Vampires Realm - Vampire Romance Books Series

Winter Warmers - Ebooks from $0.99 to $2.99 on Kindle, Nook, iBookstore and more

2011-12-17T12:28:00.000Z

Are you looking for some bargain paranormal romance ebooks to fill up your ereader before the holidays? Or perhaps you want to bookmark some new reads for that Kindle or Nook you'll be unwrapping on Christmas day?

I have some fantastic offers on a selection of my paranormal romance books until January 15th 2012. There are plenty of great reads to choose from, all priced between $0.99 and $2.99 and in a range of lengths between novella and long novels, and a variety of paranormal romance sub-genres including sinful angels, sexy vampires, seductive werewolves, and even a super-hot demon and sassy witch pairing.

In my Felicity Heaton books, you can snap up the first book in my best selling angel romance series, Her Dark Angel, for only $0.99, a saving of $2. Or indulge in some urban fantasy romance with Ascension for only $0.99, a saving of $3. Or perhaps get in the seasonal spirit with Vampire for Christmas for only $0.99. If you like your vampire romances packed with emotion and full of twists to keep you on your toes, then Forbidden Blood is only $2.99.

In my other persona, F E Heaton, I'm offering great savings on my popular Vampires Realm series. You can buy all three books in the epic Prophecy Trilogy for only $0.99 each. That's a saving of $6! What's more, you can get your hands on two more books in the series, Seventh Circle, a vampire romance novel, and Winter's Kiss, a vampire/werewolf romance novel, for just $2.99 each.

These great deals are available at Amazon Kindle Stores, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader Store, Apple iBookstore and Kobo Books, and others! See the offer page for availability of individual books.

Here are some blurb snippets and links for all the books...

Vampire for Christmas
Felicity Heaton
It was one last mission. Shannon, a demon hunter with the agency, is looking forward to leaving behind the small town and the vampire she's been stuck with for the past two years. Things are getting complicated fast and she wants out. A fresh start, free of her vampire partner, awaits her if she can survive their final mission and the lonely Christmas holidays...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Kobo Books
Smashwords

Her Dark Angel (Her Angel series #1)
Felicity Heaton
An angel without a mission, Apollyon lives trapped in Hell guarding the bottomless pit. Surrounded by endless darkness, he longs to fly free on Earth once more but his master hasn't called him in centuries. When the call finally comes, it's to serve a new master, a beautiful woman he has often watched over, a woman who has always captivated him...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Kobo Books
Smashwords

Ascension
Felicity Heaton
A witch on the verge of achieving phenomenal power, Lealandra must turn to her half-breed demon ex-lover Taig for protection from the dark force that is after her and also from her own magic. With her Counter-Balance dead and her coven against her, Taig's blood and power is the only thing that can help her control her magic and survive the ascension and gain the strength to defeat her enemy...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Smashwords

Forbidden Blood
Felicity Heaton
In a dark world where vampires exist and where Source Blood, a rare human blood type, can bestow godlike powers upon them, the vampire Venators of the Sovereignty fight to protect the humans by banishing those who drink it to the endless dark. Exiled from his family and with only his duty to sustain him, Kearn has been on the trail of an elusive Source Blood abuser for three years. When he saves a beautiful human female from the vampire's grasp, it turns out she's the lead he's been waiting for. Amber is a Source Blood and the perfect bait, but for who?

Available for $2.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Smashwords

Prophecy: Child of Light (Prophecy Trilogy #1 / Vampires Realm series #1)
F E Heaton
A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever. Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable to ignore the vision of them that he saw in her blood, Valentine goes against his orders to execute Prophecy and kidnaps her instead. The attraction between them grows as they search for the truth behind the prophecy, battle a dark evil that threatens to destroy the world, and attempt to evade their families and the Law Keepers...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Kobo Books
Smashwords

Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea (Prophecy Trilogy #2 / Vampires Realm series #2)
F E Heaton
The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an unlikely ally and forcing her to call on the devastatingly seductive and powerful Lord Hyperion for assistance...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Smashwords

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Prophecy Trilogy #3 / Vampires Realm series #3)
F E Heaton
An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses into one army drains the last of their strength, leaving them more vulnerable than they've ever been. The tension escalates between the bloodlines, and, more dangerously, between Valentine, Prophecy and Venturi. As everything crumbles around them, defeat seems inevitable...

Available for $0.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Smashwords

Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm series #7)
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...

Available for $2.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Kobo Books
Smashwords

Winter's Kiss (Vampires Realm series #8)
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...

Available for $2.99 from
Author's website
Amazon Kindle | Kindle UK | Kindle Germany | Kindle France
Apple iBookstore USA | iBookstore UK | iBookstore Aus | iBookstore Canada
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader Store
Kobo Books
Smashwords

Find out more about the books, including excerpts and reviews, and these great offers at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/paranormal-romance-ebook-offers.php

Felicity Heaton

Masquerade - Starting the second draft in earnest

2011-11-07T17:08:00.002Z

I had done the initial read through of MASQUERADE for my second draft edit a while back and typed all the notes and comments and made some changes in the Word document already. This morning I debated whether to do the second draft of this book and hit the potential release date of mid-January, or shelve it and do the second draft of Covet, which is the first story in my new short series of erotic vampire romances, so I can get that released late this year. In the end, I decided not to make Vampires Realm fans wait and that I had said I would stick to my schedule like a good girl because that was what worked best for me. I always want to get books out quicker than is really possible but it's something I'm learning to deal with as I really need to build in more time between completing a book and its release date!

I think I wanted to skip Masquerade because I knew that the first few chapters, particularly the first one, were going to be a tough editing job. There were things to move around, points to address to make everything flow a little more smoothly, and stuff to change completely to make the hero and heroine start off on a better foot and clarify a few things. It's a tricky start to a novel as the heroine is mightily annoyed, mostly at herself but she's aiming her rage at the hero because he's done something to piss her off. Never an easy scenario to start with, especially when the first chapter is where you're supposed to grab the reader and hold their attention. Have faith, my lovely readers, it may start out with a bit of a scuffle between heroine and hero, but all will reveal itself in time.

My editing today took me around 25 pages into a 240 page document. I made it past the first chapter but I'll read it back first thing tomorrow and the ensuing fight scene, to make sure that it's all fine now and ready to rest for a while until I do the polish on the book at a later date. Once I'm happy with it, I can crack on with editing the rest of the book. Most of it is in good shape with only a few tweaks and things needed. I'll keep you all posted on my progress!

:)

Felicity

Masquerade complete in first draft

2011-09-18T15:39:00.000+01:00

I've had a blast these past two weeks finally writing Masquerade, the tenth book in my popular Vampires Realm series. It was hard going because so many characters from previous stories in the series make appearances or play a role in this one due to the fact that it's set around a Creator Day masquerade, but it was also fun because I got to catch up with them all and write them again.

Sophis and Vivek are the heroine and hero, both Venia bloodline guards, but Tynan is back as he's now the commander of the guard. We learn more about the Venia bloodline and the current affairs of the vampires, including contraversial happenings with the werewolves and some of the bloodlines. Marise and Jascha also make a return, along with three other Law Keepers. Among the main cast are Hyperion and Winter of the Validus bloodline, along with Valentine, Venturi and Prophecy, and also Lilith and Lincoln. There's lots happening in this book. It was hard to write so many vampires from the series so I just went with getting it all down on paper and I'll tackle things like adding in more description and stuff in the second draft.

I managed to get the book finished in first draft last Wednesday, and it's currently 83000 words but I think it will end up around 90000 when I'm done with it. I do need to beef up some of the fight scenes and layer in the description to bring it to life. It's all stuff that requires me to think hard about stuff and I didn't want to slow down my writing during the first draft so I was happy to get in as much as possible and leave the fine details for the edits.

I hope Vampires Realm readers will be excited by the fact that we're back at a Creator Day ball again and that so many old faces are going to be there. There will be some new faces too, and some monumental changes for some of characters. It's also setting up the vampire hunters side of things in the series a little more and that's something I'll be exploring more in later stories.

Progress on Masquerade

2011-09-09T12:01:00.000+01:00

This week I've been working on the next novel in my popular vampire romance series, Vampires Realm. I've made some progress on Masquerade since Monday. I finalised the new improved plot and made the necessary changes to the 30000 words I had already written before my muse decided to introduce some new characters and improved ideas for the story.

Tuesday was a day off this week, but on Wednesday and Thursday I managed to write around 22000 words for the story. I've made great progress and I'm really happy with the story so far, and it's always nice to get past the point where the hero and heroine start to get together. Everything is in motion in the story now so I just need to keep going with the flow. It's easier said than done though. This morning I was supposed to get up and get on with some blog tour posts and then write another 12000 words. Unfortunately, I woke up really tired and groggy and wasn't really in the mood to write. The day was against me, and it took me most of the morning to get my blog stuff done and then my sister popped around and before I knew it, it was early afternoon! I wasn't in the mood to write then, so I headed out and picked up some sketching materials and then did some preliminary designs for the Her Angel series romance trading cards I'll be making soon.

Next week, I'll continue writing Masquerade. I just need to push on with it and not let myself get lazy. I'll probably hit the coffee shops until it's done and just focus on it. I think I can have it finished by Wednesday, which would be great. I probably have another 30000 words to write.

I really want to do a second edition for the Prophecy Trilogy, which makes up the first three books in the Vampires Realm series. I wouldn't change anything major in the story, but I do feel I've grown as a writer now and I want to smooth out some of the weaker writing in it and polish it up. The trouble is, the trilogy weighs in at 350000 words, which is a lot of editing time. Because I would want to make some major revisions to the writing to improve it, it would probably take me quite a while. Off the top of my head, around 44 days of work. I don't really have enough time at the moment. I wish I did because people ask me whether they'll come out in paperback and I want to say yes, but I don't want to put them into paperback until I've edited them and I'm happier with them. That's the trouble with writing. The more you write, the more you improve, and the more you look back and go - man, I could have written that better. I take comfort from the fact that people love the Prophecy Trilogy so it can't have been that bad!

I think this all comes back to the fact that I have too many stories to write and not enough time!

Masquerade - book ten in the Vampires Realm series

2011-08-27T13:32:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog because it's been a while since I've had much to say about my Vampires Realm series. I've been writing books for my other series and although I had started book ten in the Vampires Realm series, I had to give up on it when it changed on me and no longer felt right with the plot outline I was following.

My ear is giving me hell today, so I'm mostly sitting on the couch in my living room reading a good book on Characters & View Point. I want to finish this one, and then read one about story structure I bought recently, and then I'll continue plotting Masquerade. I read Masquerade yesterday, the 30k I had written before realising the story was taking a new direction and that I needed to rethink the current plot in light of that, and the changes to the characters.

I'm getting good ideas for it, but it's going to be difficult to take Vivek, the hero, who is shown in poor light in the first chapter because we're in Sophis's, the heroine, point of view and she's pretty riled at him and set on being in a bad mood with him, and is therefore slightly off in her opinion of him (heck, we've all been there right? Someone does something and we interpret it the way we want to because our judgement is coloured by our current emotions... rather than seeing things clearly and for what they really are, we put what the person has done in a bad light and grow angrier at them when in reality we should find out why they did something and perhaps their explanation would temper our foul mood). Basically, Vivek comes across as a less than sterling bloke, but she's totally misinterpreting everything and flying off the handle because he's hurt her feelings and she feels as though he's on a non-stop mission to get her kicked out of the guard.

Okay, he is in a way, but only because he's going about tackling his desire to protect her in the wrong way and the guy wants to keep her safe to a fault, so he doesn't quite see that what he's doing is actually hurting her since her life is the guard.

So you see... it's the age old dilemma. I need the tension between them, but I don't want the reader to lose all sympathy for the hero in chapter one and have him painted as a bad guy that is then irredeemable to the reader. No one loves a hero like that. I guess I need to make sure that it's clear in chapter one that Sophis knows that this isn't like Vivek and she feels she needs to find out what changed him from the man who saw her through her training and had always had time for her. I need to make sure that the reader... yes, you... realise in the first chapter that Vivek isn't usually like this and what he used to be like, how close they once were, and make you stick it out so you find out why he's acting like an ass in her opinion (he's not really... she's just blinded by her anger towards him because of his behaviour towards her).

Why do my heroes always give me trouble? lol. It's never the heroines. It's always the men in my life that like that cause these little upsets. Although... if Vivek hadn't given me such grief, and therefore my writer heart hadn't tried so tirelessly to give him a reason to be so hard-headed and a bit of a male pig, then I wouldn't have found a new depth to Vivek and the story.

My meds are kicking in to get rid of the ear ache but Vivek is giving me a royal headache! I'm sure I'll find a way to balance him in the first chapter so readers aren't judging him badly and will give the guy a chance to show just how fiercely protective, passionate and brave he is. I can vouch for him. He's a good bloke once you get to know him. lol.

Anyway, I'm off to assess my work load and continue reading this book on Characterisation. I think it's really important as a writer to keep learning. I've read a lot of books on writing but I find something new in each book I read, so every one is worth it and I feel it really helps me hone my craft and offer a better experience to readers. Maybe while I'm reading I'll find a way to fix Vivek and that first chapter, and find that balance I need to intrigue readers about Vivek and have them questing to discover just why he wants her off the guard, and just what happened in their past to change him.

Reunion - FREE on Kindle, Nook, iBookstore and other sites

2011-05-15T00:17:00.000+01:00

I have a FREE Kindle book on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk right now. Yep, you can get your mitts on Reunion, a vampire romance novella in my Vampires Realm series, for absolutely nothing. It's also available at the Sony Reader Store, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, and Apple iBookstore, as well as my own website, Smashwords, and Feedbooks!

Don't worry if you haven't read anything in my Vampires Realm romance series yet. Reunion stands alone and you won't miss a thing by not having read the other books, but hopefully you'll be enticed to try a few out. Most of the stories in the Vampires Realm romance series that I write as F E Heaton do stand alone, so you can pick and choose which to read.

Reunion

F E Heaton
The Law Keeper for the Venia bloodline, Marise doesn’t want to return home but duty dictates that she must investigate the attempt on her lord’s life by another vampire.

When she sets eyes on her lord, Marise realises that she might have been called for another reason and that the attack on her lord might not have been by a vampire after all. Her only source of information is a guard who was mortally wounded during the attack, a guard who turns out to be the man who broke her heart fifty years ago.

The sight of Jascha so close to death triggers a battle in Marise’s heart that will see her struggle to turn her back on him and her family again, and maintain her sense of duty. Is fifty years enough to forgive the one you love for breaking your heart? Will Marise finally confess to everything she’s held inside and kept hidden from him? And can Jascha convince Marise to listen to what he has to say and make her love him again?

ebook price: FREE EBOOK
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 27100 words
rating: sultry
released: January 2008
Book 6 in the Vampires Realm series

Available as a free e-book download from:
» My website
» Amazon Kindle Store
» Amazon UK Kindle Store
» Barnes and Noble Nook Store
» Sony Reader Store
» Smashwords (Epub, Mobi, PDF, LRF, PDB formats)
» Feedbooks (Epub, Mobi, PDF formats)

Happy Reading Everyone!

Vampires Realm romance books at Amazon.de Kindle Store

2011-04-26T09:01:00.001+01:00

Now that Amazon have opened up the Amazon.de Kindle Store, you can also get my Vampires Realm romance series books there too, including Hunter's Moon, my most recent release in the series. Prices are listed below in dollars but they'll be in Euros at the German Kindle Store and pounds at the UK Kindle Store.

Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever. Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable...

ebook price: $0.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 135000 words
Book 1 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/

Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2]
F E Heaton
The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 109500 words
Book 2 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNZK/

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3]
F E Heaton
An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 116000 words
Book 3 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO2C/

Spellbound
F E Heaton
What's a girl to do when the two men she loves are suddenly her love slaves? A vampire and leader of her bloodline, Prophecy celebrates her Death Day in style with a two night ball. Everyone is there, but all she can think about is getting her mate..

ebook price: $1.49
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 17550 words
Book 5 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNFA/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNFA/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNFA/

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...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 106112 words
Book 7 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO68/

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...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 78000 words
Book 8 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDN4Q/

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
The horror of the night he failed to save his werewolf pack from the cruelty of their vampire masters has haunted Nicolae for one hundred years, driving him deep into the Canadian wilderness in search of peace. That peace is threatened when...

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Hunter's Moon available in paperback

2011-04-03T11:13:00.002+01:00

The paperback of my recent werewolf / vampire romance novel release is now available. You can get Hunter's Moon in physical form for only $6.99 from Amazon. It should slowly work its way onto Barnes and Noble too.

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
The horror of the night he failed to save his werewolf pack from the cruelty of their vampire masters has haunted Nicolae for one hundred years, driving him deep into the Canadian wilderness in search of peace. That peace is threatened when unfamiliar hunters and the scent of blood lead him to a beautiful woman and a hard decision—face his past and help her or risk losing everyone he cares about again.

Bearing a heart filled with grief and with vengeance on her mind, Tatyana is intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking and returning to her vampire bloodline, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows or rescued by a glowering alpha werewolf who stirs forbidden hunger in her.

When the hunters make their move, will Nicolae be able to stop them before it’s too late? Will he be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and embrace his desire for a vampire? And can Tatyana face her fears and risk her life for the sake of forbidden love?

Available in paperback for only $6.99 from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460978544/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1460978544/

Or get it in e-book for only $2.99 from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hunters-Moon/F-E-Heaton/e/2940011207600/
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/hunter-s-moon/_/R-400000000000000351166

Hunter's Moon - werewolf / vampire romance book - chapter 4

2011-03-12T13:00:00.000Z

Here's the final free chapter of my latest werewolf romance book / vampire romance book, Hunter's Moon. This is a novel in the Vampires Realm series, but you don't have to read the other books to understand what's happening in this one. The books in the Vampires Realm are connected by world rather than story arc. If you want to read chapters 1 to 3, just click on the "Hunter's Moon" tag on this post.

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae’s hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the months in which he travelled to the Canadian wilderness to escape it, but the nightmarish visions and his failure as an alpha still haunt him, forcing him to live alone and keep his distance from other werewolves.

When a night hunt with the local timber wolf pack leads to a run-in with unfamiliar hunters, Nicolae tracks the scent of blood permeating the forest to an injured woman and races to save her, but has he made a terrible mistake in doing so? When she attacks him, revealing her true nature, he can’t believe his eyes or the fact that he can’t bring himself to kill her. She’s beautiful, and a vampire.

Tatyana is on a mission. Far from home and bearing a heart filled with grief, she’s intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows. When she comes to in the presence of a glowering handsome male werewolf, she isn’t sure what to expect. His dark demeanour and cold tone warn her that he isn’t like the subservient werewolves she’s used to, and that she might not be out of danger yet, but she doesn’t let it discourage her. Working with him to discover why the hunters have come to Canada, she attempts to shatter his antiquated opinion of vampires, but the closer she gets to him, the harder it becomes to battle the forbidden hunger he stirs in her.

Will Nicolae be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and his memories, and embrace his desire for a vampire? Can Tatyana face her fear about the Law Keepers and risk her heart and her life for the sake of forbidden love? When they discover what the hunters are after, will they be able to stop them before it’s too late?

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
rating: sultry
released: February 2011
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Excerpt
Tatyana winced as she attempted to sit up on the bed in the corner of the cramped room. Her stomach ached and growled at the enticing scent of blood. She tried to move towards the smell but pain burned in waves radiating from her side, stealing what little strength she had, and she collapsed back onto the bed. Her insides twisted with hunger, mouth watering at the thought of feeding, and her fangs itched to descend. She could taste it on her tongue.

The man stared at her. Werewolf. She had bitten him. Her memories were hazy, but she couldn’t forget the way he tasted. Her gaze flickered to the right side of his chest. She had scratched him too.

The scent of fresh blood lingered on him.

Not his blood. Nothing as strong as that. It was a strange smell—subtle and buttery.

“Animal blood, I’m afraid.” He held his left hand up and she went to look at it but her gaze caught on the rifle over his right shoulder. She hadn’t noticed it before. The black strap melted into his thick shirt. His fingers grasped it tightly. Her gaze shifted to his face.

Black messy strands of hair caressed his forehead, brushing his jetty eyebrows and making him look like some sort of wild animal when combined with his bright honey brown eyes. There was hunger in them that she had seen before in the eyes of the werewolves at her bloodline’s mansion. It was as though he was looking at her with his wolf eyes, not his human ones. A predator.

That made her the prey.

She didn’t like that one bit.

There was an unmistakable Eastern European note to his accent. Not a local werewolf. Where had he come from? Was she in danger with him?

What had made her wonder such a thing?

The thought had bubbled up from nowhere, driven by instinct and the way her senses reacted to him, speaking of him as a threat. She tried to convince herself that it was only her injuries and current vulnerable state that was making her feel he was a danger to her but it plagued her, telling her to protect herself before it was too late. The man before her was strong, vicious by nature, and could easily overpower her. She had witnessed the savage brutality a male werewolf was capable of and she didn’t want to be on the receiving end of an attack by him.

Tatyana berated herself for thinking in such a backward way, presuming he would hurt her just because he was a werewolf. She knew better than to label him as a killer, one only interested in eradicating her kind. She knew werewolves. They were as violent as her kind, but they didn’t kill without cause and he had no reason to hurt her. Besides, he had given her a valid reason to trust him.

He had saved her and had bound her wounds.

Although, she had bitten him. Was that reason enough? Was that why he was looking at her with hard eyes and his lips compressed into a thin line? The dark feelings between vampires and werewolves were mutual. The two species had never been close, often warring with each other in a fight for dominance that had ended with the enslavement of hundreds of his kind by hers. But he had saved her. And as payment for his kindness, she had bitten and clawed him. If she told him that she hadn’t been in control of herself, that the need for blood and to survive had been so strong that it had forced her to react in order to save herself, would it soften the anger in his eyes?

The muscles in his jaw tensed.

“I made a deal with the timber wolf pack. A deer in exchange for you.” A flicker of disgust crossed his face and his tone hardened, any trace of warmth gone from it. “I thought you were human. I made a mistake. I think they got the better deal.”
That cut her, but she refused to let it show. He wasn’t like the werewolves at her bloodline’s home after all. They had been civil to her, and she had even built a tentative friendship with the ones she had known for most of her life. Or as close to a friendship as the law allowed.

Tatyana looked away when he placed the rifle down on the couch and toed his heavy boots off, leaving them on the rug. He crouched in front of the fire and her gaze crept back to him against her will. It was difficult to see him when she was lying down. She tried to move and pain blazed up her right side. She drew in a sharp wheezing breath and closed her eyes.

“I would keep still, if I were you,” he said, voice dead and cold. “I’m surprised you’re already awake.”

Why, because of the wounds and the poison? Tatyana looked down at the bandages wrapped tightly around her waist and left shoulder. As he stoked the fire, the room brightened and she realised that the dark marks on the white material weren’t blood. They were black.

She knew only one liquid that colour.

He had drugged her.

She sat up sharply, hissed as pain tore through her, and clutched her side. Panic pushed her on. She had to get away. He was going to kill her. He had come with a rifle and hadn’t expected her to be awake. He had intended to shoot her while she had been unconscious.

The werewolf sighed and came over to her. Tatyana stared up the full height of him as he towered over her, broad and imposing, his face half in shadow.

She growled and her fangs sharpened, her claws extending. Her senses locked on him. He was stronger than she was but she wasn’t going to give up easily. Deep aching waves of pain pulsed along her bones and nerves, stripping away the strength that had flooded her at the thought of being under threat, and she struggled to retain her true form. They were overwhelming, crushing what little energy she had and dulling her senses. Her vision wavered and fangs receded, and she barely clung to consciousness. Her eyes met his and she silently accepted her defeat. She wasn’t strong enough to fight him.

His light brown irises turned golden in the firelight. Had she been mistaken earlier and this was his wolf side showing through? His eyes were beautiful but they looked like death to her. She glanced at his neck where she had bitten him and her eyes widened when she saw the faint lines of scarring around his throat.

A compound werewolf?

Out here?

A thousand tiny needles pricked down her spine.

He really was going to kill her.

Tatyana tried to back away, grimacing as every part of her burned, but there was no escape. He grabbed her ankle, yanked it so she landed flat on her back on the bed and pressed his bloodstained left hand down on her shoulder, pinning her to the mattress. The force of it kept her still but only because she could sense how strong he was now that he was touching her skin on skin. She was no match for him. She wouldn’t be even at full strength. He could butcher her if he wanted to.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see her end when it came.

“Settle down. You’re only aggravating your wounds.” The weight of his hand disappeared from her shoulder.

Tatyana cracked an eye open. Maybe he wasn’t going to kill her after all. Her gaze tracked him back to the fire. He crouched again, balancing on his toes, his broad back curved and thighs tensed, pulling his jeans tight over their defined muscles. He was strong. She wouldn’t stand a chance if he turned on her. A werewolf had preternatural strength to rival a vampire, and aging affected them in the same way, increasing their power. How old was he? He looked around his late thirties but her senses pegged him at around five times older than that. He was almost as strong as her sire had been.

He prodded the fire distractedly with a long iron. “You want to tell me why you’re here?”

She wanted to ask him the same thing. Her memory was patchy. She recalled the hunters and the fight, and the poisoned arrows. She remembered passing out in the forest and waiting for her death to come. Then he was there.

Nude.

She definitely remembered that.

He had been there in the woods. She had tried to defend herself but he had evaded her and she had passed out again before she could muster the strength to escape.

When she had come around, her vision had been failing. She distantly remembered biting him and then knocking herself out. She had been sensible enough to seek a quiet death. It hadn’t come. Instead, the werewolf had tried to make her drink something.

He had helped her.

