Yesterday,
when I logged into my Facebook account, the following headline popped onto my
screen: “One Hundred Vampire Graves Found in Bulgaria.”
Needless to say, it caught my
attention and, being the author of paranormal fiction, I clicked on the link.
After all, it’s not every day a girl gets to read about real-life vampires!
The
article discussed the 700-year-old skeletons that archaeologists discovered in
June 2012, when they excavated the grounds of a monastery in Bulgaria. These
corpses had apparently been stabbed through the heart with iron rods, a sure
sign that people considered them vampires.
It seems
the word vampire means different
things to different cultures. Some subscribe to the popular belief that
vampires subsist on human blood. Others accuse them of being the bringers of
plague and the cause of poltergeist activity. Another school of thought
promotes the idea of psychic vampires, people who drain others of energy.
This
last one piqued my interest. My Dark Souls series features the Kleptopsychs,
Hybrids and Rogues, immortal beings who can affect people’s thoughts, moods and
actions. These descendants of the Nephilim feed not on blood, but on human
souls.
Could
they, in fact, be the psychic vampires of lore?
Wikipedia
describes a psychic vampire as “a person or being who feeds off the life force
of other living creatures.”
Check.
The term
energy vampire is used to refer to
beings “whose influence leaves a person feeling exhausted, unfocused, and
depressed.”
Double check.
In a
way, psychic vampires are similar to the blood-sucking kind, except they drain
the life force from their victims psychically instead of physically. They
destroy a person’s will, steal their hope and leave them feeling listless and
empty.
If we
think back, I’m sure we’ve all known a person like that. Someone’s whose mere
presence and negative nature sucks the joy right out of us.
Sometimes
the world can be a very dark place, and its hard to understand why some people
do the destructive things they do.
In my
Dark Souls world, the answer is simple: psychic vampires. But there’s a
twist—not all of them are evil. Imagine having the power to destroy the human
psyche without actually meaning to do so. Imagine the angst, the isolation, the
guilt this would cause a person who still possesses a conscience.
That’s
what makes the heroes and heroines in my Dark Souls series so heroic. Every day
they battle their dark nature to protect humanity. They hunt their own kind,
struggle to preserve a world that’s determined to self-destruct. They fight for
peace, when their very composition is one of chaos and violence. They defend
what they were created to destroy. They love despite the fact that they are
soulless.
Psychic
vampires or not, they are the only ones who can stop the coming Apocalypse.
Whether they
succeed still remains to be seen!
Soul Bound
Dark Souls
Book 1
Anne Hope
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-60928-948-5
ISBN: 978-1619211391
ASIN: B007HCWHAK
Number of pages: 338 e-book
312 paperback
Word Count: 111 K
Cover Artist: Scott Carpenter
Book Description:
The one man she wants is the one man destined to destroy her.
Sooner or later we all end up dead. Jace Cutler doesn’t have the luxury of staying that way. After receiving a fatal stab wound, he awakens in a hospital room in Portland, Oregon, with no memory and a big hole where his soul used to be. Worst of all is the glow. Everyone is surrounded by a strange white aura he hungers to possess, none more compelling than the one enveloping Dr. Lia Benson.
Lia has always been ruled by reason, refusing to put stock in such nebulous things as destiny. Until Jace dies in her arms, then miraculously comes back to life. Whenever he’s near, her soul responds and her body burns. And she’s consumed by odd dreams she’s convinced are Jace’s lost memories.
When Lia is kidnapped, Jace tracks her and discovers a shocking explanation for who—and what—he is. Something no longer human, a dark legacy that until now has lain dormant within him. Something that could destroy the one woman he’d sacrifice everything to protect.
Warning: Contains bone-melting sexual tension, scary battle scenes, heartrending emotion guaranteed to keep you turning the pages well into the night, and a positively divine hero who may just steal your soul.
Soul Deep
Dark Souls
Book 2
Anne Hope
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61921-250-3 e-book
ISBN: 978-1-61921-681-5 paperback
ASIN: B009ZCG07Q
Number of pages: 301 e-book
304 paperback
Word Count: 100 K
Cover Artist: Kanaxa
Book Description:
Save her life…or save mankind. His choice could cost him his soul.
