Tuesday Teaser 4/18/2023

My teaser this week is from Quarry, book 2 of The Vampire Guard.

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Forge was a step behind and stopped next to Blair and put one hand on his shoulder. He leaned forward slightly and squinted, then stood straighter again and growled. “Is that the guy?”

“Yeah, we all saw him,” Blair said. He felt queasy.

“No, not the man we were watching last night. The guy I saw in your memory? The man you said picked you up in a bar then used thrall on you and changed you into a vampire?”

Blair swung on Forge, then turned back to the screen. “I,” he said and shook his head. “I don’t… He had dark eyes and hair.”

“Put a second copy up beside that one. Declan, can you change his eye color?” Lucas asked.

“Yes, I can.” Declan picked up his electronic pad, stood up, and moved closer.

“Make them dark. Smoldery dark,” Blair said. A few seconds later the copied image changed to reflect dark eyes. “Now make his hair shorter, like Lucas’s length but straighter and darker.” When the image changed again, Blair sucked in a breath. He took a step forward. “Th-that’s him. The man who forced me to give him a blow job and changed me.”

“Putain de bordel de merde,” Declan spat.

Forge turned and arched an eyebrow. “Declan?”

Declan sat abruptly in the nearest chair. “A third copy please.”

“What is it?” Lucas asked.

Declan shook his head. “It can’t be.” As soon as a third copy appeared, he changed the hair length and style, added some scruff to his face, and left his eyes dark.

“You know him?” Forge asked.

Declan met Forge’s gaze. “So do you, though I doubt you’d remember since I don’t think you ever saw his face.”

“Mothman?” Blair asked. Declan nodded.

“Maybe you’re remembering other people you’ve seen?” Lucas suggested in a soft voice. “Because seriously, one urban legend per case, that’s the rules. We already have a ghost, well vampire, in the machine. Mothman is going to have to wait his turn.”

Blair shook his head. “I think I saw him before that night in the bar, the night after my father’s funeral. Before that I was in the hospital with my dad, and maybe…” His voice trailed off and he put a fourth copy up. “Declan can you make him bald with lighter brown or hazel eyes?”

As the fourth image changed, Blair gulped in giant breaths and fought back tears.

Forge took his arm and turned him from the images. “Blair, what?”

Blair stared at Forge for a few seconds. “That’s one of my dad’s nurses. He was in my dad’s room right before he died. I said hello to him as he left the room and walked down the hall. I talked to him almost every day!”

Forge opened his mouth and shut it, then ran his free hand through his hair. He looked to Lucas, who put his hands up.

“I never saw the guy before last night.”

“Why should I know him?” Forge asked quietly. When Blair faltered, Forge’s grip on his arm tightened.
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Declan focused on Forge. “He’s the reason you’re a vampire. You were stabbed from behind.” His voice was steady and very soft. “He almost killed you.”

Quarry is available in eBook, paperback and in Kindle Unlimited.

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