Bloodhunter

by Vonna Harper

  “Yes.”

  “We’re linked then.”

  “Not just linked, mated.”

  Her heart singing, Dana rested her head on Nacon’s chest. His breathing slowed; even his heartbeat became calmer. Hers was doing the same, post-sex quieting her until nothing remained except the sun and breeze.

  And him.

  About the Author

  To learn more about Vonna Harper, please visit www.VonnaHarper.com. Send an email to VonnaHarper@Clearwire.net. She blogs weekly at. www.thebradfordbunch.com

  Two men desire you. Do you run, or go with the flow?

  Shifting Passions

  © 2008 Xakara

  Three years ago, over the course of a summer, best friends and half-blooded shapeshifters Nathan and Lena went from friends to lovers. Now just friends again, they come to realize that their brief fling set the groundwork for the fantasies that haunt them.

  Nathan’s current lover, Armand, is another half-Therian who has had his fill of poly relationships. But watching Nathan and Lena together, Armand dreams of once more being drenched in love and desire from all sides.

  Their aching cycle of longing and retreat goes on, unfulfilled—until summer heat brings out the animal in them all.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Shifting Passions

  Armand straddled Nathan’s legs just behind Lena and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. His eyes were on Nathan as he nuzzled her and placed a kiss at the curve of her neck. It was an intimate gesture. One he’d picked up last year and one Lena hadn’t seemed to mind.

  “Now, my lovely Kitten, where I am deeply, deeply, joyful that you came to us with such questions of fertility, wouldn’t Jesse have been a better choice?”

  Before Lena could answer she felt Nathan tense beneath her as he spoke up on Jesse’s behalf.

  “Jesse is out of town.”

  Her eyes narrowed at Nathan’s expression, but without being able to see Armand’s she wasn’t sure what it meant. Still scrutinizing her best friend, she brushed her head against Armand in feline contentment, despite her words.

  “Actually we broke up. I set him up with the owner of the coffee house down in the District. She’s liked him for a while and they’re cute together.”

  Armand buried his face in her hair as he spoke. “I’m so sorry to hear that, Kitten.”

  He didn’t sound sorry to Lena. He sounded aroused. He felt aroused, too, if the thick, pulsing length pressing against her backside was any indication.

  Having found herself between them on one occasion or another, she knew the indication was dead on.

  The wildly impulsive part of her brain wanted her to reach back and touch him. She wanted to find out if she could make him groan, and sigh, and cry out in the same ways she’d heard Nathan do. The guestroom was two doors away, but with her hearing she may as well have been standing in the room each and every time.

  Her hand was actually moving when Armand spoke again.

  “This means we get to keep you, yes?” A sigh shuddered through him. “I’ve been so patient. I don’t want to be patient anymore.”

  His voice and the sudden thrust of his hips brought a startled gasp from her. Nathan gave a counter thrust that brought another gasp as she was lost to the heavy throb where he nestled between her legs.

  It took a moment for her mind to separate the comments. Armand was being patient. She was between him and Nathan and Armand was without doubt ready for more. He just needed her to move.

  That’s what he was saying, right?

  It was hard to think with him running his tongue along the curve of her neck and his hips pushing her to rub over Nathan’s length.

  “If you…ah…” She lost her train of thought for a moment before grasping enough words for a coherent sentence. “If you stop, I can get out of the way.”

  His response was to lift her heavy sable waves to lightly bite at the back of her neck. She shuddered and Nathan bucked up against her, despite trying to hold still. His grip on her hips tightened as Armand began to kiss down her spine, laying her forward over Nathan.

  “No need to move, my love. I’m happy to go through you.”

  Armand lifted the cami to her shoulders, freeing her breasts just before she lay forward completely against Nathan. She felt Armand’s chin brush her shoulder and wondered what look he shared with his lover before returning his attentions to her and the sensitive skin along her spine.

  Nathan wanted him to stop before it was too late to take it back if anything went wrong. Just as equally, he wanted it all to keep going until it was beyond too late and past the point of no return. There was something unreal about it. Something that made it seem like he’d wake up any second and needed to take in as much as he could.

