Beguiled by Night: A Vampire Tale

The convoluted chronicle of Vauquelin — a queer, ancient vampire — unfolds in a tapestry of paradoxes. Born into the tumultuous backdrop of elegant, monied, 17th-century France, an ill-fated broken carriage wheel alters the trajectory of his life for eternity.After centuries of ennui, his blood-stained past provokes him to seek new horizons: he emigrates to the United States. There he witnesses Los Angeles evolve from primitive dirt roads into its present-day incarnation: a sprawling, soulless metropolis. His life in self-imposed exile is peaceful and relatively carefree: until one night it's abruptly shattered. The very fabric of time itself begins to unravel without explanation, casting him adrift in the chaos of mid-century LA and beyond.Vauquelin fumbles his way through history in reverse, ripping the scabs off of old wounds and mourning the loss of his futurepast joys, while attempting to keep certain skeletons firmly locked in their closets where they belong.But the past has a way of making its presence known, especially when one is reliving it. As the threads of his history fray, the vampire finds himself ensnared within the fragmented labyrinth of his existence. Vauquelin’s mundane modern existence is systematically erased, compelling him to confront all his missteps over the last three centuries and acknowledge his defeats. The cobblestoned streets of old Paris beckon, and he is obligated to confront his own macabre history: but with newfound clarity.An unanticipated glimmer of hope emerges amidst the chaos of his unravelling timelines: a chance for reconciliation, for atonement, tantalisingly presents itself. Yet even as the wheels of time threaten to grind to a halt, uncertainty looms large. As he regresses through time, he surrenders to his brutal nature and faces an unexpected choice that could alter his life completely, and in turn, extinguish the only true happiness he ever knew.What will become of Vauquelin when — and if — time begins to march forward again? He has two choices: emerge from the wreckage reborn, or be forever ensnared within a bloody web of his own making.Content guide: Beguiled by Night is a steamy, horror romance with mature themes and bisexual relationships. Reader discretion is advised. View the author’s website for detailed content lists.

From the Back Cover

Death was not the Grim Reaper, so immortalized in literature: Death was a black angel, a feminine god -- exquisite and unforgiving, capricious and unprejudiced. She had her orders, and she carried them out without fail despite (or in spite of) prayers and (un)holy cries and despair. Throughout his life as a vampire, not once during any of his kills had he seen Death. No one came for their souls. He was the reaper, delivering them to their afterlives. Where their souls went, he did not know.

About the Author

Nicole Eigener is the author of BEGUILED BY NIGHT: A Vampire Tale (Beguiled by Night Book 1, Polidori Press, 2020) and the CITIZENS OF SHADOW (Beguiled by Night Book 2), in which Vauquelin's story continues: a queer, dark fantasy of vampires, time travel, and sinister secrets that threaten to unravel an eternal existence.They are also co-author, with Beverley Lee, of CRIMSON IS THE NIGHT: A Vampire Novelette, a sequel featuring a meeting of characters from Lee's Gabriel Davenport series and the Beguiled By Night series. These vampire universes collide even further in A CONCLAVE OF CRIMSON (Book 1), available in March 2024.Nicole is a lifelong student of French history and the macabre. After gaining degrees in literature and history, their love for haemovores became a beautiful marriage to their obsession with French culture, specifically of the seventeenth-century, which (along with themes of historical queerness) features prominently in their work. When they aren't writing, they are probably editing, reading, trying to avoid the sun, and/or desperately missing Parisian cafés and rainy walks through Père Lachaise cemetery.

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