Thursday, July 30, 2015

Announcement: Tease to Please ~ 50 Acclaimed NYT, Usa Today & Amazon Bestselling Author's Excerpts ~ Coming In August!


LOOK EVERYONE! I'M ONE OF THE FIFTY!  :) 


Tease to Please
EXTRAORDINARY AUTHOR EXCERPTS
from 
50
NYT, USA Today & Amazon
Bestselling
Authors


Releasing August 2015
***FREE***
to
All Our Fans


This book is dedicated to all our loyal fans and readers who give our work purpose…….and it will be our dirty little secret…

Naughty is as naughty does. And if there is any virtue seeking its own reward, it will not be found here. What will be found is a collection of awesome author excerpts, a box of saucy, delectable samples, a tasty bounty of tantalizing teasers. And there is no reward quite like self-indulgence; virtue be damned.

This catalog of excerpts from bestselling wonderful writers with their acclaimed and award winning novels is offered to our fans as a small token of our appreciation for your loyal support and unfaltering encouragement. It is a free download. While we are at it, permit us to introduce you to some of our long standing salacious author friends, who we feel are equally deserving of your prurient partnership and support.
© Muffy Wilson

Contributing Award Winning Authors

Christina Mandara          Dariel Raye                       Muffy Wilson               Siobhan Daiko
Erzabet Bishop              Airicka Phoenix                 Lucy Felthouse            Travis Luedke
Gale Stanley                  Bernard Foong                   Chloe Thurlow            Kiki Howell
Jaye Peaches                Chantel Rhondeau              LaVerne Thompson      Pablo Michaels
Kayla Stonor                  Charity Parkerson              Leonore Elliott            Kd Grace
Cora Blu                        Lola St Vil                         A.K. Michaels
Normandie Alleman        P.T. Macias                       Paige Matthews
Jake Malden                  Marissa Farrar                    Mary J Mccoy-Dressel
AR Von                          Jacqueline George            Athena Marie 
Jacintha Topaz              Blak Rayne                        Tabitha Rayne
Jordan K. Rose              Debra Andrews                  Scarlett Flame
Carole Gill                    Ashen White                      Kim Carmichael
Lily Harlem                   Ju Ephraime                      Teresa Noelle Roberts
Arla Dahl                      Sky Purington                     Jade West
Shyla Colt                    Natasha Knight                    Heather Cole


Coming in August
...wait for it...


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Monday, July 27, 2015

A Father's Revenge!



From Eco's journal, recounting his friend Imtep's revenge on the prince that killed his daughter. 

"There was more to do in order for Imtep to have the revenge he wished.

We were soon bound for the palace. Imtep wasn’t sure whether Ankata should accompany us, but she wished it.

At last we saw it, the great palace of Memphis—a great and glittering structure of gleaming walls and towers.

It looked impenetrable but Imtep motioned us. “We will approach from beneath. There are tunnels there, disused for a long time. It is from there that we will gain access!”

The tunnels were low ceilinged and we had to rush along hunched over. At last we paused at the foot of some stairs. “We must go up there. That is where the monster sleeps,” Imtep whispered.

I was incredulous. “But there are guards all around; you don’t wish to create a commotion, do you?”
Imtep smiled and told me of the oldest trick he knew. That which he called the dreamless sleep. “They will sleep and see nothing,” he whispered. “Watch.”

He muttered some incantation and there before my eyes each soldier slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Ankata began to tremble. Her father explained why.

“Her eyes behold the place of her shame and her heinous murder. Calm yourself my daughter—for it is under a different sort of wind you do now revisit the place.”

***



There is history and horror combined to weave a tale of vampires and human evil. Revenge, murder and passion abound in Unholy Testament - The Beginnings. Book 2 in The Blackstone Vampires Series.

***

'92 Horror authors you need to read right now'
Carole Gill -- the Blackstone Vampires series
~Charlotte Books EXAMINER


$2.99

AMAZON 

OR

BUY COMPLETE SERIES FOR 

$3.99!




AMAZON



Saturday, July 25, 2015

FUN WITH MAD EMPEROR, CALIGULA! DEMON ECO'S BUDDY!




DURING 99CENTS PROMO!
More confessions from a demon
From Eco's Journal:

I asked him how the brothel was. His face lit up. “It is better than ever. Busier than ever, too. The old man is on his way out, Eco.”
He meant of course Tiberius.

“Yes.” He went on. “We’re all bored with him. But I must tell you what I have discovered! He has the most amazing nephew; actually, he is his adopted grandson. This fellow is a handsome rascal and as wild as they come. You should see what he gets up to! If anyone was a natural for a vampire, it is he!”

I was intrigued and asked to meet this young man. “What do they call him?”

“Caligula,” Pulinius replied.
*
My coven was delighted to see me and greeted me warmly, stripping down and doing all sorts of things to beguile me to bed them—which of course I did, and I did it without feeling guilty about Ankata. Besides, Ankata had been a lusty wench sharing herself with all of them, whatever their sex.

I bedded several of the wenches at once with Pulinius joining in. Actually, he not only joined in with them, he coupled with the beautiful young male vampires we had as well, allowing them to feed upon him wherever they liked.

Pulinius was a daring character for he never cared how much blood he lost through his varied and sometimes surprising sexual machinations. It was surprising it hadn’t killed him.

I did meet Caligula and he was even wilder than I had imagined. He was a voracious sexual beast, a human with an appetite for sex and degradation that was unsurpassed.

I agreed that if ever there was a natural for vampiric creation, it was he. He was there almost every day, cavorting and having the time of his life. But when he wasn’t there, some days went by and Pulinius commented that Caligula must be up to something.

He was, for suddenly Tiberius was dead. Almost immediately after, Caligula summoned us to the palace to tell us exactly which poison he had used.

“You should have seen it! It was so fantastic! In a moment, poof! My problem was gone!”

It most certainly was and he saw to it, for he was now what he wanted to be—Emperor of Rome, an all-powerful ruler who intended to carry on with his debauched lifestyle.

We did our part. We began to supply him with wenches but he still came to the brothel as well. He liked to get out and about, he said.

His antics were wild and became increasingly wilder as the years passed. Eventually, he made his palace into a giant brothel.

I liked him so much, I happened to tell him of my parentage. You see, I planned to create him. Well, it was something he wished and I thought he deserved the honor.

And so, to prepare him I told him of the war in Heaven. It meant nothing to him; however, he did understand the concept of being a god.

“You are a god!” he shouted. “I am one too, you know.”

I tried to look suitably impressed but really, it only confirmed what I thought—Caligula was suffering from madness even greater than my own!

Well, it takes one to know one.

“I tell you what!" I said. "As a God, you will be able to outdo me with one hand tied behind your back! How does that sound?"

He looked thrilled. “I know! I will command the senator's wives to participate in a sexual contest! They would never dare to refuse me and to make it even more fun, we will have this performed in front of the entire Senate!"

