Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 4

Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Loren from the Eternal Mates Series

Welcome to Talking Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, I’ll either be answering questions myself, or posing questions to one of my characters from my paranormal romance books. All of these questions are submitted to me by my awesome readers at my Fang Club, a Facebook Group where I chat with my readers. Asking questions is exclusive to members of my Fang Club, so if you want to get in on the action, you’ll have to join the group.

This week, I had the task of posing questions to Loren, one of the elven princes in my Eternal Mates series. You can read Lorens’s romance in Kissed by a Dark Prince.

Talking Tuesday with Loren

Felicity: Good morning, Loren. I’m finally getting to talk with you after having to delay our little chat by a week. I can’t wait to get you answering some questions.

Loren: I’m very happy to be here. Sometimes, it is nice to get away from the elf kingdom.

Felicity: Council being pains in your arse again?

Loren: *sigh says it all*

Felicity: Let’s start things off with topics close to your heart… namely Olivia, because a lot of your fans had questions to ask about her specifically.

Loren: Go ahead.

Felicity: So regal. Diana Manolova Dimitrova asked whether you think that the Elven people will accept Olivia as their queen and will respect her, even though she comes from the human race?

Loren: They are growing to like her, and she is accepted in many of the villages now, and of course in the castle. Some still hold on to the view that I should have chosen a female from within elf society, but the majority are believers in fated mates, and think I have done the right thing in choosing Olivia as my princess. Not queen, since I am not a king.

Felicity: Because you share the role of leader of your people with your brother, Vail, but Vail is no longer accepted in the kingdom. It must be tough on you. Celita Collins  wanted to know whether you get to see Vail more often, now that he has stabilised a little with Rosalind’s help?

Loren: I see him when I can. I visited him recently, thanks to Bleu helping me out with the council and covering for me. He is doing well, and I am glad that he has taken to helping others too. I believe it will help him in return, giving him faith that he can purge the darkness.

Felicity: You mean Fuery? I think he needs all the help he can get, so I’m glad too that Vail is hellbent on helping him. Kirsty Hatto asked how Vail is coping with his new life with Rosalind?

Loren: He has his bad days, but Rosalind sends me regular reports, pictures she has taken, tells me of things they have done together and how Vail’s rehabilitation is progressing. She’s trying various very scientific methods of assisting him… some of which are fascinating, if not a little alarming.

Felicity: Vail is strong, he can handle the treatment Rosalind has decided upon, I’m sure of it. When you sneak away to the mortal world to see Vail, do you go elsewhere? Kirsty also wanted to know if you visited Kyter’s club much, and Natalie Muir asked if you visit the mortal realm often and whether you’ve gained a taste for anything from our world?

Loren: I have been to Underworld a few times since we last spoke, mostly accompanied by Bleu when he visits with his sister. It’s good to see how she is doing, and to speak with the group who live there. Kyter is quite the male. He’s been enlisting local fae and immortals to assist us in keeping an eye on the movements of Archangel.

Felicity: Kyter has spies? How deliciously James Bond of him. What about things you’ve developed a fondness for in our world?

Loren: Chocolate. My aides and the council do their best to stop me from having it, complaining about risks to my health, but Olivia pretends it is for her so she can sneak me pieces. Only a little. She does the same with coffee. My council also try to convince me it is evil and something I should be avoiding.

Felicity: No, alcohol is something you need to avoid. *wink*

Loren: I don’t know what you are talking about.

Felicity: Yeah, you do. I’m going to swing my questions back to your missus now, before you start blushing, because Natalie also wanted to know if there’s anything Olivia has taken to in your world?

Loren: I think she is introducing me to things more than I am her. She’s taken to growing vegetables never before seen in the elf kingdom, some of which are most unusual, and has developed a taste for what my council have termed “attempted poisoning”. I do not recall the exact details, but it involved something called a chili pepper and she put it in a soup, which members of the council then ate… and well… apparently it was a little too hot for their taste.

Felicity: Did she do it on purpose?

Loren: Oh no, the soup was not meant for them. She made it for herself and Sable, but the council insisted on trying some before I was allowed any… not that I had intended to have any since Olivia had warned me it was spicy and hot… to their detriment.

Felicity: You don’t seem too cut up by them getting burned. I wouldn’t be either. Diana Manolova Dimitrova also wanted to know if you think it’s time elf society moved with the times and gave more rights to females, including allowing them into the army?

Loren: I am petitioning for it, but many of the higher ranking members of society are difficult to convince, and adamant about keeping things how they are now. Progress is being made, but I think we are a way from seeing females serving in the army.

Felicity: Martha Davis Williams had a fab question, because she wants to know if you ever manage to slip away without Bleu tracking you down? She says that she loves how you annoy him that way.

Loren: Regularly. Most recently, I left him fielding questions from a group of high-ranking elves about movements of shipments between the elf and demon lands and protection of the goods wagons… because Olivia mentioned wanting to see a fae town.

Felicity: And how long was it before he found you?

Loren: *smiles* I evaded him for almost five hours. When he found me… it was not pleasant.

Felicity: *laughs* I can imagine. I doubt he spoke to you for a week straight after that.

Loren: He was rather unbearable. Needless to say, I was not allowed out of his sight for several days. He even spoke of positioning a cot in my room so he could ensure I did not “escape” during the night. I think he was more angry about being left to handle to meeting than my unsanctioned trip though.

Felicity: I’d be mad at you too if you left me dealing with the hoity-toity elite of elven society. I’m dragging things back to Olivia again… mostly because I like the way your eyes light up when you think about her. Both Ashley Couch and Lynnette Copp want to know whether you and Olivia are planning to have a child soon?

Loren: I would like that, but Olivia is still coming to terms with this new world and her new role in it. Once she is settled, and accepted by all in the kingdom, we can talk about our future. Part of me hopes that when we bring a child into the kingdom, it will have an uncle present in it.

Felicity: You trying to hook Vail up as your babysitter? I don’t think he’ll take well to that. He strikes me as the sort to amuse a kid for a while and happily throw it back to its parents when it gets unruly or upset… a bit like me. *grins*

Loren: *smiles* Perhaps. I would still like my child to know its uncle though, rather than the stories it might hear.

Felicity: True. It wouldn’t do for the council to make your kid believe Vail was evil. You never thought about just eliminating the council?

Loren: Yes… daily… but advisors are necessary, and I cannot make such a dramatic change when I have already introduced Olivia into the kingdom. Things must be paced accordingly to allow my people to accept them.

Felicity: So, that’s a… they’re living on borrowed time sort of vibe. I’m going to let Bleu keep convincing you that you need them gone.

Loren: He does a very good job of that without your influence.

Felicity: You mentioned Kyter has spies now, and you’ve been meeting with them. Ashley Couch and Carole Joyce Buckley really want to know the same thing I do… are you devising a plan to deal with Archangel before whatever faction that is working inside them can take action against Hell and the species occupying it?

Loren: Yes, and myself, Thorne and Kyter are not the only members involved in discussing everything that has been uncovered. Many of the demon kings are assisting us, and other factions from Hell too. We are determined to stop whatever plan Archangel has.

Felicity: I have just one more question to ask. Tracy Benjamin wants you to describe being an immortal. Does it really mean living forever?

Loren: No, but the lifespan of an elf can be millennia. My father was seven thousand before he and my mother brought me into this world, and my grandfather lived to over ten thousand before he was slain on the battlefield in a great war with the dragons. We are eternal in our lifespan, but not immortal as humans would think it. We can be killed.

Felicity: Living so long must make population control a thing. I mean, if everyone who paired up kept having children, you’d have a kingdom full to the brim before you know it.

Loren: Elf society has grown so we rarely procreate before we are two thousand, and with the wars that regularly test our borders, and the darkness that constantly tests us, we lose elves every day. We have found a balance that works for us. Most families have no more than two children.

Felicity: I think that’s all the questions we have, and wow, I kept you talking for a long time. I’m expecting Bleu to burst through the door at any second, looking frantic and worried. I take it you did clear this visit with him?

Loren: *grins sheepishly but then sobers* I did. He’s visiting Iolanthe with Olivia, probably complaining about wanting to get back to Taryn.

Felicity: I’ll let you go then. Give the gang my love, and take care, and thanks for coming for this interview!

 

Thanks for reading my Talking Tuesday interview with Loren and I hope that you’ll swing by the blog again next week to see who we’re interviewing then!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Loren from the Eternal Mates Series appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

Valentine’s with Bite Giveaway!

Welcome to the Valentine’s with Bite Giveaway run by Best Romance Author Giveaways, where you can enter not one but THREE GIVEAWAYS! See my giveaway below, and make sure you head over to Best Romance Author Giveaways to enter the Grand Giveaway for $150 in Amazon Gift Cards on the Valentine’s with Bite Giveaway page, plus find the link to Caris Roane’s giveaway there too! Be sure to hop there and enter now: http://www.bestromanceauthorgiveaways.com/valentines-with-bite-giveaway-2/

Once you’re done entering the Grand Giveaway, or if you’ve already entered it, be sure to enter my giveaway below!

The Valentine’s with Bite Giveaway runs from February 10th-24th. The Grand Giveaway is open internationally and my giveaway is international too!

 

What Can You Win From Me?

Books 1-7 in my Eternal Mates paranormal romance series in your choice of eBook or Audiobook!
$25 Amazon Gift Card
$15 Amazon Gift Card

My grand prize is worth $32.93 if you love eBooks or $191.58 if you prefer Audiobooks. Wow!

Please note, that you’ll need to have an audible.com or audible.co.uk to receive the audiobooks.

 

Plus, a FREE EBOOK for everyone!

CRAVED BY AN ALPHA

Having turned his back on his snow leopard pride, Cavanaugh has been counting the days until he’s free of a role he never wanted—one that separated him from his fated female and stands between him and the future he craves with her.

Just days from the night he will finally be free to be with the low-ranking beauty who stole his heart, she walks back into his life and threatens to destroy everything he’s worked towards in the five long years they’ve been apart.

Eloise has travelled across continents searching for the male who was once her best friend and so much more to her, but was now her pride’s true alpha. Desperate to fulfil a promise to her kin to save them from the tyrant he left in charge, she convinces Cavanaugh to return to his pride, but as they journey to Bhutan, doubts bloom and old feelings resurface, tearing her between duty and her deepest desires and impossible dreams.

Will Eloise be able to resist the burning need that Cavanaugh reignites in her and remember her place in the pride? And can Cavanaugh find a way to save his kin and claim the future he craves with the woman he loves?

» DOWNLOAD THIS FREE EBOOK NOW!

 

Enter My Giveaway!

 

Now fill in the Rafflecopter form, and remember to do the optional entries for more chances of winning!

 

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The post Valentine’s with Bite Giveaway! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

Throwback Thursday – be Claimed by a Demon King this week!

This week in my Talking Tuesday post, I had the task of posing questions to Thorne, one of the demon kings in my Eternal Mates series. Now, grab yourself a hot beverage and lets take a look at his paranormal romance book, Claimed by a Demon King.

 

The moment the demon King Thorne of the Third Realm set eyes on the mortal huntress Sable, he knew she was his fated one. The fiery, dangerous female awakened hungers he had never experienced before, a dark craving and passion that has consumed him in their time apart. As the lunar cycle wanes, she enters his world again and nothing will stand in the way of him claiming his forever with her—not the relentless assault from the Fifth Realm or the dark elf male determined to seduce her out of his grasp.

Intent on achieving the coveted position of commander at Archangel, Sable leads her small team into the dark underworld and the Third Realm, to a war where her allies are the very creatures she normally hunts—vampires, werewolves, and demons. Her eagerness to lead the deadly mission has everything to do with winning her promotion, and nothing to do with the kingdom’s brash, lethally seductive demon king—a king who stirred fierce desire and wildfire heat in her with just a look and an innocent touch when they first met, and has been in her wicked dreams ever since.

As the gathering storm between rivals unleashes irresistible passion that flares white-hot and the heat of the battle brings life-shattering realisations, can Sable place her duty before her heart? Or will she surrender to her deepest desires and be claimed by a demon king?

This pulse-pounding and passionate paranormal romance is available in…

Ebook from:


Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle UK
Amazon Kindle Germany
Amazon Kindle Canada
Amazon Kindle Australia
Apple iBookstore US
Apple iBookstore UK
Apple iBookstore Australia
Apple iBookstore Canada
Apple iBookstore New Zealand
Barnes and Noble
Kobo Books
Google Play
 
 


Paperback from:


Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes and Noble
Amazon.ca


Audiobook from:


Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com.au
Audible.com
Audible.co.uk
Apple iBookstore US
Apple iBookstore UK
Apple iBookstore Australia
Apple iBookstore Canada
Apple iBookstore New Zealand

 

Now how about an excerpt from this passionate paranormal romance book!

EXCERPT

Sable checked her weapons for the millionth time, a light morning breeze playing in her long black hair, causing rogue strands from her ponytail to flutter over her shoulder as she stood in the middle of the training ground in the courtyard of the elegant sandstone building that was Archangel’s headquarters in London.

