Warm up Those Winter Nights!!

Hi, everyone!  I want to thank CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH THE NIGHT KIND for having me today as part of my WARM-UP-YOUR-WINTER BLOG TOUR.  On most of the blogs on this tour, I’ll be revealing excerpts from the sixth book in my vampire series called, GATES OF RAPTURE (12/24).  I created the tour with the hope that you might get to know my Guardians of Ascension, who are my most beloved winged vampire warriors.  I know the covers have wings on them, but the books aren’t about angels AT ALL…just vampires…with wings.  I also have goodies for you to win, details to follow!

GATES OF RAPTURE is the sixth installment of Guardians of Ascension and features Warrior Leto, a famous, ancient Warrior of the Blood, six-six, long straight black hair, piercing blue eyes, and built to battle death vampires for centuries and drive the ladies crazy!  Major yummy!

Today, Grace has joined Warrior Leto at the newly created Warrior Games, a competitive event designed to build a brotherhood feel among the Militia Warriors who serve the Mortal Earth hidden colonies.  Grace has only recently returned to Mortal Earth and to Leto.  She’s still uncertain about how she fits in and whether she will truly have a future with Leto…

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5 :

Grace thought Leto’s speech was absolutely perfect.  She was proud to be seated beside him.  She had her arm hooked around his and had begun to feel a little more at ease.

He leaned forward, his gaze fixed on the runners in the mile long race that ran in an oval around the entire field.  He never let his eyes leave the field as he leaned down and spoke to Grace.  “The man in the lead is from the Republic of Chad Two.  A powerful Seer.  He’s very fast and one of our best swordsmen.  Jean-Pierre thinks that with a little work, and some of Jean-Pierre’s power, he could be brought up to What-Bee status.”

            So this was the world Leto had built since she’d left.  Yes, everything had changed.

            All those months ago, he had been near-death because of his refusal to take dying blood anymore.  He’d also been severely depressed. 

Now, he was a different man, a new man.

            And at times, a beast-man.

            She glanced at Fiona to her right.  Jean-Pierre had his long fingers massaging the back of Fiona’s neck and he was kissing her and murmuring things in her ear that sounded like French.  They were so in love.

            She looked up at Leto again.  She knew she loved him, but could they truly have a forever kind of love?  He had been through so much and she could once more sense in him a holding back, even a sense of guilt and unworthiness, that kept him in a tense state.  She felt his restraint, even toward her, even as he desired her.  Could they build a life together with so much between them?

Grace felt the bench move.  She glanced to her left at Marguerite who bounced next to Thorne.  His hands never seemed to leave her, always touching her shoulders, her arms, her hands and sometimes her belly.  And when she asked for popcorn, he leaped up and moved so fast, the vendor at the bottom of the grandstand stumbled and would have fallen backward if Thorne hadn’t caught him.

            How much her brother had changed and he had made her an aunt-to-be.  He was in love, too.  Breh-hedden love.

            She turned back to Leto.  She had her arm around his, her hand on his arm.  An intense desire to belong washed over her, not just to be Leto’s breh, but to have a place in this community.  And yet, this group of ascenders disturbed her because the men were warriors and she had always loathed the war.  Patience’s disappearance had driven a final wedge between her and a willingness to be involved.

Yet even her former refusal to participate in the war had changed.  She had come back, determined to do what she could to bring Greaves’s reign of terror to an end.  She wished she was more like Marguerite, however, who rarely flinched at a challenge.

Part of her wanted to rise from the grandstand, walk back to the landing platform, then fold anywhere else, to any other dimension.  Another part, however, seemed to be calling to her from the depths of her soul to stay, to see this through, maybe even to become more than she had ever dreamed of becoming.

“Hey.”  Leto’s voice was a soft hush as he broke through the overwhelming nature of her thoughts.  “What’s wrong?”

She blinked up at him and realized that the entire crowd was roaring their cheers as the runner from Chad took a victory lap. 

“Oh,” she murmured.  The noise was profound and Marguerite was jumping up and down on the wood floor support so that Grace slipped into telepathy.  Sorry, I was thinking about obsidian flame and the war.

He moved his arm from beneath hers, but slid it instead around her waist and pulled her close.  Oh, that’s all…just the war and your emerging powers.  Well, as long as it’s nothing serious.

She smiled and he was so close that it seemed the most natural thing to do to reach up and place her lips on his.  He turned into her, and kissed her back until his tongue was in her mouth and his forest scent drenched her.  In this moment, held within the circle of his powerful arms, savoring his body close to hers, feeling lightning streaks of pleasure penetrating her abdomen, she thought there was no place she would rather be, or even ought to be, than here, with Leto.

