{"product_id":"lover-enshrined-isbn-9780451222725","title":"Lover Enshrined","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other—six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. And now, a dutiful twin must choose between two lives...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself- she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.\u003cb\u003ePraise for the Black Dagger Brotherhood\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“J.R. Ward's unique band of brothers is to die for. I love this series!” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author bestseller Suzanne Brockmann\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic…The Brotherhood is the hottest collection of studs in romance. I can’t wait for the next one!” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller Angela Knight\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It pulls the reader in and will grip your heart…J. R. Ward has created a world that I love…along with characters I can’t get enough of.”—\u003ci\u003eNight Owl Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The newest in Ward’s ferociously popular Black Dagger Brotherhood…will give Brotherhood addicts a powerful rush.”\u003ci\u003e—Publishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Best new series I’ve read in years! Tautly written, wickedly sexy and just plain fun.”—Lisa Gardner, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I found myself turning pages faster and faster—and then I wished I hadn’t, because there was no more to read!”—Angela Knight, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A dynamite new Vampire series—delicious, erotic, and thrilling! J.R. Ward has created a wonderful cast of characters, with a sexy, tormented, to-die-for hero…A fabulous treat for romance readers!”—Nicole Jordan, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“J.R. Ward has a great style of writing and she shines…You will lose yourself in this world; it is different, creative, dark, violent, and flat-out amazing.”—\u003ci\u003eAll About Romance \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Awesome…a midnight whirlwind of dangerous characters and mesmerizing erotic romance. Dark fantasy lovers, you just got served.”—Lynn Viehl, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"J.R. Ward takes you deep into her intense, dark world of vampires and holds you captive until her last breathless word…sure to satisfy lovers of vampire romance everywhere.\"—\u003ci\u003eAffaire de Coeur \u003c\/i\u003e(Reviewer Pick, 5 Stars)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hold on tight for an intriguing, adrenaline-pumping ride…[that] leaves readers begging for more. Fans of L. A. Banks, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Sherrilyn Kenyon will add Ward to their must-read list.”—\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eJ. R. Ward\u003c\/b\u003e is the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of numerous novels, including the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and the Fallen Angels series which includes \u003ci\u003eRapture, Envy, Crave\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Covet\u003c\/i\u003e. Writing as Jessica Bird, Ward is the author of \u003ci\u003eLeaping Hearts, Heart of Gold, An Irresistible Bachelor,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAn Unforgettable Lady. \u003c\/i\u003eShe lives in the South with her family.\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePROLOGUE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTwenty-five years, three months, four days,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e eleven hours, eight minutes, and thirty-four seconds ago…\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTIME WAS NOT, in fact, a draining loss into the infinite. Up until the very second of the present, it was malleable, not fixed. Clay, not concrete.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhich was something for which the Omega was grateful. If time had been fixed, he would not be holding his newborn son in his arms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChildren had never been his goal. And yet in this moment, he was transformed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Is the mother dead?” he asked as his \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser\u003c\/i\u003e came down the stairs. Funny, if you had asked the slayer what year he thought it was, he would have said 1983. And he would have been correct, in a way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser\u003c\/i\u003e nodded. “She didn’t survive the birth.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Vampires rarely do. It’s one of their few virtues.” And in this case apropos. Killing the mother after she had served him so well seemed ungracious.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“What do you want me to do with her body?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega watched as his son reached out and grabbed hold of his thumb. The grip was strong. “How odd.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“What?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was hard to put into words what he was feeling. Or perhaps that was the point. He hadn’t expected to feel anything.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis son was supposed to be a defensive reaction to the the Destroyer Prophecy, a calculated response in the war against the vampires, a strategy to ensure the Omega survived. His son would do battle in a new way and kill off that race of savages before the Destroyer chipped away at the Omega’s being until there was nothing left.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUp until this moment, the plan had been executed flawlessly, starting with the abduction of the female vampire the Omega had inseminated and ending here with this new arrival in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe infant looked up at him, budding mouth working. He smelled sweet, but not because he was a \u003ci\u003elesser.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega didn’t want to let him go, suddenly. This young in his arms was a miracle, a living, breathing loophole. The Omega had not been granted the act of creation as his sister had, but reproduction had not been denied him. He might not have been able to bring a whole new race into being. But he could bring a part of himself forward from the genetic pool.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd he had.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Master?” the \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser\u003c\/i\u003e said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe really did not want to let the baby go, but to have this work, his son had to live with the enemy, be raised as one among them. His son had to know their language and their culture and their ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis son had to know where they lived so he could go and slaughter them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega forced himself to give the infant over to his \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser.\u003c\/i\u003e “Leave him at the gathering place I forbade you to sack. Swaddle him and leave him, and when you return here I shall draw you forth unto me.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhereupon you shall die as I so will it\u003c\/i\u003e, the Omega finished to himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere could be no leaks. No mistakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser\u003c\/i\u003e did some fawning, which would have interested the Omega at any other time, the sun came up over the cornfields of Caldwell, New York. From upstairs, a soft fizzling sound bloomed into a full-blown fire, the burning smell announcing the incineration of the female’s body along with all the blood on that bed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhich was just lovely. Tidiness mattered, and this farmhouse was brand-new, built especially for the son’s birth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Go,” the Omega commanded. “Go and carry out your duty.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eFore-lesser\u003c\/i\u003e left with the infant, and as the Omega watched the door shut, he yearned for his offspring. Positively ached for the boy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe solution for his angst was at hand, however. The Omega willed himself into the air and catapulted what corporeal form he had to the “present,” to the very living room he was in.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe change in time registered in a rapid aging of the house around him. Wallpaper faded and peeled off in lazy strips. Furniture ratted and became worn in patterns consistent with over two decades of use. The ceiling dulled from bright white to dingy yellow, as if smokers had been exhaling for years. Floorboards curled up at the corners of the hallway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the back of the house, he heard two humans arguing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega drifted down to the filthy, wilted kitchen that merely seconds ago had been shiny as the day it had been built.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs he came into the room, the man and the woman stopped their fighting, freezing with shock. And he got on with the tedious business of emptying the farmhouse of prying eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis son was returning unto the fold. And the Omega needed to see him almost more than he needed to put him to use.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the evil touched the center of his chest, he felt empty and thought of his sister. She had brought forth into the world a new race, a race engineered through a combination of her will and the biology that was available. She’d been so proud of herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTheir father had, as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega had started to kill the vampires just to spite them both, but had quickly learned he fed off deeds of evil. Their father couldn’t stop him, of course, because, as it turned out, the Omega’s deeds—nay, his very existence—were necessary to balance his sister’s goodness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance had to be maintained. It was his sister’s core principle, the justification for the Omega, and their father’s mandate from his father. The very basis of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd so it was that the Scribe Virgin suffered and the Omega drew his satisfaction. With each death wrought on her race she hurt, and well he knew it. The brother had always been able to feel the sister.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, though, that was even truer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the Omega pictured his son out there in the world, he worried about the boy. Hoped that the twenty-plus years had been easy for him. But that was a proper parent, was it not. Parents were supposed to have concern over their offspring and nurture them and protect them. Whatever your core was, whether it be virtue or sin, you wanted the best for what you had brought forth into the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was stunning to find that he had something in common with his sister, after all…a shock to know that they both wanted what children they begot to survive and thrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Omega looked at the bodies of the humans he had just laid to waste.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf course, that was a mutually exclusive proposition, wasn’t it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eChapter One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE WIZARD HAD RETURNED.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury closed his eyes and let his head fall back against his headboard. Ah, hell, what was he saying. The wizard had never left.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMate, sometimes you take the piss out of me\u003c\/i\u003e, the dark voice in his head drawled. \u003ci\u003eYou truly do. After all we’ve been together?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll they’d been together…wasn’t that the truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wizard was the cause of Phury’s driving need for red smoke, always in his head, always hammering about what he hadn’t done, what he should have done, what he could have done better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShoulda. Woulda. Coulda.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCute rhyme. The reality was that one of the Ring-wraiths from \u003ci\u003eThe Lord of the Rings\u003c\/i\u003e drove him to the red smoke sure as if the bastard hog-tied him and threw him in the back of a car.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eActually, mate, you’d be the front bumper.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExactly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his mind’s eye, the wizard appeared in the form of a Ring-wraith standing in the midst of a vast gray wasteland of skulls and bones. In its proper British accent, the bastard made sure that Phury never forgot his failures, the pounding litany causing him to light up again and again just so he didn’t go into his gun closet and eat the muzzle of a forty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eYou didn’t save him. You didn’t save them. The curse was brought upon them all by you. The fault is yours…the fault is yours….\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury reached for another blunt and lit it with his gold lighter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe was what they called in the Old Country the \u003ci\u003eexhile dhoble.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second twin. The evil twin.