Release Day!

(Rebecca, I notice you didn't post yesterday. Hope you don't mind me co-opting today. Special occasion and all.)

It’s release day! Legacy officially goes on sale today. This is my fifth book with Siren/BookStrand and I’m still jumping up and down like I did with the first one. Like eating chocolate or falling in love, it’s a feeling that never gets old.

I’ve already blogged about several aspects of this one, so here’s the recap: Legacy was a happy accident. I was writing what I thought would be a standalone, Belonging, when I got an idea for a sequel. This book made me stretch my writing muscles, because I’ve never written a ménage before. I got to flex my length muscles and mystery-writing muscles while I was at it as well. A London Werewolf in America was a mystery too, but it wasn’t as long as this one. Plus I got to hang out with Wallace and Jeremy some more, and give them an extra-happy ending in addition to the first one. Given what I put them through, I suppose they had it coming.

I think this is it for the boys, though. Their little flock has been through enough. Time to settle down and raise those kids Colleen always wanted. This isn’t quite the end of this “universe,” however. I’ve got a couple other things I’m working on, but eventually there should be one more story to round out the trilogy. After all, the victims of the vampire conspiracy are still running around out there, and the Preacher isn’t the type of man to let loose ends dangle for long.

And now, the commercial portion of our blog.

Legacy
Available through www.bookstrand.com/legacy

BLURB

Colleen Brenner doesn’t believe in vampires, until she’s attacked by one. Two men come to her aid: Wallace Hamilton, a slayer, and his lover, Jeremy Teach. The pair take her into their home and under their protection. It turns out vampires have targeted not only Colleen, but all the children from the commune she grew up in. What are the monsters after?

As the three delve into Colleen’s repressed memories, she finds herself drawn to both of the men guarding her. Jeremy is human, but Wallace is a vampire himself, and Colleen’s growing attraction to him is countered by her mistrust of what he is. Then their investigation uncovers a decades-old evil tied to Colleen’s shrouded past. She herself may not be as human as she’s been led to believe. Can their newfound love survive the truth of Colleen’s inhuman legacy, or is it—and Colleen’s soul—doomed?

EXCERPT

Balancing the grocery bags, she fumbled the door open. Her psychic prickle clamped down on the greeting she’d been about to call out. Colleen sensed Wallace in the kitchen. If she strained, she could hear faint noises that had nothing to do with pre-dinner prep.

Jeremy’s kitchen, Wallace awake. Easy to add two and two.

Courtesy demanded she leave them alone. She could go upstairs, linger in the shower, and make a ton of noise coming back down. Then she caught Wallace’s growl and decided, screw courtesy. She wouldn’t deny she enjoyed watching them together. Wallace encouraged it, in fact. Freaking undead exhibitionist. With a mischievous smile lighting her face, Colleen set her grocery bags on the floor and crept to the kitchen doorway.

Two pots, a knife, and a bag of carrots lay abandoned on the counter. Colleen’s imagination set the scene—Jeremy at the counter, his back to the doorway, Wallace stalking his unsuspecting prey with his uncanny silent tread. Perhaps Jeremy had a moment of warning before his capture—a hint of scent, a whisper of lips against his neck. Or perhaps he was as attuned to the vampire’s presence as she was and always knew when his lover was near.

They’d ended up beside the kitchen table. Wallace stood behind Jeremy with his arms clasped tight around the human’s waist. His lips nuzzled Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy leaned into the embrace, his eyes shut, humming that low, throaty purr of his that always turned her on. No doubt Jeremy had loosened his shirt collar himself. His enjoyment of the vampire’s attentions made itself boldly known against the fabric of his slacks. Colleen stared at that tantalizing bulge, right up until the moment Wallace bit into Jeremy’s neck.

It wasn’t anything like the violent, melodramatic attacks depicted in vampire movies. His fangs sank into Jeremy’s flesh right over the mark on his neck in a smooth, unhurried movement that was gentle as a kiss. Perhaps this was a kiss to Wallace. His throat rippled with a single swallow before he lifted his mouth. He laved his tongue across the bite, as tender as a mother cat with her kitten. Not so much as a drop of blood escaped it. Jeremy melted against him with a whimper of pure bliss.

Colleen’s gut dropped. This was so wrong in so many ways. Yet everything about Wallace’s actions, even the bite, said love.

Too late, she remembered Wallace could hear her heartbeat.