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While Pepper plans on having an eternity to spend her happily ever after with Emerick Lowrance, getting to the wedding is proving to be a problem. Between numerous women rising from their graves into their second lives and a surge of miscreants attacking innocents on the street, she has her hands full with brood business.
While Pepper plans on having an eternity to spend her happily ever after with Emerick Lowrance, getting to the wedding is proving to be a problem. Between numerous women rising from their graves into their second lives and a surge of miscreants attacking innocents on the street, she has her hands full with brood business.
What she doesn’t know leads her into a deadly dance, and even a single misstep will doom her, her brood, and the love of her unlife.
You can purchase Death Dance at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Patreon | Smashwords
From Chapter One
Rather than go on a date with my husband, I hunted a miscreant. Skipping out on our wining and dining would drive Emerick wild, as would the knowledge I had, for the first time since my turning, managed to stay up beyond dawn. My choice of breakfast had something to do with my determination to stay awake through the day.
Brandon Smith-Howards enjoyed raping his victims before draining them dry, and as such, I had no interest in fighting him. A sleeping vampire couldn’t lay fang nor finger on me.
Like I had before domestication, I drained the bastard of every drop of vile blood before separating his head from his body. To keep him from rising again, I removed the stake and poured holy water into the hole, which bubbled and frothed.
A silver radiance enveloped the corpse, and when it faded, all that remained was bone and ash. Then, as though the very ground recoiled at the thought of harboring his remains, his bones dissolved away to nothing, leaving me with only his head as proof of the kill.
Emerick would not appreciate me hauling home a miscreant’s head, but I needed to prove the bastard was dead and gone. I already possessed the evidence of his guilt, having saved two of his victims.
I’d captured footage of the attacks on a pair of body cams, and I’d already submitted the evidence to the police.
Pleased with my hunt, I emerged from the bastard’s hiding spot in Central Park to bump into the last vampire I wanted finding me fresh from a hunt: my father.
Then, because my night could get worse, three men with a striking resemblance to dear old dad waited nearby, and they regarded me with raised brows.
“In my defense, I have a severe allergy to rapists, and the only cure is their brutal murder.” I’d heard rumor of my brothers coming to town, but life as the Lowrance brood’s mistress had kept the awkward family reunion at bay. Rising to my feet, I displayed my prize for the quartet to see. “He tasted disgusting.”
Heaving a pained sigh, my father lifted his hand and pressed two fingers to his temple. His efforts wouldn’t spare him.
I had a way of giving the men in my life migraines.
“You do not have to drink them, Pepper,” my father scolded.
“Wasting blood should be a sin. And while I’m questionably domesticated now, a wise woman never turns down free food. Anyway, I did not want this one getting back up, not with his preference of prey. I even stayed up late to take him out.” As I’d done a fabulous job of hunting for him, locating his hiding place, and taking him out, I gestured at the hole. “I triangulated this area to be his hunting grounds, and after I stole two of his meals, I tracked him to here. I gave him two nights, during which I abused some police hotlines to keep the area patrolled so he wouldn’t be able to strike again. I waited for Emerick to go to sleep before leaving this morning, as he’s confident I cannot stay up past dawn no matter what. We’re supposed to go on a date this evening, but I have a feeling I’m going to miss it. We’ll probably survive. Once he finds out I went out in the sun without issue, he’ll even praise me for this morning’s questionable display of independence.”
At first, the sun had scared me, but after an hour of searching for the hole that contained my prey, I’d relaxed and basked in its glow.
I suspected my purpose for being out during the day played a huge role in my ability to withstand the sun.
“Well, yes. You are notorious about sleeping soundly at dawn. I did warn him you would be able to walk under the sun with no problems. He only has himself to blame for your questionable display of independence.”
I snickered; Emerick would lose his mind the instant he woke up and discovered I had given him the slip. The witnesses to my departure had been too stunned seeing me in my leathers and wearing my stakes to stop me, and they likely believed they hallucinated the whole thing. “Did my brothers beat you for your latest transgressions?”
