Category Archives: About my Romance Books

Teaseday – Prophecy Trilogy – vampire romance books

Today my Teaseday post comes from another of my current books on offer. In fact, it is for the entire Prophecy Trilogy but I can only share an excerpt from one so chose the first in the series, Prophecy: Child of Light. The Prophecy Trilogy is part of my popular Vampires Realm romance series.

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

The Prophecy Trilogy books are on offer for only $0.99 each, which means you get the entire trilogy for just $2.97 and save yourself $6! How great is that? You can get the books on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Smashwords and other retailers.

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

Here are the blurbs for the three books in the Prophecy Trilogy and then an excerpt from book one and a link to a 70,000 word excerpt…

F E Heaton
A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever.

Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable to ignore the vision of them that he saw in her blood, Valentine goes against his orders to execute Prophecy and kidnaps her instead. The attraction between them grows as they search for the truth behind the prophecy, battle a dark evil that threatens to destroy the world, and attempt to evade their families and the Law Keepers.

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

The first novel in the Vampires Realm series, Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801048/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-prophecychildoflight-601470-139.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248920
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Child-Of-Light/mix-rDOnD6cECkGermYtAHD9Dw/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7757
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452391625
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452391625
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452391625
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452391625

F E Heaton
The final battle draws closer. Prophecy’s world becomes darker and more dangerous, pushing her to the limit and testing her strength and her heart, almost breaking her. Old friends turn their backs, leaving her to fight with the help of an unlikely ally and forcing her to call on the devastatingly seductive and powerful Lord Hyperion for assistance.

Struggling to rescue Valentine from the malicious hands of her blood brother, Arkalus and the lord of Aurorea, Kalinor, Prophecy discovers just how powerful she is and how far people will go to stop her from fulfilling her destiny. Lives are lost, battles are won, and the scroll foretelling the prophecy is finally completed, but nothing can prepare them for what lies ahead.

When her visions show her the path that must be taken, will Prophecy be able to do what is necessary? Are Prophecy and Valentine ready to command the power they’d never thought would be theirs? And are they strong enough to fight the evil of their true enemy?

Following on from Prophecy: Child of Light, the tension rises and love grows in Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea, a thrilling second part to this story that draws you into a dark, dangerous world of vampires, magic and the war to end all wars.

LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFER: Only $0.99 (normally $3.99) as part of my Winter Warmers deal – offer ends 15th January 2012. Find out more about the offer and where it is available.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Caelestis%20and%20Aurorea%20[book%202]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801109/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-prophecycaelestisandaurorea-601474-139.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248919
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Caelestis-Aurorea/mix-yK0J1P9NEUGrLDB1ENNISw/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7768
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0035LDNZK/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452345550
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452345550
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452345550
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452345550

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

In one decisive move, their enemy turns the tables against them, taking what is most important to Prophecy and leaving her to fear that the terrifying visions she’s been having are coming true. An enemy becomes a friend, guiding her in her time of need, and a friend becomes an enemy. Death, destruction and danger surround her, but the help of an old ally brings her the army she needs and the dark moon brings her the power to fight the legions of Hell.

When the time comes, will Prophecy be able to do what’s necessary or will the sacrifice she must make be too painful to go through with? Does she have the strength to stop Hell from being unleashed into the world and save the ones she loves at the same time?

The dramatic conclusion to the Prophecy story, Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising is a gripping tale of love and war that will take hold of you, set your heart racing and not let you go until the very last page.

LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFER: Only $0.99 (normally $3.99) as part of my Winter Warmers deal – offer ends 15th January 2012. Find out more about the offer and where it is available.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Dark%20Moon%20Rising%20[book%203]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801130/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-prophecydarkmoonrising-601475-139.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248921
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Dark-Moon-Rising/mix-oNMCVDI6LkyfWvOVDW0AZg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7771
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0035LDO2C/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452395913
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452395913
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452395913
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452395913
 

EXCERPT FROM PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT

When he approached them, Valentine nodded at the two guards that were flanking the main entrance of his family’s house. The rain was falling fast now, the wind driving it hard against the façade of the old mansion and saturating the heavy black coats the guards wore. He mused that they wouldn’t provide much protection against the weather tonight.

Stepping out of the darkness and into the brightly lit hall of his home, he unbuttoned his long coat while he walked along the corridor and through the entrance reception room. Shaking the excess water off his jacket, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the vixens of his household as they called to him. He didn’t have time for making sport tonight.

Tonight he had more serious business to attend to.

His thoughts drifted to the female vampire. She had been slim, her dark tunic top and trousers clinging to her figure as she’d defiantly stood before him in the rain. Her long hair had been soaked and had hung in loose tendrils. The darkness of it had made her face seem even paler than it probably was, drawing his attention to it. Her round dark eyes had spoken volumes to him, but all in a language that he couldn’t understand. There had been something about her that had drawn him in until he’d been powerless to resist seeing what she held in her blood. Little had he known that what he would see would only confuse him. If instinct had told him that, he would have let her go.

Let her go?

By the Devil, he wished he had.

He wished she’d answered his damn questions, wished he’d never laid eyes on her.

He stopped just short of the heavy wooden doors that led into the main reception room.

What was he doing?
He almost laughed aloud at himself while he tried to make sense of the thoughts that were running riot through his mind. He shut them down. To think such things was mutinous, disloyal. His hands curled into tight fists, his nails digging into the softer skin of his palms while he stared unseeingly at the dark doors. It was his duty to report this. It didn’t matter what he’d seen in her blood.

Taking a weary step forwards, he pushed the doors open. Everything felt heavy, his limbs, his heart, and his head. It all conspired to make him feel as though he couldn’t take another step towards his destination, and that he couldn’t tell his lord what he’d discovered tonight.

The sounds of merriment drifted into the background as he pushed on, walking into the room and closing the doors behind him. He could feel all eyes on him and he knew what they were thinking.

He didn’t belong here.

He was too young to be a part of this hallowed scene, this sanctum for the elder vampires of his family, this place where they hid themselves away from the idle play of the children. His place was here, whether they liked it or not. He’d worked hard to attain his position. He’d spent over two centuries as a loyal servant to his lord and a dutiful son of his bloodline.

He looked down at his hand, almost seeing the smear of blood that had stained his fingers not thirty minutes ago. Her blood. That’s all it was. Just blood. There was nothing more to it. It was responsible for the disquiet he felt inside. It was always a danger when drinking from another of the seven pure bloodlines. They had power, enough to intoxicate the drinker and make them believe the things that the blood whispered to them.

“Good hunting?” A voice cut through the noise and reached his ears.

Peeling his jacket off, he handed it to Cornelius who was approaching him from the side.

“No…interesting hunting,” he answered, stopping a few feet inside the room.

Cornelius arched a brow at the soaking wet coat and then neatly arranged it over his arm. Valentine gave him a look that warned him not to complain. The only reason that Cornelius could enter this area of the house was because the young vampire was his aide. That title meant bearing everything that he threw at him—even wet coats. He knew his friend would do almost anything he asked so long as it afforded him such standing amongst their family and so long as he treated him well.

“Did you run into him?” Cornelius asked.

Valentine touched a lone finger to his lower lip, remembering the sweet taste of her blood. He could smell it still, knew it continued to stain his lip for all to see.

“No…a her.”

His eyes scanned over the plush plum walls of the room, their height almost reaching forty foot. He ignored all the looks he was receiving while he searched the balcony and then the floor in front of him.

“Who?”

When he failed to find who he was searching for, his eyes fell to rest on an ornate mahogany door directly opposite him. His stomach squirmed for a moment and then settled when he reminded himself of his duty to his family. It was just her blood trying to work its will and contaminate him. That was the only reason he felt this way.

He nodded towards the door. “That would be telling. Is he in?”

Cornelius frowned. “He’s engaged with Indigo.”

“Not any more he isn’t. This is more important than pandering to that girl’s needs.” Valentine moved swiftly towards the closed door, continuing to block out the mutterings of his elders.

“What is it?” Cornelius hurried after him.

“You shall hear in time. I have to tell him first. I shall be a dead man if you know before him.”

“You already are a dead man,” Cornelius said as one of the men guarding the door stopped him and held him back as Valentine passed.

Valentine smiled and continued walking towards the door. His friend always had a habit of wanting to know everything first, but this time he couldn’t risk his lord’s anger by letting Cornelius know before Kalinor heard.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to relieve some of the tension in his body and then pushed the mahogany door open, striding confidently into the room.

He ignored the alluring smile that Indigo gave him when she pulled away from her mate and slowly covered herself, drawing her black hair down over her bloodied neck. Blanking her attentions, he looked straight at Kalinor.

When his lord looked back at him, Valentine walked quickly towards him. He took Kalinor’s hand, pressed a kiss to the ring on his finger and then looked up into his eyes.

“Valentine,” Kalinor greeted him dryly with an empty smile that barely masked his annoyance over the disturbance. “Couldn’t this have waited?”

“I am afraid not, my lord.” Valentine bowed his head. He didn’t need to look up in order to see the displeased look that his lord would be giving him.

Kalinor rarely bestowed it upon him though. Usually it was one of the other vampires in the household who was on the receiving end. He’d seen it often enough to know exactly what Kalinor would look like. His lord would be leaning against the large ebony desk, his long arms folded across his chest and his blue eyes watching him intently for a sign of why he was being disturbed.

Risking a glance, Valentine saw that he looked exactly as predicted.

Kalinor preened his sandy brown hair back into place and then scratched under his thin jaw before moving around his desk. He carefully arranged the tails of his long, ornately embroidered black jacket into place and sat down. Valentine watched him wave a hand at Indigo, silently dismissing her, and then found Kalinor’s eyes meeting his again.

Valentine moved to the chair on the opposite side of the desk, sat and met Kalinor’s gaze.

The elder vampire stared at him and Valentine tried to quell the desires that were rising up inside him, rebelling against his better judgement as they whispered words of insubordination to him. He told himself it would be more than disloyal to do as they asked.

It would be a sin.

It would be illegal.

He struggled to maintain a cool façade as his lord sniffed the air and fixed him with a dark look. He knew immediately what the problem was.

He stank of blood.

Not the delicate perfume of human blood.

It was the stench of vampire blood, of Caelestis blood.

He had to tell him now. It was his duty. He swallowed hard as everything inside him told him not to.

Kalinor raised a brow.

“Is something wrong, Valentine?” Kalinor said the words with cold calculation as their eyes remained locked with each other’s. “Did something happen on the hunt? I’ve known you since you were barely turned and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you like this.”

