Angelica looked up at him, sunlight creating a nimbus of gold and bronze around her rich walnut hair. “That worry had occurred to me, as well. Along with the fear that he would just…attack me.” She gave a little shudder and he pulled her close against him—something he’d been doing as often as possible in the last week. “So I convinced him I might lose my Sight if he injured me or changed me in any way. I hoped to at least stall any intentions he might have had until Chas got there to save me. I knew he would come, of course. I didn’t expect you, but, my lord…Voss” —she smiled— “when I opened my eyes and saw you…that’s when I knew. You were the only person I really wanted to see. I loved you.”
He dropped a kiss onto her lips, quickly and easily, as a man who is comfortable that he will have ample opportunity to do more than that with the woman he loved, whenever he wanted to. “I think you make it sound easier than it was—and yourself more tolerant than you were— but I wholly understand. I felt the same way, although I didn’t quite understand it for a long time.”
“What’s going to happen now? Will Moldavi come after us again? Now that you aren’t a vampire anymore, isn’t he more dangerous to you?” Her eyes were worried.
“Moldavi isn’t stupid—he knows we’re prepared for him. I’m still very strong, and I have something he doesn’t: the ability to move about in full daylight. And aside of that, there isn’t any way he’d know that I’m no longer Dracule. It’s not as if Dimitri is going to tell him, although I’m certain he’ll find out about it someday. But yes, there is a possibility he might attempt to come after you and Maia again—although Dimitri, Cale and I think it unlikely. He’s not about to risk more lives or resources when he knows we’re expecting him and have thus far evaded his attacks. And now that I can move about in the day, that gives me even more of an ability to protect you. Try not to worry, Angelica. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She nodded, but he could still see the concern in her eyes. There was nothing he could do to erase it, but what he’d told her was true: he and Dimitri felt no imminent danger from Moldavi—at least for the sisters.
The safety of Chas Woodmore’s arse was a different story entirely.
They walked for a while, Angelica identifying the flowers and plants he’d long forgotten. At last she asked, “Do you think Chas will ever come home again? To stay?”
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I suspect as soon as he receives the message from Corvindale that we intend to wed, he’ll be arriving with a stake in his hand. I never did thank you for saving my life, in fact, darling. It’s very precious to me, even though it’s no longer immortal.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a smile. “I couldn’t read your future from your glove, and I’ve come to believe I cannot read the future of a vampir that way. I don’t know why it is, but it seems that I can only see the future of vampirs in my dreams—and that those dreams are as random and unmanageable as Fate itself.”
“Perhaps they aren’t so random, after all,” Voss said, thinking of the mysterious blond woman. “After all, if you hadn’t dreamed of Brickbank’s demise, as unpleasant as it was, perhaps we wouldn’t have found each other.”
Her eyes brightened. “Of course! I hadn’t thought of that.” She squeezed his hand, bare palm to bare palm. “And even though I dreamed that you were going to die, wearing that awful neckcloth and coat—I still don’t understand why you chose those clothes—and I was afraid Corvindale was right and we can’t change Fate, I wasn’t going to stand by and allow it to happen. I’d never been able to change my predictions before, but I had to try that time.”
“But I did die. You were right, my love. I did die.”
“Truly?”
He nodded, finally understanding everything himself. Why the blond woman—she had to have been an angel—had continued to appear to him. That she’d been waiting for him to be ready.
Ready to change. Ready to put someone else ahead of himself—someone from whom he could not hope to gain anything. Ready to act exactly as Lucifer wouldn’t want him to act.
When he woke the next day—or some time later—to find himself no longer in pain, no longer Marked, no longer bound to Lucifer, he realized he’d been given the opportunity for a miracle.
It was the one moment in his life that he’d been truly selfless—risking himself, giving his life for someone he didn’t even know. Yes, he’d held back from attacking Angelica, from doing what he wanted to her because he knew it would hurt her…and that had been the start of his metamorphosis. But it wasn’t until he’d given everything up for someone with whom he had no attachment that the change had been fully realized.
That gift of self had been enough to break an unbreakable covenant.
He realized that, at Rubey’s advice, he’d changed. And that the angel had given him that chance.
Voss wondered how many other chances he’d had in the past that he’d ignored. He had a sense there had been more.
You don’t remember me, but we’ve met before.
