Tis the season and Seth is confirming Jessica’s role as Mrs Claus along with his as Santa. I am sure there will be a murder for the holiday.
Jessica is still at the Hill House Hotel since renovations on her burned out home at 698 Candlewood Lane has been met with setbacks. When she found out the septic system was not up to code and would have to be replaced, what do you think is going to happen? Isn’t it about time for a body to appear? Well, surprise, surprise, we have two…and a box…in the trench.
tad Hollenbeck, a tabloid reporter is there to report on Cabot Cove and why there seem to be in inordinate amount of murders taking place there. Jessica seems to draw them to her, like flies to honey and Tad ends up adding to the count. Why him, and who are the two found at Jessica’s home?
The town’s history comes to light and it’s not all peaches and cream.
When Sheila’s doorbell rang, I knew what was coming. I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, so it is pretty hard to surprise me…and I love when an author can.
Murder, treasure, greed, slavery…
What happened in the past? What secrets will be exposed? And…who the hell is doing all the killing? So many suspects and the clock ticks on.
As the story unfolds, my mind is at least able to keep up, using each new piece of the puzzle to put it together…slowly. It still takes Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land to get me there.
I did have a bit of a jolt, when Jessica walked into her house and someone grabbed her. After all, with all the bodies falling and Jessica on the investigation, someone could feel threatened by her. Hey…you can’t mess with Jessica. It’s just wrong!
Murder In Season by Jon Land is murder on the light side, seeing Jessica doesn’t like violence. And that’s just fine. It doesn’t always have to be violent and filled with blood and guts. And we do have many warm, wonderful moments for the holiday season, showing it is better to give than to receive, because family and friends give it back in spades.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Murder In Season by Jon Land.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
With work on the reconstruction of her beloved home almost complete, Jessica Fletcher is in high holiday spirits, spearheading the annual Christmas parade and preparing for her nephew Grady and his family to come to town. The only thing dampening the holiday cheer is the discovery of two sets of bones on Jessica’s property: one set ancient, the other only about a year old. It’s concluded that they were both placed there during the reconstruction, and Jessica suspects that, despite the centuries between them, the remains might be connected.
Soon tabloid reporter Tad Hollenbeck arrives in Cabot Cove to write a story about what he calls “the murder capital of the country.” But when Tad himself is murdered, Jessica speculates that his arrival, his death, and the discovery of the bones are all somehow linked.
As Jessica digs deeper to find the connection between the bones and Tad’s murder, everything seems to come back to a mystery that has long plagued Cabot Cove. If she wants to solve the case, she’ll need to delve into her beloved town’s dark history, or else this holiday season may be her last….
ABOUT JON LAND
Jon
Land is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of 36 books,
including the bestselling Caitlin Strong Texas Ranger series that
includes Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break,
Strong Vengeance and, most recently, Strong Rain Falling. The Tenth
Circle marks the second return engagement of his longtime series hero
Blaine McCracken on the heels of last year’s Pandora’s Temple which was
nominated for a Thriller Award and received the 2013 International Book
Award for Best Adventure Thriller. Jon’s first nonfiction book,
Betrayal, meanwhile, was named Best True Crime Book of 2012 by Suspense
Magazine and won a 2012 International Book Award for Best True Crime
Book. He is currently working on Strong Darkness, the next entry in the
Caitlin Strong to be published in September of 2014. He graduated Phi
Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, where he continues
to maintain a strong volunteer presence, in 1979.
City of Ghosts by J H Moncrieff is a predictable, at times realistic, horror story that had me rapidly flipping the pages as Jackson Stone was chosen to tell a ghostly tale of pain, anger and vengeance.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Winner of the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for best Horror/Suspense.
On the day the villagers were forced to flee Hensu, not everyone got out alive.
Jackson Stone is touring the abandoned Chinese city when he slips away from the group to spend the night, determined to publish an account of his ghostly experiences there.
Then he meets Yuèhai, a strange, soft-spoken woman who can tell him the city’s secrets—secrets the Chinese government would kill to keep hidden.
As Jackson uncovers the truth about Yuèhai and the ghost city, he’s drawn into a web of conspiracy, betrayal, and murder. He must risk everything to save himself and bring honor back to Yuèhai and her family.
