It’s time for chapter four of Heart of Darkness, my new vampire romance book. Elise’s will to resist Aleksandr’s advances is beginning to crumble a little but she’s still standing firm, determined not to let the powerful vampire prince capture her.
Be sure to keep following these weekly posts in order to read the first six chapters of the book. You can find previous chapters under my Heart of Darkness label. Heart of Darkness is currently available in ebook from Amazon Kindle stores, my website, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstores, Smashwords and All Romance eBooks and in paperback from Amazon.com. It will soon be available in ebook at Sony Reader Store and Kobo Books too.
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister…
Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the last of the vampire hunter’s progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?
A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves…
Elise is dedicated to her duty. It’s the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline’s mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince’s hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?
ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 130000 words
rating: sultry
released: October 2011
Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-darkness-felicity-heaton/1106991833
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781466173286
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466452897/
EXCERPT – CHAPTER FOUR
Aleksandr sighed and watched Elise leave, loving the intent strut she had. She was beautiful.
Their dance last night had fallen far short of his expectations. Her refusal had vexed him but then he had seen it as a challenge. He had never been one to back down from a challenge and the one Elise had issued had only sweetened the fight to get her into his arms. The reward for his persistence had been nowhere near satisfactory. While she hadn’t been afraid of him, she had hardly been compliant. She had stared at her feet so much that he had wished he had chosen only to speak with her instead so he could have seen her beautiful face. As he had tonight. The moment he had awoken this evening, he had decided to ask her commander to order her to show him the city. He was more satisfied with the outcome this time but he still wasn’t content.
And something told him it wasn’t her refusal that had left the hollow feeling inside him.
Elise had been polite, blushing at all the right times, her beauty beguiling him and bringing out the full extent of his charm. It was a skill and repertoire long forgotten to him, used centuries ago at court on the women there and not since then.
The way she had looked at him from time to time, the flash of desire that had been in her blue eyes, had increased her beauty and his lust for her.
He had thought she would give in to him, but she had resisted again, escaping his embrace and walking away. He wasn’t a stranger to refusal. Women had occasionally rejected his advances, and he had always moved on with ease, unbothered by it.
Not with Elise though.
Her refusal only made his hunger for her burn hotter.
She disappeared from view and he followed her. He couldn’t let her out of his sight in the city, not when there were hunters present. She would be in danger.
Aleksandr frowned and studied the foreign feeling that had compelled him to go after Elise.
He had felt this before, centuries ago, for his sister.
He wanted to protect her.
The desire was so strong that it controlled him, ordering him to go to Elise and walk close beside her, not letting her out of arm’s reach in case someone attacked them. He had to see her safely back to the mansion and her kin. It had been wrong of him to bring her out into the city and expose her to danger.
He kept his distance instead and considered his feelings.
There was something about Elise and the way he yearned for her. He’d never wanted a woman like this, enough to chase her so doggedly and definitely never enough to want to protect them from harm. He ran a hand over his dark hair, fingers tangling in the longer lengths on top, and settled it on the nape of his neck. Elise was different. She had awoken something new in him—a fierce desire to protect her, and desperate need to possess her.
Since meeting her, he had thought only of her. She had stolen sleep from him, replacing it with movies of her in his head that relived every moment they had spent together. When sleep had eventually come, she had been in his dreams, beautiful and pliant, satisfying his every whim.
Aleksandr craved her.
She led him through the streets and he was a slave to following her, needing to be near so he knew she was safe. Whenever she turned a corner, he quickened his pace so he could see her again, and then dropped back and allowed her to move on ahead.
Aleksandr couldn’t get enough of her.
It was everything about her. It was her stubbornness and how she resisted him, it was the fact she didn’t fear him, and the open way she spoke to him when her guard slipped.
It was how she looked at him with smouldering eyes.
Elise was beautiful, sensual, alluring. He wanted her and he wouldn’t give in until he had won her. The hunt wasn’t over. It was only getting more interesting.