She ran her fingers over the twin rows of small throwing blades strapped to her ribs beneath her arms, the leather holster laying them flush against her tight black t-shirt, and expelled her breath. It wasn’t a sigh. She wasn’t nervous.

It wasn’t. She wasn’t.

She had been telling herself those two things on repeat throughout the endless briefing she had endured, trying not to let her senior, Mark, and the high-ranking staff notice her nerves.

Not that she was nervous.

Eager to get going. Excited about the prospect of taking command of a unit of hunters for the first time in her life. It was a big deal and an opportunity she wasn’t going to squander. Archangel had chosen her to lead a team of fifty into Hell to the Third Realm to assist in the Third King’s war against the Fifth Realm.

Her belly fluttered.

That was definitely nerves. Not something else. Not a reaction to just his name whispered in her mind.

An image of the brawny demon king flashed into her head, sending fire rushing through her veins. Intense dark crimson eyes. Wild russet brown hair. Rough masculine features. Shoulders so wide that they made the biggest of her hunters look scrawny and muscles that bulged beneath bronzed tight skin.

Not to mention those rich brown horns that curled from behind his ears and that lopsided grin.

He was six-feet-seven of Heaven and ruled a realm in Hell.

Sable expelled another breath. Not a sigh. A girl had to breathe.

Several of the male hunters near the front of the group were studying her.

She cleared her throat and finished her weapons check, using it to push Thorne out of her head.

It had been growing increasingly difficult to keep the brash demon from her thoughts over the past month and almost impossible to lock him out of her dreams. Heat burned up her cheeks and she dropped her head, turning it slightly away from her team so they wouldn’t notice her blushing like a schoolgirl. She checked her folded compact crossbow and the quiver of bolts attached to her belt, trying to focus on them in the hope it would shove Thorne to the back of her mind. What was wrong with her?

Get a grip.

She shut down her emotions one by one, locking them back in place and restoring order. This was a mission. Her chance to secure the rank she had desired for so long now, ever since she had joined Archangel. There were only a handful of commanders in the entire organisation and she wanted to be one of them.

Sable lifted her head and pinned her team with a deadly look. “Fall in.”

They responded immediately, forming five neat rows of ten before her. They were the cream of Archangel’s hunters in London. While that was a good thing, it also meant that they were highly experienced and used to working alone. If she didn’t exert some authority and failed to lead them well, they would branch off and fall back into old routines. That would prove disastrous.

None of them were familiar with Hell.

She only knew the elf kingdom herself and only had Prince Loren of the elves’ reports on the demon realms to go by, but he made them sound like forbidding lands filled with creatures liable to chew mortals up and spit them out before they could even think about drawing a weapon to defend themselves.

If her team didn’t act like one and work together, none of them would make it out of the place alive.

She was damned if she would lose a single hunter on her first mission in charge.

“Listen up,” she barked and they snapped to attention. “We don’t know much about the situation we’re heading into or the territory of the domain. We will need to be on our guards. We know from intelligence given to us by the elves that the kingdom known as the Third Realm has been under attack from the one known as the Fifth Realm for the past twenty-one months. The Fifth King seeks to defeat and absorb the lands of the Third King, and the Third King has asked for our assistance.”

Sable pointedly looked at all her hunters in turn, ensuring she still had their attention. A few women at the back shifted foot-to-foot. She couldn’t blame them for being nervous. They were all of fifty mortals heading into a demon war, but they had back up. Prince Loren was bringing a whole legion of elf warriors and they would work together on the battlefield.

“I don’t need to tell you how important this mission is on many levels. This is an opportunity to form an alliance with the Third King and to gain intel on the realms and political landscape of Hell.” She still couldn’t get her head around that. Hell. She had popped in and out of the elf kingdom there several times over the past month, but that realm didn’t look like Hell in her eyes. It looked like paradise—lush, green, and beautiful—an oasis surrounded by darkness on all sides. “Anything you think is important for Archangel to know about, you document it and report it to me or to Evan, and I’ll gather the information and pass it on to Archangel. We’re to assess the threat level of every species we meet. The more information we can bring back from this mission, the better we’ve done. Understood?”

They all nodded.

“We’re leaving as soon as our transport arrives, so prepare yourselves.”

Sable turned away from them and blew out another breath, trying to expel the tension cranking her muscles tight. She rolled her shoulders and flexed her fingers, and resisted the temptation to perform another weapons check.

Some of the hunters broke away from the main group, heading towards the stacks of black ribbed metal cases and luggage. She had placed Evan in charge of their equipment. As the most experienced hunter in the team, she trusted him one hundred percent with the task and with his role as her second in command.

The tall blond man motioned to the five men he had taken with him to the cases and they began checking everything against the list on his tablet one more time.

Sable paced, hoping to work off at least a little of her tension before Loren arrived with his elves. She really didn’t need him noticing that she was wound tighter than he had ever been during his courtship of her best friend, Olivia.

She could do this. Mark had told her as much before she had left his office barely an hour ago. He wanted to give her the title of commander and this was her test. She wouldn’t fail him and she wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of her achieving that rank.

She had busted her arse over the past month, working twice as hard as normal in order to convince Mark and the senior staff that she was the perfect candidate for the role of commander on this mission.

It had absolutely nothing to do with getting a pass into Hell and seeing Thorne again.

Not at all.

She was going because she wanted the position of commander.

A familiar female voice cut off a deep male one and Sable smiled as she turned to glance across the courtyard.

Their transport was arriving. Scores of elves dressed in their tight black scale-like armour appeared before her eyes, the air shimmering around them. Prince Loren led them across the courtyard towards her, his long strides eating up the distance and his left hand resting on the hilt of the black sword sheathed at his waist. His black eyebrows knit into scowl and his purple eyes darkened.

The slight brunette beside him shook her head, causing her long chestnut hair to sway against the shoulders of her dark t-shirt, and waved him away. “I’ve told you a million times, Loren… I am going on this mission.”

Loren’s lips compressed into a thin line. Olivia was trying her mate’s patience again. He looked ready to grab her and teleport her back to the realm of the elves and leave her there.

Olivia had a mean stubborn streak though and that was another reason why Sable had been eager to win this mission. Olivia was her best friend at Archangel and she didn’t want her friend in the firing line during a war, but having her there was necessary. They needed a doctor on hand to take care of any injured. That and Sable needed the moral support of her friend on this mission. She would go crazy without her.

“Olivia,” Loren started and then seemed to think the better of whatever he had intended to say and scrubbed a hand over his face instead. He threw Sable a pleading glance.

Sable shrugged. Helping him was above her pay grade. She couldn’t overturn a decision made by Mark and the board of senior staff. Loren scowled again and turned back to his mate, speaking in a low voice now.

Sable glanced at Bleu as he strode to his prince’s right, meeting his green gaze. It was strange seeing him in better control of his emotions than Loren was, able to retain a more mortal appearance, concealing his normal purple irises and pointed ears.

She smiled at Bleu as Olivia began to rant.

Bleu raked long fingers through his wild black-blue hair and gave her a warm smile in return.

“I am going whether you like it or not,” Olivia snapped at Loren and then softened. “I know you’re worried but I’ll have you there with me, and Sable too. Archangel assigned me to this mission as the medic and to research any new species we encounter… and you know both of those things are very important to me. So I’m going and that’s final.”

Loren looked as if he had just lost a war. His shoulders slumped and he let out a long, weary breath. “Very well, Ki’ara.”

Bleu shook his head. “Olivia, you sound more like my sister every day.”

Olivia didn’t look sure whether that was a compliment or not. Sable had seen Bleu often over the past few weeks. He had visited Archangel whenever Loren had and Loren was rarely away from Olivia when she was working.

The dark elf commander was a great sparring partner and had helped Sable step up her game during their training matches. She was glad he didn’t hold back when he was fighting her.

Well, he didn’t hold back much. She knew he wasn’t going all out on her and in a way, she was glad. She had seen him fight and part of her knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against him, even if her pride wouldn’t allow her to admit it.

The only time Bleu hadn’t been with Loren was when his sister had returned to his family home for a rare visit. Bleu had disappeared like a shot. Sable had asked about this elusive sister and Loren had informed her that Bleu had only one sibling, a younger sister, and that he was forever getting her out of scrapes, but that only seemed to make him love her more dearly.

The indulgent and amused twinkle in his eyes at times made Sable feel that he was beginning to view Olivia with similar brotherly affection. It would be nice for Olivia to have family again after everything she had been through.

Sable idly rubbed her right wrist, her thumb caressing the stylised black cross on the inside of it, and tamped down the dark thoughts that threatened to rise and ruin her mood.

“Is everyone ready?” She checked her assembled team and then the elves. Loren had finally given up trying to convince Olivia not to come on the mission and was speaking with Bleu and several of his men. He motioned towards the crates and baggage, and a group of elves broke away, heading towards them.

The rest of the elves made their way over to her team, one for each member. A few low giggles broke the silence as the female hunters in her unit met the tall, darkly beautiful male who would be teleporting them.

Sable sighed this time. “Rein it in. This is a mission, not a Club 18-30 holiday. Remember that.”

Her hunters jolted to attention and nodded as one.

Sable just hoped that she could remember it. Whenever she thought about seeing Thorne again, she got the jitters. Stupid of her considering she had only met him once and for little more than a handful of hours. It hadn’t stopped her from desperately trying not to hang on every word whenever Loren had spoken of the demon king. It wasn’t like her, but she couldn’t help herself. Something fundamental inside her had changed the moment Thorne had barged into her life.

Thorne met often with Loren to discuss their arrival and arrangements, and to keep him abreast of the situation in the Third Realm.

Loren relayed everything to her.

It hadn’t satisfied her in the slightest. Loren never said how Thorne was coping with everything or how he seemed to him.

She wanted to know how he was doing and wanted to see that he was still well, and still the same brash male she had met a month ago. Of course, she refused to admit that to Olivia whenever her friend pressed her about Thorne, and her friend had pressed a lot over the long four weeks.

Sable had denied everything, refusing to admit that she couldn’t stop thinking about the demon king.

She couldn’t get that moment in the cafeteria out of her head. Thorne had teleported them back to Archangel after they had defeated Kordula, freeing Loren’s brother Vail from the bitch-witch’s spell. Thorne had stood with his hand on Sable’s arm, as if he couldn’t bring himself to let her go, and had stared at her for so long that she had ended up lost in his crimson gaze. He had opened his mouth to speak, had turned frustrated about something, and had teleported out of her life as quickly as he had come into it, leaving her confused and curious.

What had Thorne wanted to say to her?

Whatever had been balanced on those firm sensual lips, she wished he had just come out and said it because it had been driving her completely crazy. She had found herself pondering it at the strangest times. Dangerous times. A hunt was no place to lose track of your surroundings. That moment kept invading her head though, replaying in infinite detail, every shift in his body language and expression captured perfectly. With each replay, she found herself wanting to know more than ever what he had meant to say.

The first chance she had, she was asking him about it.

Sable grimaced and reminded herself again that she was going to Hell on a mission, not just to see Thorne. This was about the mission. This was about her future with Archangel. This wasn’t about the big, rough, demon male.

She jolted when someone took hold of her arm and looked up into Bleu’s eyes. Flecks of purple broke through the green, slowly taking over until not a trace of emerald remained. His violet gaze narrowed on her and he moved closer, towering over her, a vision of dark beauty and lethal grace. His lips parted, flashing white daggers at her. His fangs were down. The tips of his ears turned pointed. He had shaken off his mortal guise, revealing his true nature.

“Ready?” he murmured, his fingers lightly flexing around her arm and his gaze locked intently on her.

Sable blinked herself back the courtyard and nodded.

Her world disappeared in a swirl of cold black shadows. She closed her eyes against it. The heat of the sun on her skin gave way to the icy chill and then became a blast of moist warm air. The shrouding silence of the portal shattered under the explosion of grunts and roars and the metallic clang of weapons clashing.

The scent of morning became the odour of blood.

Sable snapped her eyes open and her heart leaped and pounded, quickening her blood and preparing her body.

The first thing she saw was Thorne shirtless and swinging his enormous broadsword at an equally massive bare-chested warrior. His opponent blocked with his own blade and growled, flashing huge fangs as he swung a meaty fist. The blow connected with Thorne’s right cheek and he stumbled, grunting as he struggled to regain his footing and ready his blade to defend himself.

Sable’s hand instantly went to the folded crossbow at her side and she flicked it open, pushing away from Bleu at the same time. Another immense demon attacked Thorne before he managed to right himself and the dagger sliced across the Third King’s thickly muscled right shoulder.

Thorne roared and finally launched himself at the males, taking them both on at once. They weren’t alone. The wide oval courtyard of the dark stone fortress was in pandemonium. Sable counted at least two dozen demons, all focused on him with their weapons drawn and at the ready. No other fought on his side.

The sight of him standing alone against so many adversaries, bleeding from multiple wounds on his torso and arms, brought a red haze down over her vision.