Tatyana studied him where he crouched in front of the fire, the warm light playing on his face and highlighting the scruffy locks of his dark hair. The glow lit the strong line of his square stubbly jaw and accented his noble profile. His dark eyebrows knit tightly over eyes of bright gold focused intently on the flames, like a wolf eyeing prey. He turned his head towards her, his gaze meeting hers, and she again felt as though she was his quarry.

“Well?” The sharp edge to his voice snapped her out of her reverie.

“There are hunters after me.”

The corner of his sensual mouth bowed into a smile. “I know. I just had a delightful conversation with them a few feet from here.”

Tatyana backed into the corner again and stared over his head at the small window at the front of the cabin. There was only the werewolf on her senses but it was difficult to focus them. She breathed hard to steady her fear. Each breath sent throbs of pain through her that threatened to steal her consciousness but she held on, unwilling to succumb to sleep now. She was in danger. She had to protect herself.

“What did you tell them?” Her gaze shot to the werewolf, quickly meeting his, and then back to the window.

“Relax,” he said and stood, straightening to his full height. He towered over her, broad and imposing, making her feel small and defenceless. Vulnerable. “I’m not in the habit of turning wounded women over to men who are hunting them, even if they are a vampire.”

The venom with which he had spat out the name of her species didn’t surprise her. It was a reality check that she needed. Not all werewolves were like those at her bloodline. Many in the world lived in poor conditions, treated as slaves. Bad blood ran between their species and with good reason. She stared at his throat.

If he was a compound werewolf, she hadn’t done herself any favours by assaulting him. Would he have been acting differently towards her if she hadn’t bitten him? It was too late now to wonder such things. There was only one thing that she could do to make amends.

He swept the collar of his black shirt aside and touched the plaster. Her gaze shifted to his.

“I am sorry that I bit you.”

He stared at her, his eyes slowly widening and a sense of shock running through his blood.

She toyed with the end of the bandage around her waist. “I was not in control of myself.”

He huffed and his expression darkened again. “Don’t tell me... if you had been in control, you would have figured out I was a werewolf before you bit me and saved yourself from having to taste my wretched blood.”

He snatched the rifle from the couch. Tatyana panicked. She had done her best to be diplomatic but he was hardly making it easy for her. He was nothing like the werewolves that she was used to and she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do or say to make things better between them.

“I only meant that I was hungry... am hungry. I did not find your blood wretched.” She held her hand up, hoping to buy herself a stay of execution.

The werewolf stared at her again, his eyes narrowed this time and searching hers. He looked into them for a minute that felt like an hour, and then silently crossed the room and hung the rifle on the wall opposite the fireplace. Was that all he had been going to do? She had honestly thought he had intended to shoot her.

Tatyana relaxed enough that the sense of threat receded. She had to get a grip. She was all over the place inside, unsure of her feelings and everything that was happening, and no good would come of it. If she was going to survive, she needed to be calm and rational, but it was difficult when her instincts were pushing her to protect herself at all times. The werewolf wasn’t helping. His provocation only made her want to defend herself and that in turn triggered his instincts to do the same.

If she didn’t keep a level head, she could end up causing a fight that she wouldn’t survive.

There was a troubled edge to his eyes when he looked over his wide shoulders at her. Was it what she had said? She meant it. His blood didn’t taste foul. It had shocked her when she had bitten him and discovered that he was a werewolf, and that was why she had recoiled. If her instincts hadn’t said that he was going to kill her, she would have drained him dry. He had strong blood. Exactly what she needed right now.

She touched the bandage over her stomach. There was something beneath it, covering the wound. It smelt odd. She had never smelt anything like it before.

“You were poisoned.” The werewolf unbuttoned his thick black shirt and removed it, revealing a tight white t-shirt that hugged every muscle of his torso like a second skin.

He had felt strong enough without the visual confirmation. She didn’t remember his body being so honed and muscled when he had been nude before her. It was wrong of her to stare at a stranger, at a werewolf no less, so openly, but it was difficult to keep her eyes off him. Tatyana dragged her gaze back up to his face when he didn’t continue. He glared at her with flinty eyes and anger lacing his signature on her senses. Had she annoyed him by looking?

“I had heard there was a poison that had a nasty effect on your kind, but I had never witnessed it before. I wish I had known about it before I had left home. All I knew back then was how to knock you bastards out.”

He left the room, walking through a door in the wall beside her, towards what she presumed was the back of the cabin.

Tatyana stared straight ahead, reeling. There had been such venom in his words, such fierce darkness in his eyes, and even though she hadn’t expected him to be kind towards her, the intensity of his feelings hurt her. She hadn’t done anything that deserved such hatred. It felt as though he truly hated her, not just her kind but her as an individual.

Biting him couldn’t have provoked such vicious anger and loathing.

It was difficult to cope with it on top of everything else. The werewolves she knew were nice enough to her. Although, they were in the employment of her family. Perhaps they all despised her and her species, and were only tolerating her because of the money.

She had never thought of it that way before.

It made her feel hollow inside.

He walked back out of the room and stopped at the foot of the small single bed. His gaze pierced hers again.

“I didn’t know what type you like.” His snide tone cut the silence and he tossed two blood packs at her. “I got you O positive.”

They landed on her knees. Tatyana immediately reached for them, too hungry to care about the white-hot inferno in her side, and then slowed when something dawned on her. Her gaze tracked him across the room. He rounded the opposite end of the brown couch to reach the fire rather than passing between the bed and the couch.

He was avoiding getting too close to her.

He didn’t need to. She wasn’t going to make the mistake of biting him again.

She knew the law. All of her kind did. It was inescapable.

She had seen a vampire of her bloodline kiss a werewolf once, as a dare, to prove that Law Keepers weren’t omnipotent. It had only taken a few days for word to reach them, the seven elite vampires chosen to enforce the laws, one for each pure bloodline in Europe. The Law Keepers had come for him barely a week after the kiss had happened and had taken him away.

Rumour said that he hadn’t received the usual sentence of death and that they had incarcerated him at the Law Keeper compound instead, to be held forever for crimes against his species.

Tatyana shuddered.

She couldn’t imagine being held captive for eternity.

Her gaze slid back to the werewolf. A compound. He had experienced torment far worse than that vampire had, and he had broken no law to receive such punishment.

His long fingers stroked a line across his throat and then he scratched his rough jaw. His eyes shifted from the fire to her.

“Not eating?” He sat down at an angle on the brown couch and leaned back into the corner, stretching his legs towards her. There wasn’t a trace of fear in him as he stared at her with unreadable eyes and his signature was growing stronger on her senses now that the pain in her side was subsiding.

Tatyana picked up the blood packs and distracted herself from the intensity of his focus on her by trying to place his accent. The clip to his words was familiar. Not Hungarian. He didn’t sound like the majority of men in her bloodline. Czech didn’t fit either.

She shifted the blood in the packs back and forth. “I have worked with werewolves before, but I never thought I would end up meeting one out here in the wilderness so far from Europe. Where are you from?”

His gaze left her and he stared into the flames. His face hardened into grim lines that echoed the anger she could sense returning to his blood. “If you mean by that... who owns me... then I’m going to have to disappoint you and say no one.”

“No.” Tatyana sat forwards, ignoring the pain in her side as she moved, hoping to get him to look at her. He didn’t and the way his jaw had set tight, exposing the muscle in it, said he wasn’t going to. “I only meant to ask what country you were from... I cannot place your accent.”

“Romania.” The bite in his voice was back.

Tatyana hesitated but she couldn’t stop herself from asking him. Her voice came out small and weak. “Were you free there?”

He stood sharply, crossed the room in two strides and turned so she could see the back of his neck. He pushed the waves of his messy dark hair out of the way.

“Does it look as though I was free?” he barked and she flinched at the volume and fury in his voice.

The intricate black mark on his neck, visible above the collar of his white t-shirt, was unmistakably a compound brand.

“Tenebrae,” she whispered, a tiny part of her relieved that it wasn’t her bloodline even when she knew that she had no right to feel that way. Her species had held him captive and forced him to work for them.

All of the bloodlines were responsible for the abuse of the werewolves. It was wrong of them to treat his kind as nothing more than slaves and hold them in pitiful conditions. That was why the Nocens no longer did such things. The werewolves that she worked with were free. Did he know that?

It hadn’t always been that way. When she had been young, her family had kept werewolves at a compound just like the other bloodlines, using them as guardians. She was glad they had moved past such atrocity, but had to remember that everyone else hadn’t. How long had he been a captive of the Tenebrae? The other six pure bloodlines of Europe called her family merciless and cruel, but their darkness could never rival that of the Tenebrae. Their hearts were as black as their eyes. How much suffering had he endured?

The coldness in his eyes when he looked down on her said that it had been a lot, enough to set his opinion of vampires in stone.

“You’re a Nocens.” The hard edge to his eyes softened, surprising her.

Perhaps she was also forming a wrong opinion. It was difficult to know what to think when his attitude kept changing abruptly. Maybe if she tried to get to know him, he would change his opinion of vampires and she could form a better one of him. Maybe. She wasn’t going to hold her breath.

“What are you doing in Canada?” He sat on the arm of the couch, leaned forwards so his elbows rested on his knees and his hands hung between his toned legs, and stared at her.

Waves of anger swirled around her, exposing the emotions he was hiding with his calm air and turning the atmosphere in the room dark and uncomfortable. She could understand his feelings and attitude towards her, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

“When did you come to Canada?” she whispered, avoiding his question and his gaze. The blood was fascinating as it shifted in the plastic pack.

“Around a century ago. I needed to get away. I’m sure you can understand why,” he said bitterly and his fists clenched. “No, wait... you probably don’t understand. Those on the other side of the whip generally don—”

“My bloodline no longer keeps werewolves,” Tatyana interjected, her gaze darting to his and a frown marrying her eyebrows. She had heard enough.

Whatever had happened to him, whatever the Tenebrae had put him through, he had no right to pin the crime on her alone and treat her as though she was wholly responsible. She would take her share of the blame for how he had been treated, a portion of it, but she wouldn’t sit here and let him take it all out on her.

Her initial anger faded and she lowered her voice so it wouldn’t antagonise him. “Nocens are progressive. We work with the werewolves now. We pay them to guard us during the day and do not treat them as inferior. There are other bloodlines wanting to make amends too. The Validus—”

He laughed scornfully. “The Validus? You don’t honestly expect me to believe that they’ve changed their ways?”

“They are working with Dmitri now to improve relations between vampires and werewolves.”

Her words had the desired effect. He fell silent, staring at her, and she could see in his eyes that he knew who Dmitri was. She wasn’t lying to him. Dmitri, lord of the free werewolves, was indeed working with Lord Hyperion of the Validus, the oldest of the pure bloodlines, to come to a new agreement and bring about the dawn of a new age for vampires and werewolves.

“Times are changing.” Tatyana felt his initial shock begin to subside. It was as good a time as any to tell him why she was here. Perhaps now he would listen to her. “All of us face a threat far worse than each other now. The hunters are changing too. Those men who are after me are just that, men, but I have encountered other hunters who have been altered in some way.”

“Altered?”

“Their bodies are enhanced, making them stronger and faster. They are trying to beat us at our own game and level the field so we no longer have the advantage. This is war.”

He stared at her a moment longer and then stood. His expression turned cold. “Not my war. I want no part in this. As soon as you’re healed, you’re on your own.”

Tatyana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had he been out here so long, shut away from the world, that he had lost his mind? Their species were at war with the hunters. It didn’t matter where he was. Eventually he would become involved in it, just as she was.

“You cannot be serious,” she said but he cut her down with a glare.

“It has nothing to do with me. Hunters never bother werewolves. They just want the vampires.”

She stared at him, her eyes narrowed, fury blazing through her veins. It was a struggle to stop herself from getting to her feet and striking him across the cheek. A good punch would knock some sense into him. If her whole body wasn’t aching so violently, she would go through with it, regardless of how much damage it would do to relations between them.

Something moved into the perimeter of her senses. Animals. The timber wolf pack that Nicolae had spoken of. It wasn’t dark yet but evening was fast approaching.

“The wolves have come.” Tatyana bit her tongue before she could say the scornful words that wanted to leave her lips. He should be out there with them, acting like an ignorant beast.

He walked around the back of the couch, crossed the small room to a door on the wall opposite the fireplace, and opened it. She spotted a battered white metal bathtub on the other side.

That made three rooms—the kitchen, this one, and the bathroom. Was that all there was to his cabin? It felt as small on her senses as it looked. How could he tolerate such cramped living conditions? There was no luxury here. Everything was threadbare and old, tattered. There weren’t even any pictures to brighten the room, or any furniture other than a small bookcase stuffed with paperbacks, the couch, the tiny single bed, and the side table. It was sparse and small, even when she compared it with her own room back at the Nocens mansion in Budapest.

The werewolf grabbed the hem of his white t-shirt and pulled it off over his head. Tatyana’s attention immediately leapt to his back, watching the way his muscles rippled beneath his golden skin as he tugged the garment off. Mesmerising. She tried to tear her gaze away, told herself not to look, but couldn’t help herself. She tilted her head to one side and raised a single eyebrow as her gaze followed the groove of his spine upwards from the twin dimples in his lower back.

Her eyes caught on something that reminded her that their lives had been very different.

Scars. Hundreds of them. Long pale lines that cut across his muscles.

Lashing was common in the compounds. No good deed went unpunished. Even the werewolves who completed their missions to a level close to perfection were treated roughly when they returned with their handlers.

The werewolf disappeared into the bathroom, leaving the door ajar, and water ran into the bathtub.

Tatyana looked around the cabin. It was small, but it was probably all that he needed, and more than he’d had in his homeland. This was luxury to him. A home of his own, away from vampire rule, free of the whip and the chains.

She stared at the crack in the door. The water shut off and she heard him step into the bath. She tried not to picture him reclining in bubble-topped bathwater, leaning against the beaten white metal, his eyes closed and dark hair slicked back. Some of her kind would even consider that a sin. She didn’t. Fantasy wasn’t a crime. Fantasy was what led to a crime when the dreamer forgot the law. She wouldn’t do such a thing. She had never broken a rule in her life, and she wasn’t going to start now.

She wasn’t.

No matter how attractive he was.

She brought one of the bags of blood to her lips, extended her fangs, and punctured the plastic. She sucked slowly on it, her eyes slipping shut as the first delicious drop touched her tongue. Bliss. Without thinking, she released a low moan of pleasure and sighed. Blood had never tasted so sweet.

Her eyes opened, the room bright and sharp now that they had changed to their true state. She focused on the werewolf, listening to his strong heart beating steadily against his chest, remembering the taste of his blood. Powerful. Intoxicating. She had never drunk werewolf blood before. She had never realised how good it would taste. The elders of her bloodline made it sound disgusting, and made it clear that desiring to drink it, to be close to a werewolf, was despicable and disloyal.

What did that make her?

Her head was full of him, her mind racing forwards to imagine that it was his neck her fangs had punctured, not a chilled plastic pack. It was his blood on her tongue, reviving her strength, not a month old donation.

And he tasted divine.

Tatyana started when she sensed the werewolf stand. How long had she been focused on him? Water ran down into the bath and she caught a flash of bare skin through the gap in the door. It was quiet in the cabin for a moment and then he walked into the room.

Naked.

He evidently didn’t care whether people saw him nude. Either that or he was inviting her glances, which was ridiculous since he hated her. She was a vampire and he was clearly an older generation werewolf. There was no way he would want her looking at him. Unless he was playing with her.

Some of the male werewolves back at her bloodline’s mansion did such things. They waited until the shift change between werewolves and vampires, when she arrived with other female guards to prepare for the night ahead, and then showered openly in front of them and paraded around. They did it to embarrass the women and tempt them with forbidden fruit.

She had never bothered to look at them during her time as a guard. She had always abided by the rules and their bare bodies hadn’t interested her. When she had caught glimpses of them, unable to look away quickly enough, she had felt nothing and hadn’t looked twice at any them.

Yet she couldn’t stop looking at him.

Tatyana stared at her knees, ignoring his nudity as he crossed the room, rubbing his dark locks with a pale towel. Her attempt to avoid looking at him failed. She snuck a glance at him out of the corner of her eye and frowned at how good he looked. He was beautiful, sculpted to perfection, his lithe toned body speaking of the power that she could feel in him. The allure of him was more than physical. His scent, the raw strength that flowed through him with each step, and his physique all combined into a deadly mix that tempted her. He was intrinsically masculine. Enthralling. Everything about him awakened forbidden feelings in her. She denied them but couldn’t control her desire to look on him as easily. Her gaze steadily fell, taking in the defined muscles of his broad chest and then traversing the rolling peaks of his abdomen. They led her eye onwards to the ridge of muscle over his hip and she followed it downwards. She forced her attention back to her knees.

She was not going to stare at him there.

It was wrong of her to think such things about him or to look at him with any sense of desire.

He disappeared through the other door. When he returned, he was wearing loose grey sweatpants.

And nothing else.

Tatyana sucked furiously on the blood pack and stared at his neck. He rubbed it, a frown marring his handsome face, and a stab of guilt lanced her chest. He thought that she hated his blood. What would he do if she told him it was quite the opposite? Whenever she said something to upset his carefully constructed and antiquated opinion of her kind, he turned jittery. If she confessed that she was thinking about sucking on his neck as she drank from the cold pack, and that she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, he would probably leave the room, or even the cabin.

It would be worth it just to see his reaction.

She wasn’t childish enough to go through with it though. Sense told her to behave herself. She needed him right now. She wasn’t strong enough to protect herself if he kicked her out for upsetting him and she didn’t need him as her enemy.

Tatyana lowered the empty blood pack and clawed back some control over herself. She wasn’t here to indulge in a fantasy that she could never allow to become reality, not even for a heartbeat of time. She had a mission to complete and needed to get her focus back on it. It was the reason she was here, had come so far from home, and she needed to remember that. The werewolf was right. The moment she was strong enough, she was going back out to have her revenge, and then she was going home victorious.

“How long was I unconscious?” She looked across at him.

He hunkered down in front of the fire. The light played gently on his face and highlighted the strong defined muscles of his arms and back. Beads of moisture from his bath glistened and shone on his skin. Water dripped from the glossy mess of black spikes at the side of his head, fell onto his shoulder and rolled down his chest. “Less than a day.”

Tatyana looked herself over and touched the black mark on the bandage. There was definitely something underneath it. She had been poisoned. Even if she’d had fresh blood to drink in order to cleanse the toxin from her veins, a day would still be a fast recovery. Without it, it was a miracle. She wasn’t old or strong enough to recover without assistance.

“What is this?”

He looked across at her and his golden gaze fell to her hand where it rested on her stomach. His pupils dilated and then his eyes darted back to the fire.

“Medicine.” Judging by his gruff tone, his bath hadn’t improved his mood.

Just the thought of sinking into a warm tub eased her tension. It wouldn’t do her any good right now though, no matter how much she wanted to get clean. Water would get into her wounds and aggravate them. When they were healing, she would ask whether she could use his bathroom.

“An antidote?” Her family would like to have it if he knew of one. Hunters were troublesome and often poisoned her kind to slow them down. It would be useful to have an antidote they could take to stave off the toxin before it took hold.

He shook his head. “Herbs. It was all I knew how to make...” His eyes slid to meet hers and narrowed, and his tone sharpened. “And then I stole blood from a local hospital that probably needs it more than you do.”

Tatyana dropped her gaze and fiddled with the remaining pack. There was no chance of getting him to acquire more for her then. The two packs wouldn’t be enough to restore her strength. She glanced at his neck again. If she told him that she liked the taste of his blood, and that she needed more than just these two small packs, would he let her bite him?

A laugh bubbled up into her mouth but she didn’t let it escape. Ridiculous. As if he would agree to such a thing.

His gaze shifted and bore into her stomach and hand. It was kind of him to help her and take her in even though she was a vampire, and he clearly despised her species. Requesting blood from him would be one step too far. He would probably report her actions to her family and the Law Keepers would be waiting to capture her the moment she set foot back in Europe.

“What’s your name?” he said and her eyes widened.

“Tatyana,” she whispered and looked across at him. His bright eyes held hers, clear and open. A warm silence descended over them and she drifted in it, surrounded by peace and feeling lost in his eyes. The world fell away, until it felt as though there was only this cabin and him. No bloodlines. No Law Keepers. No death sentence. Just her and him. Not a vampire and a werewolf. A woman and a man. “What is yours?”

“Nicolae.”

She smiled but it faltered when her side ached, shattering the comfortable air that had fallen between them.

Tatyana drew in a slow experimental breath. It wheezed in her chest and her right lung burned. Even with the medicine and blood, it was going to take her days to heal the hole in her lung. She should have moved quicker and taken the hit on her arm. She touched the wound on her left shoulder. It had almost healed and no longer hurt. If the dart had hit her right arm rather than her side, she could have been out there tonight searching for the hunters, not lying in bed like an invalid.

“Nicolae?” She hesitated and looked away from him, unable to find her courage whilst he was staring into her eyes. “Thank you for helping me. I never expected that a werewolf would rescue me.”

He was silent for a long time. When he spoke, his tone was bitter and dark again.

“Keep your thanks. It’s misplaced. Half of me wanted to leave you there to die.”

Tatyana shut her eyes. He really did hate her kind. She fell quiet, hiding behind her closed eyes, not wanting to come out while he was looking at her. Did he want to see if his arrow had hit its target? If his intention was to hurt her, he was succeeding by acting friendly to disarm her and then turning vicious. She could have coped with it had his emotions been constant anger, but luring her into a false sense of safety and peace before verbally lashing out at her was too cruel. She was too tired and weak to cope with it on top of everything else. It wore her down, got to her quicker than it ever would have done if she had been at full strength.

She curled up into the corner, trying to shuffle into a position where she wasn’t facing him and therefore didn’t have to speak with him. Her side ached again, sharp pain dancing along her nerves, and she hissed out her breath.

“Are you uncomfortable?” Nicolae said.

Tatyana shook her head and held the remaining blood pack to her chest, turning away from him. She didn’t want to answer him. If she said that she wasn’t comfortable, he would probably mention that she was on his bed, and that he was going to spend the night in less comfort than she, a hideous vampire, would.

“Is something wrong?”

She considered turning the question on him.

A chill dashed through her and her senses screamed danger.

There was a snarl outside.

Tatyana rolled over, her pain forgotten in the face of a threat, and her gaze shot to the front door. Nicolae stood, his broad back shifting in the firelight, and clenched his fists. Claws scrabbled against the wood. Her senses reached out.

It wasn’t one of the local timber wolves.

There were other werewolves on the mountain? Had he told them about her? Would he turn her over to them if they demanded it? She wasn’t strong enough to fight yet.

She looked up at the back of Nicolae’s head, at the brand on his neck visible through the threads of his wet black hair. Fear clutched her heart and squeezed it so tightly that it hurt.

Would he let them take her?

Nicolae held his hand out behind him, his palm facing towards her.

“Keep quiet.”

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

I hope you've enjoyed the excerpts!

Reunion available at Smashwords

2011-03-11T13:56:00.000Z

Reunion, a FREE EBOOK in my Vampires Realm romance series, is now available in multiple formats from Smashwords. You can download the novella in its entirety in PDF, LRF, MOBI, EPUB and PDB e-book formats. Alternatively, you can download the PDF from my website.

Hunter's Moon - now available on Nook!

2011-03-09T14:57:00.002Z

Just a quickie to say that those of you who prefer to purchase e-books via Barnes and Noble for your Nook reading device, Hunter's Moon is now available at their site for just $2.99!

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae’s hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the months in which he travelled to the Canadian wilderness to escape it, but the nightmarish visions and his failure as an alpha still haunt him, forcing him to live alone and keep his distance from other werewolves.

When a night hunt with the local timber wolf pack leads to a run-in with unfamiliar hunters, Nicolae tracks the scent of blood permeating the forest to an injured woman and races to save her, but has he made a terrible mistake in doing so? When she attacks him, revealing her true nature, he can’t believe his eyes or the fact that he can’t bring himself to kill her. She’s beautiful, and a vampire.

Tatyana is on a mission. Far from home and bearing a heart filled with grief, she’s intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows. When she comes to in the presence of a glowering handsome male werewolf, she isn’t sure what to expect. His dark demeanour and cold tone warn her that he isn’t like the subservient werewolves she’s used to, and that she might not be out of danger yet, but she doesn’t let it discourage her. Working with him to discover why the hunters have come to Canada, she attempts to shatter his antiquated opinion of vampires, but the closer she gets to him, the harder it becomes to battle the forbidden hunger he stirs in her.

Will Nicolae be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and his memories, and embrace his desire for a vampire? Can Tatyana face her fear about the Law Keepers and risk her heart and her life for the sake of forbidden love? When they discover what the hunters are after, will they be able to stop them before it’s too late?

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
rating: sultry
released: February 2011
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hunters-Moon/F-E-Heaton/e/2940011207600/

Hunter's Moon - Werewolf / Vampire Romance Novel - Chapter 3

2011-03-09T14:00:00.000Z

I'm still celebrating the release of Hunter's Moon, my latest werewolf romance book / vampire romance book. This is a novel in the Vampires Realm series, but you don't have to read the other books to understand what's happening in this one. The books in the Vampires Realm are connected by world rather than story arc. My latest offering is chapter 3 of this novel. If you want to read chapters 1 and 2, just click on the "Hunter's Moon" tag on this post.

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae’s hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the months in which he travelled to the Canadian wilderness to escape it, but the nightmarish visions and his failure as an alpha still haunt him, forcing him to live alone and keep his distance from other werewolves.

When a night hunt with the local timber wolf pack leads to a run-in with unfamiliar hunters, Nicolae tracks the scent of blood permeating the forest to an injured woman and races to save her, but has he made a terrible mistake in doing so? When she attacks him, revealing her true nature, he can’t believe his eyes or the fact that he can’t bring himself to kill her. She’s beautiful, and a vampire.

