vampire stared at him and Valentine tried to quell the desires that were rising up inside him, rebelling against his better judgement as they whispered words of insubordination to him. He told himself it would be more than disloyal to do as they asked.

It would be a sin.

It would be illegal.

He struggled to maintain a cool façade as his lord sniffed the air and fixed him with a dark look. He knew immediately what the problem was.

He stank of blood.

Not the delicate perfume of human blood.

It was the stench of vampire blood, of Caelestis blood.

He had to tell him now. It was his duty. He swallowed hard as everything inside him told him not to.

Kalinor raised a brow.

"Is something wrong, Valentine?" Kalinor said the words with cold calculation as their eyes remained locked with each other's. "Did something happen on the hunt? I've known you since you were barely turned and it's been a long time since I've seen you like this."

Valentine stood sharply, bowed his head a fraction and then walked to the other side of the room. He never could keep still. He had to pace in order to get his thoughts together and clear his head of the vision her blood had given him.

He had to clear his head of the vision of her.

There was something about her, something enthralling. The tiny trace of blood he'd taken from her had tasted so sweet, like honey on his tongue, and now a part of him was fighting against his better judgement and begging him not to tell his lord about her.

He could keep her to himself.

But what he'd seen in her blood. It couldn't be a lie. No vampire on earth had the power to make their blood lie. It was truth, and he had seen it with his own eyes and felt it in his heart. To tell his lord of her existence was to sentence her to death and that would have terrible repercussions.

He stared at the window, watching the rain streaking down it while he pulled himself together and reminded himself that he'd served this house loyally for over two centuries. Now wasn't the time to be disloyal, not when he'd worked so hard to get where he was. Not when he was so close.

"You seem troubled."

He heard Kalinor stand and he looked at him out of the corner of his eye. His lord looked worried. He was drawing too much attention to himself. He had to tell him now before he grew angry.

"You did not succeed tonight in finding the hunter that plagues our city, but that does not mean you will not prevail. You will defeat him. I'm as certain of that as I am of you becoming the Law Keeper for Aurorea one day."

Valentine closed his eyes as he felt those words plunge into his chest, twisting there like a knife. He would be a Law Keeper one day, if only he could find his voice and confess to his lord what he'd found tonight and why he smelt of their enemy.

He took a deep breath and felt tranquillity fill him.

"The prophecy," he said the words slowly and looked directly at his lord.

Kalinor's eyes widened, his jaw tensing while he waited to hear what he had to say.

Valentine began to pace, not wanting to see his lord's eyes when he told him about her. He could feel Kalinor's gaze following his every move, could sense the anticipation as it hung in the air between them. His lord would know that this was the reason he'd seemed so distracted and agitated tonight. He could no longer go back and keep her to himself. He had to go forwards and do his duty.

"Go on." Kalinor encouraged him.

Valentine sighed.

"I had no luck in hunting the man responsible for taking two of our best. I ran into something else…something…" He closed his eyes briefly and replayed the image of her lost in the taste of blood and the thrill of the hunt. Opening his eyes, he looked at the floor and frowned. "Enthralling."

"Enthralling?" Kalinor moved towards him, but Valentine moved away, going to the window and staring out of it at the darkness.

He watched the rain sweeping across the garden and clasped his hands behind his back.

"She exists," he said and waited.

It wouldn't take his lord long to piece together what he was saying. He would know that the blood he could smell on him would have something to do with it. He didn't resist when Kalinor caught hold of his shoulders and turned him to face him. His lord's eyes came to rest on the small spot of red that was still marring his lips.

"She's one of them?" Kalinor said.

Valentine nodded in confirmation.

"I found her hunting, alone. She appeared to be executing her first kill. They have kept her hidden well…only she did not wish to remain that way." He looked deep into his lord's eyes and searched them for an answer to his next question. "Is she dangerous?"

Kalinor smiled.

It was true then. Valentine remembered what he'd been told as a youngling, what all vampires were told. In the future, a dark day would dawn and with it would come the end of their existence, all at the hands of one of their own. The one he had met tonight was the child of the prophecy. She was going to destroy their kind.

 Kalinor walked towards the door and stopped with his hand on the handle.

