by Kallysten
It had seemed like a social visit at first as she asked about the pregnancy, about their plans for the summer, about this and that. But then she’d turned much more serious. She’d suggested Chris’ power would be more useful to Sanctuary if he worked with her and helped her sort through all the people who asked for asylum now that the war was in full bloom. And of course, ‘suggestions’ from the woman at the head of Sanctuary were anything but suggestions.
Marigold wished she, too, could have been useful to the fight, but she feared she’d never be well enough to defend Sanctuary as a dragon. Nonetheless, as Chris sat behind her and drew against his chest, as he read that idea at the surface of her mind, he pressed another kiss to her cheek and held her a little tighter.
You’ve fought enough for a lifetime, he whispered into her mind. Time for you to simply live and be happy.
It was hard to argue with that idea.
Please keep turning pages for more…
THANK YOU
Thank you for picking up my book and giving it a chance! I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
And if you did… Could I ask a favor from you? Would you take a minute or two to review this book on Amazon?
Positive reviews are an important part of what makes or breaks a book’s success, and I would be grateful if you thought my story worthy of your review.
Also, I would like to invite you to join my readers group today for free ebooks, new release announcements, giveaways and exclusive content. I hope to see you there!
LICK OF FIRE COLLECTION
The Lick of Fire Collection gathers stories from twelve bestselling authors. Enter this supernatural world of fire and heat, magic and adventure, and get lost in everything dark, delicious and fire.
You can see the books by the different authors on the Lick of Fire website, or join our Facebook group for discussions, games and giveaways.
FIERY BLOOMS SERIES
In a world where ‘paras’ are hunted like animals by the Unit for Investigation of Paranormal Persons, the resistance has begun. These men and women with extraordinary powers, some of them shifters, telepaths or pyromancers, will stop at nothing to free themselves and their kind.
These stories stand alone and can be read in any order.
- Burning Violet – a phoenix shifter and pyromancer romance
- Sharing Hazel – a reverse harem shifter romance
- Saving Marigold – a dragon shifter and telepath romance
- Chasing Rose – a phoenix shifters romance short story
BURNING VIOLET
No love burns hotter than a pyromancer’s…
For five months, Idris has languished in a government detention center for paras—people with paranormal abilities. No more. He’d rather die trying to escape than spend one more day in this hell. Today, he’s getting out, and he’ll set anyone who stands in his way on fire.
It was just another mission for Violet: help her squad free paras from unjust imprisonment and get them safely to Sanctuary. However, when she’s caught between her leader's orders and the sudden realization that one of the prisoners might be her mate, this phoenix shifter needs to choose between duty and destiny.
On the run from the authorities, Idris only has one thing in mind: revenge. He doesn’t mind that Violet insists on accompanying him, though… after all, he’s been celibate for far too long. But when he realizes why she’s so interested in him, he can’t run away fast enough. Even running into danger on his own is preferable to yielding to love...
SHARING HAZEL
A dragon, a lion and a fire tamer… Are they men enough to share this chimera?
In a world of fated mates, Hazel doesn’t have a name tattooed on her wrist like everyone else.
She has three.
As part of the squad, a group of paranormal beings that frees their peers unjustly imprisoned by the authorities, she works beside the dragon shifter Petro, one of her mates. However, unable to contemplate dating two men at once, she broke up with him to be with another one of her tattoo mates, Paris.
When the para in need of rescue is Petro’s own brother, Hazel doesn’t hesitate to volunteer her help. Neither does Paris.
A chimera on a road trip with two of her mates is awkward enough, but to complicate everything even more, the man they’re on their way to save is Hazel’s third mate, Paul.
Defeating bigots and their guns is one thing. Overcoming fear, jealousy and bitterness will be an altogether different adventure.
CHASING ROSE
Who needs a fated mate? Not this phoenix girl.
Rose doesn’t care about the name tattooed on her wrist since birth.
She doesn’t care that there’s a man called Pierre somewhere out there, maybe—probably—looking for her.
She just wants to live her life as she sees fit, without following the path ‘fate’ or whoever else designated for her. Besides, she’s too busy running Sanctuary, this safe-haven for people with paranormal powers, to worry about romantic entanglements and a fated mate.
So when emissaries from France visit Sanctuary and one of them introduces himself as Pierre, there’s only one thing this phoenix shifter wants to do: fly away.
The only question is, will Pierre allow her to flee?
