Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I had always been desperate to feel cold, hard fangs in my neck, and have the blood sucked out of me by a beautiful creature of the night.
But when a vampire chased me through dark London streets, my bare feet pounding along mossy cobblestones as I ran, I quickly realized just how dangerous my fantasies were.
Hans Jacob Weyer was faster than me, and he didn’t care that my body wasn’t willing to be his victim. He pinned me to the wall that night and presented me with my first choice of many.
Choices that would tear my soul to the core and open trapdoors in my mind I never knew I had.
Family chains with a twisted path of torment and beauty. Openings to a new world I never knew existed; a world of witches and sages, and spirits of the dead.
And vampires…
Author’s note: As always, this is a Jade West novel – only this time it’s a paranormal one. Turns out vampires have some very filthy traditions. Please proceed with caution.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
I’d always loved Halloween. There was something about the scary costumes, the eerie thrill in the air, and the nights drawing in through the autumn that drove me wild. I loved cauldrons and broomsticks and ghost stories, but more than that – more than anything else – I loved vampires.
Yes. I, Katherine Jane Blakely, at eighteen years old, was still absolutely crazy about vampires. Just as I had been from a little girl.
I was pouring a wine for Frederick Brust when a group of the younger members came in through the main entrance. They were out on a guys’ social after a polo game earlier, and usually I’d have given them little more than a polite hello as they got seated and ready to order some drinks, but tonight was different. They were dressed up in Halloween costumes, even though there was still a whole week to go, and Max Eggerton, the very hottest young guy of the bunch, was dressed up as Dracula.
Max’s fangs were shitty white plastic, and the fake blood dripping down his chin was almost as cringeworthy as the flimsy red satin cape around his shoulders, but that didn’t matter. The very sight of fangs gave me tingles right the way up my arms. He looked twenty times better to me as an immortal vampire than he did as the young, hot kid on the block. Even in a cruddy costume.
He stepped up to the bar along with Stephan as soon as I’d handed the merlot to Frederick.
“What can I get you?” I asked them.
Stephan leant forward, checking out the selection of spirits despite the fact he already knew them by heart. The people here at Regency Gentlemen’s Club were the same crew of posh guys every single weekend. I almost laughed out loud at Stephan when I got to check out his costume in greater detail. He was clearly supposed to be a mummified corpse, but in reality he was swirled up in shabby toilet roll.
I was dressed in white myself, but my outfit was the total opposite of shabby. I was in a barmaid’s uniform of the highest calibre, fitting me nice and neatly. My hair was up in a tight, dark bun to make the most of the neatness. Understated, but nicely natural.
I always needed to look prim and perfectly proper in this role. A little mascara would do ok, but that was about all. Even my lipstick was nothing more than a natural sheen.
“I’ll go with a gin and Coke, please, Katherine,” Stephan told me.
I got another tingle as I looked at Max standing beside him. His teeth appeared even worse up close, but that made no difference. Plastic fangs still made my heart race.
My eyes were on Max’s mouth as Stephan ordered drinks for the rest of their group, on autopilot as I presented the bottles and glasses on the counter. My fingers were jittery on the bar tab screen as I tapped in their totals, still eyeing up the crappy red cloak around Max’s shoulders as he disappeared with their tray of drinks.
I was so caught up in the approaching Halloween air that I hadn’t noticed Hans appear at the bar. He was a pale, tall figure with the most glorious dark hair I’d ever seen. Way, way more worthy of my attention than Max Eggerton ever could be, fake fangs or not.
Hans Jacob Weyer was his full name.
When I noticed him there I knew I’d fucked up – ignoring a club member who was waiting to order drinks. Inadvertently or not, it made no odds. It was incompetent. If my manager Eliza caught me, I’d be getting a stern telling off when the night was through.