"Just how much penance should one vampire have to do?"
Reviewed by Vicky Gilpin
Posted November 7, 2011
Paranormal Romance
Okay. So a body-snatching demon made vampire Glory St.
Clair do some bad stuff...like cheating on her boyfriend
and sire, Jeremy Blade, but now the vampire council doesn't
trust her, and her boyfriend wants space. Again. As a boon
and a way to try to win her way out of the council's gaze,
Glory agrees to mentor a fledgling, Penny, who got bit
after a cruel frat party joke goes wrong. The only problem
with that is Penny wants her perky cheerleader twin to be
turned as well. Half the time Glory has to remind Penny
that they are supposed to be keeping vampires secret, and
the other half, she has to keep Penny from devouring the
populace. In addition, demons keep popping up and trying to
get Glory to sack souls -or just one really big one- to
save her friend Rafe, the shifter she cheated on Jeremy
with. They dangle the best bait imaginable: the demons say
they can make Glory a size six for real. She's tempted, but
she isn't that tempted, even though they keep sweetening
the deal. Now, Glory has cages of rats in her guest room
(long story), testosterone-poisoning all over her living
room as Rafe, Jeremy, and Ray (an alcoholic rocker vampire
and friend) keep insisting on being big and bad paranormal
creatures all over Glory's house, and Lucifer visiting her
whenever he feels like it. This is an amazing series! It
flies by, and the levels of action, compassion, and humor
are all well-balanced. Read the entire series, right now!
SUMMARY
For a vampire, losing weight can be hellish-from the
national bestselling author of Real Vampires Hate Their
Thighs. After Glory St. Clair kicked out the demon that had
set up shop in her body, she had a serious fallout with
longtime lover Jeremy Blade. But before Glory can win him
back, she has some issues of the hellish variety to deal
with. When Lucifer himself offers Glory the ultimate
temptation-work for the devil and he'll make her a size
six-the curvy vampire's not sure if she can resist. But what
Glory does know is that somehow, she's going to get back the
man she loves and show everyone that real vampires always
have more to love.
ExcerptGlory St. Clair is mentoring new vampire Penny. When the
teen manages to "whammy" the frat guy who'd been indirectly
responsible for her becoming vampire into asking her for a
date, Glory trails them to a movie theater where they watch
the latest vampire flick. The pair almost give Glory the
slip when they leave the theater before the movie is over
and head to Penny's apartment. It seems the fledgling has
something more than a simple date in mind and Glory's
afraid the new vampire will go too far."Open up, Penny, or I'll knock it down." The door jerked
open and Penny stood there, her fangs gleaming in the light
from a dozen candles.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Penny growled.
"Thought you'd given me the slip? As if." I shoved past her
to see Josh sitting on the couch, the telltale look on his
face that meant she'd whammied him. Yep, my little
fledgling had put the guy into a trance. I didn't see fang
marks yet. I turned and reached behind her to slam the door
shut.
"First, you tell me. Why the whammy, Penny? What's Josh
going to do while you have him under your little spell?" I
stared hard at her.
"What do you think? That I'm so desperate I've got to put a
guy in a trance before he'll have sex with me?" She
flounced over to the couch and sat close to him, even put
her hand on his thigh. "I'll have you know he was all over
me before I did this to him."
"Yeah, I'm sure he got the message that you were good to go
when you agreed to leave the movie before it was over." I
sat across from her in a sagging leather chair. A fat
orange cat stared at me from under a table across the room.
I ignored it.
"I'd seen it before. Jenny dragged me to it the first week
it was out. I wasn't into vampires then and this time I
could see how fake it was." She rubbed Josh's leg. "Isn't
he cute? He offered to take me to the vamp movie because
he'd heard girls like it. You did such a great job of
making me look good, he couldn't keep his hands off me."
"You do look good." I shook my head. "But then you had to
screw things up, didn't you?"
Penny frowned. "What do you mean? You're the one who
burst in here, checking up on me."
"Come on. Admit it. Josh is sitting there looking zoned
out for only one reason." I leaned forward and gave Penny a
hard look. "Despite my warning, you were about to test
drive your fangs on this mortal, weren't you? You think I
can't see them?"
