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EXCERPT
Tribes of the Vampire Book 3:
ETERNALLY BOUND
By
Michelle M. Pillow
Eastwich Manor, England, Spring 1896
Tatiana Sinclair smiled dreamily at the stars as
she fitted her gloved hand into that of a groom’s. The scent of wildflowers was
thick on the air, perfuming the night with their intoxicating fragrance. The
wind rustled gently over the land, perfectly cool to the warmth of the late
hour. It stirred heavily against the higher limbs of trees until the sound of
the crashing leaves sang out. It was a perfect night.
The servant, Thomas, was dressed in the full
livery of the Eastwich Manor staff. He lifted the back of his hand to help her
down from her family’s brougham. The carriage shifted ever so slightly as she
stepped onto the cobblestone drive. Tatiana barely paid the towheaded man any
mind.
Thomas tried to smile at her, murmuring a
greeting in his low youthful voice. “Welcome home, Miss Tatiana. How was your
evening?”
Tatiana glanced briefly at him, frowned in his
direction and waved him away. Thomas was two years older than her, but she still
thought of him as a boy. He was handsome and polite, but that did not give him
the right to address her. She would just have to speak to her father about
having him replaced. It wouldn’t do for the servants to be seen addressing her
so familiarly, as if they did it every day. Such a faux pas could kill her
chances at a good marriage.
Well,
Tatiana thought, feeling benevolent in her good mood. Her chin was proud, if not
a little haughty, as her lips curled in contemplation. Perhaps, I should be
lenient with him and only have him reprimanded. We did grow up together after
all and tonight was such a lovely evening.
Tatiana’s pale green gown of expensive silk and Brussels lace tangled in the
breeze. Her face again turned to the wide expanse of stars twinkling brilliantly
in the dark blue of the night sky. The heavy weight of her white petticoats
rippled ever so slightly, showing the toes of her dainty slippers. Her black
curls were pinned up with the utmost care, adorned with green silk flowers. She
was at the height of her youth, dressed in the height of fashion. She was
beautiful, rich and knew it. She had many suitors vying for hand. Everything was
perfect. Her life was going according to plan.
Thinking of it, Tatiana smiled to herself. If she
managed it right, she could be married within a year’s time--or at the very
least engaged. Suddenly, she noticed that her chaperone, a servant girl from the
household, stood next to her waiting. Tatiana merely waved her to go along
without her. The servant, whose dark eyes gave away the fact that she was
exhausted, curtsied and rushed up the front steps to find her bed. Tatiana
ignored her.
Lightly, she hiccupped. It had been a delightful
evening of dinner à la russe. Tatiana blushed to remember how much of
Lady Cottley’s ‘special’ punch she’dconsumed. Surely, if her father discovered
the excess, she would be forbidden from ever going back.
Sighing as the carriage was led down the long drive to the distant stables, she
made the short walk up the front stairs of her home. Eastwich Manor was a modest
home compared to the large renovated castles and estates of the local nobility.
Nevertheless, the estate was very well maintained.
The square corners of the manor’s stone walls
were smooth, dotted with just the right amount of shrubs and flowers to make it
stately and elegant without being overdone. Tall windows lifted up the sidewalls
with dark blue draperies showing from the inside. Most were drawn closed, but a
little crack of light shone out from one onto the front expanse of steps. It was
a very fine home indeed. Whereas, her father wasn’t titled, his income was quite
sufficient as to cause much envy with the neighbors and to earn her their
respect.
Tatiana smiled a secretive smile. If she had anything to do with it, she would
be titled soon enough. It was rumored that an Italian Count had let the old
Glastonbury Castle not far from her very home. As a young girl, she’d been
fascinated by the rundown pile of rocks surrounding the castle and had climbed
over them often. The castle itself was in decent repair, though it desperately
needed the care only a rich owner could give.
Lady Cottley had been aflutter with the news of
it, claiming to have met the ‘young and altogether too handsome’ nobleman the
other night. Their carriages had crossed a narrow pass in the country roads. She
said that he was very well spoken, for a foreigner, and very dashing as he
leaned out the carriage window to answer her greeting.
When Tatiana asked her to describe what the Count
looked like, Lady Cottley couldn’t quite remember, except for the impression he
was handsome enough to leave her lightheaded. The good lady was, however, sure
the Count was in England searching for a wife. For, according to that same lady,
there were a shortage of suitably marriageable women in Italy.
“Tatiana! Wait!”
