A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOODNicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up
in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a
vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with
every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot
destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should
hate and fear the most . . .
A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGEA member of the renegade vampire Moon Clan, Riker is haunted by demons
of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family
enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he
kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes
his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only
salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch . . . or
bury him forever.
Excerpt
~ PROLOGUE ~The vampires were behaving weird today. Not that anyone believed
Nicole when she told them. No, all the adults simply smiled, patted her
on the head, and told her to go upstairs to play until her older brother
arrived to take her to the zoo.
Half brother, she’d told them, and again, they’d smiled and
shooed her away. She never reminded her mother about the half-brother
thing, though. Chuck had a different mom, and although Nicole didn’t
understand what an “affair” was, talking about Chuck always brought up
that word, and it made her mom and dad fight.
One of the household vampires, Anthony, grinned as he passed her in
the foyer with a tray of decadent hors d’oeuvres, but something about
his smile made goose bumps prickle her arms. Like all the servants, he’d
always kept his eyes downcast – “secured his gaze,” as her father
called it — in the presence of humans, but not this time. This time he
looked at her the way her dad looked at the Thanksgiving turkey.
Barefoot and wearing the pink princess dress she was never supposed
to wear outside, she darted out the back door reserved for the servants
and ran as fast as she could, squinting against the bright summer
sunlight. She slipped unnoticed past the wet bar and food-laden tables,
through the crowds of people partying around the pool, until she reached
the hedges designed to conceal the gardening shed and equipment.
Laughter and the clink of glasses followed her through the dense brush.
She scurried like a little animal, not caring that the branches were
scratching her skin and catching on her dress.
Panting, she crouched in the very spot where, just six months before,
her vampire nanny had died, her unborn baby with her. Nicole shivered
at the memory. She’d been so excited about Terese’s baby. Terese had
been the best nanny ever, always teaching Nicole new things, reading to
her, asking her opinion on things as if Nicole were a grownup. Terese
would have been a great mommy to the baby. Secretly, Nicole had
sometimes wished Terese were her mommy, too.
Tears stung Nicole’s eyes as she reached up and wrapped her necklace
around her fingers, bringing the ring Terese had given her to her lips.
It’s a secret ring, Terese had said as she pressed it into her small hand.
You
can hide things inside it. I want you to have it. And remember what I
said. Be a good girl and a good adult. You’ll have a lot of power
someday. Use it well. I love you, Nikki.
Terese had been killed half an hour later…by her own mate.
Riker.
The very name struck fear into Nicole’s heart. Terese had loved him, trusted him. And he’d driven a blade into her throat.
Nicole would never forget Terese’s broken voice as she pleaded with
him. She’d definitely never forget his face. His glittering, silver
eyes. His sandy hair Terese said was silky-soft. His fangs that had been
longer than Nicole’s finger.
All of it haunted her nightmares.
“Nicole Michelle.”
Nicole jumped at her father’s angry words. He stood a few feet away
in the dappled shade from the huge oak tree, his lips pressed together
in a forbidding line.
“How many times have I told you to stay away from the shed? It’s not
healthy to hang out here like a damned dog mourning the loss of his
master. Terese was just a vampire. We got you a hamster and a new nanny.
It’s time to get over it.”
“But I don’t like my new nanny! Chelsea’s grumpy and she doesn’t read to me before bed—”
“We didn’t purchase her to be your best friend,” he snapped. “And
look what you’ve done to your dress. Your mother is going to have
Chelsea spank you.”
Terese would never have spanked Nicole. Hand shaking, she
automatically reached for the comfort of the ring Terese had given her,
but in an instant, her father fisted the chain and yanked, snapping the
necklace and sending the ring tumbling into the grass.
“Enough with the ring! You were supposed to throw it away. It’s
beneath you to wear a slave’s jewelry. And frankly, it’s disturbing.” He
flung the destroyed chain into the bushes. “Go to your room and—”
A shrill scream interrupted him. Maybe it was weird, but her first
thought was that daddy hated to be interrupted. Whoever did that would
be in
big trouble.
Her father spun around as another scream joined the first. And then
another. And another, until suddenly, all Nicole could hear were cries
for help and shrieks of terror.
“Stay here, Nicole.” Her father turned to her, for a just a second,
but in that moment she saw something in his face she’d never seen in him
before: fear. “Hide. No matter what happens, don’t come out.”
