Excerpt from Dead Man’s Trigger
Max Maguire thought vampires were the stuff of horror
movies and campfire stories. Then he was turned into one. Now he’s trapped by
Jade, a beautiful and terrifying vampire who is trying to turn him into a
monster. Max is discovering that being a vampire isn’t anything like the
legends and that Jade will stop at nothing to break him.
He found himself
falling into thoughts of the past as melancholy memories washed over him. His
family, his friends, the kids at school, Crystal’s loss of a normal life, it
all took hold of him while the hunger began to pound through him. The hunger
that would only be satisfied at the cost of another life.
Max studied the
kitchen door. Presumably it led outdoors. At least that was implied by the fake
light coming through the fake window in the door. What would happen if he just
opened the door and took a walk in the sun? Would the sun set him on fire or turn
him into dust in an instant?
He could feel the sun
just outside the door. Waiting for him. Waiting to embrace him and end the
insanity. Or maybe it was all an elaborate joke. Maybe his buddies were waiting
for him on the other side of the door, waiting for a big laugh at how they got
him with the biggest practical joke in the history of the world. That had to be
it. Vampires couldn’t really exist. Max ran his tongue over his fangs. Nope.
Vampires couldn’t possibly exist.
Max felt her. Jade
was standing only a few feet from him. She seemed positively overdressed in her
T-shirt and jeans. The clothes didn’t quite look right on her. She looked so
much better naked.
“Curious about the
sun?” she asked.
“It’s not the sun.
It’s just a lighting fixture that simulates the sun.”
“But the sun rests
right outside this door.” Jade walked up to the door and pressed her body
against it. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to walk
out into it?” she asked.
“I don’t know.
Maybe.”
Jade turned around to
face him and leaned against the door.
“It’d be so much
easier, wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely.”
She smiled easily at
him. “Can I show you something?”
Max laughed. “Yet
another offer I can’t refuse.”
Jade walked past him
and then turned back and held out her hand. Max got up and put his hand in
hers. She glanced back at him with such a magnificent smile, a lover promising
sweet and loving things. He wanted to forget about the evil buried beneath her surface.
She led him to the
foyer, with its grand stairway. She pulled him into an embrace and he looked
down into her eyes. Max held her around the waist and he couldn’t have refused
her anything at that moment. She reached up and ran her fingers through his
hair. Jade kissed him so tenderly and softly, he didn’t want the kiss to stop.
Ever. But she pulled away and wistfully went to the big window.
Max knew this was the
only window in the house that was real. A steel covering was lowered from some
hidden place in the wall each morning before sunrise. For the first time, Max
noticed that one tiny sliver of light escaped through the side of the covering.
It was about half an inch around and the beam was strong, as if the sun was in
just the right position to give it its maximum strength.
The beam was between
Max and Jade.
“Jade, what...” he
started.
She slowly shook her
head and put her finger up to her lips signaling him to be silent.
She held her hand out
and waited for Max to take it. Now Max understood. It was another lesson. Max
smiled and took her hand. Jade let the light slide over her hand as she pulled
Max’s hand toward it. She stopped and held her hand steady in the beam with
Max’s hand less than an inch away from the light. He’d almost expected her hand
to burst out into flames, but there was no change in the appearance of the skin
or sign that she was suffering any kind of discomfort.
However, somehow Max
knew when she began to tug on his hand he was going to have a different
reaction to the tiny spot of sunlight. As his hand entered the light, he
instantly felt a burning sensation. He flinched, trying to pull his hand away,
but she held onto him keeping his hand steady. Finally, she stopped. The beam
immediately began burning through his forearm like acid. Max felt the flesh
begin to burn and burst into flames catching his shirt on fire. Teeth clenched,
Max refused to scream as the fire danced over his skin.
He let his mind go
someplace, as he’d learned all those years ago to do. It was Japan this time
during the 1600s when peace was established under the Tokugawa shoguns after
constant warfare. The pain ripped through his arm, but he held on to the
shoguns. He wasn’t going to give in.
