 by Karina Halle.jpg)
Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Over the centuries, he found his love again, and lost her again, until he was so broken he gave up on love entirely, sinking into the depths of depravity, losing his humanity.
Then one day, she came back into his life. A student of music studying under him at the conservatory in Venice, Italy where he was a professor. But even though he found her beautiful and intriguing, he didn’t recognize his fated mate at all.
Because this time she had to hide her true self.
This time she came back as a witch, whose destiny wasn’t to love him…but to kill him.
Blood Orange is a modern-day Dracula retelling about the “real-life” Dracula that inspired Bram Stoker. This is a dark vampire romance with plenty of content warnings (check interior of book for CW) and while it is a spinoff of The Dark Eyes Duet, it can be read as a standalone. It was previously referred to as "King of Darkness"
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Playlist
You can find the playlist to Blood Orang on Spotify HERE. Otherwise I have included a few songs below to help set the mood.
* * *
“Zero Sum” - NIN
“Bitches Brew” - +++ (Crosses)
“Corrupt” - Depeche Mode
“The Lovers” - NIN
“Red Right Hand” - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“World in My Eyes” - Depeche Mode
“Vampyre of Time & Memory” - Queens of the Stone Age
“Digital Bath” - Deftones
“Tear You Apart” - She Wants Revenge
“The Perfect Drug” - NIN
“Loverman” - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“The Becoming” - NIN
“This is a Trick” - +++ (Crosses)
“Welcome to my World” - Depeche Mode
CONTENT WARNING
Blood Orange is a book I personally consider to be a dark romance (though I realize there are levels to dark romance and what I consider dark may be considered grey to other readers) and as such there are content warnings that I think readers should be aware of to protect their mental health. It contains the following potentially triggering situations:
Explicit language and graphic sex, graphic violence, pregnancy loss (on page), blood, murder, death of a spouse, Non-con (minor/not between the hero or heroine), dub-con, exhibitionism, BDSM-lite elements, and certain kinks including breath play, fire play, blood play, cum play, anal play, primal kink, chasing, bondage, degradation, praise kink, and feeding (vampire style). The majority of these content warnings are in regards to the sexual acts in the book.
It must be noted that this book is for adults only. This is not Twilight. Please heed the warnings if recommending this to those under 18.
Blood Orange is book 1 in The Dracula Duet. Book 2—Black Rose—releases December 29th.
Chapter 1
Valtu
I write this down because I don’t trust Bram to write his novel without twisting my story around. I’d seen the wheels turning in his head in that peculiar way writers get when an idea starts taking off on them like an ornery horse. I’m sure the countless days and nights we spent together in Cruden Bay where I opened myself up and poured my heart out to him paled in comparison to what Mr. Stoker’s brain could conjure up. Thus, I’m not relying on his tale to be accurate in any way, shape, or form (He told me his title is The Un-Dead, I was hoping it would be called Valtu or Count Aminoff).
Besides, over the centuries, my memories have begun to fade. I used to pray for the day I would forget all the pain, for the day I could burn my memories of her to ash. But I know that one day I will have to remember her. To forget her would be to forget what it’s like to be human, and I’m dangerously close to losing myself all together at times. And so I will write down all I remember of her, in hope that our love might bring about my humanity.
One can only dream.
I have been doing a lot of dreaming.
* * *
THE GREAT WRATH 1714
The Kingdom of Sweden
(the land currently known as Finland)
* * *
I waited for her that morning like a starving man for a crust of bread. Nothing would ease my hunger, not the sunshine on my face, the call of the meadow larks from the thicket, nor the wind rustling my humble field of wheat, all things that would normally bring me pleasure, even on the saddest of days.
Mina. Even her name felt like a song, like an answer from God to make up for a past awash with grief. Losing my first wife Ana and the child, a child we never had a chance to name, then having the country invaded by the enemy, the burning of Helsinki, then most of my land taken away from me, even all of that felt trivial whenever I thought about Mina. She was my redemption, my second chance at life. She was a salve on the deepest wounds of my existence, and those wounds ran deep.
Even the harsh reality of this new world didn’t have a chance against the way she made me feel, the hope she brought me. If I thought about it even for a moment, I would have known how impossible our love was, how there was no future for us, not when I was a lowly farmer, just a peasant in his mid-thirties, and she was the daughter of the general, the very monster who took over the countryside and made it his.
But I never dug deeper. I didn’t want to think. I was content to live on the surface of love, letting it sweep me from one day to the next on an unyielding current, no fear of the turbulent water and jagged rocks that lay ahead ready to flay me to pieces.
The sound of hoofbeats came from beyond the line of birch trees and a flock of starlings suddenly flew above the leaves, frightened by Mina’s approach. I was standing at the start of the forest, my cottage barely visible from around the bend. If anyone else were to approach, they would come along the road, not from behind through the birch and berry shrubs, where there was no trail. That’s how I knew it was her.