Suddenly Sam (The October Trilogy) (23 page)

Dietrich had
barely had time to realize where he was and that he was no longer a goblin, before he was thanking the gods that he’d had the foresight to purchase his bags of candy weeks in advance. He’d placed them beside the front door, and he was grateful for that as well. When the kids knocked a second time, Dietrich picked the bags up, ripped them open, and allowed the kids to pull as much out as they wanted.

Seven large bags, and he’d run out at five minutes to eleven.
Then he’d gone directly to his bed and passed out.

It had been a long five days since then. And n
ow it was nearly midnight, and as far as he was concerned, far too late for visitors.

He was exhausted.

He had a lot on his mind.

He had just poured himself a drink.

The knock came again, and Dietrich ran a frustrated hand over his face. He got up from the dining room table and opened the front door.

“Hello,” came a familiar voice.

Hugh Draper stood on Dietrich’s threshold, a hat in his hands, his expression utterly lost.

Their eyes met. Shared experiences passed back and forth in the space between them.
Dietrich released the door handle and said, “I was just pouring myself a drink and wondering what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”

Hugh Draper digested Dietrich’s w
ords without missing a beat. “I’ve been trying to accept the rather shocking revelation that I’m not actually a wizard but a Roman soldier sent traveling through time because I was caught up as a sacrifice in a witch’s spell. I have no magic abilities at all whatsoever,” he said. “In fact, it took me five days to figure out where you lived.”

Dietrich, in turn, digested Draper’s words.

And then he stepped back and gestured for Draper to come inside.  “Come in. I’ll pour you a drink too.”

As he closed the door on the outside world, an idea occurred to him. “You think you might ever consider teaching
high school history?”

The End.

*Author’s Note: This may not be exactly how it all
happened. But I do know this for certain. I’ve got fifty years left... give or take.

Releasing November 1, 2013

The first in an all new open-ended paranormal romance series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Heather Killough-Walden!

Third time’s the charm.

In the steamy aftermath of a Baton Rouge day, in the depths of a king's luxurious mansion, a man with blue eyes dreams of a woman….

Emma Rose Nekoda is a girl with a painful past who relies on the love of her last living relative, her brother, and the joy of her work as a photographer to get her from day to day. But her memories have scarred her deeper than she admits, and her past is more dangerous than she knows. As she travels to the mist-filled streets of New Orleans for the opening of her first gallery showing, she is completely unaware that she has been ear marked for something greater - and more terrifying - than most people could have imagined.

Dorian Adalard has lived several lifetimes, but the moment the woman appears in his dreams will forever be marked in his memory. The faint sadness in her beautiful smile haunts Dorian's night and follows him into the daylight, chasing his heels like a beast, no matter how hard he pushes his bike, no matter how many laws he breaks on his way from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

It only gets worse when later that day, he looks up to find his dream girl watching him from the sidewalk of a busy New Orleans street.  A nymph in blue jeans with wild hair and big eyes, she fills Dorian with an inexplicable and unshakable desire – to protect… and to devour.

And he knows who she is. For she is unique; there has never been another born like her. But she is not meant for him. She is the foretold queen meant for his brother – the beautiful, sadistic, and all too powerful vampire king.

Forever a changed man, Dorian finds himself breaking tradition, bucking vampire law, and going up against a veritable army and its ruthless master to save the woman he loves from the man he loathes – taking Emma along for the pulse-pounding, life-altering ride.

This new open-ended vampire romance series by New York Times best selling romance author, Heather Killough-Walden is unlike any published before. Delve into the supernatural darkness of a Louisiana night, and learn that for a Harley-riding vampire with eyes like ice and blood like fire, t
here is nothing quite so alluring as the woman your brother wants.

The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream by Heather Killough-Walden

Coming November 1, 2013

(Read on for a delicious teaser!)

Teaser for The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream, by Heather Killough-Walden

Coming November 1, 2013

“Twenty
friggin’ dollars for one friggin’ hour….” she mumbled as she rubbed her left butt cheek and then her right. Halfway out of the dark cement building, she paused, lifted her leg behind her in a yoga-esque quad stretch, and then did the same on the other side. She was sore and tired and extremely hungry. Her hair was frizzy and flat at the same time, and any makeup she’d applied eleven hours ago had long since evaporated into the interior of her car. She wanted a long, hot shower, a filling meal, and a soft bed. Her brother had better have a plan for tonight.

