Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 83

Wallpapers - May features my new Vampires Realm novel, Masquerade!

May's wallpaper features my next vampire romance novel, which is also the next book in my Vampires Realm romance series and is available this month, on the 19th -- Masquerade.

You can download the desktop wallpaper for May in various sizes direct from my website. There's also a version of each wallpaper without the calendar element so you can have them on your desktop at your leisure.

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


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If you want wallpapers with or without a calendar, I have them available for my books in the Goodies section of my website. I have lots of them available now, including other Vampires Realm romance series books, wallpapers for the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series and the Her Angel romance series, as well as my stand alone books too.

Yummy!

Manday Hotties - Get your Monday Mancandy Fix!

It's time for the Manday Hotties Hop again! Be sure to follow the links in the list below to get your full fix of hot sexy mancandy this Monday.

I'm back from my holiday so I'm participating again now. Just cobbled together a few hotties on the quick like.




Ah, I've missed my Mancandy fixes!

Visit the other blogs in the hop:

Sunday Snippets - Seventh Circle - paranormal vampire romance novel excerpt

It's time for this week's Sunday Snippet from one of my paranormal romance books. While I'm away, my snippets are going to vary between full length chapters and teasing snippets. Which will it be today?

SEVENTH CIRCLE

Lilith couldn’t believe that this was happening. In her own compound was a vampire. A vampire!

The only thing worse than that was the fact he was her client.

What sick and twisted joke was this? It was the last thing she needed after Jackson’s death. This place, her home, was supposed to be her sanctuary from the demons. Here, she was meant to be able to find peace. Now it felt too small, too packed with people, and a vampire was shadowing her.

Her hand hovered over her pocket, over her stake.

She scowled at the vampire.

He stared back at her with intense brown eyes, calm, relaxed and utterly unfazed. His pose as he leaned against the wall outside Daniel’s office, his expression, everything about him said that he didn’t fear her. She was no threat to him.

Hunters turned the corner. All men. Seven of them. They stopped, stared, grouped together to regard the vampire with suspicious eyes. It was only a matter of time before they figured out he wasn’t human. She watched the exchange of looks between them and the vampire, curious to see what would happen.

It began as a quiet string of murmured comments among the men and grew into a restless moving as they jostled each other, provoking one another, trying to make one step forward.

Her gaze flicked to the vampire. He seemed wholly unbothered by this on the surface. Her acute senses said different. She could detect the faint threads of his underlying tension and anger, and the incredible restraint that controlled them.

One of the men stepped forwards and twirled his stake, his air cocky. Lilith expected the vampire to move. He didn’t. He stared straight at the man, facing him, neither retreating nor attacking. He was holding his ground. She wondered why. The boys would be dead in seconds if he chose to attack. It would be a blood bath and no one would be able to stop him, not even her.

Why didn’t he?

They were taunting him enough, provoking him unduly considering that he was a client. She realised that was why the vampire wasn’t attacking. They would drive him from the compound if he did. They would revoke her services. He was clever.

Whatever this case was, it was of great importance to him, enough that he would only tell her the details and that he would endure the impotent threats of the young hunters.

“Mr. Lincoln,” she said, stepping forwards. Her eyes met the men’s, every one of them, and she made sure they saw her anger at their actions.

They backed off, the one in front slipping his stake away as he gave her a look that was a mixture of disgust at her actions and shame at his own.

She watched them walk away, all too aware of the vampire’s eyes on her. They set her skin aflame as they trailed over her, called to her soul and begged her to look at him. She tightened the cords of her restraint, locking away the words of temptation her heart whispered. He was a vampire. He was a demon. She killed his kind. He murdered hers.

“Come with me.” Her tone was deadly, laced with all her anger over the death of her sister and Jackson, and all the others she’d seen in her lifetime.
The corridors were growing quiet now. Most of the hunters in the mansion would have turned in for the day, would be researching, or would be in the cafeteria for breakfast. Lilith led the vampire to a meeting room and opened the door. She didn’t hold it for him. She was too tired to play the chivalrous host, especially to a demon.

“So what’s the problem?” she said again, hoping he’d answer her this time.

He moved a good distance from her, his eyes still trailing fire over her body. She wished that he’d become ugly the second she’d recognised him for what he truly was. He was still handsome, barely thirty in appearance and tall, and powerful enough that she feared him to a degree.

Not that she was going to let him see that.

She took a seat at the long mahogany table. He continued to stare at her. Patience wasn’t her strong suit. If he didn’t talk soon, she was going to get physical. Right now, she didn’t need this. She wanted a hot shower and a long dream free sleep. Tonight’s patrol was one she didn’t want to replay in the vivid Technicolor of her dreams.

The vampire walked around the table and drew out the seat opposite her. He slid into it. His forearms rested along the length of the chair arms, his hands dangled limp over the ends.

“You do have a problem, right? That is why you’ve hired us? Although I can’t see why a vampire would hire a bunch of vampire hunters... unless you’re that desperate, or this has something to do with humans.”

“Neither. Sorry to disappoint those wild theories that are most likely running rampant through that pretty head of yours.”

She inwardly cringed at the reference to her looks. He clearly didn’t know he was only making the situation worse and increasing the likelihood of her attempting to stake him. Her fingers traced the shape of the stake in her pocket. It was a nice fantasy. Something told her she wouldn’t stand a chance against him though, at least not in her current state.

“It is a delicate matter.”

“Ah. Your girlfriend dumped you and you want us to stake her?” She whipped the stake in question out, hoping to get a reaction from him. His eyebrow rose. He didn’t even flinch.

“Again, nothing as simple as that.” He smiled, a real one this time, with no trace of malice.

He leaned further back into the chair and crossed his legs. Her gaze traversed his face, taking in his arched lips and straight nose, and stopped when her eyes met his.

She couldn’t look away, no matter how much she tried. She was a prisoner in her body, powerless to break the trance she was slipping into. Was this a vampire power? If it was, she’d never heard of it. She fell into the darkness of his eyes. It didn’t panic her as she felt it should. The blackness around her was soft, encompassing her in a cool featherlike embrace that made her want to close her eyes and breathe a sigh of relief. She found herself reaching out to it, wanting to touch it in return, and then pulled away. The room came back and she was staring at him. Her eyes narrowed into a glare. How did he make her feel so drawn to him, as though he was calling to her?

Clearing her throat in an attempt to look as though she was in control, she told herself that it was just the lingering effect of using her gift and nothing more.

“So, what is it?” she said.

Lincoln uncrossed his ankles and pushed back until he was balancing on two legs of the chair. What did he tell her? The truth? Deep inside, the voice that had kept him safe these past few months, his instinct, whispered to him to hold back and not tell her everything. She didn’t need to know every detail in order to help him. If he only told her a fraction of his problem, then he could test how resourceful these vampire hunters were.

Lincoln let the chair come forward with a snap and immediately stood. The woman jumped but recovered quickly. He studied her a moment, listening to the steady drumming of her heart, and then walked towards the windows. The curtains were drawn. He closed his eyes and reached out with his senses. It was already daylight outside.

Turning back towards the woman, he regarded her again. She seemed too young to be an adequate fighter, and definitely too young for the role fate had assigned her. He was beginning to get the terrible dark feeling that someone had been wrong. His life rested in the hands of this slip of a girl? What was the world coming to?

Clasping his hands behind his back, he returned to his chair. He pressed his palms into the bar across the backrest and frowned.

“I have a problem with a... prophecy of sorts,” Lincoln said, still deciding how much she really needed to know. The less he told her, the safer he was from her superiors, but the harder it would be to convince her to help him.

He reminded himself that she didn’t need convincing. She had to work with him. He’d paid handsomely to have her protect him.

“A prophecy of sorts?” she said, amusement ringing in her words.

He wasn’t in the mood to be made fun of. If she started pushing, he’d have to push back and put her in her place.

“A potential apocalypse.” He watched her closely, interested to see what her reaction would be to that.

She leaned back and smiled, twirling her honey blonde hair around her finger as though she were a child.

“And you’re involved?” she said and her smile became a smirk. “And you expect me to help.”

“I do.”

He could feel her words coming and knew what they would be.

“What’s to stop me from killing you and getting out of this crappy assignment?”

They were brave words from one in her position and he could see straight through them to the underlying fear. Her superior was right. It was asking a lot of her to make her work with him. He could do nothing about that. He had as much choice in the matter as she did. She had to help him. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about.

He managed a laugh.

“Kill me?” he whispered more to himself than to her. His eyes met hers again. They were darker brown now, near black as she glared, still toying with her stake as though it was going to protect her. “You can sense my strength, and I yours. You are too weak to fight me and your superiors would have your head.”

She huffed and stood, distancing herself by walking across the room to the windows. For a moment, she looked as though she was going to open the curtains, and then she carried on walking until she was heading directly for him. His guard went up, his senses sharpening as best they could without him changing. He didn’t need to frighten her by shifting guise to reveal his true self. That wouldn’t get him anywhere.

“Do you have any other information besides the fact that you’re some player in an apocalypse?” she said, moving close enough to him that he could smell the mixed scent of blood on her.

Hers was a sweeter, lighter scent that the heavier male blood trampled all over. He was tempted to move closer to her, to try to catch a sniff of her elusive smell. He remained rooted to the spot.

“Not just an apocalypse, Miss Lilith. The outcome will not merely affect vampires. Humans will die too. It is everything and everyone that will pay should you fail to protect me. I am speaking of an apocalypse of biblical proportions.”

Her face paled as he spoke those last words and all her strength seemed to leave her. She sat down hard in the nearest chair and stared at him as though she was having trouble believing what he’d said. Her heart was racing. It knew that he was speaking the truth.

“You’re really not kidding, are you?” she said and then suddenly changed, switching from a lost little girl to the hunter who had attacked him in her superior’s office. “What’s this got to do with me? Why get us involved?”

Lincoln sat down again, close enough to her that he could still easily monitor her heartbeat and read her feelings in it, but far away enough that she had no chance of successfully attacking him.

“It was hard to find you. It took many weeks, which means that time is growing short,” he said.

“Hard to find me?” she whispered before looking incredulous. “You mean you asked for me specifically?”

He nodded.

Her face crumpled in despair for a moment before a look of pure hatred twisted her features. He could sense the rising of her instinct and the anger inside that was fuelling them. His thoughts during his journey here were right. She wasn’t going to help him willingly. Would this work if she didn’t? The details he’d been given were sketchy at best. Maybe they had been wrong.

“This sucks,” she muttered under her breath.

She leaned forwards and cradled her head in her hands. His gaze drifted to her neck. They traced the gentle curve and caressed the milky satin skin. She was as pale as he was. Her position clearly had her sleeping all day. He smiled to himself. She slept all day and went out at night to hunt and kill. They weren’t so different really. She’d never admit that of course. Humans were so stubborn and ignorant.

“I’ll need more information to give to the research team.”

That jolted him out of his reverie. He blinked to clear his mind of thoughts of her neck and the call of her blood.

“Research team?”

“Yes.” Her expression asked if he was crazy. “I’m a hunter Mr. Lincoln, not a researcher. It’s necessary to have a full team investigating and looking into the books.”

He took a moment to consider what she’d said. She didn’t look like a researcher and, in London, they’d told him she was an elite hunter. He equated it to an elite guard of his kind. They were reserved for only the important missions. He doubted that she hunted each night with the lower ranks.