"For now, this goes no further than the elders. As an envoy, I will visit the house of Caelestis. You will be there at my side to recount what you witnessed tonight and we will see what they have been hiding from us." Kalinor looked back at him and gave him a grim smile. "Then you will have the proud honour of destroying the abomination."

Valentine's stomach dropped when he heard those words. They had been spoken with a smile that said what a true honour it would be to be known as the vampire who had stopped the prophecy from coming true. He stared at the door his lord had walked out of and felt empty inside.

He would be responsible for destroying the abomination?

What honour was there in murdering her? He couldn't see any, not as his lord could.

He shuddered inwardly at the thought of killing her.

He didn't want to be the one responsible for her death, didn't want to take eternity away from her. There was nothing honourable about what Kalinor had asked him to do.

He could hear Kalinor shouting commands to the house elders when he walked back into the main reception room and stared blankly at the floor.

He should have listened to her blood. He shouldn't have tried to ignore the vision it had given him. Raising his head, he spotted the blond mess of hair that belonged to Cornelius through the heads of the elders and headed directly for him.

He caught him by the arm and started up the stairs with him. "Come with me. I need your assistance."

* * * *

Prophecy was soaked to the skin by the time she had made it over the high wall surrounding the grounds and back to the house. Scaling the drainpipe again, she pushed the sash window up and slipped back into her room. She clawed her wet hair out of her face, closed the window as quietly as possible and then let out a sigh of relief.

She was so stupid.

She should have listened to her mother when she'd told her that she wasn't strong enough to hunt. The other vampire had been so much more powerful than her. She hadn't been able to stop him from biting her and she didn't know what to make of his reaction. At the time, she'd just seen it as an opportunity to escape, but as she'd made her way home, she'd begun to think about it. He'd been stunned by what he'd seen, and she couldn't fathom why.

It wasn't as if she'd led a long or interesting life. She had spent over twenty years trapped in the same house. What was interesting about that?

At least she was back safe now, and no one had to know that she had been gone. She would change her clothes, dry her hair and then go down to see her mother. No one had to know.

She froze when she heard a noise in the darkness and realised that she wasn't alone.

"Brother," she greeted him coldly when he stepped out of the shadows by the door and moved towards her.

Turning away from him, she carefully covered the marks on her neck and stared out of the window, waiting for him to speak.

"Prophecy," Arkalus said softly and came to stand behind her. He moved to touch her shoulder but she stepped forwards and evaded his fingers. She saw his hand drop to his side out of the corner of her eye. How long had he been waiting for her to return? She'd been gone for hours. "Where have you been?"

She bit her tongue and continued to stare out of the window.

She could feel his eyes as they raked over her wet hair down to the smooth skin of her exposed shoulders.

"One day, you won't be able to turn me away so easily."

She frowned at his words, a thinly veiled threat that he emphasised by brushing his fingers lightly over her shoulder. Her jaw set tight and she turned her head away from him, disgusted by his attentions and wanting nothing more than to be alone.

Unable to hold her feelings inside, she found her mouth moving before she could stop it. "You'll be waiting a long time."

Her words had no impact. It was as though she'd never spoken them. His fingers moved to play with her hair, his tone becoming so intimate a whisper that it made her stomach squirm.

"What makes you think I won't tell mother about your disappearance tonight?" He leaned in a little closer to her and her whole body tensed.

She tried to make light of it, hoping that he'd leave her alone and find someone else to bestow his attentions upon. "If you did that, mother would want to know why you didn't tell her earlier… why wait so long? You'd be in as much trouble as me."

He seemingly ignored her comment and stroked his fingers gently over her shoulder. She shuddered when he pressed a light kiss to it, the tendrils of his long brown hair grazing her skin. It brought the stranger back into her head. She remembered the way his lips had grazed her neck. An echo of the feelings he'd ignited then danced through her.

"You won't be able to turn me away forever. I'm a patient man…" Arkalus whispered it into her ear. She leaned away from him, trying to escape his touch. "As soon as mother passes the house to me, I'll take you as my mate and you won't be able to stop me."

She closed her eyes when the air shifted around her and then the door slammed. She let out the breath she'd been holding and slumped into her chair, thinking about what he'd said.

