The Mistress of Trevelyan (48 page)

He prayed the Lykins didn’t realize how tenuous the situation was.  Were the Werearmy to join forces with the Slayers it would be very bad.  Eons ago, the Slayer’s trickery had started a war between the Lykins and the Breed.  They’d impersonated Vampires and Werewolves throughout the ages, slaughtering humankind by the masses.  Not that there weren’t rogue Breed and Lykins who crossed the Sacred Vow and killed humans, but generally both Vampire and Lykins protected the Creator’s weaker creation because humans had one gift that no other creation possessed.  It was the greatest, most powerful gift of all—love.  Humans were the wellspring of love.  Without humans no other creation could know love.

And Aerik had been alive long enough to revere that even though Blood Defenders avoided love.  Love left a warrior vulnerable and put a painful weapon into the hands of an enemy.  So even though his body throbbed from the tip of his fangs to the depths of his immortal soul, he refused to bring her into the cursed world in which he lived.

She poised her lips for an imaginary kiss, making him strain against the scrolled iron doors of the memorial crypt to see more of her, so wanting to fulfill her wish.  He breathed in her soft scent of seductive flowers and sweet blood--a torture he couldn’t resist.

Fisting his hands, he sank his fangs into the flesh of his mouth as desire rushed through him in a hot, muscle hardening wave of desperation.  As much as he tried, he’d been unable to assuage his need with another woman, mortal or immortal.

He should be known as Aerik the Foolish for living in this tormenting limbo.  Perhaps if he just kissed her once, he’d learn she wasn’t as he imagined.  He could do it.  He could steal into her room, put her into a trance, and kiss her.  No harm would be done to her. She’d only awaken the next morning with the sensation of having dreamed of something pleasurable.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t invited him to do so.  Many times.

He could do it tonight.  What harm could one kiss bring? 

Lightning ripped across the sky and the ground shook beneath the following crash of thunder.  Aerik clenched his teeth and glanced at the rapidly darkening sky.  His senses suddenly jumping to alert.  Something more than a storm threatened and had he had his mind where should have been, he’d have known it.

Before he could even scent the air, a blood thirsty howl roared over the echoes of thunder.

About the Author

What can I tell you about me?

I don’t play video games or watch horror because I can’t take the heat, but give me a kickass thriller every minute of every day and I am there. Be prepared for a Hoover Dam meltdown if you’re with me and the movie is sad. So, to avoid disaster, I love romantic comedies.

Never coffee. Always tea. Never beer. Always champagne. There’s more, but hey, gotta save some secrets until after the first date, right?

I grew up in Miami. Went to nursing school in Georgia, where I now reside. I raised and home schooled three great kids. I wrote for nine years before I sold a book, which made me a firm believer that a person should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP ON THEIR DREAMS.

I remember my father’s remark after a particularly scandalous story about one of my ancestors, a story that involves a conspiracy, treason, betrayal, murder, and execution, a story that after a drink or two in the bar, I might be enticed to share. Anyway, what my father said was, “You can’t keep a good man down.” And I kind of see that in myself. Not that I am necessarily good, because the definitions of moral words are often relative, but I do persevere, and I am resilient. Nothing in life has ever worked out the way I planned for it too. In many areas of my life, I have yet to reach the level I thought I would, of where I envisioned I would be, but I haven’t given up. I won’t give up. I continue to work hard and do everything I can to help who I can and to make my dreams come true.

Besides great kids, family, and friends, that perseverance has so far garnered me a USA Today Bestselling tag and twelve plus books on the shelf in a number of genres (contemporary romantic suspense, historical suspense, paranormal suspense, and contemporary romance). I’ve won a number of writing awards, two National Choice Awards, three Maggie Awards, a RT Book Club Reviewer’s Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award, the Marlene Award, and the Golden Heart Award to name most of them. I work with several amazing women in a charity to raise money for a shelter that helps abused and homeless women and children. I’ve revived my nursing career after a long hiatus, have renewed my license, and have found the right job for now.

I know there are many more great things ahead.

I write romance because I believe that when you boil all of life down to its essence, if you take a human being to the very core of his existence, then you will find that what matters more than anything else is to be loved and to give love.

Life is all about choices and to pull from one of Erich Fromm’s quote,
I choose to create and to love rather than destroy and to hate.

I hope you enjoy my stories.

Go forth, dream, believe, create, inspire, and love,

Jenni  (J.L. Saint, Jennifer St. Giles, Jennifer Saints)