Valentine stood sharply, bowed his head a fraction and then walked to the other side of the room. He never could keep still. He had to pace in order to get his thoughts together and clear his head of the vision her blood had given him.

He had to clear his head of the vision of her.

There was something about her, something enthralling. The tiny trace of blood he’d taken from her had tasted so sweet, like honey on his tongue, and now a part of him was fighting against his better judgement and begging him not to tell his lord about her.

He could keep her to himself.

He shook his head to rid it of such a ridiculous notion. His allegiance was to his house, to the family of Aurorea, not to a female vampire of the house of Caelestis. Besides, if he didn’t tell him now, Kalinor would have him executed when he eventually found out about her and discovered that he’d known of her existence all along.

But what he’d seen in her blood. It couldn’t be a lie. No vampire on earth had the power to make their blood lie. It was truth, and he had seen it with his own eyes and felt it in his heart. To tell his lord of her existence was to sentence her to death and that would have terrible repercussions.

He stared at the window, watching the rain streaking down it while he pulled himself together and reminded himself that he’d served this house loyally for over two centuries. Now wasn’t the time to be disloyal, not when he’d worked so hard to get where he was. Not when he was so close.

“You seem troubled.”

He heard Kalinor stand and he looked at him out of the corner of his eye. His lord looked worried. He was drawing too much attention to himself. He had to tell him now before he grew angry.

“You did not succeed tonight in finding the hunter that plagues our city, but that does not mean you will not prevail. You will defeat him. I’m as certain of that as I am of you becoming the Law Keeper for Aurorea one day.”

Valentine closed his eyes as he felt those words plunge into his chest, twisting there like a knife. He would be a Law Keeper one day, if only he could find his voice and confess to his lord what he’d found tonight and why he smelt of their enemy.

He took a deep breath and felt tranquillity fill him.

“The prophecy,” he said the words slowly and looked directly at his lord.

Kalinor’s eyes widened, his jaw tensing while he waited to hear what he had to say.

Valentine began to pace, not wanting to see his lord’s eyes when he told him about her. He could feel Kalinor’s gaze following his every move, could sense the anticipation as it hung in the air between them. His lord would know that this was the reason he’d seemed so distracted and agitated tonight. He could no longer go back and keep her to himself. He had to go forwards and do his duty.

“Go on.” Kalinor encouraged him.

Valentine sighed.

“I had no luck in hunting the man responsible for taking two of our best. I ran into something else…something…” He closed his eyes briefly and replayed the image of her lost in the taste of blood and the thrill of the hunt. Opening his eyes, he looked at the floor and frowned. “Enthralling.”

“Enthralling?” Kalinor moved towards him, but Valentine moved away, going to the window and staring out of it at the darkness.

He watched the rain sweeping across the garden and clasped his hands behind his back.

“She exists,” he said and waited.

It wouldn’t take his lord long to piece together what he was saying. He would know that the blood he could smell on him would have something to do with it. He didn’t resist when Kalinor caught hold of his shoulders and turned him to face him. His lord’s eyes came to rest on the small spot of red that was still marring his lips.

“She’s one of them?” Kalinor said.

Valentine nodded in confirmation.

“I found her hunting, alone. She appeared to be executing her first kill. They have kept her hidden well…only she did not wish to remain that way.” He looked deep into his lord’s eyes and searched them for an answer to his next question. “Is she dangerous?”

Kalinor smiled.

It was true then. Valentine remembered what he’d been told as a youngling, what all vampires were told. In the future, a dark day would dawn and with it would come the end of their existence, all at the hands of one of their own. The one he had met tonight was the child of the prophecy. She was going to destroy their kind.

 Kalinor walked towards the door and stopped with his hand on the handle.

“For now, this goes no further than the elders. As an envoy, I will visit the house of Caelestis. You will be there at my side to recount what you witnessed tonight and we will see what they have been hiding from us.” Kalinor looked back at him and gave him a grim smile. “Then you will have the proud honour of destroying the abomination.”

Valentine’s stomach dropped when he heard those words. They had been spoken with a smile that said what a true honour it would be to be known as the vampire who had stopped the prophecy from coming true. He stared at the door his lord had walked out of and felt empty inside.

He would be responsible for destroying the abomination?

What honour was there in murdering her? He couldn’t see any, not as his lord could.

He shuddered inwardly at the thought of killing her.

He didn’t want to be the one responsible for her death, didn’t want to take eternity away from her. There was nothing honourable about what Kalinor had asked him to do.

He could hear Kalinor shouting commands to the house elders when he walked back into the main reception room and stared blankly at the floor.

He should have listened to her blood. He shouldn’t have tried to ignore the vision it had given him. Raising his head, he spotted the blond mess of hair that belonged to Cornelius through the heads of the elders and headed directly for him.

He caught him by the arm and started up the stairs with him. “Come with me. I need your assistance.”

* * * *

Prophecy was soaked to the skin by the time she had made it over the high wall surrounding the grounds and back to the house. Scaling the drainpipe again, she pushed the sash window up and slipped back into her room. She clawed her wet hair out of her face, closed the window as quietly as possible and then let out a sigh of relief.

She was so stupid.

She should have listened to her mother when she’d told her that she wasn’t strong enough to hunt. The other vampire had been so much more powerful than her. She hadn’t been able to stop him from biting her and she didn’t know what to make of his reaction. At the time, she’d just seen it as an opportunity to escape, but as she’d made her way home, she’d begun to think about it. He’d been stunned by what he’d seen, and she couldn’t fathom why.

It wasn’t as if she’d led a long or interesting life. She had spent over twenty years trapped in the same house. What was interesting about that?

At least she was back safe now, and no one had to know that she had been gone. She would change her clothes, dry her hair and then go down to see her mother. No one had to know.

She froze when she heard a noise in the darkness and realised that she wasn’t alone.

“Brother,” she greeted him coldly when he stepped out of the shadows by the door and moved towards her.

Turning away from him, she carefully covered the marks on her neck and stared out of the window, waiting for him to speak.

“Prophecy,” Arkalus said softly and came to stand behind her. He moved to touch her shoulder but she stepped forwards and evaded his fingers. She saw his hand drop to his side out of the corner of her eye. How long had he been waiting for her to return? She’d been gone for hours. “Where have you been?”

She bit her tongue and continued to stare out of the window.

She could feel his eyes as they raked over her wet hair down to the smooth skin of her exposed shoulders.

“One day, you won’t be able to turn me away so easily.”

She frowned at his words, a thinly veiled threat that he emphasised by brushing his fingers lightly over her shoulder. Her jaw set tight and she turned her head away from him, disgusted by his attentions and wanting nothing more than to be alone.

Unable to hold her feelings inside, she found her mouth moving before she could stop it. “You’ll be waiting a long time.”

Her words had no impact. It was as though she’d never spoken them. His fingers moved to play with her hair, his tone becoming so intimate a whisper that it made her stomach squirm.

“What makes you think I won’t tell mother about your disappearance tonight?” He leaned in a little closer to her and her whole body tensed.

She tried to make light of it, hoping that he’d leave her alone and find someone else to bestow his attentions upon. “If you did that, mother would want to know why you didn’t tell her earlier… why wait so long? You’d be in as much trouble as me.”

He seemingly ignored her comment and stroked his fingers gently over her shoulder. She shuddered when he pressed a light kiss to it, the tendrils of his long brown hair grazing her skin. It brought the stranger back into her head. She remembered the way his lips had grazed her neck. An echo of the feelings he’d ignited then danced through her.

“You won’t be able to turn me away forever. I’m a patient man…” Arkalus whispered it into her ear. She leaned away from him, trying to escape his touch. “As soon as mother passes the house to me, I’ll take you as my mate and you won’t be able to stop me.”

She closed her eyes when the air shifted around her and then the door slammed. She let out the breath she’d been holding and slumped into her chair, thinking about what he’d said.

It was no secret that he wanted her as his own. The whole house knew. He’d been courting her for as long as she could remember, but she had never once shown any interest in him. Recently he’d taken to threatening her, and the more he did the more she wanted to lash out at him. She wished he would go back to how he used to be, acting like a brother to her rather than attempting to be a lover. She wished her continual rebuffs would show him that she didn’t want anything to do with him in that way, but they only seemed to drive him on.

So long as their mother, Iona, was walking the earth there was nothing he could do without her consent, but Prophecy knew that one day she would be gone and then it would be her duty to do as the head of the household commanded.

The idea of being Arkalus’ bride made her sick to her stomach, but she wouldn’t be able to stop him if Iona was out of the equation.

Something told Prophecy that regardless of what he’d said, Arkalus was growing ever more impatient. If she didn’t agree to his terms soon then there was a chance that he would take the death of Iona into his own hands in order to ensure that she was his.

Changing out of her wet clothes, she slipped into a long black satin dress and lay down on her bed. She closed her eyes and pushed away from the thought of being claimed by Arkalus, and returned to her previous ones.

Who was the vampire she’d met tonight? Was he one of the Aurorea responsible for the death of one of her house or was he something else? He’d been alone, just like she had, not hunting with the pack like most vampires did. The way he’d looked at her after tasting her blood seemed like an image frozen in her mind. It haunted her.

He’d looked stunned, shocked by the visions he’d received from her blood, and it made her shudder to think of what he’d seen to make him look like that.

She’d suspected for some time now that she wasn’t like the other vampires of her house. They all spoke about her behind her back. Serenity had told her that much. Prophecy had caught fearful looks in their eyes sometimes and now a vampire from the other house was looking at her in exactly the same way.

Curling up on the bed, she emptied her mind of all thoughts until there was only him.

His dark hair, his green eyes, and the way he looked at her as though he could see straight through her, down into her heart.

There was something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but one thing she knew she could be sure of.

This wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.

DOWNLOAD EXTENDED EXCERPT PDF

LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFER: Prophecy Trilogy books are only $0.99 each as part of my Winter Warmers deal – offer ends 15th January 2012. Find out more about the offer and where it is available.

Posted in paranormal romance, Prophecy Trilogy, special offers, Teaseday, vampire romance, Vampires Realm | Comments Off on Teaseday – Prophecy Trilogy – vampire romance books

Sunday Snippets from my paranormal romance books

As I mentioned yesterday in my first Saturday Snippets post, I have rolled what used to be my Daily Dozen into a weekend affair instead as it’s much less time consuming. The same deal applies. I’ll randomly grab around a dozen sentences from between one and three of my books and post them with the covers.