It was no secret that he wanted her as his own. The whole house knew. He'd been courting her for as long as she could remember, but she had never once shown any interest in him. Recently he'd taken to threatening her, and the more he did the more she wanted to lash out at him. She wished he would go back to how he used to be, acting like a brother to her rather than attempting to be a lover. She wished her continual rebuffs would show him that she didn't want anything to do with him in that way, but they only seemed to drive him on.

So long as their mother, Iona, was walking the earth there was nothing he could do without her consent, but Prophecy knew that one day she would be gone and then it would be her duty to do as the head of the household commanded.

The idea of being Arkalus' bride made her sick to her stomach, but she wouldn't be able to stop him if Iona was out of the equation.

Something told Prophecy that regardless of what he'd said, Arkalus was growing ever more impatient. If she didn't agree to his terms soon then there was a chance that he would take the death of Iona into his own hands in order to ensure that she was his.

Changing out of her wet clothes, she slipped into a long black satin dress and lay down on her bed. She closed her eyes and pushed away from the thought of being claimed by Arkalus, and returned to her previous ones.

Who was the vampire she'd met tonight? Was he one of the Aurorea responsible for the death of one of her house or was he something else? He'd been alone, just like she had, not hunting with the pack like most vampires did. The way he'd looked at her after tasting her blood seemed like an image frozen in her mind. It haunted her.

He'd looked stunned, shocked by the visions he'd received from her blood, and it made her shudder to think of what he'd seen to make him look like that.

She'd suspected for some time now that she wasn't like the other vampires of her house. They all spoke about her behind her back. Serenity had told her that much. Prophecy had caught fearful looks in their eyes sometimes and now a vampire from the other house was looking at her in exactly the same way.

Curling up on the bed, she emptied her mind of all thoughts until there was only him.

His dark hair, his green eyes, and the way he looked at her as though he could see straight through her, down into her heart.

There was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on, but one thing she knew she could be sure of.

This wouldn't be the last time she saw him.

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
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Teaseday - Forbidden Blood - Vampire Romance Novel

Today's Teaseday is brought to you by Forbidden Blood . Forbidden Blood is the first book in the Vampire Venators romance series, and is a long novel full of passion, action, betrayal and revenge.

Here's the tease...


Forbidden Blood
Felicity Heaton
In 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.

Exiled from his family and with only his duty to sustain him, Kearn has been on the trail of an elusive Source Blood abuser for three years. When he saves a beautiful human female from the vampire's grasp, it turns out she's the lead he's been waiting for. Amber is a Source Blood and the perfect bait, but for who?

As they race to catch the vampire and survive the cruel games he plays, Amber is pulled deeper into Kearn's world and discovers the painful secrets he hides behind his handsome but emotionless exterior—hurt that she has the power to heal if she is brave enough.

Forbidden Blood is book one in the Vampire Venators series and a dark, sensual tale of betrayal, revenge and a love that knows no bounds.


ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 126000 words
rating: sultry
released: June 2011
Book 1 in the Vampire Venators series

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Forbidden%20Blood




EXCERPTThe smell of everyone in the club wasn't even drowning out her scent. It was a good thing because he needed the vampires to smell her blood so it would lure them into speaking to her but it constantly pushed at his restraint. Since tasting her, he hadn't stopped desiring her. His lust for her blood was strong, so much so that he had dreamed of her and nothing else. She had been in his embrace, bare breasts against his chest and her arms around him, holding him close as he kissed and licked her throat. He had drunk from her, sinking his fangs deep into her neck and marking her as eternally his. He knew that was what he had been doing. He hadn't intended to kill her. He had wanted to make her a vampire like him. He had wanted to keep her.

Which was insane.

But her blood had tasted so good even in his dreams.

Kearn struggled for control as the memory of it assaulted him, sending an echo of the buzz he had felt through his body and fogging his mind. Something deep within him cried out for more, for another taste, another fix.

The club started to heat up as people moved and the smell of her blood grew stronger. It was a divine smell—sweet and fragrant. The voice at the back of his mind whispered that it could be his, just as it had been in his dreams.

He touched his neck again, pulled at the collar of his shirt when it felt as though it was strangling him, and frowned. He couldn't remember a time when he had felt so hungry.

"Are you okay?" Amber's voice startled him. "You don't look so good."

