I know about vampires, now!

I have a confession to make.  I know nothing about vampires.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.  I used to run out of the room when my sister would come home from school and turn on Dark Shadows.  No, not the Tim Burton movie.  The real Dark Shadows, the cheesy vampire soap opera that came on every afternoon at 4 p.m.   So, even though I never stayed to watch any of it, I knew that Barnabas Collins was one scary dude.  I knew who Vincent Price was.  Ditto Bella Lugosi.  Oh, and I read Salem’s Lot in high school and it scared the crap out of me.  I mean serious, lie-in-bed-clutching-a-crucifix kind of scared. 

I’m pretty sure I saw Love at First Bite.

I almost forgot—I starred in a high school production of Dracula, too.

But by far and large, other than recognizing the name ‘Van Helsing’, my knowledge of vampires was mostly through osmosis.  A sort of general absorption of the basic facts without any real study of the subject.  Vampires couldn’t cast a reflection in a mirror.  They slept in their coffins and had to return to them before daybreak.  Sunlight would turn them to dust.  Other than sunlight, the only way to kill them was with a stake in the heart while they lay in their coffins.  They couldn’t come into your home unless invited, but once invited, you couldn’t keep them out.  They could be repelled with garlic, a cross, and holy water.

That was the sum total of my knowledge, and some of that was sketchy as well.  I wasn’t sure how much was ‘real’ and how much I’d misinterpreted over time.

Imagine my surprise when I decided to write a story with a vampire as the main protagonist. 

In my defense, I‘d come across a cool prompt on an open submission call and started writing my story.  It wasn’t until I realized that I’d completely misread the prompt that I discovered I had the makings of a novel instead.  I immediately set the story aside so I could do some intensive research on vampires—I didn’t want to get it wrong!  I got as far as reading the first paragraph in Wikipedia when I stopped myself.

Did I really need to research vampires for my story?  Alex was a vampire that had grown tired of living the Life—he’d made a conscious decision to leave his controlling lover behind and live life as close to ‘normal’ as possible.  In order to do that, my vampire needed to be able to bend the rules.  He needed to be able to go outside in daylight, to see himself in a mirror, to pass for human.  It occurred to me that all vampire lore was just that—legends and myths.  There was no reason to suppose that any of it was a hard and fast rule.

I played around with creating a mythos that would allow my vampire to live life like a human, but also incorporate many of the things that readers would expect—such as the supernatural strength, and the inability to cast a reflection.  I decided that the coffin was the source of power, but that not all vampires had one—so the other means of perpetuating immortality was to feed off living beings.  The idea was that use of the coffin conferred immortality, but it came with a price—waking with an insatiable desire to feed, and  a gradual loss of one’s humanity over time.  The coffin was addictive too, and the scarcity of them increased their value.  The only way to achieve the same results as one night in the coffin was to take the lives of dozens of humans.  It made a weird sort of logical sense to me, and the rest of the story built itself around this premise.

Crying for the Moon has been praised for its original take on the vampire lore, which always makes me blush a little because I was literally making it up as I went along.  I enjoyed finding new ways to tweak the presumed assumptions of the reader—yes, I would continue the tradition of having vampires and werewolves be mortal enemies, but then I would make Alex’s closest friends a pack of misfit werewolves.  Yes, seduction and sex would be part of Alex’s deadly charm, but he would never really enjoy sex until he met Tate.

Alex is definitely not your typical vampire.  He is a reluctant lover, unwilling to place Tate in harm’s way.  He was born into the Life, a very rare occurrence, as most vampires are sterile.  He knows no other existence, and yet he longs for an entirely different way of living.  He finds himself drawn into friendships and attachments when he doesn’t think he is capable of having either. 

I was drawn to his desire to be different, and the fact that he did not fit in.  By allowing him to explore his humanity, I wasn’t as tightly bound to the standard presumptions about vampires, and in fact, enjoyed poking fun at the conventions by having the characters ask, “You believe that stuff?”

