Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6)
Felicity Heaton
A
powerful vampire lost deep in his bloodlust, Snow is a savage animal, mindless
with rage and a thirst for violence, and trapped with no hope of awakening from
an endless nightmare… until a song draws him up from the abyss, restoring his
sanity but leaving him haunted by the sweet feminine scent of lilies and snow,
and fragmented familiar lyrics.
When the mysterious and beautiful
songstress reappears in Snow’s room at Vampirerotique, she awakens a fierce
protective streak and stirs dark desires that drive him to claim her as his
female, even when he knows his touch will destroy her innocence.
A single
forbidden taste is all it takes to unleash emotions in Aurora that she shouldn’t
possess, tearing her between duty and desire, and luring her into surrendering
to her wildfire passion and embracing hungers that burn so hotly they threaten
to consume them both.
One act of kindness can lead to one thousand acts
of sin though, each a black mark against the bearer’s soul and another grain of
sand that slips through an hourglass. The clock is ticking and time is almost
up. Can beauty save the beast?
Unleash is available from these and many other ebook stores:
********* EXCERPT *********
The vampire raged in
his sleep.
His bare torso bowed
off the mattress and his powerful muscles strained as he pulled at the heavy
cuffs chaining him to the steel posts of the large bed.
When they didn’t give,
he thrashed his long muscular legs, pulling the black covers down and revealing
more of him to her eyes, including the start of a colourful tattoo on his right
hip. The lower half of it disappeared beneath his black underwear. She couldn’t
make out the design from this distance and refused to give in to the temptation
to move closer.
She shouldn’t be
here.
Her master would be
angry with her if he discovered she had left her post to be here, unable to keep
away.
Snow snarled and
twisted his arms in the thick steel and leather restraints, reopening the ragged
marks around his wrists and spilling fresh blood. He had been lost to his
bloodlust for many weeks now and a few days ago, things had taken a sharp
downwards turn, plunging him into the darkest throes of his curse, far worse
than any she had witnessed before.
What did he dream to
make him turn so violent and wild?
She could see others’
dreams but never his.
Her master believed
they would prove to be too much for her, and she felt he might have been right
to take that ability from her where this vampire was
concerned.
She moved a step
closer but kept her distance, standing several feet from the end of the bed in
his grim black-walled apartment. He had been doing so well recently, gaining
ground against his addiction and learning to master it. Now he seemed worse than
ever. Lost.
He growled again, the
sound pained and feral, like an animal caught in a vicious snare with no hope
for escape. His claws scratched at the heavy steel chains of his restraints,
blunted by the sheer number of times he had attempted to grasp
them.
He thrashed his head
and bared his fangs, his face twisting into a dark visage that was so different
to his normal appearance. It had startled her the first time he had changed and
revealed his darker nature all those countless centuries ago. Part of her had
known then that Snow’s future would hold more pain than one man could bear, and
she had wished she had spared him such a life when she’d had the
chance.
Snow twisted and
bucked, the ferocity of his thrashing causing the steel posts of his bed to
groan against the large bolts that secured them to the floor and ceiling of his
room.
She had the oddest
urge to go to him and stroke his brow. Why?
Did she hope it would
soothe him?
She wanted to soothe
him somehow. She knew that. It was why she had come to this dangerous place,
cloaked from the eyes of those who resided in the London theatre,
Vampirerotique.
She had visited him
often over the past few weeks, always remaining in the shadows, shrouded and
invisible to those she observed. She had watched the way everyone interacted
with Snow, even though he was unconscious most of the time or maddened by rage
at the rest.
She knew what this
place meant to him and these people, and what he meant to
them.
Over the past century,
she had witnessed how each event that had occurred at the theatre had changed
him. He had been wary at first, watchful, keeping to himself and keeping his
distance from all but his brother, but then he had begun to grow closer to the
other males who ran Vampirerotique, and then he had taken the first step towards
a brighter future without even knowing it.
He had started to
consider those at the theatre as his family.
