Saturday Snippets: Near Death Experiences

My Saturday Snippet is more of a death experience but since it involves becoming one of the undead, I hope it qualifies in today's category. My excerpt is from my vampire story "Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way".

When Tony Nelson is swept off his feet by Genevieve, an eight-hundred-year-old vampire queen who doesn’t look a day over thirty, it’s quickly apparent sucking his blood isn’t all the sexy vampire has in mind. But Tony has bigger plans for his undeath than a sexual attraction that sizzles his synapses.


Torn between his insatiable hunger for Genevieve and his desire to celebrate his new “super” powers by fighting crime in Ft. Lauderdale, Tony butts heads with the feisty queen more than once.

But when his superhero deeds threaten his new family, leading their arch-enemies, the werecats, straight to their door, Tony has a difficult choice to make—one that will have ramifications for all of them.

Excerpt: Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way

Tony Nelson yawned widely against his palm as he navigated downtown Ft. Lauderdale streets in the middle of the night on his rescue mission to save his neighbor’s sister. As usual Carlos’s rickety low rider was out of commission, and as usual, he’d turned to his good buddy, unable-to-say-no-pal, Tony, to save the day.


Tony really didn’t mind. He enjoyed helping people. His ex called it his curse. He considered it his blessing. He’d made humanitarianism his life’s mission. He’d never forgive himself if anything happened to a sweet young girl like Maria.

Even though Carlos should have ridden along with him, he wouldn’t hold Carlos’ lack of chivalry against the young woman. Downtown Ft. Lauderdale was no place for a young girl to be stranded alone in the middle of the night. He wasn’t particularly thrilled to be here himself and he was a powerfully built thirty-one-year-old man.

From out of nowhere, two bats swooped in front of his coupe, forcing him to slam on the brakes. The car spun out, before it skidded dizzily atop the curb, landing with a sickening thump.

Bats? In downtown Ft. Lauderdale?

Gaping in the rear view mirror, Tony blinked. One of the bats lay hurt in the middle of the deserted boulevard. Eerie fluorescent green light bathed the winged creature. His heart went out to the injured mammal and he loped over to it and knelt by its side. Stroking it gently, he asked, “You breathing, little guy? I didn’t think I hit you.” He hadn’t felt a collision, not even a little thud.

But everything had happened so fast anything was possible. He checked the raven creature for blood and broken bones, his fingers ginger. Or did bats have cartilage? And how could he tell if cartilage was broken?

Before his eyes, beneath his hands, the bat turned into an exquisite raven-haired nymph with alabaster flesh that gleamed pearlescent under the flickering street lamp. The beauty’s sooty lashes fluttered and then she widened the most stunning jade eyes he’d ever gazed into, eyes that instantly cast a bewitching spell over him. She cast a glance over his shoulder and arched a finely shaped brow. “This one?”

A man’s amiable voice answered from very close behind him. “He’s the one. Do it.”

Tony blinked, hoping he’d return from the Twilight Zone. But the siren was still there when he opened his eyes. Only now the shadow of a man mingled with hers. “What just happened?” He didn’t discount aliens or dreams.

“I just won my bet,” the man said, a warble of a smile in his voice.

The woman frowned, darkening, but not obscuring her exotic beauty with her alabaster complexion and long, wavy raven locks. The sparkle of a diamond stud in her pert nose drew his gaze. “Not yet.”

What bet? And what alternate universe had the odd pair come from?

“Uh, are you okay? Do you need a lift somewhere? Do you need to use my cell phone?” He fished in his pocket for the wireless gadget and then flipped it open and held it out to them.

“See?” the flamboyant man said as he rounded Tony. “A truly nice guy.”

The woman’s scowl deepened as she circled him, looking him up and down as if he was a showroom model. “Debatable.” She flung herself into Tony’s arms and ripped open his favorite Prada dress shirt and sank her fangs into his breast.

Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way available at: Ellora's Cave


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