Old Hallows Eve, when things go bump in the night, Children come to play, and the witches provide the fright. For 19 authors, USA Today and international bestselling, The Halloween tales become more than this foretelling. In the Soul’s Day Boxset, a mansion feeds on souls, A gargoyle captures them, and a demon dungeon master makes the calls, Campers gets picked off one by one, The Karnaval’s corn dogs are less than fun, Ghosts lurking around every bend, ‘I do’ at the wedding is the very end. A boxset of chills and thrills to keep you up at night, One-click pre-order to snap your copy filled with fright. On old Hallow’s eve when creatures come to play, With this spine chilling pages, it’s where you’ll want to stay.
A boxset filled with all kinds of weird, the unexplained, terror and survival from unearthly beings.
Azaaa Davis has a story in this boxset and I am so excited to share it! I have read her Nadira Holden Demon Hunter series and loved them.
Sooooo, let me introduce you to Jilted and Azaaa Davis:
My story in SBD: Jilted by Azaaa DavisCover image attached. Page count: 60Blurb:
Administrative
assistant by day and boss lady on social media by night, Theresa enjoys
sharing her charmed life with half-million followers. The only thing
she loves more is being engaged to the hottest doctor at the clinic
where they both work. Cementing her fame by reaching one million
followers would be the icing on her wedding cake.
Life
stops running smoothly when her husband vanishes on their wedding night
and a leaked photo of a barely-dressed Theresa yelling at the police
sparks a viral sensation. With everything at stake—love, reputation,
followers, and job—she embarks on a reluctant voyage of discovery.
Follow Theresa as she stumbles over her new husband’s secrets and
develops her inner strength.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
A tale of stolen souls, mirror worlds, quantum physics and eternal love.
There’s a serial killer on the loose and Angel Copperwheat knows his name, but the murderer is long dead and using Angel to power his quest to become a God. The police think Angel’s the murderer and maybe he is?
Angel lives on the bubble-thin surface of what we call reality, surrounded by ghosts and the fractured moments of potential futures, living in more than one world. Angel has spent his life studying quantum physics, the magic of shamans, religions and myths and the threads that bind them, seeking the science of death and the afterlife, believing that nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained, and always in hope of finding the answer to his biggest question, why me? Since he was a child, newly returned from the dead, Angel used his abilities selfishly, meddling with time and space in search of elusive happiness and the love he feels he doesn’t deserve.
The Reverend Forster, Vicar of St Swithun’s, knows who Angel is and what he is. Forster has tapped the cracks Angel opened in reality and used it to steal souls from the living, taking their power to fuel his quest to become a God. The empty bodies have been possessed by wandering ghosts and now Angel’s dull English home-town is a mess of blood, rape and murder. The dispossessed souls have charged Angel with putting the universe to rights. Can Angel close the rift, restore lost souls to life, remain alive and keep his darkest secret, while holding on to the hard-won love of his friends in the now, the past and future?
#4 – All the other complex and thought provoking context
That’s why I added Entanglement by Maya Panika to my reading list on 10.6.12..and it was free. Now, it is available for $2.99 and it is the only book I see that she has ever written, which was published on 6.19.12. Is she a one hit wonder? On hiatus? Living life? Hmmm…could that be a story, What Even Happened To Maya Panika? Any thoughts?
The Forest is a familiar story…they go into the forest and they don’t all come out. It’s what the author does to the characters more any original idea that will be the deciding factor. Having read some of Michaelbrent Collings stories, I expect something…surprising.
Alex and Trish are best friends. They are highly intelligent and keep to themselves…until Sam. He fits right in with them.
Now, Sam’s lost…in the forest…and they are going in to find him. They believe in science, regardless of what they saw, and they are looking for scientific answers. They have a need to understand…WHAT IN THE HELL IS IN THE FOREST?
The writing takes us to the past and back to the present again and again. In the beginning, I was confused, but quickly got the hang of it. As I reached the end, it all became clear.
I had a high level of anticipation when I opened The Forest, because I have read some of his other work and loved it. Though this was not my favorite Michaelbrent Collings novel, I did enjoy reading it. I am sorry to say that I was, at times, bored, finding my mind wandering. Could it be the writing (this is an ARC), the story being familiar, or Covid and the fact that I have been at home for almost six months now…
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of The Forest by Michaelbrent Collings.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Three kids went in. Now, twenty years later, the two survivors are going back… ***
For Tricia and Alex, the idea is simple: find and rescue their friend, Sam, from his insane mother.
