by CC MacKenzie
"It’s the key to all things, especially to a successful partnership."
Those eyes went a darker blue as anxiety entered them and his smooth brow creased.
His hand rose to stroke her cheek in a move that made her tremble. "I fear trouble lies ahead."
Anais knew it and for a moment a rock of solid ice weighed heavy in her belly.
Her eyes held his as a determination to endure, to survive, to live and love this wonderful man melted the ice and warmed her heart.
"We have each other. We make a pretty good team. We have the other partners of Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch. Ezekiel might be hard work, but we have a common goal to save this world. We have hope and we have faith."
"Anais Gillespie," Marcus drawled. "It has a nice ring to it."
"Talking of rings."
At her raised brows, Marcus tipped back his head and roared with laughter as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her until her head spun.
Violent blue eyes twinkled into hers.
"A Ruby. You’ll suit rubies."
Epilogue
With a toddler unconscious in her arms, Eleanor stepped through the portal and entered the great hall in the dwelling of The Maker. Through towering arches, two suns set in a sky the color of deep pink. A soft breeze made a strange moaning noise. In her more fanciful moments, she imagined the noise to be the lamentations of the damned.
The creature turned to her and stood away from his desk, his walls of flat screens. He was tall, well over six foot, with gleaming black skin that radiated a supernatural energy. He wore his version of a kimono in black silk with a blood red band around his waist. His feet were bare. The thick mane of hair that fell to his shoulders was a mix striae of icy silver and warm gold. And he was so unutterably beautiful he hurt the eye. An aura of pure power surrounded him. But it was the eyes that held her perfectly still. They were a shimmering gold-red and filled to the brim with a preternatural life force that always gave her pause.
Arctic fingers of fear crept up her spine as he focused all that terrible beauty upon her. Eleanor had lived long enough to understand that fear when dealing with an immortal was healthy, very healthy. It kept a vampyre alive.
He smiled. It was not the smile of a human being or even an immortal. This creature was far removed, way beyond, immortality. She sensed it. What was he? A black elf? She'd heard elves were tricky creatures. A dark angel? One of the fallen?
"Welcome back, my dear," he began, his voice soft... and as slashing as a bare razor blade. "I see you have brought me a gift."
"Since I failed in my task. It was out of the question to do otherwise." She offered the child, as one would a plate of sliced meat to an honored guest.
The Maker gave her a tiny curve of his mouth, perhaps a smile, but there was no emotionality, no humanity, no mortality in it. He accepted her gift and turned to lay the child, a little boy, on a narrow couch made of black locust. A soft hum escaped from his throat as he stroked the boy's flushed cheek, then patted his diaper.
Then he rose and turned his head, those eyes seemed to burn right through to her soul.
"A fine choice, vampyre. I appreciate the thought, as I value all that you do."
The hairs at the back of her neck, her arms, rose as one. A shrieking alarm, a forewarning to take great care.
"I will not fail you, my Lord."
The Maker laughed, and the monumental power of it echoed in the cavernous ceiling and rained down upon her flesh. Even though he did not move towards her, his hand fisted and she felt her throat close. It immobilized her, threatened to take away her ability to breathe.
Gold-red eyes held hers and she saw no mercy, no humanness, only death.
As the world spun she heard the little boy scream.
The End
It Doesn’t Stop Here
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Want to read where it all began? Reckless Nights In Rome is the stormy tale of how Nico and Bronte got together. It's the story that kicked off the Ludlow Hall series and the eBook is available FREE. Grab it now!
The Vampyre Legal Chronicles ...CONTINUES... in Book 2 – James
which is James and Charlotte Gillespie’s Story. You will also meet Marcus and Anais there, too, as they settle into a new life together.
Keep in Touch
CC MacKenzie is a USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She loves to hear from her readers; you can find her at:
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Other Books Available by CC MacKenzie
Ludlow Hall Series
Reckless Nights in Rome - Book 1 Free
A Stormy Spring - Book 2
Run Rosie Run - Book 3
The Trouble with Coco Monroe - Book 4
The Fall of Jacob Del Garda – Book 5
A Film Star, A Baby. and a Proposal Book 6
Delicious and Deadly: Invitation to Eden – Book 8
An Affair to Remember - Book 9
Desert Princes Series
Desert Orchid – Book 1
A Daddy for Daisy - Book 7 in The Ludlow Hall Series is due out in 2015
The Vampyre Legal Chronicles ...CONTINUES... in Book 2 – James
which is James and Charlotte Gillespie’s Story. You will also meet Marcus and Anais there, too, as they settle into a new life together.
Excerpt From The Vampyre Legal Chronicles
Book 2 - James
Copyright © CC MacKenzie 2015
Born in poverty, Charlotte Gillespie was not afraid of hard work or fighting for what she believed in.
