Desiring the Darkness excerpt

Morning everyone. Hope it's been good to you so far. I'm feeling rather sluggish this morning after a rough nights sleep. I suppose the steady snow falling outside probably doesn't help much either. But it is pretty.

Today I bring you the second book in my Darkness series, Desiring the Darkness. This story takes place right after Seducing the Darkness. The city is cast in darkness and all hell is breaking loose.

Blurb:

With the cloak of Darkness surrounding Jacob’s Cove, Dante Vega must work together with his friends to protect the humans from the blood thirsty vampires wanting to take over the human race.

When a half naked young woman races into his arms, begging him to protect her, he is compelled to do so, despite the fact that she is a vampire.

Before all hell broke loose and the sun vanished, Gypsy Dawn was an ordinary woman carrying on with her ordinary life. Until she’s turned into a vampire. With no family and no where to go, she clings to Dante. Aside from his dark mysterious good looks, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. And when his life is threatened, she discovers just how protective of him she is.

Trying to bring back the sun isn’t easy, especially when Chaos, the one creature responsible, has gone into hiding. And when Dante finds out his long lost brother is working with the man responsible, he tries desperately to convince him to switch sides. But his attention is drawn to more important things when one friend is killed and another is taken hostage.

Will Dante be able to save him before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

It had been three days since the sun had been blotted out from the ritual that raised the king of all vampires. Three days and nights of total darkness. Three days and nights of absolute mayhem. Humans were looting anything and everything they could get their hands on, and vampires were scooping the humans up like free candy. But despite the dangers lurking outside, people were still stupid enough to venture out of doors. No businesses were open due to the looting so no one had to go into work. Well, except for the cops and the National Guard that had been called in to help.

Neither was being overly successful. Why? Because the vampires were smarter than the humans.

And that was just damn scary.

But not everyone was as uneducated in the ways of the vampire. Dante was one of them, along with his friends, Jonah Moore, his wife Ariel, the queen of all vamps Trinity, and her mate Basil.
It still blew his mind to think Trinity was an all powerful and mighty vampire queen. Four days ago she’d been your typical blood sucking, fang bearing, night dwelling vampire. Now, a simple stare could put a person in temporary immobilization status.

Damn freaky.

Since the rest of the city was unequipped to handle the vampires scavenging the city, he and his band of vamp hunters were left to do the job. Well, that and bringing down the last person responsible for blotting out the sun. Chaos. Dante was particularly interested in finding Chaos because he knew Chaos would lead him to his brother.

Twenty years ago, Dante had witnessed his twin brother being attacked by a vampire and dragged away. He hadn’t seen his brother since.

Until three days ago.

Now, aside from protecting a defenseless city and trying to take out the one vamp responsible, Dante was also in search of his long lost brother.

“Remind me again why I have to be the bait?”

Dante heard Jonah’s voice in his ear as he hid behind the dumpster. Lowering his voice, he replied, “Because I was bait last time.”

“Right. You’ll tell Ariel I love her if I don’t make it?”

“You’ll be just fine, Jonah. I’ve got you covered and Basil is lurking about, ready to jump in and snatch the bastards. Just stay calm.”

“Yeah, easy for you to say. Oh shit! Bloodsucker, eight o’clock.”

Dante swiveled in his spot behind the garbage bin, looking in the direction Jonah instructed. He saw the chubby guy heading Jonah’s way and prepared himself for the attack. The vampire’s ugly yellow eyes caught sight of Jonah and Dante could imagine what was going through his mind.

Fresh meat.

Not this time.

“Get ready.”

“I’m ready.” Pulling the tranquilizer gun from his belt,

Dante aimed it at the vampire and waited. Because Jonah had the microphone pinned beneath his jacket, Dante could hear everything, including the vampire’s comments.

“Well, looky here. What have we got? Oh, and I smell lots of fear. Gonna be a nice snack for me.”

“You don’t want to drink me. I’m anemic. I won’t satisfy you much,” Jonah added with a great deal of quiver in his voice.

“Oh, I’m betting you’ll be just what I need.”

He heard the growl, heard Jonah scream, and took his shot. The dart hit the vamp right in his backside and as Dante stood up, he saw the vamp pull back in shock. He didn’t waste any time and took another shot. This time he hit the vampire in the arm. The vamp looked up, searching for where the shot had come from as Dante raced towards him.

