Morgan Rice: Loved

The church was now empty, save for Caitlin and Caleb. And Rose, lying off to the side, whimpering, bleeding.

“Caitlin!” Caleb cried, as he held her shoulders. He leaned over her, caressing her face, and could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks.

He had been too shocked by seeing her hurt to even think of the sword. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that the others had left the building, were getting away, that they had the sword. The sword he had spent his whole life sworn to protect.

But now, seeing her lying there, bleeding, dying, it was all he cared about. Caitlin.

As she lay on her back on the church floor, Caitlin felt the world get so cold. She felt tremendous pain gnawing away at her back and stomach, felt the blood leaving her body quickly, and, dimly, felt Caleb’s hands on her face, holding her head.

She looked up and saw the church ceiling. And Caleb. She saw his beautiful face, looking down.

She knew she was dying. But despite everything, despite all the pain, she didn’t feel much sadness for herself. Instead, she felt sadness at the idea of not being with him.

“Caitlin,” Caleb said, sobbing. “Please. Don’t go. Don’t leave me!”

He cried as he rocked her.

Caitlin looked up into his large eyes, now a shade of black, and tried to focus on them.

Don’t go.

But she couldn’t.

“Caitlin,” he said, between tears. “I want you to know. I see it. I know who we were together. In our past lives. Now I can see it all,” he said.

Caitlin tried to speak, tried to find the words, but her vocal cords were closing up. Her throat was so dry, and the blood was garbling everything. She tried, but it came out in barely a whisper.

“What?” Caleb asked, leaning over close. “Say it again.”

He leaned all the way over, putting his ear to her mouth.

“Turn…me,” she said.

He stared at her in horror, not sure if he’d heard correctly.

With her last ounce of strength, Caitlin reached up and grabbed his shirt, pulled him as close to her as she could.

“Turn me!” she commanded.

It was the very last bit of strength she had.

As her eyes closed on her, she felt the world slipping out from under her.

And the last thing she saw was Caleb, getting closer, closer, his two front teeth protruding, longer, and longer, as he leaned.

And then she felt the exquisite pain in her neck, as his two teeth punctured her skin.

And then her world was blackness.

In Salem, in 1692, a dozen teenage girls, known as “the afflicted,” experienced a mysterious illness that led them all to become hysterical and to independently scream out that local witches were tormenting them. This led to the Salem witch trials. The mysterious illness that gripped these teenage girls has never, to this day, been explained.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous work, The Scarlet Letter , is based upon the life of a real woman, Elizabeth Paine, who lived in Salem, and who was punished for refusing to reveal the identity of her baby’s father.

Nathaniel Hawthorne did more than just write about Salem: he was a lifelong resident, and came from many generations of Salem residents. His great grandfather was one of the main prosecutors in the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne’s house is preserved, and it remains intact in Salem to this day.

In Boston in the 1600s, Witches were hung on the hilltop of Beacon common.

Elizabeth Paine is buried in the King’s Chapel burial ground in Boston. Her tombstone is clearly visible, in the first row of graves, beside the chapel.

BETRAYED

(Book #3 in the Vampire Journals)

“The cliffhanger at the end of BETRAYED will leave the reader panting for more, and BETRAYED receives a solid A for its face paced read, and imaginative story.”

In BETRAYED (Book #3 in the Vampire Journals), Caitlin Paine awakes from a deep coma to discover she has been turned. Now a true, full-bred vampire, she marvels at her new powers, including her ability to fly, and her superhuman strength. She finds that her true love, Caleb, is still by her side, waiting patiently for her to recover. She has everything she could dream of.

Until it all, suddenly, goes terribly wrong.

Caitlin is horrified to discover Caleb with his ex-wife, Sera, and before Caleb has a chance to explain, Caitlin tells him to leave. Heartbroken, confused, Caitlin wants to curl up and die, her only consolation being in her wolf-pup Rose.

Caitlin also finds consolation in her new surroundings. She finds she has been placed on a hidden island in the Hudson River – Pollepel – amidst an elite coven of teenage vampires, boys and girls alike, 24 in all, including her. She learns that this is a place for outcasts, just like her, and as she meets her new best friend, Polly, and begins her training in elite vampire combat, she realizes that she might finally have a place to call home.

But a major vampire war is looming, and her brother Sam is still out there, kidnapped by Samantha. The evil Kyle, too, now wielding the mythical Sword, is still on the warpath, and he will stop at nothing to wipe out New York. Caitlin, despite her new home, and despite her finding a new love interest in the elusive vampire Blake, knows that she can only stay on this island for so long before her destiny calls. After all, she is still the One, and all eyes still look to her to find her father and the other weapon that might save them all.

Torn between her new friends and her lingering feelings for Caleb, she must come to decide where her true loyalties lie, and whether she is willing to risk it all to try to find Caleb and have him in her life once again…

“BETRAYED is a great installment for this series. Morgan Rice has really come up with a winner in this series. It is fast paced, filled with action, love, suspense, and intrigue. If you haven't read her first two novels, read them and then get your hands on BETRAYED!”

“BETRAYED has good romance, a strong plot, lots of action, and a very quick pace. Morgan Rice has taken the story to a higher level. There are so many wonderful surprises that you will not want to stop reading it until the very end.”