Romani Armada (Beloved Bloody Time) Read online

  About Romani Armada

  What goes around, comes around, including love.

  Justin Edward Kelly, vampire and Chronologic Touring Agency member, hates time traveling and prefers to pretend he’s human. Deonne Rinaldi is human and arm-twisted the Agency into the deal of a life-time: They make her a vampire if she pulls off the PR campaign of her career and make humans like vampires. Everyone was stunned when the mismatched pair became lovers, including Deonne and Justin and neither of them will admit even to themselves how well the relationship works.

  While Deonne is tucked away in history to protect her from Gabriel’s psi-file army ravages, Justin gets a time-delayed letter from her telling him their affair is over. She is in love with Adán Xavier Santiago, a Romani vampire from ancient Spain who will turn her.

  Despite the massive dangers screwing with time this way can cause, Justin travels back to China to confront Deonne, but when he arrives there is no Adán and Deonne knows nothing about the letter. Justin, not used to time traveling, figures he’s averted a personal disaster until Deonne meets a sexy Spaniard who introduces himself as Adán….

  WARNING: This book contains two hot, sexy alpha heroes, frequent, explicit and frank sex scenes and sexual language. It includes heart-stopping sexual scenes between the aforementioned sexy heroes, menage scenes, and anal sex.

  Do not proceed beyond this point if hot love scenes offend you.

  No vampires were harmed in the making of this novel.

  Romani Armada is Book 3 of the Beloved Bloody Time series:

  Book 1: Bannockburn Binding

  Book 2: Byzantine Heartbreak

  Book 3: Romani Armada

  (With more to come!)

  Praise for the Beloved Bloody Time series

  The storylines are creative, the characters surprise us – over and over again. Reading Romances

  The world of time traveling vampires and the Chronometric Conservation Agency is so well conceived and written. I promise, no matter how much you read, this is a unique world. This complex world is well written and presented in a manner that didn’t overwhelm me. The Romance Reviews

  I’ve never been a fan of futuristic, sci-fi or time-travel books, but the characters and worlds that Tracy builds for her readers is impossible not to love. … I can’t wait for this series to continue. There are so many different ways that Tracy Cooper-Posey could take this storyline and if history truly does repeat itself, I’m positive she won’t disappoint. Vampire Romance Books

  The storyline is incredible. I must confess I’m dying to read the next book in the series! Booked Up Reviews

  Tracy Cooper-Posey’s intriguing characters will quickly make their way into your hearts and wanting more of her time traveling vampires! Romancing the Darkside

  Contents

  Cover

  About Romani Armada

  Praise for the Beloved Bloody Time series

  Contents

  PRIMERA PARTE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  SEGUNDA PARTE

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  TERCERA PARTE

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  CUARTA PARTE

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  EL FINAL DE LA HISTORIA

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  More erotic paranormal romance by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Stay Up To Date

  About the Author

  Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Copyright Information

  PRIMERA PARTE

  Chapter One

  Northumberland, Britain, 793: “It looks so...ordinary,” Dimas Antoni whispered, suppressed excitement making his voice hiss. He lay in the long grass on the shore, moving the digital binoculars so he could scan the length of the island. Every now and again, he would click the shutter to capture a photo.

  In the pre-dawn light, the island of Lindisfarne lay a stone’s throw from the mainland, long and flat except for the small hillock at the end. It seemed to float on a low cushion of fog.

  The large, rough stone building in the middle of the island was St. Cuthbert’s monastery. Nestled beside it lay a small village, clinging to the walls for the scant amount of protection the monastery gave. There were lights glowing from the monastery windows as the monks prepared for dawn prayers.

  Seabirds swirled and cried overhead. Boats were dragged across shale into the still water, in preparation for the day’s fishing. Their sounds carried over the water with almost perfect clarity.

  “It is an ordinary day for them,” Ophelia assured him, lying back in the grass. She had seen this day before, from different vantage points. It held no thrill for her any more.

  “Smoke from cottages, fishermen setting out....” Antoni lifted his eyes from the binoculars to glance at her where she lay. “I have researched the Vikings for nearly fifty years. I’m considered the pre-eminent living expert in all the worlds, yet I feel like a sixteen year old on his first date.” He grinned. “I had no idea it would be like this.”

  “So ordinary?” she said, with a smile.

  “So thrilling and yes, so ordinary.” He sighed. “The university and the foundation did not want to fund this journey. If only they could be here to see this, to understand. They would have every historian journey back. I have learned more in these last two weeks than I have in my decades of research.”

  “That was the point of the journey.”

  “To be rich enough to do this whenever one wanted—you’re so lucky.” He went back to scanning the island.

