Title: Sapphire Angel
Author: Khloe Wren
ISBN: 978-1-62420-085-4
Email: khloe@khloewren.com
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 1
Vampires are real...as is
the fact they will only ever take one women. Their Eternal Bride.
When Angelo sees Darcy, he
knows she is his Bride. Her sapphire blue eyes match his exactly. But he must wait
to claim her. He fears he has lost her forever when she disappears.
Five years pass before he
finds her again. Just when things start heating up between them, Darcy is taken
by their enemies. Angelo must fight to free his one true love. Will he be in time?
EXCERPT
Karl
ran his hands through his hair and tugged at it, hoping the stimulation would
somehow make his brain think of a solution. The Elders were going to kill him
over this if he couldn’t fix it. When he’d sensed a vampire hanging around Chapel
Street six years ago he’d spent weeks trying to work out whom he was guarding.
Karl knew, it had to be the vampire’s Eternal Bride, but which of the many
women was it? Eventually he’d found her, her unusual sapphire blue eyes giving
her identity away. All Brides had unusual irises. Colored like gemstones, most
were very different to normal human eye color.
Karl
was no match for a vampire, no human was. Even Elder Nobles couldn’t beat one
in a fair fight. The only way to take down a vampire was through his bride.
They needed to weaken him by removing his access to his Bride’s blood. Then
they would use his Bride as bait to lure the vampire into a trap.
He’d
told the Elders about the woman, Darcy, and they had told him to woo her. Make
her move in with him so he could watch her for them. He thought it would only
be until she turned twenty-three. Which had been three years ago and still the
Elders expected him to watch over her. He didn’t love Darcy. She wasn’t his
type at all. He’d taken to spending time with women he did fancy, in and around
Darcy’s work schedule. She was very predictable with her hours and he’d easily
carried on more than a few affairs over the last couple of years.
Damn
it! Why had she come home early on Christmas Eve? It was so unlike her. He
sighed heavily as the significance of the date hit him. It was the day of their
five-year anniversary, and she’d probably wanted to surprise him with
something. She’d surprised him all right. Shocked the hell out of Linda too,
whom he’d neglected to tell, was the 'other woman'. She’d dressed and stormed
out moments after Darcy. So, here he sat, three days later and he still
couldn’t find any sign of Darcy. He’d checked all the bars down Chapel Street
for the next couple of nights, and rung around all the hotels. One hotel
thought she’d checked in on Christmas Eve, but she’d checked back out again
later that night. He could only assume her vampire had found her and claimed
her.
He
looked at his phone and shuddered. He was just a low level Noble. A nobody. He
didn’t want to have the Elders come after him; that would be worse than if he
went to them and admitted his crime. He slowly picked up the phone and dialed
the call which could well be his last.
"Karl,
you have phoned to report in? You are a day late, my boy."
Shudders
ran through his body as the deep accented voice cut through his mind like a
knife. The Elder Nobles had great power, even their voices over the phone held
a considerable amount of it.
"Apologies,
Elder. I had—I had an issue I was hoping to solve before I reported in."
"An
issue? Explain yourself."
"The
bride has gone. I cannot find Darcy anywhere. I can only assume the vampire has
taken her."
"You
should have told us as soon as she disappeared. How many days has she been
gone?"
As
the Elder spoke his power surged through the phone, immobilizing Karl as pain
racked his body and mind. He fought against the pain and after a minute or so
it eased to a level he could talk.
"Th-three
days, Elder."
There
was silence on the other end. For a few moments, all Karl could hear was his
own heart beating in his ears. He started praying for a quick death.
"If
you were not needed to retrieve the bride, you would be dead. You have but one
chance to redeem yourself and earn back your life. You must locate her. You do
not need to acquire her, just locate her. We shall do the rest. Of course, if
you do manage to capture her, there will be a nice bonus for you. She took her
phone with her I assume?"
"Yes,
she always has her phone. She's just not answering it."
"Use
the GPS tracking in the phone to locate her. Call me when you know exactly
where she is. Failure in this will cost you your life."
With
a click the call ended. Karl dropped the phone onto the couch next to him and
scrubbed his face. How the hell did he get a hold of GPS tracking information
on her phone? His body was still aching from the Elder’s punishment so he
decided to have a shower. Maybe the hot water would help get his mind working
too.
He
stepped under the spray and began cleaning his body. As he washed his hair he
remembered his buddy from high school, the one who’d gone into private
investigation work. He’ll able to help him, at a price. But with his life on
the line, the money would be well spent. With a rough plan now in place, he
quickly finished his shower so he could begin tracking down Darcy and removing
the noose from around his neck.
REVIEW:
Musing and Ramblings
3 Stars
I have to admit
that I am a fan of Khloe Wren. I have read the first two books in her Fire
& Snow Series and just adored them. So getting a chance to review the first
book in a new series was a no brainer.
This book was a fairly fast read at about 70 pages and had a quite a bit
of smexy in it, but it was an enjoyable read with a unique premise.
Vampires are
known publicly. They are born, not made, and have 100 years to find their
Eternal Bride. If they find and claim their Bride, they only take blood from
her and must drink about every 3 days. They will know their Bride because their
eye color will match their own, each a unique gemstone shade. If they are able
to find their Bride, they can't claim her until she is at least 23 years old.
For those unfortunate enough to not find their Bride within the allotted 100
years, they die. So finding their Bride is a HUGE deal for these vampires.
Of course, we
have to have some bad guys in this equation. A group of men called
"Nobles" who go to any means necessary to keep the vampire from his
Bride, including kidnapping and murder. It's not till further in do we find out
why they try to keep them apart, and the squick factor is high. And as with
this story being part of a trilogy, there will be more on the Nobles to come in
the next two books.
Normally, a
Vampire and Bride meet, fall into each others arms and have the insta-love
thing going on. But Darcy has just come out of a 5 year bad relationship. As in finding your boyfriend in the your bed,
on your anniversary, having sex with someone else bad. Darcy makes Angelo work
for her claiming, but this also happens as part of the larger story line of
Nobles versus Vamps. This was a great quick read and I give it 3 stars.
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