I’m kicking off Sunday Snippets with Heart of Darkness and Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel series #4)! You can grab them both in ebook format for just $3.99 each at Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstores, Kobo Books, Sony Reader Store and other retailers.

Click on the book covers to read more about the book, including excerpts.

How about two first kisses?

Aleksandr drew back and looked at her, into her round beguiling eyes that spoke to him of passion and hunger. She held his gaze, her soft breath fanning his face and her body brushing his. She tilted her head towards him and he couldn’t resist the invitation in her eyes as they dropped to his lips.

His mouth claimed hers, his left hand cradling her right cheek, keeping her in place so she couldn’t escape him again. She didn’t respond at first, but then she turned in his arms, pressed her hands to his chest, and kissed him. He closed his eyes, slanted his head, and ran his tongue along her lip. She moaned and opened to him, her own tongue coming out to tangle with his, the taste of her divine.

Her passion overwhelmed him as she stroked her tongue along his and seized control of the kiss. She leaned into him, the length of her soft body pressing against his, and he burned wherever she touched. The feel of her short nails digging into his chest through his shirt, as though she wanted to keep him close to her, thrilled him and enticed him into taking things further. He captured her cheek again with his palm, his fingertips grazing her ear, and she sighed into his mouth, her lips sweeping over his. He slid his hand around to grasp the nape of her neck and deepened the kiss, reclaiming control as he wrapped his other arm around her waist, bringing her into his embrace. She belonged there. His salvation.

She caught him off guard when she broke away and slapped him hard across the cheek.

Marcus stared at her mouth, everything good in him screaming to break away and stop her. He didn’t. He stayed stock still and let it happen.

His first kiss in this lifetime was a tentative sweep of soft lips over his followed by the press of her body into his. The feel of her against him sent a flood of feelings surging through him, setting his blood aflame with desire and the need to clutch her to him and possess her. It overwhelmed him and his restraint, crushing the good part that was still struggling to resist, and while he stopped himself from sliding his arm around her back and pulling the full length of her body flush against his, he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her.

She moaned softly when he responded, grazing his lips against hers in a gentle caress that fanned the flames within him until he burned for her and for more. Her tongue brushed along the seam of his mouth and he brought his to meet it, tangling softly and luring it into his mouth where they danced. He couldn’t remember kissing in his past lifetime but he certainly would have if it had felt like this. Warmth suffused him right down to his bones and every breathy little moan he elicited from Amelia turned the heat up another notch, until he was close to grabbing the nape of her neck and holding her mouth against his.

He breathed hard when she broke away to kneel on the sofa in front of him, her grey eyes wide and hand coming up to cover her mouth.

I hope you enjoyed these Sunday Snippets!

Posted in Heart of Darkness, Her Guardian Angel, paranormal romance, snippets | Comments Off on Sunday Snippets from my paranormal romance books

Saturday Snippets from my Paranormal Romance Books

I was finding it hard to keep on top of my Daily Dozen, so I have rolled it into a weekend event. From now on, I’ll be posting Saturday Snippets and Sunday Snippets. There will be between one and three book snippets each day, all of them around twelve sentences long.

I’m kicking off Saturday Snippets with Her Dark Angel and Vampire for Christmas! Both ebooks are available for just $0.99 right now on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstores, Kobo Books, Sony Reader Store and other retailers.

Click on the book covers to read more about the book, including excerpts.

Apollyon stepped back a little, unable to bear the torture and needing a moment to breathe. He was too close to letting go.

Serenity stared into his eyes, hers full of invite, asking him to give in to her. He would do so willingly if he could be sure that this wasn’t an act. It was a charade, nothing more than pretend so they would make Edward jealous. That was all it was.

So why did it feel so good to have her in his arms?

She ran her hands down over his biceps, slowly, her gaze following her right hand as it traced the curves of his muscles, and her heart beating faster, as though exploring his body excited her. Her eyes darkened and he could feel the hunger in her, could sense the growing need.

Why did his body burn wherever she touched?

His gaze flickered to her mouth.

And why couldn’t he keep his eyes off her cherry red lips and his mind off how good it would feel to dip his head and kiss her?

Shannon leaned forwards to look at the book and the right side of her robe fell away from her neck, slipping down her shoulder. Rafe stared at the pale column of her throat, his breathing turning sharp and harsh as he fought the urge to pull her close and lick her neck.

He forced his eyes away and they caught on something that hit him hard in the gut.

Scars.

On her neck.

He had never noticed marks there before, but then he couldn’t remember ever seeing her neck. Someone had bitten her. He frowned at ragged pink scars and heat burned in his chest, coiling into anger that ran through his veins and seized control of him.

He reached out to touch the scars.

Shannon smacked his hand away and jolted backwards, out of his reach, her chair scraping on the floor. She scowled at him, clinging to the bathrobe and quickly covering her throat. There was a frightened edge to her eyes. Fear that he might do that to her too, or that his touch might comfort her and force her to confront the feelings she denied so well?

“Who did that to you?”

I hope you enjoyed these Saturday Snippets! What books would you like to see snippets from?

Posted in Her Dark Angel, snippets, Vampire for Christmas | Comments Off on Saturday Snippets from my Paranormal Romance Books

Paranormal romance novels, colds, and scheduling craziness

My schedule since December began has been rather fouled up in one way or another, or in multiple ways in the case of one week. I managed to claw back a little sanity that week but I have spent the past week stuffed up with a cold that has been gradually driving me crazy (see my emo tweets and facebook posts — you’d think this cold was the end of the world) and slowing me down. Needless to say, progress has been faltering at best.

I have managed to complete the initial read through of Masquerade (Vampires Realm #10) which is due out at the end of January 2012, and have transferred all my amendments from my Amazon Kindle 3 (I love you) to my word document in preparation for this polish phase of editing.

However, I haven’t made much progress other than that and I had wanted this book completed bar a couple of proofing sessions by the end of this coming week. I wanted Christmas off. So sue me. I always plan to have Christmas off and then end up working it. For once I wanted to stick to my guns and read some books that I hadn’t written myself and watch some movies.

I think it’s still possible, but the life of an author is give and take. I may have to do some work in order to hit my deadlines, as well as spend some time promoting my current offers and latest book, Heart of Darkness. Poor Heart of Darkness has been given a bad run of it lately. I’ve neglected it because I’ve been so focused on my paranormal romance books on offer. It’s hard to juggle that many balls and not drop some.

If you are looking for a rather passionate, intense vampire romance book, then you should definitely check out the excerpt of Heart of Darkness and see if it’s for you. You can download samples from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or read the excerpts here on my blog. It’s been receiving great reviews and a lot of love from readers, and is only $3.99 in ebook.

Now, back to my editing. At worst, I will have to shunt my schedule by a week, pushing Masquerade closer to an early February release date instead. I can’t push it too far as I have my second ear operation in late February and want to have completed my blog tour for Masquerade by then and be underway with preparations for my Covet blog tour so I can rest up after the operation and not have to worry about things. Yes, 2012 is going to be another year full of blog tours but hopefully I’ll handle it better this time. I think I did well with my tours this year considering that I was new to it all, and I’m looking forward to trying out some new things next year.

I do think that I can hit my deadline if I get my head down this week. I have a lot of marketing activity planned for the week though, so I might have to get my concentration up somehow. Hopefully I’ll shift this cold soon and will be able to focus better. At the moment, it’s really bugging me and sniffling is rather distracting, along with the constant headache!

I’m also researching some ideas for giveaways and marketing I want to do next year, and want to formulate my plan for the year so I can start putting it all into action. Should be another crazy year!

I promise I’ll move Heaven and Hell to get Masquerade out on time.

😀

Posted in Heart of Darkness, Masquerade, paranormal romance, vampire romance, Vampires Realm | Comments Off on Paranormal romance novels, colds, and scheduling craziness

Winter Warmers Blog Tour – Her Dark Angel at Fang-tastic Books!

Today my Winter Warmers blog tour takes me to my final stop over at the awesome Fang-tastic Books where I’m talking about Her Dark Angel, the first book in my best selling Her Angel romance series and also the series in general. I’m sharing a saucy excerpt from the book and hosting another giveaway for some signed goodies too.

Hop on over to Fang-tastic Books to read about Her Dark Angel and enter the giveaway!

Don’t forget to check out the previous posts and enter the giveaways there too!

Winter Warmers Blog Tour

December 2ndChatting about ASCENSION @ Bookin It Reviews
December 6thChatting about WINTER’S KISS @ Madame D’s Boudoir
December 7thChatting about VAMPIRE FOR CHRISTMAS @ Page Flipperz
December 8thChatting about FORBIDDEN BLOOD @ The Enchanted Book
December 9thChatting about SEVENTH CIRCLE @ Paromantasy
December 12thChatting about PROPHECY TRILOGY @ Fade Into Fantasy
December 13thChatting about HUNTER’S MOON @ Satin’s Bookish Corner
December 14thChatting about HER DARK ANGEL @ Fang-tastic Books

Posted in 2011 blog tour, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel | Comments Off on Winter Warmers Blog Tour – Her Dark Angel at Fang-tastic Books!

Winter Warmers Blog Tour – Hunter’s Moon at Satin’s Bookish Corner!

Today my Winter Warmers blog tour takes me to Satin’s Bookish Corner where I’m talking about Hunter’s Moon, the ninth book in my popular Vampires Realm romance series, and sharing a tasty excerpt from the novel as well as hosting another giveaway for some signed goodies.

Hop on over to Satin’s Bookish Corner to read about Hunter’s Moon and enter the giveaway!

Don’t forget to check out the previous posts and enter the giveaways there too!

Winter Warmers Blog Tour

December 2ndChatting about ASCENSION @ Bookin It Reviews
December 6thChatting about WINTER’S KISS @ Madame D’s Boudoir
December 7thChatting about VAMPIRE FOR CHRISTMAS @ Page Flipperz
December 8thChatting about FORBIDDEN BLOOD @ The Enchanted Book
December 9thChatting about SEVENTH CIRCLE @ Paromantasy
December 12thChatting about PROPHECY TRILOGY @ Fade Into Fantasy
December 13thChatting about HUNTER’S MOON @ Satin’s Bookish Corner

Posted in 2011 blog tour, Hunter's Moon | Comments Off on Winter Warmers Blog Tour – Hunter’s Moon at Satin’s Bookish Corner!

Teaseday – Vampire for Christmas – vampire romance book

Today my Teaseday post comes from Vampire for Christmas since it’s getting closer to the holidays. Vampire for Christmas is a seasonal vampire romance book and it’s available now for just $0.99 on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Smashwords and other retailers.