His eyes leapt to hers and then fell to her neck. His temperature increased the moment his gaze landed on the black choker wrapped around it. Her blood was delicious. She was delicious. His throat ached at the sight of hers, his hunger rising. He tightened his hold on his neck and tried to get a grip on himself. It wasn't just her blood doing this to him. It couldn't be. There was something deeper at work.

He forced his eyes up, until they met her wide ones. She stepped closer and her scent grew stronger, overwhelming him. He stood and took a step back, trying to distance himself and keep control.

"I am a little thirsty." That was an understatement. He was parched, gasping for the smooth slide of her blood down his throat and the giddy rush of it in his veins.

Like an addict.

"Come on." She grabbed his arm.

He looked at her hand on him, slender but strong. She walked away, luring him along the length of the bar to where she had been sitting, and he followed her blindly.

Kearn's eyes stuck like glue to the back of her neck, catching teasing glimpses of the nape of it and the black velvet choker through her dark hair. He longed to part the brown waves and kiss there, to run his tongue over her skin and taste her, and feel her shiver in pleasure. He wanted to ease his fangs in deep and slow, claiming her and her blood as his and his alone. Nothing compared to biting someone, to the incredible rush from the connection and the intense intoxicating feel of their blood in your veins. It was what he had been born to do—to take life from the blood of humans like a thief.

Like a beast.

And right now, he wanted to take all of Amber. He wanted to strip away the mask and show her just what he was underneath—a creature lost in her, thirsting for her body and blood.

For her love.

He tore his eyes away from her neck, horrified by his last thought and the realisation that his hunger for her went beyond physical need to an emotional one.

She stopped by her stool and flagged down the bartender, giving him a wide smile.

Kearn stared at the man, remembering what he had said. Lonely. The hand around his throat dropped to his chest and he focused there. Did it really show? Had Amber seen it? He had been on his guard around her but there had been times when he had felt as though she had looked right down into his heart and seen the man beneath the armour.

Amber put a tall glass of icy dark liquid into Kearn's hand, bringing his attention back to her. She held a similar glass. He sniffed his. Sweet and bubbly. Some sort of soft drink. It was cold against his hand but would do nothing to satisfy his thirst.

Amber only made it worse.

She tilted her head back, her profile to him, and drank her drink. He couldn't stop himself from staring at her throat. It was unbearable to see it so exposed, so clean and soft and smooth, crying out for him to mark it. He wanted to tear off her choker and sink his teeth into her, to pull her close and feel her heart pound against his, beating as one.

Kearn clamped his mouth shut against the strong urge to bite her. His fangs extended enough to catch his lower lip. He licked the blood but it wasn't enough. It had to be her blood. Only that would satisfy his craving. The voice at the back of his mind, deep in his heart, commanded him to bite her.

She lowered the glass from her lips and looked at him with beautiful round eyes, tempting him with her innocence.

His fangs receded with only a little resistance.

"You're not drinking?" She frowned at his glass. "It's my treat."

She flicked the long dark waves of hair away from her neck and strands of it stuck to her damp skin. He narrowed his eyes on the pulse fluttering on her throat. If it was her treat, he would drink her down in one go.

It took all of his willpower to resist surrendering to the desire to give in to temptation. His blood pounded in his temples, driven to a frenzy by the unquenchable and undeniable hunger he felt for Amber. It wasn't just her blood. It was everything about her—her smile, her beauty, her body, and how she looked at him sometimes with concern. He had never experienced such need, such intense attraction and desire, for anyone in all his years.

Not even the countess.

His need for Amber, his hunger for her, was raw and uncontrollable. It thundered in his veins and ran deep in his bones. It commanded him. Ruled him.

She smiled and then frowned at his face.

"You've cut your lip." She touched it with her delicate fingertip, peering closely. The warm caress enticed him, making his lower lip tingle, and the smell of blood was too strong to fight. He couldn't take it.

His fangs began to extend again and he almost gave in to the desire to nick her finger with them. He couldn't do that. He couldn't make her like him.

Kearn stepped back and covered his mouth as his fangs fully extended, his eyes as wide as hers were.

The flames of desire burnt away the last threads of his restraint and he turned away, sensing that his eyes were about to change against his will too. He didn't want her to see him. He didn't want to be himself around her.

