Saturday 23 June 2012

Winner of the Great BLOOD GUILT Excerpt Contest!

Thank you everyone who entered the contest! I enjoyed reading your answers, and catching up with some old friends :). In fact I'm sorry there can only be one winner :(.

However, that winner - chosen at random and unseen by my husband! - is....

Keatonkat!

Congratulations, kk - a little something to spend on that new Kindle :). Could you please email me, Marie AT MarieTreanor DOT com (no spaces), with your email address, and I'll get Amazon to send you the voucher.

Also, watch this space for announcement of a new theme party, coming in September!

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, Out Now.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

The Great BLOOD GUILT Excerpt Contest, Part 4!


Here comes the fourth and final part of the Contest! Remember you can still enter Parts 1, 2 and 3 if you wish. The more entries you have, the greater your chance of winning :).

Below is a fourth excerpt from Blood Guilt, followed by details of how to enter the contest for a $20 Amazon gift card.


BLOOD GUILT: Blood Hunters, Book 1
By MARIE TREANOR
Ebook Out Now from AmazonAmazon UK and Barnes & Noble


Natural enemies, deadly attraction...

The first of a vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she  races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.

*


She let out a cry of rage. At least she hoped it was rage. She could no longer tell the difference between anger and lust. Her whole body seethed so that it took all her effort just to lie still under him and listen to her own ragged, panting breath. At least he hadn’t yet killed her. Although he’d implied he liked to play with his food.

She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut at that thought, but to do so would give the impression of weakness, and that she refused to do. So she ignored the wild desire coursing through her, forced her throbbing body to lie still while she met his stare with defiance.

“You already saved my existence with your blood,” he murmured. “You won’t end it now.” A frown twitched between his dark brows. “Because then you’d never know…”

“Know what?” she said with as much aggression as she could muster when his long, sensitive fingers were trailing down her throat, tracing the veins with something approaching wonder. His eyes devoured her, feeding the helpless fever.

“What it would be like with me.”

For the space of a heartbeat, she couldn’t move. Then, unable to bear the humiliation of the truth he’d perceived, she lashed out, jerking and writhing under him, beating his shoulder and head with her free hand while trying to yank her captured one free. In the end, she simply lost the freedom of both, which he easily held on either side of her head while he slowly, deliberately moved his body against hers, watching her face as he brushed against her peaked, aching nipples, and dragged the ridge of his erection between her thighs and up to her pubic bone.

“You bastard,” she whispered. “You total, utter bastard.”

“I’ll make it good for you,” he promised.

“I don’t want it to be good! I don’t want it at all!”

For the first time in ages, it seemed, his eyelids drooped, and when they lifted again, he was, astoundingly, already freeing her hands. She’d won.

And still she wouldn’t know. She’d never bloody know.

With a cry, she threw herself forward, flinging her arms around his neck to hold him. Then she latched her open mouth to his.

This time, she had, she really had, taken him by surprise. His lips were cool, still, almost rigid for all of a second. Then his arms came up, closing around her, and his mouth opened and bore down.

She fell back under the force of it, although his arms cushioned her fall, and his hand under her head both protected her and held her still for the ravishing of his mouth. She’d never felt or even imagined such hunger in a man’s kiss. His cool tongue delved, tangling with hers, drawing it into his mouth so that she felt his sharp, murderous fangs, and even that drove her desire on. She sucked on his teeth, licked them, as greedy as he; she bit at his lips and writhed under him, for now that she’d begun it, she wanted it all, and she wanted it now.

He’d already pushed her jacket off her shoulders. His hands circled her throat, caressing the length of it, and separated as they glided on over her shoulders to her breasts. Even through her sweater, he must have felt the hardened peaks of her nipples under his palms. Without breaking the stunning kiss, he pushed under her sweater, shoving it up to her chin and taking her bra with it so that he could hold her naked breasts.

