“OK, then. Mum’s the word.”
He downed his tea and got up carefully to go, leaning on the table, but turned back to me.
“So this musician you met. That serious?”
I smiled beatifically at him.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He fidgeted with his coat and got an uncomfortable look on his face. “I’m glad for you.”
“Thank you. I mean, I don’t know what it is. But I’m glad it’s something.”
He nodded. “It’s hard, knowing what we know, doing what we do. You have to…if you want something, if you care about someone, you have to go after them.”
He was gone before I could even begin to respond to that. There was something else going on I couldn’t quite figure out, but I didn’t really want to. Was he telling me he secretly loved me? Was he telling me he was lonely? Was there some great love he’d lost in the past, and he didn’t want that to happen to me? Was he just trying to be a good friend in his awkward way?
I needed to get back and work on some projects due next week. I needed to check in on Mom and my little sis. I needed to do so many things.
It was a beautiful day. Couples urged their kids along the cobblestones. Smells wafted from various restaurants. Sounds of laughter and conversation drifted by from the people I could see, checking their watches or the clocks on their phone, just stealing a few moments from their busy schedule to actually enjoy life. I decided that was a pretty good idea, sat back, and took another sip of coffee.
END
~ About the Author ~
CL Bledsoe is the author of three novels, one short story collection, and four poetry collections. He’s been published in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and anthologies Bledsoe lives in the DC area with his daughter.
Discover more about CL Bledsoe here
http://www.clbledsoe.com
https://www.facebook.com/cort.bledsoe
Also by CL Bledsoe
The Necro-Files
$7.50/hr + Curses
CL Bledsoe
Ever wonder what happens after the hero kills the monster?
Daisy Janney just wanted to go to college next year like everybody else—get out of her mom’s house, go to some parties, maybe meet some cute guys. But when she finds out she has to pay for it herself, she has no choice but to get a job. Too bad no one wants her, not even the burger joint. Way to feel like a total loser.
Desperate, she takes the only job she can find—at Calvert Funeral Home. Putting makeup on dead people might not be glamorous, but at least dead people don’t complain. Too bad no one told her they wouldn’t always stay dead. Or that they weren’t always people.
One salt-covered, burned witch later, Daisy finds herself the recipient of an evil curse. She’s got two weeks to figure out how to break it before she’s scheduled for dismemberment by an angry demon. And she hasn’t even gotten her first paycheck yet. She turns to an old boyfriend for help, but with finals coming up, and some weird guy stalking her who looks like Johnny Cash, she’s not sure there’s enough help on the planet for her kind of trouble…
Buy The Necro-Files here
http://www.amazon.com/Necro-Files-7-50-hr-Curses-ebook/dp/B00BQMT1OW/
Bloody Sexy
The Necro-Files Book Two
CL Bledsoe
Not all vampires suck.
Daisy Janney—college student, assistant mortician, and supernatural detective—is excited about her friend John Polidori’s new book, Bloody Sexy, the autobiography of his life as a vampire. But when someone attacks Polidori at the book reading, Daisy will have to figure out who’s after him on her own. There’s a killer on the loose, and Nathan Venator, the Hero of Baltimore (although he looks more like a young Johnny Cash), has got his hands full tracking him down. If that wasn’t enough, it seems like everyone’s in a relationship except Daisy, even her mom. So when Daisy agrees to go on a date with someone who just might be the killer, she begins to wonder how she’s going to juggle her classes, her investigations, and her social life—all without winding up in the funeral home at which she works.
Buy Bloody Sexy here
http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Sexy-Necro-Files-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00O4JSH8K/
Valentines Heat I
Ally Shields, Nessie Strange, Keith Melton, CL Bledsoe
"Heart's Pride" by Ally Shields
Author of The Guardian Witch Series
When their wedding is ruined by a werepanther attack, Katrina is left hospitalized and Blane is just...gone. But when he finally finds his way back to Riverdale, he learns he's not the only one who's been tracking Katrina...
"Lost Soul, Lost Love" by Nessie Strange
The Living Dead World Series
It's Jen MacLellan's first trip back to Earth as a new reaper, and Mardi Gras is in full swing. When she happens upon Chip, a partier stuck in a perpetual 1983, Jen decides to help him find the woman he loves so he can move on. Assuming all goes well when he finds her...
"Red Dogs" by Keith Melton
The Zero Dog Mission Series
Mercenary pyromancer Andrea Walker has just saved the world from bloodthirsty hagworms and is late for her Valentine's date with Jake. Until she hears that Jake has already left her house...with her...
"V-Day" by CL Bledsoe
The Necro-Files Series
Daisy and her friends think going to a frat party on Valentine's Day will be a fun, not-at-all-desperate Girls Night Out. What they don't expect is to have Delilah's succubus pheromones accidentally set off the apocalypse...
Buy Valentines Heat I here
http://www.amazon.com/Valentines-Heat-I-Ally-Shields-ebook/dp/B00T6TQNCU/
Sunlight
CL Bledsoe
The sunflower farm was the most boring place on earth. Until weird things started happening…
What’s the most boring place in the world? The farm. After his mother’s death, Sol is sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle, but with no cell service and only an old dinosaur of a computer, Sol’s not sure how he’s going to survive. But his boredom is interrupted by strange sounds at night, the discovery of a mysterious cave, and stuff that starts to sound an awful lot like a bedtime story his mother used to tell him when he was small…that just might be true...
