by Chanel Smith
Welcome to what club? How were the members of said club so sure she even wanted to join? More seriously, had her acceptance of the gun compromised her individuality or secretly committed her to something she knew nothing about? She grimaced at the thought of being manipulated. The package had been delivered in advance. Who would have known that she would be at The Beast for supper that evening? Was her stalker at it again?
If the person knew where she would be, then it wasn’t a stretch that they would know who or what she was and what she did for a living. A light gust of wind passed through the room, flickering the flames, scattering the light from the candles and sending strange shadows dancing all over the walls.
Welcome to the club, the voice in her head said again.
What club? Other hunters? Other vampires?
Suddenly Veronica was overcome with a strong feeling of caginess. She got up from the edge of the bed and double checked the safe. The handle didn’t give when she tried to turn it. Of course, she knew very well that if a fellow vampire applied just a little pressure to the lock, it would spring open like a Jack-in-the-Box.
She had to get out of there. The room seemed to want to close in on her and squeeze the very life from her body. She pulled on her black moto jacket and a pair of hiking boots, then set the strange note aside. Carefully, she emerged from beneath the huge stone that guarded the entrance to the dungeon. It was one of three that Veronica had located, and when she found two more exits from the underground chamber, but failed to locate where the caverns had emerged, she had discretely collapsed them. It felt like a night for flying so she stood still outside the entryway and looked to the sky, willing herself to rise into the air and be transported to her favorite perch for thinking: a dark, flat outcrop on Lobster Point that overlooked Lobster Bay on the back side of Santa Catalina Island.
As she landed and took her seat to look out across the dark, brooding waters of the Pacific Ocean, Veronica immediately began to feel that all was going to be alright with the world. She was content for it to be one of those nights where she sat and looked at the black waters until dawn approached before heading back to the mainland to hunker down for a good day’s rest.
What the fuck?
The feeling of serenity had lasted for three hours before Veronica saw something moving across the sky that almost made her drop off the cliff. It was black and sort of glossy and huge… absolutely huge. It flew like a bird… No, like an eagle across the sky, but with much greater speed and agility. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she got a mental flash of the creature.
It was ancient, primeval, powerful, dangerous, supernatural… and vampire, definitely vampire. The only comparison she could make of it was to a pterodactyl, the birdlike dinosaur she had seen in movies and books.
It seemed to be headed out to sea toward a tiny sparkling group of lights which she knew, from her many nights of ocean watching, to be a cruise ship. It was probably headed for Hawaii or Alaska. Her preternatural eyesight allowed her to make these discernments easily, even from the great distance and as she watched more carefully, she saw that the creature carried something, perhaps in its talons.
What is that?
She leaned forward and concentrated harder before gasping and taking a step back. It was a man; a barely struggling being that was dangling helplessly below the creature. Veronica watched in further disbelief as the creature hovered over the brightly lit ship and dropped its cargo on an upper deck, turned around and flew back in the direction of the mainland.
The Vampire With The Golden Gun
is available at:
Amazon Kindle * Amazon UK * Amazon AU
About the Author:
Chanel Smith lives in Arizona, with her husband, two cats and a ghost or two. You can find her on Facebook.