Where Demons Fear To Tread ~ Chapter 4

I missed posting Chapter 4 last Friday due to the craziness of Christmas. Sorry about that.

 

Dinner for one, as usual. Not that a pint of Friendly’s black raspberry ice cream could appropriately be termed dinner. It was more a psychological balm to soothe my frayed nerves. I’d pay for it later; I always did, but I couldn’t be moved to care at the moment.

I couldn’t be moved to do a whole lot of anything it seemed. I’d come home and immediately curled up in my favorite green armchair in front of the fireplace, detouring only to kick my shoes off by the back door. The chair’s dark fabric cocooned me, but the comfort it normally provided was nowhere in evidence. I fussed and fidgeted trying to find some solace in its softness.

The events of the day had thrown my mind in turmoil and I wished I had somebody to talk it over with. There were only a limited number of people I considered friends and none of them could help me sort through the jumbled mess that was my brain.

Where Demons Fear To Tread ~ Chapter 3

Skullhaven, formerly Springfield, was vampire territory.

After their grand entrance at the end of the Human/Fey Conflict, the local bloodsuckers either scared off or killed most of the human inhabitants of Skullhaven, claiming it for their own. Within days, the fourth largest city in New England was nothing more than a ghost town.

Now, the only day-walking residents were vamp slaves, soon to be slaves, and those beings too tough and stubborn to be run off.

At night, the maze of burned out and abandoned buildings became what many Agents called, accurately enough, The Vampire’s Playground. Here, their prey was set loose to run the city streets in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

All within the law, hopefully; vamps caught chasing human prey without a signed and notarized release form earned themselves an immediate death sentence. In any case, they weren’t lacking in volunteers. Death by vampire was the fastest growing, legalized form of suicide in the country.

It made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I loathed vampires. They were nothing but evil, lying parasites. I would gladly exterminate the lot of them if I could.

Where Demons Fear To Tread ~ Chapter 2

Two hours later, I paced between the two desks in my office, my nerves too jittery for me to form coherent thoughts. After Death’s unceremonious exit, I’d spent an hour lying on the floor in my darkened office performing a deep-breathing exercise Mom had taught me right after my first change. It didn’t give me complete control over my self, but it would keep me from ripping the head off the next person to look at me funny.

I needed to talk to Tommy about this new case, but my mind was a jumble of emotions. Worry tinged with panic nestled in my stomach, gnawing at my insides. I needed to call my Mom as well. A million questions ran through my mind, tumbling around and over each other.

Would my demon-half always be stronger than my human-half? Was my human lifespan shortened? Would I always feel like I was standing at the brink, ready to plunge over into the darkness? If I wasn’t careful, it’d be all too easy for me to become exactly what I’d fought against my whole life. I’d rather die than give in to the evil residing in the bowels of my soul.

And what was this debt Death seemed to think I owed?

Tis The Season of Giving

It’s been a very long time since I last posted here. Not so surprising considering my posting track record, but to make up for it I have a special treat for everybody!

My first novel, Where Demons Fear To Tread a.k.a. Lost Souls has been shopped around to almost all of the trade publishers and, despite some very encouraging comments by the reading editors, been rejected by each and every one of them. The purpose of me writing something is for people to read it and I don’t want WDFTT to go unread. So, in honor of the holiday season, every Friday I am going to be posting a chapter of WDFTT here on the blog.

Without further ado, I present for your reading edification the first chapter of WHERE DEMONS FEAR TO TREAD!

 

People appearing in my office without an appointment are always a sign of bad things to come. Today was no exception.

A useless morale-boosting meeting had devoured the better part of my morning. Useless because people who work in blood and death on a daily basis aren’t much for the “Rah rah rah!” speeches used to raise morale. Those of us who work in the Violent Crimes Division are more subdued, and none of us chose this line of work for the kudos. We did it because it needed doing. Because we possessed the abilities to get the job done.

But what did I know? I didn’t have the title of doctor or a string of fancy letters after my name. Just a gun, some ass-kicking skills, and a nasty demonic heritage few people cared to mess around with.