One Week Until Blood Spirit!

Happy Monday everyone! I'm counting down the days until the release of the third book in the Sons of Navarus series, Blood Spirit. Time seems to have flown with this book. It seems like just yesterday I began writing Terek and Ilona's story and now it's time for it to meet the world.

Blood Spirit is a continuation of the Sons series, so the non-romantic story continues from Blood Betrayed. Marc Verrater, that vicious Archon, is back, along with some new villainous friends (one of whom will be a very important player as the series progresses). The romance is all Terek and Ilona, but because Terek has so many vampires, readers will get to meet some new characters from his household.

Advance readers have raved about the sensuality but also the emotion that's a big part of the story. I love the way this story came out. Terek was one of those characters whose passion propelled me to write his story, and his heroine Ilona felt like a great match for him from the moment she showed up.

Here's a taste of them in one of their first moments together. (I love when a man has to step up to a challenge!)

As if she were drawn to him, Ilona felt like her body had a mind of its own as she rolled over to face him. He seemed to have some strange power over her as even her eyes refused to close, forcing her to meet his stare.

"Carlie tells me you're unhappy," he said in a low, smooth voice that instantly soothed her.

"I can't be like her. I don't want to be a vampire."

Terek moved around the bed to stand next to her. Again, her body seemed drawn to him and she turned to look up at him. Green eyes stared down into hers, eyes gentle and at the same time piercing.

"I'm sorry, Ilona, but you don't have a choice. What you can choose to be is happy."

"You took my life, my family, my everything, and now you say it's my choice to be happy? Where was my choice when you made me this?"

Ilona felt torn between what her mind told her to say and the craving she felt to be near him. Both seemed to fight for control of her very being.

Terek knelt at the bedside and took her hands in his. "Ilona, I want nothing more than your happiness, but you must want to be happy."

His touch relaxed her, and she looked up to see his eyes, now so gentle and kind, looking back with an innocence that surprised her. As she gazed into them, she heard him speak softly to her, but his words made no sense even as they calmed her heart.

© 2012 Gabrielle Bisset