I was incredulous but tried not to show it.

So it happened, and it was great fun. I think, though, it rather hurried his assassination along for almost immediately after it, the young man was done away with. His elite Palatine Guard had been bribed, paid handsomely to assassinate him.

Sadly, this occurred before I created him. You see, despite ‘being a god,’ he did wish to be a vampire. We had arranged for the creation but our plans went awry and he was done to death as they say. 

I didn’t see it myself, but I heard about it.

“Even as he was run through with the sword, he was shocked he wasn’t a god. ‘I die,’ he said. And so he did.”




99 CENTS! 

Rose and her children find themselves held captive on a ship staffed by vampires, overseen by the mad and evil demon Eco. Believing he has fallen in love with Rose, Eco pens a confession documenting all sins he has committed during his immortal existence.

From Ancient Egyptian vampire cults, Roman vampire brothels, The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Black Death of 1348, on to his meeting with the child murderer and satanist Gilles de Rais, and concluding with his wicked, blood-soaked affair with the Blood Countess herself, Erzebat Bathory. The pages are filled with debauchery, vice and murder –!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

ANIMALS CREATED BY SORCERY!


Yes, sorcery! I just want to clear that up. This is not a book about a normal circus, okay? Every single animal depicted in this lunatic novel is created by sorcery! They're not real, never were.

Also, there are monsters masquerading as humans too.

Here's a scene about the carousel horses that kill:



"In front of him were carousel horses with children on them. Painted horses galloping around the place; carousel horses that weren’t on the carousel!

“They come and go like that. The kids love it,” she said. “It’s like magic for them.”

But it wasn’t like magic. They didn’t love it at all because they were shouting for their parents to save them. The only ones that didn’t shout were those that fell under the hoofs. And the reason they couldn’t shout was because the horses were killing them..."



"Riveting. Imaginative. Chilling. Fantastical."

"Wonderful horror with a side order of ribs."

"Never going to the circus again!"

"True horror!"

"The circus you really don't want to join!"



Friday, July 17, 2015

FRED GOT USED TO THE SUCCUBUS!



Excerpt: From Circus of Horrors

"They didn’t speak much; in fact, that was the only conversation they had other than what Lucy said she wanted him to do to her. He obeyed happily. And when he was finished, she said, “Now, relax…” And he complied, as she did all the work.

Both offered proclamations of undying love—sweet and moving. And it helped; boy, did it ever.

He kissed her long and hard. “I love you, Lucy… I always will.”

They kissed again and he left.

He had no idea Dorinda had come out from under the bed, nor did he know she was his regular succubus. Both Dorinda and Lucy giggled about it, that and the special drink Fred had taken..."

Then they kissed. In a moment, they were doing it too—whatever they could do as women. Then, when they both began to change into men and after that, into various animals, they continued to copulate however such creatures were wont to do.

The last transformation occurred when Lucy turned into a great winged creature and flew outside with Dorinda accompanying her..."







Thursday, July 16, 2015

A Mad, Incestuous Father Letting in Evil





The House on Blackstone Moor has both supernatural AND human evil. We should never underestimate human evil nor ignore the terror it leaves in its wake. History if nothing else has taught us that.

My heroine comes home to find her father has murdered her mother and siblings. That’s the start of the novel. How she reacts and what happens is at the core of the story.

A sin like abuse committed on a child has dire consequences—that is true in this novel and in life in general. Rose feels that her father ‘let evil in’. She asks this throughout the story. There is an answer forthcoming and it’s shocking.

The setting and time of the story doesn't help Rose Baines cope with this as it's set in 19th Century England. I venture to say there were no support groups. She coped as best she could.

The themes in this book are far darker than in most paranormal romances. I wanted this so because I wanted to incorporate real horror into the storyline.

We can read or watch films that have terrifying supernatural elements to them: vampires, werewolves and the like—but there is comfort in the fact that it's myth, and that’s all. I enjoy removing the comfort aspect, because without that comfort zone--we get real horror.

Rose’s father is neither a vampire nor a werewolf. He is a very real character in a realistic situation. He abused his position of trust in the most diabolical way.

Monsters among us have always intrigued me. Beasts that dwell all around have fascinated me for years. I guess that has shaped my writing.

I have incorporated the themes of good and evil among my mythical creatures as well. There are (as quoted in a previous blog post) ‘heroes even among the fallen.’

A creature that is damned can have more redeeming features than one considered to be human who has sinned in my estimation. I find this interesting to consider and well, I might as well tell you I am working on my next novel which does this sort of thing.

Although differently themed, there are those human beings who will be seen to be at least as evil as some that are damned. Horror is horror in my opinion real or not.

This is book 1 of The Blackstone Vampires Series. Each book in the Series is priced at $2.99 singly.




ALL FOUR NOVELS IN THE SERIES (COMPLETE IS PRICED AT $3.99



2014 - Amazon Bestseller in Dark Fantasy - THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES OMNIBUS
2015 - Amazon Bestseller in Vampire Horror - THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES OMNIBUS

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Love and the Vampire


They're complex beings as I see them with complex emotions. In my fiction I depict them as remembering love. Their memories are everything to them. And because they have no souls, they fill that void with memories of love.

Of course they all differ as all beings do. I picture many of them filled with regret. In fact, they are often motivated by lust, remembering love which they no longer feel and regretting it.

And what of vampires and humans? Well, I've explored that also in my fiction. I've even had a vampire destroyer unable to kill the beautiful bride of Dracula. This is in The Fourth Bride. He raises the stake but cannot bring it down to destroy her. How conflicted is that?

And really when you consider it, vampires are nearly immortal. They can exist for several human lifetimes or more. How do they manage their memories?

I want readers to feel what it's like to be a vampire. To feel it so that they know. I want that because I guess you could say, I'm trying to be their voice.


THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES SERIES 
BOX SET ALL FOUR NOVELS $4.99!




2014 - Amazon Bestseller in Dark Fantasy - THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES OMNIBUS
2015 - Amazon Bestseller in Vampire Horror - THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES OMNIBUS

Sunday, July 12, 2015

CHILDREN WISHING TO DIE? BUT NOW THEY WERE GROWN...


Excerpt from The Occupants of Heathstone House
CAROLE GILL'S HOUSE OF HORRORS

"Then at last I saw a turret rising above the bleak woods. “We are nearly there!” I cried. We were for we were already in sight of the house and so near to the sad occupants within. 

Heathstone House was now coming fully into sight--Heathstone with the last two of its accursed line, the brother and sister Jeremiah and Christine, former playmates of mine. Well perhaps that is not the right term, for I was not really a child but only childlike.

None of us can help what we are, and I could not, though I wished I could. Still it was enough for me to play with them and visit them undetected. They called me their secret playmate and I was, comforting them as much as I could for no one else did. It was the children’s desire to die which brought me to that lonely nursery all those years ago.

“Please take us,” they begged.

