Microsoft Word - The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.doc
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The Mammoth
Book Of
VAMPIRE
ROMANCE
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Contents
F ade To B lack
Sherri Erwin
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Ode To Edvard
Munch
Caitlin R. Kiernan
38
F angs F or H ire
Jenna Black
48
The Righteous
Jenna Maclaine
74
K nowledge Of Evil
Raven Hart
1 04
V iper’s B ite
D elilah D evlin
1 30
D reams
Keri Arthur
1 59
Love B ites
Kim b erly Raye
1 84
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What’s A t Stake?
Alexis Morgan
206
Coming H ome
Lilith Saintcrow 234
To Ease The Rage
C. T. Adam s &
Cathy Clam p
260
D ancing With The
Star
Sus an Sizem ore 289
P lay D ead
D ina Jam es
31 2
I n Which A
Masquerade B all
U nmasks A n U ndead
Colleen Gleas on 348
A Temporary V ampire
Barb ara Em rys 372
Overbite
Savannah Rus s e 393
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H unter’s Choice
Shiloh Walker
41 7
Remember The B lood
V icki Petters s on 450
The Sacrifice
Reb ecca Y ork
476
The Midday Mangler
Meets H is Match
Rachel V incent
505
The Music Of The
N ight
Am anda As hley
542
The D ay Of The
D ead
Karen Chance
568
V ampire U nchained
Nancy Holder
61 8
A Stand - U p D ame
Lilith Saintcrow 642
U ntitled 12
Caitlin R.
Kiernan
668
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I ntroduction
Tris ha Telep
O
n any given day at Murder One in London, the crime and romance bookstore (where I work as the romance book buyer), you might come across romance regulars clutching recent but dog-eared copies of the
Romantic Times
magazine, the pages marked up to show new romance titles they want ordered and the authors they follow religiously with standing orders in the shop. You will also see readers browsing the romance shelves (stacked to the roof – and more – with books) and, although the romance room is a tad small, hanging out and talking among themselves, reading back covers and first pages and getting advice from other readers before making final purchases. And You’ll certainly see die-hard customers leaving with stacks of all types of romance, but mainly, at the moment,with paranormal romance. The massive demand for paranormal romance these days means that every month there is an avalanche of new titles from publishers for romance readers to keep up with. Yet – somehow – romance readrs seem to manage.
In this celebratory spirit,
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance
brings together the largest number of new paranormal romance stories ever assembled under one cover. The collection focuses on one of the original, most ancient characters of this
genre – the vampire – and includes not only those authors who have built their writing careers on bloodsuckers, but also great writers from elsewhere in the paranormal genre for whom this is the first vampire outing. This means that you’ll find a fun, broad
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range of stories of all kinds of unexpected vampires, from the traditional worlds of horror to gothic romance and historical, to contemporary urban fantasy, fang-in-cheek comedy and the hottest erotica, all the way to the downright romantic, boy-
meets-girl, sweetheart stories from tried-and-true romances (albeit with a bite ripped out of the heart and a vase full of blood for the flowers).
Also, keep an eye out for the smattering of stand-alone stories that feature connections to a particular writer’ s existing series, or that follow an intriguing character who didn’t get a chance to realize their full potential in a previous book and whose story may be being told here for the very first time (see the story of Dante Valentine’s foster daughter, Liana, in Lilith Saintcrow’s ‘Coming Home’ , Tomas the vampire in Karen Chance’s ‘The Day of the Dead’ and the story of Viper’ s beginnings in Delilah Devlin’ s ‘Viper’ s Bite’ ). And, if you find yourself hooked on a particular writer after reading one of their stories, you can always get a quick fix by going out and scooping up their trademark series to tide you over until the next instalment! But the real question you’ll find cropping up, again and again within these pages is this: is being a vampire all it’s cracked up to be? Sure, you get to live forever and never age, sure you get powers and sexual magnetism beyond any human’ s wildest dreams, but is it worth it? This question is like an echo through many of these stories. So go for the jugular ( . . . and the carotid, the femoral artery at the inner thigh, the soles of the feet, the bend at the elbow, the ankle . . . ) with this motley crew of
Mammoth
vampires and find out.
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F ade To B lack
Sherri Erwin
M
y mind wandered through a mental inventory of my
life as I felt his teeth sink into my skin.
About to turn 30, I had lived in a one-bedroom apartment that I could barely afford, even with the reduced rate of rent from my employer. Between my car bill, credit card debt and student loan payments, I could barely afford any luxuries, and that was only if I left necessities behind in the grocery isles. I lived for invitations to dine with the students in the dorm: free
food.
And now? I had probably risked the career I’d come to resent, the only thing I had going in life, by accepting an invitation from Connor Black (my sole male student) to go out for a drink – only to find he was a card-carrying member of Bloodsuckers Anonymous.
A vampire
.
Risked my career? It should have been the least of my worries as I prepared to be dinner for one. What the hell,
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though, right? Could he suck me any drier than my creditors,
who apparently thought I bled cash?
Oh, no. I bled blood, confirmation of which came as his fangs made their introductions to my veins via the tender flesh at the base of my neck. A dribble rolled down my bare shoulder to pool in the lace edging of my shell-pink bra, a purchase that had sat in my drawer long after Victoria’s Secret had closed my account. Hopeful for a chance to show it off, I’d put it on this morning for the first time. And here I was.
“You taste like wine,” he said, coming up for air. His palm grazed my nipple through the silk. It reacted, hardening under his touch with traitorous speed.
I met his gaze, cobalt eyes set in a face more inspiring than
anything painted by Botticelli.
“It doesn’t hurt.” Surprised I reached up to stroke the
puncture wound.
He smiled, beatific despite the sharpened canines. “We pack
a sort of numbing agent. Localized.”
“Like mosquitoes? You don’t know they’re sucking you
until they’ve almost fed.”
He laughed, a low chortle, much deeper and ricer than any sounds I’d heard from him in the classroom, where he’d managed to pass himself off as an ordinary young man, albeit a fascinatingly beautiful one.
A fascinatingly beautiful one who had captured the attention of every woman in the room, even the self-proclaimed lesbians. Rumour had it that he’d slept with every student in my Romantic poets class. From the way they looked at him, with the tight focus of famished animals desperate to get a bite, I
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didn’t believe it. They hadn’t had a taste. Not one of them. Not
yet.
We’d all seemed to think
we
were the hunters and he was
our prey. Fools. Today, I’d worn a thin blouse over my new bra, unbuttoned further than usual, and I’d leaned low over his desk, on purpose, when handing back his paper.
The better to tempt you with, my dear
. And when he’d asked my out for a drink after class “to discuss his grade” (a solid A), I’d thought my little plan had worked.
I had him right where I wanted him
. Hard to believe I’d been so clueless just a few short hours ago.
Truth be told, I’d had a moment of reservation. I couldn’t date a student. It was wrong. What if someone saw us? But my libido had won out. I wanted him. I wanted him like I’d never wanted a man in my life. And the fact that he seemed to want
me – the oldest woman in the room next to all the lithe young
co-eds? Too tempting to pass up.
“That’s it love.” He leaned into the kiss, the tang of my
blood on his tongue. “Give in. I can make you feel so good.”
The erotic drag of soft lips against skin as he dropped a trail of kisses down the valley between my breasts convinced me he was right. He could make me
feel
. Good, bad, it hardly mattered. It had been so long since I’d felt anything.
A lifeless drone, so steeped in debt and disappointment that I’d stopped allowing any reactions; I’d simply carried on. Work. Home. Eat. Sleep. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.