You are truly an angel, Alice said. And you as well, Sir Knight.
Grant blushed. “It was nothing.”
It is everything to us, Thomas said. My very great-grandson is fortunate indeed to have you in his service. His eyes turned to Belinda. Keep Eric safe. Love him. See to it that his children are never victims of the Witch.
“I will,” Belinda began, but then the trio of spirits faded away as the first ray of sunlight shot into the great hall beyond.
Goodbye, Belinda …
“Goodbye, Prudence.” She looked at Grant, suddenly exhausted. “I could sleep for a week.”
“I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.” Grant put his arms around her and held her close. “You are a very special young woman, Belinda.”
“But who am I? I don’t understand.”
“Nor do I, but we’ll find answers in time.”
***
She’s out! The little bitch is out! Cordelia sat up in bed, fuming, furious, knowing the governess had freed the child. She’ll pay dearly for this. Cordelia Heller tried to focus on the anger but a rare emotion interrupted. Fear.
***
The Harlequin sat up in near darkness and looked around in the dim morning light that struggled through the filthy stained-glass window outside the door with the cross.
After eating the persimmon, he’d fallen asleep and dreamed dreams - not nightmares - of gore and murder, full of glaring nuns and screaming, spasming children and dying infants. There were men missing legs and arms and eyes, covered in tapestries of scars. They screamed and cried, full of pain. And there was fire and the aroma of human flesh burning.
A new hunger overcame him. He raised his head and sniffed the air. Flesh. He wanted flesh.
He scurried from the room as memories pelted his twisted brain. A doctor. Yes, he had been a doctor. He paused, looking down at himself. His body was compacted, his arms short and strange, his long graceful fingers now fat and stubby. And I was handsome once. My hair was auburn, my eyes green. Reaching up to feel his face, he realized it, like his body, had been deformed. By the witch. His hunger temporarily forgotten, he went in search of his own reflection.
Within the old chapel, he swiped a hand across the dusty surface of the red stained glass and stared into it. The distorted image showed him little except two glossy black eyes staring back. The doctor is dead. Anger buzzed in his nerve endings. Then his hunger returned, spiking, demanding satisfaction. Flesh ... Belinda ...
His stomach growled. He needed to eat.
Epilogue: The Next Night
Beneath the earth, something stirred. It had no need of breath, but it was hungry. Clutching, clawing with infinite patience, it began to work its way toward the moonlight. Sensing the night, it dug steadily, its fingers inching, wormlike, toward the surface, toward sustenance.
About the Authors
Tamara Thorne's first novel was published in 1991, and since then she has written many more, including international bestsellers Haunted, Bad Things, Moonfall, Eternity and The Sorority. A lifelong lover of ghost stories, she is currently working on several collaborations with Alistair Cross as well as an upcoming solo novel. Learn more about her at: http://tamarathorne.com
Alistair Cross grew up on horror novels and scary movies, and by the age of eight, began writing his own stories. First published by Damnation Books in 2012, he has since co-authored The Cliffhouse Haunting with Tamara Thorne and is working on several other projects. His debut solo novel, The Crimson Corset, an Amazon bestseller, is available now. Find out more about him at: http://alistaircross.com
In collaboration, Thorne and Cross are currently writing several novels, including the next volume in the continuing series, The Ravencrest Saga. Their first novel, The Cliffhouse Haunting, was an immediate bestseller. Together, they also host the horror-themed radio show Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE! which has featured such guests as Laurell K. Hamilton, Christopher Moore, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Charlaine Harris, and Christopher Rice. Thorne and Cross are hard at work on several upcoming collaborations, including a sequel to Tamara’s Candle Bay, which will feature plenty of vampy action as the Darlings and Julian Valentyn are joined on a road trip to Eternity with Michael and Winter from Alistair’s The Crimson Corset. It’s going to be a harrowing ride!
Thorne & Cross will Haunt You!
The Cliffhouse Haunting
When the Blue Lady Walks...
Since 1887, Cliffhouse Lodge has been famous for its luxurious accommodations, fine dining … and its ghosts. Overlooking Blue Lady Lake, nestled among tall pines, Cliffhouse has just been renovated by its owners, Teddy and Adam Bellamy, and their daughter, Sara.
Cliffhouse has not always been a place of rest and respite, though. Over the years it has served many vices, from rum-running to prostitution - and although the cat houses have been replaced by a miniature golf course and carousel, Cliffhouse retains its dark history; darkest during the Roaring Twenties, when a serial killer called the Bodice Ripper terrorized the town, and a phantom, the Blue Lady, was said to walk when murder was imminent.
Death Walks With Her...
