Becoming a vampire is easy. Living with the
condition...that's the hard part.
Newbie vampire Alyssa never asked for this life,
but now it's all she has. Rescued from death by Lysander, the aloof and sexy
leader of the Peregrinus vampire clan, she's barely cut her teeth before she
becomes a target.
Kallisto, an ancient and vindictive vampire queen
– and Lysander's old mate - wants nothing less than final death for her former
lover and his new toy. She's not above letting the Acta Sanctorum, and its
greatest vampire hunter, Santino, know exactly where the clan can be found.
With no time to mourn her old life, Alyssa's
survival depends on her new family. She will have to stand alongside Lysander
and fight against two enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy them.
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Excerpt
“You are a vampire.”
“A what?” I shrieked.
“You are a vampire, Alyssa,” he
said slowly. “An immortal.”
“No! That’s not possible.” I
shook my head in disbelief. “Vampires aren’t real. They’re fiction; nothing but
stories and myths.”
One of his dark eyebrows rose
slightly. He cocked his head to the side. He smirked as his eyes trailed down
from my face. “Did you not notice the mark on your neck? Do you not remember
drinking my blood?” His fangs showed as he spoke: pure white, sharp little
daggers, just a slight bit longer than the rest of his teeth.
His voice carried
that same arrogance I remembered from when he talked with my attackers.
My mouth hung open. No, this
isn’t possible.
Things were still fuzzy in my
head, but I did remember the blood, the liquid fire, I had been forced to
drink.
I’d hoped it had just been some drug-induced dream.
Oh, my God, it was true. I drank
his blood. “I’m…a … vampire?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “Our kind are
very real. And now, Alyssa, you are one of us.”
I slumped backwards into the
cushions of the couch. His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I stared
wide-eyed at the distant wall. This was like some terrible nightmare. I didn’t
want to believe what he was telling me, but I knew he was right. There was no
other way to explain what had happened to me. No amount of hallucinogenic drugs
could have explained how I had survived the attack, why I had these markings,
or the sharpness of my own new set of fangs.
“Does that mean I’m… undead?”
“You are immortal,” Lysander said
with a casual wave of his hand. “Undead is a silly term mortals use to explain
the supernatural things they cannot possibly understand. You are no more dead
than you were when you woke up this morning. You are just, for lack of a better
word, changed.”
Lysander gave me another toothy
grin. His fangs were frightening to look at. The memory of him biting me played
over and over in my mind like a video stuck on repeat.
“But you drank my blood.” My hand
shot back up to cover the wound on my neck.
“Only enough to allow the
transformation.”
He reached out, grabbed my hand,
and pulled it from my neck.
“Don’t touch me.” I flinched,
annoyed and afraid at his sudden gesture. I tried to pull my hand out of his
grip, but he was so much stronger than I was. He pushed my hand to my chest,
forcing me to feel the erratic thumping of my heart.
“You see,” he said calmly. “Your
heart still beats.”
I let out a breath I didn’t
realize I had been holding. “But…how?” I relaxed my hand relaxed under his
grip.
“Unlike some of your other
organs, your heart is still necessary to keep blood flowing through your body.”
Lysander let go of me. “For now, while your body is in transition, it will beat
in an accelerated rhythm, but it will eventually slow itself to a more normal
pace.”
I was speechless. My mind raced,
recalling books and movies, everything I knew about vampire mythology. Bats,
stakes, and garlic immediately popped into my mind.
“I must mention that your generation’s ideas
of vampires are a bit off.” Lysander spoke with a hint of amusement in his
voice. “Many of the popular books and movies about our kind are no more real
than children’s fairytales.”
Is he reading my mind? I wondered
how he seemed to say just the right thing as I was thinking it. “So, none of
the stories are true?”
“Most of the new stories you are
probably familiar with are filled with complete nonsense.”
“What about the old ones, like
Dracula?”
Lysander sighed. His shoulders
slumped. “Dracula is not what I would consider an old story, but yes, a few are
based on some truth, however little it may be. There is much that is added to
make us seem easier to deal with.” His lip curled into a crooked grin. “Mortals
like to think they can hurt us. It helps them sleep at night.”
“So, you’re not afraid of
crosses, then?”
Lysander shook his head. “Crosses
and other holy relics are nothing more than symbols and decorations. I hardly
see why an ornamental cross would stop me from doing anything. Furthermore, I
think it’s time for the Christians to come up with a better symbol. One that is
a little less… gloomy.”
I chuckled. “Okay, what about
garlic?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “What
about it?”
“Isn’t garlic bad for vampires?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Why
would it be? We don’t eat, so how would it harm us?”
I nodded. “Okay… umm… stakes?”
His head tilted to the side as
the corner of his lip rose up into a teasing grin. “You can try to stab me with
a piece of wood, but I doubt it will do much more than aggravate me. We heal
quite fast. Perhaps a blade would work better.”
I shuddered, seeing his teeth
again as he spoke. Is that how I look now?
“So, knives and swords are bad?”
“Yes. It is much harder to
regenerate a severed limb. And if we are separated from our heads, it would be
safe to say we would cease to exist.”
I smiled, noting the sarcasm in
Lysander’s voice. I could tell he’d had this conversation before. He seemed to
be enjoying my round of silly questions.
“Holy water?” I blurted out.
Lysander let out a hearty laugh.
“No, you won’t melt into a pile of goo. You can throw most of that nonsense out
of the window, Alyssa.”
I giggled, realizing how silly it
sounded: melting into a pile of goo after being splashed with water. Maybe this
won’t be so bad.
“You see, we immortals are not as
ridiculous as Hollywood likes to portray us. Though one thing is true... we do
survive off the blood of the living.”
About the Author
Katie Salidas is a Super Woman! Endowed with special powers and abilities, beyond those of mortal women, She can get the munchkin off to gymnastics, cheerleading, Girl Scouts, and swim lessons. She can put hot food on the table for dinner while assisting with homework, baths, and bedtime… And, She still finds the time to keep the hubby happy (nudge nudge wink wink). She can do all of this and still have time to write.
And if you can believe all of those lies, there is some beautiful swamp land in Florida for sale…
Katie Salidas resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mother, wife, and author, she does try to do it all, often causing sleep deprivation and many nights passed out at the computer. Writing books is her passion, and she hopes that her passion will bring you hours of entertainment.
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Twitterhttp://twitter.com/QuixoticKatie
WHAT
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