Lifeline

By Evelyn Montgomery

"If you are need of a dark, intense vampire love story this is the book for you! Their love has overcome centuries of lies, revenge, vengeance, and love that Felix & Esmeralda are destined to be together!"

 

The Slayer.

Esmerelda Martin.
 

It's been a long time since my eyes have feasted on such a beautiful sight.

I've never been able to take it slow with her.
I've never been able to savor her like she deserves.
I'm too greedy. Too hungry.
A selfish man with a longing.
A craving.
Always eager for just one taste.

The only thing more addictive
than the blood running through her veins
is the pleasure I feel as she invites me in and
quickly lets me tear her apart.

She's been expecting me just as much as I've anticipated her,
and I've waited centuries to feel her life in my grasp again.
I won't let her deny me.

The coven doesn't know our secret.
A promise several centuries old made in blood.

This time, the hunt, the chase doesn't end until
she's marked by me, claimed by me,
finally making her mine for eternity.

Praise for Lifeline:

 

"I love this short novella. Felix and Esmeralda's love go for centuries. They find each other again and again, and every time, their passion and desire are more strong. This book is fantastic and heartbreaking and the same time. I hope for another book. I think they deserve it!"

 

"Lifeline is a wonderful short Paranormal romance. I promise between two lovers for eternity with a love over lifetimes. This is a short read but the spice is hot as ever! I really enjoyed the novella and could not put it down. As soon as I opened that book, I didn't put it down until I finished it. I highly recommend this novella to everyone. I hope there is more Esme and Felix to come."

 

"I have never bought a physical book so fast! Felix and Esme's unlikely love story is truly one for the ages. They find each other in different lifetimes trying to make it right as it should have been from the beginning. It's both touching and heartbreaking at the same time. I could not get enough of them! This is me praying Evelyn makes this a series...or at least a duet!! PRETTY PLEASE!"

 

"I love this short novella. Felix and Esmeralda's love go for centuries. They find each other again and again, and every time, their passion and desire are stronger. This book is fantastic and heartbreaking and the same time. I hope for another book. I think they deserve it!"

 

"Lifeline is a wonderful short Paranormal romance. I promise between two lovers for eternity with a love over lifetimes."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evelyn Montgomery
• Release date: Jan 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215875445

Evelyn Montgomery

Born & raised in California, Evelyn Montgomery now resides in Central Kentucky with her husband and three children.Her love stories include contemporary chick lit, romantic suspense, phycological thrillers, mysteries, RomCom & much more.One thing to always expect when reading an Evelyn Montgomery book is a plot twist somewhere between the pages you’d never see coming.With no plans to stop writing any time soon, her goal is to keep producing a fictional world that isn’t forced, but genuine, heartfelt, and desirable.

Book preview

Lifeline

LIFELINE

EVELYN MONTGOMERY

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Felix

Chapter 2

Felix

Chapter 3

Esme

Chapter 4

Felix

Chapter 5

Esme

Chapter 6

Esme

Chapter 7

Felix

Chapter 8

Felix

Chapter 9

Esme

Chapter 10

Felix

Chapter 11

Felix

Chapter 12

Esme

Chapter 13

Felix

Also by Evelyn Montgomery

Sneak Peek Losing Neverland

Sneak Peek at Dominant Love

Sneak Peek at Atonement

Sneak Peek at Resurrection

About the Author

Copyright © 2022 by Evelyn Montgomery

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

For all the women who dream of being

marked, claimed, & deliciously devoured

by a man whose intentions have always been immoral…

"You’ll be mine forever. I’ll never let you go.

In this life, & if there’s a next,

you’ll belong to me.

For eternity."

-Felix Caldwell

"None of us really change over time.

We only become more fully what we are."

-Anonymous

CHAPTER ONE

FELIX

London | 1789

H elp!

The voice is weak. Small. Fragile even. So tiny I almost miss it as it blows past me in the wild wind this evening out in the forest beyond the courtyard.

Please... 

I turn around quickly, my eyes straining to make out where it’s coming from as the night grows darker around me. The shadows of midnight play with my eyes, but they eventually focus on the cliff on the far side of the clearing.

Someone... 

I rush forward. My feet propel me as fast as they can as the voice pulls me toward it and the lure she’s always had on me urges me closer.