“But you are children,” I answered. “Children should not wish to die!”


¬*¬ 

EDITORIAL REVIEW:

“I fear we too are dying, for we live with madness.” The nightmarishly beautiful prose is but one reason to venture into the unnerving catacombs of House of Horrors, an anthology of short genre excursions by the indomitable Carole Gill. 

From a storm-shrouded lighthouse to the foggy realms of haunted forests and even a jaunt through Whitechapel, Carole Gill lulls you into her Gothic web, masterfully weaving for you a series of nightmarish tales to unease your dreary nights. She is the contemporary incarnation of the storyteller at the fire, and we gather in the light of the flickering flame wide-eyed and eager to listen.

Joshua Skye
DARK MEDIA 

Horror shorts in the footsteps of Edgar Allan Poe

C. Gaydas

Friday, July 10, 2015

EXCERPT: Love Among the Dead


"The dead dance or didn’t you know that? It only takes a pied piper to raise them up; a flutist and skilled necromancer whose music haunts them, for the dead can be haunted too.

“Come my children, come and dance once more for I shall play you a tune.”

He loves to see them rise from their graves, those grassy mounds, grown back whole in between his visits and his music.

Here lies Jonathan, Mary, William…

But not tonight! No! Tonight the earth shudders and splits apart just as the first notes are played.

Tombstones tremble as the ground opens up and the dead return..."




"There is no doubt that she soars above the endless parade of independent horror authors to shine as a true star in the darkness. With the brilliant anthology House of Horrors she proves why she is a perennial favorite. To put it simply, this is a great assembly of tales anyone would be proud to have in their collection"

~Joshua Skye
DARK MEDIA

Thursday, July 9, 2015

KNOW WHAT THIS IS? IT'S BEEN MY INSPIRATION!



I’ve seen it many times. I don’t live far from it. It’s on desolate moorland. It seems to be hiding away from the world, like something cast out. Even in summer it can look grim there. The only real color is the purple heather that carpets the moors; that’s in spring, by autumn, the heather is brown and wild, driving rain and howling wind is quite common.

A great writer was inspired by the place or so they say. She and her sisters didn’t live far. They walked on these moors quite often; Charlotte and Anne–and Emily with her favorite dog, Keeper. Perhaps she paused to look at the ruins there, for there were ruins at that time.

Legend has it that Top Withens (pictured) inspired Wuthering Heights. No one can agree whether or not that is true. I like to think that it is. I can easily picture Emily standing there and dreaming of the house that would be known as Wuthering Heights.

My inspiration for my first novel, the first in The Blackstone Vampires Series, The House on Blackstone Moor, was inspired by those same moors. Perhaps not by those ruins, though–those I shall leave for Miss Bronte for I would never claim them. The moorland is something else. As I did picture a grand looking house built upon them. A house completely out of place on such grim and lonely moorland. When I peopled that house, I began to write my novel.

If you come to England, please visit West Yorkshire and the village of Haworth. You will find the Bronte Parsonage there. The house is alive with their presence.

Be sure to walk down the old streets toward the moor. Close your eyes and perhaps you will feel yourself being led to Top Withens. Is that a dog barking near you? And that woman–is she really there? Could it be Emily with Keeper, or is it just your imagination? Who can say? If there are spirits about the place, perhaps you will find Cathy and Heathcliff as well. I am certain they are all there and always will be.


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

LOVE ON THE DARK SIDE! AND SOME BOOK NEWS!


Hey! Very excited today because I changed the title of my blog. It had been The Dark Writing of Carole Gill. Now it's Carole Gill's Love on the Dark Side. The inspiration for the change comes from the promotion for
The Voracious Vixens! 13 novels for 99cents!



My novel, Justine: Into the Blood is one of the 13 novels in the boxed set. The promo tour is going very well and I'm excited!



I do write dark horror but I realized I have a four-novel series out that is darkest Gothic Romance. The Blackstone Vampires Series is darker than well, hell. Any series that begins with the heroine finding her mad, incestuous father has killed himself and wiped out her family at the same time, is pretty dark! There is love waiting for Rose Baines, but it comes at a terrible price.
A lot goes on in this book. There is one hell of a fight between demons! How's that for different?

You will meet the demon, Eco in this book who is villainous, but interesting! You will also glimpse some of the madness and debauchery of Eve Darton, Mistress of Blackstone House.

Continuing on to Book 2, Unholy Testament - The Beginnings. We now have demon Eco saying he is in love with Rose. There are confessions, one of which is of a blood-soaked affair with Erzsebat Bathory, The Blood Countess, herself--among other things.

Book 3 Unholy Testament - Full Circle opens with Eco meeting Eve Darton for the first time. Their twisted obsession for one another is revealed as are all the secrets of Blackstone House. Around all that are vampires being vampires--which includes feeding, lust galore, along with (you guessed it) some more debauchery!

Well, it's a series that has vampires as I have always envisioned them. They are capable of complex emotions, but they are in the last analysis. vampires!

Dracula and his brides appear in Book 4. The Fourth Bride is the most erotic of the 4 book series by the way.

LOVE ON THE DARK SIDE, RIGHT? YES!

Justine: Into the Blood, Book 1 in the Blood and Passion series is the most romantic of my vampire novels There's plenty of sex too. I'd say Justine is dark paranormal romance. I am so proud her story is one of the novels in Voracious Vixens!

SOME BOOK NEWS:




I, Bathory-Queen of Blood is a novel about Erzsebat Bathory, the Blood Countess. I have read a number of non-ficiton books and novels about her and find that she is watered down in novels. I am not writing her that way. You'll be able to see for yourself in a few months.

She's Bathory, murderous and fired up with rage as she always was but she is also capable of great passionate affairs and is highly sexed.

There's more to tell, but you'll have to wait for another blog post. I hope you don't mind.





Saturday, July 4, 2015

FIRST CHAPTERS OF ALL FOUR NOVELS IN THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES SERIES!




BOOK ONE - THE HOUSE ON BLACKSTONE MOOR



After discovering her savagely murdered family, Rose Baines is plunged into a nightmare of hell. She is incarcerated in two madhouses, after which she is helped to obtain a position as governess at Blackstone House. Located on haunted moorland, nothing is as it seems for the House and its inhabitants have hideous secrets. There is unimaginable horror there, and love too--love that comes at a terrible price.