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn three minutes after Zsadist, Phury’s live birth had brought the curse of imbalance to the family. Two noble sons, both born breathing, was too much good fortune, and sure enough, balance had been wrought: Within months, his twin had been stolen from the family, sold into slavery, and abused for a century in every manner possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThanks to his sick bitch mistress, Zsadist was scarred on his face and his back and his wrists and neck. Scarred worse on the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury opened his eyes. Rescuing his twin’s physical body hadn’t gone far enough; it had taken the miracle of Bella to resurrect Z’s soul, and now she was in danger. If they lost her…\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThen all is proper and the balance remains intact for the next generation\u003c\/i\u003e, the wizard said. \u003ci\u003eYou don’t honestly think your twin will reap the blessing of a live birth? You shall have children beyond measure. He shall have none. That is the way of the balance.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eOh, and I’m taking his\u003c\/i\u003e shellan, \u003ci\u003etoo, did I mention that?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury picked up the remote and turned up \u003ci\u003e“Che Gelida Manina.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDidn’t work. The wizard liked Puccini. The Ring-wraith just started to waltz around the field of skeletons, its boots crushing what was underfoot, its heavy arms swaying with elegance, its black shredded robes like the mane of a stallion throwing its regal head. Against a vast horizon of soulless gray, the wizard waltzed and laughed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo. Fucked. Up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithout looking, Phury reached over to the bedside table for his bag of red smoke and his rolling papers. He didn’t have to measure the distance. He was the rabbit who knew where its pellets were.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the wizard whooped it up to \u003ci\u003eLa Bohème\u003c\/i\u003e, Phury rolled up two fatties so he could keep his chain going, and he smoked while he readied his reinforcements. As he exhaled, what left his lips smelled like coffee and chocolate, but to put a dull on the wizard, he would have used the stuff even if it had been like burning trash in the nose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHell, he was getting to the point where lighting up a whole fucking Dumpster would have been fine and dandy if it could get him some peace.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI can’t believe you don’t value our relationship more\u003c\/i\u003e, the wizard said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury focused on the drawing in his lap, the one he’d been working on for the last half hour. After he did a quick catch-up review, he dipped the tip of his quill into the sterling silver pot he had balanced against his hip. The pool of ink inside looked like the blood of his enemies, with its dense, oily sheen. On the paper, though, it was a deep reddish brown, not a vile black.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe would never use black to depict someone he loved. Bad luck.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBesides, the sanguinary ink was precisely the color of the highlights in Bella’s mahogany hair. So it fit his subject.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury carefully shaded the sweep of her perfect nose, the fine lashes of the quill crisscrossing one another until the density was correct.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInk drawing was a lot like life: One mistake and the whole thing was ruined.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDamn it. Bella’s eye wasn’t quite up to par.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCurling his forearm around so he didn’t drag his wrist through the new ink he’d laid, he tried to fix what was wrong, shaping the lower lid so the curve of it was more angled. His strokes marked up the sheet of Crane paper nicely enough. But the eye still wasn’t working.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYeah, not right, and he should know, considering how much time he’d spent drawing her over the last eight months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wizard paused in mid-plié and pointed out that this pen-and-ink routine was a shitty thing to do. Drawing your twin’s pregnant \u003ci\u003eshellan.\u003c\/i\u003e Honestly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eOnly a right sodding bastard would get fixated on a female who was taken by his twin. And yet you have. You must be so proud of yourself, mate.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYeah, the wizard had always had a British accent for some reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury took another drag and tilted his head to the side to see if a change in viewing angle would help. Nope. Still not right. And neither was the hair, actually. For some reason he’d drawn Bella’s long, dark hair in a chignon, with wisps tickling her cheeks. She always wore it down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhatever. She was beyond lovely anyway, and the rest of her face was as he usually depicted her: Her loving stare was to the right, her lashes silhouetted, her gaze showing a combination of warmth and devotion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eZsadist sat to her right at meals. So that his fighting hand was free.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury never drew her with her eyes looking out at him. Which made sense. In real life, he never drew her stare, either. She was in love with his twin, and he wouldn’t have changed that, not for all his longing for her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scope of his drawing ran from the top of her chignon to the top of her shoulders. He never drew her pregnant belly. Pregnant females were never depicted from the breastbone down. Again, bad luck. As well as a reminder of what he feared most.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeaths on the birthing bed were common.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhury ran his fingertips down her face, avoiding that nose, where the ink was still drying. She was lovely, even with the eye that wasn’t right, and the hair that was different, and the lips that were less full.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis was done. Time to start another.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Berkley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301768483045,"sku":"NP9780451222725","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780451222725.jpg?v=1767731921","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/lover-enshrined-isbn-9780451222725","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}