A Promise of Passion

by Felicity Heaton

  A Promise of Passion

  A dark, sensual and action packed story of two hearts, united in their passion and desire, but divided by their blood, A Promise of Passion is guaranteed to get your heart racing.

  Alicia is a vampire hunter, unable to find a man strong enough to love and accept her for who she is. When Kassian, a tall and seductively handsome vampire walks into her life and vows to protect her, she doesn’t know what to think or feel. His eyes make promises that his searing touch backs up, but she can’t get past the fact that he’s a vampire and the fact that he thinks she’s someone else.

  Kassian is certain from the moment he sets eyes on Alicia that she’s the reincarnation of his lost love and sire, and he’ll stop at nothing to convince her and make her his again. A taste of her blood makes him realise his mistake but doesn’t change his feelings or his resolve to have her.

  Their mutual attraction is impossible to resist but a moment of passion places Alicia in the path of danger when Seth, the vampire responsible for murdering Kassian’s sire, sets his sights on her. When Alicia is dragged into a game of human sport, how far will Kassian go to protect his love? Can he save her or will history repeat itself?

  A Promise of Passion

  Felicity Heaton

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2008 by Felicity Heaton

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  ****

  Chapter 1

  The vampire disintegrated.

  Alicia scrambled backwards on the wet grass like a crab, placing distance between her and her spontaneously decomposing enemy. Her elbow hit a gravestone, stopping her. Her mind reeled, trying to figure out what had happened.

  His body crumbled, pieces falling away to reveal the man—correction—vampire who had killed him.

  Kassian.

  What had been a gentle and controlled canter in her chest exploded into an unrestrained gallop at the sight of him.

  Kassian—the most handsome vampire she’d ever met and the only one she couldn’t bring herself to stake, no matter how hard she tried, and she tried hard. Her eyes fell to the disintegrating vampire. It was the third time in as many weeks that Kassian had stepped in and killed her quarry. He was fast becoming the most irritating vampire she knew too.

  A deceptively slender hand extended towards her, its appearance hiding the strength of its owner. Her eyes fixed on it and then wandered upwards. He towered over her, the full moon and starlit sky a fitting backdrop for his dark seductive beauty. Deliciously sensual lips bowed into a winsome smile that softened the hard line of his jaw and made her heart skip a beat. She cursed it, cursed him, and then helped herself off the floor. It was bad enough that he kept protecting her, she wasn’t about to let him make her feel even weaker by allowing him to help her up. She glared stakes at him.

  “Alice,” he whispered, as quiet and soothing as the sound of a light breeze through trees.

  “Alicia,” she corrected and reined in her thundering heart.

  His smile faltered, changed, showing a hint of apology as though he feared his insistence on calling her by another’s name would drive her away. It wouldn’t. The fact he was a vampire would.

  A shift in his position brought him into the strong lucid light of the moon. It drained the colour from his blood-red shirt and tie, turning them almost as black as his crisp suit. The diamond pin in the centre of his tie’s knot caught her eye. It sparkled, a pale imitation of the glint in his dark-rimmed ice-blue eyes. They spoke to her as always, promising passion and sensuality. Her mind said to leave. Her heart said to stay.

  He took a single step towards her, slow and measured. The care behind that move said he didn’t want to frighten her. He didn’t frighten her. Well, at least not all the time. Sometimes he did. Sometimes he scared her so much that she couldn’t breathe.

  Her eyes ignored her command for them to remain locked on his. They roamed downwards, back to the diamond pin and then to his chest. His hand touched hers, startling her and making her heart jump. Her gaze shot to his face. A subtle tilt to his lips and narrowing of his entrancing eyes gave him a fascinated look. It was one she’d seen too often. She knew what he was going to say.

  No words left his lips.

  That surprised her. Was he finally getting it? Her name wasn’t Alice and she hadn’t known him in a past life. Whoever he thought she was, she wasn’t. She didn’t even believe in reincarnation.

  The feel of his hand moving against hers brought her back to him. He was close, barely inches from her. If he’d breathed, it would have fanned her face. He didn’t. None of his kind did unless they were speaking.

  His hand was cool and strong as it held hers, his other joining it. It was a silent command for her to stay, a warning that he wasn’t going to relinquish her and let her leave. He could read her. The thought of that made her glance at her fallen stake where it laid on the grass a few metres away. Things were getting out of control if Kassian knew her well enough to predict what she was going to do.