But when they enter the forest, they discover that their idea is anything but simple. Because this forest isn’t like any other. In this forest, a silver mist hangs. In this forest, a simple trip of a few miles can turn into a nightmare.
In this forest, the monsters are real.
Twenty years later, Tricia and Alex remember nothing of what happened that day they lost their friend. They know only that three kids went in, but only two came out.
Now, they are going back. To find their lost memories. To discover what happened to Sam that day.
To encounter fear itself.
The forest, as Alex and Tricia will discover, is a place where madness reigns. A place where a simple path becomes an ordeal. A place where the past comes to life, and the future is anything but certain.
Because the dead don’t stay dead… in The Forest.
ABOUT MICHAELBRENT COLLINGS
Michaelbrent Collings is an internationally-bestselling novelist,
multiple Bram Stoker Award nominee, produced screenwriter, and one of
the top indie horror writers in the United States.
He hopes someday to develop superpowers, or, if that is out of the question, then at least to get a cool robot arm.
Michaelbrent
has a wife and several kids, all of whom are much better looking than
he is (though he admits that’s a low bar to set), and also cooler than
he is.
Michaelbrent also has a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MichaelbrentC…
and can be followed on Twitter through his username @mbcollings.
Follow him for cool news, updates, and advance notice of sales. You
will also be kept safe when the Glorious Revolution begins!
Such a great cover and tagline for Laying Ghosts, The Secrets of Selkie Moon #0.5 by Virginia King, I couldn’t resist grabbing it. It’s a quick read at 48 ebook pages.
Selkie’s home along, after declining an invite to spend time at a beachside resort with her honey, Andrew, who has to attend a conference. She has no use for beaches, other than to fear them and stay as far away from them as she can BUT…
She ends up at the beach anyway, when she receives a text:
Help me at Crystal Cottage. Rina.
She had lost touch with Marina, when she left with Frank and his band to go to London. Something doesn’t feel right and she has very bad memories of Crystal Cottage, but that won’t stop her.
Most of the characters leave a lot to be desired, even the possessive Andrew, who monitors her every move.
Wow, that was every which way of weird and surprising. I was tossed here and there, never knowing where I was going until I got there. I want more of Selkie…a lot more.
Love it!
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Ghosts used to moan. Now they … pho-o-ne.
A strange message, a deserted beach house, a shocking incident from the past … Selkie Moon’s life with change forever.
When
a text message from a long lost friend lures Selkie Moon to Crystal
Cottage, the chilling events from a house-party four years earlier wrap
her in ghostly fingers and turn her life upside-down.
A prequel to the Selkie Moon Mystery Series plus your bonus first chapter of The First Lie.
Read Laying Ghosts for a standalone 60-minute adrenaline rush or as a taste of the Selkie Moon Mystery Series: The First Lie, The Second Path, The Third Note and The Fourth Door
ABOUT VIRGINIA KING
When a voice wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you to write a mystery series, what’s a writer to do? That’s how I came to create Selkie Moon, after a massage from a strange woman with gifted hands was followed by this nocturnal message. I sat down at the keyboard until Selkie Moon turned up — a modern woman with a mythical name. Soon I was hooked, exploring far-flung places full of secrets where Selkie delves into psychological clues tangled up in the local mythology.
Before Selkie Moon invaded my life, I’d been a teacher, an unemployed ex-teacher, the author of over 50 children’s books, an audio-book producer, a workshop presenter and a prize-winning publisher. These days I live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney with my husband, where I disappear each day into Selkie Moon’s latest mystery. Bliss.
Twelve-year-old Alex may have lost his ability to play sports, but he gained the ability to see ghosts. Now he must figure out how to put an evil spirit to rest—or die trying.
Once an athlete and popular kid, Alex is in a terrible car accident that severely injures his hip and leaves him with a rare power: he can hear and see ghosts. All Alex wants is to be normal. But when a malevolent spirit begins haunting him, Alex must accept his unwanted psychic powers and work with his best friend, his paranormal investigator cousin, and two friendly spirits to solve the mystery of the bones in the wall and put the vicious ghost to rest. If he fails, he’ll lose his family and friends to a gruesome fate.
