Free reads. Enjoy!
Entrenched. Short story (2800 words). BTS eMag, issue 29, pages 29-33
An entrenched demon flits from human to human, romancing the life force from victims in order to survive. But falling in love sets the demon free and on a very different path.
Entrenched won Second place in the BTS eMag Readers Choice Awards for Short Story!
The Gift. Flash fiction (360 words). A treat for his vampiress love.
Taking her hand in his, Eric led Rachel down a narrow dirt path along the lake. His gray eyes twinkled. “Come. I have a surprise for you.”
She gave him a shy smile, her long dress wrapping around her ankles in the soft, summer breeze. “A surprise? Do tell.”
“Ah, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, my love, would it?”
They climbed a grassy knoll flanked by weeping willows. He gestured to a blanket laid out, adorned with a basket. “What could be more enjoyable than a summer picnic along the lake?”
She raised a questioning eyebrow, then her gaze found the three wiggling men draped over a thick tree limb like deer hung to dry.
With ease, Eric threw the bound and gagged men onto the picnic blanket. “Feast, my darling, feast!”
Rachel clasped her hands to her chest. “Oh, Eric, I love you.”
His kiss swept across her lips. “And I love you.”
She dropped to her knees and bent over the first man. A prominent vein on his forehead bulged like a twisted, bloated earthworm. But she was far more interested in the throbbing pulse along his throat, drawing her closer, the scent of fresh blood just beneath the man’s skin flaming her senses. Her fangs lengthened.
The man’s eyes widened, his stifled cry a mere squeak as she sank her teeth through thin flesh, expertly piercing the writhing vessel. A warm spray of blood coated her tongue, and she swallowed greedily, drinking her fill until the man’s movements slowed and ceased.
Finished, she glanced up at Eric, a splatter of blood across his tight T-shirt and faded jeans. He grinned. “Shall we share the third?”
“Wherever did you find them?”
“My job has its perks.” He gestured to the prone men, their eyes now vacant. “This one bludgeoned his wife and three children to death.” A low growl sprung from Eric’s chest. “And that one raped and killed six young women.”
“And the third?” she whispered, her mind reeling with the unspeakable horrors humans inflicted on one another.
“Ah, this man.” Eric traced a finger along the man’s carotid artery, before shuddering. “He produced Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo”.