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Blood Moon (Samantha Moon Case Files Book 2)

Page 18

by J. R. Rain

Of course not. Your existence is based on your not wanting to find out.

  I grin, and she laughs. Whatever magic she enacted back when Tiberius ruled Rome has sent her soul into the Void. Lucky me, I get to be her vessel.

  You know I’ve come to regret that.

  I wasn’t being sarcastic. I do consider myself lucky I didn’t die.

  Pragmatic.

  Her guilt is weak but palpable. I suppose I should feel honored that an entity others call a ‘Dark Master’ actually feels remorse on my behalf.

  You should.

  I take a deep breath of forest air, trying not to cough on pot smoke. Green Shirt scarfs down his third turkey-dog. He stands motionless, his expression suggesting he’s lost in a deep, philosophical wandering, pondering some esoteric truth. Two seconds later, he opens his mouth and lets off a belch so loud that birds scatter out of the trees. It echoes over the campsite, which falls silent.

  Kyle starts a slow clap. One by one, the other kids join in. Green Shirt bows like a grateful gold-medal winner. Ugh. Those hot dogs smell much worse on a belch. The trace, though minute from this distance, makes me cringe. Being able to detect human scents well enough to identify individual people is damn handy. Gagging on hot dog burps from fifty yards, not so much.

  The girl by Kyle’s side yawns, stands, and stretches before stooping to kiss him on the lips. I snap a few more photos, getting two nice, clean shots of her face. We almost make eye contact; I’m sure the girl feels something watching her. In that second, I plunge into the deep, cerulean ocean of her thoughts. At this distance, I get mostly outward feelings and emotions. My abilities don’t work as well on women, unless they’re attracted to me. But this girl loves Kyle. A pure kind of love, like the one I had for my first husband that made me do something stupid and get married young.

  Sorry.

  Why are you apologizing? You know he died before I, umm… met you.

  Kyle’s girlfriend takes the giant fork from him and pokes the turkey dogs. Bleh! Those things don’t even smell like real meat. I’m going to need a fresh octopus to purge the disgust out of my senses. Maybe a squid, instead; octopi are a bit slimy.

  I’m confident these kids are a bunch of harmless slackers. Kyle’s nineteen. If he wants to waste his time out here in the woods, it’s his time to waste. I back away from the campground until enough trees block me from sight. None of them notice me. Not that it would make a difference if I’m seen, but old habits die hard, and I’d prefer to remain anonymous. If Kyle’s father wants to tell him he hired a private investigator to find him, that’s his business. Leave me out of it. I figure in a couple weeks, Kyle will be as poor as Job’s turkey and go home. Or maybe he’ll venture out of the campsite and look for gainful employment.

  They might take up farming.

  I laugh aloud, startling a squirrel so bad, the poor thing runs headfirst into a tree and knocks itself senseless. Fortunately, I’d parked my Jeep Rubicon far enough from the campsite that I don’t think any of the kids heard me. Then again, I could pass for one of their group. I’ve been twenty-five for over a century, and people tell me I look more like twenty.

  With that thought stuck in my head, I hop in my Rubi and start the drive home, grinning at my nickname for the Jeep. It’s a lustrous dark red, which makes the name a pun, too.

  ***

  I’ve got a nice place in Medina right on the water.

  I suppose most people would consider the property expensive, but after so many years, I’ve gathered a comfortable nest egg. I wasn’t born into wealth―far from it. I grew up poor to the point of not having shoes until around the time I hit fourteen. As a small girl, most of my dresses had been flour sacks in a former life. Fortunately, I’d been an only child, so my mother didn’t need to break her back too much to support us. I never knew my father. Mom never talked about him much, though around my mid-teens, she admitted he’d left as soon as she’d told him I was on the way. She’d been afraid I’d internalize it as a child and think something had been wrong with me, but I didn’t take it personally. He couldn’t have abandoned me because he had no idea who I was, merely ‘a baby coming.’

  Anyway, if a person sticks around long enough, eventually money finds them. I had a knack for marrying up, though only my first husband had been a marriage in any legal sense, and my only one while still a mortal. The last two had both deemed it fair to set me up for ‘life’ when we parted ways. Immortal businessmen have more money than God, and both had been surprisingly happy to give me a nice chunk of it. Patrick Foster had been my first supernatural husband, a werewolf. I think he loved me at one point, but whether due to his canine nature or something more human, he couldn’t keep it in his pants.

  For most of the 80s, I considered myself ‘married’ to a vampire by the name of Manfred Worley. I’d met him in London in 1930 or so, but I didn’t know it at the time. He remembered me when we bumped into each other in Southern California when I’d been living in San Diego. I think he’s still there. Unlike Patrick, Manfred turned out to view me as a curiosity, no actual love involved―but the sex wasn’t bad. After the magic ran out of our relationship, he remained friendly, and added to my fortune when we decided to part ways.

  I have dozens of bank accounts around the world, enough that my money makes money. I don’t have to work, but I enjoy it. Sitting around all day staring at paintings would drive me insane, so the private investigator thing keeps me from winding up in a padded fish tank.