Sable launched herself into the fray just as one of the males attacked. Her heart raced, pumping adrenaline that made her feel high as she reached beneath her left arm, slipped her fingers into the rings on two of her throwing knives, and hurled them with deadly accuracy at the warrior. They nailed him in the left of his broad chest and his shoulder, and she didn’t give him a chance to recover his focus. She loosed a barbed dart from her crossbow at him, reloaded in the space of a heartbeat, and shot the other male now attacking Thorne.

The barbed dart embedded into the demon’s left thigh and he grunted, his eyes glowing crimson as he turned his attention on her. Good. She had to give Thorne a moment to recover his wits and get back in the fight.

The warrior stomped towards her, blood pulsing down his leg with each step, turning his black leathers slick and shiny. He growled, his top lip peeling back off his fangs, and shook his head. His dusky horns curled further, forming a loop and flaring forwards into twin dangerous points near his cheekbones.

Sable made a mental note to avoid them and drew the short blade strapped to her other thigh, ready to fight him. He swung the moment he was within reach and she ducked beneath the long silver blade, rolled forwards and came to her feet behind him. She slashed up his back, her knife splitting tanned flesh and scraping over bone, and grinned as he arched forwards and roared.

The thrill chasing through her blood increased, consuming her, driving her to keep going and embrace wildness it unleashed within her. She had been born to fight monsters and she felt it now more than ever as she faced off against the enormous demon males, swiftly calculating their every move before they could make it, ready for anything.

Sable grabbed a bolt with a thick cylinder on the end from her quiver pouch. Explosive dart. God she loved these things. She loaded it onto the small crossbow and swung to her left, aiming at the group of males storming towards her.

She grinned and pulled the trigger.

A large bloodstained hand clamped down on the weapon, grasping it and holding the bolt in place.

Sable growled in frustration and released her crossbow, leaving it in the demon’s hand. She thrust hard with her blade, blindly stabbing at her new enemy.

The huge male grabbed her wrist before she could drive the cold steel into his flesh. The tip pressed into his muscular chest and she froze when she realised it was Thorne frowning down at her, his rough masculine features crinkled in confusion.

“You seek to harm me, Little Female? I thought we had discussed this before?”

His deep gravelly voice washed over her and his thumb caressed the inside of her wrist. Sable trembled. The hot shivery ache rolling through her increased in intensity as he tugged on her wrist, gently drawing her closer to him, his red gaze holding hers, commanding and powerful. She couldn’t break its hold on her. She tilted her head right back, lost in his eyes as he towered over her, making her feel small and weak, vulnerable to him.

Sable dropped her blade, the clang of it hitting the stone slabs beneath her feet jarring in the thick silence. She breathed hard, firmly under his spell and unable to form a response.

She had forgotten just how gorgeous he was and how his presence lit her up inside like fireworks on November fifth.

“Well?” Thorne cocked his head to one side and a hank of wild red-brown hair fell down onto his bloodstained brow.

Sable slowly shook her head and forced words up her dry throat and past her lips. “I was trying to help.”

A smile worked its way onto his firm lips and he flashed short fangs. “That is very kind of you… but I do not require your assistance to spar with my men.”

Spar?

Sable inched her gaze towards the demon males to her left. They had all stopped and were staring at her. She looked to her other side, at her team and the elves, and cringed. None of them had moved. She alone had leapt into the fray.

A blush burned up her cheeks before she could stop it. Thorne canted his head again, raised his free hand and lightly brushed the backs of his short claws across her left cheek. She shuddered under the gentle caress, her pulse quickening for a different reason as the heat burning inside her exploded into wildfire. She had to get a grip. This was a mission.

“Did you believe me to be under attack?” he husked in a low, quiet voice that sent a fierce shiver through her, cranking up her temperature another thousand degrees.

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She nodded, and admitting it left her feeling like a fool.

“And you came to my aid?” Had he moved closer to her? His breath washed over her cheek, moist and hot, smelling faintly of something sweet and the coppery tang of blood.

Sable nodded again.

“You are but a little mortal female… yet you desired to fight all these demon males in order to protect me?”

When he put it like that, she couldn’t stop herself from blushing harder. She had reacted on instinct but the tone of his voice and the way he drew her closer still, until she could feel his heat rolling off him and over her, told her that he thought she did it because she felt something for him.

Desired him.

She cleared her throat, finally locked down her emotions and found her voice again, and even the courage to lift her gaze to his. “Not out of favouritism or anything. I’m here on a mission and that mission entails protecting you and your kingdom from demons. I saw you battling a score of demons and I did my duty.”

She twisted her hand free of his grip and hated the sharp disappointed edge his eyes gained. It made her feel like a bitch. She grabbed her blade from the dark stone pavement and jammed it into its sheath, and then snatched up her crossbow and checked it over, taking her time about it, stewing under the intense heat of his gaze.

Sable kept her head bent and holstered her crossbow and the unused explosive dart. Thorne continued to stare at her. So did everyone else. She was not going to blush. She racked her brain, trying to think of something to say to make everything go back to normal, and diligently kept her gaze away from Thorne.

She had also forgotten how impossibly tight his dark mahogany leather trousers were. They clung to his muscular thighs, stretched over them like a second skin, held closed by criss-crossed lacing over his crotch.

Not staring. Not staring.

Her eyes betrayed her, leaping to the impressive bulge in his trousers, and she forced it upwards before anyone noticed. Thorne’s gaze locked with hers again, holding her immobile.

“I’ll need my blades and bolts back now,” she muttered, not quite with the world or aware of what she was saying.

Thorne nodded. “Of course.”

He signalled his men and Sable realised just what she had asked, and felt dismal as the men immediately tore the barbed darts and throwing knives from their flesh without giving a single grunt or revealing a flicker of the pain they must have experienced.

They came forwards and placed the weapons into Thorne’s outstretched hand. He wiped the blood off them on his leather trousers and then held them out to her.

Sable swallowed her guilt and took them from him. She slipped the blades away beneath her arms and put the darts back in her quiver. The silence in the courtyard thickened again. She wasn’t sure what to do. She had made one hell of a first impression—on her team, on the elves, on the demons.

On Thorne.

She wanted to groan and bury her head in her heads.

She needed a do-over on everything after she had appeared in the Third Realm. It really hadn’t gone as planned.

Sable tossed Olivia a look and her friend wiped the smile off her face and nudged Loren. The tall, slender elf prince looked down at his mate, his black eyebrows pinned high on his forehead. Olivia gave a subtle jerk of her chin towards Sable. Loren looked her way and understanding dawned in his purple eyes.

“King Thorne.” Loren broke away from his legion and Olivia, and crossed the short distance to the demon male.

Thorne’s gaze finally left Sable. “Prince Loren.”

Sable seized her chance to slink back unnoticed to her team. Some of them gave her funny looks. She ignored them and Bleu’s inquisitive stare and checked her team over, making sure they had all arrived safely.

Thorne’s focus landed back on her. She could feel it whenever it happened. A shockwave of heat rippled through her, awareness so intense that she could almost pinpoint how far he was from her and could visualise the way he was looking at her. Whenever he looked away, returning his attention to Loren, cold stole through her, fierce and frigid.

She rubbed her wrist, her actions mimicking the light stroke of Thorne’s thumb over her tattoo. It ached and burned. Had she hurt it in training? Or was it a response to the way Thorne had caressed that patch of skin?

She gathered herself, squared her shoulders, turned on the spot and calmly strode back to Thorne and Loren.

The two tall men looked at her. Their height and fangs were the only things they had in common. Loren was unnaturally beautiful, lithe and held an air of darkness around him that stemmed from more than just his black hair and obsidian armour. Thorne was rugged, immense and had an aura of danger surrounding him that warned even her away.

His gaze held darkness as he finished discussing the war with Loren.

She had the answer to one of her questions at least. Thorne was troubled. The war was taking its toll on him, pushing him to his limit, wearing him down.

“King Thorne,” she said without a trace of tremble in her voice and bowed her head. “I would like to introduce my team.”

He ran an assessing gaze over them and then returned his attention to her. “Little Female. It is kind of Archangel to send a small contingent of your forces to assist in my demonomachy.”

Sable bit her tongue, stopping herself from pointing out that she had a name and that this was a large contingent of their forces and all they could spare. She supposed that in comparison to the thousand immortal warriors that Loren had brought with him, her fifty mortal hunters did look rather pathetic.

“Sable,” Loren started and frowned when Thorne bared his fangs on a growl. Thorne cast his gaze down at his boots and clenched his fists. Loren arched an eyebrow at him, sighed, and continued, “Your hunters must desire to settle themselves in their quarters.”

Thorne growled again and this time Sable had the impression it was because Loren was suggesting things that he should have thought of and suggested first.

“That would be good.” Sable kept her focus on Thorne, pretending he had suggested it, hoping to calm him.

“You men,” Thorne barked and a group of demons near the large arched doorway of the impressive dark grey fortress saluted, pressing their hands to their bare chests. “Show the mortals and elves to their quarters.”

He signalled another set of males and gestured to the elves standing guard next to the black crates and bags.

“Take their belongings and follow their instruction to ensure they all end up with their owners.” Thorne glanced at her. “Come.”

He turned away and walked with Loren towards the arched doorway of the large three-storey stone building that formed a wide corner in the curved courtyard. Arched windows lined the first and second floors, smaller in the longest side of the building to her right but larger and more decorative in the main part ahead of her. A balcony extended to the left of the first upper floor, giving the building a staggered appearance.

Demons patrolled the battlements at the top of the building and the walls that connected to it.

It wasn’t a castle as Loren had, with towers and conical roofs, and a verdant courtyard filled with trees, grass and flowering shrubs. It was squat and heavily fortified, and bore the scars of war in many places, the stones cracked or long grooves cut into them. It had been built with defence in mind and reminded her of many of the castles in England or Wales. There was even a well in the courtyard. This place was a military stronghold.

The demons Thorne had ordered to take her team to their quarters reached her hunters and led them away, speaking in broken English to them. Loren had warned her that only the high-ranking demons could speak her language, and that many of the warriors only understood the demon tongue or could only speak a small amount of English.

The elves split into groups, some going with the mortals, some following Loren towards the doors, led by Bleu, and others going with Evan to deal with the crates.

Olivia came over and linked arms with her. “Well, that went well.”

Sable scowled at her friend. “Don’t start. I really hope I don’t make a fool of myself any more today.”

“You weren’t to know he was training,” Olivia whispered as they followed Thorne and Loren towards the main building of the large fortress.

The wall surrounding the courtyard was so high she couldn’t see anything but a strange dark orange sky. Was it day now, or night in this realm? Whenever she left Archangel to come to the elf realm, she ended up at the opposite time of day. She had left in the morning, so this was the evening?

The elves brought light into their realm via portals. Loren had explained the demon realms had a sort of day and night because the light of the elf kingdom reached far into many of their realms. The sheer number of torches and fires blazing around the courtyard illuminated it as if it was day.

She guessed there was no shortage of fire in Hell.

She glanced back at Evan to check on him. He was already glaring at the demons. He looked her way and pointed to a square three-storey building that intersected the wall behind her, opposite the main building. An armoury? There were several buildings like it along the curving wall. Huge demon males prowled the top of the wall between each building, or loitered near their entrances, talking and laughing. Laughing. It was a little weird seeing a demon laugh. She had imagined them all to be as serious as Thorne.

But even Thorne had smile-lines bracketing his mouth and at the corners of his eyes.

“Earth… I mean, Hell to Sable?” Olivia nudged her.

Sable shook herself back to her friend. “It’s a lot to take in.”

She nodded to Evan and he turned back to the demons and elves assisting him. Many of the demons stared at Evan’s tablet as if it were magical, their deep red eyes wide and expressions locked in lines of fascination.

A few males looked her way as they entered the main building. They grinned and bent their heads together. Whispering about her no doubt. The silly little mortal throwing herself into a battle between two dozen demons to protect their immortal king.

She groaned.

Olivia shifted her arm, wrapping it around Sable’s shoulders. “It’s really not that bad.”

But it was. She wanted to make Bleu take her back to Archangel and find a way to undo the past hour so she could do it all over again.

“If I look like I’m about to make another tit of myself, do feel free to hit me over the head with something blunt and heavy before it happens.” Sable leaned her head on Olivia’s shoulder and then straightened when Thorne spoke to Loren.

“I apologise for not being ready for you.” He rubbed a dark cloth over his torso, wiping the blood away. “I thought I had more time.”

“No need to apologise,” Loren said. “It was our fault. Archangel were eager to send their team in on the mission.”

Thorne glanced over his right shoulder at Sable, his eyebrows rising. She looked away, locking her gaze on Olivia and Bleu. When had he fallen into step with them?

She couldn’t look at Thorne. If she did, he was bound to see straight through her and see that she was the reason they were early. Bleu talked to Olivia about Loren and Sable drifted along beside her, not taking in the impressive carved columns that supported the vaulted ceiling in the wide hallway. She was too busy doing her best to ignore Thorne. She could block him out, keeping her eyes off him, but she couldn’t ignore how she felt whenever his gaze landed on her.

Hot all over. Flushed from the intense feel of his eyes on her.

Bleu moved around Olivia and her, ending up walking beside her. “You fought well.”

