Reviews for EYES OF DARKNESS BK 6: NIGHT WISH by Christy Poff

Excerpt for EYES OF DARKNESS BK 6: NIGHT WISH by Christy Pofff

Prologue

In the mountains north of Geneva, Switzerland a dark secret came to light, one centuries old and evil. In the quiet countryside, rumors had run rampant over the years about a demon inhabiting the area but no one had ever seen it, the legend growing over the course of six hundred years.

Grandparents told their grandchildren the story of three sisters—triplets—born in the late 14th or early 15th Century. Their mother had met a man who lured her into a world she didn’t want but embraced once she learned what it meant to be vampyr. She’d been pregnant when he bewitched her and created his new toy who answered to his beckoning call. She gave birth to three daughters, all who experienced so much life in so little time. Two sisters met their ends when their creations turned on them once it became apparent exactly what had been done to their lives. The men went on, found eternal mates and blended into life wherever they chose to settle.

The third sister met her fate in another way. After keeping her existence secret by telling everyone she’d been born before them, her father walled her into a cave in the Alps, trapping her there for the remainder of her unnatural life.

“ You’ve ruined me!” he accused. “I can’t have three daughters gone bad from birth. I’m making sure one of you never wreaks havoc on…”

“ But you accepted our mother’s uniqueness—why not us?”

“ There’s nothing wrong with your mother. She had an illness and…”

“ You’re a fool. Don’t do this. You need me!” she screamed.

The wall went up, shutting her inside the cave permanently. Having included all the precautions the local people believed would control her, he left her in the mountainside tomb.

Nearly six hundred years later, a tiny shift in the geological plates deep beneath the earth’s surface cracked the wall built centuries before and, after another aftershock, it split. Released into the world with a new lease on her life, Solange fled the cave, creating havoc throughout the countryside.

She fed voraciously, regenerating herself into a beautiful and extremely strong vampyr—one whose six-hundred-year-old anger knew no boundaries—then set out to take care of the one who’d shut her away for so long. Learning he’d died twenty-five years after he imprisoned her, she still sought revenge—not only for herself but her sisters. Someone will pay and I’ll make sure of it! After all, I have nothing but time on my hands.

Solange left Switzerland and spent several years becoming accustomed to the new times she found herself living in. While she enjoyed her freedom, she schemed.

Chapter 1

Hayden Beaumont walked toward Allcott House, a beautiful mansion in one of the more affluent sections of San Francisco. In his family for well over two centuries, he loved coming home to it when he returned to the States. He’d split his time over the years between it, a brownstone in New York and an ancient estate in France a few miles north of Paris.

Entering the house, he grinned sensing he had company, his guests extremely special to him.

“ Mother, you’re gorgeous as ever.”

“ And, you, my handsome son…” she said, before kissing him. Madison Allcott Beaumont did not look a day over twenty even though one hundred and fourteen years had passed since her life had faced major changes.

“ Where’s Galen?”

“ Your father went out to check the estate and the vineyards. It’s been years since we opened the house up and it’s time we came back.”

“ Why? What happened?”

“ Questions have been asked. You know the ones…”

“ I’m so sorry. I hate seeing you uprooted like this.”

“ It’s all right. I wouldn’t trade my life with Galen for anything. Plus, how many mothers can keep their sons close for an eternity?”

“ I doubt few sons can say the same,” he agreed.

“ Now, why don’t you and I catch up? Marissa told me you’re leaving?”

“ Pretty much for the same reason you came here. One of the society dames mentioned how it looks like I don’t age and it’s that time of year again.”

“ Ah, the annual husband hunts—the reason I threw my mother out of my life when Geoffrey died.”

“ I’ve always agreed with one comment you made a few years ago.”

“ What?” Madison asked.

“ It’s barbaric.”

“ You should have seen it four hundred years ago.”

“ Dad,” Hayden said, standing to embrace the man who’d become his father after his mother’s remarriage. He’d never met his natural father, Galen Beaumont always there when he needed him. “How are the vines?”

“ Not bad though I worry about the one field.”

“ The reds?”

“ Yes.”

“ Marsden mentioned something to me yesterday. He’s concerned, too.”

“ The weather I’m told has not helped.”

“ It hasn’t been the greatest,” Hayden agreed. At six foot five, his natural boyish charm hid his seriousness. Galen and Madison knew him but they realized some considered him too naïve and uncaring about the family’s financial affairs. “The latest financial reports are on the desk. Everything’s in good shape.”

“ As always,” Galen commented, knowing how astute his son had always been. Galen Beaumont looked at Hayden Allcott Beaumont with admiration. His birth had been unique in that his mother had accepted the dark gift becoming vampyr in the early weeks of her pregnancy. A rare occurrence, a pregnancy like hers had not happened in nearly five hundred years, if not longer. Hayden’s entire early life had passed by in a few weeks instead of twenty-four years. Rarely did babies survive birth and the change happening immediately after. Hayden had and he’d come through it strong and extremely intelligent. Never having known a normal childhood didn’t bother him because Galen and Madison made sure he wouldn’t be affected by it. Having a head for business and a way with several decades of young ladies didn’t hurt either.

“ I’m sorry about the quick visit but it’s time. I’ve heard the Newshams are trying to find out why I don’t age. The old lady wants my secret plus a marriage to her ugly daughter.”

“ Hayden,” Madison softly admonished.

“ I know, Mother, but the girl looks like she came out of the moat at any European castle. She’s…”

“ I’ve got the image, darling,” his mother assured him.

“ Can we at least fly this evening or once before I leave for Paris?”

“ Of course,” she said.

“ We wouldn’t miss it,” Galen agreed.

* * * *

Later in the evening, three majestic birds—a black hawk, a merlin and a golden falcon—soared over the Beaumont vineyards. Hayden loved the freedom flight gave him and to share it with his parents meant more to him than anything in the world.

I see we’ve learned a new trick, son.

It’s taken time.

You are a handsome one.

But the beauty lies with you, Mother.

It’s good I’m not a jealous vampyr, son.

The three of them laughed, enjoying their time together. Hayden loved his parents though he’d never told them he compared all women to Madison, his idea of perfection. If the girl couldn’t compare to his mother, he didn’t give her the time of day.

When they returned to the mansion, Hayden took his leave.

“ You’re leaving tonight?” Madison asked, sadness in her voice.

“ Yes, I hate to but…”

“ We understand. You’ll let us know…”

“ Of course,” Hayden assured her. “Cell phones are wonderful inventions. By the way, is the house open?”

“ Yes, and Corinne is expecting you,” Galen advised him. “Since we closed up the house to come back here, we sent her over to yours. I think it works well.”

“ Wonderful.”

He hugged them both, kissed Madison good-bye then prepared to return to Beaumont Manor in France. He gathered what he would need, placed everything near the foot of the staircase then slipped down to the basement apartment he kept. Like Galen, he appreciated comfort even though his life dictated otherwise. He might sleep like the dead but he rose like any other and wanted comfortable things around him. Galen had sworn to never subject his wife to the harsh realities of their dark life and Hayden held the same beliefs. He’d also trained his body to accept wine—his one human vice. After all, how can the owner of a vineyard not know what his product tastes like?

Hayden left some notes for his assistant, changed then stretched out in bed as dawn overtook him.

* * * *

“ Mistress Solange,” an extremely well-built man said.

“ Come, cher,” she said, waiting for him to join her. She liked her cadre of studs, all Chippendale-esque because she wanted nothing between her and a ready feast.

Over the course of the last ten years, she’d had many who kept her sated. Hundreds of good-looking men and some gorgeous women—she didn’t care as long as she could literally bleed them dry before she cast them aside.

Her toy went to her, Solange drawing him into a kiss.

“ You taste especially good tonight.”

“ For you, Mistress—anything.”

He traced her neck with his tongue, Solange’s body reacting. She arched closer to his attentions, bloodlust driving her.

“ You know what I want, mon cher.”

“ Oui,” he said, shedding the remainder of his clothes. He moved her robe out of the way then drove his cock into her. She urged him on, driving his natural need to her advantage while her fangs descended. While he fiercely pounded her body, she brushed her lips over his skin feeling his heartbeat and the movement of his blood.

The minute she felt him ready to fill her, she sank her teeth into his neck and fed. Bloodlust drove her to take too much, draining him. After she took his last drop of blood, she shoved his lifeless body aside and called for her assistant.

“ Madame?”

“ Get this mess out of here.”

“ Oui, Madame,” he said without question.

Solange smiled, blood dripping from her lips. Nearly six hundred years had created a strong vengeful woman who no longer cared about anyone as long as she got what she wanted.

Georges returned after he removed the man’s body. In his hand, he held a file.

“ The information you requested, Madame.”

“ Merci.”

She opened it and read the dossier information on Jacob Dante—her sister Danica’s murderer—and Galen Beaumont—her sister Joelle’s killer. Dante lived in New York with his wife while Beaumont had been located in San Francisco. She didn’t like having to travel to the States but those thoughts died when she read Galen’s son had been seen in the area north of Paris and very close.

They took from me so I’ll take from them. I’ll see how Monsieur Beaumont appreciates losing someone dear to him.

“ Georges, I want to know every move this man makes. I want his routine, his associates, everything.”

“ Oui, Madame.”

Solange felt alive—she’d fed and found the perfect outlet to exact her revenge. She’d sworn she would get even with her father, the man who left her imprisoned in a cave in the Alps but, being very mortal, he died of old age. She learned her mother, the only vampyr to give birth to daughters, had gone out at dawn one morning after her husband’s death and gave herself to the sun because she could not go on without the man she loved or her family.

“ Why, if he could accept you as his vampyr wife, could he not accept the three of us?”

Solange had nearly six centuries to figure it out but never found the answer. Now, it no longer mattered. She lived—the only survivor—and she planned to enjoy life after taking care of some age-old loose ends.

* * * *

Hayden’s plane landed in New York. After making sure his luggage made it onto his connecting flight, he left the terminal on foot, went to one of the darkest secluded areas he’d found decades ago and removed his clothes. He placed them in a hidden airtight cabinet he’d built years before then shifted to a golden falcon. He soared over the city, ending up at a brownstone on the Upper East Side.

He loved the place, a house built in the early 1900s, and had made some alterations to it enabling him or his family to have an overday place to stay when traveling to Europe.

Once he flew into the attic, he shifted back, pulled a robe from a closet and put it on. Hayden went downstairs to his study to catch up on the last several months. Finding nothing pressing, he wrote instructions for his personal assistant then headed upstairs to the master suite.

After enjoying a glass of Beaumont Zinfandel, he stretched out and let dawn take him. He didn’t need to check a clock, his body knew. Hayden sank into the sleep of the dead, oblivious to what waited for him across the ocean.

CLOSE WINDOW