The
Omegas
The
Vanguards
Book
One
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book 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
Alpha
The
Vanguards
Book
Two
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book 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.
“What’s going
on?” Daedalus must have given her a ride from work. “Why are you guys so
serious?”
The
Beta
The
Vanguards
Book
3
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book 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.
God, what was
she doing? She assessed him like a potential lover instead of a possible avenue
to get her mark. Stupid, focus. Once Daedalus was out of the picture she’d come
back for Rob if she still wanted him. Until then…she stopped in front of a
duplex. “This is my place.” She lied with the ease of an expert.
Omegas
in Love
The
Vanguards
Book
4
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Date of Publication: March 2012
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book 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
Vanguards
Book
5
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Date of Publication: August 2012
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book 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:
Sam ground his
teeth at Clementine’s stubbornness and hovered around her in case she fell.
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.
Prima
The
Vanguards
Book
6
Annie
Nicholas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Date of Publication: Feb 2013
Cover Artist: Hailey Edwards
Book 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
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/annienicholas/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/yt8Kv
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