Book Spotlight and Excerpt: Alpha Revealed by Brenda Sparks

Natasha Peterhoff is the luckiest vampire in the world. Having pined over the sexy but aloof Vladimir Starikovich for centuries, her feelings are reciprocated when the pair are drawn to each other the night of her brother's wedding. Unfortunately, the stark light of day dawns, and the couple parts ways.

Back in Siberia, Vlad is overcome by doubts. Not only will Natasha's brother kill him, but his own past is reason enough to keep her away. He vows to do everything in his power to keep her safe, even it if means never seeing her again.

With so many reasons to stay apart, will the ties that bind be strong enough to pull them together?

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Vlad is a man of many secrets. Natasha has a little secret of her own. But secrets have a way of coming out…and sometimes that is for the best.

Excerpt

She lifted one arm in his direction. He raised a hand to still her movement. “Don’t…touch me.”

Well, damned if that didn’t smart. He didn’t want her to touch him, even to offer him a little comfort. My, how things changed. He certainly hadn’t minded her touch the night of her brother’s wedding.

Fine. If he doesn’t want me touching him, so be it.

Natasha turned around, sending her harlequin-colored pigtails twirling about her face, and retrieved the bag of blood from the floor. Without looking in his direction, she stalked through the room and sat in the only padded chair. She punctured the bag with her fangs and drank, glaring at him over the top of the bag.

The blood seeped into her cells, nourishing both her and the baby. The baby moved as she continued to down the bag quickly. Her hunger pangs eased a little with each gulp of the life-sustaining liquid.

Vlad slowly straightened to his full height. The expression on his face, a cross between disdain and pain, softened her eyes. With an awkward gait, he gingerly moved in her direction.

“We need to talk,” he barked, his voice still rough with pain.

She just bet they did. No doubt, Vlad would tell her to leave. It was there on his face. He obviously didn’t want her in his home, and she didn’t blame him.

She had run out after they made love, avoided him for months, and now she had injured his manhood. If the tables were reversed, she probably wouldn’t want him around either.

Brenda Sparks

Born in Virginia, Brenda Sparks now resides in the Sunshine State.  Balancing her professional commitment to the local school district with her writing is challenging at times, but writing suspenseful paranormal romance is a passion that won’t be denied. Her idea of a perfect day is one spent in front of a computer with a hot cup of coffee, her fingers flying over the keys to send her characters off on their latest adventure.  Brenda loves to connect with readers.  Please visit her online or stop by her website to say hi.

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Warm Up Your Nights with Alpha Eternal, a #SteamyParanormalRomance by Brenda Sparks

Alexander Hall is a fun-loving vampire whose duty comes before all else, except maybe finding a heartmate. Discouraged when he is assigned to infiltrate a demonic compound, Alex plans on getting in and out fast, but fate has other plans. Once Alex discovers a sexy demon from his past is chosen as his guide, he couldn’t be more pleased.

Shira is a demon who likes to keep to herself, so when the demon king asks her to be Alex’s guide, she couldn’t be less pleased. Keeping the vampire from discovering demon secrets quickly becomes a fulltime job. A job she didn’t ask for and most definitely doesn’t want.

With the vampire’s desire for someone to commit his heart to and the demon looking to run as far away as possible, how will fate intervene to bring this unlikely couple together?

 

 

Excerpt

“So, what brings you here, Shira?” As if I didn’t know.

“I was told to keep…I-I just wondered where you were.”

Told to keep an eye on me is more likely. Why else would she have stuck to him like glue every second he’d been here? He really shouldn’t complain. As guards went, she was a good-looking one, even if she needed an attitude adjustment now and then.

“Well, you found me.”

“Yeah, after searching around for hours. Why aren’t you in the communications room working on the computers?”

He shrugged. “I can’t do anything more until we figure out a way to cool the room, so the server won’t overheat.”

“Then shouldn’t you be thinking about that instead of messing about down here in the garage?” Shira accused hotly.

“I’ll have you know I do my best thinking under a car.” Perspiration trickled down his chest. Shira’s eyes hungrily followed the trail. Damn, it was fun getting her all riled up.

“And have you come up with a solution?” Shira moved a little closer as if she was afraid to get too near.

