Hunger
Felicity Heaton
Felicity Heaton is one of my favorite authors, and she's awesome to work with. I'm very happy to have her here with us today!Betrayed by one of her own and turned into a vampire, hunter Eve is consumed by her hunger for vengeance and has spent five years surviving hell, driven to take the life of the man she once loved. But just as she is about to close in on the hunter-turned-vampire, an event is set in motion that threatens to see him slip beyond her grasp forever—the leader of her bloodline has sent an escort to bring her to the family’s mansion. To a nest of the very creatures she once hunted and loathes.
A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of service, Tor is a man of discipline and loyalty, never straying from his mission or the rules set out for him, and has purged all his weaknesses, including his emotions.
But the moment he meets the broken, fiery female he is to escort to Oslo, something dangerous awakens in him, something possessive and powerful, and when he is pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who betrayed her, Tor discovers he will do anything to protect the woman slowly claiming his heart and give her the vengeance she desires—even break all the rules.
Can Eve embrace her new vampire nature in order to have her revenge and find a reason to live again in Tor? Can Tor and Eve stop the man who betrayed her and the deaths of thousands of innocents? Or will he succeed in creating a new army of hybrid vampires who will rise up against the purebloods?
It’s great to be
here at Fictional Candy today as part of the Hunger Virtual Book Tour
celebrating the release of the latest book in my Vampires Realm series of
paranormal romance novels.
Today, I’m going
to be sharing an excerpt from the book.
But before we
get to the main event, I want to introduce myself. I’m a British paranormal
romance author and a New York Times
and USA Today best-seller. I have
been writing since 2005, and went indie in 2006. I love to write big worlds,
populated by vampires, shifters, demons, fae and angels, and I have several
series. This tour is about the Vampires Realm series, which focuses on the
world of the seven pureblood vampire families of Europe, the werewolves fighting
for their freedom, the weakling vampires, and the vampire hunters determined to
destroy them all.
Now, on with the
show…
The hotel room smelled musty. Or that might
be her. Her clothes were soaked and sticking to her skin. Tor reappeared from
the bathroom and handed her a white towel robe. Eve thanked him with a smile
that fell away when he turned his back on her and the scent of his blood grew
stronger, thicker in the air, a tangy coppery smell that called to her.
“You’re injured.” She took a step towards
him without thinking and he swung back to face her.
“It’s nothing. Just a little shrapnel.” He
reached over behind him and tugged his ruined black sweatshirt off over his
head. A brief tantalising flash of toned stomach muscles caught her breath in
her throat before his black t-shirt fell back down to cover them. He tossed the
sweatshirt and nodded towards her. “Change into that. It will make you feel
better.”
Eve looked down at the robe she clutched,
shame spreading through her. At times like this, she was almost glad she was a
vampire and couldn’t blush. It wasn’t the thought of changing in front of Tor
that would have had her cheeks heating. It was how pathetic she had been back
at the airport.
She had lost it.
It was all coming back to her now in
startling colour and detail. She had fallen apart while Tor had been the
picture of calm and efficiency, his reactions incredible as he had swept her up
against his hard, powerful body and sheltered her from the blast. If he hadn’t
been there, she would have been toast.
Then, he had carried her like some knight
in shining armour into the safety of the darkness and had tended to her, and
all the while she had mumbled stupid stuff like a damsel in distress. She
groaned internally at the way she had presented herself. When piled on top of
how she had been when Tor had swept into the club and quickly dispatched her
attackers for her, it made her want to bury her head in the robe and never come
out again.
No doubt Tor thought she was one of those
women who needed constant protection, a man on hand to do her battles for her
and keep her safe.
She had kept herself safe for twenty-five
years without the help of a man.
Death had torn apart the woman she had
been, stripping away her strength, throwing her into turmoil. She had become
the sort of weak and pathetic woman that had annoyed her when she had been a
hunter.
Eve resisted sagging onto the bed and
burrowing into the white robe.
She really had to man up.
Tor had offered her the shot at revenge she
wanted and she was going to take it.
She was going to pull herself together and
show him that she was a hunter born and bred, just as he was.
Eve turned her back on him, set the towel
down on the double bed in front of her, and stripped off her jacket. When she
pulled her t-shirt up, revealing her back, Tor uttered something in his foreign
tongue. She shivered as his gaze ran down her spine, heating her skin, and
frowned as his eyes left her. A chivalrous man? She hadn’t figured him for that
type.
