“No more training tonight,” I told him warily. “I’m not up for it.”

Verek shook his head and squatted beside me. The muscles in his thighs bulged beneath the fine fabric covering them. “I’m here to serve summons on you, my lady.”

My lady? Usually he called me ‘Princess’ and only in the most mocking of tones. “That’s a little formal isn’t it?” I laughed. Verek didn’t. So I sat up. “Shit, Verek. What kind of summons?”

He sighed. “Tonight you will stand before the Nightmare council and face inquiry into your actions.”

My heart gave a thud. “My actions? What I have I done?”

He looked almost sympathetic. “The Warden was there when you brought Noah into our world, Dawn. You broke the rules and now you must stand before the counsel and explain yourself.”

Explain myself? Part of me wanted to tell him just what he could do with his summons – what the Warden could do for that matter. I hadn’t known when I brought Noah into the Dream Realm during our fight against Karatos that it was something I wasn’t allowed to do, never mind that it had been something I shouldn’t be able to do.

How could they punish me for doing something no one ever thought possible? But apparently it fell under some rule about not endangering humans. Please, I had been trying to save Noah, not hurt him.

“This is bullshit,” I told him. “The council is freaked out by me and is looking for a way to keep me under control.” I was daughter of the lord of this realm! Just who did this Warden person think he was?

“What if I refuse?” I asked.

Verek’s rugged features hardened. “Then I am to bring you back to the castle in shackles to await the proceedings.”

“My father won’t stand for that.”

Now he looked downright pitying. “It was your father who gave the order.”

Oh, damn.

Kathryn Smith 2009

Want more? DARK SIDE OF DAWN  will be on shelves Nov 24th! Haven’t read book #1? BEFORE I WAKE is available at bookstores and online.

1. A masked ball is a very convenient locale to begin an anonymous seduction, especially if your duke is easily identified in his costume. Only take care that your disguise is not quite so easily penetrated.

2. Should you engage in a second encounter with your duke, be sure to leave behind a memento of the occasion on the pillow for him to find the following morning.

3. Do not be jealous if your duke seems enamored of your alter-ego. It was, after all, what you planned.

4. Be careful what you wish for.

5. It’s hard to have a future with a man haunted by his past.

6. One should always improve oneself through a variety of reading materials, especially risque periodicals.

7. Always have a robe handy. You never know when the duke’s brother might barge in.

8. When the duke asks you to marry him, say yes. Chances are he wants the marriage as well, despite acting as though he’s leading you to slaughter.

9. A strong back bone never goes out of style.

10. A man worth having is worth fighting for — and with.

CONTEST!!! Give me YOUR rules for When Seducing a Duke! As many or few as you would like. One lucky poster will win a copy of The Pearl,  the scandalous periodical upon which Rose’s favorite naughty magazine, Voluptuous is based! Contest closes Oct 30th @ 12 midnight EST. Good luck!

Hope to see you on the boards!

Many of you have already heard me go on about how I saw Frank Langella play Dracula when I was 7. I’ve blathered incessantly about how he should have gotten the girl and how I hated the fact that he died, etc. For that reason, I’ve left him off this list. I knew you all would consider him a given. So here we go, in chronological order — my favorite vampires.

The first has to be this attractive purplish guy from the old abandoned mansion at the end of Seasame Street — The Count. So cool he has no name, just a title. He’s frostier than Fonzie, my friends. He had it all, the widow’s peak, the canines and the accent. He also had the charm and a head for numbers. What woman could resist a man who could croon such favorites as “Count Up to Nine”? He may have liked to count, but with that slicked back hair and impeccible wardrobe, we know what was really on his mind. This guy made vampires, organ music and wide collars accessible to children in a fun and non-threatening way.

Imagine my surprise when trying to find a photo of Dracula from the show Cliffhangers (1979!) and I discovered that it was the guy from Flashdance. See, I loved Michael Nouri as the iconic vampire living as a college prof in San Francisco, trying to recover his mortality and find a woman to grow old and die with, but in Flashdance — meh. Of course, I was still fairly young at this point so maybe I just didn’t get the appeal outside of the cape. Cliffhangers only ran for 10 episodes, but I used to beg my mother to let me stay up and watch the Dracula segment of the show. I remember that he had a double coffin to share with his lady love. Now that’s classy, I tell you.

