Omega
Penton
Vampire Legacy, Book 3
Susannah
Sandlin
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Publisher:
Montlake Romance
Date
of Publication:
February 5, 2013
ISBN:
978-1612183596
ASIN:
B0073XV3L2
Number
of pages:
328
Word
Count:
approx. 88,000
Book
Description:
The
bloody war between the Vampire Tribunal and the defiant scathe of
Penton, Alabama, rages on, forcing its residents and their bonded
humans to retreat into the underground fortress of last resort:
Omega. There, Will Ludlam is charged with the care of Penton's
humans, though he longs to fight alongside his vampire brethren. He
knows the risks: as the renegade son of the Tribunal's vicious
leader, Will's capture could doom the resistance.
Yet
he is determined to prove his worth to his adopted scathe, to his
vengeful father and to former US Army officer Randa Thomas, his
beautiful, reluctant partner. Randa has little faith that a former
member of the vampire elite has what it takes to fight a war. But as
their enemies descend upon Omega, Will's polished charm and Randa's
guarded heart finally give way to the warrior within.
Fans
of Susannah Sandlin's Penton Legacy are sure to devour this
long-awaited third installment of the steamy paranormal series.
Excerpt:
Will
stopped and scented the air again. There were two vampires nearby;
one belonged to the Penton scathe, and one didn’t.
He
ignored both vampires and skirted to the back of the street where the
burned shell of his house still smelled of smoke and ash after three
days. Aligning his position with the oak tree twenty feet behind what
was left of his chimney, he paced forty steps into the woods.
A
thorny bramble that had been draped over a small, scrubby bush
pricked his fingers when he pulled it back. Grasping the trunk of the
bush, he eased it from its loose grasp in the soil, exposing the top
of a metal box.
The
loud click of a cocked pistol preceded the cold press of steel
against the back of his head by less than a second.
He
inhaled, annoyed. A rookie mistake. He’d gotten so engrossed in his
task he’d let someone slip up on him.
Vampire.
Penton
scathe.
Female.
Freaking
Randa.
*
* *
Randa
grinned, enjoying the disgusted look on Will’s face. “If I were
your father, I’d already have the silver spoon back in your mouth,
Willy. He’d have you trussed up like a rodeo calf by now, hauling
you back to wherever it is he lives when he’s not terrorizing
innocent people.”
Will
Ludlam was the kind of guy Randa Thomas had hated as a human, and she
didn’t like him a bit more as a vampire. Less, in fact. Not only
was he a spoiled rich boy, he was now a virtually immortal spoiled
rich boy. He had probably been a blue-chip jock in school with a 4.0
GPA and a string of girls trailing his every step.
Plus,
he annoyed the hell out of her. The consummate smartass.
“No,
if you were my father, you’d have slit my throat—not enough to
kill me, but enough to make sure I couldn’t fight back.” His
voice was soft, calm. “Then you’d hand me over to your sadistic,
freakshow of a second-in-command Shelton, who would play with me
until I couldn’t take it anymore. Only when I was good and broken
would you return the silver spoon to my mouth.”
Good
God, would any father really do that?
Will didn’t sound as if he were joking. Randa relaxed her stance
for only a split second before the world tilted and she hit the
ground, landing on her back with Will stretched out on top of her in
a full body press. And he had her gun.
“Damn
it.” She pushed against him but it was like pressing on bedrock.
He
propped on his elbows and grinned down at her. His hat had fallen off
in the scuffle and the moonlight glinted off his hair, making it look
silver instead of a naturally streaked blond. And he had dimples, as
if God hadn’t already rewarded him with enough in the looks
department.
“And
if I were my father, you would be dead. Or worse. Believe me, with
Matthias, there’s always much worse. Give up?”
She
squirmed again, but froze when she realized he was getting turned on
by her movements. There was definitely more of him pressing on her
than there had been a few seconds earlier.
He
laughed, a white glint of teeth in the moonlight. “Oh, don’t stop
moving, sweetheart. This is getting more and more interesting.”
Yeah,
she could feel exactly how interested he was getting. She felt a very
un-vampirelike flush of heat as he wedged a knee between her legs.
Damn it. She clenched her teeth at her body’s betrayal—which he’d
be able to sense. She hated being a vampire; there was no sense of
privacy. “Get. Off. Me. Now.”
Will
lowered his head and, damn him, inhaled deeply, with his face pressed
against the side of her neck. Her carotid artery also thumped in a
very unvampire-like cadence. She waited for the smartass comments to
start.
Instead,
he lifted his head and looked her in the eye. She could swear his
heartbeat sped up, although it was hard to tell over the pounding of
her own. Well, this was awkward.
He
blinked and opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.
