Blog Tour ~ The Dark Ones by Rachel Van Dyken

The Dark Ones 

Release Date: Sept 20, 2015

BLURB

To touch a Dark One is death. 

To talk to an immortal is suicide. 

Yet, I've been marked by both. 

A Vampire. 

And the King of the immortals. 

My life is no longer my own. 

And now I know the truth, my life was never mine to begin with. 

It was theirs. 

It's always been theirs.

Goodreads 

 B & N

Smashwords

iBooks

ABOUT RACHEL VAN DYKEN:

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today 

Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you 

can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The 

Bachelor. 

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! 

She loves to hear from readers! 

Want to be kept up to date on new releases? Text MAFIA to 66866! 

You can connect with her on Facebook www.facebook.com/rachelvandyken  or join her 

fan group Rachel's New Rockin Readers. Her website is 

www.rachelvandykenauthor.com .

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelVanDyken

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachVD

Goodreads: 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4882127.Rachel_Van_Dyken?from_search=tr ue

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Van-

Dyken/e/B0054TW5AA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1407369649&sr=8-2-ent

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/8l7hP

EXCERPT 

"Ethan, a word?" Alex stood.

"Sure." Ethan kissed the top of my head and left the room while Mason started rummaging 

around the kitchen; pots and pans clanged together, and then he pulled out a giant piece of 

steak.

"I hope that's not for me." I pointed.

"Protein…" He threw the steak into the pan. "…feeds the blood, which feeds the mate, which, in 

turn, feeds you."

"You gonna start singing Circle of Life?" I joked.

"Circle of life?" he repeated.

"Lion King?"

"Cassius is king."

I looked helplessly to Stephanie, who was trying to hide her smile behind her hand.

"Have you seriously never watched Lion King?"

"Werewolves are scared of TV," Stephanie said with a soft laugh.

"And sirens are afraid of the dark," he fired back, while she shuddered. "I'm not afraid of the TV. 

I just don't see the point in sitting in front of a flat box and watching people make fools of 

themselves."

"He'd rather be the fool." Stephanie nodded and winked in my direction.

"Mason…" I walked over to him and put my head on his shoulder. "How about I eat the steak 

and we watch Lion King?"

"No."

"Dances with Wolves?"

Stephanie snickered loudly behind her hand.

"Wolves do not dance," Mason growled.

"Oh, we know." Stephanie nodded. "I've seen it once. Don't care to see it again."

"Too much whiskey." Mason kissed the top of my head. "Eat the whole steak, and then we'll talk 

about King Lion."

"Lion King."

"Same thing."

I sighed helplessly and went to sit at the table while Mason cooked.

Stephanie gave me a side hug. "Eight tomorrow morning, alright?"

"Great."

"Bed." She shrugged. "It's been a long night." Her eyes misted again.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." Her voice cracked. "Like Alex said, we get emotional. Can't help it."

It felt like she was lying, but I was human, how would I know? I nodded and turned my attention 

back to Mason, who'd started searing the steak.

"So you cook meat but refuse to eat it?"

"I'm a vegetarian." He smiled. I'd never realized how pointy his teeth were on the sides. Maybe 

that's how he'd been able to bite into me before Ethan had mated with me.

"Your teeth say otherwise." I pointed. "Flat means vegetarian. Pointy means carnivore."

Mason rolled his eyes. "I didn't say it was natural for me to be a vegetarian."

"Okay… so why?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "Meat made my mate sick… for one reason or another. It gave her 

headaches. She only ate fruits, vegetables, nuts." He flipped the steak. "So I learned to like 

other foods."

"And now?"

He went very quiet, his eyes focusing in on the steak. "Now…" His voice was hoarse. "I honor 

her with my every meal."

My throat clogged with emotion.

The fact that he honored her at all — but with every single meal — killed me. How did he 

survive that? How did he live every day having known true love? And know he may never 

experience it again — living forever?

"Don't pity me." Mason let out a gruff growl. "It makes it harder."

"Sorry," I whispered. "So pinecones, huh?"

He laughed. "Yes, well, it's an acquired taste."

"I bet."

My heart picked up speed, and then I smelled him. Ethan entered the room, briskly walking by 

me, kissing my head. "Steak almost done?"

"I'm a perfectionist." Mason held up his hands. "Let the juices seal."

Ethan scrunched up his nose. "Her blood tastes better than that steak."

"Yes, well, her blood tastes good because she's living. She's living because I feed her."