  The motion of his thumb against hers made her swallow and dragged her attention away from the stake. Heat spread outwards from the point where his skin touched hers. She tried to convince herself it was her imagination but couldn’t.

  She snatched her hand back, ignoring the disappointment in his eyes. He was overstepping the mark again.

  “You do not have to thank me,” he whispered, low and seductive, his soft Russian accent making his words a divine melody in her ears.

  A shake of her head cleared her senses. It was a mind game, that was all. Everything he made her feel wasn’t real. It was some horrible game conceived by him to make her weak and vulnerable. He’d probably kill her any time now for being stupid enough to keep letting her guard down around him.

  She busied herself with brushing her trousers down, pretending she was unaffected by the heat of his gaze and his proximity. If she did this long enough, he might grow bored and leave. He didn’t. He waited patiently until every speck of grass was gone from her dark blue jeans and her black figure-hugging spaghetti strap top and she had no option but to straighten up. The instant she did, his fingers combed through her jaw-length chestnut hair, his thumb caressing her cheek.

  She couldn’t deny the warmth she felt this time—intense fire that burned deep in her heart like a furnace, sending heat into her blood and making her skin prickle.

  He leaned in close and brought his mouth to her ear.

  “Take more care, sweet Alicia.” His whisper had taken on a decidedly seductive tone that she didn’t like. At least that’s what her mind said. Her heart melted as the furnace there became an inferno. His soft cool breath tickled her neck. “I would hate to lose you again.”

  In the depths of her heart, she found her strength and pushed him away. She turned her back. He was in front of her again. Now he was being irritating. Turning the other away, she frowned when he was right there. He was going to let her leave whether he liked it or not. She drew her fist back to hit him.

  His eyes locked with hers.

  Her body froze.

  She tried to curse him but her mouth wouldn’t cooperate. He’d used his mind to trap her. Damn him. This wasn’t fair. Did he honestly expect her to speak to him, so much as look at him, after this? Thirty seconds struggle left her tired and even angrier. He’d never gone this far before. He’d never used his abilities on her. Her whole body shook inside with fear and adrenaline.

  “I did not want to do it this way,
but you are so stubborn. You will not listen to me,” he said, accented tones arousing her. She rebelled against her rising desire and fought his hold over her.

  Cool fingers grazed her cheek, trailing fire and ice over her skin, dancing ever downwards until they traced her jugular. Her heart missed a beat. Was he going to kill her?

  Ice-blue eyes never left hers, holding her and stoking the flames inside her as much as his touch.

  “You look the same,” he said, his voice verging on a whisper again. There was a trace of tenderness in it that had her wondering just who this person was that she was supposed to be. “You sound the same.”

  An edge of pain entered his eyes.

  “Why don’t you remember me?” They searched hers as though they would answer him. She didn’t know why. She frowned mentally. What was she saying, she didn’t know? Her heart had answered him. For an infinitesimal moment, she’d felt a strange sense of connection to him, a notion that she should remember him, just as he was saying. His sigh spoke of hurt. “Two centuries apart has been like eternity to me, unending darkness without the light of my life.”

  Those words scared her.

  She fought harder than ever, desperate to shatter his hold over her.

  His fingers closed around her jaw, restraining her head.

  “Listen to me, and to your heart. I do not wish to hurt you... I only want to protect you.” He leaned in, his cheek grazing hers, gathering all the heat inside her there until it burned along with her other one. His lips brushed her earlobe. His words caressed her heart. “I want you. You must remember me as I remember you. I will not allow anyone to take you from me again. This time I will protect you.”

  Soft kisses down her neck made her tremble, not from fear but from desire. The feel of him licking up the length of her jugular, tongue pressing in hard, tore a whispered breathy moan of hunger from her throat and forced her head backwards. Her moan became a whimper of panic when his lips briefly closed over the vein.

  He kissed her jaw.

  “I would never hurt you.”

  His lips touched hers in a chaste kiss.

  Before she could blink, he was gone.

  She fell to her knees, dizzy from fighting his hold over her. The grass was cold under her hands. It chased away all trace of warmth he’d created in her and cleared the haze of desire from her mind. Before tonight, she hadn’t realised the true extent of his power. He was old, more than the two centuries he’d spoken of. He’d aged enough for his abilities to surpass any vampires’ she’d ever met.

  Crawling to her stake, she gave her body time to recover and stop trembling. The night was still young, but after her encounter with Kassian she was in no state to continue hunting. It would be hours before she’d be able to get her thoughts off him and the things he’d said, and in the mean time they would distract her. Fighting a vampire now would be suicide. All she could do was return home to recuperate.

