by Michele Hauf
“I know! Faery dust. That’s the coolest part!”
“Can I join you?”
“Please!”
He tugged off his shirt and his wings snapped out. That startled the animals, but only for a few moments, and they sneaked back to witness as he soared up to hug Zen.
“I’m completely faery now,” she said. “Your mother said so. My eyes have been this color for days. What do you think?”
“I think I’m in love.”
He pulled her into his embrace, and his tattered wings curled around hers, twining within one another as they hovered above the forest floor. The dragonflies circled them, and birds fluttered close by.
“You feel that?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. When our wings touch that’s ten kinds of all right. We could have sex like this, floating in the air, clinging to one another with our wings.”
“I think we should.”
She placed her hand over the stake. “But first you have to heal.” She circled the wood, and in her wake a glittering of faery dust coated his skin. “You can bite me, yes? My ichor won’t harm your vampire?”
“It won’t, thanks to the ichor that runs through my veins.”
“Then, bite me, lover. Take my blood for your strength. And to make me yours.”
He didn’t vacillate with the consequences, because damn the consequences. He’d waited too long for this.
Blade sank his teeth into Zen’s neck, drawing out the sweet, warm ichor and drinking from her deeply. No blood tainted her ichor, neither the dark taste of demon blood nor the deadly blue angel stuff. She moaned and her body hugged to his, her breasts conforming against his chest. Their wings flapped slowly, turning them minutely. Zen’s faery dust spilled onto the water below, sparkling in the sun.
And as he drew her life into his body, he felt the immense power infuse him. His muscles spasmed and Zen grasped on to his arms, but he kept his lips against her neck, drinking of her. Marrying himself to her in the unspoken act of shared life.
She was his queen.
And the ache in his chest burned suddenly. He grunted. Zen sighed up from the exquisite pleasure of his bite and met his gaze. “What is it?”
“I think your ichor is healing me.” He looked down.
She gasped as they watched the stake ease its way out of his chest. The skin around it tightened as the stake narrowed to the point, and when it was out it fell to the water below. Blade’s skin knit and healed completely. He felt his bones repair and the muscles about his heart sew into strong fabric.
She kissed the bare spot where once the deadly stake had been. “Did I do that?”
He smirked and wiped a smear of ichor from his lip. “You sure did. That’s some powerful ichor in your veins. Born of the angels and forged by the demons. You, Zen, are exquisite.”
“You’re pretty awesome yourself. Can you love a faery?”
“I already do. Can you love a vampire faery?”
“Best gift I’ve ever received.”
“That reminds me...I brought a gift for you.”
“Really? You mean I get something more than your love?”
“It’s on the ground by your halo.” He clasped her across the back and they descended to the soft, moss-frosted earth. Handing her the velvet bag, he waited for her reaction.
“Oh, my mercy!” She pulled out the crown, which was the cheap display-model tiara from the clothing store she had tried to buy with little luck. Sun glinted in the rhinestones. It was gaudy, but suited for her.
“Would you trade a halo for that?” he asked.
She toed the halo toward his foot, ignoring it for the prize in her hands. “You have to ask? You can give it to the halo hunter. Just let me try on this gorgeous crown.”
“You are my queen,” he said as he placed it on her head and kissed her.
“Take me home with you,” she said. “And never let me go.”
“I promise to hold you always.”
* * * * *
Read on for a sneak preview of
GODDESS OF FATE
by Alexandra Sokoloff
and
POSSESSED BY THE FALLEN
by Sharon Ashwood.
I hope you enjoyed Blade and Zen’s story! If you’re interested in reading about the others featured in THE VAMPIRE’S FALL, here are the details:
Blu and Creed’s story is
HER VAMPIRE HUSBAND
Malakai and Rissa’s story is
MALAKAI
Daisy Blu and Beck’s story is
GHOST WOLF
Stryke and Blyss’s story is
MOONLIGHT AND DIAMONDS
Dez and Ivan’s story is
THE DEVIL TO PAY
Michael and Vinny’s story is
HALO HUNTER
You can find all these stories in digital format at your favorite online retailer.
http://www.harlequin.com/harlequinexperience
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ISBN-13: 9781460382936
The Vampire’s Fall
Copyright © 2015 by Michele Hauf
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
They’ve got twenty-four hours to see if love really can alter fate…
Read on for a sneak preview of
GODDESS OF FATE
by Alexandra Sokoloff.
