Lady Silence

By Celeste Hall

An Erotic Horror Novel

Let sleeping evils lie...
Stefie is a feisty young reporter that goes looking into a town's darkest secrets and learns that cutting into old scars can bring more than blood to the surface. A sexy beast, caged away by a cruel mistress and now eager for revenge.
Vel. Trapped in darkness. Locked away for all eternity. His only companions are the rats and creatures of night; which feed upon the death of old buildings as the worms would devour a putrid body of flesh. His sanity splintering away, rotting and collapsing like the walls that have held him captive for so long.

WARNING: This erotic horror novel contains explicit sex and language between a demonic alpha male and a good girl. There is non-sexual violence and paranormal suspense. If you love a fast-paced erotic horror and ultra sexy demon lovers, you'll probably enjoy this book. Otherwise, you should probably move on to one of my tamer novels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Celeste Hall
• Release date: May 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458143068

Celeste Hall

Celeste Hall is a passionate writer of paranormal and erotic romance with over twenty-five titles to her credit, including Beware of Wolves, the Kitty Coven series, and her ultra-sexy Seduction series. If you're looking for a sizzling escape from the pressures of a long day, her alpha hero incubi will make you purr.Celeste believes that a great book can do more than offer an afternoon's pleasure, it can change your life. She is absolutely addicted to happy endings. Her favorite stories will often include elements of the paranormal or fantastical, but they will always have a romantic heart.When not writing, Celeste enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors. She also enjoys photography, graphic design, a variety of artistic mediums, gardening, horseback riding and geeking out online - especially on Facebook.You can find a full list of her books by visiting: CelesteHall.com.

Book preview

Lady Silence

By Celeste Hall

Lady Silence

Copyright © 2011 by Celeste Hall

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Please purchase only authorized editions.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

All sexually active characters in this book are 18 years of age or older.

Also by Celeste Hall

~ Seduction Series ~

A paranormal erotic romance series, best read in the following order…

Ethan

Kye

Rico

Gavin

All The Queen’s Men

The Brothers Sin – Coming Soon!

~ Kitty Coven Series ~

A new adult romance series, best read in the following order…

Something Wicca This Way Comes

The Bare Witch Project

Love’s a Witch

A Yowling Yuletide

Cheaper By The Coven – Coming Soon!

~ Savage Throne Series ~

A historical romance series, best read in the following order…

Fealty

Fidelity – Coming Soon!

For a full list of books by Celeste Hall, including standalone novels, short stories and anthologies, please visit her website at www.CelesteHall.com.

Chapter One

The Old House stood, bleak and dilapidated, overgrown by a choking web of ivy.

From an earlier scouting of the area, Stefanie Torovic knew that the building was more deserving of a name like Alcatraz, than ‘The Old House’. But it had stood for at least a hundred years as it was now – and an unknown time before that.

There were claims that the ground beneath it was an Indian burial ground before the American continent was settled, and that a coven of witches had first founded the town – escaping from the torches of Salem.

That the town had grown up around the coven’s church, which was later torn down to build the Old House, now haunted by the spirits of those long dead witches and their demon spawn.

Always the skeptic, Stefie believed that most of the stories had been crafted by the teenagers that used it as a prop for scary dates. It was too easy to stretch a tale into unbelievable lengths when there was nobody left who actually knew the truth.

From what she was able to dig up out of the town’s archives, censuses, and logs; the original structure was built even before the country had claimed its independence from Britain, but that it had been added to over the years to create the monstrosity that it was now.

A historical gem, although none of the previous owners had been fool enough to attempt restoring it. And the building’s current owner – her own uncle – wanted little to do with it at all.

Older then recorded time and rotted beyond safety. She could not help but feel a thrill as she approached it. This was no ordinary house. The immense building stood up like a fortress in the night. Black and monstrous, with solid iron bars fitted tightly over windows that had already been securely boarded up.

The town safety inspector sincerely wanted to keep the curious out of there - which, of course, only made Stefanie more determined to succeed.

She had to drive her rust-bucket of a pickup truck off the road, and over a botanical nightmare of brush and shrubbery, in order to hide it behind the manor’s hulking body.

The night was already pitch dark and threatening to rain. It was a terrible time for the casual observer to be out and about, but the perfect time for someone that didn’t want to be noticed.