Chapter 1
They say my father was mad, so corrupted by evil and tainted with sin that he did what he did. I came home to find them all dead; their throats had been savagely cut.
My sisters, only five and eight, were gone, as well as my brother who was twelve. My mother too lay butchered in her marriage bed. The bed her children were born in.
I discovered him first—in the sitting room lying in a sea of crimson, the bloody razor still clutched in his hand.
How pitiful I must have looked, bent down trying to wake him. Calling to him over and over, “Papa please, please wake up!”
He could not, of course, waken. No more was he to open his eyes in this world—had I not been struck mad, I would have realized.
Yet, madness is sometimes a mercy when shadows come to take the horror away.
Do not pull away in terror, please. I have much to confess. Just be patient, for I promise I will tell you everything. The only thing I ask in return is for you not to judge me until you hear my entire story.
If I recall that dreadful night, I remember it in confusing images and noise. People came and went. Gentle hands touched me, trying to soothe away the shock and agony—voices too, hushed and sad, told me things I could not understand.
“Go away.”
I probably said that, though I can’t be sure. Lucidity was not my strong point that night. I do recall someone carrying me out of the house to a neighbor’s house.
We lived in Notting Hill then, having moved from Mayfair after my father’s illness—more about that later.
The house was on Blenheim Crescent, a respectable house in a respectable neighborhood. Despite this, the grander environs of Mayfair were much remembered and longed for by my mother especially. My mother, who now lay caked in blood in her disliked rooms of Notting Hill.
“You remember me, don’t you Rose? It’s Dr. Arliss.”
Dr. Arliss? Our physician. Was he there?
“I am sorry Rose, but you must go with them.”
People can’t be left around screaming, you understand.
I was silenced by strong hands. “Come along, miss. That’s better.”
I hadn’t the sense to ask where I was being taken. All I can remember is being removed from my neighbor’s home.
I couldn’t very well stay in my own home surrounded by the blood-splattered corpses of my murdered family, now could I?
They half dragged me down the stairs and out into an icy rain.
“Just get her in...”
A woman reached for me. I did catch sight of her face; she looked serious but not unkind. “Come along now, dear.”
Dear, that was nice. I do believe I thanked her. Well, I wasn’t right in my head was I?
“Where are you taking me?”
So polite, a soft refined voice heard at church socials. But not me. Churches and I never mixed. Of course, I would regret that.
“Harry, go get the restraints!”
Restraints? It doesn’t affect me but that’s because it’s nothing to me. I’m not really there, you see. Well, not all of the time.
I must explain something. These first hours following the carnage were a blur to me, really. I have only understood things over time. But that is better as I can tell you my story more clearly.
I dozed, I think. Well, there was a pinch on my arm earlier and Dr. Arliss telling me he was giving me something to relax me.
The wagon moved—clip clop down the streets for an indeterminable time, but then it stopped. A door opened and other arms reached for me.
“That’s right, love, all out!”
They were taking me into a building of some sort. “What is this place?”
I’m not sure if I asked that question, if I was able to. But if I was, I know I didn’t receive an answer.
Someone had me under the arm, one of the men from the wagon. “It’s alright.”
Why was everyone telling me it was alright when it was the worst time of my life?
We stepped inside a vestibule. A woman looked up from a high desk, not at me but at the man who was still holding my arms. “Name?”
He took out a piece of paper, glanced at it and said, “Rose Baines 22 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill.”
“Oh! A lady are we, dear?” I start to answer but her words drowned me out. “Right, put her in with the rest of them.”
This was when I started to feel fearful. The rest of them? That didn’t sound nice. I needed help—had I been arrested? They didn’t think I did it, did they?
I started to struggle, which was the worst thing I could have done.
“Now stop that at once!”
I cried out. “I am innocent please help me!”
They dragged me away then. And as they did, I got a whiff of ether and disinfectant.
Was I in a hospital? Maybe that was good. It was better than being in a prison!
But why, if it wasn’t a prison, did I see a massive gate just ahead, in the very direction we were heading for?
And then, a surly face, along with clanging keys and the sound of locks being opened, completed the scene.
“In here.”
It was a smallish room, more like a cage than a room—far too small for all of the sad humanity that populated it. A sea of the most miserable and pathetic faces greeted me. Some held their sides and rocked back and forth, others slept or cried. One or two were crouched against the scummy walls, muttering to themselves.
The realization hit me. They thought me insane!
I cried out but no one came. “Please, someone!”
The pathetic creatures I found myself with began to repeat my cries. They didn’t do it to mock me I’m certain, but it was horrible anyway.
At last I was quiet. I couldn’t stand their shrieking and if that wasn’t bad enough, some of them were filthy and smelled of the street and the gutter.
I was there for a long time I think, crying quietly and dozing, too. An attendant came around a few times, mostly to look in at us and saunter away, immune to our protestations or questions, mine included.
