Everyone Dies in the End #90

And yet again with the story that is called back. This time with a little bit of my own life. Busy, busy time in the game publishing industry. My company, Lock 'n Load Publishing, will publish three products before the turn of the new year. That's just the board game stuff. We continue to work hard on our computer game, and announced a strategic partnership with PlayDek.

The novel you are reading below is complete, rewritten, and out for editing. With a wee bit of luck, it will be published in all formats (paperback, ePub, PDF) before Christmas. We'd love to make an MP3 of it also. Any voice actors/actresses who are willing to work for cheap should drop me an email. I have, however, fallen behind with the blog. I'll rectify that over the next month. That rectification starts now.

We left almost all of our protagonists, antagonists, and just plain tagonists, in a cathedral in Philadelphia. Katerina the vampire and her ally of convenience, Zak (a soldier in the National Guard), were blasting through the church. Kat in hopes of killing the city's warlord, a dude named Vader, and Zak in hopes of finding his friend, Cindy.

Susan, the heartbroken white witch (if you are into colors--witches aren't), had come to do good, and instead will soon find herself locked in a death struggle with Mbande, a very black-hearted witch.

Cindy, the teleporter, has been ushered into Vader's office, and she's about to get a very big surprise. Let's listen in as Vader pulls off the mask, helmet thing.

Cindy

A tsunami could not have hit her harder. A moment before she had stood like a basilisk before this man, this brutal man. The memories roiled. Eddie’s hands light on her body, summer evenings beneath the stars. Drinking Tony Daniels hard, making love harder. The boys at the liquor store, his rage, his bloody hands, and how terribly they excited her.

“It’s just me,” he said. The Vader turned Eddie was standing now, and that simple act has closed the distance between the two of them greatly.

God, but he was handsome. As handsome as the night at the liquor store. Without command her eyes flicked to his hands. Those bloody hands that had so excited her. They were clean now.

He stepped toward her. Nodding toward the door through which they had entered the room. “That’s all for show. A smile played at the corner of his mouth. “You know that don’t you?”

“Yes.” The word sprang from her mouth before she could stop it. She shook her head. Too violently, too rapidly. “No, I mean hell no.” Her eyes, however, wouldn’t leave his lips. She jerked her eyes away from the face. Forced herself to turn away from him.

“Cindy?”

She didn’t turn back. “Those vampires.” Outside a car pulled into the alley, the beams from its headlights flashing across the ceiling. “You treat them like slaves. Behind her the floorboard creaked. “And you feed them,” She shivered, from cold or excitement she didn’t know. “You feed them humans as if they were cattle.” Again a wooden floor plank, loosened by the years, creaked.

“They are vampires, Cindy.” In the corner of the room a tall grandfather clock ticked. Each tap pulling a staple from her resolve. “Have you forgotten what your mother taught you? They are evil incarnate. They are heartless, and they are doom.”

“And the people in the pen. Are they evil too?”

She could feel his breath on her hair now. She wanted to scream, and she wanted to melt.

“They are what they are. They are but the tip of an iceberg of death.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “You think everyone will live? That this country will somehow feed the millions upon millions of homeless? It cannot, it will not. These people are a requirement to keep the vampires in check. Their death is merciful.”

The hand on her shoulder slowly turned her, and he was there. Close, so close she could feel his heat. His smoky eyes held hers, and he bent to her, his lips seeking hers, his hand caressing the back of her neck.

          She kissed him hungrily and small arms fire erupted in the church.