Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Coming Soon; The Foxworth Coven, Book One, Death Of Innocence

The Foxworth Coven, Book One, Death Of Innocence

By Kayden McLeod

Website: http://www.kaydenmcleod.com/

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance (Vampires, Deities, M/F)
Publisher: Silver Publishing

Website: http://silverpublishing.info/

Release Date: May 2011

Tag-Line:

Even unconditional love cannot always banish an eternal nightmare

Summary:

The Foxworth family has blazed a trail through human and vampire history alike, changing the ways of both races in Canada for all time. The Council has demanded a full report for the long and twisted tale of how the Surrey Coven had come to be the most powerful and feared; an assemblage that anyone would question before coming up against.

The Leader of the Surrey Coven, Canya recalls how her family came to be. A story filled with pain and heartache, until she meets Gregory Foxworth: a debonair CEO to the family shipping company. Gregory remembers taking her away from a life that shocks him, hoping to shelter and love her. But little does he know all he has done, was make her a target for a sadistically warped man. One who will have her and his own personal brand of vengeance. Sometimes, a grudge isforever.


Excerpt One (Rated PG):

Prelude

Canya

Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

June 3 2010

The sky was overcast, grey and temperamental, much like my mood. The ocean was the flat colour of slate, reflecting the drab clouds above, while the waves lapped at the long expanse of sand making up the beach.

I loved my house in White Rock, a nice city in British Columbia within the Fraser Valley. It was our main residence, but we owned a lot of property all over the territory that was ours to tend.

I sat outside, on my patio with expensive white paper and a pen, with Gregory at my side. His hand was on my shoulder in a show of support, a silent partner, until it was his turn to write his account. The beginning, where we started, was my words. But I wasn’t sure where to begin. When a story went on for decades, where does one start?

I thought of my family to give me strength.

The Foxworths had grown and changed so much in the last century. They too were asked to tell their parts of the tale, but they’d decided that it was when I discovered the new world, remaining even now in shadows that this story should begin.

It was almost a century to the day, when we finally ended what plagued my family for so long. Was a hundred years too long to hold on to hope that your loved ones would eventually survive and thrive, even if some had to die in seeing it happen?

The Council, our governing body, paid me a personal visit yesterday. Though it had been an official visit, I didn’t have a great track record with those appointments. I was respected, but all in my Coven were also feared for their individual reasons, their individual pasts.

Over the years, our Coven had been allied with some of the most powerful entities this world would ever know. We have the forces of nature on our side, the power of dreams and the most feared monsters that make humans run and hide under their beds.

The Council only “requested” this document, because it is unbelievable, as it sounds. I believed they wanted to watch us fail to give the facts; to prove beyond doubt that what we said was real.

And we do have proof of all of our accomplishments. But I still suspected they don’t believe some of what my family and friends claim. Even to us, who are vampires and know of all sorts of real magic, our story is very far-fetched. Our experiences rip apart our own beliefs, not just the human view-point, and then stitch them back together again. To know the real truth of what lays just out of even our sight.

For a race with our real origin of beginnings, you’d think that they’d believe our tall-tale.

Personally, I wouldn’t have ever chosen to put this to paper, but when the Council decrees something, you refuse or disobey at your own risk. So, I will do so for our own well-being, and finally admit what we really are.

Some think the Foxworths were lucky for our “good” fortune. Others consider it a curse on top of the Curse that all vampires already share. I didn’t know which side to follow in that.

As a race, we’re the damned that had at one point been blessed. We were the ultimate oxymoron and the personification, if you will.

Our kind has seen both sides of the balance, and now we were precariously hanging by our fingertips, trying to protect mankind from ourselves. Most of us moved steadily forward to evolve with everyone else, but outlawed Rogues kept trying to throw us back into the dark ages.

Even so, we would always stand between the evil that rears its head within us, and the good in everyone else. Though we cannot protect humankind from their own forms of evil, we could do our part to keep the harmony on our end.

That was the Foxworth Coven’s mission statement.

We lived with humans, not just among them. We tried not to abuse our power, and assimilate into humanity the best we could. We raise our children with those beliefs, in hopes that one day we’d have real freedom and understanding. It was only one small step in the face of many, and so far, our ways had set the standard for Canadian ways.

We must be doing something right.

Possibly this record of our family would convince a few more of our kind that just because we are at the top of the food chain, manned with more power then any being had a right to, didn’t mean vampires had the right to abuse it.

Maybe it will show that no matter how bad life appears at the time, hope is always at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it will just take a little time to get there.