She moaned into his mouth, wrapping her legs around his hips, rubbing her damp, aching loins against his rigid erection.

He released her mouth. “Hunter, you kiss like a demon,” he whispered and pulled sweater and bra up over her arms and head to throw them aside before falling once more upon her mouth.

This kiss was more sensual than desperate, and it finished more quickly, though only so he could transfer his attention to her breasts. For an instant, he simply devoured them with his eyes; then he lowered his mouth to the right one and took the nipple between his lips. He rolled it a little, then began to suck, and her womb clenched with need and pleasure. His hands were on her hips, stroking her jeans while she burrowed under his tank to feel his cool, smooth skin. His whole body undulated to the caress of her fingers, and it was the sexiest, most exciting thing she’d ever known.

One of his hands pushed between their straining bodies to get at the fastening of her jeans, and she thought she would come just at the feel of his knuckles so close to the center of her need.

He might have been six hundred years old, but modern fastenings gave him no trouble. Returning to her mouth, he kissed her while he shoved both jeans and panties over her hips, raised one of her knees and pulled the jeans and underwear completely off that leg. Then he left off kissing her, reared up, and tore at the buttons of his own jeans with clear intent. His dark hair fell forward over his forehead, shadowing his face. His eyes blazed silver.

This is going too fast. I’m mad, I’m insane, and I can’t stop. I won’t stop…




To enter Part 4 of the contest, complete both steps  below!

Step 1. Answer the following question in the Comments section of this post: Should Mihaela stop now? Why? (Feel free to be as serious, funny or imaginative as you like :)).

Step 2. Go to my Facebook page, "Like" it, if you haven't already done so, and post a comment there about this excerpt or about the book in general - you'll see a post there about this contest.  

When you've done that, you have one entry to the contest!

All four parts of the contest will end at midnight EST Friday night/Saturday morning, so you must have all your entries in by then! You may enter as few or as many parts as you like, and you may enter any part right up until the contest closes.

The winner of the gift card will be chosen at random from all entries received to all parts of the contest, and will be announced here on the blog and on my Facebook page. 

Good luck once more!

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, Out Now.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

The Great BLOOD GUILT Excerpt Contest, Part 3!


And so to Day 3 of the Contest! Remember you can still enter Parts 1and 2 if you wish. The more entries you have, the greater your chance of winning :).

Below is a third excerpt from Blood Guilt, followed by details of how to enter the contest for a $20 Amazon gift card.


BLOOD GUILT: Blood Hunters, Book 1
By MARIE TREANOR
Ebook $2.99, Out Now from AmazonAmazon UK and Barnes & Noble


Natural enemies, deadly attraction...

The first of a vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she  races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.

*


He lay perfectly still, watching her every move. Despite his tattered, modern clothes, he looked like some decadent, talented Renaissance youth. Which he probably had been.

Mihaela sank onto the bed beside him, and, willing her hand not to shake, she placed the point of the stake over his heart. Still, he didn’t move. It was possible that he couldn’t.

“I’ve killed many vampires,” she warned him, and wished her voice didn’t sound so husky.

A spark of humor, so faint as to be almost indistinguishable, lightened his pain-wracked eyes. “Then you have another advantage. I’ve never killed a hunter.”

Watching him for any sign of sudden attack, she leaned slowly over him, angling her head to offer him her throat. As his face disappeared from her vision, her tingling skin seemed to grow tighter. Since he had no breath, there was no warning before he touched her throat. She couldn’t suppress her gasp or her jerk of surprise. But still he didn’t move, just waited for her to settle and return to the same position. Again, his cool lips touched her neck. Shards of fear sprayed outward to every nerve-ending she possessed. At least she called it fear, because even that was easier to bear.

Tensing even further, she curled her fingers into a fist, around the air, around the stake, and waited for the pain of his bite.

Concentrate on the stake. It’s all that could save your life. Her neck prickled with sensation. It was his tongue, licking over her vein.