  Ophelia grimaced. “I’m glad you think so,” she said dryly. She checked the time on the clock she carried in a concealed pocket in her gown to make sure her time sense was accurate. “The first longboats will appear in twenty-three minutes. You’ll get about seven minutes to watch, before the Vikings cross the causeway and spread out over this coastline. Then we must pull back.”

  “So, June, not January,” Antoni muttered. “Haven’t I always said so?”

  Ophelia smiled to herself and settled in to wait, watching to the north where the first square sail would be seen. She much preferred to escort historians and other scholars through history. Despite their pre-occupation with academic affairs, they were so profoundly moved by the smallest detail. Just walking through a village provided them with entertainment and
interest to last the day. Yesterday, as they’d travelled the final twenty miles to the village, Beal, Antoni had spent over an hour studying a road marker – a simple, small cairn of stones, with the marker stone carved with Christian symbols for St. Cuthbert’s monastery.

  A commercial client would have wanted more visible drama. They would never have been content to lay concealed in rushes, five hundred meters away from the first Viking raid in British history.

  The day gradually lightened and there was a pleasant breeze coming in off the sea. Ophelia rolled onto her back and watched the grass around her sway. Antoni would let her know when he saw the first Northman sail appear. She let herself rest, fully experiencing the human weariness in her body from the walking the day before and the night’s uncomfortable lodging on bare ground, without a blanket.

  “There’s a man coming,” Antoni murmured. “Over there.”

  She looked up to where he was pointing. It wasn’t toward the island. Rather, he pointed further north along the coast and inland.

  She sat up carefully, not raising her head too far above the grass, her instincts alerted.

  A dark-haired man in a good-quality long cloak was walking toward them. Directly toward them. It was Charbonneau. Rob.

  Surprise brought Ophelia to her feet, but she stayed crouched. “What are you doing here?”

  “Collecting you,” Rob said.

  “Keep your head down,” she advised him, dropping back to her knees. “The Northmen will not care why you are here.”

  Rob lowered himself to the grass beside her, looking out over the calm sea. The early fog had almost gone and the fishing boats were already well out toward the horizon. There was nothing to see for now. “Peaceful,” he remarked.

  Antoni glanced at him once before returning to his watch through the binoculars.

  “I thought you were still training?” Ophelia murmured.

  “You’ve missed a bit while ye’ve been gone.” His tone was light but there was an inflection in his voice that made her look at him. When her gaze met his, his eyes flickered toward Antoni.

  Ophelia’s gut tightened. There were things he didn’t want to say in front of the human.

  “We need to talk,” Rob added.

  “Ignore me,” Antoni said, his voice muffled as he lay with the glasses pressed to his face. “For the next forty minutes, you could hatch plans to end the world, for all I care.”

  Ophelia smiled a little, enjoying his enthusiasm. She lifted a brow at Rob, encouraging him to speak.

  He took a breath. Let it out. “It’s hard to know where to start,” he confessed.

  “Sails!” Antoni hissed.

  Ophelia rest on one elbow and parted the grass, looking to the north. Yes, there was the first sail, just topping the horizon. A dirty white thing, looking small and innocent from this far away. Her heart began to thud. “And so it begins,” she murmured. “Antoni, when they cross the causeway, we must leave. You will want to argue with me, but in this you must trust me. We leave when I say we do.”

  “Yes, yes,” Antoni replied softly.

  “Are they as fierce as history paints them?” Rob asked, looking at the long ship as the hull slipped over the horizon beneath the sail. A second sail had appeared. Then half a dozen more as they watched.

  “Worse,” Ophelia assured him. “They are here to conquer and plunder. Nothing else here has meaning for them that would make them reconsider their actions.” She sighed and turned to size him up once more. “So why are you here, Rob? Why did the agency send a green recruit on a big jump like this?”

  “No one else could be spared. The agency is gone, Ophelia.” He was staring into her eyes, making her believe him.

  “Gone?” she said carefully, trying to understand.

  “Destroyed. The station was blown up by the psi. Gabriel attacked us, with his army of hundreds of psi. They sabotaged the reactor.”

  Ophelia stared at Rob, her head and heart reeling. This really wasn’t a joke.

  “They’re coming!” Antoni said, his voice squeaking with excitement. “I can actually see them. And no horns on their helmets!” He sounded ferociously exultant.

  Ophelia stared at the professor’s back. “Attacked,” she repeated blankly. “But...psi...? Why would they do that? It was really psi?”

  “You’ve been gone a while. Jump after jump with barely enough time to recover.” Rob’s eyes seemed to be looking into hers. “I know why,” he said simply. “I know about Ezra.”

  She looked down, away from his empathy.