For nearly two centuries, Marcus has been the Watchers’ most faithful soldier. Sworn to protect humanity, driven by an unrelenting compulsion to atone for past sins, he has rarely found a compelling reason to question his mission, let alone defy his leader.
His partner, Regan, is his exact opposite, an enigma he longs to solve. A free spirit and reckless to a fault, Regan acts first and thinks later. Her smart mouth and tender heart have fascinated Marcus for decades, but the Watchers’ strict vow of celibacy has forced him to ignore the sizzling attraction between them. Until now.
When Regan goes rogue to protect a very special little boy, Marcus is forced to make an impossible choice—commit an act of treason or watch the woman he secretly loves die.
Hunted by enemies and allies alike, Regan and Marcus run for their lives, fighting to thwart an age-old prophecy and guard a boy whose destiny may very well be to destroy the world…or save it.
Warning: Contains violent battle scenes, angels with twisted agendas, nail-biting suspense, intense emotion, burning-hot sexual tension, and a sexy, stubborn hero who would rather face death than admit what’s in his heart.
Soul Thief
Dark Souls
Novella 0.5
Anne Hope
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61921-836-9
ASIN: B00CZ8MCFQ
Number of pages: 151
Word Count: 41 K
Cover Artist: Kanaxa
Book Description:
Born to hunt and destroy…until the light of one soul reawakens his own.
Adrian knows he once possessed a soul, but it abandoned him the day he was murdered. The day he was reborn as a Rogue, shunned by humans and hunted by his own kind. By night he feeds the darkness inside him by finding and snuffing out corrupt souls, perfectly content to live as an outcast—until a random act of violence unites him with a woman who makes him feel.
Angelica Paxton believes everyone deserves a second chance. Even her rescuer, a mysterious stranger with hypnotic powers, an unsettling ability to invade her dreams, and a shocking secret. Much as her body wants to succumb to Adrian’s seductive charms, she can’t. Not without breaking his newly awakened heart.
Adrian swears to protect Angie from his kind, even if staying by her side means volunteering at the center where she works to reform the very souls he has vowed to crush. Even if it means abandoning the shadows for the light. Even if that light exposes the darkest threat he’s ever faced. One from which he is powerless to save her…
Warning: This book contains flying subway cars, a woman in jeopardy, a relentless villain who’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants, and a dark, sexy hero who could very well haunt your dreams and steal your heart.
Soul Chase
Dark Souls
Book 3
Anne Hope
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61921-890-1
ASIN: B00DUB2554
Number of pages: 306
Word Count: 90K
Cover Artist: Kanaxa
Book Description:
A man she’d die for, a world she was born to defend… Only one can survive.
For twenty-five years, Adrian has mourned the loss of his soul mate, Angie. He’s content to live as an outcast…until a series of abductions forces him out of seclusion and into the arms of the very woman he loved and lost. Angie’s reincarnation, Emma.
Emma is on the run, hunted by soulless creatures whose one goal is to possess her soul. They have taken everything: her home, her identity, her mother. Left with no other choice, she must trust her fate to Adrian, the enigmatic stranger who comes to her rescue. An immortal being whose illicit touch makes her blood burn and awakens an inexplicable desire in her heart.
Emma follows Adrian to his isolated community in Arizona, where she is assailed by visions of a past life. As passion ignites and her enemies close in, Emma is drawn into a world where nothing is what it seems and where love could prove the greatest weakness of all.
Warning: Contains a dark, tortured hero, a hunted woman who can’t remember loving him, a nasty villain hell-bent on destroying the world, and a timeless love story you won’t soon forget.
About the Author:
Anne Hope is the author of emotionally intense romances with a twist—a twist of humor, a twist of suspense, a twist of magic. All her stories, however, have a common thread. Whether they make you laugh or cry or push you to the edge of your seat, they all feature the redeeming power of love and the heart's incredible ability to heal.
Anne's passion for writing began at the age of eight. After penning countless stories about enchanted houses, alien girls with supernatural powers, and children constantly getting lost in the woods, she decided to try her hand at romance.
She lives in Montreal, Canada, with her husband, her two inexhaustible kids, a lazy cat and a rambunctious Australian Kelpie.
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