Night's Revelations — Mary M. Cushnie-Mansour

Revelations - something revealed: an enlightening disclosure. Basarab is overwhelmed with the situations at hand: Samara's murder o the homeless man, which is bringing the local police to his door, and the murder of Randy's wife, Katalin, which demands a trial sure to reveal some of the vampire clans deepest and darkest secrets...Deep in the mountains of Transylvania, a great sorceress whispered of throughout the centuries decides to make her move. Who is she? Basarab and the vampires are about to find out.Night's Revelations continues the story of Count Basarab Musat and his family, peeling back layers of the past to make shocking revelations - of both past and present!An Excerpt...PrologueAdrianna Daciana, better known as the Dark Wolf or the Black Witch, sat behind an oversized cedar desk. There was a smile on her face. She had waited a long time for this moment, but the time had never been right. Now, she felt she would be able to accomplish what she had dreamed of for centuries--revenge for what Dracula had done to her mother. A cloud passed over her eyes as she thought of her beautiful mother, of the story she had listened to over and over again when she was a child...He was not a handsome man, but there was something irresistible about him. I found him on a trail one day; he'd been hunting on my mountain and had fallen and hurt his leg. He was unable to walk, so I brought him back to my cabin and mixed some herbs and put them in a drink for him. He was dreadfully weak; it was several days before he could put any pressure on his leg and another couple weeks before he could actually walk on it.Of course, he needed to be bathed, and I had no choice but to strip him of his clothing to do so. I was shocked when I saw the scars on his body. They were like a map of destruction. Some appeared to be battle scars, easily detected, but others...Adrianna's mother always paused at this point and wept before she continued...The other markings were different. I recognized them as torture scars, and I asked him from where they had come. He told me he had been a captive in the Turkish Court for a number of years during his youth. His father had sent him and his brother, Radu, there as a guarantee that he would not attack the Turks. Dracula's brother was given a luxurious room, but it was one to which the Sultan's son had plenty of access. Radu was a pretty boy; Dracula was not.The Sultan decided Dracula had other attributes, and he started teaching him the methods of Turkish torture, many of which he performed on Dracula. I cried when he told me some of what was done to him, but he would gently brush away my tears with his fingers and tell me it made him more of a man. And he remained a man, he would say to me. He never allowed one of the big Turks to violate him as they did Radu.But I could tell, sweet Adrianna, he was tainted in other ways. Many were the nights he cried out and thrashed about in the bed, and I would crawl in beside him and hold him tight to me and tell him all would be well. I dared not use any of my spells on him for fear he learned I was a witch, especially after I discovered he was Dracula, the king of Transylvania. Witches were outlawed, and I had seen too many of my sisters burned at the stake to open my mouth and end up the same.Then, one day, I caught him looking at me differently. Lust was in his eyes. He asked me to bathe him again, saying he felt dirty and sweaty. I told him I'd just bathed him the day before, but he smiled and said he sorely needed another bath. I felt his eyes on me as I heated the water and carried it to the bed where he lay. As I took the cloth and began sponging his chest, he grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me to him...Another faraway look would creep into her mother's eyes at this point; she would pause and smile, and touch her lips with her fingers...Oh, Adrianna, he was so gentle, but his tongue lit a fire in the pit of my stomach...