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

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

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

It was one last mission. Rafe, a vampire doing time with the agency, watches it approach with dread weighing heavily in his stomach. Two years of working with Shannon has been difficult, especially since he started falling for her, but he doesn’t want their partnership to end. He has barely a few days to make her face her feelings and stop her from leaving, and he intends to do just that.

When a slimy demon threatens the season of peace and goodwill, it’s the chance Rafe has been waiting for and the moment Shannon secretly fears. Rafe’s determination to prise open her heart and her own resolve to keep it closed clash as violently as they do with the demon, and threatens to end as messily.

Can Rafe make Shannon see that his love for her is real and that she feels something for him too? Can Shannon face her fears and her past, and stop herself from running away from both? Will a wish on a star bring her what her heart truly desires—a vampire for Christmas?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Vampire%20for%20Christmas
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AM59T6/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004AM59T6/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Vampire-for-Christmas/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011177187/
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/vampire-for-christmas/_/R-400000000000000359154
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Vampire-For-Christmas/mix-rLsihKs-8EyfN3Zf7TR7tA/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29379
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004AM59T6/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B004AM59T6/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452356044

EXCERPT

His favourite prey.

Rafe stood on the lawn, his dark eyes following her from room to room in her large house. Shannon disappeared from view on the top floor only to reappear in the living room. He couldn’t see much through the open curtains but his senses made up for what he lacked in vision. He tracked her with them, focusing until the dark world around him drifted into the distance and there was only her.

She was muttering.

A smile tugged at his lips.

How many times had he told her not to mutter?

She reappeared and stood in the middle of the living room, tying her long fair hair up into a ponytail, her gaze on the television. The twinkling lights hanging around the room cast a myriad of colours, turning the scene from warm to cold and back again. She looked pale tonight. Had she been getting enough sleep? They had last worked together two weeks ago and she hadn’t seemed herself. He had tried to ask her what was wrong, but had failed to find his voice, instead leaving her to mull over whatever was bothering her in silence.

Rafe had killed the vampire that night. She hadn’t even noticed it. He’d had to report it to the agency. In a toss up between her being angry with him for telling her superiors about her dangerous lack of concentration and her being safe, the latter would always win with him.

She smiled.

His chest ached.

He hadn’t seen her smile in a long time. He stood in silence, unmoving, absorbing this rare beauty before him. She was a goddess when she smiled, and it always tugged at his insides, luring him to her. She turned towards the window and her smile slowly faded, her expression turning distant.

What was she thinking in there?

She couldn’t see him. Human eyes weren’t sharp enough to pick him out in the shadows of the tall trees on her lawn. The lights in the room would steal what little night-vision she had. He could observe her from the darkness without fear, could watch her and think over the things that plagued him every night.

The feelings.

During the day, Rafe could almost pretend they didn’t exist. The sun stole the world from him and his emotions with it, leaving him in a deathly slumber. At night, when he came to her, when he saw her again, everything returned, and each time it came back stronger.

He knew that Shannon didn’t like working with him, and the past two years had been difficult for them both at times, especially at the start, but it didn’t stop him from feeling something for her. They had been through so much together, so many fights for their lives, so many long nights passed in quiet company when no demons showed up, and so many long conversations when her guard slipped. When they had first been assigned to each other, he had wanted out of the deal straight away, but now he almost looked forward to the times they were required to work together.

His dead heart called him a liar.

He didn’t almost look forward to it at all. He waited for it. Yearned, in fact.

Rafe sighed and leaned back against the broad rough trunk of the pine tree.

It was no use anyway.

Come the New Year, the agency would separate them and relocate them at opposite ends of the country.
He stared at her. She swept a few rogue strands of golden hair back, tucking them into her messy ponytail, and laughed at something. The light from the television flickered across her face. Rafe smiled at the same time as she did. The sight of her chased the winter chill from his body.

He was going to miss her.

His little vampire hunter.

He had never wanted a partner, but she had changed that. Now, he didn’t want any partner except her.

Shannon smiled again and zipped up her red jumper, until the tall collar of it covered her neck. She pushed shorter lengths of her hair behind her ears and then looked out of the window again, and he felt as though she was looking right at him. She was so beautiful when she was unaware of him. Naturally so too. No trace of make-up touched her oval face. No kohl to highlight the depths of her green eyes, or lipstick to enhance the sensual swell of her coral lips. Everything about her was natural, right down to her curvy shape. He had tended to her wounds a few times before, each time battling his desire as he swept his fingers over her soft skin and laid eyes on the toned body she hid beneath her clothes. She trembled for him sometimes and refused to look at him whenever she did, and he was convinced that her shivers weren’t born of fear. He was convinced that part of her was attracted to him too. Her gaze shifted and settled on something partially obscured by the pale curtains.

He frowned and tried to make out what it was.

Ragged dark shape that tapered upwards. Shiny coloured lights. Glittering orbs. Tufted strings of foil.

A Christmas tree.

It surprised him that she celebrated the occasion. He had thought she would be indifferent to such human things since she was a demon hunter, but there she was, standing in a room bathed in twinkling lights, tinsel and festive trimmings. The entire street was alive with flashing reindeers, singing Santas, and fake snow on roofs. No decoration touched the outside of her two storey home, but it was different on the inside.

Rafe studied her as she adjusted a bauble on the tree. He might have been talking about her. The exterior she showed to him and others was different to how she was on the inside. He knew that best at times like these when he was watching her from the shadows. This was the real her, the one she hid beneath her armour and would never let him see. This was his only way of seeing the side of her that he wished she would show to him, and he couldn’t help himself.

He told himself that it wasn’t stalking. It was observing. It was hunting. It was having the chance to see the woman he wanted her to be around him and taking it.

Shannon moved away from the tree, towards the back of the house, her hips swaying in her snug blue jeans. His gaze slipped to her backside and he growled, desire spearing him in the gut. He loved the way she walked even when she thought no one was watching. There was something sexy about it, alluring. He cocked his head to one side and fought the urge that rose inside him.

It was useless.

She would never be his.

She had looked at him differently sometimes, almost as if he was human, but those moments rarely lasted. The barriers were swift to come back up, protecting her heart before he could reach out and capture it. During their past few hunts, he had struggled with the right words, trying to form them into a semblance of order and put his feelings in a way that she wouldn’t reject outright, in a way that would make her see that his emotions were real and that he would never harm her. He had never found the perfect moment though, or the perfect words.

And time was running out.

The ticking clock made him reckless. It didn’t matter anymore if she rejected him. He couldn’t let the chance slip through his fingers again. It was now or never.

This was their last mission together.

He wouldn’t leave without trying to make her see what he felt for her.

Shannon came out of the back room, her jacket in her left hand, and stopped in front of the Christmas tree again. She touched the same bauble she had before but this time her expression changed, turning troubled and distant. What was on her mind? Rafe had seen that look before, normally when she was lost in her thoughts, like the time he had reported to her superiors. They had told him not to worry about it and that they would speak with her. He wanted to be the one to speak to her about it. He wanted to know why she had joined the agency. She was young, barely over thirty, and she had never mentioned her family. Did her reason for hunting demons have something to do with them? Did it have anything to do with vampires?

He only hunted his own kind because the agency had him by the balls on several murder cases. He was a vampire. All of his species were susceptible to temptation and he was far from saintly. He had fought his addiction though and had come out the other side a better vampire for it. A stronger vampire because of it. He didn’t kill anymore. He could control that side of him now, and maybe it was time he made the agency realise that and made them let him go.

Rafe shook his head at the way he sounded. Childish. Petulant. Everything that a vampire his age shouldn’t be. And why? Because he didn’t want to leave her. He didn’t want to be reassigned to someone else, or sent off to work alone. He wanted to stay here, with Shannon, where he belonged.

She tugged her short black wool jacket on and Rafe knew it was time to make a move. She was expecting him and he had never been late before.

He moved further back into the shadows on her front garden when she approached the window. She didn’t see him. She closed the curtains, hiding her from view, and he resorted to tracking her with his senses again.

A car passed along the street behind him. The sound of carol singers drifted on the chill breeze. Rafe looked up at the crisp night sky and the twinkling stars. Christmas. He couldn’t remember if he had ever celebrated it.

He had forgotten so much about his former life on becoming a vampire.

His gaze dropped and stuck on something on her porch.

Mistletoe.

Rafe raised an eyebrow and then smiled as he left his hiding place and walked towards the front door.

Some traditions he definitely remembered from his life as a human.

* * * *

There was a knock at the door. Shannon knew from the impatient clip it had who would be waiting on the porch, and she took her time because of it. It wouldn’t look good if she rushed to answer it. The last time she had opened the door within a minute, because she had been passing it at the time, Rafe had teased her the whole night about how she had been waiting for him on the other side, desperate to go out with him again, and how attracted to him she was.

Total crap of course.

She wouldn’t be attracted to him if he was the last man on Earth. Shannon smiled to herself. He wasn’t even a man. She would have to be down to the last vampire too before she would ever consider him in that way.

Shannon slipped a stake into the inside pocket of her thick black wool jacket and another into the back pocket of her dark jeans. It was always a good idea to be well armed when out on a hunt. She wasn’t about to let the holiday season lure her into a false sense of security. Wretched demonkind didn’t celebrate the occasion, and some of her busiest times had been over the Christmas period. Besides, the stakes weren’t just for use on the bad vampires. Sometimes she considered using them on the apparently good vampires too.

Shannon opened the door.

Rafe stood on the other side, six feet plus of dark handsome devil perfectly capable of pushing every right button in a woman.

At least, every woman except her.

The left side of his sensual mouth tugged into a half smile that revealed the tip of a canine and his deep brown eyes slid up towards the porch ceiling. Her eyes followed out of curiosity.

Mistletoe.

Her gaze snapped back to him. He had to be kidding. He stared at her, dark eyes locked on hers in a silent challenge, and rocked expectantly on his heels. He clasped his hands behind his bottom, the action dragging his long black coat back too, revealing the athletic physique that his dark shirt failed to hide.

Shannon stepped backwards into the safety of her house.

Rafe frowned.

She could almost hear what he was thinking, could read it in his eyes. She didn’t care if he thought she was rude because she had never invited him into her home. She had neglected to do so for good reason. It was handy at times like these when he was making her heart jitter and pulse race.

She was not going to kiss him.

There were a million reasons why, but she settled on the safety aspect because her heart couldn’t overrule that one.