“You never saw that little girl again? The one that you saved? You never found out what happened?” Angelica asked.
“No.”
“How odd. One would expect the parents to look for you, and express their gratitude.”
But Voss shook his head, a little smile curving his lips. He would explain it to her, about his visitation from an angel who was not fallen…but later. When they were private and had plenty of time to talk about it. “I’m not about to question the event, Angelica.”
No, indeed, he wasn’t. After all, he’d asked for help, he’d begged and pleaded for it while writhing in agony…and the angel had heard him. She’d known he was ready to change, at last.
Looking down at Angelica, he saw worry in her beautiful face. “What is it?”
“Do you think Chas will ever give us his blessing?”
Voss fully intended to make certain the man did, if he ever saw him again. But instead of saying that, he replied, “Corvindale, albeit reluctantly, has agreed to help make our case. Now that I am no longer Dracule, he has no reason to deny us permission. But regardless, Angelica, we’re going to wed, with or without your brother’s consent. Now that it’s been shortened, I’m not about to live the rest of my life without you.”
“Thank you for coming back to me, Voss.”
“Thank you for throwing away that necklace, Angelica. But there is one more request I’d like to make of you.”
“And what is that?”
“You know I love you, I adore you, my dear…but when we were in Paris, and you were bathing…you were humming.”
“I was trying to keep from hearing you splashing about and wondering…imagining…what you were doing.”
He smiled. “Ah. Well, now that you don’t have to imagine any longer, my love…would you mind…not humming so much? You tend to be terribly off-key. Usually flat.”
“Is that so?” She smiled, her eyes lighting with humor. “So now I know precisely how to get whatever I want from you. I shall hum, or sing—which I’m even worse at—until you give it to me to silence me.”
Voss laughed with deep, filling pleasure. He’d had no idea that his life had been so bleak and dark—but now it was filled with light and humor. “My dear, you don’t have to resort to that. I’ve given everything to have you…and I would give anything for you. Just…don’t sing.”
The End
Thank you!
Thank you for reading THE VAMPIRE VOSS and I hope you enjoyed it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Colleen Gleason is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has written more than 30 books in a variety of genres, including the international bestselling Gardella Vampire Hunters Series. She is also the author of th
e steampunk YA Stoker & Holmes books, as well as the post-apocalyptic Envy Chronicles (as Joss Ware).
Find out more about Colleen at:
Website: http://www.colleengleason.com/
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BOOKS BY COLLEEN GLEASON
Draculia Vampire Trilogy
Book 1: The Vampire Voss: Lucifer’s Rogue
Book 2: The Vampire Dimitri: Lucifer’s Saint
Book 3: The Vampire Narcise: Lucifer’s Warrior
Hunger
by Felicity Heaton
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?
Table of Contents for HUNGER
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
About the Author
Other Books by Felicity Heaton
CHAPTER 1
“You can’t make me do this, and you know it.”
The black-haired man leaning against the table opposite Eve in the dimly lit empty nightclub folded his arms in response to her outburst, his dark eyes glittering with ice, a look she was coming to know as a sign he wouldn’t budge on his decision.
Eve growled at him and cut the sound off in her throat when her fangs began to drop, turning her stomach, reminding her what she had become.
“I’m not going.” She mimicked him by folding her arms across her chest, squashing her breasts together beneath her plain charcoal t-shirt. “That’s final.”
“Eve,” he whispered softly and unfurled his body, pushing to his feet in a graceful effortless move. His broad shoulders shifted in a silent sigh beneath his black shirt and he reached for her, his expression softening and the ice in his impassive eyes melting. “It is for the best.”
It wasn’t, and he knew it. He knew how she felt about what she had become, and her so-called family. She wanted no part of it, not even for her sister’s sake. Lilith had become the ruler of the Vehemens bloodline and the same vampire blood ran in Eve’s veins because of the man towering before her.
“It isn’t.” Eve rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the ache in her skull, the constant buzzing that was only growing louder. Soon, it would become something else, something darker and more sinister. A hunger for blood. She tamped it down, using everything she had taught herself over the years since her inadvertent turning, suppressing her sick desire to feed.
“Eve?” He was closer now and she didn’t tense as his hand came down on her left shoulder, holding her gently and offering a modicum of comfort. “Are you unwell?”