His boots shuffled on the taupe carpet and
she continued to remove her wet things. She kicked her own boots off, struggled
to get her jeans down her legs, and even pulled off her socks. She left her
underwear on. A flimsy piece of protection she couldn’t quite bring herself to
shed, not even when she was certain that he had turned his back to give her
some privacy.
Eve donned the white robe, tied the belt
around her waist and moved to face Tor.
He had turned his back. He stood facing the
bathroom and her gaze immediately catalogued all the cuts in his black t-shirt.
She walked forwards, her bare feet silent on the carpet, and reached towards a
short gash on his right arm.
Tor tensed the moment her fingers made
contact, his muscles flexing in response to her touch. She bravely ventured
onwards, running her fingers down the line of the cut, one on either side of
the angry wound.
“How many have metal in them?” she said and
scanned his back for the worst. It was hard to tell with his t-shirt concealing
them. “You’re going to have to let me take a look.”
He didn’t argue or hesitate. He grabbed his
t-shirt and pulled it off, dropping it on the floor at their feet.
Eve sucked in a sharp breath at the sight
of his muscular back, and not because of all the places where pieces of the jet
had struck him. There were so many scars.
She absently raised a hand and ghosted it
over the thick ragged scar on his right shoulder. It cut down from the
delicious dip in his muscles beside his deltoid, as wide as two of her fingers
together, and tapered to a point just beneath his shoulder blade, close to his
armpit.
“The hunter did this?” She didn’t need to
ask to know, but it felt too intimate standing like this with him, touching him
in silence.
He nodded.
Eve moved a step back and assessed the new
wounds, shutting out all the scars that littered his back, even the thick
circular ones that sickened her. Someone had made him acquainted with holy wood
and more than once. She counted at least five points where he had been stabbed
with stakes and burned by them.
She shut them out, not wanting to wonder
whether the same hunter who had attempted to take his arm and his life had done
this grim work on him.
“You’re going to bleed when I pull these
fragments out.” Eve touched one and expected him to hiss as she felt the metal
buried in his flesh beneath his skin.
He didn’t make a sound. He didn’t even
tense.
“You do not need to. My body will reject
them.” He stepped away from her and pinned her with his cold blue eyes, no
flicker of emotion in them.
“In days maybe… why live with them for
days?” She searched his pale eyes but they didn’t answer her and neither did
he.
Tor turned away from her and she wasn’t
having any of it. She grabbed his wrist and he paused and looked down at her
hand on him. His pale blond eyebrows drew down, narrowing his eyes. She wasn’t
going to release him so his veiled threat was pointless.
“Why?” She wouldn’t ask him again. He had
to have a reason. No hunter, no matter how hardened they were to pain, lived
with something they could easily fix with another’s assistance. It was madness.
The metal had every chance of burrowing deeper before his body began to heal,
pushing it out. The process would be painful and drawn out over days.
Madness.
Tor lifted his icy gaze to meet hers. “It’s
not your place.”
He tugged his arm free of her grip and
walked into the bathroom. If he thought they were done on the subject, he was
sorely mistaken.
Eve followed him into the white tiled room,
avoiding the huge mirror hanging above the vanity unit in front of her. She
turned to her left, towards Tor, and her eyes widened as he shoved his black
jeans down, shamelessly revealing his bare backside.
Eve swiftly spun on her heel, giving him
her back.
She searched for something to say and her
eyes fell on the small, rather atrocious, bathroom supplies offered by the
hotel. Nothing more than some shampoo and shower gel. No vanity pack. She went
back into the bedroom, unzipped her bag, and pulled out her small shiny red
satin bag that contained her scant pieces of make-up and other beauty items.
She took out her tweezers, dumped her stuff on the bed and went back to the
bathroom door.
Tor growled something dark and grunted.
Eve steeled herself, preparing for the sight
of him, and then stepped inside. She frowned at him. He stood with one hand
braced on the vanity and the other reaching under that arm, fingers digging in
a wound on his back. Blood smeared around the wound and rolled down his
fingers, dripping on the floor, leaving a stark crimson splatter on the white
tiles.
“God almighty… will you stop? You’re making
it worse.” She grabbed his hand and shoved it away.
He snarled at her and her heart leaped into
her throat.
“I thought you were just going to let your
body push the fragments out?” she snapped and ignored his answering growl. She
felt the warning in that one. Her vampire instincts knew he had threatened her
and meant to keep her away from him.
Eve didn’t give a damn.
She didn’t care that it wasn’t her place to
help him, whatever that crap meant.
