“And the best way to do that was by killing you?”
“Best way he could think of, I guess.” I took another sip. “I told him that I believed in the idea of soulmates, that everyone had someone they were bound--connected--to, it was just a matter of finding them.” I caught Ronin’s eyes and held his gaze for a moment. “I believe that now more than ever.”
Ronin didn’t say anything. He went to his knees on the floor in front of me and before I could figure out what he was doing, his lips were on mine and my veins filled with liquid fire. His hand slid to my face and I melted into his embrace, sinking into the floor with him.
When we finally parted, there were a million things I wanted to say, but none of them would come out.
“I think I believe that too,” he said breaking the silence.
I decided then, that if dying meant I was able to find him, then maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.
Where to find more of Charlotte Raven Hart
https://www.facebook.com/charlotteravenhart/
www.amazon.com/author/charlotteravenhart
Coming soon
Reality Breaker - December 12, 2020
About The Author
Charlotte Raven Hart specializes in paranormal romantic mysteries. She first started writing as a young girl and is thrilled to finally be able to share her love of storytelling with the world.
Charlotte is happily married to the love of her life and lives with him and her cats in a small town in the U.S. One day she hopes to move to Salem, the place she feels the most connected to in the world.
Her debut novel, co-authored with Cindar Harrell, is available for preorder and set to release December 12, 2020.
Drawn In by Krista Ames
An Immortal Lust Trilogy #1
Paranormal Romance
Drawn In, Book 1 of the Immortal Lust trilogy
© Copyright 2020 Krista Ames
www.kristaames.com
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or organizations are purely coincidental.
No part of this publication in any form may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher and/or copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design © Cover Design by Covers by Kay
Formatting/Editing by Deelylah Mullin
Blurb
Archer Danvers was destined to be alone for the rest of his long, unending time on earth. He’d carved out a good life, but it was lonely. That is, until Mia Blackwood blew in like a hurricane and needed to be rescued.
The pull between them was undeniable.
Other immortals want her, but he has to have her. There’s a mysterious connection between them and he won’t let her go. His life was about to change in more ways than he could even know.
Dedication
Have you ever had that feeling, the one that draws you in uncontrollably?
Don’t fight it, Immortal or otherwise. Do what makes you happy.
CHAPTER ONE
“Another quiet night. Please end the misery.”
Why wasn’t he used to it by now? He should be glad there wasn’t upheaval. Then he’d feel obligated to get involved. Protect those needing protection. It was his neighborhood, after all. Humans were frailer than they realized.
Archer rested his fingers on the spots nearest his temple where his tension pulsated. It wasn’t as if the undead could feel their blood pressure rise but he knew from when he’d been alive years ago that those were the target areas. And who knew, anyway? Vampires had made great strides in evolving over the last few hundred years.
He was just frustrated.
He looked on from his balcony as the city slept. He didn’t care about the humans much—anymore—as he’d made a life of blood-in-a-bag or the occasional run in the nearby woods to satisfy the more basic, primal needs. He did, however, like to go mostly unnoticed among them and even had a human friend or two.
He wasn’t like the others anymore. He’d grown tired of the all-night bar life and the string of girls traipsing through his bedroom every night. He wanted to be a homebody, to be as normal as he could be and wished there were someone to share his never-ending life. He simply wasn’t attracted to any of the women like him. They had an air about them, like they were better than the rest, just because they were going to live forever.
And, unfortunately, searching for a life partner outside of his own species didn’t really constitute as a life partner. At least one that would live as long as him. And after so many years, the thought of turning someone no longer appealed to him, either. There were enough immortal in the world and who was to say it was his decision to make more.
So, basically…he was just complaining.
After a long intake of the night air, and a deep exhale, he turned to leave his balcony, same as every other night, he caught the smell. It was undeniably strong and unmistakable and gone again in a flash.
It was fear.
Not just your everyday fear though, but a shaking terror.
Another human perhaps? But why was this one calling to his inner immortal all of the sudden? He’d learned to block them out years ago. So why wasn’t it working now?
Struggling with the decision, he stood for several seconds with his back to the city, wondering if he should … deciding that he shouldn’t … but turning to look anyway. As his hands gripped the railing, the keen vampire night vision he’d been blessed with focused on the streets below. However, he saw no one. At this hour of the night, most humans were safely tucked away in their beds. Then why was it he couldn’t walk away?
He stood with his eyes closed to focus on the fear he could feel all the way to his soul. Its body shaking. Its heart beating erratically. Its quiet whimpers.
It was hiding.
It wasn’t his responsibility.
It was female.
Damn it.
***
“You need to come and get me now damn it!”
