I’m so so excited about the re-release of HONOR CALLS, one of the novellas in The Calling is Reborn Vampire series.
In HONOR CALLS you get to meet Michaela Ramirez, a vampire slayer with a dark secret of her own. You also get to learn more about FBI Assistant Director in Charge Jesus Hernandez who has appeared in a number of novels in the series. I always loved Jesus and his strong calm in the face of so much craziness. He was the perfect foil for impetuous and headstrong Michaela. When Jesus and Michaela get together – WATCH OUT! This is one of the sexier stories in the series and you can read Michaela and Jesus’s full story in DIE FOR LOVE.

Teaser

A Vampire Romantic Suspense Novella

FBI Assistant Director Jesus Hernandez deals with crime on a regular basis in New York City. But nothing can explain what he sees in the alley behind a Goth bar called the Blood Bank: a young warrior woman slaying what appears to be a vampire. Jesus is skeptical at first, but vampire slayer Michaela Ramirez won’t give up until he believes in the demons and monsters that inhabit the city. As Michaela draws him deeper into her deadly world of darkness and danger, he finds her courage and honor to be more than he can resist….

But Michaela has secrets of her own and fears telling Jesus that she is part vampire herself. She’s falling hard for the tempting FBI agent, only everyone she’s ever loved has either run away…or died and Michaela is afraid to risk her heart and Jesus’s life for a chance at love.

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Michaela had been tracking the vampire since she’d sensed the elder during her scouting mission in Central Park.
He wasn’t the one she sought, but the heightened thrum of his power told her he had just killed. Reason enough to pursue him until she could find the right vampire and dispatch him.

Then and only then could she leave New York City for a kinder, gentler place.

She discovered the elder vamp’s victim just beyond one of the jogging paths. The kill was fresh, the scent of the elder strong on the female runner who had been tossed into the underbrush like garbage. As Michaela bent to examine the jogger’s body in its shredded clothes, she realized the vampire had not just been content to drain the woman of blood. The victim had been sexually assaulted as well and in the most brutal of ways—ripped apart by the vampire sating his lust.

Michaela opened her senses to pick up every last scintilla of the elder’s trail, from the metallic taste of the victim’s blood on his breath to the unique wake of energy the immortal left behind.

She reached the southern end of the park and something ahead of her spooked one of the horses attached to a hansom cab waiting along Central Park South. The animal reared up, hooves flailing.

She darted behind the cab and caught a glimpse of a blurry figure speeding through Grand Army Plaza. As she raced to the fountain in the center of the square, the pulse of undead power beat at her more strongly, signaling that she was getting closer to the ancient vampire.

Another indistinct flash weaving through the pedestrians on Fifth Avenue confirmed the immortal was within her reach.

She focused on that vague shape, keeping a watchful eye and a respectful distance as she chased after him. She could not engage the vampire elder out in the open where either humans or other vampires might see what was happening. To do so might expose her presence in the city and possibly bring down the wrath of the vampire council.

Despite her caution, the elder must have sensed that he was being followed.

He increased his speed, weaving in and out of the humans on the sidewalks, climbing to the rooftop of a building in lower Midtown Manhattan and leaping from one structure to the next before dropping to the ground. The vampire moved at an almost frantic pace, as if he knew the nature of her mission.

Michaela kept up her determined pursuit, patiently waiting for the moment when the time would be right. She dodged pedestrians and vehicles as the vampire attempted to elude her, well aware that she had to act before the immortal reached the safe haven of the Blood Bank.

If he made it there, she would have to pull back and wait for another night. There were too many undead in that place to risk a confrontation within its doors.

Too many, and she was just one against them.

She drove back the crush of loneliness that nearly choked her, reminding herself that there was no other way. Her life held too much death and destruction; it hindered any kind of personal commitments.

The few people she had allowed to get close had run away when they discovered the truth about her existence.

The truth about her.

Or they’d ended up dead.

In Union Square, the vampire geared down to human speed, using that pace to lose himself amongst the many mortals still present in the park. The beat of the humans’ life forces and their scents served to disguise his presence.

Michaela paused at the far edge of the square, examining the walkways, attempting to separate the humans from her undead prey, but she was unable to pin down the immortal. She waited, hopeful that once the elder moved beyond the boundaries of the crowded area, she would be able to pick up his presence once again.

Her wait was futile.

Long minutes passed with no activity that she could discern.

She finally acknowledged that she had been bested by his subterfuge, but that didn’t mean the chase was over.

She knew just where the vampire was likely to go.

If she could beat him there, she still might be able to take him out before he reached the safety of the nightclub.
Hustling at breakneck speed, she arrived at the mouth of the small cobblestoned street that led to the Blood Bank.

At the club’s door was the ever-present vampire bouncer and crowd of humans waiting to mingle with both wannabe and real vampires. Not to mention the occasional shape-shifter brave enough to cross into bloodsucker territory.

Michaela had never understood the human fascination with the undead, the near veneration for the amoral creatures who had taken so much from her and others.

Vampires weren’t meant to be idolized, she thought.

They were meant to be exterminated.

As she felt the presence at her back, she realized she had guessed right about the vampire elder.

She had barely half turned to face him when he lashed out at her, nails as sharp as eagle’s talons raking across her jacket. The leather did its job, keeping his nails from tearing into her flesh.

Bending backward, she avoided the deeper thrust of another vicious swipe toward her midsection and then dropped down to sweep the vampire’s feet out from under him.