She shrugged off the compliment, uncomfortable with his praise, and thought of something to say to keep him around. His presence lessened the fierce reaction she had to Thorne’s eyes on her and she needed that right now.

She had to find her balance again before she did something crazy.

Like kissing a demon king.

 

Ebook from:


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Paperback from:


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Audiobook from:


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As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post Throwback Thursday – be Claimed by a Demon King this week! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

WIP Wednesday – Introducing a new shapeshifter romance series!

I’m super excited today, because I’m going to reveal more about a new shapeshifter romance series I have in the works.

After finishing the first draft of ESHER, I settled down to take a break and do some admin work. The usual stuff–marketing experiments, typing up the hordes of notes I scribble on paper about future books, tackling emails, and pulling together everything I need to release my next book. What I didn’t expect to happen was a whole new series popping into my head!

I’ve always been fascinated with big cats, and watching a TV series about them recently got me thinking–I haven’t written any pumas in my paranormal romances yet! It must have been there in the back of my mind for days, because I woke up one morning and was suddenly hit with a whole series about this shifter species.

I knew I had to set it in Canada, out in the wilderness, because it was a place I knew these big cats called home. Of course, in Canada, pumas are called cougars (in the states it’s mountain lions, and South America call them pumas), so a change in name cropped up. These would be cougar shifters.

I scribbled a LOT of notes for this shapeshifter romance series, ending with a complete outline for one book and rough ideas for a further three, bringing the series to four novellas about four brothers.

I decided this needed to be a separate series even though it’s actually set in the Eternal Mates world. So, yes, these cougars are going to meet their fated ones, that one true mate who is out there for them.

And… COUGAR CREEK MATES was born!

These shapeshifter romance books will be a little shorter than the Eternal Mates novellas, more in the length of the novellas in my Vampire Erotic Theatre and Her Angel series, around the 35,000-45,000 words mark (the Eternal Mates novellas are more like category length romances at 45,000-60,000 words).

I’ve been so excited about this series, that I’m almost done with the first draft of the first book in the series, CLAIMED BY HER COUGAR. I have just a couple more chapters to write, and that means the first draft will be completed by end of play on Friday.

I’ll be editing ESHER next and getting it ready for release in March, and then I’ll edit this book and get writing the second book in the series, CAPTURED BY HER COUGAR.

I think I’m doing these big cat shifters justice. They’re solitary like their animal counterparts, preferring to pass most of their time alone, but they come together at times, and the series is set around one of those times. Oh, and I was asked by a reader whether Archangel will be involved, and yeah, they do come up in this series.

And yes, that dragon shifter spin-off series I teased is also going to happen. These charming cougars just stole my focus a little.

And the best news? (I hope you’ll think it is anyway) If I keep rolling like this with the stories, and everything runs smoothly, I’ll be releasing all four novellas this summer!

Are you as excited as I am?

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post WIP Wednesday – Introducing a new shapeshifter romance series! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Thorne from the Eternal Mates Series

Welcome to Talking Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, I’ll either be answering questions myself, or posing questions to one of my characters from my paranormal romance books. All of these questions are submitted to me by my awesome readers at my Fang Club, a Facebook Group where I chat with my readers. Asking questions is exclusive to members of my Fang Club, so if you want to get in on the action, you’ll have to join the group.

This week, I had the task of posing questions to Thorne, one of the demon kings in my Eternal Mates series. You can read Thorne’s romance in Claimed by a Demon King.

Talking Tuesday with Thorne

Felicity: Hi Thorne! It’s great to see you as always, and I hope you don’t mind me dragging you away from Hell to chat with you. Your fans are eager to have you answer some questions.

Thorne: I have fans? *looks pleased*

Felicity: More than you probably know. Let’s get started! Tracy Benjamin pipped everyone to the post this week with her questions… she wants to know if you ever once thought that you might never meet your eternal mate because you lived for thousands of years before Sable was even thought of. Were there ever any doubts?

Thorne: Of course. Doubt was strong in me, but my kingdom kept me busy, and my memories of my parents kept my hope alive… although I do think a part of me might have given up, and that was the reason meeting Sable was such a shock.

Felicity: You loved your parents deeply, and it brings me to my next question, one I know might hurt you but one that Celita Collins  would really love for you to answer. Do you think you will ever be able to forgive Vail for killing your parents?

Thorne: *frowns and sighs* Perhaps. One day. I know now that he was under the control of that vile witch, but he was still responsible for their deaths. While he might have been controlled by another, some of the blame must still lie with him. If I had been older when my parents were taken from me, maybe I could have found the strength to forgive him, but he took them from me at a time I needed them most.

Felicity: That’s understandable, but I hope one day you can forgive him.

Thorne: *smiles slowly* You only say that, Little Female, because you harbour feelings for him.

Felicity: Shh, it’s a secret. *winks* So many questions about Sable, so I’ll start by asking how is she?

Thorne:  Well. Learning to control her powers thanks to the angel at that vampire theatre. They’re still growing stronger. She struggles at times.

Felicity: Speaking of the theatre, Ray Sargent wants to know whether Sable is still winding up Grave?

Thorne: *scowls* Unfortunately, yes. She is persistent, despite my warnings that antagonising that male is not a wise course of action. Grave has developed a talent for ignoring her whenever their paths cross, acting as if she isn’t even there. I am not sure this is a good thing. It has only made her more determined.

Felicity: That sounds like Sable. Martha Davis Williams tickled me with her question, which I’m going to quote verbatim, and it comes from her, not me… just remember that. *clears throat* “Greetings you big OAF! Umm…yeah, I’m not very good at demonic greetings. SORRY! My question is, do you enjoy visiting London with Sable, and what other places would you like to explore with your mate?”

Thorne: *grins* A fine demon greeting. Visiting London with Sable is fascinating, although she seems to draw far too much attention from the males, something I could live without. She has been showing me around after our visits to the vampire theatre, and I enjoy the tours, but sometimes they end in… um… a little trouble.

Felicity: What you’re saying is sometimes you lose your shit and go demon on men ogling your missus, right?

Thorne: *scowls* Correct. *eyes go a little redder*

Felicity: I’m sure that scares them straight. You’ve got to protect what’s yours.

Thorne: I wish Sable understood that.

Felicity: She probably does. I bet she loses her shit if women look at you.

Thorne: *grins again*

Felicity: That’s all the answer I need. Kathy Dela Cruz  wants to know whether there’s any plans on having a child? What are the funniest interaction with Sable and your demons that you’ve seen?

Thorne: *scrubs his jaw* Children? I do not think Sable is ready yet, but perhaps one day, when she is more settled. I have seen her look at the children at the theatre, and the way she interacts with them… *sighs* she would make a fine mother.

Felicity: One determined to give birth on the battlefield if it came to it. I haven’t forgotten that.

Thorne: *laughs* She was glorious putting the First King in her place like that. I have to think about the other question. Funniest interaction? Hmm. She did once try to teach the cooks to bake something called chocolate fudge brownie. I am not sure it went quite as planned though, unless it was meant to explode in the oven. Sable has banned me from talking about it.

Felicity: I don’t even know how you make food explode.

Thorne: I suspect a misunderstanding about some of the ingredients she requested. She was in a mood for days, muttering about craving chocolate. In the end, I ventured to the mortal world and procured her all the chocolate she could eat… including a jar of a sort of spread… which she promptly… well… let us simply say I was not in a mood for a rather long time after that night.

Felicity: Food play. Nice. You dirty demon.

Thorne: *blushes* I did not initiate it.

Felicity: Yeah, yeah. I’ll bring you down with a bump now by mentioning your favourite elf! Kirsty Hatto wants to know whether you and Bleu are getting on better now?

Thorne: *grunts* A little. His mate is an interesting one. Sable gets along with her so well that we never see them when he brings her to visit, or when we visit the elf castle. She is always off with that dragon, or with both her and Olivia if we are at the castle.

Felicity: It’s nice she has friends in Hell though.

Thorne: True. I just wish she did not lose track of time as much and worry me.

Felicity: Oh dear, I can just picture you, Bleu and Loren all grumpy and sour, waiting for your women to come home! I’d pay to see it. Kirsty also wanted to know if there was anything you would do differently when it comes to your life?

Thorne: Nothing… because everything that has happened brought me to Sable.

Felicity: Charmer. *pushes his arm* Sable will be getting the chocolate spread out again as payment for that one.

Thorne: *blushes again* Just ask another question.

Felicity: I only have one, and it comes from Carole Joyce Buckley  who wants to know will you and Loren get together and devise a plan to take out Archangel once and for all?

Thorne: *face darkens* Believe me, we are working on one, and it is not only Loren and myself involved in it.

Felicity: Ooh, that sounds ominous. Thanks for coming today, and I won’t keep you waiting any longer. You can go now. I’ll message Sable and tell her to get the jar out.

Thorne: *huffs* Female.

Felicity: You’re not really angry. Quit pretending to be mad and run along now, you dirty demon king.

Thorne: *sighs as he teleports*

Felicity: He loves me really.

Thanks for reading my Talking Tuesday interview with Thorne and I hope that you’ll swing by the blog again next week to see who we’re interviewing then!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Thorne from the Eternal Mates Series appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Apollyon from the Her Angel Series

Welcome to my new feature, Talking Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, I’ll either be answering questions myself, or posing questions to one of my characters from my paranormal romance books. All of these questions are submitted to me by my awesome readers at my Fang Club, a Facebook Group where I chat with my readers. Asking questions is exclusive to members of my Fang Club, so if you want to get in on the action, you’ll have to join the group.

This week, I had the task of posing questions to Apollyon, one of the angels in my Her Angel Series. You can read Apollyon’s romance in Her Dark Angel.

Talking Tuesday with Apollyon

Felicity: Hi Apollyon! It’s great to sit down and chat with you again. It’s been a while since we’ve spoken and I hope things have been going well with you, Serenity and the gang! Are you ready to answer some questions from your loyal fans?

Apollyon: I’m all ears.

Felicity: We’ve had a lot of questions this week, which is great! I love seeing so much enthusiasm, because I hate dragging you guys away from your other halves. It’s always good to have a barrage of questions ready for you.

Apollyon: *shuffles on his chair* Not too many I hope. *glances at the door onto the terrace of his Paris penthouse apartment*

Felicity: Not too many. I won’t be keeping you from Serenity for long. Let’s get rolling! I had a few people ask me this one, including Jenny Murray and Carole Joyce Buckley… they want to know if you can… ah… procreate with Serenity.

Apollyon: *sighs* Unfortunately not. Angels are sterile.

Felicity: But if you could, you’d want a little angel running around?

Apollyon: I… yes… I would. Seeing Serenity with Erin’s son… she lights up and I would love to give her a child of her own.

Felicity: It’s a shame you can’t then. You don’t think it might be possible with a spell? Serenity is a witch. There must be fertility spells that she can use to make your little swimmers do their thang.

Apollyon: *blushes* You have an awful way of speaking. I hadn’t thought about it. I haven’t spoken to Serenity about it before.

Felicity: I’m guessing now you will. *grin* Martha Davis Williams would love to know which era you found most interesting out of the ones you watched in the pool in Hell?

Apollyon: That would be the industrial revolution. Life in the mortal world seemed to move so slowly before then. The speed at which humans began to advance technologically was incredible to watch.

Felicity: I can imagine. It all sort of took off. I know angels are fascinated by mortal ingenuity and inventions, and you must have had your fill then. I can picture the angels in Heaven who watch the pools there being thrilled to do their duty every day and report on new devices to the others.

Apollyon: It was a busy time for us all.

Felicity: Lynette Coop really wants to know if you’ve been adjusting to life in Paris, and other than Serenity, what do you love most about living here?

Apollyon: Other than Serenity? *smiles* The food. *deep sigh* Oh, the food. It’s incredible. Phenomenal. The patisseries… the cakes! I think I found my own little slice of Heaven down here in this city.

Felicity: Sounds like you’ve adjusted well to your slice of chocolate cake… I mean Heaven.

Apollyon: *glares*

Felicity: So you don’t feel a need to go back to Hell at all?

Apollyon: Only when the Devil is acting up.

Felicity: Ah, I was going to ask about him, because Kirsty Hatto wants to know if you’re getting along better now he has a lady in his life?

Apollyon: She’s a good influence, but he’s still difficult to deal with. He broke a seal the other day. Blamed it on the angels we’re hunting, even when he knows they’re not down there. I think he just wanted a little more power. Asmodeus does his best to keep him in check, but sometimes it takes both of us… and Erin too.

Felicity: Speaking of the gang, Kirsty also wanted to know whether you’re feeling more brotherly towards Asmodeus yet, and how is everyone?

Apollyon: *snorts* I don’t think I will ever see eye to eye with Asmodeus… but… he’s more tolerable these days. Even helpful at times. He is still an awful drunk though. He was banned from Cloud Nine.

Felicity: *laughs* What was he doing there anyway? I thought Liora laid down the law about drinking?

Apollyon: Nevar went a little off the rails, and Asmodeus thought the appropriate response was to become a sort of drinking buddy while convincing him to… I’m not even sure what he was trying to convince him to do. He should have just dragged him back home rather than level half the nightclub with him.

