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Welcome to my stop on author Annie Nicholas Promo Blitz for The Vanguards Series, presented by Bewitching Book Tours. Please leave a comment or question to let Annie know you stopped by. You can follow the rest of the tour here.
The OmegasThe VanguardsBook OneAnnie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: Jan 2010ASIN: B00IGFXCTMNumber of pages: 97Word Count: 25,000Cover Artist: Renee RoccoBook Description:Only a vampire is man enough to teach werewolves how to fight.Pretty librarian Sugar wants her life to stay quiet. That’s hard enough when friends and neighbors turn into furry werewolves every full moon. But when a hot vampire gets involved, life’s bound to get complicated.The Omegas have always been the pansies of the paranormal. Now Chicago’s top werewolf pack has issued them a life or death challenge. Their only option: hire a vampire warrior to teach them the moves.Daedalus has been a powerful vampire for ages. Intrigued by the chance to train the geeks of the underworld, he wasn’t bargaining on losing his heart to a human. Can he make the Omegas a success, fit into Sugar’s quiet life, and avoid being ripped to shreds in the process?
The Omegas Excerpt
Chapter One
Eric strode into
the living room holding an envelope. “I found the solution to our problem.”
Sugar uncurled her
legs from under her and sat straighter as she watched Eric’s lanky form
approach. They had both survived growing-up in the same low income
neighborhood. Friendship forged in such fires never died.
He handed her a
letter and joined the rest of his pack lounging on her mismatched furniture.
Sugar examined the
front, then the back of it. “Pal Robi Incorporated. What’s this?”
“It’s our salvation.” Eric shifted in his seat
to lean forward. “Read it to everyone.”
She glanced at him
with a questioning look. What was he up to?
Slidding her fingernail under the corner, she tore it open. The letter
was printed on good quality paper with a huge golden company emblem stamped at
the top. An errant blond curl slid in front of her eyes and she shoved it back
behind her ear.
To the Omega pack:
I have reviewed the
details of your plight. Pal Robi Incorporated deals mostly in security issues,
but I find your problem worthy of my personal attention. Enclosed you will find
a non-negotiable contract. Please review it closely, and have your signature
notarized. The return fax number is listed on the contract so proceedings can
begin. Mail the original to my office. Thank you for your business.
Sincerely,
Daedalus Pal Robi
Cold claws of fear gripped her stomach. What had Eric done? “You hired a
vampire?” Her shout shattered the silence around them.
The other wolf
shifters responded to her outburst with low growls directed at Eric.
What had she gotten
herself tangled in? She wasn’t pack, just a plain vanilla human. The Omegas
were her neighbors and also her closest friends, each of them an outcasts from
their old packs.
Driven by
loneliness, Eric had solicited Sugar to help him search for others like
himself. Werewolves with no attitude. Geeks of the underworld. Pansies of the
paranormal.
Their friendship
spanned years, since high school, when he’d rescued her from a home of drug
abuse. Eric had treated her like a little sister, advising her on life in
general. When he survived his werewolf attack, both their worlds shattered and
their roles reversed.
Eric found four
others to join him: Sam, Tyler, Katrina and Robert. No alphas ruled in this
pack. They needed each other, so they became a family. All five lived in the
apartment next to her.
Eyes wide, Eric
held his hands out in front of him. “Mr. Pal Robi is offering to teach us how
to fight.”
Sugar tilted her
head as she surveyed her friend. “Yeah, for a substantial fee. How can you guys
afford this?” He always thought with his heart.
Eric looked at his
pack, pleading. “Before you make any judgments, let’s have Sugar read the
contract out loud.”
She held it in
front of her.
This is an
agreement between Pal Robi Incorporated and Eric, Sam, Katrina, Tyler, and
Robert, from here forward to be known as the Omegas.
Scope:
1. Pal Robi Inc.
will provide to the Omegas, training in defense, hand-to-hand combat and small
weapons use.
2. Training will
take place for the duration of the period beginning with the trainer’s arrival
until the challenge date.
3. Combat training
is inherently dangerous. Pal Robi Inc. is not responsible for injury or death
sustained during such training.
4. Trainer will not
intentionally hurt and-or kill any Omega during the period of this agreement.
