Author on Board: Flossie Benton Rogers Welcomes Sheri Velarde

Please give a big welcome to fellow Secret Cravings author Sheri Velarde. What a fabulous cover!

Thank you Flossie for letting me stop by today! You are such a sweetie!

Curse of the Blood is the tale of a knight whose life is changed forever and who must learn to love with his new circumstances. When I was writing this particular piece my own life changed and I too had to learn to live with a new normal and struggled to figure out how to do that. Part of my struggle made it into Melvil’s story as well. Sure my real life struggle had nothing to do with blood sucking vampires, but in a way Melvil and I both had to fight to remain ourselves under difficult circumstances that could have made either one of us give up and succumb to the darkness around us. So this little story turned into my triumph just as Melvil struggles to find his own light.

Here is a little peek at Curse of the Blood. Hope you enjoy and remember, no matter what is going on in your life, never give up and remain true to yourself and you can make it through, sometimes changed, but you will make it!

Blurb:

After serving his king during time of war, all Melvil wants to do is get back to his family estate in the French countryside. Weary and homesick, he doesn’t even stop at night to rest in his eagerness to see his family. On the side of the road in the middle of nowhere he finds a lost and disoriented woman all alone. The chivalry his lived by insists he must stop for her, even if everything else tells him something is wrong and he should run.

That night, that moment, changed everything for Melvil. If only lightning had not illuminated the sky, everything would be different. One act of kindness dooms him to a life that he never wanted. How can he live with himself now? And what can he do about the creature who made him? The woman he loathes and lusts after at the same time?

Excerpt:

Honnor was standing over him smiling when he next awoke. He must have passed out around dawn as he still prayed for release from this nightmare. Now it looked as if his prayers and protection spells had been ignored. The she-devil had come to make her work complete and destroy him as promised. This time he didn’t bother to scramble away, all he could hope for now was for her to change her mind and kill him instead of turning him into a monster. Fate would not be so kind to him, though it seemed for Honnor was not the only other presence in the room. There was a human man. Melvil could hear his heartbeat and the blood pumping in his veins. It was the most wonderful thing that he had ever heard in his entire life.

A powerful lust that he had never felt before overtook him. Despite himself and the disgust he felt, he craved the blood that smelled more delicious than any previous meal. Melvil moved against his conscience toward that which he craved to the point of insanity. The man cowered as he approached, begging for his life, but all Melvil could hear was the faster beating of his heart, feeding his blood lust. Instinctively he grabbed the man and bent his mouth, biting his victim’s neck, gnawing through the skin as he didn’t have fangs, until the delicious nectar of life began to flow into his mouth, causing Melvil to moan with pleasure. Soon the man stopped struggling, the last of his fight and life drained out of him.

Melvil raised his head and wiped the blood from his mouth, then looked down at the dead man. Now that his hunger was satiated he came back into his own mind. Horrified at what he had done, he dropped the body and moved away, shaking his head and mumbling, “No, no, no…”

Honnor clapped her hands together, smiling broadly. “Fantastic, you are now complete! Even your fangs have grown in. Doesn’t the first kill feel fantastic?”

He turned to her, thinking she must be daft to not notice how disgusted he was with himself, not to mention the hate that he had for her. “Fantastic? I just killed a man!”

She tilted her head to the side, “But you have seen war with the king, have you not? I found the evidence in your belongings. Surely you have killed before.”

“Not by drinking their blood!” Melvil spat. “You have turned me into a soulless monster, like yourself!”

Author Bio:

Sheri Velarde, who sometimes uses the pen name Kelly Ryan, lives in New Mexico and grew up with a fascination for all things that “go bump in the night”, so it is no wonder that she turned to writing paranormal romance. In her spare time, she fancies herself a cryptozoologist and loves to paranormal related outings, searching for things that might not really exist. She is an avid exerciser and gets some of her best ideas while on runs. She also has a bit of a wild side, which only leads to inspiration for her writing.

Being an avid reader since an early age, she has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She has been writing all her life, but only recently started to actually try to pursue her dream of writing for a living.

She is a multi-published author and is constantly putting out new material, so it is best to keep up to date with all things Sheri Velarde on her website.

Thanks for being here, Sheri!

Cheers & Happy Reading!

Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance