This Month's Excerpt12/4/2009 1:27:00 AMThis month's excerpt is from In the Dark. This scene takes place in 1968 San Francisco, in a mansion belonging to master vampire Conrad Quintano. Against his better judgment, Conrad has agreed to throw a Christmas party at the request of the woman with whom he's fallen in love.
In the Dark is available December 8, 2009 at Samhain Publishing.
Conrad was not having a pleasant evening. There was too much noise, too many lights and entirely too many people—including a larger than usual contingent of outsiders.
What had attracted so many party-crashing vampires here tonight, he didn’t know. He doubted it was the promise of free eggnog that drew them. Perhaps the season had put them all in a nostalgic mood. Or maybe they were the kind of riff-raff who did most of their hunting out in the streets. Tonight, with the colder temperatures keeping most humans inside, it might simply be that they had come here following the herd.
He didn’t like it, however. They were his herd, at least in a manner of speaking, at least for the night. And it was his home that was being invaded. He didn’t appreciate having the atmosphere tainted with hungry vibrations—it made everyone tense, irritable, a little too desperate—and, as he’d long ago observed, it also frightened the hell out of most people.
“Merry Christmas!” someone called out in greeting as he passed. He nodded automatically, resisting the urge to quote from Dickens, “if I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
It was good stuff, that. Probably the best modern literature he was familiar and, at the moment, it perfectly matched his mood.
“Where is she, damn it?” he muttered, angrily scanning the crowd. He would have thought his hold on the girl was strong enough that, by now, she’d have no choice but to be exactly where he wanted her, whenever he wanted her there. But he’d wanted her here last night, and she hadn’t come.
He wasn’t sure what to think of that. Was he losing his touch?
He tried to tell himself it was no such thing. There could be any number of reasons why she hadn’t shown yet. Perhaps it was hunger that was making him so irritable. He hadn’t eaten since the previous weekend, so that sounded like a reasonable explanation. But, in his heart of hearts, he knew it was more than that.
At his age, he could go weeks without feeding if he had to. And tonight he certainly didn’t
have to. The house was teeming with humans, any one of whom would have done to slake his hunger. He didn’t want just anyone, however, he wanted her. “And if you don’t show up soon for this ridiculous party that you wanted…”
Then what? What would he do to her, if she didn’t come soon? Did he know? Did he even want to know?
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, because, no, actually he didn’t. Then he turned around to scan the room again—and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Armand hurrying toward him. Finally. Someone upon whom he could vent his bad temper.
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded, as soon as Armand came within range. “Do you see what’s going on here tonight?” What he really wanted to ask was, why the hell didn’t you stop me from agreeing to this madness? But there was no point in asking that, was there? Not when they both already knew the answer.
Armand opened his mouth, shut it again, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Why don’t you go outside now and grab yourself a bite to eat? Maybe that will put you in a better frame of mind.”
Conrad felt his spirits rise. “That better mean what I think it does.”
Armand smiled. “It does. She got here a few minutes ago. I sent her out into the rose garden to wait for you.”
“Bless you, my child.” Conrad clasped his hands on Armand’s shoulders and planted a kiss on his forehead. “Remind me to do something especially wonderful to you in the very near future.”
“You usually do, you know,” Armand answered with a grin. Then his face changed. “There are a lot of people here tonight, Conrad. A lot more than I was expecting. And, some of them—most of them—are people I’ve never seen before.”
Conrad grimaced. “Yes. I noticed that too.” Something would definitely have to be done about that. But later. A pleasurable thrill of anticipation ran through him and he all but licked his lips. First things first.
“Oh, one more thing. Georgia has been asking to speak with you.”
“Not now,” Conrad replied, waving off the request. “Take care of her, will you? See that
she has everything she needs and tell her I’ll—” he broke off abruptly, his blood running cold.
For an instant, he and Armand both stood motionless, rooted to the spot, listening to the same chilling sound: a woman’s bloodcurdling scream filtering in from outside.
“Mon Dieu,” Armand whispered, his face ashen. “That- that’s…”
But, Conrad knew who it was and he had no time to waste on words. He pushed past Armand and raced for the door.
© copyright 2009 PG Forte All Rights Reserved