Still, the idea of more people knowing of his problem was disturbing. In reality, he’d only wanted to come here and wait, to avoid at all possible costs his fate, knowing she would save him. Unfortunately, he’d had to give her superiors in London a reason why he needed the assistance of a vampire hunter and her in particular. Mentioning there was potentially an apocalypse on the horizon and handing them a large sum of money seemed to have placated them.

“I do have something,” he said, not bothering to answer her request to allow a team of researchers to work with them. She’d make that decision regardless of his input. “In fact it’s the best lead that I have, only I have been a little busy to follow it up.”

At this stage she didn’t need to know that the ‘little busy’ he’d mentioned was the fact that he’d been relentlessly pursued across Europe.

“And what is that, Mr. Lincoln?”

“Lincoln. Vampires don’t have such titles. I shall call you Lilith so we are equal in this matter.” He ignored her raised eyebrow and how unimpressed she looked by his correction and suggestion. If he had to work with her, he couldn’t have her calling him mister all the time. It would drive him insane. Besides, there was something strangely appealing about having her call him by his name. It seemed intimate on a dangerous level, but her irritated look was too priceless to resist forcing her to adopt a similar level of informality. If she wanted to be troublesome, he would make things hard for her too. “It is something I overheard my lord speaking of many months ago when all this began. Afterwards I saw the parchment that dictated my future. It was a pact, a contract. I only saw the title.”

She gave him an expectant look.

He wouldn’t disappoint her.

“Spiritus Diabolus.”

Seventh Circle
F E Heaton
Born with powers similar to a vampire’s, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a vampire.

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

Their mutual attraction becomes difficult to deny as they work together but when Lincoln reveals the truth about her powers, will Lilith find the strength to embrace a side of herself that she wished didn’t exist? And when they discover Lilith’s role in the prophecy, how far will Lincoln go to save her?

Dark, sensual and fast-paced, Seventh Circle is a story of forbidden love so strong that it will save the world.


Available in e-book from:
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Available in paperback from:
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Saturday Snippets - Her Warrior Angel - angel romance novella excerpt

It's time for this week's Saturday Snippet from one of my paranormal romance books. While I'm away, my snippets are going to be full chapters as it's far easier to just post a whole chapter than try to hunt down a teasing snippet. So, here's another full length Saturday Snippet from a very sexy paranormal angel romance book.

HER WARRIOR ANGEL

Taylor shivered against Einar’s broad breastplate as he carried her into the brightly lit cream foyer of a grand hotel. She peered through the dark curtain of her hair, keeping her face obscured to hide the blood on it. No one stared at them, which meant two things. This was the sort of upmarket hotel where staff didn’t ask questions, not even when a guest walked in at gone midnight carrying a woman as though she was a damsel in distress, and they couldn’t see his wings.

He had paused outside and she knew that he had been changing his appearance. When he’d looked at her, she’d feigned surprise, afraid that he would realise that she could see through his glamour, and could still see his armour and his tawny wings. She needed to get the poison out of her system, and this angel wasn’t lying when he said that he could do such a thing for her. It was quicker and easier to let him tend to her than trying to find the local demon medic to get rid it for her. She had been foolish. Trying to run from him had quickened the spread of the poison through her body and it was on the verge of entering the final phase and killing her.

Einar looked impatient as they stood in the lift, heading upwards. Did he know how deep the poison was in her body now? Would it be too late to save her? He glanced down when she took hold of his chest armour and gripped it. Her breathing turned shaky when panic sparked through her. She focused on him to drive it away again.

“Just a few moments longer,” he whispered and the soft deep sound of his voice soothed her. “Hold on.”

His rich brown eyes met hers, the flecks of gold in them shifting in a way that an angel’s irises did. When she had met her first angel, that had scared her more than the wings. Nothing about them felt real. It never had. They weren’t of this world. They were something else.

Taylor looked deep into Einar’s eyes.

He seemed real though, and looked handsome with his eyes brimming with concern and his grip on her tight and reassuring. He smiled when the lift pinged and the doors opened.

“Keep holding on,” he said and she nodded, lost in his gaze.

He walked down a warmly lit corridor with her and then she held on to his neck when he struggled to open the door while holding her. Her fingers brushed the back of his neck, grazing the strands of his mousy ponytail, and she cursed herself for the way it affected her. Teasing him earlier had fired her up, and she had been surprised when she had pulled back and seen in his eyes that it had affected him too.

She knew angels weren’t saints, and that they were as frivolous and passionate as the next man when given the chance, but she hadn’t expected him to be affected by her attention and touch.

Unable to resist seeing if it had just been a momentary slip on his part, Taylor pushed her fingers into his hair, loosening it from the band that kept it tied back at the nape of his neck. The waves of golden brown fell down and he stilled. She felt his gaze on her and shyly met it, partly afraid of what she would see. His eyes were brighter, golden like a raptor’s, and fixed intently on her. His pupils widened when she curled his hair around her fingers and his lips parted. Desire filled his eyes and she couldn’t deny that she was affecting him.

Why?

It wasn’t possible that he didn’t know the secret she held in her heart and in her blood. It just wasn’t possible.

But if he did, he wouldn’t look at her that way, with such fire and hunger. He wouldn’t look at her at all.

The door swung open. Taylor got the better of herself and removed her hands from his neck, settling them in her lap. She stared at her knees. Einar didn’t move. He remained on the threshold of the hotel room, staring at her, his breathing heavy enough that she shifted with it in his arms.

Pain speared her chest. She flinched and pressed her hand to it. It spurred Einar into moving and before she could blink, she was in a bedroom with him. She clutched her chest, burning inside, and breathed deep and steadily. She wasn’t afraid. The angel would help her. Her hands trembled and her limbs shook. She wasn’t afraid.

She wasn’t.

Einar settled her down on the white double bed and she curled up into a ball on her left side, clutching her right arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. Pain rippled through her, blazing like an inferno, stealing her strength and leaving her shaking. She wasn’t afraid.

Panic twisted her stomach.

Okay. She was afraid.

“Shh,” Einar said and took hold of her hand. She stared at it a moment, and then rolled onto her back, covered it with her other one and clung to him. He was her only hope now. The poison was too deep in her body. If he couldn’t save her, she wouldn’t have time to find someone who could. Einar moved her and she was too weak to fight him. He stretched her out on the bed so she lay with her head on the soft downy pillows and her body in a straight line. “Try to keep still.”

Taylor’s eyes widened when he held his hands out a foot above her, palms facing her, and, like a magician performing a trick, moved them back and forth along the length of her body. And just like magic, a white light appeared, beaming down from his hands, blinding her. She couldn’t take her eyes off it though. They tracked it, unable to believe what she was seeing and feeling. Wherever the light touched, she felt warm, weightless, and better.

He moved his hands down to feet and then back up her legs, over her arms and stomach, and then finally settled with one over her chest and one over her head.

“Look at me.”

She obeyed the command in his deep voice and stared up into his eyes. They were golden now, bright and sharp, holding hers in a way that was impossible to break free from.

“Keep looking at me.”
Taylor nodded. A bright burst of light dulled her vision. Excruciating pain stabbed her heart and head. She gritted her teeth and arched off the bed, clutching the covers and bunching them into her fists. It didn’t hurt like this when demons took the poison out.

But then, she had never been this close to dying before.

She tried to keep conscious and keep her eyes on Einar, just as he had said, but dark waves crashed over her, pulling her under. She fought with all of her might but couldn’t hold on. They swept her away and she sank into the bed and into the blackness.

When the world finally drifted back and the nightmares receded, she slowly opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry, tacky, and her head felt as though someone was bashing it with a sledgehammer. It throbbed and ached along with the rest of her body. She shuddered and moaned when the ache went deeper, pulsing through her bones. A heavy hand settled against her left shoulder, keeping her on her back as she tried to roll onto her side. She remembered what had happened.

Her blurred vision came into focus and she looked at her right arm. Her jacket was gone, and so was the wound. Not even a scar remained. She swallowed and the pain began to recede, drifting away. A second strong hand came into view. His fingers brushed over her the area where the wound had been and she tracked the length of his arm up to his face. He looked worried again. He wouldn’t look that way if he knew about her. He couldn’t know, and she didn’t want to tell him.

Einar smiled at her, not bright or cheerful, but full of warmth. Taylor told herself that he was an angel. That was the only reason he smiled at her that way. It was his duty to be concerned about damsels in distress. It had nothing to do with her being the one in danger.

But then, he had looked at her with such forceful hunger and passion too.

Had that been real?

Taylor stared up into his eyes for a few seconds. When they met hers, she glanced away, her gaze lighting on his shoulder and then taking in his brown armour. It didn’t hide much of his body. All he wore was a breastplate detailed with dull gold, vambraces to protect his forearms, greaves to protect his shins, along with his boots, and a dark loincloth.

He looked like a gladiator, with wings. They were large and furled against his back, as tawny as the rest of him, the long feathers brown but flecked with paler hues of tan and grey. Like an eagle. He had eyes to match that image.

And he was handsome.

There was no denying that.

He was more than handsome. Gorgeous perhaps. Otherworldly. And with muscles to die for. Angels shouldn’t have such godly bodies. They only led women into temptation, and she was sure that sort of thing was a sin.

“How long was I out?” she croaked and he sat back on the bed beside her, releasing her shoulder.

“Fourteen hours.”

Taylor rubbed her throat. Fourteen hours and she still felt as though she needed to sleep it off. Einar shifted and offered her a tall glass of water. She took it and he moved towards her, leaning over her. He smelt good.

“Here, let me help you.”

Taylor didn’t fight him as he took hold of her arm with one hand and placed the other against her shoulder blade, helping her sit up. It took a lot out of her just to shuffle into a comfortable position. When she moved backwards to rest against the pillows, his hand slid down to the small of her back, touching the bare skin above the waist of her jeans. A shiver raced through her, bringing warmth in its wake. She stared at him, her thirst forgotten, replaced with something altogether more alarming.

Hunger.

Desire.

Two things she definitely shouldn’t be feeling towards an angel.

“Thanks.” Taylor shooed him away and sipped the water.

Einar sat beside her again.

The silence was too comfortable.

Taylor looked at her socks. He had taken her boots off. She ran her gaze up her jeans and over her waist. She frowned, glanced around the room, and found what she was looking for on the small wooden table beside the bed.

In a neat row, as though on display, every knife she’d had on her person gleamed under the table lamp.

“I did not want you to hurt yourself. I hope you do not mind that I removed them?”

Taylor frowned at the knives. They were in descending order by size. Either he had been bored while she had been sleeping, or he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“Not at all,” she said, distant as she stared at the knives.

Some of them had been in her jacket, which now lay on a chair across the pale room along with her sword. Others had been sheathed in her boots. And then there were those she’d had strapped against her hips and ribs. The thought of Einar’s hands so close to her breasts brought a blush onto her cheeks.

“You do not look well.”

Her blush deepened and her gaze shot to Einar. She touched her blazing cheeks. “I’m fine. Tired, and groggy, and in need of some painkillers, but other than that, I’m good, Romeo.”

“I wish you would stop calling me that.” His eyes narrowed with his frown and his lips compressed. “I have a name, and I have told it to you.”

“Oh.” Taylor toyed with the glass of water, feeling unsure of herself. She didn’t want to get on first name terms with him. Danger lay that way. It was better that they remained barely involved in each other’s lives, and not calling him by his name was a good method for achieving that. “Sure.”

“Taylor?” he husked and she cringed. He had to go and say it, didn’t he?

“Yes?” Her gaze remained glued on the glass. She sipped the water, ran her finger around the base, did everything she could to avoid looking at him.

