30 - ‘Come gentle night…’

Rikard’s eyebrow cocked as he replied, “Are you certain of that Kemp?” Turning he gestured and Leif strode into view.

“How…” Kemp stammered as he stared at his brother. “I didn’t feel you, or the presence of any other vampyre.”

“If you had accepted what you are long ago, when you should have, you would be strong enough now and Rikard would not have been able to mask me from you.” Leif shook his head, sighing deeply. “I’m sorry Kemp but he’s right, this can not continue. The two of you are both too new to what you are. I don’t agree with Rikard that you’re too young to know your feelings,” he shot a look at Rikard as he said that, “but together the two of you become so involved in those feelings and each other that you loose your concentration, making you vulnerable to any vampyre bent on your destruction.”

“Why would a vampyre want to hurt me,” Owen asked, frowning deeply.

“To harm me,” Rikard replied. “You are my creation. They could use you against me and you are too new to be able to resist.” He sighed as he looked at the young men still entwined in each other’s arms. “You have to believe that I wish things could be otherwise. I hold no ill feelings against you Kemp, but this was not meant to be.” He held out his hand to Owen. “Come my Child.”

“No father,” Owen said. Then he gasped as he felt himself being compelled to cross the distance that separated him from his Sire. “Please, no,” he begged. When he reached Rikard’s side the old vampyre gripped his shoulder. Owen turned his anguished gaze back to Kemp. “Help me,” he whispered.

Kemp tried to move forward, his hands reaching out for Owen. He found that his body was frozen in place. “Leif, please,” he begged, knowing this was his brother’s doing.

Leif looked at him sadly as he shook his head. “This is for the best; you’ll see that in time.”

Kemp’s eyes locked on Owen’s. “I’ll find you again, I promise.”

“I know,” Owen whispered. “In my heart I know. We will be together again.”

Without giving Owen time for another word to be spoken, Rikard led him into the dense shadows. Kemp watched until they disappeared from view. “I will return to you Owen. I will,” he said so softly his brother could barely hear him. Then, every line of his body tense with anguish and anger, he followed his brother away from the river front.

Cover reveal - 'Talbot and the Enforcers'

Available Jan. 09/2015 from Fireborn Publishing

http://firebornpublishing.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_bookx_info&cPath=4&products_id=62&zenid=42f82c841411253013bb51f5002f26e7

Talbot is a hybrid werewolf/dhampir. The only one of his kind, he thinks. A loner, he hires out to eliminate rogue vampires. When Antton, a head Enforcer, asks for his help to find a turncoat within the group, Talbot reluctantly agrees. The turncoat uses rogues to trap and kill Enforcers, sometimes finishing the job himself when necessary.

Talbot meets the team he'll be working with to go after a rogue werewolf that Antton is certain is being used by the turncoat. The other men on the team are Dante, a vampire, and Ulrik, a werewolf. When Talbot saves Ulrik from a vampire, they realize that Ulrik's home has been compromised, so Ulrik stays with Talbot until the team leaves for New Orleans to try to complete their mission. Although Talbot is attracted to Ulrik, he resists his feelings, believing that it is one-sided at best.

Will Talbot find out that he's right, or will Ulrik reciprocate? And will it matter if the turncoat manages to kill them both before they can stop him?

29 - ‘Come gentle night…’

“It is good,” Owen replied to his Sire somewhat defiantly. “As for proper, all we’ve done is kiss and maybe touch a bit, and no one was around to see that.”

“Perhaps from your view point but,” Rikard’s glance fell in full force on Kemp, “neither of you was aware enough to sense that I was here. What if I had been another vampyre with evil intentions?”

Kemp smiled slightly as he returned Rikard’s look. “I knew you were in the vicinity, I just didn’t care.” Slinging his arm around Owen’s shoulders he added, “I was more interested in letting Owen know how I feel about him.”

“You knew for certain it was me?”

“I know you signature, sir.”

Rikard nodded. “I see. And what if it had been someone else, human or vampyre?”

“We wouldn’t be standing here discussing things with them. We’d have been long gone before they found us.”

“If it had been a human that would have been no problem, of course; however I doubt that you’d be so lucky fleeing from a vampyre. And, Kemp, you may be trained but I don’t believe that you are ready or able to take on someone like me.”

“I…” Kemp hesitated. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I know I am! And I won’t allow my Child to be endangered because the two of you have some silly notion that you have something going on between you.”

“Father,” Owen said with a glare in his direction. “There is nothing silly about it. We’re not children, we know our feelings.”

“How could you know what you’re feeling? You’ve barely admitted to being gay. Not,” Rikard held up a hand before Owen could say anything, “that I disapprove. I’ve lived long enough to know that things like that make no difference in the long run. However I strongly suspect it is lust and the idea of exploring that, as well as the idea of being with someone forbidden, that is driving you. Once the two of you are separated you’ll see that he is of small importance in the grand scheme of things.”