Well,
that was one good thing. Will had been stricken dumb, at least for a
moment. It wouldn’t last.
ABSOLUTION
The
Penton Legacy, Book 2
By
Susannah Sandlin
Release
date: October 9, 2012
Publisher:
Montlake Romance
Book
Description:
With
the vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of
untainted human blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once
peaceful vampire and human enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the
powerful Vampire Tribunal.
A
Scottish gallowglass warrior turned vampire in the early 17th
century, Mirren Kincaid once served the Tribunal as its most creative
and ruthless executioner—a time when he was known as the Slayer.
But when assigned a killing he found questionable, Mirren abandoned
the Tribunal’s political machinations and disappeared—only to
resurface two centuries later as the protector and second-in-command
of Penton. Now the Tribunal wants him back on their side—or dead.
To
break their rogue agent, they capture Glory Cummings, the descendant
of a shaman, and send her to restore Mirren’s bloodthirsty nature.
But instead of a monster, Glory sees a man burdened by the weight of
his past. Could her magic touch—meant by the tribunal to bring out
a violent killer—actually help Mirren break his bonds and discover
the love he doesn’t believe he deserves?
It’s
a town under siege, a powerful warrior in a battle with his past, and
one woman who can make the earth move—literally—as the Penton
Legacy continues.
Excerpt:
What
was Matthias thinking, throwing a human woman in the cell with a
vampire who’d been locked up and starved for over a month?
Mirren
waited on the bench, his back against the wall, his head down. Waited
until Matthias climbed the steps, slammed the door, clicked the dead
bolt home. Waited until he could get control of the hunger that had
begun raging the second the woman stumbled down the stairway. She was
unvaccinated, and he wanted nothing more than to take her, blood and
body, until there was nothing left.
If
he did that, he’d be no better than the version of Mirren Kincaid
he’d tried so hard to leave behind. He’d be the Slayer again. His
hands could too easily remember the mindless sweep of the sword, the
heavy fall of the battle-ax, the controlled back-thrust of a heavy
firearm. If the cold darkness ever fell over him again, he feared
he’d embrace it.
“Mister,
you awake?”
Shit.
She would have to be a talker. Mirren hated a talky woman. They
always expected you to talk back.
He
raised his head slowly and caught his breath. She was young, maybe
mid-twenties, and pretty in a rode-hard kind of way.
“Your
eyes are silver—I’ve seen enough vampires since I was kidnapped
to know when your eyes get lighter, it means you’re hungry. But
I’ve never seen any like yours. How long has it been since you ate?
Umm…Make that how long since you drank?”
If
the stupid woman kept walking toward him, he wouldn’t be held
responsible. “Stay where you are.” He narrowed his eyes at her,
thinking. How could she help him without sending his need so far over
the edge he lost control of it?
She
eeked
when he shifted on the bench and turned his back toward her. “Untie
me.”
She
stumbled a little when she reached the bench and sat hard. The woman
was stoned out of her gourd. He could smell the drugs on her.
“Your
wrists are all torn up. That has to hurt.” She sat on the bench
behind him, and Mirren breathed in her scent with his eyes closed.
Damn, but he wanted to feed so badly his muscles ached.
She
muttered as she worked, her drug-addled fingers slipping off the
rope. “You’re so big that I’m surprised this rope could hold
you. I should be able to…Let’s see here, it’s too dark. Man,
this is funky rope.”
“Stop
yapping, start untying.” She had that broad, soft Southern accent
he found sexy, but she used it way too much.
“Yeah,
yeah, okay.” She tugged harder on the ropes, burning his sensitive
wrists with each pull. “Sorry, sorry. Why is it burning your skin
like that?”
Mirren
growled and spoke through gritted teeth. “It’s laced with silver,
and I’m a freaking vampire. Just untie me.” Damn, he had to get
himself under control, or he’d scare the woman to death and she
wouldn’t finish freeing his arms or feed him either one.
“Well,
you’ve got the funny eyes, but I don’t see any fangs.”
God
help him, he’d show her some fangs. “I said I was a vampire. Now
finish untying me.”
Mirren
twisted his wrists and felt the rope give way—the woman had gotten
it loose enough that he didn’t need her help.
“But
wait, how do I know you—”
She
gasped as Mirren pulled his wrists apart, popped the rope onto the
cell floor, and shifted around to face her.
“Can
you…?” She paused and swallowed hard, edging away from him on the
bench. Mirren’s gaze dropped to her mouth. “Can you feed without
killing me?”
Mirren
nodded slowly. Maybe.
Maybe not.