“Do you know much about the breed of demon you encountered last night?”

That seemed like a safe enough question to answer.

“Yes.” She risked it and looked at him. She didn’t mean to make eye contact, but hers leapt to his and she stared into them. They mesmerised her as the colours in them shifted and swirled. Not unsettling or scary at all. When his eyes did that, she wanted to look into them forever.

His dark pupils widened, filling his eyes with unmistakable desire, and erotic images of them together on this bed flickered through her mind like old silent movies. Taylor tried to shun them but they wouldn’t go, not while he was looking at her with such hunger and need. The message in his eyes was clear, written in ten-foot high neon letters that blazed so brightly they blinded her. Men had given her that ‘come get me’ look plenty of times before, and she had fallen for it a few of those, wanting the passion their eyes had promised. Some of them had even come good on it. But there was one difference this time. When she had been promised the ride of her life in the past, it had been by men.

Not angels.

That shocked some sense into her.

She cleared her throat. It wasn’t going to happen and her body had better get the message soon. It didn’t matter just how good Einar looked, and how easily she could fall into his arms and this bed with him. It was wrong and it would turn out badly for her. This was going to be strictly business.

He knew something about the godforsaken scum she had encountered last night. She would bleed him for information on the demons and why they were in her city, deal with them and then dump him. It was the only reason she was going to propose something that would otherwise be the most stupid idea she’d ever had.

“I’ll tell you about them on one condition.” She raised a single finger, held his gaze, and gave him her best seductive smile. “We work together.”

He shook his head.

“There is no reason for you to become involved.” His deep voice held a note of warning and his face darkened. “I cannot risk you.”

Taylor put the glass of water down and glared at him. “I don’t need protecting. I can handle myself. I know this city, and the demons that run it, and if you want that information, you’re going to have to work with me to get rid of that pain in the arse breed.”

Einar’s frown increased. “Like you handled yourself last night?”

She’d been waiting for that one. “You got in the way. I was doing fine until you showed up.”

“I was watching you the whole time. You fought well, but he bested you, and you would have been dead had I not intervened.”

Taylor sat forward, fury blazing through her and pushing her fatigue to the back of her mind. Who the hell did he think he was? She protected this city with her life, and had done for years before he had shown up to play white knight. She would have been fine if he hadn’t got in the way. It was his fault the damned demon had managed to get a claw on her.

“Listen.” She took hold of his breastplate at the edges near his shoulders and yanked him towards her. His eyes widened as he jerked forwards and then narrowed again. “Either we work together, or I show you up by killing all of that breed before you. I’m pretty sure that’ll look bad on your record. A woman beating you to the kill.”

Einar calmly removed her hands from his armour and her anger faltered when he didn’t let go of them. He held them, gently cradling her fingers in his, and warmth eased up her arms. She snatched her hands back, rattled by how easily he could calm the darkness inside of her.

“I am already in the lead,” he said and sighed. “I am only after another two. Without your information, it may take time for me to find them. People are in danger while those creatures roam the streets. They have killed many over the past four years. Please. Give me the information I need, Taylor.”

Why did he have to keep saying her name? Whenever he said it, rolling it off his tongue in a sensual way, she wanted to melt and give him whatever he was asking for. Taking a deep breath, she bolstered her resolve and shook her head.

“This is my city. I protect it. You want to get those demons, then you’re gonna have to partner with me.”

His dark gaze drifted down over her body, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She could read that look too. It was more ‘coming to get you’ than ‘come get me’ this time but unnerved her just as much. She wouldn’t relent. If he didn’t know about her by now, he would certainly know if he got intimate with her. She didn’t want that to happen. She didn’t want him to hurt her. Never get involved. Her mother had taught her that and she had obeyed like a good girl, afraid of the consequences if she didn’t. She couldn’t get involved.

Maybe she should just tell him everything and then leave before things got complicated. She didn’t think she could bear someone turning on her, not in the way she was picturing him doing in her head. It would tear her apart inside.

Just as she was resolved to give him the information and leave, he touched her hand and her eyes found his again.

He smiled.

“Deal.”

Taylor’s stomach dropped two inches.

What had she done?

Her Warrior Angel
Felicity Heaton
Einar is one of Heaven’s best hunters and he’s on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life protecting London from the lowest demons and she’s not about to let an angel waltz into her city and take over her job, and she’s certainly not about to fall in love with him, even if he is gorgeous. The reason why she can’t is simple—she’s half demon.

There is no love in this world more forbidden than that between an angel and a demon.

Sense tells Taylor to get out before she gets her heart broken, but she winds up convincing Einar to partner with her instead. Einar is certain that working with Taylor is a bad idea, and not only because he can’t focus when he’s around her, but he can’t let her go. The mission leads them deep into the city’s underworld, where old flames burn Taylor while new flames of passion and fear of the consequences consume them, and the threat of Einar’s demons hangs over them both.

Can a love so forbidden ever have a happy ending or are they destined to break each other’s hearts?


Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / WORLD | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iTunes Stores:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other Ebook Retailers:
Author's website | Barnes and Noble | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

When will Hyperion get his own novel? Your burning question answered!

A few of the emails I received while away were about my Vampires Realm romance series that I write as F E Heaton, and most of them were about a certain male character and when his story will come out.

Because I often get asked about Hyperion and when we're going to see his book, I thought I would talk about it here on my blog so people can hopefully find the answer they're looking for.

Hyperion will get his book, but at the moment he's in the middle of his story. Masquerade is the next Vampires Realm novel out and at that point Hyperion is somewhere in the midst of his love story that began shortly after Winter's Kiss, and will continue after Masquerade in the timeline.

I would love to write his novel now, but I do have others that need my attention first. Remember Lilith in Seventh Circle and the whole deal with her twin sister, Eve? Well, I need to write her story next. She'll be paired with Tor, a very dark, lethal vampire of the Vehemens bloodline who has been sent by Lincoln to escort her home to Lilith in Oslo, Norway.

I also need to write Ineru and River's story, which was hinted at in the Prophecy Trilogy. Both of these books are set pre-Masquerade. In the timeline, Eve's story would have happened sometime between Seventh Circle and Masquerade, and Ineru's story was happening at the time of the Prophecy Trilogy. I want to get these two written before writing any more stories set in the present.

So, Hyperion lovers will need to wait for Hunger (Eve & Tor's story) and Forever After (Ineru & River's story) before they'll get their hands on his novel. However, he does make a rather grand appearance in Masquerade, and since Forever After is his sister's story, he will be appearing in that one a lot too. Both Hunger and Forever After should come out in 2013.

I know this isn't the answer most of you probably want to hear, so I'll sweeten the deal by mentioning that I intend to finish the series of free Eternity stories that chart Hyperion's rise to power and the major events in his life, and those will be released on the Vampires Realm website in 2012 and 2013.

I have returned from my rather long holiday around Europe!

Well well well. I go away for a few weeks and when I come back, Blogger has totally changed! This will take some getting used to.

Did you all miss me while I was away? It feels as though I've been gone forever and I've been to so many different places, with different languages, currencies, architectural styles, scenery, etc that I think it will take a while for me to soak it all in. It was like different holidays.

It's good to be back though and I'll be sharing some pictures of my travels on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/feheaton ) just as soon as I can. I've waded through the 1000 or so emails in my inbox and have to address a few of them before I can get going on anything. I also need to catch up with my book sales while I was away, send out some emails, prep some accounting stuff, pay some taxes, and generally get my head straight and my schedule in order. It's going to be a manic few days! (Let's not forget all that washing that now needs my attention, and my cat who will be following me around for the next week to ensure I don't disappear again).

I managed to read four books while I was away. I started off with the latest two books in Gena Showalter's fantastic Lords of the Underworld series -- The Darkest Surrender and The Darkest Seduction -- and then I read the second book in Larissa Ione's Demonica series -- Desire Unchained -- and finally I wanted a shorter faster read so I read The Nymph King by Gena Showalter. I had really wanted to manage to catch up on the Midnight Breed series by the wonderful Lara Adrian but I knew I wouldn't have time to finish a longer book before returning to work.

I've also seemed to have come back to a very chilly UK. It was strange having 25c+ temperatures and bright sunshine in Switzerland of all places! The weather forecast kept predicting rain and the weather kept giving us sunshine. I'm not complaining but I'm now a little browner as we only took factor 15 with us as we expected temperatures around 20c and below, not a heat wave!

The huge amounts of sunshine did lead to one discovery on our holiday. My husband is a vampire.

Seriously. Whenever I stopped to take a picture, I would turn around a second later and he would be across the street in some shady area, hiding from the glaring sun. lol. I never even heard him move either. He's fast and clings to the shadows. Yup. A vampire. Who'd have known?

Back to work for me. I have all this boring accounting stuff to do now and my office is a mess, and I'm sure it's time to put another wash on and let the cat out again before she gives me another loving touch. She had scratched my hand within a few minutes of my return last night. That's kitties for you.

Hope you've all been well!

Teaseday - Love Immortal - vampire romance book excerpt

It's Teaseday again which means that it's almost hump day, and it's time for another fantastic exerpt from one of my paranormal romance books!

LOVE IMMORTAL - TEASER

Lauren kicked the hem of her dark jeans so they covered the tongues of her black trainers and then tugged on the sleeves of her plum long sleeve kimono-style top. She smoothed the thin material over her breasts, allowing a modest amount of cleavage to show. It was cold in her top but she wanted to look good. She wanted Julian’s attention.

She combed her fingers through her red hair, twisting the ends so they flicked up and out.

She only wished that she could straighten out her nerves as easily.

Julian had left when she’d been dressing. He’d told her to pass the day away with Kuga, Leo and Piper if she couldn’t sleep, and to come to Duke’s office the next night. Piper had kindly gone out and bought her some beauty products and other necessities. She’d used all of them to make herself look more presentable and as pretty as she could manage. It had taken a while, giving her time to see the night fall and to think about why Julian would want her to go to Duke’s office. Now she stood outside it, trying to get her feelings into order and still wondering what awaited her on the other side.

Only one way to find out.

She opened the dark wooden door and stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was Astra talking to Julian. He stood to her right near the bookcases, with his hand resting on the hilt of his katana where it hung at his side, hidden beneath his coat. Astra glanced over at her and then smiled at Julian with bright red lips, touching his shoulder as she did so. She moved closer to him, a sway in her hips that Lauren didn’t like. It caused the slit up the side of Astra’s long black dress to open and reveal her thigh. Her smile widened and she ran her fingers through her glossy black hair, pushing it out of her face. A flicker of jealousy flared into life inside Lauren when Astra’s fingers slid slowly and sensually over the black material of Julian’s coat and she laughed, high and very feminine, about something.

“You’re looking better.” Duke came out from behind his large mahogany desk and crossed the room to Lauren. “Are you feeling better?”

Lauren threw a furtive glance Julian’s way and saw that Astra was now smiling right into his eyes.

“I was,” she muttered and turned her back on Astra.

Duke frowned. It didn’t suit him. It made his face dark and vicious, and gave him a menacing look when combined with his backdrop of the huge gun collection mounted on the dark red wall behind him. Lauren smiled, hoping to alleviate whatever was bothering him. She touched his arm.

“I’m fine.” Her hand slid down his arm. His gaze followed it intently. She was about to withdraw it when his hand came forwards so they touched. She went to take her hand back but he caught hold of it and turned it palm upwards. His fingertips grazed the lines on her hand, tickling her. “Are you going to tell me my future?”