Responsibilities of
the Omegas:
1. Omegas will
provide trainer from Pal Robi with appropriate lodgings.
2. Omegas will
provide daylight security of said trainer.
3. Omegas will
submit to the direction of the trainer without question for the duration of the
training.
Fees:
1. Omegas agree to
pay Pal Robi Inc. $8,000 in cash prior to the beginning of training.
2. In addition,
Omegas will provide the trainer with fresh, consumable blood upon request.
Penalties:
1. Failure to
provide payment renders this agreement null and void.
2. Failure to abide
by the terms specified represents a breach of contract which renders the
agreement null and void.
3. Breach of
contract will result in an immediate investigation. Vengeance will be swift and
unmerciful.
Sugar placed the
contract on her lap while waiting for their reactions.
Robert held up his
hand to speak, like a kid in a classroom.
She sighed. How
could this pack of puppies fight a pack of wolves? “Robert, speak up. You don’t
need to ask permission to talk anymore, remember?”
He grinned sheepishly.
“What do they mean ‘vengeance will be swift and unmerciful?’”
They turned to
Eric, but it was Tyler who answered. “It means if anything happens to the vamp,
we can kiss our asses goodbye.”
Sugar folded the
letter closed. She agreed with Tyler. Vampires were bad news. Literally, all
over the news swearing they had turned a new leaf and won’t hunt humans
anymore. Wouldn’t catch her becoming a donor any time soon.
Eric stood and
faced his pack mates, staring at each one in turn. “How can we not hire him?
The Ayumu pack officially challenged us. One of us has to fight and beat one of
their alphas in a month. There’s no other way.”
“We will be
absorbed again,” Katrina whispered in her thick Asian accent, as she hugged her
knees tight against her chest. Being a submissive female in a pack equated to
being anyone’s meat. Sugar had tried to help Katrina come to terms with those
old wounds, but they kept her captive.
Tyler shuffled
closer to Katrina, petting her long, black, silken tresses. She shrank from him,
fear etched on her delicate features.
He looked at Sugar
and shrugged.
She crumpled the
letter in her hand. How did preying on weaker members of the pack equate to
strength? She just couldn’t understand shifter culture.
“You should run
away.” The weight of Sugar’s words hung in the sudden silence.
Eric crossed his
arms. “There will always be another Ayumu pack wherever we go. We’re finally
happy. We have jobs, friends, and a home. It’s all worth fighting for, right
guys?”
Sugar watched her
friends’ expressions harden and her heart sank. So it would be a fight.
They nodded to each
other, sealing their fates.
There went their
quiet life.
Worst of all, a
vampire would be moving in next door.
* * * *
Daedalus Pal Robi
strode across the foyer of his house and tossed his car keys to a passing
vampire. “Can you park it the garage for me? I’m done hunting for the night.”
He pointed to a piece of wood protruding from his abdomen. That was a close
call. He would let the others think the vampire-gone-bad he’d been hunting and
finally killed had done this. In truth, a clumsy fall almost ended his long
existence.
The human police
were discovering decapitated bodies in the river. They thought a serial killer
responsible so far. Daedalus knew better, decapitation was an excellent way to
hide bite marks, as well as burning the bodies or shredding the flesh to make
it look like a shifter kill. As Nosferatu Prime of Northeastern America, it was
his responsibility to take care of these issues before the humans did. Vampires
didn’t need more bad publicity. History did that for them.
Daedalus killed the
lazy son-of-demon. It didn’t take much effort tracking and staking him. In his
over-confidence, Daedalus had spun around to leave and tripped on a fucking
extension cord. It sent him flying face forward onto an antique wood chair,
hence the chair leg sticking out of his stomach. A little to the left and two
inches higher and a pile of dust would all that would have been left of him.
His nest mate
stared at the injury. “Do you need help, Master?”
“Nah. Just a flesh
wound. It won’t take long to heal.” He closed the door to his study behind him
and crossed the room to the fireplace. Leaning against the mantle with one
hand, he wrapped the other around the wood shaft. He took a deep breath and
yanked the son of a bitch out.