Tatyana is on a mission. Far from home and bearing a heart filled with grief, she’s intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows. When she comes to in the presence of a glowering handsome male werewolf, she isn’t sure what to expect. His dark demeanour and cold tone warn her that he isn’t like the subservient werewolves she’s used to, and that she might not be out of danger yet, but she doesn’t let it discourage her. Working with him to discover why the hunters have come to Canada, she attempts to shatter his antiquated opinion of vampires, but the closer she gets to him, the harder it becomes to battle the forbidden hunger he stirs in her.

Will Nicolae be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and his memories, and embrace his desire for a vampire? Can Tatyana face her fear about the Law Keepers and risk her heart and her life for the sake of forbidden love? When they discover what the hunters are after, will they be able to stop them before it’s too late?

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
rating: sultry
released: February 2011
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Excerpt
The drive down through the forest to town was quiet. The track only led to Nicolae’s cabin and he never had any mail or deliveries, and people rarely came to visit. It was better that way. He got everything in town and in person. The last thing he needed was someone witnessing something they shouldn’t have at his cabin.

It was even more imperative to keep them away now that he had a vampire for company. When she came around, she would be unpredictable. Her thirst would drive her to kill and he didn’t intend to break his promise to the local pack. As long as he was looking after her, she wasn’t going to bite a human. He would keep her contained. When she had healed and given him what he wanted, he would drive her into Calgary and dump her there.

He pulled into a space on the main street and put the Jeep into park. There were only a handful of white-washed wooden or red brick stores lining the short strip of road, and only a few dozen more houses than that in the town. Most of the locals were here for the same reason as he was—it was quiet and beautiful. Half of the population were retirees, and the rest were farmers, hunters, and people who ran small businesses or stores. A woman with several young children passed him by. The local school had barely enough students for one class but they ran it anyway. This was a town that liked to keep to itself, and it was part of the reason he had chosen to remain here. It was peaceful and he intended to keep it that way.

Nicolae stepped down from the Jeep and closed the door. He nodded to a few people he recognised as they passed him by and then headed for the local stores. He needed a few things while he was down in town. It had nothing to do with avoiding the hospital.

The sun was barely up but the stores were already open and doing business with some of the older residents. He greeted several of them and helped reach goods on the taller shelves whenever he was called on, gaining a few youthful smiles from the female retirees. He flashed them a smile each in return. They probably thought it was wrong of them to want to flirt with a man his age. If only they knew how old he really was. He had known most of them all their life, but they thought he was the grandson of the man they had known as youths. The hardest part about living in a community was reinventing himself, especially if it required a new name or physical change. It was the price any immortal paid for blending in with humans. At least he was back to his real identity again now and had been for the past ten years.

He stocked up on herbs, fresh bandages, larger sticking plasters, and other necessities, paid for them and then found himself standing on the pavement between the parked cars and the stores. He clutched the brown paper bag under his arm and stared at the white two-storey building at the crossroad ahead of him.

He needed a reasonable excuse for being in the hospital. There was a high likelihood that someone would recognise him in the corridors and wonder why he was there. Who would be on duty at reception today? If luck were with him, it would be Lisa. She always had a smile for him. He could flirt with her until an excuse came up in the conversation.

Striding towards the small hospital building, he considered what he would do if the receptionist today was Neil. Flirting was off the agenda then. Neil liked to talk sports. Cross-country running in particular. Nicolae could probably convince him that he’d injured himself running on the mountain. The right side of his chest ached. He shifted the bag of groceries he held in that arm and frowned. He already had the perfect reason to be at the hospital. Would anyone there believe him if he said the claw marks were from a bear attack? Would the doctors insist on taking a look? If it was Lisa on reception, he might be able to convince her to keep it quiet and to let him sneak in under the pretence of getting some medicine. She would do anything for him.

He moved the groceries over to his left arm. It wouldn’t do to walk into the hospital using an arm he might have to complain about.

Nicolae stopped at the entrance and held one side of the glass double doors open for an elderly couple. They smiled at him and he watched them for a moment as they walked down the street. Disgust settled hard in his stomach, weighing it down and keeping his feet planted to the pavement.

The hospital was small, like everything else in town, with little more than a dozen beds that would all be full come the thick of winter. Some of the more fragile elderly residents would spend Christmas there, protected from the bitter cold and sharing each other’s company over the festive season. The rest of the beds would be full of those who had injured themselves working in the treacherous conditions. He was vile and cruel to be considering stealing blood from people who needed it more than the vampire in his cabin did, especially when he couldn’t offer his in return. These people had given him a home, a place where he could be free, and now he was using their trust against them.

He let go of the door, turned his back on the hospital, hung his head, and closed his eyes. If he didn’t get blood for her, she could take weeks to heal. He didn’t think that he would last that long. The way he felt around her sometimes disturbed him. Something about her made it difficult to remember that she was a vampire. He needed her gone. He didn’t want to feel anything for her. Not concern, or compassion, or anything stronger. Even a small amount of blood could speed the recovery process and get her out of his cabin sooner.

A small amount was all she would get then.

Nicolae strode into the hospital, wincing for effect when he pushed the double doors open with his right hand.

He looked up, a smile plastered on his face, and instantly set eyes on a wall of four men dressed in black at the reception desk. He would recognise their scents anywhere.
Nicolae lowered his head on instinct, so his dark hair hung forwards and brushed his forehead, and moved quietly across the busy reception towards a corner from which he could observe them unnoticed. He chose a seat beside a man reading an old magazine and settled down, placing his brown bag of groceries on his lap.

Lisa was sitting behind the curved pale wooden reception desk, her chestnut hair tightly twirled in a bun and a look of exasperation on her pretty face. Her blue eyes were cold even as she smiled.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t see that anyone was brought in last night.”

“Check again,” the leader said and leaned on the counter above her. Lisa looked down at her computer. Nicolae stared at the leader.

He looked close to forty, with cropped fair hair that was receding on top. The stern set of his expression hadn’t changed since last night. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he waited. The remaining three hunters were all younger than their leader. The one who had shot at him was in his thirties, dark haired and slimmer than the rest. The other two had light brown hair and looked similar, although there was at least five years age difference between them. Brothers?

The leader tapped on the counter.

“No one was brought in last night.” Lisa looked up at them.

They were after the vampire. Nicolae kept still, watching them, studying how they moved and putting their faces to memory. They weren’t armed today. Even the knives were gone from their belts. No one would have batted an eye at someone armed with a hunting knife in this town. In fact, the locals in the hospital seemed to be staring because there were four men in fatigues who looked like hunters but were lacking the appropriate arsenal.

He had come into town on several occasions with his black rifle and no one had cared. Some of the men had even stopped to talk to him about the model.

“Any other hunters that live in this area, on the mountain perhaps?” The youngest man stepped forwards and gave her a wide smile. The other three men backed off a step as though giving him room to work his magic on Lisa.

Nicolae smiled. As if she would go for such a weak male.

Her gaze slid to him and then back to the young hunter. It seemed someone had noticed his entrance.

“There’s only a few people who live on the mountains around here, and they only come into town every few months. They keep to themselves,” she said with a widening smile. She was talking about him now. “I doubt they would have been out hunting last night. I could call the police. They might be able to help you find your missing person.”

She lifted the phone receiver to her ear.

The leader reached over the counter, took it from her and set it back down on the cradle. “It won’t be a problem. We’ll find her. Thank you for your help.”

He signalled to the group and they led the way out of the hospital. Nicolae stood, walking into the middle of the room, and watched them get into a large black four-wheel drive. They reversed out of the parking space and took off towards the road out of town, in the opposite direction to his cabin.

“What was that all about?” Nicolae turned with a smile and walked over to Lisa. He placed the bag of groceries down on the counter and leaned against it at an angle on his right elbow. His shoulder ached, reminding him that it was supposed to be his excuse. He would have to think of another now. Something trivial that wouldn’t prompt Lisa to call in the doctors.

She smiled up at him, her blue eyes bright, no trace of coldness in them now. “They came in asking about a woman. Said that they’d been separated on the mountain last night.”

Separated? More like evaded.

Nicolae leaned in close and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Can you help me out?”

Lisa mirrored his move, bending forwards and giving him a view right down her tight white uniform dress. “Name it.”

He rubbed his jaw on the right side and pouted. “I think I’m getting an infection. Can I borrow some antibiotics? It’s aching like crazy and you know I hate dentists.”

Lisa smiled, blushed, and touched his hand where it rested over his cheek. “I’ll play doctor with you, Nic.”

He grinned. “I much prefer the nurse’s uniform on you.”

Her blush deepened, turning her cheeks rosy. She stroked her fingers down his hand. “Sometimes I think it’s that accent of yours that makes everything you say sound so damn sexy. Where are you from again?”

“Here... via Romania,” he husked and held her gaze. Her pupils dilated and she wet her lips. He was a bastard for flirting with her to get his own way, but he needed that blood and she’d had her eye on him since she’d turned twenty-one a few years back.

Lisa sighed, propped her chin up on her hand, and continued to smile. She swept her finger across his lips. “You could be a vampire with that accent.”

Nicolae laughed, took hold of her hand and pressed a chaste kiss to the back of it. “You read too many novels. I’m not a vampire.”

A pregnant woman came up to the counter, her hand resting over her swollen abdomen. Nicolae looked down at it, sensing beyond the loose layers of warm clothing to the rapid heartbeat within her womb. A boy. There was strength in the beat of his heart and his signature on Nicolae’s senses. The mother’s gaze shifted to him and Nicolae raised his eyes to meet hers. A touch of colour swept over her cheeks when he smiled.

“He’ll grow up strong.” The words left his lips before he could consider the consequences.

A quizzical look crossed the woman’s face and then she smiled and fondly stroked her belly. “He already kicks and fights like a bear.”

Nicolae held his smile, relieved that she hadn’t asked how he knew the child within her was a boy. He glanced down at her stomach again and frowned. Life. Small and precious. Impossible for his kind to achieve. His fingers curled into fists. All his kind and the vampires could do was steal life and replace it with a never-ending existence.

No. His lot in immortality was not as cruel as that the vampires’ bore. An image of the female vampire flickered into his mind and his focus moved to the distant cabin and where she lay in his bed. At least his heart still beat, his blood still raced, and he could still function as a human if he chose such a life for himself. She had no pulse, no life in her veins, and had no choice but to seek blood as sustenance, and hide from the warmth-giving sun for fear of it destroying her. She was condemned by the light, and destined for Hell on death.

“Nic? You spacing out?” Lisa’s soft voice swept the image of the vampire away and he looked at her, battling the strange feeling of compassion that had come over him again. “That tooth must be killing you. Don’t take too much or the docs will notice. You owe me.”

Nicolae recovered, winked and grabbed his groceries. He casually walked away, towards the pale corridors that led down to the small operating rooms, shaking off the feelings his thoughts had evoked. He looked back when he reached the door to the blood bank. His senses reached out, mapping everything and everyone. No one was coming. He slipped inside, shut the door, and turned around.

Rows of dark red plastic bags filled the shelves in the cold pale blue room. His gaze scanned them, reading the different blood groups. He wasn’t sure what type she liked.

Nicolae couldn’t believe he had thought that.

He didn’t care what she liked. She would get what she was given. He stormed forwards, snatched two bags at random, and stuffed them into the grocery bag. The labels on the packets read ‘O Rh D Positive’. He hoped that was common enough that the hospital wouldn’t notice it was gone.

A brief pause at the door to make sure that he was still alone and then he was striding along the corridor towards the reception. He winked at Lisa again as he passed and headed straight for his black Jeep. The sun was up now, shining brightly down on the world but doing little to warm it. Clouds beyond the distant white-capped mountains warned that snow was on its way. Nicolae chucked the groceries onto the passenger seat of the Jeep, shut the driver’s side door, and started the engine.

He was alert throughout the drive back to his cabin, his mind going over everything he knew about the hunters and putting it to memory. They had headed towards the outskirts but he doubted it was the last he had seen of them. They were intent on finding their prey. Would they check all the cabins on the mountains, cold calling in the hope that someone had found her and not reported it to the police? Would the hunters have even tried the police station? The leader had left quickly after Lisa had mentioned calling them. They wanted to avoid the local law, which led Nicolae to suspect that either they had criminal records or were wanted men themselves.

Would they come knocking on his door?

He hoped they wouldn’t.

Was there a way he could throw them off her scent altogether?

The sun was bright today and the clouds lingering beyond the mountain range wouldn’t reach them until the afternoon, if at all, but the woods on this side of the valley were dense. It would have been easy for her to find shelter somewhere in the pines or in the rocky peak where there were caves. The hunters weren’t going to give up their search until they found evidence of her demise at the hands of the sun or the poison. Vampires disintegrated on death. If he took her clothes and the crossbow bolts, and laid them out in the glade, would that throw them off her scent?

He doubted it.

Did the hunters know how long it would take for the poison to kill her? It was a strong poison, and they knew that they had badly injured her with the darts. But they were still looking for her. His fingers tightened around the leather steering wheel and he frowned at the track ahead. All he could do was keep her hidden and hope that the hunters would give up their search and leave the area. If they were still here tomorrow, he would strip her and toss her clothes in one of the caves on the mountain. It would be believable that she had hidden and died there.

The cabin came into view ahead, standing in a clearing he had cut in the forest decades ago. The logs were dark now, ancient, causing the small single storey house to blend into the trees surrounding it. He had always been happy to see his home in the past, but not right now. Saving the vampire had complicated everything.

Nicolae parked the Jeep, grabbed the grocery bag and approached the cabin. He cautiously opened the door and peered around it. She was still asleep. He closed the door behind him, went into the kitchen and put the blood into the refrigerator, and then came back and stoked the fire. He glanced at her. She was lying in the same position that he’d left her. The black medicine had bled through the bandages around her stomach and across her left shoulder, forming dark patches on both. His gaze lingered on her bra-clad breasts. He wasn’t sure how he would react to the sight of her naked if he had to strip her. He didn’t even want to consider it, or the hushed voice at the back of his mind that whispered he would enjoy it. He forced his eyes up to her face. Blood still stained her lips. He laid his hand on the bite mark near his throat. It still stained him too. She had bitten him, scratched him, and he still couldn’t bring himself to hate her as she deserved. What was wrong with him?

Nicolae went to her and touched her forehead. She didn’t stir. Her skin was cooler beneath his fingers. He tentatively brushed them across her brow, clearing the wavy lengths of her fair hair away from her face. She was pretty when she wasn’t trying to bite his head off. His blood had dried in the cracks of her lips. Before he could think about what he was doing, he ran the tips of his fingers over them. They tingled at the feel of her soft skin and he fought the rising warmth inside his chest and the fascination she caused and snatched his hand back.

Without looking back at her, he stalked across the room, took his black rifle down off the wall and went out into the woods.

It wasn’t difficult to pick up the trail of the deer. He focused on the combined scent of the herd, using it to purge the vampire’s softer scent from his mind, and followed it down through the trees towards the valley bottom. His head cleared as he tracked them, thoughts of the vampire drifting away, and he found some peace again. The deer would be grazing at the forest fringe now, far down in the valley. It would take him a while to walk there but he didn’t care. He slowed down, meandering through the trees, enjoying the cold and silence. The longer he was away from the cabin, the better.

It felt good to get back to basics and breathe the crisp fresh mountain air. Animals scurried through the undergrowth around him. Birds sung in the trees, calling to each other. The sound of distant cars carried on the chill breeze. He paused to soak everything up and then glanced at the sky through the bare branches above him. The sun was moving overhead. He must have been wandering in the woods for almost two hours now. He couldn’t delay any longer. It was dangerous to leave her alone. He wasn’t sure when she would come around.

Nicolae started down towards the valley again, his focus shifting back to the deer, and tracked them. He slowed his pace when he reached the edge of the forest and then crouched behind a tree.

Several deer were grazing at the start of the valley near the woods around two hundred metres upwind from him. Their heads bobbed up and down, ears twitching at the slightest sound. Nicolae shouldered his rifle and used the sight to scan over each animal. An old buck looked straight at him. Adrenaline and the desire to change rushed through him, sending his heart thundering. He suppressed it and put his finger on the trigger instead. He wasn’t here to hunt. Not like that.

His breathing levelled.

He squeezed the trigger and the shot echoed around the mountains. The deer disappeared from view in the sight. The herd ran. Their panic sent another burst of adrenaline through his veins and his body coiled in response, flooded with a primal desire to chase them. The smell of blood filled his nostrils next and he fought to keep his composure, battling his nature. His bones shifted and fur swept across his shoulders beneath his black shirt. His teeth extended. He kept still, breathing slowly, waiting for his instincts to lose their grip on him.

His blood settled and his wolf side receded.

Nicolae lowered the gun and stood. The deer lay on the grass in the sun. No heartbeat. A clean kill. It had lived a good life. A long life. He slung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder and walked out into the valley, skirting along the tree line to the dead buck. The rest of the deer had scattered into the forest on the other side of the narrow strip of green land. He picked up the carcass and hauled it onto his left shoulder. The wound on his throat burned under the weight of the animal. Nicolae gritted his teeth and started back up the hill towards the cabin.

He moved swiftly now, quickly covering the distance, and was almost there when he heard a vehicle in the distance.

The sound wasn’t coming from the road.

Nicolae doubled his pace, keeping a firm hold on the deer over his shoulder. His heart pounded when he could see over the crest of the hill and onto the plateau where his cabin stood. A familiar large black vehicle dwarfed his smaller Jeep. His senses placed the hunters a short distance away, near to his home.

In his territory.

A low growl rolled up from his throat.

Nicolae rounded the corner from the rear of his cabin and the hunters stopped in their tracks and moved towards him instead.

“A fine kill,” the leader congratulated and Nicolae cast a glance over him before continuing towards the cabin.

He dumped the dead deer down on the porch but kept his rifle over his shoulder. No movement or sound came from inside the small building at his back. Either the vampire was still unconscious, or she knew the hunters were outside and was sensible enough to recognise that she was in danger.

Nicolae turned to face them, stepped down off the porch, and wiped his bloodied left hand on his dark blue jeans.

“Can I help you?” he bit out and the men looked at each other.

The leader smiled at him.

Nicolae narrowed his gaze and straightened to his full height. His fingers flexed around the strap of his rifle.

“We were just in the area and wanted to look around. Good hunting last night.”

Nicolae shrugged his broad shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t hunt at night. I don’t have the vision for it.” He jerked his head towards the deer. “As you can see, I prefer to hunt in daylight, when it’s safer. There are a lot of wolves on the mountains and most of them don’t take too kindly to hunters in their territory.”

The group nodded in agreement. Their smiles were just a little bit too polite to be real. He held the leader’s gaze. In broad daylight, Nicolae could see that he had been mistaken last night. None of the hunters matched his build. The leader was shorter than him by around two inches and packed less muscle, and didn’t have the advantage of preternatural strength.

“This may seem unusual... but... have you seen a woman?” The one who had almost shot him stepped forwards.

“Plenty in town today, but none you can buy if you’re talking about that sort of thing.” Nicolae closed his fingers over the rifle strap and eyed each of them in turn, assessing the possible outcomes of a fight. They seemed calm enough on the surface, but the youngest hunter’s heartbeat was off the scale and the one he suspected was the man’s brother had returned to the truck and was looking in the back of it.

“It’s not like that,” the leader said, his smile fixed in place. He slung an arm around the youngest hunter’s shoulders and brought him forward. “We were separated from his girlfriend in the woods and he’s worried that she might have hurt herself.”

Nicolae pursed his lips, scratched his jaw, and then shrugged. “Maybe she went down the other side of the valley. There’s a town there too. Bigger than the one nearest here. She might have made it to the road and caught a lift.”

The leader eyed him closely.

Nicolae remained calm, muscles tight beneath his black shirt, ready to act if it came to it. He could shoot at least two of them before the fourth man could draw a weapon from the truck, and could change into a wolf in seconds and savage the rest before they could attack. The clothes would hinder him but he’d torn the shirt off his back plenty of times in the past. It would add barely two seconds to his transformation. He casually held the leader’s gaze. Until they made a move, he would feign innocence. He was used to playing a role. He’d done it his whole life since moving to Canada. It was the only way to get some peace and ensure his safety.

“If you don’t mind, I have business to take care of, but I hope you find that woman.” Nicolae turned towards the dead deer on the porch and froze, his blood screaming. His left hand went to his rifle. He slowly faced the leader again. “Was she armed?”

The leader nodded.

“Crossbows too?” Nicolae said.

The three men frowned at him. Nicolae nodded towards the fourth man standing at the back of the black truck. He had armed himself and had the crossbow casually trained on Nicolae while acting as though he was just checking it over.

“I’m surprised you could catch anything with one of those. It’s a cruel way to kill something.” Nicolae swiftly shouldered his black rifle and aimed it at the leader, staring down the line of the barrel at the spot between his eyes. “I prefer a quick kill. If you get what I mean?”

The leader nodded. Nicolae’s heart slammed against his chest. He hated hunters almost as much as he despised vampires. He didn’t lower the rifle, not even when the men took the hint and piled into the truck. It reversed, turned and headed down the track towards town. When he could no longer sense or hear the vehicle, he relaxed and slung the rifle over his shoulder. He grabbed the hind leg of the deer, dragged it around the back of the cabin and left it on the patchy grass in the clearing. The sun had passed its zenith. The days were growing shorter. The wolves would come in a few hours, with the start of sundown.

Nicolae rubbed his eyes and sighed. No more excuses. No more reasons to avoid the cabin. He took the long route in, going back around the front, and opened the door.

The vampire stared at him through wide dark brown eyes.

“I can smell blood.”

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Stay tuned for a fourth and final excerpt from Hunter's Moon...

Prophecy Trilogy - paranormal romance book extended excerpt

2011-03-08T15:51:00.002Z

I have created an extended excerpt PDF for Prophecy: Child of Light, the first novel in the Prophecy Trilogy and also the Vampires Realm series which I write as F E Heaton. You can download this long sample of my epic vampire romance book direct from my website. It's 21 chapters in total, around 75000 words, which is around the length of an average novel in itself. What's even better is that this novel is only $0.99!

Download the first 21 chapters of Prophecy: Child of Light - http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/long-excerpts/prophecy-child-heatonFE.pdf

Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
A girl unlike any other girl, a vampire unlike any other vampire, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she breaks the rules. Leaving the family mansion to hunt for the first time, she encounters Valentine, a vampire from her family's enemy and a man who will change her life forever.

Suddenly at the centre of a prophecy, she is kidnapped by Valentine, the man who should have been her executioner, and forced to run with him in order to save herself. Required to work together, the tension between them builds as a dark evil threatens to destroy the world, their families and the Law Keepers attempt hunt them down, and Prophecy discovers that her feelings for Valentine control her new found power.

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

The first of the Vampires Realm novels being written by five star author Felicity Heaton, Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.

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

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801048/
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook44209.htm
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Child-Of-Light/mix-rDOnD6cECkGermYtAHD9Dw/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248920

Reunion - vampire romance book has a new cover

2011-03-08T15:40:00.000Z

Reunion, a free vampire romance book (novella length) in my Vampires Realm series has a shiny new cover! I decided it was about time that I updated this one as I had never quite been happy with it. Much happier with the result this time and I think it fits in better now since I had recently updated the cover for Eternity: The Beginning too. It's not too much different, but it's definitely better than the old one.

Reunion
F E Heaton
For the Venia Law Keeper, Marise, returning home isn’t something she wants to do, but duty dictates that she must answer Lord Timur’s call for assistance and investigate the attempt on his life by a vampire. Faced with her old home, she tries hard to suppress the memories it evokes, of happier times in the arms of her ex-lover, Jascha, and of the darker times with him that led to her leaving.

She puts the atmosphere and looks she receives down to fear from the attempt to kill Timur, but when she lays eyes on her lord, she realises that it may be for another reason and that the attacker may not have been a vampire after all. Left with only one other source of information, a guard injured in the attack to a point beyond recovery and left to remain awaiting death, she decides to question him before he dies and then get the hell out of there.

Only when she sees that the dying guard is Jascha, she begins a battle with her heart that will see her struggle to turn her back on Jascha and her family again, and maintain her sense of duty. Is fifty years enough to forgive the one you love for breaking your heart? Will Marise finally confess to everything she’s held inside and kept hidden from him? And can Jascha convince Marise to listen to what he has to say and make her love him again?

ebook price: FREE E-BOOK
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 27100 words
rating: sultry
released: January 2008
Book 6 in the Vampires Realm series

download it in PDF now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Reunion

Excerpt
Dull violet eyes greeted her as his heavy lids opened. He blinked languidly and with too much effort for her liking. He was covered in blankets but she could see how badly injured his arms, neck and face was. A thick bandage was wrapped around his throat, the side of it stained with dark blood. His arms were covered in gashes, long lacerations that were edged with angry red and were weeping.

She shook her head and fought against the feelings inside of her and the tears rising into her eyes.

“Jascha?” she whispered his name again, wishing now that she could hear his voice and have him tell her that Timur was overreacting—he was going to be fine.

He wasn't going to die.

Before she had time to stop herself, she was kneeling beside the bed, his right hand held firmly in hers and her cheek pressed against it. She closed her eyes and tears escaped them when his fingers closed around hers.

She wanted to ask who had done this to him. He was strong, far stronger than she had been, and yet someone had hurt him. No, this wasn't hurting. This was butchering. Anger boiled up inside her. Someone had butchered him and left him to die. Death could be as swift for a vampire as it was for a human. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing and they'd made sure that Jascha wouldn't die that night.

This was a message. Someone was telling her species that they were stronger than them.

Her jaw tensed and she growled.

Someone was going to pay.

