Under Darkness Part 25

I don't know if I'll be back with the Darkwings when they meet again.

Acknowledgments.

I often feel that being an author is a very lonely job, but in truth I never work entirely alone. I have many people helping me get my stories into print.

At the top of the list are my friend and agent John Talbot and my wonderful editor at Signet, Kristen Weber. This book wouldn't exist without either of them. I am an amazingly lucky author to have a truly great editor and a terrific agent who never lets me down. Both John and Kristen are consummate professionals-and compa.s.sionate human beings.

My grat.i.tude also goes to Allen Davis, Det. (Ret.) of the NYPD, who patiently answered my questions: i.e., What did you carry around with you in an unmarked police car? What's the weirdest call you ever answered? Any authenticity I achieved is thanks to him; any errors are my own.

Thanks are given to my nearest and dearest for putting up with my short temper and frayed nerves as this book neared completion. Thanks to Hildy Morgan for listening; thanks to Priscilla Adams for lifting my spirits. Thanks to Susan Collini for having the Santa Margherita chilled. Thanks to Flossy Finn for cheering me on. Thanks to Donna Wench at my local Barnes & n.o.ble for believing in me too.

Thanks to all my animals for not caring whether I write or not.

Thanks to all you readers. You read. You understand. You care.

Author's Note

My stories and my characters are entirely fictional. I dream them up. I don't know where the ideas come from. Jung's universal unconscious? My own subconscious? The Greek Muses? I really don't know.

And to answer the many readers who have asked me the following things: Do I ever get writer's block? No. I just sit down and write.

Do I ever run out of ideas? No, I just dream awake-and the dreams become stories.

Yes, my stories are based on dreams, but New York City is real.

Terrorism is real.

And some of the most incredible events I write are based on situations that actually happened.

For one thing, it is possible to let a subway train pa.s.s over you and live to tell about it. In January of 2007 a Harlem construction worker named Wesley Autrey leaped onto the tracks in front of an oncoming subway train to save a complete stranger who had suffered a seizure and fallen there.

He covered the man with his own body, and miraculously both men lived.

Another true thing: Both British and American intelligence agents do kidnap and incarcerate "enemies" in secret prisons. Amnesty International's Human Rights Watch and other groups have drawn up a list of thirty-nine "ghost detainees" whom they say are missing and being held by the United States. One of the missing is Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, son of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh" who masterminded the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.

There have been many reported incidents of this kind of abduction. However, the most publicized might be the one that resulted in the Italian government charging twenty-six Americans and six Italians, including the former head of Italy's military intelligence, with kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan and transporting him to Egypt.

In 2006 President Bush admitted secret detention camps existed, but insisted they were empty. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you.

True too-a hair of the prophet Muhammad is kept in the Hazratbal mosque in the Indian Kashmir.

On a lighter note, readers might want to know that since 1997 pa.s.sengers have been able to ride the Staten Island Ferry for free. The five ferries in service run twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. The twenty-five-minute ride offers an unforgettable view of the harbor, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the New York skyline.

You can spot all the foreign visitors riding the ferry because they're at the rail taking pictures. Most of the Americans are commuters who sit inside the ship reading the New York Post New York Post. But a Staten Island Ferry ride should go on every American's top-ten-things-to-do list. It's a national treasure.

Also the American Society of Indexers (www.asindexing.org) does exist. Many of their members are librarians. They are, without exception, unusually smart and resourceful people. However, ASI has never never held their national conference in New York City, and they have never had a meeting crashed by vampire hunters, nor anyone else, to the best of my knowledge. They also have no gun-toting security committee-although in these troubled times, it might not be a bad idea. held their national conference in New York City, and they have never had a meeting crashed by vampire hunters, nor anyone else, to the best of my knowledge. They also have no gun-toting security committee-although in these troubled times, it might not be a bad idea.

Hugs and kisses to everyone, Savannah

Undead Action and Sizzling Romance from SAVANNAH R RUSSE.

Beyond the Pale Book One of the Darkwing Chronicles

The government knows that Daphne Urban is a vampire, and they have an ultimatum: spy for them, or be killed.

For Daphne, the choice is easy. She can speak 13 languages, has a genius IQ, and has escaped detection for nearly five hundred years-making her perfect for Team Darkwing. Her first mission: get close to a shady arms dealer with terrorist connections. But while she's chasing him, someone else is chasing her-the darkly s.e.xy vampire slayer Darius della Chiesa. Daphne must choose between desire and duty-or risk her own destruction.

Past Redemption Book Two of the Darkwing Chronicles

There's a lethal new recreational drug out on the party circuit.

To stop its spread, Team Darkwing must immerse themselves in New York City's nightlife, where they discover ties between the drug's revenue and the country's most powerful dynasty.

To infiltrate the family, Daphne flirts with its weakest link, a party boy whom she'd love to sink her teeth into.

But even as their alliance leads her deeper into the case, Daphne can't stop thinking about Darius, the darkly s.e.xy human she claimed with a pa.s.sionate bite.