Oh Jesus Christ, help me…

“It will numb the pain,” he said unexpectedly, and the movement of his lips against her skin made her shudder. She managed to nod, and then his lips closed more strongly, like a lover’s kiss. It was hard to keep still, to ignore the damp heat forming between her thighs. His teeth grazed her vein, and bit.

Her mouth opened without permission, but at least her cry was silent. There wasn’t even pain to speak of, just the shock of his teeth sinking into her, and then the faint, strangely sensual pull of his mouth against her skin, scattering novel sensations through her entire body. Her vein seemed to contract; she could feel the blood being drawn out of her and into him. It was weird, cold, intriguing…and achingly pleasurable. His lips moved on her skin, his tongue lapped, his suck deepened and strengthened; and everything inside her, her very womb, seemed to pulse under the insistent tug of his mouth.

A tiny sound gurgled deep in her throat. She clung on to the stake, as if to sanity, while her free hand clutched at the quilt and then at his shirt for support. And then, it seemed, it was over.

The draw of blood stopped; his teeth detached from her throat, and he raised his head to examine her. His face seemed cloudy; his gray eyes had darkened and yet somehow blazed almost silver with a lust that drove straight between her legs.

“Hunter blood is sweet,” he whispered. “You taste…good.”

Without warning, he pushed her down onto the pillow and loomed over her. Panting, she tried to reposition the stake, but he was too close, and he gave her no time.

“More,” he said huskily and returned to her throbbing throat.

Since he half lay across her, heart to heart, there was little she could do. Her stake lay on its side between them, useless until she could draw it free and plunge it into his back. Except, God help her, she didn’t want to.

The slow, delicious pull of his mouth on her throat began again, but stronger this time and more rhythmic. It couldn’t have been more different from the act of violence she’d witnessed earlier when he’d killed a vampire almost instantly with his bite. The strong, slow, beats of his undead heart vibrated through her chest, as if speaking to her own, galloping pulse. Cords of pleasure seemed to have formed between his mouth and her sensitized breasts, squashed beneath the hardness of his chest, and all other pleasure points of her body. Between her legs was throbbing, aching lust. She began to move under his mouth, rubbing her breasts against him, circling her hips in search of the comfort she needed deep inside her.

My God, I’m going to orgasm from his bite. This isn’t possible. Oh God, he’s killing me, and I love it.

She couldn’t just give in to this urge to do nothing, to reach for more. It wasn’t in her nature to surrender, but she had never imagined it would be this hard to resist being slaughtered. Forcing herself, she dragged her hand and stake free from between their bodies. She found his back, and through his T-shirt, counted his vertebrae with her fingertips until she found the position of his heart.

His back, his whole body moved, undulating with the passage of her fingers, as if he welcomed her attentions as caresses. Delicately, she placed the pointed end of the stake...







To enter Part 3 of the contest, complete both steps  below!

Step 1. Answer the following question in the Comments section of this post: What do you think happens next?  (Feel free to be as serious, funny or imaginative as you like :)).

Step 2. Go to my Facebook page, "Like" it, if you haven't already done so, and post a comment there about this excerpt or about the book in general - you'll see a post there about this contest.  

When you've done that, you have one entry to the contest!

All four parts of the contest will end at midnight EST Friday night/Saturday morning, so you must have all your entries in by then! You may enter as few or as many parts as you like. 

Watch out for the fourth and final part of the Contest tomorrow!

Good luck!

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, Out Now.

Monday 18 June 2012

The Great BLOOD GUILT Excerpt Contest, Part 2!

Here we go with Day 2 of the Contest! But remember you can still enter Part 1 if you wish.

Below is another excerpt from Blood Guilt, followed by details of how to enter the contest for a $20 Amazon gift card.


BLOOD GUILT: Blood Hunters, Book 1
By MARIE TREANOR
Ebook Out Now from AmazonAmazon UK and Barnes & Noble


Natural enemies, deadly attraction...

The first of a vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she  races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.

*

Mihaela sank to her knees, her stake raised for the kill. Unbidden, she remembered the vision of this vampire that haunted her dreams: his face cool and calm above hers as he efficiently staked the vampire who would undoubtedly have killed her. She remembered her own stupefaction as she’d gazed up at him amid the carnage, stunned by what he’d done and terrified as to what it meant. They’d fought on the same side in that battle to save the hunters’ library from the insane Luk’s marauding hordes of undead; but she’d never expected a vampire to trouble to save her life.

It was a debt.

You can’t afford debts to vampires. You can’t take the chance. He was here when the others were; Robbie was drawn to him, whether or not he spoke in words…

She stared down at the scored, bleeding face, still handsome with all its injuries. He wasn’t the disreputable twenty-year-old he appeared; he was a six-hundred-year-old vampire with a penchant for treachery, who’d once commanded the strongest community of undead in the world.

Of course, he’d betrayed his creator in order to do so, and when that power was finally wrested away from him by yet another vampire, he’d seemed to disappear off the face of the planet. Although no one had believed he was actually dead, neither had anyone laid eyes on him for two hundred years until he’d come out of hiding to fight, bizarrely enough, for the newly awakened Saloman. Nevertheless, he was probably still the most powerful being in the world after Saloman, his creator. If he chose to exercise that power.

But he didn’t. He’d left Saloman to come back here. Why? Escaping the world again as Elizabeth said? Or did he have other plans?

It didn’t matter. With a vampire of this caliber, this unpredictability, you didn’t take chances. For Robbie, if for no other reason, she had to kill him.

Her fingers twitched restlessly on the stake. “You saved my life, you bastard,” she muttered.

His eyes opened, almost blinding in their directness. They didn’t blink. He made a strange, choking sound in his throat, as though he were trying to laugh and was prevented by some unspeakable internal injury.

Shit. Slowly, she lowered the stake, although she kept tight hold of it. Maximilian, it seemed, had nothing to say, simply looked at her. Like Saloman’s, his deep, intense  eyes were layered with centuries of violence, murder, and pain; yet Maximilian’s were reflective rather than opaque, which made them, curiously, less scary.

Mistake. Never forget that he is scary.

Beneath her, the world seemed to shake. Not simply in her mind, this time, but in sudden, heart-stopping reality. She reached out instinctively to hold on, as a flowerpot crashed off an upper window-sill, landing barely a foot away from them.

“What the…?” She found she’d grabbed on to the barrel with one hand and the vampire’s jacket with the other, listening to odd sounds of objects falling over in the darkness, cries of surprise from inside the building and from the street beyond.

As the world stilled, Maximilian’s hand grasped her wrist like a vise. An electric charge seemed to shoot from his fingers. She whipped back the stake, staring down at him, but he was frowning, almost…anxious.

“That shouldn’t happen,” he said with strange urgency. “Not…natural.”

They were the first words he’d ever spoken to her and seemed to fit what she knew of him: impersonal and to the point. Still, although Britain was not in an earthquake zone, even here the odd minor tremor did occur from time to time. She doubted this one had been strong enough to do any real harm. Before she could tell him so, he let go of her wrist and made an odd, lurching movement, hauling himself into a sitting position.

Mihaela scooted back, raising the stake higher with more threat than serious intention, for his head lolled back against the wall.

His right arm hung uselessly by his side; his leg was still bent wrongly at the knee.

“What’s the matter with you?” Mihaela said harshly. She didn’t want to see the vampire’s pain, to feel any sympathy; not for this vampire. “Why aren’t you healing?”

For answer, he glanced down at his bloody wrists. “Not enough blood.”

She stared at the wounds in both wrists, in his neck and face. They’d bitten him, draining him to weaken him for the kill. It was a tried-and-tested method by which weaker vampires could kill a stronger enemy. They couldn’t otherwise draw enough blood from him in a single bite to drain him—even if they could get close enough and stay attached to his vein.

She swallowed. “I thought you were just drunk.”

“That too.”

“Will you be able to move from there before sunrise?”

“Oh yes.”

Defeated, because it seemed she couldn’t kill him after all, she stood up, turned her back on him, then stopped. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

There was no sound, no movement behind her. It didn’t matter whether or not she killed him. Without blood, he wouldn’t heal, and she doubted he was strong enough to take any.

Good.

Only, the sun would come up eventually and turn him to dust.

Save her the trouble.

“Shit and shit and shit!” She spun back around.

“Tell him,” Maximilian said. “About the tremor.”

“Saloman?” she said, dropping to a crouch beside him. “You tell him. I don’t like to talk to the bastard. Are both your legs broken?”

“Only one leg.”

Though who knew in how many places. Or however many other bones. No wonder there were layers of pain in his eyes. And it would get worse...





To enter Part 2 of the contest, complete both steps  below!

Step 1. Answer the following question in the Comments section of this post: What should Mihaela do now with the injured Maximilian?  (Feel free to be as serious, funny or imaginative as you like :)).

Step 2. Go to my Facebook page, "Like" it, if you haven't already done so, and post a comment there about this excerpt or about the book in general - you'll see a post there about this contest.  

When you've done that, you have one entry to the contest!

All four parts of the contest will end at midnight EST Friday night/Saturday morning, so you must have all your entries in by then! You may enter as few or as many parts as you like.

Watch out for Part 3 of the Contest tomorrow!

Good luck!

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, Out Now.

Sunday 17 June 2012

The Great BLOOD GUILT Excerpt Contest: Part 1!

Since we haven't had a party round here for a while, here's the promised Big Contest instead :).

How big? Well, in four parts, one each day from now until Thursday, leaving Friday for people to catch up before the close of the contest at midnight.

Each day, I'll post an excerpt from my new release, Blood Guilt, followed by a fun question for you to answer in the comments. After that, you need to go to my Facebook page, "Like" it (if you haven't already!) and comment on the excerpt - or the book in general there too. When you've done that, you have one automatic entry to the contest.

If you play on each of the four days, you'll have four entries, and so a four times better chance than if you entered once :).

And the prize? A $20 Amazon gift card (or other currency equivalent if Amazon provides) - which. of course, I'd love you to spend at least partly on Blood Guilt and my other books! :).

So, without more ado, here's the first contest excerpt. Detailed contest instructions will follow!


BLOOD GUILT: Blood Hunters, Book 1
By MARIE TREANOR
Ebook $2.99, Out Now from AmazonAmazon UK and Barnes & Noble

Natural enemies, deadly attraction...

The first of a vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she  races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.

*

Prologue

The vampire stood silhouetted against her bedroom window.

Quicker than thought, Mihaela grabbed her stakes and leapt off the bed, poised to defend and kill, just as she was trained to. Her heart hammering in her breast, she faced the intruder: tall; slender; untidy dark hair falling forward over cheekbones that looked sharp enough to cut. Maximilian.

His lips parted, revealing his fangs as he walked toward her through the pale shaft of moonlight. He wore jeans and a faded black tank that clung to his lethal body. Mihaela plunged both stakes together from different angles, to give herself more chance of piercing his heart. Although she didn’t even see his arms move, both weapons were torn from her fingers and hurled onto the carpet.

The vampire reached for her, not to kill, bizarrely, but to take hold of the neck of her nightshirt and rip.

Time slowed and stilled. Naked, she stood in front of him, and they stared at each other.

Christ, he was gorgeous. Like a punk fallen angel, with all the beauty of youth and the sheer, powerful sex appeal that can only come with age. Six centuries of age. Even other vampires didn’t trust Maximilian. Everyone hated him. He was beyond the pale. Perhaps that was why she’d always felt this ridiculous attraction she’d never, ever admit to.