Pulling as close as she could to the prisonlike gates securing what was once a garden entrance to the black hulk above her, she pulled out the heavy duty tow chain that she’d brought along for just this purpose.

The damned thing took her almost an hour to fasten around the gates and then catch to the axle of her truck, but she was encouraged to see that the bricks holding the gate to the wall were quite thoroughly rotted out. It should pull away fairly easily.

Yes, what she was doing technically qualified as breaking and entering. But the photographs alone were going to be Pulitzer quality! Besides, it wasn’t as if every teenager in town hadn’t done this exact same thing at least once in their lives.

She’d been in a group of just such teens only a few years ago, although they hadn’t made it nearly as deep into the belly of the beast as Stefie planned to go tonight. They’d all pretty much chickened out in the first room. The place was truly terrifying.

People had died within those walls - lots of people – in terrible ways.

Nobody would talk about it anymore, as if just talking about it would bring the curse of the house against them.

They relentlessly boarded up the windows whenever they were broken, and then went the extra mile to assure that every single window was barred as well. As if afraid of some tangible evil escaping, rather than teenagers getting hurt in a stupid game of dare.

Pop ...smack! The gate snapped right open the moment she hit the gas pedal - and cracked into the tailgate of her truck. She rolled her eyes in a moment of self-ridicule as she realized she should have allowed for more space between the two. But she was in! There was nothing blocking her path now that couldn’t be pried off with a simple crow bar. Within seconds she was stepping over the threshold and into a room so inky black that even the sudden illumination of her flashlight did little to cut through the darkness.

She stood there, her back facing safety and security, and felt an uncomfortable shiver ripple through her. The last time she’d been here, it was in the company of a dozen other students from her high school. They had gained a sort of false courage from being together in a group - a courage which was sorely lacking in her now, despite the years that had passed since.

Stefie liked to think of herself as a strong and independent woman. The sort of girl that might face down a charging mountain lion for that once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. But there was something about the darkness that confronted her now which made her feel threatened in a way that she couldn’t even describe.

She felt as though she were being watched. But it was more than that. The darkness seemed to pulse and writhe about her body, warm and stale from being locked inside for so long. The fetid breath of a predator waiting for its prey to step just a little closer, before it fell upon her body and ripped her to shreds.

Damn it! She shoved the mental image away and forced herself to step forward, trying to stay near the center line of the room. Where she was less likely to trip over pieces of debris, or walk into the fibrous cancer of cobwebs attached to every surface of the room. Vaporous sinews that stretched out to form the visceral flesh of the house, gluing all the pieces together despite the effects of age.

The visual proof of spiders had her clutching her jacket tighter to keep anything from crawling inside with her. This was a bad idea - a very bad idea - but she couldn’t just turn around after she’d come so far. She couldn’t afford to look like a fool to her boss. Particularly because he was also her uncle, so she would never hear the end of it.

Even more pressing were the stories that had recently started leaking in from the newest generation of teenagers, which still visited the place to scare each other. The gullible girls who might be convinced to reward their brave dates with more than just a goodnight kiss, and just as easily part their lips to discuss it with a total stranger over lunch the next day. It was their stories that had lured her here alone, without even a camera man for company.

Stefie made her way deeper into the darkness. The pale ghost of light, still available from the doorway, was quickly being swallowed up behind her. And as it faded, her eyes began to play tricks on her.

Was that blood covering the walls and floors… or black mold eating away at rotted boards? The pale beam of her flashlight was scarcely enough to offer a path free from debris, much less a clear view through the intense darkness that pressed in around her.

There was no electricity here, no wires in the walls. The house was so old that the previous owners must have used lamps and candles to keep it lit.

Yes, definitely candles. She caught a glimpse of ancient wax frozen in an eternal attempt to drip from off the mantle. Now they were pale roots for spiders to fasten their delicate threads against.

For a moment she was halted by the faint stench of something old and indescribable bad.

Please don’t let it be something dead. She didn’t think she could stand to find a body – no matter the state of it. Bones would be just as bad as something still trapped in the process of decomposing.

Her mind again flashed to the dark stains on the walls, and instantly recalled the stories she had been told in her youth, as well as those more recently acquired. What kind of person could do the things that were done in this house to another person?

For at least the hundredth time she wished that she’d brought a gun with her. But she really didn’t know how to use one, and better judgment had