“They tried. They are delightful little monsters. Once they worked their nerves out, as young things must do to be happy, they were content to delay their attempted murder of my person in exchange for meeting you. As you were not home and the guards seemed quite keen on having a babysitter with you, they told me you’d gone off hunting shortly after dawn. As they had the wisdom to ask for my advice, I suggested that they leave their grumpy master to his sleep. If you were trying to be stealthy, I’m going to have to rate your efforts poorly.”
“Stealth was not on my agenda today. Killing this bastard so he wouldn’t rape more women before killing them was. I have done my job well.” I wrinkled my nose, as my victim’s foul taste lingered. “He tasted vile.”
“Pepper,” my father chided.
“I am only partially domesticated, and there is zero point in wasting perfectly edible blood.”
“You do not need to hoard supernatural strengths, young lady. And that is exactly what you are going to do if you keep insisting on draining every miscreant you cross paths with.”
I dismissed his opinion with a wave of my hand. “Complain, complain, complain. If he hadn’t wanted to lose his head and his blood, he wouldn’t have been raping and killing women.”
“She makes a good point, Dad.” One of my brothers, who had come out of the family cloning vat with the greatest success, grinned at me. “I’m Eugene. When Dad said we had a sister, we honestly tried to beat him for lying to us. This old goat only throws boys, and for some reason, most vampires only have sons.”
“Sons are quite vexing,” my father informed me in a solemn tone. “You are prettier, more elegant, and far more cunning than these disgraces ever will be.”
It amazed me that I had no problems determining my father told many lies, and he did so with affection. “Your children might not attempt to kill you as often if you stop annoying them. You’re getting a pass for being an annoyance on grounds of general appreciation of my ongoing existence. I might even get you a nice mug that even acknowledges you’re a decent father some of the time.”
“Don’t even think about it, boys,” my father warned.
All three of my brothers scowled.
“All right. I only know of Eugene because Emerick knows him. Who are you two?” I asked, marveling how three men could appear so much like their father; hair color and eye color distinguished them, which appeared to be the only traits inherited from their mothers.
I, on the other hand, had emerged a little clone of my mother with only one trait inherited from my father: vampirism.
It had taken a few months, but I had grown to be rather grateful for that sole inheritance.
“I am Alisander, and I was born during the Middle Ages and I’m the eldest of my father’s surviving children. Like you, I hunt those who have strayed. Dad likes telling people I’m younger than I am to trick them into complacency. Generally, I carry on the tradition of pretending to be younger than I am. To him, I will always be a little baby.”
I crossed my eyes at the thought of my father being a doting parent who treated his eldest living son in such a way. “I will do my best to stake you if you even try to treat me like I’m your little baby girl, Father.”
“You’re an attorney. That makes you a shark perfectly willing to bite me in the face,” he retorted.
I gasped. “I do not bite people in the face! I go for the throat, thank you. It’s much easier to get the blood flowing from the throat, and I don’t want to waste any of my breakfast. Please. Maybe some attorneys are rather like sharks, but I do have some manners when I eat.”
“Alisander, please try to teach your sister some better habits when hunting. We will not stop her from her rather distasteful habit of not wasting blood, but at least we can improve her skills.”
I pointed at the hole. “I handled that just fine. He is dead, and I didn’t even get a scratch. Well, outside of opening the hole enough to wiggle inside so I could stake him before draining him, decapitating him, and pouring holy water on his heart so he wouldn’t bother anyone again. I wasn’t really expecting him to go to ash from that, but I’ll take it. Why did he dissolve?”
“You destroyed his heart, and the magic that made him unraveled,” my father explained.
Alisander crouched and peered into the vampire’s den. “Is she hunting on pure instinct, Dad?”
“She is.”
My oldest brother whistled. “I’ll do what I can to help you, Pepper.”
I considered the middle of the three brothers. “And you?”
