The Greater Darkness

by Eldon Murphy

  Venice might have attacked first, or maybe Geoffrey had wormed a probe far enough past her defenses to preempt her action. In the end it wasn't important. The battle whirled by in a flurry of flashing metal, with neither side gaining the advantage. Geoffrey's limbs soon moved with wooden slowness, executing techniques with nothing resembling his normal ability as exhaustion and Venice's gift robbed him of grace.

  The only thing saving Geoffrey was the crack he'd created in Venice's mental defenses. Now a flood of memories poured into him from Venice. For a second he thought it was an unusual defense meant to overwhelm him and limit his ability to predict her actions.

  His sense of self had nearly vanished under the assault, but he managed to hold onto his identity and even counter her attacks. The flood slowed to a trickle, picking up in vibrancy what it lost in volume. Pictures of a dark, brooding figure flashed across the link as Geoffrey parried a high attack and shuffled back out of the way.

  Somehow they'd begun the practice pattern Venice had begun Geoffrey's training with. Weapons flashed with increasing quickness through the set techniques as the feelings and thoughts of the young woman that Venice had been when she was turned to a vampire settled into his mind.

  The incredible loneliness and fear that her cruel master inspired had been offset to some extent by the aloof fellow slave's actions. If those actions had been sometimes tinged with malice and oftentimes been unpredictable and hurtful, they still represented the greatest kindness shown to Venice in her entire life.

  The exchange of blows had reached the third practice pattern now, each technique coming without conscious thought, as Venice shared the events that led her from the innocent she had been to the hardened killer she'd become, and then suddenly her blade wasn't where it was supposed to be. Geoffrey's stab caught Venice in the chest, parting soft flesh in an action that couldn't be taken back.

  The scream that burst from Geoffrey as Venice's weapon fell to the ground was something made terrible by the loss of innocence he'd just witnessed, and he caught her as she crumpled to the ground.

  "It was for you." The words came out as the barest shadow of a whisper, but they bubbled to the surface of Venice's mind where Geoffrey could see them, so it didn't matter. "It was all for you."

  "I know, I know it was."

  "You and…"

  The tears that Geoffrey had somehow been storing since the day that Venice had been turned spilled out in a hot flow, and he held her until long after eyes that had regained some of the innocence they had lost long ago, dimmed.

  **

  The train was just like any other headed west. The passengers were eminently normal, all restless to be done with the endless series of transfers, all wishing they'd already covered the countless miles to their destination. There was one passenger with the faintest aura of different about him, but he went unnoticed as he moved about his fellows, stopping for a while here and there before moving to the next car with feet that seemed to grow heavier as his journey progressed.

  Despite the remarkable company, the trip was something from a storybook. Passenger after passenger found tears in their eyes as they remembered old friends they'd lost touch with. Others contemplated estranged family members, and remembered all the things they'd personally done to contribute to the hatred now walling them away from their loved ones. In another time and place, surrounded by strangers, it might have seemed odd to make the call required to apologize and reconcile. Today that somehow didn't seem important; maybe because those same strangers were in the middle of patching marriages that had been on the verge of collapse. Watching relationships come alive once again with shared purpose and mutual respect, it seemed only natural to heal their own flagging friendships.

  The barriers that we all create to shelter our vulnerable parts from each other came down that day, and strangers became fast friends.

  Nobody noticed when a weary figure stumbled off the train at a routine stop, but they all felt a change. It was universally dismissed out of habit, but the nagging feeling that something important had just happened wasn't quite so easily forgotten.

  —The Story Continues in A Darkness Mirrored—

  Publisher's Note:

  If you've enjoyed The Greater Darkness, please consider signing up for the author's mailing list. By signing up you'll receive $10.00 worth of free books. We'll be offering a special discount to existing fans for the first week each new book is live, so signing up for his mailing list will mean that you'll always know about new releases with plenty of time to take advantage of the new release discount.

  Author's Note:

  I'm glad that you made it all of the way to the end, and I very much hope that you've enjoyed the first installation of Geoffrey's story. Eldon Murphy is actually an 'open' pen name for Dean Murray. I chose to release The Greater Darkness under a pen name because it is a tad darker than the stuff that I usually write under the Dean Murray name. Think PG-13 still, but more PG-13 'heavy' than PG-13 'light.' The Greater Darkness is actually one of the very first novels I ever wrote and I set it in what I'm calling my 'Reflections' universe, basically a modern-day world with vampires, werewolves, shape shifters and other assorted supernatural elements.