Because underneath the seductive good looks, and the unbelievable strength paired with immortality, Alex is basically a guy looking for love.  He doesn’t know that—vampires are presumed to be incapable of love—but his parents loved each other, and unconsciously he wants that, too.

Tate is unlike anyone Alex has ever met.  Coming out of a toxic relationship, Alex doesn’t really know what a good relationship is like—which is why he resists getting involved with Tate for so long.

I still know very little about vampires.  But I’m planning a sequel that will force Alex back into the dark world he left behind, so now I am willing to do the research.

Crying for the Moon is available through Dreamspinner Press.

Blurb: 

Vampire Alexei Novik may have the teeth and the coffin, but he’s given up the lifestyle for an old fixer-upper in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Weary of his past, Alex plans to keep to himself, but it seems his sexy, new neighbor, Tate, can’t take the hint—a good thing, since it turns out he’s handy for all kinds of things around the house. Tate even gets along with Alex’s werewolf friends, though one of them pointedly reminds Alex that their friendship is a bad idea.

If a platonic relationship is a bad idea, the growing attraction between Tate and Alex is a disaster waiting to happen. Loving Tate will draw him into Alex’s dangerous world, and Alex is torn between having the relationship he’s always craved and keeping Tate safe. Tate won’t take no for an answer, however, and seems to handle everything Alex can throw at him without blinking. Just when he thinks things might turn out all right after all, Alex’s past catches up with him—forcing him to make a terrible choice.

Goddess Fish Book Tours: Event Horizon

Greetings Guys Like Romance, Too! followers!
Carson here to introduce to you one of one of Goddess Fish Book Tours! Today we have Evelyn Shepherd here with her book Event Horizon. Without further delay...take it away Evelyn!

~*~

 

Thanks for having me here, Carson! I’m really excited to talk about the world in Event Horizon and the Theo Bourne Series.

     Vampires have always been a big thing in my life. As a little girl I was fascinated by them. I made several horrible attempts to write vampire stories, none of which were any good. I like to think I’ve gotten better since then.

     When I introduced vampires into the second book in the Theo Bourne series, I wanted to be really careful. Vampires for me are creatures of the night, things of horrifying beauty. I wanted to maintain most of the timeless classic beliefs while also being original. My biggest thing though was I didn’t want to pull a Twilight. No offense to anyone that enjoyed the series, but I’ve never been happy with the idea of day walking vampires. They are nightmares incarnate, thus they belong beneath the moon just like lycanthropes.

     I took inspiration from classics like Dracula and Nosferatu, as well as from more modern classics like The Vampire Chronicles and The Anita Blake series.

     In the Event Horizon world there are actually two kinds of vampires. Isolde, the Mistress of the City, is your basic vampire. She isn’t necessarily evil vampire but she isn’t a good guy. She is what she needs to be to survive. While creating her and her fledglings, I wanted to keep to the root of vampirism. So, as I said, a lot of the classic beliefs apply. Sunlight, fire, religious relics and faith all have an effect on her. She has the ability to intrans a person with her eyes and super-strength.

     Eztli is the second kind of vampire that’s introduced in Event Horizon. As the main antagonist I wanted her to be terrifying. While Isolde is a frightening vampire, Eztli needed to make you afraid to turn off your lights. I took inspiration from the South American legends and Aztec mythology for her, basing her on a breed known as chupacabra. This breed actually mutates and transforms, so the stronger she gets and the more she feeds she morphs from this beautiful woman into this grotesque monster. She still feeds on blood and shares the same weaknesses as the standard vampire, but her abilities go beyond Isolde’s and traditional vampires. She can fly/levitate, she can intrans with not only her eyes but with her voice, as well as she (and the breed) channels telekinetic abilities.

     In Event Horizon Theo has to confront both kinds in various scenarios, which provide him with equal adversaries.

