by J A Campbell
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction To My Life
Trucks and Trouble
The Hunter and the Hunted
Cult Classic
The Parkers’ Kids
By Full Moon’s Light
One More Job
Sunlight
Powers
Enforcer
Sneakpeak The Cursed Knife
Chapter 1
J. A. Campbell
Rebecca McFarland Kyle
Other Works
Necromantic Shenanigans
Walking on the Weird Side
Saga
Fanny and Dice
Brown, Ghost Hunting Dog
Old Vampires Die Hard
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2019 by J.A. Campbell
Cover Design © 2019 by Shoshanah Holl
All rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors imaginations and or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Dark Ladies Press
An Imprint of Inkwolf Press
P.O. Box 251
Severance, Colorado
80546-0251
PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Julie’s Dedication
This one is for mom.
Thanks for taking me to Charleston and letting me hang out where I decided Kat lived.
And a note on timeline
I want to thank Becky Kyle for hanging with me in this crazy journey we’re on. This world started with a chance meeting on Facebook and ended up combining a world we jointly created with a world she created, and a world I created and becoming something more and better. Without her, Ekatarine’s stories would probably remain on my hard drive, and that would be a terrible place for them to stay.
I would like to extend a huge thank you to Valerie Gwynn for her work as my editor and to Becky for a final read through before publication.
All remaining mistakes the author must take credit for.
Note on the timeline. This collection can be read alone, but in our timeline probably fits in best between The Sunken Tower and The Cursed Knife.
Introduction
To my life
Well, if you’re reading this, I probably trust you. It’s not so much that I’m ashamed of my past—or that it could be used against me—I just don’t care to relive it, so I don’t speak of it much. Most of my kind have some element of their past that is uncomfortable to think about. You don’t end up a vampire without some skeletons in the closet: literally or otherwise.
When asked about my past, I’m never sure where to start. Do I start with my actual childhood? Do I start with getting sold? Do I start with my death and rebirth as a vampire? Maybe this time I’ll summarize the start and begin this tale with when Justin found me dying on the side of the road.
I was born somewhere in the vicinity of 1650. Records weren’t the best back then, unless you happened to be royalty, which I wasn’t. There may still be a record somewhere of an Ekatarine Tailor born to Leanna Tailor and Samuel Tailor. My mother’s family immigrated from Russia a generation before them, so they named me in honor of a great grandparent, though they had changed the normal ‘a’ at the end of the name to an ‘e’ for some reason. They named my younger brother William.
The first fifteen years of my life were fairly unremarkable. I grew up in London, my brother was born, my parents sewed clothing for the rich and generally did quite well. We owned our shop and lived above it, a typical part of the burgeoning middle class. All very idyllic. Nothing worth noting happened until I was fifteen. If things had continued on that same path, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now. I’d be long dead, probably either of childbirth or old age if I were exceptionally lucky. I don’t regret the path life took me. I’ve seen and done some amazing things, and there’s always something interesting around the corner. It hasn’t been easy, just very interesting.
In my fifteenth year, the last major outbreak of the Black Death struck. It took my mother and my little brother. My father and I survived. Well, I survived. He technically survived, but fell to depression, drink, and then gambling. I began to notice his late nights and the smell of alcohol always around him. After a time, our treasures started to disappear and our custom dried up. Food became scarce and then one night two men came. They wanted money: money we didn’t have.
They were going to kill my father. They didn’t know about me until I ran down the stairs and tried to save him.
Long story short, they took me in exchange for his debts. He let them. There were no promises of my safety, no discussion about my welfare, just a simple exchange. I might have been able to forgive him if he’d even acted like he cared what happened to me.
The men didn’t get out of the exchange unscathed. I fought hard, but at the time there really was little I could do besides leave scratches and bruises. I didn’t know how to fight.
I know how to fight now.
The place they left me is best left undescribed. Needless to say, I was trouble there too, and I caught wind that one of their clients had paid top dollar to kill me. It was his thing.
I burned the fucking place down. I almost burned with it, and I know it left me with innocent blood on my hands. The fire spread. While they attribute the Great Fire of London to a bakery fire, well...
I didn’t care. I was starving, barefoot, and clad only in a shift, but I would get out of London or I would die. To this day, I’m not sure how long it took me to escape the city, or even how I managed. Somehow, I did it unseen, or at least unremarked upon: probably because people were busy fighting a giant fucking fire.
Once I got out of London, I was so delirious that I could only sense that I smelled fresher air and felt grass under my bleeding feet. All sense of purpose left me, and I crawled under a bush beside the road to die.
