Hi everyone–
I’m happy to welcome Ciaran Dwynvil to the blog for the first time! He has the newest book in his Guardian Demon Series called In Blue Poppy Fields and you have a chance to see how it all begins if you enter his contest. Here’s Ciaran:
Thank you, Tara, for having me as your guest today. I’m very excited to be here to tell you about my newest gay erotic paranormal fantasy, In Blue Poppy Fields. The book will please not only all fans of Belial, the Prince of Trickery, the Lord of Lust and the Antilight… aka Guardian Demon, but all readers who love vampires.
Though… vampire stories differ greatly as we all know. Some have gloomy, horror atmosphere, some are full of blood and violence, still others brim with dark sensuality. How should you know ours would be to your liking? Apart from reading a sample chapter on Amazon or Smashwords to get a feel of the tale, you can learn about various aspects of a vampire’s life in our world during In Blue Poppy Fields release tour. Let’s first take a look at the book and then we will move on to our topic for today. Vampire body at work.
In Blue Poppy Fields blurb: A victim to another man’s cruelty, talented and beautiful theater actor Adhemar Lebeau learned not to trust and not to love anybody but himself. Falsely accused of his master’s murder, he has to accept assistance of mysterious Count Sanyi Arany to later discover his savior is a vampire. Forced both by a fatal illness and aftershocks of torture experienced during his unjust imprisonment, Adhemar agrees to the only possible cure. Rebirth.
Healed in body but not in mind, he guards his independence, free will and heart. He is not able to give love, only the fulfillment of lust. Yet, satiation of sensuous longing is not enough for his Sire and he knows it. When an eerie malady strikes and seems to deplete Sanyi’s life energy for unknown reasons, Adhemar understands his fears and agrees to keep a street boy, Reyach, as a pet for both of them in hope it will soothe the unspoken worries.
Out of necessity he finds himself in the role of the only hunter in their company, and out of attachment he accepts the responsibility readily. Indulgence in blood and carnal pleasures fill his nights and vampiric powers give him the feeling of safety. Until the evening when he carelessly falls prey to High Demon Belial’s plays that quickly turn into more than either of them has bargained for.
In spite of a hard start, Adhemar feels burning urge deep in his heart and no matter how much he denies it, the cause of the strange sensation is a budding seed of affection brought to life by the insufferable demon. But letting Adhemar learn to love somebody other than him is not what seemingly innocent Reyach plans.
Vampiric powers, indulgence in blood, hunting… yes, we know it belongs into a vampire’s night. But how does his body really work? Before you learn, let me say that we will speak here only about one bloodsucker race, the true vampires of the night. And now we start and will follow one vampire through the centuries:
The first change he experiences after his Rebirth are his suddenly heightened senses sharpening every perception. He becomes the predator of the night and his body adjusts to help him find and fell his prey easily. Whisper sounds like loud talk, the night sky glimmers with myriads of stars, the air is full of wafts of pleasant or not so pleasant aromas. Still shaky from the Rebirth experience he doesn’t know yet that all these changes that overwhelm him easily right now will later turn him into an unstoppable force when he is on the hunt. In time he will learn to control the extent to which he allows himself to be engulfed in the gale of sensations.
But one sense he won’t try to block. Feeling. Quickly will he discover that it provides incredible satisfaction in carnal pleasures. The downside to it is that agony is just as intense. But let’s hope that this vampire fledgling doesn’t experience pain for some time after his Rebirth. That was painful enough.
The next thing he finds out is that a hunt fills him with an immense boost in strength, that he feels invincible right before and through the blood taking, that the sensations of culminating bloodlust are comparable with an orgasm. During his first taking he also learns that he can control the length of his fangs pretty much like a cat controls its claws. It will become second nature to him and will allow him to live in the world of mortals without raising suspicion.
So, please forget about sharp nails or pointy ears. Such features would make it impossible for the vampire to live in the town, don’t you think? The truth is, if you met a vampire in our world, you wouldn’t know it until it was too late. The only warning signs would be his lower body temperature and enigmatic, hypnotic allure. But don’t we all sometimes have cold hands and aren’t we attracted to beauty? Unless our vampire makes a fatal mistake that would expose him to mortals, he can feel rather safe.
After a couple of successful hunts he realizes that the taste of blood differs from victim to victim and that the adrenaline rush and endorphins coursing through one’s veins change the taste for better. For this reason he will try to hunt regularly though he might find other sources of blood too. While his lovers might become willing donors and the surge of endorphins their veins carry during lovemaking twined with bloodtaking will almost compare to the experience of hunt, it won’t be the same. The fear a prey feels before his death adds an irresistible flavor to his blood.
And the young vampire will need plenty of it. One mortal victim per night for several decades. His body simply must accumulate enough of life energy. Only that will allow him to sustain himself. What would happen if he didn’t feed so frequently and didn’t receive enough of energy? He wouldn’t die. But the paralysis of daily slumber would strike with every night without feeding earlier and earlier in the predawn hours. That might prove fatal if the paralysis came outside of his dwelling. He would also feel weak and in the end might not even be able to overpower his quarry. Eventually, after seven to ten days he would fall into a coma that could only be broken by the gift of blood.
