Of Blood and Passion
Page 33
“I notice you still haven’t convinced Neo to add more electricity upstairs.”
Amanda smiled ruefully. “No. Despite growing up in the late twentieth century, he’s taken a liking to what he calls the more natural way of life of the nineteenth. Mukdalla and Sam both prefer it, as well, so the generators will remain hooked up to the kitchen and hospital only.”
“Most of the vampires agree with Neo,” Arturo said. “Micah and I are exceptions.”
Amanda smiled. “From what I hear, you two always have been.”
As his dark eyes, as warm as the sun, crinkled at the corners, Quinn kissed his cheek. “Truth.”
He met her gaze, his own filled with such love that her heart swelled almost beyond bearing.
With a smile, Quinn turned back to Amanda and gave her a quick hug. “We need to get going, but come visit us, please? We’re installing a media room at Sakamoto’s complete with a small theater-sized screen. We’ll be holding monthly movie nights for the Slavas and wolves, and anyone else who wants to attend.”
The smile that bloomed across Amanda’s face was one of pure delight. “With popcorn and soda?”
Quinn laughed. “I was thinking appetizers and wine, but sure. We’ll serve whatever you want.”
They said goodbye to Amanda and headed upstairs where the sun shone brightly through the windows. In the kitchen, they found Neo and Mukdalla chatting with Zack and Lily.
Quinn smiled when she saw her brother and his fiancée. “I didn’t know you two were here.”
Zack gave Quinn a quick hug. “We just stopped by.”
“Actually, we didn’t just stop by,” Lily admitted. She turned to Mukdalla with a smile. “Octavia would like for you to consider running her school for Levenach sorcerers.”
Mukdalla’s mouth dropped. “Running it?” Her hand went to her chest. “Me?”
Lily reached for her. “You don’t have to say yes. But you’d be wonderful. You could hire whomever you want to do the work, but we’re going to need someone with organizational skills, someone used to dealing with scared humans. We expect a lot of the students coming to us to be pretty dazed and confused at first.”
“Wait,” Quinn said, turning to Lily. “You’re using a lot of us’es and we’s. Are you telling me that you and Zack are going to stay and help run the school, too? I thought you were going to program computer games.”
Zack grinned, for a moment looking twenty-two again for the first time since they’d stumbled into Vamp City. “Anyone can be a programmer, Sis. We have a chance to help build Hogwarts. For real.”
All she’d ever wanted was for him to be safe. And happy. Part of her wished he’d find that happiness in California, a continent away from anything to do with vampires, though she was learning that vampires, in particular Rippers, could be anywhere. There was no place that was truly safe. It was here that Zack had found his strength, both physical and emotional. It was here, he’d come into his sorcerer’s power, helped defeat a monster, and discovered that the girl he’d loved for years had loved him in return. For years.
He was happy, in love, and he appeared to have found a calling. For now.
“Will you be teaching?” she asked her brother.
“Who knows? We have to be students first. Octavia still has a ton to teach us. But we’ll help her set up the school and find her students.” To no one’s great surprise, the Levenachs were the only humans who could enter and leave the new V.C. at will.
Lily nodded. “I can see their energy—the faint glow of a Levenach. I can help William and Maxwell identify them.”
Quinn hadn’t met William, Maxwell, and William’s wife, Ana Lucia, until after the Great Battle, as it was coming to be called. But they, too, had become instant friends, especially Ana Lucia.
“The new sorcerers are probably everywhere,” Zack said. “And terrified. You know how that feels, Sis, when weird stuff happens and everyone looks at you like you’re a freak. We don’t want anyone to suffer who doesn’t have to. People, especially in D.C., have already suffered too much.”
There were still hundreds missing, hundreds more dead from what officials were calling a terrorist attack. It amazed Quinn how adept humans were at seeing only what they wanted to see. She read the occasional speculation on-line that aliens were to blame, but for the most part, chemical weapons and hallucinogenics were being blamed for the strange things people claimed to have seen, and the numbers who’d ‘jumped’ to their deaths.
“I’m glad you want to help,” Quinn told her brother sincerely.
Davu strode into the kitchen, Dera close behind. “The same band of Rippers who pillaged the market two days ago will attempt to hit it again tonight.”
Dera nodded. “They’ll be stopped by Emoras again, led by Neo and Micah.”
Neo gave a resigned sigh. “I guess we’ll be staking out the market again tonight.”
“Yes you will,” Mukdalla said. “The market’s grand opening is tomorrow and every Slava in the city will probably be there. I’ve heard everything they’ve asked for will be available for sale, and at reasonable Vamp City prices.” Which meant a fraction of what they cost in the real world. Most of the Slavas had been in V.C. for decades, some more than a hundred years. Real world prices would give them a heart attack.
Quinn’s first proclamation, after creating her world, was to officially emancipate all slaves. There would be no slavery in her Vamp City. Of course, in reality, the Slavas were ideally suited to being the primary food source and household labor for the vampires. And they couldn’t leave for fear of suffering sudden death when their immortal bodies became mortal again. But now, instead of mere chattel, they’d become valuable, and empowered. Because now the Slavas could work for and/or feed, whomever they chose. And if they weren’t being treated or paid well enough, they were free to leave and find other employment.
So far, the vampires had been bending over backward to please them. She suspected that many, if not most, of the Emoras were ashamed of the way the Slavas had suffered and were more than happy to find ways to make it up to them, including building and furnishing brand new Slava cottages complete with soaking tubs and hot water.
Micah walked in the back door followed by Lukas and his fiancée, Elizabeth. The first thing Lukas had apparently done after Quinn saved V.C. was leave to find Elizabeth and talk her into spending the rest of her life with him, now that he could walk with her in the sun in at least one world. Quinn liked the woman, a school teacher, immensely and had learned that Micah had been keeping an eye on her while Lukas was trapped in V.C.