I would have succeeded in dying if it were not for a random passerby who changed my life forever. I’m pretty sure I heard horses and people pass while I waited to die
If Justin hadn’t been a vampire, he would never have noticed me. Later, he told me that he had smelled the blood from my tattered feet. At first he thought simply to put me out of my misery and catch a quick meal on his way home. Now, let me say something about Justin: though a vampire, he hated hurting people simply for food. He truly thought he would be doing me a kindness by ending my suffering. Except I fought. Even in that state, I tried to survive. Apparently, I hadn’t really given up.
Justin changed his mind and decided to take me home instead.
I arrived at his manor house in the country filthy, more than half dead, and slung unconscious across the back of his horse. I’m told I didn’t wake for several days. Justin’s human staff didn’t see how I could survive, but he believed I would, and they loved him, so they cared for me.
Justin Veronis was not a typical anything, but certainly not a typical vampire. Our House has always been small, with members carefully selected through much deliberation. The number of members then versus now is the same. Though we lost one member years back, we recently gained another. That story I will tell later.
I recovered, and, though it took me a while to trust my new benefactor, it became clear Justin was genuinely trustworthy. Even so, there were strange things about him and some of the others.
Oh, the servants were normal enough, though I’d never experienced servants before, outside of the housemaids and stable boys who came to pick up clothing from the shop. It was the masters they served who were strange. Never seeing Justin and Judas during daylight was odd, as were some of their comings and goings. But I decided I didn’t care, especially once the lessons started and they taught me to read and to write. They tried to teach me to sew, but I flatly refused to learn. It was a few years before I told Justin that I already knew how.
“No, I won’t sew that for you.” I haven’t touched a needle since before I became a vampire, except to stitch flesh.
Even better, I learned to fight and to ride. Judas was a master of many fighting techniques. Determined never to be helpless again, I demanded that he teach them all. I believe Justin merely intended that I become competent with basic defense. Once I got started, I decided I was going to be the best. No one would be able to touch me again.
A few years passed. I learned everything they would teach me. I didn’t question any of the oddities of my new life, as I didn’t want to lose a good thing. Well, I should say, I didn’t question the oddities out loud. I had plenty of theories, but as long as I had food, a bed, books to read, and opportunities to learn new skills, I was content to pretend all was normal. At the very least, I was as happy as I had ever been.
I had no idea that my situation could get both better and worse. I was about to find out.
“Ekatarine, Justin would like to see you,” Alice, our head of the household, said, inclining her head slightly. Recently, she had been spending time with me, teaching me how to run a household. I wasn’t terribly interested, but I respected her and her abilities; it could be useful to know, even if I didn’t much care to run my own house.
“Thank you, Alice.” I put down the book I was reading and glanced out the window. Spring was just starting to green the grass and the first buds were coming out on the trees. The moors still slumbered, but would soon be awake with their spring color. Long shadows stretched across the gardens visible from the library window. Pulling back the quilt I had huddled under, I stood. Sitting by the fire would have been warmer, but I enjoyed the view enough to deal with some discomfort.
“He’s in his study.” Alice looked at me closely, and I wondered what was going on. Her normally pleasant and friendly expression was completely neutral.
A little worried, I turned away from her.
She touched my shoulder and I looked back. “We all adore you,” she said.
With those cryptic words, she moved to tidy the quilt I’d left in the chair and I hurried out of the library, unnerved.
It took me a few minutes to walk from the library in one wing of Justin’s manor house to his study in the other wing. The now-familiar surroundings were a blur as I worried about what might be going on.
The wooden floor creaked as I entered the wing where everyone slept. The other wing had carpet. I had never figured out why this one didn’t, especially with the noisy floor, but I thought it gave the house charm: a voice of its own, as it were.
Knocking softly on the heavy wooden doors to the study, I fidgeted while I waited for a response.
“Enter.”
Justin sat behind his desk. His short dark curly hair framed wide brown eyes, a prominent nose and cheekbones. He wasn’t particularly handsome, but he wasn’t bad to look at, either. Nondescript in height and appearance, his only remarkable feature were strongly muscled forearms and shoulders. Today he looked solemn.
“Ekatarine, how are you this evening?” He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes.
I wondered what was going on.
He stood. He was neither tall nor short, though he was taller than I by a few inches.
When he had first taken me in, I thought maybe he wanted as a woman, but he had expressed no interest in me in that regard. Neither had Judas. I was grateful they did not harass me, but it seemed strange that they asked nothing of me other than that I learn whatever they tried to teach me.
He came over and stood in front of me, close enough that I almost felt he was invading my space. I took a breath and tried to calm my nerves. Justin had never given me reason to be afraid of him.
“You’ve proven yourself to be of good character by your actions and in your responsibilities. Judas and I enjoy your company. We think you would make a good member of our House.”
“So, you’re what, adopting me? Marrying me? I’m confused.”