For this reason his Sire insists on the first hunt to take place during the first night of his immortality and then regularly… every night with no exceptions.
Provided that the young vampire survives the first critical nights sound and safe, his powers start to grow. He might not be aware of the subtle changes but with every victim he takes, a residual energy transfers into his body and adds to its power. He becomes stronger, faster, more cunning. If he suffers injuries he is able to heal them more and more effectively with every passing night.
Somewhere at the age of one hundred immortal years, he does no longer need to feed every night. He can skip one or two feedings weekly without sacrificing any of his powers. He is now also better able to control his bloodlust and postpone it to the most convenient circumstances. This makes him far less vulnerable to exposure of his true nature to mortals.
As the centuries pass and the stream of blood and energy continues to feed him, he turns to be almost indestructible. Around his seven hundredth birthday he only feeds around once a week and his wounds heal almost instantly. The only ways to kill him are to either decapitate him or burn him to ashes. But by this time he has grown so cautious that mortals have almost no chance to uncover his secrets.
You might ask: what about sunshine? The truth is that only one race of bloodsuckers, the true vampires of the night, can be destroyed by sunrays. We will discuss the other races in another post during the tour.
But back to our vampire. He is now one of the most powerful immortal creatures roaming the night. But despite all his powers, some of his bodily functions work as they used to when he still was a mortal man. He sweats, cries, climaxes just like a mortal. And yes, when the nature calls, he seeks a dark alley not to pull a victim to the ground but to take a leak. That you didn’t know this? Well, vampires don’t exactly put these details into an advertisement for the immortal life. But just think about a kitten. It receives only milk as its nourishment but it doesn’t mean the fluid just disappears inside and never sees the light again.
Now my vampires frown at me because I’m revealing such intimate details from their existence. I’d better stop right now.
But if you are interested to learn more about them in our world, you can find a list of topics and the schedule of the whole tour here.
We spoke about a vampire’s senses a lot and so also the excerpt will be dedicated to the first moments of experiencing their sharpness.
“Do so, Sir,” Vincent encouraged him in a quiet whisper that sounded like a shout and Adhemar winced. “It will pass. You will grow used to it,” Sanyi added his silent holler and Adhemar’s eyes narrowed under an assault of new pain.
“Every sensation is now more intense, Sir. Your senses have sharpened and you will need time to adjust,” Vincent breathed softly like a summer night breeze. It still felt like a scream right next to Adhemar’s ear but at least not delivered into his ear canal directly. Maker, you can’t make things easy on me just for once. Can you? No, it wouldn’t be you after all, Adhemar smirked sarcastically and sat up.
Taking in the surroundings with new eyes, he almost gasped. He could see… everything. Every tiny wood fiber in the beams, every stroke of the long gone brush on the paint of the door, the smoke of the candle rising to the ceiling. He could watch it dissolving slowly into the air if he wanted to. Overcome with the strangeness of such sharp vision, he quickly glanced at his companions and this time really gasped. In horrified fascination. Sanyi’s mouth and chin were coated by a crust of slowly drying blood. His or Vincent’s? And the sheets were a damp, creased, reddened knot. Maker!
Vincent’s eyes sparkled in barely repressed amusement and his lips curled in a tiny smile just before he enlightened him: “Giving birth makes a bed rather messy, Sir.”
Did the little peek into our world capture your attention? In Blue Poppy Fields is currently available at Amazon and Smashwords.
It can be read without being familiar with other books in the Guardian Demon Series but you now have an opportunity to win one of the twelve copies of Trails of Love I Crawl Part 1 that opens the beguiling world of this series. Participation is easy enough for anybody over the age of eighteen. The more you help others find me and Guardian Demon Series books, the more chances to win you will have.
What can you do?
- Recommend my books in reader discussions on Goodreads, Shelfari or other platforms you are active at
- Follow my blog, like my FB page, follow me on Twitter
- Rate my books on Goodreads
- Review my books on Amazon, Smashwords, B&N or Goodreads
- Feature my books and your reviews of them on your blog if you have one
- Tell your friends about Guardian Demon Series
- Tweet about In Blue Poppy Fields, FB links to release tour articles, reblog them, Pinterest them, Stumble upon them… whichever platform you fancy is welcome
My giveaway form will give you more suggestions. Winners will be announced on my blog on the 11th of April. http://ciarandwynvil.wordpress.com/
I hope to see your entry in the giveaway and thank you for your help in spreading the word of mouth about Guardian Demon Series.
With this I hand over Tara’s blog back to her. It has been my pleasure to be your guest, Tara. Thank you for having me over today.
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Thank you Ciaran! And thanks to you guys for visiting. Here’s the Rafflecopter for you to enter!