“I’m Benoit. My mother was French, and she passed during labor.” Before I could react, he waved his hand. “She had an illness my father did not know about, one that made her more likely to die during childbirth. She had, in passing, mentioned that she loved the name Benoit. She thought it was a strong, beautiful name, so he gave it to me. My mother is the only woman my father technically wed without the intention of separating from; he realized she would likely not survive, and he wanted her to be viewed with honor by her family, so he pulled some strings, wed her, and had some friends state they had been wed since before my conception.” Benoit’s smile possessed a sharp edge, which he turned on our father. “You’re a sentimental old man, and you can’t trick us. You may have tricked our sister, but we will teach her your ways.”
“I have irritated your brothers for I did not introduce you to them immediately. I only started gathering them when word spread that the ball is to be delayed due to the successful turning of twenty women in the attending brides broods.”
Color me not surprised. “That damned ball is going to be the death of me, I swear. I am quite pleased that the ball will have the wedding ceremony, but trying to arrange a date is turning into a complete nightmare. That the brides broods were able to turn women is wonderful, but you neglected to mention that all the turnings were of elderly partners of ancient vampires, and we’re only delaying so they can attend—and three of those women are in my brood!”
When I’d first become the matron of the brood, I hadn’t known how many of the men had mortal wives close to death. Upon finding out, I’d negotiated for the three in the most danger to undergo being turned, handled by her husband with backing from Emerick, myself, and Mistress Avalon.
The turnings had gone without incident, and the women settled into their new lives with their husbands in our brood, going to the brides broods for training. I’d run risk of pacing holes in the floor while we had waited for each to awaken. Per the brood’s tradition, she’d been laid to rest in our bed. In a new twist, her husband waited at her side.
I didn’t want to imagine their fear, waiting to see if their love would continue into an eternity or if all hope would die with the setting of the sun.
“Eugene, you are going to have your work cut out for you, especially should you decide to merge your brood with young Emerick’s. It is a good deal for you, and you will be in a position where you do the most good with the least stress. And don’t think you can trick me. I do not know how you turned out as you did, a nurturing spirit who would rather work in the background for the better of others. Really.”
Without missing a beat, Eugene engaged our father in a staring competition and answered, “You are the reason I turned out as I did.”
My father sighed. “Do I look like a nurturing father figure who would encourage such awful things?”
“Yes,” my brothers replied.
“Nonsense. Pepper, don’t listen to these silly sons of mine. They’re insufferable, really. Take them home with you. And do have one of them carry that nasty head. Did you have to keep it?”
“Yes. This nasty head is worth three million dollars.”
Eugene whistled. “I’d be keeping the head in that case, Dad. Why is this one worth so much?”
“He’s a rapist and a serial killer,” Alisander answered. “He’s been hunting the eastern seaboard for a decade, and he has over a hundred known kills to his name, quite possibly more that we don’t know about. You would have been an ideal target for him, Pepper.”
I nodded. “That’s why I stayed up past my bedtime for a morning snack. He never hunted near dawn or dusk, so I assumed he was finding somewhere to shelter. Once I narrowed down his general location, I decided to have a rather disgusting breakfast. I’ll have a proper dessert to make up for that nastiness later.”
My father sighed. “You’re never going to stop calling your husband dessert, are you?”
“I’m really not. Hey, since I have you here anyway, I have a favor to ask of you.”
My father raised a brow. “What do you need?”
“I need to find a donor car for Emerick’s daughter. She’s a Beetle, and she’s in very sad shape.” As hunting often involved a great deal of waiting, I kept a little card with his daughter’s vital statistics on it. “She’s a 1938, which means she’s ridiculously rare. His daughter was the first they ever made of her, and that means I’m absolutely fucked trying to find parts!” I thought about flinging the bastard’s head across the park, but I resisted the urge. “I had no idea just how insane his daughter is until I started looking for donor cars for her. Do you know what’s impossible to get? A donor car for a 1938 Volkswagen Beetle. Clearly, I know nothing about cars, because I thought she was cute and just needed a bath and some love from me, her new mother. My daughter is a pain in my ass!”
