Five years ago, I joined a review group and met a man. A few of his posts had me looking up the most interesting (and at times, a bit disgusting) things online. He took my black and white world and added so much color to it that I was afraid I'd never recover. He doesn't know this (until now), but he changed my world. So, let me introduce you to Sascha Illyvich: The Bad Boy of Romance.
Seeking to rescue her
lover's child from the biggest criminal organization in San Francisco, Livía
finds not only a solution, but redemption in a man known as Joséf
Staganov. Yet he holds a deadly secret
and an intense death wish unless she can convince him a vampire's compelling
love can heal his heart.
Excerpt-
Numbness. Ice cold
numbness set in as he tried to move his body.
Joséf knew there was another being around, could sense the magick that
was whatever animated the undead. Where was
he? How’d he get here? Oh, right.
The fight with his brother. His
fur was a mess, smelled of copper, body fluids and bile.
The scent of roses hung thickly
around his muzzle. “My head hurts so much.”
I can’t feel my body. Where am I?
The wolf opened his eyes and saw his body cradled in Livía’s warm
arms. Her sweet smell alerted him of his
life’s value to her. Too bad he didn’t
see the same thing in himself that she did.
Her eyes closed, she hummed,
breaking the silence around him with her sweet voice. She glowed, but settled safety around his
tired body. Mentally worn out, he tried
to find the strength to lift his head but couldn't.
“My poor Farkas. Come back to me.” A tear fell from her eye to
his fur.
No one had ever shed a tear for
him. He’d just killed his only living
family member. The taste of bitterness
was still fresh in his mouth. He opened
his eyes just a little, the lights in the office were dim.
“Come back to me, my sweet Farkas. Please, don’t leave me alone. Come back to me.” Her hand covered his heart.
“Please help me rescue Miles, and
come back to me. I don’t want to remain
this way without you.” More tears fell
on his fur.
If he wasn't careful,
he'd lose too much blood. I’m not
dead, Livía.
She blinked.
Joséf opened his eyes wider and
lifted his tired head to see her face.
For a vampire, her face wasn’t nearly as pale as it usually was. In fact, apparently knowing he was alive
brought a kind of joy to her heart.
“Change!”
He transformed automatically. He lay there on the ground, bullet wounds
still fresh. Her attempts at cleaning
them had been just that, attempts. At
least the bleeding stopped.
“How can you call my power? Why did you come after me? I thought you only wanted the one thing.”
“Silly Farkas. I wanted both. Miles returned to his mother and you back
with us, safe and in one piece.”
“But I am not yours.” He turned his head away, thinking about the
vile things he’d done recently to those people.
Thugs yes, but they were still human.
At least that was the lie he told himself.
Livía carefully took his chin in
her hands and forced him to face her.
“The necklace marks you as mine and lets me control your changes in
times like this. If we had time for paramedics
to attend to you, I’d have to change you into a human in order to get you the
best treatment.”
“But still, I am not yours.”
“You’ve been mine since you were
born, farkas. That is how I called your human form back from the beast.”
Joséf looked away. He must look like shit, his face was a mess,
and he had dried blood on his clothes. Obviously, Livía didn’t care. She hugged him closer to her and he snuggled
against her warmth.
Odd that a vampire was warm.
“Why are you warm?” He blinked.
“Because my heart aches for
you, aches for the pain you refuse to let
go of. Blood pumps through my veins,
warming my body to respond to yours when you let me heal you. That will be soon.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
He frowned. “And how will you do that when I’ve done my
job and left?”
A twinkle danced in her eyes. “I
will call you to me, and we will mate as our line of vampires does.”
He let out an exasperated breath.
“The same way I helped to heal you?”
She nodded. “That is correct, Farkas.”
Bruised and bloodied, and sure
that he had a broken rib or two, plus the fact that his leg was pulled from the
socket, the thought of being inside of her still stirred his arousal. He burst out laughing, tossing his head back
into her lap.
“What’s so funny?” She smirked.
“You are. This situation is. I just…ouch!”
His ribcage hurt when he laughed harder.