I did finally sleep deeply. I don’t know for how long; all I know is that there was the unmistakable sound of jangling keys and the realization that the door had been opened.
I picked my head up off of the filthy bench to see who had come in. It was a gentleman, that was obvious. He looked over each of us. A burly man accompanied him. They kept whispering to one another.
When he got to me, he raised the torch into my face. I put my arm up for the light was blinding.
“No dear,” he said gently, moving my arm down. “I just want to see your face.”
I almost asked him why. I think now, looking back on it, I should have—things might have been different if I had.
As he was holding the torch aloft, I could just make out his even features. His expression was kindly. “I am Dr. Bannion and I’d like to talk to you.”
*
I was unwell, confused in my mind, yet there are moments I remember well and this was one of them.
Before he led me out he spoke to the attendant. I am sure that was to ascertain whether she thought I’d be violent. Just to be on the safe side, she went along, her arms at her side but ready to go into action at any time.
Most of these attendants were big-boned and tall, and could have easily been taken for men.
“In here, please.”
It was a small room with a bench and some cabinets. It was filled with medicine bottles and books and things.
I sat on a bench alongside the attendant with the doctor facing us.
He began at once. “Now then! Would you prefer to be called by your surname or your Christian name?”
How singularly unimportant that was in the scheme of things. But I didn’t realize it then, I am certain I said I preferred to be called Rose.
He looked pleased when I spoke. “Well now, do you feel able to answer some questions, Rose?”
I quite liked his manner, as ill as I was—and I was very ill and confused a great deal of the time. But, I did like him because he sounded kind and caring. And because he did, I wished to answer all his queries. “I shall try.”
“Yes, that is all one can ever expect is to try.”
I noticed then that he nodded toward the attendant to take that as a sign for her departure. I was delighted.
“What can you tell me, Rose? You were away for the weekend, weren’t you?”
“Yes I was.” I hadn’t remembered that until he reminded me. “I was at my aunt’s.”
He was speaking to me and jotting notes down, too. I think I expected that.
“Your aunt is ill.”
“Yes, she is dying.” Suddenly, I remembered my mother telling me to go and I got choked up and found it impossible to go on. “Please, sir.”
He reached over and touched my arm gently as a friend would. I found the gesture reassuring and I smiled. “It is so hard.”
That, as they say, was the last straw for suddenly I collapsed in a paroxysm of tears and sobs. I was quite wild and unmanageable.
The attendant reappeared.
“Rose, I am giving you something. It will help to relax you.”
Everything became a pleasant blur but I did hear Dr. Bannion’s voice say, “I shall remove her to Marsh where she can get the best care.”
*
He told me Marsh was a place where I could rest, where he’d help me get better. “You’ll see, Rose. It’s in the country in a lovely location. I run it and I am certain you will benefit greatly.”
I had questions I wished to ask him but since I didn’t feel as though he wished me to ask him anything, I didn’t.
I wonder still what he would have said if I had.
“We shall take the train. Huddersfield is a long way from London.”
“In Yorkshire, sir?”
“Yes, the West Riding and it’s quite beautiful there.”
I remember bits and pieces of this day. I remember smelling the rain and him helping me into the carriage.
“Kings Cross, please!”
The cab jerked forward to oblige.
“It won’t be long now.”
I had so many questions but not the sense or ability to ask them, for he had given me another injection before we left.
“Yes that’s right, you close your eyes.”
In and out, sleeping one minute and awake the next.
The cab stopped and we were there—Kings Cross.
He had already explained that we would have to change trains a few times. “Don’t worry, I shall take care of everything.”
How comforting that was to hear. I began to trust him and to rely on him then.
As for the trip itself, I can only recall it as a muddle of steam and groaning metal, of sharp whistles too, so loud I covered my ears.
“That’s alright, Rose.”
The calming voice, again. I smiled for I was comforted.
I slept most of the time, barely noticing being guided gently from one train to another, with his voice always soothing me: “Yes, just this way now. There you may sit down now, Rose.”
And then later as if I was a sleepwalker waking from a dream, I heard him say, “You really have slept most of the way, we should be arriving fairly soon.”
He looked pleased and because he did I felt pleased, too. “Truly, I never meant to sleep so much.”
The train screeched to a stop and we disembarked like two weary travelers nearing the end of an expedition. And perhaps it was, as it was a quest to get better… or so I thought.
I was not prepared for the tumult. I cringed at the hustle and bustle of so many people rushing this way and that.
But he calmly ushered me along. “Just this way, Rose, you’re doing splendidly.”
I was proud and felt my spirits soar.
A line of cabs and a cab man called out. “Any place. Fair rates!”
“Marsh, please.”
A startled look from said cabbie. “Marsh, sir? The town or--!”
“The asylum, if you please.”
“Rightie oh, sir!”
Asylum? A madhouse? Why hadn’t I asked, why hadn’t I known? But what difference could it have possibly made?
“There it is, Rose.” he nodded, looking at me encouragingly.
I looked out to see a forbidding place with granite walls and towering gates, implacable barriers to be reckoned with and the words strung across the archway:
MARSH LUNATIC ASYLUM.
I had come home, at least for now.