“An inventive, fast-paced tale brimming with chills, thrills, and heart. Perfect for fans of Lockwood & Co.”— Henry H. Neff, author of The Tapestry series
Susan McCauley was born and raised on the gulf coast of Texas, not far from Houston. She spent several years in Los Angeles, California acting, writing, and teaching college English. In 2002, she moved to London to further explore professional theater. While in London, her stage adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose” was performed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s George Bernard Shaw Theatre; and, scenes from her play The Prisoner: Princess Elizabeth were performed at HMS Tower of London. She returned to the U.S. in 2005. In 2007, she was the line producer of the Emmy Award nominated Civil War short film Now & Forever Yours: Letters to an Old Soldier. She has had short stories published in several anthologies, and her short story, “The Cask,” was made into an award winning short film.
Last year I took in numerous books from new to me authors. None were disappointing, though some were better than others. Shepherd’s Warning by Cailyn Lloyd was a delightful surprise.
A house in the woods. The man. The woman. A hidden entity.
Who doesn’t love a good haunted house story?
Lucas and his brother, Nate, had inherited the MacKenzie mansion in the small town of Lost Arrow. It had sat deserted for years and they were there to make it their home. HGTV would be along for the ride, documenting the transformation.
They had no knowledge of it’s reputation, the accidents, the things that go bump in the night.
Tom Wolfe had sworn to protect the house, while he waits for the owner, his love, Elizabeth, to return. He wonders why, now, they are people here. Is it at her whim? He likes that they are fixing it up, but once they are done, he wants them gone.
A premonition brought Kenric Shepherd to Wisconsin. His vision warns of danger, but he must wait for more to be revealed.
As soon as the chainsaw did it’s thing, I would have been long gone.
Laura had been treated for epilepsy and was bullied and teased growing up. She learned to enjoy her own company. I guess now she’ll learn it was so much more than epilepsy.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Shepherd’s Warning by Cailyn Lloyd.
4 Stars
See the fabulous book trailer HERE and then tell me…can you resist it?
GOODREADS BLURB
For years the abandoned MacKenzie mansion remained hidden in rural Wisconsin. Rumors and stories of apparitions, odd noises, accidents, and strange deaths in or near the property were enough to convince the townsfolk it was haunted and they stayed away.
Lucas MacKenzie and his brother Nate know nothing of this when they inherit the property and decide to bring their families to Wisconsin for a major renovation project with HGTV stardom in mind. As they tear out old fixtures and open shuttered windows, the house begins to reveal secrets of a terrible past and it soon becomes clear the MacKenzies are in grave danger. In the end, only one person can save them.
ABOUT CAILYN LLOYD
A lifelong writer, Cailyn Lloyd, spent three years living in a truly haunted house and experienced first hand the nuances of strange and eerie places. Shepherd’s Warning is her first book.
In addition to writing, Cailyn is an accomplished weather photographer and her work has appeared in several publications including Life Magazine and Time Magazine. She is also a composer and musician with three album releases to her credit. Cailyn lives near the Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin and when she’s not writing spooky stories, loves hiking with her children and dogs.
A Thin Slice of Heaven by P M Terrell is a ghostly love story in the haunted lands of Ireland. P M Terrell infuses a bit of her history into her historical fiction making it all seem possible…if you believe in ghosts.
I have been loving P M Terrell’s work since I read my first book of hers, Vicki’s Key. Her ability to spin a tale of magic and mystery never fails me.
A freak snowstorm is always a good start, then add a haunted castle in Belfast, and Charleigh, who is supposed to meet her husband there for their anniversary. Everything about the book makes me eager to dive in.
“What you see a’fore you there is my Thin Slice of Heaven.”
Immediately Charleigh is thrown into a world of parallel universes, traveling between the past and the present…and he is there at her side, feeling familiar, yet something is off.
As the story unfolds, the characters come alive, drawing Charleigh deeper into the past and as the twist is exposed, the pieces all come together. A love story that surpasses time, eternal.
