Adrien is a vampire. He and his brothers had spent centuries protecting their kind from vampire rogues, policing those who would have brought them into the human's awareness. They are wrongfully imprisoned by an evil force catching them totally by surprise. It isn't the first time in his long life he is chained, in truth you could say he and his brothers were BORN IN CHAINS.
Lily Haven is a human. She has entered the prison and will bind herself to Adrien, but only because he will be able to help her find an item she is seeking. For reasons that are none of his business she has to find an extinction weapon. She knows the binding is dangerous and if one dies so does the other ... but she has no choice.
She has little love for the vampire race as a whole, because of them her family was killed along with her whole neighborhood. The moment she sees Adrien she feels pulled toward him and that pull only grows, no matter how hard she fights it. Adrien wants only to free his brothers from prison and will do whatever he has to do just that, but the emotions that Lily is dragging from him are almost overwhelming. When the time comes will she betray him or be his salvation?
BORN IN CHAINS is a fascinating read with a completely different take on the life of a vampire and their skills and abilities. I loved how quickly Lily and Adrien began to mesh despite their common distrust and how that trust started to build until they both acknowledged their love. Lily was then able to take the final step that allowed Adrien the powers he needs at an intricate time. Author Caris Roane has a vivid imagination and a writing skill that gives it all a dramatic flair. With two more brothers and the escape of the evil one I certainly hope Ms. Roane has plans for more books from this world.
BORN IN CHAINS
A Men in Chains novel from Caris Roane
In the epic battle of vampire against vampire, one warriorโs
fate is bound to a mortal woman who controls him, commands
him, and craves him like no otherโฆ
CHAINED FOR LIFE
Two years ago, the rogue vampires invaded Lily Havenโs home
and kidnapped her son. Now, if she hopes to see her child
again, she must do the unthinkableโbind herself, body and
soul, to a vampire warrior. She must choose one of the
rogue armyโs prisoners of war and force him to do her
bidding. But when she sees the warrior Adrien, naked,
beaten, and straining against his chains, it is she who is
held captiveโฆ
HUNGRY FOR MORE
Adrien has been waiting for her. A beautiful woman who
appears to him in visions. Who soothes his tortured body,
feeds his erotic cravingsโand quenches his thirst for blood.
But Lily is more than he ever hoped for. She is the master
of his destiny, and he is her willing slave. Even when she
asks him to find the ultimate weapon for his enemies, he
must obey her. Even if the task destroys them both, he will
fight for her love, foreverโฆ
EXCERPT
Chained to a cavern wall, Adrien hung forward from his
shackles, arms shaking. The short length of the wrought iron
loops prevented him from falling to his knees, but after
hours of torture, he couldnโt stand up straight and his
shoulder joints were loose and screaming.
The torturers had come and gone.
Through his pain, he heard his half-brothers calling to him,
shouting his name, forcing him to concentrate.
He tried. But something else snagged him. The power that
always hovered just at the edge of consciousness, the power
of the Ancestrals that he rejected every day of his life,
whispered to him, Sheโs here.
The vision came over him and his heart seized. He could
feel the future in his bones as the images pressed in on
him, of a beautiful woman with soft highlights in her light
brown hair, gold earrings sparkling and dangling past her
chin, a warm smile on her lips. She wore a deep burgundy
velvet gown, the color of blood, trimmed with what looked
like gold crystals over a bodice that revealed a deep line
of cleavage. Her shoulders, arms and back were bare. And
he felt something for her, something that called to his
vampire soul, something that made him strain against his
manacles.
He needed to get to her, to be with her, to keep her safe.
The vision rolled.
Letโs go, she said. She extended her hand to him. He took
it but just as he felt the softness of her palm and fingers,
the vision ended, dissipating like dust in the wind.
But not the sensations left behind, the need he felt to be
with her, to get to her. He strained harder in his chains,
hurting himself all over again.
Suddenly, his stomach cramped and his body seized. He cried
out in agony. He heard his brothers shouting at him but he
couldnโt respond.
The vision of the woman had ignited his blood-hunger.
Getting just enough blood while chained up had been another
form of torture. He and his imprisoned brothers suffered
the agonies of blood hunger, the cramps, the saliva that
thickened in his mouth, the dreams during the daylight hours
of piercing a vein.
If some act of fortune didnโt break in his direction soon,
blood madness would follow.
