One Blood by E. F. Watkins

“And she remembered something else, too. At the top of the courtyard, on a kind of porch, stood a dark figure. Robed, with some kind of jeweled headdress. He watched, presided, approved. All of the butchery was at his command.”

Kathleen Van Braam’s nightmares seem so vivid and urgent. Who is this sadistic figure threatening her with gruesome torture? Are these nightmares imaginary myths or a real threat from her troubling ancestry? As art curator of Near Eastern Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, Kat is familiar with strange histories and legends. She directs archeological digs in Northern Syria exploring tombs and gravesites. Entangled in family history, Kat is seeking answers to a centuries old mystery that haunts her identity. Her great-great-grandfather Elias Van Braam had once warned future generations of such a horrific creature’s enduring thirst…

While lecturing on the recent findings in Syria, Kat encounters Dr. Jon Sharpay - a striking European military scholar that seeks her assistance in some interesting research. As Kat is drawn towards this fascinating and seductive gentleman, she struggles against a chilling realization. Dr. Sharpay is hunting her because she is the last living descendent of his arch enemy, Elias. As she witnesses Sharpay’s powerful psychic abilities, she begins to feel as if she’s trapped within a strange illness. Her ancestor was right. Elais’ attempt to kill the Vampire had failed. And now, centuries later, she is Sharpay’s victim. But Kat swears to stop his trail of carnage. Even as she fears her fate, she tries protecting her friends from Sharpay’s appetite.

Kay needs to know more about Sharpay to stop her sickening transformation. Yet the closer she gets to him, the more danger she confronts. Putting her life at risk, she conceals her changing nature, just as he always has. For Sharpay has overcome all obstacles for hundreds of years. Yet despite his fortune, Sharpay has grown to loathe his own existence. Forced to forever drink the blood of others to survive, Sharpay seeks an end to his burden. And Kat is that cure. Believing sharing his power and life as the ultimate gift, he will make her an undying source of energy. While battling a stalking psychic agent and a desperate man seeking revenge, Sharpay fiercely protects his profound bond with Kat. As he plans their destiny together, Sharpay begins foreseeing a better life for them both. And he will not allow Kat to become another monster like him. But Kat’s instinct tells her someone threatens his plans - and could ruin her life forever!

In this well-paced urban thriller, One Blood reveals the human emotions experienced by a predator who really wants to be redeemed. It is the growing bond between two seemingly different characters heading towards a supernatural transformation into the unknown. This book is an exciting prequel to Dance with the Dragon.

 

One Blood by E. F. Watkins

233 pp., Amber Quill Press, LLC, 2010

 

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