I knew this better than most. In the end, I knew just how lucky I’d been.

As a child, I’d known real love existed out there—somewhere. But my parents had never been examples of that. They’d almost hated each other, and liked me even less. It was a match for necessity and nothing more.

Years ago, my cousin had told me, I’d been born to be a servant. Since the time I had been old enough to clean and mind the cattle, it’d been my life. Being taught to cook simple meals before turning the age of ten, I was expected to serve them nightly.

Under my mother’s watchful eye, I grew up alone and afraid. My father had been a big, burly man who was far too gruff to ever have children. I believe he had me, only because it had beenexpected of him. After me, they’d never tried for a boy. Something that enraged my father and something I had to suffer for continuously.

But it isn’t my childhood hell that begun my long journey, nor my terrifying family legacy. For generations my human family possessed magical gifts, but these required us to keep them quiet for our own survival. The differences between those who are gifted and those who did not understand them were vast in the early twentieth century, more so than they had in the nineteenth.

As a teenager I’d been starved for love and affection, something that all of my friends had received and gave so easily. I’d searched far and wide for it, a way to leave my past behind me. To finally get out from under my parent’s thumb or I would surely go mad.

They didn’t want me to go. They’d made no move to marry me off. I still believed that if the occurring events of my early life hadn’t taken place, they would’ve found a way to keep me tied to them forever.

Near the age of twenty, I was practically an old maid when I’d met Thomas. For months we had come together in secret. I’d thought nothing of it. Those were the times then. Plus, I didn’t want my parents to know, until it was too late to stop me.

I went to Thomas willingly, time after time, needing to feel human and liked. So much abuse from my parents made me desperate to jump into anything that would bring about my escape far too quickly. My normally intelligent mind hadn’t had the time to warn me of the impending dangers, in direct relation to the hard-pressed decisions.

I had mistaken lust for love, and that really had been my downfall, and breakthrough for survival.

If I hadn’t met Thomas, I doubted I would’ve met my true love.

Every cloud has a silver lining, even the darkest and most deadly ones.

* * * *

Friday, December 31, 2010

The Cornwall Coven Book Tour

Book Two, Carnal Magnetism

Released by Silver Publishing on: January 15th 2011

More Information:


Cover Art by: Reese Dante

Book Three, Demonic Pandemonium

Release by Silver Publishing on: January 29th 2011

More Information:


Cover Art by: Reese Dante


Carnal Magnetism
and
Demonic Pandemonium
Book Tour Dates

February 3rd 2011

Cindy Jacks' Bad Girl (And Bad Boy) Writer's Block
Giveaway and blog-post

February 10th 2011

Fang-tastic Books
Giveaway and blog-post

February 17th 2011

Love Romances and More Yahoo Chat Group
Contest and Author Chat

Saturday, October 30, 2010

NOW RELEASED, Masquerade, Erotic Paranormal Romance

Masquerade

Kayden McLeod


Buy-Link:

http://silverpublishing.info/product_book_info/new-release-c-1/masquerade-p-95


Erotic Paranormal Romance (Werewolves, Vampires and Zombies)


Silver Publishing


Heat-Rating:

Three Flames, Boiling

Tagline

What lies behind the façade isn’t always what it seems

Summary

Abigail claimed the land of North Vancouver as her own, sharing it only with a clan of vampires, the Jericho Coven, who accepted the werewolf into their territory without qualm. Within their numbers is one, Cyrus Jericho; a suave, brooding vampire who isn’t quite as he appeared. He declares Abigail for his own the moment they meet, despite the fact that another werewolf pack is in British Columbia looking to claim Abigail into their midst, no matter what they must do to see that goal complete.

Excerpt (Rated PG)

Cyrus stood alone at the bar when Ada walked back into the party with Dina and who he now assumed to be the party-planner, Abigail.

He liked to think himself suave and not so easily ruffled, but that single moment in time, both proved wrong. The moment he laid eyes on the she-wolf, he went weak in the knees and a fine sweat worked over his body.

And that was from across the room.

He stared at his hand that shook ever so slightly. And to make matters worse, Ada made eye contact with him and smiled, making a beeline straight for him with the wolves in tow.

It would be a very rough night.

“Cyrus, may I introduce you to Abigail Weber, the party-planner,” Ada said in a smooth voice that revealed nothing of her increased heart rate pounding in his ears, signifying her anxiety.

He discreetly sniffed the air, but what he came up with blew his mind. The wolf is in heat. When his mind filtered this information to him his cock hardened, making him crave the party-planner like nothing else. Not even the whiskey he treasured like a favored lover came even close.

