Thursday Threads: The King's Vampire by Brenda Stinnett
The King’s Vampire, first in an
Abyss series
Genre and setting: Historical Paranormal Romance set
in London, England, after the Restoration of Charles II.
Heat scale: Sizzling
Blurb:
Darius
Einhard, demon slayer, will stop at nothing to help Elizabeth Curran, immortal
vampire, break the bonds of vampirism, even while helping her protect Charles
Stuart II, who’s in danger of being entrapped into becoming an immortal vampire
and leading his people into the abyss of hell by the psychic vampire
demons.
Excerpt:
The ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral,
London, England, November, 1675
First to
reach the top of the ladder, Elizabeth said, “I see a dim light outside the
archways of the church. Follow me.”
They’d almost reached the entrance when
a hooded figure came rapidly gliding toward them. In silence, the shadowy
figure stepped in front of them, blocking the exit while tossing back its hood.
Elizabeth recognized Julian, his horrible eyes blazing blood-red, and his
mummified face transformed into a skull whose hinged jaws tantalizingly opened
and closed, while his wings beat back and forth.
Fear-frozen, Elizabeth watched the skull
increase in size, the jaws continuing to rise and fall. The creature grew until
it filled the archway.
With a shout, Darius shoved his three
companions away from him and toward the archway. “Run! John, take the women to
safety.”
John grabbed both women by the arm and
started running with them, dodging the skull and slipping beneath Julian’s
enormous wings. Elizabeth pulled back and turned around in time to see the huge
jaws closing over Darius. She screamed, but John yanked her back and dragged
her and Amelia out of the church forcibly, before she could protest further. He
gave a shrill whistle. Darius’s coach appeared in front of the ruins. John
shoved the women into the coach, and shouted to the driver, “To the Boar’s Head
Inn. Hurry up, my good man.”
In the coach, Elizabeth glared at him
with such ferocity that he drew away from her in surprise. “How dare you,
John!”
His eyes widened. “What’s wrong? Darius
told me to get you and Amelia to safety, and that’s what I’ve done.”
His wife touched his shoulder and gave a
shake of her head.
Elizabeth sat up on her knees, pressing her
face to the back window of the carriage. Even with her superior vision, she saw
neither Darius, nor the huge skull from her vantage point.
“We’ve abandoned him to those horrible
demons. We should have stayed and fought.”
When she let out an enormous sob, Amelia
gently pulled her back onto the seat. “John was doing what Darius asked him to
do. Darius is a great warrior and he can take care of himself.”
Elizabeth hardly noticed Amelia stroking
her arm in a comforting manner. She felt a pain in the pit of her stomach grow
until it reached up and clutched her heart. How could she live with herself if
anything happened to him?
Buy links
Amazon: http://amzn.to/12HHQ7e
Web
Page: http://brendastinnett.com
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