Wicked Wednesday – Temptation Calls

I think I’ve mentioned that the hero and heroine from FURY CALLS first appeared in TEMPTATION CALLS back in 2005. Since then Blake and Meghan’s story has been brewing in my brain, but for today’s Wicked Wednesday I thought I’d offer you a blast from the past and take you to TEMPTATION CALLS. You may also remember that TEMPTATION CALLS introduced Ricardo, the sexy Santero who was the hero of DEVOTION CALLS.

TEMPTATION CALLS is one of my favorite books in THE CALLING vampuire novels and I hope you enjoyed it as well. For now, here’s an excerpt from the book for your Wicked Wednesday enjoyment.

Also, don’t forget I’ll be blogging at Romance Novel Television from 4 to 6 tonight. Please drop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a prize!


Chapter 1
Spanish Harlem, 2004

As lives went, both of hers had sucked. Still, life went on and on and on, and everyday things still had to be dealt with.

Samantha Turner bore the weight of the heavy bags without complaint. They were filled with groceries for the women and children at her shelter — The Artemis Shelter. She’d struggled to be able to make it a reality and had finally succeeded a few years ago.

Now she was finally doing something positive with this life. The shelter was a resting place; a halfway house where women and their children could heal and find a way out of the abusive relationships in their lives. With her help, many families had already broken the cycle of violence which had cursed Samantha’s existence.

The local Gristedes would have delivered the groceries, but after being trapped indoors all day long, Samantha wanted to go out into the night air. Savor the activity of the city that never slept. Revel in its humanity and prepare for another day of battling its cruelty.

The bags pulled at her arms, not that she minded. Just another half a block and she’d be home. Back at the shelter.

She rounded the corner onto her block and noticed the group lingering on the stoop next to the shelter — a few youths from the neighborhood and two younger children. It was nearly midnight. Too late for them and their hip hop music blaring from the boom box on the railing.

Despite the distance and the dark, Samantha was able to identify who loitered on the stoop: Juan Williams, his little brother and sister, plus an assortment of kids from Juan’s self-made posse. Mrs. Williams worked the late shift at a nearby hospital and Juan was supposed to take care of things when she was gone.

He did anything but, Samantha thought as she quickened her pace so that she could get the younger Williams children inside and in bed where their mother expected them to be. It was the kind of thing they all did for one another in the neighborhood — watching out for each other to try and improve their daily lives.

In the years since Samantha had brought the Artemis Shelter to this part of New York, life had gotten better for this block and that sense of community had slowly spread to the adjacent blocks. Funny that her little point of light came from something darker than most could begin to imagine.

Samantha was halfway down the street when a car came sharply around the corner, tires squealing it car swerved for a moment before the driver could right it. The squeal was not enough to hide the other noises Samantha heard. The lock and load sound of a weapon. The voices urging on the shooter as he stuck himself halfway out the open window of the car as it traveled toward her and the youths on the stoop.

So many in harm’s way. Too many, she thought.

Samantha dropped the bags and in the brief span of a second made a difficult decision. Accelerating beyond human speed, she grabbed the two youngest children and carried them down the stairs to the shelter’s lower level. She shoved them into a far corner of the stairwell before returning to street level to help the others.

The loud pop-pop-pop of gunfire erupted in the night. Bullets flew, striking sparks where they hit brick and stone. Splattering blood and bits of human where they connected with flesh and bone.

The teenagers scurried to get away, their bodies jerking and thrashing about as they failed to avoid the line of fire.

As Samantha reached for one youth, a bullet tore into her upper back and another lower, into her side, the impact of the bullets nearly knocking her over. She kept on moving, carrying the teenager away from the stoop and to the stairwell while the shooter continued to fire.

Then as suddenly as it began, it stopped. The car peeled away with another angry squeal of its tires. Samantha heard the congratulations and rejoicing of its occupants. Anger rose up sharply within her. She left the children and teenager in the stairwell and raced after the car, intent on retribution, the animal within wanting vengeance.

Fun Friday – Happy Valentine’s Day

Click here to visit THE CALLING

This Fun Friday, I’m going to help you get ready for Valentine’s Day! I’m offering this advice from FRIENDS and thank my friend, Rayna Vause, for alerting me to this priceless clip. It’s a long one, so grab a glass of wine and pay close attention – especially all you guys!

Also, don’t forget that today is the last day to comment on these two blogs to be eligible to win some prizes — a CALLING T-shirt and copies of DESIRE CALLS and SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD!

http://bronzeword.wordpress.com/ – Just mention Caridad sent you on the blog!

TRC Reading Blogpspot – The blog is up so please drop by and leave a comment.

Wicked Wednesday – FURY CALLS available March 2009

FURY CALLS by Caridad Pineiro, Silhouette Nocturne, March 2009This Wicked Wednesday treat is a little tidbit from my March 2009 release in THE CALLING Vampire Novels — FURY CALLS.

It’s such a WOO HOO 🙂 for me to be able to say THE CALLING is back and with not only a fury, but with a vengeance (LOL! – VENGEANCE CALLS will be out in 2010). It’s a series of my heart and I’m blessed to be able to continue it.

So after HONOR CALLS in February (a Nocturne Bites novella), you’ll finally get to see the conclusion to Blake and Meghan’s story. Those of you who have been with THE CALLING for awhile may remember their first appearance in TEMPTATION CALLS back in 2005 as well as Blake’s appearance in the free read, DESIRE CALLS.

Now I finally get to give Blake and Meghan their full and complete story and it’s become one of my favorites. I hope it’ll become one of yours as well.

So without further ado, here’s today excerpt from FURY CALLS.