The worst impact to his libido had to be how Abigail reacted to him. Her breath shuddered into her lungs, heart thumping and going far faster than Ada’s. Her hand curled around her black clutch, holding it tightly to her stomach, right over her womb.

Cyrus was thrilled to know he wasn’t the only one affected.

Her exquisite beauty! It rivaled and surpassed any female in the room, regardless of race. Even with her mask covering the top half of her face, he could still see it, the perfect lines of her face – and her body; it was enough to drive the sanest man mad.

“Hello, milyi,” he replied softly, and he swore she sighed at the sound of his voice.

“Ahh, Cyr, such a charmer,” Dina smiled gratefully.

Dina knew something he didn’t, though this didn’t surprise him. Surely a normal occurrence, one he had long since accustomed himself to. She was a strange animal, to say the least, but that was his Dina.

“You know him?” Abigail whispered to her friend.

“Very well. We have known each other for years.” Dina didn’t meet her eyes when she said it. Protecting him no doubt, as much as herself.

“Cyrus, I highly recommend you ask our Abby for a dance,” Ada asked – an order under the guise of a request. And keep an eye on our new friends. This most recent development, I am sure you have noticed by the state of your pants, has not gone undetected by them. I was foolish enough, not taking into account her going into heat. It will spur them on even more.

Then kick them out.

Cyr, the point of knowing what they do, and when they do it is still important to me. Abigail will fight to the death for her territory. And I outright refuse to leave her alone for this coming battle. Sabern wants her, badly. I can smell it on him. And while Abby is a strong wolf, she can’t take them all on, even though she will without thought or question. And if they threaten us, she will lay her life down in protecting our Coven for taking her in. I cannot stand that thought. I know there is much about your past life you have not told us and I do not pry now, but I have a feeling you are capable of adequately defending her.

Now that was definitely true. He looked Dina in the eye over Abigail’s head, seeing the cold expression she hid from everyone else, the feel of friendliness leaving her for a brief moment. Dina had full intentions of protecting Abigail. She cherished this rare, real friend in her life, and what these vampires didn’t know about his long-time companion, would and could, kill the rival pack.

And the same could be said about him.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The FREE release of Sara's Story


Dear Readers,

It’s finally happened! The FREE paranormal erotica series, Sara’s Story is now available in e-book on my website. This includes Book One; Suspicious Circumstances, Book Two; Unknown Worlds, and Book Three: Breaching Loyalty


To get your copy: CLICK HERE


Summary of Sara’s Story Books I, II, and III


Sara has led a hard life; her past plaguing her in ways a rational mind can barely conceive of—and this woman is by no stretch of the imagination balanced. She does the best she can with what she has, but fate just keeps throwing her hardballs. Learning that Suspicious Circumstancessurround the men she’s allowed in her life, Sara has to rethink everything she’d once believed in. She gets involved with a vampire of another Lower Mainland Coven, Loren Foxworth, who takes her to Unknown Worlds. Loren shows her the ways vampires of old follow, and Sara finds that she doesn’t care for them. She will go against powers far greater than her for what she feels is right. Sara seeks her own way in life, only to find that despite what she may do or which way she turns, some people would always Breach Loyalty.


Hope you enjoy!

Kayden McLeod

http://www.kaydenmcleod.com/


Monday, September 27, 2010

The Cornwall Coven, Book Three, Demonic Pandemonium, coming this winter

The Cornwall Coven, Book Three; Demonic Pandemonium

Kayden McLeod

http://www.kaydenmcleod.com/

Publication Date:January 29th 2010

Genre:Erotic Paranormal Romance (Vampires)

Sub-Genre:Horror

Publisher:Silver Publishing

Website:http://silverpublishing.info/

Heat-Rating:Four Flames—Fiery

Tagline:

Sex, blood and rock and roll

Summary:

Pandora is a half-demon, alone in the world and good as abandoned, with a mother who barely tolerates her and a father who is unable to be with her nearly often enough for her tastes. She keeps to herself, and tries not to associate with others often, lest they discover her secret—until she meets Kevlar Cornwall. The two collide in ignorance of one another, but the sexual-attraction is indisputable and cannot be ignored, growing more profound with every passing moment. It blinds them to the lurking danger hiding just around the corner, out to end both their lives and everyone either of them have ever known or loved.

Excerpt One (RATED: PG)

Prologue

There are many types of people in this world.

And I have no idea what type I would be classified under. I walk through life always unsure of my next move and how it would affect others. Because everything I did rippled outward and long ago realized I had to limit my association with the “outside world”, relying on no one but myself.

