The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) (23 page)
Read The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) Online
Authors: Elizabeth Rose
“I want nothing more than to marry you, but I don’t know if I should dare ask.”
Her heart beat joyously in her chest at the idea of being this man’s wife. A part of her had loved him since the day she saw him spill that soup all over his shirt. Even though he’d never really shown her his love, she’d felt it deep inside of him all along.
“Well, why don’t you ask me?”
“Because I haven’t been very nice to you, Cassie.”
“You haven’t quite been yourself either, Basil. For a vampire, I’d say you weren’t bad at all.”
He laughed again, and she loved it. Then he held both her hands in his and said the words every girl wants to hear some time or another in her life.
“Cassie, will you marry me?”
She looked deeply into his eyes and thought yes, yes, yes. When he still had that sad look upon his face she burst out laughing.
“I guess you can’t read my mind anymore?”
He looked at her oddly and shook his head. “No, I can’t,” he admitted.
“Then I’ll tell you aloud. Yes, Basil, I will marry you. I love you and want nothing more than to be your wife.”
Basil pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. There was no mistaking the love between them. The kiss may have turned into something more, hadn’t they heard the others calling them, their voices coming closer.
Basil tore his shirt from his body and covered her nearly naked body quickly.
"Basil, you're alive!" Louie and Sefu ran up and embraced him. Jack, La Roux and Andre followed.
"Cassie broke the curse.” He explained everything to them.
"Better not let a fine girl like that get away," Jack told him with a wink.
“I have no intention of ever letting that happen.”
“Basil’s asked me to marry him,” Cassie broke in.
“And she’s accepted,” added Basil.
“Daddy, I’m so happy.” La Roux threw her arms around him, and Cassie’s heart melted as Basil hugged her in return. Congratulations were exchanged, and life was good. Cassie curled up into Basil’s arms, not being able to get enough of his loving attention.
"I won't let him get away," replied Cassie. "After all, I've been waiting for a man like Basil for almost the last three decades."
"Well, that's nothing," laughed Basil kissing her on the head. "I've been waiting for you for the last two centuries. I promise you, Cassie, I will take care of you forever, as well as the graves of everyone here we have both loved. After all, even though I may no longer be a vampire, I will always be
the Caretaker of Showman’s Hill.”
I hope you enjoyed Cassie and Basil’s story. I love writing paranormal, and writing a vampire was a fun challenge.
Please visit my website at
Elizabethrosenovels.com
to read excerpts and receive updates as I have books being released quite often. Make sure to subscribe to my email list. You can also read excerpts from any of my novels on my website, as well as get sneak peeks at covers of upcoming books. And please remember that there are other authors by the same name, but my novels can be identified by the rose on every cover. And be sure to take a look at my new
book trailer videos
.
You may also enjoy my
Daughters of the Dagger Series
.
Book Trailer
.
Here are the books in the series. Be sure to get the
FREE
prequel book.
This series is followed by my NEW Scottish
Madman MacKeefe
series, with the first book being about the girls’ brother,
Onyx – Book 1
,
who they thought was dead.
Aidan – Book 1
,
is next, followed by my latest new release,
Ian – Book 3
.
You may also be interested in my medieval
Elemental Series
:
Watch book trailer
The Dragon and the Dreamwalker
,
Book 1: Fire
;
The Duke and the Dryad
,
Book 2: Earth
;
The Sword and the Sylph,
Book 3: Air
; and
The Sheik and the Siren
,
Book 4
: Water.
Or you may want to try my medieval
Legacy of the Blade Series:
Or my
Greek Myth Fantasy Series
:
Watch book trailer video
Thank you, and I am including some excerpts from my novels for your enjoyment.
Elizabeth Rose
Excerpt from
Familiar
:
(A warlock in denial and a cursed/shapeshifting woman.)
Slade looked over to Susie’s house next door. He wondered what had happened to her after that awful night five years ago. He’d thought of her every day since he’d left. He’d thought of the things he wanted to say to her, but didn’t.
He missed Susie, but knew wherever she was, she was better off as long as she wasn’t with him. He wondered if she still smelled like lilacs or if her hair was still the color of buttercups in long loose curls that wisped past her face in the breeze of a warm summer day.
He froze as his eyes settled on her front porch swing swaying in the breeze. It was almost like he was back in high school again, his memory stirring up feelings of Susie he tried so hard to forget. Her house was small and quaint. Fresh turquoise paint trimmed the shiny windows and a cute wooden fence encompassed the trimmed lawn. Flower boxes of petunias and potted geraniums lined the front of the porch.
It still looked the same as it had ten years ago. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. He then forced his eyes away and looked instead at the house he’d grown up in. An old Victorian mansion with peeling paint and shutters flapping in the breeze. The lawn looked as if it hadn’t been mowed in a month of Sundays and the path leading to the front door was rocky and full of weeds. Nothing had changed in the time he’d been gone. There were probably still bats in the attic as well. But at least he knew no one would ever find a mouse in there. Not with all the cats that occupied the premises.