Felicity: Maybe he thought it would be a good bonding experience? Who knows with Asmodeus. What about the others?

Apollyon: They are doing well. The tiny terror is growing, and causing all kinds of trouble for Erin and Veiron. Einar is enjoying his wings. Lukas is working hard with the other angels to help us track the so-called Princes, and Amelia and Marcus are enjoying life on the island with the tiny terror… or at least they say they are. Last week he burned down their hut.

Felicity: Oh… sounds like he’s becoming a handful… and I need to speak with his parents soon.

Apollyon: *glances at Serenity as she hums a tune and admires a glass of wine* So… we are done?

Felicity: Ah, love. Go get her, big guy! *watches him go* It’s nice seeing such a stick-up-his-ass angel all in love. Now I really need to track down Erin or Veiron to have a chat with them!

 

Thanks for reading my Talking Tuesday interview with Apollyon and I hope that you’ll swing by the blog again next week to see who we’re interviewing then!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post Talking Tuesday – Character Q&A With Apollyon from the Her Angel Series appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

WIP Wednesday – Esher First Draft Complete!

So, I meant to make a few WIP Wednesday posts this month because I started writing the next Guardians of Hades novel, Esher. However, writing was going so well that I ended up forgetting to post at my blog. Hell, I forgot to do anything but writing.

The upside of my radio silence, is that even though I only started writing this first draft on January 8th, I have now completed it. It took me only 11 days to write 100,000 words, which is some feat! I averaged over 9000 words a day on this puppy. I’m still not sure how that happened, but it feels good to have it done, and to find such an energetic flow. I haven’t written so many words a day in years!

The other upside is that it means the book will be ready for release earlier than anticipated by a couple of weeks, so I’ll be able to get it in your hands by the end of March instead of April.

In fact, I’m excited to confirm that right now, I have it penciled in as a release on March 24th.

I’ve been so productive, that I even got the cover designed on Monday, which ate up a couple of hours but was well worth it, believe me, and I got the blurb written. Writing the summary of a book is my least favourite thing to do, so it’s a huge relief to have it completed bar a final proofread.

I have to say, it feels awesome to be so ahead of schedule, not panicking that I won’t hit a deadline and having that cramp my writing by making me feel as if I’ll never get it done.

I want to post a teaser of the book, but I’m going to save that for when I’ve done my initial read over of the book in the next couple of weeks and I feel it’s in a good enough shape to share with you.

For now, I’ll leave you with that teaser of the cover up top…

Are you excited about getting your hands on Esher’s book?

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

The post WIP Wednesday – Esher First Draft Complete! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

FREE Holiday Paranormal Romance Short – Dawning!

It’s the season of giving, and since I’ve been having some down time, my characters have been acting up to get my attention, and none of them more so than Hartt from my Eternal Mates series. So, while watching snow falling, I decided to indulge him and wrote this short… it gets a bit dark, but if you know Hartt, this won’t surprise you… and yes, this is a set up for his romance. I hope you like it!

The neon sign that was normally bright against the red-brick warehouse in London was off, barely visible in the dark alley. Below it, the double doors had a note tacked to them.

Closed for a private function.

Through those heavy steel doors, Hartt could feel the vibrations of the music, could hear it clearly and knew if he dared to open them, the volume would hurt his sensitive ears.

How could she live in this place?

How could any of the immortals who called the nightclub their home, or frequented it, bear the noise?

Hartt shifted foot to foot, his eyes on those twin doors, the nerves he had managed to wrangle into submission threatening to rise again as he fought with himself, torn between leaving now and braving stepping into the building.



One where he wasn’t welcome.

Gods, he wanted to see her again though.

Seeing her a few months ago had delivered a blow he had never quite recovered from, one that had left him off balance.

Now, with Fuery reunited with Shaia, Hartt was finding it impossible to keep his mind off the female elf.

One he had been engaged to once, many centuries ago.

Iolanthe.

He had done his best to push her out of his mind, to go on with his life as he had been since she had left him, but work running the assassin’s guild in the free realm of Hell wasn’t holding his attention, and with Shaia taking care of Fuery now, he had even more time on his hands.

Time his mind seemed intent on using to think about Iolanthe.

Fuck, how many centuries or millennia had it been since she had run away and left him without a bride on their wedding day?

Back then, he had been besotted with her, overjoyed that her parents had chosen him out of all her potential suitors, and crushed when she had fled and disappeared.

Over the centuries that had passed since then, he had gotten over her. Hadn’t he?

Seeing her again had sparked something inside him back to life, and he needed to set eyes on her again so he could understand what that feeling was before it destroyed him.

Hartt tugged the hem of his obsidian dress shirt up, slipped his hand into the pocket of his black fatigues and palmed the box, a small wooden one that had been in his possession for longer than he could remember now. He took a deep breath, using the feel of it to bolster his courage as the sound coming from the nightclub grew in volume, voices rising as the music quietened.

It was now or never.

He used a fraction of his telekinetic power to open the doors before him and slipped inside just as the fifty-plus occupants of the room finished counting down.

A cheer went up.

Hartt stood in the shadows, frozen in place as his gaze zeroed in on the slender, tall female near the bar as she was swept up into the arms of a muscled sandy-haired male. He couldn’t tear his eyes away as she wrapped her arms around his neck, tilted her head and captured his lips in a kiss that sent a cold sort of fire sweeping through Hartt. Pain followed it, a fierce prickling that skittered across every nerve-ending and burrowed deep into his heart.

His chest grew uncomfortably tight as the black-haired beauty pulled back from the male.

Her mate.

Happiness swam in her violet eyes as she gazed down at the jaguar shifter, her black leather corset and trousers a contrast against the male’s white shirt that stretched tight over his arms and shoulders as he clutched her to him, holding her as if she were precious and he didn’t want to let her go.

Would she have ever grown to look at him that way—as if he was her whole world?

Could she have ever come to love him the way he had loved her?

Hartt palmed the box again, a gift he had wanted to give to her to celebrate the dawning of a new year. It was an event many species celebrated, but one that was special to elves like them. It was the biggest day of the year, marking the turning point in the seasons, when life began anew.

Only he was no longer sure why he had come.

To torture himself with the one thing he could never have?

There was nothing for him here, and if she noticed him, things wouldn’t go the way he desired in the very depths of his heart. He was being a fool all over again. She had shown him the last time he had come here that she would always choose her mate over him, and who was he really to expect anything different?

He wasn’t her fated one.

He meant nothing to her.

She had proven that by running away when she had been given the chance.

Still, he couldn’t convince his feet to move, or his portal to awaken and whisk him away from her. He couldn’t bring himself to leave. He stared at her, lost and a little broken, yearning for her to notice him even when he knew he needed to leave before she did.

Before the jaguar did.

The male would kill him if he saw him, and gods, Hartt might just let him do it, wouldn’t have the heart to fight him in earnest while Iolanthe was cheering her mate on.

He managed to take a step back towards the exit, deeper into the shadows.

Where he belonged.

He didn’t belong here, in this bright mortal world, filled with life and laughter.

He belonged in the shadows, wrapped in darkness, in his world of death and devastation.

He willed his portal, calling the power to the surface, and silvery light rippled over his body, chasing back the shadows. As the darkness swallowed him, sweeping him away from her, she glanced his way, her eyes landing on him for the briefest fragment of time before he disappeared.

His boots hit cobbles, not the black ones that formed the road that curved across the front of the guild, but brown and beige ones interspersed with pale grey. Ones belonging to the square of a bustling fae town in a cavern beneath mountains and a mortal town in the heart of Scotland. People packed the square, knocking against him as they sang and celebrated.

Hartt stood in the middle of them, unmoving, silent, his mind hundreds of miles south. He pulled the small box from his pocket, brushed his thumb over the delicately carved wood, feeling the swirls and leaves, and then flicked it open. He stared at the silver ring nestled in the black velvet, and the bright amethyst clasped in tiny claws and wings of the dragon that formed the band.

A ring that had been in his family for generations.

One that should have adorned her hand.

He huffed, snapped the box closed and used his powers to send it back to his apartment in the guild.

He was being weak. A fool.

He hadn’t thought about her for centuries, hadn’t felt the familiar pain in his heart for millennia, and it was time he pushed her back out of his thoughts and his heart, and moved on once and for all.

It was the dawning of a new year.

A chance to walk a new path, to lead a new life, one free of her.

This contract would be the start of that new life.

Fuery hated it when he took on a job, but he needed this. He needed something to focus on, to consume his time and his mind in order to purge Iolanthe from his life again, so he had picked the most challenging, most dangerous contract they had on their books and he would see it through to the end.

Alone.

He scanned the crowd as they jostled and jeered, pewter mugs clacking as they toasted the new year, a mixture of fae, witches, demons and other immortals.

His violet gaze settled on a lone female standing still and silent on a raised path at the other end of the square opposite him, her wicked curves wrapped in burgundy leather that complemented her flame-red hair and golden eyes.

Something in the region of his stomach sank slowly towards his boots even as fire ignited in his veins.

Hartt had the feeling that taking this contract had been both a good and a terrible idea.

She was a beautiful distraction.

But he was going to have to kill her.

I hope you liked this slightly dark little piece about Hartt and that it has given you some insight into his character and what he’s going through, and a hint of his story…

My comments are always open and I would love to hear from you, so shout if you enjoyed this and want to know more!

 

The post FREE Holiday Paranormal Romance Short – Dawning! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

FREE Holiday Paranormal Romance Short – A Gift of Forever!

It’s the season of giving, and so I plan to share with you my seasonal stories that I’ve written over the years. These are flash fictions, which are short pieces, all based on books I’ve written.

My last offering is a seasonal scene based on A PROMISE OF PASSION, which you can find in my Eternal Love: Vampire Romance Boxed Set!

Alicia was humming.

Kassian’s senses had become so attuned to her over the past year that he could hear her through her open apartment window from over found hundred metres away down the quiet urban street.

He focused on the fire escape outside her window, pushed his heels down hard into the ground and sprung forwards. Not a sound broke the silence as he soared through the wintry air, landed on the black metal railing that edged the balcony and stepped down. Kassian walked to the redbrick wall of the converted factory building. The tall panelled sash window was fully open. He leaned the breadth of his shoulders against the wall beside it, drew his long black wool coat back, and slipped his hands into his trouser pockets.

The stars were bright tonight and the air cold as it blew against him, tousling his long black hair where it was tied at the nape of his neck in a ponytail. The world drifted away as he listened to Alicia. The beautiful sound drew a smile up from his heart to his lips.

It wasn’t the tune running through his mind, but it was pleasant nonetheless.

The store he had visited this evening had been playing the same song. It had irritated him then, but now it was soothing to his ears. Alicia sung so sweetly. She was his angel on Earth.

“Are you going to stand out there all night?” Her voice drifted through the open window to him, warm with the sound of her amusement. Kassian could almost see her smiling. “It’s getting cold.”

Kassian’s smile widened and he stepped away from the wall. His little vampire hunter never failed to notice his arrival. The window had been left open for his sake after all.

Ducking, he stepped through the window and into her apartment and then shut it behind him. The moment his gaze lit on her, he froze.

Alicia was radiant. Her chestnut brown hair was longer now than when they had met and she wore it down tonight, a sleek mane of shiny silk that he loved to run his fingers through. Instead of her usual jeans and t-shirt, she was wearing a short black skirt and a purple long-sleeved top which hugged her figure and cut low across her breasts in a V.

She was beautiful.

So beautiful that he felt as though he was falling in love with her all over again.



Kassian went to step towards her but she came to him instead, the smile on her cherry lips reflected in her eyes.

“You look very festive tonight,” Alicia said and he knew without looking that she was referring to his red shirt, and ignoring the black tie and coat he wore it with. The smile in her eyes became a look of mischief and she turned away from him. He frowned when she bent over, revealing more leg than he could bear to see without feeling hungry for her, and then she straightened again. When she came back to him, she was holding a long piece of green tinsel. Kassian stared at her mouth when she smiled again, losing himself in the thought of kissing her and how she would react to what he had bought at the store. He didn’t care that she placed the green tinsel around his neck. The feel of her hands smoothing it down over his chest, lingering there a moment before she stepped back to appraise her work with a critical eye, was worth the humiliation.

“There, now you’re in the spirit.” She grinned and went back to what she had been doing before he had arrived.

He only noticed it now that he could bear to take his eyes off her. It was a tree in the corner of her white apartment. She had moved the armchair away from the false fireplace and had filled the space with a large green fir tree. It sparkled with lights, tinsel and baubles.

“In all seriousness, what are you doing?” Kassian said and Alicia looked over her slender shoulders at him, her smile still wide.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” She raised a fine dark eyebrow in his direction. “I’m decorating a Christmas tree.”

His gaze fell to the bare wooden floor beneath the fake tree. It seemed very lonely to him to decorate a tree that wouldn’t have any presents beneath it. Alicia hid it well, but Kassian knew that she missed her friends. Sometimes there was an edge to her words or a look in her eyes that betrayed her thoughts and her heart, and said that she was thinking of leaving him.

