Authors: Mary Lou George
Drawing Blood
Bloodstalker
Drawing Blood
Successful children's book illustrator Holly Seaton is no stranger to the paranormal. With her artist's hand, she creates magical beings of myth and fantasy. Little does she know some of these creatures actually exist and she just met one in the supermarket.
Stryker Cain is a vampire on a crucial mission to save his people from extinction. For years he's been settling small enclaves of vampires amidst human communities all over the world. Stryker has deadly enemies, people who will stop at nothing to destroy his dream. He doesn't have time to deal with the complex feelings Holly engenders within him, but some things can't be pushed aside. She's his bloodmate. The one person a vampire cannot deny.
When innocent people close to him are murdered, Stryker is forced to pull Holly into his world in order to keep her safe. But is Holly the one who will need saving?
Genre:
Romantic Suspense/Vampires/Werewolves
Length:
88,265 words
DRAWING BLOOD
Bloodstalker
Mary Lou George
ROMANCE
www.BookStrand.com
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A SIREN-BOOKSTRAND TITLE
IMPRINT: Romance
DRAWING BLOOD
Copyright © 2009 by Mary Lou George
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-427-7
First E-book Publication: June 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
Muskoka photo by Alex von Einsiedel
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
www.BookStrand.com
DEDICATION
For my cousin Terri who taught me the rules of romance.
Bloodstalker
MARY LOU GEORGE
Copyright © 2009
Prologue
Their leader would bring a new era for his kind. It wouldn’t be easy. They had to take it slowly in the beginning or run the risk of being misunderstood, feared, hunted, and in the end destroyed. In the past under lesser leadership, they’d almost been wiped off the face of the earth, forced to scurry underground, forced to stay with their own kind. Now their numbers had grown and so had their hope. Evolution had been kind to them, their bloodlust tempered by science and deeper understanding. No longer creatures of fable at the mercy of their hunger, they would venture beyond their world to seek a place in a far bigger one. Could they make a difference, maybe even save humankind from their folly? Perhaps it would happen gradually, carefully with him as the first, selected for his strength, wisdom and commitment. The human world awaited. He was ready.
Chapter 1
Holly Seaton enjoyed shopping in Bracebridge. The people were so friendly. She’d lived in the community for over a year now and still marveled at how much fun she had coming to town. It didn’t matter what store she stepped into, she was greeted with genuine pleasure. Holly wondered if the people in Muskoka were just happier by nature. Again she said a silent word of thanks that she’d left
Toronto
and moved north to cottage country. For the first time in her life, she was accepted and loved for who she was and not what others wanted her to be. It hadn’t been easy though. Her overprotective father had resisted.
“Don’t you believe in me, Father?” Holly had asked. She needn’t have bothered. She knew the answer.
He scowled at her. “I think you’re being foolish. You have a secure job at the firm and a perfectly good home here in
Toronto
with family who can take care of you. Your condition…you need us. Why would you want to move away from your job, your home, and your loving family?”
Holly could answer that question for him, but decided not to. She had no desire to provoke his temper. It was supposed to be a happy occasion, a celebrated announcement. She was excited and longed to share that feeling with her family. This was what she’d always dreamed of. Holly had drawn the illustrations for a series of children’s books her best friend Avery had written. What started out as a lark, became a best selling series. Now Holly and Avery worked together doing something they loved. Since the work was so lucrative, she’d hoped her father would be happy for her. Alan G. Seaton understood success better than anyone. In the business world, the name Seaton was synonymous with success. Holly’s father walked with the world’s financial giants. Her brother and sister worked with him, two perfectly formed chips off a most impressive block. Holly had been his one disappointment. She had no interest in the economics of profit, so a high-powered career in one of her father’s companies had been out of the question.
She loved her family, but she didn’t fit in their fast-paced, urban world. Holly Seaton was a square peg sanded down and forced to squeeze in a round hole, but in the small town of
Bracebridge
, Holly fit—with room to grow.
She parked her car in the parking lot and strolled into the grocery store. She wasn’t in a hurry and glancing around noticed that neither was anyone else. She smiled at perfect strangers who smiled back. Everything moved at a more leisurely pace in the country. Cashiers actually chatted with their customers. Their good nature was valued above their ability to check out the maximum number of people in an hour. This particular grocery store wasn’t glamorous and didn’t carry fifteen different kinds of mustard, but it had an ample selection of prepared meals. Since Holly didn’t cook much, she made good use of what was offered.
Comfort food, arranged in an attractive display sat packaged and chilled, just waiting for her weekly visit. Looking for the best before-date, Holly bent and grabbed a sealed dish of chicken penne.
The fever hit with a swiftness that almost brought her to her knees and she swayed with vertigo. The package fell from her fingers to the floor. A bolt of electricity speared her spine. She clawed at the refrigerated shelf to keep from joining the dish on the floor. The shock eased off almost as quickly as it struck, but from the small of her back to the nape of her neck, Holly could still feel a strange residual tingling. One of her knees buckled. Unable to withstand the extra stress, the other one gave way as well. If he hadn’t caught her, she’d have bounced off the prepared foods shelf and slumped to the ground.
“Are you okay?” an urgent voice asked.
Holly looked up into the face of a stranger. But what a face!
Stunned, she stared blankly at him then cast her glance down the length of him. What a body!
He held her weight effortlessly and for a second it didn’t occur to her not to let him. Well over six feet tall, the stranger was hard muscled with boy-next-door kind of good looks. He was definitely not her usual type, but bewildered, she found herself smiling back at him, feeling almost compelled to do so, like he’d willed it. A buzzing sound started in her head. Charisma wafted off him like dust clouded Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoons. When she narrowed her eyes, Holly could actually see it and shuddered with reaction.
This wasn’t the first time Holly had seen a person’s aura, but it was the first time she’d been so affected by one. Dazed, she realized she was staring at him in silence. He looked down at her with an expectant expression on his face as if waiting for her to speak.