It had surprised her
at first and she had been convinced that she was mistaken for many long months,
but then she had begun to hope that the new family he had constructed for
himself would become his salvation.
She only wished he
were lucid enough to hear those who visited him and know their heartfelt wishes,
because she was sure he would battle his bloodlust if he knew they all desired
him to be well again.
There were new
additions to the theatre she felt he would want to meet too.
Babies.
Callum, the
black-haired elite male with the striking green eyes, had come to Snow’s room
one day with a baby cradled in each arm. He had spoken to Snow, who had been
unconscious at the time, peaceful, and had shown the babes to him. He had told
Snow that he wanted him to get better because he had to meet the twins, and even
his wife, the werewolf Kristina, desired it.
It had been difficult
to keep her emotions in check that day, watching as Callum talked to Snow,
sensing his hope that the male would wake. He had wanted to give Snow a reason
to fight and had wanted him to come around in order to ease everyone’s minds and
lift the burden from their hearts.
She had found a new
level of respect for the green-eyed male.
She had also
discovered a deep affection for the young female vampire, Lilah. The brunette
regularly visited Snow to sit in the wooden chair near the four-poster bed and
read to him, keeping vigil at his side whether he was unconscious or raging with
bloodlust. Her mate, the sandy-haired elite vampire Javier, often came with her
and she knew it was because he feared for his mate and wanted to protect her
from Snow if something bad happened.
There were others at
the theatre who visited too. A mixed blood male with fair hair and intriguing
markings came from time to time, and always apologised. Payne felt responsible
for Snow’s current state. He wasn’t alone in that feeling.
The succubus who was
bonded to Javier’s younger brother, Andreu, shared Payne’s sense of guilt. She
had been the one to kiss Snow, stealing his energy and rendering him
unconscious.
“Aurora.” Snow bucked
and growled, his tone dark yet pleading.
She frowned at him.
She knew not why he said that word so often but it had drawn her to him that
night on the stage of the theatre all those weeks ago, and it drew her again
each time he spoke it, as though he was calling out to her. He always spoke that
word in a voice edged with pain and she ached to do something to ease his
suffering.
She ached to bring him
back to the world. He had never suffered like this and she didn’t like it. She
felt as though he was fading from this world and she could do nothing to stop it
from happening. She felt as lost as those who loved him, who spent hours at his
side, hoping for him to return to them.
Antoine burst through
the mahogany panelled door to her left, his expression revealing his panic as
his pale blue eyes sought his older brother. He shoved his long fingers through
his wild brown hair and stalked across the room to the bed where it stood
against one of the shorter sides of the apartment, opposite the bathroom at her
back.
“Snow?” he whispered,
fear mixed with hope in his voice.
Snow failed to
respond. He lay still on the bed, but not unconscious.
Antoine neatened the
black bedclothes, covering his brother’s legs and drawing them over his waist to
hide his black boxer shorts and give him some shred of dignity. He heaved a sigh
and went to the ebony nightstand beside the bed, retrieving the wad of cotton
wool and tearing a piece from it.
He wetted it with
something from a glass bottle and then rounded the bed to Snow’s feet. She
watched on as he cleaned the dried blood from Snow’s ankles and feet, his
actions careful and speaking of the deep affection that he held for his
brother.
She felt sorry for
him. Sympathy. An emotion well within her grasp. She had felt it for Snow too
once and it had changed the course of her life, and she was no longer sure it
had been for the better. Perhaps she had thought it a long time
ago.
Antoine finished
cleaning Snow’s ankles and wearily tossed the soiled cotton wool into the
overflowing waste bin near the black nightstand. She hated the colour of Snow’s
room. Everything in it was morbid, funerary, and left her feeling it was a tomb
for the living dead.
A grave for a man who
was waiting to die.
Antoine tunneled his
fingers through his hair again, shoving it out of his face, and sat on the edge
of the mattress on Snow’s right. Only he was brave enough to sit so close to
him, and she admired him for it and the faith he had in his brother, especially
after everything that had happened between them.