There was a bit of a dry patch leading up to my teen years. George Hamilton’s Love at First Bite came out the same year as Cliffhangers, but I was too young to see it in theaters. I had to wait for video. I’m almost terrified to admit that I think I might have watched it in Beta format!! Anyway, the humorous vampire didn’t quite cut it for me in those days. But the mid to late 80s made up for that in a big way. In 1985 a little comic-horror movie called Fright Night was released. It was at this point in my vampire-appreciation that I realized I’m not a big fan of the face-changing vampire. I’ve always thought the scariest monsters were the ones that looked just like us. And I’ve never really got why a vamp’s face had to change anyway. Regardless, I was 14 and Fright Night introduced me to the concept of vampire sexuality. I still maintain that Christopher Sarandon in the Night Club scene is one of the most sexual vampires ever. And he does it in a turtleneck sweater. No cape and tux for this blood-sucker!

Fright Night was followed by Near Dark. Before he could fly on Heroes, Adrian Pasdar played a very cute farm boy named Caleb who fell into the hands of a vicious group of vampires all because of a girl. Bill Paxton was notably fabulous as a vampire. And Adrian was so fresh scrubbed and morally upright he couldn’t bring himself to feed. Ohh, a tormented vampire! Here was something even more appealing than the sexy and villainous vamp. My interest grew.

But quite probably, the most influential vampire flick of my teen-age years was Lost Boys. I even got the literary reference! I was sixteen and very much into hair bands, and then I was handed this glossy, gorgeous movie filled with pretty boys and girls, all of whom had amazing hair and acted around a fabulous soundtrack. I loved it so much I didn’t care that the ‘Coreys’ were in it. Jason Patrick was huge at the time, as was my home boy Keifer Sutherland. But it was one of the vampires in the background who caught my eye. Billy Wirth had the best hair hands down, and he was the quintessential sexy vampire in my 16 year-old mind. For those of you who don’t recognize Billy but saw the movie, he was the ‘death by stereo’ vampire. I’ve never forgiven Corey Haim for that moment. (As an aside, this also ties in with my Gilmore Girls post, as Edward Herrmann, who played Lorelei’s father in the show, also played ‘father’ to the Lost Boys, trying to bring Michael into the fold so his mother would have to follow.)

I’m sure there were other vampires throughout the 90’s, but the winner in my books has to be Angel. He was tortured to the point of needing a slap. A real reluctant vamp, my favorite moments were when he was forced into action, or when ‘Angelus’ came out and he did something really campy and nasty. Some of my favorite moments:

1. when Angel is possessed by a female ghost during the Sadie Hawkins dance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Buffy takes on the ghost of the male counterpart.

2. When Angel comes back from Hell (having been sent there by Buffy) and he’s all feral.

3. When he mentions having a ‘thing’ for nuns and convents on Angel and we later find out nuns were his equivilant to a Happy Meal.

4. Puppet Angel.

Angel was pretty close to the perfect vampire — big, sexy and scary. But he also could be very funny when he had to be, and the character had a wonderful old world naivete at times. I loved the line he said at a restaurant with his cohorts, “I’m not cheap, I’m just old!”

Since Buffy and Angel both went off air, I haven’t found much in the way of vampire love. I had high hopes for Moonlight, as Mick St. John was one of the more interesting vamps I’d seen in a long time. Still fairly young he retained much of his humanity — a trait that was sometimes as maddening as it was heartbreaking. This show had a lot of promise, particularly because it didn’t fall back on drama as conflict. In the final episode, instead of walking away from his lady love as he was being pushed to do, Mick turned around and came back. I loved that, and I really wish the network had given us a chance to see what came next.

Thankfully HBO has brought the Sookie Stackhouse books to the small screen. And while Erik is very big and alpha, it’s Stephen Moyer as Bill who had my attention through Season 1 of True Blood. Bill has just the right amount of tortured sensitivity and humanity left inside to make lovely conflict with the part of him that is unapologetic monster. I’m sure some of this love is because I’ve always been a sucker for dark hair, blue eyes and an impressive set of side-burns and I don’t care. True Blood has given me the vampire fix I’ve been waiting for and I can’t wait to sink my teeth (pun so very much intended) into Season 2!

So, if you’ve stuck around for the entirety of this post, you must have a liking for vampires too. Feel free to share your thoughts on the vampires I’ve listed, or better yet share some of your favorites!