Unforgiven: A Tale of the Possessed

By Erica Hayes

From the author of the Shadowfae series comes a darkly romantic tale of redemption... and revenge.

In a decadent republic on the brink of revolution, immortal blood drinker Lisette has long ago learned the price of her selfish pursuit of pleasure.

Now, trapped in marriage to the stoic nobleman who saved her from the mob, she's vowed to use her powers only for good. By night, she stalks plague-ridden streets, armed with rapier and pistol, hunting the Possessed: the pleasure-crazed victims of Lisette's own kind.

But beneath her respectable façade, old hungers still burn, sated only by her husband's fading love… until the hunt pits her against their ancient enemy, a dark prince and lover who rekindles Lisette's forbidden thirst for power—and blood.

Betrayed by the only man who can save her, with the city erupting in flames and ultimate power within her grasp, Lisette must choose between dark past and uncertain future, shadows and light—and the two magnificent, tragically irreconcilable men who haunt her soul.

A 10,000 word dark historical fantasy/vampire novella. Contains violence, sexual situations and vampire gore.

Warning: this story is deeply romantic, but it isn't a romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erica Hayes
• Release date: Nov 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781386845614

Erica Hayes

Erica Hayes was a law student, an air force officer, an editorial assistant and a musician, before finally landing her dream job: fantasy and romance writer. She writes dark urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and her books feature tough, smart heroines and colourful heroes with shadowy secrets. She hails from Australia, where she drifts from city to city, leaving a trail of chaos behind her.

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About Unforgiven

In a decadent republic on the brink of revolution, immortal blood drinker Lisette has long ago learned the price of her selfish pursuit of pleasure. Now, trapped in marriage to the stoic nobleman who saved her from the mob, she's vowed to use her powers only for good. By night, she stalks plague-ridden streets, armed with rapier and pistol, hunting the Possessed: the pleasure-crazed victims of Lisette's own kind.

But beneath her respectable façade, old hungers still burn, sated only by her husband's fading love... until the hunt pits her against their ancient enemy, a dark prince and lover who rekindles Lisette's forbidden thirst for power—and blood.

Betrayed by the only man who can save her, with the city erupting in flames and ultimate power within her grasp, Lisette must choose between dark past and uncertain future, shadows and light—and the two magnificent, tragically irreconcilable men who haunt her soul.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2014 in the anthology My Bloody Valentine

Unforgiven

A Tale of the Possessed

LOVE HURTS, THEY SAY.

Still, I find it an impractical tool. In all my years, I've never extracted a traitor's confession with the threat of a broken heart—for the simple reason that on the subject of love, imagination fails us. We cannot conceive before the fact how excruciating its loss can be. Whereas any torturing scoundrel will tell you that the instinctive human dread of physical pain—a dagger pressed into the eye socket, for example—is often more persuasive than the pain itself.

I poke my blade in a little harder. "Give me a name, monsieur, or by Jupiter, I'll pop your eye like a cherry."

Don't know what you mean. The boy's in shirtsleeves, and sweat darkens his white linen. The pleasure den's warm gaslights slant my shadow across his face. He's bleeding all over his waistcoat, poor lad, his cupid's-bow lips split and swollen, and it isn't making my job any easier.

A few feet from us, behind the half-drawn curtain, the dance whirls on, oblivious, a riot of silk and brocade, paste jewelry, painted faces, dusty relics of the bad old days. When he approached me at these revels—me, a lady wearing a gentlemen's swallow-tailed coat and breeches, rapier and dirk at her belt, glossy brown curls twisted in a red ribbon—he had more erotic recreation in mind.

Perhaps, so did I. He's handsome, this minion of evil. Delicious. The eye I'm threatening to pierce is ocean blue, bright with belladonna, and the smell of his skin maddens me. Absinthe and fear and a succulent boy's sweat, a toxic reminder of days long gone, when truth and liberty were more important than tomorrow, and my blood raced wild and free.

But I'm a different woman now. A married woman. And though I worship my lord husband with my entire heart, on evenings such as this—with the prey trembling