Jascha's fingers flexed weakly against hers and he muttered something that made no sense. She raised her head, taking in the extent of the damage done to this face. It was covered in rich bruises and fine cuts. His split lip and swollen eye made her heart ache for him.

His eyes met hers, pupils dilating and contracting as he struggled to focus.

A tiny frown made his brows shift.

“Mari?” he breathed so quietly she almost didn't hear him.

The sound of that name brought back all the pain and she dropped his hand, standing and distancing herself from him as her heart broke all over again. She turned her back on him while she pushed all of her feelings back down inside of her and tried to lock them inside her heart.

“Mari?” he whispered again.

She turned on a pinpoint and stared at him with cold eyes.

“My name is Marise,” she said and steeled herself against the darkness that entered his eyes. It was what he deserved. She couldn't remember now what they'd fought about or exactly what had been said, but she still felt the pain each day.

She moved to the foot of the bed, buying the time to get back in control of the situation and herself.

He sighed.

It said so much.

She knew she wasn't the only one who had been hurt that day. They'd both said things and done things that were the undoing of what they'd had together. Only she'd accepted the position as Law Keeper and ran away, when he'd been willing to heal the breach.

She folded her arms across her chest.

“If you're up to it, I'd like your opinion on what happened the night you were injured.”
He gave her a look that conveyed exactly what he was thinking. He was right. It was cold of her to stand here, distant and uncaring while he suffered, but that was what a Law Keeper did. They didn't mix business with pleasure. Pleasure was a thing of the past for them. To hold this position meant being impartial about the bloodlines and being emotionless. Emotions got in the way and clouded your judgement.

Like hers were right now.

She turned her back again and paced across the room. She didn't need the distance it brought—she needed the darkness. It robbed her sight of its sharpness and meant she couldn't see his injuries so clearly.

“A simple nod or shake of your head will suffice. That is, if you can manage it?” She looked at him.

He gave her a tiny nod and grimaced, his hand coming up to touch his throat as he frowned. His eyes closed and she could see the pain in his face. She'd forgotten the wound there. A part of her said to give him time to recover before questioning him, but the rest overruled it and said to get it over with and get out of here before these feelings stirring inside of her became dangerous.

He was a soldier. She was sure he understood. She needed answers for her investigation and so she could judge whether this case required a Law Keeper or not. This couldn't get personal. She couldn't go there again.

“Do you think there's a reason you were left alive?” she said, holding the tremble from her voice so he wouldn't know how much the sight of him so injured was affecting her.

He nodded.

“I think so too. Timur hasn't a clue what happened. You do though, don't you?”

He nodded again and swallowed with a grimace.

She moved a step closer so he could see her better through his one good eye, but kept far enough away that she couldn't clearly see his wounds.

“Who did this to you? A vampire?”

A shake of his head, tiny and almost imperceptible.

“I didn't think so. Were they human?”

He hesitated. There was uncertainty in his eyes.

“Niet,” he said, voice strained but the accent that had always melted her was still there.

It was just like him to fall back on his native tongue. She hoped he'd keep his answers simple. She never had grasped the language.

“Did they look human?”

“Da,” he croaked and rubbed his throat again.

She stepped nearer and had to look away when fresh blood seeped into the bandages around his neck. Her stomach roiled at the thought that she was hurting him by making him speak. She wanted to ask him to stick to nodding or shaking his head, but she couldn't let him see how affected she was by all of this.

“Do you think they were demon or were they wholly human?”

“ `Ya ne pani`mayu.” His voice sounded tight and he pushed himself up as he coughed.

Blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.

“Damn it, Jascha! I told you to shake or nod.” She stormed across the room and sat down on the bed beside him. Her hand was against his cheek, holding him and forcing him to look at her. Everything she was ready to say slipped away and instead she wiped the blood off his chin with her thumb.

She took her hand away from him, gathering herself while she wiped her thumb on the dirty cloth beside the bed.

There was a canister of blood and a stained glass pushed to the back of the small table. They were feeding him old blood? How was he supposed to heal? Anger stirred inside her and she shot a black look at the door. She could sense Timur outside with the guards. Was Tynan there too? Surely he wouldn't let Jascha suffer like this?

She undid the buttons on her jacket sleeve and pushed it up her arm before setting to work on the buttons of her shirt cuff. She rolled it up and tugged it out of the way.

Thinking about what she was doing, she justified it by telling herself that a dead witness was of no use to her. This was about the case. This wasn't personal.

She extended her claws and pressed one into her wrist.

Blood beaded against her skin.

This wasn't personal.

She looked at Jascha. He was laying back on the bed again now, eyes closed and his jet-black hair falling loose from his ponytail. Rogue strands of it criss-crossed his face. She ignored her temptation to clear them away and extended her arm to him.

His nostrils flared.

His eyes rolled as he opened them and gave her an incredulous look.

She moved her arm closer, frowning at him, but silently pleading him to drink. Without fresh blood, he'd never heal. Her blood would suffice until she could get Tynan to hunt for her. She wondered if there was any way that she could have words with Timur about the canister of blood without it looking as though she was bringing her feelings into this.

Her eyes widened when Jascha's mouth latched onto her wrist and she gasped when he bit her. It was the last thing she'd been expecting. She half closed her eyes when he began to drink, stirring all too familiar feelings inside of her. He was the last person to do this to her. She looked at his face, studying him and taking everything in.

Was it really fifty years since she'd seen his face?

No. She saw it each day in her dreams. He was always with her. She was just too stubborn to admit it.

His drinking slowed and before she knew it, it was over and he was licking the wound on her arm. She held it there for a moment when he stopped, the smallest part of her heart hoping he'd continue. He didn't. He lay back on the bed, his eyes still closed.

“Jascha?” she said and he looked at her. It seemed to take a lot of effort. Her blood was probably making him drowsy. “Was it a vampire hunter?”

“Da,” he said.

“But not one like we've met before?”

“Niet,” he whispered and closed his eyes again.

She smiled now that he couldn't see her. Ghosting her fingers down his cheek, not brave enough to touch him, she looked at him a moment longer and then rose from the bed.

“I'll arrange for fresh blood for you. I have more questions I need to ask. If you remember anything, please ask for me.” She hated how cold she sounded.

Rolling her sleeve down, she stopped when she saw the marks on her wrist and stared at them. They were shallow and it wasn't because he was weak. It was because he hadn't wanted to hurt her. She ran her fingers over the marks and then buttoned her sleeve, covering it with her jacket.

Walking over to the door, she paused and looked back at him. It hurt to look at him, to have those memories of their time together come back, and to see him in so much pain. She hurt so much. He'd taken her feelings and smashed them. That much she could remember. They'd broken each other's heart that night.

She wanted to say something more, but couldn't bring herself to. She had already brought enough emotion into this investigation. If anyone found out, she was likely to be punished.

She reached out behind her and took hold of the door handle.

Turning, she opened the door.

She hesitated a moment when he spoke.

“Da svi`daniya, lubov moya.”

She held the smile inside on hearing such familiar words. Was she still his love?

“I'll see you tomorrow,” she said and closed the door behind her.

She killed all her feelings the moment the door clicked shut and turned to look at the people in the corridor around her. The two guards were still there and she didn't recognise either of them. They looked wet behind the ears, younglings no doubt.

Her eyes sought out Tynan but he was nowhere to be seen so they settled on Timur.

“I will have more questions for him come sunset tomorrow. For now, he must rest. His injuries are extensive, severe enough that a full interrogation may be the end of him. If that happens, I will have no answers to support my involvement in this situation and you will have no Law Keeper to protect you from this human.”

Timur's eyes widened, showing the white around his irises and exposing his fear to her again. He fidgeted and she frowned. He was petrified of the thought of this human coming after him. Having seen what this person had done to Jascha, she could understand that fear, but as lord of his bloodline, he should not allow himself to be ruled by it. He was safe in his home. Or did he think that he wasn't?

“I will speak with the other guards and see what they know,” she said, hiding her true intention. She had to find Tynan. It was unlike him to leave Jascha suffering like this. She wanted to know what had happened to change him. “Ensure that only your guards are allowed out to hunt for the house.”

Timur swallowed, hard enough that she saw it.

“What is it?” She didn't give him an inch as she stepped towards him, straightening to her full height and staring down into his eyes. He was still hiding things from her, and she was beginning to get annoyed by all the secrecy. How was she supposed to do her job if she was being kept in the dark about things?

“No one is allowed to hunt,” he muttered under his breath.

She frowned, her eyes narrowing.

“Are you insane?” She was tempted to take hold of his shirt collar and rattle him. Either that or she was going to throttle him. She took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. If he saw how shaken she was by the sight of Jascha so hurt, he wasn't going to give her the respect she needed and deserved.

“They are still out there.”

She ignored his worried look and the childlike pleading in his eyes.

“You are weakening your house. You are letting Jascha die!” She clenched her fists and struggled to rein in her anger.

A dark look entered his eyes and for a moment she thought he was going to remind her who was lord of this bloodline. She couldn't believe how weak he'd become. She couldn't believe that he was risking the lives of everyone in his house because he was frightened of a vampire hunter.

“I am sending your guards out to hunt whether you like it or not. This house needs fresh blood. You have to keep your people strong or they will be lambs to the slaughter should this vampire hunter attack with allies.” She didn't wait for a reply. She turned and stormed down the hall towards the guardroom.

Fury fuelled her as she took the steps down into the basement level of the house. It had been given over to the servant ranks and the guards long ago, before she was turned. The guards had their restroom down here and the training rooms. She was sure she'd find Tynan there. How could she have thought that it had been his choice to feed Jascha old blood? She should've known that he would never willingly allow Jascha to die like this. Timur had effectively tied his hands behind his back and forced him to watch his brother die.

Pushing the door to the guardroom open, she strode in and scanned the faces. She recognised some of them. They all looked stunned to see her. Before she could locate Tynan, he was standing beside her, silent as always. She didn't acknowledge him, instead she kept her eyes fixed on the others.

“You are to hunt in groups. Bring fresh blood to the house. Timur will not punish you. I have seen to that.” She held their gazes and then whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Tynan, “I need a word in private.”

He nodded and left the room. She waited a moment and then followed him out into the hall. Looking around, she caught a glimpse of him heading into the armoury. She walked casually to it, her whole body shaking with the release of emotions that the idea of speaking to him brought. She knew that with him, she had no chance of remaining cold and business-like. Her heart said that he would never tell anyone about how she acted in private with him, and it seemed to give her feelings free rein to do as they pleased. She couldn't control them no matter how hard she tried.

It was a dangerous way for her to feel.

“I need a moment,” Tynan said as she entered the room.

She looked at the guards and stood to one side as they began to leave. They didn't question Tynan's order, so he must have made it to a higher rank than he'd been the last time she'd seen him. Her eyes traversed the room while she waited, taking in the assortment of swords, spears, bows and axes that lined the dark walls.

She'd never liked it in here. It was always gloomy and reminded her of death. Her family never took up arms lightly, so being assigned to work in the armoury was almost a punishment. No one came here and the long hours each guard had to work were often passed alone.

Tynan turned to face her.

She avoided looking at him for as long as possible and then lifted her eyes to meet his. He looked concerned. She wished he didn't. She was having enough trouble holding herself together without him encouraging this revolt by her feelings.

He sighed, his broad shoulders heaving with it. He was taller than Jascha, and had a far broader build, but other than that they looked so similar. Their hair was black as midnight, but Tynan's was short, and they were both incredibly handsome, their fine features lending them an unusual air of grace and distinction.

When she'd first met Tynan, she'd never seen a man as beautiful as he was, until the night she'd seen his brother Jascha.

He'd made her feel as though her heart was pounding, even when that was impossible.

Tynan's dark eyes searched hers. She was glad that he differed from his brother there too. It meant that he could never wholly remind her of Jascha.

No one had eyes the stunning colour of Jascha's.

And no one could set her heart on fire with a single look like him.

Pacing the room, she gathered herself and fought for control. This was no time to fall apart, not even if Tynan would keep her secret for her. She had to be strong, as a Law Keeper should be, and stick to procedure on the case. Her old feelings for Jascha shouldn't be allowed to interfere with her work. Even this meeting with Tynan shouldn't be taking place.

She convinced herself that if she could get Jascha on the mend again by having this talk with Tynan, then she could get on with her work and forget about him again. Not that she'd ever forgotten. He'd always been at the back of her mind. The trouble was, now he was at the front of her mind and she couldn't concentrate. She had to find a way to put him to the back of it again, and this seemed like the most reasonable solution.

“They're feeding him old blood,” she said, barely holding Tynan's gaze for a split second, but it was long enough to see in his dark eyes that he already knew and he didn't like it.

She paced across to the other side of the room. Tynan leaned against a table and folded his arms across his chest, making it clear to her that he was waiting to see why she'd wanted a word with him.

“Why didn't you get him fresh blood?” She didn't give him a chance to answer, instead she stepped up to him, a frown darkening her face. “You should have gone out to hunt regardless of the orders from Timur. You know as well as I that the lord of our bloodline is not thinking clearly. This vampire hunter has made him weak with fear.”

“I did,” Tynan said.

The sound of his voice made her think of Jascha, lying in his death bed with no company and no comfort. She bit back the tears and reminded herself of her duty and her position.

Tynan stepped past her, running his fingers over his hair and sighing heavily. “I hunted for the first two nights, but Timur threatened me... if I disobeyed his orders again, I would be tried.”

“Tried?” She frowned, trying to understand just what was happening in her house.

“For sins against my bloodline.”

“Ridiculous. The Law Keepers would never condemn you for trying to help your brother.” She turned on the spot, following his progress around the room.

Her senses told her that he was agitated, angry. She'd seen how he could be when angered. Timur had been treading a very fine line with him.

“Were you with Jascha that night?” she said.

He paused, eyes fixed on the floor, shoulders tense.

“No.”

“Did Jascha say anything when they brought him in?” She took a step towards him, torn between giving up her questioning and continuing. She didn't want to cause him hurt by reminding him of his brother's plight, but he might be able to give her the answers she needed to make a decision about this case.

“No, nothing coherent.” He hesitated a moment and looked at her. She knew that look. It was about what had happened between her and Jascha. He was scared of bringing up things from the past. “He mentioned your name.”

She froze, feeling as though he'd just hit her in the stomach and knocked the wind from her. She hadn't expected that, but then, when she'd gone into the room, Jascha had known it was her and he'd called her by her old nickname. He had thought about her all these years too. It wasn't a ridiculous idea in the slightest. He had been the one willing to reconcile after all.

“Nothing else?” she said, regaining her focus and pushing away from the dark, sharp thoughts trying to creep in at the corners of her mind. She didn't want to remember that night. She didn't want to remember how painful it had been, and how it had felt to leave him.

“Nothing.”

She stared at him, hating how much he looked like his brother. It brought images of Jascha back, lying in that bed, covered in cuts and blood. Stinking like death.

Turning her back on Tynan, she straightened her cuffs and lightly ran her fingers over the marks on her wrist. He'd been so gentle with her, even in his dire state. She'd expected him to be rough if anything, greedy with hunger. He'd taken barely a sip. It spoke volumes to her, pages about how he didn't want to hurt her. In a way, it had felt like an apology. She wished she could accept it.

“I have to call this in,” she said and went to leave. She stopped herself and looked at Tynan again. “Jascha needs fresh, strong blood. Hunt for your brother.”

She was about to turn around again when he spoke.

“Did you find out anything from him?” His voice trembled the tiniest amount and his eyes showed her that he wasn't just worried about his brother—he was worried about her too.

It had felt horrible to see Jascha like that. It still felt horrible. She couldn't erase the sight of him from her mind. She couldn't imagine how it had felt for Tynan to see him beaten and broken. It must have been worse for him than the night Jascha had been turned and killed, reborn into his world.

She shook her head and gave him an apologetic look, wishing she could bring herself to shrug off the restraints of her position and comfort him.

“He was in too much pain,” she said and then smiled. “He's speaking Russian at me. The boy still hasn't learned that I don't speak the language.”

Tynan smiled but she could see the sadness in it.

“Be careful tonight. Whoever did this is still out there.”

Leaving him, she walked along the corridor and up the stairs to the ground floor of the expansive mansion. She tried to gather all the evidence in her head and thought about what she was going to tell the others. She couldn't leave here without finding out more about this vampire hunter.

She couldn't leave until she knew Jascha was well again.

Download it in PDF now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Reunion

What do you think of the cover?

Hunter's Moon - werewolf romance book - second excerpt

2011-03-05T16:51:00.000Z

To continue the celebration of my new release, here's the second excerpt from Hunter's Moon, my latest werewolf romance book / vampire romance book. This is a novel in the Vampires Realm series, but you don't have to read the other books to understand what's happening in this one. The books in the Vampires Realm are connected by world rather than story arc.

Paranormal Romance Books in Epub and Mobi!

2011-03-02T13:11:00.000Z

I've finished creating all of my for sale books as epub and mobi. These two formats are now available in addition to PDF and HTML. If you've already purchased books from my author site ( http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk ) then you'll have instant access to the new formats on your Bookshelf. If you have bought books which are now out of print, these formats won't be available for those titles yet. At the moment, it's just my currently for sale books.

You can now get the four most popular e-book formats direct from my site, and you get access to all four formats (PDF, HTML, MOBI, EPUB) whenever you purchase a book from me so you can pick and choose which to use. If you're thinking of buying from my site, here's the lowdown on it. You are asked to sign up during checkout but that's so you have access to your very own permanent bookshelf! All of your books are stored there, even titles you purchase and I then withdraw from sale. My site uses PayPal on a Verified account so it's completely secure and your transaction actually takes place on the PayPal site. PayPal accepts all major cards. Another reason to sign up is that you get direct access to the PDF Free Ebooks as they're also stored on your Bookshelf.

I also offer occasional discounts on my books through my site too, and seasonal sales.

Here's some mini-blurbs to get you all excited about the new formats!

Vampires Realm Series - Paranormal Romance Books

Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
A girl unlike any other girl, a vampire unlike any other vampire, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she breaks the rules. Leaving the family mansion to hunt for the first time, she encounters Valentine, a vampire from her family's... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]

Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2]
F E Heaton
The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Prophecy:%20Caelestis%20and%20Aurorea%20[book%202]

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3]
F E Heaton
An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Prophecy:%20Dark%20Moon%20Rising%20[book%203]

Spellbound
F E Heaton
What's a girl to do when the two men she loves are suddenly her love slaves? A vampire and leader of her bloodline, Prophecy celebrates her Death Day in style with a two night ball. Everyone is there, but all she can think about is getting her mate.. Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Spellbound

Seventh Circle
F E Heaton
Dark, sensual and fast-paced, Seventh Circle is a story of forbidden love so strong that it will save the world. Born with strange powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. Now, on the very same... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Seventh%20Circle

Winter's Kiss
F E Heaton
The tales of the mansion near Nika's remote Russian village say that its lord drinks blood to live and that the guards are dead men walking, but that doesn't stop Nika from falling for one of them--a man who seemingly hasn't changed in twenty years... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Winter%27s%20Kiss

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae's hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the... Read the excerpt or buy now: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/books.php?title=Hunter%27s%20Moon

Amazon Kindle Books Bestseller

2011-03-02T10:42:00.000Z

I'm thrilled that I currently have four books in the Amazon Kindle UK top 1000 books, and three of them are in the top 500, with two of them ranked above 200. It's really exciting to see my paranormal romance books doing so well at Amazon Kindle!

One of the books that has reached the dizzying heights of the Amazon Kindle UK top 500 is my paranormal romance in the Vampires Realm series, Prophecy: Child of Light. I've been offering this first novel in the series for a special price of only 99 cents! The other two books in the Prophecy Trilogy are both in the top 2000 too!

Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
A girl unlike any other girl, a vampire unlike any other vampire, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she breaks the rules. Leaving the family mansion to hunt for the first time, she encounters Valentine, a vampire from her family's enemy and a man who will change her life forever.

Suddenly at the centre of a prophecy, she is kidnapped by Valentine, the man who should have been her executioner, and forced to run with him in order to save herself. Required to work together, the tension between them builds as a dark evil threatens to destroy the world, their families and the Law Keepers attempt hunt them down, and Prophecy discovers that her feelings for Valentine control her new found power.

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

The first of the Vampires Realm novels being written by five star author Felicity Heaton, Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.

ebook price: $0.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 135000 words
Book 1 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801048/
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook44209.htm
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Child-Of-Light/mix-rDOnD6cECkGermYtAHD9Dw/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248920

Other books in the Prophecy Trilogy:

Prophecy: Caelestis and Aurorea [book 2]
F E Heaton
The final battle draws closer. Prophecy's world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 109500 words
Book 2 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Caelestis%20and%20Aurorea%20[book%202]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801109/
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook45665.htm
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Caelestis-Aurorea/mix-yK0J1P9NEUGrLDB1ENNISw/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248919

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising [book 3]
F E Heaton
An enemy with unimaginable power and bloodlines with centuries of hatred bred into them, two things that threaten to tear Prophecy and Valentine apart as they fight for their lives and their future together. Their vain attempt to join their houses...

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 116000 words
Book 3 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Dark%20Moon%20Rising%20[book%203]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801130/
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook46471.htm
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Dark-Moon-Rising/mix-oNMCVDI6LkyfWvOVDW0AZg/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248921

All of these books are also available from the Apple iBookstore.

Yay!

Vampires Realm Giveaway #3 - winner!

2011-02-28T13:21:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who took time to enter the third giveaway in my Vampires for Valentine's month.

I have been over to random.org and used it to select the winner of the second Vampires Realm - Vampires for Valentine's giveaway, which was a copy of Winter's Kiss.

The winner chosen at random was:

Pamela G.

Congratulations Pamela! I've contacted you about the book, but if you don't receive my email, then please drop me a line at author [at] vampiresrealm [dot] com replacing the stuff in square brackets with the appropriate things.

Hunter's Moon - new werewolf / vampire romance novel out now!

2011-02-27T13:17:00.000Z

Hunter's Moon, my new werewolf / vampire romance novel in the Vampires Realm series is available now as an e-book for only $2.99. What are you waiting for? Here's the book blurb and excerpt to entice you into purchasing.

This book will be available soon on Kobo, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, iBookstore, and Fictionwise. I'll post links as soon as the book appears at these places.

I will also be making this book available in paperback format and will post links as soon as it's available.

Hunter's Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae’s hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the months in which he travelled to the Canadian wilderness to escape it, but the nightmarish visions and his failure as an alpha still haunt him, forcing him to live alone and keep his distance from other werewolves.

When a night hunt with the local timber wolf pack leads to a run-in with unfamiliar hunters, Nicolae tracks the scent of blood permeating the forest to an injured woman and races to save her, but has he made a terrible mistake in doing so? When she attacks him, revealing her true nature, he can’t believe his eyes or the fact that he can’t bring himself to kill her. She’s beautiful, and a vampire.

Tatyana is on a mission. Far from home and bearing a heart filled with grief, she’s intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows. When she comes to in the presence of a glowering handsome male werewolf, she isn’t sure what to expect. His dark demeanour and cold tone warn her that he isn’t like the subservient werewolves she’s used to, and that she might not be out of danger yet, but she doesn’t let it discourage her. Working with him to discover why the hunters have come to Canada, she attempts to shatter his antiquated opinion of vampires, but the closer she gets to him, the harder it becomes to battle the forbidden hunger he stirs in her.

Will Nicolae be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and his memories, and embrace his desire for a vampire? Can Tatyana face her fear about the Law Keepers and risk her heart and her life for the sake of forbidden love? When they discover what the hunters are after, will they be able to stop them before it’s too late?

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
rating: sultry
released: February 2011
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Excerpt
Crisp air rushed through Nicolae’s black fur in a constant stream, shifting with him as he wove through the dark forest, keeping pace with the bulk of the local timber wolf pack. The group ahead of him, led by the grey alpha, snarled and played, riding up on each other’s shoulders as they ran. Nicolae bounded after them, his paws pounding the uneven ground and his footing sure. He ducked under a low branch and then leapt over a fallen tree, landing softly in the fresh leaf litter on the other side. Mountains stretched into the distance before him through the woods, their craggy peaks highlighted by glowing white snow. The fat moon flickered between the bare branches above him and called to his blood.

Nicolae obeyed.

He raced with the pack down the slope towards the hidden glade in the forest. Leafless trees gave way to tall pines that towered above him, blocking the light, and his eyes adjusted, the dark world around him sharpening and his senses following suit. Cool fingers of wind caressed his ears as he headed in amongst the pack and joined in their play, enjoying the clear wintry air and the bright night with them. Several younger wolves in the pack snarled and nudged him, and he playfully responded, gently shouldering them as they ran and fighting for dominance. He let them win even though they were far smaller than he was.

Nicolae wasn’t interested in gaining rank within the pack. He was here to enjoy the moment and the company. Running with the timber wolves under a full moon excited him, took him away from the complications of the human world and set him free. There was nothing in the world as exhilarating as surrendering to his true nature.

Animal sounds filled his ears, undetectable to the humans who lived in the rugged mountainous region of Canada. The deer down in the valley ahead were moving, heading for a safe place to spend the night. He could picture them now as they waited nervously in the shadows of the trees around the glade, alert and aware of the wolves that ran in the dark forest. They would move and make it out onto the narrow strip of grazing land between the banks of woods at the valley bottom before the wolves reached them.

Tomorrow, there would be reports of a wolf attack on the deer, and how the Casey’s horses had panicked, and Nicolae would have to pretend that it startled him to hear such a thing.

That he hadn’t participated in the hunt and the kill of deer.

That he wasn’t a wolf.

A burst of wings broke the silence, owls fluttering from their roosts and heading high into the sky. Hungry wolf eyes instantly tracked them for a heartbeat of time and then the pack moved on, their focus returning to playing and hunting the deer. The day birds settled down in their nests, safe from predators for another night, unbothered by the wolves running below.

