So! This Friday, K. Piet and I have a short story coming out in the Storm Moon Press anthology Blood Embrace. It’s a gay vampire anthology, and it has us, D.K. Jernigan, Kelly Wyre, and Katya Harris, and it’s a great little romp of vampy goodness.
It’s available now for pre-order, though the current blurb isn’t the final one. Sorry! Still waiting on that to go up! I think it should be up sometime today or tomorrow. But, I wanted to give you a brief taste of our offering in the anthology, Of the Flesh, which is about a priest who has captured the vampire who turned his twin brother some years before.
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The vampire grinned at him. “Are you actually trying to exorcise me?”
Hyde ignored it, focusing on the ritual, on the words. “They shall lay their hands upon the sick and all will be well with them. May Jesus, Son of Mary, Lord and Savior of the w—”
“You’re really going to say the whole thing, aren’t you?” The vampire tilted his head. “Aww. That’s so adorable.”
This time, Hyde faltered. The words. He had to continue with the words. “May Jesus, Son of Mary, Lord and Savior of the world, through the merits and intercession of His holy apostles Peter and Paul and all His saints, show you favor and mercy.”
“No demon controls me, boy.” The vampire growled, half-animal, half-human. “I am as I choose to be. I am what all men could be without your pitiful, choking morality. You are the one allowing your actions to be dictated by an invisible, supernatural force. I, on the other hand, am merely free.”
Hyde stopped and looked up from the book, frowning. “Free?” He scoffed and motioned with the cross to the room. “You may want to re-examine your surroundings. You don’t look very free to me. In fact, you look like you’re strapped to a fucking chair that’s bolted to a floor.”
“Do I?” The vampire planted its feet and leaned forward in the chair, ripping the bolts out of the ground. The strain and the additional contact with the blessed wood sets bits of its clothing on fire. Another flex of muscles and the shackles Hyde had put around the vampire’s wrists snapped, leaving the vampire standing, unencumbered, an amused light to its eyes. “How do I look now?” The beast sat back down, motioning indulgently with a hand. “Please, pray continue. I believe you were up to the first chapter of John’s gospel. Let me get you started.” He tilted his head for a moment, thinking, and then recited, “When time began, the Word was there, and the Word was face to face with God, and the Word was God. This Word, when time began, was face to face with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him there came to be—”
“Stop!” Hyde slammed the book shut. “You taint God’s word with your tongue.”
The vampire gave him a toothy grin. “It’s not the only thing I could taint with my tongue.”
S.L. Armstrong 