Welcome Theresa Meyers!

Our first guest of honour this week, is the very talented Theresa Meyers, whose stunning debut, The Truth About Vampires, was recently released by Harlequin. She's joining us today as part of her Bewitching Book Tour. Welcome, Theresa!

Thank you, Marie, for letting me kick this Vampire Party off this week! I don’t know about you, but my interest in vampires started when I saw the movie Lost Boys. Anyone remember that baby-faced Keifer Sutherland with spiky blonde hair? They were bad boys. Very different from the vampires so popular in Twilight. But that’s one thing I think makes vampires awesomesauce. They can be totally different. From the kick ass Black Dagger Brotherhood of J.R. Ward’s stories to the high-school antics of P.C. & Kristin Cast’s House of Night series, our notion of what makes a great vampire is always shifting and morphing into something new. So why do we love them?

Top Ten Reasons We Love Vampires

10. Fang marks are less obvious than hickies. – Let’s face it. We want to be bit. But it’s just so much easier to cover up two little puncture marks that will fade quickly, than a bruise that’s going to look ugly for days, possibly a week. Besides, while a hickie might be fun, getting bit, well, that’s taking it to a whole other level.

9. They’re perfectly happy to stay out all night. –You know how you’d like it to last all night long. Vampires deliver. Not only does a vampire have the stamina, but night’s their best time.

8. Who doesn’t want to be young and hot forever? – There’s an appeal to having a body that won’t quit. Especially if you don’t have to diet and exercise to get it! OK, well, perhaps you do have a liquid diet that’s fairly specific, but still! Vampires are the ultimate when it comes to a society obsessed with being young forever.

7. Vampires are sexy and experienced. – There’s no denying vampires have sexual appeal. They’re dark, brooding, mysterious and sensual. And they’ve had the time to perfect every move. And while I don’t know about other people’s vampires, the ones in my vampire world change to suit the most intimate fantasies of their partners. So whatever is the hottest you to, boom, there it is!

6. The Ultimate Bad Boy is so misunderstood. – Vampires get a bad wrap. They are the ultimate bad boys, dangerous, damaged and so misunderstood. Sure they are tempting. So they have to drink blood to survive. Lions have to hunt, and we don’t hate on them. And just because they have to drink, doesn’t mean they kill. Besides, do you know anyone else who looks as hot on a motorcycle in black leather?

5. They’ve got cool powers and super strength.— No matter which writer you look at, for the most part vampires are super strong. There’s nothing wrong with liking your guys powerful! My vampires have some additionally cool powers, like being able to glamour mortals, transporting to places they’ve been before, being able to flux (go invisible), materializing objects and, last but certainly not least, the ability for incredible mind sex. No matter where you are and where they are, there’s a potential for a hot encounter. Sure it might make them seem like superheroes, but who doesn’t like superheroes?

4. A little bit dangerous, a whole lot hot.—Vampires are tempting because we ride a dangerously fine line when it comes to relationships. They’re so strong and the need to feed so overpowering, that it wouldn’t take much to make a good time the last time. That alone can get your endorphins amped up.

3. They’re protective of the ones they love.—One thing can be said about vampires that makes them super sexy, they protect the ones they love. Think about it. Even in Lost Boys, what was the head vampire ultimately trying to accomplish? He wanted to protect his “boys”. Edward wants to protect Bella. The members of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, watch out for their brothers and their mates. And we like that!

2. Immortality, baby.—What culture on this planet hasn’t engaged in one way or another in the search for immortality. It’s a universal instinct. We want to live past this mortal lifespan. They’re driven by emotion, and desire, and are as close to mortals as immortals get. Vampires give us a little glimpse at what we could be, if we could just live forever.. And vampires do. Therefore, they rock.

1. Love you forever.—What’s better than a love that last forever? Nothing. It’s the ultimate in romance no matter how you look at it. A love that transcends time and space. Heck, my vampires even are able to connect with their mortal lovers in their next lives because the bond between them is so strong.