I couldn’t rely on my family, friends or enemies for guidance of any sort; forever alone and doomed to always be. Such was the case with my kind—though I wouldn’t know, since I didn’t associate with them either.

What am I? A demon.

Hell, I couldn’t even fit into that category. I was half-mortal, a thing cursed to be complicated and dangerous—even to myself. I couldn’t do normal things, normal people did, mostly since all it would take is one wrong word or action, and all of a sudden I would turn into a monster that made everybody else quake in fear. A Frankenstein, but of a different sort.

And I was the only one on earth.

I had a human mother who hated me, and a demon father who I rarely saw or talked to. Creatures of the lower realms weren’t allowed on this plane without a direct access pass. And even then, it was sketchy.

So what was life like for me? Shit. Absolute uselessness.

You’d think it would be enough to drive a person just a little batty. But no. There’s more.

I was an author by profession. I had an agent, an excellent career—or I’d had anyways. It isn’t as good as it sounds.

Within the past few days, I’d realized my chosen path in life wasn’t as great as I’d cracked it up to be. My agent, Sam, proved to be ripping me off; stealing my work right from under my nose.

The most important book of my existent too boot. Well, to me anyway. The novel would be published, but it sure as fuck wasn’t by me. Sam Poetize was an underhanded slime-ball who had worked on my behalf since the beginning of my writing days. He made me believe in him for believing in me. But that came to an end.

Trusting him was one of the biggest mistakes I could’ve made.

One of; but definitely not the worst.

Oh no, that would be reserved for the day I’d been born, if you asked my mother, Lillian.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling while I thought of this, when the radio came on instead of an alarm clock, at exactly six-forty am. Loud noises hurt my overly sensitive ears.

Nickelback’s Burn It To The Ground blared through the speaker.

When it ended, one of the disk-jockeys of the Jeff O-Neil Morning Show, Charis’ voice filled the room. The program was a favourite of mine with their causal banter and favoured rock; but not the deep concern that weighed her careful words.

"It continued last night," Charis began. "The murder count is now up to ten."

"Ten?" Jeff repeated.

"The police are cautioning the people of Vancouver to be on the look out, and to report anything suspicious."

"What did they find this time?" Scotty inquired.

"The witnesses on scene were reported saying a severed arm was found in one part of an alley, and a leg on the other side of Hornby Street. No weapon was found or determined."

I sat up in bed, listening closely. I lived only a few blocks from there.

This would cause hysteria. Pandemonium. Something deep inside stirred at the thought of so many terrified people. I shivered, and then thrust aside the part of me that relished the distinct possibility. My human part was appalled, and since I resided on earth and not—well not on earth, that would be the emotion I stuck with.

I’d seen this as nothing more than a serial killer the news named him—or her.

Yet these murders held a far greater meaning in relation to me, and the lives surrounding mine. I just didn’t know it then.

Perhaps if I’d been more cautious and aware of my surroundings, the signs of my own demise would have shown themselves to me before it was too late.

But that was wrong.

It had been too late for a long time already.


Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sara's Story

Sara’s Story—the FREE paranormal erotica Series

Places to find it:

Blog-Format:

http://thecornwallcoven.blogspot.com/

Free Download coming soon, and the summaries of each story: http://kaydenmcleod.com/freebies.php

To get the FREE e-book early, feel free to e-mail me at:

kaydenmcleod@gmail.com for your copy!!

Genre:

Paranormal Erotica (Menage; MF, MMF, MMMF, Anal)

Rated: R

Summary for the series:

Sara has led a hard life; her past plaguing her in ways a rational mind can barely conceive of—and this woman is by no stretch of the imagination balanced. She does the best she can with what she has, but fate just keeps throwing her hardballs. Learning that Suspicious Circumstances surround the men she’s allowed in her life, Sara has to rethink everything she’d once believed in. She gets involved with a vampire of another Lower Mainland Coven, Loren Foxworth, who takes her to Unknown Worlds. Loren shows her the ways vampires of old follow, and Sara finds that she doesn’t care for them. She will go against powers far greater than her for what she feels is right. Sara seeks her own way in life, only to find that despite what she may do or which way she turns, some people would always Breach Loyalty.

Excerpt One—Rated R—Sara’s Story, Book Three, Breaching Loyalty

Chapter One

The damned phone was ringing again.

I shoved my head further into a pillow to pretend it didn’t exist. Sleep…sleep was much needed. I never seemed to be able to get nearly enough of it.