  Her face was pressed against the side of his throat; the little sounds Armand pulled from her vibrated against his skin and made his eyes want to close. But he couldn’t stop watching, the same way he couldn’t stop moving.

  Armand’s lips reached the small of her back and paused as he lapped at the slight hollow there. His palms moved over the lace, blocking the rest of her from direct view and touch. Without a pause, he slid his hands beneath the legs of the boy shorts and kneaded each high, firm mound of flesh, pressing her down against Nathan.

  Nathan’s gaze traveled down her body to find Armand’s. There was deep arousal but there was also a real fear and he knew Armand could see it. The struggle was clear in the ebony eyes looking back at him. Did he keep going for himself or did he stop for Nathan—even when he believed that stopping wasn’t in the best interest of anyone involved? It was in that moment that Nathan knew without doubt Armand loved them both and all of this was as hard on him as it had been on Nathan.

  When monsters need a makeover, they head for the one place that can make it happen. Hollywood.

  Lights, Camera…Monsters

  © 2008 Lila Dubois

  Luke is desperate to save his people. A lifetime of sneaking in to human houses and watching movies has convinced him that if he can make a great movie about monsters, humanity will change its opinion of them. With his friends at his side, all in shiny new human bodies, Luke heads for Tinsel Town.

  A rising Hollywood producer, all-business Lena knows a good story when she sees it. Luke? He’s just another amateur who wants to get famous. But Luke’s too gorgeous to pass up. And there’s something vulnerable about him that leads her to throw caution to the wind and invite him to dinner.

  One night of incredible sex later, Lena wakes up next to the surprise of her life. She’s sleeping next to a monster. Literally.

  Appearances aside, she finds herself wanting to help Luke save his people. But they’ve got more to worry about than just human prejudice.

  Some of the monsters would rather stay in the closet—and to make them all stay there, they’re willing to kill.

  Book One of the Monsters in Hollywood series.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Lights, Camera…Monsters:

  “What are you going to do if she wants to have sex?” Michael posed the question on all of their minds.

  “Do you think she does?” Luke asked.

  Henry shrugged and Michael fished around for a copy of Maxim. “She asked you on a date, that usually means sex.”

  Luke’s stomach knotted with anxiety. “I’ve never had sex with a human woman before. What do I do?”

  “Don’t look at me, I’ve never had sex with a human either, though she shouldn’t be that different from a succubus, they’re all cut from the same cloth,” Henry added.

  “Yeah, but there’s thousands of years of evolution in between.” Luke looked anxiously to Michael, who was ripping sex-tip articles out of magazines.

  “Here,” Michael shoved a handful of articles at Luke, “read these on the way.”

  The top article was titled: “Make Friends with the Little Man in the Boat”.

  “Thanks, Michael.” Folding the papers, Luke stuffed them into his pocket, nod
ded to Henry, and headed out the door. He had a half-hour walk before he reached a road with a payphone where a cab could pick him up. One of the problems with squatting in an abandoned warehouse in the Port of L.A. was the lack of easy transportation. He kept the pace light, having discovered that human bodies sweat, and it was not considered attractive. After all of his careful work obtaining this outfit, the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it.

  The crunch of papers in his pocket as he walked brought Luke’s mind around to the possibility of what could happen tonight. Lena. He tested the name out, liking the way it rolled over his tongue.

  Thinking back on the meeting, Luke admitted he liked everything about Lena. Her hair was a pretty, soft brown. It had been pushed back behind her shoulders, so the sides framed her face. Soft lips, tinted pink, a straight nose and sky blue eyes completed her face. There was something about the set of her mouth, as if she were constantly flirting with a smile.

  He’d had only a brief glimpse of her body when she rose at the end of the meeting. She was slender, a long cool line from shoulder to hip. The dark-colored skirt and fitted off-the-shoulder sweater set off her creamy, pale skin and exposed delicate collarbones. He mentally stripped away the clothes, imagining her soft white flesh exposed and vulnerable, waiting for him. Luke closed his eyes for a moment as desire danced through his bloodstream. It had been too long since he touched a female, and touching Lena would be more than touching just any female. She would be his first human.