Now, there’s a new killer on the loose, and the Blue Lady sightings have returned. The Bellamys are losing maids, and guests are being tormented by disembodied whispers, wet phantom footprints, and the blood-chilling shrieks of mad laughter that echo through the halls of Cliffhouse in the dead of night.
The little mountain town of Cliffside is the perfect hunting ground for a serial killer… and the Blue Lady. Police Chief Jackson Ballou has bodies piling up, and between the murders and the mysteries, he can hardly pursue his romance with Polly Owen. And Sara Bellamy may lose her true love before they even have their first kiss.
THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING is available now at Amazon.
Now Available from Alistair Cross!
The Crimson Corset
Welcome to Crimson Cove
Sheltered by ancient redwoods, nestled in mountains overlooking the California coast, the cozy village of Crimson Cove has it all: sophisticated retreats, fine dining, a beautiful lake, and a notorious nightclub, The Crimson Corset. It seems like a perfect place to relax and get close to nature. But not everything in Crimson Cove is natural.
When Cade Colter moves to town to live with his older brother, he expects it to be peaceful to the point of boredom. But he quickly learns that after the sun sets and the fog rolls in, the little tourist town takes on a whole new kind of life - and death.
Darkness at the Edge of Town
Renowned for its wild parties and history of debauchery, The Crimson Corset looms on the edge of town, inviting patrons to sate their most depraved desires and slake their darkest thirsts. Proprietor Gretchen VanTreese has waited centuries to annihilate the Old World vampires on the other side of town and create a new race - a race that she alone will rule. When she realizes Cade Colter has the key that will unlock her plan, she begins laying an elaborate trap that will put everyone around him in mortal danger.
Blood Wars
The streets are running red with blood, and as violence and murder ravage the night, Cade must face the darkest forces inside himself, perhaps even abandon his own humanity, in order to protect what he loves.
THE CRIMSON CORSET is available now at Amazon.
COMING THIS WINTER
From Thorne & Cross
MOTHER
A Girl’s Worst Nightmare is her Mother
Priscilla Martin. She’s the diva of Morning Glory Circle and a driving force in the quaint California town of Snapdragon. Overseer of garage sales and neighborhood Christmas decorations, she is widely admired. But few people know the real woman behind the perfectly coiffed hair and Opium perfume.
Family is Forever. And Ever and Ever
Nothing escapes Prissy’s watchful eye, nothing that is, except her son, who committed suicide many years ago, and her daughter, Claire, who left home more than a decade past and hasn’t spoken to her since. But now, Priscilla’s daughter and
son-in-law have fallen on hard times. Expecting their first child, the couple is forced to move back … And Prissy is there to welcome them home with open arms … and to reclaim her shattered family.
Home is Where the Terror Is
Jason Holbrook loves his wife. He’s heard Claire’s stories about Priscilla, but now it seems Mother has mended her ways, and as he uncovers a cache of vile family secrets, he begins to wonder who the real monster is. Lives are in danger - and Jason must face a horrifying truth … a truth that may destroy him … and will forever change his definition of “Mother.”
COMING SOON
Grandma’s Rack
By Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross
There's a New Coven in Town
The plague witches have declared war, and ten-year-old Joey is in more trouble than he can even imagine. As the town of Milkwort becomes a battleground of magic and mayhem, sex and scandal, the only thing he seems to have on his side is the sweet, soft-spoken woman who cares for him - his grandmother. And Grandma has a secret...
War of the Witches
First a gruesome murder is committed, then the residents of Milkwort don't seem to be themselves anymore. Little Joey will have to grow up fast if he wants to survive the witches' attacks. Can he and Grandma uncover the heinous secrets and unravel the twisted mysteries that lie just beneath the surface of this seemingly quiet, small town?
Books by Tamara Thorne
Haunted
Murders and Madness
Its violent, sordid past is what draws bestselling author David Masters to the infamous Victorian mansion called Baudey House. Its shrouded history of madness and murder is just the inspiration he needs to write his ultimate masterpiece of horror. But what waits for David and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Amber, at Baudey House, is more terrifying than any legend…
Seduction
First comes the sultry hint of jasmine…followed by the foul stench of decay. It is the dead, seducing the living, in an age-old ritual of perverted desire and unholy blood lust. For David and Amber, an unspeakable possession has begun…
Buy Haunted Now
Tamara Thorne’s
Moonfall
Moonfall, the picturesque town nestled in the mountains of southern California, is a quaint hamlet of antique stores, cider mills, and pie shops, and Apple Heaven, run by the dedicated nuns of St. Gertrude's Home for Girls, is the most popular destination of all. As autumn fills the air, the townspeople prepare for the Halloween Haunt, Moonfall's most popular tourist attraction. Even a series of unsolved deaths over the years hasn't dimmed Moonfall's enthusiasm for the holiday.