I felt someone reaching over me to get the infernal contraption, to then drop it, swearing under his breath. The mattress dipped when he rolled off of the bed to retrieve the cordless. Or at least that was what it sounded and felt like.

To know for certain, I would’ve had to open my eyes, and that just wasn’t going to happen at this ungodly hour, whichever one that happened to be.

To confirm the time…ahh, screw it. Sleep. Now.

With no more phones.

Then my beloved pillow was ripped away, light piercing my clenched eyes. Groaning and rolling over a little, I blinked to see warm, brown eyes glittering at me.

“Morning,” Keoni mumbled groggily.

“It’s against the law to be morning. I declare it so.”

“Then why is the sun shining? I don’t know if it’s different in this part of the world, but where I come from that means daytime.”

“Are you always such a smartass?” I grumbled when he finished dragging the pillow from between my clenched fingers. Damn him.

“I try my best, and you’re teaching me more every day.” He grinned. “Yolie didn’t allow either of us speech often as she saw it as unneeded, so I’m severely out of practice. We weren’t kept for such things, though there were times she would speak to us.”

Ignoring yet another disturbing reference to his old life, I rolled over to stretch my body, my back arching ever so slightly. Loren’s mouth closed over my nipple, making me smile. My hand ran down his cheek as his warm, espresso eyes locked with mine, nuzzling me as his hand cupped the other.

Keoni’s tongue swirled over my belly, moving down to my apex, chuckling when my breath stopped. The tip swiped over my clit and I moaned for him.

My hand settled on Loren’s head, the other falling to the side of the bed where Adoniia caught it in his mouth, kissing one tip as he brought the phone to his ear.

It was always like that with my men and sex; instant and devastating. But then again, with them everything always was. All three had grown on me, in ways I had never expected before.

“Hello?” Adoniia yawned, and then it rang again, right in his ear and he jumped.

“Baby, you have to turn it on. Remember we talked about this.” I chuckled to myself. “The phone only works, after you press the green button.”

“Oh, right,” he murmured, pressing the key, and then placing it against his ear. “Hello?” he paused, listening. “Yes, this is he. Uh huh…what was that again?” Another moment. “You want me to do what?”

I watched every last change on his face, seeing emotions I’d hoped to have banished in my naivety. While I knew I couldn’t erase two-thousand years of his personal torture in thirty-days or less; in that one second, it was like we were back at square-one.

He allowed me to feel his growing concern, and something racing towards panic, but it was much more profound than such a weak word. I pushed Loren away, and climbed over Keoni to get to him. His hand gripped the edge of the mattress, other still clutching my hand, until all of his knuckles turned a harsh white.

I focused my finely-tuned hearing on what the person on the phone was saying. But I had to try and fight past his vulnerability that affected my own. He had come to depend on me on all levels, relying on my knowledge and how I handled things when something in the real world confounded him.

“You will be leaving this evening.”

Leaving for where? It was on the tip of my tongue to ask, but Loren’s slight body language told me he wanted silence, and I learned enough to pick up on the subtleties. When he stopped moving; it was absolute, until he was no more than a life-sized doll.

“But, I don’t know how to hunt,” Adoniia said quietly. “I have not been trained yet.”

My heart skipped three separate beats, each one providing an unsettling silence that stunted the aptitude for thought.

Adoniia spoke nothing but truth; he didn’t know how to hunt Rogues, no more than a well-kept pet for two millennia, with every need taken care for him. He still hadn’t learned how to survive outside of his habitat yet, without constant baby-sitting. Or at least that was my point of view. Those around me thought much differently.

“That doesn’t matter…”

Whoever it was would’ve continued, but Loren plucked the phone right from Adoniia’s ear, and sat up away from me. Whatever was going on, he knew exactly what was happening. I was lucky to even know half of it, if that.

His eyes were chillingly devoid of emotion, but only a testament to what he really was, and just how pissed he was about to become.

“Who is this?” Loren asked the question, however his tone told me all I needed to know.

“Hello, Loren,” a familiar voice titillated through the phone. My head cocked to one side, a sneer spreading across my lips. “This is Edgar, but of course you already knew that, didn’t you? You’re just playing around, I know. I’m so glad to…catch you while you’re free.”

“Cut the bullshit, Eddie.”

“You know better than to call me that. I come from a time when we didn’t shorten and degrade our given names in such a fashion. And come to think of it, so did you.”

“I only do it, because it pisses you off. And you know better than to call my residence. If you need me for something...”

“Oh but I want him, too. You’re going with him on this little escapade, out of town for a while.”

