Deirdre Griffin thought she was the only
vampire left alive. She was so wrong...
**30th Anniversary
Edition**
Blood Secrets
A Vampire Legacy Novel #1
by Karen E. Taylor
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Horror
The only vampire left alive?
Deirdre Griffin spent over a century searching for others of her kind. Now
after the last ten years in New York City, she’s almost given up hope. Until
people she’s fed on start to turn up dead, drained of all their blood. The
murder scenes are cleverly staged to implicate Deirdre and her once
uncomplicated life soon becomes difficult. Who is doing the killing? And what
should she do about detective Mitch Greer, who keeps chipping away at the
secrets that protect her life? Feed on him? Kill him? Or the most dangerous
choice of all -- fall in love?
For the first time in her unnatural life, Deirdre finds herself trapped between
love and hate, betrayal and revenge. She must prove her innocence and find the
real murderer or pay the ultimate price: her death.
Author's Note: This book is a reissue of the original novel BLOOD SECRETS. It
is not a new novel.
After the kiss, I buried my face in his
neck. Now, I thought as I heard the blood pulse in his veins, Oh, please, now.
I nipped him at first, savoring the
moment, my low moans echoed by his. Then when my teeth grew longer and sharper,
I could hold back no longer. I bit him brutally, tapping the artery and was
rewarded by the flow of his blood: hot, salty and bitter. He shuddered
violently and fought to push me away, but his resistance was futile. Finally
his struggles ceased and his body grew limp as I continued to draw on him,
gently now, almost tenderly. I drank a long time, slowly, relishing the feel of
my own body being replenished, then I withdrew.
Arising from the
couch, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. No longer pale and haggard, my
skin glowed with life and my eyes shone, victorious and demonic. A few drops of
blood were trickling down my chin; I wiped them away with the back of my hand and
turned from my reflection in disgust...
********************************************
The sun was setting and the autumn air
growing chilly, but I did not feel the cold. I stared into the approaching
night as if answers could be found there, in the darkness. Suddenly, I sensed
the stealthy approach of something nearing my house. I tensed and listened,
relaxing when I picked up the soft padding of paws and the quiet breathy pants.
The creature slowly came into view. It was a dog, a stray by the looks of the
ribs showing through its fur. I could still smell the odor of the roast in the
air; it was this that had brought him so near. “You have it, dog,” I said
quietly. “It does me no good.” He sidled past me and fell to devouring the meat
savagely.
When he had finished, he looked at me
questioningly, with a half wag of his tail. “No, boy, there’s no more. Come
here.” Surprisingly, he came right to me, and with one sniff of my opened hand,
he settled in on the porch with me.
He rested his scruffy chin on my knee and
I scratched his pointed ears. “It’s a strange world, dog,” I confided to him,
“where a mongrel like you can eat a fine meal, while I have to go hungry.”
He gazed at me with trusting eyes and his
tail thumped with a hollow sound on the wooden porch planks. I began to cry,
silent tears streaming coldly down my cheeks in the night air. He hunched over
close to me, offering what comfort he could and I buried my face in his soft
fur. Instinctively, without thought, I pushed aside his thick hair with my
tongue and sank my teeth into his neck. He snarled softly, whined, then relaxed
as I was rewarded with the thick, salty flow. I took no more than two or three
swallows, when, in horror at what I had done, I jumped away from him. He stared
up at me, with adoring eyes and weakly wagged his tail again.
“My God,” I
whispered to the quiet night. “What have I become?”
**********************************************
…the man appeared at the table. I didn’t
have a chance to move before he grabbed my arm. “Hey, baby,” he said in a voice
that made my identification a certainty. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
“I don’t think so.” I tried to brush him
off but he held on. “I’m sure we met, and not that long ago, neither.” He
rubbed his neck absently with a glazed look. “I couldn’t never forget a babe
like you.”
“Excuse me, you must be mistaken.”
He pulled me to him roughly. “Now I know.
We had an appointment in a dark alley. You left too soon, as I remember it. Now
that your friends is gone, maybe we can finish up.”
“Leave me alone,” I hissed at him. “Take
your hands off me.”
He laughed and tried to kiss me. I looked
around and noticed that no one was watching. Our conversation had been quiet
and his invitation was probably nothing out of the ordinary for this place.
Mitch was nowhere to be seen and I didn’t want to wait for him to reappear. If
it were an ordinary night, if I were on my own, I would simply accompany him to
some dark place and feed on him again, this time being sure to implant the
thought that he didn’t know me. But I had no time for that now. Instead, I looked
him full in the face and smiled. My teeth had grown and I saw a look of doubt
and fear enter his eyes.
“Next time a lady says no, you really
should listen.” I picked him up by the front of his shirt and tossed him onto
the table next to us. He and the table collapsed with a loud crash and the
sound of breaking bottles; by this time, I was sitting down again and staring
at him, like the other customers. No one looked at me and no one went to help
him up. There was a lot of raucous laughter and some good-natured joking about
how Sammy couldn’t hold his liquor. He lay without moving and I thought for one
moment that I had killed him. Then just as Mitch was coming in to see what all
the commotion was about, he moaned and rolled over.
“What’s happening,” he said as he rushed
to my side. “Are you okay, Deirdre?”
“I’m fine—he’s drunk.” I indicated the
man rising uncertainly to his feet. “Let’s get out of here.”
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Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Secrets-Vampire-Legacy-Novel-ebook/dp/B0CQCL4GQM
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/blood-secrets-a-vampire-legacy-novel-by-karen-e-taylor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2625515-blood-secrets
Book Trailer:
http://youtu.be/bLH0DYDqs0A
About the Author
Karen E. Taylor was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area.
Despite being a voracious reader her entire life, she’d never intended to be a
writer; instead, over the years, she received training in art, sculpture,
dance, voice, speech, needlework, sewing and fashion design, as well as lessons
in charm and horseback riding. She enjoyed them all. In college, as an English
Literature and Communications Arts major, she also discovered her love of
theater, but none of that long list of creative endeavors ever really
stuck.
While working as
an Episcopal Church secretary in January, 1988, Karen began writing her
first novel (the one which eventually evolved into Blood Secrets), just to
prove to herself that she could. (English Lit majors are like that.) The book
was never intended to be the first of an ongoing series, but friends and
neighbors who had read the original manuscript demanded a sequel. From that
point in time, an author and a series was born.
From that humble
beginning, the Vampire Legacy series grew into seven full novels; two novellas
and an eighth novel (The Vampires’ Daughter) are in the planning stages. Karen
was a two time finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, and has produced numerous short
stories, a stand-alone ghost novel (Cellar,) and two cook books. In her spare
time, she can be found streaming retro video games on Twitch under the screen
name OldVampireLady. After bouncing around the country for the last 40 years,
she’s ended up (for now) in Vancouver, WA where she appreciates the gloom of
the great Pacific Northwest.
You can find more
information about Karen’s books at her website at karenetaylor.com or on Amazon.
Website
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Author
Links
Website: https://www.karenetaylor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenetaylorwriter
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/karen-e-taylor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Karen-E.-Taylor/author/B001HMLORI
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/266536.Karen_E_Taylor
Giveaway
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