He laughed—a rich deep sound that made her smile and made his intense brown eyes sparkle. While Astra’s laugh had been forced, Duke’s one had been real, like Kuga and Leo’s. It seemed all the male Ghosts enjoyed a good laugh. Lauren didn’t have the energy to laugh with her heart. She could only manage one as fake as Astra’s.

“I don’t tell fortunes.” Duke’s thumb brushed hers again, a caress that was both sensual and alarming. She stared wide-eyed at him, not knowing what to do. Julian wasn’t watching, and so what if he was? He probably wouldn’t do anything about Duke’s over-attentiveness. She probably meant nothing to him. Her life was a mere blip in his and when she died, another would come along to take her place. “But I could try… for you.”

“That’s fine.” Lauren extricated her hand from his. “I was just joking anyway.”

Duke swept the pad of his thumb over his fingers. Lauren stared at the roses on his palm.

“They’re beautiful tattoos.” She tried to get a closer look but Duke curled his hand up and lowered it.

“They would be if they were tattoos.” He smiled but this time it was as phoney as hers were recently and it didn’t touch his eyes. They were cold and empty, fixed on his fist where it hung at his side.

Another peal of laughter from Astra made Lauren’s fists clench. What on Earth was Julian saying to her that was so funny? Lauren glanced over at them. Julian said something she couldn’t quite hear but his look was serious, no sign of humour in it. When Astra touched Julian’s hair, brushing a rogue black strand from his eyes, Lauren’s temperature shot up.

She couldn’t believe that Astra was openly flirting with Julian, acting as though she wasn’t even there. Not that Julian was hers.

“Are you feeling alright?” Duke said with a look of concern.

Lauren shook her head, cursing the hot tears that burned her eyes. She hated how confused her feelings were, especially when it came to Julian.

Unable to bear hearing Astra with Julian, Lauren looked around her. To the left of the three arched windows was a white door with a green fire escape sign on it. Escape sounded good.

“I need some air.” Lauren went straight out of it and climbed the black metal spiral staircase to the flat roof.

The night was cold, a bitter wind blowing, but it was fresh and soothing, and it cleared her head. Astra’s flirting had hurt her more than she’d thought possible and she didn’t want to think why.

Lauren gripped the black metal railing that edged the roof around the fire escape and stared up at the sky. It was cloudless and inky, but it did nothing to make her smile as clear starry winter nights normally did. She felt as though she was drowning in it, pulled under by feelings that were out of control and that she didn’t understand.

There was a laugh from the room below. Astra.

Lauren’s grip on the icy railing tightened and she glared at the sky. Why wasn’t Julian coming to her? Hadn’t he seen her leave? Had he even noticed that she’d arrived or was he too busy with the beautiful Astra?

She almost laughed at herself. She’d come out into the cold for a reason other than the fresh air. She wanted Julian to come to her. She wanted him to choose between her and Astra. Where had it gotten her? Five minutes had passed and he wasn’t coming. All she’d gained for her stupidity was heartache and misery, and probably the start of a cold.

The door below opened and that same heart jumped for joy until Duke appeared on the staircase. She turned away again. The old warehouse opposite was full of people working. She watched them, remembering that today was Friday and that it was only just gone five. Soon everyone would be going home for the weekend. She wished she could go home.

Her gaze tracked the people. Normal life was going on around her, unaware of the monsters that lurked in the darkness or even walked amongst the office workers. Werewolves appeared human at times. How many of them had jobs? Was one of them down there now, in that office working amongst innocent people?

How many had she met during her life?

“It’s best that you’re not alone right now.” Duke leaned against the railing beside her.

Lauren didn’t look at him. She stared into the office, trying to spot any unusual behaviour that might give someone away as a werewolf and trying to ignore the creeping jealousy and anger in her heart.

“I want to be alone,” she whispered. A man walked past the window on the floor down from her in the office building. He seemed inconspicuous enough and he didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to her. In the darkness, he probably wouldn’t be able to see her. The moon wasn’t strong tonight. It was nothing but a sliver in the sky, surrounded by bright twinkling stars that not even the city lights could drown out.

“So you didn’t come out here to get Julian’s attention then?”

Lauren tensed. Was it that obvious? If it was, why hadn’t Julian come? Didn’t he want to be with her?

She laughed, more at herself than at what Duke had said. “Not at all.”

Duke sighed and ran his fingers back and forth along the black railing, his short fingernails scraping at the paint.

“Astra can be incorrigible and Julian is too polite.” He paused and turned around so his back was resting against the bar. Lauren looked over the edge and wondered how Duke could be so trusting of the balcony railing. It was a long drop to the quiet road below and the rail didn’t feel that sturdy under her fingers. Wasn’t he frightened of death? “Come back in.”

“I’m fine out here.” She wasn’t. She was freezing and miserable, but it was better than being around Astra. In the office, people were coming and going, some were leaving for the night. Life was going on without her. This past day she’d lost touch with the world and had felt as though only her, the Ghosts, Julian and the werewolves had existed. She’d forgotten that people still had lives to lead.

Lauren expected Duke to go back inside but he didn’t move. He hummed a tune for a while, a melody that she didn’t recognise, and then sighed. Her eyes shifted to him. He was watching her. When he saw her looking, he smiled.

She wished that it was Julian with her.

“How are you holding up?” Duke’s words were quiet and cautious, giving Lauren the impression that he felt as though he was handling fragile glass that was likely to smash at any given moment.

She was stronger than he thought then, but weaker than she needed to be.

“This wasn’t exactly what I had imagined when I had wanted to know who I was and what I wanted out of life.” Lauren smiled back at him, genuine and heartfelt, amused by how she’d longed to discover who she was and now that she had, part of her wanted to go back to her old life. “It isn’t what I wanted.”

Duke placed his hand on her shoulder. The weight of it against her was comforting, the warmth of his hand noticeable through her top. He frowned, removed his dark grey suit jacket and placed it around her shoulders. It warmed her through and she took hold of both sides of it, pulling it as closed as possible, and smiled her thanks at Duke.

“There isn’t a person here who hasn’t been through this moment of disbelief and fear.” His voice was low, intimate. It unnerved her slightly but she didn’t pull away from him. Instead, she looked up at the moon, feeling drawn to it tonight. “None of us felt more than a shadow of what you must feel though.”

It was hard to drag her eyes away from the moon but she managed it. Duke’s brown eyes were black in the low light, dark pools that were bottomless and empty but shining with feeling. Was he flirting with her again? She was never sure whether Duke was just being friendly or whether he was after something more than that. Just a few days ago, she would have said that he was too old for her because he was in his forties. Now she couldn’t use that excuse, not when she wanted a man who was three thousand years her senior. Duke touched her chin, making her jump, and slowly tilted her head back.

“I never imagined that you would be so—”

The sound of sliding metal sent ice racing over her nerve endings. Duke’s hand fell from her face and the corners of his lips lifted into a smile. His eyes slid to the side, towards the staircase.

“All yours, big man,” he said with an easy, unaffected air. “I was just giving her a little needed company.”

He walked away, taking his jacket with him. Lauren’s gaze followed him but halted when she saw Julian. He blinked slowly. The tiny trace of moonlight made his eyes shimmer. He’d changed into whatever state it was that he normally fought in. His sword was slightly drawn, a sliver of blade reflecting the moon. He slid it back and looked at the staircase with a frown as the door below closed, and then back at her.

Did he perceive Duke as a threat?

Lauren dragged her courage up to her chest and turned to face Julian. He stared at her, his silver irises eerie but beautiful. She stepped towards him, until she could feel the heat coming from him. Her heart sped, driven by her rising fear, but she reached up towards his face. His gaze shifted to her hands but she didn’t stop. Not this time.

This time she was going to seize the moment.

She was going to be strong.

With trembling fingers, she unclipped the two bands of metal that held the thick funnel collar of his coat closed. She sucked in a sharp breath of anticipation that he stole when the collar fell open to reveal the defined line of his jaw and his straight nose—all masculine and classical beauty. Her gaze fell to his sensual dusky lips. They tempted her, begging for a kiss that she would all too willingly give him. Her tongue swept over her dry lips and she swallowed. Her whole body warmed when she thought about what she wanted him to do right now, and the things she dreamed he would do in private.

“Show me.” Her eyes locked with his.

A flicker of a frown creased his brow and his eyes searched hers, as though he was trying to read her mind.

Now that he was unmasked and she’d leapt the first hurdle with relative ease, she found the strength to continue. It was a shame that she couldn’t find her voice. It failed her, but where it did, a touch could succeed, and it would be a far sweeter form of success.

Her thumb caressed the line of his jaw, as light as she could manage, running over scratchy dark stubble until she reached his chin. A momentary shiver danced through her along with a sense of concern. Her eyes widened as she stared into Julian’s. Not her feelings but his. They were all there in his silver eyes. He was worried. He’d realised what she was asking of him.

Did he think that it would frighten her? She wanted to see what would happen to her. She’d seen the scars on his wrist. Bite marks. When his lips parted, she would see fangs instead of teeth. And she needed to see them. If he showed her, if she saw them with her own eyes, then maybe she would finally totally accept that this was real and that it would happen to her soon.

“Let me see,” she whispered, low and coaxing, no longer nervous.

His lips parted to reveal the barest hint of pointed canines. Caught in a trance, transfixed by the sight of them, she rubbed the pad of her thumb across his lower lip. It was soft and warm. He breathed in sharply, his reaction empowering her, and his mouth opened to reveal his fangs. They glistened in the moonlight, white and sharp, but they didn’t frighten her.

What did was the fact that his gaze shifted to her neck.

Her heart hammered against her chest, blood rushing through her head. She shifted her eyes upwards to his and froze, mesmerised by the way he was staring at her neck with such forceful hunger glowing in his eyes. The silence stretched between them, his eyes locked on her neck and her thumb against his lips. His breath was warm against it, coming out in short heavy bursts that matched her racing heartbeat. She licked her lips again, couldn’t stop herself from imagining what it would feel like to have his mouth on her throat, his teeth in her flesh. The very thought made her tremble and prickly heat scorched her body.

“Do you… need to… need… blood?” Those words were harder to say than she’d thought they would be. Her fingers shook against his jaw.

Julian’s gaze snapped to hers as though she’d startled him and he stepped backwards, leaving her standing with her hand held in the air. In an instant, his eyes were pale blue again.

“Go inside,” he said, tone commanding and urgent at the same time. His fists shook at his sides.

Lauren edged towards the staircase and then stopped, looking back at him. “Are you coming too?”

He shook his head. The muscle in his jaw twitched as though he was grinding his teeth. Clamping them shut? His body language screamed of restraint. Had her touch triggered this internal war she was witnessing? He seemed to be fighting something.

“Where are you going?”

“To hunt.”

Her heart missed a beat. He was hungry. She hesitated and then moved back towards him, her throat tight again. She didn’t care how he would react. She had to know.

“Can you feed without killing?”

He nodded and then his gaze dropped to her neck again. She touched it. His eyes switched briefly to silver and he backed away another step.

“Go inside.” This time his voice was strained, his eyes showing the struggle that she could now feel in him. They switched again, flashing between silver and blue, darting between her throat and her face. “I cannot be near you. Not when I am hungry. Go… stay with the others.”

“Why?” Lauren ignored him and took a step towards him. He countered it with another step back, keeping the distance between them steady. Sheer agony filled his eyes and his expression changed to one of pleading, as though he was silently begging her to do as he’d asked. She trusted him. He wouldn’t hurt her, not even when he was hungry. She believed that.