“Farkas, I do not
understand.” Her facial expression
changed, one eyebrow lifting along with half her mouth.
He groaned and put a hand to
hers. “Trust me, when it’s all over, you
will.”
She interlaced their fingers. “We
will lie like this in our bed soon.”
Our bed? The thought held merit. It certainly was more comforting than laying
on the cold carpet of his father’s former office.
“I mean it, I love you.” She nuzzled his neck, warm breath spilling
out over his skin.
“I know.” He shrugged, groaned from the pain, and let
out a long breath.
Silence occupied the room and
spilled into the hallway. Amalie was in
the building, Her presence his skin itch.
Yeah, she waited for him.
Peace spread between them,
tranquility and a quiet place where Joséf could exist, because he didn't have
the energy to run.
The calm before the storm, it had
to be that, it couldn’t be anything
else. Amalie’s energy had risen and
Joséf’s levels dropped. She wasn’t
milking him, he was just tired and weak.
Rest would do him good, food would be better.
And all Livía could offer any
normal man in that instant included great sex.
Healing through sex, a magic he’d heard about from his mother, and
experienced firsthand through Livía, frightened him. Sex was always a bond with women, and even
worse, because his mother raised him to love others with his entire heart, a
bond with him too. So coitus equated to
love until the Syndicate took his parents from him. That was what had happened, no matter what
Draiman said before his death. Their
father had to do what he did to provide for them, otherwise he was just an
empty shell without his mate.
Mom.
His brother was still wrong.
His mother loved them both and
Livía’s heart seemed to be on par with his mother. What should I do?
“Love me, Joséf. It’s all I’m
asking.”
Straining his neck to see her
better, he smirked. “You read my mind.”
She patted his chest lightly. “I almost always do. How do you think I know when you’re in
trouble?”
She couldn't see the pain he clung
to, didn't need to know of his inner demons.
The betrayal, the drugs, the people he'd killed in the name of
self-defense. Livía, vampire Queen, had
the heart of a savior, even though her mask said sinner. “Stay out of my head, Goddamnit—ouch!” Sharp pain in his ribs jolted him in her
arms.
Livía’s fingers ran through his
hair, relaxing him. He could stay like
this if he had to, if he didn’t have other things to attend to.
A part of him wanted to give in to
her ministrations, not the voices in his head.
Hopefully, being a shifter meant
that his body healed faster than normal humans.
Though he figured the mental anguish would double.
Her smile reached her eyes
now. “I’m not in your head, I’m in your heart.”
Her words struck him, hard. She wouldn’t stop expressing how much she
cared for him no matter what, he knew that now.
His only choices were to either love her back and scar her, or to run
away and wound her.
“You don’t need to bother with all
this, Livía. I…I don’t want it.”
“Everyone wants comfort and
security, Farkas. Most of all,
those of us who have never had it. And I
want to give you what you have not had in a very long time.”
Joséf sighed. He lifted his head, looking into her
beautiful blue eyes. Her tender smile
showed her every emotion.
She set a palm down over his chest
and he knew what she was doing. Her hand
began to glow, producing a circle the same color as her aura. She pressed her hand to his skin, it was warm
against his chest. His rapid heartbeat
tried to keep pace with how much blood he was still losing from his open
wounds, but within a few seconds, his pulse had slowed.
Sweat dripped down his brow. He would go through shock next if he didn’t
get medical help immediately. “Don’t I
heal faster as a shifter?”
“Yes, but you haven’t experienced
a full moon yet. I brought your wolf out
early by accident.”
Her lips hovered above his
head. He could smell her fear of losing
him and it made him cuddle closer against her.
Pain shot through his hips. He
sniffled and gritted his teeth. The two
wounds in his hip began bleeding again.
Livía put her hand over the wound,
he ached even more with the pressure she applied until he looked into her eyes.
“Let yourself fall prey, Farkas.”
His stomach clenched, causing him
more pain as he chuckled. “I can’t, it
hurts too much.”
“Then let me heal you.” Her soft voice barely registered in his
ears.
1.
How did you get the name: Bad Boy of Romance?