“Fuck.” Wood
burned. It didn’t matter where in the body it stabbed him. He tossed the piece
into the fire and rested his forehead against the mantle. Blood trickled from
the wound in a steady thin stream. He’d have to feed to finish the healing
process.
He pressed his hand
to the wound and retreated to his comfy chair close to the fireplace. That was
too close. If he’d perished, how would people remember him? The Infernal
Champion of the Brotherhood, Vile Butcher of Babylon, and Subjugator of the
Accords, to name a few of his titles.
For the last two
hundred years he’d been trying to be good.
Whatever that meant. It started out as an experiment but over the last
century it had transformed into a true desire. After an age of depravity and
lack of role models, he still wasn’t clear what he should and shouldn’t be
doing.
The Vampire Council
ordered no killing of humans so he enforced that law to the best of his
ability. If a few unsavory ones vanished in the night and nobody missed them
then he turned the other way. Ridding the human race of evil doers seemed good.
Someone knocked on
the door.
He jerked in his
chair at the sharp noise and stifled a moan at the stabbing pain. Careless
again. Too lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t heard the footsteps. He’d grown
complacent in job surrounded by his loyal nest. “What?” Yanking his leather
jacket closed, he hid his healing injury.
The door cracked
open and Clementine, his vampire secretary, stepped inside, her eyes downcast
as always. She hurried across the room and handed him a large business
envelope. “This arrived while you were gone, Master.”
“Thank you.” He
glanced at the return address, glimpsing the word Chicago, and fingered the
edges of the seal. It wouldn’t behoove a Prime to tear it open like a boy on
Christmas morning. “Could you call for a donor to attend me, Clementine? I feel
like eating in tonight.”
She bobbed her head and backed out of the
room. One day she’d stop fearing him, he hoped.
Ripping open the
envelope, he saw what he’d been hoping for. The shifters signed the contract.
He could afford to leave his nest for a few months and take this small side
job. He grinned and buzzed his personal security team.
“Yes, Master?”
“We’re going to
Chicago tomorrow night. Come by my study so we can make arrangements.” Training
a few shifters to defend themselves seemed like a good thing to do.The AlphaThe VanguardsBook TwoAnnie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: June 2010ASIN: B00IGFXDCINumber of pages: 92Word Count: 25, 000Cover Artist: Renee RoccoBook Description:Someone is about to get some Spice in his life.Spice has nothing but the clothes on her back when she returns to Chicago. She’s looking for a better life, and that means reuniting with her estranged twin sister, Sugar. She isn’t thrilled to find out Sugar’s boyfriend is a vampire. But then she meets Eric, once the bottle-cap-glasses wearing nerd next door - now grown into the kind of man she’d love to snuggle with on this cold winter night...and he’s offered her his room in Sugar’s house.Eric can’t believe Spice has returned. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again, let alone having her stare at him as if he’s sex on a stick. But now that all of his fantasies for them are coming true, reality rears her ugly head and Eric must tell Spice his intimate secret; he’s actually an Alpha werewolf looking for his mate and he thinks he’s found her.
Content Warning: Graphic sexual content.
The Alpha Excerpt
Chapter One
Tyler followed Eric
into the kitchen with Robert and Sam in tow. “What’s wrong with you, Eric? You
almost lost control of your beast.”
Running his fingers
through his hair, he tried to hide the blush heating his cheeks. Spice is home.
He’d lost hope of ever seeing her again. The desire in her eyes when he
loosened her jacket and the smell from her pussy set his beast-side on a craze.
I, Eric Turner, the
geek next door, turned her on. The sexiest, most confident girl he’d ever met,
his high school obsession.
“Sorry, she took me
off guard.” He looked at Robert, his calm, overly serious second in command of
the pack, who shook his head at him. “Damn, I almost changed in front of her.
What a disaster.” Eric’s mouth went dry.
Sam handed him a
glass of water. If anyone understood losing control of his beast, it was him.
Ever since the Omegas conquered the Ayumu werewolf pack, their females kept
knocking on the door. The bodybuilder had trouble refusing them, and his beast
liked the attention. He didn’t completely transform mid-intercourse anymore but
they heard his howls.
Eric needed to stop
thinking of the pack as Ayumu. They were all Omegas now and he their alpha. The
sip of water he tried to swallow went down the wrong way and blocked his
windpipe. Nothing came out, not a cough and not a breath.