“Took your time. He was about to bite me.” Jonah took a couple steps away from the vamp.

“I had to make sure I got a good shot.” The vampire hissed as he approached, then his knees gave out and he went down. “Damn, I was hoping to knock him around a bit first.”

“You’ll get your chance later.”

“Jesus Christ, Basil! I hate when you do that.” His heart pounding, Dante aimed a steely glare at Basil. The guy loved to make an entrance, but did he have to appear out of nowhere without warning and scare the living shit out of him?

“Good shot,” Basil stated as he lowered down to the vampires body. “But next time, aim higher. If you can get the neck or near the heart, he’ll go down with one shot.”

“Yeah, thanks for the advice.” He’d only known Basil a few short days and was still on the fence about him. The guy was the last of the true vampires and had several advantages over the rest of the vamps. For one, he could materialize at the blink of an eye and transport himself anywhere. Two, he could transform into any creature and blend in everywhere. And anyone that didn’t know him personally would think he was your typical average human being. Until he bore his fangs and his icy blue eyes began to glow. Only the truest vampires had the icy blue eyes, all the others were yellow.

A sign of their impurity.

“He one of Chaos’ men?” Dante asked, looking down at the unconscious vampire.

“Won’t know until he wakes up and talks. Let’s call it a night for now and get some rest.” Basil hoisted the vamp over his shoulder. “You can ride with me, Jonah, and make sure this guy doesn’t wake up before we get to the castle.”

“Gee, thanks, boss.”

“You can follow us in your car, Dante.”

While the sun was nonexistent they had all agreed to stay at Basil’s castle. It was a smart idea, keeping them all under one roof, but Dante was feeling the crunch of hanging around the same people day and night. He needed a bit of a break now and then, and though Basil’s place was huge, he still managed to run into someone often enough. He was used to living on his own, having no one around but himself.

He missed his privacy.

But he climbed into his car, ready to follow them anyway. Glancing in his rear view mirror, he watched them pull away and saw what looked like a woman, running towards him. He turned around to get a better look, then hustled out of the car. It had been a woman running towards him, clad in only a bra and panties.

And two burly men were right behind her.

“You’ve got to help me. Please, help me,” she screamed as she ran.

Running towards her he pulled out his revolver. “Get behind me,” he ordered to her and took aim. It utterly shocked him when the two men halted then spun around and took off in the opposite direction. “Fuck!” He turned to the woman who was shivering in the cold air. “Get in the car and lock the doors. I’m going after them.”

“No, no, please, don’t leave me.”

She grabbed hold of his arm and pressed her body so tightly to his he could feel the curve of her breasts through the thickness of the suede jacket he wore. “I have to go after
them.”

“No, please, just let them go. I don’t want to be alone.” She clung to him even tighter.

What was he going to do, shake her off of him and drag her to his car? Not likely. So the only chance he had was to stick by her. “Okay. I won’t go after them. You can give a description of them to the cops—”

“NO! No police. Please, don’t take me to the cops.”

He didn’t know what her deal was but she sure was adamant about not involving the cops. And that worried him some. “You have to tell them you were attacked.”

“I don’t want to follow up on this. Please, don’t make me. I don’t trust the cops,” she sighed, still clinging to him.

He could feel her body tremble and he wasn't sure if it was entirely from the chill in the air, or from fear. “Okay, I won’t take you to the cops. You’re cold. Let me give you my jacket.” When she didn’t release him, he patted her arms. “I need you to let me go so I can take off my jacket.”

“Oh, okay.” She released him and wrapped her arms around her chest.

He striped from his jacket then held it out to her. “Here, put this on before you catch a cold.”

She took the jacket and hurriedly slipped into it. “Thanks.”

“No problem. So why don’t you tell me where you live and I’ll give you a ride home.”

“I don’t have a home.” Dante’s brow lifted and she continued. “I was evicted a few days ago.”

He heard glass breaking in the distance and assumed someone was breaking into yet another building. “This isn’t the safest place to be right now. Why don’t I take you to my place and we can figure out what we’re going to do next.”

He held his hand out to his car then walked with her to it, holding the passenger side door for her. After she’d settled in, he hurried to his side and climbed behind the wheel. He got them rolling and was damn glad they were only three blocks from his office/apartment.
“My name is Dante, Dante Vega.”

“Gypsy Dawn.”