Behind the Story: BloodHunter by Vonna Harper
Story: Looking into the eyes of a magnificent jaguar stirs something in photographer Dana Mallon’s heart and heats the jaguar tattoo on her hip. The longer she studies the magnificent beast sentenced to a life within a wildlife preserve, the greater the sense that forces beyond her comprehension are at work. In her mind—only in her mind—the predator becomes a fierce naked man. Instead of fleeing his blatant sexuality, she walks toward him, her body afire and mind spinning.
Then the Aztec warrior Nacon pulls her against his body and everything she has always believed about herself and her existence shifts. A lifetime of loneliness and searching begins to fade beneath the power of their sexual union, but Nacon needs more from her than just her body. Freed from centuries spent in limbo, Nacon is determined to learn why this woman is responsible. There’s only one way to learn the truth, by having her travel into the past with him—and forcing her to embrace the incomprehensible.
But does she have the courage?
Inspiration: Coming up with story ideas is always an adventure. Sometimes they jump into my mind without my having anything to do with it. Other times, like with BloodHunter, a little priming of the pump is necessary. The process began when I grabbed a book about the Aztecs from my personal library. A fascinating people! Complex and intelligent, yet fatally flawed. The more I read, the more convinced I became that I wanted to explore their culture in an erotic story. And when I learned that a warrior group known as the Jaguar Society opposed the Aztec bloody sacrifices, the light bulb went off. And because I didn’t want to bury myself in research about that time in history, I pulled my hero into the present day as a time traveler for much of the story. To create the link between hero and heroine, I placed her roots in Aztec times, something wildlife photographer Diana Mallon didn’t know until Nacon steps into her world, first as a jaguar, then as a hunky sexy man.
I write erotica for Kensington’s Aphrodisia line, Ellora’s Cave, and Loose ID, but I aimed BloodHunter for Samhain because owner/publisher Crissy Brashear and I roomed together in Germany, and I really wanted to work with her.