“Eric?” Sam asked.
Katrina scurried
into the kitchen. “I make tea. You want some?” She stopped. “What is wrong with
Eric?”
He coughed out a
manly squeak and pointed to his throat.
Redheaded Tyler
pushed pass Sam and pounded on his back.
Not a moment later
Spice sashayed into the room. Even in his distress, her presence drew him like
a magnet to iron.
A solid smack on
his back set off a cough. He expelled the water from his throat, and it landed
on her generous, rounded chest.
She stood with arms
out at her sides, and her mouth hung open.
“Smooth, real
smooth.” Sam patted him on the shoulder and exited the room. The others
followed in silence but a few seconds later, Eric heard their restrained
laughter from the direction of the living room.
He grabbed a dish towel
from the rack by the sink and raced over to her. “I’m sorry.” Without a
coherent thought in his scrambled brain, he dried her tight, white sweater.
Tension in her
shoulders as he bent over to stroke around her curves clued him in that he’d
done another boneheaded maneuver.
Her intense stare
weakened his knees as he glanced up with her breast cupped in his hand. The
urge to fondle it sent a shiver up his spine, but the ingrained gentleman
inside of him beat down the beast, who wanted more than just a touch.
He jerked his hand
away. “Sorry.” Alphas shouldn’t apologize that much. Daedalus would kick his
ass if he heard him.
Eric straightened
and swept the annoying hair out of his eyes. Why did he decide to let it grow?
Who cared if all those guys in romance books had long freaking hair?
“Don’t be.” She
gave him a small, seductive smile.
He kept waiting for
this wet dream to end.
“Who’s Daedalus?”
Nothing more
deflating to a man’s ego than to ask about the resident stud vampire. “Sugar’s
boyfriend.”
“The one she has to
ask permission to cut her hair. Then you’re not together?”
“No.” That question
showed how much she paid attention to them as kids. He and Sugar had been best
friends since sixth grade. Dating her would be like dating a sister. Even though
they were identical twins, Spice got placed in a different category from Sugar.
She topped the list for the five-finger-knuckle-shuffle when he needed it.
She leaned closer
and ran her finger down his chest. It left a trail of heat along his skin. “What’s
happened since I left two years ago?” Gesturing around the room, she raised an
eyebrow. “New house, new boyfriend, new friends, and…” She stepped to press
against his body and gazed at him with green sparkling eyes. “New Eric.”
Where did he start?
We hired a Nosferatu vampire to teach us how to fight about a year ago, who by
the way, is banging your twin sister. Oh yeah, all of us are werewolves, except
Sugar, and I defeated the local alpha in a fight to the death so it made me top
wolf in Chicago.
“Nothing much. We
pay rent to Sugar and live here.” The old Eric she referred to still resided
inside of him. He still liked Star Trek, ‘live long and prosper,’ worked from
home for a computer software company, and read as much as Sugar.
His heart twisted a
little. She didn’t like him; she liked the changes the beast made inside of
him. After the werewolf attack, his eyesight returned to twenty-twenty. He got
stronger and faster, which meant leaner and more muscular.
She moved back and
placed her hands on her hips. “Six of you live under this roof?”
“Seven. Daedalus
lives here too.”
Shaking her head,
she grinned and looked at the floor. “Unbelievable.”
He heard the front
door open and close. “I’ve got Thai.” Sugar’s voice, higher and more musical
than Spice’s, called out.
The Beta
The VanguardsBook 3Annie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: May 2011ASIN: B00IGFX5JYNumber of pages: 97Word Count: 25,000Cover Artist: Renee RoccoBook Description:Three days of hell, in charge, and running out of antacids.As the pack’s Beta, Robert needs to watch over the Vasi werewolf pack for a few days. He hates the responsibility, but his job is to dissolve any problems while his Alpha honeymoons. Nevertheless, trouble comes to town and her name is Esther. She’s beguiling, beautiful and picks his pocket. Although Robert doesn’t trust her, he still wants to possess her.Esther arrived in Chicago with the intention of slaying a vampire named Daedalus. While trailing her quarry, she encounters Robert who unhinges her world. He doesn’t know her trade, and she doesn’t know his connection to the vampire. Disturbed by her attraction to this unusual werewolf, she can’t decide which prey to hunt—the one who’s stolen her heart or the one who’ll fill her bank account.Content Warning: Hot graphic werewolf sex, growing body parts, and one pissed off Nosferatu vampire.
