My favourite scene from Love Immortal

I have the hard task of choosing my favourite scenes from some of my books to share with you this weekend. It might sound like a lot of fun, but sometimes there is more than one scene that I really love in a book and choosing between them can be very tricky. Add to that the fact that I can’t choose a scene that gives something major about the plot away and it becomes doubly tricky!

My first favourite scene is from a book that provides a perfect example of that. Love Immortal has many scenes that I really love and would like to share with you, but I had to pick just the one from this epic vampire romance novel, so here it is…

Lauren paused when she heard the door close. Hot water bounced of her hands where they were frozen against her head, halfway through rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. She focused and was surprised when she could feel there was someone in her bedroom. It was similar to how she had felt the night that Julian had saved her—an indescribable sensation in the pit of her stomach. That time it had said she was in danger. This time it was the opposite. A strange aura of calm washed over her.

Julian.

The bathroom door was open. She hadn’t been expecting company, but she wasn’t about to leave the shower now that company had walked in uninvited. It seemed like forever since she’d had a shower and the hot water running over her body felt too good to give up. She was willing to risk something happening. She didn’t have a perfect figure like Astra, or come anywhere close to her in the beauty stakes, but she wasn’t ashamed of her figure either. Although some bits needed work in the toning department, she was still the average weight for her five feet seven inch frame. Would Julian think she had an attractive body if he caught a glimpse?

A butterfly didn’t jig in her stomach, a whole army of them rushed around, sending it spinning like a hurricane. It wouldn’t settle, not when her thoughts were fixed on their current favourite topic—Julian.

He’d been a perfect gentleman so far and didn’t seem the type who would take advantage of a situation like this, even if she did want him to.

“How long have you known these Ghosts?” Lauren hollered over the noise of the shower.

Silence. She listened for a while and started to wonder if she had been wrong about him being in her room.

“Five years.” His voice was so clear and loud that she jumped.

He was in the bathroom.

Her heart started at a canter and rapidly increased to a gallop. She breathed deep to slow it again, knowing that Julian could hear it. He didn’t mention the change in it this time.

Lauren stared at the white shower curtain. Where in the room was he? She shook her head. Her heart was never going to settle if she thought about him. Leaning back, she tilted her head under the water. The hot beat of it against her hair quickly stole her attention away from Julian. It was exquisite, easing all of the tension from her body and re-invigorating her.

She let out a long low groaning sigh of satisfaction.

Her cheeks burned with the blush that covered every naked inch of her. Her attention shifted back to Julian. Suddenly, she was very aware of the fact that she was nude and alone with him. Her mind leapt forwards, imagining the possibilities. Passionate, hot images of him in the shower with her, their naked bodies entwined and his lips on her throat, sent fire sweeping through her body and her heart pounded out a rapid rhythm.

She really needed to get a life. Julian had barely looked at her, let alone shown much interest. The small more courageous part of her said that he might show a little interest if she accidentally on purpose tugged the shower curtain aside enough to flash him, or fell in the bath so he’d come to check on her.

Lauren ignored it.

“Can you hand me a towel?” She squeezed the water out of her hair with one hand and turned the shower off with the other.

A white fluffy towel greeted her when she turned around, Julian’s arm sticking through the gap between the shower curtain and the tiles. Lauren went to take it from him and then froze when she saw the scars on his wrist.

An incredible urge to bite him rushed through her, sweeping up from below and engulfing her. It was exhilarating.

She snatched the towel and wrapped it around herself. It was wrong. She didn’t want to think about the blood-drinking aspect of the awakening. She wasn’t sure how she was going to take to it. The thought repulsed her. Her body said different. The sudden desire to bite Julian had left it warm in all the good places. She tucked the end of the towel in, making a fuss of it to distract her from such disturbing thoughts, and then pulled the curtain aside. Julian looked up, most of his face still hidden beneath his coat collar. He was so close to her.

Fire flickered in his blue eyes. A hunger that both confused and pleased her. When he looked at her like that, she felt beautiful. She just didn’t know what he felt.