She nodded, but he was already gone, running for the main house.
Frightened and confused, she wedged herself between the storage shed and
a bush and listened to the screams and pleas, the groans and wet,
horrible crunching sounds punctuated by maniacal laughter. On the
ground, the ring Terese had given her lay in a tangle of trampled grass,
and Nicole found that if she focused on the shiny oval ruby, she could
pretend the noises all around her weren’t real.
Suddenly, a huge foot came down on the ring. Too petrified to move,
Nicole could only gasp when massive hands ripped her from her hiding
place and hurled her against the supply shed wall. She crumpled to the
ground, pain tearing through her back, hips, and her right leg. She
tried to scramble to her feet, but her body wasn’t working right.
Trembling, choking on a sob, she looked down at her thigh and the
bloody end of bone protruding through mangled flesh. Her princess dress
was grass and blood-stained now. Even through her unimaginable agony and
terror, her mind could only form one thought with any semblance of
clarity: she would be in so much trouble for ruining her clothes.
“I’ve been looking for you, Nicole.”
Through a haze of pain and tears, she glanced up at the vampire
looming over her. “B-Boris?” She cried out as her family’s chef lifted
her and once again slammed her against the shed, this time pinning her
there. “Where’s my daddy? I want my mommy.
Mommy!”
“Call for her all you want,” Boris said. “She’s not coming.” He
touched her cheek with his finger, and a stab of icy terror shot
straight to her heart. “I’ve fed you since you were old enough to eat
solid foods, you spoiled little human. Now it’s time for you to feed
me.” He took a deep breath, like he was smelling her. “I’ve always heard
that children taste better than adults. Sweeter. Purer. Now I get to
find out for myself.” He grinned. “It’s going to hurt, since I have no
fangs.”
Nicole tried to fight. Tried to kick, hit, scream. But Boris was
strong and she was a petrified eight-year-old girl with a broken leg.
His dull teeth sank into her skin. Grinding, crushing sounds accompanied
a storm of agony as he chewed into her throat. Liquid warmth streamed
down her neck, and when she tried to scream, only a gurgling noise came
out of her mouth.
Why was he doing this? Why would someone who had baked her cookies
for after-school snacks and strawberry cakes for her birthdays want to
hurt her so badly?
You can domesticate animals, but you can never trust them or know for sure that they won’t bite. You can’t override instinct, her father once said.
Vampires are animals that must always be harnessed. Remember that, Nicole.
She hadn’t believed him. But as her body went mercifully numb and her
struggles weakened, she recalled what her father had said when she’d
argued that their household vampires like Boris and Terese were kind and
loyal.
Even cute, fluffy pet bunnies can bite.
Darkness closed in, and in the last second before she lost
consciousness, Nicole wondered if bunny bites hurt as badly as vampire
bites.
~ CHAPTER ONE ~“Go fuck yourself.”
Hunter, MoonBound clan’s leader, leaned back in his chair and gave
Riker an expectant look. “Go fuck yourself…” He made a “come on” gesture
with his fingers. “Finish the sentence.”
Riker rolled his eyes. “Go fuck yourself…
sir.”
Nodding his dark head in satisfaction, Hunter kicked his boots up on
the scarred oak conference table. “Better.” He laced his fingers
together over his abs, his deeply tanned skin making his white T-shirt
seem even brighter. “Now, as I was saying before being told to do
something anatomically impossible, if we can storm the Martin residence
with enough of our warriors, we can take hostages. The humans will be
forced to give Neriya back to us.”
Another warrior seated at the table, Baddon, flipped a pen into the
air. “Why don’t we get ShadowSpawn to pony up some muscle to help? It’s
their female we’re trying to rescue.”
“I already tried,” Hunter said grimly. “They insist that because
Neriya was taken taken by the humans while in our care, we’re
responsible for getting her back or they’ll declare war on the eve of
the new moon.”
Katina, the clan’s only senior-level female warrior, hissed. “That
goes against every vampire custom and protocol there is. No one declares
war so close to moon fever.” She braced her elbows on the table and
leaned forward, as if ready to launch herself at anyone who dared argue
with her. She’d certainly done it before. “You know they wouldn’t do it
on the eve of the
full moon, when the
males need to feed.”