REDEMPTION
Book
One Penton Legacy series
By
Susannah Sandlin
Following a
worldwide pandemic whose vaccine left human blood deadly to vampires,
the vampire community is on the verge of starvation and panic. Some
have fanned into rural areas, where the vaccine was less prevalent,
and are taking unsuspecting humans as blood slaves. Others are simply
starving, which for a vampire is worse than death—a raging hunger
in a creature too weak to feed.
Immune
to these struggles—at first—is Penton, a tiny community in rural
Chambers County, Alabama, an abandoned cotton mill town that has been
repopulated by charismatic vampire Aidan Murphy, his scathe of 50
vampires, and their willingly bonded humans. Aidan has recruited his
people carefully, believing in a peaceful community where the humans
are respected and the vampires retain a bit of their humanity.
But an unresolved family feud and the paranoia of the Vampire Tribunal descend on Penton in the form of Aidan’s brother, Owen Murphy. Owen has been issued a death warrant that can only be commuted if he destroys Penton—and Aidan, against whom he’s held a grudge since both were turned vampire in 17th-century Ireland. Owen begins a systematic attack on the town, first killing its doctor, then attacking one of Aidan’s own human familiars
To protect his people, Aidan is forced to go against his principles and kidnap an unvaccinated human doctor—and finds himself falling in love for the first time since the death of his wife in Ireland centuries ago.
Dr. Krystal
Harris, forced into a world she never knew existed, must face up to
her own abusive past to learn if the feelings she’s developing for
her kidnapper are real—or just a warped, supernatural kind of
Stockholm Syndrome in which she’s allowing herself to become a
victim yet again.
Susannah
Sandlin’s REDEMPTION is the first in the Penton Legacy series. Book
two, ABSOLUTION, will be out September 18, and book three, OMEGA, on
December 18.
Excerpt:
Krystal
Harris pulled to the shoulder of the two-lane road—highway
was too grand
a word—and punched the button to turn on the old green Corolla’s
dome light. She counted to five before thwacking it with the heel of
her palm, and a dim light blinked as if considering her demand. It
stayed on—this time.
The
car was a dinosaur, but it was a paid-for dinosaur.
She
dug a folded Alabama road map from beneath her briefcase on the
passenger seat, smoothing the creases to make sure she hadn’t
driven past Penton, which she suspected was no more than a wide spot
on a narrow road. She didn’t want to get lost out here in the
boonies.
Yep,
County Road 70. The highway to Penton just looked
like the
express lane to nowhere.
A
gust of wind rocked the car, sending icy air around the loose door
seals. Maybe the chill of this night was an omen that
she should take
this job if they offered it, just so she could buy a more respectable
form of transportation. Still, doubts nagged at her. What kind of
clinic conducted a job interview at nine
p.m.? She should never have agreed to it, but the Penton
Clinic administrator had
waved big bucks in front of her huge
college and med school
debts, and she’d trotted after them like
a donkey after a carrot.
“You
had the goody-two-shoes idea of practicing rural medicine, plus
you’re already here,” she chided herself, clicking off the
overhead and pulling back onto the road. “And you’ve gotta admit,
this is rural.”
Another
omen, and not a good one: she was talking to herself. Out loud.
A
couple of miles later, her headlights illuminated a battered wooden
sign covered in peeling paint: Welcome to Penton, Alabama. Founded
1890. Population 3,275.
Twenty
years ago, maybe. Krys had done her Penton homework, and that was the
boomtown population, when the mammoth East Alabama Mill still churned
out threads and batting. It had wheezed its final belch a decade ago,
and the town had suffered a slow death by attrition even before the
pandemic. The most recent listing Krys found online estimated a
population of three hundred. She was surprised they could afford to
hire a doctor, much less pay a more-than-competitive wage.
But
this was what she wanted, right? A place to practice medicine and be
her own boss, to find a community where she could belong? After
growing up in Birmingham—the wrong side of Birmingham—she hated
the grime and crowds and noise of the city.
Lost
in thought as she approached the outskirts of town, she thought she
saw an animal in the road—a deer or a bear, maybe—God only knew
what wildlife lived out here. But it was a man. He wore a long coat
that flapped in the wind and was backlit by a lone streetlight in
front of an abandoned convenience
store. She’d have blown past him if he hadn’t moved
into the
middle of the road when the glare of her headlights hit him
like a spotlight.
He
stood with his hands in his pockets, feet planted apart, watching
calmly as she floored the brakes. The Corolla’s old tires squealed,
stinking up the air with the smell of hot rubber and stressed brakes.
Good
Lord. Was he nuts?
About
the Author:
Susannah
Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South,
where there are always things that go bump in the night. A journalist
by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of
Susan Howatch and the horror fantasy of Stephen King. (Um…it is
fantasy, right?) The combination of Howatch and King probably
explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has
also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana.
Website:
http://www.susannahsandlin.com
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