     Either way, I wanted to make vampires something evil, whether it is a necessary evil or just plain demonic. It was fun creating them and I definitely enjoyed using vampires as a plot point in the series. Isolde will definitely be a staple character in the series.

     Thanks for letting me share!

THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY a $20 AMAZON GC and encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/04/virtual-book-tour-event-horizon.html. 


SLAVE's Review
This was one of very stories I could not even finish. I was confused at the start. I couldn't connect with the characters and felt like things were missing. I was halfway through the book when I decided to just stop. To me Theo came off as disrespectful his elders and everyone around him, selfish and un-necessarily antagonistic with the two men that fought over him.
 This is book 2 in the author’s series. I have read books from a series out of succession before, but had found myself connecting with the characters. Perhaps if this book had hints to events that had already happened that would have helped, I didn’t I didn’t see any. Maybe they came later on, but on my Nook this book was 197 pages and I hadn’t seen any when I stopped reading on page 126.

1 pen

Blood, drama, war and vampires! who's up for it?

Oooh, vampire month! Is there anything more exciting than a man who could kill you soon as look at you? Ever since Bram Stoker picked up a pen and let his feverish fantasies take flight, vampires have screamed ‘sex’ and ‘danger’ in equal measure. What is a vampire bite if not a forceful penetration of a person’s body, usually accompanied by a dizzying head-rush and a lot of swooning? The vampire’s gaze has always been desiring, hungry, and indiscriminate.


I had to get in on the action!

My name’s Kate Aaron and I’m the author of the Lost Realm fantasy series: Blood & Ash, Fenton: The Loneliest Vampire, and Fire & Ice. 

Set against the backdrop of impending war, Blood & Ash sees the thousand-year-old vampire Azrael enter the fae Realm as guardian to Ash, the fairy prince. Overprotected his whole life by his father and older brother, Ash’s world is turned upside down when he finds himself falling for the enigmatic vampire. But Azrael’s got his own demons, not least the memory of the lover he lost when he was newly-Turned. He’ll fight his feelings all the way, but with Ash around, that’s easier said than done.

Writing Blood & Ash, I got to wondering what it must be like to have lived for a thousand years. Azrael has seen the world change so many times: how does that kind of longevity affect personality? How jaded must you become? What is it about a naïve teenager that could capture the heart of someone like that?

Ash has all the fire and passion of youth; the absolute certainty that he knows what is right and the faith that the rest of the world will understand. He has an idealist’s intolerance of injustice and isn’t afraid to speak out when he sees people being wronged. He doesn’t shy away from putting himself at risk to do the right thing, but his moral certainty is pushed to the limit when he discovers in Fire & Ice that homosex is forbidden in the Realm, and that the penalty is death.

Yeah, I went there. This is not one of those fantasy stories where it seems like every character is gay and no-one has a problem with it. What can I say, I’m a gay gal with a Master’s in Queer Theory and a background of working with outreach projects for gay youths. The ongoing struggle for queer emancipation is an important part of our history and culture and I think to fail to reference that – even in fiction – is to do our community a disservice. This is not, however, a story of politics. The gay rights movement was founded and is fought in the belief that we deserve the right to be free to love who we want, how we want, without fear of persecution or prejudice. It is a fight fought for love, and it is for the love of Azrael that Ash rails against a law that denies their relationship. One way or another, he vows to change it.

In Fenton: the Loneliest Vampire, a short spin-off, I introduce another character to the series, one who is a little bit different because vampires are not all about the sex. At least, I didn’t want mine to be. Fenton is the antithesis of all the usual vampire tropes: he’s asexual. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love. Born different and outcast all his life, Fenton is surrounded by people who don’t understand him. All he wants is a companion, someone to call his own. Skye, the elder fae prince, seems to Fenton like the perfect man. If he can just be near him, just be friends with him, he’ll never ask for anything more; Skye never has to know how he truly feels.