BOOK TWO - UNHOLY TESTAMENT - THE BEGINNINGS 


Eco, first seen in the previous book, has documented all of the sins he has committed during the course of his immortal life. Trying to get Rose to forgive him, he forces Rose to read his journal by holding her children hostage.


CHAPTER 1
I am what I am for I have become a creature of the blood; a being who dwells in the world of the undead and always shall.
He knew I would make the choice to save the children who are also creatures of the blood. He knew it for he had orchestrated it, like the maestro that he is, Eco an immortal like my own beloved; both of them born of fallen angels and human women. But whereas Louis is good, Eco carries the seeds of Hell within him—Eco our worst enemy; Eco the destroyer of our friends, the fiend who had ravished me and would have married me in Hell, before Satan himself; Eco who haunts my dreams and always shall.
He had staked the children, my children now for it is my blood that flows within them. In order to save them I opened my own veins that they should drink.
“Drink, my loves, for it is the only gift I have for you.”
I gave up my living life for them and gladly, too. But because of my act I saw the flames of Hell and felt Hell’s horrific heat.
Yet, Hell left no mark on me. I passed through it and was raised. The one who loved me drew me forth. No demon touched me, although they tried. Hordes upon hordes of them reached out to pull me back, back into their master’s domain.
Yet just as they reached for me, I felt myself snatched away. They shouted in rage as I was pulled still further and further away.
And then, I heard a voice, a voice I knew. A voice, it seemed, my heart always dreamt of.
“Rose, I command you to rise from death for death shall not claim you!”
His voice called to me, summoning me forth—the voice of my love, my Louis.
And then, like a baby being born, I emerged into the bright light. I know now it was sunlight. Someone touched my hand. It was Simon. My child now for I had perished giving him my own life force.
And so I was reborn. My transformation was all embracing. All secrets were revealed as the truth of all worlds was shown me. Every question I ever had about God or heaven or humanity was revealed.
I knew God was good and people were supposed to do with their lives the most that they could. I knew about damnation and loyalty to Heaven so that I better understood exile from that kingdom of light. Though undead, I still did know what truth was.
I understood that to be separate from God for whatever purpose was not to be desired, yet one great and fundamental truth was this—that evil exists because good exists. It is the great balance to everything.
And so I left one world to enter another—the world of the undead, that place where I would dwell forever.
My senses were alive as they had never been before. I smelled the wildlife that called the moors their home; birds and rodents—and all manner of insects.
I heard sounds I had never heard. And it was all mine to share with those I loved.
How Louis wept.
And what of my undead children?
At least they had not seen their friends destroyed. At least they had been spared that.
Eco left us then for he had accomplished his purpose.
And so we took our friends’ mangled corpses—Dr. Antor and the sisters, Joan and Belle Lodge, and we burned them. Louis said the flames would cleanse their bodies of Eco’s vile touch and I was glad.
We left then. We left Blackstone Moor never to return.
So what of Blackstone House? Louis tore it apart as he would have liked to tear Eco asunder.
“Mama, where is the house?”
The children asked this and I answered: “It is no more. It is gone forever.”
And Louis nodded for it was true. Its sinister power would no longer haunt me.
I have survived much, Louis has always said so. I have survived madness and murder. The madness was in the guise of my lunatic father who stole my innocence over many years and then murdered himself and our family.
I did not emerge unscathed from such horror. No I did not. There were madhouses after that, two in fact.
And then there was Dr. Bannion, director of Marsh Asylum, a supposedly dedicated doctor, a doctor I trusted but one who was in league with Satan and who called Eco friend.
Yes, I have survived much.
*
The children were ill, though they both tried to hide it by pretending they weren’t. Still, Louis and I both knew they were weak; we could see it in their faces and in their dull eyes and their ashen skin.
The fever started within a day of our leaving Blackstone Moor. First Ada was struck down by it and then Simon.
“We will go to a doctor I know…” Louis’ words and I was relieved to hear them.
There was a coven in north Yorkshire. Louis knew the master; he had been a doctor in his living life. Now he tended his coven as their protector and friend.
Each one of Louis’ friends is like he is: selfless and kind, untainted by the forces of evil, although vampires vary as human beings do. There are good and bad; those riddled with sin or not.
He told me of his friend’s living life as we journeyed there.
“Edward was a good doctor, kindly and caring. He perished in the Great Fire. I tended him but he passed away. It was better for him too for his burns were terrible, his agony intolerable. Still, when I raised him he was free of the physical pain but not the pain of his new existence.”
Edward, another of the deserving undead.
I liked him right away. He reminded me of Louis but he was older looking, for he had been created in the winter of his living life.
His face was badly scarred, his ear disfigured. Those marks would be forever upon him; the signs of the fire which ended his life.
He welcomed us and embraced Louis.
“My friend, it has been too long.”
When his eyes fell upon me I had the feeling he knew. He took my hand and kissed it. “You are most welcome and all your kin.”
Then his eyes beheld Simon and Ada. He sobbed for he knew them and saw how weakened they were.
“They will recover,” he said. “But they need rest.”
He made them a poultice of wolfbane and herbs. The children hardly stirred and he smiled. “It is good they sleep, for it will speed the healing.”
The women of the coven were kindly too. They varied in age. That is, the time of their living lives when they were created varied. Some were elderly looking and others looked quite young.
There were sisters and a granny and children, too; children who had grown old before their time, ancient before their death and raising up.
Edward introduced them. “They are a family. They were and still are and always shall be.”
He would tell us later they had perished in a cholera outbreak.
“None of the factory owners did, just them. They like it here among the rugged dales and green hills, and it is here they shall dwell.”
This, their dwelling place, had been a farm. The outbuildings were still used as stables and there were chicken pens.
They were not regular imbibers of blood as we are not. Though when we sicken, and we do sometimes fall ill, all but Louis that is, we do require fresh blood.
“When the children wake,” he said. “They will take a broth. It is a mixture of herbs and animal blood. I am afraid it smells awful but it is what they need. I have given this to many who sicken.”
I was worried as vampires have been known to perish from disease and the effects of attacks.
“They were staked,” I said. “They nearly perished.”
“Eco,” Louis said.
The doctor nodded. “Yes, his name is a curse upon the lips of all vampires, and those who do not curse him are his servants in Hell.”
We were there for some time. The children were ill as the fever lingered. They were delirious too and that was the worst. They hadn’t spoken of their mother very much. But they did then. They spoke of Eve and of that terrible time when the vampire killers came and destroyed Louis’ coven.
Louis destroyed the killers. But if he killed them, Eve first destroyed herself. Poor Eve, she was truly her own worst enemy.
I tried to comfort the children for they were moaning and looked to be in great distress.
Edward said they could not hear me. “It is different than if a living person was delirious. They really do see those they knew, those other undead like themselves.”
I wondered then if they saw Eve wherever she existed. Edward was not surprised she had destroyed herself.
“Yes, poor Eve—there was a tortured being.”
I asked him if he thought the children might see her now, the way they were.
“They will only see her in shadow, in the shadowy realm she now inhabits.”
Louis said he had prophesied that Eve would bring about her own dark destiny upon herself and those she loved, and so she had, but she had only destroyed herself.
Days and weeks passed and I watched the children, relieved that the delirium passed and with it the fever.
“They have passed the crisis,” Edward said.
And they had. They looked better and stronger although I knew they would never be entirely right.
“They have been through so much. I don’t think they could have taken much more,” Louis murmured. Those words chilled my heart.
But it was truth and truth must always be acknowledged.
Louis looked tired and worried. If he wasn’t worried about the children, he was asking me if I felt alright.
I smiled as reassuringly as I could. I think he sensed my desire to go to Marsh, for I wished to put flowers down there for all those who had perished in the fire Bannion had set; my friend, Grace, among them.
If Eco was from Hell, Bannion was destined to burn there for he used his position for evil and for sin. But he was no more, and the evil that was within him was gone now, too, as he was.
I began to recall him. I hadn’t thought of him in the longest time but now I did. Bannion, my own personal demon; Bannion, the debauched and evil Bannion who turned his own madhouse into the flames of Hell.
Louis saw I was troubled for I could not hide it. “What is it, Rose?” he asked. I told him what was in my heart. I said the name of the place I swore I would try to forget: Marsh Asylum.
“Please, Louis, I should like to go there to see my friend’s grave… When the children are well might we please visit there?”
He tried to dissuade me, but when he saw he could not, he agreed. “Yes, Rose. If that is what you really want we shall go there. Though mind, I doubt if there are graves as such…”
As such. I understood what he meant. Grace had been an inmate in a lunatic asylum. As I was.
As I was…
That phrase has often gone though my head countless times. I had been there and she was my friend.
“We will go if you wish it Rose, so that you may honor your friend.”
I did wish it, for I had to speak to Grace one more time.

BOOK THREE - UNHOLY TESTAMENT - FULL CIRCLE 


Vampiric orgies and satanic rites fill the pages of this book. All of the hideous secrets of Blackstone House are revealed. Every evil that Rose Baines was subjected to is closely examined, as are those who committed the worst sins against her.