His eyes melted back to silver and, when he spoke, she saw his canines had extended again. “They will keep you safe.”

“No,” Lauren said with a frown, unwilling to go until he’d answered her real question. “Why can’t you be near me?”

His eyes went to her neck. He frowned. When he met her eyes, he looked pained.

“It is forbidden.”

Before she could ask why, he leapt over the edge of the building. She gasped and leaned over the railing, only to see him land on his feet in the street far below and then disappear. Her heart started beating again. He could have told her that he could fall that far and not be hurt.

Lauren stared in the direction he’d gone.

More importantly.

She touched her bare neck, his hungry look burned on her memory.

He could have told her why it was forbidden.

Love Immortal
Felicity Heaton
Rescued from werewolves by the most breathtaking man she's ever seen, Lauren is dragged into the fight of her life and a dark world she never knew existed. There, she discovers that she's the latest reincarnation of a goddess and must drink the blood of her immortal protector, Julian, in order to reawaken and continue her three thousand year old mission to defeat Lycaon, the original werewolf.

With the help of Julian and an organisation of people with supernatural abilities, Lauren fights for her life, their future and the fate of mankind against Lycaon and his deadly army, but can she succeed when Lycaon has killed all of her predecessors?

Can she crack the armour around Julian's heart and seize her happily forever after with him? And can Julian bring himself to trust Lauren with the fragments of his heart after everything he's been through?

Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / WORLD | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iTunes Stores:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other Ebook Retailers:
Author's website | Barnes and Noble | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

Sunday Snippets - Winter's Kiss - paranormal vampire / werewolf romance novel excerpt

It's time for this week's Sunday Snippet from one of my paranormal romance books. While I'm away, my snippets are going to vary between full length chapters and teasing snippets. Which will it be today?

WINTER'S KISS

Nika stopped in front of the mansion, a short distance from the place where she knew she would find him. She took a deep breath. There was no reason to be nervous. She had walked past him countless times. In the winter, every morning and evening had seen her walk past him when she had been on her way to or from school. Tonight was nothing special. She had been away from the area for a few weeks and she’d had a few drinks before leaving work so her tongue was a little loose and her bravado was up, but that didn’t mean that she was going to do anything. She would walk calmly by and steal a glance, the same as she always did, as though she had never been away.

And he wouldn’t look at her, just as he never did.

The weather was bitter and inhospitable, the wind stealing all the heat from her cheeks and leaving them numb. Light snow whipped around and stung her face. She pulled the collar of her black winter coat up and tugged the sleeves down over her gloves, trying to eliminate any gaps where the wind could sneak in. The full moon shone behind the clouds, almost visible through their thin fluffy bodies. She had seen it a while back as it had been rising, fat and deep orange. She had taken a moment to stop on the narrow country road and watch it. It was a long walk from the nearest train stop to her village, but never once had she thought about calling her father for a lift. She liked the walk. She liked to pass the mansion without hearing her father’s terrifying tales of its occupants.

She liked to see the man.

Stamping her feet to get some life back into them, Nika sniffled and sighed. Her breath turned to white fog and drifted away. She started walking again, ready for her glimpse of the man and eager to get home where it would be warm.

The men slowly came into view. There were two of them as usual. Her heart skipped a beat and pounded a little harder. Would one of them be her man?

She was going to walk straight past and just sneak a glance at him, but some part of her had a different idea. When she had passed him and seen his beautiful dark eyes, she ground to a halt. He hadn’t looked at her again. She frowned, turned on her heel, and walked back to him. Standing opposite him, she stared up at his face. Neither man moved. They stood frozen to the spot, the tall blade-tipped staffs held resolutely at their sides and the large black wrought iron gate standing behind them.

He blinked. When his eyes opened, he still had them fixed on a spot in the distance over her head.

“What’s your name?” she said. The remaining trace of alcohol in her veins made her brave.

Nothing.

The wind howled through the gate and she frowned when it battered her coat and dress, but didn’t move the guards’ thick midnight black cloaks at all. Their black chest armour was visible on the side they held the weapon. She had never seen anything like it. It fascinated her. Moulded to mimic muscles, it would have been a fine body if it were real flesh and blood. The kind of male body that she had seen in magazines.

“Do you do this every night?” She tried again.

Nothing.

“Can you even speak?”
Nothing.

“Are you blind? Is that why you don’t look at me?” She waved her hand in front of his face.

There wasn’t the slightest reaction. He didn’t even blink.

Losing her patience, she huffed and frowned at him.

“The history of our village is written and in the books it’s said that a man moved here centuries ago, a man with purple eyes and a penchant for bloody murder, and that he’s lived here ever since. The tale goes that he feasts on the blood of virgins to keep himself young and that those who serve him are dead men walking.”

No reaction.

Nika stood there a moment longer, wondering what she could possibly say that would draw a reaction from him. He faltered in her vision, distorting along with the other guard and the mansion behind them. The steady drumming in her chest became a staccato rhythm and her eyes widened while she watched the whole world shift before her eyes.

One moment the guard stood before her and the next a different man. This one sent a chill tumbling down her spine and spreading to her fingertips. His rough-hewn features gave him an air of brutality. Dishevelled black wiry hair tufted up, streaked with silver by his temples, drawing her gaze to his slightly pointed ears. A thick scar cut across one cheek, tugging the corner of his lips into it. It looked as though someone had sliced through his mouth to his ear.

She looked away from it, disturbed by the sight, and found her gaze meeting his. Hard, penetrating amber irises held hers. Their dark wide pupils made her tremble with the promises of violence and pain that they held.

Nika knew those eyes.

The wind blew, sweeping her hair from her face and making the plush grey fur collar of his coat dance. He smiled at her, revealing sharp teeth that made her gasp in recognition.

Before she could even think it, he twisted and growled, fur chasing over his skin as it stretched to fit new bones. She wanted to look away but found that she couldn’t. She could only stare in horror and sick fascination as he transformed into a wolf before her eyes.

Suddenly, six wolves were with him and she was in the forest. Nika turned in a heartbeat, running away from them before they could reach her again. Again? She hazily remembered that she had done this before. She had already run away from these wolves. In the distance, the shack appeared. She had run there. The guard had saved her. Her leg had been broken.

It exploded in pain as she remembered and a red haze covered the world. It quickly faded to black. Unable to run any longer, she started to fall.

Nika’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the sloped wooden ceiling. Her heart hammered against her chest, her breathing fast and panicked. She slowed it down, drawing careful even breaths. It was hard to figure out what was real and what had been just a dream. Her leg ached. The wolves had been real. Her head rolled to one side and she stared at the man sleeping in the corner of the shack. So was the guard.

Who was the other man?

She rubbed her face and sat up, grimacing when her whole body protested. A thick black blanket covered her. No, not a blanket. The man’s cloak. She moved it aside and saw her own coat beneath it. He had covered her to keep her warm. She glanced at him again. The air in the room was icy at best. He would be freezing.

A frown married her fair eyebrows when she saw her left leg. He had bound it with what looked like part of her dress, some wood and some leather straps. It hurt, a dull throbbing pain, but nowhere near as badly as it had done last night. She looked at the windows. She couldn’t tell what time of day it was now. The light was golden, that of either morning or evening. What had happened to the night?

Panic lanced through her.

Her father.

He would be worried sick by now. She should have returned to the village hours ago. What if he came out looking for her and the wolves attacked him too? She tried to move and a wave of nausea crashed over her, sending her mind spinning and her skin burning. She pressed her hand to her head, feeling the heat of it and the damp layer of sweat. Was she infected? When she had been a child, the wolves had attacked the village and many had fallen sick from their wounds. The doctors had said it was blood poisoning and had sent the people away. She held herself, wrapping her arms across her chest. Did she have blood poisoning?

Nika jumped when the man in the corner stirred. Winter. She vaguely remembered him saying that was his name. Winter looked at her with dark eyes that she couldn’t read. There was no emotion in them. In all the times that she had seen him and looked into them, they had always been unreadable, but she knew there were feelings inside him. She could feel them.

He stood, crossed the small room to her, and inspected her leg and her cuts. His eyes grew darker. He frowned.

“I feared it would be this way,” he said in a heavy voice laden with the emotions finally surfacing in his eyes—anguish and despair. She wished those hadn’t been the first feelings that he had shown her.

“What way?” The sudden appearance of his feelings made her panic. Blood poisoning. It had to be.

He moved towards her, his face expressionless even when his eyes shone with what looked like fear.

She closed her eyes when his palm pressed against her forehead, cool and refreshing. His touch sent waves of relaxing calm through her and she leaned back against the headboard of the bed, her whole body humming softly.

“Did any of the wolves bite you?”

Those words chased away the calm and brought fear crashing back. Her eyes shot wide and she stared at the opposite wall, her thoughts running a million miles an hour through what had happened last night.

“The big one, with the black fur and grey mane,” she said and looked up at Winter. “I remember it from when I was small. The wolves came to the village one harsh winter. My father protected me.”

Winter was silent. His expression turned grim, sending fear into her heart.

“If it bit me, am I sickening—will I die? I’ve seen others die from a fever like this.” Her eyes searched his, heart holding onto the hope that he would tell her she would be fine. If he told her, she would believe him. He had said she wouldn’t die last night and she hadn’t. Perhaps if he told her that she would get better, she would.

He shook his head.

“No...” He sat beside her on the bed and removed his hand from her forehead. He placed his other one against her cheek. It was so cold that her eyes slipped half-shut again as she savoured the cooling effect that it had on her body. “You will not die. You will heal and you will grow stronger than you have ever been.”

Her eyes opened again.

“How?” She looked at her leg and concentrated. “I’m healing. I can feel it. The pain is almost gone, but the fever... what’s happening to me?”

A look that spoke of discomfort crossed his face and he stood, walking to the end of the bed and then turning to face her, as though he needed the distance. She willed him back to her. Whenever he was close, she felt safe and as though nothing could hurt her.

“You are becoming like them,” he said in a near whisper. He had to be joking. People didn’t become wolves. His gaze met hers. His eyes held nothing but honesty. Waves of panic rocked her, one after the other, each stronger than the last. They tightened her chest until it became hard to breathe. “Within the next few days, your transformation will be complete.”

“I’m becoming a wolf?” Her voice was a high squeak of hysteria. “What crazy idea is that? You can’t become a wolf from being bitten by one!”

“They are not wolves,” he said, emotionless.

“They’re not?” She laughed but stopped when his face remained serious and it became even more difficult to breathe. She had to do something to dispel this growing fear inside her. He couldn’t be telling her the truth. “Next you’ll be telling me that you’re not human and we’re not in a shack in the woods.”

He took a step towards her, hesitated, and then curled his hands into fists. When he spoke, his voice was one of pain and anger.

“I am not human, Nika, and neither are you... not anymore. Rest. You will be weak until you are healed.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was she still dreaming? Was she delirious?

“Rest? You tell me that I’m not human and neither are you, and then you tell me to rest?”

He just stared at her.

“There is nothing we can do. You cannot move until your leg is healed and even then it is dangerous to move you before your transformation is complete.”

That word made her sick. Transformation. He kept saying it as though it was really happening. She was becoming a wolf. How was that possible? People really didn’t turn into wolves when one bit them. She frowned at her leg. Winter had said that the wolves hadn’t really been wolves. Had the man in her dream become the wolf?

This was insane. She had to get out of here and away from this craziness. If she did, then maybe she would be fine.