You can blame author Cynnara Tregarth for this. We'd talked many years ago about outing me as
a male romance writer. I have a horrible
tendency to uh…flirt a little more than your average author. I tend to have a way with the ladies. I enjoy and make public my fanaticism for
whiskey and cigars. A few years back
someone called me that and I said "I'll take it!" At least I didn't make it up like some other
lame authors…
2.
Why did you choose to write the genre you write?
I
like the emotional aspect of romance that you don't get from other genres. I missed out connecting with folks when I was
younger, feared a lot of things and realized when I could write, that I could
give the world what it was missing through this genre. Angst, passion, romance, and a satisfying
ending when the world outside of a book or story doesn't go your way. My books make your fantasies come true.
3.
What does your family, friends, acquaintances
think of your writing?
Close
friends expected it, family I'm not concerned with, but the mother of my soul
does condone my writing since I started out writing Female Dominant erotica. In
general I have support though.
4.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Edit,
read, hang out. Usually I'm found at
either Occidental Cigar Club or Ohlone Cigar lounge.
5.
Do you control the story as you write or do your
characters run the show?
"I
run the military!"
6.
How did you come to choose the setting for your
story?
With
Endangered, since we haven't touched on that yet, I had just moved to
California and decided to set the story in a large enough city where a criminal
organization could take serious root. The
mansion most of the action takes place in was based on the training facility
from Resident Evil Zero.
7.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Definite
plotter. The more structured the story,
the easier it is to write it with limited time.
Because I'm not allowed to work more than a few hours at a time, I have
to use the time wisely. Plotting out in
pithy sentences makes all the difference so I can hit word count for the day
and if I go over, great. If I just hit
the goal for the day, then next day I can pick up with no problems.
8.
Do you listen to music as you write? If so, can
you tell us a few of your must-haves?
Seriously
I'm a music addict. Few of my must haves
include the album One by TesseracT, Pray for Villains and the S/T albums by
Devildriver, Vildjharta's first full length release Måstaden. Lately I've been on a kick jamming the last
two albums by the band Textures. Usually
I crank the songs so loud to immerse myself in the world and lyrics created by
the musician since they're often similar to the level of emotional depth I'm
trying to put in.
9.
When you’re writing do you have to have certain
items? A particular pen, a certain drink, snacks, etc.
It
used to be that I needed to drink to start stories after not having written for
a few months but health reasons forced me to write organically (and incidentally,
allow myself to go back to ENJOYING alcohol) but now I have water or tea
nearby.
1 Is there a certain time of the day when you
write more? Morning, afternoon, late night?
Like
a boss, I write all day, every day, every which way.
1 If you weren’t an author, what would you be?
Batman. The Cristian Bale one.
1 What books/authors do you read to entertain
yourself?
JR
Ward, Christina Dodd, Kresley Cole. I
just found a new thing for Gena Showalter.
Of course Laurel. K. Hamilton and Christine Feehan will always have
special spots on my shelves.
1 What are you working on now/next? Anything new
we can expect from you?
New
material includes my first romantic suspense for agent Saritza Hernandez, a
contemporary romance for same said agent.
There's also a 1NS in the submission queue Decadent is going to accept
once they read it. That story has a
special place because the inspiration for both the fantasy and the heroine are
very dear to my heart.
1 Any advice you would pass on to future authors?
Strunk
and White 4 lyfe.
Now for some fun:
Which Goddess best defines you? –According to a quiz I took just for this interview (things we do for
fans!) Athena.
Favorite Dessert? – do
I have to choose?
Chocolate or Vanilla? –rocky
road.
Favorite scent? –The
scent of her, freshly showered, naked and in my bed first thing in the
morning.
Coffee, tea, soda, or water?
- Scotch, bourbon and
whiskey.
Do you have a favorite character? Your own or others and why?
– of mine: I'm sticking with Joséf from my upcoming Red
Sage release ENDANGERED. Of some other
author: Wrath. Hands down, true.
Links where people can find you on the Internet:
Review list at NOR: http://romance.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Authors/Sascha-Illyvich.aspx
Website:
Http://saschaillyvichauthor.com
YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/SaschaIllyvich?feature=mhee