She lashed out at him with her bare hands, but he caught her fists easily, jerking her against him. Her struggles were useless, his strength too great. She felt his erection between her thighs and gasped at the surge of excitement enveloping her whole body. It was wrong, deeply, utterly wrong, and yet when he bared his fangs and bent to her neck, she couldn’t prevent the yearning, the dreadful, naked lust.

He pushed against her, and she fell backward onto the bed, helpless under his weight, panting with as much arousal as fear.

He lay between her legs. His mouth nuzzled her throat, and she was appalled by how good it felt. Then, without even speaking a word, he pushed into her body and bit into her vein, and she fell immediately into orgasm…

****

Mihaela sat up with a cry. Her heart thundered. Sweat trickled down her forehead and between her breasts. Between her damp thighs lurked the ache of pleasure and frustration. But at least her room was empty and the window closed. And her chaste T-shirt still clung undamaged to her body.

With shaking fingers, she pushed her hair back from her hot face and lay down on the pillow.

It wasn’t the first time she’d dreamed of the vampire Maximilian since he’d saved her life so casually. She just prayed it was the last.




To enter the contest, complete both steps  below!

Step 1. Answer the following question in the Comments section of this post: How would you advise Mihaela to deal with her dream problem? (Feel free to be as serious, funny or imaginative as you like :)).

Step 2. Go to my Facebook page, "Like" it, if you haven't already done so, and post a comment there about this excerpt or about the book in general - you'll see a post there about this contest.  

When you've done that, you have one entry to the contest!

All four parts of the contest will end at midnight EST Friday night/Saturday morning, so you must have all your entries in by then!

Watch out for Part 2 of the contest coming tomorrow!

Good luck :)

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, Out Now.



Friday 15 June 2012

Where have all the parties gone?

Sadly, I seem to have been too busy to organize any!

So, I thought I should do the next best thing and hold a contest that's almost a party :). All next week (18th to 22nd June), in celebration of BLOOD GUILT, I'll be running a contest with excerpts and fun questions, and the overall winner will receive a $20 Amazon certificate.

Watch out for details here on the blog, from Monday - and also on my Facebook page! See you then!

Have a great weekend!

Marie

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Out Now! BLOOD GUILT by MARIE TREANOR


I'm thrilled to announce the release of BLOOD GUILT, first of my new Blood Hunters series! (Following on from the Awakened by Blood trilogy: Blood on Silk, Blood Sin and Blood Eternal). Here's a celebratory excerpt to tempt you :)

BLOOD GUILT: Blood Hunters, Book 1
By MARIE TREANOR

Ebook Out Now for Kindle from Amazon and Amazon UK
And for Nook



Natural enemies, deadly attraction...

The first of a new vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she  races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.

*

Mihaela sank to her knees, her stake raised for the kill. Unbidden, she remembered the vision of this vampire that haunted her dreams: his face cool and calm above hers as he efficiently staked the vampire who would undoubtedly have killed her. She remembered her own stupefaction as she’d gazed up at him amid the carnage, stunned by what he’d done and terrified as to what it meant. They’d fought on the same side in that battle to save the hunters’ library from the insane Luk’s marauding hordes of undead; but she’d never expected a vampire to trouble to save her life.

It was a debt.

You can’t afford debts to vampires. You can’t take the chance. He was here when the others were; Robbie was drawn to him, whether or not he spoke in words…

She stared down at the scored, bleeding face, still handsome with all its injuries. He wasn’t the disreputable twenty-year-old he appeared; he was a six-hundred-year-old vampire with a penchant for treachery, who’d once commanded the strongest community of undead in the world.