The
Beta Excerpt
Chapter One
Another man exited
the building not long after the vampire. He wore a rumpled button-down,
short-sleeved shirt tucked into loose jeans. His mouse brown hair cried for a
cut and a comb.
He pushed his
glasses up his nose and bent to tie his running shoes.
Recognizing him as
the person who had accompanied Daedalus earlier, Esther heard opportunity
knocking. He didn’t look like a threat being thin and weak. She crossed the
street and approached him from behind. “Excuse me. Do you have the time?”
Glancing over his
shoulder, his gaze traveled along her bare legs, to her knee length loose
skirt, and finally met her stare. Her breath caught in her throat. The irises
of his eyes reflected a non-existent light and shone pale amber. He blinked and
it vanished, must have been the glasses that gave such a strange effect.
He rose in a single
fluid motion that set her predator alarm off. Checking his cellphone, he gave
her a shy smile. “It’s ten after two.” He scanned the area around them. “This
is a dangerous part of town, ma’am. You shouldn’t walk around alone. Trouble is
going to find you.”
Or maybe find him.
She eyed his wiry arms and changed her assessment of him. Lean, tight muscles
slid under his skin as he moved. He wasn’t weak, more like a cross between a
martial artist and a geek.
“Are you offering
to walk me home?” Flashing him her most flirtatious smile, she toyed with a
piece of her hair.
He swallowed.
“S-sure.” Shuffling to her side, he fell in next to her, eyes darting around
them.
Men were so easy to
manipulate, but this one actually wanted to protect her. So cute, she could
have pinched him. Trying to be discreet, she took quick peeks at him. Nice
strong chin and straight nose. Maybe a hint of freckles? It was difficult to
tell in the dark.
“I’m Esther.” She
held out her hand. What the hell prompted her to use her real name?
Wrapping a firm
hand around hers, he shook it. “I’m Robert.”
His touch sent
tingles along her arm. The name seemed too mature for him. “What are you doing
out so late, Rob?” How did such a polite man like him get involved with a
Nosferatu? She checked his neck for bites and didn’t see anything, but there
were more places on the body to feed from besides the neck. It would be a shame
if he was a blood slave.
“Robert is fine. I
was checking on a…friend.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “And you,
Esther?”
She laughed. “I’m
up to no good.” And she winked at him.
A rosy blush
surfaced on his cheeks as he stumbled.
Something in this
man attracted the devil inside of her. She entangled her arm around his and
leaned into his hard body. The strength hidden under the geeky exterior sent a
pleasant shiver through her body. Not all things were as they appeared. She
hated surprises but not this one. If this was an act then he deserved an Emmy.
She glanced at him, pleased that she needed to arch her neck back slightly to
meet his sharp green gaze.
Omegas in LoveThe VanguardsBook 4Annie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: March 2012ASIN: B00IGFXF0INumber of pages: 100Word Count: 30,000Cover Artist: Renee RoccoBook Description:Some things are best to forget. But what if the past won't be forgotten?Born in China of a pure shifter bloodline, Katrina was raised with only one purpose--to breed. Abused by her alpha, she runs away to America as soon as she can. With a new pack and her true mate, she thinks the nightmare is behind her, but when she is abducted on the streets of Chinatown, Katrina must face her past and fight for her freedom.It took Tyler a year to earn Katrina's love, another to build her confidence and pride, and only a moment to lose her. Broken-hearted, Tyler won't give up his search for Katrina. But he never trained as a warrior like the other shifters. What chance does a real estate agent have in the fight for his mate?
WARNING: Explicit shifter sex, heartbroken torment, and an unstoppable shifter in love.
Omega’s In Love Excerpt
An antique red
archway covered the entrance to the tourist trap to keep evil spirits away and
good luck in. Sticking his hand in his jacket pocket, he rubbed the small, velvet
jewelry box he’d placed there earlier today. He could use all the luck he could
get–just because Katrina was his mate, didn’t mean she’d agree to get married.