Snow’s younger brother
sighed again, the sound as weary as his appearance made him look. He was
normally a neat and elegant man, dressing in fine tailored shirts, polished
Italian leather shoes, and perfectly pressed slacks. Now he wore crumpled black
trousers and had fastened only the middle three buttons of his charcoal shirt,
the tails of it left to hang outside his trousers. His feet were
bare.
“Snow?” Antoine leaned
forwards, planted his right hand against the mattress and stroked his brother’s
brow with his left hand, clearing the ribbons of white hair from
it.
Again the urge came,
the strange need to mimic that action he did so often when he visited his
brother.
Another urge joined it
as she sensed Antoine’s pain and knew his secret fear. He feared that Snow
wasn’t strong enough to pull through this time. His brother had been seeking his
death for centuries and Antoine was afraid that Snow would take this as his
chance to escape the pain of his life and find eternal peace.
The sympathy she felt
for Antoine grew stronger, consuming her, and she wanted to reveal herself to
him and ease his suffering by reassuring him that his brother would not leave
him and he would wake soon.
She would see to
it.
The door opened again
and Sera entered, blinking sleep from her forest green eyes and struggling to
tie her long blonde hair into a knot at the back of her head. She rubbed her
eyes and then fastened her dark red silk robe around her waist, covering her
black slip.
“Antoine,” she said
softly and her mate turned and looked over his shoulder at her, his pale blue
eyes flooded with fatigue and pain. She opened her arms to him, crossed the room
and wrapped them around his shoulders. He settled his head against her chest and
she ran her fingers through his hair. “You need to rest.”
“I cannot… not while…”
He turned and buried his face against her, and she tightened her grip on him,
holding him close and dipping her head to press a kiss to his
hair.
“He will be well,” she
whispered and continued to stroke the shorter hair at the back of his head.
“Give him time. You need to rest too… this has all been too much for you and I
don’t want—”
Sera cut herself
off.
She knew what the
female vampire wanted to say but couldn’t. She feared that Antoine would follow
his brother and lose himself to the bloodlust he fought to keep at bay if he
didn’t keep his strength up, both physically and spiritually.
Sera stepped back and
took hold of Antoine’s hands. He looked up at her and nodded, and she released
him. He rose to his feet and then pressed one knee into the mattress and leaned
over Snow. He pressed a kiss to his brother’s forehead.
“Don’t you dare give
up.” His voice cracked and tears filled his eyes.
Antoine straightened,
turned, and walked swiftly out of the room. Sera stroked Snow’s cheek and
sighed.
“You’d better be
listening to him, big guy. You know he can’t live without you. None of us can.”
She brushed her knuckles along his straight jaw and then turned and followed her
mate from the room, closing the door behind her.
Another door closed
and she was alone with Snow again. His breathing quickened and she knew what was
coming. He had been still for long enough, had regained some of his strength,
and was now going to use it in an attempt to break free of his
bonds.
It was always the
same.
He would go in
circles, a pattern she had learned by heart over the past few weeks. He would
fight, and then rest, and then fight again, and then take a shorter rest as his
frustration mounted, and then he would fight harder than ever, and fail to free
himself.
The end result was
always the same too. Exhaustion, leading to unconsciousness. Sometimes he was
out for days. Other times it was only minutes before he began the cycle
again.
Snow turned savage,
the change between placid and violent swift and startling. The chains rattled
and then groaned under the pressure of his harsh movements on the bed. He tugged
at them, powerful body bowing off the mattress and his muscles bunching and
tightening as he fought the restraints that kept him flat on his back.
Helpless.
The cuffs bit into his
ankles and wrists, and his flesh seeped droplets of blood that the thick
restraints then smeared across his skin, renewing the stains. He snarled and
fought, lashing out with his fists and feet, shaking the whole bed. The metal
sliced deeper into his wrists, until rivulets spilled down his bloodied arms and
soaked into the black sheets. Crimson tainted the overlong strands of his white
hair and stained his shoulders and neck too. His eyes rolled open and then back
again, a flash of scarlet irises and thin black vertical slits for
pupils.