"Is something wrong?" Amber touched his arm.

He shirked her grip and took another step away from her.

"I am unwell. Excuse me," he said and rushed into the crowd, heading through the packed club towards the bathroom.

Humans blocked his path, bumping into him and making it hard to get through. The smell of their blood increased his hunger. He kept his hand over his mouth and pushed through, shoving them aside in his haste to reach the relative safety of the bathroom. The room began to brighten. His eyes were changing. He squinted and lowered his head, forcing his way through the hot bodies that stank of wretched blood.

And all the while, he could smell the sweet scent of hers.

His mind filled with visions of Amber. He saw himself taking her into his arms, her warm supple body moulded against the hot hard steel of his, and sinking his fangs deep into her throat. He would drink every drop of her blood without a moment's regret and it still wouldn't be enough. He would do it regardless of the fact that he would hate himself in the aftermath.

Kearn hit the bathroom door so hard it slammed into the tiled wall and wouldn't close automatically. A man standing at one of the white basins lining the left hand wall of the bright room made a quick exit. Kearn grabbed the door and forced it shut. He stumbled to the row of white sinks and ran the water in one until it was freezing, and then splashed it over his face. It didn't stop the images of Amber from dancing around his mind. He could see everything he had dreamed and swore he could feel her naked body against his.

Kearn doused himself in water again. It did nothing to cool him. He was on fire, sweat beading and running down his skin. Burning for her.

He gripped the edge of the white basin with trembling hands and stared at himself in the long bank of mirrors above the sinks. Red eyes watched him. His other side. The one he didn't want her to see. Why did he fear it all of a sudden? Being a vampire had never bothered him before. His species were above humans. They were strong and beautiful. Not beasts.

So why did Amber make him feel like an animal?

How did she make him feel so hungry?

He had never felt such thirst. Never. He had tasted forbidden blood before but it hadn't left him feeling this way—needing another fix. Needing her.

He took a deep breath and sighed, regaining control.

The bathroom door opened and a human male walked in, nodding at him and then heading into the stalls behind him.

Kearn turned off the tap and left. The music in the club was loud when he opened the bathroom door and walked out into the darker main room, grating in his ears. Even more people were crammed into it now. He made his way back to where he had left Amber at the bar and stared wide-eyed at the empty stool.

She was gone.

He scanned the club for her, trying to keep his cool. Perhaps she had gone to the bathroom too.

Perhaps the vampire had found her while he had been acting like a ridiculous junkie.

No. That couldn't have happened. He wouldn't let the man have her.

Amber was his.

He headed down towards the dance floor, methodically searching and taking account of every face, marking each as either human or vampire. He was nearing the back of the club in a quieter spot favoured by Nobles when he saw her.

And he saw who she was with.

Kyran stood beside her, both of them facing away from him, with his hand against her lower back, far enough down it that his fingers were lazily resting on the bottom of her corset, close to her backside. Fire burned through Kearn's veins. How dare his brother touch her so familiarly? Kyran laughed with his friends and Amber laughed along with them. The sound of it and the sight of her smiling into Kyran's eyes fuelled the inferno inside him. He wouldn't let it happen again. His eyes changed and Kyran looked over at him.

Kearn shut his emotions down in an instant, forcing his eyes to switch back.

Kyran's dark eyebrows rose, his blue eyes cold and empty.

"There you are," he said casually, as though he hadn't felt the threat Kearn had directed at him.

Amber turned around, broke out of his brother's grasp, and came over to him.

"Are you feeling better?" Concern shone brightly in her eyes.

She reached up with her right hand and touched his face, sweeping the wet strands of hair from his face. Her actions brought the bandage around her hand too close to his nose. The smell of her blood threatened to overpower him. He caught her hand and slowly brought it away from his face, trying not to startle her by reacting as he had wanted to and throwing it aside.

"You look terrible." Kyran stopped beside Amber. His brother placed a hand on Amber's bare shoulder and looked him over. "Amber mentioned that you were unwell. Rough day?"

Kyran's gaze slid to Amber's throat.

"You seem to be struggling." Kyran smiled at him and released Amber's arm. "I thought you of all people would be used to it."

Amber's eyes met his. He didn't want to answer the question he could see coming. His brother wasn't talking about his job. He was talking about forbidden blood.