As reenactments of the past unfold before her eyes, I feel the terror and horror of the townspeople, and the family that inhabits the castle who feel responsible for all of them. I love the P M Terrell incorporates so much history in many of her novels, whether it’s ghosts of esp. Her research is topnotch.
Do you believe in ghosts? Reincarnation? Love that crosses all boundaries of time?
I do love to get lost and let the author take me where they want to, so that I can walk in a character’s footsteps and P M Terrell’s novels allow her stories to come to life right before my eyes.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of A Thin Slice of Heaven by P M Terrell.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
She had arranged to meet
her husband in Northern Ireland for a second honeymoon, but when
Charleigh arrives at the remote castle, she receives a message that he
won’t be coming—and that he’s leaving her for another woman. Stranded
for the weekend by a snow storm that has blocked all access to the
castle, she finds herself three thousand miles from home in a country
she knows nothing about.
She is soon joined by Sean Bracken,
the great-grandson of Laird Bracken, the original owner of the castle,
and she finds herself falling quickly and madly in love with him.
There’s just one problem: he’s dead.
As the castle begins to come alive with secrets from centuries past, she finds herself trapped between parallel worlds. Caught up in a mass haunting, she can no longer recognize the line between the living and the dead. Now she’s discovering that her appearance there wasn’t by accident—and is more earth-shattering than she ever suspected.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
p.m.terrell
is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning,
internationally acclaimed author of more than 21 books in four genres:
contemporary suspense, historical adventure/suspense, computer how-to
and non-fiction.
Prior to writing full-time, she founded
two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. Among
her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret
Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her
specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer
intelligence, themes that have carried forward to her contemporary
suspense.
She has been a full-time author since
2002. Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book
Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee, and The Pendulum Files was a
national finalist for the Best Cover of the Year in 2014. The Tempest
Murders was one of four finalists in the 2013 International Book Awards,
cross-genre category.
Her historical suspense, River Passage,
was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so
historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville
Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee.
She is also the co-founder of The Book
‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of
the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She
is the organizer and chairperson of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual
event held in Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase
literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the
literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org. She is also the founder of The Novel Business, mentoring authors in the business end and selling of books.
She sits on the board of the Friends of
the Robeson County Public Library. She has also served on the boards of
Robeson County Arts Council, Crime Stoppers and Crime Solvers and became
the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights
Crime Solvers in Virginia.
The eerie cover of Beneath London’s Fog by Ilona Caldwell makes me think of Jack the Ripper and ghosts. Are you creeped out yet?
Jonathon has made himself a prisoner in Raven Hollow Manor, along
with his daughter, Holly. He lost his love, Anna, but her ghostly
presence lingers.
His past is coming back to haunt him when a serial killer goes wild in the foggy nights of London.
He is able to transform himself and I loved it. He becomes a cat, a
Great Dane, or a mist in the night. Being immortal allows him to see
without being seen. He is very protective of Holly and struggles to
allow her some freedom. He is easily able to ‘spy’ on her, assuring her
safety. After all, he knows first hand the monsters that lurk in the
shadows. His oasis is by Anna’s gravesite. He reads Poe and Robert Frost
to her.
Holly knows that he is an immortal. Authors have the freedom to
create the immortal they want to portray, and I love Ilona Caldwell’s
version.
I begin to wish for his happiness, for him to move on and create a new life, without Anna.
Enter…Walter Deverough, a detective on the hunt. I wonder….I feel we’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and SHE will scorch the earth with her need for revenge.
We, also, have Leland…a hero to the end.
Fast paced. Suspenseful. A vampire of a different color. Great world
building as I pictured him walking the streets of London, damp and
weary. Ilona Caldwell draws pictures with her words.
I voluntarily reviewed and ARC of Beneath London’s Fog by Ilona Caldwell.
4 Stars
Beneath London’s Fog Iona Caldwell Published by: FyreSyde Publishing Publication date: October 30th 2019 Genres: Occult Fiction, Ghost Story, British Literature
Jonathan is the immortal master of Raven Hollow Manor – a decrepit mansion riddled with superstition, murder and restless ghosts. Beneath it lies a restless malice.
Its previous owner driven mad, violently kills his guests with a rusted ax, creating the perfect venue for Jonathan to seclude himself in a prison of his own device.
