V is for Self Promotion!

I have resisted the urge to speak of my published work and now V blog offers the perfect opportunity! Why is this so? V....is for vampires.

A summary of my work and then a blurb to hopefully leave you wanting more, or perhaps to purchase it? Oh, I can only hope!




Samantha is mysterious, beautiful, and a vampire. Chris Stanton is not sure what she wants with him, a mere human, but is shocked to discover that she wishes to train him in how to kill others of her kind. Yet before those lessons begin, he must understand how a vampire is created, and for that Samantha tells him her story.

Turned against her will, college student Samantha Edwards is thrust into a life of violence and blood. As she begins to learn of her new powers, she also uncovers information on how to keep a shred of her humanity. Balancing the two worlds is difficult in the extreme. While she plays the part of dutiful lover to the Master Vampire, she stalks the day to kill the others in the cadre. It's a dangerous part to play, for if the Master Vampire suspects her, her own life will be forfeit.

But for a vampire who is undead, what other risks could she take?

Can Samantha retain her humanity while flirting dangerously with desires she cannot fully control?


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Vampire's Apprentice:

Evening seemed to settle a little earlier than usual to Chris as he swiftly strolled to his house. It was located in the center of a city block surrounded by identical squat homes with tired shutters and fading paint. His eyes flicked constantly to every angle in order to catch any hint of movement near him. The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he could not decide if it was because of his nerves or if someone—something—was behind him, following his every move.

“I will guard you, as I said I would.”

Samantha’s words rang in his mind as the last rays of the sun dipped into the earth, leaving Chris alone on a street filled with menacing shadows in the glare from the streetlights that were sporadically positioned about the street. When he reached the alleyway that he normally walked down to his house as a shortcut, he hesitated. The alley was a mass of gathered darkness. Anything could be lurking there, waiting for him.

Oh, come on, he scolded himself sternly, trying to reassure himself. The light just faded. There can’t possibly be a vampire there yet; it’s too early. If you hurry and go now, you can get to your warm, cozy bed without any problems. He finally convinced himself that there could be no danger and shifted his weight to step into the alley.

A deathly cold, immensely strong hand shot out, latched onto his left arm, and yanked him backwards. A dark shape slammed him against the brick wall of a store and he found himself staring into Samantha’s cool, pale blue eyes.

“What?” He gasped, trying to recapture some of the air that had been forced out of his lungs by the hard impact of his body against brick.

“Silence.” Samantha’s answer was clipped and harsh, her eyes distant, her head cocked to the side as if listening. Gradually, Chris quivering in unknown fear, she let go of him to stand slightly ahead of him. Very slowly and almost inaudibly, she cautioned, “Do not continue toward your house, Mr. Stanton. They do not know that this is where you dwell, yet I can hear them waiting to catch sight of you. We will silently back away and retreat to my home instead. I need to give you something of importance. Come quickly.”

Briefly, he wondered how he would be able to follow her if she, in the gloom of early night, became a shadow again. He knew that she was aware of his limitations of sight. His mind was further put at ease when, encountering their first obstacle of darkness, she guided him through the deepest pockets of shadows lying against walls, crates, and anything else large enough to hide two people behind.

On this second journey to Samantha’s house, conscious and alert, Chris noted the winding path that Samantha took through the mostly deserted streets. They glided through cramped alleyways between rows of more low-income houses with almost every window in the houses dark as exhausted workers dropped into an innocent, deep sleep to forget the mindless tedium of their existence. Then they traveled three streets north of his residence and two west. Samantha directed him into an alley and pointed to a large, dark green dumpster at the mouth of the alley.

“Stay here, still and quiet,” she growled softly to him.

“You’re…” Chris heard his whispered voice squeak and tried again. “You’re leaving me here?”

Before she turned her back on him to gaze out of the alley, he saw in the nearest streetlamp’s glow an expression of amusement flit briefly across her face. “You will be fine. I will only be gone a moment. Keep a low profile, Mr. Stanton.”

He shook his head as Samantha smoothly began walking toward a house lit by only a single streetlight.

Oh, yeah, he thought sarcastically as he slinked closer to the dumpster, trying to ignore the smell of rotting food. As if a big, still mass of warm blood isn’t going to attract your precious little bloodsuckers right over here.
With a sigh he realized he ought to be watching the street, so he turned his head to determine where Samantha had gone. By the light of the lone streetlamp, he saw what he surmised to be her house by the neglected appearance of the outside structure. The shutters were hanging on to the side of the windows by sheer will alone. The paneling was rotted and sagging while the bricks of the chimney were crumbling, leaving gaping holes in the unsteady structure. The house’s exterior lacked all of the dignity of its interior with Samantha’s old furniture and graceful touches that gave the inside of the house its character. He frowned as he looked at the startling contrast of the house with his memory of the inside. Was the dilapidated appearance to keep others away and not know the secrets within, perhaps? He was sure of one thing: if he saw this house under any other circumstances, he would definitely not even walk on the same side of the street just in case it decided to collapse on him while he was hurrying by.

His eyes caught a faint movement near the bushes that overran the side of the house and soon he could make out Samantha’s form as she crossed the street and charged straight at him. He stayed crouched down low as she swiftly entered the alley and dropped something into his lap, hissing in pain. She leaned heavily against the dumpster, shifting it slightly, and croaked out, “Put it on.”

