Spotlight & Giveaway: Night’s Bliss by Mary Hughes

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Mary Hughes to HJ!

Hi Mary and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Night’s Bliss!

 
Thanks so much for having me here today! Hello to all you wonderful HJ Readers!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

Boy meets girl…by getting trapped together in a demented vampire’s dungeon. And boy is a fiendishly smart, brutally strong, blisteringly rich, highly enigmatic, 10K yo vampire king. And girl is terrified of vamps, except boy looks suspiciously like her best friend.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Honestly, the spooky castle wasn’t what I expected.

Sure, it was creepy. You can’t have a vampire named “The Shadow Lord” without a certain creep factor to go along with it. And this floor…

A creak came from above.

On my hands and knees, I paused in scrubbing the pockmarked limestone, installed by the Voivodes in the fifteenth century.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I faint giving blood and had vowed never to write vampire stories, even though they were my guilty pleasure to read.
• The way Elias knows someone no matter where he goes (which amuses Rey) is based on my cousin Mary Ann, who went to a large high school and seemed to always be running into one of her friends no matter where we were.
• The basis for my vampire lore came from my reading about the special ecosystem of Movile Cave in Romania. I like to believe my vampires really could physically exist.
• When my husband first saw the cover, he thought it was Tom Ellis, star of Lucifer.
• A fun little tidbit from the Afterward for this book: For those curious about Elias and his friend Ryker, I refer you to the stories of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Briefly, Enkidu was formed by Aruru, goddess of creation, to rid Gilgamesh of his arrogance. Equal to Gilgamesh and his antithesis, Enkidu, after a rocky start, becomes the king’s constant companion and deeply beloved friend, accompanying him on adventures until Enkidu is stricken with illness and dies. The deep, tragic loss inspires Gilgamesh to embark on a quest to escape death by obtaining godly immortality. Like some vampires we know. I’m not suggesting that Elias is Gilgamesh or Ryker is Enkidu. But, certainly, one pair’s story inspired the other. 🙂

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Rey rescued Elias from the streets after he’d let himself be beaten and poisoned and had become as a human. He fell in love with her. When they meet again Elias is fully himself, and his ancient blood burns for her. Rey is seared by his raw strength and the alien wisdom in his eyes. But she fears that she’s nothing to this darkly charismatic beast, and that the love they had for each other is gone. Yet she could listen to his cave-deep voice, resonant as a Stradivarius cello, forever.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Friends. Enemies. Healing. Trusting. Together.
 

The First Kiss…

Elias’s ancient blood rages within him. He must always be supremely controlled; when he lets go, cities burn. Rey has feared strong, violent men since vampires attacked her family. Yet she comes to trust Elias and asks him to kiss her — both to heal herself and to convince him he won’t hurt others in his passion. From the book (I=Rey)

Maybe he could kiss me. The possibility dazzled me.

“Do you think maybe…?” I turned toward him, my lips and my whole being pulsing with hope.

His black gaze was as serious as I’d ever seen it, and for a second my breath froze, anticipating his “no.”

“Yes,” he said, a long, soft, sensual slide of a word. “Oh, yes, Rey, I can. But not here. Not now. Give me permission.”

“What?” My voice was a bit breathy, and I have to admit I was hanging onto that “I can.”

“Give me permission to kiss you. One time, at a moment of my choosing. I won’t abuse the privilege.”

Give him permission…and control. My gut splashed with bright terror—and excitement.

He was asking me to take a chance on him.

That first kiss is even better than the anticipation 🙂

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

My vampires are smart, alpha, and ultracompetitive — so honestly, the most fun I have is playing them off each other. Here’s Elias meeting the new leader of Chicago, Aiden Blackthorne.

Elias whirled to confront whatever vampire was old enough or insane enough that they’d deliberately burn themselves in the noonday sun.

A male stood beside the building, more shadow than substance even at midday. Aiden Blackthorne, one-time assassin and now master of Chicago and the Northwest Alliance of vampires.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped at Blackthorne.