Skye has devoted his life to his duty: being a prince, commanding the warriors, and keeping his younger brother safe has left him with little time for himself. Everyone expects something from him. All he’s ever wanted is for someone to care about him for who – and not what – he is. When his best friend is forced to confess the depth of his feelings, Skye admits there’s something infinitely attractive about the arrangement Fenton can offer. Skye’s straight, so it’s not like either of them would want a sexual relationship. But perhaps Skye underestimates his own desires, and perhaps love alone will never be quite enough. Theirs is a story of two men struggling to find a way to build a life together against all the odds, and it culminates in a dramatic and tragic climax at the close of Fire & Ice.

This summer will see the release of the third novel in the Lost Realm series. After a number of skirmishes across Blood & Ash and Fire & Ice, war has finally come to the Realm. Fae, witches and vampires will enter battle – but who is on what side? And who is leading the opposing armies? There’s good and bad in all camps, and with the old king slowly dying, control of the entire Realm is there for the taking. After that I’m also releasing another spin-off, Fenton’s Absolution, where perhaps the loneliest vampire will finally get the ending that he deserves.

***

Excerpt – Fire & Ice

Ash sat, unmoving, his gaze fixed steadily on the dying fire, feeling the intensity of those calculating black eyes on his body. Small sparks rose and eddied in the down draught from the open chimney, the occasional stray snowflake hissing as it melted on the hot embers. Slowly the fire smouldered, the whitened logs sinking into themselves, a tracery of red ever-shifting at their edges, betraying their molten cores. Ash’s breath left him in small plumes, visible again as the cold descended. The shadows that had prowled around him all evening crept closer in the gloom.

He started when he heard the soft click of the latch. Turning swiftly he watched Azrael slope inside, the vampire’s expression anxious. All thought of their quarrel fled, drowned out by the surge of relief he felt at seeing him. Azrael closed the door silently and knelt before him, gathering him in his arms, bloody tears tracking down his face. Ash felt the warmth of him, the heat of his body as it flowed into his cold and stiffened limbs, and answered with a flush of his own, a fiery dart that surged from his chest, into the vampire’s, scalding them both. The shadows retreated, snarling.

***

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A look at the classics

Hello Everyone!


Jaxx Steele back at you one more time to share my vampire story, By the Moonlight. I personally have been looking forward to this month. I have glued to the blog so I could find more vampire romances to read. I love this genre. I mean honestly, who doesn’t love the seductive lore of a vampire? Well, that might be just my opinion…but I bet I can get a couple of hundred people to agree with me.
I had read many vampire books, but they were all hetero. At the time when I wrote this book, I was ignorant to what was out there in the m/m world, but the desire to ‘see’ a vampire to seduce a man in the same way I had been reading was overwhelming. I felt like if I didn’t write one I wouldn’t see it. Boy was I glad to be proven wrong on that one! LOL
Jared chose to sleep with and feed from women to slack his urges during his timeless existence. His seduction was strong and he used a gentle hand with them. After having his way with the women Jared returned them where he got them none the wiser. Jared was aware of his friend’s preference for male flesh and didn’t judge him. Byron was a dominating and aggressive force in lore and seduction, but patient and low key when it came to Jared. Knowing he had a life time to persuade Jared to what he wanted from him, Byron took his time becoming Jared’s friend before introducing him to the world of man on man love.
By the Moonlight is classic tale of how friends become lovers where you learn that what you always wanted was right in your face the whole time. I just wanted to give it a Jaxx Steele spin. This book was one of my first contracted stories so forgive any juvenile tone you may sense. I was still developing the style and voice of my writing. :)

Here is a peek inside By the Moonlight.

Jared Sinclair was a sexual vampire. In his long life he mated with and fed from countless amounts of women. He roamed the night with his best friend Byron who preferred the taste of males to mate with and feed from. Byron thought it was time for Jared to be more adventurous and invited Jared to feed with him. Jared had never thought feeding from a male would burn his blood with passion he never knew and scorch his senses like never before. After all the things Byron had shown him would he choose to stay in this new world of man love or will his adventure end with the night?