My father burst into laughter, stepped over, and kissed my forehead. “All right. I will see if I can find another 1938 to sacrifice to your new child. If I can’t find one, you’re actually in luck, as one of my vampires is a machinist and can make the parts you need.”
Relief washed through me. “Really?” I dug out the card detailing my daughter’s various ailments, and I handed it over. “Here is the current diagnosis list. I had to stand there for three hours while Emerick cried over the state of our daughter. I’ll confess, I found a 1938, but she’s in good working order, and I refused to hurt her. She is our second daughter now. That leads me to my next problem.”
“You need someone to teach you how to drive her,” he guessed in a rather unimpressed tone.
“You can drive me home in her if you like, but if we get a single drop of blood in her interior, somebody dies. That somebody might be you. My brothers can cram in the back. We’ll emerge like vampiric clowns, defying the vehicle’s available space.”
At the rate my father kept sighing, I would drive him insane before the day was through. “Where is she parked?”
“I’m hiding her at Master Kennwick’s house in his garage. I have his number, and I even brought my phone with me. She has a full tank of gas, and she just had everything tuned and checked, so she should be good for a drive.”
“Very well, I will drive you home. Kennwick surely has a bag or box we can stuff that head in.” My father tossed Alisander a set of keys. “You can even keep the car once we’re done tonight, but no complaining that I’m making you fetch it. Let’s not test your sister when it’s her first time walking under the sun.”
“Sweet. You’re okay with ditching your car?”
“I just gave your sister a Jaguar, so it’s your turn to be shown a scrap or two of parental affection. I’m going to be busy doing other things, and I won’t need some prissy little street princess. I acquired a rather nice pickup for myself.”
Both Eugene and Benoit licked their lips.
“It seems my brothers are split into two camps. The younger ones seem to like manly pickups. The older one wants prestige and horses.”
“I was a baby when he gave me my first horse, and I suffered from the need for speed ever since,” Alisander told me with a grin, and he spun the fob and keys around his finger. “His pavement princess is currently an Alfa Romeo, and she’s basically a family car that forgot she’s a family car and tried to be a racer. She’s a family car with racing aspirations. I love her, and I’ll treat her better than he will.”
I remembered the Alfa Romeo; I’d seen it a few times over the years, although I hadn’t really placed it as my father’s car. “Oh, the cherry red one that complains if he holds her back because she wants to go but it’s not really legal to drive her almost two hundred on city streets?”
“Yes, that’s her. He’s taken you out in her?”
“I’m pretty sure that bastard bought that car on my eighteenth birthday but kept it for himself.” I eyed my father.
“You have unfortunately good memory.”
I put some serious thought into throwing Brandon Smith-Howards’s head at my father. Once again, I resisted the urge, settled with a pained sigh, and shook my head. “You are lucky that my Jaguar has been adopted by the entire brood. They love her. You’re also lucky Emerick got me a purple Toyota to learn in, else the entire brood would be stricken with sadness. I am not allowed to touch the Jaguar until I am proficient behind the wheel. I’m learning in the Toyota. I broke his heart with that stunt. He’s a Honda man.”
My father laughed. “I have seen pictures of you with your Toyota. You were quite excited when you picked it up. I believe your Emerick hoped to offend me with the vehicle, but he has not yet learned I am a doting father, and that means safety comes first.”
“I am never going to get used to the idea that you’re a doting father,” I informed him. “But I will give you a slightly better mug for driving my Beetle home, though. I want to see Emerick’s face when you pull into the parking garage and we pile out of his car’s twin like a bunch of vampiric clowns.”
“One day, I will understand your sense of humor. Today is not that day. Eugene, take that nasty head from your sister before she tries to see if there is any blood left in it. Alisander, if you could go get the car sometime today?”
“I want to see if she tries to kill you.”
When my father glared at my brother, I laughed. “Not today. Tonight, perhaps, if he doesn’t treat my new little baby with the love and care she deserves.”
You can purchase Death Dance at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Patreon | Smashwords
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