Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire
Read Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire Online
Authors: Laura Wright
Praise for Laura Wright
and the Mark of the Vampire Series
Eternal Kiss
“Complex and riveting.”
—
Romantic Times
(4 stars)
“A superb urban romantic fantasy due to the powerful Wright mythos that makes the realm of the Eternal Order seem genuine.…This author clearly has the Wright stuff with the complicated world of the Roman vampire brothers.”
—The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews
“I fell in love with book one in this series, but this second addition moved me from innocent love to full-blown love addiction.…[I] could not put it down.”
—Shameless Romance Reviews (5 stars)
“The romance is rich in emotion and the plot infuses danger and nail-biting action. The journey was so exciting! It was rife with chills and thrills, and altogether it never failed to keep my attention.…[This] was a great ride where a sweep-you-off-your-feet romance ignites within a high-risk plot. Laura Wright has found her niche in the paranormal romance genre with her larger-than-life Roman brothers!”
—Leontine’s Book Realm
Eternal Hunger
“Dark, delicious, and sinfully good,
Eternal Hunger
is a stunning start to what promises to be an addictive new series. I can’t wait for more from Laura Wright.”
—Nalini Singh,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Bonds of Justice
“Action, passion, and dark suspense launch a riveting new series. Laura Wright knows how to lure you in and hold you captive until the last page.”
—Larissa Ione,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Ecstasy Unveiled
“Dark, sexy vampires with an urban bite make
Eternal Hunger
a must read.”
—Jessica Andersen, author of
Storm Kissed
“Paranormal fans with a penchant for vamps will find
Eternal Hunger
a must read, but be warned, you will quickly become hooked!”
—The Romance Readers Connection (4½ stars)
“
Eternal Hunger
is deliciously dark while making you believe in the concept of soul mates.”
—Fresh Fiction
“An exhilarating vampire romance…dark, passionate, and utterly intoxicating!”
—Reader to Reader Reviews
“In a field brimming with rehashes of the same theme, Wright has managed to create a sound, believable vampire culture with plenty of tension and interesting plot points. The pacing is smooth, with well-developed characters, and the satisfying conclusion leaves ample room for more from this strong new series.”
—Monsters and Critics
Also by Laura Wright
The Mark of the Vampire Series
Eternal Hunger
Eternal Kiss
E
TERNAL
C
APTIVE
MARK OF THE VAMPIRE
LAURA WRIGHT
A SIGNET ECLIPSE BOOK
SIGNET ECLIPSE
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, February 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
EISBN: 9781101575109
Copyright © Laura Wright, 2012
All rights reserved
SIGNET ECLIPSE and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
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To you, my readers, who love these boys just
as much as I do
LOSSARY
Balas
—Vampire child.
The Breeding Male
—A
paven
of purest blood whose genetic code and structure has been altered by the Eternal Order. He has the ability to impregnate at will and decide the sex of the
balas
. He is brought in by Pureblood families and/or to repopulate one sex or the other in times of dire necessity. He is uncontrollable, near to an animal, and must be caged.
Credenti
—A vampire community, ruled and protected by the Eternal Order. Both Purebloods and Impures live here. There are many all over the world, masked by the Order so that humans barely notice their existence.
Duro
—Tender word for “brother.”
Eternal Order
—The ten Pureblood vampires who have passed on to the middle world, yet make the laws, punish the lawbreakers, and govern every vampire
credenti
on Earth.
Eyes—
The New York City street rats who run the sales of drugs, blood, and body to both human and vampire.
Gemino
—
Twin.
Gravo
—Poisoned vampire blood.
Imiti
—An imitation vampire, one who can take on the characteristics of a vampire if he or she drinks blood regularly.
Impurebloods
—Any combination of human and vampire. They have no powers, a heartbeat, and can live in the sun. They only have fangs when blood is consumed. Males are blood castrated, their sex drive removed through the blood by the Order. Females are blood sterilized and the inside of their thighs are branded with
I
s.
Meta
—A pureblood female of fifty years, she can still remain in sunlight, but needs the blood and body of her true mate.
Mondrar
—Vampire prison.
Morpho
—A pureblood
paven
of three hundred years; as powerful as a
paven
can get. He is sunlight intolerant, and the need to find his true mate becomes impossible to deny.
Mutore
—
A Pureblood vampire shape-shifter. A Beast. A child of the Breeding Male gone wrong. Is considered less than trash, and a bad omen on the Breed. Is usually killed right after birth when they shift for the first time.
Paleo—
The Order’s secret location where Impures are blood castrated.
Paven
—A vampire male of pure blood.
Pureblood—
Pure vampire. Powerful, no heartbeat, will go through Morpho and Meta and find their pureblood true mate.
Puritita
—One who is chaste.
Sacro
—Dirty.
Similis
—The Impure guards of Mondrar.
Swell
—Vampire pregnancy.
Tegga
—Nursemaid/nanny/governess.
True Mate
—The one each Pureblood
veana
and
paven
is destined for. Each shares an identical or complementary mark somewhere on their skin.
Veana
—A vampire female of pure blood.
Veracou—
The mating ceremony between two pureblood vampires.
Virgini
—Virgin.
Witte
—Animal.
Table of Contents
T
HE
B
REEDING
M
ALE
Scotland
1872
T
itus Evictus paced in his iron enclosure, his fangs fully extended, his pale eyes dilated, his long, heavily muscled body nude save for the painful iron cup that imprisoned his cock. There were moments in his miserable existence, brief and gleefully hopeful, when he felt less than rabid, when his mind attempted to clear away the fog, when the scent of blood was not ever-deep inside his nostrils—and when the call of a warm, wet pussy didn’t send his body into spasms of painful arousal.
That day, however, was not today.
A
veana
was being led into his pen by two short
pavens
with long braided beards. Her kin. He recognized their scent from the night before. The
veana
struggled and grunted and breathed heavily, the scents
of peat smoke and the spray of the sea escaping her skin. Though his nostrils flared and his mouth filled with saliva, Titus kept his back to the iron wall and his eyes down. After so many years of this delectable, tortuous labor, he now refused to look at the faces of the
veanas
that were brought before him.