Now Available for Pre-Order: Shadow Life
What's it About?
Shadow Life is a short story about a murdered lover…loved by all, and a creature neither vamp, nor were. Can I catch Nicola’s murderer before he kills again? And what price will I pay to do just that?
How Does It Start?
I took a short cut down the alley. The moon was full, the night was late, and I was alone. None of these things worried me.
There were things in the night, and in being alone, that would have made me tremble had I not known them so intimately. Things that still gave me shivers in spite of, and because of, my knowing them so well.
My lover waited for me in the alley but, by the time I reached where she was to meet me, she was dead. I saw the blood, one of her shoes flung carelessly on the ground, and a strip of her dress caught on the edge of a fire escape two floors up.
I remember climbing the fire escape stairs, bile a cold lump in my throat, and my heart hammering in dismay as I retrieved the scrap of dress. My lover had planned a night of ‘pleasure untamed’ judging by the sequined green velvet she had worn.
I looked down from the fire escape at the shoe and the blood spray on the wall and alley floor, and shivered. Somehow the secrets of the dark didn’t seem so safe anymore.
Nicola hadn’t known them. I hadn’t had time to tell her, had been sworn against telling by the Lady herself. I had sworn on pain of...something worse than death.
Then, as I climbed back down to the shoe, clutching the scrap of velvet in my hand, I remember saying over and over to myself, “But I didn’t tell her. I didn’t.”
I remember, too, the velvet mockery in the laughter that greeted me as I picked up Nicola’s shoe.
“You don’t have to, now,” it teased. “She knows all about us, now.”
I remember screaming my denial at it, and drawing the silver length of the stiletto I carried holstered at my thigh. The air whispered in a darkened corner and I leapt toward it, the stiletto’s blade winking in the moonlight.
Again, laughter rippled out of the dark, and an eddy of night mist drifted away at my feet. With a sob, I struck at the mist, the silver blade causing it to hiss with rage.
Suddenly, I was not facing mist any more, but a man. He was handsome by anyone’s standards. I wondered if Nicola had found him so, but I knew she would not have betrayed me, that way. He was quick, as well.
One hand reached for my throat. Not quick enough. I rammed the stiletto home, again, making him recoil as the silver burned his flesh.
I saw his eyes narrow and knew that, this time, he was truly enraged. Instead of the deadly fear I should have felt, I had only bitter joy. I jabbed viciously at his chest, but suddenly, he glanced beyond me, toward the alley mouth, and he was no longer before me.
“You are lucky to be under such protection,” he growled, though I could no longer see him.
The wind whispered around me, and I knew he was gone. I looked toward the end of the alley and saw nothing. Nevertheless, I had the feeling I was not alone, although whoever accompanied me did not show themselves, and I did not have the spirit to look for them.
I had to report Nicola missing. There was nothing else I could do.
I remembered the sound of the vampire’s laughter, teasing me in the alley, and knew there was one thing more I could try: the Lady.
Where Do You Find It?
You can find Shadow Life available at a number of locations, listed at this Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/47qPaR
OR
You can find it as part of A Collection of Death and the Undead, a collection of short fiction and poetry found at one of the locations listed at this Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/47gVYg
OR
You can access it as part of the Wanderers and above subscriptions on my ReamStories page, here: https://reamstories.com/cmsimpsonwriter
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