He grabbed Kyran's arm and dragged him away, leaving Amber with Kyran's friends. They wouldn't dare hurt her. A thousand things he wanted to say sprung to the tip of his tongue, all accusations and anger, but he let them go and released Kyran's arm.

"Thank you for keeping her safe." It was difficult to say those words when he knew that Kyran had probably only been friendly to Amber to irritate him.

Kyran smiled and, for once, it was genuine. "She looked lost. I approached her and she seemed so relieved to see me. She started babbling about you and how you were sick and thirsty and I knew where you had gone. Are you better now?"

Kearn nodded. He was back in control at least.

"I can get some blood sent over—"

"No." Kearn cut him off. "I do not want you on my list. The hunger will pass."

Kyran looked worried. Kearn's senses said he wasn't lying.

He forced himself to look at Kyran. A reflection of him, but not the one he had seen just now in the mirror. The dark shorter hair, the blue eyes, the wide charming smile and fine black suit. Kyran was everything he had once been, and everything he wanted to be again. His brother's face and his own were torture to him, a constant reminder that no matter what he did, he would never be the man he had once been. He couldn't change the past, and that meant he could never undo the damage to his relationship with Kyran either.

Kyran smiled. It warmed his eyes and reminded Kearn of better days when they had been young. It was unusual for vampires to be born so close together in age. Their mother had given birth to them only four human years apart, and due to a difficulty in her health, they had been her only children. To a human, they looked the same age, and would have appeared to be twins once.

But not now.

A Venator was different to a vampire, and his appearance now marked that. They were distinguished.

Hated.

None more so than him.

"You should take more care of yourself." Kyran touched his shoulder. "Especially now that there is another of you in town."

Kyran looked to his left and Kearn followed his gaze. A female Venator stood alone in the corner of the club opposite the one where Amber and Kyran's friends waited. With her long silver hair flowing over her slender shoulders and her vivid green eyes, she was unmistakable. Her appearance was enough to make every vampire around her cautious, but she was even wearing her black uniform. The silver buttons down the breast and the sky blue detailing on the collar and cuffs of the thigh-length military-style jacket caught the flashing lights of the club. She was new to the job if she was foolish enough to wear her uniform in public.

"You should introduce yourself, shouldn't you?"

Kearn nodded. The Venator was watching him, and so was Amber. He sensed her gaze on him, the remnants of her blood in his veins calling to him, and then the feeling was gone. He glanced at her to see her looking at the female Venator.

He was required to introduce himself and greet any Venator in his territory, but this wasn't a good time. His thirst for Amber's blood burned strong in his veins and Venators were trained to recognise the effects of forbidden blood on a vampire. The Venator would see what he had done. There was an allowed amount that they could take in the line of duty, but it was still taboo for a Venator to do such a thing.

It wasn't the only reason he didn't want to greet her.

Amber was glaring at the woman and he wanted to go to her instead.

"Go on," Kyran said. "I will make sure that Amber is safe here. I have teased you enough and will not reveal anything to her."

He still hesitated.

Kyran pushed him forwards.

Kearn felt Amber's gaze on him again but walked over to the female Venator. She lowered her head when he reached her.

"Lord Savernake." She pressed her right hand to her chest. The silver markings on it were different to his. She was shorter than he was, possibly even more so than Amber, and was much weaker. Females that became Venators were never as strong as their male counterparts were. The role passed from father to eldest son. Daughters were only involved when there was no son in the Venator line. He studied her. She wasn't a Noble either.

"Venator. We are above such formalities, are we not?" A remnant of his old self, buried deep inside him, said that she was below him. A Lesser Noble. She deserved to scrape and bow at his feet. Weaker blooded, poorer connected, and lower bred. She was beneath him in all ways. The only things worse than her kind were Commoners and humans.

She kept her head bowed.

"Welcome to my territory. I hope our meeting is fortuitous and not a sign of something else." He kept his tone warm, trying to tamp down his thoughts. The woman was a Venator. They were equals, and he had no right to judge her by her blood when he was an outcast of his own family.

She raised her eyes now, green irises and wide pupils betraying her shock at his words. Her expression only added to her appearance of youthful innocence. She looked as weak as he sensed her to be. Far too young to deal with their duty. He placed her at no older than two hundred. To the humans around her, she looked like a twenty year old.

