Ares, book 1 in New York Times best-seller Felicity
Heaton’s hot new paranormal romance series, Guardians of Hades, is now
available in ebook and paperback. To celebrate the release of Ares and Megan’s
romance, she’s holding a FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY and sharing sneak peeks of the
book.
Enter the ARES international giveaway (ends December 11th) and be in
with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate by using the Rafflecopter
form at her website, where you can also download a 4 chapter sample of the
novel: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/guardians-of-hades-ares-paranormal-romance-book.php
Here’s more about the book and
the sexy Greek god hero and his heroine…
Book Description:
Prince of the Underworld and Lord of Fire, Ares was banished from his home by
his father, Hades, two centuries ago and given a new duty and purpose—to keep
our world and his from colliding in a calamity foreseen by the Moirai.
Together with his six brothers, he fights to defend the
gates to the Underworld from daemons bent on breaching them and gaining
entrance to that forbidden land, striving to protect his home from their dark
influence. Caged by the manifestation of his power, held apart from those he
loves by his own fire and starved of physical contact, Ares lives a cold
existence driven by duty and the desire to return to his world.
Until his world collides with a daemon who steals his power
and a mortal female who shatters the ice around his heart and awakens the true
fire within him—a soul-stirring passion both dangerous and seductive.
Megan has wandered far from her home, driven from everyone
she loves by the devastating realisation that she is different to them all.
Unsure who to trust in the world, she keeps to herself, until a fateful stormy
night brings a temptingly handsome warrior crashing into her life and into her
heart—a warrior who seems to hold powers more frightening and marvellous than
her own.
When the New York gate comes under threat, and Ares is put
to the test, will he choose his duty and regain the power he needs in order to
save his world or will he choose the desires of his heart and sacrifice his
fire so he can be with the woman becoming his whole world?
ARES is available from Amazon
Kindle, Kobo Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks stores and other
retailers. Also available in paperback. Find the links to your preferred
retailer at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/guardians-of-hades-ares-paranormal-romance-book.php
What a fantastic start to this new series by Ms Heaton. It
has lots of sexy loving and plenty of action to keep you turning the pages. In
this book, not only do you meet Ares but also his six brothers. With Hades as
their father and Persephone as their mother you can be sure they are able to
bring things out of the hat and they certainly do.
Not only is Ares a Prince of the Underworld but he is also the
Lord of Fire which brings devastating drawbacks to him. He cannot touch anyone,
even most of his brothers, as they will go up in flames. This has left Ares
with a very lonely life, starved of affection especially since his father
banished him and all his brother’s centuries ago to guard the gates of the
Underworld that are in the human world. They are kept busy with their enemy the
daemons who are always trying to go through.
One night he came across an especially strong Daemon in an
alley, when through their vicious battle the daemon managed to steal Ares power
leaving him weakened. Another person was in that alley, a human, who had
witnessed the fight and she saw how Ares had done his utmost to keep her safe,
she tried her best to help him and together they made the daemon disappear but
it had left Ares seriously injured.
Megan, the human, had a power of her own, which has made a
bit of a loner. Moving from place to place so that no one would realize what
she can do. Megan had the power of healing and she quickly goes to Ares to help
him and this is how these two lonely people met.
Ares, since having his power taken, finds out that when
Megan touched him to heal him for the first time in over three hundred years he
is feeling the touch of a woman and not just any woman but one who brings out
such a strong feeling of protectiveness that there was no way he was going to
let her go.
Megan couldn't help but be drawn to the magnificent warrior
in front of her. With blinding good looks and lips she couldn't wait to kiss
and Ares felt the same, he couldn't help himself to see what it would feel like
to kiss this beautiful woman.
“His heart thumped. His breathing
stuttered. He had never felt so weak and defenceless. He had never wanted
anything as much as he wanted her. And he would have her. She would be his.”
The strong attraction grew quickly between these two but it
left Ares doubting himself. He knew he had to get his power back to be able to
defend the gate but would this mean having to give up Megan, a woman who in
such a short time had come to mean so much to him. Also, it didn't help that
all his brothers were against Megan, but he knew in his heart he couldn't give
her up and he went after her to tell her so.
Ares and Megan finally came together knowing neither of them
was going to walk away from each other and Ares let himself go and shows Megan
just how much she meant to him.
“She kissed him, slow sweeps of
his lips that stoked the inside of him, bringing it back to inferno level, and
he thrust his hard length against her stomach, feeling heat and her moisture
against him. He wanted to be inside her.”
But these two had a common enemy, the daemon that got away
with Ares power. So, on the hunt they went to track him down and get it back.
