by Dee Carney
Hunger Awakened
By Dee Carney
There’s something inside of him, some dormant part that’s been awakened. And now it wants to be set free…
Something’s wrong with Sebastian Kent. Already considered an outsider in the vampire community as a half-vampire, half-something else, he’ll do everything in his power to hide his weakness. But when sickness strikes, he has no choice but to turn to a human for help—a woman whose touch provides his only relief.
Alice Bowman is hiding her own illness, one that has left her homeless. When she comes to Bast’s aid, she doesn’t expect to be thrust into the world of vampires. He offers her refuge and a job researching his family history in the
hope of finding a clue to his mysterious affliction. She can’t resist his offer of protection—and the chance to spend more time with the man who arouses her every desire.
But as Bast’s and Alice’s hunger for each other grows, so does the power of Bast’s unexplained half. And soon his unknown past and her uncertain future threaten to keep them apart forever…
92,000 words
Dear Reader,
It’s a known truth among the people who have to nag me to meet the deadline on these letters that I get writer’s block when I sit down to write them. I’m always excited to tell you about what’s in store for the month, but I often get stuck figuring out how to start it off. So these letters are always late (sorry, people in production!). I had particularly bad writer’s block this month, so I was especially impressed when I realized that this March, all of the authors with books releasing at Carina Press have written multiple books, and many of them have long careers in writing. How do these authors do it, writing multiple books a year, for years, creating new worlds, new characters and unique stories? It’s amazing to me, even after ten years in this industry, that there are people with this gift. And I’ll admit it, I’m a little jealous they have that gift. But I’m thrilled to introduce you to the books releasing this month from these incredible authors.
I know it’s a little past Valentine’s Day, but it’s always time for chocolate and romance, and Christi Barth brings us both in A Fine Romance, the second contemporary romance in her Aisle Bound series. And if you missed the first book, Planning for Love, make sure to grab that as well!
We have six! other authors joining Christi with sequels. Lynda Aicher heats up the pages with an emotionally gripping, smokin’ hot BDSM romance, Bonds of Need. Dee Carney also offers up lust and love in one package in her erotic paranormal romance sequel, Hunger Awakened.
Veteran author Vivi Anna brings us The League of Illusion: Prophecy, a steampunk romance with an illusionist, a hunt for a missing brother, an incomplete map and a psychic! Relative newcomer Nicole Luiken follows up her debut fantasy romance, Gate to Kandrith, with the second in this duology and the conclusion to the story, Soul of Kandrith.
R.L. Naquin offers the sequel to Monster in My Closet, her debut novel. In Pooka in My Pantry, empath Zoey Donovan is marked for pickup by Death. But when she refuses to die on schedule, she has a to-die-for reaper to deal with. And watch the battle of wills between a female gunship pilot and a combat controller hero in romantic suspense Tactical Strike by Kaylea Cross. Kaylea’s first book in this series, Deadly Descent, remains one of Carina Press readers’ favorite romantic suspenses!
Alyssa Everett follows up her debut offering, Ruined by Rumor, with a new historical romance, though it’s not a sequel. In Lord of Secrets, he’s her new husband…and he’s strangely reluctant to consummate the marriage. What secrets are keeping them apart, and keeping him from her bed? If you like your historical romance with a paranormal twist, returning author Laura Navarre brings us Magick by Moonrise, which combines Tudor England with the Faerie kingdom of Camelot. When the two worlds collide, can a fallen angel’s passion for an innocent Faerie princess save both realms from destruction?
Carina Press authors W. Soliman and Cindy Spencer Pape both return with installments in their ongoing series. In Lethal Business, W. Soliman brings us back to The Hunter Files with another Charlie Hunter mystery, where Charlie must answer the question: “Why kill the survivors of a sinking ship?” And Cindy Spencer Pape continues her popular steampunk romance series, The Gaslight Chronicles, with Cards & Caravans. Knight of the Round Table Connor MacKay has met his match in fortune-teller Belinda Danvers.
Last, this month we welcome to Carina Press contemporary romance author Kate Davies with the first in her Girls Most Likely to… trilogy, Most Likely to Succeed. Though Kate is new to Carina, she and I have worked together as author/editor for years, and I’m happy to have her writing for Carina Press. I hope you enjoy Kate’s charming contemporary voice as much as I do.