Blake Richards shuffled the empty glass from one hand to the other across the pitted surface of the bar.

The remnants of cheap beef blood clung to the sides of the glass, painting it with thick fingers of red-violet. A vintage libation fresh from one of The Blood Bank’s regular human contributors would have left far less proof of the nature of the grisly beverage.

But then again, maybe it was that no self-respecting vampire would leave behind a drop of something so fine as fresh human blood.

Something so fine which was relatively lacking tonight, Blake thought and glanced around the interior of the bar. In recent weeks there had been a decided decline in the number of vampires frequenting the bar and that had resulted in a slowly decreasing stream of humans seeking the more dangerous fun and games for which the Blood Bank was known in Manhattan’s undead underworld.

Rumor had it that a goodly number of his fellow vamps had begun pairing off with some of the more intrepid humans and taken their business to Otro Mundo, the new hangout that Ryder Latimer and Diego Rivera had opened adjacent to Diego’s art gallery in Soho.

Otro Mundo provided fine dining and the possibility for other adventures in the kinds of decadent surroundings that the two older vampires had experienced over the course of their long lives.

Apparently the two human wanna-bes had struck a chord with a growing contingent of the undead, providing them and their human consorts with such opulence that the Blood Bank no longer held any interest. Not that he would know much about such opulence, he thought, recalling the hungry days of his youth in Wales.

After his father had been killed in a coal mining accident, his family had been forced to live off whatever they could grow on their small plot of land. Not nearly enough for the brood of six. At times his hunger had been so great that he would make a thin soup from whatever greens he could gather in the woods so that he could leave what little food they had for his mother and younger siblings.

Until he had found a way to earn some money. He considered now that starving might have been better.

Shoving those painful recollections away, Blake scoped out the occupants of the bar, needing to satisfy the hunger that the inexpensive beef’s blood had failed to quench.

As his gaze swept over the dance floor, he noticed the attractive blonde moving to the hard beats of the music spewing from the Blood Bank’s stereo system. Foley, the owner of the Blood Bank, was too cheap to hire live musicians.

When she turned in his direction as she danced, her gaze briefly skimmed across his.

He thought he detected a glimmer of interest there and so he rose, added a bit of swagger to his walk as he approached the dance floor. He weaved through the crowd of people gyrating and grinding to the deep bass beat until he was just an arm’s length from the blonde.

No doubt remained about her interest as he came near since she shot a knowing grin his way. He joined her in the dance, her luscious young body plastered to his, sweet firm buttocks caressing his front, but even as he did so, he knew the attractive chit could only fulfill one need — his thirst for blood.

Satisfaction of an emotional kind had eluded him for too long and as for the physical . . .

His recent interlude with vampire elder Stacia had taught him a thing or two about physical satisfaction. Despite how good it had been with the beautiful and powerful elder, it had occurred to him too quickly in the relationship that there was something lacking.

Something he hadn’t experienced since . . .

He drove thoughts of her away as the young woman eased up onto her toes, slipped an arm around his neck and drew his head near. She whispered into his ear, “Would you like to go somewhere more private?”

She inclined her head in the direction of the Blood Bank’s back rooms and he knew just what she wanted — a quick tryst and maybe even some painful play with the toys Foley kept in the rooms for his more daring clientele.

He smiled, slipped his hand into hers and quickly strode toward the vampire guarding the hall to those private back rooms, intending to fulfill the young woman’s needs and his own.

But even as he did so, memories sprang up of the last young blonde he had taken into that area. Of the joy and pain that tryst had brought.

He cursed beneath his breath as all desire fled.

Wicked Wednesday – HONOR CALLS

FURY CALLS by Caridad Pineiro, Silhouette Nocturne, March 2009The next full length book in THE CALLING is FURY CALLS in March 2009, but in February there’s a great new novella that will be available in February — HONOR CALLS. The hero in this novella is someone you’ve met before — Jesus Hernandez, the FBI ADIC who is Diana Reyes’s boss. The heroine is brand new and quite interesting! I’m hoping to do a full length book with these two characters in the future, but for now, I hope you like this excerpt from HONOR CALLS.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year! I’ll be back on Friday as I have guests for New Year’s Day and will likely not be able to post!

Chapter 1

Michaela had been tracking the vampire since she had sensed the thrum of elder power during her scouting mission in Central Park.

He wasn’t the one she sought, but the heightened beat of his power told her he had just killed. Reason enough to track him until she found the right vampire and dispatched 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 remnants of the elder strong on the female runner who had been tossed into the underbrush like garbage. As she bent to examine the jogger’s body in its shredded clothes, she realized the vampire had not just been content to drain her of blood. The woman 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 at the air.

She darted behind the hansom cab as the driver attempted to calm the animal 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 scattering of pedestrians on Fifth Avenue confirmed the immortal was within 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.

At some point the elder must have sensed that he was being followed.

He increased his speed and movements, weaving in and out of the humans on the sidewalks; climbing up to the rooftop of a building in lower Midtown Manhattan and leaping from one structure to the next before dropping to the ground once again. 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. Dodging 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 could be no other way. Her life was filled with too much death and destruction for any kind of personal commitments.

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

The truth about her.

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 set apart the humans from her undead prey, but she was unable to pin down the immortal amongst the many humans in the park. 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 club.

Hustling at a breakneck speed, she arrived at the mouth of the small cobblestoned street which led to the Blood Bank. At the club’s door was the ever present vampire bouncer and crowd of humans waiting to go within and mingle with both wanna-be and real vampires. Not to mention the occasional shapeshifter or two that was brave enough to cross into bloodsucker territory.

Michaela had never understood the human fascination with the undead. The almost 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.