Morgan Rice: Resurrected

Then he reached out with his other hand, and laid it gently on top of hers.

“My God, you’re freezing,” he said.

Scarlet quickly retracted her hand, self-conscious. She’d also noticed recently that her hands seemed colder than usual.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “Your hands – they’re beautiful.”

Blake reached down, and slowly pulled her hand back, and held it in his.

Her heart was pounding as he slowly caressed her hand. She was trembling again, but this time it wasn’t from the cold. It was from nervousness. She felt sure he was about to kiss her. A part of her wanted him to. But another part still wasn’t sure.

Her heart pounded in her throat as Blake slowly turned from the river, facing her. She turned her chin just the slightest bit towards his, to see if he was looking at her.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that he was, and she turned to him a bit more.

That was all he needed. He reached up with his free hand and held her cheek in his palm. She turned more to him, and for a moment, they looked deeply into each other’s eyes.

He leaned in, and a moment later, she felt his soft lips on hers. It was a gentle kiss, and her heart was pounding as their lips met.

The kiss lasted for an eternity.

As she closed her eyes, she felt transported to another world.

She kissed him back. He reached up and ran his hand through her hair, then slowly across her neck. She leaned in a bit more, and they kissed more passionately.

Suddenly, something began to rise up within her. It was a feeling, something she did not recognize. Her heart suddenly started to slam, to pound out of her chest. It felt like she was having a heart attack. Then she felt an intense heat, a burning, rising up her legs, through her torso, down her arms, to her fingertips. She felt an awful stab of hunger, of pain, deep in her solar plexus. For a moment, it felt as if she’d been stabbed. It took her breath away.

She did not understand what was happening to her. She thought maybe she was dying.

And then she found herself staring right at Blake’s neck. She zoomed in, watched the tiny heartbeat pulsing in his veins. His scent filled every pore of her body. She felt an unquenchable desire to be close to him.

But not to kiss him. To her own horror, she found her body screaming at her, begging her, to sink her teeth into his neck. To feed on him. To drink his blood.

Suddenly, she felt her two incisor teeth begin to expand. To grow. To sharpen.

Immediately, she pulled back, closing her mouth, looking away.

“What is it?” he asked, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

But she couldn’t sit there another second. Her body was screaming at her to do something that her mind couldn’t understand. What was happening?

She didn’t know. But she did know that she couldn’t risk being around Blake for one more second. She knew that if she looked at him again, if she turned his way, for a fraction of a second, it would be over. She would be unable to control herself.

So without another word she leapt down off the tree, and sprinted away, bounding across the tracks, up the hill, back towards the forest trail. She ran with a speed and agility she never knew she had – and within just a few seconds, was far, far away from the river. From Blake.

And far from the Scarlet she once knew.

CRAVED

(Book #10 in the Vampire Journals)

In CRAVED (Book #10 in the Vampire Journals), 16 year old Scarlet Paine struggles to find out exactly what she’s becoming. Her erratic behavior has alienated her new boyfriend, Blake, and she struggles to make amends, and to make him understand. But the problem is, she doesn’t understand herself what’s happening to her.

At the same time, the new boy, the mysterious Sage, comes into her life. Their paths keep intertwining, and although she tries to avoid it, he directly pursues her, despite the objections of her best friend, Maria, who’s convinced Scarlet is stealing Sage. Scarlet finds herself swept away by Sage, who takes her into his world, past the gates of his family’s historic river mansion. As their relationship deepens, she begins to learn more about his mysterious past, his family, and the secrets he must hold. They spend the most romantic time she can imagine, on a secluded island in the Hudson, and she is convinced she has found the true love of her life.

But then she is devastated to learn Sage’s biggest secret of all: he is not human, either, and he has only a few weeks left to live. Tragically, just at the moment when destiny has brought her greatest love, it also seems fated to take him away.

As Scarlet returns to the high school parties leading up to the big dance, she ends up in a huge falling-out with her friends, who excommunicate her from their group. At the same time, Vivian rounds up the popular girls to make her life hell, leading to an unavoidable confrontation. Scarlet’s forced to sneak out, making matters worse with her parents, and soon finds pressure building from all sides. The only light in her life is Sage. But he is still holding back some of his secrets, and Blake resurfaces, determined to pursue her.

Caitlin, meanwhile, is determined to find a way to reverse Scarlet’s vampirism. What she discovers leads her on a journey to find the antidote, deep into the heart of rare libraries and bookstores, and she will stop at nothing until she has it.

But it may be too late. Scarlet is changing rapidly, barely able to control what she’s becoming. She wants to end up with Sage – but fate seems set on tearing them apart. As the book culminates in an action-packed and shocking twist, Scarlet will be left with a monumental choice – one that will change the world forever. How much is she willing to risk for love?