Free Dark Obsession by Amanda Stevens

said more forcefully. “I made you up.”
    But Megan was dead. Megan was dead because theblood had been drained from her body by a…a what? A psycho? Or a vampire? Did Erin really believe that? Did she dare?
    She squinted again in the sunlight. Megan’s bedroom window faced west. It had to be late afternoon, which meant that Erin had slept for more than fifteen hours straight. It was frightening to think of losing so much time. Of being unconscious during the night. Of losing control.
    And becoming vulnerable to the monsters that came out while she slept.
    She’d even dreamed she heard Detective Slade calling to her. Strange that she should cast him in the role of protector. Even though he was a policeman, when she’d first seen him, Erin remembered thinking how very much he looked like something spawned by her nightmares. A demon lover…
    Erin fought for balance as she struggled to her feet, then stood for a moment clutching a post on the canopied bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was still wearing Megan’s dress, and her stomach rolled sickeningly.
    What’s happening to me? she thought desperately. God in heaven, why had she come back here? She should have stayed away. She should never have challenged the monsters, because at that moment, Erin had the terrifying feeling that they were winning. That they were luring her slowly but surely into the darkness.
    Just as they had lured Megan.
    Trying to fight back her panic, Erin tore off the black dress and tossed it onto the floor of the closet. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweater from her suitcase, and headed for the bathroom. For a long time, she stood under the steaming water, trying to make sense of everything that had happened since she’d returned to New York after being away for so long.
    New York…the very name conjured up images of darkness and demons. Of monsters waiting all these years for her to come back.
    Shivering, Erin turned off the shower and toweled herself dry. “I’ve got to get out of here,” she muttered, trying to avoid her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
    Fresh air. That was what she needed. Fresh air, sunshine and miles between herself and this apartment. When she had dressed, Erin grabbed her purse and coat, and hurried out into the late-afternoon sunlight.
    * * *
    Surrounded by vacant warehouses and aging brick buildings converted into vintage clothing shops and alternative music stores, the Alucard Theater was located at the end of an obscure little street in the Village.
    Erin stood on the sidewalk, gazing up at the dark facade of the theater. A handbill posted on the lockedfront door announced the premiere of Roman Gerard’s play,
Dark Obsession,
two nights away. It would have been Megan’s opening night, Erin thought.
    A movement on a tiny balcony overlooking the front of the theater caught her eye and she looked up. She grew uneasy, imagining that someone was standing there watching her. Racine’s words about the director came back to haunt her.
    “Roman Gerard is practically a recluse,” the redhead had told her when Erin had questioned her about the director. “Rumor has it he was in some sort of accident that left him horribly disfigured. No one ever sees him now. He stays in the balcony and issues the stage directions from the shadows.”
    Images from
Phantom of the Opera
leapt to Erin’s mind. She had visions of some poor, hideously deformed creature watching her from above. She’d read enough from Megan’s script to know that the brooding protagonist of
Dark Obsession
was a vampire, but unlike the demon lover in Erin’s book, a monster who embodied evil, Gerard’s vampire was a tortured creature who sought justice in an unjust world. A lonely soul who yearned for the love of a woman who could understand him. Who would embrace the darkness with him. Who would walk through eternity at his side.
    Erin’s vampire was destroyed in the end.
    Gerard’s vampire