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Epilogue
About the Author
Copyright
Prologue
“He’ll know of you sooner or later. He might come looking for you.”
“Who?”
“What happened to the left-for-dead? He wouldn’t have allowed himself to be taken.”
“Who? Oh, him.” John Doe. She shrugged. “Taken away in an ambulance not too long after the incident. What do you mean he’ll know of me?”
“You’re his kindred now. You carry something like a genetic marker that will make him
aware of you.”
What did it matter? “So?”
Corin walked to the accent chair by her vanity and sat. “We live a very, very long time. Not a life of immortality as fiction would have you believe, but long enough to grow bored and restless. If he’s mature, he might not care. Maybe he’ll come after you just to satisfy some curiosity and merely watch from afar.
“Or he’ll come after you because he’s angry. Intentional or not, he’s broken a law and there will be consequences for that. He might take that anger out on you.”
—Hunger Aroused
Chapter One
The only reason he noticed her was because of the depth of despair shining from deep-set blue eyes. Hunched against the side of a red brick wall, she looked a little too thin. Hungry in a way that didn’t remind him of food. The poor woman might have been attractive in her day, but her pale skin seemed to have lost a little of its luster. Just like those horribly sad eyes.
Something about her intrigued him though. Almost enough to make him forget about going inside, where already the scent of the nightlife called to him. The smell of densely packed bodies. Lust. Sin. As he waffled, those enticements made up his mind for him.
He’d come to the nightclub to get laid. Period.
Bast Kent strode inside without bothering to look back, the woman and her haunted eyes forgotten within seconds.
Ignoring the seductive looks a few women gave him on the way in, he went straight to the bar, twisting in between bodies that bumped and gyrated. Touched and fondled. Danced, so they called it.
Laying a crisp hundred on the spit-shined wooden surface drew the attention of a bartender without having to open his mouth to back it up. Benjamin was always a good friend to have in a place like this. A place he didn’t frequent often. There were better venues for finding willing booty. But he had his pick of slurries in a club. And slurries were so much easier to bleed... “Armadale. Neat.”
The blonde woman tilted her chin and filled the drink order without saying a word to him. At the same time she stopped pouring with her right hand, she used her left to palm the c-note.
He slammed down the vodka, savoring the smooth burn of alcohol sliding down his throat and heating his belly. If he needed another, he’d return, but with as much adrenaline pulsing through him tonight, he wanted to get sexed up sooner rather than later. No pretending he was interested in buying anyone a drink of any kind, especially not a Goddamned cosmopolitan. Definitely no small talk about what she did for a living or what she liked to do for fun. Just one good, long fuck. In the club’s restroom, in her car, her place. Whatever.
Bast searched through the writhing bodies of people on the dance floor, looking for just the right woman to bed that night. A human, preferably.
His teeth pulsed with a familiar ache, and his favorite appendage thickened at the impatient prospect of a long night of sweaty sex and decadent feeding. For whatever reason, his libido had kicked into high gear over the past couple of weeks and in this past week particularly. No matter how many times he alleviated the problem himself, he never felt relieved. So, if his own hand wasn’t going to solve the problem, he might as well let a woman with legs from here to eternity solve it for him.
No, this place wasn’t his scene, but it would serve the purpose. Undulating bodies moved like liquid to the beat of the blaring music. He scented their perspiration and a heady mix of alcohol and sex on the dance floor. A subtle haze of fresh blood drifted to him from time to time and he knew he wasn’t the only vampire on the hunt here. A lot of the humans were already so high or inebriated with alcohol, they were ripe for picking. Low-lying fruit on a tree.
And Bast was so hungry.
Yeah, he should give a fuck about using them, but it’s why their kind existed. To keep him and his kind fed and sated. In exchange, they were kept very unaware of the turmoil that raged on around them. Bast and warriors like him kept the danger of other creatures of the night far away from their doors.
He signaled to the bartender. “Another.”
The vampire nodded and went to work pouring the next one. Had to be another vampire simply because the place was too noisy for people to hear themselves think above the din, much less a few feet away.
“Hey, sweetheart. You buying?”