“I can’t stay here. My father will be worried and the wolves might return. This shack won’t hold... and you’re clearly as demented as the man in the mansion you protect!”

He said nothing. He stood still a moment and then walked to the window and stared out of it. The broken glass let the frigid air in. How could he stand the cold? Her gaze fell to his armour. The back of it was as detailed as the front, shaped like black muscles and intricately decorated with silver lines. His thick black shirt and that armour couldn’t be keeping him warm. His hands had been freezing.

“What kind of lunatic do you protect that demands you wear such an outfit? It’s the twenty-first century and you’re wearing armour.”

He whirled to face her, expression dark and deadly, eyes black as midnight. “My lord is none of your business. You would do well to keep your questions away from him.”

Nika leaned back into the bed in an attempt to avoid the cutting edge of his tone and the violent darkness in his eyes. She hadn’t meant to provoke him, or perhaps she had. Her father would be worried about her and everything that Winter said seemed impossible.

When she opened her mouth to speak, his eyes narrowed, silencing her.

“You must stay here,” he said, his tone still rough. He looked at the window again and then back at her. This time when he spoke, his voice was softer and full of feeling. “If the wolves return, which is likely since their leader will now see you as his, then I will protect you. He is no match for me, but with the others, I will be at a disadvantage. I am not demented, and I was not lying to you when I said that I am not human, and neither are you. I see no point in this conversation. You cannot change what happened...”

Nika winced when her leg hurt and curled up, drawing her one good leg to her chest and holding it. His words had started out so nice, but the cruel brutal edge they had gained made her heart ache. For a moment, she had thought that he was kind to want to protect her. Why had he spoiled it by reminding her about the wolf bite and her supposed new inhuman status?

Surprise claimed her when Winter sat beside her on the bed. He sighed. Was he upset about something other than what she had said about his master and her insistence about going home? She sighed along with him, wishing she understood what was happening. He stared down at his lap. He really was handsome, and very pale. Perhaps his position kept him away from the sunlight, or maybe the black clothing and his dark hair was the reason his skin appeared milky.

It suddenly sunk in.

It was an utterly ridiculous thought that made an impossible amount of sense.

“I’m a werewolf, aren’t I?” she said, still looking at him, studying his face for a reaction to her words.

He nodded. Not a flicker of feeling crossed his face. Anyone else would have laughed at her suggestion. Then again, anyone else would have insisted that she was human and just had a case of blood poisoning, not that she was turning into something else.

“Are you one too?”

A shake of his head this time.

“Something else?” she said, wondering what he could be.

He nodded again.

“What?” Nika had to ask. Winter had said that he wasn’t human. If he proved that, perhaps she would be able to start believing that she was becoming a werewolf.

His gaze slid across to meet hers. Her eyes widened when the colour of his irises gradually changed from deep blue to a rich purple. He straightened, turned his head to face her, and slowly smiled. His lips parted to reveal sharp pointed teeth. When he grinned fully, she realised that they were his canines. Fangs.

Her heart thumped erratically against her chest. Fear pounded down on her. Her instincts told her to run but she kept still instead, standing her ground in the only way she could. This man had saved her. He had offered to protect her when the wolves returned, regardless of how outnumbered he would be. He wasn’t going to harm her.

She swallowed when his gaze raked over her, slow and assessing, somewhere between an animal eyeing its prey and an amorous man eyeing a potential bedmate.

His eyelids dropped, hiding his stunning purple irises, and he inhaled, slow and deep, as though savouring the smell of something.

“You still smell of blood... the temptation...”

Her, apparently. He liked the smell of her blood. Blood, fangs, pale skin, never aging. She should have spotted it before. A vampire. That meant that she was definitely becoming a werewolf. Or was she still trapped in that dream?

His eyes opened and he stared straight into hers. His gaze slid down to her neck and then moved across, narrowing with contempt. Was it her gold cross that made him look that way? In the movies, vampires hated crosses. Perhaps it was true.

She removed her hand from her arm and looked down at her palm. Crimson stained it. She held her hand out for him to see and trembled when he took hold of it, his skin cool against hers and his touch gentle. With wide eyes, she watched him, unable to move as he leaned towards her. He closed his eyes, dipped his head, and licked the blood from her palm.

Her heart rocketed when he drew her hand closer to him, forcing her to lean forwards, and then opened the slit in the arm of her dress with his other hand. His tongue swept across the cut and then his mouth closed around it. He gave a shallow suck, as though removing poison from a snakebite, but she didn’t feel the sting of the wound as it reopened. The pleasure from such a sensual caress drove it to the back of her mind along with the dull ache in her leg. He licked the wound again, sending desire spiralling through her.

When he pulled back and released her hand, she felt bereft and cold. She looked at him and his eyes opened, meeting hers. They were blue again.

He blinked slowly.

“Is your lord a vampire too?” If he were, it would explain the story about him being centuries old.

Winter spat onto the floor.

Nika looked at the dark red wet mark on the dusty wood.

Her blood.

“We all are,” he said in a distant voice and wiped his lips.

Nika frowned, trying to ignore the fact that he hadn’t swallowed her blood. For some reason, it offended her.

“The village tales are true then. Fell creatures roam our land and they have the form of man,” she said in a false light tone and then frowned again at the dark patch of blood on the floor by Winter’s booted feet.

“How is your leg?” he said with a glance at it.

“Fine,” she snapped, unable to help herself. He had spat out her blood not seconds after saying he wanted it. “I thought you were tempted by my blood?”

His eyebrows knitted together and he stared pensively at the floor. “I am, but it tastes... it is tainted. The werewolf’s saliva is changing you and the process is not yet finished. When it is—”

“I’ll be like them.”

Winter nodded and kept his face bent towards the floor. “I came as fast as I could.”

Nika studied his face, surprised by his words and wanting to see if there was truth behind them. He had? There was such pain in his eyes, and regret. He looked vulnerable as he sat with his hands in his lap, his head bent and his profile to her. Something about the air of hurt around him made her want to reach out and cover his hand with hers, to reassure him that what had happened wasn’t his fault. His shoulders heaved in a sigh.

“They killed your horse,” she whispered, feeling ridiculous and cruel for mentioning it when his eyes closed in visible pain.

When they reopened, he was looking at her. He straightened and turned to face her, their eyes meeting. Tears filled hers as she thought about everything that had happened. Her life was over. She was becoming a werewolf and a vampire had rescued her. It was all too much and none of it made sense even though she knew that it was true.

She kept waiting to wake up from the nightmare. She kept waiting for Winter to tell her that it was a joke and that none of it was real. He was only joking. He wasn’t a vampire. She wasn’t turning into some kind of hellhound. Her stomach roiled and flipped, burning with acid and her tumultuous feelings. A longing to bury her head in her hands and cry until she was sick filled her but she denied it. She didn’t want to be weak. Not in front of Winter. She wanted to smile even though she was falling apart inside. The way he looked pained her, brought out her fear and shattered what little strength she had managed to retain. She wished she could smile for him, could alleviate all that sorrow in his beautiful blue eyes, but she wasn’t strong enough. A tear tracked down her cheek, another quickly following it. She let them come, let them quietly slip one after another, not sobbing, just surrendering to her feelings and the weakness that filled every inch of her, right down to her heart and soul.

Winter gave her another pained look and brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek.

Her lips parted and a tear rolled down her cheek to her jaw.

Instinct made her lean into his touch and draw comfort from it.

He broke the silence with words that made her heart ache.

“I am only sorry I could not save either of you.”

Winter's Kiss
F E Heaton
Their lord drinks blood and they are dead men walking. The tales of the mansion don’t stop Nika from falling for one of the guards, but when wolves attack her and he rides to her rescue, she discovers that her knight is anything but saintly. He is a vampire and she is becoming a werewolf, and love between their species is forbidden—the penalty death.

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

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


Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / WORLD | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iTunes Stores:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other Ebook Retailers:
Author's website | Barnes and Noble | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks


Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

Saturday Snippets - Her Guardian Angel - angel romance novel excerpt

It's time for this week's Saturday Snippet from one of my paranormal romance books. While I'm away, my snippets are going to be full chapters as it's far easier to just post a whole chapter than try to hunt down a teasing snippet. So, here's another full length Saturday Snippet from a very sexy paranormal angel romance book.

HER GUARDIAN ANGEL

Amelia sat back in her seat when Marcus took his hand away from hers and leaned back in his chair. She toyed with her slim black mobile phone for a moment to distract herself from the disturbed look on Marcus’s face. When he didn’t stop glaring at her, she put her phone down on the round dark metal table and nursed her drink, feeling incredibly foolish for taking hold of his hand. She sipped her coffee, grimacing internally as the cold liquid touched her tongue. Nothing was going right for her today. No, some things had been going right. She hadn’t been imagining the way Marcus’s eyes had lingered on her body, or how quick he was to smile at her whenever she smiled at him. Those smiles had reached his beautiful silver-blue eyes too, lighting them in a way that wasn’t fake and that told her they were real this time, not the usual polite ones he forced whenever someone spoke to him.

He had been different since last night.

She wasn’t usually in the habit of relying on men to fight her battles for her but she had appreciated his intervention. It was the first time that a man had come to her rescue and when he had punched Mike, her heart had fluttered and she had looked at Marcus with new eyes. She had noticed him the moment he had moved in next door to her, had registered him as handsome, but she had never really taken the time to look at him. The man had a body that could put models to shame and she hadn’t stopped wondering what he did for a profession since setting eyes on it. Was he a model? She hoped to God he wasn’t a hand model because her own stupid choice of men had gone and wrecked one of his lovely strong hands.

Amelia stared at his injured one, her heart beating hard in her throat. He had large hands, made for cupping and holding, or made for fighting. He had landed a hefty punch on Mike, sending him down with one blow, and for a brief moment she had feared he wasn’t going to get back up. She had almost gone to him but then instinct had kicked in and reminded her that Mike had been intent on fighting Marcus. He must have been drunk. Only an idiot would pick a fight with Marcus if they were sober, and Mike wasn’t that stupid. He should have known he didn’t stand a chance.

Marcus had a seriously cut physique, lithe muscles that radiated strength and raw masculinity.

Once she had noticed that he was topless, it had been difficult not to stare. The few times that she had managed to peel her eyes off his body and found the courage to meet his, he had been looking at her with wide pupils darkening his amazing eyes, a sure sign of desire.

So why had he been so quick to snatch his hand away from hers?

Amelia almost laughed at herself. Since when had she given a damn about what men thought of her? Men were trouble. Mike had hammered that nail so firmly into her head that she had got the message this time. Men were something she could live without and that life would certainly be a lot easier and less painful than hers had been up to this point.

Her eyes betrayed her and snuck back to Marcus. He sat opposite her with his head tilted back and eyes on the sky. The lines of his defined jaw led her gaze up to his square chin and sensual mouth and her pulse picked up, jittery in its beat, when she licked her lips and contemplated what kissing him would be like. He lowered his head, their eyes met and then he looked away, an air of irritation about him.

Her fault?

She had taken his hand last night when icing his knuckles and he hadn’t reacted so coldly then. If anything, the desire in his eyes had increased. What had happened between then and today? Had she said or done something wrong? She could have sworn that she had read the signals right and that Marcus liked her. Now she felt as though a vast frigid ocean had opened between them and that she would drown if she tried to traverse it to reach him.
She wanted to.