“What do you want with, Adoniia? The Cornwalls have many more able Hunters at their disposal, as does the Foxworths. We both know that, and I don’t understand why you would want the both of us...we aren’t even from the same Coven.”

I looked toward Keoni, the single calm person amidst the chaos that now made up our silent collective mind-set. My head was filled with his half-asked questions, and searching for the answers to accompany them.

He both understood, yet didn’t comprehend what challenges Adoniia would face in hunting a Rogue, who didn’t want to be caught or killed, especially with him being untrained in the ways of the Council. His Maker had gone to great lengths to avoid exposure to the establishment, and had completely succeeded in her quest to live unheeded by the many laws that made up the rest of our lives.

Why is this happening? I asked no one in particular, but Keoni was the one to answer with a rush of warm reassurance.

This Edgar is angry about being slighted, I believe. Over a few different matters, some of it I am not sure of. Loren is not telling you a lot I believe, though I am not clear on what it would be.

My eyes slid to the man in question, who hadn’t reacted in the slightest from the conversation with Keoni. He chucked sardonically in my head.

Your Loren has no clue that we speak. I would never allow that, never any that would cause you even the slightest bit of harm.

So you find need to hide us from him?

I do not think of it that way. He hides from you, but you do not possess the power to reciprocate. I just provide the means to level the playing field.

“Like what?” I said aloud before thinking about it. He didn’t answer, nor react.

“Is that your human thing?” Edgar asked with his voice thick with scorn.

Yea, he wasn’t my biggest fan. But not even he could contest my absolute clean-kill record, no matter what he thought of me. My stats were near-perfect, ranking right up there with any one of my brothers, and beating some of the hunting team’s totals from the surrounding Covens. I had the occasional ear of the Head of Canada, as an old-standing drinking-buddy, who ran in much the same circles as I. He actually asked my opinion over someone else’s, say like Edgar. But then again, I’d confer with a bug before this one.

“She has a name.” Loren growled. Adoniia’s wasn’t far after it.

“So? It does not mean I must use it.”

I flipped the phone off, and Keoni cracked a worried smile, but widened when Loren held his hand up, eyes pleading that I behave. He knew I could get carried away before I knew it.

Loren gritted his teeth, not responding right away while he gathered his thoughts. He really hadn’t been expecting this, but I was probably the only person in the room who didn’t know for sure if he were scrambling for a solution.

Adoniia was well schooled in carnal sin, but in almost all else, he was almost childlike in his quest to understand, to take everything apart to know what it did. And it wasn’t like we had hidden this fact from Edgar and his team when we approached them for registration from the ancients.

Had Edgar decided this because of that fact? I shook my head, to boot-fuck the stupidity that had suddenly come over me, infecting my rationale. Couldn’t have that. But it still didn’t stop my imagination running very vividly away from me.

Just because he can’t fight as well, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t win, my love. Adoniia is almost two thousand years old, as Keoni is. His power would wipe through almost any Rogue by sheer will alone. He isn’t like either of us, and even as a convert, he has shared Yolie’s blood centuries upon centuries exclusively. He is almost as powerful as Manuel, himself.

“You leave for Europe this evening. A very special assignment just for you, and one you will enjoy immensely, I assure you,” Edgar said gleefully. “This is a highly classified, dangerous mission. We will need…both of your expertise on this case. It is time those lollygaggers learn a time or two about who they consort with.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You think too much Loren, and do as you are told far too little, but because I am in such a good mood, I will throw you a bone. Just one word; Abellana.”

I wasn’t sure how something so frozen in time by his anger, could still anymore than he had, but he did. Something about the name triggered something deep within him, and I felt the malevolence simmering just below the surface.

“Say it again, at your own risk. Go any further, and it will be your death,” Loren said softly, between clenched teeth. “You know better.”

“It’s time you just do as ordered. Learn where your place in the pecking order is.”

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that, worm,” Loren thundered menacingly, but in complete contrast, sighed. No matter how much he hated it, he answered to the establishment the same as the rest of us. There wasn’t any point in arguing, when they could literally just break our will. “Then I will go, alone.”

“Tisk, tisk. This isn’t a discussion,” Edgar sang. “Or would you rather me send the convert? I could change my plans, you know. Did I mention I am in charge of this case, because the reasons for it being are living here, in Vancouver? I will call the shots, and you will kneel to my every wish. Or I will blow it all wide open. Understand?”

“Perfectly.” Loren grunted, looking at none of us, but we couldn’t exactly say the same.

I was in shock.

Perhaps if it had been another case, one not so close to my heart, I would’ve possessed enough intelligence to see the plot thickening to the point of suffocation around me.

