Category: Romance Publisher: Publish America
Type: Fiction
Michelle's parents took a young boy in when she was only 6 years old. She's now 17 and it doesn't take much to know there is something between them. Even Michelle can't define it but she senses something ancient and dark behind his eyes.
As I Slept... is not the everyday book about vampire love. This story spans the ages and invites the reader to embrace a new vision of what vampire is.
Michelle is a semi average 17 year old. Christian is not average at all. Michelle knows Christian has been a part of her family since her parents took him in when she was 6. What she doesn't know is there is an ancient connection between them. Her parents know more than they are willing to tell.
A late summer swim reveals more than just what's between Michelle and Christophe.
Coming soon
Excerpt
...Many years ago, a century or so there was a village in France. It was a small village nothing fancy most everyone in it were farmers. One young woman lived with her father and took over the chores that would have been left for her mother were she still alive. Her mother had died giving birth to her. She was beautiful though with pretty blue eyes and she developed into a very beautiful young woman. Being that the village was so small news traveled fast about any visitors. While she was out at the village well she saw one of the men from her village pulling a cart with something in the back. This alone wasn’t out of the ordinary but everyone from the village was gathering around. She gathered her water and headed back to her cottage. She wasn’t really the type to get involved with everything in the village. She busied herself in her home preparing medicines and tinctures as her grandmother had shown her and refilling her supplies from the herbs behind her home. As she was doing this the noise of the villagers got louder and louder. She stepped into her doorway just as the man stopped his cart in front of her door. She saw a pair of boots dangling out of the back of the cart. The man hurried her over to the cart explaining that the young man in the cart needed help immediately. She had helped many people before and had assisted in births. She was known as the healer of her village. Several men helped to carry him inside and laid him on the straw bed by the fireplace. The one her father had always slept in when he was home from hunting. The man began explaining how he had been traveling with his wears as he always had to sell or trade with other villages and was on his way home when he was attacked that night by a group of thieves. He had managed to kill one and injured another but there were six or seven and it was a black night with no moon. He was pinned down by the men and had a knife to his throat when something swooped down from the trees above. It was so black he couldn’t tell if it was an animal or a man. The men were torn off him and he could hear their screams. His clothes were splattered with blood and one man ran off into the woods where he could hear him screaming a horrible blood gurgling scream. He then saw the animal black as night with eyes like a cat only it was a human or at least human form. Fear gripped him and he froze laying there on the ground afraid to move less the thing descended upon him. Dawn was approaching and he had not heard anything moving. He gathered his courage and sat up. He gathered up his belongings and grabbed his cart. There were blood stains on the trees and on the ground. The robbers were nowhere to be found. As he pulled the cart as fast as his heart would allow down the wooded lane he came across a heap of black. Upon further inspection he found it to be a man. ...
...She walked a ways down stream when she finally reached the clearing where her little vineyard was and sat her basket on an old stump. She carefully unlaced her bodice and placed it over the basket and removed her outer garment. She then gathered her chamise in front of her and waded out into the stream . The stream itself was roughly ten feet across. The middle was deep enough that it was up to her knees. There were several larger flat rocks that protruded here and there out of the water. She sat on one of these lifting her chamise so that it wouldn’t get too wet and sat bare bottom on the rock. She then laid back on it letting her hair drift with the current as she scrubbed her scalp. She knew he would be awhile. Or at least hoped he would. She wasn’t ready to go back yet and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see him again just yet. She tossed all the events of the past week over and over in her mind. She could have fallen asleep there if she wasn’t acutely aware he would be calling for her eventually. She slid off the rock and washed the rest of her and then gathered up her chamise again and headed back to the stump where she had left her clothes.
“Well, well. What do we have here.” Said an unfamiliar voice from somewhere in the woods. She grabbed her outer clothing and began frantically trying to put it on when someone grabbed her from behind. His hands were rough and he smelled of traveling and pigs.
“She’s alive this one brother.” Said another unfamiliar voice only this one was coming out of the woods and she could see him. He was greasy and almost as wide as he was tall. His shoulders were huge and his chest barely fit into his shirt. If it wasn’t for the scar on his check and the ugly sneer on his face he might have been good looking.
“No! Let go of me!” she yelled trying to free herself from the man behind her. He had his arms wrapped around her with her arms pinned. She kicked back and caught his leg with the heel of her foot. He startled and his arms faultered. She tried to bolt past the second man but he scooped her up with one arm. The first man came up to her and hit her hard across the face. Her eye felt like it exploded in her head and she began to see nothing but blackness. She could feel them lowering her to the ground and the larger one was pinning her legs. The first man grabbed her wrists and pulled them high above her head pinning them against the ground. He began unlacing his pants. The larger man put a knee on both her thighs as he began sliding her chamise up to her waste trailing his hands up her thighs.
“Looky looky brother.” He said as he laughed to himself. “I’m first then you can have a go at her.”
“No, Please! Don’t!” She cried trying to yell but feeling the taste of metallic in her mouth and her heart beating in her upper lip. She tried to move her legs but his full weight was balanced on them. She could feel them bruising under the pressure. He hit her again against her temple and again she could feel herself falling into blackness. She fought the overwhelming feeling to just go to sleep and she strained to open her eyes. She could see he was working at the laces on his pants when suddenly there was a thud and her arms were free. She began pushing her chamise down when the larger man was lifted off his feet and blood sprayed across her face. She tried frantically to wipe it away with her hand as she scrambled to a sitting position and tried to back away as fast as she could. She couldn’t see and it seemed like all she was doing was smearing it around her eyes. She could hear the man screaming and then the sound of gurgling. Her adrenaline soured as she struggled to the water’s edge. Behind her she could hear the rustling of a struggle. She threw herself into the water and crawled and scratched her way to the other side. She was in a panic as she washed the blood off her face. Then she looked up to see the naked back of Adrian stooped over the smaller of the two men. She stared in disbelief as she watched him drain them both. He turned to see where she was and saw the fear in her eyes. Before she could stop herself she screamed and her adrenaline gave way as she fell face down into the water.
...
When Miranda Nolan inherits a house she soon discovers a need to solve the mysteries surrounding the late owner along with resolving the strong attraction she feels for a co-claimant who lost his hearing and faces a world of silence.