The male gave a negligent shrug. “Your doctor and my doctor are sisters. They talk. I heard about Umbra, got a bad feeling, and called my European spy, who told me you were in Romania.”

“Zajicek talks too much.”

“No, no, they call it ‘being transparent’ these days.” The assassin’s black gaze looked him up and down. “You have your Alliance believing you’re invulnerable, but I know better.”

“You’re not invulnerable, either. What are you doing outside in the middle of the day? In fact…” Elias paused, considering the other’s relaxed pose despite the bright sun. “Why haven’t you fried already?” Blackthorne was only a few hundred years this side of the grave. Even as an ancient of nearly ten thousand years, Elias only could stand so much. Blackthorne had just gotten interesting. “How?” he asked, truly curious.

“And here I thought you were omniscient.” Black eyes twinkled.

Elias hid a smile. “Really, Blackthorne. Smirking is so unattractive.”

Blackthorne laughed out loud.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

Their first meet as themselves. When Elias’s nemesis, the Shadow Lord Umbra, threatens Rey, Elias jets to the Romanian castle where she is. Rey fears vampires ever since they killed her parents and hurt her as a girl. She has only ever seen Elias as a sick human.

Umbra spoke, his voice echoing with vampire compulsion. “Men, fight alongside your betters.” The Shadow Lord jabbed a finger at Elias. “Attack.”

Adrenaline threatened to clothesline Elias as vampires and hypnotized humans turned as one to face him.

He blocked it, going cool. Tearing two turned posts from the balcony railing, he fisted them as impromptu stakes—as the mob flooded under him, beneath the gallery.

“Ani! Get back.” The rich mezzo-soprano voice unmistakable. Rey.

Shock burst in him. She was under his feet.

With two running steps, Elias leaped off the rail’s edge. In the instant of his descent, his muscles swelled with readiness. His fangs and talons sprang forth, his skin plating with vampire armor stronger than Kevlar. He landed in the middle of the Shadow Lord’s forces as a blur of fight and fangs, his entire being focused on one thing.

To get to Rey.

In his periphery, Umbra’s cowl jerked toward him—and the Shadow Lord filtered away with more haste than grace. Elias ignored him, furious with fear for Rey, to tear through everyone and anyone between them, blue and red and silver badges and even the humans Umbra had hypnotized to fight. Blood flew from his stakes until they were mere splinters then after that from his claws, his only thought to get to her side. Precious seconds later she was revealed, fighting alongside two men, a woman and girl huddled behind.

Rey lit up as if haloed, the only other soul in the room to him. He’d loved her as gentle, befuddled Greyson.

In the fullness of himself, his ancient blood burned for her.

A trap, said the dry, cynical side of him. Well, of course it was. It had taken him eleven hours to cross the ocean after Umbra’s broadcast and another three to get here. Rey was in immediate danger only now?

The quickest way to disarm the trap was to spring it.

“Rey,” he bellowed. “I’m coming for you.”

She looked up. Their eyes met. The intensity hit him like a tank. And she… She blanched.

He stopped, horrified, remembering too late that his battle mask was more terrifying than most. And now the one woman who cared about him was afraid of him.

His heart shriveled.

A large TV screen was mounted on the underside of the gallery floor above Rey’s little group. As he hesitated, it suddenly flared to life. The trap was about to be sprung.

He shuttered his emotions, deliberately relaxing his muscles and opening his senses to be ready for whatever Umbra threw.

The Shadow Lord appeared on the screen above Rey, turning the TV into a demented sword of Damocles. Threatening her while he himself would be somewhere safe. Hiding, as usual. “You want her?” he cackled. No other word for that nails-on-chalkboard laugh.

“Come and get her.”

A panel opened in the wall behind the huddled little group. The two gold badges appeared behind Rey. Grabbed her. Shoved her stumbling forward.

Just as a pair of red badges flung open a trapdoor in the floor. She screamed as she fell through.

Elias’s veins lit with terror for her. A trap, yes, but he was not going to leave her to face whatever lay beneath the arena alone.

He barreled through the remaining suckers and, without hesitation, leaped after her.

