Exsanguinate
Page 36
Already familiar with this little tradition, Harris started. “I’m thankful that everyone is alive, no matter in what capacity.”
“I believe I have found a new purpose in life.” Torchy raised his glass towards Sheridan. “And a new family if they’ll adopt me.”
Sheridan blushed and raised her glass to meet his toast and request.
“What are you thankful for, Briggs?” I asked.
“Old friends, new friends, and treasured times to come. Next year Dakota will be sitting right here next to me.”
I smiled at him.
“I’m thankful we uncovered a global plot and can hopefully put an end to the madness,” Khaldon said and he kissed my cheek. “Not to mention that I finally have m’lady here, live and in the flesh.”
“Good recovery, Khaldon.” Harris elbowed him in the ribs.
Daddy leaned over the back of his chair before he sat. “I’m thankful all my daughters are alive and there’s a grandbaby on the way.”
I patted Sheridan’s growing bulge.
Everyone’s eyes were on Sheridan. “Wow – that’s a tough one for me this year. I have a lot to be thankful for, but to be painfully honest, I’m thankful to be able to wake up. I’ve been afraid to fall asleep for fear of the coma again.”
I squeezed her hand and tipped my head towards her.
“What are you thankful for, missy?” Sheridan tipped her head back toward me.
“I’m thankful for each of you. Without you, we wouldn’t be sitting here today being thankful for anything.”
“Hear, hear!” Khaldon raised his mug.
We took our respective turns clinking everyone’s bottle, glass, cup, and mug. I didn’t own a twelve place setting of china or stemware either so our beverage assortment matched the ping pong table perfectly.
“I would like to hold a moment of silent prayer that our beloved Dakota will be found and will come home soon,” my father said and grabbed the hands of Torchy and Harris beside him.
The rest of us followed suit holding hands around the table.
My prayer was simple.
I pinky swear promise I will find you again and bring you home. May the Gods and Goddesses, above and below, give us all strength.
“Okay – let’s attack!” I grabbed the steaming plate of buttery mashed potatoes in front of me and spooned a monster size portion onto my plate.
Sheridan sat with her hands in her lap. “Ya know, three weeks ago, I never would’ve believed in supernatural creatures that walk among humans, much less thought I’d be pregnant. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this craziness. How did this happen to us?” She reached out to pluck the turkey leg off the platter as Harris whisked it away.
“I know, right?” I took a piece of bread. “Never in a million years would I have believed the Red Man from my dreams could change me forever.”
“There’s something that I need to tell you girls and I just can’t seem to pull it up out of my mind,” my father said. “I dream about it almost every night, but when I wake up - it’s gone.”
“It’s all right, Daddy,” I said. “Maybe one day you’ll remember. Don’t let it worry you.”
He grimaced and shrugged. “Can you pass me the sweet potatoes?”
“Has anyone thought about how we’re going to find Dakota?” Briggs scooped up the grits and greens. “Can you pass the hot sauce, please?”
I handed him the bottle.
“Thanks. We should set up a battle plan soon,” Briggs said.
“You’re right. I’ve been going over different scenarios in my head, but we should write it down.”
Torchy reached for the cranberry sauce. “Could we map it out in a simulator? There’s an API program that will enable us integrate with Google Earth’s 3D renderings, and we can recreate where she’s being held.”
“That’s a perfect idea, Torch. After we digest, let’s work on that tonight. We can create various scenarios to determine how to infiltrate different types of places. This time we won’t be fighting a Battle Kroc of Doom, but rather more dragons. You guys will be instrumental in helping us prepare for the unexpected.”
Khaldon set his glass of pomegranate bloodwine on the table. “I’ve been practicing with Ludovic. Hopefully, he’ll improve at communicating with her. If Amicula had her way, he’d be toast, and we’d be SOL in finding Dakota. Whether we like it or not, we have to keep him safe and keep him close. We have no idea when Amicula will send dhampirs out to get him or any of us. We need to start training everyone in weapons and combat.”
Briggs added, “I don’t think we should share our plans with Ludovic, though. I don’t trust the bastard, especially after he ratted us out.”
Harris squirreled a spoonful of stuffing in his cheek before he spoke. He pointed towards the kitchen with his fork. “How much longer are we going to keep Ludovic tied up in the chicken coop?”
I shrugged. “Not sure. Until we can secure a better place to keep an eye on him, that’s where he stays put.” I reached for the salt and pepper. “This way Padme has complete surveillance on him at all times and we can be notified immediately if he moves. Plus, it’s a little satisfying, don’t ya think?”