Raised in an
all-wolf-shifter community in rural Mongolia, she didn’t think like American shifters.
Like him. He took a deep, shaky breath. Marriage was a foreign ritual to her.
He’d chosen this
location not just for his superstitions, but for its significance. Katrina
worked in the area, a place where the old Asian world met the new, as an interpreter
for some of the local companies.
She waited under
the arch, facing him, her delicate eyebrows furrowed. An Asian man he didn’t
recognize spoke with her.
Facing the
stranger’s back, Tyler could only see his short black hair and long fall trench
coat.
A sharp stab of
jealousy drove him to quicken his pace. He couldn’t help it. As a shifter,
possession was nine-tenths of the law, and Katrina belonged to him.
Passing half a
dozen souvenir shops offering cheap trinkets, Tyler trotted along Wentworth Avenue.
Katrina’s raised voice reached his ears, but he couldn’t understand Mandarin.
He growled low in his chest. His mate didn’t yell often.
Three other men
broke from the crowd and surrounded the arguing couple.
Tyler’s heart rate
took off like a locomotive on a downhill slide. He smelled shifters. Non-Vasi
shifters on their territory. Surrounding his mate.
The Asian stranger
grabbed her arm and yanked her into his embrace.
“Hey!” It took
every ounce of Tyler’s control to keep his beast from busting out on the
tourist filled streets of Chicago’s biggest attraction. He shoved the stranger
from behind, knocking Katrina from his arms.
She stumbled and
landed hard on the ground. Tears stained her cheeks. The cold wind blew strands
of long, black hair across her face.
“Get your hands off
her.” He bent to help her, but the stranger blocked him. Straightening, Tyler
glared at Katrina’s assailant and met a cold, dark stare.
His beast rose
closer to the surface and clouded his thoughts. She belonged to him and this
male thought to block his way. The only solution was to tear this asshole limb
from limb. “Get out of my way.” He spoke each word separately and clearly to
get his point across.
“This is none of
your concern.” The stranger spoke with a thick accent like Katrina’s.
“You’re on Vasi
territory. Anything that happens here is my concern. And she belongs to me.”
Tyler pointed to Katrina, then back to himself.
“Chinatown is not
Vasi territory. Never has been and never will be. And this female mated me before
she ran away.” Crossing his arms, the stranger planted himself in front of
Tyler. “She still belongs to me and has never been yours to take.”
Tyler’s jaw hung as
if on broken hinges. He shot her a questioning look, but she stared at the
ground, not meeting his gaze. Katrina hated to speak about her past. Now, he
knew why.
She wiped her face,
huddled on the ground, and didn’t deny a thing.
Every bit of joy in
his life lay with Katrina, but truth’s claws dug into his heart. He didn’t know
which hurt more, the lies or the way she hunched on the ground, submitting to
this stranger like an omega all over again.
Sigma
The VanguardsBook 5Annie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: August 2012ASIN: B00IGFXFCQNumber of pages: 97Word Count: 30,000Cover Artist: Renee RoccoBook Description:To defend and protect, at any cost.Sam is Sigma of his pack, defender of the innocent and frail. Too bad the one time it mattered most, though the urge to guard the weak runs strong in his shifter blood, he failed to protect his best friend from an attack. Just when his self-confidence can't go any lower, he becomes entangled in a vampire skirmish and is left with an injured female in his arms.ampire accountant for Pal Robi, Inc., Clementine can't believe her master would ask her to commit corporate espionage. She’s shot when discovered, but a shifter comes to her rescue. It's as if he's made of her fantasies, and in the few hours with him she lives more than the decades she's spent among her clan.Hiding with him on the streets of Chicago, in the midst of fighting together to stay alive, can a petite vampire break through her hero’s jaded heart?WARNING: Hot dominating sex, an action packed evening, and a first date gone all to hell.
Sigma
Excerpt
Blood soaked the back of her pink t-shirt
and dripped, leaving a gruesome trail as she walked along the exterior balcony
toward their motel room on the second floor.
“You paid with cash like I told you?” She weaved on unsteady feet.