Anyone... 

I skid to a stop at the edge of the cliff and look around frantically. I’m not imagining things. I know I heard her voice.

Please, she calls again, and I realize her voice is coming from underneath me. My breath lodges painfully in my chest as I look down and my eyes widen in shock. 

Help, she screams, frantically glancing around her for a way to climb back up off the ledge.

Esmeralda!

She quickly looks up. Felix, she sobs as her hand slips and she lets out another scream. 

I kneel to the ground in a hurry, the sharp pebbles underneath my shins piercing my skin as I stretch forward and reach out to her. 

Thank God, she breathes in relief, as she strains towards me just before her hands start to slip again. 

Rocks fall away underneath her feet, crashing into the abyss below and my heart lunges into my throat. She lets out a scream, this one loud, blood-curdling, and more frightening than before. I stretch further forward and try to balance myself on the ledge so I don’t tumble down after her. Reaching, stretching, attempting to rescue her, breathing heavily, I stare into her tear-filled eyes, and my stomach twists in knots as one fearful thought comes to mind. Maybe I won’t be able to save her.

Felix, please, her plea comes in a hoarse whisper as she tries to catch her breath and continues to stretch as much as she can in an attempt to grasp my hand. 

Her sobs catch in her throat, and I swallow hard as I attempt to lean once again further forward in another attempt to save her. Her eyes plead with mine as we claw closer to one another. We’re both scared. Terrified. 

I can’t lose her. Not this way. Not tonight. Not ever.

I’m slipping, she cries.

The next instant, her balance fails her. Her ankle gives out on the rock ledge she’s perched on and she starts to stumble.

No, I grit out through clenched teeth stretching forward as far as I safely can. Reach for me, Esme.

I’m trying!

Try harder! I snap.

Her eyes flash in annoyance, but she forces herself up on her tiptoes and extends her arm, stretching as far as she can, and closing the gap between us. It works, thank God, and finally makes it possible for me to slip my large palm around her slender wrist. 

Atta’ girl, I give her a wink as I suck in a shaky breath. It’s a wink that serves only to stoke the fire in her eyes as I hoist her towards me and up off the cliff’s ledge. 

She falls against my chest with such force, we both let out a grunt as we stumble to the safety of the earth below our feet. The wind picks up as we crash together onto the damp grass in the dark of night. 

What were you doing out here, Esme? I manage as she stares up into my eyes. I’ve barely touched her before, to have her underneath me like this is too much.

I couldn’t stand the look in Prince Dalton’s eyes, she whispers, glancing anywhere but my eyes. I thought you might be out here. After the way my father treated you earlier, I knew you’d need somewhere to escape. I knew you’d be here and...

She knew I’d be here just like I knew she would, too. It’s where we’ve always come. Where I’ve always chased her to. The only place we can truly be alone together without the eyes of her father’s household watching us.

I crave these moments together more than I will ever let her know. We steal away together from time to time even though we know it’s foolish. We can never be together. But that doesn’t stop me from stealing away and enjoying her company any time I can. I’ve never laid a finger on her until now. The feeling of her body underneath mine thrills me more than I anticipated and I find myself clearing my throat as I look away and attempt to focus on something else than the softness of her skin against mine. Esme averts her stare as well, and I wait for her to continue all while I try to focus on anything else instead of the feeling of her body pressed deliciously underneath mine. 

My father says I’m to marry Prince Dalton. 

My grip on her tightens. Rage instantly replaces the desire I was feeling. A tear rolls down her cheek and without thinking, I wipe it away and tenderly cradle her face. 

I guess I just wanted to escape, too, she softly cries. When I got to the forest, I tried searching for you, even thought of calling you out by pretending to play one of the games we used to meet here and play when we were children. I swear I heard your voice calling to me from the cliff. I leaned over for only a second when I lost my footing and...

A sharp clatter of metal sounds in the distance and begins moving towards us quickly. It bangs and echoes eerily through the shadows. I glance over my shoulder and see that the windmill from a nearby barn has fallen off the roof and is picking up speed, tumbling toward us at a startling rate. 