"Werewolf has a point," I teased. "Besides, if I eat my whole steak, we're going to watch Lion 

King!"

"Whose king?" Ethan tilted his head. "What lion? Mason's a wolf."

And that's how I ended up spending my evening between a vampire and a werewolf, eating 

steak and watching a Disney movie while they argued over the animal kingdom, not to mention 

the lion's choice in song.

It felt right.

Like I'd finally found my place.

My home.

I had no idea that the security I felt was about to get ripped from me, from the very people I'd 

put my trust in.

REVIEWS

At first, the word that comes to mind is "chaotic". There was so much going on and I wasn't understanding anything. Then I realized, duh, I understand what Genesis understands, as we're looking at most of this through her eyes and living the moment with her. Obviously we know nothing, since we've been lied to our whole lives... but, why?

This book was fast, intense, intriguing, and I must say, pretty hot!! Ethan and Cassius and Mason? Yes, please!! 

The Lion King scene? adorkable and funny! I love, love, love Mason. He makes a great were-friend to Genesis. He's kind of fatherly to her, its so cute! 

There were a lot of things I did NOT see coming and I think RVD has a fantastic imagination. I'm not sure if this is her first PNR, but she friggen nailed it, then slapped it in the arse, and made it her bitch 

I give this a 4.5 green-eyed stars

︻デ═一 ▸ Elude Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Rachel Van Dyken ︻デ═一 ▸

The sixth book in the internationally bestselling Eagle Elite Series.

*Interconnected Stand Alone*

Twenty-Four hours before we were to be married--I offered to shoot her.

Ten hours before our wedding--I made a mockery of her dying wish.

Five hours before we were going to say our vows--I promised I'd never love her.

One hour before I said I do--I vowed I'd never shed a tear over her death.

But the minute we were pronounced man and wife--I knew.

I'd only use my gun to protect her.

I'd give my life for hers.

I'd cry.

And I would, most definitely, lose my heart, to a dying girl---a girl who by all accounts should have never been mine in the first place.

I always believed the mafia would be my end game--where I'd lose my heart, while it claimed my soul. I could have never imagined. It would be my redemption.

Or the beginning of something beautiful.

The beginning of her.

The end of us.