“Yes, ma’am.” He barely had enough money in
his wallet to buy a soda now. “No credit card to track.” He reached out to grab
her elbow, but she swatted his fingertips. Reflexively, he shook the sting
away. “Playing tough and insisting on walking doesn’t get you brownie points if
you pass out.”
He unlocked and opened their room door. The
scent of cheap air freshener and stale sweat swept over him. He turned and
sneezed.
“Bless you.”
He wiped his mouth. “Thanks.” Wasn’t there some supernatural law against
vampires being polite?
“It smells odd in here.” She leaned against
the door frame and pointed to the faded yellow bed. “Can you pull off the
blanket?”
“We got what we paid for, a cheap-ass
room. At least they don’t charge by the hour.” He winked and did as Clementine
asked, then watched as she crawled onto their bed, lying on her stomach. “What
can I do to help?” The deep red stain continued to spread under his scrutiny.
“When Daedalus was staked, he didn’t bleed like this.”
She twisted around and whispered, “You were
there?” With her blue eyes wide, she appeared very young, but vampires were
experts at fooling people. Clementine could be five hundred years old, for all
he knew. With a wig, Daedalus looked twenty, younger than Sugar.
He chuckled at the memory and recalled the
expression of horror on Sugar’s face. “It happened in my old apartment.”
“You’re one of the original Omegas?”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
They’d had five pack members at the beginning, before Daedalus came and changed
everything. Now they numbered in the triple digits and were called the Vasi. He
pointed at her wound. “Can you bleed to death?”
She rolled back onto her stomach. “No, but
I’ll need to feed before the blood lust takes over me. You have to remove the
bullet.”
He grabbed the edge of her shirt and tore
it open, exposing her back.
She hissed and glared at him over her
shoulder. “I could have taken it off.”
Pasting mock surprise on his face, he laid
a hand on his chest. “Where’s the fun in that?” Not waiting for her response,
he went into the bathroom and washed off his pocketknife. A pair of tweezers
would have been handy. And some gauze. He grabbed a face cloth instead. “Do I
need to sterilize my knife or find some antiseptic?”
“I’m a vampire. Disease doesn’t plague us.”
He shrugged off her prickly tone, betting
she was as gentle as the sound of her name on his lips. “Good, because I can’t
provide either.” On his knees, he straddled her legs and leaned forward to
examine her wound. He planted his palm between her shoulder blades.
“What--” She struggled under him. “What are
you doing?”
“I don’t want you to move.” Using his
shifter strength, he shoved her flat against the bed and wiped the blood away.
“Stop wiggling so much. It’s distracting.”
“Not like you can do more damage.” Her
words came out muffled.
“No, but you’re turning me on.”
She went limp, her breathing heavy and
strained.
He
couldn’t help but chuckle. This shitty day was getting better. Using the tip of
the pocketknife, he gently probed her wound. “Tell me if it hurts.” The hole in
her flesh was deep. It appeared as if her backbone had absorbed the impact of
the bullet. Damn, vampires were tough.
PrimaThe VanguardsBook 6Annie NicholasGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: Lyrical PressDate of Publication: Feb 2013ASIN: B00CFXOXZINumber of pages: 215Word Count: 40,000
Cover Artist: Hailey EdwardsBook Description:
Shattered in forgotten memories.
Sugar survived a shifter attack but it left her broken. Paralyzed on the left side, she fights for her independence in her day-to-day life. Her worst injury, the scars on her soul, has her pushing Daedalus away. How could he still love her when she is just a shadow of herself? But a new threat on Daedalus’ life yanks the veil of self-pity from her eyes and she’s resolved to protect him, even precariously balanced with her cane.
The vampire council sends an emissary to Daedalus. His clan brother, another Nosferatu, hands him an ultimatum. Return to his post as Prime in Pal Robi or he’ll kill Sugar and her shifter friends. Daedalus has brought enough trouble into Sugar’s life. He won’t be responsible for more, so he agrees to leave Chicago.
To both warriors surprise, Sugar’s not willing to remain behind, and with her own shifter guards she’s ready to help Daedalus regain control of Pal Robi.
Prima Excerpt
As soon as he
closed the sliding glass door shut, Daedalus would bet his bank account that
his conversation with Pallas would only have a pretense of privacy. Shifter
hearing could be miraculous, especially when pressed to cracked-open windows.