Lauren stepped out of the bath and walked over to the sink. She grabbed another towel and rubbed her near shoulder-length red hair. Julian stood behind her, reflected in the cabinet mirror. Not a vampire then. In all the stories she’d read, vampires didn’t have reflections. She looked at him, meeting his gaze in the mirror and studying his face. She longed to see what he looked like. His eyes were stunning under the bright light of the white bathroom, so pale and icy but holding such incredible warmth. He looked away towards the bath. The long black strands of his hair obscured his eyes but she didn’t miss the way they narrowed and his pupils widened. She swallowed. Had he sensed the way she’d reacted to the sight of his marks? He’d said that he could sense her. Could he detect such things? Did he know that she wanted to bite him, and that just the thought of it bordered on arousing?

He stepped to one side when she turned around and she walked past him into her bedroom. She picked up her backpack from the white armchair in the corner, determined to distract herself from thoughts of biting Julian and acting on her desires, and placed it down on the bed. Heat touched her cheeks as she pulled a fresh pair of knickers out of her bag and thought about the fact that Julian had packed them for her. He’d touched her underwear. She cleared her throat and quickly pulled some clothes out and set them down on the blue bedcover. They were all of her favourites. She was glad of that. They made everything feel a little more normal.

Lauren sat on the bed beside them. When she had gone through her bag this morning, she’d found her mobile phone. She’d checked it then and again this evening. It was dead. She glanced at Julian where he stood by the bathroom door and then looked at the three sets of drawn blue curtains to her left. She wanted to ask Julian if she could call her friends to let them know that she was safe, but already knew what his answer would be. He would tell her that it might place both herself and her friends in danger, and a part of her knew that he was right, but she needed to contact them. They would be worried about her by now. She worked with one of her friends, Vicky, pushing paper in an office, and was sure that when she hadn’t shown up for work, Vicky would have tried to call her.

“Something is troubling you.” The sound of his voice still sent a shiver of delight through her. Was it a Greek accent? It had probably changed throughout the ages but he still sounded foreign to her. Exotic.

“You said that you were a commander of some men.” It seemed like a better topic of conversation than her friends. She would find a way to check on them and let them know that she was alright.

“Arcadians,” he said and moved across the room. He stopped a few feet short of her, tall and towering, menacing in a way but not one that frightened her. She liked his presence, the way she could sense him when he was near to her, and the way that made her feel. His strength, his power, radiated through her. It wasn’t just comforting or calming. It was more than that. It stirred desire in her. Everything about him was alluring. Everything about him said that he wouldn’t hurt her.

He would protect her, just as he’d promised. Her knight in shining armour.

“My protectors.” Her eyes met his. The fire in them grew stronger. He narrowed them on her and she swore they had fallen lower, towards her towel, for just a brief second. She stood and the action put her close to him, to within a foot. Heat spread through her along with a desire to lick her lips.

Her fingers twitched again, desperate to lower his collar. She was strong enough to do this. She stepped past him instead and when she turned back around, Julian was sitting on the edge of the bed, his sword lying beside his hip. She crossed the room to the three tall windows and opened the middle set of curtains a crack. It was still dark out but it was heading towards dawn. Where had Julian gone tonight? She glanced at him and then went to the armchair and dragged it across the room so it was facing him. She sat in it and stared at him.

“Illia was given two hundred men, her army. Arcadians have always worshipped Zeus, and my men and I have always worshipped Selene. It was an honour to be chosen by Zeus and Selene to protect Illia. I was honoured to serve my goddess, Selene.” Julian paused and glanced at the window and then back at her. The fire in his eyes had faded but reignited again while he looked at her, his gaze boring into hers. “Know that they fought and died for you, just as I died for you, and continue to fight for you. We lived to serve you.”

Lauren swallowed hard, trying to keep her emotions in check. It was strange to hear someone say that they had died for her. It made her heart flutter. She reminded herself that Julian had died for Illia. He hadn’t died for anyone else since then. Would he go that far for anyone other than Illia herself? Would he die to protect her?

“And I was your commander?” she said with a quiver in her voice.

“You are my commander.”

She swallowed again.

Julian frowned at her, his gaze dropping to her chest the same way it had done in the hall when they had first come to Ghost, and then rising to her face again. He was listening to her heartbeat. It was off the scale at the thought that he might die to protect her, and at the thought of having to be his commander.

Whoever she’d been back then, she wasn’t that person now. Her entire body felt tight at the thought of having to make decisions that could get someone killed—that could get Julian killed.