EXCERPT
Blood Moon
Determined to switch things up, Zaan changed what he’d been doing. He didn’t walk through the gardens the next day, no longer hoping Allendra would join him as she had the first day, nor did he wander through the mansion to ‘accidentally’ run into her. He knew, he thought, where her rooms were, but he stayed away, and waited for the moon to rise in the late afternoon.
When Allendra came up to the meditation room to harness more power—really, how much would she need to accomplish her task?—Zaan was already in there, already sitting cross-legged in the center of the circle, hands on his knees, his eyes closed.
He couldn’t see her, but he did hear her feet shuffling against the stone floor. Was she hesitating? Trying to decide whether to come in or leave for now? He gave no indication that he knew she was there, no hint that he wished she’d join him. She undoubtedly was aware of both things anyway.
After another few seconds, he heard her steps again, coming closer to him rather than leaving. He forced himself to wait a little longer, and only when all was silent again did he allow himself to open his eyes.
As he’d expected, she sat across from him, mirroring his position. She used to sit closer than this, their knees brushing together rather than separated by a couple of inches as they were now, but it was good enough, at least for the time being.
In meditation, she usually closed her eyes, or let them drift to half-mast. Not today. Her eyes remained wide open, looking straight at him.
He tried to stay relaxed and impassive as their eyes locked, but it wasn’t long before a smile started creeping up into his heart and pushing at his lips. How could he not smile, really?
Yes, they were both hurt. Yes, they’d been estranged for centuries. Yes, they disagreed about what ought to happen next. But none of it erased the time they’d spent together. They’d traveled together. They’d built homes together. They’d created beauty. They’d helped people. They’d loved each other. They’d called each other husband and wife.
They’d lived.
It was more than enough cause to smile.
No longer trying to suppress that smile, Zaan simply allowed it to bloom, keeping eye contact with Allendra the entire time.
At first, the tiniest of frowns pulled at her brow, and Zaan imagined that she wondered what he found so amusing. Little by little, however, that frown smoothed out. And little by little, a smile started tugging at her mouth, too, until she was smiling as brightly as he did.
Something inside Zaan softened, or relaxed. If she could still look at him like this, then it had to mean she remembered all they had shared, too. She remembered, and she treasured those memories like he did.
/> A moment trickled by them, the room slowly darkening as the light falling in through the window decreased with the coming night. Zaan felt a small flow of power rise from Allendra, and without thinking he added his own strength to it. Together, they lit the candles set around the room. Such a tiny, insignificant thing to do together when they’d once created entire worlds… and yet, it felt anything but insignificant.
In the dancing light that now surrounded them, Allendra’s smile started to waver, pain slowly seeping into her gaze. Zaan swallowed back the lump growing in his throat, feeling his own smile fade to nothing. After the joy had come pain, yes. Pain brought on by tragedy compounded by a misstep on his part—and betrayal. He supposed that was how she’d interpreted his silence, and in return that was how he’d seen her leaving without so much as a word of goodbye.
A wet gleam started to rise in her eyes, and it became harder and harder for Zaan not to say anything. Harder and harder not to reach for her.
Instead, he let himself acknowledge her pain, truly feel it, still fresh even so long after the fact. He also let his own pain come forward, the loneliness and emptiness he’d felt when she left.
His own eyes started to burn with tears. He blinked repeatedly, refusing to shed them. Across from him, Allendra was not trying to hold back her own, and they fell freely on her cheeks, rolling down her neck and onto her tunic.
He’d always hated her tears more than anything else in the world. He’d always done his best to dry them. The last time he’d tried, he’d gone at it in the worst possible way.
Today, he used no words. All he did was hold out his hands between them, palms up, waiting to see if she’d take the gesture as it was meant: comfort, apology, acknowledgment, even simply presence after such a long absence.
For the first time, her gaze left his and she looked down at his hands, blinking away her tears. For a second, Zaan thought about allowing the small glamour that hid the mark in his palm to dissipate, but he rejected the idea. This moment didn’t need a reminder of how they were linked or of the challenge Allendra had issued; both things were all too obvious.
Very slowly, she lifted her hands from where they rested on her knees and brought them to Zaan’s until they rested palms to palms, as light as the touch of a butterfly’s wings. Zaan let out a slow breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
With deliberate movements, almost afraid that she might pull back if he moved too quickly and startled her, he shifted his hands a little, then curled his fingers around hers. She mirrored the gesture, holding as delicately as he did.