He drew back and shuddered.  You work me up so fast.

It’s the breh-hedden.

But at that he smiled, and pinched her chin.  No, Grace, it’s you. 

She smiled back.  You sure about that?  After all, we’ve known each other for centuries.  Why now?

His thumb touched her lips.  He shook his head.  Maybe the breh-hedden brought us together, but it can’t be the whole picture.  I value who you are, I always have.  But, hey.  Try not to worry so much.

She smiled.  Not sure that’s possible right now. 

The noise of the crowd died down and a second race started, this time with massive hurdles that would require some levitation skill added to the running. Grace leaned into Leto and for once just tried to relax and enjoy herself.

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I hope you enjoyed the excerpt!  I’ve had an extraordinary time creating and writing this series!  Let Guardians of Ascension be a new journey for you.  GATES OF RAPTURE releases on December 24^th.

 

To Learn More about Gates of Rapture and to read the opening chapter:  CLICK HERE!!!

 

To Order GATES OF RAPTURE   Amazon   Barnes & Noble   iTunes    

 

Here are the giveaway details (all international with appropriate compensatory prizes as needed):  On each stop of the tour, I’ll be giving away the same awesome collection of prizes as listed on the Rafflecopter form, so be sure to stop by each blog on the tour for a chance to win at each blog.  Be careful to follow the directions on the Rafflecopter form at each site.  And be very careful of the dates!  The contest at each site will last 3 days only, and those dates will be listed on the Rafflecopter form as well!!! 

For links to all the other blogs on the tour:  CLICK HERE!!!

The Grand Prize Drawing - VERY IMPORTANT:  to be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing of the Nook with Glowlight, you must leave a comment at the bottom of this blog (as well as at all the sites on the tour if you want to go to every site and enter that many times—totally up to you!  But comments must be left!)  The grand prize drawing will be selected by random.org in the following manner.  On January 18^th, three days after the tour ends, I will enter the number of blogsites into the random number generator, which will deliver up the winning site.  I will then go to the winning site, count up the comments one by one, and enter that number into random.org.  Random.org will then provide the Grand Prize winning number matched to the comments on the winning blogsite.  This means, that if you travel to all the blogs on this tour, you can enter the GRAND PRIZE contest on every single blog you visit by leaving a comment at each blogsite!  Good luck to all!

The Goodies as listed on the Rafflecopter form are :  a $10 gift card to Barnes & Noble (or similar for International),  a replica, antique typewriter key bracelet that spells ‘dream’,  a signed copy of ASCENSION (the first novel in the Guardians of Ascension series), Romance Trading Cards and bookmarks.  

The Grand Prize drawing for a Nook with Glowlight, will take place on January 18^th, three days after the tour officially ends!  Good luck!

For links to all the other blogs on the tour:  CLICK HERE!!!

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FRIENDLY BIO:

 

            I was ten when I first watched an old movie version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and loved it!  Movies led to books, which led to writing and after a good long while, publishing.  I wrote sweet Regency romance for Kensington for 19 years and recently fell in love with paranormal, although I’ve always had a thing for vampires.  I currently write paranormal romance for St. Martin’s Press but I self-publish as well.  Building an online platform has been an enormous but rewarding challenge.  I think all the changes in publishing will alter how authors approach the business going forward and I for one am thrilled to have so many options. 

 

LIKE A BOOK INSERT:

Caris Roane has published over fifty Regency romance novels and novellas under the pen name, Valerie King.  In 2005, Romantic Times gave her a Career Achievement award in Regency Romance.  Having had a long-time love affair with vampires, Caris tackled the paranormal genre and built a unique vampire world based on ascending dimensional earths.  Her series is called Guardians of Ascension. 

Her most recent self-published project, The Blood Rose Novella Series, launched in May of 2012 with the first title:  Embrace the Dark. 

Currently, Caris is working on a new vampire series set to launch in the Fall of 2013:   WARRIORS IN CHAINS with the first novel, BORN IN CHAINS.

Caris lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her two cats, Sebastien and Gizzy
TO FIND CARIS ROANE ON THE WEB…

Website Home Page:  www.carisroane.com

Twitter handle:  @carisroane

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/caris.roane

Email:  carisroane@gmail.com

Again,  to be eligible for the Nook with Glowlight, leave a comment below like this:  carisroane at gmail dot com!  Good luck to all!
a Rafflecopter giveaway