  Ducking through a hole in the fence, Luke started down the access road to the pay-phone.

  An hour later Luke slipped into a booth across from Lena. It was eight fifteen, and he was late.

  “Lena, I’m sorry, there was traffic.”

  “That’s no problem, I’m glad you were able to make it.” Lena raised a glass of pale gold liquid to her lips. She’d smiled when he sat down, but the smile did not reach her eyes. If he had to guess, Luke would say she was mad.

  The waiter popped up next to his elbow, and Luke ordered tequila on the rocks. The waiter moved away, and Luke turned to see Lena’s raised eyebrows.

  “Tequila?” she asked.

  Luke had no idea what was wrong with ordering tequila. The other places he’d eaten had been fine with that.

  “Is tequila a…poor choice?” Flustered and anxious, Luke nervously smoothed the front of his shirt. His bangs had fallen into his eye, so Luke scooped them to the side, hoping his hair still looked like the picture he’d modeled it after.

  His anxious fussing seemed to amuse Lena, and she smiled, though it was a soft thing, without malice. “Tequila is a fine choice. So where were you coming from that you got stuck in traffic?”

  “Uh, near the port.”

  “The Port of L.A.? That is quite a drive, I’m sorry, if you’d told me I could have picked someplace closer to you.”

  “Oh no, this is fine. I’ve never been here, and I like trying new restaurants.”

  “Me too. I’m such a foodie. Where have you tried lately?”

  Luke looked around the maroon and brown interior of Lawry’s, each table set with linen and silver. No place he’d tried was anything like this. Most restaurant ventures started and ended with recommendations from cabbies.

  “Well, uh, nothing quite this fancy, but there was this taco place, in the valley…”

  “Hugo’s?”

  “Oh, uh, yeah.”

  “I love Hugo’s. What combination did you try?”

  Luke stared at Lena, wondering if she were laughing at him, but her interest and excitement seemed genuine. It was hard to imagine the brunette beauty, who looked edible in dark blue, hair loose in soft waves over her shoulders, standing outside the small taco hut, munching on a burrito as juice dripped down her chin.

  Luke tentatively relayed his menu choices, and Lena offered him a few suggestions. The conversation continued, and quickly focused on hole-in-the-wall cheap food. Luke’s puzzlement was soon replaced by delight as Lena revealed that she was just as willing to eat at the cheap places as the expensive ones. The few other people he’d met who worked in movies, or “the industry” as they all called it, had only talked about whom they’d seen at the latest posh restaurants.

  They covered Mexican and pizza, Chinese and Korean BBQ. Without thinking, Luke admitted that he’d never had three a.m. delivery of Thai food, as no Thai place would deliver to them. Lena blinked and sat back in her chair, apparently baffled by the idea of a locale outside Thai delivery. Luke held his breath, wondering if she would press him for details about where he lived, but Lena finally muttered, “Well, I guess you are in South Bay,” and the moment passed.

  Their salads arrived, and Luke carefully stabbed a forkful and brought it to his mouth. There was some shredded red thing amid the candied nuts and tangy cheese that tasted foul, but he kept chewing. Lena was carefully pushing the red stuff off to the side. When she noticed he was watching, she smiled ruefully.

  “I know, I know, I’m a complete philistine, but I hate beets.”

  Luke looked down at his own bowl and started pushing his off to the side. Beets. He made a mental note to avoid those in the future. “I don’t like them either, but I didn’t know if it would be appropriate to remove them.”

  “I promise not to tell on you, if you don’t tell on me. It’ll be our secret.” Lena smiled again, and this time there was something else in the smile, something a bit naughty, as if the word “secret” implied things he couldn’t even guess at.

  They made it through salads and the start of entrees before the conversation turned to business matters.

  “So, Luke, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for?”

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  It’s all about the story…

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  www.samhainpublishing.com