Mia whisper-yelled, if that were even a thing, into the cell phone she’d been carrying as her lifeline. The battery was dying and shew as very quickly going to be stuck in the dark.
“Micah, I can’t wait. Please, before I get mugged or something worse. It’s like the wee hours of Halloween morning but the crazies are already out. I’m hearing weird noises and there are shadows. Hello? Shit. I knew my damn phone was going to die.”
She’d really like to say it wasn’t her idea to go out on All Hallows Eve, but she loved Halloween and that was part of the appeal that took her out looking for the unexplainable. She’d waiting til almost midnight the night before Halloween to venture into the unknown. Next time it might be in her best interest to make sure she was ready to be out on her own, meaning maybe a power bank would have been a good idea so she wouldn’t be stuck alone with no phone. In all reality it might be a smart idea to stop going out by herself too.
Mia tiptoed around to the nearest corner of the building to get a better view, and maybe figure out where she was. GPS would have been nice if her phone hadn’t died. Unfortunately, in their modern day of cellular devices, nobody put pay phones on street corners anymore and the area she was in, wasn’t your typical residential housing community. It was a warehouse district only not all the buildings were warehouses anymore. Someone with money to burn had come in and renovated a few of them to become warehouse lofts for housing purposes. She’d only be so lucky to financially be able to live in one of those. She’d probably be satisfied if she could just see the inside of one.
As her eyes scanned the darkened area around her, there wasn’t anything noticeable that would help her to get out and back to her car safely from where she’d been hiding but as she turned around to back track, she heard footsteps.
“Oh my God”, she whispered as
quietly as possible before slapping her hand over her mouth.
Between clenched lips she muttered, “I’m gonna die, I know it. And no one will find me in this … whatever this is I’m hiding in.”
Then when she never made it back to her place, her poor cat would die too because there was no food out and he couldn’t get out of her apartment. She didn’t have real friends, or at least any that would miss her. Micah might be the only one, but he was far from reliable, especially when he was wrapped up in his boyfriend like tonight apparently. The seedy tabloid she worked for wouldn’t care whether she never checked in or not because she wasn’t really on the clock. She worked her own schedule as a freelancer.
She glanced around the ground, looking for something she might use as a weapon if she had to, to fight off whatever it was that sounded like it was coming toward her.
What she hoped to find? A crowbar or lead pipe.
What she found? Nothing.
Yeah, she’d watched too many movies. She was a goner.
Now the fear inside her was starting to multiply. Before it wasn’t really fear because she was sure she’d find a way out but now, she knew there was no way out. It was a shame for anyone to die as young as she was. At that age, no one had really lived. She hadn’t had the chance to find a meaningful job that she actually liked, and the love of her life hadn’t found her yet. Which meant she couldn’t give up; she had a lot of living left to do.
But, after she stood up and finally saw what she had only minutes before heard coming toward her, Mia lost what hope she thought she had left.
“There’s no way.”
Only in movies and books. Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her. Maybe the darkness had made her delirious.
The closer he got, the more immobile she became. Why couldn’t she move? His eyes were glowing. That wasn’t normal. Mia felt like she should be alarmed but for some reason she couldn’t get herself to react. Her heart was racing. So much so that her feet would have otherwise carried her away by now.
His skin was pale, like he hadn’t seen the sun in years, which could be possible in the city, but his teeth were unrealistically white, and sharp. Pointy sharp. As he opened his mouth wide, two teeth in particular, grew longer than the rest.
When his hand touched the side of her neck, her entire body shivered from the cold. Twilight had been one of her favorite movies as a teenager but not so much that she wanted to live out that scenario herself in a dark alley in the middle of nowhere. And this guy was nowhere near cute enough to be an Edward.
His hand moved to the back of her neck where he took a firm grasp, his breath cool against her lips. She pleaded to be released but her cries fell on deaf ears. He didn’t seem to care that she was talking at all. It was as if he couldn’t even hear her. When he leaned back and tilted her head to the side, he peered directly in her eyes as his mouth widened, as if he were going to take a bite out of her neck.
She knew it would be her last moment on earth but when Mia’s eyes drifted closed, she felt a hard blow to her body and fell to the ground.
CHAPTER TWO
Archer stood against his kitchen counter as the sun started to rise, shining through his windows. He couldn’t help but stare at the woman sound asleep on his sofa. He knew better than to get involved. He told himself that very thing only a few hours ago. But just like earlier, he felt an overwhelming sense of need, the need to protect this woman. He had no clue who she was or what made her different from any other human in the city.
