Life's Blood

By Kailin Gow

If you like Anne Rice, Sarah Maas, and Neil Gaiman's fantasy books, you'll love Kailin Gow's epic fantasies like this one. From the ALA YALSA Award-winning Author of the Bitter Frost Series and the Loving Summer Series, in development as a film, comes...

The PULSE Vampires Series:

Just when her relationship with Stuart and Jaegar seemed complicated enough, there are more vampires in the peaceful wine country town of Rutherford. Amidst the growing danger to her and everyone she loves, a proposition is given to Kalina which would change her life forever.

THE PULSE VAMPIRE BOOK SERIES - Now Complete and Available!

PULSE
Life's Blood
Blood Burn
Blue Blood
The PULSE Papers - Novella
Blood Bond
Blood Legacy
Blood Rights
Blood Curse
Blood Ring
Ring of Ice

If you like Anne Rice, Sarah Maas, and Neil Gaiman's fantasy books, you'll love Kailin Gow's epic fantasies like this one. Brotherhood of Blood

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sparklesoup Inc.
• Release date: Jun 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781597481717

Kailin Gow

It's official! Read about Kailin and her books being adapted into films and tv series here: https://filmdaily.co/obsessions/kailin-gow-loving-summer/ FIND OUT MORE ABOUT KAILIN GOW AT: https://linktr.ee/KailinGow including how to get a free book from her! Kailin Gow is a million-selling international and USA Today Bestselling author of over 680 published books! She writes in many genres under her name and other pen names. She has been an invited speaker on Book Expo America, appeared on CBS News about writing books with social issues, and the Top 15 National radio regularly on women's issues, women in film and Hollywood, and leadership. She holds a Masters in Management from USC and degrees in Social Ecology, Criminology, and Filmmaking. She is an author influencer on Instagram, owns a podcast network with multiple channels, is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, actress, and host. Her books have been made into games, animated short films, and series. Currently, a number of her book series have been optioned, are in development, or pre-production, including her YA Fantasy Sci Fi Thriller FADE (which has been optioned) and Red Genesis (also optioned) by Netflix producers. Kailin Gow is a regular guest in radio and television on women in Hollywood and filmmaking, naming the top Women Execs to Watch. She is a judge in film festivals, writing contests, and is also a voting member in the Academy Awards. AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL MILLION-SELLING AUTHOR, PRODUCER, AND TV PERSONALITY Kailin Gow is an internationally-recognized multi-award-winning multi-genres USA bestselling Asian American author and woman director/filmmaker who has written and published over 400 books under Kailin Gow and her pen names. She is both traditionally-published as well as indie. Considered a digital publishing pioneer, her books have been downloaded over 10 Million times around the world. She is known as one of the most prolific authors internationally who not only writes novels but screenplays fast, but of world-class quality they win prestigious awards like the ALA YALSA Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards. Besides having gone to law school, she holds a Masters Degree in Communications Management from USC and Drama/Film and Social Ecology Degrees from UC Irvine. She has also been a longtime member of TED Talks. She is the first Asian American author to have sold over 1 million books and to be featured on Amazon.com's homepage as an indie Author Success Story. Her success as an Indie Author and advocate for Indie authors during the early Kindle days has inspired many to take a plunge to become authors. The first Asian American woman who is independently published to appear on Amazon's homepage as an Author Success Story, she also represented Amazon as an author spokesperson during Amazon's Kindle Family Launch press conference in Santa Monica and at Book Expo America where she was an invited speaker. A digital publishing pioneer, she was one of the first authors and publisher to publish digitally back in 2001. Prior to becoming a full-time author and filmmaker, she worked as an Exec in Legal and Production at Walt Disney Company, a writer/producer for Cable Television, an Exec at high tech start ups, and Exec at Fortune 100 Hotel and Travel Corporations where she has managed and trained hundreds of employees on world-class service and operations. She has also been a professional model, a tour director, journalist, re-organization consultant, a secret mystery shopper/consultant for top brands, and professional speaker who has been an invited speaker at Book Expo America, Girl Scouts, Asian America Heritage Week, and more! FUTURIST AND SOCIAL INFLUENCER A social influencer, she has over millions of views on her YouTube channel and her Vimeo channel with over 1.5 million views on her Bitter Frost trailer and award-winning animated short film alone. She is a judge on writing contests for writing incubator social sites, has been a member of TED Talks, and is one of the most quoted modern living authors today. She has also been regularly published as a contributor on Fast Company magazine on articles about publishing, leadership, business, and social issues. https://www.fastcompany.com/1800256/social-media-and-future-publishing-industry