Buy Sunlight here
http://www.amazon.com/Sunlight-C-L-Bledsoe-ebook/dp/B004NSVJ28/
More Fantasy from Etopia Press
Dark Ride Dogs
Search and Destroy Book One
Keith Melton
Death prophecies, ghost clowns, homicidal redcaps…this town has really gone to the dogs.
Zero Dog mercenary Andrea Walker used to love fortune cookies—until the day she received a death prophecy inside one. Of course, believing a mass produced fortune from a baked good would be insane—until a berserker shows up on her doorstep claiming he’s been sent by an infamous oracle to save her life. She must hire him or die.
Hell really breaks loose when the Zero Dogs are contracted to stop a ghost-summoning goblin’s plan to bring his Eternal Malevolence Carnival and Incredible Show of Evil to Portland, starring a company of ghost performers—clowns, acrobats, and nefarious balloon-twisting mimes. Meanwhile, Andrea’s normally shy succubus friend seems to be falling for the mysterious berserker. Too bad a malfunctioning charm spell has the redcap goblin yearning for her as well.
Now Andrea must elude a death prophecy, discover if her new-hire berserker can be trusted, and avert the looming ghost clown apocalypse. Just another mad mission for the Zero Dogs.
Buy Dark Ride Dogs here
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Ride-Dogs-Search-Destroy-ebook/dp/B00K21ERSI/
Living Dead Girl
Nessie Strange
Jen MacLellan has hit a dead end…
Jen knows tattooed, blue-haired Jack Norris is trouble the minute he opens his front door. And being a mortician in the avante garde East Side of Providence, Jen has seen a lot. Jack has recruited Jen’s teenage brother Drew to play dr
ums for his less-than-respectable punk band, and Jen has no choice but to follow their gigs to keep her little brother out of trouble. But when Drew goes missing, she finds herself in the awkward position of asking for Jack’s help. Shocked that he agrees, Jen decides she may have misjudged him. Worse, she might even like him.
But when Jen is brutally attacked, she awakens in the hospital where a Sid Vicious look-alike greets her with the news: she’s dead, and he’s the reaper assigned to take her away. Yeah, not so much. Refusing to leave, Jen’s spirit watches helplessly as her loved ones suffer, powerless to ease her family’s grief or prevent the police from accusing Jack of her murder. Desperate to help them, Jen convinces the reaper to bring her back. But reanimating corpses isn’t as easy as it looks, and neither is finding a killer before it’s too late…
Buy Living Dead Girl here
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Dead-Girl-Nessie-Strange-ebook/dp/B00HWFEZ8O/
Black Widow Witch
A.J. Locke
A deadly curse, a dangerous assassin, and one shot to save everyone she loves…
Malachi Erami can’t fall in love. After she’s caught with Knave, the witch queen’s favorite lover, she’s cursed to savagely butcher any man she falls for. Exiled to live among humans, Malachi runs a bar that serves magic-laced drinks, but since her curse labels her high risk, she’s also closely monitored. Julian Vira is her latest babysitter, but he’s also the first man since Knave that she’s been attracted to. Good-looking and nonjudgmental of her horrible curse? Yeah, he’s hard to resist.
But when Malachi finds a body behind her bar, she knows she’s in trouble. If the Witches Control Council gets wind of it, she’ll be accused of murder and sent to her death. And when her friends start getting framed for murder, she realizes she’s not the only target. Malachi and Julian dig into the evidence to clear her name, but the closer they get to answers, the closer the curse comes to taking over. So when Malachi uncovers a plot to kill the witch queen, she finds herself suddenly recruited into service, with the promise of having her curse lifted and a reunion with Knave as well. But if she fails, Knave will die. And she and Julian might not live long enough to see that happen.
Buy Black Widow Witch here
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Widow-Witch-J-Locke-ebook/dp/B00KD43GUY/
Wild Fire
Guardian Witch Book Six
Ally Shields
A vision. A lost talisman. A dangerous journey through time...
A month after their bonding, Ari and Andreas are still adjusting to married life when they learn the hard way that the O-Seven, the terrifying and brutal vampire elders, still have them in their sights. A three million dollar bounty hangs over each of their heads, and there’s no lack of assassins eager to collect.
When the local seer has a terrifying vision of the destruction of Riverdale, it’s up to Ari—as usual—to keep everyone safe. Only this time, an enemy from the past has bound her fire powers, and the city’s string of arsons seems connected.
Daron, the vampire prince in Toronto, has information that two of the vampire elders are on their way to Riverdale. Which can’t be good. Only a risky and unprecedented journey through time can provide the help they need. But that will leave Andreas to face the O-Seven alone...
Buy Wild Fire here
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fire-Guardian-Witch-Book-ebook/dp/B00NWX6Y7K/
Table of Contents
Look for these titles from C. L. Bledsoe
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
~ About the Author ~
Also by CL Bledsoe
More Fantasy from Etopia Press
Tall, Dark and Hairy (The Necro-Files Book 3) Page 15