All she cared about was getting the pieces
of metal out of his flesh in the least painful way and seeing he healed.
She shoved him in the shoulder. “Face
forwards and shut up.”
Surprisingly, he did as ordered. Eve went
to work on his back, feeling each wound and then using the tweezers to remove
the metal if there was any embedded in it. She dropped each shard into a glass
on the counter beside her and had filled the bottom of it before she had
covered half of his back.
She couldn’t believe he had been willing to
live with so many sharp pieces of metal in his skin.
“Tor?” she whispered as she carefully
tugged another sliver free of his flesh and dropped it into the glass. “What
did you mean by it isn’t my place? I get that you work alone… I understand what
it’s like… but why refuse help?”
He lowered his head and braced his hands
against the counter in front of him.
Eve worked lower and her gaze dropped to
his bare backside and the twin delicious dimples above it. She dragged her eyes
back up, trying to get control of herself. He had been kind enough to give her
some privacy when she had been changing. It was rude of her to ogle him when he
was accepting her help. She felt as if she was taking advantage of him somehow.
“You shouldn’t touch me.”
She frowned at those low spoken words. “Why
not?”
He turned his head slightly towards her,
enough that she could see he had his eyes closed, his eyebrows drawn down above
them. His shoulders tensed as she pulled a long shard out of his side and she
mumbled an apology.
“Because it isn’t right,” he said and she
wished he would tell her straight and stop dancing around the reason.
She pulled another piece of metal out, her
actions rougher this time, her irritation getting the better of her. He hissed
as he sucked in a breath and blood trickled down his back.
“Sorry,” Eve said, immediately regretting
what she had done. Guilt swept through her and on its heels came an instinct
she fought hard to deny.
She would not lick the blood or seal the
wound for him.
She grabbed some tissue and pressed it to
the wound instead, and closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of all the blood
on his back. She struggled against her instincts, desperate to shut out the
voice that tempted her into running her tongue over Tor’s back, capturing every
stray drop of his strong blood. She wanted it. She needed it.
She had to take it.
Tor wouldn’t argue.
He wouldn’t deny her. He would let her
crawl up his magnificent body and sink her fangs into his throat, drinking deep
of his blood. He would enjoy it.
Welcome it.
Eve turned away and shoved her palms
against the cool wall tiles as her head spun, the sudden onslaught of dizziness
threatening to sweep the ground out from under her and take her down to her
knees.
Tor’s strong hand caught her upper arm.
“Eve?”
The sound of her name in his deep accented
voice sent heat rolling through her and caused her trembling to increase. Her
knees turned to jelly, too weak to support her weight. His other hand clamped
down on her side and he lifted her. The spinning in her head worsened and she
gasped as her backside hit something hard beneath her.
“Eve?” Tor’s hands grasped her shoulders
and he held her steady, and she wished she could find her voice to thank him
for it. She clutched his biceps, holding herself upright on the counter of the
vanity unit. “Eve?”
She nodded to let him know that she was
beginning to feel better. The hunger was passing. She was winning.
She sucked in a deep breath and held it in
her lungs, trying to shatter the final threads of the hunger’s hold on her.
“You need blood.” He released her arms.
Eve tightened her grip on him, fear
bringing her claws out. She pressed them into his flesh, desperate for him to
stay, unwilling to let him move. She couldn’t let him go for blood. She
couldn’t. He wouldn’t understand.
“I’m fine.” She pushed the words out,
trying to sound normal, sure that he hadn’t heard the wobble in her voice. “I
think this whole evening has taken its toll on me.”
Eve risked opening her eyes and meeting
his.
The ice glittering in them said he wanted
to call her on her lie, that he knew she needed blood and hadn’t fed recently.
He stepped back instead and Eve quickly
averted her gaze when his actions gave her a dazzling reminder that he was
naked.
Be
sure to follow this fantastic tour to learn more about the passionate heroes
and strong heroines in the Vampires Realm romance series! You can also find
yourself in with a chance to WIN a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if
you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of
stops, are available at the Hunger
Virtual Book Tour page: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/hunger-book-tour.php
Hunger can be
read out of order with the rest of the series and is available from Amazon
Kindle, Kobo Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks stores and other
retailers. Also available in paperback. Find the links to your preferred
retailer and a downloadable 6 chapter excerpt at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/hunger-vampire-romance-novel.php
Books in the Vampires Realm paranormal romance series:
Felicity Heaton is a USA Today and international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/felicityheaton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton
Mailing List: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/newsletter.php
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