โAdrien, talk to us. Adrien.โ
He recognized the voice. Lucian, his oldest half-brother,
the one who carried the sins-of-the-father in his soul. Heโd
been the one to break them out of their fatherโs compound,
leading them into a new life of shedding years of
intolerable pain and channeling all their ensuing rage into
fierce fighting skills. Theyโd become peacekeepers in their
world.
โAdrien, come back to us, brother.โ Marius this time.
The pain ratcheted up, from both deep bruises and surface
cuts. Heโd been whipped, then beaten with the stick end.
He wasnโt sure which hurt worse.
โAdrien, answer us.โ Lucian again.
He tried to speak, but his throat felt washed with fire. In
the middle of everything, heโd shouted his pain and his rage.
Fortunately, his blood-hunger began to dissipate and he
opened his eyes. Manmade dry-stone walls separated him from
his two brothers, so that they were lined up on one side of
the cavern like horses in stalls.
โAdrien?โ
โIโm here.โ His voice was barely a whisper.
But vampires had excellent hearing, so Lucian and Marius
shouted their joy that he was still alive. Theyโd been in
this Himalayan hellhole for the past year, sent here by the
Council of Ancestrals, now ruled by Daniel Briggs, the
monster who had chained them up personally, adding a touch
of his preternatural power to the manacles so none of them
could escape.
Lucian called to him again. โAdrien, repeat the vows.โ
The vows. Yes, the vows had held them together all these
centuries, from the time of their escape from the monsterโs
experiments on his young.
Adrien tried to join in but only his lips moved. He
couldnโt make the sound come out.
โIn times of chaos, what feeds the will?โ Lucian shouted
the words.
โBlood!โ His brotherโs voice resounded through the cavern,
catching Adrienโs soul and easing his pain.
โWhat feeds us in the midst of destruction?โ Lucian once more.
โBlood!โ Marius cried.
โThroughout our lives, what serves the body?โ
โBlood.โ
โBlood,โ Adrien whispered, trying to do his part, but a
thousand whip marks all over his body still trapped his voice.
Pain. So much pain.
His turn to recover today. Theyโd each been put under the
whip once a week, beaten and sliced up repeatedly.
Sometimes the women who performed the torture brought clubs
and battle chains just to mix things up.
โAdrien, do you hear me?โ Lucian called out strong and loud.
โGive the response. Weโre waiting for you.โ
Adrien blinked back the stinging sweat that dripped into one
of the cuts on his cheek. His dark hair hung in damp clumps
in front of him. The humid air, the torture and his sweat
created a cloud of wet stink and pain. Hanging as he was,
his shoulders ached as though fire burned in each core. He
needed to draw himself back, but he could barely move.
โAdrien,โ Lucian called out again, his voice sharp and
commanding. โGive the ritual response. Now.โ
โBlood,โ Adrien said, the word like a soft scratch against
wood, a mere hush in the dark vaulted cavern. A metallic
taste filled Adrienโs mouth.
He spit on the floor and tried again. โBlood.โ Still a
hoarse whisper. โBlood.โ Louder. โBlood.โ
He repeated the word until his vocal chords decided to
function again and now he shouted into the jagged stone walls.
He kept shouting until his brothers joined him. โBlood,
blood, blood.โ
His strength returned slowly until at last he reached back
and grabbed the heavy links of black wrought iron. He drew
himself upright, his cut feet bearing his weight and causing
a new round of agony. But at least his arms werenโt
threatening to pop out of their sockets. He hooked his
elbow in the slack loop of the chain and laid his head down
on his arm, the only way he could sleep.
Yes, sleep was what he needed but just as he might have
drifted off, his thoughts snagged on Daniel and the Council
he ruled, that had allowed him to send Adrien and his
brothers, to the vampire prison in the Himalayas.
Over the past two years, Daniel had ripped the vampire world
apart, removing authority from the five smaller, local
courts and transferring it to the weak-willed, poorly
governed Council of Ancestrals. He was growing in wealth in
a heinous, soulless manner, by dispossessing well-to-do
vampires of their fortunes and selling off extensive mineral
rights to a human named Harris Kiernan, a typical man of his
species, full of greed and little else.
Adrien wanted both Kiernan and Daniel dead so that they
could do no more harm against the vampire world. But mostly,
he wanted Daniel dead, his body burned, bones ground to
dust, and every last element salted.
He nodded against the chains, his body aching head to toe.
So help him God, yes, heโd see Daniel dead.
And with his determination shored up once more, he fell asleep.
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