Blood Forever Excerpt

For those of you who are part of the official Blood Coven Facebook page, you know I promised an excerpt once we reached over 3,000 "Likes". Well, you did it! And now it's time to fulfill that promise!

So, without further ado, here's a passage taken from Blood Forever, the eighth and final book of the Blood Coven series! The book alternates point of views - from Sunshine to Rayne. This particular passage is from Rayne.

WARNING: If you haven't read Soul Bound, stop now! There are major spoilers ahead. 

BLOOD FOREVER - BLOOD COVEN #8 - RAYNE McDONALD

I scan the crowd, my heart pounding wildly in my chest. It feels weird to have a beating heart at all, never mind one so active. I'd kind of forgotten what it was like to be human, after spending so many months undead. To feel so frail and weak. Even when I was a gimped vampire, due to the blood virus in my veins, I still felt a lot more, well, immortal, then I do now. At the moment I feel like a light wind could blow me over and a vampire could take me down with his little pinkie. It's a good thing I'm only here to flirt, not slay.

Speaking of flirting... My gaze falls upon a solitary figure in the center of the dance floor, illuminated by a single spotlight. My breath catches in my throat. Could it be?

Yes, I realize as I trace his silhouette with eager eyes. Without a shadow of a doubt.

It's Jareth.

He looks even more beautiful then I remembered him. So elegant, dressed in black leather pants, black boots, and billowing white shirt. His cheekbones are like cut glass and in the dim club lights his beautiful eyes seem to glow in the dark. I stare in awe and delight, taking in his smooth, fluid movements on the dance floor, as graceful as the most graceful of cats. If he were a contestant on Dancing with the Vamps, he'd be a first place winner for sure.

As I watch, it's all I can do to hang back. To stop myself from running up to him and accosting him with wild abandon, wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him tight as tears roll down my cheeks. But I check myself instead. If I want this to work--if I really want a second chance--I have to play it cool. To him, we'll be strangers, meeting for the first time. If I go all Stage 5 Clinger on him right away, he'll go screaming off into the night and I'll lose my chance forever. Sure, it may take some time for him to warm up to me again, but I know, if I do this right, it'll happen. After all, we're destined to be together. To become blood mates for all eternity. If I screwed that up, well, I'm not sure how I'd be able to live with myself--by myself--forever.

My feet feel like lead as I force them to take steps onto the dance floor, dodging other dancers until I somehow manage to reach the center of the room. I'm two feet from him now and suddenly frozen into place. What do I say? What's my opening line? My tongue ties into knots and my brain refuses to work and I realize I should have come up with a better plan before I made my move. Or, you know, any plan at all.

I start to step backward, to retreat, but at that moment the DJ mixes into a rousing VNV Nation tune. The crowd roars in approval and an albino girl beside me, dressed from head to toe in Victorian steampunk, leaps in excitement, inadvertently shoving me straight into Jareth himself.  

Well, that's one way to make an entrance. In fact, maybe this is just the opening I need. I'll fall into his strong arms, he'll reach out to catch me. He won't be able to help but feel the electric spark from our touch. And as he helps me gently back to my feet, he'll wonder why he has the strangest feeling that he knows me from somewhere. Somewhere deep in the recesses of time. Shocked, he'll grip me tighter, searching deep into my eyes, and he'll say---

"Do you mind removing your clod hopping boot from my foot?"