He could tell that he was taking longer than she would like, but the chill air and darkness was causing him to fumble with what she had dropped into his lap. She peered up and down the street and growled, “Now. I did not hurt myself just to amuse you.”

Finally, his fingers found the clasp on the necklace that she had given to him, and he fastened it behind his neck. “Care to tell me what this is all about?” he asked her as he stood to flex his sore muscles from squatting so long.

Not looking at him as she continued to watch the dark street, she explained, “It is silver. It will protect your neck from them. It does not have such a strong reaction on me, though it still burns if I hold it too long. Keep it. I received it too late to help me. I will not make that mistake with you.”

Chris found that he had no reply, or at least none that would not reinforce his ignorance of her history. He sighed quietly, feeling the cold of the silver around his neck. Abruptly he realized that just because his neck was protected did not mean that he was entirely safe from the other vampires.

“Why does she wait?” she changed topics.

It was the first time that Chris had heard Samantha use a singular pronoun when talking about their pursuers and it caught him off-guard. “She?”

Samantha glanced at him quickly, and then returned her observant gaze to the street. “The fledgling who challenged me, my prize. The one I thought I could convince to help me is the ‘she’ I speak of. Her name is Chloe. Learn it well, for she wants you dead at all costs.”

Her news disturbed him and yet, oddly, it caused him to grow calm. This was a dangerous time for both him and Samantha; he knew that without doubt. If events unfolded to become the worse-case scenario, it would be two against—how many? He crept up to the edge of the alley and glanced down the side of the street that Samantha was not currently looking. “So,” he tried to ask nonchalantly. “When is this Chloe going to make her move? Is she going to wait all night? I’d like to get some sleep. I’d also like it if I could be ready to fight, since I’m going to be your target from now on.”

Samantha sighed, exasperation welling up in her. “You do not need to do anything. You need to act innocent, if you know how.”

He stopped looking up and down the street to study her. “Do you have a plan that you haven’t told me?”

She never once took her searching gaze off of the street. “The longer they think that you are not with me, the more likely it is that you will be spared.”

Chris swallowed and tried to ignore a slightly odd feeling that was crawling its way up his spine to the back of his neck. “And…what will you do when they come for me?”

This time she did turn to face him and her eyes flashed with a dangerous gleam that suddenly frightened him beyond words, making him remember who and what she was. “Leave that to me.”

After a moment, her eyes softened. “Now I suggest that you walk as casually as you can and perhaps you will reach the other side of the street alive. They are there, waiting. I cannot feel their exact locations…but I know that they are there.”

He could not see anything in the deep pools of darkness where the streetlights did not reach. “How did you know, back at my house, that there was anyone there if you can’t sense them? Were you expecting some sort of ambush tonight?”

“Yes,” she informed him, slinking back into the shadows as she thought she saw an almost imperceptible movement near one of the buildings. “When you left your work building tonight I could feel that something was not right. I saw shadows detach from the walls and follow you, so I came as well.”

Chris studied her for a moment, trying to see past her unbreakable shell of this impassive facade to the one who had decided to ensure his safety at all costs. For some odd reason, he smiled. “Thanks for the warning.”

Frowning at his smile and not understanding what lay behind its meaning, Samantha did not return it. “You are only fortunate that I got to you before they did. You will have to be brave for what I am going to ask you to do, tonight and all the nights after.”

Flippantly, he responded, “I doubt that I have had a choice but to act with courage since I met you, what with vampires and death and all that.”

A reluctant smile appeared fleetingly on her face before she resumed watching out of their hiding place. “True, Mr. Stanton. But this may cost your life.”

Chris peeked out at the street again and said casually, “Well, you could refer to me by my first name or my nickname if you want so much from me. I don’t want someone calling me ‘Mr. Stanton’ as I die. It’s kindof impersonal, you know.”

“Should you live through this, I will call you whatever you wish,” she shot back.

“Well,” he mused, stretching out his arms and legs. “As long as you’re not asking me to submit myself to being tortured or killed, I’ll do it. I have little choice anyway. There’s no way I can return now to my normal life, knowing things as they are now. Nothing I can do now but trust you.” Trusting her did not seem to be a bad choice on his part, since she was the only one who was keeping him from the other vampires at the moment.

“True,” he heard Samantha say softly. “You have no choice. You will only be killed or captured if caught, which I will do my best to prevent. And I must trust you, Mr. Stanton, do not forget that. It is the way of things.”

“Is it just me,” Chris abruptly changed the subject, suddenly anxious to have this done with, “or do all vampires have difficulty getting to the point?” He smiled wryly.

Samantha brought her head around, trying to decide if he was insulting her or being funny, and decided it was humor at his smile. “If you were as old as I am, you would have all the time you need to ‘get to the point’. Now, we must act, before they do.”

“Samantha,” he grabbed her arm fiercely. “Is your own life in danger?”

Softly, she told him, “My life was forfeit long ago.”

~~~~~~

Interested? I surely hope so!! If you want more, you can go to www.lulu.com and search for Vampire's Apprentice. You will see my true name, but I think that you will enjoy the book!

And....I'm working on a sequel!