Last night had opened her eyes to the fact that there was a fantastic man living next door to her and since then she had felt tied up in knots, twisted inside out and back to front. She had never been backwards about being forward before but something about Marcus made her hesitate. It wasn’t just because he would think she was rebounding. It was because he seemed like a nice guy, a cut above gorgeous in looks and personality, and she didn’t want to screw things up. He had been on her mind all day and she had tried to think of a way to bump into him again so she could strike up a conversation and get to know him better. When she had spotted him outside their building, it had felt as though fate had brought them together, but her nerve had failed at the sight of him standing staring at the floor as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He hadn’t heard her at first. It had taken her three attempts before he had lifted his head and noticed her, and by then her confidence had been shattered. Had he been thinking too?

About her?

Amelia rolled her eyes at her thoughts. As if. The poor man was sleep-deprived thanks to her terrible choice in men. He had probably been spacing out just as she had said he was, unable to function with only a few hours sleep. When he had gone back to his own apartment half an hour after she had iced his left hand, she hadn’t heard a peep out of him until gone six in the morning when there had been some movement next door. She hadn’t been able to sleep herself. Fear had kept her awake and she had watched one movie after another in an attempt to push it to the back of her mind. She was running on empty today, half asleep and feeling as though what had been a dream was turning into a nightmare.

Amelia leaned one elbow on the metal table and stared at Marcus, studying the nuances that crossed his handsome face as he watched the people passing them by on the pavement. For all she knew, Marcus was Mr Right for someone already. It wouldn’t surprise her. He had looks, a fabulous body, was quick to defend women, and had proven himself intelligent in the brief conversations they had shared. Her younger sister would have taken one look at him, with his dark tousled hair that caressed the nape of his neck and sometimes fell down to brush his forehead, causing him to sweep his fingers through it to groom it back, incredible pale blue eyes, and scorching hot body, and declared him ‘smexy’. Smart and sexy apparently. Her mother would have taken one look at him and told her that he was a keeper and not to give up on him.

Someone else was probably already keeping him.

Maybe that was why he had taken his hand back so quickly.

Marcus looked across the table at her and Amelia felt cold inside from the emptiness in his eyes. Where had the nice Marcus gone? Had she chased him away? A sense of impatience surrounded him, as though he didn’t want to sit with her anymore, and he couldn’t hold her gaze for more than a few seconds.

Amelia mused that he was always detached from everyone and distant. She shouldn’t be so surprised that he had withdrawn from her.

“I wouldn’t be any good for you,” he said, his deep voice as devoid of emotion as his face, and Amelia held her hands up, desperate to shift the course of conversation away from her feelings. “You are better off keeping away from me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She had but he didn’t need to know that. Her heart ached as he crushed it in her chest with just a glance and a handful of words. She blushed, her face on fire, and stuttered, trying to get an excuse into order.

She couldn’t find the words as he stared at her, his expression gradually turning from awkwardness towards anger, and she knew in her heart that she couldn’t have been more wrong about him.

His appearance now was a harsh contrast to how he had looked just a few minutes ago and last night. The heat that had touched his handsome features then, warming them and giving her the impression that she stood a chance with him, and the undeniable spark of desire that had lit his eyes, made her feel as though she had met a different person in that moment and not the real Marcus.

Perhaps all her thoughts about him were wrong, even last night, and he was right. She really didn’t know anything about him. Her white knight might just be another black one in disguise and she really didn’t need that on top of everything else. What would she do if Marcus turned out to be another wrong choice when he looked so much like a good man? It would certainly compound the growing notion inside her that she was doomed to spend her life with a string of Mr Wrongs in an impossible search for one Mr Right.

“Did I thank you for last night?” Desperate times called for desperate measures. All she could do now was try to deflect his attention away from what she had done in some dire hope of easing the tension mounting between them.

He nodded. Silent treatment was it? He was the first man to do that to her, but it wasn’t going to deter her. Once they were back on steady ground, she would make her excuses and leave, and hopefully things wouldn’t be too awkward between them whenever they met in the hallways of their apartment building.

“Was your coffee good?” Amelia looked at the white mug. He had barely touched it. In fact, he hadn’t done or said much since sitting down with her. He really didn’t want to be here. Had he only agreed to coffee out of politeness?

Marcus lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. He had looked so good in only his deep grey sweat pants, his bare upper body on display as a midnight feast for her eyes. She tried to keep her focus on the more pressing matters of her present situation and failed, ending up picturing him as he had appeared last night instead. He had an athletic physique, toned and powerful but not overly built. The sort of body she would love to run her fingers over and had fantasised about. The sweat pants had barely hidden the muscular shape of his thighs and had rode low on his hips, revealing a V line that had stirred all manner of wicked thoughts in her head, as well as a treasure trail of dark hair that her lips and fingers ached to follow. When he had punched Mike, his entire body had come alive with movement, fascinating her. The way his muscles shifted and moved with him, tensing or stretching beneath his pale skin, had been mesmerising. It had taken her a moment to realise that Mike was flat on his backside and that she should react to it in some way other than gawping at Marcus.

When she had taken him into her apartment and iced his knuckles, she had put his body to memory, including the beautiful tattoo of angel wings he had on his back. She hadn’t figured him as a tattoo type so the swirling blue-grey elaborate wings that decorated his shoulder blades had surprised her. She had wanted to ask him about them but hadn’t been able to find her voice at the time, and asking him about them now certainly wouldn’t help her cause, not when she wanted to ask him why such an elementally masculine man had such beautifully delicate tattoos. They seemed like a strange choice.

Unless he was gay.

Was that a possibility?

Amelia’s gaze darted to his face and her eyes widened when she caught him staring at her chest. He quickly looked away, turning his right cheek to her and taking in the people walking along the street, lending her a view of his noble profile. Bi? He was gorgeous, clearly looked after himself, and also kept to himself. Was that a bad sign? Amelia frowned at her thoughts. She was overanalysing things. Just because he was good looking and not interested in her didn’t mean he was gay or involved in a relationship, or any of those things that she wanted him to be so she would feel better about his rejection.

He just didn’t find her attractive.

He had said it straight. Stay away.

Maybe she would do just that.

Amelia went to pick up her black leather handbag and then hesitated. Flushed with bravery and unwilling to give up so easily, she fixed Marcus with a hard look and was surprised when he turned his head and looked at her, as though he had felt her staring.

“Is something wrong?” Not a trace of a tremble in her voice. Her heart pounded, adrenaline thundering in her veins, but she held her ground. It was a horribly personal question to ask him but she had to find out whether his reaction to her touch was because he didn’t want her or because he did but felt he wasn’t good for her, as he had said.

Marcus stared at her for almost a full minute, the fading evening light reflecting off the windows and his white shirt, illuminating his face and chasing the shadows away. The edge of darkness his expression had gained lifted to reveal something that wasn’t quite warmth, but wasn’t icy cold either.

“Why?” A slight frown pinched his black eyebrows together.

“You… it’s just you seem more out of spirits than normal.”

He gave her an odd look. It was the truth. He never seemed very happy and now she couldn’t help wondering why. His warning to keep away from him had brought back all the previous times she had seen him and the distance he maintained between him and everyone in their building, and now she wanted to know whether the man sitting opposite her was more similar to her than she had thought possible.

Did he go from one bad experience to the next too?

He had to have a reason for wanting to keep his distance from everyone and not letting anyone in. Was he afraid of being hurt or feeling something for someone? She feared that too, entered into relationships believing that eventually they would end and she would be hurt, but as much as she tried to live alone and be the independent woman she wanted to be, she couldn’t help feeling lonely and wanting to share her life with someone.

For a brief moment, Marcus had seemed like someone she could do that with, and this time she had felt it wouldn’t end in tears.

He could have been her Mr Right, but such a man wouldn’t have told her to keep away from him. That hadn’t been in her dream of what would happen today when she bumped into him. She hadn’t anticipated that response at all. She couldn’t blame him though. Chatty old Mrs McCartney next door had probably told him all about her poor choice in men and he was telling her to keep away because he didn’t want to get sucked into her miserable life.

Amelia jumped when her mobile phone rang, the jaunty tune breaking the heavy silence as it buzzed on the table. Marcus frowned, his blue eyes darting to it. She wanted to ignore it, knowing that it would be Mike calling to chew her ear off about last night and make her feel wretched for the rest of the weekend, but the ring was so loud that people around her were staring.

Instead of answering, she picked it up, put her handbag on the table, and dumped the phone into it, muffling the annoying ringtone.

“Why didn’t you answer it?” Marcus stared at her bag. Amelia tapped the table, cringing inside and wishing the phone would stop ringing.

“It’s my ex.” Ignoring him was preferable to speaking with him.

Marcus surprised her by reaching across the table, fishing the phone out of her handbag, and flicking it open. Amelia could only stare as he brought the phone to his ear, his face set in grim dark lines, and glared at the table as though he wanted to kill it.

“I thought I told you to leave Amelia alone?” He paused, his expression darkening further and the muscle in his jaw tensing. Amelia’s heart pounded hard and she wished she could hear what Mike was saying to Marcus, because he looked close to going ahead and breaking something. Anger radiated from him in strong waves and everyone stared as he barked into the phone, “Stay away from her because the next time you dare to go near her, I’m not going to be so kind as to let you walk away.”

Amelia’s hands shook, her limbs trembling with them, and she joined everyone in staring at Marcus as he clicked the phone shut and dropped it back into her purse. What had just happened?

He had defended her again when she had been convinced that he wanted nothing to do with her.

His eyes met hers across the table and the trace of compassion in them only confused her further. He blinked slowly, dark lashes shuttering his pale blue irises, stealing them from view before lifting again to reveal the full extent of their beauty. Warmth shone in them, a softness that reached out and curled around her, filling her with a sense of safety even as her whole body quaked with the fear that Mike wouldn’t heed Marcus’s warning and would come after her again.

“I won’t let him near you, Amelia. You don’t have to worry about him. I will keep you safe.” Those words, so softly spoken in his deep voice, weren’t a lie. There was truth in his eyes and his open expression, and she believed him.

She just wasn’t sure what to make of him.

What sort of man told a woman to stay away from him and then promised to keep her safe?

Marcus was an enigma and something inside her was telling her to take his advice and keep away from him, because if he turned out to be another black knight and broke her heart, she didn’t think she would recover from it.

She gathered her things, rose from her seat and hesitated only long enough to catch the confusion surfacing in his eyes before making a swift exit.

Her Guardian Angel
Felicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.

A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia’s trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.

Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn’t turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there’s more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she’s falling in love with.

On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus’s angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.

A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.


Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / WORLD | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iTunes Stores:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other Ebook Retailers:
Author's website | Barnes and Noble | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
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Teaseday - Heart of Darkness - vampire romance book excerpt

It's Teaseday again which means that it's almost hump day, and it's time for another fantastic exerpt from one of my paranormal romance books!

HEART OF DARKNESS - TEASER

Elise cursed the name of Aleksandr Nemov for the hundredth time that night, and it was barely two hours after sundown. It transpired that he had only danced with her at the ball. Now everywhere she went the ladies of the house whispered and glared at her. Even the guards were merciless in their teasing. She had gone to see Andrej to find some comfort but he had been so caustic that she had immediately left.

She hurried across the landscaped garden to the grey two storey square building at the back of the estate that acted as the garrison. It was past time to report in for duty. Hopefully, Commander Piotr would forgive her this small fault in exchange for the fact that she had followed his orders and ruined her life by dancing with Aleksandr Nemov.