Sheridan grinned and passed the ambrosia salad to me. “What I want to know, Cheyenne, is when did our virtual game become such a reality?”
Meanwhile, deep within the Amazon Rainforest ...
Queen Civetateo reread the emessage from her niece. She drummed out an irritated cadence on the window sill with her fingernails. Abruptly she turned to her trusted councilor. “Aisling, if I had known your daughters were going to be this troublesome, I would have captured them myself. Find a way to clean up this mess, before I do!”
References
Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, people, or places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Glossary
Feck - Verb
An Irish word that has fallen into similar usage as fuck, made famous by Father Ted. Of Irish origin, feck is what a lady says when she really wants to say fuck.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=feck
Shite - Noun
The Irish/Scottish/ equivalent of the word shit. A very British and therefore great way of saying shit. Shite sounds much more effective than shit.
Cyberchondriac - Noun
Cy·ber·chon·dri·ac sībərˈkändrēak/
A person who compulsively searches the Internet for information on real or imagined symptoms of illness.
Novels
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
Ballantine Books May 12, 1986
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
Heinemann, Stone & Kimball 1896
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Harper & Row 1971
Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
Alfred A Knopf 1976
IT by Stephen King
Viking September 15,1986
Movies
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
Lucasfilm (as a Lucasfilm Limited Production)
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Paramount Pictures
Final Destination (2000)
New Line Cinema
Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock
Shamley Productions Paramount Pictures
Frenzy (1972)
Alfred Hitchcock
Universal Pictures
Lifeforce (1985)
Golan-Globus Productions
The Cannon Group
TriStar Pictures
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Strong Heart/Demme Production
Orion Pictures Corporation
Jurassic Park (1993)
Universal
Pictures
Amblin Entertainment
Underworld (2003)
Lakeshore Entertainment
Screen Gems
Alien (1979)
Brandywine Productions
Twentieth Century-Fox Productions
When A Stranger Calls (2006)
Screen Gems
Columbia Pictures
My Fair Lady (1964)
Warner Bros
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Warner Bros.
Television
The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)
Universal TV
World’s Dumbest Criminals
Meetinghouse Productions
truTV
Artists
Edward Munch
The Scream (1893)
Steve Hanks (Contemporary)
Greenwich Workshop
Diego Velázquez
Venus at Her Mirror (1647)
Music
Celebration by Kool and the Gang (1980)
Album: Celebrate!
Label: Mercury
Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe by Barry White (1974)
Album: Can’t Get Enough
Label: 20th Century Records
Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins (1986)
Album: Top Gun Soundtrack
Label: Columbia Records
Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf (1968)
Album: Steppenwolf
Label: Dunhill RCA
Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson (1988)
Album: Bad
Label: Epic
In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel (1986)
Album: So
Label: Geffen Records
Bitch is Back by Elton John (1974)
Album: Caribou
Label: MCA, DJM, Rocket/Phonogram
Crocodile Rock by Elton John (1972)
Album: Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
Label: MCA
Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks (1990)
Album: No Fences
Label: Capitol Nashville
Restaurants
Larry’s Deli & Sandwich Shop
Land O’ Lakes, Florida
*For the BEST Cuban Sandwiches – EVER!
Copyright © December 9, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form, print, or electronically, without the express, written consent of the author, with the exception of brief excerpts used in reviews and news articles.
About the Author
Killion Slade
Killion Slade is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling speculative fiction author. As a loyal reader of dystopian urban fantasy herself, the apocalyptic genres drew her to become a homesteader, ensuring her family could survive if a world-wide crisis ever occurred and washing machines disappeared.
When not writing, she can be found raising chickens, geocaching, making soap, growing things with aquaponics, or becoming a crack shot with her 9mm and crossbow. (Seriously, no apocalypse is taking this woman down.)
Killion's novels include Exsanguinate (2013) and the upcoming release, Obfuscate (Spring 2016). Her short stories can be found in Sirens Call; The Danse Macabre; Cynic Magazine; Bewildering Stories; Midwest Literary Magazine; and in the anthologies Bite from the Heart; Death Sparkles; and Roms, Bombs, and Zoms
Where Scary Can Be Horrifyingly Funny
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/killionslade
@killionslade
killion.slade
www.killionslade.com
Excerpt from Obfuscate - World of Blood: Book2
Prologue
I failed. I should be dead.
The schism of words replayed again and again as though they were a needle stuck between a track and a scratch on an old vinyl record.
I tried to open my eyes and sit up in the bed but found my head was wrapped and I’d been tied down.
What the hell? Where am I? Have I been captured?