Kassian couldn’t allow that.

They had come to London to flee his enemies when he had defeated Seth. They still weren’t safe though. She wasn’t safe. There were vampires, his kin, still after them.

He couldn’t let her leave him.

Not only because of the danger to her, but because of the way that he felt about her.

He loved her too much.

Yet he wanted her to be happy, and he knew that she couldn’t be happy with only him. Kassian had spent the past few days laying awake and thinking about it. Her loneliness was beginning to show more and more often.

He couldn’t bring her friends, or help her make new ones amongst the local vampire hunters. They didn’t trust her because of him. Alicia had been getting along well with them until they had discovered that she was with a vampire. He had spoiled everything for her.

Alicia hadn’t been angry with him that night. She had shown him only love and understanding, and had said that she didn’t need to be with the other vampire hunters, but he had seen through her words to her heart. It had hurt her.

Kassian wanted her to be happy. He wanted her to see that she wasn’t alone. He would always be with her.

“Is something wrong?” Alicia said and Kassian realised that she had stopped decorating the tree and had come to him, a shiny gold bauble still in her hand. He looked down into her eyes, wishing with all of his heart that he was better with words and could tell her everything that he held inside. Reaching out to her, he smiled to alleviate her worry and then brushed his fingers down her cheek, sweeping the strands of her hair from her face and caressing her soft warm skin. His Alicia. She had sacrificed everything to be with him, and now she was trying to cheer herself up by making a beautiful picture of Christmas.

Without any presents.

He could fix that at least.

Alicia deserved the present he would give her. Not the physical one, but the one behind it.

“There are no gifts beneath your tree,” Kassian said in a soft voice and studied her.

Alicia hooked the gold bauble on the breast pocket of his coat and then took hold of both ends of the tinsel. She pulled it towards her, luring him down. He closed his eyes when her lips met his, sweet tasting and soft, kissing him with all the love he always felt in her. He let himself go, releasing his hold on the world in exchange for a hold on her, drawing her close and kissing her. Her tongue met his, tangling slowly and gently, barely caressing it. It was a tease more than a kiss. She had ones that he swore were designed solely to stir his blood and make him want her more than he usually did, with so much fire and hunger that he could barely control himself. This was one of those kisses—slow, intense, passionate in its restraint, and so light that he felt as though he was floating.

When she kissed him like this, he wanted to possess her, wanted to tell her that he would never let her go and keep that promise. He desired to show her the passion she stirred in him. He wanted to give his heart to her all over again, and he would.

“You’re the only present I need,” Alicia whispered against his mouth and he smiled for a moment, until he felt sadness inside her.

Kassian opened his eyes and saw Alicia was staring at the base of the tree rather than at him.

When she turned back around, her smile was false and empty.

“I know you don’t believe in Christmas.” Alicia’s voice was a bare whisper. She slowly pulled the tinsel from around his shoulders. He caught her hand to stop her just before the tinsel fell away from him. She frowned at his hand, staring at it.

“I would believe in anything if you believed in it.”

Alicia looked up at him, still frowning.

“You don’t believe in God.” The challenge in her words didn’t go unnoticed.

“Because there is no need to believe in something which you know exists,” he countered and her frown disappeared. She had never asked him before about demons or anything about his world. If she had, she would know that there was a God and there was a Devil, and both were playing a terrible game with the fate of Man.

Alicia stared at him with wide eyes, her pupils large in the low glow of the fire and the multi-coloured lights on the tree.

Kassian sighed and stroked her hand where he held it in his, trapped against his chest. The green tinsel tickled his wrist.

“Would you like a present, sweet Alicia?” he whispered and she frowned again.

Her eyes searched his and her frown melted away, her eyebrows rising high. “Are you serious? I can’t tell sometimes.”

He smiled, amused by how well she knew him now. A year together and they were still as they had been the first days they had spent together. Everything still felt new, and the ground beneath his feet still felt as though it would fall away at any moment. He had lost his heart to Alicia. If she left him, the world would be a darker place, one he would desire no part in.

“I am being serious,” he said in a low voice. A hint of colour touched her cheeks.

She always blushed when he said anything with a trace of desire or strength.

Kassian took her left hand from his chest. His threatened to shake but he held it together.

“I bought you a present.” He pressed a kiss to her hand. The smell of her blood was divine. He hadn’t tasted her in all the time they had been together. He had only ever taken a sip from her finger that night at the club.

That night that had changed everything between them.

“You really have,” she said and he realised that she had only just believed him.

“I really have,” he echoed and kissed her hand again, savouring her scent and her warmth. His Alicia.

Kassian took a deep breath, reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out his hand. He held it out to her and opened it with a flourish to reveal the small black box tied with a red ribbon.

Alicia stared at it. Her heart was pounding and her hand was trembling in his. He smiled inside at her reaction.

“You do not want it?” he said and pretended to take it away. She grabbed his wrist with her other hand, stopping him. He smiled at her now. It seemed his Alicia liked presents.

“What is it?” Alicia took it from his hand and looked up into his eyes. The twinkle in them said that she knew very well what it was but she wanted to hear him say it.

“Open it.”

“It isn’t Christmas yet.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” he said and touched her hand, pushing the box she held towards her. He wanted to see her reaction. He had been picturing many since buying the present, and hoped it would be one of the positive ones.

Alicia took her other hand back from him. Kassian held his breath without thinking. He didn’t need to breathe but he had taken to it since falling for Alicia. It made it easier for her to be with him in public if he pretended that he breathed. It made him more human.

He couldn’t get more human than this.

Alicia opened the box with shaking fingers, untying the ribbon first and then struggling to get the lid open. When she did, her eyes widened and she didn’t take them off the solitaire ruby ring in the box.

“What is this?” she whispered and took the ring from its velvet bed and raised it, disbelief written across her face and in her voice. “What does this mean?”

Kassian took a deep breath to steady himself and then dropped to one knee before her. She looked at him then, her body shaking so much that he could sense it and the fear that laced her blood.

“It means that I desire to marry you.” Kassian held his hand up to her.

Alicia just stared at him, and then the ring, and then him. She went back and forth over and over, as though by doing so she could make herself understand what was happening.

Finally, her gaze settled on him and stayed there. She stared down at him.

For one heart-stopping moment, he thought she was going to play out one of the thousand refusal scenarios that had plagued him all day and night.

“You’re a vampire, Kassian… and vampires can’t marry.”

“No, we cannot,” he said and tears filled her eyes. He caught hold of her hand, tempted to pull her into his arms. The contact between them seemed to be enough to soothe her and keep her attention on him. “I want to marry you… officially I cannot… but I pledge my heart to you, Alicia, and I love you with all of it. If you wish it, accept it, I swear to be yours and yours alone. I swear on that ring that I will always love you and that we will never part, until death do us part and beyond. If you swear it to me, I will be your husband and you my wife… or do you need a person you do not know and a God you do not truly believe in to tell you that you are married?”

Alicia stared at the ring.

Kassian’s heart fell into his stomach when she said nothing, didn’t even look at him.

“You do not like it,” he said and took his hand away. His chest hurt. He loved her so much that it hurt at times like this when she was still afraid of him, when she feared his love.

He was about to stand and leave when she spoke.

“No,” she whispered in a voice so faint he barely heard her even with his superior hearing. Now it felt as though his heart was breaking and he couldn’t hide his disappointment. He was surprised when Alicia touched his cheek and he could sense her feelings, and the love in her caress. Kassian raised his pale blue eyes to hers. She was smiling at him, looking at him as though he was an idiot for some reason. “I love it… I just… I never realised that I wanted to marry you, or how frightening it would be.”

“Frightening?” Kassian hadn’t exactly been expecting that sort of word to come up. It hadn’t in any of his scenarios.

“If I put this on, and believe in the pledge you’ve made, then we’re married in our eyes.” Alicia lowered her hand to his shoulder and eased down to kneel in front of him. Her gaze searched his. “You really want to marry a vampire hunter?”

Kassian’s heart filled with relief. Was that all she was worried about? He shook his head and then smiled at her.

“With all of my heart,” he said and a blush burned her cheeks again.

Alicia offered her left hand to him. He hadn’t expected her to say yes, or to want him to place the ring on her finger. Deep in his heart, he had thought that she would merely accept the ring as a present and wear it occasionally. He couldn’t contain his smile when he took her hand and placed the ruby ring on her finger. Her hand shook in his and he held it tight, letting her see that he wasn’t going to let her go now that he had her. He would be a good husband to her, the best he could be, and she would want for nothing.

The first part of his plan was in place. Now the only thing that remained was to inform her of the rest.

Alicia took her hand from his. He could feel nerves in her, hear them in her pattering heartbeat. Before he could ask her what was wrong, she had swept her chestnut hair back and pulled the left side of her top down off her shoulder.

His eyes zeroed in on her neck, immediately fixed on the flickering point of her pulse.

Alicia closed her eyes and tilted her head to one side.

“I don’t have a ring to offer… and I know that to a vampire, this would show my love for you. It would be the equivalent of your ring given to me.” Her words were soft, touching his heart deeper than she ever could have known.

“Alicia,” Kassian breathed and tried to take his eyes off her throat but couldn’t. She was offering her neck, and he wanted to take it, to seal the bond between them in a way that would ensure both their species knew of their love. He dragged his gaze away, staring at the wooden floor. He couldn’t.

“I’m not afraid,” she whispered and he glanced at her again. Her eyes were open, watching him. Her throat tempted him. “I don’t care if it hurts.”

“I cannot,” he said and she looked disappointed.

She straightened, pulling her hair back over her neck and rearranging her top. She wouldn’t look at him. She stared at her knees. No. He realised that she was staring at the ring on her finger and toying with it. Her disappointment surprised him. She wanted him to bite her. He hadn’t tried to since meeting her. He had always thought that if he did, it would drive her away.

How long had she wanted it?

It was a beautiful thing she was asking for, something which he desired most of all, but he couldn’t.

“The hunters in Paris would never speak to you if you wore my marks.”

She didn’t react. She kept staring at her hands. “I don’t care what other hunters think of me.”

Kassian reached across to her and placed his hand against her cheek, holding it. Alicia leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. She brought her hands up and held his, and sighed.

She hadn’t even noticed that he had said Paris. Was she so preoccupied with her desire to have him bite her?

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him, questioning and confused. She had tracked back over his words.

“I have been offered a position there with a group who hunt demons. They desire a vampire perspective on things and would be able to give us protection.” Kassian absorbed the warmth of her skin and the growing awareness in her eyes. “I want you to be safe. I will work with the people as long as they can offer you protection.”

He had never worked with such an organisation before, but he was willing to for Alicia’s sake.

“There is a large contingent of vampire hunters in Paris. I thought perhaps you could join them and I would keep my distance this time. If you wear my marks, they will see you are with a vampire,” he said.

“I don’t want you to keep your distance,” Alicia said and he realised that she enjoyed it when he played shadow to her, following her on her patrols and sometimes assisting her. Her gaze found his again, searching once more. “What if I joined the same group as you?”

He wasn’t sure about that. There could be humans amongst them, but she wouldn’t be strictly hunting vampires and he didn’t know how experienced she was with other demons.

“I could work for them handling the vampires that come up and I’ve fought other demons… and if they wanted to know what the local vampire hunters knew, I could speak to them.”

She was trying to sway him now. Whenever she wanted something, she would give him a million reasons to let her do it. He wasn’t her keeper. If she wanted to join the group with him, he could arrange that. She wasn’t thinking one thing through though. She would still be wearing his marks. The vampire hunters wouldn’t speak with her.

His hand dropped to her throat and he caressed it. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head away. Kassian couldn’t stop his eyes from roaming to her lips when she bit her lower one. Her warmth permeated the room, filling it with her scent and her desire. She really wanted him to bite her.

He was going to reason with her when she spoke again.

“I could say a big bad vampire bit me and that was why I have marks,” she whispered and her eyes opened, locking with his. “I want you to bite me, Kassian.”

Kassian couldn’t have denied her, not even if he had wanted to. Before she could reconsider, he had swept the hair from her neck and his arms were around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. His fangs extended and he bit down on the soft inviting flesh of her throat. The hot burst of blood into his mouth made his body harden for more and he groaned at the sweet taste of her and the way she undid the string holding his dark hair back and ran her fingers through it before clutching him to her neck. She moaned softly into his ear, drawing an answering moan from him. He drank deep from her and opened his heart at the same time. She would be able to sense him through her blood and the connection between them. He wanted her to feel what this meant to him and how much he loved her.

He loved her more than anything. He would do anything for her. He would give her the moon, the stars and the world if she desired it. He would give her anything and everything. Whatever made her happy, he would do it for her.

He loved his precious Alicia, and he would never let her go.

Kassian drank deep, dizzy from the taste of her and the way she clung to him. He could feel her love for him, and it filled his heart and warmed him through. He had never thought that she would want this. Her feelings said that she did. She wanted them to be together, and she wanted the world to know it.

His little vampire hunter.

He licked and kissed her throat, helping to seal the marks he had placed on her throat.