She shook her head and pulled herself back together. She had quickly discovered after her rescue by the man before her that he would do all in his power to make her take blood if he thought she required it. Not by force. Not as the betrayer had done. No. This man employed a more devastating tactic.
Eve raised her head, looked up into the endless depths of his dark eyes and gave it one last shot, because he wasn’t the only one who could employ guilt as a weapon. “Father, please.”
He hissed and released her as if she had burned him with those words, and turned his back on her, shoving his fingers through the long lengths of his black hair as he paced away. She sensed his agitation and kept still, unwilling to risk inciting his wrath when she was weakened by hunger, even when she knew he would never lay a hand on her. Her vampire instincts were strong though, overwhelming at times, commanding her to obey them even when she despised the things they made her want to do.
Like attack humans and steal their blood.
Whenever those instincts pressed her, she pushed back, using all of her willpower to deny them. She had never allowed anyone to make decisions for her, believed that no one and nothing should have control over her life, and that extended to her wretched instincts. She was stronger than the monster inside her, the demon she had become. She would never embrace it. She had a final mission, and once it was done, so was she.
“Eve,” he said, his voice pained and low, and turned to her, his handsome face twisted in lines of desperation. The ragged burn scars down one cheek and side of his neck pulled taut as he growled, flashing long white daggers at her, and his eyes flared crimson. “Do not think this does not hurt me too. I do not want you to go… but you must understand… Lilith needs you, and you need Lilith. I have tried… by the Devil I have tried to make you see sense but you refuse!”
Eve recoiled as he barked the words at her, his anger pouring from him in violent waves that rocked her. She had pushed too far again and, although she had inherited his temper, in a battle of wills he would win.
Pain surfaced in his eyes as he hissed an oath and looked beyond her to the main entrance of the nightclub.
“It is for the best.”
Eve had the terrible feeling he was giving up on her, and the small fragment of her that wanted to survive and somehow embrace this dark new life, to continue to live with her real family, ached in response.
She took a step towards him and his gaze swung to her, the fathomless agony and sorrow in it bringing her up short and turning the ache into a throbbing pain.
“I’m not ready.” The lie came easily, slipping freely from her tongue. How many times had she lied to Oneiric already?
She had no intention of embracing her new life as a vampire. It was too hard for her. She had been born and raised a hunter, one of the best at Section Seven where she had lived with her sister. For most of their lives, they’d had no idea that their unknown mother had given them their father’s DNA through genetic manipulation.
Eve had uncovered the information one night but had failed to grasp the magnitude of what it meant for her and Lilith, and had kept it to herself.
Oneiric had explained that Lilith had found out about it while she had still been human, working for Section Seven, and had met her mate, Lincoln, who was another Vehemens vampire.
Eve had
found out the full consequences of their mother’s tampering the even harder way. She had been betrayed and killed, and had risen from the dead as a pureblood vampire.
She wrapped her arms about herself and squeezed hard as a chill came over her, freezing her to her soul.
“Eve.” Oneiric crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. It was impossible to resist leaning into his hard chest and resting her cheek against the cool wall of muscle beneath the soft black cotton shirt. Waking as a vampire had been confusing and painful enough, but discovering that Adam had betrayed her had hurt like hell, and the torture that had come afterwards, the years of pain and fury…
She shuddered and Oneiric rubbed her back.
“Do not think about it, little one.” He often called her by the pet term, even though she railed at him about it most nights, telling him that she was a grown woman and not a child.
She hated that he treated her as if she were a child, something fragile and weak, unable to fend for itself.
But at the same time, she loved it when he doted on her, when they spent the night talking about his life and hers before she was turned, and he told her things about her mother. Then, she accepted the pet term, savouring having one parent in her life and being able to know her other one through him. During those quiet times, she felt close to him and at ease with herself, finally knew what it was like to have parents, and she knew it affected Oneiric in a similar way.
Vampires couldn’t procreate, and Oneiric had admitted to being shocked when he had discovered that he had fathered twin daughters, and that he was still coming to terms with it.
He was gunning for father of the century in her opinion. Not only had he helped her sister save Lincoln, her mate, but he had saved Eve too. He had moved Heaven and Earth to find her and bring her home with him, and it touched her more than she could express in words.
Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 100