“I don’t want to be,” she admitted and felt better for it but worse at the same time. There was a glimmer of something horribly like disappointment in Julian’s eyes. It faded an instant later, erased like all his other emotions were when they began to show. “I’m not strong enough.”

Meeting Julian and the others had made her painfully aware of that. She couldn’t compare to any of them. Even Piper, who feared monsters, desired to go into battle because of her faith in her fellow Ghosts and her sense of duty.

She was braver than Lauren.

Julian leaned forwards, his elbows coming to rest on his knees. She could see down his collar. The light was dull but she could see enough to tell that he was good looking. Her gaze darted to the lamp beside her bed. If she could just turn that on, she would see him properly at last. She would see that her instinct about him had been right.

He was more handsome than anyone she’d ever met.

Her heart skipped.

A soft look entered his eyes, his expression earnest and open.

“I am your guardian, Lauren,” Julian said in such a calm and gentle tone that the tight feeling inside her began to melt away. She liked how he said her name, pronouncing it slowly and carefully as though he was savouring it. “I would bleed myself dry if you willed it. I am yours to command. It is not a matter of strength, but if you believe it is, then use mine until you find your own.”

Her heart thudded now, hard and heavy against her ribs. God, could this man be any more wonderful? All of her tension melted and her bones began to follow it. Warmth glowed inside her, happiness that this man believed in her even though he barely knew her. He believed that she was strong and she could feel the truth in his words. He would do everything he said. He would lend her his strength, and he would bleed himself dry for her.

“Would you really do that? Bleed yourself dry?” she said, captivated by the romantic notion of him doing anything for her, even risking his life. She wanted to hear him say it again.

His pale eyes narrowed slightly and she couldn’t take hers away from them. There was something about his eyes. She could look into them for forever. The world could end and she wouldn’t care if he were looking at her as he was now.

“If you desired it,” Julian husked. Tingles chased down her back, spreading through her. “My blood is yours. If you needed it all, you would have it.”

Even when he talked about blood, she felt intensely drawn to him, willing to do whatever he asked if he could promise her eternity with him. It was crazy. Insane. She didn’t know enough about him to be dreaming that kind of future. Perhaps she’d been alone too long. But then, a man had never looked at her the way that Julian did.

With love.

With intense passion.

With need that said he might die without her.

If he kept looking at her like that, she would go through with the awakening just so he would continue.

“How much blood do I normally need… to awaken?”

“Enough that I am too weak to protect you. Should Lycaon attack, we will be vulnerable.”

Those words sent an unpleasant shiver through her and made her realise that she didn’t like the idea of Julian bleeding himself dry for her after all. She didn’t want him to die. She wanted him to live. Even the thought of her awakening weakening him left her cold. Had he learned from experience that they were vulnerable during her awakening?

“Is that why we’re here?” Lauren leaned forwards a little, her eyes still locked on his, searching them for answers.

He nodded. “It is. The Ghosts will protect us. They do not fully understand the situation, but they will not fail us should there be an attack.”

“Would you fight?” That question made her stomach turn.

He nodded again, solemn and slow.

“Why?” She sat back in the armchair, horrified by the thought that he would risk his life for her by fighting when he was weak.

“Because my duty is to protect you.”

Lauren didn’t have a response to that. He really did believe in his duty, and he’d carried it out for millennia. He knew his purpose in life and he was sticking to it. She knew hers and couldn’t decide whether to embrace it or bury her head in the sand.

It wouldn’t get her anywhere if she did that though. Burying your head in the sand didn’t stop death.

Julian was still looking at her with a soft tenderness in his eyes. How far would he go for his duty? She tried to think of a way to test him, to plumb the depths of his dedication to her.

“Would you do anything I asked?” Lauren said cautiously, looking deep into his eyes to check if he was telling the truth when he answered.

He nodded again. The look in his eyes hardened for a moment and a shadow of pain crossed them. Lauren leaned forwards again. What had he been thinking? She hated seeing hurt in his eyes. When he’d left her room this morning looking so sad, it had torn her apart inside with worry. Something terrible had happened to him in his past. It had to have to make him look at her as though he was dying inside.

“Even kill Lycaon?” she said.

“If I could.” His voice was low and as cautious as hers had been.

“If?”