AMAZON    iBooks   NOOK

Loneliness tasted like hell. It also, lucky for me, tasted like a fifth of whiskey and what would most likely be a throbbing headache come tomorrow morning.
I brought the bottle to my lips and tilted it back, my eyes trained on the fire in front of me, the flames licking higher and higher, reminding me that I wasn't exactly in any position to ask God for any favors…it may as well have been hell waving back at me and confirming my suspicions.
I'd killed too much.
I'd lied even more.
And I was officially out of favor within my family — within my world.
I hissed as a drip of whiskey landed on my blood-caked knuckles. Beating the shit out of the wall hadn't even stopped the anger.
Ah anger, that was something I could talk about, something I could tangibly feel as it pulsed through my body. It had been my mistress for so long that I knew if I actually let it go — I'd be even more lonely than I already was.
I tried to take a deep breath, to calm myself down, but air wouldn't go into my lungs, I felt paralyzed and on an adrenaline high all at once.
Maybe that was another part of my punishment. I had exactly twenty-four hours before I had to marry a Russian.
And not just any Russian.
An enemy, a double agent who had worked for both the FBI and, apparently, the Nicolasi family. She had sold out her own crime family, the Petrovs, and now… she was under the protection of the Italians.
How messed up was that?
I took another swig of whiskey and eyed the clock. Make that twenty-three hours and fifty-eight minutes.
I wasn't drunk enough.
I wasn't even close.
Marrying someone for protection I could do. Marrying someone and even killing them afterwards? Piece of cake. After all, that was my MO. I was a killer, a ghost, whatever the family wanted me to be.
But marrying someone, keeping them safe, only to watch them die within six months?
No. Hell no.
She had leukemia.
So why keep her alive this long?
I snorted and took another sip of whiskey. "I'd be doing her a favor by killing her."
"Ouch," a light airy voice said from somewhere in the room, causing all my hair to stand on end. "So as far as pep talks go, yours officially needs work."
I carefully set down the whiskey, not trusting myself not to throw it in her direction in an anger-filled rage. "I was talking to myself."
"Another sign you need to get laid." She laughed.
I didn't.
"Go away, Arabella."
"My name's Andi."
"Your legal name is Arabella Anderson Petrov. Care to know your social security number and credit score as well?"
"Romance is lost on you." I felt her move around the room. The air seized with electricity; she'd always had a presence about her, and right now I was five seconds away from losing my shit and ramming my head into the fireplace just so I could escape it all.
"Don't I know it," I huffed and reached for the bottle again.
Small warm hands clasped around mine before I could get there. I jerked away, causing her to stumble in front of me.
White-blond hair covered her soft features. Big brown eyes blinked back at me. I hissed in a breath and cursed. "You should go."
"We need to talk."
"Oh goody. Is this the part where you tell me I have to give up my virginity on my wedding night?"
"What?" She blinked like a startled deer, then a weak smile pulled her lips upward.
I ignored the way my body reacted and rolled my eyes in irritation.
"Aw, he has jokes now. At least, I hope it's a joke. You're not, are you? A virgin, I mean."
I snorted and eyed the bottle, calculating my odds on reaching it before she stopped me, then gave up. "Fine." I huffed. "Hurry up and get to talking so I can get drunk."
Andi sat opposite me in the leather chair and tucked her feet under her body. She was small, around five-one, but she packed a punch, knew how to use every automatic weapon on the market, and I was pretty sure I had once overheard that she was well-versed in torture. Looking at her, you'd think she was just graduating high school and getting ready to go shopping for her favorite pair of shoes with Daddy's credit card.
"You're upset," she finally said.
"No." I licked my lips and leaned forward. "I'm enraged. There's a difference."
Her eyes narrowed. "You know you can talk to me — since you're stuck with me for the next… while. That is, unless you kill me first… like you did that FBI agent."
My blood ran cold. No one knew about what I'd done last week. When I'd gained intel from another agent. "Her cover was blown. I did her a favor."
"Did you?" Her eyebrows arched.
"Have you ever been shot, Andi?"
She sighed and leaned her head back against the lush cushion. "No, why? Are you going to educate me on what it feels like?"
I exhaled and popped my knuckles; the sound reverberated through the empty room. "It happens in three stages."
"What does?"
"Getting shot."
"You mean you don't just pull the trigger?" she joked.
Ignoring her, I continued. "Shock. It's always the first emotion because the human brain hasn't yet caught up with the fact that you've been wounded. So your body starts going into shock, and then the pain happens, but it's not the type of pain you'd think. It burns, but it's more of an empty, hollow pain, that starts to spread from the wound throughout the rest of your body until a slow chill starts to descend. When the chill descends, the shock wears off and confusion sets in. Why was I shot? Why me? What have I done? As humans, our brains aren't meant to understand violence, so we have to logically explain it away. I had to have done something wrong to get shot. Or maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The minute your brain finds something that makes sense you move onto the last stage."
Andi barely moved a muscle. "Death?"
"Worse." I reached for the bottle and took a long swig. "Denial."
"Why is denial worse?"
"You tell me."
Her eyes closed briefly before she offered a shrug. "Because it means you aren't ready."
"Look who just earned an A in class," I mocked. "And you're right. Denial happens when you realize it shouldn't be you, that even if your brain connected the dots, it isn't yet your time. The lovely little memories of your life start to play on repeat in your head — the moments you should have done something but didn't, the things you'll never say, the things you'll never do. And then… you either get lucky or, if I'm the one who pulled the trigger, your memories will click off after about one minute, and you'll be no more."
The fire crackled.
Andi refused to look at me.
"I'd make it fast, Andi."
"Are we seriously doing this?"
"What?" I shrugged.
"Having a conversation in what should be a nice cozy room, about you killing me?"
"It would be a kindness."
"Go to hell!"
"Already there, Andi. Already there. Don't you know? I belong nowhere. My family's punishing me, the FBI's investigating me for the murder of my superior, and now I have to marry a Russian whore."
"So…" She stood. "…you'd rather kill me than marry me?"
"Was I not clear? I thought I was… Allow me to say it slower, perhaps in Russian? If that's all you people understand." I stood, meeting her chest to chest. "I'd rather kill you than see you suffer… I'd offer a dog the same kindness."
"I'm not a dog."
"You're Russian."
"Stop saying that."
"What?" I sneered. "The truth? Well, sweetheart, it doesn't get any truer than your reality. Allow me to kill you before your family or cancer does, and at least you can own your own death rather than fearing it."
She reached for me, touched my shoulders, and then cupped my face. I hated it because I liked it; my body leaned without me telling it to. She was so warm. "And what makes you think I fear my own death?"
"Everyone is afraid of dying. The hardest part is never admitting we're mortal, but coming to terms with the fact that we have no control over how long we're given. You do."
"No… I don't… You're trying to take that control."
"Say the word." My hand moved to the Glock strapped to my thigh.
"I'm not afraid." Her lips trembled. "At least not of death… but I am afraid of something."
"Oh yeah?" I hissed. "What's that?"
"Yours."
Confused, I stepped back, immediately looking for a weapon. "I don't understand."
"You wouldn't." She shrugged. "Because you, Sergio Abandonato, are already dead." She moved gracefully across the room. "You're dead inside… and you don't even know it. Forget cancer — and take a long hard look in the mirror — that's what death looks like."