This book shows the strong sexual love that takes over Ares
and Megan so quickly and also the action that Ares and his brothers bring to
the story which makes the book exciting as well. These Princes of the
Underworld, all with different powers I can see is going to make for a fabulous
series and I can’t wait to read book 2 in the New Year.
Yet again Ms Heaton you have conjured up brilliant
characters and a strong story which makes it a book you can’t put down.
Ares hoofed it through Central Park, pursuing the daemon who
had made a break for it. The bastard accelerated, cutting through the patchy
darkness ahead of him, and Ares pushed harder, ignoring the burn in his legs,
his focus locked on his target. The lamps illuminating the path at intervals
flickered over him as he sprinted, intent on running down the daemon before he
escaped. Those same lights flashed over the daemon’s back, dull as they hit the
dark hood of his sweatshirt but bright on the back of his leather jacket.
The slim male veered left, crashed through the undergrowth
and broke out onto one of the park’s dark open fields.
Ares swore under his breath in the mortal tongue and
followed him. He wasn’t in the mood to play tag, not tonight. While he enjoyed
toying with his prey, he had already done that once tonight with two daemons.
Blood still slid down his chest, trickling from his wounds as he moved, and
dripped from the gashes on his forearms, tainting his senses with the metallic
scent. He’d also had a damn good scrap with another daemon.
Number four here wasn’t going to get off so lightly. When he
got his hands on the man, he was going to rip him apart.
Four daemons.
The bastards were getting cocky and persistent.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had fought so many in
a single night.
Keras’s observations were wrong. The daemons were up to
something and tonight proved it, and he was going to enjoy rubbing his older
brother’s nose in it when he next saw him.
Ares grinned, shut out the way a thousand white-hot needles
pricked his left arm with each stride, and sprinted after the remaining daemon.
The man switched tactics and zigzagged towards a lake in the distance. Was he a
water type? Ares hadn’t fought one of those in decades and he didn’t want to
fight one tonight.
He hated water.
It really messed with his fire.
Every instinct screamed to pin the daemon down before he
could reach the water.
Ares knew he shouldn’t listen to it and should conserve his
energy and keep running instead. That was the sensible course of action, the
one a seasoned warrior like himself should take. He needed the rest of his
strength in case these weren’t the only daemons looking to pick a fight with
him tonight. His mission to protect the city and the gate took priority, and he
shouldn’t need to use the full extent of his powers to eliminate a single
daemon.
The man began to pull away.
Ares huffed.
Keras would tear him a new one about this, pointing out that
he was still rash despite his years, but he was damned if he was going to let
the bastard douse him.
Ares focused on a point near the lake and the world whirled
into darkness. When it came back, he stood between the dark water and his
opponent.
He caught a glimpse of the daemon’s face, enough to clock a
small goatee and the irritated twist of his lips as he spotted him.
The daemon skidded into a turn. His hood fell back to reveal
messy short pale hair and he lost his footing. His right hand hit the damp
grass and he pushed off, shooting away from Ares.
Ares cursed him again. He should have used his ability to
step closer to him rather than going for the lake. As much as he wanted to
teleport on top of the bastard and slam him into the ground, the last one had
left him shaky and he knew his body. He couldn’t waste any more of his energy.
A twinge of pain shot down his left arm and he grimaced as
he grabbed it and rolled his shoulder, cracking it back into place. He spat
blood out onto the grass, huffed and focused on the pitch-black park. Clouds
boiled above it, dark and foreboding, and the wind carried the scent of rain.
Above that scent rose another—the coppery odour of daemon.
East.
The slippery little bastard was heading back towards the
gate.
Ares kicked off and bolted in that direction, his insides
swirling with the weird burning sensation he experienced whenever a
full-blooded daemon was nearby. He followed the feeling as it grew stronger,
leading him towards his prey. He was closing in. Had the daemon stopped running?
Rocks rose ahead of him, silhouetted by the lights from a
path that ran behind them. Perhaps the daemon was trying to hide from him in
the shadows. Or was he waiting to attack?
Another blast of heat ricocheted down the length of his arm
and he ground his teeth against it. He could rest up and heal soon enough.
Eliminating this daemon took priority.
He rounded the rocks and the swirling sensation inside him
disappeared.
He frowned and quietly moved forwards, not trusting his
senses. The daemon couldn’t be gone. He had to be here somewhere.
Ares scoured the darkness, squinting to see into the
shadows. Thunder rumbled in the distance and rolled across the city, echoing
between the skyscrapers. He lapped the rocks three times, even scaled them and
walked between them. No trace of the daemon.
