he didn’t need to be GPSed like some damn pet. Or car.
The council was in disarray after the last two presidents were removed from office in quick succession. The first, Deoul Arias, who was murdered by the second, Caladh MacLoch, who now awaited trial in the cells in the basement of the building. Ash had been tempted to go down and talk to the councilor, to try and figure out why he’d done what he’d done. Or, at least, what he was accused of doing. Ash trusted Tobias Caine and Victoria Joseph, and both of them seemed confident of Caladh’s guilt.
But right now he had bigger issues to deal with. All liaisons did. They had to get out on the street and round up newly turned preternaturals before they could hurt anyone, or themselves. They had brand-new lives to get used to, abilities and predilections they’d never before experienced.
Ash shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked from the room. It was time to get to work.
Half demon, half human,
Nix de la Fuente solves crimes
between the world’s mortals and its
most unsavory undead.
A string of murders brings
her face to face with
the one vampire she could never resist . . .
Please turn this page for an excerpt from
Kiss of the Vampire.
Arizona Daily News, February 13, 2012
From the Editor
By Simon Tripp
In just under two years this planet will see another Influx of incorporeal beings. Most of them will be criminals, but some will be political dissidents or religious prisoners. The dimensional rift itself is caused by the return of the Moore-Creasy-Devon comet making its 73-year journey through the solar system. Beings from the other dimension have been using Earth as their own Botany Bay for millennia, and as of yet our scientists have been unable to find a way to stop it. These interdimensional marauders will stream through the rift like Vikings of old riding the rough waves of the sea to take possession of human bodies without any regard for those they displace. Or, more accurately, suppress.
We know little more about them now than we did when we first became aware that vampires and werewolves and all those other creatures of myth were, in fact, real. According to Dr. Nandi Wesley of NASA, an Extra-Dimensional (ED) takes possession of a human and the combination of their otherworldly essence with that of their host determines just what creature they become. How that happens still remains a mystery. No one in this world can explain on a genetic level what makes one a vampire, another a werewolf, still another a pixie, not even the renowned Dr. Wesley. As well, governments around the globe are as unprepared now as they were three years ago when word of this rift became public knowledge. Following the hysteria that caused families to turn on each other because they suspected their loved ones had become EDs, the United States passed a law that protects EDs from discrimination in housing, employment, and other aspects of life. The Preternatural Protection Act (PPA) also includes strict penalties for hate crimes directed toward EDs.
I’ve always pretty much been a live and let live sort of guy, but I’ll admit I’m troubled by this laissez-faire attitude we have toward the monsters in our midst. Just because they say they’ll police themselves doesn’t mean they will. It’s up to the everyday citizen to protect him- or herself, since our government won’t, because in less than twenty-four months we’ll have even more EDs to contend with, vampires being the worst of them.
Everyone knows these beings have been preying on humans for centuries. Just last month a woman was brutally attacked and died while her two small children looked on in terror. The vampire who was responsible has yet to be brought up on charges. More accurately, he or she has not been found. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that more often than not preternaturals literally get away with murder. Maybe some of these anti-preternatural groups that have sprung up over the last few years aren’t all wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the people who killed that vamp in Scottsdale yesterday had the right idea.
I’m not satisfied to leave things as they are. Are you?
* * *
Nix de la Fuente scowled at the editorial as she made her way from her car to the latest crime scene. She folded the newspaper and stuffed it into her oversized bag. It was garbage like this in the media that kept people stirred up. At least