The pack began to streak ahead and Nicolae returned his attention to them. His blood rushed and his heart thundered. He felt wild. Alive. The leaders were dark blurs in the distance, almost blending in with the night, silent predators built for this terrain. Younger wolves jostled for position nearer to him. He raced to catch up, the cold air burning in his lungs and a sense of freedom flowing through him.

A howl cut the night and the wolves shifted as one, turning right towards the mountain, away from the glade and the grazing land beyond. Something had caught their attention. The howl came again and Nicolae listened this time, deciphering it. Wolf-speak was old and varied from pack to pack, but he had studied this one closely, and long enough that they had accepted his presence on the mountain. They no longer feared him. It had taken him a century of working with each generation, but he had gained their trust and their friendship, and had learned how to communicate with them.

He pounded up to the peak of a bare hillock, threw his head back, and howled at the moon through the barren trees.

The answering call told him why the wolves were now running with intent.

There were men on the mountain.

Men who didn’t belong there.

Nicolae ran down the other side of the hillock and rejoined the wolves, running close to them now, amongst the pack. The sense of calm and playfulness disappeared. The wolves were hunting, a sliver of fear flowing through the entire pack, alertness that called to his instincts. He focused on the woods ahead, mapping them and monitoring for a sign of the men. It was unusual for hunters to come onto the mountains at night, especially when winter’s grip was closing on the area.

A distant noise snapped the group to attention. The alpha snarled. Nicolae stretched his superior senses farther ahead of them. They whispered of danger. He sniffed and caught the scent of men on the wind. No one that he recognised. The grey alpha snarled again, this time in Nicolae’s direction. Nicolae answered with a growl. There was no reason to fear the humans.

He would protect them if it came to a fight.

He doubted that it would. Humans rarely hurt the wolves and never bothered him. They were probably looking for deer. He glanced at the moon. It was late to be hunting, and not just in the year. The sun had set hours ago and midnight was approaching. What prey were they after? The bears were already heading into hibernation, and deer didn’t come this far up the mountain in winter. The only animals up here were small game and the timber wolves.

A trickle of fear slithered down his spine. His hackles rose in response.

Were they after the wolves?

Nicolae snarled, sending a message to the pack.

They turned and moved in a silent dark stream down into the valley, away from the hunters. Nicolae lumbered onwards alone, towards the hunters he could sense in the distance. It was rocky ground where they were and the sparse trees would offer him little cover, but it was a risk he had to take. If the hunters saw him, he would head back down towards the valley, where the forest was thicker. He had to make sure that these men weren’t a threat. He needed to protect the wolves.

Nicolae slowed to a trot as he reached the stony ground and lowered himself until his softer stomach fur brushed the leaf litter and rocks. He crawled forwards, moving as quietly as possible, stalking the hunters. They stood in a clearing, the moon highlighting them with threads of silver. Nicolae stopped behind the broad trunk of the nearest tree, as close as he could get without them noticing him.

Their murmured conversation masked the sound of his soft huffs. His heart thumped against his ribs.

Four men. Dark haired. They were difficult to make out even in the moonlight. He could tell they were tall, and that the two who had their backs to him were broad built, possibly even bigger than he was in human form. Their black fatigues caused them to blend into each other and the woods beyond, and he couldn’t make out any of their faces or the builds of the other two men.

“I’m telling you she’s gone down towards that valley,” one of the men whispered, his accent local sounding enough. He was Canadian at least. Nicolae couldn’t see him clearly from his position behind the tree and bushes, but he couldn’t risk moving.

“Did you see how she moved? I’ve never seen something move that fast. Is that normal?” This voice had a tremor in it that spoke of inexperience and fear.

What were they hunting? Referring to animals as female was nothing new to him but it didn’t sound as though they were hunting bear or deer. Were his suspicions correct and they were after the wolves?

Nicolae looked down towards the valley. The local timber wolf pack were all there and most of them had been with him all night. The distant howl that had alerted them to the presence of the hunters had been a scout. It hadn’t given word of an altercation with the men. If there had been one, the wolf would have reported it to the pack.

He glanced the other way, towards the peak of the plateau and his cabin. Beyond it was the settlement. Were they hunting his sort of wolf? Impossible. No one in these parts knew of the werewolves. They lived quietly amongst the humans, blending in and keeping to themselves. None more so than him. He didn’t belong to that pack. He didn’t belong to anyone.

He cast his gaze over each hunter in turn, scrutinising them with his senses and putting their scents to memory. What were they doing on the mountain? One of the men looked in the direction of the valley and Nicolae stilled. They weren’t dark haired. They were all wearing black woollen hats, and the one he could see had night-vision goggles on.

Nicolae shuffled back a step and hunkered down when the man turned towards him. Even the bushes around the trees had lost their foliage this far up the mountain. If he moved so much as a millimetre, the man would spot him through the infrared goggles. His heartbeat doubled and it felt impossible to keep still. He wasn’t sure what sort of weaponry they had, but with the goggles, the men already had the advantage. They would be able to see him at a distance. There would be no quick escape into the darkness. Anticipation sent adrenaline to his muscles and they coiled in readiness. The wolf pack howled in the distance. The man turned away. Nicolae dared to peek through the twigs of the bushes at the men.

The one who had looked towards him was facing the others again, his hand hovering on the hilt of a vicious-looking hunting knife that hung from his utility belt. Nicolae glanced at the man next to him. A similar knife hung from his belt. Were they armed only with knives? He tried to see their hands but most of the men had them in front of them, or the bodies of the others hid them. They started talking again, calm and unfazed by the surrounding darkness and distant wolf howls.

Something about them didn’t feel right. Their poise, their calmness, set them apart from the casual hunters that often came to the area, and gave him the impression that they were experienced in night manoeuvres and possibly trained in combat. In fact, he would hazard a guess that either they were in the military or they used to be. The only one who didn’t feel like a threat was the one who was afraid. His heart pounded faster than the other three men’s did, pushing at Nicolae’s desire to attack. He clawed for control, his focus turning inward for a moment as he struggled against his animal instincts.

“I say we go down.” The one in the middle of the group this time. His agreement with the first voice caused a murmur to run through them. The three men who had spoken turned towards the fourth, tallest, man.

The man stepped forwards, into the clearing, and Nicolae got a good look at him. The cold calculating edge to his expression warned Nicolae that this man was more than a hunter of animals. He had seen such faces before, in his past, on merciless killers that were acquainted with death and cruelty, and revelled in it.

Nicolae slunk further into the shadows, battling dark splintered memories that branded his mind with horrific images of violence and bloodshed, and seared his body with fierce pain. Each scar on his skin turned to flame beneath his black fur and he fought the urge to snarl. It had been so long since he had relived the nightmare of his past that he had forgotten how to deal with the pain. It threatened to cripple him, to force him from his animal state and expose him to the hunters. He battled the memories, using every ounce of his strength and willpower to remain hidden and as a wolf, but his control began to slip.

Screams taunted him, pleas for mercy and desperate cries for protection. His muscles bunched tight, bordering on cramping, and his heart wrenched in his chest as he relived everything in such vivid detail that it felt as though he had been transported back to that time, to the hellhole in which they had tortured him and his blood kin. Images of them swam in his mind, shifting in and out of focus, bloodied and beaten, eyes full of despair that turned to hope as they fell on him. He felt himself reaching out to them even though he couldn’t move, trying to grasp the fragile visions as frantic need to comfort them flooded him. They slipped through his fingers, faces turning hollow and emaciated as they screamed, clutching themselves. His limbs shook, weak down to his bones, and he tried to shun the images, not wanting to witness their deaths again.

Not wanting to relive the horror of his failings.

He ground his teeth, biting down hard until his sharp canines cut into his gums and the taste of blood flooded his mouth. The metallic scent brought darker memories with it. They crowded his mind, driving him to the edge of despair, and threatening to break his hold on his wolf form. He couldn’t lose it here. The hunters would see him. They would kill him before he had a chance to fully transform and escape into the woods. He would expose everyone to danger. He fought to remain focused, clamping his jaw and sucking in deep gulps of night air through his nose. The crisp edge to the air and the scent of the woods grounded him enough that he could shift his focus to the present and his surroundings, pushing away the terrifying memories.

“We go down,” the hunter said at last, snapping Nicolae back to them and giving him a point of focus to hold on to, helping him clear his mind.

He breathed hard, gradually bringing himself back under control. The smell of the night soothed him and his pulse began to level again, his blood no longer blazing in his veins.

Nicolae looked up at the moon through the trees, needing to see it and see that he was free. His past laid thousands of miles away and a hundred years ago. Out here in the wild, he was free of the world that had once enslaved him. He was free of the vampires.

Two of the men moved past the one who Nicolae had decided was their leader. They brought their night-vision goggles down over their eyes and shouldered weapons that caused Nicolae to hesitate. The fourth man moved and did a sweep of the area.

Nicolae stared at the crossbow and the shiny tip of the dart aimed straight at him, his breathing faltering at the sight of it. The man moved on, scanning behind the group, and then followed them down into the woods.

Bows?

When was the last time he had seen a hunter use a bow? He couldn’t recall one in recent years. Everyone used high-powered rifles with accurate sights now. Even he did.

The timber wolves howled in the valley.

Nicolae tried to make out what they were saying but it was difficult with the men distracting him. He crawled through the undergrowth, tracking them from a distance. Whenever one of the men turned his way, sweeping the area with their crossbow, he flattened himself against the ground and waited. Their progress through the forest was slow but they were heading towards the wolves. If they came too close to the pack, he would break cover and head down to warn them.

The hunters maintained their silence as they wove through the woods, giving Nicolae difficulty. It was hard to move without making a sound when the leaf litter was so deep and crisp. He placed each paw carefully, moving with stealth and keeping far enough away that they wouldn’t hear him.

“I still say that she went up,” one of the men whispered after they had been walking for over twenty minutes and Nicolae caught sight of the leader through the dense tree trunks.

The man held his hand up in a fist and the group halted. Nicolae stopped too, one paw in the air. It trembled with the exertion of holding it there. He gradually lowered it to the ground, holding his breath as he did so, and then exhaled when none of the hunters looked his way. The leader turned towards the man who had spoken and something silent passed between them.

Nicolae knew a threat when he felt it. It seemed the man who had spoken did too because he bent his head and remained silent as the group continued down towards the glade. Nicolae reached out with his senses, searching for both the wolf pack and the prey of the hunters. Could it be a bear?

They had talked about her being quick. Bears were fast when they had to be. He’d been on the receiving end of a few charges in his lifetime. They weren’t as fast as wolves though.

He sensed the timber wolf pack on the grazing land far below. The alpha howled and Nicolae paid him no heed, only using the sound to confirm their position on his senses was correct. He couldn’t feel any other animals besides a few birds and small creatures. The high-tech crossbows these men were packing said that they weren’t after prey smaller than a wolf, not unless they enjoyed a challenge. Even then, they would probably go after big game. Hunting large animals with only a bow would be more exciting and dangerous. A challenge most hunters would relish. Which brought him back around to bears.

The men stopped a few hundred metres up the mountain from the glade. Their leader raised his goggles, looked towards the rugged horizon, and then turned towards the other three.

“She might have gone to ground.” It was the one who had almost seen him. The leader looked thoughtful, his face shadowed and difficult to make out.

Two of the men he hadn’t got a good look at earlier were in broken moonlight now, their night-vision goggles pushed up on their foreheads. They were young, one of them around his late twenties and the other into his thirties. Nicolae suspected it had been the youngest man who had sounded scared. The other one had a hard set to his jaw and coldness in his eyes. The sort of look a man got after seeing a lot of death.

Nicolae had that look sometimes.

“I shot her.” There was certainty in the man’s gravelly voice. None of the others looked as though they were about to doubt him.

Nicolae sniffed, trying to catch a scent on the chill air. If they had shot whatever animal they were after, then it would be bleeding. He would be able to track it.

“The poison will take care of her in that case.”

Nicolae froze. Poison? He looked at the bolts loaded in the crossbows. Just what was it they had shot and now wanted to find? Hunters didn’t normally poison their prey.

Not unless their prey was strong enough to survive arrows and bullets and come after them. He shook that thought away. There was no reason for him to get jittery. In the century he had lived in the area, not once had anyone attacked the werewolves.

“I don’t want to risk it. I want to find her.” The leader this time.

The alpha wolf howled again and Nicolae listened.

Blood.

They were hunting something.

Nicolae tensed, torn between breaking cover and heading down to see what the wolves had smelt, and remaining to listen to the men and ensure they left the mountain.

He raised his nose to the breeze and sniffed. He could smell it now, sharp and coppery, coming up from the valley.

A bolt zipped past him, thudding into a tree barely inches from his nose. Nicolae ran, keeping his rear down and weaving through the narrow gaps between the trees to cover himself. Another bolt narrowly missed him.

“Don’t waste ammo unless you’re sure it’s what we’re here after,” the leader said.

Nicolae pounded through the forest, away from the men and down towards the valley. He picked up the scent of blood and followed the trail. It grew stronger, fresh and sharp in the clear air, cutting through it. He sniffed the ground at intervals, trying to see if the animal had bled onto it so he could investigate the scent and determine what sort of creature it was.

The pine trees grew dense around him as he neared the glade. Their scent obscured the subtler one of the blood, making it impossible for him to tell what it belonged to. It didn’t smell animal.

It wasn’t werewolf.

He rounded a tree and spotted something in the clearing ahead.

Human.

The timber wolves broke out of the woods on the other side to Nicolae, heading for the body. His heart slammed against his ribs and he crashed through the undergrowth and out into the glade. He dashed across the open ground, passing the body, and leapt into the group, snarling and snapping at them, driving them back. His teeth clashed with those of the more persistent wolves but he was careful not to draw blood. His attack wasn’t about hurting them. It was purely to force them to leave the human alone. It was to protect them. If they ate the body, the locals would hunt them down and slaughter them all. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

The alpha growled.

The rest of the pack cowered, lowering their rears and bowing their heads. Some of the younger ones at the back whimpered and whined.

The grey alpha came forward, smaller than Nicolae but bigger than the other wolves, and stared at him.

Nicolae breathed hard and held the alpha’s yellow gaze.

The pack was hungry. With winter setting in, it was important that they fed well, but he couldn’t allow them to harm this human. The alpha didn’t move. Nicolae could understand his need to protect his pack and provide for them.

He huffed, turning the air misty for a second with his warm breath, and then came to a decision. He looked deep into the alpha’s eyes, communicating with him alone. He would hunt and leave them a deer at his cabin in exchange for the human. Was that acceptable?

The alpha wolf stared at him a moment longer and then turned and trotted silently into the forest. The pack followed.

Nicolae huffed again.

He would do as he had promised and give them a deer as soon as he could go out and hunt. During harsher winters, he often provided for them. Wolves were a proud race, just like their werewolf brethren, but this pack no longer took offence at his offerings.

Nicolae knew the pain of not being able to provide for the pack, of failing in his duty to protect them, and because of those experiences he knew that he had asked a lot of the alpha tonight. He was grateful the wolf had chosen to accept the deer and, to show it, he would find the largest one he could.

He turned and sniffed his way back to the human. She lay on the leaf litter, motionless and pale. Covered in blood. It had a strange smell. Some part of it was human but the scent was different, familiar. Was it the poison that made it smell so wrong?

The woman’s eyes were closed, her fair hair spread across the ground in a golden wave. Moonlight shone down into the glade, the bare branches of the trees splitting it into bright shafts that bathed her. He sniffed again and listened. No heartbeat but he couldn’t be sure. Twin darts punctured her black fatigues, one in the left of her chest, up from her heart, and the second in the right side of her stomach. Could she have survived that?

He caught the scent of the hunters on the darts.

Why had they killed her?

She was dressed like them.

Nicolae listened again for a pulse. None came.

There were some things that he couldn’t do as a wolf. He shuffled back a few paces to give himself more room and then focused. His bones popped and body twisted, the black fur on it slowly disappearing as he transformed back into his normal form. He grimaced and growled quietly, containing his pain for fear of alerting the hunters to his presence. He wasn’t sure if they had gone and he wasn’t sure if the woman was dead. He couldn’t let either of them know what he was. His ribs stretched and his limbs cracked back into human forms still covered in patches of fur. It swept backwards, towards his shoulders, revealing deformed fingers that pushed out into normal shapes. His muzzle compressed, his teeth receding, and he moved onto his hind legs, standing with a wobble. Pain ripped down his spine with the final shift of his bones beneath his now human skin, and he bit back his desire to throw his head back and scream out his agony.

Nicolae clenched his fists and breathed deep, waiting with closed eyes for the pain to pass and his heartbeat to level again.

Centuries of life as a werewolf and whenever he spent too long in his animal form, he still felt the pain as he had during the first change.

The moment it subsided, he crouched beside the woman, naked and unashamed. He touched her throat. She was cold and he couldn’t feel a pulse. Dead.

He ran his hand over his messy dark hair and frowned, thinking over what he should do.

His gaze assessed the two darts. Blood saturated the black material around them. He touched it, brought his fingers to his nose, and sniffed. He could smell the poison. Strong. Why had the hunters killed her? If he had found her before coming across the hunters, he would have said they had belonged to the same party. Only this woman wasn’t armed.

Nicolae looked around the clearing for a weapon.

When he looked back at the woman, she was staring at him with dark eyes.

Her left fist flew towards him.

Nicolae rolled backwards into a crouch, barely avoiding the punch. She lunged, trying to grab him, gasping and wheezing. Blood pumped from around the arrow in her abdomen. The dart must have punctured her lung.

His gaze met hers again and he froze. The words of warning to keep still fled his lips.

Fiery orange eyes pinned him with the deadliest of stares.

Nocens.

She bore her fangs and Nicolae backed away, his eyes still locked with hers, panic sending an icy wave through his blood.

What was a vampire of the Nocens bloodline doing in Canada?

She snarled and then slumped backwards, hitting the dirt hard. Nicolae didn’t move. He couldn’t tell if she was dead or not but he wasn’t about to risk his neck by checking her. His gaze darted between the arrows. There was a lot of blood on her, and around the glade. The arrows were poisoned. He dragged in a shaky breath.

The scent of her blood hit him and, now that he knew why he recognised it, he couldn’t bear the smell.

Nicolae shook his head at the first assault of memories, desperate to keep them at bay. He wasn’t there now. He was free. He had paid for it in blood and death, but he was free. The images came, relentless, horrifying visions of violence and pain, punishment in dark barred corridors, screams that echoed through the entire compound. He fell forwards, breathing hard, clawing the dirt into his fists and holding on. Cries. Blood. The sting of the whip against his back. He arched forwards and growled, his teeth elongating. The laughter of his cruel masters. His neck burned, aching under the pressing weight of an iron collar. The humiliation of his brethren.

Blood ran in a fetid river before his eyes, trickling over damp dark stones and along the gutter in front of the cells, mixing with faeces and urine. Shackles clanked in the dim light. Bars rattled under the duress of a fruitless attack by a prisoner.

He wasn’t there.

Nicolae yelled his rage at the starlit sky. It burst from him, desperate and feral in its sound, and echoed around the distant mountains. A disconsolate howl from the valley answered him. The alpha. The sound of it and the message it contained soothed him and granted him relief. He shut the pain down, clearing his mind of the past and focusing on the present, but there was no comfort in it now.

His gaze snapped to the vampire.

He pushed himself back onto his feet and stood over her, staring with hatred burning in his gut. The hunters were still searching for her, and it wouldn’t be long before they reached where he was. They would finish her off. If she managed to survive both the hunters and the poison until daybreak, then nature would take care of her. The sky was clear. When the sun rose, it would spill into the glade. She wouldn’t be strong enough to escape it. Her kind deserved to feel pain.

He would never involve himself with vampires.

He strode away from her.

No matter how beautiful they were.

That thought arrested his steps. He frowned over his shoulder at her. The cold air curled around him, chilling and stiffening his bare body. He stared at the vampire and then at the horizon through the trees, and realised with self-loathing that he wasn’t strong enough to do it. As much as he despised her kind, he wasn’t a monster like them. She wasn’t the same bloodline as the ones who had enslaved him. She had done nothing to deserve his bitterness. If he left her, it would plague him and he would regret it. If he needed a reason to help her, he would do it for the sake of information about the hunters. They had to be the reason that she was so far from home.

Nicolae went back to her. She looked small and fragile as she lay on the dirt. Her appearance belied her true nature but it couldn’t fool his senses. When she had come around, he had felt her strength. Was she strong enough to fight the poison? He placed his palm against her forehead. She wasn’t burning up yet. If the poison was the type most vampire hunters used, then there was still time to help her.

Part of him said to leave her. Her kind had given him nothing but pain. She should feel it in return.

He couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing. Watching a dying vampire succumb to the sun and poison would be a petty form of vengeance. His heart had let go of his desire for revenge almost fifty years ago now, cleansed by his quiet life in the wilderness. Only the nightmarish memories kept it alive in him.

Nicolae sighed and picked her up, shifting her into his arms and cradling her against his bare chest in a way that didn’t disturb the bolts. If she woke again, he would drop her in a flash and distance himself. He doubted that she would though. She had probably used the last of her strength fighting him.

Was he really going to do this? If he brought her into his home, if he helped her heal, then he would be helping the enemy.

In times of war, it was acceptable to help the enemy of your enemy. The hunters had tried to kill her. They were a threat to everything he had built here, and everyone that he knew.

He had to help her.

Even when he knew it would place him in danger.

The hunters were after her.

They would be after him too now.

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Hunter's%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Felicity Heaton

Winter's Kiss - Vampire / Werewolf Romance Novel - Excerpt #2

2011-02-23T14:30:00.002Z

Today I'm posting a second excerpt from my vampire / werewolf romance novel, Winter's Kiss. Check out yesterday's post for chapter one of this story. You can also download a longer excerpt in PDF from this post.

Winter's Kiss
F E Heaton
The tales of the mansion near Nika's remote Russian village say that its lord drinks blood to live and that the guards are dead men walking, but that doesn't stop Nika from falling for one of them—a man who seemingly hasn't changed in twenty years, a man she wishes would be hers. One snowy spring night, her world and his collide when she is attacked by wolves and he rides in on a black horse to rescue her. But her knight in shining armour is far from saintly. He is a vampire, and she is becoming a werewolf, and love between such species is forbidden—the penalty death.

Winter is a commander of the Validus, the most powerful vampire bloodline in Europe. Faithful to his family and his lord since his turning one thousand years ago, he follows the law to the letter and places duty above all else, but his resolve is about to be tested in the most painful way and his world shaken beyond salvation. The girl he watched grow into a woman, a woman who has stolen his heart, is now a werewolf and his dream of making her his has been shattered. Only vengeance can be his now or the Law Keepers will hunt him down and kill both him and Nika.

But Winter's plan to take Nika home to her family fails and his heart demands that he protects her, both from the werewolf who bit her and from himself. She tempts him more than he can bear and it isn't long before he finds himself treading the knife's edge between upholding the law and succumbing to desire.

Nika does everything in her power to convince Winter to stay with her, to go against the laws and risk death, but in the end will she have done enough? Will the nights they spend together change his heart and his mind, or will she spend eternity dreaming of Winter's kiss?

ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $7.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 78000 words
rating: sultry
released: June 2009
Book 8 in the Vampires Realm series

Available in e-book from:
My Website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Winter's%20Kiss
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Winters-Kiss-Vampires-Realm-ebook/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winters-Kiss-Vampires-Realm/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000802090/?itm=19
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b89498/Winters-Kiss-/F-E-Heaton/?si=0
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Winters-Kiss/mix-SbRY0TdPE0-Zl8QkcSDTzA/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/winters-kiss/_/R-400000000000000254325

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489895/

Click here to download an extended excerpt

Excerpt
Nika tried to breathe slowly but found it impossible now. If she didn’t breathe quickly, she was sure she would pass out. She clung to consciousness but slumped back onto the bed, no longer strong enough to hold herself in a sitting position. The pain reached her neck and crept upwards to her head, making her skin flushed and hot.

“Gone?” she whispered, in too much pain to ask the whole question.

The man turned and nodded.

“For now at least,” he said in perfect Russian, his voice still muffled by the mask across the lower half of his face.

She knew it was him. When he had saved her, she had seen his eyes.

He moved across the room to her, sliding the sword back into its sheath. She idly watched him, too weak to do anything else. It was a fight just to stay awake. He removed his facemask and helmet and placed them on the end of the bed. She wished it were lighter in the room so she could see his face. She had always wondered what he looked like, had painted a picture of him in her imagination from his eyes alone. She wanted to see him before she died.

Drawing his long cloak back over his shoulders, he looked around the room. She looked too, dazed. What was he searching for? Was he worried the wolves would come back? They had eaten now. Surely, they would leave them alone. Her leg ached when she tried to move and a new wave of nausea passed over her. She closed her eyes to fight it and when she opened them again, the man held a small glass lamp. He dug his hand into his pocket and then a tiny flicker of gold punctured the darkness. The lamp blazed into life when he lit the wick and then closed the glass door. He walked to the head of the bed. She stared up at him while he placed the lamp down.

He was far younger than she had expected, but just as handsome. His dark gaze roamed over her, a concerned frown marrying his black eyebrows. Tied at the nape of his neck, his long fine black hair caressed his broad black-clad shoulders. As he bent over, threads of his hair slipped down and grazed his throat. The warm light from the lamp made a scar on his neck stand out and she found herself staring.

“I need to take a look at you,” he said and, before even waiting for her to agree, began opening her long black coat. He peeled the two parts aside and helped her sit so he could remove it. The room was freezing without the warmth of her coat and she shivered. The man’s fingers moved carefully over her arms, his gaze intent on their work. He frowned harder whenever he found a cut and inspected it closely before moving on to the next. Her eyes widened when he shifted his attention to her legs and pulled the skirt of her dress up. She wanted to protest but didn’t have the energy to spare.