"You have noticed, have you not?" he said and she glanced towards Amber.

"You are struggling against the effects of blood." Her voice was soft but he could still hear her.

The corners behind the speakers were far quieter than the rest of the club, and Lesser Noble and all Noble vampires desiring to protect their hearing favoured them. It was a good place to discuss business, and afforded them a view of the entire room so they could pick out prey at their leisure without suffering from the ear-bleeding volume of the music.

She gave him a shy look, as though she felt guilty for confirming that she knew he had recently tasted blood from a Source, and then her expression gradually changed back to awe. Had she never met another Venator? How many vampires had she killed and how long ago had she been given her duty?

"You have seen the human with those vampires." He didn't look their way but he could feel Amber's eyes on him and the female. "A vampire I have been seeking for several years attacked her and fed his blood to her. I tasted her blood to confirm her as a Source Blood and so I could maintain control of her and question her. The human is now bait in my plan to lure out the man and sentence him."

"I see." The woman peered past him. "It is forgivable then. Did your plan include her leaving?"

Kearn turned on the spot. Amber was gone.

"Excuse me," he said and crossed the dance floor to his brother.

"She wanted to go." Kyran shrugged. "We tried to make her stay and wait, but it seemed the little thing did not like seeing you with another woman."

Kearn glared at him and then hurried through the club. Had Amber really left because he had been speaking to the Venator, or was Kyran lying? The thought that she might be jealous warmed his chest but he didn't allow himself to believe it. He had given Amber no reason to feel that way and he had no reason to feel anything in response to it.

What was he getting himself into?

He pushed through the throng, growling under his breath about the way people were hindering his progress and the growing awareness of his feelings towards Amber.

She was bait. It was just her blood making him act this way. And that was just a lie.

It ran deeper than blood. She had entranced him even before he had tasted her. It had been difficult to keep his eyes off her in the street when he had fought to protect her from the man, and in his car as he drove her to his apartment. He had been under her spell since the moment he had met her.

Amber meant something to him.

But she was human. She was beneath him, fit only to serve his kind.

Kearn broke through the crowd and out into the night.

He wished he could bring himself to believe that but he couldn't. She didn't feel as though she was beneath him. She felt above him, beyond his grasp.

Human or not, he wanted her to be his.

He couldn't see her in the street. He searched all of the side roads that branched off the main road outside the club and then got into his car and drove around. The remnant of her blood in his veins wasn't enough for him to track her. Searching for her so randomly didn't have a great chance of success, but he had to find her. The vampire might have been at the club tonight and might have seen her leave. Without him, she was in danger.

He couldn't allow that.

He would keep his promise, no matter what.

He wouldn't let anything happen to her.

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Forbidden%20Blood


Enjoyed this tease?

Her Angel romance trading cards

I've been working on my drawing of Serenity this past week so I can complete the image I'll be using on my trading card designs for Apollyon and Serenity. I think she's come out quite like her character, with a little magic thrown into the mix. I'll probably get all the characters drawn for the Her Angel romance series trading cards and then get them produced and printed. I think it will probably work out much cheaper ordering them that way, although I am eager to get these made into cards already!

Here's my drawing of Apollyon and Serenity from my Her Angel series . Their book is Her Dark Angel but they are featured in the other books too.




If you click the image, it will take you to a larger version.

So what do you think? Is this how you picture Serenity and Apollyon from my angel romance series?

Teaseday - Her Guardian Angel - angel romance novel

It's Teaseday time again. I've been busy these past few weeks so I haven't been posting new teases on Tuesday. Forgive me? Sometimes writing just gets in the way, but I'm sure you would all prefer me to be writing than updating my blog. I'll make more effort to get my Teaseday posts up each week.

Continuing the Her Angel series theme, I'm posting a tease chapter from Her Guardian Angel this week, my latest release in this best selling angel romance book series. Her Guardian Angel is the fourth book in the Her Angel series , and also the first novel. I'm currently planning the next novel.

Her Guardian Angel is now available in paperback too, so I've included links to where you can buy it in a more tangible form for those who prefer to hold a book in their hands.


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 series

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/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
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