“I might have. Give me a little while longer to reason it through.” He grabbed two bottles of water from the top of the toolbox. “Want a drink?”

Shira took the one he offered. He tipped the other to his mouth and drained it in long swallows, allowing her a lengthy stare at him standing there half-naked, head tipped back. Alex heard a soft moan push through her lips and struggled not to smile around the bottle. She enjoyed playing the pissed off demon, but he preferred the flirty one and wasn’t above using what the Fates gave him to bring that out.

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***

About the Author

Brenda Sparks

Born in Virginia, Brenda Sparks now resides in the Sunshine State.  Balancing her professional commitment to the local school district with her writing is challenging at times, but writing suspenseful paranormal romance is a passion that won’t be denied. Her idea of a perfect day is one spent in front of a computer with a hot cup of coffee, her fingers flying over the keys to send her characters off on their latest adventure.  Brenda loves to connect with readers.  Please visit her online or stop by her website to say hi.

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Warm Up this Spring with Alpha Revealed, a steamy paranormal romance by Brenda Sparks

Natasha Peterhoff is the luckiest vampire in the world. Having pined over the sexy, but aloof Vladimir Starikovich for centuries, her feelings are reciprocated when the pair are drawn to each other the night of her brother's wedding. Unfortunately, the stark light of day dawns, and the couple parts ways.
         Back in Siberia, Vlad is overcome by doubts. Not only will Natasha's brother kill him, but his own past is reason enough to keep her away. He vows to do everything in his power to keep her safe, even it if means never seeing her again.
         With so many reasons to stay apart, will the ties that bind be strong enough to pull them together?

Excerpt

She lifted one arm in his direction. He raised a hand to still her movement. “Don’t…touch me.”

Well, damned if that didn’t smart. He didn’t want her to touch him, even to offer him a little comfort. My, how things changed. He certainly hadn’t minded her touch the night of her brother’s wedding.

Fine. If he doesn’t want me touching him, so be it.

Natasha turned around, sending her harlequin colored pigtails twirling about her face and retrieved the bag of blood from the floor. Without looking in his direction, she stalked through the room and sat in the only padded chair. She punctured the bag with her fangs and drank, glaring at him over the top of the bag.

The blood seeped into her cells, nourishing both her and the baby. The baby moved as she continued to down the bag quickly. Her hunger pangs eased a little with each gulp of the life-sustaining liquid.

Vlad slowly straightened to his full height. The expression on his face, a cross between disdain and pain, softened her eyes. With an awkward gait, he gingerly moved in her direction.

“We need to talk,” he barked, his voice still rough with pain.

She just bet they did. No doubt, Vlad would tell her to leave. It was there on his face. He obviously didn’t want her in his home, and she didn’t blame him.

She had run out after they made love, avoided him for months, and now she had injured his manhood. If the tables were reversed, she probably wouldn’t want him around either.

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About the Author

Born in Virginia, Brenda Sparks now resides in the Sunshine State.  Balancing her professional commitment to the local school district with her writing is challenging at times, but writing suspenseful paranormal romance is a passion that won’t be denied. Her idea of a perfect day is one spent in front of a computer with a hot cup of coffee, her fingers flying over the keys to send her characters off on their latest adventure.  Brenda loves to connect with readers.  Please visit her online or stop by her website to say hi.

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The Alpha Council Chronicles by Brenda Sparks - four amazing stories at a reduced price February 21 - March 27, 2020

In the shadows of the night, there exists a band of warriors--a group of vampires, known as the Alpha Council. Their vow, to protect not only their kind but the humans existing alongside them.

Together they will confront an extraordinary destiny of peril, passion, and dark pleasures in the riveting paranormal romance series, The Alpha Council Chronicles.

For a limited time, The Alpha Council Chronicles series is on sale. Each story is $0.99, and the entire series can be purchased for only $3.96.

Available at:

Amazon

Apple Books

Book Bub

Goodreads

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

About the Author

Born in Virginia, Brenda Sparks now resides in the Sunshine State.  Balancing her professional commitment to the local school district with her writing is challenging at times, but writing suspenseful paranormal romance is a passion that won’t be denied. Her idea of a perfect day is one spent in front of a computer with a hot cup of coffee, her fingers flying over the keys to send her characters off on their latest adventure. Brenda loves to connect with readers.  Please visit her online or stop by her website to say hi.