Collapsing back into the bed, Nika closed her eyes against the pain when he touched her leg and she sucked in a sharp breath.

“What is your name?” he said, voice low and deep, caressing her ears in a way that made her want to relax and fall asleep.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He stood over her, face half in shadow. The side that she could see made her breathless. The soft lamplight highlighted the subtle line of his cheekbones and the defined curve of his jaw. It played on the tempting fullness of his lips and danced in his eyes.

Something in those eyes made his tone feel cold and distant. His gaze flickered to her legs. She knew it was bad, could feel the wounds on them through the numbing heat of pain. His black gloves shone with her blood. She was losing too much to remain conscious for long. It was only a matter of time now before she passed out. Would he stay with her? Would she wake up if she embraced the darkness?

“Am I going to die?” she whispered, slow and between breaths.

He frowned at her. “No.”

He sounded so sure that she almost believed him.

She wanted to thank him but couldn’t find her voice as a new wave of pain rolled through her. If he hadn’t shown up, the wolves would have killed her and eaten her, as they had eaten his horse. How was she supposed to pay him back for that? She would never be able to afford such a fine animal. She laughed internally at herself for thinking about such ridiculous things while she balanced on the knife’s edge between life and death. Soon, it wouldn’t matter that she couldn’t afford to buy him a new horse. Soon, she would be dead and his loss would have been in vain.

“Your name?” he said, more demanding this time.

“Nika,” she pushed out the word.

“Nika, my name is Winter,” he said and she looked up at him, struggling to focus on his face so she could remember it and his name. It was an unusual name. What kind of person was called Winter? “I need you to listen to me. This will hurt, but we must set your leg.”

She swallowed. More pain? Couldn’t he just let her die? She was on the brink of passing out as it was and then she would be in blissful dark silence for the rest of eternity. No, he had said that she wouldn’t die and it had sounded like a promise. If he believed that she would live, there was a chance that she would. If she survived, she didn’t want her leg to be set wrong. The doctors would want to break it again to reset it.

Nika nodded.

He removed his thick cloak and placed it at the foot of the bed. Beneath it was the chest armour she had caught glimpses of a few times. Black and shaped like muscles, it made him appear strangely naked. He tugged two black leather straps free of his cloak and handed one to her. She stared blankly at it.

“Bite down on it.” There was incredible command behind those words. He placed it into her mouth when she didn’t move and she pushed it with her tongue until it was comfortable against her teeth.

Closing her eyes so she couldn’t see the pain coming, Nika bit down hard on the leather strap.

* * * *

Winter waited a moment, studying her. She was in phenomenal pain but it would ease once he had braced her leg. He held her lower leg on either side of the break and listened to her heartbeat. The moment it became steady, he snapped the bone of her left leg carefully into position. She whimpered and then fell silent.

He grabbed the other strap and tore a section off the skirt of her dress. Looking around, he tried to find a suitable splint. He spotted the pieces of wood that had fallen away when the wolves had broken the windows. Adding two of them to his group of makeshift medical supplies, he frowned down at her leg. He needed to clean it. The skin was broken in several places but he couldn’t tell whether they were teeth or claw marks.

Glancing at Nika, Winter realised that she had passed out. He blinked slowly. The sweet fragrance of her blood made it hard to concentrate. It called to him, stirring a deep desire to taste her and take her, to make her his. He closed his eyes, lowered his head while turning it a fraction away from her, and exhaled. He didn’t need to breathe and she was unconscious so there was no need to keep up the pretence. If he didn’t breathe, he might just be able to fix her wounds without surrendering to his hunger.

He removed his gloves and laid them down on top of his cloak. A distant howl reminded him that they weren’t alone. He frowned when he thought about Midnight. He’d had to make a choice. It had been Midnight’s life or theirs. He wouldn’t have been able to outride the wolves in the thick forest.

They were no ordinary wolves.

He was fortunate that the moon was strong tonight, strong enough to sway the wolves and control them to a degree. If it had been a normal moon, they might have changed on him and he would have had to fight them. Winter closed his eyes, listening to the call of the night and the moon. Tonight she spoke words of hunger and violence, beckoned him to surrender to his true nature just as the wolves had surrendered to theirs. He denied her request and brought his focus back to Nika. She needed him. He had to do all he could to save her. She deserved that from him at least.

Nika moaned, mumbling something unintelligible that he ignored. Looking out of the window, Winter checked the clearing outside. His senses had placed the wolves at a distance of at least a mile. He would have time. He unblocked the door, retrieved his helmet, and then walked out into the small open area in front of the wooden shack. The snow had fallen thickly here where the trees were sparse. Using his helmet as a bowl, he scooped up some of the fresh undisturbed snow off to the side of the shack and then walked back inside.

With the door barricaded again, he set about cleaning Nika’s wounds. He tore another piece of her skirt and placed it on the bed beside her. The bitter cold meant the snow in his helmet showed no sign of melting. He held it over the oil lamp, feeling the rising heat against his hand. Frowning, he checked Nika by touching her cheek with the back of his hand. She was freezing. He hadn’t even thought about how easily the chilly night air would drain the heat from her skin. It had been centuries since he’d had to care for humans or had anything to do with them.

Placing his helmet carefully at the end of the bed, he ensured that it wouldn’t tip over and spill the cool water it now held. Satisfied that it was secure, he picked up Nika’s thick winter coat and placed it over the top half of her body. He pulled the skirt of her dress down over her unbroken leg. Her feet were still exposed. He removed his gloves from their position on top of his cloak and unfolded the heavy material, laying it over her. The cloak swamped her small frame. His gaze fell to the gold cross that dangled around her neck. She had always worn it since she had been a small girl and he had always wished to ask her about it, about whether she believed in the god it represented or whether she just liked the look of it. Many women these days did. A cross was no longer a holy relic. He didn’t mind that. If there was no faith behind it, it wouldn’t hurt him. His eyes slid across to her neck and then he dragged his gaze away. Now wasn’t the time to be contemplating her blood.

Winter pulled the cloak up close around her face, covering her neck and trying to keep as much of her warm as possible.

When he touched her cheek this time, he felt a little more warmth.

Taking his makeshift bowl of water and the thin strip of skirt that he had torn from her dress, he bathed her leg. The thick tights she wore hindered his progress and he again had to stop. He removed her boots and then her tights, fighting an urge to look at her underwear while he was down there. When her legs were clear, he covered her again and continued with his work. He cleaned her leg, careful not to disturb the bone, and then used the other section of skirt as a bandage. When he had half wrapped her leg, he placed the two pieces of wood down either side of her calf and then continued to bandage it. He tied the bandage off and then took up the leather straps he had removed from his cloak and fastened them around her leg as tightly as possible. It would have to do for now. His medical experience was limited. If he broke a bone, he normally snapped it back into place and it would heal quickly, causing him little pain.

Winter covered her leg and carefully worked his way around her body, cleaning each wound he found and taking in the mess the wolves had made of her. If he had arrived any later, he might have lost her. He stared at her legs. He still might lose her. If they were bite marks and he hadn’t cleaned out all of the saliva, she would become like her attackers. The thought of that turned his stomach. Black anger darkened his heart.

A birdsong drifted in through the broken windows, heralding the coming dawn. The melody didn’t soothe him in the slightest. He stared at Nika’s leg with vengeance in mind. The wolves would pay either way. They would pay for killing Midnight. They would pay for hurting Nika.

They would pay for taking what was his.

The sunrise drove the call of the night from his mind and lured him to sleep. He checked Nika over one last time, battling his need to rest, and then went to the darkest corner he could find. Winter removed his sword, leaned against the wall, and used his senses to pinpoint the sunrise. Assured that the corner would be safe from the sun, he settled down. He tried to stay awake and alert, in case the wolves came back, but it was impossible. Taking hold of his sword, he held it close to his chest in both hands, telling himself that if the wolves came, he would sense them and wake. He leaned back into the corner of the walls behind him, his head resting against them, and looked at Nika.

His eyelids dropped and then opened again, dropped and opened.

Each time they did, he looked at Nika, checking her.

Sleep finally claimed him.

He had done all he could for her.

Now it was a matter of waiting.

Click here to download an extended excerpt

Winter's Kiss - Vampire / Werewolf Romance Novel - Excerpt #1

2011-02-22T14:30:00.002Z

Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting excerpts from my vampire / werewolf romance novel, Winter's Kiss.

Winter's Kiss
F E Heaton
The tales of the mansion near Nika's remote Russian village say that its lord drinks blood to live and that the guards are dead men walking, but that doesn't stop Nika from falling for one of them—a man who seemingly hasn't changed in twenty years, a man she wishes would be hers. One snowy spring night, her world and his collide when she is attacked by wolves and he rides in on a black horse to rescue her. But her knight in shining armour is far from saintly. He is a vampire, and she is becoming a werewolf, and love between such species is forbidden—the penalty death.

Winter is a commander of the Validus, the most powerful vampire bloodline in Europe. Faithful to his family and his lord since his turning one thousand years ago, he follows the law to the letter and places duty above all else, but his resolve is about to be tested in the most painful way and his world shaken beyond salvation. The girl he watched grow into a woman, a woman who has stolen his heart, is now a werewolf and his dream of making her his has been shattered. Only vengeance can be his now or the Law Keepers will hunt him down and kill both him and Nika.

But Winter's plan to take Nika home to her family fails and his heart demands that he protects her, both from the werewolf who bit her and from himself. She tempts him more than he can bear and it isn't long before he finds himself treading the knife's edge between upholding the law and succumbing to desire.

Nika does everything in her power to convince Winter to stay with her, to go against the laws and risk death, but in the end will she have done enough? Will the nights they spend together change his heart and his mind, or will she spend eternity dreaming of Winter's kiss?

ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $7.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 78000 words
rating: sultry
released: June 2009
Book 8 in the Vampires Realm series

Available in e-book from:
My Website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Winter's%20Kiss
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Winters-Kiss-Vampires-Realm-ebook/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winters-Kiss-Vampires-Realm/dp/B0035LDN4Q/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Winters-Kiss/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000802090/?itm=19
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b89498/Winters-Kiss-/F-E-Heaton/?si=0
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Winters-Kiss/mix-SbRY0TdPE0-Zl8QkcSDTzA/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/winters-kiss/_/R-400000000000000254325

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489895/

Excerpt
A scream rent the still night air.

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

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

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

He saw her more often.

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

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

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

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

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

And that duty came first.

No matter what his feelings for her were.

A ride would clear his head.

A wolf howl sliced through the night.

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

Three miles.

Was the wolf after the woman?

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

“Niet!”

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

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

Someone shouted something abusive in his direction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Was she dead?

Had the wolves killed her already?

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

Not wolves.

Werewolves.

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

A distant scream reached his ears.

He pulled on Midnight’s reins.

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

* * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A howl sliced the night in two.

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

Perhaps it had been the wind.

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

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

Nika screamed.

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

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

She was going to die.

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

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

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

“Niet!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A wolf howl sounded just outside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The man fully drew his sword.

She extended her hand further towards him. “You can’t fight. There’s too many!”

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

Dreadful silence fell.

Enjoyed this excerpt? Feel free to leave a comment or question. Stay tuned for another chapter tomorrow!

Vampires Realm Giveaway #2 - winner!

2011-02-21T18:01:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who took time to enter the second giveaway in my Vampires for Valentine's month.

I've been rather absent for the past couple of weeks because of my ear surgery, but I'm getting back on track now. Hopefully I'll be able to crack out the character interviews tomorrow and post some of them for you to read.

I have been over to random.org and used it to select the winner of the second Vampires Realm - Vampires for Valentine's giveaway, which was a copy of Seventh Circle.

The winner chosen at random was:

msuck27

Please contact me at author [at] vampiresrealm [dot] com replacing the stuff in square brackets with the appropriate things.

Don't forget to enter the third giveaway everyone:
http://vampiresrealm.blogspot.com/2011/02/vampires-realm-book-giveaway-3.html

Winter's Kiss - Vampire / Werewolf Romance Novel

2011-02-19T14:30:00.001Z

This week in my Vampires for Valentine's month is dedicated to Winter's Kiss, the eighth novel in the series and the first to focus on the forbidden werewolf & vampire relationship. By law, vampires cannot fraternise with werewolves or any other species. It's punishable by death, so it's something that most vampires hope to avoid.

Winter, the hero in Winter's Kiss, has a hard time of it in his story. A Watchman of the Validus bloodline, the strongest of all the seven pure vampire bloodlines in Europe, he's loyal to his family and his lord, but there is competition for his loyalty in his heart. For many years, he has seen the same girl walk past him at the mansion gates, heading for her home in the nearby village, and he has watched her grow into a beautiful woman. Nika has stolen his heart, but his delay in approaching his lord and asking for permission to turn her, costs him dearly.

Nika passes him one night and heads through the forest to return home, but before she can get there she's attacked by a group of wolves. Winter races to rescue her, but he's too late. His love has been bitten by a werewolf, condemning her to become like one, and for any relationship he had wanted with her to become forbidden.

Winter's Kiss is not just a story about forbidden love. It's also about seizing the day and doing what matters to you, and not waiting for tomorrow to do it, because tomorrow everything you wanted might have slipped away. It's a very emotional story as Winter journeys with Nika, knowing that he can't remain with her, but hoping that he might find a way someday to be with her, and also knowing that she can never be like him now. I think it's important to not wait when you want something, but to go out there and get it, and that's what this story is all about. It's also about challenging the rules and finding a way to be with the one you love, regardless of what others might think.

Vampires Realm book giveaway #3

2011-02-18T14:30:00.000Z

It's the third Giveaway in my Vampires for Valentine's Month! If you've won previously, you can still enter this giveaway!

If you'd like to get your hands on an e-book copy of:

Reunion - Free Vampire Romance E-book

2011-02-17T14:30:00.000Z

I have two stories that are free in the Vampires Realm series, and I posted the first last week. This time, I have a vampire romance novella to offer you as a free e-book. Happy reading!

Reunion
F E Heaton
For the Venia Law Keeper, Marise, returning home isn’t something she wants to do, but duty dictates that she must answer Lord Timur’s call for assistance and investigate the attempt on his life by a vampire. Faced with her old home, she tries hard to suppress the memories it evokes, of happier times in the arms of her ex-lover, Jascha, and of the darker times with him that led to her leaving.

She puts the atmosphere and looks she receives down to fear from the attempt to kill Timur, but when she lays eyes on her lord, she realises that it may be for another reason and that the attacker may not have been a vampire after all. Left with only one other source of information, a guard injured in the attack to a point beyond recovery and left to remain awaiting death, she decides to question him before he dies and then get the hell out of there.

Only when she sees that the dying guard is Jascha, she begins a battle with her heart that will see her struggle to turn her back on Jascha and her family again, and maintain her sense of duty. Is fifty years enough to forgive the one you love for breaking your heart? Will Marise finally confess to everything she’s held inside and kept hidden from him? And can Jascha convince Marise to listen to what he has to say and make her love him again?

ebook price: FREE EBOOK
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 27100 words
rating: sultry
released: January 2008
Book 6 in the Vampires Realm series

Download the PDF: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Reunion

Excerpt
Dull violet eyes greeted her as his heavy lids opened. He blinked languidly and with too much effort for her liking. He was covered in blankets but she could see how badly injured his arms, neck and face was. A thick bandage was wrapped around his throat, the side of it stained with dark blood. His arms were covered in gashes, long lacerations that were edged with angry red and were weeping.

She shook her head and fought against the feelings inside of her and the tears rising into her eyes.

“Jascha?” she whispered his name again, wishing now that she could hear his voice and have him tell her that Timur was overreacting—he was going to be fine.

He wasn't going to die.

Before she had time to stop herself, she was kneeling beside the bed, his right hand held firmly in hers and her cheek pressed against it. She closed her eyes and tears escaped them when his fingers closed around hers.

She wanted to ask who had done this to him. He was strong, far stronger than she had been, and yet someone had hurt him. No, this wasn't hurting. This was butchering. Anger boiled up inside her. Someone had butchered him and left him to die. Death could be as swift for a vampire as it was for a human. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing and they'd made sure that Jascha wouldn't die that night.

This was a message. Someone was telling her species that they were stronger than them.

Her jaw tensed and she growled.

Someone was going to pay.

Jascha's fingers flexed weakly against hers and he muttered something that made no sense. She raised her head, taking in the extent of the damage done to this face. It was covered in rich bruises and fine cuts. His split lip and swollen eye made her heart ache for him.

His eyes met hers, pupils dilating and contracting as he struggled to focus.

A tiny frown made his brows shift.

“Mari?” he breathed so quietly she almost didn't hear him.

The sound of that name brought back all the pain and she dropped his hand, standing and distancing herself from him as her heart broke all over again. She turned her back on him while she pushed all of her feelings back down inside of her and tried to lock them inside her heart.

“Mari?” he whispered again.

She turned on a pinpoint and stared at him with cold eyes.

“My name is Marise,” she said and steeled herself against the darkness that entered his eyes. It was what he deserved. She couldn't remember now what they'd fought about or exactly what had been said, but she still felt the pain each day.

She moved to the foot of the bed, buying the time to get back in control of the situation and herself.

He sighed.

It said so much.

She knew she wasn't the only one who had been hurt that day. They'd both said things and done things that were the undoing of what they'd had together. Only she'd accepted the position as Law Keeper and ran away, when he'd been willing to heal the breach.

She folded her arms across her chest.

“If you're up to it, I'd like your opinion on what happened the night you were injured.”

He gave her a look that conveyed exactly what he was thinking. He was right. It was cold of her to stand here, distant and uncaring while he suffered, but that was what a Law Keeper did. They didn't mix business with pleasure. Pleasure was a thing of the past for them. To hold this position meant being impartial about the bloodlines and being emotionless. Emotions got in the way and clouded your judgement.

Like hers were right now.

She turned her back again and paced across the room. She didn't need the distance it brought—she needed the darkness. It robbed her sight of its sharpness and meant she couldn't see his injuries so clearly.

“A simple nod or shake of your head will suffice. That is, if you can manage it?” She looked at him.

He gave her a tiny nod and grimaced, his hand coming up to touch his throat as he frowned. His eyes closed and she could see the pain in his face. She'd forgotten the wound there. A part of her said to give him time to recover before questioning him, but the rest overruled it and said to get it over with and get out of here before these feelings stirring inside of her became dangerous.

He was a soldier. She was sure he understood. She needed answers for her investigation and so she could judge whether this case required a Law Keeper or not. This couldn't get personal. She couldn't go there again.

“Do you think there's a reason you were left alive?” she said, holding the tremble from her voice so he wouldn't know how much the sight of him so injured was affecting her.

He nodded.

“I think so too. Timur hasn't a clue what happened. You do though, don't you?”

He nodded again and swallowed with a grimace.

She moved a step closer so he could see her better through his one good eye, but kept far enough away that she couldn't clearly see his wounds.

“Who did this to you? A vampire?”

A shake of his head, tiny and almost imperceptible.

“I didn't think so. Were they human?”

He hesitated. There was uncertainty in his eyes.

“Niet,” he said, voice strained but the accent that had always melted her was still there.

It was just like him to fall back on his native tongue. She hoped he'd keep his answers simple. She never had grasped the language.

“Did they look human?”

“Da,” he croaked and rubbed his throat again.

She stepped nearer and had to look away when fresh blood seeped into the bandages around his neck. Her stomach roiled at the thought that she was hurting him by making him speak. She wanted to ask him to stick to nodding or shaking his head, but she couldn't let him see how affected she was by all of this.

“Do you think they were demon or were they wholly human?”

“ `Ya ne pani`mayu.” His voice sounded tight and he pushed himself up as he coughed.

Blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.

“Damn it, Jascha! I told you to shake or nod.” She stormed across the room and sat down on the bed beside him. Her hand was against his cheek, holding him and forcing him to look at her. Everything she was ready to say slipped away and instead she wiped the blood off his chin with her thumb.

She took her hand away from him, gathering herself while she wiped her thumb on the dirty cloth beside the bed.

There was a canister of blood and a stained glass pushed to the back of the small table. They were feeding him old blood? How was he supposed to heal? Anger stirred inside her and she shot a black look at the door. She could sense Timur outside with the guards. Was Tynan there too? Surely he wouldn't let Jascha suffer like this?

She undid the buttons on her jacket sleeve and pushed it up her arm before setting to work on the buttons of her shirt cuff. She rolled it up and tugged it out of the way.

Thinking about what she was doing, she justified it by telling herself that a dead witness was of no use to her. This was about the case. This wasn't personal.

She extended her claws and pressed one into her wrist.

Blood beaded against her skin.

This wasn't personal.

She looked at Jascha. He was laying back on the bed again now, eyes closed and his jet-black hair falling loose from his ponytail. Rogue strands of it criss-crossed his face. She ignored her temptation to clear them away and extended her arm to him.

His nostrils flared.

His eyes rolled as he opened them and gave her an incredulous look.

She moved her arm closer, frowning at him, but silently pleading him to drink. Without fresh blood, he'd never heal. Her blood would suffice until she could get Tynan to hunt for her. She wondered if there was any way that she could have words with Timur about the canister of blood without it looking as though she was bringing her feelings into this.

Her eyes widened when Jascha's mouth latched onto her wrist and she gasped when he bit her. It was the last thing she'd been expecting. She half closed her eyes when he began to drink, stirring all too familiar feelings inside of her. He was the last person to do this to her. She looked at his face, studying him and taking everything in.

Was it really fifty years since she'd seen his face?

No. She saw it each day in her dreams. He was always with her. She was just too stubborn to admit it.

His drinking slowed and before she knew it, it was over and he was licking the wound on her arm. She held it there for a moment when he stopped, the smallest part of her heart hoping he'd continue. He didn't. He lay back on the bed, his eyes still closed.

“Jascha?” she said and he looked at her. It seemed to take a lot of effort. Her blood was probably making him drowsy. “Was it a vampire hunter?”

“Da,” he said.

“But not one like we've met before?”

“Niet,” he whispered and closed his eyes again.

She smiled now that he couldn't see her. Ghosting her fingers down his cheek, not brave enough to touch him, she looked at him a moment longer and then rose from the bed.

“I'll arrange for fresh blood for you. I have more questions I need to ask. If you remember anything, please ask for me.” She hated how cold she sounded.

Rolling her sleeve down, she stopped when she saw the marks on her wrist and stared at them. They were shallow and it wasn't because he was weak. It was because he hadn't wanted to hurt her. She ran her fingers over the marks and then buttoned her sleeve, covering it with her jacket.

Walking over to the door, she paused and looked back at him. It hurt to look at him, to have those memories of their time together come back, and to see him in so much pain. She hurt so much. He'd taken her feelings and smashed them. That much she could remember. They'd broken each other's heart that night.

She wanted to say something more, but couldn't bring herself to. She had already brought enough emotion into this investigation. If anyone found out, she was likely to be punished.

She reached out behind her and took hold of the door handle.

Turning, she opened the door.

She hesitated a moment when he spoke.

“Da svi`daniya, lubov moya.”

She held the smile inside on hearing such familiar words. Was she still his love?

“I'll see you tomorrow,” she said and closed the door behind her.

She killed all her feelings the moment the door clicked shut and turned to look at the people in the corridor around her. The two guards were still there and she didn't recognise either of them. They looked wet behind the ears, younglings no doubt.

Her eyes sought out Tynan but he was nowhere to be seen so they settled on Timur.

“I will have more questions for him come sunset tomorrow. For now, he must rest. His injuries are extensive, severe enough that a full interrogation may be the end of him. If that happens, I will have no answers to support my involvement in this situation and you will have no Law Keeper to protect you from this human.”

Timur's eyes widened, showing the white around his irises and exposing his fear to her again. He fidgeted and she frowned. He was petrified of the thought of this human coming after him. Having seen what this person had done to Jascha, she could understand that fear, but as lord of his bloodline, he should not allow himself to be ruled by it. He was safe in his home. Or did he think that he wasn't?

“I will speak with the other guards and see what they know,” she said, hiding her true intention. She had to find Tynan. It was unlike him to leave Jascha suffering like this. She wanted to know what had happened to change him. “Ensure that only your guards are allowed out to hunt for the house.”

Timur swallowed, hard enough that she saw it.

“What is it?” She didn't give him an inch as she stepped towards him, straightening to her full height and staring down into his eyes. He was still hiding things from her, and she was beginning to get annoyed by all the secrecy. How was she supposed to do her job if she was being kept in the dark about things?

“No one is allowed to hunt,” he muttered under his breath.

She frowned, her eyes narrowing.

“Are you insane?” She was tempted to take hold of his shirt collar and rattle him. Either that or she was going to throttle him. She took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. If he saw how shaken she was by the sight of Jascha so hurt, he wasn't going to give her the respect she needed and deserved.

“They are still out there.”

She ignored his worried look and the childlike pleading in his eyes.

“You are weakening your house. You are letting Jascha die!” She clenched her fists and struggled to rein in her anger.

A dark look entered his eyes and for a moment she thought he was going to remind her who was lord of this bloodline. She couldn't believe how weak he'd become. She couldn't believe that he was risking the lives of everyone in his house because he was frightened of a vampire hunter.

“I am sending your guards out to hunt whether you like it or not. This house needs fresh blood. You have to keep your people strong or they will be lambs to the slaughter should this vampire hunter attack with allies.” She didn't wait for a reply. She turned and stormed down the hall towards the guardroom.

Fury fuelled her as she took the steps down into the basement level of the house. It had been given over to the servant ranks and the guards long ago, before she was turned. The guards had their restroom down here and the training rooms. She was sure she'd find Tynan there. How could she have thought that it had been his choice to feed Jascha old blood? She should've known that he would never willingly allow Jascha to die like this. Timur had effectively tied his hands behind his back and forced him to watch his brother die.