He studied me for a moment.
“I’m not refusing, I just want to understand,” I added hastily.
His lips tightened into a tense smile, and he traced his finger along my jaw line.
“I had thought to give you a choice, but I suspect I know what your answer would be anyway.” He slid his hand behind my neck and I saw something predatory in his eyes that sent my heart racing in fear.
I didn’t move, uncertain, but I knew trying to run wasn’t the answer. Besides, the grip Justin had on my neck wouldn’t let me get far. He was strong.
After another moment studying me, looking into my eyes, he bent his head to my neck.
I gasped in pain as he bit me, but I didn’t have much time to wonder about that as my legs gave out. Justin slid his other arm behind my waist, holding me up. As my limbs went weak, I thought to fight, but it was too late, and I knew I wouldn’t have won.
“Justin,” I gasped as my vision blurred. I thought he lowered me to the ground.
My consciousness was fading, but I thought I saw him bite his own wrist before holding it to my mouth. Hot, coppery, thick liquid ran into my mouth. At first I choked, but after a moment the taste filled me with longing for more, and I bit down on Justin’s wrist, drinking. I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening at that moment, with my brain in a fog and my body reacting to blood in ways it never had before.
“Sleep now, Ekatarine. We will talk when you wake.”
As if his words were a command my body couldn’t disobey, I released his arm and fell into a deep sleep.
I woke in my chamber. The bed was larger than my room had been at my childhood home, the whole suite bigger than my parents’ shop. Sometimes I felt guilty that I had this much space, but right now I just felt strange. Lethargic, but alert. Unwilling to move, but needing to do so. I could hear Judas and Justin speaking quietly in my sitting room, though I shouldn’t have been able to. I could even hear that they were talking about the weather, of all things.
Through my mental fog, curiosity filtered in: How long had I been asleep? Did I remember things correctly? Had Justin really bitten me?
I shifted under the soft sheets, and before I finished the movement, Justin and Judas were at my side.
“You’re awake!” Judas said with far more excitement than the event necessitated.
“Yes. You sound surprised.” I scooted back until my pillows propped me up then noted I still wore my clothing from earlier. Clearly, I wasn’t misremembering events.
“Relieved,” Justin said. “How do you feel?”
“Strange. Hungry.” I hadn’t noticed the hunger raging through me until just then. “What did you do?”
“Here.” Justin handed me a warm mug.
I wrapped my hands around it and sniffed, frowning, conflicted. I knew it was blood and somehow, I knew it was human. The smell drew me to the rich red liquid, but the idea of drinking blood was revolting. Wasn’t it?
Apparently, it was not too revolting, because, after a brief hesitation, I drank it all without taking a breath. After handing the mug to Judas, I fixed my stare on Justin. I wasn’t going to let him avoid explaining any longer.
Both he and Judas sat on the edges of my giant bed.
“And now we must tell you what we’ve done to you.” Justin smiled uncertainly. “I do hope you’re not angry with me.”
I wasn’t angry, though it took a little while to convince me they were telling the truth. Only a few hours, really. I knew I would miss the sunlight kissing the moors in th
e morning, but even then I felt the tradeoff was worth it.
Power in a time when women had none. A heady thing.
Judas and Justin spent a great deal of time educating me in my powers and how to survive as a vampire. I found out later this was somewhat unusual, indeed that our entire House was unusual. This was our greatest strength, but it was also to become the reason we became perceived as a threat to the other Houses.
These stories aren’t really about my time learning to be a vampire. Maybe I’ll tell that tale later, but for now I’m going to skip those years. Suffice to say, they were some of the best of my life. Faster, stronger, better, I had to relearn how to fight, but I still wasn’t strong enough when the other Houses came for ours. They were afraid of us then.
They’re fucking terrified of us now.
“When will Justin return?”
Judas and I walked, arm in arm, down the streets of London. We had just gone to a play at an upper scale play house and were taking in some of the nightlife before heading back to our countryside estate.
Though we thought of each other as brother and sister, it was easier if humans thought of us as a couple, so we played that role most of the time we were in public. Judas was striking, with long platinum blond hair, slate colored eyes, and powerful shoulders, so I certainly didn’t mind being on his arm.
One of the original members of our House would arrive tomorrow evening. I hadn’t met Hawk yet and was looking forward to it. I had been a vampire not quite two hundred years at this point and I still had yet to meet all the members of my small House. Travel wasn’t terribly convenient since we couldn’t really go out in sunlight.
We reached the carriage and Judas handed me up into it before giving quick directions to our driver, Francis. He was a member of the family who had served ours for generations. Judas climbed in the other side of the carriage and Francis got the horses in motion. We would be home before the sun rose.