Gathering Esmerelda in my arms, I hold her close as I quickly roll her out of the way just as the windmill slashes past us through the darkness. I cradle Esmerelda’s head with my right hand as the sharp arrows slice through the palm of my left hand just as I hold it up to block it from harming her. A second later, it tumbles past piercing through my jacket. I hiss out through clenched teeth as the blood from my cut meets the cold night air. Esmerelda’s cry echoes through the night a second later when the sharp arrows of the object pierce her calf before it finally tumbles off the cliff at our feet.

Esme, my voice shakes in the ghostly quiet as the wind stills. My breath feathers against her lips as we roll to a stop a few yards from where the weapon tumbled hundreds of feet below to a jagged rock floor. God, I’m so sorry. Let me see...

No, she stops me before I can let her go. She holds her eyes closed as she firmly clings to my shoulders not allowing me space to do as I need to, which is to check her wounds. 

Please, her eyes finally attempt to flutter open and I instantly stop breathing. 

The violet of her irises is breathtaking. I’ve never seen them up this close before. I’ve only been forced to lust after them from afar. For countless years, since the first time I laid eyes on her, I’ve dreamed of what it would feel like to stare into them for hours as I lay above her like I am now. My heart pounds wildly in my chest as her bottom lip quivers and a piece of my soul cracks open, offering itself up to her, only to her, for eternity. 

Just stay with me... she begins to shake. Just so I know... she laughs through her tears, and my chest fills with a foreign feeling watching water well up in her beautiful eyes. That I’m alive. That I’m safe.

You’ll always be safe with me, Esme, I confess, though I know better than to be so bold. 

She stares up at me adoringly and bites her bottom lip between her teeth. Her tears have stopped for now, and something about the stillness of the night, the look in her eyes, and the longing I have felt for her my whole life makes desire begin to stir once again in my lower stomach. Before I do something I know I’ll regret, like kiss the Duke’s only daughter when I’m nothing but the son of one of the house’s servants, I sit up quickly and dust off my knees.

I want her, always have. Something tells me she wants me too, but burning even stronger in my gut is the unmistakable knowledge that if I take what I want I’ll forever be punished for it. 

She doesn’t move to sit up right away, and she doesn’t throw harsh words my way and run off either, which is a relief. After a moment, I eventually glance back in her direction and try my best to hide the way she makes me feel, but I know it’s pointless. It always has been. I may be able to disguise my feelings for a moment, but not for long. And not forever if I ever find out she feels the same way I do.

She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on and laying there like she is right now, I can barely deny the enticing way something in her soul calls to me. Her hair shines, almost sparkling in the moonlight. Her startled eyes, rosy cheeks, and kissable lips are almost my undoing. As my eyes slowly roam over her features, they eventually catch hers and I’m taken back to see her studying me quietly. Suddenly, it makes me grow more nervous than I’ve ever felt before in her presence.

She starts to prop herself up, her face straining into a grimace, and it’s only then that I remember that she’s hurt. My hand stings from my wound as I reach forward quickly, lifting her skirt without thought, the blood from my own cut trickling down my wrist towards her marred skin.

Felix Caldwell, she teases. 

My eyes grow wide as I realize what I’ve done, and I quickly drop the lace of her dress. But I don’t dare look back up into her eyes. 

I thought you said I’d always be safe with you, I hear her slightly laugh, but my thoughts are elsewhere on wounds and skirts and feelings I shouldn’t be having for the Duke’s daughter. 

The tone in her voice is meant to scold, but when I finally find the courage to glance her way, I see mischief lurking in her stare. We’ve danced around this before, Esme and me. The pull between us. Our undeniable chemistry. It’s what I like to think we’ve perfected best over the years. 

I’ve watched her. Longed for her. Lusted for her. At night, when I lie awake alone, I drown in all the tiny moments we’ve shared and hope that maybe she thinks of me the same. 

The tiny brief encounters I’ve cherished of the time spent with her on her family’s estate, or out in this forest that offers us both an escape, have kept me going in my rotten life. I’m told my mother died in childbirth and my father is a miserable man. Esme is the only friend I’ve ever had. 

For the longest time, I closed myself off to her and the rest of the world. But her allure has always been too strong to resist, and she eventually called me out of hiding. Something in my soul tells me she’ll always call me out of hiding. Kind of like she’s calling me out right now.

Staring into her eyes, we both begin to smile. It’s almost as if we can read each other’s minds. Even though the feeling is thrilling, I