The Clann Series, Adult: Dance with Darkness

By Melissa Darnell

"I know what you are..."

As a prima ballerina for the Houston Symphony Ballet Company, Lorena Childs is used to having people stare at her after a performance, especially when on tour with her company. But when she meets the dark stare of Conor Blake, a parent of one of the kids she’s been guest teaching at a local dance studio, she doesn’t find the usual fan’s adulation. If anything, Conor looks furious, despite his polite words. And when he shakes her hand before leaving, the shock that races up her arm is anything but normal chemistry between a man and a woman. Then he shows up during her company’s rehearsals the next day and says the words she hears so often in her nightmares…”I know what you are.” Can she convince him not to take away her only remaining happiness and the last tie to her former human life?

As a descendent of a local group of blood-born witches, Conor grew up hearing the warnings about how vampires would always crave his blood above another human’s due to the powerful energy his kind are able to draw up. But even though the existence of day walker vampires is generally accepted now, they usually prefer to stay in the closet and try to appear as normal humans. And they certainly never came to the East Texas town of Taylorsville. So he never dreamed that his own daughter would be in dangerous proximity to one, especially not at her dance studio. Yet not only has one of the loveliest predators come to their town, but she is actually guest teaching innocent children every day. He intended to confront Lorena and threaten to reveal her secret to the public if she does not immediately leave her ballet company and stay away from all children. But once he is alone with her backstage, the pull she creates within him becomes stronger than his original plans, leaving him to wonder…how will he protect his loved ones and the innocents of his town when he can’t even seem to protect himself from Lorena’s powerful attraction?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781935649106

Melissa Darnell

Melissa Darnell is the author of a growing list of adult, New Adult and Young Adult fiction. Born in California, she grew up in East Texas and has also lived in Utah, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa and South Dakota. She now lives in Nebraska with her awesome husband and two boys, where she enjoys watching Defiance, Game of Thrones, Da Vinci's Demons and True Blood. Visit her online at www.melissadarnell.com.

Book preview

The Clann Series, Adult:

DANCE

with

DARKNESS

Melissa Darnell

Copyright © 2013 Melissa Darnell

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

Published by Netherfield House Press

www.NetherfieldHousePress.com

ISBN: 978-1-935649-10-6

Cover credits:

Cover design by Melissa Darnell

Cover model photo used with permission from Hanratty @ DeviantArt.com Forest photo used with permission from angel1592Stock @ DeviantArt.com 

Also by Melissa Darnell:

Adult:

Homecoming

New Adult:

MIDNIGHT GIRLS SERIES:

Scent of Evil

Scent of Revenge

Scent of Rain

Young Adult:

The Source

The Last Firefly

THE CLANN SERIES:

Crave

Covet

Consume

Darnell has a unique ability to draw her reader into her world. Her imagery is fantastic. Her characters are so real, it's easy to forget they're imaginary. Their struggles are heartbreaking and their love is toe curling.

—Julie Anne Lindsey, Musings from the Slush Pile review for The Clann Series

#2: Covet

Covet takes you on one big emotional rollercoaster ride. I loved every minute of it! I didn't think it would top Crave, but Darnell pulled it off. Needless to say, Darnell is on auto buy for me and this series is definitely one of my favorites. I have a lot of books that are my favorite, but when asked for recommendations, this series is one that always comes to mind.

—Damaris, Good Choice Reading review for The Clann Series #2: Covet

Author Melissa Darnell has created characters that are not only like-able, but stay with you well past the pages.

—Teresa, The Duchess Mommy Reads review for The Clann Series #1: Crave

Melissa Darnell has a way of making you feel the emotions right along with the characters and it's brilliant.

—Jenna, Shortie Says review for The Clann Series #1: Crave

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Also by Melissa Darnell

About the Author

Chapter 1

Lorena

She’d never struggled so hard.

Usually Lorena flowed across the stage, her body a finely tuned instrument responsive to her every command. And always under her control. Even while on tour with the Houston Symphonic Ballet Company for the next few months, every stage was her home, and the spotlight was her shield, blocking out the world beyond. As long as she was on stage, she was free to be herself, free to fly and spin as high and fast as her dark abilities allowed. After all, ballerinas were supposed to be pale and as light as air. On stage, the unnatural thing she’d become eight months ago actually looked normal.

But something was off tonight.

They were performing Romeo and Juliet, her favorite. And she was getting to perform the lead female role as Juliet. What ballerina in her right mind wouldn’t be thrilled to death?

Regardless, she couldn’t seem to let go, couldn’t manage to block out her thoughts and simply flow like water through the choreography. Something called to her in the audience. She’d felt it as soon as she’d first entered the stage. And yet she used to never pay any attention to the audience, not even after all the other drastic changes in her life. Dancing was for her, not them.

Or it had been until tonight.

Yet again her gaze drifted toward the darkness beyond the glare of the lights, as if she could somehow peer into that secretive void and discover the elusive pull that tugged at her. Which was ridiculous, of course. There was nothing in the darkness that she needed or wanted. Only the dance mattered. Only the next step, the next turn, the next cue in the music.

But when she ran up the steps to the balcony, where she was supposed to look down upon her dance partner, her eyes slid sideways instead. Whatever it was that called to her from the audience was relentless, a driving, silent demand that refused to be ignored. Her smile faltered, and she had to swallow as her throat tightened and her teeth ached with the rising, hated need.

The need for blood.

Panic and fury followed on the blood lust’s heels. She shouldn’t be feeling the craving at all tonight. She’d had her weekly transfusion just yesterday, and no amount of dancing should have made her need more blood so soon, even if she was newly turned. This is all wrong. Fear clawed at her, making it difficult to focus on the dance. Make it through this show, Lor, she told herself. Then you can call your doctor and find out what to do.

She pushed her smile wider as was required for the performance, then turned and made her way back down the stairs to the stage. As she drew closer to tonight’s Romeo played by her buddy Jon, she gritted her teeth, bracing herself for his human scent that would surely assault her. And she could smell him, the salty sweat trickling down his face and neck sharpened with adrenaline and excitement. She could smell everything, even the dust and dirt, earthy and musty, that lurked in the air and the corners of the stage, as well as in visible layers coating unused props in the wings. She’d expected the bloodlust to drown her as she stepped into Jon’s waiting embrace so he could lift her overhead. But strangely the odor of his sweat was more comforting than anything else, blending with the equally familiar stage smells. No, the problem wasn’t here in the smells of home.

She turned to face the invisible audience in the darkness, and the hunger raked at her stomach again. There. The need came from somewhere out there tonight. Their pas de deux brought them closer to the edge of the stage, and a hundred smells clamored at her sensitive nose, forming an unseen wall that expanded and contracted before her with every cautious sniff she took. A wafting wall made of a hundred different colognes, perfumes, hairsprays, deodorants, the wines and cheeses served in the community hall next door. Each fragrance was like a different colored thread reaching out to her from the tangled web. But only one had wrapped itself around her and tried to pull her to it. Impossible to unravel that single