Gemstone Vampires: Book 2
Author: Khloe Wren
Email: khloe@khloewren.com
Genre: Paranormal
Romance
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 4
Vampires are real... as is the fact they will only ever take one woman,
their Eternal Bride. When Barret sees Sharon, he’s excited to have finally
found his Bride, until they meet and he learns Sharon knows nothing of Vampires
and is scared of him. Once he seduces her into accepting his claim on her,
Barret falls asleep…only to wake to find her gone. Sharon had snuck out while
he slept and ends up in the hands of the enemy. His rescue attempt ends badly
and they are both caught by the evil Nobles. Twenty-seven years later they find
themselves finally free. As they both struggle to adjust to the outside world,
Sharon is on a mission to rescue the sons she birthed in captivity. Barret
wakes to find Sharon has, once again, slipped away while he slept. Will history
repeat itself?
EXCERPT
"Shh, baby girl. Mummy needs to think."
Sharon held her three-month-old daughter to her, rocking
gently in the hope she'd go to sleep. Sharon knew she was in trouble. A
creature of the night—a Vampire—was hunting her and her baby. She could feel
him watching her.
"This isn't fair."
She'd been cornered earlier in the day by two men while
she'd been in Richmond shopping. Thankfully a shop owner saw and came to her
rescue before they said or did anything to her. Sharon could clearly recall the
concern on the older man's face as she relived their earlier conversation.
"Those men after you are Nobles; they are enemies to
the Vampires. You cannot let them catch you. If they do, you'll never been seen
again. Do you understand?"
"Then I'll go to the Police-"
"No dear, they won't help you. Long ago the Police
made it clear they would not get involved in matters between the Nobles and
Vampires."
"But I'm neither Noble nor Vampire, I've never even
heard of Nobles before!"
"It doesn't matter, I'm afraid. For whatever reason,
the Nobles believe you are important to capture. Although, I've never heard of
them going for a mother and child before, so I'm not sure why they want you.
But I can assure you, they do want you caught."
"And how do you know about all this? Are you a
Noble?"
"No, I'm not a Noble. I just keep my ears open as I
run my shop. I know all sorts of things I probably shouldn't. Now you'd best
run along, hopefully they didn't see you slip back here. Head out the rear door
there and go straight for the tram. You might be able to lose them in the city
where there are more people."
She'd wanted to ask why she would be important to a
Vampire. She knew so little about them but didn't exactly have time now to try
and find information. Even if she did, she somehow doubted the library had an
"Everything you need to know…" book about Vampires. But she'd known
she didn't have time to spare so without another word, she'd quickly followed
the man's instructions. He'd told her to be careful, that the men would keep
following her. She'd spent the rest of the day rushing from trams to busy
streets trying to stay ahead of her stalkers. Not an easy feat with a stroller
and a three-month-old baby.
Just before nightfall, Sharon had finally found herself
free of them and in the center of Melbourne. The soles of her feet had burned
from all the walking she'd done, but she'd had to keep going. Her mouth had
felt so dry, but she didn't dare stop anywhere to buy a drink. She'd intended
to make the most of losing her stalkers by getting herself and little Darcy
back home.
As she'd made her way to the Flinders Street Train
Station, she'd again felt someone watching her, and knew it wasn't the same
men. This felt different, more intense, and she couldn't spot her follower no
matter how hard she looked. The Nobles hadn't bothered trying to hide. She'd
actually thought they liked her knowing they were after her. No, this was
someone, no, something else. The little she did know about Vampires was that
they could move silently through the night. That you wouldn't see them unless
they wanted you to.
She'd quickly made her way back to the brightly lit and
crowded Melbourne streets. Which was fine for the early evening. Now it was
edging toward midnight as she stood rocking little Darcy to sleep. Finding
other people was getting harder. The hairs on her neck prickled, letting her
know he was still there.
Following her.
Observing her.
She was so tired. Being on her feet all day had her body worn
out and she had to force herself to keep going. Her soul was equally worn out,
but that had been building for a while. Loneliness had been clawing at her. Her
parents were both gone and her baby's daddy had left her long ago, so now it
was just her and Darcy, her tiny angel. She looked into her beautiful little
face, her eyes now closed, but she knew the deep blue irises beneath those lids
weren't normal for a human. Did that make her daughter something more than
merely human? Was Darcy somehow calling out to the paranormal in the world to
come find her?
Sharon laid her now sleeping baby down in her stroller
before standing up to stretch out her spine. She didn't have the energy or
brain power to work it out right now. Something she didn't have any trouble
working out was that the Vampire was going to catch them before the safety of
dawn came. Sharon doubted it would give up before the approaching dawn forced
it to return to its home. She knew she'd been lucky during the day to lose the
Nobles chasing her. She seriously doubted a Vampire would be as easy to evade
as the Nobles. Especially since she'd now been awake for about twenty hours and
was fading fast. As she walked, the sound of her shoes on the pavement was loud
in her ears and her eyes felt dry and gritty.
