#SPeekSunday - 1/25/15 - Mortal Illusions - An uneasy feeling #Vampires #Paranormal

For a vampire, love means watching someone you care about die.

Sneak Peek Sunday is a weekly excerpt hop where each author shares six paragraphs from a published work or a WIP (work in progress).

My submission for this week is from my 1st book, Mortal Illusions. A vampire romance published by New Concepts Publishing, Mortal Illusions is currently the first in a series of 3 books.  Its sequel, Fatal Desire, is currently under production.

In this excerpt, which is the beginning of the first chapter, Germaine St. Justine has sensed his former lover's pain and visits her in the hospital in an effort to ease her suffering.  After some gentle teasing combined with a soothing back rub, he gently bites her neck and draws out a few seconds worth of blood, then uses a hypodermic needle to withdraw blood from his arm.  Germaine adamantly refuses to make another vampire, but he doesn't want Marguerite to suffer.  Unfortunately, she wants more than he is willing to give, so to reassure her his affections haven't altered despite the many years they've been apart, he kisses her.  When Claire walks in to discover a stranger kissing her dying mother, she assumes the gentleman is up to no good and reacts accordingly.  Marguerite informs Germaine that Claire has set herself up as her personal watchdog--wanting to know what kind of treatments the hospital is giving her, along with all the other gory details about her care.  Germaine suggests Marguerite humors her daughter, by having her temperature taken again as he regards the young woman more closely.

            Perhaps it was the softer side he sensed in the young woman.  A vulnerable side she kept buried beneath her sharp tongue and brusque manner, the same way she sought to conceal her more feminine curves beneath the bulk of her fisherman's knit sweater and heavy wool jacket.  A jacket that she had yet to remove despite the warmth of the room.  Her slender fingers, gripped around the thin glass tube, bespoke a worried frustration that he suspected would never be voiced.  And her blue eyes, now narrowed in concentration, gave hint to a deeply sensitive and caring soul.  None of these things would be obvious to the casual observer.  But to him, they were silent beacons luring him toward dangerous, if not fatal, shores.

            He could see a lot that was her mother in her, and a lot that was not.  Though he was certain they had never met before, he couldn't quite shake the feeling he knew her somehow.

            "Ninety-eight point six," she announced, giving the thermometer a vigorous shake.  Even beneath that outwardly casual movement, Germaine's senses caught a subtle trembling.   Whatever was bothering Clarissa Danielson, she intended to keep it from her mother.  She returned the thermometer to its place on the chest, then scowled at the nearby lamp.  "Really, Mother, I don't see why you're suddenly against turning on the overhead lights."

            "Some eyes are sensitive to bright lights, dear, and I prefer a soft glow to the harsh glare of fluorescents."

            The gentle warmth in Marguerite's eyes told Germaine she had made the mandate for him.  Thank you, he replied mutely.

            "Well, it makes it difficult for the people here to tend you properly, and Harry's been receiving complaints all day from–"

Marguerite's feisty daughter tends to attack first and ask questions later, a trait that is going to get her into a lot of trouble.

M/F, Contemporary vampire romance in a society based on D/s.

Read the first three chapters at: Mortal Illusions

Buy the book at NCP, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or ARe

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you enjoyed this brief excerpt and want more. Please click the link below to continue your hop Sneak Peek Sunday Wishing you a wonderful journey.