He landed with a thick thud, while she was immediately back on her feet after a quick jerk and launch of her body, a nice sharp wooden stake in her hand.

“Not what you thought, fang boy?” she taunted as she stood, arms akimbo, above the prone body of the stunned elder.

With a swift move of his own, the vampire surged to his feet, fully transformed. His eyes glowed with a piercing teal-blue light. Long deadly fangs erupted from his mouth and ended at a point below his chin. Such a prodigious length of tooth testified to his longevity. The strength of his elder power jabbed at her senses, threatening just by its very existence.

This vamp would not go quickly, she thought as the elder issued a warning growl and lunged at her again, beginning a dance that could end in only one way….

With one of them dead.

I am so excited to have my dear friend Linda Parisi here with me today to talk about her new release BLOOD ROGUE! Linda is a long-time friend and this is a great book. Please welcome Linda and check out her book at https://books2read.com/u/47X6Rj. And now, here’s Linda!

All About Linda

I’d like to take a moment to thank my wonderful friend and author, Caridad Pineiro, for asking me to join her for a few moments. You see, not only do Caridad and I go back a way, we also share a love—writing about vampires. And guess what? HONOR CALLS, the second book in her vampire series, just re-released. That means my newest book, BLOOD ROGUE, has some damned good company on the bookshelves.

Why do I write about vampires? Simple question, not so simple answer. I guess the first answer is that I fell in love with these sexy, dark, angsty characters. There is pathos in the way vampires are portrayed, they’re evil, they drink blood, they kill people. And yet, they yearn to be loved, they yearn to be human again. And, of course, there’s always redemption. For an author, redemption is so much fun to write. No matter how bad they are, I can make my vampires better, even lovable. And so, so HOT!

For the BLOOD ROGUE series, I wanted to combine my day and night jobs. During the day, I’m a clinical research scientist. Fun fact, my first job was in a blood bank. Not kidding! Right out of college. Fun fact! The New York cell is a mansion and estate on the banks of the Hudson River and houses a blood donation center with banks of refrigerators housed right in the bedrock of the Palisades. Run by humans but overseen by vampires!

At night, I write. My books are character-driven first, then I build my world around them. In my vampire world, humans aren’t supposed to know vampires exist. Each time a vampire feeds, he/she enthralls the human with Lethe so they won’t remember what happened. So I asked, what if I create a human that doesn’t become enthralled, and whose very existence threatens vampire anonymity? What if I created a drug that made vampires sick and that sickness meant they could drain human after human, yet not be sated? Could my heroine, Stacy Morgan, a forensic chemist and blood banker, find out what it was before the High Council decided she was no longer of use? Could my hero, vampire Charles Tower, find out who was using it to create these rogue vampires? Could I create a vampire world, complete with vampire politics, that’s being threatened by human and rogue alike?

If you’d like to find out more, please stop by my website at www.lindajparisi.com or you can purchase BLOOD ROGUE on Amazon at https://books2read.com/u/47X6Rj.

Thank you for spending time with me. If you enjoy reading about BLOOD ROGUE, the second book in the ROGUE series, HONORABLE ROGUE, will be available from City Owl Press in July 2021.

Teaser

There is the blood and can only ever be the blood.

Vampire Charles Tower never knew anything sweeter than the taste of Stacy Morgan’s lips. He never imagined anything crueler than her being marked for death by the only father he’s ever known. Mikhail reared him. Taught him how to survive. Now he’s gone rogue and it’s up to Charles to put the man down.

But can Chaz convince himself and Stacy that love between them is impossible?
That’s hard to do with a woman like Stacy Morgan, especially when she offers herself up as bait. Now they must fight against the centuries-old customs that bar them from being together and the rogue vampire who wants every last drop of Stacy’s blood before they can discover why Mikhail isn’t the only BLOOD ROGUE they’ll have to face.

Excerpt

Something was wrong. Stacy couldn’t right herself. The world kept spinning out of control.
“I’m sorry, Stacy.”

Her body still pulsed with the aftershocks of an amazing orgasm, but she couldn’t get the room to balance, she felt drunk, higher than a kite. Damn him, he’d used the thrall.

“I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for something you should never have been involved in.”

“You won’t what?” Stacy tried to lift her head. The room tilted when she did. “You bastard,” she cried, realizing what he’d done. “You…you didn’t…”

Such sadness. After such pleasure. “Not exactly.”

Stacy tried to gather her thoughts. As she did, he covered her with a sheet and rose. She’d never seen such steely determination in his face before. “You’re going after him by yourself.”

“To keep you safe.”

“That’s not your choice.”

“It is now. I drank enough of your blood so you won’t get out of this bed and try to be a hero.”

“Did you really think that was my only motivation? That I was doing this to be a hero?”

He stared down at her, his gaze unchanged. “You’ll be all right after you sleep it off. Go to sleep.”

“No, I won’t.”

She struggled to sit up and fell back onto the bed, too weak to get up. She tried again, only to have the room spin out of control.

“Why?” she asked, her thoughts a mass of contradictions.

“Because I love you.”

She watched Chaz turn on his heel and leave the room. She had to close her eyes again to get the room to stop spinning. She could hear him throwing his clothes on in the other room. Then she heard him stop in the doorway.

“I’ll never forgive you,” she said, her tone flat and her stare hard as she opened them. He was leaning against the doorjamb. He looked anything but nonchalant.

“I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you. So we’re even.”