  “But you were at the meeting, so you know the psi have become organized. Militant. Gabriel targeted the station.” He glanced down at his knees and swallowed.

  There was something else he was not saying. Something he would not say in front of Antoni, no matter how absorbed the academic seemed to be.

  Then Ophelia realized why Rob had come to find her. “How many other travelers are stranded in history, unable to go back to the station?” she asked.

  “We’re still working that out,” Rob told her. He grimaced. “We’re still trying to figure out how we’re to work out where they are in the first place. All the records, all the data...it all went with the station. We thought you were in France as usual. It was the university asking after Antoni that told us where you really were.”

  A woman’s scream sounded from the village on the island. The long boats had been seen. The alarm was swiftly spread, as the villagers stirred.

  “A few minutes more only, Antoni,” she murmured into the professor’s ear. She looked back at Rob.

  “Is that why they sent you? A friendly face?”

  Rob considered her for a moment. “They had no one else to send.”

  “Not even Ryan?” Ophelia asked, her heart thundering in a way that was alarming. “Did…has something happened to Ryan? He knows this marker.”

  Rob lifted his hand in a soothing, settling gesture. “He lives. But he was injured. It will take time for his symbiot to recover.”

  She stared at Rob. “This was your first jump, wasn’t it?”

  “Almost.” He said it calmly.

  Horror touched her. “They sent you alone. Into an era you do not know.”

  “Things are...grave.” He was still calm. “Ryan remembered where you were. Pritti helped him give me the marker and directions to find you.”

  She swallowed against the nausea beating at her. “Oh my lord,” she murmured. “It really is that bad, isn’t it?”

  The sound of wet shale shifting alerted her. She looked up. “They’re at the causeway!” She scrambled to her feet, bent down and tugged on Antoni’s arm. “Come. Come, Dimas. Now.”

  He was a dead weight. “A moment,” he whispered.

  “No. Now, Dimas!”

  No answer. Then, after a long moment of silence, he murmured, “Fascinating...!”

  She glanced at Rob, who was already on his feet, a hand under his cloak. The wind lifted the edges of it, revealing the hilt of a sword. The way he rested his hand on it told her he knew how to use it.

  Capable, indeed. Nayara had a knack for measuring the talents of men and finding unexpected uses for those talents.

  Ophelia tugged on Antoni’s arm again, putting her body weight into it. He barely moved. He was shorter than her, but outweighed her.

  “A moment more,” he said absently.

  Rob exhaled with an impatient sound, bent and picked up the man by simply grasping the back of his shirt and hauling. Antoni gave a little shriek and dropped the binoculars, which Ophelia caught and tucked into the pouch on her hip. “You got your photos?” she asked Antoni.

  “Yes!” He was almost dangling from Rob’s grip, his face red as his hiked-up shirt pressed into his throat.

  “Time to go,” Rob said, glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll take your professor back and come back for you. I have the marker now.” He looked around, memorizing the details. “Head for that point, there.”

  She spotted the headland jutting
into the ocean about a mile south of where they stood. “Hurry back, Rob,” she told him.

  He wrapped his arms around Antoni. “I will,” he assured her and was gone.

  She gathered her long skirt up in one hand so she could move more quickly and headed south along the coastline. The skin between her shoulder blades prickled hard as she ran. The Vikings didn’t have guns, but she had seen them throw axes and spears with terrifying efficiency. The thought let her run harder than she ever had in her life.

  She was seen before she reached the point. A shout went up in the Northman language and held a triumphant note. She spared a glance over her shoulder and saw that three of them had broken away from the main body of warriors running inland. The three were heading in her direction. They were giving chase.

  She tried to run faster, but fear was stealing her of energy-giving oxygen and her pace slowed. Fright blossomed ever larger in her chest and she realized she was gasping. She could hear their boots behind her now. The Northmen were fresh, rested from days in the longboats and eager for sport.

  The headland was rockier than the shore and her footing became less certain. She could break an ankle in this stuff, but could not afford to slow even more.

  More shouts behind her, this time with an outraged note. She risked another glance over her shoulder and saw Rob running toward her. He was coming from a sharper angle than the Northmen. He was heading from inland, while they followed the shore. But it would be a race to see who reached her first. The Northmen could see that for themselves and it would spur them on.

  She knew what she had to do. Trying to ignore the hysterical sobbing building in her mind she made herself do the counter-intuitive thing. She turned and headed towards Rob, which also brought her closer to the Northmen.

  He had his sword out already and put on a spurt of speed when he saw her change of direction. He was glancing at the closing Northmen, measuring distances. Even though he was sprinting and carrying a broadsword that looked to weigh at least ten pounds, his expression was one of focused, fierce calculation.