I meant to post this a couple of days ago, but thanks to very severe sleep deprivation, I forgot. (In case you’re planning to try this at home, be warned: Going four days without sleep leads to lots of forgetfulness and giggling at inappropriate times.)

The Kindle version of The Tomb of Blood (Book Two of the Creatures of Darkness series) is available! And like The Stone of the Eklektos, you can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.

This is the Amazon Link for it: http://a.co/8aOi8M7

If you’ve purchased this book or my other book, I just want you to know that I appreciate you more than words can express, and I really, really hope you enjoy this book. I poured SO much energy and emotion into this book, and I agonized over every weird and crazy decision that my characters made. So, I’m so excited (and terrified) that people are now reading it.

I stayed on three different bestseller lists consistently for two days, which is just the coolest thing for me, because I rarely make it on one bestseller list, much less three.

The paperback should be available within the next day or so. I’ll post another update when it is.

I love you guys, and I hope you like the book!

The Tomb of Blood Book Blurb

Rose Foster is just starting to adjust to her new life as a vampire when a series of highly publicized murders throws the world into chaos. Rose, Kallias, and Erik must intervene if they want to prevent the imminent war between vampires and humans.

But when they realize that the woman behind these murders is Alana—a vampire they believed to be long dead—intervening becomes complicated. Alana is as powerful as she is seductive. She is a master of manipulation and the queen of mind games. She craves vengeance, and she doesn’t care if she has to tear the world apart to get it. And now, she has an army.

Outnumbered and overpowered, Rose, Kallias, and Erik turn to the only person who might be able to help: a cunning and skilled warrior by the name of Kara Unnarsdóttir. Kara is the second-in-command of the largest vampire colony in the world—the Tomb of Blood—and she offers to help them infiltrate the Tomb of Blood and form an alliance with Aaron, the most ancient vampire known to exist. There’s just one problem: Kara is Alana’s lover, and Aaron is the last person in the world that should ever be trusted. No one knows who will betray whom, only that betrayal is inevitable.

In this second installment of the Creatures of Darkness series, Rose will unravel more of the mystery behind what it means to be the Eklektos.

We have exactly three more weeks until the release date, and I have one more teaser for you! 😊❤️

THE TOMB OF BLOOD is such topsy-turvy book (thanks to our lovely/crazy, telepathic villain and her love of driving people mad with dreams and illusions). But I think this scene might be the most topsy-turvy of all. And because of that, it’s one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy! ❤️❤️❤️

—

“You think that you’re the hero of this story, and I’m the villain,” Alana said, a bitter smile curving at the edges of her lips. “But I know the truth.”

“The truth?” Rose repeated worriedly. “What do you mean by that?”

Alana played absently with the strings of Rose’s hoodie, tugging it tighter and then loosening it as she spoke. “My darkness runs deep. That’s true. But your darkness?” she paused, her dark blue gaze shifting up to meet Rose’s gaze. Her smile deepened. “Your darkness would rip the entire universe apart.”

“What are you talking about, Alana?” Rose breathed, her heart racing.

With the string of Rose’s hoodie wrapped around her hand, Alana jerked Rose closer, until their faces nearly touched. “I’ve been inside your head, Rose. I know things about you that even you don’t know. I know what you really are.”

Rose felt a strange prickling sensation in her head, like fingertips sliding over her mind. A wave of disorientation washed over her—so intense that she might have collapsed if Alana weren’t clutching her jacket. “What am I?”

“The truth is, Rose,” Alana whispered, her breath warm against Rose’s face, “you’re only one tragedy away from becoming the worst villain this world has ever seen.” She let go of Rose’s jacket so abruptly that Rose stumbled backward.

Rose caught herself against the door. “That’s not true,” she insisted.

Alana lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t it?”

An image suddenly flashed through Rose’s mind, an image that felt so familiar, an image that she must have seen somewhere before, but at the same time, she couldn’t have—black hair…black eyes…black sky…blood…so much blood. Rose fell to her knees, shaking, as her mind spun with disorientation, as pain lashed through her head, as that image seemed to rip apart her conscious thoughts. Rose tilted her head back and screamed desperately, “Stay out of my head!”