Book preview

PRAISE FOR PULSE

I DEVOURED THIS BOOK. From the moment I received the review copy in the mail, I couldn't put it down until I was finished. Mystery and romance clouded the beginning. The vampire hunks are more than sexy, they're complex. No wonder Kalina can't choose between them. I can see Kalina as a real teenager on the brink of adulthood. Her grief for Aaron's death felt real. Then her elation in finding Stuart, someone close to Aaron, who reminded her of Aaron, felt real. Her discovery of who she is felt real. Some of the situation was comical, especially sensitive topics (Kalina trying to deal with her hormones) was handled with a sense of humor. The ending is wonderful and I would not have guessed it. Again, Ms. Gow has shown an understanding of teenage girls and some of the issues they deal with in growing up. Boys, love, sex, school, friendships, family - she covers it all. It says in my copy PULSE is Book 1 of 5. I can't wait to read the entire series.

Naya's Girls Night Out Book Picks

I love this book. From the beginning, you are drawn in by the imagery and the emotions, the sense of longing in the characters as they meet. Right away, there is mystery and romance. The book begins in the rain as a vampire watches Kalina run from her car to the library. There is something very romantic yet primal about Kalina's first meeting with Jaegar, her dead ex-boyfriend's half-brother. Shortly after, Kalina meets Stuart, the other brother. Both brothers are vampires, as was Kalina's ex-boyfriend Aaron. The dialogue, rivalry between brothers, plot twists, and action is so well-planned and carried out, you can visualize this as a movie. If you love young adult vampire romance books with a strong kick-butt heroine, this book series is for you.

Teen Book Reviewer

Loved it! Very exciting storyline, can't wait for the next one....

Ariana, early 20s.

Pulse is fast paced and intriguing, the story has twists at every turn and the ending leaves you open mouthed and wanting more. Kailin did a wonderful job in creating this vampire world.

Melissa Silva, The Bookshelf

Book Series from

The same author of PULSE

the phantom diaries

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE Phantom after the tragedy at the Paris Opera House is the basis for this fantastic tale of The Phantom Diaries, loosely based on Gaston Leroux's classic, The Phantom of the Opera, but with a new tale and a modern twist. This new series for older teens and young adults is told through the eyes of 18 year-old Annette Binoche, who lands a job at the New York Metropolitan Opera House as a seamstress' assistant only to become the lead singer of the Opera House, with the help of the mysterious, yet highly-seductive Phantom.

Wicked Woods

Briony had to move to Wicked Woods, Massachusetts to live with her Great Aunt Sophie after her family disappears on vacation. The woods at the edge of Aunt Sophie’s inn are filled with secrets and inhabitants both seductive and deadly. Among them is a beautiful boy name Fallon who saves her one night in the woods. As Briony gets closer to Fallon, she learns he has a secret, as do most of the residents of Wicked Woods...

The Stoker Sisters

Two sisters... Born during the time of Jane Austen... Set to marry for advancement, but escaped their fates by becoming vampires. Now vampires in the 21st century, hunted by a sect of rogue hunters, the sisters meet a mysterious boy who holds the key to their destinies.

Life’s Blood

PULSE 2

Book 2

kailin gow

Life’s Blood (PULSE #2)

Sparklesoup.com

Copyright © 2010 Kailin Gow

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, please contact:

Sparklesoup.com

First Edition.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 1597489425

ISBN: 978-1597489423

DEDICATION

THIS BOOK SERIES IS dedicated to all the nameless volunteer blood donors, my doctor, and nurses at Las Colinas Medical Center in Texas who helped me pull through when I had suffered extreme blood loss, blacked out, and nearly hit my head on the floor. Your team gave me bags of blood for transfusion, which helped restore me to a level of safety.

My body craved the blood to keep alive, yet the thought of having to receive the blood from others because my own body couldn't generate it fast enough, made me empathize with vampires like Jaegar and Stuart.

When faced with death by blood loss, you realize how precious that blood in your veins and that beat in your heart are. Thank you blood donors around the world for providing this pulse for me and everyone who may at one point or another require your gift.

Sincerely,

Kailin

Prologue

THERE IS A LEGEND, whispered over campfires, etched out into the walls of caves. Its secrets lie hidden in the scrolls of the ancient Library of Alexandria, since laid to waste, and in the splendid mosaics of the palaces of kings. It has remained on the lips of wise men and in the memories of witches for centuries – a secret that treads at the furthest expanses of our imagination, and promises us deadly mysteries. The human defenses against it – the cross, the bulb of garlic, a sprinkling of holy water – at times seem to pale against the enormity of the enemy: the great terror that is signified by the word vampire.