Excerpt:
The women Jared made love to never touched him like that. Jeff’s response made him want to be touched like that, too. Jared rubbed his cock through his pants watching the erotic scene as it unfolded before him. He was engrossed by the boy’s face. It was caught in a dance of excitement and passion, no different than the women Jared had had under him. Jeff’s handsome features were trapped in ecstasy, and when his eyes were flittered open they were filled with lust. Jared wondered if this type of lovemaking felt as good as his young face indicated. He looked at Byron’s face and saw that his handsome features were caught in his dance as well. It made him even more beautiful. Jared continued to stroke his dick and watch the sexual scene as it continued to unravel.

Byron was moving faster now, his own lust building and coming to a head. He held onto Jeff’s shoulders, driving his full cock deep into his ass. His back arched and bended as he pounded into Jeff for all he was worth. Jeff backed up to meet each one of Byron’s thrusts and screamed out loud, marking each one.


The screams along with the lust and sex smells filling the air were overwhelmingly new to Jared. He frantically freed his dick from his pants and stroked faster, sensing the end was near for the two men, and he wanted to be there with them and come at the same time. He continued to watch them, mesmerized as Byron slid his beautiful cock in and out of the boy’s ass. Byron’s ass tightened at each thrust and his balls swayed back and forth in a hypnotic rhythm. Jared slowed his movements to be in sync with Byron and his new lover and wondered if it would feel good to him if someone was inside of his ass like that.


Jeff’s blissful cries brought Jared to reality Byron was bringing him to climax, it would be over soon. He watched as the boy tossed his head back and forth as he screamed again. To his surprise Byron pulled the boy back against his chest to lean against his lap. Reaching forward he grabbed the boy’s neglected cock, and as he held him steady with one strong arm across the boy’s chest, he continued to fuck him and stroked his dick at the same time.


Jared’s eyes were as wide as Jeff’s, but he held his tongue unlike Jeff who his raised his voice in short, loud “oh’s” that matched each thrust. Jared stroked his dick faster as he watched them in amazement. Just as they neared their end Byron’s voice invaded his mind.


Come for me, Jared. I’m pretending it’s you I’m fucking.


Byron’s words demolished what was left of Jared’s control. He came hard screaming his release along with the boy as they both shot their loads into the air.

get By the Moonlight at Dreamspinners Press in ebook and audio and all ebook outlets.

Jaxx
website  blog

The heart of the warrior

Severin and Arion are two vampires who have deep secrets, and both fear the reaction they would get if those secrets got out. Trouble is, Sev and Ari are falling in love. And not just in love, but mating each other. And when a male vampire takes a mate, put away the breakables and get out of the way, because the shit's about to get seismic on the emotion meter. It's bad enough when one male vampire mates. When two mate each other, especially these two, all bets are off.

Heart of the Warrior is the story about how Severin and Arion struggle with their pasts to find their futures. These are tragic characters who tug at your heart strings and who can't seem to get out of their own way long enough to see the good thing right in front of them. And if they don't get with it, they could lose it all, because an assassin has marked Sev for blood vengeance.

But it's not just their pasts and an assassin Sev and Ari have to overcome, but the prejudices and scheming of those around them. Ari's best friend, Io, is a card-carrying homophobe, and Ari's parents don't even know he's gay and want their son to take a wife and bear heirs for the family fortune. Meanwhile, the rest of their team at All the King's Men (AKM) remain oblivious. All except for Micah, who always seems to know all, and who will play a pivotal role in making them see what they have with each other…if he can do it before it's too late.

Heart of the Warrior is book two in the All the King's Men series. I didn't just write it to fill a slot in the series, and some people may wonder why I chose to write a M/M installment in a series that started out as M/F with Rise of the Fallen (book one). My answer is that it wasn't my decision. This was where the characters took me. Sev and Ari wanted each other and that's how the story came together in my mind. I was just the vessel that told their story. Additionally, it looks like one other book in this series will turn out M/M.