As she reached the entrance to the garage, she forced a friendly smile for the attendant, who nodded in her direction
. Then she was out in the New Orleans night, her feet pounding the pavement at a quick pace. The French Quarter was not a place for a woman to roam alone after dusk, but luckily, her brother’s gallery was just around the corner.

She kept her head up and her shoulders back and peered into every shadow as she passed by the alleyways, giving them wide berth and keeping as much to the lamplight as possible. Finally, she came to the intersection and turned the corner just as a Harley roared to life across the street.

Because she was always subconsciously hoping for that gorgeous hunk of a biker, she turned in that direction to see who had started the engine.

“Oh no. You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Emma actually came to a standstill when the man gracefully leaned into the bike and straightened it out, kicking the stand up with his motorcycle boot.

She didn’t normally fall for blonds. She preferred
the tall-dark-and-handsomes that every other red-blooded American female in existence fell for. But something about this guy grabbed her attention and held tight. As she watched the muscles of his long, strong legs flex beneath his tight jeans, a little voice inside her head gently reminded her that she looked like crap and probably didn’t smell all that great either.

She ignored the voice and kept staring. His hair fell to his shoulders in careless waves
, and as he gripped the handlebars of his Harley Night Train, his biceps and triceps bulged against his tight, black T-shirt. Offhand, she wondered what it would feel like to be held down by those arms, to be wrapped up in them, to have those long legs between her—

The man looked up, as if he could sense he was being watched, and their eyes met
. His were a piercing ice-blue, and even from this distance, their stark, intense color made her gasp.

She tried to blink and couldn’t. She tried to look away, to pretend she hadn’t noticed him, but like an idiot, she continued to stand there, continued to stare, and vaguely, as if in a dream, she realized that her mouth was hanging open.

The man slowly stood to his full, impressive height. His long, muscled legs straddled the bike as he pinned her with a gaze that said he had damn well noticed her and that there was no way in hell she could pretend to not have noticed him too.

For what seemed like a full minute, the two of them stared at
one another. Him with his bike idling in that delicious, low rumble, her with the New Orleans breeze blowing her wild, unkempt hair about her face like a golden halo.

Finally, as if he had all the time in the world, the man eased himself back down onto the bike, never taking his eyes off her. He revved the engine a few times and began to pull away from the parking space and into the street. Still, he watched her.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet and didn’t seem to have one attached anywhere on the bike.
Stupid man
, Emma thought.
Stupid, gorgeous hunk of a man
.

And then he smiled.

Emma stopped breathing. It was a stunning smile. He had the most sensual lips that were curved by that smile into a line both enticing—and a little cruel.

As the man at last turned away from her to pay attention to the road and cars ahead, she realized
that it had been far from a mere friendly smile.

There had been promise in that smile. And lots of it.

- The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream by Heather Killough-Walden

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Heather Killough-Walden Reading List

The Lost Angels series:

Always Angel (eBook-only introductory novella)

Avenger's Angel

Messenger's Angel

Death's Angel

Warrior's Angel (release date TBA)

Samael (release date TBA)

The October Trilogy:

Sam I Am

Secretly Sam

Suddenly Sam

Neverland Trilogy:

Forever Neverland

Beyond Neverland (release date TBA)

The Big Bad Wolf series:

The Heat (no longer available separately - purchase in the Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation)

The Strip (no longer available separately - purchase in the Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation)

The Spell

The Hunt

The Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation (all four books together, in proper chronological order)

The Kings - A Big Bad Wolf spinoff series:

The Vampire King

The Phantom King

The Warlock King

The Goblin King

(future The Kings books TBA; at least 13 total)

The Chosen Soul Trilogy:

The Chosen Soul

Drake of Tanith

Queen of Abaddon (release date TBA; 2013)

Redeemer
 (stand-alone)

Hell Bent 
(stand-alone)

Vampire, Vampire
 (stand-alone)

A Sinister Game
 (stand-alone)

The Third Kiss series:

Dorian's Dream (release date November 1, 2013
)

Aleksei's Dream (release date TBA)

(future The Third Kiss books TBA; open-ended series)

Note: The Lost Angels series (not including Always Angel) is available in print and eBook format. All other HKW books are currently eBook-only.