Sequel to Breaking Dawn: Russet Noon
It is Nessie's fifth birthday, and the Cullens are coming to La Push to celebrate with their now allies, the Quileutes.
At the party, something awful happens to Alice, and Nessie vanishes without a trace. Then a hellhound attacks Edward, draining him of all his blood.
After watching the hellhound transform into a mysterious vampire girl, Jacob realizes that all the tragedies befalling them have a common source: a talisman that the vampire girl wears around her neck.
Check out the following excerpt taken from Chapter 5 of Russet Noon: "The Talisman."
"As I stood up, I felt a sharp sting in my arm. I glanced down at the spot where the sting was coming from and realized what had caused it. I’d just cut myself, and now my arm was bleeding.
I knew it would only take me a few minutes to heal, but, just to be sure, I quickly hid the wound away, hoping Bella might be too distracted to pick up on the scent of my blood.
No such luck. As ravenous as she was right now, this was a scent she wouldn’t miss for the world. Forgetting all about the keys, she turned towards me, her eyes boring into mine. She gasped softly, almost longingly, and I took a step back, unable to peal my eyes off of hers.
'Stay back, Bella,' I cautioned her, all the muscles in my body tensing up.
'My venom can’t hurt you. Not if I don’t bite, right?' The raw yearning in her voice was impossible to ignore.
'I wouldn’t know that.' My pulse quickened, making me feel way too vulnerable for comfort. par now, I was breathing hard and feeling incredibly drawn to her. Where the hell were all these sensations coming from? My knees weak, I almost didn’t want to talk anymore, I was so ashamed.
'You know I’d never hurt you.' The tone of confidence in her voice made it all too clear. She was well aware of the effect her thirst was having on me, and it was only making things worse for both of us.
An enormous wave of guilt washed over me all of a sudden. 'Don’t come any closer,' I a dit halfheartedly. Only this time I didn’t move. One thing was what my words said, and a very different thing was what my body showed. I felt an urgent impulse to make a break for it, just run without stopping ou looking back and put as much distance between us as I could.
Instead, I stood there and watched her advance slowly in my direction. It was pointless trying to hide it anymore. How my chest rose and fell faster with every step she took towards me.
How I had to avaler, hirondelle hard, because my mouth was watering with anticipation. It shocked me to realize that I wanted this to happen just as badly as she did. Something inside me just wanted to reach out and grab her, to hold her and press her tightly up against me.
'Just relax, okay?' she whispered, her voice raspy with bloodlust.
'Bella.' A moan caught in my throat as I muttered her name.
She pressed her ivory finger gently against my lips and said, 'Shhhh.'
My cœur, coeur beat a million miles a minute as she took my wounded arm in her hands. Suddenly, all these flashbacks came rushing into my mind, collapsing the fortress I’d built around me over the years.
The night we’d spent in the tent, her body freezing and wrapped around the feverish heat of mine.
My face flushed red hot just remembering the fantasies I’d had about her that night. I thought of the Kiss she’d donné me years ago, when she was still human, and we were alone up in the mountains. How she’d told me that she loved me and meant every word of it.
She loved me still. I knew that for sure, only it was a different kind of l’amour now.
ou was it?
Had I been fooling myself all this time, thinking that imprinting on Nessie had erased everything I felt for Bella?"
If you'd like to read the preface and first five chapters of Russet Noon, go to www.russet-noon.com
www.russet-noon.com