They had been red
since the night he had first stirred after the incident on the stage, a sign
that his bloodlust still had a strong hold over him.
They were red even
when he was unconscious.
His lips parted,
revealing enormous fangs.
She pitied him even as
she despised him.
Her feelings had never
been as muddled as they were now.
He sniffed and
suddenly stilled, and a prickle of awareness ran down her spine. He had sensed
her. How?
He bellowed in fury
and thrashed violently against his restraints, causing the metal post that
secured his left ankle to bend slightly. Fresh blood ran over his ankles,
coating the steel cuffs. He fought harder and it pained her because she knew
that after this time he would fall unconscious.
She should
leave.
Her place wasn’t
here.
She knew that in her
heart, but that same heart had urged her to come to him when she had felt his
pain and his distress. Now that she had seen how fiercely the bloodlust gripped
him, she couldn’t turn her back on him. She needed to do something to help
him.
She could calm him,
but if anyone discovered what she had done, she would have damned
herself.
She edged closer to
him, her heart thumping crazily in her breast, her gaze locked on him and
watching for an attack even though she knew he couldn’t break his bonds and
reach her. He tried to lunge for her, his blunt claws scratching at the air. His
red eyes shot to her, focused and sharp, locked on her like
lasers.
Her stomach fluttered
but her step didn’t falter.
She swallowed her
trembling heart and reached out to him, afraid that he would somehow manage to
injure her but strengthened by the knowledge that she might be able to do
something to crack the hold his bloodlust had on him and guide him back to his
loved ones.
She stopped at his
side and dared to lift her cloak so he could see her, hoping it would calm him
and he would see she wasn’t a threat to him. She gently lowered her hand,
intending to touch his face as the female, Sera, and his brother
had.
Snow snapped at her
fingers and tried to bite her, his sharp fangs gleaming in the low light from
the lamps around the black room.
She changed course and
settled her hand on his bare chest instead. His powerful heart thundered hard
against her palm. A heavy tribal beat.
It accelerated as she
stood over him and then she shifted her eyes to meet his and it began to slow to
a more gentle sedate rhythm.
He blinked slowly,
long dark lashes shuttering his crimson eyes before lifting again to reveal them
to her.
She whispered to him,
soft words in a tongue that was probably foreign to him now.
A song to soothe
him.
She sung of soaring in
a midnight sky, dancing over mountains, and reaching towards the horizon, beyond
the snowy valley and the frozen waterfall.
Snow stilled, his
expression turning docile, and she bravely moved her hand to his face, stroking
his stubbly cheek as she softly sung to him of a prince and his love, his
kingdom on earth while hers was in heaven.
Two worlds too far
apart.
Two hearts too close
to part.
Snow blinked languidly
again and then his eyelids drooped and he settled heavily into the bed, his arms
lax and hands hanging limply from the cuffs. She focused on his wrists, on the
red lines that slashed across them, and willed them to heal.
She brushed her
fingertips across his cheek and whispered, “Sleep… dream… remember who you
were.”
Unleash is available now
from all Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books,and Apple iBooks
Stores. It will soon be available for Barnes and
Noble Nook, Sony Reader and also in paperback.
Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Felicity Heaton writes
passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In her
books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense
emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly
vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot
demons!
If you're a fan of
paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena
Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books
too.
If you love your
angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best selling Her Angel series
is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the
Vampires Realm series she writes as F E Heaton or any of her stand alone vampire
romance books she writes as Felicity Heaton. Or if you’re looking for vampire
romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try Felicity Heaton’s new
Vampire Erotic Theatre series.
In 2011, five of
her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl
Reviews, Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The
Romance Reviews, and many of her releases received five star reviews from
numerous websites.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
********* GIVEAWAY ********
Unleash, the sixth
book in Felicity Heaton’s Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series is now
available. To celebrate the release, she’s holding a fantastic giveaway at her
website and she’s also offering the first book in the series, Covet, for FREE at
selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books and Apple iBooks Stores.
GIVEAWAY TIME!