Elude by Rachel Van Dyken from Becca the Bibliophile on Vimeo.

That ending....

Only RVD can take something so sad and make it beautiful and silly.

This was quite an emotional roller coaster ride! 

 In the beginning I wanted to punch Sergio for being such an a$$hat... the things he would say, and the way his brain couldn't wrap around all things Andi, and he would lash out from his own pain and confusion. 
Then you sympathized with him, cried with him, and laughed with him. It really was a great full circle book. 

"Ah anger, that was something I could talk about, something I could tangibly feel as it pulsed through my body. It had been my mistress for so long that I knew if I actually let it go — I'd be even more lonely than I already was."

"Because you, Sergio Abandonato, are already dead." She moved gracefully across the room. "You're dead inside… and you don't even know it. Forget cancer — and take a long hard look in the mirror — that's what death looks like."




Andi was spunky, funny, and a small, Russian, badass, bringing light to everyone's lives. Even having the father she had (Petrov, there's a special place in hell for him) nothing seemed to knock her joy out of her. 

"It's a two twirl dress"

"But that was what happened when you actually experienced life through someone else; you realized what you've been doing wasn't living, but existing."

Luca had a heavy hand (ghostly, but there none-the-less) in this story, and you'll see once again why I LOVE that man. He really is the man with the master plan. He tears at my heart strings...still...always. 

"And I had to, in that moment, smile… Luca. Damn the man. He'd known what he was doing all along."

I will say while reading it, I felt like I was reading Phoenix and Bee again. Both had issues, the H was shrouded in darkness and the h was there to bring them to the light with their silly ways. In the final chapters is where it really broke free though, giving them their own characteristics again.  


This fall will wrap up this series. While I am excited to see where this will all go, because there are definitely ends that need to be tied up, I will also be a little sad to see this series end. I have been with these characters for, what? 3 years now? So this will all be very bittersweet.

Just a little side note: No, I won't be reading the prologue to Empire, I've already tortured myself once reading Tex's, I don't want to suffer for months, because her prologues are so intense and deceiving... you won't get me this time RVD!!! *mwahaha*

I give this book 4****

 Rafflecopter giveaway




Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!

Want to be kept up to date on new releases? Text MAFIA to 66866!

You can connect with her on Facebook www.facebook.com/rachelvandyken  or join her fan group Rachel's New Rockin Readers. Her website is www.rachelvandykenauthor.com .

NEWSLETTER   FACEBOOK   TWITTER  GOODREADS  AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Trailer Reveal ~ Elude by Rachel Van Dyken

The sixth book in the internationally bestselling Eagle Elite Series.

*Interconnected Stand Alone*

Twenty-Four hours before we were to be married--I offered to shoot her.

Ten hours before our wedding--I made a mockery of her dying wish.

Five hours before we were going to say our vows--I promised I'd never love her.

One hour before I said I do--I vowed I'd never shed a tear over her death.

But the minute we were pronounced man and wife--I knew.

I'd only use my gun to protect her.

I'd give my life for hers.

I'd cry.

And I would, most definitely, lose my heart, to a dying girl---a girl who by all accounts should have never been mine in the first place.

I always believed the mafia would be my end game--where I'd lose my heart, while it claimed my soul. I could have never imagined. It would be my redemption.

Or the beginning of something beautiful.

The beginning of her.

The end of us.

ADD TO GOODREADS

AMAZON    iBooks   NOOK

Elude by Rachel Van Dyken from Becca the Bibliophile on Vimeo.

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.
She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!
Want to be kept up to date on new releases? Text MAFIA to 66866!
You can connect with her on Facebook www.facebook.com/rachelvandyken  or join her fan group Rachel's New Rockin Readers. Her website is www.rachelvandykenauthor.com 

NEWSLETTER   FACEBOOK   TWITTER  GOODREADS  AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE