Celeste

The Books of Insanity, Vol. I

By KT Pinto

What do you call a day when the bacchanal is running late, your sacrifices are getting cold feet, you catch your werecat lover in bed with your high priestess, and the heads of the vampyric families want you hung off of the Acropolis at dawn?

Celeste DeCumpania calls it a Tuesday.

Born in a war camp and thought to be an illegitimate child of Julius Caesar, Celeste starts her life knowing that she is equal—if not better—than her male peers, but she knows that men still run the world, and learns to use them to get what she wants.

When she becomes a vampyre, the world doesn’t change much for her. She still knows that she needs men to help her move up and gain power in society. That’s when she discovers the power of sex. Not the actual act of sex—which she saves for special occasions—but the sexual tension that makes men (and women) tend to do what they may not have done normally. A coy smile, a fluttering of lashes, body parts touching as she brushes past...Celeste becomes a master of these games, and uses them to gain more powerful allies around her, such as Marco, the Roman soldier turned vampyre, and Vanity, her half-faerie/half werecat bodyguard.

Ironically, the more powerful she becomes, the more enemies she obtains, so the more powerful she has to become. It’s a vicious cycle that Celeste seems to feed off of. So much so that she raises her status from noblewoman to goddess, and quickly gets a following of human fanatics eager to be at her mercy...

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About the Author

KT Pinto

KT Pinto has been writing for over 20 years (can we say glutton for punishment?). This NYC girl has been published in numerous magazines, including Nth Degree, Proteus, the LARPer, and Pyramid. Her short story "Game Over" can be found in the anthology Hear Them Roar. She has a weekly superhero serial on her website (http://www.ktpinto.com) called Sto's House.

Reviews

"Wonderful premier novel! Great dialog, wonderful characters, and impressive historical backdrop. I can't wait to see what Ms. Pinto does next!" —Christopher Mancuso, Executive Creative Director, Scared on Staten Island

"This isn't just another vampire novel -- Pinto's strong characters jump off the page and go straight for the jugular." —Keith R.A. DeCandido, best-selling author

Excerpt

It was so bitingly cold the night of the Bacchanal, I had thought about canceling the evening, but then realized that only the most dedicated would venture out that night, and those were the people I was looking for. So I had the servants erect three huge bonfires, their flames reaching to the stars and their heat giving some respite from the cold.

I dressed in a fire red gown, with holly berries in my hair and crimson coloring on my lips and cheeks. Then, with a sigh, I made myself invisible, left my nice, warm manor, climbed up a hill, and sat on a chair in a small marble temple. From that position I could see the bonfires and all of those that danced around them. Talia, Lysander, Iodine, Dymas and Vanity were walking through the crowds, scouting women for those that would be the 'chosen few'. Marco stood at the bottom of the hill, making sure none of the revelers trespassed on my 'Holy Ground'. I sat all alone, glad that I had fed beforehand to keep myself warm.

Let me tell you, in case I haven’t mentioned it before, being a goddess isn’t all fun and games. While my worshippers danced around fires and drank wine, while couples and groups pleasured each other among the bushes, I sat very still and quiet in the darkness. I glanced down at Marco in frustration and wondered how he could bear the doldrums of guard duty while everyone else celebrated.

About a half an hour later I decided that I had enough. Talia was supposed to have performed a ritual to call me forth and I was to have waited until then to appear, but screw it! I’m a goddess; I could appear whenever I wanted.