Claire is a woman running away from her past.
When a mesmerizing stranger walks into the jazz club where she works one evening, she instantly knows he is a vampire. From that moment her life collides with the London Circle and at first she thinks becoming a vampire will be her second chance. A new start.
The thing is, she can’t leave her past behind because she won’t forgive herself or trust anyone with her secrets.
Her vampire master, Parker, is a cold, enigmatic man who lies with a smile, imparts wisdom with a sarcastic brutality and hoards his own secret past.
Andre, another master in the London Circle, is Parker’s archrival and Claire’s secret desire. When they realize their fascination is mutual, they embark upon a two-month, whirlwind affair. But it is not simply sexual, it’s emotional. It’s everything Claire wants, but still she holds back. Until everything crashes around her,, and the only one who can pick up the pieces is her.
Claire is a ticking time bomb. She has psychic abilities other vampires don’t possess, and they are slowly driving her insane. She has one way out – love. But is she strong enough to take what Andre offers her?
The idea for this novel began with a dream of a rose garden, a blond vampire, and a mortal woman who recognized what he was. Instead of cringing with fear, she begged him to Turn her. I started writing the morning after this dream and haven’t stopped since. That was seven years ago.
I haven’t been writing *this* novel that long. The original Circle spanned eight novels and about three years of my life. I shared my writing with a select few people on Live Journal and then entered NaNoWriMo in 2010. I wrote a book about wolf shifters which turned into a series. All my attention was focused on them until this year when I decided to take a look back at my Circle.
My original novels were not salvageable. But the ideas – the themes – inside them were. I took one of the most compelling plot lines – the rivalry between Parker and Andre – and wrote a new book. The original heroine was scrapped and Claire was born.
Claire has many things in common with her predecessor, but she has developed her own voice and distinct character. Her relationship with Andre is pure magic.
I hope you decide to journey with Claire and Andre on their journey. The gift of love is not just for mortals – vampires need it just as much. Maybe more.
When Claire became a vampire, she hoped she could forget her abusive past. But her mentor, the sexy, perfect Parker destroys her dreams of a new start. Soon, Claire devotes her new found psychic powers to helping abused women.
Drawn to the mysterious and handsome Andre, another master in the London Circle and Parker’s archrival, Claire enters into a passionate clandestine affair which causes her powers to ramp out of control. Wild, sensual sex morphs into something deeper and, for Claire, terrifying. Andre soon discovers her abilities and realizes he is her trigger–the one vampire in the world who can help her control her spiraling powers.
Bonding with him requires Claire to trust and accept his love, two things she cannot bring herself to do. The gift of love is something her past won’t allow her to accept. Even so, Andre will have to reach her in time to save her life or stake her when her powers drive her insane.
“Claire.” Andre’s voice was heavy with desire. The way he said my name with his slight Irish accent was different from the way everyone else said it. I felt special. Different. As if I mattered.
I turned my head to look at him. He had me pinned to the grass, one hand on either side of my shoulders. I’d locked my ankles so my heels pressed into the small of his back. His eyes were smoldering dark, and my lips parted.
That was all the invitation he needed. The burning shock of his mouth against mine was electric, and I brought my hands up so I could bury my fingers in his soft hair. I had just enough presence of mind to weave a shield of privacy so that mortals didn’t register we were there and avoided walking near.
Andre and I connected like interlocking pieces of a vast puzzle. Our kiss went supernova hot in an instant. I curled my tongue around his, and the whole world froze. Mortals were nearby, but their thoughts abruptly cut out of my head. For all I was aware, Andre and I were the only two beings on earth .
The explosive taste of his blood made me moan. He’d deliberately nicked his tongue on his fang. My own fangs burst from my gums, and I scraped my tongue against one of them. Blood spurted, and it was Andre’s turn to groan. The cold grass beneath my body seemed to disappear as if I floated weightless with only Andre’s kiss to anchor me. Time sputtered and died, and nothing mattered but his hot mouth moving against mine.
“Claire,” Andre said again through the blood in his mouth.
Four golden weeks I’d waited for him to kiss me, and now he was, and it was glorious.
“I’m going to make love to you in the grass if we don’t stop.” He increased the pressure of his lips against the hollow of my throat. “Come home with me, angel.”
“Dre,” I whispered, shaking with fear and desire—I wasn’t sure which was stronger. On fire for him, I didn’t want him to stop touching me. While his body was pressed to mine, we had all the time in the world, but when he moved away, would everything crash? “I’m scared.”
“Of me?” He lifted his head so he could look into my eyes. The night around us was alive with the sound of crickets. Stars wheeled in the sky, and the earth pressed against my back. I was suspended in the universe. Nothing mattered but him.
Us.
I touched his cheek with the tip of my finger, traced a line to his sensual mouth. I wanted to kiss him and taste my blood mingled with his. “Of everything. Of this not being real. That this is all a lie like Parker says. That I don’t matter. That nothing matters. That this is a race to see who can hurt the other first.”
He winced as if in pain, and I buried my face in his shoulder. He pulled me tightly into his embrace and rested his forehead against my head. “I won’t hurt you. I swear I won’t.”
Amy Lee Burgess lives and writes in Houston, Texas but her heart belongs to New England – especially in the autumn.
Ruled by two dachshunds and addicted to Irish breakfast tea and the Walking Dead, she loves to write about vampires, wolf shifters, gargoyles and other assorted paranormal creatures. Amy loves to travel to places like London England, Edinburgh, Scotland, Paris France and Providence, Rhode Island where she stalks the coziest Irish pubs she can find.
She writes to trance and house music by candlelight and welcomes email from her readers – especially if they want to talk about the supernatural.
Hello, Amy, and welcome to the round corral!
ReplyDeleteAmy--thanks for visiting with us. Loved your excerpt! Happy sales to you.
ReplyDeleteHi, Amy! Great excerpt, thanks for being our guest today!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me today! :) Blog tours are so much fun!
ReplyDelete