TORMENTED, sequel to Plagued, by K.Z. Snow

Tormented, the sequel to my Ellora's Cave novel Plagued, is now available from Changeling Press.

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Rahenna doesn't want to be a wicked vampire bitch . . . but she can't help it. She's been stricken with a mysterious infection.

The toxins that have saturated her cells result in some disturbing behavioral abnormalities she can only haphazardly control. Still, she summons the will to provide protection for one of her fledglings recently turned mortal as he celebrates his first real birthday in over six hundred years. And it proves to be a very strange party indeed.

There, Rahenna meets the ancient vampire Rugh--wise, magisterial, and magnetic. After they rout the evil undead trying to crash the birthday celebration, they become increasingly drawn to each other. Soon, it's time for some healing . . .

Following are the book's opening paragraphs. For more information, including another excerpt, click on the link in the post's title.

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Rahenna was in the middle of feeding from a young, succulent, muscle-bound fisherman on Pico Island in the Azores when she felt a strange tugging at her blood vessels, en masse, as if they were a net being pulled from the sea. Veins, arteries, capillaries all seemed on the verge of popping through her pores.

Stiffening, she removed her lips from the man’s throat and let out an agonized groan as the insistent tugging continued. The man likely thought she was climaxing, since his cock was buried deep within her body, pounding away like a pestle.

She almost had achieved climax, but this intensely disturbing sensation had quashed it.

Blood trickled from three small punctures her sharpened nails had made in her lover’s neck. A few drops fell on Rahenna’s chin. The rest formed a scarlet slick just above his collarbone. Instinctively, she licked his skin. It was something she normally did with unrestrained relish. Yet, at the moment, the act almost made her nauseous.

The twisting, churning ache within her body continued, pushing her to the brink of hysteria. The feeling was not only distressing, but frighteningly unfamiliar. She simply couldn’t fathom what was happening to her.

Still fretting and anxious, Rahenna was jolted by a keener sensation—two blasts of pleasure-pain, centering on her nipples. It felt as if her breasts were being branded. Her body didn’t seem to know how to respond. It alternately arched forward and shrank back, her spine bowing first one way, then the other. A quavering whimper crawled up her throat. It spiraled into a broken cry.

What was going on? In all her centuries on earth, she’d never experienced such a physical onslaught, such a tangled, thorny mass of stimuli.

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Copyright (c) 2008 K. Z. Snow