So that’s my top ten reasons we love vampires, based on what I’ve read, watch and written in my new Sons of Midnight mini-series for Harlequin Nocturne. What would you add?

Here's a little taste of The Truth About Vampires:

The Truth About Vampires

Harlequin Nocturne - Vampire Romance

March 1, 2011

ISBN-10: 0373618549
ISBN-13: 978-0373618545

Pulling back the veil on a world shrouded in darkness, Theresa Meyers' stunning debut reveals a sinfully handsome vampire whose secret is about to exposed...

All her life Seattle reporter Kristin Reed sought her breakout story. She never thought she'd find it in the crimson lair of a real life creature of the night. Kristin never believed vampires existed—until with dark brooding eyes and a decadent chocolate scent, Dmitri Dionotte called out to her...

Dmitri and his clan's true nature was cloaked in secrecy until a warring vampire order threatened their existence. Kristin was just the woman he needed. She couldn't resist their story...or Dmitri. Her blood pulsed hot and furious when he touched her, and with his kiss, all logic fled. But each night she spent with her vampire lover brought her closer to death and destruction. A death not even an immortal could triumph over.

http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=23240&cid=2577 direct buy link at Harlequin

His eyes bored into hers and suddenly the room smelled like the inside of a dark-chocolate bar and something even more seductive, sucking her in, setting off all her senses at once.

“You don’t have anything to fear. I’ll make certain of it.”

She swallowed. She should be frightened of him. The strength of her reaction to him made no logical sense. It was as though he exhaled sex appeal. She leaned in closer to him, against every logical impulse that stammered in her brain.

“So, your mentor showed up here because…” She was close enough now that she could feel the heat of her breath bouncing off him. Her body squirmed. Tightened. Her heart beat against the confines of her chest.

“He wanted to meet the mortal who’s revealing our existence to the world. Not every day you get to scrutinize a legend.”

“Legend?” she breathed.

Dmitri brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek, his thumb caressing her skin. Jolts shot down her spine, to the tips of her breasts, turning her nipples hard. His eyes turned impossibly dark. If desire had been smoke, the alarms in the whole damn building would have been going off by now.

He cracked a smile, his sexy mouth all but daring her to kiss him. “You’ll be a legend. The woman who discovered real vampires.”

That sounded good. Better than Pulitzer good. But the buzzing sensation under her skin wasn’t about being a legend.

It was all about the mojo he was throwing off like an intense light from a million-watt bulb. Just being this close to Dmitri amped her up, all circuits firing. She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.

God knew whatever eddied in the air between them—whether pure unadulterated lust or just some wacky chemical pheromone thingy between human and vampire—hit home. And hit deep. She ached to feel every inch of him against every inch of her. She intentionally leaned in further, her sensitized breasts pressing against his rock-hard chest.

He flinched. “Don’t.” The darkness in his eyes swirled with secrets.

“Is this the part where you’re going to tell me you’re dangerous? Because I kind of already figured that out.”

“But you don’t know—” He looked away.

Kristin cupped his hard jaw in her hand, forcing him to face her. “I’m a big girl. I know what I want. And right now I want you to touch me.”

His resolve crumbled right before her eyes. His seductive mouth locked down on hers. Hungry. Decisive. He seemed to saturate the air, that blend of dark chocolate, citrus and something utterly masculine seeping through her skin and into her bones, melting them.

For a second she couldn’t breathe. She cursed the turtleneck, her bare skin screaming to feel him. He kissed along her jaw, growling in her ear, his hands threading into her hair. Kristin arched, letting her head fall back.
He inhaled the heady cinnamon-vanilla scent of her blood now spiked with the lush combination of honey and jasmine.

Innocence and female desire. The pressure inside him was cresting, begging for release. But if there was one thing Dmitri excelled at, it was the art of denial.

The priests had beaten the lessons into him so well as a lad he’d never forgotten it. Just because you thought you needed something like your next breath didn’t mean you truly needed it to survive. But one taste was all he wanted. Just one.