  She stood and walked towards the cemetery gates, her mind replaying each moment with Kassian from the first time she’d met him several weeks ago until tonight. Each time he had sought to convince her that she was a woman named Alice that he had known centuries ago. At first, she’d thought he was delusional, but the more he touched her and spoke to her, the more she started to feel a connection to him. She was probably delusional too. His mind game was getting to her. If he was only playing with her, amusing himself before he killed her, it was a cruel and strange game he’d chosen.

  No matter how she tried to discount the things he’d said as an evil attempt to catch her off guard so he could drain her dry, her heart overruled everything by stating one simple and undeniable fact. Kassian hurt. It had been their second meeting when he’d first revealed the pain he felt on seeing her and speaking with her. That pain was undeniably real and it made her believe every word he said.

  She shook her head and sighed, heading down the side street that led to her apartment. Trying to figure out whether he was lying or not was starting to give her a headache.

  The door opened with a turn of her key and she stepped inside. She slipped into auto-pilot as she closed the door and flicked every lock and put the safety chains across. She’d installed a few more locks since meeting Kassian. He knew where she lived. He watched her so much that she was certain he did. He was always watching her.

  A frown married her dark eyebrows and she stared at the door, not seeing it but feeling him. Her eyes slipped closed. A ghost of him touched her skin, the sensation retracing his steps and making her feel a glimmer of it all over again. He’d never done anything like that before. He’d never touched her that way and he’d never kissed her. A chill danced up her jugular, following the route his tongue had taken. She couldn’t shake the feelings it had stirred—passion, fire, hunger, need and desire. He’d ignited them all inside her with one simple brush of his thumb against her cheek and the sweep of his tongue against her overheating flesh. Her heart sped. Her nipples tautened against her bra.

  Clenching her fists, she reined in her emotions and turned away from the door. How was he doing this to her? She’d never felt anything for a vampire before, except disgust and occasional fear. None she’d ever fought or known had made her feel the way Kassian did.

  Could he be telling her the truth? Had she known him in a previous life? The notion of that was ridiculous, but her tired mind was struggling to join the dots that would make this growing feeling of connection to him make sense. Intense loathing wouldn’t cut it. There was something about Kassian—his voice, his dead sexy looks, his tender concern—that was making him attractive and making her feel as though she knew him.

  Her head throbbed.

  Perhaps she’d pass on the bath tonight and head straight to bed. Whatever power Kassian had used on her, it was strong and left a mark, a residual sensation of him inside her. If she went to sleep, she could pretend it wasn’t there and hopefully it would be gone when she woke tomorrow morning.

  The deep purple bedcover was cool beneath her when she collapsed on top of it. It was a mild night but she didn’t risk opening a window. Kassian couldn’t enter without invite but that wouldn’t stop him staring in through the window at her from the fire escape. Her eyes closed, shutting out the sight of the dark room, and she sighed out her breath. Sleep’s welcoming arms embraced her, sending a wave of relaxation through her body and promising a blissful slumber.

  Barely ten minutes later, Alicia shot up into a sitting position and stared at the moonlit windows.

  She’d dreamt of Kassian. Her heart pounded. He hadn’t been the Kassian she knew. Fear chilled her blood. He’d been leaning over her, screaming words she hadn’t heard. She’d felt his arms around her as though it had been real, as real as the pain in his eyes and the tears on his cheeks.

  It was only a dream. The things he’d said tonight had muddled her feelings and made her dream of him. She hugged her knees to her chest and looked around for her stake. It wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Another glance at the window and then at her bedside clock revealed that it was barely past midnight. She couldn’t sleep now. All chance of that was gone.

  Slipping from the bed, she grabbed her keys off her bedside table and took a jacket from the back of her couch in the living room. The stake was in her pocket the moment she spotted it and before a minute had passed, she was out the door and on her way.

  It wasn’t often she resorted to this kind of method to help her sleep, only when she was wired and needed to unwind. It normally happened after she’d killed a few vampires. There was nothing sweeter than heading over to one of the only clubs open this late and downing a few cocktails while surrounded by vampires that could smell death on her and could do nothing about it.

  Her heart said that if she was lucky, Kassian would be there and she could get some answers to all the questions crowding her mind. She ignored it. She didn’t need him and didn’t need answers. If he was there, he was there. She had no intention of giving him the impression that he was right by mentioning t
he dream. It would only make matters worse.