“No clan would risk that,” Baddon said. “But females mean little to
ShadowSpawn except as breeders. It’s probably not a big deal to them if
the females miss a new moon feeding.”
“Fuck ‘em,” Katina spat. “Let them come. Our warriors are well trained and powerful. We’ll give them the fight of their lives.”
As much as Riker wanted to agree with her, the truth was that the
odds were in the enemy clan’s favor. Not only did they outnumber
MoonBound clan three to one, but ShadowSpawn had no code of ethics and
made no distinction between males, females, and children when it came to
killing in battle or otherwise.
“Wendigo legend is based on the ShadowSpawn,” Hunter reminded them.
“They’re killers, cannibals who have destroyed clans up and down the
west coast. Neriya was lost while she was a guest in our home. Make no
mistake; if we don’t return her to ShadowSpawn, we’ll feel their wrath.
They’re desperate to get her back.”
Understandable. Vampire mortality rates during childbirth were
dangerously high, and Neriya’s rare ability to deliver babies safely
made her precious among their people. ShadowSpawn would definitely fight
for her.
“I’m not afraid of them.” Katina shifted, her leather jacket
squeaking against the back of the chair. “Riker has prepared us for
this. We can win, even if we have to scatter into the forest and fight
like guerillas until the end of time.”
“Perhaps.” Hunter’s gaze lifted to the far wall of the conference
room, where a painting depicting a bloody battle between two vampire
clans hung next to other vampire and Native American artwork. “But our
females and children will be dead. What will we have won?”
Riker had lost a female and child, so he knew the answer to that.
And he wished like hell he didn’t.
Hunter signaled to one of the clan’s maidens, who brought over a tray
laden with a leather flask, glasses, and a ceremonial pipe. Hunter
waited until she left the room before saying, “Now, let’s do the peace
thing.”
Peace? Riker was nowhere near ready to toast to a “good hunt” and
smoke to “plentiful blood.” Their clan was in danger from a rival
vampire clan whose members were savage animals, and until the threat was
over, Riker wasn’t going to play nice. Not even with the male who had
led MoonBound clan for nearly two hundred years.
“Didn’t you hear a word I said?” Riker whipped a dagger from his
weapons’ harness and sank the blade into the table, where it vibrated as
violently as the temper pulsing through his veins. “I don’t give a shit
if you’re Supreme King Alpha Commander of the Known Universe. You’re
going to listen to me.”
One ebony eyebrow climbed up Hunter’s forehead, and the other three
warriors stopped moving and breathing. All except Baddon, anyway. He
traced one of the skull tats on his forearm and let out a soft “holy
shit” whistle.
“Someone’s feeling his oats today.” Hunter folded his arms across his
broad chest and studied Riker with deceptively calm, half-lidded eyes
that were as black as his hair. “Why don’t you make me listen. And then
tell me why I shouldn’t fire you as my Second before I toss you into the
pit for a month.”
Summoning his human military training, Riker inhaled a slow, measured
breath in order to steal a few precious seconds to get his next move
queued up. He’d stepped over the line by disrespecting Hunter in front
of the senior warriors, and Riker would take his punishment like a good
little vampire later. Right now he had to knock some sense into his
thick-headed clan leader.
“You’re a great chief, Hunter,” Riker said calmly. “But battle and
covert ops are my specialty, and I’m telling you that, in this case, a
stealthy surgical strike is going to be more effective than numbers and
brute force. If my plan for rescuing Neriya doesn’t work, you can rally
the clan for a larger assault, but you’ve got to let me do this my way.
You’ve trusted me in charge of our warriors for thirty years, so trust
me enough to handle this now. I can get her away from the humans who
captured her. We’ll return her to ShadowSpawn before they have a chance
to come after us.” Riker popped his dagger from the wood and sheathed
it. “And you don’t want to fire me because you’d be stuck dealing with
Myne on your own. Which is also why you shouldn’t drop me into the pit.”
Hunter appeared to consider what he’d said. Though Riker was only
half-kidding about why Hunter shouldn’t fire him or drop-kick him into
the pit used for non-lethal punishments, there was some truth to what
he’d said. Myne and Hunter, the only two pureblood vampires besides
Baddon in the clan, got along like two tomcats in a bag, and neither
would admit that he needed the other.
“Where is the bastard, anyway?” Hunter asked, and Riker shrugged. Myne wasn’t one to share his plans.
