Teaseday – Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 7) – Vampire Romance Novel Excerpt Plus FREE EBOOK

Today’s tease comes from the book Seventh Circle, which is book 7 in my popular Vampires Realm romance series.

Read on for this Tuesday’s tease… it’s quite a long tease today, but I love this scene in particular…

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

“Is something the matter?” Lincoln said from the opposite side of the table.

She favoured him with a scowl and went back to her book. How dare he speak to her? This was his fault after all. He was one of them. He had brought the one that had killed Jackson to this place and then brazenly walked into her life and demanded she protect him.

She hated him.

She hated everything he represented, and all the deaths he brought back to her.

Tears blurred her vision. She refused to let them fall. She wouldn’t let him see her like this. She couldn’t let him see how much he affected her.

She turned another page, scanning it for a mention of Lincoln’s prophecy. Since the words he’d given her were in Latin, they’d started with the Latin books. It had never been a strong point of hers. She’d almost failed it during training.

Eve had been better.

Eve had passed with flying colours.

Her chest tightened and heart ached at the memory of her twin sister. She’d always been so full of life and laughter, so carefree while she herself had been so serious about their calling. She could remember telling her sister not to run down the halls here when they were children, that it was against the rules. Eve had never done anything by the rules.

It had hurt like hell the day she’d died.

Lilith had felt it, felt the pull and snap inside her. Daniel hadn’t needed to say a word for her to know what had happened.

Lincoln’s kind had killed her.

A dirty, vicious and disgusting Vehemens.

Vehemens seemed to take everyone she loved.

“There is definitely something the mat—”

“Shut up!” She cut him off, slamming her fists down on the table and standing sharply. Her chair flew backwards. “Just shut up!”

He looked shocked, leaning back in his chair in an obvious attempt to distance himself from her anger and staring straight at her with dark sinful eyes.

He was a Vehemens. This was his fault.

“I’m sick of you. I’m sick of the stupid rumours about us. I wish you’d get the hell out of my life.” She shoved the table hard towards him. He grabbed it and pushed back, stopping her. A growl of frustration left her and she walked away only to come back a second later. “A girl died today. She’d been a hunter for barely more than a handful of weeks. She was torn to shreds!”

He said nothing.

It was wrong of her to lay blame for the girl’s death at his feet when a weakling had killed her. Right now though, she needed someone to pin all these crimes on, someone to take it all out on, and he was the only viable target.

“I hate you!” She sneered at him.

His eyes darkened and he stood.

She didn’t show any fear in the face of him. The anger inside her was overwhelming, boiling up until she couldn’t keep control. She had to get this all out of her before she burst.

“I hate you!”

He narrowed his gaze on her.

“You think this death is on my hands?” he said in such a calm and measured tone that she knew he was upset. There was that incredible restraint again. She wanted to push and push until the tethers holding his anger inside snapped. She was itching for a fight.

“It was your kind, your bloodsucking, filthy kind!”

He stepped to the side, carefully pushed his chair under the table, and regarded her with cold eyes.

“You think we are all the same?”

She wished he’d get angry. She wanted him angry. She could see it in the depths of his eyes. He wanted to fight too. He wanted to retaliate.

“You’re all the same. Murderers!”

He laughed and it turned her insides to hear it. There was cruelty in that laugh, a sense of darkness and unspoken words. He didn’t care if he’d killed her kind. He had no compassion towards humans.

“You came here, bringing your merry band of bloodthirsty murderers with you, following in your wake… you brought them here… you don’t care what the consequences are, as long as you’re ‘protected’.”

He sneered.

“Oh come on… let’s have it then. The excuse. The reason why. The bullshit. I don’t give a fucking damn about you or your safety. The only reason I’m helping you is because you pose a direct threat to humans if this prophecy comes to pass. Right?” She glared at him until he nodded. “I know how to protect you. Get the hell out of my face and stay in your room!”

A flicker of red in his eyes was the only warning she got before he had leapt across the table and was stalking straight towards her. She backed off, instantly switching to the defensive as he closed the gap.

“Get away from me,” she warned.

He kept coming.

She was running out of space.

Instinct kicked in.

She punched him hard across the face.

Silence.

He touched his cheek and the red mark she’d caused. His eyebrows knit. His look turned as black as midnight skies.

Fear rose inside her.

She ran.

She ran straight out of the room without looking back and then slowed to a brisk walk, trying to look collected in case anyone saw her.

The slamming of the library door echoed down the hall towards her, along with the sound of his footsteps.

