WINGS ONCE CURSED & BOUND

A vampire teams up with a woman who is unsure of the exact nature of her own supernatural abilities.

Bennett Andrews is an old and powerful vampire. He works for a dragon who finances and oversees the Darke Consortium, whose purpose is to research and recover magical items that might pose a danger to humans. Bennett is on the hunt for a pair of cursed red shoes, which, once donned, will force the wearer to dance until they die. He finds the shoes on the feet of a beautiful and mysterious ballerina in Seattle. When the shoes arrived at rehearsal, Peeraphan Rahttana felt them calling to her and could not resist wearing them, only to discover they couldn’t be removed. Bennett realizes that the shoes don’t have the same power over Peeraphan that they do over other humans. She confesses that she might be a descendant of the kinnaree, a Thai bird princess. The kinnaree are magical creatures who lived in the Himmapan, the hidden mystical forests and mountains of Thailand. What she doesn’t know is how she inherited their powers, including a pair of gorgeous swanlike wings, and how to control or use the magical talents she might have. Bennett is determined to teach Peeraphan what she needs to survive and understand the supernatural world she has entered. Their sweet, courtly romance evolves on their quest to save her from the shoes’ curse. This is the first book in a new fantasy series by Drake, with a rich marriage of Thai-inspired mythology and more common paranormal creatures such as vampires and werewolves. The worldbuilding slows the book down but will likely pay off in future installments of the series.

An engaging new fantasy series introduces supernatural creatures from Thai mythology and culture.