It wasn’t possible.
Unwilling to give up, he did one more lap.
Nothing.
The bastard was gone.
He sat on one of the lower boulders and spat more blood out
onto the path under his boots. Keras was really going to rip him a new one now.
Ares couldn’t remember the last time he had failed to eliminate a daemon and
the taste of defeat was bitter on his tongue.
How had the daemon escaped?
The only logical conclusion was teleportation.
A daemon that could teleport?
Coupled with the strength the man had displayed during their
brief tangle, it set him on edge. He had witnessed the carnage that a single
strong daemon was capable of and it wasn’t pretty. He drew in a slow breath to
settle the growing rage in his blood as he shoved his right hand through the
tangled lengths of his dark hair, pushing it back from his face. That sort of
violence wasn’t about to hit his city. He wouldn’t allow any mortal to fall
prey to this daemon.
He flexed his fingers and stared into the darkness,
gathering his strength. It was a waiting game now and he had to take advantage
of whatever small amount of time the daemon gave him before he popped back up
on Ares’s internal radar. He would tend to his wounds, regain some strength, and
prepare himself. The daemon would make himself known again tonight. No doubt
about that. He knew that Ares was injured and would take advantage of it.
Ares closed his eyes and tipped his head back. Thunder
grumbled again, miles from the city but closing in fast.
His night had been going so well.
He had grabbed a pizza and had lined up a string of action
movies, and had planned to polish his motorcycle and maybe take the engine
apart too and clean it. A good night. Then he had felt the gate calling. He
cursed it too and pushed off from the rock. One wasted pizza and four daemons
in one night. He needed to tell his brothers because he was sure that the
fiends were up to something, and he didn’t like it.
He trudged back through Central Park, following the dimly
lit path that led towards where the gate remained hidden from the mortal realm.
The first two daemons had been acting as a couple out for a
midnight stroll in the park. It was always easy to spot young daemons. They
flouted the rules and ignored their elders’ warnings about Ares and his
brothers. They wanted to be the ones to do what those elders couldn’t and
successfully make it through the gate to the Underworld.
They quickly learned their lesson.
Nothing slipped past him or his brothers.
He took his mission to protect the New York gate to the
Underworld seriously and that meant any daemon within his city’s boundaries was
a dead daemon.
The two had fallen easily enough, little more than a warm up
for what had come at him next.
The moment he had met the female Hellspawn in the park as
arranged and had completed the ritual to unlock the gate, causing it to
materialise in this world so she could pass through, another daemon had come
out of nowhere and tried to hitch a ride to the Underworld.
Ares left the path and stalked across the wet grass, his
gaze fixed on the darkness where the gate remained hidden. The taste of blood
in his mouth, the pain burning in his muscles, and the white-hot lacerations on
his chest and arms, all of it combined to darken his mood until he was glaring
towards the gate with violence back on his mind.
The female daemon had been stronger than he had anticipated
and she had fought like a rabid beast once she had realised the gate would
close before she could escape him and make it to the Underworld. She had
screeched and clawed at him, and had even come close to sinking fangs into his
flesh.
He had crushed her in the end, but not before taking some
damage.
Damage that had put him firmly in the frame of mind for some
payback against all daemons, but with no sign of one on his senses, he had
focused on closing the gate so he could make his way home.
That was when he had met the fourth daemon. The one who had
got away.
Ares growled under his breath, his anger directed towards
himself now.
That daemon had casually strolled past him on one of the
paths through the park and had paid no attention to Ares or the gate, even
though it had still been visible at the time. It was almost as though the
daemon had thought he could slip by unnoticed. Impossible.
They had clashed and the man had given him a taste of power
that had caught Ares off guard. He had been far stronger than Ares had
anticipated, his power beyond the level of any daemon he’d had the pleasure of
battling in the past century. It was rare for a daemon of that age and level to
go anywhere near one of the gates and that was why he had pursued him when he
had turned tail and bolted. A daemon that strong was dangerous and he couldn’t
shake the feeling that he was bad news, the harbinger of an event that oracles
had foreseen centuries ago.
He needed to tell Keras and the others.
With the gate closed and safe, and no sign of his prey in
the park, Ares turned north towards his apartment.
The storm in the distance grew louder and he caught a flash
of lightning out of the corner of his eye.
His mood degenerated.
Rain.
The perfect end to a perfect fucking night.
The first fat drops fell, hissing and evaporating before
they hit his bare skin but soaking into his black t-shirt. Those drops rose as
steam from his shoulders. He hated the rain. It was up there with daemons, that
disgusting feeling that they gave him, and Hellspawn who called him out to the
gate and never thanked him for opening it.
