I’m hosting an excerpt today from paranormal romance novel “Blood Vengeance”. Enjoy!
Book Excerpt
She stood in the darkness, hidden by the shadows of the entrance of the building across the street from the high rise condo where he was just going through the smoked glass front doors. He paused for a moment and scanned the street, and for a moment, his piercing gold eyes came to rest on her. She pulled herself tighter into the corner of the entrance, and held her breath until he turned away to pull the doors open and disappear inside. She stayed put, her feet rooted to the concrete beneath her; until she was sure he had time to get into the elevator. She was sure that a man that appeared to be of some wealth and carrying himself the way that he did, would most likely inhabit the penthouse.
She had been observing him from a distance since the night he rescued her in the alley, and this was the place he generally returned. She knew the building had twenty floors and the penthouse, and that the main elevator was used for all of the floors. Determined to meet him privately and to find out how he knew she was in the alley that night being attacked, she remembered vaguely him being in her hotel room and the funny way that he got inside her head. Someone like him could be useful to her, and she was going to approach him tonight, away from the noise of the bar and crowds of people. Her skin prickled with chill bumps, he was dangerous, but when she weighed the possibility of that against what she needed from him, her need for his assistance won out. Besides, her dreams seldom misled her and he had been occupying them for some time now.
Quickly, she crossed the street before she changed her mind. There were very few people out walking at this hour and even though she could hear the sounds wafting from Bourbon Street, it was relatively quiet in this block. Stepping up on the curb, she walked with purpose toward the glass doors and reached for the polished, brass handle to gain entrance to the expansive lobby. The bank of elevators were directly to her right and she walked over, pushing the button marked P with the index finger that bore the turquoise ring that belonged to her sister. Reilly. The reason that she needed to see this man.
Soft classical music filled the elevator car and she stood off to the right of the doors and hoped that nobody from one of the other floors chose this time to use the elevator. She was afraid if it stopped along the way, someone would question who she was and what she was doing. She watched as the numbers climbed and finally, the light signaled that they were on the top floor. The doors slid open and she walked into a foyer that was similar to the one downstairs and as she turned to her right, she saw the elegant, darkly stained, oak entry door that was directly across the foyer.
Taking a deep breath, she listened as her heels tapped along the marble flooring and she came to stand in front of the door. There was no bell by the door as some of the doors on the other floor had when she explored earlier in the week, instead, there was a door knocker. An expensive looking, brass gargoyle clutched a heavy, round ring in a pair of clawed feet. She reached out, lifted the ring and let it fall, the sound echoing through the soundless foyer.
The seconds ticked by and it seemed like forever to her. She was nervous, scared even, of the man with the mesmerizing, gold eyes. The imposing man with impeccable clothing, well groomed black hair, and skin that bore no sign of aging even though the manner in which he carried himself and spoke, gave one the impression that he was much older than he appeared. And the way that she felt like he was talking directly to her mind without saying a word was unsettling.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice as the door opened in front of her without a sound and he was suddenly in front of her. His face was expressionless but those eyes bore into her like he could see right inside her mind.
He spoke first, his soft voice holding a dark warning. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
She struggled to maintain her composure under the heat of his penetrating gaze, and as bad as she wanted to walk way, she couldn’t. Her legs wouldn’t move, so instead, she examined the man standing in front of her. His shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a hard looking chest that could have been chiseled from marble as it was perfectly muscled without a trace of hair. His slacks appeared to be tailored because of the way they fit his perfectly proportioned hips and flat stomach. Bare feet protruded from the hem of his slacks. Her appraising gaze traveled back up to the face, expressionless and perfect, a hard jaw line and a deep cleft in his chin. The line of his mouth was firm and did not move, even though she thought she heard him speak again. Just a whisper. A warning. I’m a dangerous man.
About the Book
Title: Blood Vengeance
Author: Teresa Keefer
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Abigail Cooper has a gift. A gift that allows her to ‘see’ things that are only visible to those who understand just how thin the veil between the human world and the spirit world really is. When Reilly, the teenaged sister in her charge, goes missing Abigail’s gift takes her to the steamy southern city of New Orleans.
Vincent Adcock has a secret. A centuries old secret that has the potential to destroy him and his small group of colleagues if ever discovered. Quite content with his wealth and the immortal life he leads in a penthouse high over the city of New Orleans, his very existence is put in danger when Abigail turns up at his door.
Abigail knows what he and his colleagues are. Vampires who scour the streets of the south for human predators and turn them into prey before they unleash their cruelties on innocent victims. Her communications with the spirit world have convinced her that Vincent and his group of vigilantes are the only ones that can help her find and rescue her sister from the danger she has been lured to. What she wasn’t prepared for was her own seduction by the wealthy vampire’s raw sexuality combined with his ingrained southern gentleman ways.
Follow Abigail and Vincent and the band of vigilantes as they enter a world of cults, drugs, prostitution and murder in a race to find and rescue teenaged Reilly before it is too late. Will they succeed and what sacrifices will be made as time runs out…
About the author
Teresa Keefer is a self-published author by night and a human resource professional during the day. Her primary interest is romantic fiction; however, she has been known to dabble in other genres when the mood strikes her. Being an avid reader of everything from non-fiction to horror to romance and erotica since she was young, her dream of becoming a published author herself became a reality in 2013 when she published a contemporary romance she completed in 2007. She is a current member of Romance Writers of America as well as the Indiana Chapter of RWA.
Coming Home was released in February 2013 through Amazon’s Create Space and Kindle Direct Publishing. Blood Vengeance-Book 1 Vengeance Trilogy was completed and released by the same platforms in July 2013 with the subsequent books due to release in 2014. She also has written several short stories and essays as well as poetry which may be found on www.fanstory.com.
First-hand experience breathes life into her stories because they are set in places that she has visited. Coming Home is set in the beautiful, peaceful Smoky Mountain area of East Tennessee, which is her favorite place to relax. Blood Vengeance is set in the steamy, seductive New Orleans, a place where she and her daughters visited and to which she hopes to return. We should also watch for locations such as Las Vegas, New York City, Washington D.C. as well as some fictional locations that she has created in her own mind. She says that if she is able to start working on her bucket list soon, there will also be a visit to Ireland and hopefully a story from there too. Her favorite author saying is ‘be careful what you say or do…you might end up in my next novel’. Not to say that her fictional characters bear any resemblance to actual people, living or deceased. Readers have said things like ‘she pulls at the heartstrings’ and ‘she makes you feel like you are right there’ when reviewing her books. She says between book ideas that are fed to her by friends, her own imagination is continually coming up with new book ideas and she has no less than three works in process at a time.
Teresa is a lifelong Indiana resident living in a rural community in the east central portion of the state. As a single mother of three daughters, she returned to college as an adult and earned an MBA from Indiana Institute of Technology. Teresa has spent over 25 years in the human resource profession and has often threatened to write a humorous depiction of life in the human resource profession. Oh, the stories she could tell! She has been known to debate political and social issues with passion and generally does not back down, sometimes resorting to dry sarcasm to prove a point. In addition to spending time with her daughters and grandchildren she has a lot of other interests that compete for her time such as cooking, sewing, gardening, crafting, studying spiritualism, and traveling.
Links to Teresa Keefer-Author-
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7192736.Teresa_Keefer
http://www.facebook.com/TeresaAKeefer
http://www.amazon.com/Teresa-A-Keefer/e/B00E1NM82K
http://www.librarything.com/author/keeferteresa
Giveaway
There’s also an awesome giveaway during this tour for a $25 Amazon Gift Card. The giveaway is international.
Go here to participate.
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