Tatiana instantly froze on the bottom step leading to the front door. The very
sound of her name expressed in such a way made her nervous. Recognizing the
voice, she shivered, turning round to face her eldest and only sibling. Henry
had not been available to escort her to the dinner service so she was dependent
on a servant to be her chaperone. He’d claimed he was too ill to attend. It
irked her that he would be out in such a condition, but Tatiana knew it was more
than likely that he lied to get out of taking her.
The crack of light shining through the long front windows was dim so she
couldn’t see him too clearly, except from the vague impression of his features
and the shadowed outline of his slender body. She gasped, immediately forgetting
her irritation with him. His dark blue frock coat was covered with splatters of
thick mud. Stepping back down the steps, she made as if to go to him. Henry
stumbled forward, jarring her as he impatiently grabbed her arm.
“Ow, Henry, stop,” Tatiana cried, trying to shake off the desperate clutch of
his fingers. She swatted him lightly with her gloved hand. “You’re hurting me!”
Henry’s grip only tightened as she tried to escape, bruising her skin with its
fierceness. She stumbled, slow to react, her mind numbed with liquor from the
punch. Her brother’s dark eyes narrowed and he struggled for breath. Tatiana saw
that the same strange substance also splattered the pale skin of his features.
Up close, it did not appear to be mud. Curious, Tatiana lifted her fingers to
his check, plucking a bit of matter off him with her white gloves. Whatever it
was, it was hard.
“Whatever are you covered in, Henry?” Tatiana asked. He mumbled breathless,
incoherent sentences. She couldn’t make out his words. Ignoring the pain he
inflicted on her arm, she raised her gloved fingers to where the moonlight shone
brightest to examine them. Her mouth fell open. It was blood.
Henry, seeing her impending look of horror, grasped her other arm in his palm,
pulling her to him. Tatiana shivered as his fingers seized over her mouth,
shushing her startled scream. She could smell the coppery scent of blood on his
hand, felt the drying stickiness against her skin where he touched her face.
Blood marred his jacket, streaking onto her pale green gown, hitting against her
arms, as he held her tight to keep her quiet.
Gasping into her ear, he croaked in a low, hoarse tone that she’d never heard
from him, “She’s dead.”
She!
Tatiana’s renewed scream was muffled by his strong fingers. He pressed hard,
cutting her teeth onto her inner lips. She tasted blood on her mouth and moaned
weakly. She tried to answer him. Her wide desperate eyes studied his panicked
face. She moaned in louder protest and he jerked her to an abrupt, rough
silence.
“It’s not my fault!” Henry insisted with a hiss, almost wildly. He shook her
harder in his desperation to convince her. His words turned to a plea. “Do you
hear me, Tatiana? She refused me. It’s not my fault. She had no right, no right
at all. I didn’t hurt her. She fell. She was a bloody strumpet giving it out to
every man. She was nobody. I will not be ruined for this!”
“Henry.” Her voice was muffled through his parted fingers. Tatiana gasped,
trying to peel her lips from his bloodied hand. She slowly shook loose of his
tight hold to catch her breath and steady her racing heart. The strange, almost
foreign smell of human blood--so curious and strong--slipped on her skin as she
moved against him. It made her nauseous. A dark cloud threatened her already
drunken brain and all she could think about was how this might ruin her chance
at meeting the Italian Count, of gaining her title, of getting out of England
and seeing the rest of the world.
As
soon as she heard the words Italian and Count coming from Lady Cottley’s lips,
she’d formed the perfect plan. The Count wanted a wife and she would make a
perfect wife. Henry got to go away on a grand tour like the rest of the
gentlemen with whom she’d grown up. She was expected to stay home, in England,
forever. She wanted to travel, to see things, to meet people. She wanted to
touch ancient ruins. In all her eighteen years, she never wanted anything more.
Now, in Henry, she saw her dreams plummeting to the ground.
Tears entered her eyes. Now no one would ever
want her after this. She was sister to a murderer! She would spend the rest of
her days at Eastwich Manor as an unloved, unwanted spinster. Glancing at the
stone walls of Eastwich, they did not seem so lovely to her anymore, or the
house so large and welcoming and fine. It now looked like a prison.
“Tatiana!” Henry hissed, shaking her. “Are you
listening to me?”
Tatiana blinked. She hadn’t been listening. Her
mind had been racing frantically until she felt dizzy. Seeing she wasn’t going
to scream, Henry dropped his hand from her face, leaving her cheek cold as the
breeze hit the blood. With an insistent tug, he pulled her away from the front
steps.