I enjoy writing M/M romance. I like controversial subjects. It's sad that homosexuality is a controversial subject in the first place, and maybe part of why I enjoy writing M/M romance so much is because it sheds light on the fact that a man can love a man and it's still a beautiful thing.

Heart of the Warrior has been my personal favorite of all the work I've written to date. These characters made me cry, they made me laugh. I simply fell in love with them. I hope you enjoy them and their story as much as I did.

Not your everyday vampires.

Hi, I'm J. C. Natál and my books "Rysykk's Rise" and "Rysykk's Remedy" are the reason I am here today.


The story that became my first published M/M story began as sort of an experiment, because while I loved vampires and vampire stories, I didn't want to write just another traditional vampire.

Instead, I wanted to start with the idea of a M/M relationship and work out from there. It was an uneven relationship in the beginning, to be sure, with one of the men, Maleus, being a high-powered businessman, and the other, Alarin, a prostitute with nothing but the clothes on his back. It seemed a simple enough beginning.

Then I took them and placed them in a complex future world, where the structure of society is built on money and power, and secrets. The biggest of those secrets revolves around the vampire concept. Rysykk's, as they are called, are the product of a faulty gene, and poisoning by a combination of weaponized drugs.

At one time there were many of them, but after decades of being hunted down and destroyed, few remain, and those who do are in hiding. They've become legends, stories told to frighten children and keep nosy people from digging too deeply into the dark, seedy, underground.

There are three stories in the arc, "Rysykk's Rise" is the first which introduces us to the world and the characters that inhabit it. "Rysykk's Remedy" ups the ante, thrusts the characters deeper into the intrigue of the secrets they keep and puts everything on the line. In the upcoming "Rysykk's Revenge" the world will be brought to the brink of war, secrets will be ripped into the open and our lovers will face more danger.

My vampires are not cold blooded killers, though the society they live in see them that way. They are altered humans, who lack the ability to process most foods, thus are left to get their nutrition through blood and supplements.

Not your traditional vampires, and not your traditional love story. From a rocky beginning as a kept whore Alarin is a young man just trying to survive. He never expects to actually care about the man who brought him up from Bottomside. Maleus, on the other hand, is willing to deny himself love to realize his political aspirations, even if that means using, and losing, the second person he has ever loved in his life.

In the world they live in, love is a luxury neither of them can afford and neither will admit to easily.

Rysykk's Rise:

Alarin is a skid living in the dark and dangerous underside of Washington-America, where the sun can no longer be seen through the buildings and streets of the upper levels. He's a pickpocket and a thief, and sometimes a whore when he's hungry enough, until the night he picks the wrong pocket and falls victim to a vicious beating.

A mysterious benefactor whisks Alarin away from the mean streets and offers him a life of luxury, ninety floors in the sky - but who exactly is Maleus Bryant and why does he want Alarin when he could have his choice of companion? What is it he knows that Alarin doesn't?


Available at Dark Roast Press:  Smashwords:

Rysykk's Remedy:

As Alarin struggles to find a mate and consolidate his power, his mentor and lover, the powerful and mysterious Maleus Bryant, fights his own battles against new dangers and unseen foes. Strange disappearances and agonizing deaths are the clues that lead them from Washington to San Francisco, from the dank shadows of Bottomside to the glittering heights of society's elite. Chemical genocide masquerading as a cure and treachery from within are only the beginning of their fight to survive.


Available from Dark Roast Press: Smashwords:

Come visit my Facebook I love to hear from readers.

JC

Vampires with real bite!

 

Blood Sacrifice ©2012 by Rick R. Reed

Untreed Reads Publishing

Below is an excerpt from my tragic vampire love story, Blood Sacrifice. I think it shows the anguish, depravity, and loss these creatures feel when they press their monstrous needs on an unsuspecting member of the human race.

Vampires can often be written about so they are amusing boogeymen, or highly romantic figures (think Barnabas Collins). The fact that they are monsters who were once human is key.