His smile returned, smaller yet no less heartfelt, and after a beat she smiled too, despite the tears still trickling from the corners of her eyes.
The power that had been surrounding both of them like a thin mist suddenly increased, permeating everything. If peace had been made into touch, then surely this was it.
Zaan couldn’t have said how long they remained like this. All he knew was that he was grateful for this moment—and that, unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever.
After her tears dried out, she squeezed his hands once, and let go. She drew her hands into her lap, cradling them as though to hold on to the warmth they’d shared. Without thinking, Zaan found himself doing the same.
They might not have spoken a single word, but something rare had just happened, something precious, and Zaan thought that regardless of what came between now and the Blood Moon, this moment would stay with him for the rest of this life.
Continued in Blood Moon
OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE
THE FIRELANDS WARS
The Firelands, a world parallel to our own, is home to paranormal beings such as dragon shifters, phoenix shifters and vampires, as well as ‘regular’ people. The Argonis family, a clan of dragon shifters, rules the kingdom and peace prevails… until the king and his heir are killed, and all hell breaks loose.
MATED
She’s perfect for him… except she’s a phoenix…
When the Ileos clan invites shifter clans from the Firelands to watch their new leader take power, Maikel Argonis doesn’t have much choice but to attend. As second in line to the throne, his lack of interest for this kind of social function is not reason enough to stay home. His father, the king of the Firelands, rules over his sons with as firm a hand as he rules a realm where power-hungry shifters don’t hesitate to start wars.
The chore, however, takes an unexpected turn for Maikel when he meets Celly Ileos. Second-born like he is, quick-witted and rebellious, she captures both Maikel’s interest and his dragon’s—even though she’s a phoenix.
Celly doesn’t mind seeing her older brother take power like he was always destined to. However, she does mind that he’s already trying to use her as a pawn in his power games, intending to strengthen their clan through her marriage to one of his allies. Her heart is her own, and she wants to choose her own mate.
But if that mate happens to be a dragon prince, will she be strong enough to endure the fire of disapproval raging from his family and her own?
EXILED
He could silence his dragon, but not his heart…
Born a dragon prince in the Firelands, exiled for a crime he hasn’t committed yet, Glenn has learned to ignore his dragon. He made a life for himself on Earth, giving diving lessons and exploring wrecks in Lake Erie.
But on the same day a new sassy assistant steps into his office, his old life catches up with him. The Firelands are at war again, and it doesn’t take long for the fight to find Glenn, catching his assistant Nadia in the crossfire. Between his inner dragon rising again and calling her his mate and Glenn’s own reluctant attraction to her, he’ll do anything to keep her safe.
All Nadia wanted was to spend time with Glenn and get to know him. She didn’t imagine she’d end up on the run with him, but sharing close quarters might turn up the heat and make it easier for her to get what she needs from him. Or it would if Glenn opened up to her…
STOLEN
He used to have wings, too…
As a shifter, Galaia has always heard her dragon in her mind… until now. Not only can’t she communicate with the beast anymore, but she also finds herself a captive of vampires, with no memory of what happened and no idea about the identity of this “Jon” whose whereabouts her jailer demands to know.
Anton remembers what it was like to have a dragon inside him. He was a shifter too… before he was turned into a vampire. Now placed in charge of Galaia’s interrogation, he is more than reluctant to follow his orders, and take from her what was stolen from him.
With the war between dragons and vampires escalating after decades of peace, Anton needs to decide where his loyalty lies: with the woman who made him what he is today, or the woman who makes him remember he used to have wings of his own. As for Galaia, she has to find in herself the strength her dragon always shared with her if she is to escape—and if she is to make sense of the attraction she feels toward her captor.
Caught between grief and danger, the two of them discover the beginning of feelings where there should be none… but will it be enough to save both their lives?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kallysten’s most exciting accomplishment to date was to cross a few thousand miles and an ocean to pursue the love of her life. She strives to give her characters the same ‘happy ever after’ she found… although their lives are significantly stranger than hers! But whether they have fangs or an inner beast, whether they play with magic or with whips, whether they’re looking for ‘the one’ or a single night of fun, in the end it’s all about love…
To see her other stories, visit http://kallysten.net. Subscribe to her readers group for free stories and exclusive content, and to get notices about new releases, discounts and giveaways.
t