And I was only at the tip of the iceberg of information, lying just out of my grasp, for now anyway.

Adoniia’s arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me backward, to press his cheek against my lower back. Some deep portion of my mind clicked, and it sunk in. There was nothing I could do about this, and no matter of whether Adoniia was of capable in theory, didn’t really make him able to put it into practice.

I had made him so many promises; safety, compassion and freedom. This one thing would take all of that away, placing him apart from everything he clung to while getting his bearings, including me.

“I will not allow Sara to go to Europe,” Loren replied, echoing my futile thoughts about Adoniia, with much the same savageness. “And you know damned well why.”

“Oh, not that convert,” Edgar said, sounding even more sinister. As if the little geek would have the balls in person. Only be on the phone would he dare to, where powers were near useless to most of our population. “That is tempting, and surprisingly enough, not a possibility I had considered until now. What say you Loren, do I send your little human bitch along with you for this task? She could help you, instead of her toy.”

I growled at the reference, much the same as Loren had of me. He looked at me strangely, and I swore I saw hurt there. Something I hated to witness, especially being the cause of it.

It was difficult sometimes to have so many men. Correction; it was very delicate to balance my relationship with Loren, and then Keoni and Adoniia, who went hand in hand. They were almost the same person, and I sensed they only put up with him, because of how I felt.

And then it sunk in who Edgar had meant…

“No, it can’t be Carl,” I whispered brokenly. That was even worse!

“Yes, I think that would be a good idea; for the newborn to accompany you, with the animosity toward you, and all.”

“It gives you great pleasure to piss me off, doesn’t it? Knowing that in a second, I would enjoy tearing your heart out, right from your throat.”

“Just as much, as you do purposely with me and my brethren. It is time for the payback. We will show you the strength of our control yet, Loren. We are moving in shortly, and will be neighbours. What do you think of that?”

“It will never happen. Manuel will do anything to see it not so, and he is a greater power than you will ever be.”

“There are ways around him.”

“And there are ways around you.”

“But this, Carl,” Edgar said. He obviously feeling, and succeeding that he’d gotten to Loren. “You wouldn’t care much in that thing gone. Would you? Most likely rejoice in whatever ended his pitiful, almost powerless existence. I just cannot see the point for why your most recent obsession with the female gene-pool thought him worthy of our existence. But then again that thing is perverse, unnatural, and I am not the only one to think so.”

“She’s a vampire, just like us,” he replied tiredly, like this was an overdone argument, one that I obviously didn’t hear as often as he did.

“That thing is nothing like us. They all should be exterminated.” Edgar lost his happy, conniving tone, replaced with absolute disgust that set my teeth on edge. “Especially that wilful, disobedient woman, along with the rest of the convert-garbage.”

“They are people too; vampires that strive to keep your kind happy, working their asses off to apply themselves to every single rule you set up for them, so they can survive into ‘adulthood’ without being slaughtered,” Loren said in a deadly voice.

He will break soon, Keoni told me sadly, but there was a distinct hard edge I’d never heard before while referencing Loren. Just what was going on behind the scenes here that had this much of an effect on my men? If he says what is really on his mind, he will damn himself far more than he already has.

“Keep talking, Loren, and I will send her without qualm,” Edgar said thoughtfully. “Alone and unguarded. And I’ll order your presence in Vancouver, without the chance of leaving the country, for the entire duration of this assignment.”

“Why are you doing this? You know we’re tied up right now.”

“Literally? See what happens when you get involved with the Cornwalls? That club and those ridiculous parties.”

“That feed countless vampires in a controlled, safe environment,” Loren snapped. “And you know what I meant. We’re busy with three new vampires, showing them this way of life.”

“There are many others who can show them whatever they like. Six hours, Loren. You and Adoniia better both be at headquarters. You’ll be briefed then.”

And Edgar hung up.

A sick, despairing lump had settled in my stomach. I stared into Adoniia’s cold crystal eyes, wondering if this would be the last time I ever saw him.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Vampire Coven Histories, By Kayden McLeod

The Blue Rose—Foxworth Coven


The Foxworth Coven have been in British Columbia for over four-hundred years—the very first vampires to stake claim to the western Canadian territory, before the density of human population flooded their wide birth of territory. Back then, the entire province was theirs—but now, since the arrival of new Covens, their lands have been reduced to the Fraser Valley, making their home in Surrey.

A hundred or so years ago, Henry and Anastasia Foxworth led a formidable group who followed them, complete with three sons to call their own. Two were born of their blood; Corbin and Gregory, and one rag-tag adopted son; Antonio.

