Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Scarlet Bond by Tamsin Flowers

You're reached the blog of Giselle Renarde. Giselle is in the woods this week, but she wants to surprise some of her writer friends by posting about their books while she's away. Here's an excerpt she stole from Tamsin Flowers's site, which she hopes won't look too wonky since that was a Wordpress site and this is Blogger and sometimes things get messed up. Anyway, leave a message after the beep. BEEP!

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Blurb
On the run after killing clan leader Etienne Corbeau, beautiful young vampire Willow Jackson finds sanctuary in Miami with her lover, Corbeau’s wife Elouise. But their hard-won freedom can’t last—when Elouise is snatched by a rival vampire clan, Willow is forced to confront a terrifying truth. The only chance to retrieve Elouise lies in raising Etienne from the dead. As his killer, she alone can perform the ritual—but how will her former lover, indeed the very man who made her a vampire, react when he’s resurrected?

Forced to seek help from a lover she can’t trust, attacked by a vampire she created and endangering the life of her mentor, Willow is in a race against time to rescue her soul-mate from the evil Rakim Argent and his clan. Friends become enemies, enemies become lovers and as the situation spins out of control, Willow doesn’t know who to trust…

Excerpt
If the sign on the door said closed, the message didn’t appear to have been taken on board inside Nosferatu’s Bar. In flickering candlelight, amid dancing shadows, four bodies entwined, writhing in time to a throbbing beat that threatened to blast the speakers off the wall. Two women and two men caught up in the drunken moment when dancing turns into something else—something purposeful, elemental, which no longer depends on the music for its rhythm.
But Willow Jackson hadn’t drank any alcohol. She had a thirst of a different nature. She sank her teeth into the tan skin at the base of the blond man’s neck, laughing as the first taste of blood bubbled into her greedy mouth. The man bucked and moaned but she distracted him from the pain of her bite by rubbing a hand across the front of his groin. He was well endowed, growing bigger as she touched. A pair of arms encircled her waist from behind. Small, familiar hands undid the top of her leather shorts. Elouise Day, her vampire lover, had already drunk blood from the blond man’s friend—now she turned her attention to Willow’s pleasure.
Weak from blood loss, the blond staggered back onto a banquette, as his friend slumped down onto the beer-spattered floor. Without losing suction on his neck, Willow released his cock from his pants while Elouise helped her out of her shorts. She straddled the man, wet enough to impale herself on his impressive erection with ease—only at the moment of full penetration did she gasp and lose her grip on his throat. Immediately Elouise’s mouth attached to the wound in the man’s neck as she swooped onto the banquette beside them. Bereft of her blood source, Willow scrambled to pull up Elouise’s T-shirt so she could latch onto her lover’s breasts instead. Beneath them, the man grunted, thrusting his hips as Willow pumped up and down on his cock.
She sucked hard on Elouise’s nipples, pulling at them with her teeth in the full knowledge the pain would make her lover bite down harder on the man’s neck. She watched a trail of blood trickle down his chest from where Elouise tore at his flesh as she silenced his scream by placing one of her hands across his mouth. If he’d understood his predicament, he would have had the sense to bite her wrist to suck out as much blood as he could take—a way to grab immortality for himself. But Willow and Elouise were careful who they invited to their after-hours sessions, spiking their victims’ drinks before the bar closed to ensure co-operation. Instead, Willow felt the blond’s back stiffening. He pushed his hips up hard against hers as his most memorable-ever orgasm ripped through him.
When Elouise’s fingers started working on her clit, Willow could feel the burgeoning pleasure of her own orgasm on the horizon. A divine throb that would spread through every nerve and muscle of her body, building and intensifying until she surrendered completely… But on the verge of surrender, a loud splintering crack pulled her back from the brink.
“What the fuck?”
She grabbed Elouise by her short peroxide hair to yank her off the man’s neck. Elouise shrieked, turning to her with a look of fury.
“There’s someone here,” said Willow as Elouise’s anger turned to shock—followed closely by fear.
Together they tumbled off the banquette, leaving the semi-comatose man to slump over to one side, his blood soaking invisibly into the red velvet upholstery.
“It can’t be Etienne, can it?” said Willow, dragging on her shorts.
Elouise shook her head.
“No one can wake Etienne from the dead but you or I.”
But the splintering noise continued, followed by shouts as the outer door gave way and crashed back against the wall. Willow ran to the bar and grabbed a bottle to defend herself with. As she turned back, the inner door burst open. Dark figures poured into the room, but in the flickering candlelight Willow could see the glint of metal. The men were armed with guns and blades. One of them carried a silver stake, making her blood run cold. She backed up until she stood next to Elouise, pressed against the bar.
“There’s no money here,” said Elouise. Her mouth and chin were still red with blood.
Her voice held steady but only because she thought they were being robbed. If she’d seen the stake, Willow knew there would have been a tremor of fear. She grasped Elouise’s wrist. Elouise glanced at her.
“They’re not here for cash.” She nodded toward the man with the stake.
Elouise gasped.
“Very perceptive.” The speaker towered over them, his close-cropped silver hair and shorn black beard making his age hard to determine. “Elouise?”
Elouise’s head jerked up like a puppet on a string.
“Take her,” he barked.
Four men had piled through the door behind him. From their eyes and their demeanor Willow felt sure they were all vampires. With the leader in the center, they stepped forward in unison, guns and machetes raised as they closed in.

1 comment:

  1. Bless you, Giselle! What better way to brighten up my Tuesday afternoon? xxx <3 <3 <3

    ReplyDelete