Now she had it all - A successful medical career. A gorgeous man who loved and adored her. A beautiful home, jewels and a life most women would envy.
And yet, something was missing…
In a desperate attempt to spice up their pedestrian sex life, Charlotte joins a women’s networking group, Dirty Little Secrets, run by the mysteriously exotic Eleanor Pattullo and discovers a world of deep, dark, delights…
Clever, compelling and unconventional – Corporate lawyer James Gillespie was no one’s idea of a Vampyre.
Life was good.
He had a woman he adored. A stellar career that fed his ferocious ambition.
But James had a problem.
He couldn’t find it within himself to take his wife’s vein and bring her fully into his world…
When he discovers Charlotte’s secret life James unleashes the beast within. But can Charlotte ever forgive him?
When the master of magic, the vampyre Ezekiel, arrives badly wounded needing Charlotte’s help, James must battle not only to save his marriage, but to save their souls…
Excerpt:
They’d met when James had been brought into the ER with a suspected concussion after an over competitive game of football with his brothers. As a senior nurse practitioner, Charlotte had seen plenty of memorable sights. But to see all four of the raven haired Gillespie brothers, James, Marcus, Daniel and Adam, each one a six foot six inch walking ad for GQ, meant every female nurse with a pulse had descended on her department just to rubber neck.
At five foot six Charlotte was hardly vertically challenged but she’d had to tip back her head to stare in awe and wonder at the men with the slashing cheekbones of fierce Celtic warriors. However, professionalism overcame the fact her brain cells had packed up their bags and gone on an extended trip to Turkey.
With hands fisted on her hips and a jerk of her small chin, she’d ordered them out of her ER in a tone that meant they’d complied without a murmur – th
ey didn’t call her The Boss for nothing.
She’d turned to eye the giant of a man lying on the gurney with a peculiar dazed expression in his vivid eyes. An expression she’d initially put down to the knot the size of a baseball on his temple.
He’d said, "Christ, are you real?" in a deep rumbling voice with a toe curling Scottish accent.
Frowning now, she’d lifted his eyelids to shine a pen light into those baby blues to check his pupil dilation. A large hand grabbed her wrist. His thumb circling the now hectic pulse as those eyes lasered into hers.
Then he’d smiled, transforming his implacable features into something that caught her breath and her heart had done the shaky boom boom boom for the very first time.
Her eyes flicked to the hand gripping her slim wrist and she’d sent him big eyes.
"No touching the medical staff, it’s against hospital policy. I have a security team much bigger and badder than you or your brothers."
He’d let her go and heaved out a big happy sigh.
"Darlin’, I’m going to be doing a lot more than just touching you."
Used to being hit on by patients and doctors, Charlotte had taken his words at face value and shrugged them off. All the time fighting the way the rumbling voice stirred her blood and her libido.
Over the following days, Charlotte had learned that the Gillespie family were true blue bloods.
Their line went all the way back to the twelfth century in Scotland. During their formative years the men in the family had been educated at one of the top private schools in the Highlands, which accounted for the Scottish burr in their deep voices. Of course she’d been flattered when he’d shown an interest in her, but Charlotte was a pragmatist and had understood that the Gillespie family lifestyle and how they lived were a world apart from her own humble beginnings.
She’d refused invitations to dinner, lunch and breakfast.
But James Gillespie, senior partner along with his brothers, of the corporate monolith Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch, had laid siege to her body and captured her heart. In spite of her deep reservations that they were not well suited for the long term, four short months later James had marched her down the aisle.
And since her marriage, life had been one big roller coaster ride. He’d wanted Charlotte to give up work. She’d refused, even though her grandmother and work colleagues thought she was crazy. But both sides making concessions was the key in any relationship so she worked part time, which meant she enjoyed her career without the constant companion of exhaustion.
The hard part was the amount of socialising they had to do with the other partners. Charlotte was the only wife. She had the unnerving sense that each time she entered a room the big men looked at her, and her empty womb, before sending silent messages of disappointment amongst themselves.
Their attitude had slowly chipped away at Charlotte's fragile confidence and caused a creeping tension to be introduced into their marriage bed. The partners were a close-knit group who appeared to have their own language and every single one of them intimidated her except for Eleanor Pattullo, who was the much nicer half of twin sisters. Saira Pattullo terrified Charlotte to the point where she had palpitations if the woman so much as looked at her.
Only at work in the ER did the real Charlotte reign supreme and she clung to the reality of her day job like a woman clutching a lifebelt in a hurricane.
She supposed the timing of their relationship might have been better, too, since the company was in the middle of a multi-billion deal with the Chinese, which meant brutal hours for James, and too many hours alone for her. If she felt a tiny bit neglected Charlotte reminded herself of how lucky she was. Even as the persistent little voice in the back of her mind told her to make the most of it and that if life had taught her anything it was that good things never lasted.