Authors: Inez Kelley
Tags: #Adult, #Angels, #Bad Boy, #Demons, #Paranormal Romance
Deliberately, she lay beside Erik. Resting her head on his shoulder calmed her racing heart. Just the scent of his sleeping skin soothed her. He was what she needed to be able to live without her sister.
Erik stirred. A low murmur, not quite a yawn, echoed from his chest. His arms lost the rigidness of healing sleep and he relaxed, sinking deeper into the mattress. The blanket rustled as he turned on his side, struggling to find one more minute of sleep, a sleep that was normal, not curative. Lacy traced her finger over his nose.
His eyes flew wide. “Lacy?”
“Hi, hero.”
He shot straight up, arching over her. His eyes frantically skimmed over her face and his hand trembled as he reached down, touching her cheek. “Sweet Bestla, you are real. How..? I mean, you’re… Lace, what happened?”
Tears blurred her vision, but they were happy ones, free of salt and pain. “Sela gave me the choice to sleep or stay. I couldn’t leave you, Erik. I love you.”
Erik pulled back, moving away from her until he stood by the bed. He went to his knees. His dagger disappeared from his tattooed biceps and appeared in his hand. He laced his fingers in hers around the hilt and lowered his brow to their clasped hands.
“I swear on my blood, on the blood of my fathers, I will never fail you again. I love you, Lace, with every breath in my body, with every beat of my heart, with every ounce of my strength. You made me more than I ever thought I could be and my soul belongs to you forevermore. You are my salvation.”
The strength in his grip made her fingers throb then go numb but she never thought of pulling away. Something in his voice, in his reverent tone, carried a symbolic meaning. Her breath caught. This felt like what she’d always imagined her wedding would feel like. She pressed her lips to his crown.
“I swear on my blood, on the blood of all those who came before me, that I will never stop loving you. You are my Viking, my warrior, my hero in every sense of the word. You make me feel cherished and honored and my soul belongs to you forevermore. You are my destiny.”
The sunlight turned from white to gold and faded to dusk as they affirmed their love, melding bodies and souls until they were no longer two parts but a whole. Together, for all eternity.
Baddest Boys in History
Book Two
THE ADDICT
Coming Fall 2014
Sex is a drug and Rex is addicted. His motto is fuck or fight and he’s proficient at both. If he stops for even a minute, then he’ll feel and that’s never a good thing. Rex doesn't feel anything but pleasure... he refuses. Sex keeps him comfortably numb to everything except battle. Readying the Righteous to fight on Earth is putting a serious kink in his sex life. Then he meets his new assistant and is really screwed.
Tia was a Greek scholar and mathematician but has been Awoken as a Soul-Leech to aid the Forsaken in their mission. Cold and calculating, she disdains all things sexual, especially Rex. But the evil taint on her soul leaves her open to temptation and makes her question everything about this new life. Where does her loyalty truly lie, with Rex... or with Samael?
INEZ KELLEY was born and bred in the mountains of West Virginia. She currently resides in there with her lumberjack husband, their teenage drama queen, Spawnetta, and the Demolition Duo – Damien and his twin, the Omen.
You can visit her website
http://inezkelley.com/
on twitter at
@Inez_Kelley
on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/inez.kelley
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Other books by Inez Kelley
Contemporary Romance
SWEET AS SIN
She was made for sin. Sin was something he knew intimately
.
TURN IT UP
Talk is Foreplay… Use it
.
TAKE ME HOME (Country Roads #1)
“Never has maple syrup sex more honestly earned its place in a romance novel.” – Tessa Dare
THE PLACE I BELONG (Country Roads #2)
“Could she fight with him in the boardroom and play with him in the bedroom?
SHOULD’VE BEEN HOME YESTERDAY (Country Roads #3)
Guy code rule number one: never mess with your best friend’s sister.
Coming July 2014 to AMZ / BN / ARe / CP / iBk
JINXED
(Romantic comedy)
When opposites attract, they are screwed three ways from Sunday.
Erotic Romance
COMING CLEAN (Dirty Laundry miniseries)
Coming clean never felt so good
…
TALK DIRTY TO ME (Dirty Laundry miniseries)
Co-authored with Ginny Glass
“Did that straight-laced tweed go down to his bones or was there a naughty professor lurking under that oxford shirt?”
LIPSTICK ON HIS COLLAR
“Make me your goddess and I’ll take you to heaven.”
Fantasy Romance
MYLA BY MOONLIGHT (Eldwyn Chronicles #1)
Magic bites…and so does Myla.
SALOME AT SUNRISE (Eldwyn Chronicles #2)
It’s not nice to piss off Mother Nature
…
TIME DANCER (Eldwyn Chronicles #3)
Time waits for no man. But for a woman
…
Dear Readers,
(You have no idea how much I love writing that. Readers. I have readers! I don’t think I will ever get over the joy in that phrase.)
To me, villains were always far more interesting than heroes. When I set out to combine my multiple love of history and romance, I delved into the research. I didn’t want to rewrite history so much as to know why and how it came about. No human being is without flaws and no one without redeeming qualities. That is what I hope to show in this series.
I set my story in motion before the dawn of historical recording and ended the Awoken selection before modern artistry or photography for a reason. The mind is a much better image creator than paint or film. I wanted the reader to be able to picture my characters without the influence of someone else. Even the last Forsaken, Dray, is physically an unknown. The most well known ‘images’ of him were created after his death and no two match completely.
That isn’t to say I didn’t come up against some iron-clad facts. History may be fickle, but it is all we have as a record keeping source. I tried to stay as true to those ‘truths’ as I could. Dray had deep-set, dark green eyes and was a sadist. Rex had dark blond hair, blue eyes and an insatiable sexual appetite. Vike really did have sixteen brothers and, yes, he killed eleven of them. He was also hen-pecked and ruled by his wife, the Mother of Kings.