“Patrolling, probably. Not my day to watch him.”
Taggart, a male who worked with the CIA before he’d been turned into a
vampire, cleared his throat. “Riker’s right about stealth. I’d feel
better if we had a whole team going in to rescue Neriya, but until we
know the exact situation, it might be better to let Riker go in the way
he wants to.”
“Especially with the increase in hunters and poachers lurking in the
forest lately.” Katina growled, her pearly fangs flashing in stark
contrast to her brown skin. “A large group of vampires heading toward
Seattle’s billionaire district is a lot more likely to attract their
attention than one or two of us.”
Except for the sound of the cuckoo clock ticking on the wall behind
Katina, there was silence as Hunter looked each of them in the eye.
Finally, like a great cat rising from its jungle resting place, he
dropped his feet onto the wood floor and rose to his full, impressive
six-feet-seven height. Those who had been born vampires instead of
turned were generally taller than most humans and turned vampires. They
also got to keep their natural eye color, unlike turned vampires, whose
eyes always became some shade of silver as their fangs grew in.
“I’ll give Riker a shot at doing it his way.” He jerked his head
toward the door. “Out. Everyone but Rike. Fill the other senior staff
in. We’ll let the rest of the warriors know what’s happening when we
need to.”
“What about general clan members?” Baddon asked. “Everyone is on edge.”
“I’ll speak at dinner. Assure everyone there’s nothing to worry about for now.” Hunter nodded at the door again. “Go.”
Taggart, Baddon, and Katina filed out, each shooting Riker a
sympathetic glance as they went. Once the door closed, Riker got to his
feet and moved away from the table, waiting for the dress-down.
It came in the form of a fist in the face.
Riker hit the wall hard enough to make the picture frames rattle.
“Don’t disrespect me in front of the others again.” Hunter glanced
down at his knuckles. “Also? You have a hard face to match your hard
head.” No one went from pissed to playful in a split-second the way
Hunter did.
Tasting blood, Riker tested his jaw. Nothing broken or loose, but
he’d feel it for a while. “You didn’t learn that the first ten times you
decked me?”
Truth was that Hunter had held back. Riker had never felt the full
brunt of his chief’s anger, but he’d seen it. If Hunter had wanted to,
he could have shattered every bone in Riker’s skull.
Hunter gave a lazy shrug. “I’m a slow learner.”
That was a load of crap. The ancient vampire came across as a
laid-back, couldn’t-give-a-shit slacker who liked video games, Sports
Illustrated, and muscle cars, but he was a lot smarter than anyone who
didn’t know him gave him credit for. His mind was blade-sharp, his
smiles frequent, his nature affable and calm, outwardly, at least. He’d
never ruled with an iron fist — and he didn’t need to. Respect for his
leadership kept the clan running smoothly.
“You won’t regret this,” Riker assured him. “I can do it.”
Doubt all but billowed from Hunter’s pores as he lifted the
ceremonial pipe from the tray. “If this were any other mission, I
wouldn’t be concerned. You know that.”
“I know,” Riker admitted. “But
you know I’m right about
this. I’m familiar with the Martin house. I’ve memorized the grounds.
I’ve studied every detail of their security, both inside and outside the
house.”
“Studied?”
“Okay, stalked. But my point is—”
“I know what your point is. And I know how much your hatred for the
Martins has eaten at you. Hatred makes you sloppy. Makes you focus so
completely on revenge that you’re blind to the dangers around you. Makes
you—”
“Makes me determined to succeed.”
Hunter put his back to the wall and propped one foot behind him, his
pose casual, but his expression as serious as Riker had ever seen it.
“Your mate was a slave in the Martin household. How can you be sure you
can do what needs to be done without that history coloring your
actions?”
“Because this is my home.” Riker met his leader’s gaze head on. “This
is my family. And if I screw up, I lose everything.” He glanced over at
the depiction of MoonBound’s battle with the now-extinct CloudStrike
clan. “We
all lose everything.”
Hoy a las 17:29 por 
Gracias por los ánimos! Voy a seguir leyendo con la mente impoluta y sin haber cotilleado nada, que los libros hay que leerlos como dios manda! 
Seguro que voy a tener mucho que comentar..
Pero bueeeno...lo importante es que al fin encontre un prota favorito en esta serie. 