“I love you,” he whispered into her ear. “My wife.”

Alicia giggled. The sound was music to his ears.

“I love you too… husband.”

He held her close, staring at the twinkling coloured lights of the Christmas tree, feeling the happiness beating in Alicia’s heart. She still didn’t have a present to place under the tree, but he would remedy that tomorrow night. He would buy her a different present for every day that he had known her.

Because every day had been a gift to him.

This story was based on A PROMISE OF PASSION, available in:

Eternal Love: Vampire Romance Boxed Set

Step into the dark, dangerous and seductive world of vampires in this amazing limited time only boxed set of vampire romances packed with passion, emotion and suspense… and love that will last forever.

HEART OF DARKNESS

A vampire prince intent on avenging his murdered sister, Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the hunter’s line is extinct. Each kill pushes him towards the darkness all vampires hold within their hearts and devolving into a beast. 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?

SEDUCE

Bloodlust runs in Antoine’s veins, a dark master waiting for the day it will reign over him. Now a woman with a pure soul and wicked intentions has him in her sights and is determined to crack the ice around his heart, and she might just save or damn him. When Sera discovers the shocking truth about his past and the darkness that lurks within, will she be strong enough to seize his heart or will she lose him to the ghosts that haunt him?

A PROMISE OF PASSION

Alicia is a vampire hunter, unable to find a man strong enough to love and accept her for who she is. When Kassian, a tall and seductively handsome vampire walks into her life and vows to protect her, she doesn’t know what to think or feel. His eyes make promises that his searing touch backs up, but can she get past the fact that he’s a vampire and accept him for who he is?

SEVENTH CIRCLE

Lincoln is a powerful pureblood vampire with a problem. He’s caught up in a prophecy and has little time left to unravel the mystery of the contract between his lord and the Devil before he dies. When witches foretell that a vampire hunter will save his life, he’s prepared to work with his most hated enemy, but he isn’t prepared for the forbidden desire he feels when he meets her.

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The post FREE Holiday Paranormal Romance Short – A Gift of Forever! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.

Unchained by a Forbidden Love (Eternal Mates Book 15) final chapter plus last chance to enter the giveaway!

I’m celebrating the release of Fuery and Shaia’s book in my Eternal Mates paranormal romance series with an amazing giveaway plus sharing the first four chapters here at my blog. Read on for chapter four, the final sneak peek, and details of the awesome giveaway you can enter!

UNCHAINED BY A FORBIDDEN LOVE, book 15 in the series, is out now. It’s time to catch up with what has been happening in this world of dark elves, shifters, fae, demons and angels…

 

Unchained by a Forbidden Love (Eternal Mates Book 15)

Lost to the darkness, Fuery wages a daily war against the corruption that lives within him, constantly in danger of slipping into the black abyss and becoming the monster all elves fear. Work as an assassin gives him purpose, but what reason is there to go on when he killed the light of his life—his fated mate?

Shaia has spent forty-two centuries mourning her mate. Tired and worn down, she agrees to wed a male of her family’s choosing, following tradition that has always bound her as a female and hoping she will be able to gain just a little freedom in return. But as she resigns herself to being the mate of a male she could never love, fate places an old friend in her path—one who tells her that her lost love is alive.

Will Shaia find the courage to break with tradition and leave the elf kingdom in search of her mate? And as a ray of light pierces his soul again, can Fuery find the strength to win his battle against the darkness or will it devour him and that light of their forbidden love forever?

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Ebook available from:


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Amazon Kindle UK
Amazon Kindle Germany
Amazon Kindle Canada
Amazon Kindle Australia
Apple iBookstore US
Apple iBookstore UK
Apple iBookstore Australia
Apple iBookstore Canada
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Paperback available from:


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Amazon.co.uk

 

 

It had been the third time he had seen Prince Vail.

Fuery didn’t remember much about their first meeting. Not how he had found Prince Vail’s location, or his arrival at the small countryside cottage in rural England. He had only fragments of the time he had spent with his prince and commander, scattered pieces that felt more like a dream than memories.

Hartt had assured him the meeting had happened, and Fuery was inclined to believe him since he definitely recalled his friend coming to find him, and taking him back to the guild.

A lingering sense of warmth returned whenever he thought about seeing his prince again for the first time, a sensation that had built inside him during his time at the cottage. He had felt safe.

Home.

He hadn’t experienced such a feeling in a long time, and it disturbed him now, because home was an impossible dream.

He couldn’t turn back time to when he had been another male, one free of the darkness.

Untainted.

Prince Vail believed it possible though, and Hartt held on to that hope like a male possessed, or possibly obsessed, had spoken of it to Fuery more than once since that first meeting, encouraging him at every turn.

Fuery had no such hope, but he also didn’t have the heart to tell his friend he was dreaming, and that reality was a far darker beast, one without mercy and light. There would be no saving himself.

He doubted Hartt would listen even if he did voice his thoughts.

His friend insisted he continued what he had started with Vail, allowing the male to assist him by attempting to bring him back into touch with nature in the hope it would lessen the burden on his soul and clear some of the darkness from it. Vail’s connection to nature was strong. Despite the darkness he still held within his heart, Vail had a stronger connection to it than his brother, Prince Loren, the ruler of the elves.

Fuery’s own connection to nature was so severely diminished by the darkness that it was almost non-existent. He couldn’t remember how it had felt to be connected to it, to feel life flow through his veins and light fill his soul, and to take pleasure and comfort from being surrounded by pure, untainted nature in all her glory.

The garden of Vail’s mate, the fair witch Rosalind, was beautiful, filled with colours that Fuery found dazzling, almost breathtaking, and Vail was convinced that it had helped him fight the darkness and claw his way back towards the light.

But Vail had retained his connection to that nature.

The same nature that had rejected Fuery, left him alone in a dark world without her light to guide him.

Hartt had taken him back to visit Prince Vail twice since that first meeting, convinced that it was doing him good and that it would help him as it had their prince, and eventually nature would begin to welcome him again, would open her arms to him once more.

Fuery wasn’t so sure.

The sensation of home he had experienced during his first visit was fading with each subsequent one, like the light in him. It felt weaker with each trip to the cottage, and the calm and peace he had felt on first spending time with Vail in the garden surrounded by the trees and flowers, and the endless blue sky, was slipping away with it.

There would come a point when he would feel nothing again, when visiting his prince would give him no benefit.

Would Prince Vail and Hartt suffer when that happened? Would it pain them to know that there was nothing they could do for him?

Would they give up on him?

Like he had given up on himself.

Gods, he didn’t want to disappoint them, even when he knew it was inevitable, so he went to see Prince Vail whenever Hartt wanted it, and he would continue to do so until they both realised there was no saving him.

It was no hardship for him.

The cottage was a beautiful place, nature condensed into a small area that made it feel like a bubble, a haven, a place removed from the world. He could see why Vail benefited from it, but he was sure it wasn’t only that stunning pocket of nature that was restoring his prince’s light.

It was the beautiful witch who lived there with him.

His prince’s mate.

Mate.

Darkness stirred in his veins at that word and crawled through his soul at just the thought of her, and it whispered at him to stay away from Prince Vail and that cottage.

Stay away from her.

He didn’t need to be around females who belonged to another, and didn’t need a mate of his own either. He didn’t want a female in his life, despised how other assassins at the guild brought them into his damned home and paraded them in front of him, or how Hartt would sometimes make him speak with female clients. He wanted nothing to do with them. Mates. Females.

He closed his eyes, drew down a shuddering breath and held it as he wrestled with his darker urges as they rushed through him, stirred to a frenzy by the path his thoughts were travelling.

Pain shredded his insides, anguish ripping at his heart. Memories flickered and his veins went as cold as ice. His claws lengthened, razor sharp and itching to tear into flesh, to spill blood and cleave bone as the darkness surged in response, a need to lash out flashing through him. He needed someone to take out this aggression on, to satisfy this terrible dark need to purge the pain from him.

Fair Rosalind danced into the black abyss of his mind and he snapped his eyes open as his breath gushed from him.

Never.

He would never hurt his prince’s mate.

He would never harm a female. Not again.

Rosalind had been kind to him, sweet and caring. She had taken care of him whenever he had visited, knowing when to show herself and speak with him, and when to leave him alone with her mate as he struggled with his black urges, on the verge of losing himself to the darkness.

He had come close to losing his fight against it the last time and had left before Hartt was due to come for him, muttering some sort of excuse, although he didn’t recall the exact words he had used. Scattered ones had filled his mind, a collision of excuses that had fought to be the one to leave his lips. He might have muddled them, because Prince Vail had looked confused in the heartbeat of time between him speaking to the male and somehow teleporting.

That teleport had drained him, left him weak and shaking, the black tendrils of the dark beast that lived inside him snaking over his vulnerable body and seeping into his heart.

It was always dangerous to attempt a teleport. All of his powers were unpredictable, but teleporting was the biggest drain on his strength, because he had to force it to happen. It had been a long time since he had been able to control a teleport too. The only time he managed to teleport, it was because he was desperate for some reason, driven by a base instinct to escape that ruled him.

If his powers failed during a teleport, there was a danger he would end up somewhere that might kill him, or worse, would be lost in the infinite darkness that waited in the space between disappearing and reappearing. That space was cold now, like ice, and stabbed at him with frozen needles that punctured his flesh and dug deep to chill him whenever he passed through it. It was tainted by the darkness inside him.

Darkness that was growing stronger by the day.

Nothing Vail did would change that.

He needed to stay away. Hartt would press him to return, and Prince Vail would be upset if he stopped visiting, because both of them wanted him to get better. Both of them needed to believe they could save him from the darkness before he was lost.

He couldn’t risk it though.

As much as he wanted to be there, as fiercely and desperately as he wanted to believe they could save his black soul, he had to stay away.

He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did something to Rosalind.

It would break him.

Every inch of him tensed and stilled as a sensation went through him, a feeling that something wasn’t right and he needed to leave.

It was a feeling that often struck him now, and one he knew the root cause of even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

He looked back in the direction of the guild, aware of where it was, always aware of it, no matter how far he travelled from it.

It was the same sensation he had whenever he was in that building now, one that stirred whenever Aya was staying with her mate, Harbin, in his quarters.

His home was beginning to feel like a prison.

A nightmare.

He shook it off and focused back on his work, scouting the lamp-lit black cobbled streets below him as he crouched on the dark pitched tiled roof of a two-storey inn in a large town near the borders of the free realm. Mountains rose beyond it, forming a steep barrier between the free realm and the land of the dragons. A final outpost for fae, travellers and mercenaries.

The last town.

Beyond the mountains, the valleys were deep and numerous, with only a handful of villages nestled in a few of them, none of which welcomed travellers or those outside the dragon species. Not unless they had gold anyway.

The sky glowed dim amber in that direction, the fires of the Devil’s lands burning hot, and his sensitive ears picked up the distant sounds of the black earth cracking and splitting as the lava broke to the surface, forming new valleys and mountains.

Fuery chuckled low in his throat.

He had half a mind to venture there, to pit himself against the strongest male in Hell.

The chance of him winning was slim, but gods, it would be a glorious way to go. If by some miracle of the gods he won, he would take his place on the black throne and rule the strongest realm in Hell, legions of demons at his command.

A fitting role for a creature like him.

Whatever evil and darkness lived inside the Devil, it beat within him too, a drum that he marched to and embraced. He bent it to his will and wielded it like a weapon.

A blade more devastating than any made of metal.

Voices dragged him back to the town, ripped him from his fantasy of ruling Hell and bloodying claws and fangs on the battlefield as he swept across the lands like a black shadow with an army at his back, subjugating all who didn’t fall to his blade.

He gritted his teeth and screwed his eyes shut, and fought back against the whispers in his mind, the ones that urged him to go through with it. Fight the Devil.

Rule Hell.

No.

He had been a protector once. He had fought to defend his homeland, and its people. He had been good.

He opened his eyes and stared at his hands, at the long black claws his armour formed over his fingers. They flickered between clean with the town people blurry beyond them, and drenched in blood, glistening against a gory backdrop of carnage.

He had been good.

He breathed through it, each inhale and exhale making the timing shift, so his claws were clean for longer, and the sight of them bloodied grew shorter, until it was only brief flickers and then faded completely.

His claws were clean.

But not for long.

He forced his focus back to the town again, watching the people coming and going along the street far below him, a wraith in the darkness. They were unaware of him, the oil lamps that jutted outwards from the haphazard black stone and plastered buildings on the main thoroughfare stealing their night vision, making it impossible for them to see him.

He scanned each male for a tattoo on their neck, one that would identify them as his mark.

When he had checked everyone present, he moved on, heading towards the main square. He leaped the gap between two buildings, landing silently on the sloping tiled roof, and kept low as he skulked across it. At the edge of the building, above the square, he squatted and waited, his eyes scanning the busy gathering below.

His mark would be here.

The intelligence given to Hartt said they always attended this gathering each lunar cycle to sell wares. He just needed to find the male, get them alone, and dispatch them.