Pushing the door to the guardroom open, she strode in and scanned the faces. She recognised some of them. They all looked stunned to see her. Before she could locate Tynan, he was standing beside her, silent as always. She didn't acknowledge him, instead she kept her eyes fixed on the others.

“You are to hunt in groups. Bring fresh blood to the house. Timur will not punish you. I have seen to that.” She held their gazes and then whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Tynan, “I need a word in private.”

He nodded and left the room. She waited a moment and then followed him out into the hall. Looking around, she caught a glimpse of him heading into the armoury. She walked casually to it, her whole body shaking with the release of emotions that the idea of speaking to him brought. She knew that with him, she had no chance of remaining cold and business-like. Her heart said that he would never tell anyone about how she acted in private with him, and it seemed to give her feelings free rein to do as they pleased. She couldn't control them no matter how hard she tried.

It was a dangerous way for her to feel.

“I need a moment,” Tynan said as she entered the room.

She looked at the guards and stood to one side as they began to leave. They didn't question Tynan's order, so he must have made it to a higher rank than he'd been the last time she'd seen him. Her eyes traversed the room while she waited, taking in the assortment of swords, spears, bows and axes that lined the dark walls.

She'd never liked it in here. It was always gloomy and reminded her of death. Her family never took up arms lightly, so being assigned to work in the armoury was almost a punishment. No one came here and the long hours each guard had to work were often passed alone.

Tynan turned to face her.

She avoided looking at him for as long as possible and then lifted her eyes to meet his. He looked concerned. She wished he didn't. She was having enough trouble holding herself together without him encouraging this revolt by her feelings.

He sighed, his broad shoulders heaving with it. He was taller than Jascha, and had a far broader build, but other than that they looked so similar. Their hair was black as midnight, but Tynan's was short, and they were both incredibly handsome, their fine features lending them an unusual air of grace and distinction.

When she'd first met Tynan, she'd never seen a man as beautiful as he was, until the night she'd seen his brother Jascha.

He'd made her feel as though her heart was pounding, even when that was impossible.

Tynan's dark eyes searched hers. She was glad that he differed from his brother there too. It meant that he could never wholly remind her of Jascha.

No one had eyes the stunning colour of Jascha's.

And no one could set her heart on fire with a single look like him.

Pacing the room, she gathered herself and fought for control. This was no time to fall apart, not even if Tynan would keep her secret for her. She had to be strong, as a Law Keeper should be, and stick to procedure on the case. Her old feelings for Jascha shouldn't be allowed to interfere with her work. Even this meeting with Tynan shouldn't be taking place.

She convinced herself that if she could get Jascha on the mend again by having this talk with Tynan, then she could get on with her work and forget about him again. Not that she'd ever forgotten. He'd always been at the back of her mind. The trouble was, now he was at the front of her mind and she couldn't concentrate. She had to find a way to put him to the back of it again, and this seemed like the most reasonable solution.

“They're feeding him old blood,” she said, barely holding Tynan's gaze for a split second, but it was long enough to see in his dark eyes that he already knew and he didn't like it.

She paced across to the other side of the room. Tynan leaned against a table and folded his arms across his chest, making it clear to her that he was waiting to see why she'd wanted a word with him.

“Why didn't you get him fresh blood?” She didn't give him a chance to answer, instead she stepped up to him, a frown darkening her face. “You should have gone out to hunt regardless of the orders from Timur. You know as well as I that the lord of our bloodline is not thinking clearly. This vampire hunter has made him weak with fear.”

“I did,” Tynan said.

The sound of his voice made her think of Jascha, lying in his death bed with no company and no comfort. She bit back the tears and reminded herself of her duty and her position.

Tynan stepped past her, running his fingers over his hair and sighing heavily. “I hunted for the first two nights, but Timur threatened me... if I disobeyed his orders again, I would be tried.”

“Tried?” She frowned, trying to understand just what was happening in her house.

“For sins against my bloodline.”

“Ridiculous. The Law Keepers would never condemn you for trying to help your brother.” She turned on the spot, following his progress around the room.

Her senses told her that he was agitated, angry. She'd seen how he could be when angered. Timur had been treading a very fine line with him.

“Were you with Jascha that night?” she said.

He paused, eyes fixed on the floor, shoulders tense.

“No.”

“Did Jascha say anything when they brought him in?” She took a step towards him, torn between giving up her questioning and continuing. She didn't want to cause him hurt by reminding him of his brother's plight, but he might be able to give her the answers she needed to make a decision about this case.

“No, nothing coherent.” He hesitated a moment and looked at her. She knew that look. It was about what had happened between her and Jascha. He was scared of bringing up things from the past. “He mentioned your name.”

She froze, feeling as though he'd just hit her in the stomach and knocked the wind from her. She hadn't expected that, but then, when she'd gone into the room, Jascha had known it was her and he'd called her by her old nickname. He had thought about her all these years too. It wasn't a ridiculous idea in the slightest. He had been the one willing to reconcile after all.

“Nothing else?” she said, regaining her focus and pushing away from the dark, sharp thoughts trying to creep in at the corners of her mind. She didn't want to remember that night. She didn't want to remember how painful it had been, and how it had felt to leave him.

“Nothing.”

She stared at him, hating how much he looked like his brother. It brought images of Jascha back, lying in that bed, covered in cuts and blood. Stinking like death.

Turning her back on Tynan, she straightened her cuffs and lightly ran her fingers over the marks on her wrist. He'd been so gentle with her, even in his dire state. She'd expected him to be rough if anything, greedy with hunger. He'd taken barely a sip. It spoke volumes to her, pages about how he didn't want to hurt her. In a way, it had felt like an apology. She wished she could accept it.

“I have to call this in,” she said and went to leave. She stopped herself and looked at Tynan again. “Jascha needs fresh, strong blood. Hunt for your brother.”

She was about to turn around again when he spoke.

“Did you find out anything from him?” His voice trembled the tiniest amount and his eyes showed her that he wasn't just worried about his brother—he was worried about her too.

It had felt horrible to see Jascha like that. It still felt horrible. She couldn't erase the sight of him from her mind. She couldn't imagine how it had felt for Tynan to see him beaten and broken. It must have been worse for him than the night Jascha had been turned and killed, reborn into his world.

She shook her head and gave him an apologetic look, wishing she could bring herself to shrug off the restraints of her position and comfort him.

“He was in too much pain,” she said and then smiled. “He's speaking Russian at me. The boy still hasn't learned that I don't speak the language.”

Tynan smiled but she could see the sadness in it.

“Be careful tonight. Whoever did this is still out there.”

Leaving him, she walked along the corridor and up the stairs to the ground floor of the expansive mansion. She tried to gather all the evidence in her head and thought about what she was going to tell the others. She couldn't leave here without finding out more about this vampire hunter.

She couldn't leave until she knew Jascha was well again.

Download the PDF: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Reunion

Seventh Circle - Vampire Romance Book - Excerpt #2

2011-02-14T14:30:00.001Z

This week is all about Seventh Circle, the seventh story in the Vampires Realm series and a vampire romance novel, so I'm kicking off with a couple of excerpts from the story. Here's the second excerpt, and a link to a long excerpt PDF download.

Seventh Circle - Vampire Romance Book - Excerpt #1

2011-02-13T14:30:00.002Z

This week is all about Seventh Circle, the seventh story in the Vampires Realm series and a vampire romance novel, so I'm kicking off with a couple of excerpts from the story.

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

Born with strange powers similar to a vampire’s, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. Now, on the very same night that she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she’s faced with her worst nightmare.

A client who is not only attractive, but a vampire.

Lincoln, a powerful pure blood vampire, has a problem. The prophecy he’s caught up in is coming to pass and his only chance of survival is relying on those he hates most—vampire hunters. It has been foretold that one will save him, a female hunter, and when he meets her, the attraction he feels is both instantaneous and forbidden.

Their mutual attraction becomes difficult to deny as they work to unravel the mystery of a contract between Lincoln’s lord and the Devil. The barriers around their hearts fall, but is there only pain ahead of them? With Lincoln’s life on the line, can Lilith find the strength to protect him and embrace a side of herself that she wished didn’t exist? Can Lincoln overcome his fear in order to save Lilith even if it means parting from her forever? What price will they pay to be together?

ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 106112 words
rating: sultry
released: November 2008
Book 7 in the Vampires Realm series

Available in e-book from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Seventh%20Circle
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Circle-Vampires-Realm-ebook/dp/B0035LDO68/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seventh-Circle-Vampires-Realm/dp/B0035LDO68/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seventh-Circle/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000800973/?itm=14
Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook76262.htm
Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Seventh-Circle/mix-ZGYNJZH8-kmDBm5GV0YlJg/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/seventh-circle/_/R-400000000000000249275

Excerpt
Blood.

No matter where she looked, she couldn't escape it. It spotted his face and arched over his jaw from the wound on his throat. It seeped into his damp blond hair, darkening the whole side of his head. Turning away, she swallowed her desire to be sick and stared at the ground. Crimson coated the grass until it glistened under the harsh sodium streetlight on the cemetery path. The acrid smell thickened the air, filled her nostrils and choked her lungs. Cold stole through her, rising up from her knees where they pressed into the wet dirt close to his body, chilling her as it swept towards her soul.

"Jackson!" Lilith's frantic patting of his cheek did nothing to rouse him. Her rough, erratic breathing and the thundering beat of her heart filled her ears as she stared down at him. Panic consumed her. "Jackson, don't you die on me, Jackson."

His eyes opened, igniting a spark of hope inside her. The darkness of despair extinguished it when they closed lazily again a second later.

She was losing him.

"Jackson." She patted his cheek again, faster this time, a constant drumming that matched her pulse. Her other hand pressed the wad of material harder against the wound. Sticky, warm blood coated her fingers, sickening her. "Don't give up. I won't lose you!"

He convulsed and his face contorted into a look of sheer agony. A thin line of darkest red crept from the corner of his lips. She held him down, restraining him in the hope of stopping him from killing himself, and her eyes widened as the crimson trail eased down towards his ear.

Everything became still.

Her ears rang with it, with the numb and icy cold filling her, sending sweeps of shivers over her skin as what was happening finally sunk in.

This was no way to feel, so drained of life and welcoming death with open arms, watching for it. Not when the creature that had done this was still nearby.

Waiting.

She focused again, searching for it while applying more pressure to the wound on Jackson's throat. Was it to stem the flow of blood, or the flow of hope as it left her?

There was no way she could save him.

He was pale now, barely breathing. Tears blurred her eyes, hot against her cold face. Not five minutes ago, he'd been so full of life, full of jokes that had always annoyed her for some reason. Funny how it could disappear so quickly. You thought you were strong, indestructible. In reality you were as fragile as a butterfly when faced with one of them–one of the pure bloodlines.

A low laugh sent a shudder through her.

She knew what it found so amusing.

Jackson was dead.

She closed her eyes, touched his cheek as a goodbye and prayed that he had found a better place on the other side.

Picking herself up, she shut down the side of her that wanted to throw itself over his body and cry her heart out for him, and for her own loss. She had a job to do. He'd understand. It had been his job too.

She stood and stared down at him. The world seemed strangely blue and quiet. Cold. He looked peaceful lying there on the grass, darkness shrouding his body while the streetlight crowned his head in golden light.

Almost angelic.

Her gaze fell to her hands as she brought them out in front of her, palms facing the heavens. She frowned at the dark liquid coating them and then at the torn sleeve of her shirt. So much blood but she felt nothing as she stared at it. This was no time for mourning. She could do that later. Right now, she had business to attend to.

She wiped her hands on her black combat trousers and then retrieved her wooden stake from the grass.

A breeze.

A sigh.

The world blurred as she turned on a pinpoint and blocked the vampire's attack.

It grinned at her, teeth sharp and eyes bright, challenging her to make a move. She knew what it wanted. It wanted her to run, or scream, or at least give it a good fight before it finally killed her. It was playing with her.

Well, she wasn't about to play with it.

This man, this thing, was going to die for what it had done to Jackson.

It turned and the streetlights caught its eyes, making them flash like mother of pearl. She gave no quarter, turning with it and keeping their arms locked. Its weight pressed against her and she pushed back, her eyes never leaving its. It could throw her if it wanted to. It was far stronger than she was.

That smile it wore wasn't fading. It was beginning to unnerve her. It curved the vampire's face, cutting across it in a sinful line that exposed the points of its bloodied teeth. Jackson hadn't stood a chance.

She didn't stand a chance.

Neither of them had ever fought one of the pure bloods. Those that did rarely survived to tell the tale. She'd never heard of anyone managing to kill one.

Before she could blink, it had disappeared and she stumbled forwards from the release of pressure against her. She turned sharply in all directions, panic guiding her movements, and then forced herself to slow down. Her senses reached outwards into the inky night, desperate to locate the vampire so it couldn't attack without her noticing.

The early spring breeze tousled her honey hair, sending a shiver dancing down her spine as its cold fingers worked their way under the hem of her black shirt and into her collar. When she faced Jackson, she sniffed back her tears and tried not to look at him. This was no time to lose focus, or she'd be joining him in the afterlife.

Something shifted.

She tensed and then relaxed when it didn't move again.

The graveyard was quiet. Too quiet.

It could only mean one thing. The vampire was stalking her. It had slipped into the shadows to watch her. She could feel its eyes on her, touching her, studying her. It was looking for a weak spot, a momentary drop in her defences when it could slip in and kill her with a single move. Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone at that thought and she steadied her breathing in an attempt to slow it down. Panic made her hands shake and her body threatened to join them.

Her fingers flexed around the stake several times. It did nothing to soothe her nerves as she'd hoped. If she didn't calm down and regain her focus, she didn't stand a chance. The vampire would be able to sense her fear. It would drive it on. It would make it hungrier for her blood. She had to do all she could to maintain control and a steady heartbeat. Only then would she have the slightest chance of killing before she was killed.

Doubts crept in at the corners of her mind, sending the edges of her thoughts black and sinister. She pushed them away, not wanting the distraction that the memory of seeing Jackson killed was bringing, and not wanting to lose her concentration by imagining herself suffering a similar fate.

No one, not a human and definitely not a vampire, was going to bite her neck.

Ever.

She frowned into the distance where the darkness swallowed the trees and nothing but the night reigned. She had nothing to fear. An elite hunter had no fear.

Her training had been the same as Jackson's and the rest of her company, except she'd always excelled where they had merely passed. She'd taken the rank of elite hunter three years earlier than expected. She was one of only a handful to hold that title.

She could defeat this vampire.

She would win.

She had a gift.

Her eyes rolled closed and she released her breath, emptying herself. Her hands came up in front of her, close to her chest, her stake held steady in her right and her left joining it. Her heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her blood rushed through her veins. There was such strength in it if only she'd be brave enough to embrace it.

Her soul surrendered to the call of the night.

The world blackened.

She didn't need to see the change to know it happened. Everything felt different. The air tasted metallic, like blood. The rising of her instincts made her senses razor-sharp and sent painful throbs down her spine from her aching head.

She could only hold this for seconds or she'd fall into the darkness she could feel encroaching at the corners of her soul.

A few seconds would be enough.

A flicker of movement and she could see the world through her closed eyes. Silvery threads outlined everything, scribbled onto the darkness like rough chalk drawings on a blackboard. She saw the trees sway in the breeze. She saw Jackson. She saw death.

Her eyes shot open and she gasped at air to save herself from drowning in the shadows. It filled her lungs, burned them and her blood. She ran regardless.

She ran straight at the vampire.

One hand on top of the stone sarcophagus was enough to vault her over it and she landed with precise grace on the other side, right beside her quarry.

Her hand came down in a blurred arc, so fast that the vampire couldn't fully evade her attack. She missed the heart as the vampire dived to the side. Her stake caught its shoulder, scraped hard against bone. The vampire growled and then roared at her. She flipped backwards before it could attack and gave herself over to the fight, letting her instincts guide her as her senses locked onto the vampire. She could almost see its movements before it made them, a ghost of it shone in her eyes.

Except time was running out.

The lingering effect of her gift would soon disappear, leaving her to fight without these sharpened senses.

She would be vulnerable.

She would be weak from calling on her gift.

That was the price.

She cart-wheeled away, still gripping the stake. The moment the vampire closed in, she stopped and swept her leg around in a fast, hard kick, grunting with effort. The vampire laughed and slid to the side, away from danger. Before she could put her foot down and attack again, it had hit her in the chest with a kick of its own, sending her flying backwards into a tombstone.

Her breath left her on impact, a red hot bar across her back marking where she'd hit the heavy stone. She needed a moment to recover, only she didn't have one. The vampire was on her before she could blink and she was barely able to block it. She crossed her arms against its chest, holding it off her.

It snarled and snapped its jaw.

With each gnash of its teeth and each millimetre closer it got to her, her heart accelerated, until it was racing so fast she had trouble breathing. Adrenaline mixed with the panic coiled deep inside her. For the first time in her life, she could taste death, could see it coming, and it had red eyes and sharp teeth, and a mane of black tousled hair. It bore down on her, its body pressed hard against hers, trapping her between it and the headstone.

She clutched the stake, hands trembling as she weakened.

The vampire growled.

There was no chance of escape, but blind panic and a will to live forced her to try.

She pushed with all her might, shoving her left hand against the flat end of the stake as she drove it forwards.

The vampire sprung backwards the moment the stake made contact with its shoulder. She didn't give it a chance to escape. She threw herself at it in a last ditch attempt to be the victor in this deadly dance.

She tumbled to the floor with it, wrestling for control. The world blurred and sped by. The pain of the vampire's blows barely registered in her tired body as she struggled to keep it away from her neck and get her stake against its chest. The noise was deafening–the rush of her breathing, the snarls of the vampire, and the harsh pounding of her heart.

Then silence.

She was on top.

Her stake plunged deep into its chest.

Her gaze locked with his.

It was a man now in her eyes.

He was breathing, fast gasping breaths. His eyes were wide, wild, as he clawed at his chest and the wooden shaft protruding from it.

She pulled the stake out and stood, looking down on him, watching him die. Her body shook from the adrenaline and the exertion. Her fingers loosened and the stake fell to the grass with a soft thud. Exhaustion surrendered to shock. She couldn't believe it. She'd killed it. She'd killed a pure blood.

His eyes rolled closed and then he began to disintegrate as time raced to catch up with him. Before a minute had passed, he was nothing more than ashes scattering in the breeze.

She swept a hand over her sandy blonde hair and sighed.

It was over.

No, it had only just begun.

She'd never heard of a vampire of the pure bloodlines travelling into this area. There had been reports of hunters meeting them in London, but never out here, so far from the capital. She'd only ever fought vampires from the weaker bloodlines.

What had he been doing out here?

She remembered the flash of his red eyes. A Vehemens? The violent. The last she'd heard, they rarely ventured outside Scandinavia. All the stories she'd heard had been of hunters encountering vampires from the other bloodlines–the Caelestis, Aurorea, and even sometimes Venia or Validus. Never the Vehemens, Tenebrae or Nocens.

So what had brought him here?

She frowned at the patch of dust that represented him now. Maybe she should've asked him. Her superiors weren't going to be pleased with her. A pure blood in her area and she killed it without any attempt to extract information.

A shiver bolted up her spine and she rubbed her bare arm.

The report was going to be hell to write.

What was worse, a voice at the back of her mind was screaming that what she'd done tonight was going to have repercussions. The pure bloods didn't take lightly to hunters killing their kind.

Leaning over, she picked up her stake and pocketed it. Her dark eyes scanned the cemetery, searching the shadows for any sign of danger. The moon broke free of the clouds, illuminating even the darkest corner and chasing the shadows away into the trees. Nothing came to her. It was silent and empty. It filled her with cold and dread.

Her gaze fell to Jackson's body. The pain she'd been stifling all this time broke to the surface.

She would have to file a full report on his death too. How could she write what she'd seen? Jackson hadn't stood a chance. The vampire had torn his throat open before she'd even sensed its approach. She'd had no chance of saving him, not even with her gift.

Her heart ached to see him lying on the grass, motionless and cold. It could have easily been her in his place. Would he have managed to kill the vampire? It didn't bear thinking about. She had survived. Jackson was dead.

She walked towards him and her knees buckled when she reached his side. Their impact with the dirt sent pain shooting up her spine and jolted the tears from her eyes. They dashed down her cheeks, turning into freezing streaks of ice as the wind blew against them.

She let them come, no longer able to hold back the surging tide of her emotions and needing to get them out of her before she returned to the compound. She couldn't let the others see her like this. Reaching into her pocket, she pressed the alarm button on her phone. It would trigger the GPS back at base and send them to her. She had fifteen minutes to gain control of herself. She would need every second.

Her hand found Jackson's and she held it, not caring how cold it felt in hers, or the way it made her feel as though she was touching death itself.

The sobs started out slow but built until she was gasping at air, her throat tight and chest aching as she stared down at Jackson's peaceful face.

She couldn't let them think she was weak.

She was the strongest they had.

Jackson would tell her that if he was still alive. He'd always told her that. He'd always been there for her, getting her out of scrapes and protecting her.

She'd failed to protect him.

Leaning forwards, she rested her head against his still chest and closed her eyes. Silence engulfed her as she lay with him, her mind empty. The night called her. She always felt this way after she'd used her gift–close to the darkness, at one with the shadows. She didn't understand the words drifting around her head or the tugging sensation in the depths of her heart. She felt the meaning though. It wanted her.

She curled up.

It couldn't have her.

She was a hunter.

The elite.

She killed those that heard the call of the night.

She killed any vampire she came across.

Nothing was going to change that.

* * * *

Lilith trudged into the mansion house, desperate for the solitude of her quarters. The team had arrived to find her standing beside Jackson's body, all sign of her emotions wiped from her face. She had given them instruction to take him back to the compound and had then told them that she would walk back. The thought of travelling with Jackson's body in the back of the van had been unbearable. The night had offered her so much comfort, the darkness hiding her feelings from the world, and she'd taken it all. The walk back had been long and had given her time to regain true control of herself.

Only now, she was walking the halls where they'd once walked. It was a painful reminder that only one of them had returned, while the other lay in the morgue below her feet.

No one ever spoke of the morgue.

It was as though by never mentioning it, they could make it go away, make all the deaths of their friends disappear.

"What happened?" A sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she found she was standing in the entrance hall staring down at the floor, seeing straight through it to the cold grey morgue below.

She raised her head, looked Daniel in the eye, and then turned away. Her throat was too tight to speak. If she tried, she would lose what little control she'd regained and would start to cry again. She'd never lost a friend on routine patrol before. She hadn't lost anyone since her sister.

He caught her arm before she could pass him, stopping her dead. She knew better than to break free of his grasp. As her superior, he commanded her respect. Her hands came up in front of her and she stared at her palms, at the dried and cracked blood that still coated them. Nausea swept through her, cramping her stomach, clenching her heart. Numbness followed it, stealing away the sickness until she felt nothing. It was so hard to breathe. Everything was so hard. She was too weak from the fight and the drain of controlling her emotions.

"Jackson. Son of a bitch got Jackson," she said, voice steady and showing no trace of the turmoil inside of her. "We didn't hear it coming. I didn't feel it."

She stared into Daniel's green eyes. The amount of concern in them surprised her. He gave a sympathetic smile, causing crow's feet to surround his eyes. When had he become so old? He seemed so grey now when before he'd always been the young man she'd first known when she had been a child. She looked around the hall, wanting to avoid his questioning gaze. Everything seemed so grey and different.

"It was one of them, a Vehemens," she said. "What in God's name is one of them doing around here?"

Daniel didn't look at all shocked by her news. His expression remained unchanged and he removed his hand from her arm only to place it lightly on her shoulder. She frowned at the strange sensation that filled her–something was wrong.

"Did you kill it?" he said.

"Of course." She went to move past him again. His hand tensed, gripping her shoulder and stopping her. She sighed. "Daniel, I really need a shower and bed. Can't the debrief wait until morning?"

"It can, I wouldn't want to make you talk about what happened until you're ready... but... I need to speak to you about a contract that just came in."

Her right eyebrow rose. It had been a while since Section Seven had been contracted by anyone. They were rare and required only the elite hunters.

It piqued her curiosity and almost made her agree. The ache inside her overruled it though. It had become a dull throbbing and she knew that warning well enough. She was close to collapse.

"Can't that wait too?" she said, hopeful.

"I don't think the client will wait any longer."

Her eyes widened. "They're here?"

"They've been waiting all night for your return," he said. "I know this isn't the best time, but it has to be now. It can't wait."

Staring into his eyes, she could see that he wasn't going to budge on this. She had to meet the client tonight. He was right. It would be rude to keep them waiting until she'd had a chance to get some rest and she didn't want to blow her first contract.

"I'll clean up first if that's okay?"

He nodded. "He's waiting in my office."

She watched Daniel walk away. He? She wondered what kind of problem they had as she walked. Someone was in the first bathroom she came to so she carried on along the hall until she was near the cafeteria. She avoided going in. By now, news of Jackson's death would be spreading and she didn't have the energy to meet her client let alone field all the questions people would have. A couple of men from her company walked out of the room. She dived into the nearest bathroom, desperate to hide from them. Locking the door, she pressed her back against it and stared at herself in the mirror.

She looked like hell.

Moving closer to the mirror, she gingerly prodded the cuts and bruises on her face and arms. The vampire had done a real number on her. At the time, she hadn't noticed. The adrenaline and shock had taken all feeling away. Washing her cuts, she stared into her brown eyes and thought about what had happened tonight. Why hadn't she sensed it? Normally she could sense vampires before they got within twenty metres of her. Normally she was fighting weaklings.