Of course, he’d betrayed his creator in order to do so, and when that power was finally wrested away from him by yet another vampire, he’d seemed to disappear off the face of the planet. Although no one had believed he was actually dead, neither had anyone laid eyes on him for two hundred years until he’d come out of hiding to fight, bizarrely enough, for the newly awakened Saloman. Nevertheless, he was probably still the most powerful being in the world after Saloman, his creator. If he chose to exercise that power.

But he didn’t. He’d left Saloman to come back here. Why? Escaping the world again as Elizabeth said? Or did he have other plans?

It didn’t matter. With a vampire of this caliber, this unpredictability, you didn’t take chances. For Robbie, if for no other reason, she had to kill him.

Her fingers twitched restlessly on the stake. “You saved my life, you bastard,” she muttered.

His eyes opened, almost blinding in their directness. They didn’t blink. He made a strange, choking sound in his throat, as though he were trying to laugh and was prevented by some unspeakable internal injury.

Shit. Slowly, she lowered the stake, although she kept tight hold of it. Maximilian, it seemed, had nothing to say, simply looked at her. Like Saloman’s, his deep, intense  eyes were layered with centuries of violence, murder, and pain; yet Maximilian’s were reflective rather than opaque, which made them, curiously, less scary.

Mistake. Never forget that he is scary.

Beneath her, the world seemed to shake. Not simply in her mind, this time, but in sudden, heart-stopping reality. She reached out instinctively to hold on, as a flowerpot crashed off an upper window-sill, landing barely a foot away from them.

“What the…?” She found she’d grabbed on to the barrel with one hand and the vampire’s jacket with the other, listening to odd sounds of objects falling over in the darkness, cries of surprise from inside the building and from the street beyond.

As the world stilled, Maximilian’s hand grasped her wrist like a vise. An electric charge seemed to shoot from his fingers. She whipped back the stake, staring down at him, but he was frowning, almost…anxious.

“That shouldn’t happen,” he said with strange urgency. “Not…natural.”

They were the first words he’d ever spoken to her and seemed to fit what she knew of him: impersonal and to the point. Still, although Britain was not in an earthquake zone, even here the odd minor tremor did occur from time to time. She doubted this one had been strong enough to do any real harm. Before she could tell him so, he let go of her wrist and made an odd, lurching movement, hauling himself into a sitting position.

Mihaela scooted back, raising the stake higher with more threat than serious intention, for his head lolled back against the wall.

His right arm hung uselessly by his side; his leg was still bent wrongly at the knee.

“What’s the matter with you?” Mihaela said harshly. She didn’t want to see the vampire’s pain, to feel any sympathy; not for this vampire. “Why aren’t you healing?”

For answer, he glanced down at his bloody wrists. “Not enough blood.”

She stared at the wounds in both wrists, in his neck and face. They’d bitten him, draining him to weaken him for the kill. It was a tried-and-tested method by which weaker vampires could kill a stronger enemy. They couldn’t otherwise draw enough blood from him in a single bite to drain him—even if they could get close enough and stay attached to his vein.

She swallowed. “I thought you were just drunk.”

“That too.”

“Will you be able to move from there before sunrise?”

“Oh yes.”

Defeated, because it seemed she couldn’t kill him after all, she stood up, turned her back on him, then stopped. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

There was no sound, no movement behind her. It didn’t matter whether or not she killed him. Without blood, he wouldn’t heal, and she doubted he was strong enough to take any.

Good.

Only, the sun would come up eventually and turn him to dust.

Save her the trouble.

“Shit and shit and shit!” She spun back around.

“Tell him,” Maximilian said. “About the tremor.”

“Saloman?” she said, dropping to a crouch beside him. “You tell him. I don’t like to talk to the bastard. Are both your legs broken?”

“Only one leg.”

Though who knew in how many places. Or however many other bones. No wonder there were layers of pain in his eyes. And it would get worse.


Hope you enjoyed it! More excerpts on my website...

Marie



Natural enemies, deadly attraction:
BLOOD GUILT, 5th June 2012.