When the streets of London begin to run red with blood; the bodies exhibiting disturbing signs and baffling wounds, the identity of the killer remains elusive to police.
The bodies are just the beginning of Jonathan’s troubles. A mysterious letter accusing Jonathan of committing the murders appear, raising suspicion in the police. Hidden beneath the mangled bodies, Jonathan soon realizes he is being forced to face demons he thought died in a forlorn past he attempted to escape.
One thing Jonathan knows for certain: He must deal with the demons of his past if he is to survive his future. Not only him but those he has come to love as well.
For fans of Jim Butcher, Stephen King, Darcy Coates and Nick Cutter.
I want it known before this tale begins – I am not a hero but a villain. I want no sympathy from whomever reads this recalling of my story; no mourning for the tragedy that befell my life. I am not an innocent man but a sinner forced to face the ravaging demons and ghosts of his own creation.
My story began as many do – a lie, a fire and murder. One of my kind murdered the woman I loved in the coldest of blood in one of history’s darkest times at the behest of a possessive noble.
After a run in with him in Nottingham, I soon found myself fleeing for my life from hunters, framed for a murder I had not committed.
Forgive me, I am getting ahead of myself.
Let me begin where this part of my story took place.
A bloody civil war ravaged London followed shortly by the Great Fire in 1666. A glorious time for me and those like me to take advantage of the chaos and remain hidden in the shadows.
I managed to pursue the one responsible for nearly getting me killed two centuries prior to the plague which befell London before the fire.
Within the shadows of the flickering flames of St. Peter’s Cathedral, I struck him down and departed the city, thus avoiding my demise.
I had yet to escape him, however, when his vengeful spirit devoured the souls of the innocent in a mad bloodlust.
Though greatly injured, I managed to drive his spirit to my new home Raven Hollow Manor in London, imprisoning him in stone coffin in the crypt beneath it.
Peace resumed in my life and nobles of all kinds enjoyed lavishly hosted parties within the halls of my estate.
Unfortunately, the short lived splendor at the hands of the hauntings filled the ears of the locals and my beloved home decayed into a tangled web of blood-filled rumors and superstition.
My once glorious halls became infested with dust, its crystal chandeliers covered with cobwebs, their spiders fat on the insects buzzing around the decay and mold-covered wallpaper.
Yet, there I remained as it proved a decent place to not only contain my greatest sin but served also as a castle of solitude.
The tides of time swept by in a cacophony of modernization and the movement from superstition to things only mortal science could explain.
I still needed to venture into the city, not only to feed but also to purchase other items needed for everyday living.
It wasn’t until the winter of 1910 that my silence would be disrupted in the form of a girl named Holly, a young street urchin accused of theft. I took her with me after using a bit of “persuasion” on the local officers to let her go.
They did not need to know where I would take her and she soon grew into a wonderful messenger on my behalf. She became a rather attractive young woman with bouncy blonde curls who kept me company with stories of what went on in the city.
I am sure, at one time, she became infatuated with me. It did not surprise me. To mortals, my kind held a certain allure they found difficult to ignore. I ended her infatuation quickly following a stern talking to and dousing with cold water.
One day, while in my labyrinthine garden, Holly came to me in tears.
When the people of London learned where Holly lived, the townsfolk dubbed her a practitioner of black magic.
One day, I found Holly sitting on one of the marble benches in the garden, sobbing. I picked a flower and put it in my daughter’s hair, sitting next to her beneath the statue of a praying angel.
“You need not worry about them, dearest. Mortals are always quick to place labels on what they do not understand.”
Holly sniffled and sobbed, wiping her nose and offering me a smile. “But why do they avoid this place, Jonathan?”
“Mortals fear what they cannot comprehend. Pay them no mind. You are a wonderful young woman,” I purred, brushing a blonde curl from her face.
The words appeared to have placated her as she smiled and joined me in a moonlight stroll through the garden.
***
Around midnight, after dinner with Holly, I dismissed her to bed. Once she departed, I sought out sustenance in the city.
A dense fog rolled in due to the cool winter weather and the recent days of rain.
Combined with the darkness of the streets and alleyways, I managed to meet a young working woman on the corner and wooed her into joining me for a walk to the park. As with other women, I made sure she understood I respected her body with gentle caresses and loving words murmured into her ears.