Chapter 1
 PART ONE ROSE
I must read the rest of Eco’s journal. I haven’t a choice. My children and I are held captive on a ship staffed by vampires, overseen by the demon, Eco—a monstrous being who calls Hell home and Satan friend. Eco, the walking embodiment of stinking corruption; enemy to man but friend to demons and undead creatures.
Eco, who has written an accounting of all of his sins committed during his existence. I am reading it now. But there is still more to read; how I shall get through it, I do not know.
He assures me has written it for me, that I might know of his great sins and forgive him—and if that is not horrible enough, he wishes me to love him. This beast from Hell wants my love!
Please, do not pull away in horror. I, too, inhabit the world of the undead as the children do. Yes, I admit it. I am a vampire raised from death, a creature of the blood. Yet I harm no one, nor do my children.
In living terms, I am younger than my little ones for my undead children lived centuries before I did—Ada and Simon perished during the witch hysteria that swept sixteenth century France.
Those days were filled with evil persecution, most of it perpetrated by people far more evil than those they singled out for slaughter.
The children were among the ones who were singled out. They died with their mother at the end of a rope before a screaming mob. Can you imagine anything as barbaric as hanging a mother and her children for witchcraft?
Still, they had escaped the flames that day. Of course, that was only because there was no more straw or wood. The populace was disappointed when the mayor announced that the ‘family of witches’ would be hanged instead of being burned. The crowd booed and threw whatever was at hand.
Louis told me this; even as he witnessed the horror, he knew what he would do. He was there watching, my beloved Louis, the righter of wrongs, the dark side’s one true saint-like being who endeavors to do less evil than himself.
That is what he is about. He seeks justice where there is none and life after death for those unjustly killed. So because the world is so unfair, Louis brings its victims back to life again the only way possible, as undead creatures.
But they have to pass through Hell before they are raised. Even as he calls them forth, Satan’s demons try to grab them, to populate Hell, for Satan can never have enough of the damned there.
They were indeed raised up. The woman, Eve, became his wife—wanton and evil and badly marked by Hell’s evil taint. That can happen. It did to her so that she returned different than she had been with every bad trait exaggerated.
The children did not return tainted. Ada and Simon were as sweet as they always had been. No demon came near; they were raised innocent and pure.
Louis saw what she was, but he married her still, for the children wanted their mother. And she had been, despite how she was transformed, a good and loving mother who became so self-hating that she sought her own destruction.
Yes, I was there in Blackstone House when it happened. She did it the time the vampire destroyers showed up by hurling herself onto a sharpened stake, happy to perish.
I thus became their mother, giving my life in order to save them. That makes them my children now!
Eco nearly destroyed them. He staked them and then watched the results of his act—results he had orchestrated.
Louis did not wish me to be undead, but I knew they needed my human blood and I gave it to them, my death paying the forfeit for my unselfish gesture.
Death claimed me. I died and passed through Hell. Hordes of demons came at me. I could feel the heat of Hell’s flames yet he called me forth, my beloved.
I heard his voice shouting my name. “Rose!”
My heart’s love raised me from that death—my Louis, a true immortal, a being unable to be destroyed, a being without the fragility that vampires have, for though undead, we can in fact be destroyed.
Louis cannot for he is demon spawn, born of a human woman and a fallen angel. He is the mirror image of his worst enemy, Eco—his cousin, who shares his heritage but not his goodness.
Eco is an evil abomination. Evil and madness are not always combined, but in Eco’s case they are, for they are blended in equal amounts to form that monster.
We left Blackstone Moor behind. Louis razed the house to the ground, hoping to expunge its hideous past. I wonder if that is possible.
We travelled from there and we had a peaceful existence but then the letter came. It came with no warning, addressed to Louis from his coven in North America.
“I must go,” he said.
He showed me the letter written by his old friend, Jean Dubot, the coven’s master. It mentioned a woman called Eliza and her son, Tom.
“I raised them up,” he said. “They perished on their way to the Virginia Colony. … I married her, Rose. I would have remained there but Eve wrote to me….”
At first, I didn’t understand but then I did and he left.
It was horrible being without him. We hadn’t been apart until that time. The children tried to help by being brave for me, but I could not be comforted. I ached too much for my beloved.
Still, there were his letters, though waiting for them to arrive was agony. Weeks and months passed, but then one letter came with our passage money in it. We would be able to join him!
None of us could believe it. We booked passage on a clipper ship the next day out of Liverpool.
We are aboard the Sea Mist bound for New York. Our steward has told me Louis is also on board but he is held in the Hold, drugged and powerless. He lies amongst the horrific stored food Eco keeps for the vampires and himself.
Eco and his friends and crew, demons all, like the Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. A depraved murderous sadist who bathed in human blood. Eco knew her and loved her. Can you imagine such a thing?
She is aboard, beast that she is, still wanting Eco’s touch, still longing for the sick love they gave one another.
And what of Gilles de Rais, friend and aide to Joan of Arc, notorious Satanist and child murderer? He is her husband and he is here, too!
They hold my children now as I am forced to read the rest of the confession. How will I manage when I cannot trust any of them, especially Eco?
There are others of his brethren—Caligula, an evil, twisted emperor, good friend to Eco in life, was raised to be with him after death. The bonds of their evil friendship could not be severed.
Christianity’s scourge, Attila, is here as well. Attila, a murdering cut throat, inspired by the monster, Eco.
Then there is the being that calls neither Heaven nor Hell home, but exists somewhere in the middle—in whatever middle that might be. Do not look or call out for him, for he will come soon enough.
Death is here for those passengers and crew the devils feed on. Death who is always eager for more souls—Death who always waits.
And she is here, too—Lilith, first wife to Adam, the mother of all demons, mistress to both Satan and Eco. Lilith, who has come to think of me as friend.
There! Now can you see the nightmare world I exist in? I am not only undead, I am with demons.
There you have it…well, almost. There is a point to all of this, at least in the monster Eco’s mind. I am requested to read his confession. It is his accounting of every sin he has committed during the course of his entire existence. I have already read a great deal, but there is more. There has to be in an immortal’s existence.
It is difficult reading, the most trying task I have ever had to undertake for I hate and fear him. And now, his monstrous friends—the Blood Countess and Gilles de Rais—are holding my children!
I have no choice but to finish reading the diary of a mad demon: Eco’s unholy testament.

BOOK FOUR - THE FOURTH BRIDE 




After the tragic and sudden death of her groom, Dia, cursed by Dracula as a babe, is taken to his castle. Once there, she is seduced and turned by the count and becomes his fourth bride. Dia's tale is full of erotic sex and graphic violence. It is a tale of love and lust but mostly of blood, for the blood is everything.