Like the woman tonight.
He huffed and quickened his pace, hoping to make it back to
his apartment on foot before the rain really kicked in. He could teleport
himself there, but not without draining more of what little energy he had left,
and he needed to conserve as much of that as possible. He reached his exit and
crossed the street, mind fixed on the daemon who had got away.
What had he wanted with the gate?
Ares wasn’t about to fall for his feigned disinterest. The
man was up to something and he wanted to know what it was, and he would find
out before dawn broke.
The rain grew heavier, hammering the pavement and the parked
cars along the road, and he moved closer to the tall brick buildings, seeking
what little shelter he could find. Heavy rain was not his friend, especially
when he was in a foul mood, barely retaining control over his power. It broke
through the heat that constantly surrounded him and evaporated when it hit his
skin.
Nothing drew mortals’ attentions like a steaming man.
A yellow taxi drove by, headlights cutting through the
downpour and tyres whooshing as they sprayed water over the cars parked along
the street. He tipped his head back, watching the droplets fall and sparkle in
the streetlights. He wanted a shower but not this sort.
It was still another block and a half to his apartment and
he wanted to be home, in the dry. He would patch himself up, throw on some
fresh clothes, arm himself and use the time to centre himself again so he could
pull back control over his power. Control he badly needed.
When the daemon returned, he would be ready to deal with
him.
It wouldn’t be the first time he had gone into battle
injured and drained, and it wouldn’t even be the worst. Life in the mortal
world was making him soft. He had once battled a legion of daemons with one arm
broken and several arrows lodged in his left thigh, and he had decimated them.
Ares smiled. The good old days. It had been centuries since
he had gone to war together with his brothers, unleashing the hunger for
violence and destruction that made the god his parents had named him after so
proud of him.
He focused and the street whirled and disappeared, replaced
by his apartment. He flicked the light on, illuminating the pale
coffee-coloured walls and dark furniture in the open plan kitchen and living
room. He looked down at his boots and the puddle already forming around them on
his wooden floor, and toed them off and kicked them into the kitchen on his
right. They tumbled across the tiled floor, hit one of the oak cupboards and stopped.
He reached over his shoulder with his right hand, grabbed the back of his
ruined wet black t-shirt, pulled it over his head and tossed it onto the tiles
with his boots.
The water around his feet evaporated, steam curling off his
already drying black jeans. He needed to get his mood in check before something
bad happened.
He closed his eyes and drew in several deep breaths, holding
each one before slowly expelling the air, and reined in his temper together
with his power, restoring the usual rigid control he kept over it and stopping
his flames from emerging. The heat that always surrounded him settled to a more
manageable, and safer, level, and he released another breath, this one more a
sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted to do tonight was set his apartment on
fire. Again. It had been a shitty
enough night without that added cherry on top.
When he felt calm enough to maintain control over his fire,
he walked into the open living room and pushed the second door in the wall to
his left open. He switched the bathroom light on, turned and frowned at his
reflection in the mirrored wall on his left above the vanity unit and sink.
He looked like hell.
The female daemon had done a number on him. Long gashes
darted across his chest and forearms where she had caught him with her claws.
He touched the deepest one of the three on his pectorals and beads of blood
broke to the surface.
He frowned and the gold flecks in his eyes darkened to red,
glowing against their earthy brown backdrop.
The daemon shouldn’t have been able to land a single blow on
him, let alone several. He had been too complacent tonight. He had been dealing
with low level daemons for so long that he had forgotten there were stronger
ones out there, just waiting for him to drop his guard.
It wouldn’t happen again.
ARES is available from Amazon
Kindle, Kobo Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks stores and other
retailers. Also available in paperback.
Find all the links, a fantastic 4
chapter downloadable sample of the book, and also enter the giveaway and be in
with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate at her website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/guardians-of-hades-ares-paranormal-romance-book.php
Books in the Guardians
of Hades paranormal romance series:
Book 2: Valen – Coming in 2017
About the Author:
Felicity Heaton is a New
York Times and USA Today
international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books.
In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action,
intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from
dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful
angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara
Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then
you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her
best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful,
and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand
alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are
sinful, passionate and erotic then try her Vampire Erotic Theatre romance
series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in
the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her Eternal Mates
series. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampires,
fae, demons, shifters, and more. If sexy Greek gods with incredible powers
battling to save our world and their home in the Underworld are more your
thing, then be sure to step into the world of Guardians of Hades.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you
can find her at the following places:
Website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/felicityheaton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicityheaton/
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