Were those of pure blood really so superior?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she didn't need to check it to know it would be Daniel. She finished making herself look more presentable and then stared at her torn shirt. She couldn't do anything about that.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she hurried down the hall. She turned the corner that led to the commanders' offices and bumped into a woman from her company.

Her eyes fell to the woman's black jacket. "Can I borrow that?"

The woman hesitated for a moment, looked her over with a raised eyebrow, and then peeled the jacket off. "Important meeting, huh?"

"You could say that. Do you know about the client?"

"I heard someone arrived... walked in through the door with the section chief from London... but I didn't see him."

Lilith slipped the jacket on and buttoned it up.

"Thanks for the loan." She waved idly and walked away, her thoughts now firmly fixed on her client. A man that had arrived with the section chief. Whoever he was, he had to be important to garner that kind of escort.

Reaching Daniel's door, she rapped her knuckles against the mahogany and waited.

"Come in." Daniel's muffled voice drifted through it.

She paused, needing a few seconds to gather herself and push her fatigue and feelings to the back of her mind, and then opened the door and walked into the large office.

Directly in front of her was a heavy mahogany desk. Daniel was leaning against it with his arms folded and a wary look on his face. The tall curtains of the office's two windows framed him. They were drawn. She glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was nearing six in the morning. The sun would be rising by now. It was unusual for Daniel to keep the curtains drawn against the sunrise.

She sensed her client's presence. He was sharp, focused, watching her and studying her movement across the room. There was something familiar about that.

She stopped in front of Daniel. Worry had joined the concern she'd seen in his eyes earlier. He knew she wasn't in the mood for this meeting. If he hadn't been so insistent, she would have continued to refuse his orders until he backed down. His words, however, had made it clear that this client was important and he wasn't one to wait any longer for an audience with her.

Her eyes roamed the room, seeking the man out. They scanned along the packed bookshelves and their leather-bound tomes. They found him masked in the shadowed recess to the side of the bright fire. Darkness shrouded his face and obscured his figure. Her senses spoke to her.

Here was a dangerous man.

Here was one who demanded respect and commanded power.

"Lilith, our client," Daniel said behind her.

The man stepped forwards and the warm firelight instantly chased the shadows from his face. He was young, handsome in a way that had her staring. In fact, she couldn't take her eyes off him. He ran slender fingers over his short black hair and then around the back of his neck, drawing her attention to it. She frowned at the scars there. Bite marks? Was he a victim of a vampire attack? Her eyes darted to his mouth, absorbing the gentle bow of his lips, and then rose to meet his.

His dark eyes met hers and a shiver of recognition bolted down her spine and sent alarm bells ringing in her head.

His mouth became a thin line and tilted into a cruel smile, one that fitted him perfectly.

She'd been wrong.

He wasn't young.

His appearance betrayed his age.

Here was one older than she'd ever met.

She stepped forwards, defiant in the face of him, and reached for her stake.

Anger rose inside her and everything faded until there was only him.

He was no victim.

He was a murderer.

"Vampire." She sneered, assuming a fighting stance.

He growled and she felt that command deep in her soul.

She refused follow it.

To drop her stake would be to leave herself open to attack.

"Lilith!" Daniel said, his hand on her wrist making her tense. He lowered it for her.

She looked at him, stunned. Her eyes slid warily to the vampire, her anger not abating. How had he fooled her? She'd thought him nothing more than a man. She'd found him attractive. Her stomach rolled with that thought. Only the darkness in his eyes had betrayed him and lifted the veil from hers.

"Mr. Lincoln is our client."

She glared at the vampire. He had a name.

They'd never had names before.

They'd been nameless, faceless demons for her to eradicate. Now there was one whose name she knew, and for some terrible reason, it made him seem more human.

The vampire smirked, a challenge, the same as the one in the cemetery had issued her. She amused him. He meant to provoke her.

"I am not working with it!" She flung her arm around to point at the vampire at the same time as she turned to face Daniel. There was no need to look at the vampire to know he was glaring at her. The heat of it caressed her skin until she was burning wherever it touched. She shook the feeling away, and the attraction she'd felt towards him, and focused with all her effort on Daniel. "For all we know this could be bullshit. It could want to drain me dry."

The vampire snorted contemptuously, as though that was one thought that would never cross his mind.

"I'm being serious."

Daniel just shifted position, folding his arms across his chest and giving her the impression that her tirade had fallen on deaf ears. The only one paying the remotest of attention was the vampire. Her eyes roamed to him against her will. A brief glance was all it took to see he was still standing in the same spot in front of the fire, staring at her with intense dark eyes. She told herself that look wasn't making her body burn. It was anger and the fire.

A sigh drew her attention back to Daniel.

When she looked at him this time, she could see that he wasn't happy. She frowned at the floor. The section chief from London had brought Mr. Lincoln to this place to meet with her and Daniel. Daniel had as little choice in this matter as she did. The vampire had cleverly gone over their heads and left her superior powerless, unable to get her out of this mission.

Her eyes narrowed on the vampire. He smirked and nodded. If he'd had a hat, she swore he would've tipped it. Her fists clenched and she wished to God that she could wipe the smug look off his face. Taking a deep breath, she clawed back a little control. He wasn't going to provoke her. He didn't frighten her. She was going to find out what this contract was about and then do everything she could to either get rid of him as soon as possible or get out of it.

"So what do you want, vampire?" she said, striding up to him until she was close enough to see he wasn't breathing.

He was very old then, and he was powerful. At this range, she could feel it radiating off him, sparking her senses and making her instincts kick into gear. They told her to run. She stood her ground.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Lilith," he said in a mixed accent. There was a lot of English in there and an equal amount of European too. If she had to guess, she'd say he'd spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and wasn't a weakling.

"What bloodline are you?" Her tone was nothing short of venomous. Her eyes searched his, trying to discern whether he was going to lie to her or ignore this question too.

He straightened to his full height and looked down on her.

"Vehemens."

That one word made her stomach drop and broke the restraints that had been holding her anger at bay. Before she could stop herself, her hand was around his throat and she was forcing him backwards towards the fire. She growled when he planted his left foot against the cast-iron fireguard behind him, effectively stopping himself from moving, and yanked her hand away from his neck.

It went straight for the stake in her pocket. She grabbed it and lunged at him with it. He caught her wrist and twisted it until she had to kneel in order to stop him from breaking her arm. His eyes darkened. Her heart sped, fear saying he was going to attack.

He surprised her by releasing her the moment her knees touched the floor. She was back on her feet before he could move, the stake still held firmly in her hand.

"Lilith!" Daniel stepped between them, his hand on her shoulder forcing her backwards. She moved farther away and pocketed her stake to show him that she wasn't going to attack again. He went back to his desk. She glared at the vampire.

"Bastard!" She spat it at him with as much hatred as she could muster. "It was your fault wasn't it? You're the reason they were here!"

He looked confused, a trait she'd not witnessed in one before. She hated him even more for it–for attempting to look human by reflecting such emotions. She had no doubt that he knew what she was talking about. It couldn't be chance that two Vehemens had arrived in her city in the same night.

"I wish to discuss the contract in private with you." His words were calm, measured.

Her attack hadn't shaken him in the slightest. The idea of that made her feel weak and fatigue crept in again as she remembered watching Jackson die. She'd been powerless then, and she was powerless now.

"Discuss it in private all you want, but I'll still have to write it all in my report anyway, and everyone will know. Hell, I might post on the bulletin board that you're a vampire and sit back and watch the show." She hoped that her words carried all the spite behind them. It was childish, but she wasn't about to make anything easy for the vampire. If she couldn't attack him physically, words would have to do.

"Lilith," Daniel warned again. She sighed and ignored him.

"Why do you hate my kind so much?" the vampire said. It caught her off guard.

She stared at him, knowing that she looked like a rabbit in headlights and that she needed to recover herself before he realised that he'd rattled her.

"You seem very driven to hate us... to kill us."

Her eyes never left his. She held his gaze even as the barrier around her heart came back up as swift as a dart, shutting out his attempt to peer into her innermost thoughts and feelings. She wished she could shut out the pain as easily. She turned away from him and walked to the door.

"Come with me," she said and stepped outside the office.

Lincoln stared at the open door and the hall beyond. He frowned, dark thoughts stirring at the back of his mind and plaguing him. A glance at her superior told him that he wasn't pleased with the way his subordinate was acting. She seemed headstrong and wilful. Perhaps a little too wilful.

"She openly detests my kind," he said, getting the superior's attention. In his world, a superior wouldn't tolerate such behaviour from one below him. He had never tolerated it. "Are we going to have a problem?"

The man looked thoughtful. "No. Today has been hard on her. She'll work with you as agreed in your contract with us."

"I would like to know one thing."

"And that is?" The man pushed away from his desk and walked around it to sit in the plush leather chair.

"Why does she hate vampires so much?" he said with another glance towards the door.

He could feel her waiting in the hall, knew that she would be able to hear him. She hadn't answered his question, and he needed a reply. The idea that she would hate him contradicted everything he'd been told.

The man sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Her sister was murdered by a vampire," he said and then looked at the open door, "and tonight Jackson was killed. He was Lilith's closest friend and he died at the hands of a Vehemens."

Lincoln frowned. That explained her outburst. She was probably right. Not many of his bloodline lived outside the safe houses scattered across Europe or the family mansion in Oslo. The Vehemens had been here because of him.

"I think it's understandable that she should hate your kind... you." There was so much anger in the man's voice, so much loathing and disgust in his words. He'd never realised the extent of the humans hatred towards his species. "No one here is going to welcome you with open arms... no matter how much you pay our superiors."

He gave the man a dark look, matching his glare and tipping the balance in his favour. The man looked away, turning towards the closed curtains. Lincoln turned towards the door and reached out with his senses, focusing them on the woman. Lilith.

Had they been wrong about her?

Could one so fixated on destroying his kind truly save him?

Have you enjoyed this excerpt? I'll post another one tomorrow!

Vampires Realm Giveaway #1 - winner

2011-02-13T11:17:00.001Z

I have been over to random.org and used it to select the winner of the first Vampires Realm - Vampires for Valentine's giveaway, which was a copy of the Prophecy Trilogy.

The winner chosen at random was:

Cassandra L

Cassandra, please contact me at author [at] vampiresrealm [dot] com replacing the stuff in square brackets with the appropriate things.

Don't forget to enter the second giveaway everyone!
http://vampiresrealm.blogspot.com/2011/02/vampires-realm-book-giveaway-2.html

Seventh Circle - Vampire Romance Book

2011-02-12T14:30:00.003Z

This week in my Vampires for Valentine's month is dedicated to Seventh Circle, the seventh book in this vampire romance series. Seventh Circle has been described as "Romeo and Juliet with fangs" by reviewers and is a story about looking past external appearances to the person beneath.

It was great writing Seventh Circle and exploring how a vampire hunter in the Vampires Realm world would react to being forced to work with a pure blood vampire of one of the seven bloodlines she's intent on hunting and destroying. When Lincoln Vehemens shows up in her city and her home, and Lilith is told that he's her new client, she wants nothing to do with him, but as they start to work together to unravel the mysteries of the prophecy he's involved in, the mysteries of her past and her abilities begin to unravel too, revealing a truth about her that she isn't quite ready to face. The hero and heroine in this story are at war with each other from the moment they meet, but it isn't long before the game Lincoln is playing with her turns out not to be a game after all. He falls for her pretty hard, even though he knows that she's forbidden and he shouldn't want a human. There's something about her that lures him in. She's strong, beautiful, and sassy, and doesn't back down, not even when he uses every trick in his book to scare her and show her what a monster he is.

Of course, Lilith is scared of what she's feeling. She's not about to let a vampire push her around, but Lincoln is more powerful than any vampire she's met and it only adds to his allure. She soon finds herself battling her desire for him, and questioning everything she knows about vampires. She's always been convinced that vampires don't have feelings, but whenever she looks at Lincoln, she can see the fear in his eyes, and the growing desire.

Seventh Circle really is a story about learning to know someone yourself, and not pigeon-holing people because of their upbringing or species in this case. It's a very strong romance, one that will have you on the edge of your seat throughout the book, and I think the ending is pure romance too.

It was also great writing Seventh Circle because it gave me a chance to explore other elements and bring in new things, like the circles of Hell and angels, and mythological demons that actually exist. It's a story of good and evil, God versus the Devil, and how one man's soul can be the key to the birth of the antichrist and destruction of our world.

Oh, and it gave me a chance to catch up with Prophecy, Valentine and Venturi after their showdown at the end of their book. Everyone who has read the Prophecy Trilogy - do you remember Prophecy meeting Lincoln by chance in Prague in the third book? Well, this is your chance to find out what happened to him and why he was on the run!

Vampires Realm book giveaway #2

2011-02-11T14:30:00.001Z

It's time for the second Giveaway in my Vampires for Valentine's Month!

If you'd like to get your hands on an e-book copy of:

Eternity: The Beginning - Free Vampire Fiction e-book

2011-02-10T14:30:00.000Z

I have two stories that are free in the Vampires Realm series, and I'll be posting them here on my blog during my Vampires for Valentine's month. The first story is the first part in a series of short stories documenting the life of Hyperion, the oldest and most powerful vampire. Every vampire has a beginning, and this is Hyperion's.

Eternity: The Beginning
F E Heaton
Every vampire has a beginning, a turning point, a moment of being born into the dark world of their species. In 986bc, Hyperion, current lord of the mighty Validus bloodline, discovered the afterlife wasn't as he'd expected.

Condemned to a life as walking death and weak with hunger, he discovers the terrible power he now wields and pays the ultimate price.

ebook price: FREE EBOOK
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 9000 words
rating: general
released: July 2007
Book 4 in the Vampires Realm series

Download the PDF: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Eternity:%20The%20Beginning

Excerpt
986 BC was the year that I discovered the true meaning of immortality. It was not the afterlife that my Pharaoh believed in but a dark gift given to those deemed worthy by the creature murdering them.

I was worthy, though I did not know the man who killed me and then granted me my afterlife.

I was left to discover my terrible power alone.

“Brother? Is that you?”

Hyperion pushed the rickety door closed and leaned heavily against it, causing the old wooden beams to strain under his weight. He sighed and swallowed. His mouth was drier than the desert outside and no matter what he drank, nothing quenched his thirst. It only made him feel sick.

“It is I,” he said and wearily moved to a low stool beside the cooking pot. He stared at the bubbling contents. The sight of it turned his stomach.

His eyes automatically moved to his sister when she entered. His tongue traced his lips, wetting them as best it could, and his stomach growled with hunger. He could hear everything, the wind outside, the rush of her blood and her heart as it pounded hard but steady against her chest, and the soft swish of her muslin dress. He could smell her sweet fragrance and the slight salty tang of sweat that laced it. He could smell her blood.

He stood sharply when she went to sit near him and moved to the other side of the room.

He shouldn't have come back.

Clenching his fists, he frowned when sharp pain ran up his arms. He uncurled his hands to see a row of half moon shaped puncture marks in his palms and then stared at his fingernails. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of the pointed, elongated claws they had become. Just what was it that the man had done to him?

“You are hurt,” Ineru said behind him and he froze when she placed her hand on his shoulder.

The sound of her heartbeat filled his ears.

His chest heaved with the desire to kill her.

His eyes closed at the heady sensation of pleasure it promised.

She brushed her fingers over the wound on his throat and he moved away from her, throwing her hand off him and growling.

“What kind of sorcery is this?” he whispered to himself when the bones of his face shifted. He raised his fingers up, feeling the sharp points of his teeth. What had he become? Was he one of them now?

The man had almost killed him and only then had he been offered salvation. He had taken it, all too eager to live, but in the process something inside him had died. His fingers clenched his chest and he listened to the eerie silence inside of him.

He'd died.

He realised that now.

The man that had been so desperate to live had sold his soul and now he was doomed to an eternity of life. But not life. No. He was walking death. The intense hunger inside of him told him that. It clouded his mind with the memory of how blood had tasted on his lips, on his tongue, and whispered to him how sweet it would be to feed, to take the life of someone to further his own, to live off their death. It was a primal need, something impossible to ignore. It was ravenous. It was intoxicating. It was demanding a kill and he was sickeningly happy to cooperate.

He wanted it.

He wanted to taste the blood again, wanted the feeling of it spreading through him and breathing life into his tired body.

He wanted the pleasure it brought, feelings he'd only ever felt during sex, and had never thought possible from anything else.

Placing some distance between himself and his sister, he struggled for control and won.

“It was not a plague that killed our mother,” he said and heard Ineru gasp. He resisted his desire to face her, knowing that the demon he had become was still visible. He could feel his teeth scraping against his tongue as he spoke. He remembered how sharp the man's had felt, how painful they'd been in his neck. But the pain had quickly disappeared, chased away by the shadow of death that had filled him and the cold dread of what was coming. He hadn't hesitated in that moment. He'd taken everything the man had offered with him, not even stopping to ask what the consequences were.

“But it must be…such devastation.”

“It is death that comes for them. Not the merciful kind that takes us in our sleep, but the violent kind. It is a creature of the underworld that feeds on the blood of the living to sustain it in eternity.”

He looked down at his hand and saw his fingernails had returned to normal. Raising his hand, he felt his teeth and found they were blunt again.

He turned to face Ineru, unable to miss the fear in her eyes when he did so.

“How is it you know all of this?” She frowned at him, her beautiful countenance marred by it, and suddenly he realised that eternity without her was a life of torture and pain.

How could he go on without her?

He couldn't leave her alone in the world. She wouldn't make it without him. She needed him now more than she had ever done.

She would understand if he told her.

She was the reason he'd wanted to live after all. She was the reason he had chosen to receive the dark gift he had been offered.

Download the PDF: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Eternity:%20The%20Beginning

Vampires for Valentine's month - posts so far

2011-02-09T15:03:00.002Z

Okay, so as you all know, this month I am releasing the next novel in my Vampires Realm series, and to celebrate, I'm hosting a Vampires for Valentine's month. That's right, all this month there will be vampire and werewolf goodness here!

Not only am I posting excerpts from my vampire romance and werewolf romance books, but I'm also posting giveaways every week, free vampire romance stories, and even interviewing some of the heroes and heroines from the books!

Here's the posting schedule for the Vampires for Valentine's month, with the posts so far linked up. Be sure to check them out and leave some comments!

February 1st: Welcome to Vampires for Valentine's Month
February 2nd: Writing the Vampires Realm series
February 3rd: Vampires Realm - Welcome to the world of the seven pure bloodlines
February 4th: Vampires Realm giveaway #1
February 5th: Prophecy Trilogy - vampire romance books
February 6th: Interview with Prophecy from the Prophecy Trilogy
February 7th: Prophecy: Child of Light - Excerpt #1
February 8th: Prophecy: Child of Light - Excerpt #1
February 9th: Interview with Valentine from the Prophecy Trilogy
February 10th: Eternity: The Beginning - free vampire fiction story
February 11th: Vampires Realm giveaway #2
February 12th: Seventh Circle - vampire romance book
February 13th: Seventh Circle - Excerpt #1
February 14th: Seventh Circle - Excerpt #2, plus extended excerpt PDF
February 15th: Interview with Lilith from Seventh Circle
February 16th: Interview with Lincoln from Seventh Circle
February 17th: Reunion - free vampire romance e-book
February 18th: Vampires Realm giveaway #3
February 19th: Winter's Kiss - vampire / werewolf romance book
February 20th: Interview with Nika from Winter's Kiss
February 21st: Interview with Winter from Winter's Kiss
February 22nd: Winter's Kiss - Excerpt #1
February 23rd: Winter's Kiss - Excerpt #2, plus extended excerpt PDF
February 24th: Interview with Tatyana from Hunter's Moon
February 25th: Interview with Nicolae from Hunter's Moon
February 26th: Hunter's Moon - vampire / werewolf romance book
February 27th: Hunter's Moon - Excerpt #1
February 28th: Hunter's Moon - Excerpt #2

Valentine Aurorea Interview

2011-02-09T08:37:00.000Z

As promised, I have put together some questions for Valentine Aurorea, the lord of the Aurorea bloodline, and the mate of Prophecy Caelestis, and also the hero in the Prophecy Trilogy and Spellbound.

It took a lot of bargaining, but after a little intervention by Prophecy, I managed to get him to come to see me and answer the questions.

(Valentine enters the room and settles himself in the black velvet armchair opposite me. He neatly arranges his dark red knee-length military-style jacket and then sweeps his long fingers over his black hair. His green eyes fix on mine. I clear my throat. Valentine is always a little tetchy around humans so I hope I don’t end up as dinner)

FH: So, what have you been up to since we last saw you?

Valentine: Things have been busy. My bloodline has learned to behave themselves and accept my rule, but now I am constantly working. I had been privy to the inner workings of a bloodline during my position as a hunter, but I had not anticipated that it would be so much work. Lord Kalinor made it appear easy.

FH: I bet it’s anything but easy, but at least you finally have them on your side. You say that you’re constantly working, so does that mean you don’t get to spend much time with Prophecy?

Valentine: She often comes to visit, but at the moment it is difficult for me to find time to go to her, even when I desire to. Cornelius is a competent Chosen Son, but he lacks the leadership skills and respect required to run a bloodline. Often when I leave, the house is in pandemonium by the time I return.

FH: What about Xavier? As your head guard, isn’t he able to control them?

(Valentine sighs emphatically, the first sign I’ve seen of him breathing. As a vampire of almost three hundred, he rarely breathes.)

Valentine: Little woman, I thought that during the documentation process of my species history you would have learned that such a thing would be a disaster. A guard has no place in commanding a bloodline when one of the leaders is there. If Xavier were to step in, the bloodline would lose all respect for Cornelius.

(I shrink into my black velvet armchair, bringing my feet up onto the seat, feeling like a chided youngling)

FH: I see. I don’t confess to being any good at politics. Don’t you miss Prophecy?

(The barest hint of a smile touches his lips and a shine enters his green eyes)

Valentine: With all of my heart.

FH: Aww.

(Valentine glares at me, his eyes briefly changing to blue, their vampiric state. I swallow and silently take back what I did)

Valentine: (He looks down at his hands in his lap and then back at me) Prophecy understands that I must spend time with my bloodline, but sometimes I am able to go to her. We often find time to walk the city together.

FH: (grins) Yeah, she told me all about your moonlit walks and how you kill for her. Super sweet.

Valentine: (raises an eyebrow) A mate should provide for his loved one. I am only following my nature as a vampire. I am sure humans do similar things, such as a male requesting that a female joins him for dinner in a restaurant. It is the same thing.

FH: That puts a new twist on the phrase “dining out”. (I smile at him when he glowers at me) I get what you’re saying though. You want to spend quality time with Prophecy and can’t do that at either mansion, so you head off into the city for some alone time. Do you ever get away for longer periods?

Valentine: We have sometimes gone to stay at one of the apartments I keep in various cities around Europe. Prophecy is terrible at abusing her right to use her bloodline’s private jet and often insists that we go to Italy for only a night or two at a time. She is still researching her mother’s life.

FH: The witch? It’s nice that you help her with that. It means a lot to her.

Valentine: (comes as close to smiling as he gets)

FH: So, do you have any other adventures planned? Prophecy mentioned that Venturi had something in the pipeline. Are you involved in that too?

Valentine: (nods) Yes, we have been to Romania to see him about a problem that he has with the gate there. It is still active and causing trouble for him on a regular basis. We need to find a way to close it permanently.

FH: That sounds a little more tame than your previous adventures. Are you expecting trouble?

Valentine: Prophecy has been seeing visions recently, none of them good, and some of them involving the gate, so we must go to Romania again to see if there is something we perhaps overlooked during our first visit.

FH: Your romance with Prophecy is still pretty hot, and I can see that you really love her. What’s it like having another man in your life though?

(Valentine growls)

FH: I mean, in a non-sexual way. Prophecy said that you two aren’t really into that side of the relationship.

Valentine: As long as he stays within the boundaries of our agreement, and does not attempt to take Prophecy away from me, or take up all of her time, then I do not mind his occasional visits.

FH: Spoken like a man who doesn’t want to share his toys with the other boys in the playground. I can’t blame you. It must be strange allowing your mate to be with another man.

Valentine: (looks sour) She knows her place, and knows not to overstep the boundaries. She is my mate, and can feel everything that I do. I do not believe that she would ever betray me with Venturi.

(the door opens and Prophecy rushes in and lands on Valentine’s lap. She loops her arms around his neck and kisses him)

Prophecy: I would never hurt you. I love you too much. (she strokes his face) If you commanded it, I would never look at Venturi again. My heart is yours.

Valentine: (smiles broadly) And mine yours.

(Prophecy peppers kisses all over his face. It’s strange to see him smiling properly. I give them a moment and then clear my throat. They both look at me.)

FH: Maybe I should wrap this up and give you some alone time. I have a few silly questions that I like to ask the people I’m interviewing. Firstly, what’s your favourite colour?

Valentine: Dark red.

FH: And your favourite smell?

Valentine: Fresh blood, or Prophecy’s scent.

FH: Your favourite possession?

Valentine: (squeezes Prophecy’s waist) The beautiful woman in my arms. (She frowns at him)

Prophecy: I’m a possession now?

Valentine: The only thing I ever wanted. (That gets a smile from Prophecy)

FH: Favourite thing to do?

Valentine: Walk the grounds or the city with Prophecy on my arm. I like nothing more than being alone with her (he gives me a pointed look)

FH: And finally, what’s your favourite time of year?

Valentine: Winter. The nights are long and the city is quiet, and my workload is lighter. I can spend more time with Prophecy then.

(Prophecy starts kissing him again)

FH: Well, it was... yeah... maybe I’ll leave you alone now. (I get up, taking my notes on my next interviewees with me, and sneak out of the room)

I'll have more interviews next week! If you have a question that you'd like Valentine or Prophecy to answer, feel free to leave it in a comment and I'll pose it to them.