EXTRACT FOR
Dark Images
(Author Unknown)

PROLOGUE

      

      Her dreams were starting again.

      Christal arched her back as a soft hand ran down the side of her naked body and then slid towards her waist. It moved so slowly over her smooth naked skin, making circles around her belly button and then it stroked her face. She moved her hips to take in more of him, but she did not know who he was, nothing was clear to her. She was having raw sex, slowly, firmly, wonderfully, it was so erotic. She knew it was not Jean-Lucas, of that much she was sure. But was it? She could not sense him, because every time she tried to look at her lover's face, find his eyes, that part of him was blurred and then disappeared. All she had were the erotic feelings and a faceless lover. She called out a name, but she did not know what the name was. Someone was trying to read her mind.

      "Is it you Jean-Lucas? Is it you?" She called out sleepily.

      There was no answer, except more movements of her hips, the unknown hands reaching round to take hold of her back and then her arms were suddenly pinned to the bed. His weight on top of her was almost over-powering. A moment passed and she reached her climax, a powerful orgasm that shook her to the core of her body. Her toes curled and her fingers tingled and then another shadow approached her and she tried hard to make out who it was and then it disappeared and she was suddenly in a room, the whole scene had changed and she was fully clothed. 

      The room was like a walk-in closet with curtains all the way around. There was no one in the draped darkness except her. Where had he gone? If he had been a vampire, or the like, she would have believed the vanishing act, but humans don't just disappear into thin air. There had to be a second door.

      She clutched her large shoulder bag tightly against her lithe body. Inside were the tools of her trade. 

      Looking around carefully in the dim light provided by her small halogen torch, she swept one of the curtains aside, there was another door, but it was closed. She turned the shiny brass handle and the intricately carved door swung inward slowly. There was no one behind it; relaxing her grip on her bag slightly, she reached in for her special gun, but did not withdraw it. Christal felt safe for the moment. 

* * *

      Christal suddenly awoke, she kept on having the same re-occurring dreams and they always featured the cemetery of the old church and Jean-Lucas's castle in the village of Beaulieu in The New Forest, in England from her last case for some reason. She wondered who was trying to reach out to her from the past as she abruptly woke up. Her body was running with perspiration and she was shaking all over. 

      Who had it been behind the door in her dream? Could it have been Jean-Lucas, Walter, or perhaps... her father? Had he been bitten when he was alive? There were so many questions that had been left unanswered after his death and she was determined to find out the truth. She sensed that her father could have been involved in some way when he was alive with the present situation and she needed to find out exactly what had happened to him all those years ago.



BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

JEAN-LUCAS AND CHRISTAL

      

      The landline extension phone by the bed shrilled out and Christal reached out to pick it up.

      "Christal, where the hell are you? Did you turn your mobile off again?" Victor shouted down the line. "I've left messages on your Blackberry, two texts in fact, two emails on your laptop and I have also left three messages on your answerphone. Where have you been?" He sounded exasperated.

      "What? What do you want? Can't I ever have a bit of peace and quietness Vic?"

      She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked at the digital bedside clock, 06.00 shone out from it and then she looked down at Jean-Lucas snuggled up beside her, with one of his arms wrapped around her left thigh, in a deep sleep. 

      He was off to France later in the day on business and was not returning for several weeks and he had stayed over at her place as it was more convenient for London Heathrow Airport. She knew that Jean liked flying these days instead of transporting himself. She wondered if he was getting too soft being around humans so much. When he came back from his trip, he wanted her to move into the big house he was in the process of buying in London and they had talked about it well into the night before, but she had told him that she still needed her space and he agreed that she should keep her apartment and not sell it. 			Jean-Lucas also suggested that his body guard Saraband LeGrande could rent it from her when she decided to move in with him at his new house.  

      "What is it this time Vic?" She asked sleepily as she gently unwrapped herself from Jean-Lucas's arm and sat up naked on the side of her bed.

      "The Minister of Supernatural Affairs was on the phone to me yesterday late afternoon. I have been trying to get hold of you ever since! They want us to investigate the vampire and human killings and find out who or what's behind it all. They want us to start immediately and they have offered us four times their usual fee. So I said yes." 

      Victor was sounding calmer now as he spoke to her.

      She listened to him talking trying to take it all in. 

      "Victor, I can't see you today at the office, I am very busy, but perhaps we could meet for a coffee tomorrow morning. Please phone me later."

      She was quite exhausted. When she and Jean-Lucas had got back from the Royal Opera House that night they'd had violent sex on the thick black shag pile carpet in her bedroom. 

      He had been away for over a month and their hungry passions had arisen on their way back to her apartment. They had hardly been through the door and he had taken her in his arms and swiftly undressed her and pushed her down onto the floor. He had torn off his clothes and then threw them to one side on the carpeted floor and their pleasure increased as they writhed around. It was a frantic basic sex, giving them both the release they needed, or was it just uncontrolled lust she wondered, she never knew with Jean-Lucas, but she did think that he was in love with her, even though he would not actually admit it to her. She knew he would very soon. Theirs was a very strong sexual relationship, with underlying passions that could only be satisfied with a certain amount of cruelty, but he had changed a lot lately and they seemed to be closer together. 