 CHAPTER 1 
PART ONE ROSE
Dia was indeed cursed and Dracula had done it. It’s rare that a dying mother would give her daughter to one such as I—a vampire—but truly she had no choice. She was surrounded by vampires and demons.
“Take care of her please,” she said. “He has bewitched my child. He has whispered death and abomination into her ears…my own babe!”
I promised I would; how could I not for the mother died in order that the evil vampires could feed!
We have endured much, my children and I, undead creatures that we are. And my husband, too, Louis—son of a fallen angel and himself a vampire. Though demonic creatures, we seek to do less evil than ourselves. Louis taught me that; Louis who raised me when I perished saving the children. “Drink,” I told them. “It is the only gift I can give you.”
I gave them my living life in order for them to retain their undead ones. The choice was easy. The aftermath I faced was difficult.
We went on to exist then as best we could. And truly we lived happily and at peace for three years before Louis received a letter from his old friend and coven master in America begging for help. There were vampire destroyers closing in.
Louis left at once. I felt my heart go with him. We wrote for months and then a letter came with passage money. I was tricked into booking passage on a ship bound for America, a ship that was seized by Eco and his crew of vampires. Eco, the dark mirror image of Louis, also born of a fallen angel and human woman, forced this upon us, monster that he is. My children and I were held captive by him. And what was the fate of the ship’s captain and his passengers? They became the vampires’ food store!
In the face of all this horror I was urged to read Eco’s unholy testament, a document he had written in order to confess all of his sins committed in the course of his eternal existence. He had written it because he loved me, he said. He told me it was the only noble thing he had ever done.
I had no choice but to read it; that was made clear. I did read it under threat, for Eco’s demonic friends held my children.
“Now you have something to think about. Best start reading, Rose. You’ll do a fine job. You can concentrate better now, without the distraction of the children.”
I had no choice.
When I had finished reading the journal, my children were returned to me. But what I came to believe about Louis being held aboard ship was just another of Eco’s cruel tricks. I realized this when the ship at last came ashore. That was when I saw the point to Eco’s carefully orchestrated ruse. I was to attend the trial of my husband!
Satan was judge and Eco held the role of prosecuting counsel. The jury comprised a selection of Eco’s friends: demons and vampires all.
Louis was charged with being a fraud and deserting his brethren on the dark side. Had he been convicted, I and our two children, Simon and Ada, would have been destroyed. But Count Dracula spoke up for us. And because he was friend to Satan and Eco both, the case was dismissed. I felt relieved, but wondered for how long.
The last I saw of Dracula, he was with Satan. Louis said we would face more evil and as he said it, in the same moment, I saw Dia—the new addition to our family, bequeathed to me by a woman who’d died on the ship at the hands of Eco’s cohorts—reach out toward Dracula. I saw the expression in her eyes and Hell’s strange light burning there. I knew she would have to be saved. But first, she would have to be blessed.
Louis said a priest would bless her for she had done nothing wrong; she did, after all, still have her soul. I could not take her to the church, nor I thought should Louis. We are unclean, undead things—how do we dare approach a church? We only went in sight of one and waited. Eventually, someone saw us and a face appeared at the door. A priest motioned us inside. It wasn’t until we were in his hall that he gasped. “Be gone, evil things!”
“We are what we are, but the child has done nothing wrong!” Louis pleaded.
The priest glanced at Ada and Simon.
“No! The little one!” I held Dia up so that he could see her. He looked carefully at her. But his face was not kind, nor was his manner. “Why do you bring her here?”
Louis spoke. “We would like her to be blessed...”
The priest looked hard into our faces. “Why?”
“Her mother gave her into my care and died,” I explained in as steady a voice as I could. “But before she did she told me the child had been cursed. Can you do anything?”
He stared so intently at me, I blanched. “I can try,” he finally said. “God’s power is infinite... Give her to me and I will take her inside. Wait here.”
We did wait, for we could not enter a holy place. I heard Dia scream and cry. After a while, the priest returned. “I have blessed her. I have done as much as I could.” He nodded sadly. “I think there is something there within her you must watch. Be ever vigilant, for I am certain the child’s mother was correct. She has indeed been touched by evil.”
Louis’ friends were waiting for us: Jean, Eliza and her son, the only survivors of Louis’ old coven. Jean had defended Louis in the makeshift court.
“Come and be with friends,” they urged. “For it is comfort and nurturing which you need now. I looked at Louis and the children and agreed. It was best not to be on our own, not yet.
And so we went from that place, bound for New York State and a farm Jean had owned. And though we were content there and far from danger, it was a difficult time. For as much as I was pleased to be with others of my kind, I was worried about Dia. There wasn’t a moment of any day that I didn’t watch her and fear for the future. We remained with our friends for five years until finally Louis suggested we return to England.
“I was thinking about living in London. Would you like that, Rose?”
That surprised me for I hadn’t thought of London for so long.
“Yes, Louis. That would be good.”
Ada and Simon were pleased for they loved London as it had been their home for centuries. They were so good and loving to Dia except she could turn from pleasant to strange in a moment.
Simon thought, whatever it was, she would grow out of it. “After all,” he said. “She is living and can change.”
I cried when he said that. It was such a sad thing to say for this undead child who would never grow up. Ada wept too but then she always does when I cry.
As for Dia, she just watched me, her little hand reaching out toward my face to wipe my tears. “No cry,” she said.
I hugged her. Maybe she would be alright; she was only a baby really when Dracula had cursed her. Perhaps between the blessing and time, she would change. We could hope; and so we sailed on the steamship, Atlantic, to England’s shores.
We docked at the Royal Victoria Dock in London. We would take a house in St. John’s Wood. It was quite a nice residence.
“We will be happy here,” Louis said. And I agreed, in fact I loved it. I enjoyed the quiet of the neighborhood, the pleasing sights and sounds of London. It was good to be home.
Dia began to look happier than I had ever seen her. A woman Louis knew from a coven came to reside with us at that time. It’s always best to have one of our kind with us.
And so we thrived there and Dia did as well. Of course, in time, she did realize that though she continued to grow, her brother and sister did not. I didn’t look forward to explaining the reason for that. When I did, she said she understood though I doubted she could.
There were other truths to tell as well. I had to tell her I was not her real mother. I explained her own mother had given her over to me to raise. I did not tell her the entire truth surrounding her mother’s death until she was old enough to understand.
I knew nothing of the mother. All I knew was she looked to be a Gypsy, but I did not wish to tell Dia that. So I lied a little. “I am not certain where she came from. I think she was from the east. Her name was Nadya.”
Dia’s eyes filled with tears and she repeated the name. “And that is why I am Dia Nadya.”
I hugged her and assured her how very much she was loved from the moment I took her. “Your mother died knowing her daughter had a home.”
Dia smiled. “What you did was a kindness. You could not have done more.”
I saw hope then. I felt she was going to be alright. Whatever had happened was in the past. I thought perhaps being in the bosom of our family would drive away any evil influences.
One year passed and then another. Eventually, a nice young man began to call on her and they courted. His name was Edward and he was kind and forthright and seemed to love Dia, which was all we could wish for. I was certain he would ask for her hand, and he did.
Louis told me he was delighted. When he noticed my expression he said I worry about everything. That is true, but so too was my fear of a church wedding. I need not have feared though for they have recently eloped of all things. In truth, Dia suggested it to her fiance as it would put my heart at ease.
The house feels empty without my daughter. All I can do is wait to hear from her because they are bound for Italy by ship. Louis tells me not to worry.
“Let them be, Rose. We will hear from them.”
I agree, though I cannot stand the waiting.

(end of excerpts)

REVIEWS


eFestival of Words 2014: Best Villain, Eco/ Best Horror, The House on Blackstone Moor
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"92 Horror authors you need to read right now"
Carole Gill -- the Blackstone Vampires series
~Charlotte Books - EXAMINER
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"In the attempt to find the just measure of horror and terror, I came upon the writing of Carole Gill whose work revealed a whole new dimension to me. The figure of the gothic child was there. Stoker's horror was there. Along with the romance! At the heart of her writing one stumbles upon a genuine search for that darkness we lost with the loss of Stoker." 
DR. MARGARITA GEORGIEVA ~ Gothic Readings in The Dark

The House on Blackstone Moor:
"Carole Gill presents a monstrous mythology that evokes Milton and makes you resent any time you must take away from finishing this fabulous read!"
RICK LANGSTON

Unholy Testament - The Beginnings
"Outstanding horror by an amazing author!! Gave me the creeps! Ms. Gil really immerses the reader in her well-crafted and frightening dark world!"
LEONARD KILBANE 

Unholy Testament - Full Circle 
"Is full of dark, gory, evil and heinous twist and turns which keeps your adrenaline going. Unholy Testament - Full Circle with all of the horrific things that goes on in it is just right up my alley. And believe me you definitely get plenty of evil in Unholy Testament - Full Circle. The ending left me with my mouth hanging open it was so surprising. I never expected it but I loved it."
NANCY ALLAN - Avid Reader
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The Fourth Bride
Creepy and full of evil! Carole is by far the master story teller of vampire gothic horror. Once you pick this novel up there will be nothing more important than getting to the last page! There are more dark twists and turns than a roller coaster!
WENDE SHEETS ~ Julie's Book Review

each novel in the series is priced at $2.99

The Blackstone Vampires Omnibus 
contains all four novels and is $3.99