A lone female dressed in a dark green ankle-length dress with gold detailing on the bodice crossed an opening in the square, a heavy basket tucked between her arms, her brown hair tied in a high ponytail that swayed with each step.

He tracked her, a memory threatening to stir, just beyond his reach.

His eyes dropped to her neck.

Widened.

A pentagram.

The mark.

Sickness washed through him and he stumbled backwards, landing on his bottom on the black tiles and almost rolling right down the pitched roof. He shoved his right hand out, bracing himself, his arm shaking as he stared at the female.

A female?

A collision of fear, agony, grief and self-loathing was swift to crash over him, transforming into a churning dark and malevolent tide that rose and consumed him before he could even think about trying to stop it. It dragged him down into its oily depths until he felt as if he was suffocating, about to drown.

He lifted his right hand from the roof and brought them both before him, his vision wobbling as he stared at his black armour. It flashed away to reveal pale skin marred with crimson. Blood that had crept beneath his claws. Stained them. He scrubbed at his hands, picked at his nails, but nothing he did made the blood go away. His breaths shortened, coming in sharp bursts as his heart rushed faster, sending his mind spinning as he sank deeper into the darkness.

He had to get the blood off his hands.

His head ached, throbbing madly as he rubbed his hands together. It wouldn’t come off. The faster he tried to scrub it away, the thicker the blood grew and the more frantic he became. He shook his head as he shoved one hand over the other, despair engulfing him as it only smeared the blood and spread it, so it covered all his hands and began travelling up his wrists.

He watched in horror as it formed tendrils that crawled and writhed over his pale skin, consuming more of it, and the blood on his fingers turned black.

Darkness.

He snarled and pushed at it, shoving his hands down his arms towards his wrists, desperate to get it off him, to purge it somehow before it swallowed him.

Eyes landed on him, a sharp sensation that had his head whipping up and locking gazes with their owner.

The female.

He needed to kill her.

He growled, shook his head and scurried backwards on his hands and feet, forcing himself away from her. Broken memories overlaid onto the present, transforming her into another female.

A beautiful female.

Drenched in blood.

He twisted away from her, planted both hands to the tiles and retched, tasting metal as his body heaved violently, as if he could purge the darkness that way.

He couldn’t let it take control.

Not a female.

Never a female.

His entire body shook, wracked by cold and pain that came in waves, each stronger than the last, crashing over him. Had to run. Had to leave. Couldn’t let it take control. Never a female. He staggered onto his feet and into a fucked up teleport that had jagged black tendrils stuttering around him and ice chasing over his skin and ended with him landing hard on his side.

On the roof of the guild hall.

He grunted and rolled down the steep black pitched roof, hit the left tower that flanked the main entrance, and spun into a fall down the three-storey height of the building. He hit the cobbled street on his front with another grunt, fire sweeping through his trembling body, lancing his bones and threatening to steal consciousness from his grasp as it stole the air from his lungs.

Several of the people who had been walking along the main street of the small town gasped and stopped, and backed away from him when he vomited again.

He pushed himself up on shaking arms and stared at the puddle on the black stones.

Blood.

He swallowed hard, sweat beading on his skin, cold and sticky. More flashes of the female covered in crimson filled his mind, and he roared as he tried to shake them loose, tried to spare himself the pain. He muttered a prayer beneath his breath, a desperate plea to the gods to set him free of the torment, to make her go away. He pushed onto his feet and growled at the people staring at him, flashing his bloodied fangs.

They were quick to run.

Fuery clutched his side, grimacing as fire throbbed there, the pain pushing him deeper into the dark tendrils snaking around him and threatening to pull him into the black abyss.

He staggered towards the arched entrance of the guild, his chest heaving with each laboured breath as his heart beat hard and fast. He needed the dark of his room.

He needed the silence.

Each step took effort, every one more than the last, his progress slow as he fought to remain on his feet and not collapse again.

“What’s wrong?” Hartt was suddenly before him, concern flashing in his violet eyes.

A growl curled up Fuery’s throat and his eyes narrowed on the male.

“A fucking female?” Fuery bit out in the elf tongue, just saying the words enough to conjure images of his target and the female who haunted him, mingling them together to send him dangerously close to plummeting into the abyss. “The mark is a fucking female?”

Hartt paled. His eyes widened. “No. I did not know.”

The horror in his friend’s eyes, and his feelings, said that he truly hadn’t known, and that he regretted what had happened.

Fuery tried to cling to that, desperate to use it to calm himself, but the darkness was too strong and he was slipping, weakening as it took its toll on him. The memories he had been fighting rose, his mind and body too tired to fight them too when it was losing a battle against the darkness that surged and writhed inside him like a living thing.

Never a female.

He tried to pass Hartt, but his friend stepped into his path. He stilled as Hartt’s palms captured his cheeks, holding him gently, luring him into looking at him. He stared into the male’s clear violet eyes, and managed to focus on them.

“You did nothing wrong,” Hartt whispered softly in the elf tongue, keeping their conversation private.

A fact Fuery was thankful for considering the audience they had. Several members of the guild had stopped to watch, and a few stragglers from the crowd that had witnessed his fall outside were watching him too. None of them knew the elf language. His species had done their damnedest to keep it private to them, unknown by any other species.

“Listen to my voice, Fuery,” Hartt continued, his eyes holding Fuery immobile.

He’d had eyes like that once. Clearest amethyst. Now they were almost black, only a sliver of violet remaining in them. Soon, that would be gone too.

Then, the red would start emerging.

“Fuery,” Hartt murmured, shaking away that thought, and he forced himself to focus on his friend and his words, to listen to his voice and use it to ground himself.

He could feel the connection they shared as Hartt reinforced it, a blood bond they’d had for centuries now.

Blood.

He screwed his eyes shut as he saw the female again, staring at him in horror, her violet eyes wide and lined with tears.

“Fuery,” Hartt whispered and he heard her voice.

Her sweet, sweet voice.

His eyes burned, his nose stung, and he growled through his clenched fangs as his heart splintered into a thousand fragments for the millionth time. Gods. He missed her.

“Fuery.” Hands shook him, and that male voice pierced his mind, shattering the illusion.

He dragged himself back to the surface of the oily black water that churned around him and opened his eyes before he could drown in it.

Violet.

Could he ever have eyes like that again?

“You did not hurt a female. Remember that. You did not hurt her.”

But he had.

Not the female in the square, but he had hurt the one before her.

One he never should have hurt.

He had been born to protect her.

Instead, he had killed her.

“Fuery, you are not listening.” Hartt rattled him again, and he shot back to him, the darkness falling away enough that he could focus again, the suddenness of it releasing its hold on him almost sending him to his knees.

It lingered and lurked though, waiting like a shadow to strike again, to seize him if he let his guard down.

“Breathe through it.” His friend had paled further, and sweat glistened on his brow as he breathed hard in time with him.

Their hearts laboured in unison.

“Breathe,” Hartt urged.

Fuery sucked down one rasping shuddering breath, and then another, bringing the tempo of them into a match for the rhythm of Hartt’s, strengthening the connection between them just as Hartt had in order to shake him from the grip of the darkness.

Black spots appeared in Hartt’s violet irises.

Fuery shattered the connection between them and knocked Hartt’s hands away from his face.

No. He wouldn’t be responsible for Hartt’s demise as well as his own. He wouldn’t allow his only friend in this world to take the darkness from him. It was his burden to bear.

“I am fine now.” He wasn’t, he was far from it, but he needed to say something to convince Hartt that he no longer needed his help.

Hartt nodded, but the look in his eyes said that he didn’t believe him, that he knew he was lying to protect him and he didn’t like it.

The male’s eyes dropped to his arm, and then he turned away and started walking along the arched entrance hall of the guild. Fuery silently thanked him for not taking it as he wanted. As unsteady as he was on his feet, he needed to walk in unaided, because he was damned if he was going to let the other members of the guild see him as weak.

He was tainted, almost lost to the darkness, but he was still stronger than all of them combined.

Hartt looked back over his shoulder at him as they passed the first set of thick columns that were set into the walls and supported the elegantly carved black stone roof of the entrance hall. “Will you be alright?”

Fuery nodded as he clawed back a little more control, enough that his legs stopped shaking and finally felt stronger beneath him, his steps surer as they reached the main foyer of the building, an enormous black room with a corridor off to his right and left, and a door in the far right corner of the room that led to the offices.

He bared fangs at a trio of young fae males lounging in the horseshoe of black velvet couches that encircled the monstrous marble fireplace to his left, all of them staring at him as if he had two heads. They quickly looked away.

“I will speak with the client about it.” There was genuine regret in Hartt’s smooth voice, and a note of anger that Fuery couldn’t miss. “You are sure you will be fine?”

He nodded again, even though he wasn’t, because he knew that while Hartt would speak with the client and give them hell for not mentioning that the mark was a female, he would still see the job fulfilled by another assassin for the guild.

He was far from fine with that.

Killing females was wrong.

They took the corridor to the right and he squinted whenever he passed one of the oil lamps on the black walls, his sensitive eyes hurting at the brightness of them. He needed the dark. The silence. Hartt led him deeper into the maze of corridors, right to the end of the long wing of the building, to a place where few ventured. It had been decades since Hartt had issued the order that this part of the guild was restricted, and only he and Fuery could go there. Fuery could understand why he had done it, even when it had stung a little at the time. His friend needed to protect the males he employed and felt responsible for.

From him.

He was the reason this area was off limits, and the reason Hartt had moved into the rooms opposite his, always on hand if he needed him.

Or on hand to stop him if he lost himself to the darkness.

When they reached his door, Hartt opened it for him.

“Try to sleep.” Hartt smiled at him, but the concern in his eyes lingered, worry that cut at Fuery because he didn’t want to be a burden on his friend.

The more Hartt drained himself worrying about him, and helping him, the weaker he was against the darkness that was stirring in him. Hartt denied it, but Fuery could see it. He could feel it. His friend was beginning to slip and fall, and it wouldn’t be long before the light began to leave him and he lost himself to the black abyss.

He hesitated and then lifted his hand, grasped Hartt’s shoulder and pulled him towards him. He pressed his forehead to Hartt’s, but couldn’t find the words to say what he needed to say to him, to warn him to be careful and to beg him to look after himself.

Hartt clutched him by the nape of his neck, pressing their brows harder together. “Rest, Fuery. I will check on you later.”

He nodded, and released Hartt at the same time as the male’s hand dropped from his neck. He watched Hartt leave, heading back along the corridor, the oil lamps sending warm light flickering over him. It hadn’t slipped his notice that Hartt had come to him armed for war, his black armour in place, moulded to his body like a second skin.

He pulled down a deep breath, intending to sigh.

Stilled as a scent laced it and filled him.

He stared blankly at the other end of the black-walled corridor, ears ringing as numbness swept through him, swiftly followed by strange warmth.

He knew that smell.

Lavender and crisp morning dew.

His knees gave out, sending him slamming hard into the stone floor, but he didn’t feel the fiery lightning as it shot through his bones.

What fresh hell was this?

Tears filled his eyes as he drew another shuddering breath, convinced he was mistaken, and caught the scent again, stronger this time. It couldn’t be. He focused, but the darkness pushing inside him made it difficult. He gritted his teeth and growled as he shoved back against it, desperate to catch the scent again.

This time, it was a feeling that hit him, a sensation that he hadn’t experienced in what felt like forever.

It wasn’t possible.

He snarled as he clawed at the flagstones, tipped his head back and growled at the gods, silently begging them to have mercy on him because this was too cruel.

He couldn’t bear it.

The visions of her that overlaid onto the present and the nightmares that haunted him each time he closed his eyes were torment enough. They didn’t need to do this to him. It was too much. He could already feel himself spiralling into the abyss, pulled down by the scent of her in his lungs, and the desperate need it birthed inside him, one he knew would never be fulfilled.

He couldn’t see her again.

Because she was gone.

He shoved his fingers through his hair, tugging the long lengths out of the clasp at the back of his head as he dug his claws into his scalp. The scent of his own blood joined the sweet fragrance that lingered in the air, tormenting him.

Gods, he was losing his fucking mind.

He could smell her.

Feel her.

His mate.

The female he had killed.

 

Ebook available from:


Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle UK
Amazon Kindle Germany
Amazon Kindle Canada
Amazon Kindle Australia
Apple iBookstore US
Apple iBookstore UK
Apple iBookstore Australia
Apple iBookstore Canada
Apple iBookstore New Zealand
Barnes and Noble
Kobo Books
Google Play
 
 


Paperback available from:


Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

 

Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince (Only 99c at all retailers!)

Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King

Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince

Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar

Book 5: Craved by an Alpha

Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat

Book 7: Taken by a Dragon

Book 8: Marked by an Assassin

Book 9: Possessed by a Dark Warrior

Book 10: Awakened by a Demoness

Book 11: Haunted by the King of Death

Book 12: Turned by a Tiger

Book 13: Tamed by a Tiger

Book 14: Treasured by a Tiger

Book 15: Unchained by a Forbidden Love

 

The post Unchained by a Forbidden Love (Eternal Mates Book 15) final chapter plus last chance to enter the giveaway! appeared first on Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with Passion.