Bast turned to the exotic woman at his elbow. She pressed a finger into one ear and leaned close enough that he was afforded a healthy blast of her warm breath when she shouted. Some Asian ancestry ran through her genes. Bone-straight hair and distinctive eyes declared it for her. The makeup around her eyes had been plastered on, the lipstick she wore too bright, but she was pretty. And based on the way she ogled him, about to become the next notch in his bed post.
“Just out playin’ the game,” Bast replied. No sense in getting her hopes up for anything more. She’d either stick around or head for deeper pockets. He swallowed down the vodka chaser, already scanning the crowd for another woman in case this one didn’t pan out.
“Yeah?” She edged closer, allowing her breasts to brush his torso. “What are you packing?”
Bast’s lips twitched with amusement. “Enough. You interested?”
She peered past him, and her moment’s inattention gave him the opportunity to notice too-large pupils. The chick was high and whatever she floated on was taking her for a nice ride. When he fed from her later, it should give him a nice momentary buzz too. The prospect of fucking her became that much sweeter.
A few weeks ago he might have felt like a shit for taking advantage of her state, but lately, he couldn’t stop the craving. It had become almost unbearable. He needed to feed, and she’d do nicely.
“Today’s my birthday,” she said with a smile. “Why the hell not? What’s your name?”
The polite thing to do would have been to at least offer a “happy birthday.” At the very least, toss her a fake name to call him by. Instead, Bast took her by the hand and wound them through the throng of bodies and into the back. His gift to her would be allowing her some dignity by staying out of the restrooms, but against the wall in a dark corner proved an appealing idea.
“Always had a thing for the strong, silent type,” she muttered. Sensitive hearing picked up every syllable over the rhythmic beat of music. Bast grinned to himself. He didn’t have the abilities of full-born vampires, but his lineage offered him enough bennies.
The smugness faltered for a moment when he thought of what he was doing—what he was about to do.
He was going to feed, yes. But while he drank from her, another need, some primal call, demanded to be sated. The urge taunted him, and he felt an addiction to something he’d not yet partaken of. Something in the back of his mind tugged at him, whispered of caution. Ravenous Bast ignored it.
By the time they’d crossed the room, he couldn’t get them away from the crowd fast enough. He swore he felt the blood race through every vein. Inside of him swelled with life, as if something within was trying like hell to get out. The urge, the gnawing in his belly, the craving became almost unbearable. He staggered as a wave crashed into him. Heat flared like summer in the air-conditioned room.
“Hey, you okay?”
Bast nodded, hiding a grimace behind tightened lips. “Fine. One shot too many.”
Vampires didn’t get inebriated off two shots of booze, and they sure as shittin’ didn’t get sick. Whatever this was almost had the ability to frighten him. Almost.
The woman’s grip on his hand tightened, but she kept pace with his long stride, winding with him through bodies and toward their ultimate destination. He knew once he got them there, he would feel better. He would feed, and the sensation would die away.
He’d been training too hard. Ignoring his basic needs for too long. That his body finally retaliated made sense.
“Are you sure?” His companion might have been tipping toward oblivion a few minutes ago, but a new edge to her voice at once made her seem sober. “You’re kind of warm.”
“Warm?”
She tugged on his hand, forcing him to slow. He caught the concern on her face when he glanced at her over his shoulder. “You might be coming down with something, sweetie. Maybe tonight’s not your night for this.”
Bast’s eyelids felt heavy, his body sluggish. “I’m...fine,” he mumbled.
Vampires don’t get sick, he tried to tell himself. Then his stomach lurched, an immediate reminder that as often as he passed himself off as a full-born vampire, he was anything but.
Putting one foot in front of the other took all of his strength, but somehow he managed to stagger forward. To the dark corner. To a door. Through it.
The cool night air blasted his face, and he almost moaned in pleasure. It felt so good against his skin. He’d begun to burn up, and the night kissed away some of the hurt.
The scent of a nearby garbage bin made his stomach roll again, and this time when his stomach heaved, everything he’d consumed lately spewed forth, covering the ground until it shone crimson. All that blood, gone to waste.
The woman screamed—he still held her hand, needing it like a lifeline—before blazing heat swallowed him whole.