“Hurry!” Henry ordered, keeping her arm tight as
he ran her around the side of the house. “We can’t let Thomas see us! If he knew
what we did to his sister--”
“Alice?” Tatiana looked at Henry with renewed
horror. She tried to stop, but his hand wouldn’t let her. The matter and blood
covering him was her maid, Alice? Alice with the golden ringlet curls so like
her brother Thomas? Alice with the laughing blue eyes who always teased her
awake in the morning? Alice who had played with her endlessly on this very lawn
since they were children?
“We can’t let him find out what we have done,”
Henry insisted, running faster now that they were on the side lawn. “You know
Thomas has a violent temper.”
“We?” Tatiana squeaked, her voice unable to come
any louder. Her world spun and crashed with each surreal step he forced her to
take.
Her legs stretched over the thick cushioned lawn,
nearing the limits of her gown. The petticoats became heavier, tangling in her
legs. Her corset was too unyielding against her lungs, making breathing hard.
Her heart raced as she was yanked through the night. A slipper fell from her
foot, but they did not stop. The full three courses of dinner, plus the
entremets and dessert, waged a vicious war in her tight stomach. She would’ve
fainted, if not for Henry’s insistent pull making her continue on.
“Henry,” she begged, her voice hoarse as she gulped for air. Her narrow eyes
tried to see through the shadows. The moon wasn’t full and bright, so it offered
little help.
Hearing her plea, Henry slowed, leading her into the shade of a large oak on the
far side of the property.
“I
… can … not … breathe,” she gasped. She dropped her hand, clutching at her
stomach, trying to pull her corset to loosen it by small degrees. It didn’t do
any good. The gown was fitted too tight. “Ladies … do not … run.”
Henry said nothing. He looked into the distance, standing silent and still. His
hand trembled. Suddenly, she realized how scared her brother really was.
After a moment had passed with only her heavy
breathing sounding between them, she again straightened and threw back her
shoulders. Turning wide eyes up to her brother, she saw that he didn’t even look
at her. Fearful, she demanded, “Please tell me this is a prank, Henry. Please,
tell me you didn’t hurt Alice. Where is she? Is she hiding in the trees? Is she
to jump out and scare me? Is that why we wait?”
Henry looked stunned at her words. Slowly, he looked down the front of his frock
coat and flicked wearily at a chuck that clung to him. Tatiana flinched as it
landed unintentionally on her gown. Looking herself over, she saw that the dress
was ruined.
“We must go,” Henry stated, sniffing. He again reached for her, grabbing her
arm.
“Where are you taking me?” Tatiana whimpered, scared of her brother. She never
knew him capable of hurting anyone. Though, if truth be told, she didn’t really
know him at all. They’d been closer as young children, but he’d been away for so
long, first to school at Cambridge and then his grand tour. Now she hardly ever
spoke to him, except in dutiful letters her father made her write. “What’s
happening?”
“I
need you to take care of it,” Henry said, matter-of-factly, like a lord
directing his servants.
“Take care of what, Henry?” she asked in horror. Tears filled her eyes and the
long line of her mouth stretched back, pulling against her teeth.
“I
need you to clean it. You’re a woman, surely you know how,” Henry stated. He
dragged her through the shrubs. The thorns tore at her skin, scratching her,
ripping her delicate evening gown beyond repair. “No one can find out about
this.”
“I’m not a servant--” she began, only to be cut off by his vicious jerk and hard
glare.
“You will do as I say if you value your station in life!” His wild eyes grew all
the more desperate. “Would you see our family ruined for the sake of a maid?
Would you see me imprisoned? Father so shamed he’d be forced to do himself in?
You abandoned, turned out in the streets to fend for yourself as an
unfortunate?”
“But I did not do anything … that,” Tatiana protested, her voice growing
somewhat louder. Henry growled, raising his fist as if to hit her. He hesitated
and she knew he couldn’t strike. Lowering his trembling hand, he gathered her
forward into his embrace and lovingly kissed her forehead.
“Please, help me, Tatiana,” Henry whispered into her dark hair. He rubbed his
cheek reverently over her silky locks, dislodging the flowers adorning them.
“It’s too late to take back. I don’t know what to do. I need you. You were
always the practical one, so smart. Please, Tatiana, don’t abandon me now when I
need you most!”
Something snapped in Tatiana’s brain at his plea for help. The shaking in her
limbs subsided and her heart slowed. She swallowed. Her world became a dazed
dream. Lightly, she blinked, steadying her swirling vision. She ignored the
smell of blood filling her nose, as she knew that her brother was right. She had
to protect her family.
Taking a deep, calm breath, she silently nodded.