Buried Polish 'Vampires' Likely Had Cholera

A 30-39 year old "vampire" female, buried with a sickle placed across the neck.

by Rossella Lorenzi
News Discovery


“Vampires” buried in northwestern Poland with large stones wedged into their mouths or sickles over their necks were local people probably affected by cholera, says the first biogeochemical study of human skeletal remains from deviant burials.

The study investigated 285 human skeletons which were excavated between 2008-2012 from a post medieval cemetery in Drawsko, a rural settlement site in northwestern Poland. Dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, the remains represented individuals of all ages and both sexes.     

      

Among the interments, six were identified as so-called vampire burials. They included an adult male, a late adolescent female, three adult females, and a younger person of unknown sex.

“Of these six individuals, five were interred with a sickle placed across the throat or abdomen, intended to remove the head or open the gut should they attempt to rise from the grave,” Lesley Gregoricka from University of South Alabama and colleagues, wrote in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The remaining two people were found with large stones positioned beneath their chins -- evidence, the researchers say, that it was feared the individuals would rise from their graves to bite others.
Gregoricka and colleagues first hypothesized the people buried as vampires were targeted because of their outsider status as immigrants.

Indeed, abundant written evidence for the post-medieval period describes many waves of immigrants entering into Poland during that time.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers tested permanent molars from 60 individuals, including the six "vampires,” using radiogenic strontium isotope ratios from archaeological dental enamel. Local animals, including hare, mice and fox, were also sampled.

“While historic records describe the many potential reasons why some people were considered at increased risk of becoming a vampire, no previous study had attempted to examine the identity of these individuals using chemical analyses of the human skeleton,” Gregoricka told Discovery News.

Strontium isotopes incorporated into teeth during growth and development can tell about the place someone grew up, whether the individual moved later and whether the person was buried somewhere different from where they spent their childhood.

"Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that all of the vampires were local," Gregoricka said.

      

"We actually found others in the cemetery that were non-local to the region, but were not buried as vampires," she added.

According to the researchers, there should be another reason for the deviant burials, since the targeted individuals were not suspected of becoming vampires due to their identity as non-locals.
Gregoricka and colleagues propose cholera epidemics as an alternative explanation.

Multiple waves of cholera epidemics struck Europe during the post-medieval period, but people were unaware that cholera was a bacteria spread through contaminated drinking water.

“There was no scientific understanding of how infectious disease was spread. Instead, because they couldn’t explain it, they attributed cholera to the supernatural -- specifically, to vampires,” Gregoricka said.

In this view, the first person to die in an epidemic was thought to seek revenge on the living by returning from the grave to inflict the illness upon others, causing the disease to spread.
“As such, if these six individuals were the first to die in a series of cholera outbreaks that affected Drawsko during the post-medieval period, they may have been buried in this way as a means of preventing them from returning as vampires and attacking the living,” Gregoricka said.

“Disease is often discussed as a possible cause for deviant burials in Europe," said biological anthropologist Kristina Killgrove. "In the case of these post-medieval Polish burials, cholera certainly could be an explanation."

“Unfortunately, cholera leaves no marks on bone, so it's not possible to tell by looking at the skeletons whether or not they suffered from the disease,” she added.

'Bulgarian Indiana Jones' discovers 'vampire grave'

By Brian Mastroianni

 skeleton pierced with a piece of iron is seen on display during a media event at the National History Museum in Sofia June 14, 2012. This is one of two 700-year-old skeletons discovered with iron rods pierced through their chests. Archaeologists, excavating a monastery near the Black Sea city of Sozopol, discovered the skeletons. (REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov)

Just in time for Halloween, the man known as “Bulgaria’s Indiana Jones” may have unearthed the grave of one of the undead. On Oct. 9, archaeologist Nikolai Ovcharov announced that he discovered what he called a “vampire grave” that contains a skeleton with a ploughshare – an iron rod used for a plough – driven through its chest, the Telegraph reports. The grave dates back to the 13^th century and was discovered at Perperikon, an ancient Thracian city in southern Bulgaria.
Ovcharov’s discovery reveals a gruesome burial ritual that sheds light on superstitions surrounding vampire lore. The skeleton is of a man thought to be in his 40s, and in addition to the metal rod hammered through his chest his left leg was removed and placed beside his body, according to Smithsonian.com.
 
