Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Vampire's Little Black Book Series, #3

By Victoria L. Szulc

Will, a dashing single vampire, continues his search for an eternal love. He remembers a time when he was not so noble. He tells the tale of a wicked year at Versailles. It's a story filled with politics, an excess of riches and sex. At the famed palace, he meets Esme, another vampire who is entrapped by her cousin Avery and his cruel demands. Will carouses with an old friend Frederic, but does he go too far? And why can he not stop persuing Esme?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria L. Szulc
• Release date: Nov 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958760208

Victoria L. Szulc

Victoria L. Szulc is a multi-media artist and author from St. Louis, MO. She "lives" her art and has various hobbies including: drawing, writing, volunteering for animal charities, karate, yoga, karaoke, voice over work, belly dancing, and weather spotting. She specializes in pet portraiture through her company The Haute Hen. For character development she's currently learning chess, fencing, and whip cracking. Victoria blogs about these adventures at mysteampunkproject.wordpress.com. You can view book trailers and her other adventures starting here: https://youtu.be/y-Xja304rUs “Adventures abound and romance is to be had.” As always, thank you for reading, -Victoria

Book preview

For my dark side that I have forgiven.

Present Day, New York

I was in New York for a medical convention and had stepped out for drinks with my coworkers. After the others had gone back to our hotel, I slipped out to hit a new underground club where I heard it was safe to feed. Clubs are perfect for vampires. They’re usually dark, loud and packed with so many people that no one knows exactly what’s going on, other than it’s time to party. This club was no different. It was jammed solid with beautiful and wealthy clubbers. Despite the throngs of people, I smelled her at once, an old familiar female vampire.

I wasn’t but a few feet past the doorman when her scent tickled my nose. She still smelled of her French homeland, lightly sweet and luxurious. I moved to see Tiffany with a trendy crowd, all vampires, at one of the more secluded bars in the place. She had never liked to be alone. Her hair shimmered gold, her eyes painted smoky brown, black, and her bright red lips curled temptingly just under her pert upturned nose. The flicker of the lights ran over her body in a bizarre leopard like pattern. She was reposed like a gorgeous wild animal in Africa. That is if they had raves on the wild continent.

It had been a long while since I’d seen Tiffany; over ten years. I remembered that the last time was also in New York, in Times Square on the millennial New Year’s Eve. It was just like her to be in the most popular of places. She liked attention. I could sense she was still spoiled and naughty. We exchanged brief hellos around ten pm that New Year’s night in the packed crowd and then moved on with our respective groups. It was oddly reassuring to know that she was still around.

I felt that way again now on my break from my vacation disguised as a medical seminar. Tiffany gazed up briefly from her cohorts after catching my scent. She lifted her drink in my direction and sipped. How I loved to repeatedly meet ladies at the bar. I smirked as her bunch peered uneasily in my direction. We were both much older than all her friends’ ages combined.

She’d hung with the hipster crowd or the most fabulously wealthy. Tiffany always had money; she was born into it around the late 1200s in France. Her name then was Esme.

__________

Esme was born to wealthy aristocrats. Her mother died in childbirth; her father under mysterious circumstances when she was ten. A distant cousin, Avery, had inherited all her wealth and became her guardian. He was a quirky bachelor, most likely because he was a vampire. Once Esme had passed puberty, he had taken an unusual liking to her. He paraded her