Quinn smiled. Her list of genuine friends was growing nicely. It was hard not to be open, and happy with the world, when she was so much in love.
“Savin’s pack and the Herewoods are feuding again,” Micah announced.
“Not that we expected that truce to last,” Lukas muttered.
“Hi, Quinn,” Elizabeth said with a smile and handed her a small bunch of wildflowers.
Quinn gave her a quick hug at the thoughtful gift. Elizabeth, too, was one of the Levenachs, another who’d accidentally wandered in on a sunbeam before Cristoff’s defeat. Elizabeth had told her yesterday that she planned to try to find and help the youngest sorcerers.
“In other news,” Micah announced, “we’ve had two more kovenas—one from Croatia, another from the Philippines—query us about moving here. That makes more than a thousand new vampires with the other five kovenas who’ve already contacted us. They all want to live under Quinn’s sun.”
Quinn met Arturo’s rueful gaze and smiled. “Why do I feel like the politics of this place are going to make my head spin?”
Arturo slid his hand beneath her hair to cup her neck. “That would be because you’re as wise as you are beautiful.”
She snorted. “It’s a good thing you’re such a skilled diplomat.”
He grinned, his eyes as deep as the oceans, and kissed her. “Vamp City will never be an easy place to live, amore mio. If the politics
and the feuding become too much, we will leave. I will live wherever you choose, you know that.”
She smiled. “I do know that, my vampire. For now, though, this is where I choose.” We’ve made a difference here, Turo, she added for his ears only.
An understatement, tesoro mio. You’ve changed the lives of everyone here, all very much for the better. Many owe you their lives, many our souls. As he spoke the words, he stared into her eyes, his thumb stroking the side of her neck with the most tender of touches until her heart melted and her body warmed.
Quinn reached for him in return, gripping his lean waist with her free hand, the one not holding wildflowers. And I owe you…everything. You’ve changed me, Vampire. You helped me find and appreciate my strength. He’d taught her the power of friendship. And love.
Behind them Micah cleared his throat. “Earth to Ax and Quinn.”
Laughing, Arturo pulled her against his side and they turned to face the others, her family, her friends.
“You didn’t get the significance of Elizabeth’s gift,” Micah said, a funny look on his face.
Quinn glanced down at the small bunch of wildflowers. Then back at Micah.
A huge grin spread across his face. “We found those growing in the Crux.”
She stilled, her mouth dropping open. “The Crux?”
“Right by the new Focus. Grass is beginning to grow. Leaves are starting to bud on the trees.”
Her brows slammed down. “It’s November.” Which, under the circumstances, was completely irrelevant.
Most of them apparently agreed and laughed.
“Your magic has brought more than light, amore mio.” Arturo hugged her closer. “It has brought life.”
And it had, she knew that. In the heart of a vampire otherworld, she’d found her life. Her heart.
Most of all, she’d found herself.
Don’t miss the first two books in the Vamp City series!
A BLOOD SEDUCTION (Vamp City Book 1)
Quinn Lennox is searching for a missing friend when she stumbles into a dark otherworld that only she can see—and finds herself at the mercy of Arturo Mazza, a dangerously handsome vampire whose wicked kiss will save her, enslave her, bewitch her, and betray her.
Available for purchase on Amazon.
__________
A KISS OF BLOOD (Vamp City Book 2)
One of the few humans who managed to escape the deadly twilight world of Vamp City, Quinn Lennox vows to never return. But the vampires want her back, for only she has the power to renew the magic of their crumbling world—and free the vampires trapped within.
Available for purchase on Amazon.
About the Author
Pamela Palmer is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of nineteen paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. When Pamela’s initial career goal of captaining starships failed to pan out, she turned to engineering, satisfying her desire for adventure with books and daydreams until finally succumbing to the need to create worlds of her own. Pamela lives and writes in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
For more information on Vamp City, or to read excerpts, connect with Pamela, or sign up for her newsletter, please visit her website, www.pamelapalmer.net. Pamela can also be reached via Facebook at www.facebook.com/PamelaPalmer and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Pamela_Palmer.
Books by Pamela Palmer
Visit Pamela’s Amazon Author Page
Vamp City Novels
A Blood Seduction
A Kiss of Blood
Of Blood and Passion
A Forever Love novella (in the Vampires Gone Wild anthology)
Feral Warriors Novels
Desire Untamed
Obsession Untamed
Passion Untamed
Rapture Untamed
Hunger Untamed
Ecstasy Untamed
A Love Untamed
Wulfe Untamed
Hearts Untamed novella
The Esri Novels
The Dark Gate
Dark Deceiver
A Warrior’s Desire
Warrior Rising
Jewels of Time Novels
Sapphire Dream
Amethyst Destiny
Acknowledgements
Thanks, as always, to Laurin Wittig and Anne Shaw Moran who make every journey a pleasure. Thanks also to my wonderful team: Amy Atwell, Patricia Schmitt, Joan Turner, and Kelly Poulsen. I couldn’t have done it without you.
To my readers, I offer my endless and heartfelt appreciation. It is because of you that writing is such a joy. It’s your imagination and enthusiasm that truly bring my worlds to life.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Of Blood and Passion
Copyright © 2015 Pamela Palmer
ISBN: 978-0-9899955-2-8
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For permission or information on foreign, audio, or other rights, contact the author, Pamela@pamelapalmer.net
Cover Art: Patricia Schmitt/Pickyme
Digital Formatting: Author E.M.S.
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Epilogue
About the VAMP CITY Series
About the Author
Books by Pamela Palmer
Acknowledgements
Copyright