Once I placed her deep under my spell, I kissed the tender flesh of the woman’s throat and exposed shoulder, thanking her for her gift.
My fangs pierced her flesh, earning a moan of pleasure as her body surrendered its precious life force without any significant damage. Her body pressed against mine, her moans increasing with pleasure at my kiss.
I preferred this method to those of many of my other brethren who tore their victims apart during a feeding, choosing power to subdue instead of sexual allure.
When signs of weakness began manifesting I released my hold, picking her up after licking the small puncture wounds, my saliva healing them, leaving no marks or scars.
To assure she received care, I took her to the nearest hospital and deposited her on the steps without anyone noticing.
As always, I used hypnotic suggestion to erase her memory and leave her with a pleasant dream.
During the wee hours of the morning, I tended to enjoy the calls of the birds and the chirping of the crickets to help relieve the burden on my mind.
Not a soul roamed the streets near the bridge where I liked to sit and write poetry or read a book.
In the midst of the silence, a horrifying shriek caught my attention, almost startling me.
My pupils narrowed to those one might see in a viper or a cat. I let my body dissipate into the form of a black mist, hovering over the city in search of the source of the scream.
I found it in the shape of the body of a mangled man.
The whites of his eyes consumed most of the portion of the glossy orbs in his skull, mouth gaped open mid-scream.
I knelt before him, my own brows furrowed in frustration at the recognition of the familiar puncture wounds on the man’s throat. This cannot be. No other has hunted here in centuries.
The disturbing find made something clear.
Many of my kind preferred not to hunt in one place occupied by another of higher status, or in another’s territory for that matter. We changed due to the growing number of human hunters who would kill any of us they came across.
Despite the city’s size, my reputation often kept others out of my hunting grounds, for which I remained grateful.
This new kill had been malicious.
If I allowed such behavior to continue, it could draw the attention of the hunters or the local police to my home.
Whomever the responsible party, I needed to locate them and have a word with them or kill them if necessary.
My eyes closed, a heavy sigh drawing up from within my lungs. I placed my fingers over the man’s eyes, using a gentle touch to close them. “Forgive whichever of us did this to you. You did not deserve to die in such a horrific manner.”
Searching through the pockets of his trench coat, I located his identification card and vowed to send some money and roses to his family.
Sounds of sirens and the calls of the corner watchmen announced the arrival of the authorities. I left them the man’s wallet so they could inform his family of their loss.
I lurked in the shadows listening to the inspectors scrutinizing the scene.
“Bloody mystery, it is. This is the second mangled body we found this week. One has to wonder if we might be witnessing the birth of another blighter of a serial killer.” One of the inspectors scratched his head beneath the dome shaped hat.
I recognized him as Bertrand Abrams, a well-known officer and one of the only men who aided Holly during her visits to town.
From his looks, one would expect him to hail from Scotland. A bushy mustache and stringy hair with the consistency of sheep’s wool held the color of fire. Dimples set into high cheekbones and a double chin made me smile. A portly belly betrayed his affinity for too many scones and perhaps Scotch.
He had been wrong. This death held no mystery. I merely needed to find the one responsible before it resulted in too much of a personal dilemma.
Following the release of the corpse to the medical examiner, I took the form of black mist and drifted back to Raven Hollow.
The beginnings of my night would be haunted by dreams of a past filled with love, vengeance and pain.
It would be filled with shining auburn locks and eyes the color of the fresh leaves of spring.
Author Bio:
Iona Caldwell is the lover of all things arcane, folklore, nature and magic.
She is the author of the British Occult Fiction, Beneath London’s Fog set to be published by FyreSyde Publishing October 2019. Her second title, Hell’s Warden is forecasted to release in February of 2020. When she’s not busy weaving worlds of the arcane and dark, she’s spending time out in nature. An avid lover of books, Iona claims her biggest inspirations are H.P Lovecraft, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Edgar Allen Poe.
She believes storytellers should tell the stories they want to tell. As such, most of her titles are stand-alone novellas she hopes will leave her readers immersed in magical worlds.
She is also an extremely active book blogger who will review primarily horror, suspense, supernatural thriller, mystery, and occult/gothic fiction.