Sharon hadn't ever, knowingly, met a Vampire. Growing up
in the outer suburbs they weren't spoken of often. All her parents had told her
was that they couldn't go out in daylight and they hung around the busy cities
so she should avoid going there at night. With no time to figure out which of
them the Vampire wanted, Sharon had to make sure Darcy was safe. But how?
Sharon caught yet another tram and headed away from the
city. With one hand resting gently on her daughter's tummy as she slept in her
stroller, she looked out the window until the vehicle began to slow down. The
Royal Melbourne Hospital came into view. A crazy idea entered her mind and
before she had time to talk herself out of it, she pressed the next stop alert
and made her way to the back door of the tram. Allowing a middle-aged man to
help carry the stroller down the steps, she found herself on the wide-open
street facing the emergency entrance.
"I don't have a choice. I have to do this."
With her heart in her throat, she went inside and hurried
to the emergency waiting room. Grateful it was fairly crowded, she settled in a
back corner. She watched her precious daughter sleep. The gentle rise and fall
of her body bringing tears to her eyes. She dived into her bag and pulled out a
pen and note pad. She sat there staring at the blank page for a long time. How
do you write in a note all she was feeling? In the end, she concluded the right
words didn't exist so she simply wrote 'Darcy born 29th November 1984.' She
placed the note above Darcy's head under the hood of the stroller. Then she
leaned back in the chair and waited. She'd spend these last hours with her
daughter watching her sleep. So peaceful. She moved forward to press a light
kiss to the soft skin of her cheek.
"I love you, Darcy. Please, don't hate me for what I
have to do. I promise, if I survive this night, we will be together again
soon."
As the staff changed shift and the people remaining in
the waiting room were either sleeping or too sick or injured to notice her, she
got up and walked from the building. She tried to look calm but her hands shook
and she struggled to breathe past the anguish clogging her throat. Her heart
shattered a little more with each step she took away from her daughter. She
felt as though she were leaving part of her soul behind. Dashing tears from her
eyes with trembling fingers, she caught the next tram to return into the city.
She needed to elude the Vampire and take a train to her home out in the
suburbs. The Vampire hadn't followed her inside the hospital. She hoped that
meant they couldn't enter one. That would mean Darcy was truly safe for the
moment. Unlike her.
As she sat in the nearly empty tram, she absently rubbed
her arms. Without her daughter, she felt cold down to her bones. Suddenly the
cost of her day out shopping at the outlet stores in Richmond had grown to
include her little angel, and she suspected her very life. She hoped the
Vampire would be content taking her and would leave Darcy alone.
Sharon continued to wipe at the tears that fell from her
eyes as she left the tram and rushed to the Flinders Street Train Station.
Grieving and worn out, Sharon didn't look around as she validated her ticket
and headed toward the stairs. Dawn was only an hour or so away now, and her
heart lightened a little at the thought she'd eluded her stalker. If she had,
she'd go home and ring the hospital. Sure, there would be questions, but she
would get her baby back. Once she explained to the hospital, and no doubt the
police, it was out of fear for Darcy's safety that she'd left her at the
hospital, they'd return Darcy to her. Surely. And she would never go shopping
in the city again.
She hurried downstairs to the tunnel that connected the
platforms. The morning rush of workers heading into town hadn't started for the
day so it was empty of people and her heart rate sped up. The hairs on her neck
prickled so she began to run. Damn, she should have paid more attention to who
was around the upstairs section of the station. With only a few feet till the entrance
to her train's platform, an arm snaked around her waist. She sucked in a
breath, ready to scream when she was lifted off the ground. A cool hand was
pressed over her mouth before she could utter a sound.
"Shh, my love. I will not harm you."
She closed her eyes as she was quickly turned around, her
feet returned to the pavement as he released his grip on her.
"Open your eyes and see the truth."
Not understanding the man's strange words, she opened her
lids without further thought. The moment her gaze caught his, her breath froze.
His irises matched her own. Round pools of light green-blue stared at her.
Trembling with fear, Sharon attempted to back away. His strong arm banded
around her waist once more and pulled her tight against his hard-muscled frame.
The hand that had earlier covered her mouth now rose to caress her cheek.
Sparks of awareness flew through her body and confused her poor worn out mind
further.
"I-I don't understand... Why do our eyes
match?"
His forehead creased into a frown. "You don't know
about Vampires? Eternal Brides?"
She gasped as she shoved hard against his chest. Panic
gave her strength but still not enough to free herself from his embrace. She
knew nothing of what an 'eternal bride' was, other than 'eternal' generally
meant forever, and 'bride' meant being tied down to a man. Sharon didn't want
anything to do with either of those concepts. No matter how much her body cried
out for his touch.
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