  My house is still somewhat modest for the area. Even in this part of the city, I could’ve afforded more, but I only need so much room, being alone. I like nice things, specifically art. Much of my wall space goes toward displaying a veritable showcase of modern, postmodern, and classic paintings―heavy on the avant garde. Some of them are pretty weird and dark, and many bloody. That’s got to be Licinia’s influence. I’d always been on the squeamish side. As a child, I’d been the first girl standing on a chair to get away from the giant bug, and I think I did faint once at the sight of blood when I’d been around nine. Mom had nicked herself with a kitchen knife.

  With a beautiful home, a beautiful view, a collection of beautiful art that would rival any museum ―art that I most certainly didn’t donate to the local thrift shops―one might think I would be content. But isn’t that the thing about life? Who is ever content? I’ll tell you who, people who are six feet under. Contentment equals death, of that I have no doubt. Want a long and rewarding life? Never let the life force stop flowing, never stop creating, never stop giving back, never stop living.

  Unless, of course, a person happens to be immortal.

  Then it doesn’t matter what the hell one does. Except, even in my immortality, I have things I need to do. For instance, I can’t stray far from salt water. Yes, the ocean. Why, I don’t know, but Licinia’s nature demands it. That, as well as darker, bloodier requirements. Fresh meat, preferably of the male type. Though, I am fortunate in that my Dark Mistress is able to set the craving for human flesh aside. Fish, sea life, and sometimes beef scratch that itch. My human side never accepted the idea of eating people, so I’m grateful she lets me slide there. That, and tearing a guy open to eat his heart and internal organs tends to get on the nerves of the local cops.

  Anyway, I decided to buy this house even though it was on the low end of my budget. Mind you, they don’t build ‘basic’ homes with an oceanfront location around here, so I settled on something the locals call ‘midrange.’

  One good thing about the property is thick trees on both sides. My neighbors can’t see much, which suits me fine. Since I’ve spent all day in the damn woods, that inner part of me craves the ocean.

  After leaving my clothes on the back steps, I run faster than I have in quite a while for the shore. Fast enough that my hair whips behind me, my boobs bounce, and maybe some other parts as well. Licinia thinks my ass is small, but I guess beauty standards aren’t quite what they were two millennia ago.

  I fly over my lawn and down the small p
rivate pier before leaping in a graceful dive. Lake Washington, silver to my eyes, shimmers before me.

  Soon, I’ll feel alive again. I’ll be whole.

  Complete.

  Silver Light

  is available here:

  Amazon Kindle * Amazon UK

  Return to the Table of Contents

  Other Books by J.R. Rain

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  Winter Wind

  Bound By Blood

  Silent Echo

  The Body Departed

  The Grail Quest

  Elvis Has Not Left the Building

  The Lost Ark

  The Journey (with Piers Anthony)

  The Worm Returns (with Piers Anthony)

  Lavabull (with Piers Anthony)

  Jack and the Giants (with Piers Anthony)

  Dolfin Tayle (with Piers Anthony)

  Dragon Assassin (with Piers Anthony)

  Glimmer (with Eve Paludan)

  Lost Eden (with Elizabeth Basque)

  Judas Silver (with Elizabeth Basque)

  The Vampire Club (with Scott Nicholson)

  Cursed (with Scott Nicholson)

  The Black Fang Betrayal (with multiple authors)

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE SERIES

  Moon Dance

  Vampire Moon

  American Vampire

  Moon Child

  Christmas Moon (novella)

  Vampire Dawn

  Vampire Games

  Moon Island

  Moon River

  Vampire Sun

  Moon Dragon

  Moon Shadow

  Vampire Fire

  Midnight Moon

  Moon Angel

  SAMANTHA MOON ORIGINS

  with Matthew S. Cox

  New Moon Rising

  Moon Mourning

  SAMANTHA MOON CASE FILES

  with Rod Kierkegaard

  Moon Bayou

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE EXTRAS

  Vampire Alley (poem)

  Moon Dance (Deluxe Edition)

  Moon Extras: Bonus Scenes

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE SHORT STORIES

  Teeth

  Vampire Nights

  Vampire Blues

  Vampire Dreams

  Halloween Moon

  Vampire Gold

  Blue Moon

  Dark Side of the Moon

  Vampire Requiem

  Moon Love

  JIM KNIGHTHORSE SERIES

  Dark Horse

  The Mummy Case

  Hail Mary

  Clean Slate

  Easy Rider (short story)

  THE WITCHES SERIES

  The Witch and the Gentleman

  The Witch and the Englishman

  The Witch and the Huntsman (with Rod Kierkegaard)

  THE PSI SERIES

  with A.K. Alexander

  Hear No Evil

  See No Evil

  Speak No Evil

  THE WATSON FILES

  with Chanel Smith

  Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Shakespeare

  Sherlock Holmes and the Lost Da Vinci

  Sherlock Holmes and the Werewolf of West End

  NICK CAINE SERIES

  with Aiden James

  Temple of the Jaguar

  Treasure of the Deep

  Pyramid of the Gods

  DEAD DETECTIVE SERIES

  with Rod Kierkegaard

  The Dead Detective

  Deadbeat Dad

  Ghosts of Christmas Present (short story)

  THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERHEROINE

  with Kris Carey

  The Accidental Superheroine

  My Big Fat Accidental Superheroine Wedding

  MADDY WIMSEY SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  The Devil’s Eye

  The Drifting Gloom

  WINTER SOLTSICE SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  Convergence

  Containment

  ICE WOLF SERIES

  with H.P. Mallory

  Ice Wolf

  MAJOR QUATERMAIN ADVENTURES

  with Randy Keys

  The Spear

  ALEXIS SILVER SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  Silver Light

  THE SPINOZA TRILOGY

  The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo

  The Vampire Who Played Dead

  The Vampire in the Iron Mask

  The Vampire on the Train (short story)

  THE ALADDIN TRILOGY

  with Piers Anthony

  Aladdin Relighted

  Aladdin Sins Bad

  Aladdin and the Flying Dutchman

  THE WALKING PLAGUE TRILOGY

  with Elizabeth Basque

  Zombie Patrol

  Zombie Rage

  Zombie Mountain

  THE SPIDER TRILOGY

  with Scott Nicholson and H.T. Night

  Bad Blood

  Spider Web

  Spider Bite

  SHORT STORY SINGLES

  Vampire Road

  Skeleton Jim

  The Bleeder

  Vampire Rain

  The Santa Call

  COLLECTIONS

  Moonlight & Monsters: Ten Vampire Tales

  The Sands of Time

  Dark Rain: Stories

  Blood Rain: Stories

  Black Rain: Stories

  Red Rain: Over Forty Bestselling Stories

  The Indomitable Ten

  Chronology

  Primetime

  For Young Readers

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The Emerald River

  The Angel and the Gift

  Forever Silent

  Spirit Mountain (with Alexandra Swan)

  YOUR CHOICE BOOKS

  Deep Sea Danger

  The Legend of Eagle Eye Mountain

  Playoff Pressure

  THE ROBOT TWINS

  The Mystery of the Walking Statue

  The Secret of Stonehead Island (with Randy Keys)

  KIDQUEST ADVENTURES

  The Secret of the Sphinx

  THE DISTANT WORLD TRILOGY

  Dare to Enter a Distant World

  TEAM LEGEND

  with Randy Keys

  The Enchantress

  Return to the Table of Contents

  Other Books by Matthew S. Cox

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey

  Axillon99

  Wayfarer: AV494

  Caller 107

  Operation Chimera (with Tony Healey)

  The Summer the World Ended

  Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle

  Nine Candles of Deepest Black

  The Eldritch Heart

  Citadel: The Concordant Sequence

  Out of Sight

  Sophie’s Light

  THE AWAKENED SERIES

  Prophet of the Badlands

  Archon’s Queen

  Grey Ronin

  Daughter of Ash

  Zero Rogue

  THE DIVISION ZERO SERIES

  Division Zero

  Division Zero: Lex De Mortuis

  Division Zero: Thrall

  Division Zero: Guardian

  TALES OF WIDOESWOOD SERIES

  Emma and the Banderwigh

  Emma and the Silk Thieves

  Emma and the Silverbell Faeries

  VAMPIRE INNOCENT

  A Nighttime of Forever

  A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs

  The Artist of Ruin

  THE DAUGHTER OF MARS SERIES

  The Hand of Raziel

  Araphel

  Ghost Black

  TEMPORAL ARMISTICE SERIES

  Nascent Shadow

  The Shadow Collector

  THE ROADHOUSE CHRONICLES SERIES

  One More Run

  The Redeemed

  VIRTUAL IMMORTALITY SERIES

  Virtual Immortality

  The Harmony Paradox

  THE FADED SKIES SERIES

  Heir Ascendant<
br />
  Ascendant Unrest

  MADDY WIMSEY SERIES

  with J.R. Rain

  The Devil’s Eye

  The Drifting Gloom

  THE WINTER SOLSTICE SERIES

  with J.R. Rain

  Convergence

  Containment

  SAMANTHA MOON ORIGINS

  with J.R. Rain

  New Moon Rising

  Moon Mourning

  ALEXIS SILVER SERIES

  with J.R. Rain

  Silver Light

  ANTHOLOGIES

  The Far Side of Promise

  The Divergent Fates Anthology

  Valcoria: Awakenings

  NON-FICTION

  The Dysfunctional Conspiracy

  Return to the Table of Contents

  About J.R. Rain:

  J.R. Rain is the international bestselling author of over seventy novels, including his popular Samantha Moon and Jim Knighthorse series. His books are published in five languages in twelve countries, and he has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

  Please visit him at www.jrrain.com.

  Join his newsletter here.

  Follow him on Amazon.

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  Join his Facebook Group.

  And read his blog here.

  ~~~~~

  About Matthew S. Cox:

  Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew S. Cox has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place.

  Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

 

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