She would be in his arms soon enough.
She passed through the gate of the mansion, storming along the gravel drive towards the house. Aleksandr strode faster, until he was close behind her again, knowing that if she was seen entering the house with him trailing behind her that she would be in trouble for not protecting him.
Protecting him.
He would protect her from anything. She didn’t need to protect him.
Aleksandr entered the house beside her. Ladislav was coming down the broad mahogany staircase in the classical cream entrance hall. The younger vampire paused and smiled. The three women behind him stopped too, twittering and blushing on cue. They caressed Ladislav’s slight shoulders, smoothing the fine material of his black suit jacket. Ladislav wasn’t a large man, nowhere close to Aleksandr’s build. He was wiry and slender, and not handsome by anyone’s standards, but power made a man beautiful and alluring to the females of society hoping to gain a new, higher rank.
The women looked his way and then to his right, their charming smiles faltering as their eyes fell on Elise.
“Mission complete, Master. I will report to Commander Piotr,†she said and Aleksandr held his frown inside. He didn’t want her to leave. Not yet.
“Aleksandr, will you do me the honour of joining me?†Ladislav said, as though Elise hadn’t even spoken.
Aleksandr gritted his teeth against the desire to put Ladislav in his place for ignoring Elise and nodded. “Of course. The night is still young.â€
“Elise, with us.†Ladislav waved his hand to her and continued down the stairs. He didn’t even look at her. He beckoned her as though she was a dog.
Aleksandr glanced at her to see if Ladislav’s treatment had bothered her. She was still dutifully bowing to her master. She was a guard. How often had his family treated their guards no differently? It was only now that he knew one that he saw how wrong it was.
He followed Ladislav down the gallery, gradually reining in his anger and reasoning with himself. It wasn’t his place to interfere. Even if it wasn’t, it left him in a foul mood and with little desire to amuse a male half his age.
When they passed through the red-walled reception room, the vampires there stood and bowed. Aleksandr ignored them and trudged on, weary of the attention when he had grown used to being alone. Perhaps he should have declined Ladislav’s desire to entertain him. Elise’s refusal had left him in a worse mood than he had realised. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was trailing behind him now, her gaze downcast and expression solemn. Something was troubling her.
It was probably him.
Her refusal had seemed genuine. Perhaps she didn’t like him. It was another strange thing for him to come to terms with. Whenever he entered society, all of the women clamoured for his attention. Elise shirked it and tried to escape him. At first, he had put it down to shyness, and then to her loyalty to her duty, but now he couldn’t find an adequate reason.
Except she didn’t like him.
And he refused to believe that.
The way she avoided his eyes, the way she blushed, it all said that she enjoyed his attention to some degree.
They entered the dark green reception room and Elise dropped back. Ladislav escorted his three young women and positioned two either side of him on the green couch that stood with its back to the door, and motioned for the remaining female to sit on the one opposite.
“Join us.†Ladislav grinned. “They are most amiable.â€
Aleksandr seated himself far from the woman on his couch.
“Andrej, I didn’t realise you would be here too,†Elise said and Aleksandr’s attention was immediately with her.
A fair-haired male guard smiled at her. He shut the double doors and Elise moved closer to him. Aleksandr stared at him, his eyes slowly narrowing with his increasing frown. Elise had been with him last night, guarding the exit to the garden. A fellow officer, or more than that?
The doors opened again and an older man entered, came over to Ladislav and spoke to him in a low voice. Ladislav conversed with him, a scowl on his face the whole time. From the looks of the man, Aleksandr guessed that he was an aide to the master of the house, and had infinitely more sense and breeding than his lord.
Aleksandr busied himself with assessing his surroundings while he waited. Oil paintings of the bloodline’s previous rulers adorned the green walls. He had seen similar paintings in the red reception room and gallery.