If she abided by tradition and kissed him, she would be placing herself firmly within his grasp, and that was a place she didn’t want to be. What would start as a harmless festive kiss would end as a bloodbath with his fangs in her throat. Just the thought of it happening shook her deep inside, dredging up memories best left forgotten and pain she had fought to erase. She would never let anything like that happen again.

Never.

Rafe continued to stare, his dark gaze cool but demanding.

Sometimes, Shannon wished the agency hadn’t paired them together. She had never wanted to work with one of nature’s freaks. She just wanted to kill them and get revenge for what they had done to her and her family.

“Never going to happen.” Shannon pushed past him, slammed the door behind her, and locked it. She didn’t break her stride. Before he could respond, she was at the end of her garden path and walking towards the centre of town.

She didn’t hear him move. One moment he wasn’t there, and the next he was keeping pace beside her. Her heart leapt at his sudden appearance.

“I told you not to do that.” She drew her hand away from her back pocket. It had jumped to the stake on instinct. One of these days, he was going to surprise her and she was going to give him a nasty surprise of her own.

“No need for that.” He appeared on the other side of her, his hand slipping over hers and easing it away from the stake. He smiled at her, his cool fingers lingering against hers. “There is a no staking your partner policy at the agency, remember?”

Shannon snatched her hand back and wished she didn’t remember. It was the only thing stopping her from killing him. A quiet voice at the back of her mind whispered that it wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t bring herself to stake him. She shooed it away.

“So, where are we heading?” Rafe’s deep voice swept around her, bathing her in warmth she tried to deny, and she kept her gaze fixed ahead. If she pretended he wasn’t there, she might just make it through the next few hours, and then she was home free. It was one last mission.

For some reason, that caused a dull ache to settle inside her.

She had thought she would be happy. She should be happy. No more working with the enemy. They were reassigning her to warmer climes and a partner-free role. She had proven herself worthy of working alone, just as she had wanted from the start of her career with the agency, and she was finally getting that wish.

So why wasn’t she happy?

“Town,” Shannon said distractedly, frowning at the pavement and trying to piece together an answer to her own question. There had to be a reason and it couldn’t be the vampire walking beside her. She had grown used to him. That’s all it was. He had become a sort of friend. The only person she actually spoke to apart from her handler and a few people at the agency, and she had never told them a thing about herself. She had never talked them, not as she had to Rafe. Shannon cursed herself. She should have kept her distance and not gotten involved, just as she had planned, but two years was too long to work with someone without saying anything to them.

Rafe had slipped in unnoticed, had passed the first of her defences and somehow got her talking one night, and since then, she couldn’t stop her mouth sometimes. Sometimes it all became too much and she had to speak to someone, and he was always there, willing to listen to her silly troubles and doubts about her ability to hunt, her skill, and her future with the agency.

And he always reassured her, and made her feel better.

“Anywhere particular in town?” Rafe said and her attention snapped back to him. She stared up at him, still half lost in her thoughts, and found herself looking straight into his eyes. Windows to the soul. Rafe’s hid nothing from her. They betrayed everything that he was feeling, and sometimes it frightened her.

Not when he was showing his vampire side. His pale eyes didn’t scare her or the malice that she saw in them, the hunger for violence and bloodshed. It was this side of him that scared her. The gentle side. The one who looked at her with warmth and undeniable affection.

“Are you feeling alright?” He cocked his head to one side, his gaze holding hers, sparkling with tender concern.

Shannon forced her eyes down to the pavement and studied the cracks as she walked, unable to bring her voice above a whisper.

“I’m fine.”

There was a long pause, full of expectation and unspoken things.

Sometimes, when this feeling washed over her, she had a sense that he wanted to say something to her. He never had though, and she often found herself wondering what it was he couldn’t put a voice to.

“So, where are we going? Into town, or beyond town… perhaps you called me all the way out here on a freezing cold night just to make me go gift shopping with you. If that is the case, I have to say it is in poor taste, as I am a vampire… I do not celebrate Christmas as you do.”

“I don’t.” Shannon wished she could take those two words back. They were going to cause questions that she didn’t want to answer. She glanced at Rafe, briefly making eye contact, and then looked away to her right, her gaze eating the streetlamp lit grass and shrubs that she walked past. He sighed but said nothing. She waited a moment longer, afraid that he might just be building up to it, and then released the breath she had been holding. “The report states that there was a demon sighting in the local cemetery just outside the town centre.”

“Cemetery?” Rafe sounded positively disgusted.

She glanced at him again. He looked it too. He seemed to take it as a personal affront whenever they had to hunt demons in places like old churches, cemeteries and disused factories.

“Some demons have no taste.”

Shannon smiled. “Speak for yourself.”

He frowned at her but it didn’t stick. It melted into a smile that threatened to steal her breath and she averted her gaze again. What was she doing? Her heart skittered about in her throat and she knew he would be listening to it, and he would know that he was affecting her. She could do this.

It was just one more mission.

And then she would be able to escape these feelings.

She was not going to fall for him.

He was a vampire. She was a hunter.

Her gaze snuck back to him, studying his noble profile, and her heart thudded hard against her chest.

There was no love more forbidden than this.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Vampire%20for%20Christmas
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AM59T6/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004AM59T6/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Vampire-for-Christmas/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011177187/
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/vampire-for-christmas/_/R-400000000000000359154
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Vampire-For-Christmas/mix-rLsihKs-8EyfN3Zf7TR7tA/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29379
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004AM59T6/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B004AM59T6/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452356044
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452356044

Posted in paranormal romance, special offers, Teaseday, Vampire for Christmas, vampire romance | Comments Off on Teaseday – Vampire for Christmas – vampire romance book

Heart of Darkness – Vampire Romance Book Trailer

So, I’ve been meaning to put together a book trailer for my vampire romance novel, Heart of Darkness, for a while now and on Monday I finally decided to sit down and give it a go. This is only the second book trailer that I have made, both of them have been for my vampire romance books and the first was for Prophecy: Child of Light, which I might remake now that I’ve changed the covers.

I had previously spent forever tracking down the perfect music for the book trailer, and gathering a good selection of samples to play with, so at least I had done what I consider to be the hard part. It took me the best part of a day to put together the book trailer, and almost the same again to get it converted into a format for YouTube that didn’t end up with the video out of sync with the music, looking fuzzy or cutting off in weird places. At least I know exactly what to do with that side of things now. If you’re curious about what I used to make it, it was Flash CS3. I’ve done courses in Flash for work, so it was the natural choice for me.

Here’s the book trailer for my vampire romance novel, Heart of Darkness.

Here’s a little more about the book and where it’s available, including an excerpt.

Heart of Darkness
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
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/heart-of-darkness/_/R-400000000000000534302
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
It had been an easy kill.

Aleksandr Nemov stood over the body of the vampire hunter, their blood splattered across his black shirt and saturating the leather and metal vambraces that protected his forearms. It coated his fingers and the curved dagger they gripped, and the sweet scent of it heavily tainted the crisp night air. Strong moonlight caressed his back, throwing his shadow out long in front of him, across the hunter’s corpse.

A female.

She hadn’t been strong enough to fight his kind. Too young and inexperienced to best him. It had been foolish of her to try.

Aleksandr raised his hand and swallowed at the sight of the blood glistening on his fingers. It tempted him to taste it.

He dragged his eyes away and settled them back on the female laying on the grass of the small public space, her blood warming the frozen earth. He hadn’t fought a woman in a long time and hadn’t expected to find a hunter so soon after arriving in Prague.

The fountain nearby bubbled regardless of the frigid temperature, defiant of the frost that caused the grass around it to glitter.

Aleksandr glanced at his bloodied hands again and then closed his eyes against the temptation. He took no thrill in the hunt. Yet he found no calm in its aftermath. There was only the threat of unending darkness that beat within his chest and encroached upon his soul. It bled into his eyes. He could feel the jagged points of black that speared the red. He had too much blood on his hands but he couldn’t give up now, not when he was so close to attaining his vengeance.

With great effort, Aleksandr sheathed his dagger against his left hip and wiped the blood away.

The smell of it still permeated the air, taunting and filling him with the dark urge to feast on the hunter’s remains. He refused to obey the voice within that commanded him. His kind had fought hard against it and no Nemov had turned to the darkness. They were stronger than that, and he would die before it happened to him.

“You… what are you doing here?” A light female voice shattered the darkness within him.

Aleksandr glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She stood with the fountain at her back, the cascade of water providing wings that completed the vision of beauty. Moonlight bathed her skin, turning her round eyes dark and her hair as black as the uniform she wore.

An angel.

The red bled from his eyes, returning his irises to grey, and he straightened to his full height, desiring to look his best even when he looked his worst.

She brought her right hand up to reveal the blade clutched tightly in her fingers, held backwards with the blunt edge tucked against her forearm, ready to slash at him if he made a wrong move.

“I won’t ask you twice.” Her strength surprised him.

Such a beautiful creature.

Before Aleksandr could find his voice, she was gone. He turned, blocked her attack with the metal covering his left vambrace around his forearm, and attempted to disarm her. She dodged his counter-attack with ease and came around behind him. He spun and blocked her again, and this time managed to get a hand on her before she leapt backwards, out of his reach, and bared her fangs.

His heart beat harder.
She attacked again, her cry piercing the silent wintry night, and brought her blade down hard. It was difficult to block it. She was strong and skilled for a female. He strafed left and right to avoid her knife, trying to find an opening that he didn’t really want to take. She was fascinating. Beautiful and deadly. Everything a vampire should be, yet there was something more to her. She turned and brought her leg around in a swift kick. The heel of her black knee-high boot smashed into the side of his head, sending him down.

Aleksandr rolled onto his feet and blocked her again. Why couldn’t he bring himself to fight her? He could barely bring himself to defend.

Her red eyes narrowed on him and she growled, exposing her extended canines again. His cheek throbbed where she’d caught him. He would bear a bruise there before the hour had passed. She lunged at him and he barely avoided her blade. If he survived the fight that was. He ducked when she swung at him and swept his leg around to take hers out. She jumped it and rewarded his effort with another hard kick to the head, sending his brain spinning out of control. The darkness threatened to return, goading him into attacking. He didn’t want to. He would not attack another vampire, especially not a female.

Definitely not her.

She huffed as though disappointed. Was it because he wasn’t fighting or wasn’t falling? Aleksandr kept his arms in front of him, blocking her swift attacks with his vambraces, and staring at her face the whole time. Fascination wasn’t the right word for what she did to him.