Alana knelt in front of Rose, her blood-soaked, lavender dress brushing against the marble floor. She reached out and gently traced the curves of Rose’s face with her finger. “Aww, but darling,” she cooed, “I’m already in your head.”

Cold dread washed over Rose. “What?” she breathed, looking at Alana.

Alana tilted her head to the side, her pale blonde hair falling over one shoulder. “Since you know so much about psychic abilities, I have a pop quiz for you. Tell me: How do you tell the difference between reality and an illusion?”

Rose stared at Alana, her face paling in horror, as she realized, “You can’t.”

From THE TOMB OF BLOOD

© Britney Jackson

Release Date: May 16th! 😊

The official release date for THE TOMB OF BLOOD is May 16, 2017. 

Not much longer!!! 😊❤️

—

As Rose adjusts to life as a vampire, the world is thrown into a chaos by a series of highly publicized murders that all have one significant thing in common: the bodies have been drained of blood. Rose, Kallias, Erik must intervene if they want to prevent the imminent war between vampires and humans.

But when they realize that the woman behind these murders is Alana—a vampire they believed to be long dead—intervening becomes complicated. Alana is as powerful as she is seductive. She is a master of manipulation and the queen of mind games. She craves vengeance, and she doesn’t care if she has to tear the world apart to get it. And now, she has an army.

Outnumbered and overpowered, Rose, Kallias, and Erik turn to the only person who might be able to help: a cunning and skilled warrior by the name of Kara Unnarsdóttir. Kara is the second-in-command of the largest vampire colony in the world—the Tomb of Blood—and she offers to help them infiltrate the Tomb of Blood and form an alliance with Aaron, the most ancient vampire known to exist. There’s just one problem: Kara is Alana’s lover, and Aaron is the last person in the world that should ever be trusted. No one knows who will betray whom, only that betrayal is inevitable.

In this second installment of the Creatures of Darkness series, Rose will unravel more of the mystery behind what she is and further explore what it means to be the Eklektos.

Aaron is one of the few major characters of the Creatures of Darkness series that I haven’t really talked about yet. He’s only mentioned a few times in the first book, so you probably just know him as “the oldest vampire in the world,” “that guy everyone’s afraid of,” or “one of the 17 million people that Kallias hates.” I think the best way to describe him is this: he’s the character you’ll love to hate. While Alana is the one with good intentions (and a complete lack of sanity) that happens to be the villain, Aaron is the one with very BAD intentions that happens to be on our side. He’s ruthless, manipulative, and usually apathetic. Officially, he rules over the largest vampire colony in the world. Unofficially, he practically rules over ALL vampires. Because if you do something he doesn’t like, he’ll send someone to kill you. And the person he sends is usually Kara. (Sorry, not a good chance of surviving THAT.) Kara respects Aaron because she’s a Viking, and as a Viking, she learned to respect strong leaders who protect their people. And despite Aaron’s many faults, he has spent thousands of years protecting vampires. Or…well…sending Kara to do it…because, as Rose says, he’s too prissy to get his hands dirty (and Kara obviously isn’t). Yeah…you can just imagine how well Rose’s smart mouth goes over with the most powerful vampire in the world. He’s definitely a fun character to write, and it’s a very good thing that he’s on our side. But make no mistake: he is NOT trustworthy.

Because I’m a weirdo who enjoys irony, I decided to post a short excerpt, featuring the Queen of Dysfunctional Relationships herself (also known as Alana), for Valentine’s Day. So, here it is! My totally UNROMANTIC Valentine’s Day teaser. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here it is! An EXCERPT from THE TOMB OF BLOOD, in honor of the holidays. 🙂 Merry Christmas, and I really hope you like it! ❤️

Rose rubbed her head tiredly. “You were supposed to kill Alana, not sleep with her. But you know…” She flashed a sarcastic smile. “Close enough.”

“I tried,” Erik said defensively. He dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping off some of the blood on his face. “But you know how it is.”

Rose frowned. “Not really. I’ve never accidentally not killed someone.”

“When I’m with Alana, the lines just get kind of…blurred,” Erik said.

“Between murder and sex?” Rose squeaked in disbelief.

“Besides, technically, I didn’t have sex with her,” Erik said quickly, as if that made everything better. Then, he winced and added, “I just…almost did.”

