Love Bites Book One Love At First Stake

Alejandra Montoya is on the trail of the man who killed her parents. Love never figured into it. Then, she met Eli Ravell, or tried to kill him more precisely. Against her better judgment, she allows him to drag her into an adventure seeped in all the things she has sworn to destroy. Namely, a butt load of Vampires and things that she didn't even know existed.Now, she finds herself falling from one near death experience to another. Somewhere along the way she's discovered her life might not be the only thing she has to lose. Every minute she spends with Eli brings her one step closer to losing her heart.

Joan Ravell thought she'd pretty much had her life figured out until a hit squad shows up interrupting that carefully laid out delusion. Next thing she knows, she finds herself drawn into the first Vampire war in three thousands years. That wouldn't be so bad, but her dead lover turns up unabashedly alive, truly blowing her world apart. Fighting emotions she'd locked away ages ago, Joan must team with the one time love of her life to unravel the ancient secret that now threatens not only the Vampire race but the entire world. Can the world survive a tension that's been building for over three thousand years? Oh, and then there's the Vampires planning to bring back the ultimate evil. Just another small problem to deal with when you're the original Queen of the Damned.

Lyssette Ravell finds herself smack dab in the middle of a mess her brother started. When a new threat surfaces to threaten the Vampire/Human alliance recently set in place, she finds herself teamed with Kristain Marshall, who just so happens to be her almost brother-in-law. Sent to rescue her brother Eli from the clutches of Rudolpho's daughter Valerious, Lyssette finds more than she bargained for. There's a traitor on the Vampire Council. Now, Lyssette must save her brother, root out this traitor and at the same time avoid at all cost falling in love with Kristain, the one man who could make her forget all the vows she's ever taken as an agent of the VCI.

Megan Marshall thought she'd made all her dreams come true. Her career as a TV chef was taking off on the network level and in three days she'd be on her way to New York to shoot her first show for the Culinary Channel. When a strange Vampire shows up, she's sure her brother and sister's job with St. Vlad's Slayers has finally come to bite her in the butt. To bad she was right. On the run with Stalking Shadow, the Vampire sent to save her life, she finds herself in the middle of the first Vampire War in over four thousand years. Now, she not only has to stay alive long enough to become the next Paula Deen, she's got to find a way to do it while falling in love with the last man she should fall for, a Vampire.

Mathews uses a limited definition of paranormal, and examines works set, for the most part, in a relatively realistic modern world inhabited by both humans and paranormal beings.

A wonderful variety of compellingly original vampire stories, many of them wholly unexpected, from award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors. There are typical vampires who would be right at home in a horror story or a gothic romance; historical vampires; contemporary, gritty, urban vampires; fang-in-cheek comedy; boy-meets-girl sweetheart stories (if a little bloodier!); and erotic tales of inhuman passions and midnight pleasures. Look out, too, for stand-alone stories relating to existing series and characters of contributing authors, or stories which develop more fully characters who have only walk-on parts in those authors' longer fiction. Includes writing by big-name authors such as Jennifer Ashley, Kim Harrison writing as Dawn Cook, Caitlin Kittredge, Diane Whiteside and Eileen Wilks.