The warmth he felt, the intense attraction, the abject desire to look into her eyes forever, even when they only promised him a slow death. It was more than fascination.

He wanted her.

“I do not wish to fight you.” Aleksandr leapt backwards, away from her, and raised his hands.

Her grip on her blade tightened and she attacked.

He left himself open to see what she would do. Her clothing was formal—a black military-style jacket that only reached her waist and tight black trousers coupled with polished riding boots. She looked like a guard. If she were, she surely wouldn’t kill him.

If she weren’t, he was making a terrible mistake.

The moment she neared him, she sheathed the blade, threw herself forwards so her hands pressed into the dirt, twisted and launched herself at him feet first. Had he wanted to defend himself, it would have been impossible. The speed at which she locked her knees around his neck, sending him falling backwards with her momentum, and slammed him into the icy earth knocked the breath from him.

Aleksandr stared at her where she perched on his chest, straddling it with his arms trapped in the crook of her knees and her blade against his throat.

He laid beneath her, sprawled out, his back aching and freezing.

Utterly in love.

She leaned forwards. A single strand of her dark hair had fallen out of the tight bun at the back of her head and grazed her cheek. Her soft breath against his face carried the enticing scent of her blood. Her eyes went from darkness to a lighter colour that the moon stole from him. Beautiful.

Aleksandr swallowed, causing the knife to grate his Adam’s apple through his thick beard. He wished that he had cleaned up now before coming to Prague. She wasn’t exactly catching him at his best.

“You will answer for entering my bloodline’s territory.” She pressed the blade harder against his throat. “I’m taking you in.”

“No need to be rough.” Aleksandr smiled slowly. “Unless you like it that way, of course.”

She was off him in an instant, her weapon still held at the ready.

Clearly, she wasn’t into the rough stuff like so many of his kind. With the thrill of hunting denied them, they had to find excitement elsewhere. Dancing with death through sharing blood was the most intoxicating thing a vampire could do without risking their humanity and many of them did it often. He had never been into that sort of thing.

Aleksandr sat up, grazed his fingers over the silvery scars on his wrist, a reminder of why he was tracking and killing vampire hunters, risking his humanity, and then got to his feet.

The female backed off a step, but remained close enough that she could easily attack him if he tried to leave. He didn’t want to, but if he did, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. A woman was no match for him.

First a female hunter and then a female guard. Prague was a modern progressive city, or the world was changing faster than he realised. He had noticed it for a few years now and had been struggling to adjust ever since. He hadn’t expected the change to happen within vampire society too. The males had always been the ones to take care of the females. His gaze settled on her. Now there were females capable of taking care of themselves. It was both disturbing and intriguing.

Aleksandr went to move but she was in front of him before he could take a step.

“Can I at least gather my belongings?” He motioned towards the coat and bag that waited near the fountain.

She looked at them and her gaze tracked back and settled on the corpse. Her pupils narrowed and then she frowned. Had she only just noticed that he had killed someone? She sniffed and then looked at him, her pale eyes falling to his shirt and then his hands, carefully taking all of him in. He liked the assessing edge to her gaze, and the way it lingered on his body a moment before coming up to meet his. She stared into his eyes, long enough that he felt as though she was renewing the spell she had cast on him, and then nodded.

“I desire an audience with your master.” Aleksandr crossed her path and picked up his long heavy black coat. Her gaze remained on him, intent and focused.

He put his coat on, picked up his black bag and slung it over his shoulder. When he turned to face her, she was looking at the dead hunter again. The way she stared at it, studying it closely, made it clear that she hadn’t seen a fresh kill in a long time.

Or she hadn’t seen anything quite like the butchery that had happened tonight.

Aleksandr clenched his fists and reined in the dark hunger that the memory evoked. He was in control now, not his instincts. The hunt would continue until he had avenged her and had rid the world of her murderer’s progeny.

He would not surrender until then.

For four centuries, he had tracked and killed them, his anger still fresh in his heart, the pain of losing her still raw. He would not surrender until he had killed the last of the hunter’s line and protected his people.

The woman stepped forwards and his attention was back with her. The second his gaze locked with hers, the darkness inside him receded, washed away by the light in her eyes and her beauty. He had thought of nothing but the hunt for four hundred years, had closed himself off to society and focused on his duty, but the woman before him stole his attention away from it so easily. It drifted to the back of his mind with the darkness, unknown to him in this moment while her eyes held his. She wasn’t afraid of him. She had fought him without fear, and with strength and skill that he had never expected to find in a female. She enthralled him.

Looking into her eyes, Aleksandr realised something dreadful. He was too close to the edge. The feelings she evoked in him were ones he had long forgotten existed. It was strange to feel warmed inside by happiness to have met her, desire to make her belong to him, and hunger for the feel of her bare body against his. He had not felt such positive emotions in decades.

He was losing himself.

“Follow me,” the woman said and he did, using her as a distraction from his dark thoughts.

She was young. He placed her at barely over two hundred years old, her appearance somewhat of a human in their mid-twenties. She was at least six inches shorter than him, and slender. Her strength had surprised him because of those facts alone. Young females were often weak and needed protection. She had strong blood in her veins.

Aleksandr ran a hand over his matted long dark hair and then rubbed the several months’ worth of beard on his face. What did he look like? He felt like a mess now, both inside and out. She had definitely caught him at his worst. If he had looked as he had back in his days at court, he was sure she would be looking at him differently.

He was sure that she would recognise him for who he was.

She walked swiftly ahead of him, not once looking back to check if he was still there. She had mastered her senses then. He could feel them fixed on him. How strong were they? He had honed his to perfection through years of training and hunting, but he hadn’t sensed her approach. He had been too lost in the darkness.

His gaze slid down to her small backside and the way it moved as she walked mesmerised him.

He hadn’t really wanted to meet her master, but saying that he did seemed like the easiest way of remaining near to her.

Aleksandr lost track of how long they had been walking. He looked up when he sensed the presence of more vampires. Black wrought iron gates punctuated an endless grey stone wall ahead. Beyond them stood the extensive bleak façade of a mansion. Light emanated from many of the rectangular windows marking the three storeys, at least on the left side. On the right, they were mostly dark hollows. Two male guards at the gate saluted the woman and then eyed him with suspicion as he passed through.

Who was his escort? She was strong, spirited, and these men ranked lower. If she weren’t dressed as a guard, Aleksandr would have placed her as a lady of the bloodline. A female guard. He still couldn’t quite comprehend it.

He followed her up the gravel drive to the house, walking on the left side of the wide expanse of frosty grass that stretched into the distance in both directions. It was a habit of his to mask his footfalls. It had saved his life more than once. The long grey stone front of the mansion was imposing and cold even in the moonlight. The size of it told Aleksandr that this bloodline held the power in the city, or they were the only one resident.

They crossed the large parking area in front of the house, passing a fleet of identical black Mercedes-Benz limousines. This bloodline was definitely doing well for itself. Judging by the fact that the woman had been in the city whilst wearing her uniform, it had to be masquerading as a military school of some sort. Many bloodlines bought privacy from the local government by donating large sums of money and setting up such a front. The humans never questioned them. It had been the easiest way to keep their species secret for many centuries. At least some things hadn’t changed since he had left society.

The moment she entered the house, Aleksandr’s attention was back with her. She hurriedly smoothed her warm chestnut hair back into the tight knot, fixing her appearance. In his opinion, she didn’t need to fix it at all. The slight wanton edge her messy hair gave her was alluring to say the least. His gaze drifted to her throat and he frowned when he spotted her bloodline’s mark on the back of her neck. It was an elaborate black ink crest with a stag incorporated into the design.

Černý.

They passed another pair of male guards and Aleksandr glanced at the back of their necks. The mark was visible above the collar of their short black jackets. A strong bloodline.

He had forgotten who ruled Prague. Perhaps they would be able to help him after all and his coming to their master would prove beneficial in more than one way.

His grey eyes slid back to the woman. She looked over her shoulder at him, her aquamarine eyes briefly fixing on his before she turned away again.

Aleksandr quickened his pace and fell into step beside her. She glanced at him again and then looked forwards. His gaze remained on her as they walked along the elegant gallery at the front of the house, heading towards the lit area he had seen on the left of the building. She had soft features—youthful and graceful. Her oval face, pale skin, and rosy lips set his heart racing again, quick enough that it almost matched a human heart rate. A flicker of a frown wrinkled her brow and her eyes darted to him and then away. He steadied his heart, aware that she could hear the effect she had on him. Her heart was beating at a restful pace, a soothing patter in his mind.

She moved ahead, entering a large red drawing room. The vampires relaxing in it were powerful but none of them were stronger than he was. He carried on without glancing in any of their directions, following his temptress. She turned right in the room, heading towards a guarded set of dark wooden doors. When she reached them, she faced him, her expression stern.

“Wait here,” she said and the guards stationed on either side of the doors opened them for her.

Aleksandr lowered his black holdall from his shoulder. The two dark-haired male guards eyed him. He smiled but it didn’t relieve the tension. It only made it worse. The one on his left cast a glance over him and Aleksandr was thankful that his long coat hid his dagger from view. The female’s voice drifted through the open doors to him and he looked at her. She stood in the middle of a dark green room, the back of a gilt-framed green velvet couch in front of her. A male spoke to her in Czech, his voice a lazy drawl.

Tired of waiting, Aleksandr walked into the room, his knee-high boots heavy on the polished wooden floor. The woman’s blade was at his throat again in the space of a breath. Aleksandr halted and looked at the man her body had shielded from view.

He was young to be leading a bloodline, only in his late twenties in terms of appearance, meaning he was little more than four hundred. He would have been born around the time that Aleksandr had begun his hunt.

The man leaned back into the green couch opposite the one near to Aleksandr and the woman and crossed his long black-clad legs. He smiled without any trace of charm or meaning and preened his short sandy hair back.

“This man desires an audience with you, Master,” the woman said and Aleksandr glanced down into her clear blue eyes. She looked away, towards the leader of her bloodline.

“Then allow him to introduce himself so I may know with whom I speak,” the master said in English.

Aleksandr was familiar with both English and Czech. He had understood everything the master had said to the woman. He wasn’t interested in guests and wanted him gone. His opinion would change once he knew who Aleksandr was. It always did.

Aleksandr’s gaze met the guard’s again, holding it for long minutes. Whenever he set eyes on her, he was struck by her beauty as though it was the first time he had witnessed it. He willingly accepted her blade against his throat because it meant she was near him. Soon she would be this close to him without a weapon. He was sure of it. He would ask for sanctuary and the master would grant it. It would give him time to clean up his appearance and then he would start a new hunt. One for this woman.