  I've already got the material mapped out in my head for at least a couple more novels including Geoffrey in some form or fashion, but before I ever got started on them I got sucked into two other universes. The Guadel Chronicles is epic fantasy, and may or may not be the kind of thing that you're interested in trying out, but the other series so far features different characters but is also set in my Reflections universe. I will match the two of the universes up (have the characters meet and interact) at some point in the future, and in fact I've start laying some of the more obvious groundwork for that in a short story called Intrusion, and in the new Reflections novel that I'll be releasing around Christmas time in 2012.

  I'm very excited at the trip that all of these characters are going to go on over the next few years, so I hope that you'll go check out Torn, Broken, Splintered and the rest of the Reflections novels (written by Dean Murray) so that you can join in the ride. I'll put a short description of each of them a little further down after the acknowledgements.

  You may want to check out my blog, deanwrites.com. I've got a reading order for the Reflections Universe (there are currently three different 'start' points for the series) posted there along with semi-regular updates on when to expect new releases and a link that will sign you up for my mailing list (so you get a reminder when a new book is released).

  Thanks for giving The Greater Darkness a try—I hope you'll tell your friends and family how much you enjoyed it and if you've got a minute, please consider leaving a review to help others decide whether or not Geoffrey's story might be something that they'd be interested in.

  Acknowledgments:

  I want to express a big helping of thanks to Dana Marchenko, RJ Locksley and Amy Jirsa-Smith for editing and proofing help, and my advance readers (Mom and Dad, Shalese, Matthew, Mark, Mimi, Kim, Jenine, Janelle, Mei and Heather) for some great finds. Any errors you might have found are probably a case of me being stubborn and ignoring their advice.

  I also greatly appreciate Katie Jane's work on the cover. I'm tickled pink with how it turned out and can't wait to get more books done so that I can see what else she cooks up.

  Lastly, I need to say a final word of thanks to my wife and daughters who let me jump into this writing thing with both feet and then put up with me being locked away in my office for long hours instead of spending as much time playing with them.

  About the Author:

  Eldon Murphy is an open pen name for Dean Murray, a prolific author with dozens of titles across multiple pen names and more than half a million copies of his work currently in circulation.

  Dean started reading seriously in the second grade due to a competition and has spent most of the subsequent three decades lost in other people's worlds.

  Things worsened, or improved dependin
g on your point of view, when he first started experimenting with writing while finishing up his accounting degree. These days Dean has a wonderful wife and two lovely daughters to keep him more grounded than he used to be, but the idea of bringing others along with him as he meets interesting new people in universes nobody else has ever seen drags him back to his computer on a regular basis.

  Keep up to speed on Eldon's/Dean's latest projects at deanwrites.com.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  The image used in the creation of the cover for this book is copyrighted by Kylee Ann Photography (www.kyleeann.com) and is used with permission.

  Other Reflections Books

  A Darkness Mirrored

  Geoffrey has been called a lot of things: warrior, werewolf killer, slave, lover…vampire…soulless. They are all the truth. He's killed hundreds, possibly even thousands of people without a single regret, but that's only part of the truth.

  This is the story of the one and only person who called Geoffrey father, the story of an orphan that Geoffrey took in and raised, the girl who would become the woman that he would sacrifice everything for.

  This is Lucy's story.

  Torn

  Shape shifter Alec Graves has spent nearly a decade trying to keep his family from being drawn into open warfare with a larger pack. The new girl at school shouldn't matter, but the more he gets to know her, the more mysterious she becomes. Worse, she seems to know things she shouldn't about his shadowy world.

  Is she an unfortunate victim or bait designed to draw him into a fatal misstep? If she's a victim, then he's running out of time to save her. If she's bait, then his attraction to her will pull him into a fight that'll cost him everything.

  Torn is a complete novel in its own right, but also represents one-half of a double novel when paired with Broken. Regardless of which book you start with, the two are designed such that you can continue on to the other in order to get answers to questions not answered in the book you started with. The series continues with Splintered.

  Broken

  Adri Paige is too busy dealing with the emotional fallout from losing half of her family to deal with boys. At least she thought so until the two most intriguing guys in her new school take an interest in her.

  Both boys are gorgeous and blessed with obscene amounts of money. They should have the emotional depth of note cards, but instead display undercurrents she doesn't fully understand. Rumors the pair destroys peoples' livelihoods seem ludicrous until she gets caught in the crossfire and her family almost loses their home. She's increasingly unsure either boy is really human, and their rivalry is rapidly turning deadly.