The fire crackled and popped, throwing sparks out onto the marble surround. He stared at it for a moment and then his gaze wandered on to the white sash windows on either side of the fireplace. Two windows with a set of French doors between them lined the wall opposite and revealed the horseshoe-shaped courtyard. He tried to make out the shape formed by the neatly clipped low hedge in its centre but it was impossible to discern from this angle and under the pale light from the lamps at each corner.
With nothing else to entertain his eye and distract him, Aleksandr’s gaze moved back to the one thing guaranteed to bring him pleasure. Elise was deep in conversation with the guard she had called Andrej. What were they talking about in such quiet voices? Aleksandr focused on the pair, intent on blocking out every other sound in the room so he could hear what they were saying to each other. His senses sharpened but dulled again when the door closed, signalling the departure of Ladislav’s aide. Aleksandr reluctantly switched his focus to the young master of the bloodline.
Ladislav’s smile was back in place, as though the interruption had never occurred. How much responsibility did Ladislav place on his aides? Judging by how focused on pleasure Ladislav was, the aides were probably running the bloodline for him.
“Pour us some blood.†Ladislav didn’t even look at Elise. He merely waved his hand again. Beckoned her. Aleksandr frowned, riled by her poor treatment and the fact that Ladislav hadn’t even used her name this time. This man had no breeding. He treated a guard as though she was a servant.
The shock on Elise’s face faded and she humbly walked over to the round table beside the third, empty, couch facing the fire. She turned over five of the crystal goblets on the silver tray so they were the right way up, picked up a metal canister of blood, and then carefully poured an amount into each glass.
Ladislav and the females didn’t even acknowledge her when she handed them their blood. The sight of her so degraded sickened Aleksandr, twisting his stomach into knots that tightened with each second that he had to watch her being humiliated by her master. A dark hunger to stand, grasp Ladislav by his scrawny neck and throttle some sense into him threatened to seize control. Aleksandr drew a slow steadying breath and held the urge at bay. Barely.
Elise picked up the last goblet and came to him.
Aleksandr sat forwards and took it from her, slowly brushing her fingers with his as he did so and holding her gaze.
“Thank you, Elise,†he said in a quiet voice destined only for her ears. Her blue eyes brightened, as though his show of appreciation had pleased her and given her task meaning.
“Come, tell us your tales.†Ladislav leaned back into the green velvet couch. He sipped his blood and then handed it to the woman on his right. She placed it down on the round table for him. Ladislav settled his arms around the shoulders of the two brunettes.
Aleksandr wasn’t in the mood. He toyed with his glass of blood, looking at it. He had no interest in stored blood, even if it was fresh. How sweet would Elise taste? She smelled divine, intoxicating, and he would give anything to have a sip of her blood.
“What do you know of me?†he said to the blonde woman beside him. She giggled and blushed, and every simpering action she made increased his desire to leave.
Only Elise had him remaining.
“I heard you killed five hunters at once… once.†The woman beamed at him.
Aleksandr forced a smile. She couldn’t even speak correctly. Ladislav obviously wasn’t after these women for their intellect. He couldn’t judge the man for that though. Back at the palace, he had pursued women purely for their beauty and their bodies. Things changed though, and sometimes it happened without warning, altering your world and carrying you along a path towards a future you hadn’t anticipated. He had survived such a change and it had transformed him. He wanted more than external beauty now. He wanted a woman who was intelligent, strong, shared interests with him, and was the most beautiful he had ever seen because of it.
He wanted Elise.
His gaze crept to her. She was still talking to that man.
“I did, although it was a difficult battle and nowhere near as easy as they painted it. The fight was long, tiring, and almost cost me my life.†That night had been one of the most frightening of his life. Society’s papers had made it sound as though he had butchered the hunters swiftly and survived without a scratch. Their media was as twisted as the human one was.
“And I heard that you have killed almost six hunters a month since you began your crusade four centuries ago,†Ladislav said with a warm note of amusement that reached his hazel eyes.