He took a deep breath and sighed. “It is forbidden. The death of Lycaon is your duty and yours alone to carry out. I cannot interfere in that battle, just as Lycaon cannot interfere with my existence. When Illia died, Zeus realised his mistake. Zeus did what he could to help you. He made me immortal as you wished, and he made me invulnerable to the threat of Lycaon, but he could not change your curse to make you invulnerable to Lycaon’s blade. He could only ensure that you would be reborn and that I would be there to awaken you.” Julian leaned closer, his eyes on hers, and then cast them downwards at the floor. “If I could spare you from the horrors of battle, I would.”

There was an edge to his voice. Lauren could read between the lines. He wanted to protect her and it seemed duty didn’t have anything to do with it.

Lauren stared out at the night through the crack in the curtains of the middle window. The sky was growing light in the distance above the building opposite. The air in the room was heavy, hard to breathe, thick like tar in her lungs. She didn’t know what to say. Did Julian want to protect her for another reason? Was that reason anything to do with the way he looked at her sometimes?

Did it have anything to do with her, or was there more to her reincarnation than she knew?

“Am I always the same when you meet me?” she said slowly, unsure of whether she wanted to know the answer to that question.

“Your instincts sometimes carry on,” he said in a distant tone. She continued to stare out of the window. “There is a reason you are drawn to swords and combat.”

“A shinai is very different to a real sword… but when I’m facing my opponent in kendo, when I’m fighting, I feel a strange kind of peace, as though everything is right in the world. Is that my instincts too?” She glanced at his katana where it rested on the bed beside him. She’d never held one before. How was she supposed to fight with a sword when she was used to nothing more than a glorified bamboo stick?

“Perhaps. The principle of combat is the same in real life as it is in kendo, and I will train you.”

Her gaze darted to him long enough to see he was looking at the sword now, and then went back to the window and the beginning of dawn.

“I will see to it that you can fight, Lauren. Do not fear.”

The niggling feeling of doubt and fear in her stomach disappeared. She was sure that he would keep his word and teach her how to fight. She just wasn’t sure how good she would be at it. She was only at second grade level in kendo.

She pushed away her worries and watched the sky. The dawn was fast becoming beautiful, as peaceful as she felt inside. Pink traced the sky. Gold lined the scattered clouds.

“Do I always look the same?” It was the question she’d originally wanted to ask and the one that she feared the most.

“Yes.” His eyes were on her now. She could feel them. A blush touched her cheeks and she was glad that the low light would hide it from him.

“Sound the same?”

“Yes, but the language is often different.”

Lauren looked at him, her heart on the verge of falling into her stomach. It had risen so high, so far into her throat that the drop was dizzying, like plummeting down a rollercoaster.

Julian had mentioned that Illia had changed him. She had desired him to live. In her heart, Lauren knew what that meant. Illia had loved Julian.

Had Julian loved Illia?

Lauren was just a carbon copy, a replication of the original that he’d loved.

Her heart hit her feet. She frowned at the sky, trying to pretend that she found it interesting even though it had lost all its colour and warmth the moment she’d realised that all the looks Julian had given her were really about Illia.

She tried to say something but the words stuck in her throat. She coughed to clear it and then breathed deep in an attempt to steady herself so he wouldn’t hear the hurt in her voice when she spoke.

“Will I remember my past lives when I awaken?” Her voice was still tight. She feared that he would notice her change in feeling—her hurt. If he did, he didn’t mention it.

“I do not know.” His gaze was still on her. She could feel it and she wished she couldn’t. She wanted to make him leave. She ached for her old life—for the time when she’d been normal, not some reincarnated demi-goddess. “Sometimes you remember little things.”

Lauren stared into the distance, hoping that she remembered nothing this time. The thought that she was continually reincarnated had begun to feel comforting but now it choked her. It made her feel small and insignificant. To Julian, she was just another Illia. It was probably instinct making her fall for him, not her real feelings.

She was such a fool.

She’d been an idiot to think that someone like Julian would really look at her that way. When he looked at her, he was looking at Illia. Well, whatever he believed, she wasn’t Illia. She didn’t know who that woman was, but she was sure that Illia had been strong and brave and everything that Lauren wasn’t.

Lauren wanted to laugh at herself but her gut twisted when she thought about Illia. She pressed her hand to it, surprised by the violent feeling. Jealousy had never hurt like this before.

