Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire

BOOK: Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire
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Praise for Laura Wright
and the Mark of the Vampire Series

Eternal Kiss

“Complex and riveting.”


Romantic Times
(4 stars)

 

“A superb urban romantic fantasy due to the powerful Wright mythos that makes the realm of the Eternal Order seem genuine.…This author clearly has the Wright stuff with the complicated world of the Roman vampire brothers.”

—The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews

 

“I fell in love with book one in this series, but this second addition moved me from innocent love to full-blown love addiction.…[I] could not put it down.”

—Shameless Romance Reviews (5 stars)

 

“The romance is rich in emotion and the plot infuses danger and nail-biting action. The journey was so exciting! It was rife with chills and thrills, and altogether it never failed to keep my attention.…[This] was a great ride where a sweep-you-off-your-feet romance ignites within a high-risk plot. Laura Wright has found her niche in the paranormal romance genre with her larger-than-life Roman brothers!”

—Leontine’s Book Realm

 

Eternal Hunger

“Dark, delicious, and sinfully good,
Eternal Hunger
is a stunning start to what promises to be an addictive new series. I can’t wait for more from Laura Wright.”

—Nalini Singh,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Bonds of Justice

 

“Action, passion, and dark suspense launch a riveting new series. Laura Wright knows how to lure you in and hold you captive until the last page.”

—Larissa Ione,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Ecstasy Unveiled

 

“Dark, sexy vampires with an urban bite make
Eternal Hunger
a must read.”

—Jessica Andersen, author of
Storm Kissed

 

“Paranormal fans with a penchant for vamps will find
Eternal Hunger
a must read, but be warned, you will quickly become hooked!”

—The Romance Readers Connection (4½ stars)

 


Eternal Hunger
is deliciously dark while making you believe in the concept of soul mates.”

—Fresh Fiction

 

“An exhilarating vampire romance…dark, passionate, and utterly intoxicating!”

—Reader to Reader Reviews

 

“In a field brimming with rehashes of the same theme, Wright has managed to create a sound, believable vampire culture with plenty of tension and interesting plot points. The pacing is smooth, with well-developed characters, and the satisfying conclusion leaves ample room for more from this strong new series.”

—Monsters and Critics

 

Also by Laura Wright

The Mark of the Vampire Series

Eternal Hunger

Eternal Kiss

E
TERNAL
C
APTIVE

MARK OF THE VAMPIRE

 

LAURA WRIGHT

 

A SIGNET ECLIPSE BOOK

SIGNET ECLIPSE

Published by New American Library, a division of

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, February 2012

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

EISBN: 9781101575109

Copyright © Laura Wright, 2012

All rights reserved

SIGNET ECLIPSE and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

   The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

To you, my readers, who love these boys just
as much as I do

G
LOSSARY
 

Balas
—Vampire child.

The Breeding Male
—A
paven
of purest blood whose genetic code and structure has been altered by the Eternal Order. He has the ability to impregnate at will and decide the sex of the
balas
. He is brought in by Pureblood families and/or to repopulate one sex or the other in times of dire necessity. He is uncontrollable, near to an animal, and must be caged.

Credenti
—A vampire community, ruled and protected by the Eternal Order. Both Purebloods and Impures live here. There are many all over the world, masked by the Order so that humans barely notice their existence.

Duro
—Tender word for “brother.”

Eternal Order
—The ten Pureblood vampires who have passed on to the middle world, yet make the laws, punish the lawbreakers, and govern every vampire
credenti
on Earth.

Eyes—
The New York City street rats who run the sales of drugs, blood, and body to both human and vampire.

Gemino

Twin.

Gravo
—Poisoned vampire blood.

Imiti
—An imitation vampire, one who can take on the characteristics of a vampire if he or she drinks blood regularly.

Impurebloods
—Any combination of human and vampire. They have no powers, a heartbeat, and can live in the sun. They only have fangs when blood is consumed. Males are blood castrated, their sex drive removed through the blood by the Order. Females are blood sterilized and the inside of their thighs are branded with
I
s.

Meta
—A pureblood female of fifty years, she can still remain in sunlight, but needs the blood and body of her true mate.

Mondrar
—Vampire prison.

Morpho
—A pureblood
paven
of three hundred years; as powerful as a
paven
can get. He is sunlight intolerant, and the need to find his true mate becomes impossible to deny.

Mutore

A Pureblood vampire shape-shifter. A Beast. A child of the Breeding Male gone wrong. Is considered less than trash, and a bad omen on the Breed. Is usually killed right after birth when they shift for the first time.

Paleo—
The Order’s secret location where Impures are blood castrated.

Paven
—A vampire male of pure blood.

Pureblood—
Pure vampire. Powerful, no heartbeat, will go through Morpho and Meta and find their pureblood true mate.

Puritita
—One who is chaste.

Sacro
—Dirty.

Similis
—The Impure guards of Mondrar.

Swell
—Vampire pregnancy.

Tegga
—Nursemaid/nanny/governess.

True Mate
—The one each Pureblood
veana
and
paven
is destined for. Each shares an identical or complementary mark somewhere on their skin.

Veana
—A vampire female of pure blood.

Veracou—
The mating ceremony between two pureblood vampires.

Virgini
—Virgin.

Witte
—Animal.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Breeding Male

1 Mark of the Veana

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Prologue
T
HE
B
REEDING
M
ALE
 

Scotland

1872

T
itus Evictus paced in his iron enclosure, his fangs fully extended, his pale eyes dilated, his long, heavily muscled body nude save for the painful iron cup that imprisoned his cock. There were moments in his miserable existence, brief and gleefully hopeful, when he felt less than rabid, when his mind attempted to clear away the fog, when the scent of blood was not ever-deep inside his nostrils—and when the call of a warm, wet pussy didn’t send his body into spasms of painful arousal.

That day, however, was not today.

A
veana
was being led into his pen by two short
pavens
with long braided beards. Her kin. He recognized their scent from the night before. The
veana
struggled and grunted and breathed heavily, the scents
of peat smoke and the spray of the sea escaping her skin. Though his nostrils flared and his mouth filled with saliva, Titus kept his back to the iron wall and his eyes down. After so many years of this delectable, tortuous labor, he now refused to look at the faces of the
veanas
that were brought before him.

BOOK: Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire
3.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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