“We have no doubts that once again we’re seeing an anti-vampire ritual being carried out, Ovcharov told the Telegraph. “Often they were applied to people who had died in unusual circumstances – such as suicide.”
Ovcharov said that, in these rituals, a rod or stake would be rammed through the body in order to prevent an evil individual returning from the grave.
Perperikon isn’t just a site known for things that go bump in the night. Discovered just 20 years ago, the ancient city is thought to be the location of the Temple of Dionysius, the Greek god of wine, fertility, and agriculture. There are a series of vampire graves at the site as well as other unusual findings, according to the Telegraph.
Ovcharov also uncovered the remains of a woman and a young child that were arranged to imitate standard depictions of Christianity’s Virgin Mary and child. Similar to the iron rod being used to protect against alleged vampirism, these bodies were arranged to recreate the recognizable Biblical image as a method to protect against the plague, which was running rampant through the medieval world when the graves were made.
Ovcharov’s discovery is similar to a grave found in the Bulgarian town of Sozopol in 2012. Back then, archeologist Dimitar Nedev, head of the Sozopol Archeological Museum found two skeletons impaled with similar metal rods, according to Archeology.
Just how widespread was a fear of the likes of Dracula terrorizing medieval Bulgarians? Nedev explained that the graves reveal local religious leaders’ emphasis to return to older “pagan” methods for protecting against disease and the supernatural. Nedev said that a Christian religious sect known as Manichean Bogomilism played a very prominent role in Bulgarian religious life in the 13^th century.
“The Christian rituals practiced then – and now— still included many pagan elements,” Nedev told Archeology. Rituals, like driving a stake through the hearts of alleged vampires, were “particularly well preserved” at Sozopol and other nearby communities, he added.
Fox News
  

'Vampire' Skeleton Unearthed in Poland

by Rossella Lorenzi

 

Archaeologists in Poland say they have discovered a skeleton with a brick stuck into the mouth — evidence that the subject was believed to be a vampire.
Dated to the 16th-17th century, the grave was unearthed during excavations in the town of Kamien Pomorski, in northwestern Poland, the Kamienskie.info website reported.
In addition to the brick, which was wedged so violently into the mouth to knock out the upper teeth, the skeleton featured a leg with a hole likely made from a puncture. This would suggest the leg had been staked to the ground to prevent the individual from rising from its grave.
Photos: Mummy Stash Found in Italian Church
“A piece of debris brick in the mouth and a pierced thigh indicate this is a vampiric burial,” Slawomir Gorka, the archaeologist who led the dig, said.
People feared that those accused to be vampires would rise from their graves like zombies. In some cases, to kill the undead creatures, they placed a stone or brick into the mouth so that the vampire would starve to death.
According to Gorka, such vampire-slaying rituals were common in local graves between the 13th and 17th centuries.
Indeed, it’s not the first time that “deviant burials” have been unearthed in Poland and across eastern Europe.
Last year, Polish archaeologists found a grave near the town of Gliwice filled with skeletons whose severed heads were placed atop their legs.
Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland?
Such burials appear to be common in Slavic regions for people accused of vampirism, although alternative hypothesis suggested the skeletons were simply victims of an execution.
Deviant burials are often linked to Black Death-related cemeteries and to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread.
Mass graves were often reopened to bury corpses during epidemics, exposing bloated bodies with blood seeping out of the mouth and with a hole in the shroud used to cover their face.
Medieval Skeletons Found at Florence’s Uffizi
Medieval people, not knowing what happens to bodies after death, believed that “vampire” individuals spread the plague by chewing on their shrouds after dying.
In a time before germ theory, the stone in the mouth was then used as a disease-blocking trick.
Image: The “vampire” skeleton unearthed in Poland. Credit: Kamienskie.info
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/vampire-skeleton-unearthed-in-poland-14050.htm