His gaze slid across to the master and locked with his hazel one, silently showing the younger vampire that he wasn’t the most powerful in the room by a long shot.

“I am Aleksandr Nemov,” he said in a calm measured tone.

The female’s shock rippled through the knife at his throat, which was gone an instant later. She stepped back.

“You will not mind me requesting proof of that claim,” the master said.

Aleksandr smiled behind his beard. It was to be expected. He had been absent from society so long that many probably thought him dead.

With a flourish, he unsheathed and presented his bloodstained dagger. The curved silver blade caught the warm light of the fireplace to the left of the couches. That same light made the gold handle shine brightly. Only a Nemov carried such a weapon, and it had been given to him at birth, inscribed with his name so those who died by it knew who had taken their life. When the man nodded, he sheathed the blade and took hold of his black shirt above his right hip. He pulled it free of his trousers and revealed the mark he bore there on his pale skin.

The mark of royalty.

The woman’s eyes widened, fixed on the crescent moon on the shield of his bloodline.

Aleksandr lowered his shirt and she slowly raised her eyes to his. She blinked, fumbled with her own knife, and then looked away. The shy sparkle in her blue eyes added to her beauty and his desire for her, momentarily stealing his attention away from the other occupant in the room.

“You will stay a while with my bloodline. It would do us great honour.” The master stood and crossed the room to Aleksandr.

The woman stepped to one side, her eyes still downcast.

The master grinned and held his hand out. “I am Ladislav Černý, and I welcome you to my home. I hope you will be able to enjoy our hospitality for a long time.”

Aleksandr shook his hand. Ladislav was young but wise enough to see a way to gain more power when it was standing in front of him. Being favourable to a royal would grant him more leeway with the law and more privileges in court. It was a shame then that Aleksandr had long since surrendered such authority. No matter how many times he reminded society that he was no longer royalty, it still insisted on treating him that way. In this sort of situation, he usually reminded them that he had given up his title, but this time he couldn’t bring himself to mention it. He wanted to remain here and pursue the woman, and for that reason alone, he would tolerate Ladislav’s mistake.

“We will hold a ball tonight to celebrate,” Ladislav said, his English thickly accented.

This man was no fool. He would serve Aleksandr well. His gaze slid back to the woman. Her eyes were on him again but darted away when his met them. How well would she serve him?

“Then I will need to freshen up.” Aleksandr removed his hand from Ladislav’s grip.

“Any room in the guest wing you desire, and I will arrange whatever you need.” Ladislav motioned to the woman. Her expression blackened for a moment, as though escorting a guest was beneath her, and then she saluted.

Aleksandr picked up his bag and smiled at the woman. She answered it with a frown and then walked out of the room. His smile widened and his gaze raked over her.

She was going to be an interesting hunt.

But he would be the victor.

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
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/heart-of-darkness/_/R-400000000000000534302
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/

Posted in Heart of Darkness, paranormal romance, vampire romance | Comments Off on Heart of Darkness – Vampire Romance Book Trailer

Teaseday – Her Dark Angel – angel romance book

Today my Teaseday post comes from another of my current books on offer – Her Dark Angel – which is the first book in my best selling Her Angel romance series. It’s the second chapter of the book, but you can read the first chapter at my website by following the link with the blurb below.

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

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

Her Dark Angel is on offer for just $0.99 on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Smashwords and other retailers.

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

Serenity is shocked when a gorgeous black-winged angel shows up in her city of Paris claiming that she called him when she was only casting a simple vengeance spell. He’s no other than the angel of death! When Apollyon offers to obey her and help her have revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend, she can’t resist the temptation, but can she resist him? Can an angel as dark as Apollyon ever fall for a mortal woman like her?

Dark, passionate and erotic, Her Dark Angel is a tale of intense desire and deepest forbidden love guaranteed to get your heart racing.

ALL OF THE STORIES IN THE HER ANGEL SERIES STAND ALONE, JOINED BY CHARACTER AND WORLD ONLY, AND DO NOT NEED TO BE READ IN ORDER.

LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFER: Only $0.99 (normally $2.99) as part of my Winter Warmers deal – offer ends 15th January 2012. Find out more about the offer and where it is available.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Dark%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00408AQ98/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00408AQ98/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Dark-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011095184/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herdarkangel-607688-140.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-dark-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000277045
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Dark-Angel-Her-Angel/mix-IpUY_pcZyka–k8L1kLPkQ/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/22429
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00408AQ98/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00408AQ98/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452355658

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/

EXCERPT

Serenity’s hazel eyes went wide and she stepped back when the hulking mass of man standing before her drew the sword that hung at his waist, afraid that he had changed his mind and was going to kill her after all. She wasn’t sure what to think when he eased himself down onto one knee in front of her, lowered his head, and held his sword out to her, the hilt and tip of the beautiful blade resting on his palms.

“I am yours to command.” His French was perfect, making his deep voice so sexy that a shiver tripped over her skin whenever he spoke.

Was she supposed to do something?

People were staring again as they passed. What did they see? They certainly weren’t seeing a man offering a sword to her, that was for sure. To them, did he look as though he was kneeling with his hands raised in supplication?

Was he dressed in black and gold armour that didn’t leave much to the imagination?

Did he have huge black feathered wings?

She imagined that he didn’t. If he did, the people would probably be screaming rather than merely glancing at him as though he had gone insane.

“Erm, okay.” Serenity hesitated before touching the sword. The gleaming steel was cold beneath her fingers. She took her hand away, not liking the feel of it. “Thanks.”

He stood with grace, his muscles shifting beneath his golden skin, and she tried not to stare at his physique. Either he worked out a lot, or angels were naturally endowed with the body of a god. He was pure perfection as he stood close to her, his broad chest rising and falling, moving the beautifully decorated black breastplate. His stomach was bare, taut muscles delighting her hungry eyes, and the smallest black loincloth in the world protected his modesty.

Something that she was lacking. She lowered her gaze, taking in the toned length of his legs. They were as powerful as the rest of him. Her eyes roamed back up, over the black cuffs that covered his forearms, decorated in gold with images of lions, and over his biceps to his strong shoulders. From there, they wanted to go to his face, but his wings were too fascinating. They were large, casting a shadow across both him and her, tucked against his back.

She wanted to walk around him and investigate every delicious inch of him, taking in that he really was an angel and not a man parading as one.

An angel.

Abaddon.

Her mother had taught her gods, goddesses and mythology. She knew all about him and his kind.

Her eyes finally leapt to his face. He had a smile that could stop hearts and vivid blue eyes with icy flecks in them. They held her gaze, unwavering and strong, and her temperature rose when they narrowed slightly and his pupils widened. What was he thinking in there?


Did he like what he saw as much as she did?

The man was a god.

No, an angel.

And he was beautiful.

Breathtaking.

But he wasn’t at all as she had thought an angel would look. Everything about him spoke of darkness, right down to his aura. Whatever power he had, it was strong and it wasn’t the sort that resurrected mortals or healed them. It felt as though the opposite would happen if he unleashed it.

Abaddon. The angel of death. Although he had denied that title. What title did he claim as his then?

“So, Abaddon—”

“Apollyon,” he interjected with a charming smile that teased his sensual lips and made her heart beat a little faster.

He was an angel. No matter how good he looked and how much he was making her forget her pain just by looking at him, she couldn’t think about him like that. It was wrong of her. He had offered his assistance in getting revenge on her bastard ex and she was going to take it. Whatever dark power this gorgeous man had, she was going to let it rip in her ex’s direction.

“Apollyon?” She stopped her gaze from dropping down to take him in again. If she told him to put on something a little less distracting, would he be able to do it? She had seen through whatever spell he had used. Could he ever fool her eyes?

“I prefer my true name.” He cast a quick glance over her. His eyes lingered in all the places a mortal man’s would.

Surely, she was off limits too? Angels were asexual weren’t they?

The voice at the back of her mind said that the tall hunk of handsome standing in front of her definitely didn’t look asexual. He looked like sin incarnate, not like an angel at all.

“Serenity.” She offered her hand to him.

He took it and a jolt ran through her at the feel of his strong warm hand grasping hers. She shook his hand but he didn’t let go when she was done. He held it, his thumb resting lightly against hers.

“My mother thought I could bring peace to a chaotic world.” Her heart sped when his thumb grazed hers and then he took his hand back, his fingers brushing her palm and sending another shiver through her. “I’m not much good at it.”

“At what?” He quirked a dark eyebrow and tilted his head to one side.

Serenity sighed inside. Did he know how good he looked? Could angels be conceited? She supposed they were all beautiful so he probably didn’t realise that the reason all the women were staring as they passed wasn’t because they thought he was apprehending her or anything of the sort.

They were staring for the same reason she was.

The man was six feet plus of godliness.

“Being peaceful… I’m actually quite chaotic.” She shrugged. “Nothing I do comes out right. I mean… I thought I was casting a simple spell for vengeance and suddenly you’re here telling me that you heard me calling you. I wasn’t asking for an angel.”

“You weren’t.” He placed his palm flat against her chest and she jumped. Her pulse rocketed and she blushed from head to toe at the feel of his wrist against her breasts. “Your heart called me, not your words.”

Serenity smiled and nervously took hold of his hand and removed it from her chest before she lost control and threw herself at him.

“So you’re good with revenge?”

“Very good at it.” He stood taller, straightening to his full impressive height, looking even nobler and handsome. “I am Apollyon, the great destroyer, king of the bottomless—”

“Wait.” She cut him off and held her hands up. “Great destroyer? Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I mean, you’re an angel and your boss-on-high would probably be a little upset if you blew up half of Paris to fulfil my wish for revenge, and I don’t want him dead… just in pain… and I can really take care of this myself. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“It is little bother.” He frowned. “I will only do as you command. The choice of revenge will be yours and I will exact it.”

“What about your boss?” She didn’t want to piss God off. She was sure that he was already fairly angry that people like her existed on Earth, those that could use magic and make their own miracles.

Not that she had managed anything like that so far. She was better at lighting candles and the small stuff like love potions.

Serenity glanced up at Apollyon. Would a love potion work on an angel?

She cursed and told herself to get a grip. Angels probably couldn’t enter into relationships with mortals and this attraction to him was probably because she was rebounding.

“You are my master now.” The serious edge to his expression said that he wasn’t joking. “I do as you bid.”

Serenity’s eyebrows rose and she slowly absorbed the fact that she had her own personal angel.