Henry was honorable most days and this indiscretion was just an unfortunately
bad day. It was too late to take it back. She wouldn’t see her family ruined by
the death of a mere servant girl. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She wasn’t
going to do anything wrong--not really. She was just helping her brother clean
up a mess, a minor indiscretion. All fine gentlemen were allowed their little
indiscretions.
“Show me, Henry,” she answered, her tone flat,
dutiful. “Let me see what it is you have done.”
© copyright May
2005, Michelle M. Pillow
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the
author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living
persons or events is merely coincidence.
REVIEWS
 4 STARS!
"In her third Tribes of the Vampire book, Pillow magically transports readers to 19th-century England and France in this dark vampire romance. The twists in this fast-paced tale will keep readers turning the pages. The characters are unforgettable, and the sexual tension sizzles between the strong-minded heroine and the intense, sensual vampire. There are graphic sex scenes and some violence, but also an intriguing love story."
-Gail
Pruszkowski,
RT BOOKreviews, Dec 2006
 "5 BLUE
RIBBONS! ...you don’t want to skip a word. ETERNALLY BOUND is a must read.
Michelle Pillow has a big hit on her hands with this offering." Claudia McRay, Romance Junkies, July 2005
"5 HEARTS! Ms. Pillow
has penned a dark, sultry tale of vampire love... Ms. Pillow has brought two very unlikely characters together and the
reader will thrill to the way they interact and resolve many problems. Thrown into the mix are some lycans, witches and more vampires. All the secondary characters are well written and do not detract from
the hero and heroine. From the very first page, the
reader will be captivated. The sex scenes are sizzling
hot and there is lots of biting, blood and licking.
There is nothing frivolous about this tale. It is
utterly dark and glorious. Ms. Pillow is proving herself
an author who is consistently turning out stories of a high calibre. This reviewer highly recommends this story for all lovers of vampire
tales." Valerie, Love Romances, June 2005
“5 STARS!
With her third book in the very compelling Tribes of the Vampire series,
talented writer Michelle M. Pillow gives us a powerful story with strong,
dynamic characters. The story is set in the late 1800’s, and tells the
background of a demanding vampire and the woman whose unique powers provoke
yet fascinate him. …With Ms. Pillow’s vividly depicted scenes, I was held
spellbound by the extraordinary lives led by her characters. TRIBES OF THE
VAMPIRE 3: ETERNALLY BOUND is darkly dramatic with its edgy feel, and is the
perfect read for those who want their vampires to be determined and intense.
… With a noteworthy storyline and unforgettable characters, TRIBES OF THE
VAMPIRE 3: ETERNALLY BOUND proves that Ms. Pillow is an author of
exceptional talents.” Amelia, ecataromance reviews, July 2005
"It's (Eternally Bound)
not something you pick up, read the first page, and know what’s going to
happen through the rest of the book. There are a lot of side twists and
turns in the story, with a couple of side stories that I would have loved to
know more about. I’m sure that Michelle Pillow will come up with some really
unique and exciting characters to continue with the TRIBES OF THE VAMPIRE
series, and I can’t wait to read them all."
Julie Bryan for The Road to Romance, June 17,
2005
"4 HEARTS! This book is a historical and
really good. I wasn't expecting a lot that happened in this book and don't want
to tell too much for fear of giving the story away. Marcello is controlling and
strong willed; he will have Tatiana at all costs. His vampire background adds
mystery and intrigue to the plot. All I can say is you really have to read this
one to understand what I'm talking about, but you won't be sorry." Angel Brewer,
The Romance Studio, May 21, 2005
"4 CUPS! From the green pastures of England to the smoke-filled bordellos of
Paris, Ms. Pillow has done a wonderful job of bringing 1800’s England and France
to life. .... I recommend this book to anyone who loves vampires or paranormal
romances." Kelley, Coffee Time Reviews, August 2005
"4 Angels! I loved Eternally Bound. Michelle Pillow's
books have many twists and turns; you never know what's going to happen next
...I can’t wait for her next one." Emily, Fallen Angel Reviews, July 2005
"4 STARS! In her third Tribes of
the Vampire book, Pillow magically transports readers to 19th-century England
and France in this dark vampire romance. The twists in this fast-paced tale will
keep readers turning the pages. The characters are unforgettable, and the sexual
tension sizzles between the strong-minded heroine and the intense, sensual
vampire. There are graphic sex scenes and some violence, but also an intriguing
love story." —Gail Pruszkowski, RT BOOKreviews, December 2006
"From the green pastures of
England to the smoke-filled bordellos of Paris, Ms. Pillow has done a wonderful
job of bringing 1800’s England and France to life."
Kelley, Coffee Time Reviews
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