      At first when she met him in France, he had been able to control her until she'd had his second bite and then she started to control him which was unusual in the Vampire world, but she knew that he had become softer with her a long time ago, and his defences were down, this was a weakness that no Vampire, especially a Grand Master like him, could allow themselves to do. She had fallen under his spell from very first time she had seen him in France and she knew that he was well aware of it and had controlled her and played on her weaknesses. But now the situation was changing.

      Jean-Lucas had mixed with humans for such a long time, over two hundred and fifty years. He was able to control his desire for fresh human blood and quite enjoyed human food at times, though Christal occasionally drank from him if she needed too, but he would never allow her to become completely one of the Undead, otherwise he knew that he would lose her. She was fully aware of this fact and used it to her advantage.

      "I will ring you back later today Vic when you have more information. Perhaps we could meet for lunch somewhere after I have dropped of Jean-Lucas at the airport and discuss the matter more fully. Bye now." She spoke quietly.

      "I need to..." 

      Christal cut Victor short and placed the phone back in its cradle and lay back in the bed again and closed her eyes as she felt Jean-Lucas beneath the covers and the pressure of his cool naked body against her warm being felt almost human. Her right arm slipped over his chest and she realised that he was only half asleep and then she heard him whisper. 

      "You know, this is so good, this aspect of being human. How delicious it is to slip my arms around you again, to tuck my head against your soft neck, to kiss your shiny hair and feel the soft springiness of your lips cherie and to have found a little of the mortal side of myself after all this time."

      His words were like some kind of incendiary device flaming her blood and she felt a hot desire for him run through her body as she closed her eyes in ecstasy. She found it very difficult not to give into him.

      He pulled her against his hard body and kissed her lips gently and sucked at her lower lip. He found her soft tongue quickly as her lips opened under his and he quickly forgot everything, but the feel of her as he nuzzled into her. 

      "I want to bite your lip, just a nibble." He murmured against her mouth. "But not at the moment, I want more than that. You do realize it could be at least a month that I shall be away from you again. I have a lot of things to do in France, but you are always in my thoughts and I will visit you in my own way."

      Slowly he kissed her cheeks and the delicate flesh beneath her closed eyes. He wanted to feel her eyelashes with his lips; he wanted to feel her throat. Not for drinking her blood, but just for the kissing, not for the possession of her, but for the brief physical union that would take nothing from either one of them, yet bring them together with a pleasure that was so acute, it was like an intense pain running through his being.

      He laughed sensually and the sound slid down and over her body like fur against her skin.  She shuddered with apprehension as she felt herself succumbing to his touch, exciting her, arousing her again. She could feel the desire for him rising in her body and she wanted him inside of her.

      She slowly opened her eyes and then lowered them and looked at him from under her long black eyelashes and then reached down and touched him between his muscular thighs and found the hardness of his manhood ready for her and she awoke completely. He smiled lasciviously at her like a dark prophet and his midnight blue eyes turned to a burning red. She could not resist glancing up at him and raising her face to his. Even though he was over two hundred and fifty years old, he only looked as if he was in his mid-thirties; his body was so firm and young looking. Once again she noticed how his eyes changed with his moods and she could feel his breath against her cheek and the desire for him running swiftly through her veins.

      His eyes once more became dark blue, very dark blue, but for a moment he was quite transfixed in the shadowy room, not daring to move forward and quite unable to move away from her touch. Then he moved in even closer to her, and then bent his head; his eyes inscrutable and he kissed her. A long deep, sensuous, passionate kiss that felt like fire through her being. He lowered his eyelids and his long black eyelashes were like black curtains around his eyes. Suddenly he opened them and he pouted at her with his full red lips, suggestively and his overly large white teeth chewed sexily at his full bottom lip and then he ran is tongue around his mouth as if savouring her. 

      She knew he wanted her, he would nibble at her neck but would not draw blood, but just the feel of his lips and tongue on her flesh made her desire him. She knew he wanted her to touch his bare skin and he grinned at her as he read her mind. Yes, she wanted him. She wanted him inside of her, she wanted him to caress her smooth body and hold her. Just the feel of his cool skin against her warm flesh was enough to make her orgasm.

      "Stop that," she muttered feebly trying to push him away as his hands explored her breasts and then worked their way down over her stomach, then over her hips, to her silken thighs and then he pressed his hand down slightly on her warm mound of Venus.

      He kissed her lightly, a brush of his lips, so she could not feel his fangs. Her cheeks darkened with pleasure and an expression of glassy euphoria shone in her eyes. His pale body was so firm and young looking. Her lips were slightly parted into an elated smile and every muscle in her body was suddenly held rigid with desire for him. She released a whisper of contentment as the first thrill of an orgasm hit her. 

      There were times like this though, when she didn't even need penetration, just his touch was enough to bring her to her heights, as their minds and bodies blended into one and they lay together for several moments savouring the intense passion they had for each other.