Gentle fingertips against her jaw made her start. Heat danced around the spots they touched. Julian slowly brought her head around so she was facing him. Her gaze dropped to her bare feet. She couldn’t look at him now. If he saw her feelings, she didn’t know what she would do. Right now, she felt vulnerable and weaker than ever, and one wrong look from him could break her.

His fingers brushed through the strands of her wet hair, his caress tender and soft, very careful.

“You seem so different this time,” he whispered and her heart started at a pace, lodging itself in her throat and trembling. “Your hair…”

“It’s dyed,” she said, eyes shooting to his.

“I know.” There was a faint hint of a smile in his shadowed face. Her insides flipped. What he said next made them jig and her head spin. “It suits you. It brings out warmth in you that I have never seen before.”

Her eyes widened. Warmth that he’d never seen before? Were all her predecessors cold? Even Illia?

“I understand that this is difficult for you, Lauren. Each time you are so different, you react so differently, but it is always hard for you to come to terms with what is happening.” His fingers paused in her hair, resting gently against her scalp. His palm brushed her cheek and she was tempted to lean into it. “I should have reached you sooner. I am sorry that I took so long… and that because of me you have less time to make your decision.”

There was such an earnest look in the depths of his pale blue eyes, tinted with regret, that Lauren found herself reaching up and covering his hand with hers, wanting to comfort him. Her fingers closed over his, pressing into his palm. His hand was so warm.

“How did you find me?”

“I told you. I can sense things. That sense is strongest when it comes to you. It guides me to you.” He paused and drew a deep breath. This time, he didn’t sigh. The hurt was back in his eyes. “I normally find you faster, but I was… delayed.”

Lauren knew better than to probe into that answer. Whatever the delay had been, it had pained him. As much as she wanted to know, she couldn’t ask. After the way he’d looked at her this evening, she never wanted to hurt him.

Because he already held a world of pain in his eyes.

His hand left hers and she sat back, again becoming aware that she was only wearing a towel, only now she didn’t care.

Lauren stared deep into Julian’s eyes, mesmerised by every dark fleck against palest blue. A sense of calm filled her, as though she’d found a haven in a storm and knew that she was safe at last. The things he’d told her lost their frightening edge. Everything seemed strangely normal.

Everything felt fine again.

Julian was immortal—a vampire of sorts. She’d lived thirty lifetimes and was on a mission to stop the king of werewolves before he managed to get revenge on the ancient Greek gods. Soon her latent abilities would awaken and she would become immortal again. Perfectly normal. Completely insane.

When she looked into Julian’s eyes, the world was right again. When she looked into his eyes, strength surged through her and she was ready to take on Lycaon and defeat him at last.

It felt so warm and quiet here with him, drifting through her life one breath at a time, one heartbeat after another.

Lauren frowned.

“Is the hypnotism thing a power of yours too?” It had to be a power. He hadn’t told her all of his abilities yet and she was sure that this was one of them.

“Hypnotism?” His left eyebrow rose and then they both knitted into a frown.

“Yeah. You did it the night we met and you’re doing it now. When I look into your eyes—” She cut herself off when it struck her that he wasn’t hypnotising her. There was another possibility. She really did like him. First, the instant attraction, then the jealousy and now she turned into a daydreaming little girl whenever he looked into her eyes. She might as well just melt into a puddle around him. It was fortunate that she could speak or look at him at all without falling apart. Lauren chided herself. She was stronger than this. No man was about to reduce her to a quivering wreck. “Forget I said anything.”

The ardent way he looked at her sent a blush blazing across her cheeks. Standing, she turned away and walked into the bathroom, taking her clothes with her.

She stopped in front of the mirror and looked in the reflection at Julian. Her stomach flipped. He was watching her, his gaze drifting down her back towards her legs.

Was she really different to Illia? Warmer? If anyone would know, it would be Julian.

When Julian looked at her, did he see her or did he see Illia?

She hoped that he saw her.

Because when she looked at Julian, she saw a man who was stealing her heart piece by piece.

This weekend, Love Immortal is available for only $0.99 / £0.99 / EUR 0,99 from Amazon Kindle and from Smashwords (using a code). That’s a $4 saving.

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

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

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

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