“Just who is going to separate us,” Kemp asked as he pulled Owen protectively against his body. 

“I am, with the help of your brother.”

“He’ll never agree to that.”

28 - ‘Come gentle night…’

Owen blushed. “There you go again with the ‘beautiful’ thing.”

“Well you are, so don’t argue with me.” Impulsively Kemp cupped the back of Owen’s head to bring him closer. “Very beautiful,” he said softly as his lips met Owen’s in an exploratory kiss that went well beyond anything they had done before.

With a welcoming moan Owen parted his lips to Kemp’s questing tongue. He’d never been kissed like this before. Never been kissed at all actually except for the few chaste ones he and Kemp had exchanged. He hadn't known one real kiss could awaken the feelings, the emotions that this one did. He never wanted it to end as their tongues met and danced together when Kemp’s began a slow exploration. Owen moaned again as he wrapped his arms tightly around Kemp, afraid if he didn’t Kemp would somehow vanish.

Reluctantly Kemp broke the kiss, the need to breathe overcoming his desire for more of the taste and feel of Owen. “Whew,” he said softly as his gaze took in every inch of Owen's fragile, beautiful face.

“I didn’t know,” Owen replied just as softly.

Kemp’s eyebrows lifted in gentle amusement. “What a kiss could do?” He was well aware what it had done to him and felt, as closely pressed together as their bodies were, that it had caused the same reaction in Owen.

“Yes.” Owen shivered in delight and desire. “It’s…amazing.”

“It can be, with the right person.” Kemp smiled as he brushed his lips against Owen’s kiss-swollen ones again.

This time it was Owen who asked for entrance and Kemp opened to him immediately, allowing him to explore as he would. When he’d finished Owen drew back to look at Kemp. “Am I the right person,” he asked hesitantly, hope filling his eyes.

“From where I’m standing I’d say definitely.”

“Owen,” a sharp voice said from the dark shadows that surrounded the two young men.

Owen rolled his eyes as he moved marginally away from Kemp, keeping one arm around his waist. “Now what father?”

Rikard stepped into view, his arms crossed over his chest at he stared at them. “This is not good, or proper.”

27 - ‘Come gentle night…’

“You never told me how you were turned,” Kemp said as he and Owen walked the path along that edge of the river that had become their favorite place to meet and be together.

“Not much to tell really. I’d just turned nineteen and decided to celebrate. I was living at the dorm since I didn’t have a car and wasn’t about to commute every day. Long story short I went out with a couple of friends and got totally plastered. Since the girl and I weren’t old enough to go into a bar her boyfriend picked up the booze and we went to the park. As near as I remember it I wandered off and passed out. Maybe they looked for me and gave or they just said the hell with it. Either way they weren’t around when I woke up so I started walking back to the campus. And got attacked by what Rikard said were a pair of rogues. He showed up and got rid of them but not before they’d pretty much drained me so he took me back to his place, finished the job and turned me to save my life.”

“That’s painful from what my brother said.”

“Big time. Hurts like hell, but better than being dead I guess.”

“What about your folks? I take it they don’t know. OK, stupid question, of course they don’t.”

“No.” Owen sighed sadly. “They think I ran away. We were having problems, which was another reason I lived on campus. As a result I told them I’d rather celebrate my birthday with friends, not them. We had a fearsome fight about that and they threatened to stop paying for school. I knew they wouldn’t really do that but…” He shrugged. “So anyway when Rikard found me and all, he sent one of his people to clear out my room of my belongings.”

Kemp wrapped his arm around Owen’s waist, giving his a tight hug. “Probably for the best. I mean that he made it look like you’d flown the coop.”

“Yeah I know but I miss them despite how things were at the end.” Owen turned, resting his hands on Kemp’s hips as he looked at him. “Do you miss your family?”

“A lot sometimes, other times not so much. I didn’t have much freedom when I was living with my father. He was afraid his enemies would find out what I was and try to kill me, even though I was blocking it all. OK, that’s not quite the whole truth, I was also afraid that, if and when I was no longer able to block my abilities, I’d attack my father and Leif even though I knew they weren’t evil.”

Owen frowned. “If that was the case, I mean if attacking any vampyre no matter what comes with being a dhampir, why haven’t you killed me?”

“Because it doesn’t come with being a dhampir, despite what I had thought. Leif tried to tell me that but I was afraid. I mean all I could think was what if he was wrong? It wasn’t until I met Trevor that I learned I could make a choice. And,” Kemp smiled, rubbing the pad of his thumb over Owen’s lips, “how could I kill someone as beautiful as you?”