I was able to take more liberties with Zale, Myth and Nomad, but even they have accepted ‘facts’ based in folklore and I kept as much of the common beliefs as I could. In the same vein, I drew from several religions and there is no one correct way to interpret The Creator of All.
I spent two years researching, crafting this world and its mythos, and wondering how these historically renown evil men dealt with love. And they were so bad, so violent, what better way to redeem them than to force them to fight for the good of mankind? But, of course, I had to let them do it their way.
The book, and the entire series, spawned from two different conversations with two very different groups of women. Thank you, Romance Divas and TKers! The Rat Chatters are a collective of zany, nutty, utterly crazy people who have kept me mostly sane while writing this and I could never have done it without them. A huge thank you to those who beta read for me, who nitpicked and nagged. I adore you.
Thanks to Denise Grover Swank, Zoe York, and Lanie Jordan, who have been my publishing gurus and held my cyber hand many times while on this venture.
-Inez Kelley
Forsaken Cheat Sheet
AWOKEN – Gift of Second Life bestowed by a Vangeli through the Breath of Life. The Awoken body is brought back to life with full memories and consciousness, although the original body has been destroyed. All illnesses or wounds are healed, physical imperfections corrected, and the soul restored. All self-intended marks, such as tattoos or markings, are recreated. There are two groups of Awoken on the side of Good:
FORSAKEN – Mortals Awoken by Josiel (Sela) to serve on the earthly plane and fight against the Third rising. The title comes from her choice to Awaken those souls best remembered in history for their evil deeds, those who were vilified and despised. She could only Awaken seventy-seven and has reached that limit. The most Forsaken living at one time numbered thirty-four. Now they stand at six.
RIGHTEOUS – Mortals Awoken by Michael to serve on the heavenly plane and fight against the Third rising. The title comes from his choice to Awaken those souls best remembered in history for their heroic deeds, those who were praised and celebrated. He could only Awaken seventy-seven and has reached that limit. The most living Righteous at one time numbered seventy-two. Now they stand at sixty-seven.
AWOKEN VOWS – Sworn pledge made by those Awoken.
“I, NAME OF AWOKEN, do swear by my blood and my soul to obey you, NAME OF AWAKING VANGELI, under the Creator of All, to use all of my wits and strength to defeat those who would destroy all good. I kneel before you and accept your Mark. I vow to fight the horde of evil, to defend those whose blood sings to me, and to guard my brethren from all harm.”
BARZAKH – (Arabic: برزخ), a term that appears in the Qur'an Surah 23, Ayat 100. Unlike the Christian idea of purgatory, it is merely a deep soul sleep, without conscious awareness. All souls who suffer First Death go to
Barzakh
to await final Judgment at the End of Days, unless they have been Awoken for another purpose.
BREATH OF LIFE – The instance of rebirth or transfiguration administered by a higher being breathing to a lifeless form. Example: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Holy Bible, Genesis 2:7, NIV.
CAKE – Informal slang term adopted by the Forsaken to mean a mortal who has been Tasted but not transformed into a Soul-Leech. Derivative of “Tasty Cake/Tasty Kake.”
CHERUBIM – Foot soldiers in Heaven, the masses. Evil equivalent – Soul-Leeches.
CHIEF – Highest rank and most powerful of Fallen Vachangelus who rallied behind Samael and now serve him on the earthly plane. Heavenly equivalent – Archangel. Names: Ramiel, Ashmedai, Tamiel, Zaqiel, Barachiel, and Naamah.
CREATOR OF ALL – In any of his thousands of names and faiths, i.e. God, Father, Lord, Ra, Apollo, Allah, The Great Spirit, Dha-shi-zhi, Akongo, Eloi, etc.
DREGS – Where collected soul-dust of vanquished Soul-Leeches await beneath the Forsaken compound.
END OF DAYS – Judgment Day, when all souls in
Barzakh
will be awoken by the Creator of All.
EYTS VANGELUS – Tree of Angels – Recorded by the Watchers, this is a genealogical lineage of all mortals born from the union of male Vangelus and mortal women.
FIRST DEATH – Death of the mortal body. For those not Awoken, this is the beginning of
Barzakh
.
FORSAKEN MARK – Sela’s handprint, divinely burned between their shoulder blades as a reminder they are to guard each other’s backs. The Mark tingles when a Soul-Leech is near and acts as a link, alerting each Awoken when Sela calls them or when one of them has fallen or is gravely injured.
GĒHANNĀ – Yiddish (g'hehn-uh) or Gehinnom Hebrew (g'hee-nohm) – A place of spiritual punishment and/or purification. It is often referred to as Valley of the Son of Hinnom or valley of the wicked. Followers of various Ba’als and Canaanite gods used this place as a sacrificial burning field and offered their children to the gods. In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scripture, Gehenna is a destination of the wicked. It is translated into “HELL” in most Christian texts.
GLEANERS – Invisible Vangelus who gather mortal soul-dust when a mortal dies. They transport this dust to the sacred wall, where the soul waits in
Barzakh
in crystal boxes.
H2Q – Handler Headquarters.
HANDLER – On Earth, the Forsaken have created a false security company to help hide their identities and activities, Black Handle Security. Handlers are what they call each other within earshot of mortals.
HA-SATAN – The Accuser/The Adversary. The first Vangeli created in Heaven, Samael. Once considered the Prince of Heaven, he ruled above The Patricius and was second only to the Creator of All. He was not originally conceived as evil. Greed and arrogance led him to organize a revolt in Heaven. All his followers were cast out.