He tried not to notice that she was also unbelievably beautiful. It was those kinds of distractions he didn’t need in his life. What he was more puzzled about though, was the predicament that he’d found her in. A vampire killing a human wasn’t necessarily a new thing for him and he wasn’t really going to brag that this was his area per se, but it was… kind of his area. He’d been keeping an eye out and protecting the neighborhood since he moved in ten years ago.
Archer shook his head.
“Ten years ago, she would have been only a child or at most a teenager. What was she doing out there?”
More importantly, he would really like to know who the other vampire was but in the heat of the moment, he’d reacted first and snapped the guy’s neck, turning him into a pile of ash. No way to get any information out of him now but torturing a vampire wasn’t really a thing anyway. Either you got what you were looking for or you didn’t. They already died once, so threatening death or dismemberment didn’t intimidate them much. Besides, if Archer hadn’t killed him first, then the guy probably would have killed Archer, and then the girl like he’d originally intended.
He didn’t think to look through the guys pockets or check for a wallet before he killed him, but it would have probably been an alias anyway. His only focus was getting the girl out of there and to safety before the sun came up and he had to deal with anything or anyone else. Since there was no other place to take her that he could easily explain because, admittedly, it looked a lot sketchy for him to be carrying an unconscious woman into a hospital. He could maybe have made them believe that he’d just found her lying on the street in the middle of the night, but he didn’t like to use his power that way. Anyway, whenever she came to, they would have sent her to the looney bin if she’d tried to explain anything she’d seen before she got knocked out. It was unfortunate that she was out cold, so he couldn’t ask for her address. His apartment was the only plausible option he had.
Right after he’d gotten her settled, he ran to the mini mart down the street and filled his frig with things he thought she might like. He hadn’t eaten normal food on a regular basis in a very long time and re-acquiring the taste again had been a brutal challenge. He ate his meat raw unless he was in the company of other humans, then ordered it rare. That was as close as he could get. It wasn’t necessarily good but like he’d said, an acquired taste, which took him years to accomplish.
When she woke though, that would be the least of his worries. Explaining who he was, was the challenge and it looked like he wouldn’t have to wait much longer. She was starting to stir herself awake on the sofa. Should he make himself scarce until she got acclimated to her surroundings? No, probably wasn’t a good idea. She might just leave, and he couldn’t have her on the run.
In all likelihood, if there was one hunting her, he probably wasn’t the only one. More will come. He didn’t dispose of the body so they would eventually find the vampire he’d left in an ash pile and pick up her scent, all the way to his apartment. He needed to take care of that problem before nightfall came again.
“Oh my God! Where is he?”
She was instantly panicking. He assumed she thought she was still standing in front of the vampire that tried to kill her.
He hesitated a second before he moved toward her.
“Wait, where am I?” She looked around, only becoming more panicked.
“Don’t be alarmed. You’re in my apartment but I promise I will not hurt you.”
“Only someone that wants to hurt me would say that. Who are you?”
She scooted herself deeper into the couch, covering herself with the blanket.
She was probably right.
He didn’t know how to talk to women. He didn’t when he was still alive at twenty-seven years old and he sure didn’t know. Even two hundred years later.
“My name is Archer Danvers and I live here.”
“Okay, I have no idea who you are but why am I in your apartment?”
She looked around, seemingly pleased with what she saw.
Should I tell her the truth?
“I came across you on the ground passed out in an alley not far from here.”
She looked at him oddly, then looked toward the window. After a few seconds, she rose from the sofa and went to the open patio door. She stepped outside very slowly and gripped the railing as she looked out over the warehouses. The sun was starting to light the entire area.
“You live in a warehouse apartment.”
/> “I do. I built them actually.”
“So, you’re the one with too much money. Figures.”
“I wouldn’t say too much money. I like it here though, it’s quiet. Well usually.”
“I think we’ve beaten around the bush long enough. I need you to tell me what the hell that was in the alley that was trying to attack me.”
***
She had a feeling he knew exactly what she was talking about. He didn’t want to tell her, but he knew. She read people. She was good at it. She knew he knew.
“I’m not sure I know what you’re referring to.”
“You have to.”
He’s lying, or at least avoiding.
“What do you think happened?”
“You’ll think I’m losing it if I tell you.” Because who wouldn’t?
He made an X across his chest and promised her.
“You can trust me.”
“How do I know that?”
“I guess you don’t, other than my word.”
“Well I suppose if you were some weird stalker and were going to kill me, you might have done it by now, or just not saved me from the alley. So, here goes…I’m one hundred and ten percent certain it was a vampire trying to eat me. I don’t remember what happened though, I just remember being knocked down and then woke up here.”
“A Vampire huh?”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I never said I didn’t believe you.”
“You didn’t say you did. What do you know then because I know what I saw? The teeth on that thing were ridiculous, and they grew right before my eyes.”
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