Young women have awoken shrieking from their beds at nights, dreaming of awakening shrieking from their graves. Young men have gone missing by moonlight, only to be seen again years later with the flickering of the night sky – with pale, smooth faces and teeth like spears. And then there are those who do not reawaken, the soul sapped from their eyes; these are the trails of bodies left behind, in the wake of vampires' lust.

There are some who say vampires have more powers than the merely physical. They are impossibly beautiful, and with a single fixed gaze they can make even the most vigorous youth pray for the ecstasies of death at their hands. They need only to stare, to whisper to the human on whom they have set their wicked sights, and then the human is theirs – as completely theirs as if they have fallen into the deepest depths of love, with these creatures for whom there is no love.

All these legends are true. Their marble skin; their pricked teeth – the danger in their eyes – all of this is true.

But there are some vampires – vampires with a particular strength, a particular goodness before turning – who live to regret their own cruelty, enacted as thoughtlessly as a predator seizing upon his prey. They deny the vampiric lore that they are, no longer being human, no longer governed by human laws; they long for kindness – they long for salvation.

Some glimmer of salvation was found amid the splendors of Renaissance Florence. A vampire called Lorenzo, in a final mocking act at God, attempted to turn the priest Father Botticelli on the consecrated ground of the Duomo.

But although he could sap Father Botticelli of his strength and of his blood, his soul had already been consecrated to God and Lorenzo could not take that. In the aftermath of his turning, Father Botticelli found that crosses could not affect him; holy water did not burn him. And – perhaps most importantly – he could still whisper the rites, and bless the communion wine.

As all good Catholics know, according to the mysteries of transubstantiation, the communion wine becomes the Blood of Christ during the service. And – it came to light – if it were true that crosses and water, imbued with the most sacred powers of belief – could harm an evil vampire, so too was it true that the Blood of Christ could sustain a good one. And all those vampires who wished to avoid the taking of a human life participated in this strange mass.

From the moment that word spread that Father Botticelli was able to produce what came to be known as il vino di vampiro - vampire wine – he was in danger, from vampires no more willing to accept a traitor to their ways of blood and death than they were to bear this affront without fighting back. The wine-drinking vampires – the bibenda – escorted Father Botticelli to safety; among them was Stuart Greystone, who put his family's centuries-old winery to use in the bottling and proliferation of vampire wine.

And thus were a small, yet powerful group of vampires able to retain their humanity, at the cost of expressing the urges that were not only free and natural, but indeed overwhelming, to all vampires. With Stuart Greystone at the helm of Greystone Wineries, some vestige of human goodness was allowed to remain....

But this is not the only legend surrounding vampires. Even legends have legends, and for centuries vampires have whispered among themselves – standing perched at gravestones, hidden behind the thresholds of palaces, feasting on corpses – of a story so powerful that it threatened the very essence of their shriveled afterlives.

Life's Blood.

It had begun in China (was it China? Some said Japan – others said Anatolia. But it was China, in the end.) A doctor, wise in the ways of herbs and medicines – as wise as any mere human could be – wished to experiment with vampires: to discover their essence, to counter their cruelty with those same powers, used for good. He captured one such vampire and experimented upon him, drawing vials of his blood and storing them in his laboratory – combining the blood and operating upon it in such a way that when he at last injected the blood into his veins, he experienced a few moments of the greatest euphoria he had ever known. He was able to run faster than the winds across the Mongolian Steppe; to race up walls; to jump from tree to tree like a long-tailed lemur, to break down doors with a simple brush of his wrist.

Ten minutes later he died, his heart overwhelmed by the intensity bursting through it.

His daughter was reported to have continued his work – a brilliant young woman who, if she had been a man, might have risen to the highest ranks of civil servant in the Empire. She mastered the formula; she discovered how it was that a human could contain within her veins vampire-blood, untempered by the cruelty of vampire magic; her blood became Life's-Blood.

Legends sprang up around this mysterious Life's Blood, and its inventor. It was said that the woman had fallen in love with a French Vampire who came seeking her counsel – together they bore a child, with Life's Blood naturally running through her veins. It was said that a single drop of Life's Blood, when worn in a ring or amulet, was sufficient to allow a vampire to withstand the sun. It was said that drinking from a Life's Blood vessel was enough to render a vampire not only powerful, but invincible, until