They loved their sons as equals, but it wasn’t quite the same amongst them. Antonio was jealous, and caused a war that ended in the Leader’s deaths, forcing the Heir, Gregory to take the one job he never wanted; manning the Foxworth legacy; the Coven, along with the family endeavor, Foxworth Shipping; an import/export business.

Gregory had a vision for the balance of man and vampirekind. He wanted peace brought to his people, and he knew how to bring some semblance of it. For the first time in history, a vampire would prove to his government, the Council that by acting human—working with and not against them would bring on a new era. And he was right.

Gregory, along with his human-convert, Canya, led and lived by example. Not hiding in the wilds in solitary, but existing in the centre of society, with humanity. He showed his Coven members how to eat real food, work jobs and associate with humans, to make friends with them.

And by doing so, he created this North American country’s way of life—bringing with it, new conciliate laws into practice. With the help of a family friend and Head of Canada to the International Council, Manuel Martinez, these lands became different than anywhere else in the world, setting up practice for the future covens that migrated here.

Today, they sit as one of Canada’s most powerful and largest Covens, feared and respected in and out of North America. Their Hunters rival the best the Council can offer. They hold favor with many of the earth’s Deities—a feat very few can accomplish.

Gregory and Canya Foxworth have one daughter born of their blood, Josealynn, who is the current Heir. And four adopted children; Ceanna and Arcadia (twins), and Ambrosios and Doros (brothers).

The Red Rose—Cornwall Coven

The Cornwall Coven was the second group of vampire to inhabit British Columbia, subsequent to the Foxworths. They came to be in the late 1940’s, but the concept of this Coven didn’t begin in Canada, but in Europe.

Corrine Cornwall comes from a more traditional background, one that portrayed vampires like their namesake—the true monsters of myth and legend. She looked around her, feeling disgust—but she knew just as well as them, vampires were visitors in this world where man ran free. Their power and evolution on the food chain did not afford them the right to rule over anyone.

She left her Coven in the depths of Europe, to seek out a different kind of life. It didn’t take her long to stumble across two vampires; Ryder and Holly, both who were older than her and just as lost in their world as she was. As one, they traveled to Canada, hearing rumors of the Foxworth Coven, and their different ways of being—craving to have peace of mind that the typical wars of their kind would come to an end.

Despite their age, she adopted Holly and Ryder for the political reasons for obtaining her own Coven, and the territory to tend, knowing she would eventually need a mate to solidify her position.

Maximus Demarche, along with his only surviving blood-relative, Cassandra travelled the world, seeking to carve their niche out in the world. They had seen every land there was to see—and still didn’t find where they belonged. Until they found Corrine Cornwall and her two sons. On sight, Maximus staked his claim on Corrine; courted and mated with her, giving her what she wanted—a permanent and safe home.

Together, they looked at this new place, while Corrine tried out different business ventures over the years, quickly growing bored with them. And then the idea hit her late one night when one of her members was dragged in by the Council Hunters and declared Rogue for allowing his Curse to take too much control over him, killing a human by mistake too visually for the establishment to overlook. She’d known that young vampire honestly hadn’t meant to—not being in his right mind at the time. The fact that he had willingly gone into custody, head hung in shame had spurred her to make a life-changing business venture.

Corrine Cornwall conferred with the councilman, Manuel Martinez about her plans and ideas to create an environment for vampires that stuck closely to Canada’s strict codes of conduct. And the RedLine was born, a fetish club in downtown Vancouver, employed by vampires who watched over the humans and their kind alike.

In addition to the two adopted sons, Maximus and Corrine sired three sons; Kane, Samuel and Dante.

The Green Rose—Jericho Coven


Not long after the Cornwalls settled in Vancouver, a rush of smaller Covens came to Canada, specifically British Columbia to escape the horrors the world’s vampires had come to call life. This was spurred on by the Council and their greed that extended everywhere in some space or form; making them hope to find out more about this new way of life.

The Jerichos were one of them, the rest heading to the less populated areas of northern British Columbia. Darwyn and Ada Jericho took their roots in North Vancouver, where places like Grouse Mountain and other forest areas allowed them some privacy, while sticking close to the hustle and bustle of the two neighboring groupings of vampires.

But they didn’t have any interest in politics. Unless dragged into them, they preferred to only take care of their own. As the loners they are, no one really knows what to make of them—and the Jerichos prefer it that way.

Darwyn and Ada have three beloved sons of their blood; Ian, Cole and Adrian.