“Kristin…” He breathed her name like a fervent prayer. Her artery throbbed at the base of her jaw. But this was a hunger that could well drive him insane. It clawed and tore at him, a wild thing in his breast, demanding every shred of his attention.

He had to be careful, so very careful not to let the taste turn into death. His hand slipped beneath the soft cashmere as he kissed her, indulging in the delicious fullness of her soft lips. His fingers spread over her skin, which was far softer still. And hot, like sunlight on silk.

“Touch me.”

He phased away the fabric, leaving her clothed from the waist up in nothing but the night air. He kissed the delicate shell of her ear and lower. Her throaty moan was like flipping on a switch. With a flick, his fangs extended.

Instantly her body tensed. “What was that? Was that your fangs?”

Dmitri pulled back and locked gazes with her. Her fear tinged the air with the musty odor of decay. “You don’t have to be scared. I’m not going to feed from you.”

She scooted back, pulling out of their tight embrace, covering herself with crossed arms. “Then what’s with the fangs?”

Her sudden coolness was mercilessly cold to him. He phased the black turtleneck back over her bare skin and retreated from her. “It happens sometimes. Vampires can’t always control when their fangs extend. Most often when we are angered or aroused.”

Kristin reached forward, tentatively sliding a finger down the length of his right fang. Dmitri closed his eyes, a shudder rippling through him. It was by far the most intimate place she could have touched him, even more so than her hand running down the length of his shaft. But the mixed messages of hot to cold and standoffish versus intimate were too cluttered for him to sort through at the moment. He blew out a frustrated breath and turned away from her. He had no right to claim her. He was supposed to be protecting her, acting as her guide, not her lover.

“Does that hurt?”

He glanced at her. “No. Just the opposite.” The ragged edge to his voice betrayed him.

“Oh.” She blushed and the pretty pink in her cheeks pierced him with desire and need. Dmitri swallowed hard against it, determined to deny the call.

“What did Achilles mean when he said you were pious?”

Dmitri’s gaze flicked to the photograph of the abbey ruins shrouded in mist on the wall. He hesitated. “In my mortal life I was a priest.”

“A priest?” she murmured, stunned. “Becoming a vampire must have been an enormously hard decision for you, then.”

He moved so quickly she barely had time to take a breath before he pinned her against the couch. His unyielding, rockhard chest pressed against hers, his mouth a mere inch from hers, the tips of his fangs gleaming in the light.

The anger and fire erupting behind his eyes told her more than words ever could. “I never chose this life,” he spat out.

She blinked and he was across the room, facing her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up a bad memory for you.”

His laugh had the brittle, crumbling edge of a piece of termite-rotted wood. Suddenly he seemed far more a shell of a man than a real man, or a blood-eating monster, for that matter. His fangs had receded, leaving his teeth looking perfectly normal, even and white.

It had been a shock to discover that Dmitri was a vampire. Her father—good grief, everybody she’d ever known—would see them as an anathema, an evil, an embodiment of the devil. The living dead. Bloodsuckers. Dracula and things that go bump and murder people in the night.

And now they’d somehow randomly selected her to introduce them to society? A light throb started behind her left eye. This was a way bigger story than she’d ever anticipated. Deep down in her stomach swished a bad cocktail of uncertainty and ambition. Did she have the chops to cover something this huge and not muck it up?

But looking at Dmitri, at this moment, she could see that, like people, not all vampires were the same. Good and bad fell somewhere in between the cracks, in the gray. There were likely a million different stories. The challenge would be putting a face to this story, making humans care about vampires. And give vampires a chance to prove that they could peaceably coexist with humans.

Connect with Theresa online:

http://www.theresameyers.com/

http://www.theresameyers.com/blog/

http://twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers

http://www.facebook.com/TheresaMeyersAuthor

http://www.ageofsteam.wordpress.com/

To enter Theresa's contest for a copy of The Truth About Vampires, plus this coffee mug full of chocolates, answer her question above: what would you add to her list of why we love vampires? Or comment on her post in some other way. The contest will close at midnight tonight EST, and the winner will be announced tomorrow on this thread.