Crusade? Aleksandr laughed and waved him away. His mission was a vendetta, not a crusade. “Nowhere near that. Perhaps one or two if I am lucky. I spend most of my time tracking or travelling to find the hunters who are most dangerous to our kind. Maybe in the beginning I killed more, but there are less of them these days. We live in fortunate times.â€
“Thanks to you and your family of course. The Nemov line rules us well and gives us this great time of peace.â€
“I am no part of that line or their cause. Any progression they make with bringing our species rest and humanity is all of their own doing. Do not associate my name with theirs. I wish it did not belong to me.†Aleksandr swallowed and dropped his gaze to his lap, studying his knees and struggling with his feelings.
This was why he avoided society. No matter how often he asked, it always called him a prince, and it always called him a Nemov. He had nothing to do with his family now. Couldn’t they see that? He had broken with them to keep their name clean of the blood he spilled. If society insisted on associating him with his family, the blood of his victims would tarnish it and their cause would falter. He couldn’t allow that to happen.
Aleksandr frowned when someone focused on him and raised his head to find Elise looking his way. There was a touch of concern about her expression, her dark eyebrows drawn together, narrowing her beautiful blue eyes.
He managed a brief smile and leaned back into the couch, shoving away the pain that blazed within him whenever he thought of his family and the things he had done.
“You fight only the most dangerous hunters, which means you must be very strong and very brave,†the woman to the right of Ladislav said, her dark eyes wide and innocent.
Aleksandr forced a short laugh. “Or very stupid.â€
She giggled. Elise frowned and turned away, back to Andrej.
“It must be grand to travel the world hunting for humans.†The female on the other side of Ladislav smiled at him, fluttering her long dark lashes.
“Elise saw how grand it was when we first met. There is nothing good in what I do.†He wished with all of his heart that they would stop talking about him. Idle conversation he could handle, talk of bloodlines and politics, anything other than this. It dragged the past up from the black abyss, renewing the pain in his heart and the chill in his blood that he suffered with each hunt.
“Elise?†the women said, as though they didn’t know the name.
His gaze shifted back to Elise. Her eyes met his and warmth chased the cold away, lightening his insides and relieving the ache there.
He needed her. It went beyond a desire to have her to a deep need for her. He wanted her to come to him, to nestle in his arms with her head against his chest and soothe him.
Her expression changed, revealing fragility that caused a fierce desire to protect her to flash through him. In that moment, Aleksandr realised that if he said the right words or did the right thing, she would find shelter in his embrace just as he desired. But her look also told him that if he did something wrong, he would break her.
Aleksandr didn’t want to break her spirits in his attempts to win her.
She nibbled her lip, glanced away and then back at him. Her eyes darkened with desire, revealing that a passionate woman hid beneath her strong exterior and her uniform. A promise of things to come if he succeeded.
It only strengthened his desire to win.
“There is nothing glorious about hunting.†He held her gaze to see how she would react.
She had seen the body of the hunter. How would she react if she saw him fight and kill, not just stumbled upon the aftermath? Or if he told her the number of hunters he had killed and that he feared he was losing the remains of his humanity? Would she run from him again or would she come to him and soothe him?
He slid his gaze back to meet Ladislav’s. “Your city is a meeting point. A convergence of hunters will happen here, and one I am looking for may be amongst them. I will have to impose on you a little longer, and perhaps I could be granted larger quarters?â€
The young fair-haired vampire smiled and nodded. “Whatever you desire, you will receive.â€
Aleksandr would have been a happy man had those words been true. What he desired did not desire him and he was not going to get her without a fight. He needed to think of a way to keep her around him. Given time, he could break down her defences.