He pushed open the old iron gate, the squeak scaring a few dozen of his uncle’s pet cats that scattered through the high grass and disappeared under the porch or somewhere in Susie’s yard.
He felt his nose tingle and his eyes water. Those damned cats were still affecting him. He’d almost forgotten how miserable he’d been living with his uncle’s three dozen felines. He sneezed loudly, and a few straggling cats hurried on past him out onto the front walkway.
“Damn these cats,” he griped, pulling a tissue from his back pocket to wipe his nose.
“God bless you.”
He stopped in mid-motion, afraid to turn around. Afraid he knew only too well which angel belonged to the blessing being sent his way. He put the tissue back without turning to look. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be her.
He turned then, half hoping it was only his imagination and not her. But as he expected, Susie stood there with a slight smile on her face and a bag of groceries balanced on one curvy hip. Matter of fact, she had a few curves he didn’t remember the last time he saw her.
“Susie,” he whispered and watched as her peacock-blue eyes lit up when she saw him. Just like he’d remembered. He willed his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. There was so much he wanted to say to her. So much he wanted to tell her. I’m sorry, for starters, but he knew the words would never be sufficient for what he was supposedly responsible for doing.
“So,” she said, the pregnant pause after the word a little unnerving. “You decided to move back to Caton?”
“Move back?” he was stunned that she’d think he’d come back here to live after what happened. He was even more stunned that she didn’t slap him or punch him or give him the kind of treatment he truly deserved. Instead, little miss Susie Homemaker stood with a bag of groceries balanced on her hip looking as if she were about to invite him in to dinner when she should be running from him instead. Fearless, yet trusting. Just like his Susie.
“No. No, I’m only here on business,” he said, blinking his irritated eyes which the cats always triggered off in him.
“Business?” she asked with a raised brow. “Something to do with the new development plans of the mall they foolishly want to build here?”
“It’s about time Caton had a mall, Susie. This town is dying. If it doesn’t pull in revenue soon it’ll be nothing but a ghost town.”
She looked up at the setting sun just then and her face paled slightly, her eyes losing their sparkle. Her expression changed from one of comfort and nurturing to one of disturbance, anticipation and a little of something he couldn’t quite explain. Her eyes closed and she swayed. She loosened her grip on her grocery bag and Slade jumped forward, taking it from her hands before it spilled, yet being extra careful not to touch her.
“What’s the matter, Susie? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
The chill of the evening was more noticeable now as the sun started to set on the horizon. He knew she must have felt it too, because he could see the gooseflesh on her bare arms.
“Nothing. I - I’m fine. I’ve just got to go now.”
“No, not yet,” he said. “I have so much to say to you. So much to ask. Do you still live in the house - why’d you come back? I thought you went to live in Europe with your parents. Isn’t that what Aunt Maeve told me?”
She reached for the bag, but Slade caught her by the wrist. She stopped and stared down at
his hand, and he realized he might be gripping her too tightly. He quickly released her wrist, cursing himself for doing that. Hadn’t he learned his lesson last time?
Still, he told himself he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Oddly enough, he couldn’t help but notice that when he’d grabbed her, her skin felt cold and clammy. Not like the warm, soft skin he’d remembered. Also, her body felt tense and rigid. Then again, it was probably just him triggering off those reactions in her and he couldn’t say he blamed her at all.
“Susie, tell me what’s bothering you. Has Uncle Galen been pestering you again? I know he’s an odd sort of man who can get under one’s skin. He’s not knocking at your door in the middle of the night asking you to help him find a lost cat, is he?”
She looked scared. Her eyes met his for a brief second and then she glanced to the ground at his feet. “No. Galen doesn’t come to my house. Not anymore.”
She pulled the grocery bag from his hands, almost ripping the paper in the process.
“Let me walk you to your door,” he said. “It’s been a long time. Maybe we can have some dinner and -”
“No! No, not tonight.”
It was so unlike her. And such a rapid mood swing from the girl who’d just blessed him when he’d sneezed.
Excerpt from
Lord of Illusion:
(Legacy of the Blade Series, Book 3)
Abbey rode her steed hard through the woods, branches scratching her skin and tearing at her traveling clothes. Still, she did not care. One glance over her shoulder told her she was yet to be followed. But when she looked a second time, a rider on horseback approached her, gaining on her quickly. In her carelessness, she misdirected her horse and it reared up, causing her to fall from her sidesaddle to the hard ground far below.
The rider came up behind her and two strong arms pulled her to her feet.
“Nay!” she shouted, pushing him away, “I won’t go with you to marry that ogre.”
That’s when she realized he wasn’t a guard at all, but rather the old man in the road who’d robbed them.
“Let go of me,” she cried, and in her struggles the man’s hood slipped from his head. Though he had a beard and eyebrows of nearly white, the hair on his head was dark as a starless night.
“Hold still,” the man ground out - a young man’s voice slipping from his lips instead of the old crackly voice she’d heard on the road.
“You are not an old man,” she accused him. “You are an imposter. Who are you?”