Luke woke because there was motion, not just motion but the sensation of speeding.
I thought I was dead. Am I dead?
But the motion was familiar, not anything ethereal at all. He was…
In a car?
He forced his eyes open, saw headlights racing over an open highway, nearly deserted—eerie lights floating in the fog, the night flying past outside a passenger window.
Maybe I am dead.
No, he was in a car, his own car, and it was being driven by…
He turned his head painfully toward the driver’s seat.
A woman?
He guessed she was in her late twenties, although as soon as he thought it, something in him said he was wrong. In the dark he could see a perfect feminine profile, alabaster skin and luxurious hair, shimmering even in the half-light…
Red hair?
She was in a simple pale dress, gold, he thought, that slipped silkily over a figure that could only be called spectacular, those lush curves…<
br />
“Who are you?” he said thickly. His throat seemed to be closed up.
She careened around a turn. “I’ll explain when you’re safe,” she answered breathlessly.
“Safe? What the hell…?”
A wave of pain cut him off. Right. He’d been shot. Shot bad. In fact, it was a miracle he wasn’t dead.
“You need to rest,” the woman at the wheel said, reproving. “Try to sleep.”
Try to sleep? Is she joking?
“Not till you tell me…”
He stopped, because he didn’t know where to start. Who was she? How could she possibly have gotten him off the dock and into a car? Where were they going, and what was she doing there in the first place?
If he could just stop the car from spinning, he was going to get some answers.
“Who are you?” he said again, more faintly.
She said something that sounded like…
“Bodyguard?” he repeated in disbelief, and stared at her with all the skepticism of a 220-pound male looking at a 115-pound woman. Bodyguard? Her body was—well, there was not a thing wrong with it, those long, lithe legs, those curves… It was perfect, in fact, for a dancer, maybe, but a bodyguard?
“Whose…bodyguard?”
“Yours,” she said softly, just before he passed out again.
Don’t miss
GODDESS OF FATE by Alexandra Sokoloff,
available July 2015 wherever Harlequin® Nocturne books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2015 by Alexandra Sokoloff
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
When Jack’slover learned his darkest secret,she betrayed the elite vampire agent. Now the beautiful fey, Jessica Lark, is back in Jack Anderson's life.
Read on for a sneak preview of
POSSESSED BY THE FALLEN
by Sharon Ashwood.
“You tried to kill me.”
“No, I didn’t. You’re a vampire. A knife to the gut would never kill you.” She stirred, the darkness still washing out detail, but Jack could see enough now to be sure it was Lark. “But everyone believes you died when you wrecked your Porsche. Or rather, when a gunman helped you wreck it.” She added the last bit more softly, as if she actually cared.
“I survived.” His words came automatically, almost devoid of feeling. Seeing Lark, hearing her, was too much. Every possible emotion was making a logjam in his gut. As if he was going to overload, Jack’s fingers began to shake. “I survived, but not all the shooters did. The body they found was one of theirs.”
“And no one noticed they had the wrong vampire?”
“My servant identified the remains and immediately went into witness protection. I owe him a big favor.”
She made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whispered curse. The scent of her fear found Jack, giving him a twinge of satisfaction. She’d seen his demon side, and she knew she’d crossed him. She had every reason to tremble.
But vengeance wasn’t all he hungered for. What he felt was infinitely more complex, and simple revenge wasn’t going to satisfy him. He took two more steps, shock robbing his movements of grace.
“Jack?” she said cautiously, pulling her trench coat closer.
He raised his arms, his first instinct to touch her. She swayed forward, but the moment dissolved once her gaze flickered across his face. Whatever she saw there stopped her cold.
Jack let his arms fall. “How do I know it’s really you?”
Her full lips twitched. “Do you think I’m a warty goblin out to trick you into kissing me?”
“Your design studio burned the night you stabbed me,” he said, keeping his voice even. “I thought you died.”
She moved a step deeper into the shadows, keeping distance between them. “I almost did.”
Don’t miss
POSSESSED BY THE FALLEN
by Sharon Ashwood,
available July 2015 wherever
Harlequin® Nocturne books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2015 by Naomi Lester
ISBN-13: 9781460391853
Moonlight and Diamonds & The Vampire’s Fall
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
Moonlight and Diamonds
Copyright © 2015 by Michele Hauf
The Vampire’s Fall
Copyright © 2015 by Michele Hauf
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