“I have not been very talkative this evening. Allow me to apologise and make up for it. You are probably aware that I have not been heard of in some time.â€
“It has likely been a year.†Ladislav pulled his two women closer. They fawned over him, stroking the chest of his black suit jacket and sliding their hands beneath to the black shirt. “Where have you been?â€
“I have not been in contact with society. I prefer not to involve you all. I was hunting someone across Russia and into Europe, and have strong reason to believe that he will come here.â€
“Is this hunter dangerous?â€
“We have almost killed each other many times over the past two decades.†Aleksandr preferred not to remember those times too. No other hunter had come so close to killing him so often. The man was strong and skilled. The original hunter in their line, the first he had eradicated, was nothing compared with this one.
Ladislav looked uneasy.
“You and your kin will be safe. I will not allow the hunter to interfere with your bloodline and he is exclusive about his hunt. He will only come for me.†His words didn’t seem to relieve Ladislav at all. The shine of fear in his eyes increased, even when he smiled. Aleksandr returned it, hoping to reassure him.
“How do you know he is coming to Prague?†Ladislav moved out from the arms of the women, pushing them away, and leaned forwards.
“Anyone can see it in our newspapers. The deaths of our top guards and hunters, anywhere an incision was made on the throat and blood was taken, all belong to the hunter. It is not another vampire searching for food. It is this man leaving me a trail to follow.†Aleksandr scanned the room for a copy of the paper but found none, not even on the dark desk in the corner. “I have been tracking him, and I am sure I can defeat him this time. I will need quarters away from the others, at the rear of the building if possible.â€
“There is a reception room and bedroom in the guest quarters, over the ballroom. They have not been used in some time but they will be your private rooms now, for however long you may need them. If you need anything else, any form of assistance, you may speak with myself or Commander Piotr.â€
Aleksandr nodded his appreciation and then looked at Elise. Could he request her presence in his bed each day?
He frowned when she laughed with Andrej. She was terribly familiar with him and Aleksandr didn’t like it. How could she smile and laugh with Andrej but look at himself as though he was filth? What did this man have that he did not?
His social skills were tarnished but he could fix those. As soon as he had caught up with the changes in society, she would see that he was a man worthy of her attention.
Unlike this man. Andrej.
Vast darkness bled into Aleksandr’s soul, tainting it and forcing out any light that remained. The black emptiness consumed him, fed by the twisting spears of emotion that stabbed his gut as he watched Elise with Andrej. It awakened a desire to hurt the man, to tear him away and demand to know his intentions towards the woman he had chosen to be his. He wanted to butcher him for even looking at her.
Jealousy was an ugly emotion.
Andrej frowned at Aleksandr as though he had sensed his intent.
A heartbeat later, Elise glanced over her shoulder at him.
Aleksandr averted his eyes, fixing them on the garden, and fought for control over his feelings. They were dangerous, whispering commands that he was close to obeying. The darkness grew inside him, until he felt cold and hungry. It gnawed at his insides, coaxing him into surrendering to his instincts and putting Andrej in his place.
He stood on the edge of the abyss, desperate to take a step back from the endless black beneath his feet. He couldn’t damage relations with the bloodline or Elise by murdering the man. He couldn’t lose control.
How could he have been so blind to the corruption in his soul?
He had denied its existence too long, had allowed the damage to grow to such an extent that he was now in danger of losing himself.
Aleksandr’s eyes sought Elise’s. He needed to look into them. He had been fighting the darkness when he had first met her and it had disappeared faster than usual. At the time, he hadn’t been sure whether it had been her or the danger of her attacking him that had driven it away.
She wouldn’t look at him.
Why?
If she did, he was certain this dreadful darkness would pass over, allowing the light of humanity back into his soul. He needed her to look at him. He needed her and it was about more than desire now.
An urge to extend his fangs burst through him. Aleksandr stood and walked swiftly towards the doors, struggling for control the whole time.
He felt her gaze on him, the warm touch of it on his profile as he passed her and then on his back. Why couldn’t she have looked at him when he had needed her to?
He couldn’t remain now.
He had to leave.
It was the only safe thing to do.
Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-darkness-felicity-heaton/1106991833
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781466173286
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781466173286
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466452897/