“Then we should…” She wasn’t sure what they should do. Skulk off and plan something horrible to do to her ex because he’d cheated on her? It all felt a little cloak and dagger and not at all like her. She had never sworn revenge on anyone, had always let her anger go and just got on with her life. Not this time though. She wanted him to pay. “Do you drink coffee?”

“I have never tried it.” Apollyon smiled. “But I have been told by others that it tastes strangely bitter and sweet at the same time, and has an interesting effect on the body. I would like to try it.”

“Coffee it is.” Serenity led the way towards the fountains and Apollyon came up to walk beside her.

She really hoped that people weren’t seeing him as she was.

“What do you look like to them?” She looked at a few people to make her point.

“A man dressed in a black suit.”

“No wings?”

He shook his head. “Do not worry. It is only you who are unaffected by the image I project.”

“Can it affect me?”

He stopped and looked at her. The breeze tousled his fine long black hair, teasing the strands of his ponytail.

“You wish not to see me as I am?”

When he said it like that, it made her feel bad. His blue eyes darted between hers, as though he wanted to see the answer in them before she said it.

“No.” She stepped towards him. Her heart beat faster again and her palms sweated. She took a deep breath and smiled up at him. “You’re fine just the way you are.”

The wind blew again, catching her blonde hair and sweeping it across her face. She started when he brushed the strands from her face, smoothing them behind her ear, and his fingertips caressed her cheek as he trailed his hand off her. Did he know what he did to her with that touch? What just looking at him did to her on the inside? She kept telling herself that he was an angel and he was off limits, but her body wasn’t getting the message. It burned to feel his hands on her, to feel his lips against hers and have him hold her close.

It was insane. She had only just met him and she wasn’t usually the sort who threw herself at men. Her ex, Edward, had pursued her for months before she’d finally given in and agreed to a date with him, let alone anything else.

Now she was ready to throw herself into the arms of an angel and pray that he caught her and kissed her just as she wanted him to.

“He really hurt you,” Apollyon whispered.

Serenity blinked and her desire deflated at the thought of what Edward had done to her. She really had to clear her head of whatever ridiculous attraction she felt to Apollyon because it wasn’t going to happen.

She started walking again, not waiting for him to follow. She needed a moment to breathe. Since setting eyes on him, her head and heart had been at war and she had to give them both a reality check. Apollyon was here to help her get revenge and that was all. She couldn’t throw herself at him, or make a move, or do anything that would only end in her getting her heart broken again or winding up as miserable as Edward had made her.

“I said something wrong?” Apollyon strode beside her, his long lithe legs making easy work of her hurried pace.

She was quiet a moment, lost in her thoughts, her gaze drifting over the white stone buildings that lined the narrow street.

“No.” She moved through the crowd at a busy intersection, crossed the road and then walked along another narrow road to the street where her favourite café was. “It just caught me off guard. I mean, I get this sense that you know what you’re talking about… as though you… it’s silly.”

“Can feel it?”

She stopped dead outside the café and looked back at him.

He stood a few paces behind her, his black wings still tucked against his back and the gold decoration on his black armour reflecting the sun.

She nodded.

He walked up to her and looked into her eyes. “I can feel it. It is part of the reason I agreed to help you. You do not deserve such pain. You always seemed so happy until recently.”

“You’ve been spying on me?” It came out louder than she’d meant it to.

A couple of well-dressed dark-haired women sitting at one of the round tables in front of the café looked her way and then started talking in hushed voices.

“I am an ang—” He frowned when she slapped her hand over his mouth. His warm breath bathed her skin, tickling her and sending a shiver dancing up her arm.

Serenity snatched her hand back. “I don’t think that’s a good word to use in public.”

“We all watch. It is what we do.”

She grimaced. That had probably sounded even worse. The two women were deep in conversation now, furtively glancing at her and Apollyon. They probably thought she had a harem of stalkers.

Serenity grabbed Apollyon’s hand and dragged him into the small café. It was quieter inside, only a few people at the small round wooden tables and in the armchairs. She chose a spot away from everyone, near the window, and sat Apollyon down in a low brown armchair next to a small table.

“Wait here,” she said and hoped that he would.

What had she gotten herself into?

Serenity ordered the coffees and looked over at Apollyon while she waited for them to come. He was sitting looking out of the window. Watching the world go by? Did angels really do that? If he said they did, then they probably did all watch over the mortals.

He shifted his shoulders, frowned and then his black wings unfurled, sending a breeze through the room that had people grabbing their papers, napkins and anything else that had tried to escape in the wind.

Serenity stared open-mouthed at the sight of him. He sat with his black feathered wings outstretched behind him, almost reaching back to the other side of the room. How big was his wingspan? Each wing was at least eight feet long.

She grabbed the coffees when they arrived, went back to him, and sat in a daze in the armchair opposite him, staring at his wings.

Apollyon shifted his shoulders and his wings furled again, the longest feathers curling around and grazing his boots.

“I needed to stretch,” he said with an apologetic look and then smiled. “It has been a long time since I have had so much freedom. It feels good to stretch my wings.”

She bet it did. He looked like the cat that got the cream, smiling ear to ear, a twinkle in his blue eyes.

“What does it feel like to fly?” she said before she could even consider what she was asking.

His smile widened. “Bliss. The wind on my face, the feel of it in my feathers, and the way I can see everything and go anywhere. There is no feeling like it.”

“It sounds nice. I’ve flown… in a plane… but it’s still flying, right? Something in common.”

“Would you like to fly?”

Was he offering to take her up? The thought made her stomach feel tight but something inside her made her nod.

“I am sure we can do something about it.”

He picked up the white mug of coffee and raised a dark eyebrow at it. He sniffed it first, peered at the frothy top, and then took a sip.

His feathers quivered and his eyes widened, darting to hers. “What drug is in this?”

Serenity picked up her own mug of latte and sipped. “It’s not really a drug. It’s caffeine, a natural stimulant. Humans are addicted to it.”

He eyed the mug suspiciously. “A stimulant?”

He looked as though he was going to take another sip and then set it back down on the round table between them. His gaze met hers again and his pupils dilated until his irises were almost as black as them. He shifted uncomfortably and crossed his legs, settling his hands in his lap.

“I do not think I should drink any more. It would be unwise.” His voice was tight and the unmistakable spark of desire in his eyes wasn’t going anywhere. “I will be having words with my fellow warriors when we next meet. They did not explain the effects well enough.”

Effects? She looked down at his hands in his lap and then back into his dark eyes.

Viagra for angels?

“I thought you were all asexual,” she blurted and then covered her mouth when he turned horrified eyes on her. She blushed ten shades of crimson and tried to think of a spell that would take back what she’d said. It probably wouldn’t work on him anyway. Magic didn’t affect gods and goddesses, so it was unlikely to affect other supernatural beings.

“I am not asexual.” The way he said it made it clear that he would be happy to prove it to her right now in the coffee shop.

Serenity gulped her drink and kept her focus on it, avoiding the smouldering look he was giving her and wanting to crawl under the table and hide.

“I have not had a woman in many centuries but I am in no way an impotent creature.”

Did he have to say it loud enough for the whole coffee shop to hear? She sunk into her chair, trying to avoid the looks she was getting.

“I take it back,” she whispered into her mug and peered at him over the rim of it.

He glowered, passion no longer reigning in his eyes. A dark malevolence shone there and the sense that he wasn’t exactly a good angel in the way she had imagined them returned.

“Some people say you’re the Devil.”

He leaned back into his chair and sighed. “First I am the angel of death, and now the Devil? The rumours do spread and stick, don’t they?”

“What are you then?” She emerged from her mug, sat forwards on the edge of the armchair seat and looked him over. He was sin made flesh, luscious in every way imaginable, and she was sure that angels weren’t supposed to be so tempting.

“I told you. Apollyon, the great destroyer… angel of the Apocalypse, responsible for raining hell down on Earth when everything comes to an end.”

That wasn’t comforting at all.

“You’re not a good angel then?”

He smiled and there was a sexy sort of darkness in his look. “I am good, if by that you mean I do not work for the Devil, but I can be very bad.”

She could imagine. She shouldn’t be, but she was picturing him in every position possible and he looked wicked from every angle.

“So what does my mistress command?” His smile held. Something about it made her feel as though he was encouraging her to say the things that were raging through her head.

What didn’t she want to command? She couldn’t though. She was sure that it was wrong to order an angel to commit sin. For now, while her conscience was still functioning and she could resist the temptation sitting across from her, she would focus on getting her revenge.

“Nothing involving death. I want him to suffer. I want him to feel jealous and hurt and unloved… as though he doesn’t matter to me.”

Apollyon smiled as though he liked the sound of that.

She held his blue gaze. What she was going to propose was crazy, and would shatter what little restraint she had around him, but she was going to do it.

“I have a plan.”

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Dark%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00408AQ98/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00408AQ98/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Dark-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011095184/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herdarkangel-607688-140.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-dark-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000277045
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Dark-Angel-Her-Angel/mix-IpUY_pcZyka–k8L1kLPkQ/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/22429
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00408AQ98/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00408AQ98/
Apple iBookstore USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452355658
Apple iBookstore Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452355658

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/

Posted in angel romance, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel, special offers, Teaseday | Comments Off on Teaseday – Her Dark Angel – angel romance book

New reviews for my paranormal romance books!

I have some new reviews in for my paranormal romance books. Namely, Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel romance series #4) and Heart of Darkness, my latest vampire romance novel.

Here’s some snippets of the reviews for these paranormal romances and links to the full reviews…

“A story with a dark and lethal mystery laced with betrayal, of Heaven and of Hell. Her Guardian Angel is a full throttle, action packed love story that you will not be able to put down! Felicity Heaton, I hope you are working on the next installment because I am addicted to this series!”

Talina, Night Owl Reviews — 4.75 Star TOP PICK! — Read the full review

“The story explodes with excitement as it took off and I couldn’t read it fast enough. The chemistry between Marcus and Amelia was very empowering and hot. Who would not love an uber sexy Guardian Angel for their very own!”

April, Nocturne Reads — 4 Hoots — Read the full review

“Heart of Darkness is a spine-chilling paranormal performance thrown into a whirlwind of characters and dangerous action that doesn’t let up until the very end!! A plot well thought out, details easily envisaged and romance that would cause any volcano to burst its walls!! Yeah it’s hot!”

Kat, PageFlipperz — 5 Hearts — Read the full review

Posted in Heart of Darkness, Her Guardian Angel, reviews | Comments Off on New reviews for my paranormal romance books!