Blood Sacrifice accomplished my goal of creating figures that were neither black nor white, but inhabited a world of gray. Yes, their deeds were ghastly, but their motivations were all-too-human—the need for love, for connection, for being remembered. These needs were just as powerful as their need for blood.

I tried to create vampires that were richly textured and complicated.

EXCERPT

THE BOY, REALLY nothing more than a carcass now, lies at his feet. It’s hard to decipher what anyone might have seen in him. Edward nudges the body over on its stomach with the steel toe of his boot, so he doesn’t have to look at him. He would prefer to remember the boy when he was vibrant, when the blood pumping hot just beneath his skin gave his cheeks color, when his vibrant life force caused his eyes to shine.

Yes, that’s what I’ve spoiled, Edward thinks. He remembers talking to the boy in a leather bar called The Brig, where the air was dense with smoke (both cigars and cigarettes), the music was trance, and all the video monitors played hardcore pornography: here a crowd of muscular brutes tied a lithe young man to a St. Andrew’s cross and took turns fucking him, while the boy stared dull-eyed at the camera; there a man dressed as a member of the Hell’s Angels fisted two other men, on either side of him, their legs in chains in leather slings... Film production had come so far since Edward had surreptitiously watched men wrestle one another wearing posing straps on black and white 8MM celluloid. Edward remembers:

The boy stands alone, in a corner. His bright, alert expression tells Edward he is new to this, and shy. He knows his attention will be welcome, and he knows the power his strong, cocky looks have. He’s done it so many times in the past, it is like a routine. The boy will be pliant, willing. And once he has Tina racing through his veins, he will be even more eager to be defiled. The boy has no idea how far defilement can go.

Edward establishes no one will be looking for the boy, at least not for a while (he is from Indianapolis and has slipped away for the weekend, telling his parents he was attending a collegiate football game at Northwestern University in Evanston). It doesn’t take long for Edward to ply him with drink, smoke, and drug and lead him to the confines of Steam, the strip’s bathhouse, where he bribes the clerk behind the glass entry window to give them a double room without the benefit of a membership card or even ID.

The drug, Edward’s compact, muscled physique, and his commanding manner all play into the boy’s wildest fantasies once they are alone in the room. Previously inexperienced, the boy becomes an insatiable whore under Edward’s tutelage, no limit too extreme. Or so the boy thinks.

The sex is rough, even by leather and S&M standards, but still nothing so far out of the ordinary as to cause any true pain. For their first hour or so, the accent truly is on pleasure. But Edward leads the boy on a climb through dizzying heights of perversion and pain, ratcheting up the slaps, the nipple twists, the sudden thrusting of fingers into rectum, until the boy has a chance to grow accustomed to each level. Edward has done this a million times. The boy is interchangeable with so many others.

Finally, the pain and pleasure are so intense, the boy doesn’t even have time to scream when Edward’s razor-sharp fangs pierce the tender flesh of his throat. Edward has the boy’s windpipe and vocal cords ripped out in an instant. No one passing by their room will imagine anything is amiss; there is more noise in any number of other rooms.

SYNOPSIS

What would you give up for immortal life and love?

By day, Elise draws and paints, spilling out the horrific visions of her tortured mind. By night, she walks the streets, selling her body to the highest bidder.

And then they come into her life: a trio of impossibly beautiful vampires: Terence, Maria, and Edward. When they encounter Elise, they set an explosive triangle in motion.

Terence wants to drain her blood. Maria just wants Elise . . . as lover and partner through eternity. And Edward, the most recently-converted, wants to prevent her from making the same mistake he made as a young abstract expressionist artist in 1950s Greenwich Village: sacrificing his artistic vision for immortal life. He is the only one of them still human enough to realize what an unholy trade this is.

Blood Sacrifice is a novel that will grip you in a vise of suspense that won't let go until the very last moment...when a shocking turn of events changes everything and demonstrates--truly--what love and sacrifice are all about.

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