I leaned my head closer to my hands and pulled on the strips of cloth covering my face. Rewarded with searing pain, I jerked my head away, sucking in a breath. Immediate and intense, the sensation behind my eyes was the same torment from a jammed toe against the bed frame in the middle of the night. Agonizingly slow to dissipate.
My eyes! Did they take my eyes?
I wrestled against my bonds and kicked my feet hoping to find some sort of escape. Something fell, clanging to the floor. It sounded as though a hundred steel marbles scattered, bouncing in every direction. My runaway imagination insisted the calamity had to be a bloodied tray full of shiny, sharp implements.
I can’t see … how can I get out of here? Breathe, Cheyenne, think.
I leaned over again and bit the thick, padded belts holding my wrists. Blood pooled in my mouth as my lower lip snagged on a buckle. I spat out the blood and felt along the length of my mouth with my fingertips. Hard, plastic stitches lined my lip as if I were a forgotten rag doll in a creepy carnie show. Were they trying to sew my mouth shut?
Unholy hell, what are they doing to me?
I knew it—it was a trap. I should’ve listened to my guts. Cannibal vampires. We weren’t prepared. What if I’m an ingredient in their recipe? Are they preparing to stuff me with crab and then roast me over a fiery spit?
Shouldn’t a vampire be able to escape? Am I trapped in silver?
Questions seared my mind as I made headway pulling the strap with my teeth through the loops.
Everything will go as planned, they said. Nothing will hurt us, they said. Drunk with fermented drinks, they said.
Why did I listen to them?
Khaldon and Harris—they were burning under the water. Did they make it out alive?
What about Briggs? He was unconscious. Did he drown?
The sharks were everywhere.
Where’s Torchy? Did he send for help?
Ludovic? Did he—
Footsteps closed in with the acrid stench of disinfectant. A female, disembodied voice threatened. “Kuthri, look at this mess. You’re making this much too difficult. Hold still.”
“Hold Still? Are you kidding me?” I jerked my arms inside their confinement. “Wait—who are you? Where am I? What are you doing to me?”
“You’re in isolation.” Her words snapped with disdain.
“Don’t touch me! Why are you tying me down? Stop it!” I pulled harder on the bonds, and the metal bars of the bed groaned and began to give way.
The female voice ignored my question. “Quick, hold her. This won’t take but a second.”
“Did you dispense the stronger dosage this time?” an agitated male voice hurriedly asked. “She burned through the last one in record time.”
Another male voice came from the direction of my feet. “Make sure this one keeps her down for good. We still have fleshy, meaty spots to dig out closer to the bone. I’m not getting another black eye tonight.”
For good? Meaty spots? Closer to the bone?
“Get away! Help!” I kicked while rough, wide fingers and hands wrenched my face sideways, exposing my neck. “Khaldon!”
I thrashed my head around and bit the hand holding my face.
“Kamina!” the male voice exclaimed and wrenched his hand out from between my teeth, practically yanking my fangs out with it.
Another set of hands held down my legs while an elbow jabbed me in the head. A sharp stab to my neck flashed fire behind my eyes in a kaleidoscope of intense luminescence.
I cried out in pain, arching my back in defiance.
My limbs grew heavy as Aunt Maisie’s cast iron skillets.
“No … stop … please don’t … eat … me…”
Far away, the female voice flatly stated, “She’s done. Let’s get her prepped for Rattanakosin.”
There’s something … it’s right at the tip of my…
I failed. I should be dead.
The words replayed again and again in the fissure of my memory.
&nb
sp; Dakota, my sister?
Oh, no!
Oh, yes … I should, most definitely, be dead.
Also by Killion Slade
Obfuscate - Book 2: World of Blood
Obfuscate
When forever becomes real, it’s seriously intimidating.
Cheyenne O’Cuinn has three tasks to scratch off her to-do list: rescue her sister from cannibalistic vampires, eliminate the man who threatens her family’s survival, and hunt down the villain who attacked and left her for dead. Not the usual to-do list for a redheaded Irish software programmer with a deadly fear of haunted houses, but all in a day’s work for a vampire.
Or maybe not. With her chosen mate by her side, Cheyenne wonders what vampire couples do for an eternity. How long does the secret sauce last? And what if she doesn’t embrace the vampiric lifestyle her mate craves?
But Cheyenne can’t press Ctrl Z and get a do over. Especially when terrorists launch a bombing campaign and the vampire queen plans to enslave mankind for entertainment. With Cheyenne’s family and friends at risk, this chicken-shit vampire needs to suck it up and use both her vampire and mad programming skills to track down the bad guys.
Or it’s game over!