Elise strode through the building, her focus so fixed on thinking of a way to gain a solo mission so she could patrol the city in glorious solitude and keeping her head down to avoid the snide taunts of her comrades that she didn’t notice the danger until it was too late.

The moment she saw Aleksandr, she turned and tried to escape her commander’s office.

“Elise,” Commander Piotr said and she froze, cursing Aleksandr again.

“Reporting for duty, Sir.” Elise saluted her commander and then Ladislav where he sat perched on the end of her commander’s oak desk dressed in a long black winter coat and pinstripe suit. She ignored Aleksandr.

“You are to show me the city tonight.”

Her gaze shot to Aleksandr. He smiled at her, all charm and sweetness.

She didn’t want to show him the city. He already knew it. He had been to Prague before.

Had he asked for her to be his guide tonight? She shrugged that question away. There was no reason for him to ask for her specifically. Then again, he’d had no reason to be so intent on dancing with her either. The look in his grey eyes unsettled her. Whenever he looked at her, he looked like a raptor eyeing its prey. She didn’t like it, and she hadn’t seen him look at anyone else that way.

Elise bit her tongue to hold in the refusal that tried to spring from her lips and saluted her commander again, stiffly this time and with anger burning in her gut.

She turned on the spot, took a deep breath, and led the way out of the garrison. A quick tour of the city wouldn’t kill her. It was an honour to serve their prince and she was sure that she was imagining everything about Aleksandr. He didn’t know any of the guards besides her and the commander, and he had met her in the city. Perhaps he merely thought her a suitable guide, one who would be able to give him information he needed.

Perhaps he was out to seduce her.

Elise would have laughed at that had she not feared it so much.

Aleksandr was quiet as they walked into the heart of the city. His eyes constantly scanned over the old buildings lining the narrow roads. She brought him to the Old Town quarter first, entering the main square from an alley at the bridge end, away from the open square itself.

“It’s a terrible place for hunting,” Elise said to break the silence.

Aleksandr glanced at her and then looked at their surroundings. He tensed and turned the second the astronomical clock mounted near the base of the tall stone tower in front of them began to chime the hour. With a frown, he walked forwards, towards the beautiful gold and blue dial that the tourists loved, studying it and the gold and painted circular calendar below. Elise went with him, her gaze seeking the model of death chiming a bell. She loved the clock too. Sometimes when she was here scouting for a suitable source of blood she became distracted by the way the models on the clock came alive on the hour.

The cobbled area in front of the clock was empty save for her and Aleksandr. The city was so cold in winter that few tourists came. Those who did rarely ventured out at night to watch the clock.

“It’s a good place for scouting for blood.” She hoped for a response this time. “We often come here and then follow a selected tourist to see if they venture somewhere quiet we can deal with them.”

“It seems like a very inefficient way to hunt.” His eyes didn’t leave the clock. “Why not simply lure them away? Or wait for someone to pass a quiet street and kill them?”

“It is not our way. Taking the occasional tourist is less conspicuous than killing the people of Prague. That way we risk the humans learning of our existence. We do as the Nemov line wishes, to protect our species from discovery.” She paused to reflect on his questions. “Luring someone could be considered taking pleasure from the hunt.”

His broad shoulders shifted in a shrug. “Some could say that.”

Elise wanted to ask him if he lured his victims or took any pleasure from what he did when hunting, but the sight of him caught her off guard. The light from the astronomical clock bathed his skin, warming it and making his steely eyes darker. He had a regal profile that matched his classically handsome face. The strong line of his jaw led her gaze down to his throat and the slow steady pulse that ticked there. She dropped it lower, to his waist, hidden behind his long black coat. She had been shocked when he had revealed his bloodline’s mark, and not only because she had discovered that he was royalty. He had shown no reserve about flashing his body and there had been a pleased look in his eyes when he had caught her staring. Just as she was now. She forced her eyes back up to his face. His bowed lips tugged into a smile.

“I like your city.” He turned on the spot, scanning the cluster of buildings at this end of the square, and then stopped and faced her, his smile widening. “It has many beauties.”

Elise’s cheeks heated at the suggestion in his voice. She walked past him towards the square, ignoring his charm. He caught up with her, walking close beside her, and touched her elbow to make her walk in another direction. He had done that several times now, each one feeling like an intimate caress rather than a mere suggestion of an order.

She moved a step away from him and walked past the tower and into the heart of the expansive square, heading for the tall row of coloured buildings opposite. Cafés and restaurants lined the square, spilling out from the arched walkway beneath the buildings in front and to her right. Behind the buildings in front of her, one of Prague’s most impressive sights rose. The twin spiked towers of the church and warmly lit façade captivated tourists even more than the clock. There were a few gathered in the square, their camera flashes puncturing the darkness.

“This is another good place to scout for tourists in summer,” she said and Aleksandr looked towards them. “In winter it is too conspicuous, but in summer there are often a large number of people here. It is easy to blend amongst them.”

Elise led Aleksandr towards the line of restaurants. The tables set out beneath the large white square umbrellas and heat lamps were mostly unoccupied.

“Another good place to scout?” His gaze scanned the people.

“Sometimes we come here in winter late at night, when the bars are turning out.”

He moved closer to her again and his voice dropped to a whisper. “You are far more talkative when you are not dancing.”

Elise looked away from him, towards the other side of the square and the restaurants there. She was thankful when Aleksandr’s attention left her and returned to the square. She needed space to breathe for a moment. She wasn’t used to so much attention, especially not from men, and she was starting to feel suffocated.

She glanced at Aleksandr. His focus was on the people, studying them closely. He seemed like a different person, colder and calculating, as she had expected him to be from the tales that she had heard and read in their society’s papers.

“The vampire hunters don’t come here.” She looked around the square. “At least not often anyway. They know how we work. They know we won’t kill the humans openly, and that we will follow them away from here. Most hunters gather over the river to wait for us.”

Aleksandr’s gaze returned to her along with his focus. She could feel his eyes on her, burning into the side of her face. She kept her gaze away from his, not wanting to see how he was looking at her now. He touched her elbow again, his fingers lingering longer this time, almost a caress.

“Show me where the hunters are.” His voice was low still, a soothing sound that felt like a physical touch over her body.

She nodded and led the way, quickening her pace to gain a little distance from him. Alarm bells were ringing loudly in the back of her mind. Aleksandr was too attentive, too charming, and too close to her. All of it made her feel as though he wanted something and she knew what that something was.

It wasn’t going to happen.

To keep him distracted from her, she talked to him about the city. She gave him all the information he might need about how the police operated, her family’s methods of disposing of bodies, how they acted as a military academy to avoid rousing suspicion when they were in the city, and the small number of hunters that passed through each month, heading deeper into Europe from Asia or vice versa. With each piece of information, Aleksandr moved closer, until their hands brushed occasionally, sending shivers dancing up her arm. She tried to distance herself again but whenever she moved away, he moved closer. It felt too intimate.

She passed under the arch beneath the dark stone tower that stood at one end of the Charles Bridge and out the other side, stopping a short way onto it. The tall antique lamps that lined the wide pedestrian bridge glowed softly, lighting the stone statues standing on the walls of it in warm sepia hues. The brightly lit gothic cathedral on the hill across the wide black river, and the buildings that clustered around it, cast twinkling lights on the rippling water. It was beautiful, and she hoped it would keep Aleksandr’s attention off her.

Aleksandr moved away from her at last, going to lean on the wall and peer over the edge at the river. He looked along the bridge in the direction of the other gate tower. A couple were walking towards them.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, his eyes almost black in the low light, and then looked back at the couple. She hoped he wasn’t considering killing them. Her family still had enough blood in storage to last them a week and another murder in the city so close to the death of the hunter would rouse too much suspicion amongst the local police.

Aleksandr turned slowly as the couple passed, his eyes tracking them, and relief eased her tension away when they passed her and walked through the gate tower behind her.

He leaned back against the wall at an angle, propping himself up on his elbows. His long black coat fell back to reveal his body and the dagger sheathed at his hip. The black trousers and shirt did nothing to hide the toned planes of his physique. Elise tore her gaze away and looked left, up the dark river towards the fountain and the small park where they had first met.

Since then, her entire world had been falling apart. Aleksandr had shaken it to its foundations and she was still spinning, unable to get her head straight.

Aleksandr came over to her, close again, near enough that his breath caressed her face. It felt as though he didn’t want to let her get her head straight, as though he wanted to confuse her and send her mind and heart in circles.

“The hunters favour the other side of the bridge, where the streets are narrow and quieter. It is easier for them to fight us unhindered there. It is also our favoured hunting ground.” Elise cast her gaze down when Aleksandr’s arm grazed hers.

When she eventually looked at him, he was staring at the cathedral but his focus wasn’t there. It was on her. He leaned down, bringing his mouth so close to her ear that his lips brushed it as he spoke.

“Can we see there?” he whispered and she stared wide-eyed at the cathedral across the broad glittering black river. “I would like to take you there.”

Elise sidestepped and cleared her throat, flustered by the connotation in his words. “It’s best we don’t. There have been many hunters entering the city recently.”

His dark eyebrows rose. “I can handle them.”

The smile he gave her was stunning. She looked away and fought for composure. Anger coiled in her stomach, turning her blood to flame. She had been right. He didn’t want a tour guide, just as he hadn’t merely wanted a dance partner last night. That was why he had looked so disappointed.

“Come, Elise, show me the other side and the narrow dark streets.” He held his hand out to her.

Her eyes jumped to the gate tower at the other end of the bridge near the area he spoke of and then to his, and she tried to look away again but failed. The look in them left her in no doubt of his intentions. He moved closer, his broad frame imposing, and dipped down, lowering his mouth to her ear.

“You will take me there.”

Elise stared at his ear, the tufts of his dark hair behind it, and the tall, sloped flat-topped dark grey roof of the tower beyond. She couldn’t breathe. His proximity, his persistence, his attention, it all smothered her. She couldn’t take it. She didn’t want it.

“You are a poor dancer, but a skilled fighter,” he murmured against her cheek, his breath teasing her skin and her throat. Another shiver cascaded through her, tumbling down her spine and urging her to close her eyes. She refused. He pressed his body against hers, his hands claiming her upper arms. “Your strength, your skill in the fight last night, it was astounding and graceful, almost as enthralling as your beauty.”

Elise broke free of him and backed away. “Leave me alone.”

Aleksandr laughed softly. “No, I cannot do that. Not yet.”

She glared at him, seeing in his eyes that he intended to pursue her. She wanted to tell him again to leave her alone but couldn’t find her voice or the conviction to refuse his advances.

Elise shook her head and ran away instead, storming through the arch back into the city, intent on returning to the mansion and finding solitude there, away from the madness of Aleksandr.

She didn’t understand why he wanted her.

Or why the thought of becoming nothing more than a conquest to him hurt her.

Elise stared wide-eyed at the pavement. Dismay swept through her.

No.

Her heart said it was true.

She wanted him too.

It wasn’t possible though. He would be gone soon, moved on to another city and likely another woman. If she gave in to her desire, he would take her heart with him. She couldn’t bear the thought of it so she shut her mind and her heart to it. She wouldn’t fall for Aleksandr.

He would grow tired of the chase soon enough.

Elise steeled herself against the hurt that thought caused and cursed the name of Aleksandr Nemov.

She wouldn’t give in to him.

She wouldn’t.

Her heart whispered to her.

She would.

It was only a matter of time.

Heart of Darkness
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...

Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the last of the vampire hunter’s progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?

A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...

Elise is dedicated to her duty. It’s the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline’s mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince’s hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?

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