"Scared them off?" Nikola asked. "He was ordered to kill all but the children and bring them to Camilla."
"I guess he’s stronger than anyone imagined," she said.
"He’s your cousin?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "and my sire."
"Are you certain about that?" He sketched a deep bow, and left the porch. Moments later, he retrieved the sedan she’d stolen from him the day before to the protests of some of the other vampires.
Daisy told them to let him go, and they relented.
After sitting a while longer in silence on the bench, she returned to the house and sat next to Perdy once more.
"Aren’t you full?" she asked the child, who’d just dipped three pieces of fried okra into ketchup and stuffed them in her mouth, along with a few fingers.
"Growf spurd," she said around her meal. She chewed and swallowed. "Besides, no one ever let me eat so much as this, and I hadn’t eaten much since ...." The child’s rich brown skin turned a shade of gray, and she held her stomach.
Daisy wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into a comforting hug.
"What happened when Camilla took you, Perdy?"
The girl pushed against her, and shook her head. "Don’t know."
"You don’t know, or you don’t want to talk about it?"
Perdita remained quiet, staring at the screen of the television and stuffing food into her mouth until her cheeks puffed out.
"Did she hurt you?" Daisy asked, gently.
Perdita shook her head in the negative, and a few tears slipped out.
Daisy stroked the child’s hair. "Want to find your Aunt Esperanza?"
The girl swallowed and said, "Yeah, can we, Abuelita?"
"We can do anything you want, Perdy," she told her. "Anything at all."
About the Author
Raven J. Demers is a wordsmith. Her books include Cress and the Medicine Show and Journey Through the Hinterland. Raven lives in a forest near Seattle with her family and cats, and holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Washington. She enjoys performing, cooks a mean burger, and thinks ducks might be the solution to her farming obsession.
[email protected]
www.satyrsgarden.com
About the Illustrator
Tesa L. Rabbat is a multi-media artist. Studied at Art Institute of Philadelphia and New York City in Graphic Design. Continues to study drawing in various art studios as well as painting, sculpting and craft skills. Resides in the Puget Sound area.
[email protected]
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Future Titles from
Raven J. Demers
Aranya
Poems and Stories from the Heart of the Forest will be Raven J. Demers' third poetry collection.
Coming September 2017
Grasp of Time
A collaborative novel with Robin Wood, takes readers to a world where magic and technology compete for dominance, and a young woman's life is threatened for something she has yet to do.
TBD
Purgatory
Continue Daisy Margaret Shaw's journey to find redemption in the sequel to Perdition.
TBD
Daisy After Life (Book 1): Perdition Page 24