Penny swallowed and looked everywhere but at me. Finally
she turned, chin up. "Yeah, so what? I can control myself.
I'm not your ordinary fledgling, Glory. I can do this.
Watch me." She put her hand on his jugular.
"Stop right there." I gripped her wrist. "This isn't
some intellectual exercise, damn it. This is bloodlust.
Your eyes are dilated. Your fangs are down and I can see
you're about to lose it."
"So?" Penny snarled. "Feel him. He's so incredibly warm
and that's his heart pounding under my hand. Then there's
the smell." She inhaled and a look of near ecstasy came
over her face. "God, but he's, he's driving me crazy. He's
alive!"
I kept my grip on her, though she was trying to pull
away. "Forget it, Penny. You can't do it. Let him go. Plant
the idea in his mind that he liked you, but he can't call
you again because you dumped him. You just can't forgive
him for leaving you on that hilltop. It's the right thing
to do."
"No. I want to see him again. He—he makes me feel
alive." She leaned against him, gasping when he fell over
to land on the couch. "Geez, this is ridiculous." She
grabbed him and straightened him back to a sitting position.
"That's because he's basically unconscious with his eyes
open." I sat on his other side to keep him propped
up. "Give it up, Penny. Don't you think it's a little
creepy to accept a date with a guy and then take advantage
of him by drinking his blood?"
"Maybe." Penny showed me her fangs. "But he left me on
that hilltop, you know. So maybe he owes me this. I can
hear the blood going through his veins, his heart pumping.
It's calling to me. I . . . I want it. Need it. Bloodlust?
What the hell? It's fantastic." She kept brushing her thumb
over his jugular, then leaned in and inhaled again before
she shuddered, forcing herself to sit back.
I knew what she meant. Wasn't immune myself. But I'd had
a long, long time to gain control over my urges. In a way,
I almost envied her the newness of this experience. But it
was a dangerous thing, easy to get out of hand.
"Slow down, Penny. I get it, I really do. But you're
letting your baser instincts take over. That's not like
you, is it?" Not according to what she'd told me, this
genius teen.
"Maybe becoming vampire has changed more about me than
just my sleeping and drinking habits." Penny sighed, still
staring at Josh like he was the last cookie in the
jar. "Come on, Glory, you saw that movie. So much blood. Is
it weird that it made me thirsty?"
"No. Even though I knew it was all faked, it made me
thirsty too. But I can ignore my thirst when I have to." I
wondered if I should give in on this. At least I was here
to stop her before anything too drastic happened. "You had
two bottles of synthetic before your date. You aren't
really hungry, Penny, just drawn to the real deal. Am I
right?"
Penny frowned like she was doing a gut check. "Guess
so." She kept stroking his jugular. "I can feel his pulse.
So strong, so warm."
"I may be sorry, but I'm going to teach you how to drink
from a mortal safely. Even I realize I can't dog you every
waking moment." I glanced at Josh. He was a healthy mortal,
a fairly big guy who could spare a pint or two.
"No, you can't. Better to train me than to just ignore
the fact that I'm going to have this bloodlust issue."
Penny actually smiled, sure she'd won something here. "Do I
just lay his head back?" She gazed at him hungrily. "Oh,
God, thanks, Glory. I thought I was going to have to fight
you for him."
"And that wouldn't have ended well, Penny." I didn't say
that I knew I could take her. Let her keep her
illusions. "Forget the neck for now. Too dangerous. Pick up
his wrist." I grabbed his other arm for a demo. "Find his
vein. You can see it and feel it, of course. Easy, isn't
it?"
"Sure, it's practically calling my name." She pulled his
arm up close to her mouth and her eyes closed. "Mmm."
"Now open your mouth and your fangs will know what to
do." I sighed, not allowing myself to join in on the
fun. "I'll tell you when to stop and you'll obey me if I
have to physically pull you off to get you to do it."
"Got it. I don't want to kill him, Glory." Penny's hand
was shaking as she held his wrist. When her fangs sank in,
she was obviously surprised. Then her eyes closed and she
moaned. I didn't need to read her mind. A new vampire's
appreciation of real blood bordered on orgasmic. Penny
gulped and sighed and clung to Josh's arm like she'd never
let it go. But I knew she'd have to and well before she'd
want to.
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