✅ Supernatural meets Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
✅ Latinx Characters
✅ Suspenseful Paranormal Romance
✅ Comedic Relief
✅ Zombie Dystopia
✅ Dark Fantasy
✅ Love Triangle
Blurb
He’s the hunter. She’s the prey. Neither of them expected love…
Gabriel is lucky to still be alive. Stalking a pretty young woman for his next meal, the clever vampire is frustrated when a pair of hunters not only rescue her but nearly kills him in the process. So when he notices one of them has developed a crush on the girl, Gabriel hatches the perfect plan for revenge.
Amelia Vallez doesn’t believe in monsters. But she can tell the handsome man who rescued her is hiding something. And when she’s saved a second time by a genuine vampire, the science-minded high school senior is suddenly terrified of all the things that shouldn’t be real.
Although he’d planned to use the naïve girl to destroy his hated foe, Gabriel is alarmed to be actually falling for her. And while Amelia should be afraid of the charming bloodsucker, he’s the only one willing to give her the answers her would-be boyfriend will not.
Is this odd couple fated to be together, or will Gabriel’s machinations tear them apart forever?
The Dawn of Darkness is the thrilling first book in the Dawn of Darkness paranormal romance series. If you like brooding men, damsels in distress, and complex love triangles, then you’ll adore K.E. Radke’s compelling tale.
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CHAPTER ONE
The Dawn of Darkness by K. E. Radke
https://keradke.wordpress.com/
GABRIEL
Patience is the only virtue I have left. A required quality for an immortal. Otherwise, it would have rotted away along with my soul.
Shadows from the building ahead fall over the young woman as she continues past the alley. Slowing her pace, she rummages for a ringing phone lost in the purse on her shoulder, conveniently making my job easier.
On Sunshine Boulevard, the Miami tourists are too busy relaxing to notice her walking alone. The sun is gone, leaving behind a bruised sky as the moon bullies its way through the stars.
Trash lines the walls where I’m hidden from view. A giant dumpster with overflowing garbage makes my lip involuntarily curl. The soft fabric of my dark Louis Vuitton shirt slides against my skin, reminding me how out of place I am. I should be feasting like a king with my alligator boots propped on a table.
But dinner is among the rats and cockroaches again.
The thought snaps my arm out to snag her hair. I twist my fingers in the long, onyx locks. She jerks backward, right into my waiting arms, to vanish in the darkness between the buildings with me.
Firmly placing my hand over her mouth, a muffled scream sings to the predator in me. Adrenaline shoots through her system and my ears pick up her erratic pulse. Fangs emerge over my bottom lip, and I hold her steadily against me with an arm wrapped around both her arms and torso.
It’s a perfect fit.
My hand twists in the tangled tresses, yanking her head to one side to reveal the curve of her beautiful, flawless neck. The tip of my nose grazes her face as I inhale the scent of blood pumping through her veins.
A tear drips over my hand covering her mouth. Nails rip at my skin. Elbows and fists swing backward, stinging like mosquito bites. Fear pours off her in waves and I relish in it, listening to each ragged breath playing a symphony with her hammering heart.
Muffled pleas are intelligible between sobs and gasps for air. I exhale over her jawline and watch goosebumps rise along her flesh.
Such delicate creatures. The faintest touch can cause the body to react in the most fascinating ways.
Soft skin meets my bottom lip, and I position my fangs in the perfect spot before they sink into her neck. Violent waves of energy roll through me until I surrender to my demon half. The familiar scars across my face deepen as all my human features shift into a creature of the night.
Rigid in my arms, she stops fighting, her breaths short and choppy. In a split second, her head collides with my nose and I release her to assess the damage more out of habit than it actually hurting.
Human habits are hard to shake, even after a hundred and twenty years.
Screams echo over us and spread throughout the alley. I count two fleeing steps and swirl in front of her with speed that shouldn’t exist in her world, blocking her escape route. She slams right into me and breaks her fall with her hands, scraping them against the ground.
Scrambling around blindly, she screams at the purse tangled around her arm as she fights to move faster. Darkness swells around her, swallowing everything as her eyes try to grasp which direction the next attack will come from.
The scent of fresh blood unravels all the willpower left in me, and I haul her off the ground by her shoulders. Forgetting my strength, I accidentally slam her against the brick wall and knock the wind out of her.
Killing her before I quench my thirst with the thick, red liquid flowing through her body would be barbaric. I haven’t worked this hard for a meal in ages. Dormant hunting instincts I haven’t used in months wake at the feel of her quivering body under my trailing fingers.
Our gazes meet as she gasps for air.
Glowing in her brown eyes are my red ones. She struggles to free herself from my grasp and turns her head, refusing to look at me. The tips of my fangs rub against my skin as the corner of my mouth ticks upward.
Her leg comes up between my mine. Right on target. Hands push me out of the way, but I catch my balance and lean against the brick wall for a few seconds to recover.
An animalistic snarl bursts out of me as I breathe through the discomfort. Getting kicked in the groin is never a pleasant feeling, even as a vampire.
She stumbles over debris littering the alley and swings her purse outward to keep me at bay. The heavy bag pulls her off balance, and she falls again, striving to escape. More Blood. Sliding my tongue over a fang, I inhale the glorious scent.
I can’t even seize her shoulder before she twists to the side and kicks me as hard as she can, imprinting a dirty shoe print on my jeans. Biding my time by brushing it off, I let her believe she might getaway. Hope enters the fray of emotions surrounding her, almost immediately swallowed by a thick layer of terror when I don’t immediately reach for her again.
Near the entrance to the alley, she takes a chance to get on her feet so she can move faster to get help. A scream rips from her lips for only a second.