SERAFINA AND THE SILENT VAMPIRE
Serafina’s Book One
By Marie Treanor
Coming 28th August
Silence
has never been so sinful…
Welcome to Edinburgh's unique
psychic investigation agency, Serafina's.
Serafina MacBride is psychic -
but not strictly honest. While staging a hilarious vampire attack at a client's
party, Sera is stunned to encounter a real vampire - annoying, gorgeous and
inaudible to everyone but her. When her client's son is found dead with
puncture wounds in his neck, she tracks the silent vampire to his lair.
But the amoral and seductive Blair is also on a mission - to find and kill
a nest of young vampires who've invaded his territory. Soon Sera is drawn into
the bizarre world of the undead, where danger lurks in the shadows along with
forbidden sensual delights - and a murderous conspiracy to flood the world with
financially astute vampires who talk.
Supported and hindered by Blair's
eccentric, undead friends, and by her own motley crew from Serafina's, Sera and
Blair uncover surprising truths about each other and about the mysterious
Founder from whom all vampires are descended.
In the end, Sera draws on powers
she never knew she had in a frantic fight to defeat the forces of evil and
preserve the strange, complicated being
she's trying so hard not to love.
Excerpt:
“He doesn’t say
anything, in case you haven’t noticed,” Tam retorted.
Sera glanced at
her henchman without affection as she picked up the dropped stick. “You know
what, Tam? Your loyalty is becoming seriously suspect.”
Even in the
darkness, Tam managed to look affronted. His acting had improved by leaps and
bounds.
The other man
said conversationally, “He can’t hear me.”
“Why, what did you stick in his ears?”
“Nothing. I’m
not speaking.”
“Ah. I’m hearing
voices in my head,” Sera said with blatant mockery.
“Aye,” Tam
replied at the same time as the other man said, “My voice, at least.”
“And that would
be because…?”
“You hit your
head when you fell,” Tam answered.
“Because I’m a
vampire,” said the stranger in the kilt.
Didn’t this
idiot know when to quit? Sera took it upon herself to inform him. She stepped
nearer and glared right into his handsome face. “So bite me, arsehole.”
This close, his
dark eyes seemed to smolder. Every one of her nerve endings fizzed in confused
warning. She wasn’t afraid of him, though; it was a long time since she’d been
afraid of anyone. But neither was she stupid, and she gripped the sharp stick,
ready to use in a flash, if necessary. She was prepared for anything he had to
throw at her.
Except what he
did.
He whispered,
“I’d love to.” His lips curved into a predatory, devastating smile; his voice
curled around her stomach, spreading heat where it had no business to be in
this situation.
“Give it a rest,
and go away,” she said crossly.
“Not a chance. I
want to know what you’re up to.”
“I’ll call for
help. Have you arrested or thrown out.”
The smile
widened. “No, you won’t.” He didn’t trouble to elaborate. They both knew it was
the truth.
Sera actually
stamped her foot. “Christ, you’re annoying!”
“What do you
expect? My supper’s been interrupted.” His gaze flickered to Tam, who was
frowning uncertainly in their direction, and then returned to devour Sera in a
way that would have been flattering had she not known he was playing a part. As
it was, her treacherous body responded with a surge of blatant lust—which at
least gave her one last, desperate idea.
She smiled at
the stranger and leaned into him, stretching up on tiptoe so that her lips
could reach his ear. He smelled of some elusive spice and sweet earth, and
suddenly it wasn’t so difficult to act.
“I can tell
you’re a man who likes excitement,” she murmured, letting her breath stir his
ear, the soft, tiny hairs on his skin. His breath didn’t hitch, but at least he
bent nearer her, betraying that he wasn’t unmoved. She smiled again, knowing
she was so close he’d feel her lips almost touching his ear. “Wait here for me.
I’ll be back in five minutes and we can…talk.”
On the last
word, she let her breast brush against his chest. Whatever it did to him, her
own body screamed awareness. Her nipples hardened, egging her on, while some
intense, wicked excitement threatened to overwhelm her. Because she could win
now, make him wait while she and her henchmen did what they’d come here for.
And later, she could find out what the hell was going on, and if Ferdy had
employed this guy too.
She leaned back,
returning her feet flat to the ground. The stranger’s odd, dark eyes flamed
with what she hoped was arousal. He said, “Why don’t we ‘talk’ first?” And bent
over her.
She stepped
smartly backward. “Tam,” she whispered. “I have to get rid of Tam.”
“I don’t mind
Tam.” His gaze lifted from the rapid rise and fall of her breasts to her
throat. His lips, full and sensual, parted as they smiled, revealing a glimpse
of pointed canine teeth.
“Oh Jesus H.
Ch—” she began in frustration, and broke off in mid-word as he lifted his hand
to her neck, brushing her skin with one soft, blatantly sexual caress.
“It’s you I
want,” he whispered. She felt no breath on her skin, no warmth from him to
excite her, and yet his words thrilled from her mind to every nerve in her
body. And then cold sliced through her like a shard of ice.
It blasted her.
Yet there was no vision, only a profound, red-tinged blackness she couldn’t
bear to look into. She caught a little fun and pleasure and humor from the mix,
bleeding from the darkness, but the overwhelming sensation was of death and pulsating,
unreachable memory, cold and black and terrifyingly profound. Although Sera was
used to picking up emotions, even visions, from touch, it took her several
disoriented moments to realize that this dreadful flood had grown out of the
sensual caress of his fingertips, of the smell and feel that was uniquely him. Him, God help her.
She threw
herself backward out of his awful reach, stifling the cry of agony that tried
to burst from her lips. Christ, who are
you? What have you done…?
Their eyes locked.
Sera heard only her own panting breath. The smile still curving the stranger’s
lips began to die. He took another step nearer her, and she raised one useless
hand to ward him off.
And someone
screamed, loud and insistent.
Author Bio:
Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with
her eccentric husband and three much-too-smart children. Having grown bored
with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea
where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing
sensual stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.
Marie Treanor has published more
than twenty ebooks with small presses, (Samhain Publishing, Ellora’s Cave,
Changeling Press and The Wild Rose Press), including a former Kindle
bestseller, Killing Joe. Blood on Silk: an
Awakened by Blood novel, was her New York debut with NAL.
Website: www.MarieTreanor.com
Blog: Marie Treanor's Romantic Theme
Party:
Thank you for the awesome post and excerpt! This book sounds really good!
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