Now, orphan Sara Hawthorne returns to teach in the hallowed halls of St. Gertrude's where, twelve years before, her best friend died a horrible death. In Sara's old room, distant voices echo in the dark and the tormented cries of children shatter the moon-kissed night.
But that's just the beginning. For Sara Hawthorne is about to uncover St. Gertrude's hellish secret...a secret she may well carry with her to the grave.
Buy Moonfall Now
Tamara Thorne’s
Eternity
Welcome to Eternity
A little bit of Hell on Earth
When Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise. Curmudgeonly Mayor Abbott is a ringer for long-missing writer Ambrose Bierce. There are two Elvises in town, a shirtless Jim Morrison, and a woman who has more than a passing resemblance to Amelia Earhardt. And that's only the beginning.
Eternity is the sort of charming spot tourists flock to every summer and leave every fall when the heavy snows render it an isolated ghost town. Tourists and New Agers all talk about the strange energy coming from Eternity's greatest attraction: a mountain called Icehouse, replete with legends of Bigfoot, UFOs, Ascended Masters, and more. But the locals talk about something else.
The seemingly quiet town is plagued by strange deaths, grisly murders, and unspeakable mutilations, all the work of a serial killer the locals insist is Jack the Ripper. And they want Zach Tully to stop him.
Now, as the tourists leave and the first snow starts to fall, terror grips Eternity as an undying evil begins its hunt once again .
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Tamara Thorne’s
Candle Bay
Shrouded in fog on a hillside high above an isolated California coastal town, The Candle Bay Hotel and Spa has been restored to its former glory after decades of neglect. Thanks to its new owners, the Darlings, the opulent inn is once again filled with prosperous guests. But its seemingly all-American hosts hide a chilling, age-old family secret.
Lured to the picturesque spot, assistant concierge Amanda Pearce is mesmerized by her surroundings--and her seductive new boss, Stephen Darling. But her employers' eccentric ways and suspicious blood splatters in the hotel fill her with trepidation. Little does Amanda know that not only are the Darlings vampires, but that a murderous vampire vendetta is about to begin--and she will be caught in the middle. For as the feud unfolds and her feelings for Stephen deepen, Amanda must face the greatest decision of her life: to die, or join the forever undead.
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Tamara Thorne’s
Bad Things
The Piper clan emigrated from Scotland and founded the town of Santo Verde, California. The Gothic Victorian estate built there has housed the family for generations, and has also become home to an ancient evil forever linked to the Piper name. . .
As a boy, Rick Piper discovered he had "the sight." It was supposed to be a family myth, but Rick could see the greenjacks--the tiny mischievous demons who taunted him throughout his childhood--and who stole the soul of his twin brother Robin one Halloween night.
Now a widower with two children of his own, Rick has returned home to build a new life. He wants to believe the greenjacks don't exist, that they were a figment of his own childish fears and the vicious torment he suffered at the hands of his brother. But he can still see and hear them, and they haven't forgotten that Rick escaped them so long ago. And this time, they don't just want Rick. This time they want his children …
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Tamara Thorne’s
The Forgotten
The Past...
Will Banning survived a childhood so rough, his mind has blocked it out almost entirely--especially the horrific day his brother Michael died, a memory that flickers on the edge of his consciousness as if from a dream.
Isn't Gone...
Now, as a successful psychologist, Will helps others dispel the fears the past can conjure. But he has no explanation for the increasingly bizarre paranoia affecting the inhabitants of Caledonia, California, many of whom claim to see terrifying visions and hear ominous voices. . .voices that tell them to do unspeakable things ...
It's Deadly
As madness and murderous impulses grip the coastal town, Will is compelled to confront his greatest fear and unlock the terrifying secret of his own past in a place where evil isn't just a memory. . .it's alive and waiting to strike …
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Tamara Thorne’s
Thunder Road
The California desert town of Madelyn boasts all sorts of attractions for visitors. Join the audience at the El Dorado Ranch for a Wild West show. Take a ride through the haunted mine at Madland Amusement Park. Scan the horizon for UFOs. Find religion with the Prophet's Apostles--and be prepared for the coming apocalypse.
Because the apocalypse has arrived in Madelyn. People are disappearing. Strange shapes and lights dart across the night sky. And a young man embraces a violent destiny--inspired by a serial killer whose reign of terror was buried years ago.
But each of these events is merely setting the stage for the final confrontation. A horror of catastrophic proportions is slouching toward Madelyn in the form of four horsemen--and they're picking up speed.
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Tamara Thorne’s
The Sorority
They are the envy of every young woman--and the fantasy of every young man. An elite sisterhood of Greenbriar University's best and brightest, their members are the most powerful girls on campus--and the most feared ...
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