Her brows furrowed. “Define almost.”

“Why didn’t you step in?” Kallias interrupted suddenly, whirling on Kara.

Until then, Kara hadn’t seemed to be paying any attention to them. Instead, she’d spent the entire conversation leaning against a tall, tapered tombstone, cleaning the blood off of her dagger with a black cloth. But when Kallias directed that question at her, she looked up at him, her eyebrows lifting. “Step in…how, exactly?”

Kallias narrowed his eyes at her. “Why didn’t you kill Alana?”

She shrugged and returned to cleaning her dagger. “I was busy.”

“Busy with what?” Kallias snapped.

“I can’t tell you that,” she said simply.

“I don’t trust you,” he informed her.

“I’ve noticed,” Kara assured him.

“I don’t know how anyone could trust you,” he continued. “You’re playing both sides of this war. You are Aaron’s second-in-command and Alana’s lover.”

“I’m a spy,” she reminded him. “That’s what spies do.”

“You’re literally in bed with the enemy,” he added.

Kara smirked. “Only when I get bored.”

“Kallias,” Rose interrupted, scowling at him. “What is this about?”

Kallias directed his glare at Rose then. “What I really don’t understand is how you can trust her. Everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie.”

Kara continued to pluck absently at the blade of her dagger, as if she couldn’t care less about what Kallias had to say. “Now, that’s an exaggeration,” she complained, a small smile on her lips. “It’s only like ninety-nine percent.”

Rose stepped between Kallias and Kara before Kallias could respond to that, hoping to calm him down before things got out of hand. “No one ever said we had to trust her,” she reminded Kallias. “We just have to work with her.”

“But you do trust her,” Kallias accused, “don’t you?”

Rose crossed her arms as a particularly icy gust of wind blew through the cemetery. She stared at Kallias, trying to understand his hostility. “I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt,” she sighed. “She saved our lives, Kallias.”

“Yeah,” Kallias said, “so that she could deliver you to Aaron.”

“Erik trusts her,” she reminded him.

“Erik is an idiot,” Kallias said dismissively.

“Hey, the idiot is standing right here,” Erik complained.

“Yeah, I trust her,” Rose admitted finally. She shrugged, shaking her head. “I just think…after everything she’s done for us, she deserves our trust.”

“You think that?” Kallias repeated. His voice changed, became angrier, took on a bitter, mocking edge. “Did you use your genius brain to think that?”

Her eyes narrowed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” he began harshly, stepping closer to her, “I don’t think you’re thinking at all. I think you only trust her because you’re attracted to her.”

Kara looked up from her dagger, her eyebrows lifting. An amused smile curved at her lips. “It sounds like someone is feeling threatened,” she remarked.

Rose suddenly looked pale. “I’m not…” she stammered. “I don’t…”

“Save it, Rose,” Kallias growled. “You’re a terrible liar anyway.”

Then, without giving her a chance to respond, he spun on his heel and marched back toward the mausoleum, leaving them standing in the cemetery. Rose stared after him, too stunned by the sudden accusation to chase after him.

“Well, this just got extremely awkward,” Erik said, standing and beginning to inch away. He offered Rose an awkward smile, revealing a mouthful of VERY bloody teeth. “I’ll talk to him. Moodiness is kind of my territory anyway.”

Rose watched as Erik darted past her, toward the mausoleum, as if he were somehow escaping the awkwardness of the moment by leaving her and Kara alone in the cemetery. Alone, Rose realized, her eyes widening. She cast a panicked glance behind her, at Kara. She started to back away. “I have to go.”

But Kara’s hand caught Rose’s arm before she could leave, and Rose had no choice but to stop and turn back toward her. Rose stared warily at Kara, noticing the curiosity and amusement that sparkled in Kara’s icy blue eyes. Kara had yet to let go of Rose’s arm. “Don’t you think we should talk about this?”

“I’d literally rather talk about anything else,” Rose informed her.

Kara smiled and leaned closer, pulling Rose against her with a gentle tug of her arm. “In that case, let’s talk about how you almost kissed me earlier.”

“Okay, so maybe anything else was a bit of an exaggeration,” Rose muttered.

from The Tomb of Blood

Creatures of Darkness: Book Two

© Britney Jackson