She doubled her pace. Her senses screamed that he was coming. She’d pushed him that one step too far. It had shown in his eyes the moment his temper had snapped. Her heart hammered against her chest, its frantic rhythm telling her that she wasn’t going to make it to the safety of the sun-drenched entrance hall before he caught up with her.

He grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully. Her breath left her when her back hit the wall. She flinched at his threatening growl. He was so close that his cool breath washed over her face.

Her eyes widened when she stared at his mouth and saw his canines extending. She’d never witnessed it before. They’d always been either human looking or in their vampire guise when she’d fought them. She’d never seen the process of transformation. She could almost hear his bones shifting and the scrape of his teeth as they grew.

He slammed his hands against the wall on either side of her head. The force of the impact made it shudder.

Swallowing hard, she fought for control over her fear. She couldn’t let him win this. She couldn’t back down. She’d pushed him until he lost control just as she’d wanted him to, only now she didn’t know what to do. The only course of action open to her was to apologise. She couldn’t bring herself to do that. A tiny part of her said to push him again.

Raising her eyes, she did her best to look calm. She flipped him a smile.

“What rattled your cage?” she said.

His fiery red eyes narrowed and a growl rumbled through his chest, so low that she could feel the echo of it in her own.

“You don’t frighten me.”

He moved back a fraction and blinked slowly. Was he going to let her go, just like that, without so much as an attempt to make her pay for her spiteful words? What he did do was the last thing she expected.

He leaned forwards ever so slowly, his cheek so close to hers that she could feel the coolness of his skin. Her eyes closed. He neared her ear and her heart trebled in speed when he dipped his head towards her neck. She grasped the wall behind her, flattening herself against it as though she would be able to evade him. She had to move. His low growl made her knees weak and palms sweat. Fear broke free of its restraints. It wasn’t that feeling which shocked her most of all.

Her stomach warmed when his breath washed over her neck. Her teeth teased her lower lip. She swallowed and pressed the back of her head into the wall. Her fingers tensed against it, seeking purchase to keep her standing as her legs began to buckle beneath her.

Their skin touched, his cheek barely grazing her jaw. It sent her trembling, her heart thundering so hard that she couldn’t hear anything but the rush of her blood.

She couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t do anything but melt into the wall.

She realised that he had moved away from her. Her lust-fogged brain gradually cleared and she opened her eyes, knowing already how he was going to look when they found him.

He inhaled deeply, smirked, and removed his hands from beside her head.

She was speechless.

He wasn’t.

“What rattled your cage?” he said in a deep sultry voice that sent tremors through her, aftershocks of what he’d made her feel.

He walked away in the direction of the library, victorious.

She couldn’t go back there now. Her cheeks blazed. She was ridiculous. Pathetic. He was a vampire. He shouldn’t be able to make her feel that way. She wished he didn’t.

Everything was falling apart.

Her feet led the way, carrying her down the stairs in the entrance hall and out of the door. The sun was still shining but it was heading towards the horizon. She walked around to the garden and sat down on a bench near the rose bed. Closing her eyes, she let the sun warm her skin and relax her. She didn’t get to see it much these days, let alone feel it. It was a long time since her and Eve would spend the whole day playing in this garden.

She looked at it, at the tall firs and the rhododendron bushes that surrounded the expanse of neatly clipped grass and borders of flowers.

Tears filled her eyes.

Today had been hard.

She shouldn’t have taken it out on Lincoln.

Staring at the scenery directly in front of her, she emptied her mind until she wasn’t doing anything. There was no feeling, no hurt from losing those she loved, or pain from the fight. There was no attraction to Lincoln, or lingering desire from their moment in the hall. There were no thoughts of what was to come. No fear. There was nothing but peace and tranquillity, the warmth of the sun, and happy childhood memories.

She longed to go back there, to a world bright with sunshine and long playful days with her sister.

Only she couldn’t go back.

She could only go forwards and go on in a world without her best friend and her only family. It was a dark place, a cold one that drained her of life and feeling.

The one thing she’d least expected had brought a spark into this grey world, a flicker of colour.

A vampire.

Lincoln.

Did you enjoy today’s tease?

Caris Roane is also posting a Teaseday snippet, so be sure to check out her blog and read it! http://www.carisroane.com/journal/

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

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

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

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

Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Amazon Kindle Canada

Apple iBookstore USA | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series #1)
Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (Vampires Realm Romance Series #2)
Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3)
Eternity: The Beginning (Vampires Realm Romance Series #4)
Spellbound (Vampires Realm Romance Series #5)
Reunion (Vampires Realm Romance Series #6)
Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series #7)
Winter’s Kiss (Vampires Realm Romance Series #8)
Hunter’s Moon (Vampires Realm Romance Series #9)
Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series #10)