Drawing Dead: An Urban Fantasy Thriller (Dana McIntyre Must Die Book 1)

by SM Reine

  Dana had dared to start making plans again. Not for the rest of her life—she’d never been real confident about how long that would last—but for the next week or two, at least. She’d been planning on getting back to work. Trying to think of how she could take advantage of the Paradisos now that they didn’t have Achlys in the lead.

  She’d been so certain that the Hunting Club would be able to make a cure from Harold Hopkins’s notes.

  Damn it all, Dana thought she wasn’t going to die yet.

  “Who did it?” Dana asked.

  “Surveillance cut out before anything happened. Here’s the last footage we got.” Brianna tapped at her tablet, then handed it to Dana.

  The screen displayed a single shot. It came from a camera positioned in the lobby—that big room where Dana had encountered Mohinder.

  And there was Mohinder again, looking all spooky and grizzled.

  He wasn’t alone.

  There was a short, mousy female vampire at his side. Her head was tipped toward the camera. Dana could see the upturn of her nose, the curls that reminded her so much of Penny’s. The girl vampire was stooped over like she was trying to walk on a broken hip, but she was alive.

  Nissa had somehow survived Tormid’s attack.

  Dana had a bad feeling about that vampire. A really bad feeling. And it wasn’t the same feeling that Dana had gotten from Achlys, like “this woman is going to pump me full of vampire venom and turn me into one of the bloodless.”

  It was a feeling like relief. Like she was glad that an unassuming vampire who didn’t drink blood could have survived that fall.

  If Nissa had made it, then maybe there was still a sliver of a chance for Dana too.

  “So Mohinder’s in charge of the Paradisos now,” Brianna said, taking the tablet back. “Literally the only thing you accomplished is getting revenge on the vampire who turned you into a vampire. Does it make you feel better?”

  “No. I still need to take all the Paradisos down.”

  Brianna rolled her eyes. “Sure you do.” She stood up. “We did find the empty cure vial. There’s residue. Lincoln and Anthony are talking about breaking down its chemical composition, but odds of replicating it are very low. This work is patented by Hardwick Research. Little can be done without supporting documentation.”

  “Low odds are better than nonexistent. I could still get cured.” Dana climbed out of the coffin. “Why didn’t you lead off with that?”

  “Because I know you’re going to be deaf now that you think you’ve gotten everything you want. I needed to make you see how fucked up everything is so you’re not just celebrating your victory.”

  Dana wasn’t deaf.

  Just because she was good at focusing on the most important information didn’t mean that she was ignoring everything else.

  But there was a chance at life. A tiny chance.

  “Sounds like we’ve got shit to do. I’ll be at work in a few minutes,” Dana said, shooing Brianna from the chair so that she could put her boots on.

  Brianna sighed. “Right.” But she didn’t leave. “Penny wanted me to talk to you as well.”

  Dana yanked on her laces. “Why doesn’t she come down here?”

  “She thought it would be too hard.” Brianna pulled a shoebox out of her sweater. “Look…I’m sorry.” She handed the box to Dana and walked out.

  Dana flipped the lid open.

  There were three things inside of it.

  Most notably, there was a bag of blood labeled with a logo from the nearest blood bank. It wasn’t a lot. Maybe a half-pint. It was exactly how much human blood Dana needed to finish her transformation into a vampire.

  There was also a stack of folded pages underneath the blood bag. Dana pulled the rubber band off. A chill rolled down her spine when she saw that it was legal paperwork for a divorce.

  Penny had already signed the papers.

  The third thing in the shoebox was a short note. All it said was, “I can’t watch you kill yourself. Pick one.” It was in the same swirly handwriting as Penny’s signature.

  Penny wasn’t going to wait around to see if Dana walked into the sunrise to burn herself to death. She wasn’t going to wait to see if Brother Marshall could pull a cure out of his ass, either. Penny wanted Dana to finish changing or she wanted a divorce.

  Dana used her thumb to slide a bubble along the blood bag’s seam. She remembered the day she married Penny. She remembered the little white veil that had been tucked behind her horns, and the vows that they had exchanged. Some lines about being together forever. Thick and thin, rich and poor.

  And then Dana remembered how Penny had looked after the Fremont Slasher got to her. A serial killer vampire that Dana had never caught. One who was still lurking in Las Vegas.

  Keeping Penny safe was more important than some naïve marriage vows.

  Dana took the divorce papers out of the shoebox, threw the blood into the trash, and went upstairs to work.

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  About the Author

  Hi! I’m Sara, a super-prolific author who publishes as SM Reine. I’ve put out over fifty titles, most of which are urban fantasy, and all of which serve as evidence of my nonexistent social life.

  I’m a proud Nevadan, an enthusiastic mom-nerd, and animal hoarder in possession of cats, dogs, chickens, bees, and little boys. I write gratuitous violence to balance out my real-life chill. I like kissing books and science fiction movies.

  If you occasionally think “Hey! I wish I could see a million pictures of some random author’s dogs and children!” then you should follow me on Instagram. I also say stupid things on Twitter a lot. The best way to find out when I have new books is to join my list for new release email alerts, though. Allons-y!

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