Readers should read this book …

All the stops are out on this rollercoaster. Readers won’t want to miss this book, both an epic adventure and an epic love story.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m planning the third book in the Pull of the Moon series, Soul Mate, which centers around a prophecy, a Key, and features shifters, witches, and more.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Three readers will get a prize each! If US, an ebook copy of Night’s Caress, The Ancients book 1, from Amazon–if non-US, I’ll send a pair of signed Night’s Bliss bookmarks.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I’m always looking for new television shows to binge on. What are one or two of your favorites?

 
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Excerpt from Night’s Bliss:

Elias’s red eyes never changed, emotionless. I don’t know what I expected. Some acknowledgment of what we’d been? Some admission as to what he was?

Umbra had seemed human the first time I saw him, too. Urbane, reasonable. Then Andreea told me he experimented on humans—tortured them when he got the whim. It took a while to see the monster who lived beneath the suave exterior.

Was Elias, slicing through a mob of vampires and humans in a frenzy of destruction, any better? Even the “good” Alliance vampires still drank human blood.

“Did you have to kill them?” I blurted at him. “The humans upstairs?”

He watched me with those implacable red eyes. “I needed to get to you.”

The facial armor kept me from reading any expression, and I didn’t know how to take that. Was he sorry? Indifferent? A psychopath who didn’t give a damn?

“They may not be dead,” he added. “I’ve practiced long and hard not to injure humans. I may have gone easier on them automatically.”

“But you don’t remember.”

He looked away. “I had to get to you.”

“They were innocent. Umbra hypnotized them into fighting. Yet you tore through them…” My throat thickened. Like the monsters had torn through my family. Pain from deep inside rose through me, carrying the accusation. “How do I know you’re not another monster who lost his heart when he lost his heartbeat?”

He paled, or seemed to, underneath the plate.

I blanched. “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s all right.”

It wasn’t, not for either of us. I didn’t for one moment regret finding the antidote. Greyson had been sick. I’d have done anything to heal him, but I no longer knew him.

“You know me,” he said.

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I knew Greyson. He didn’t read my mind. Humans don’t.”

“My kind doesn’t, either. We simply read faces…and scents…better than humans.”

The “my kind” got to me, and the idea that he was prying all my secrets loose simply with my scent. “Oh? Does your kind also not hiss at crosses? Pass thresholds at will? Show up in mirrors?”

“The magical legends aren’t true,” he said, tone patient despite the monster’s mask. “Religious symbols don’t make us hiss, waiting for an invitation is simply good manners, and if I didn’t have a reflection, shaving would be more of an adventure and I’d be forced to wear a beard.”

Despite everything, that nearly made me smile.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

I could never trust a vampire. Ever. It wasn’t enough that vampires killed my parents and left me for dead. Nope, they also left me with this searing fear of every one of their kind. But when someone I care about grows sick from poison, I have no choice but to infiltrate a Romanian castle filled with pissy, evil vampires in search of the antidote.

And my only saving grace is that for some reason, I can do things other humans can’t.

Unfortunately, I also seem to be the perfect bait for the Vampire King, Kai Elias. More than seven feet of dark, wicked charisma, ancient eyes, and a body that holds more power and raw, animal sexuality than I can resist. But there’s something about Elias that looks painfully, terrifyingly familiar.

Now I am in over my head and my heart. And my only choice is to trust this dark, charismatic creature…or die.

Each book in the Ancients series is STANDALONE:
* Night’s Caress
* Night’s Kiss
* Night’s Bliss
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Mary Hughes (written Hug-he’s but possibly pronounced throat warbler mangrove) writes smart and sassy stories of action and love. She’s the author of the Pull of the Moon Series, the Biting Love Series, the Ancients Series, and the Lovless Brothers Series.

She’s a bona fide computer geek and performing flutist. (And piccolo, but we don’t talk about that.) When this USA Today Bestselling Author isn’t busy finding the missing </> tag or blowing her lungs out, she’s reading or binging on Loki, Lucifer, WandaVision or The Orville…and petting the cats that inevitably end up on her lap.
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