A Poetry Reading

Now for a little something different!  Please welcome Christine DePetrillo, who has a free gothic poetry website titled NIGHT ETERNAL.  She gives us a taste below.  Read it and go back for the whole bite!

Vampires are eloquent and sophisticated. They’ve been hanging around on this Earth for centuries. Nothing surprises them anymore for they have seen and heard it all. Except for Drake MacNeil, when one night a new fragrance fills his senses. Something he’s never smelled in his eternal life. Something he never knew existed. Something that brings him hope.

Werewolves are fierce and primal. Their claws have met dirt and flesh and are always ready to tear something apart. Footprints become pawprints when the moon is full, and the beast is unleashed. Arielle Boabhanshi, however, finds someone she wasn’t looking for in a crowded dance club. Try as she may, she can’t put him in the “food” category. There is something about him. Something she didn’t think she needed. Something that makes her world a different place.

Can love exist between monsters? Can it last an eternity?

Our website of free gothic romantic poetry, Night Eternal, explores these questions and this odd relationship. It is a love story, a tragedy, a battle. Poems are exchanged between Drake, given a voice by author Christine DePetrillo, and Arielle, brought to life by author Joseph Mazzenga. The poems are from their hearts…whether they beat or not.

For example, here’s one from Drake on becoming a vampire:

Birth of a Monster

Looking for trouble,

down a dark street.

Trying to hide

from the day to day.

Wishing for more,

always getting less.

When he offers me

a smoke,

this shadowy figure,

I shrug.

Why not?

Haven’t done that before.

Time for a change.

Inhaling, I cough,

sputter, choke,

but not on the smoke.

His hands are around my neck,

strong, icy cold.

The edges of my vision blur.

The haze is not enough

to mask the pain.

Twin knife pricks to my neck,

a slow fire in my veins,

cooling as the blood

leaves me.

The metamorphosis

is

instant.

I’m no longer what I was.

I will never be again.

One chance encounter

and I’m gone.

And one from Arielle on becoming a werewolf:

A Hollow Moon

Footsteps.

Always footsteps.

Harbinger in hindsight.

Blind as total nightfall.

I am honored by the hunt.

My soul is a chasm of emptiness

Until that which is unholy stalks my very shadow.

Closer.

Unnatural winds nip at my skin,

Ancient instincts, old and useless, stir.

Telltale heartbeats stating the prey.

It is I.

There is no seduction,

Only futile flight.

There is no fight save for the aggressor.

I tumble across time to the primeval.

I am the prey.

Dawn is no savior.

Only my fear is the beacon.

My screams are for the dead to hear.

One cut,

One slash,

One blood,

One curse....all for the prey,

All for me...

With the ashes of daylight,

With the cloak of the moon,

Resurrected.

I am the cutter.

I am the slasher.

I will now spill the blood.

I am now the cursed...

You can see they are a tortured lot, but they have been brought together by the night eternal and only the night knows what will become of them.

Join us in following Drake and Arielle at Night Eternal here. New poems are posted twice a week and we welcome your comments and involvement.

We also have books in the paranormal realm you may enjoy. Invasion of Blood, by Joseph Mazzenga explores vampires in an intergalactic way, and Alley Cat, by Christine DePetrillo follows a werecat in his search for a mate. Click the titles to purchase and enjoy. Click our names to visit our websites and see other books we have available.

Drake and Arielle are waiting for you…and so is the night! Tiptoe through the shadows and have a peek.