Site Menu

Home

Blog

About

Booklist

Press Kit

Contest

Newsletter

The Unforgiven: Raphael

Order Today

The Unforgiven: Raphael,   2005 New Concepts Publishing Genre: Paranormal/Vampire IBSN: 1-58608-634-0 Format: Ebook True love never really dies... After centuries of searching, Raphael has found the love of his life in Liz Quartermaine, a woman he thought lost to him for all time….

 

Reviews

The Unforgiven: Raphael is a tremendous story about finding true love in a world that does not believe that vampires exist. Tracy L. Ranson gives us an incredibly seductive read. It also shows that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The Unforgiven: Raphael is a book you must add to your collections.
- Sensual Reads and Reviews 5 Roses

The Unforgiven: Raphael is a delight to read. The pages flew by with nonstop action and love scenes to die for. Everything about Raphael and Liz will keep you interested. Raphael has such pain at the loss of his beloved the first time that I prayed Liz was the one. He truly needed the love she could share with him. Liz started out shy, but she grew into a wonderful woman. I completely recommend you pick up The Unforgiven: Raphael, you just should not miss this one.
- Joyfully Reviewed

 

Excerpt

Raphael caught her just in time, taking her voluptuous body in his arms. The miscreants stood stock still, their mouths frozen in silent shock.

He turned to Alex and Nicholas and gestured to his captives. "Both of you start and I'll join you once I know that Elizabeth is safe."

Alex licked her full lips, her fangs descended and ready for action. "If you go hungry tonight, that's your fault. I told you earlier that I was starving."

"Me too," Nick commiserated, rubbing his flat belly affectionately. "I'm always in the mood for a good bite."

With that, they descended on the bunch like a pack of ravenous dogs, with the familiar crunch of their teeth descending into flesh and the moans of ecstasy at such an overabundance of a meal rising in the night air.

Raphael lifted her effortlessly and took her to a nearby patch of grass. Laying her down gently. he blinked hard, staring at her.

Elizabeth had returned.

Brushing the wild hair from her forehead, he reminisced on how long it had been since Elizabeth had relished his embrace. Almost two hundred and fifty years. He frowned. Had it really been that long?

He knelt on one knee next to her, staring at her face. Even the bone structure was the same. The hair and eye colors were different, but in the modern age, both could be changed very easily.

His hand touched her cheek gently, causing her to stir. Her eyes fluttered for a moment and turned to look at him. She started to scream.

"Don't make a sound," he murmured, waving his hand over her face.

At once, she halted her cries, her body as rigid as a board. "Who .. who .. are you?" she gasped

Raphael brushed his hands over her eyes. "This is all a dream, Elizabeth. Return to the depths of sleep."

Her eyes instantly closed, her breathing returning to normal very quickly.

He let out a sigh of relief. She had seen his true form and it would not endear him to her if she knew his true nature, at least for now. Later, when she knew who she was, she could accept him for what he was.

His fingers stroked her arm, feeling the smooth skin that hadn't changed either. He remembered her silky thighs as they wrapped around his waist each time he drove into paradise....

Raphael pulled back. He was getting hard just thinking about their past and it wouldn't do for now. He had to be patient and understanding. From her thoughts he knew that she was a virgin again ripe for his taking, a sweetness afforded to a man once in a lifetime. The only difference now was that Zakara was not going to get close enough to kill her.

Hunger, painful and cruel, tore at him as he tasted the sweet wine of her fear. It made him hungrier than he'd been in a long time.

Looking away, he felt the renegade fangs descend again, tempting him to take her now and taste of the sweetness he'd been denied far too long.

He glanced back at Elizabeth, his breath hitching slightly. A beam of moonlight landed on her neck, highlighting the pulsing vein full of pure virgin blood, perhaps the sweetest drink of all.

He leapt to his feet.

No.

Not this way. She had to become his of her own volition or not at all.

Raphael turned to see there were only two of the six drunks left.

"We've left you a few bites," Alex offered as she sat down on the ground next to her last victim, her chin still full of blood. "I'm utterly full."

"Me too," Nicholas joined in as he sat on the rock wall outside of the club, the blood staining his white shirt. "Thankfully the humans can't see what's going on or else we'd be in the slammer tonight."

He ignored their comments, his gaze intent on his victims. For the first time in a while, he felt the old hunger return as well as the need to hunt out his meals. For the last few hundred years, he'd eaten sparingly, choosing only criminals or the homeless as his food. Now it was time to feast again. The reason for his life had suddenly returned.

* * * *

"Have you found him?" Zakara purred from her dark throne deep within the bowels of the earth, her voice echoing through the expanse of the cavern. Wet earth surrounded them, filling the air with its acrid, musty smell. Her pets, the lurid bats, lurked in the darkest corners, making only small noises as they waited with the rest of their brethren for the night to fall.

Scattered around the base of her throne lay the remnants of her coven, waiting for the right moment to search the night for food. Strewn in between were the remains of past meals, the bones picked clean.

"Of course, Mother," answered one of her newest minions, only one hundred fifty years old. "He is in America." Josiah shifted uneasily before her, his wide brimmed hat in his hands. She smirked slightly. Even though she had plucked Josiah Johnson from his farm long ago, he still preferred to dress the part of a farmer and not conform to the others.

She held her hands up, admiring the way the gold rings glittered against her dark skin. She alone possessed a haunting beauty, a fatal charm to any man who saw her. Zakara smiled. There was nothing more magical than that. Thankfully, she had inherited her father's darker skin hue instead of her mother's milky complexion. Inwardly, she giggled with laughter. Who would have thought that the illicit union between Satan and Adam's first wife Lillith would have produced as glorious a creature as herself? "Where in America?"

"A place called Morrisonville, Virginia," Amos replied solemnly.

Excitement shot through her lifeless veins, thrumming through her like an electrical charge. "Where is this place?"

"Only a day's flight from here."

She stood up, straightening her silvery gown, the edges of it baring the tops of her dusky breasts as well as her flat midriff. Walking with a gentle swaying motion toward him, she held out her hand. Josiah kissed it and knelt, as he should. "You have done very well, Josiah. Since you have served me faithfully, I will grant that you will be the one to kill Raphael if I so choose."

Josiah's brown eyes widened and turned a deep red, the glow in them turning hellish, just as she had always preferred it to be. "Thank you, Mother," he murmured, the tips of his fangs showing through his parted red lips.

Her fingers danced against the soft skin of his childish face. "For your excellent work, I will reward you handsomely," she purred as she circled his youthful form. Placing her hand seductively on his shoulders, she leaned close to his ear. "Since you have shown me great loyalty, I welcome you into my bed this night," she whispered. "I will take you to the heights of pleasure you have never experienced."

"Oh, what an honor, Mother," he murmured, closing his eyes to relish in the moment.

"Once Raphael is dead," she continued. "You will become King of the Undead and rule beside me."

"Consider him dead already."

Copyright © 2005
All Rights Reserved