The distant sound of a chair clattering to the floor in the dining room reached
his own sensitive hearing. He could picture his housemates scrambling to find
the best places to eavesdrop.
Pallas strode to
the center of the moonlit garden. “So the rumors are true. You’ve lost your
mind.”
Daedalus chuckled.
The other Nosferatu hadn’t changed. They’d been close once. “Maybe. I wish the
one about you was true.”
Pallas spun around.
“Which one?”
“You being dead.”
“That would be too
convenient.” A familiar crooked smile bloomed on his ugly face.
Daedalus laughed
louder and shook Pallas’s hand, squeezing his fingers together as hard as he
could.
“You’re such an ass.”
Bearer of bad news or not, he was still a brother, a tie to his past, and a
comrade at arms.
Pallas returned his
strong grip. “I learned from the best.” His clan brother, and he used that term
loosely since they weren’t born from the same parents, bore the trademark
appearance of their people—bald, pale, and deadly. “You’re creating quite a
stir in the council, enough for them to coerce me to wake and seek you out.”
They released the
painful handshake, and Daedalus shook his numb fingers, grinning as Pallas did
the same. “You can tell them, for once, I’m happy.”
He snorted. “Like
they care. I can’t believe you’re living with shifters again.” He made a
distasteful noise. “Nasty habit. They
said you left your post.”
“I did, and I left
it in good hands.” Then the fools were killed and the traitors who took over
tried to have him assassinated, but Pallas didn’t need to know that.
“Your company is in
chaos. I went there before arriving here.”
“No.” Pal Robi Inc.
was his private security company, hence it being named after him. What better
than hiring an almost indestructible vampire as a guard? The company also
served as a front for the vampire political structure in his area. Vampires had
revealed themselves, with the other supernatural creatures, to humans fifteen
years ago. Vampires were expected to follow human laws and their government,
but vampire society had had these things in place long before humans had
figured out how to organize themselves. The Vampire Council didn’t expect their
people to follow human laws, but Pal Robi Inc. was developed to give his people
legal jobs and to police their hunting. In other words, if a vampire couldn’t
feed without killing, it was his responsibility to stop that person before
humans were aware of it.
“I didn’t assign
those who presently think they are running my company.”
Pallas sighed. “Are
they under your command?” He gave Daedalus a pointed stare. “Currently.”
“No.” Daedalus
shrugged. “How much damage can they do? The last thing they want is to draw the
Council’s attention. I haven’t truly lost control.”
“Your estate is
abandoned.”
“It’s not
abandoned. I dispersed my staff to other tasks, and there’s a shifter house
sitter. You probably scared the shit out of him.” He’d have to call Stephen and
check on him. The young shifter didn't like company, let alone drop-ins from
hell.
“A little scare
never killed anyone. The council wants you to straighten things out at Pal Robi
Inc. and return to your post as Prime. Things are falling apart in the area.”
An alien sourness
curdled his stomach. He examined the odd sensation and decided he didn’t like
the source. “Or what?” This visit was expected. Not Pallas himself but someone
the council would send. The Prime kept the peace among vampirekind in his area.
Sort of like a sheriff. If those traitors hadn’t been so greedy and tried to
kill him, things would still be fine.
“They’ll make me
kill everyone at Pal Robi Inc…” Pallas’s gaze wandered to the house, “…and
here.”
“Do you think you
can defeat me?” It had been ages since he’d fought one of his own kind. Living
among the Vasi pack had softened him.
A hard shield fell
over Pallas’s eyes. “Yes.”
About
the Author:
Annie Nicholas writes paranormal
romance with a twist. She has courted vampires, hunted with shifters, and slain
a dragon’s ego all with the might of her pen. Riding the wind of her
imagination, she travels beyond the restraints of reality and shares them with
anyone wanting to read her stories. Mother, daughter, and wife are some of the
other hats she wears while hiking through the hills and dales of her adopted
state of Vermont.
Annie writes for Samhain Publishing,
Carina Press, and Lyrical Press.
Website: www.annienicholas.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/annienicholas
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/annienicholas/
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Thanks for having me.
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