Patten Brookwater's Curse Volume Two

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9907917-8-2
Verlag: Laughing Black Vampire Productions, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 372 Seiten

In the vampire nation, the civil war Christian Brookwater sought to prevent has become a harsh reality. On one side stands the High Counselors. Once considered great and benevolent rulers, their web of deception has unraveled, revealing them to be nothing more than self-serving power mongers. To preserve their reign, the High Counselors have begun a bloody campaign that threatens to wipe out all of the monster races, starting with their own. These Founding Fathers of Vampirism are all gifted with extraordinary powers that surpass anything ever seen in the history of living monsters. There are four of these god-like creatures, but none as destructive and devious as High Counselor Emmanuel, a demon that can destroy another's life essence with the mere brush of his ominous left hand. All over the world, thousands of vampires stand ready to do Emmanuel's bidding, including a group that has embraced a doctrine that is frighteningly similar to the religious right-wingers found in the human world. Lord Ebichara Tanata leads the opposing army that seeks to overthrow the High Counselors. With Japan's deadliest samurai vampires willing to march into certain death at his word, Lord Tanata has fortified his numbers by joining forces with the rachasas, a race of shape-shifting cat people who have their own axe to grind with Emmanuel. As Christian helps Lord Tanata take on the High Counselors, he uncovers many horrible secrets. It's not long before Christian becomes a bigger target than his samurai mentor. What he finally discovers will not only change the course of the war, but will have a startling impact on everyone he cares about, including his unborn child.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patten, Steven Van

Leseproben

Prologue

By the time they had finished fourth grade, Stephen Buja and Jeremiah Pinder had become inseparable friends. Stephen’s parents-- Natasha and Gregory Buja—- easily accepted that the two children shared a bond, and gave in to the notion that they would often have to include Jeremiah in their family plans. Gregory, a consultant for a weapons development corporation, encouraged the boys to play together because he secretly hoped Jeremiah’s natural athleticism would help propel his frail son into being tougher and more into sports.

Unfortunately, it was much harder for Jeremiah’s mother, Gail, to accept the situation. Gail was a single parent, having been abandoned by Jeremiah’s useless father before her son’s eighth birthday. She was so busy working the two jobs she needed to cover the household expenses and keep Jeremiah in private school that she knew nothing of Stephen until both boys were thirteen. The discovery led to an awkward period where Gail Pinder, convinced that her son would be seen as a charity case, tried to limit the amount of time her son spent with the Buja family.

“Don’t be spending all day at that white boy’s house,” Gail would shout after Jeremiah as he was on his way out the front door to do just that.

It would take some time for Gail Pinder to become comfortable with their friendship, and it would take even longer for Gregory Buja to give up his dreams of the two boys becoming the next Karl Malone and John Stockton. Thankfully, by senior year of high school, all of the parents were on the same page as the two boys, who only wanted to maintain their friendship without anyone else’s silly expectations being foisted upon them.

They were both accepted at Boston College. Stephen, always something of a math wiz, went into engineering and web design, while Jeremiah double majored in journalism and African-American studies. They rented a house together in the middle of their freshman year, threw parties, dated various women, and quickly acquired a sense of how to be grown men who pay their bills on time and live responsibly.

About a year after college, Stephen met an attractive, intelligent, Chinese woman named Betsy. After experiencing some of the usual ups and downs that occur between a man and woman trying to love one another, Betsy became Stephen’s girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah remained something of a serial monogamist, (not by choice), so Stephen and Betsy became accustomed to meeting one new significant other after another and cheering Jeremiah up with a trip to a strip club or a sports bar whenever things went bad.

Most weekends saw the threesome getting together to watch Patriots games or pay-per-view boxing. It was during one of those boxing matches that Stephen and Betsy told Jeremiah that they were engaged. Jeremiah, fresh off of one of his many breakups, shrugged and said, “Well, I guess I need to get a date.”

“What you need is a tux, best man,” Betsy said.

“Excuse me,” Stephen snapped at his intended, “I’m supposed to tell him that part.”

“Then tell him,” she laughed, “I’m not stopping you.”

Jeremiah just shook his head at them.

“Not even married yet and the honeymoon is already over,” he snickered, which prompted more laughter as Betsy gave Stephen a kiss and a half-hearted apology.

They toasted the good news and finished watching the fight. As fight commentator Larry Merchant began his final remarks, Jeremiah turned from the TV and asked, “So, did you tell your folks?”

“Not yet,” Stephen answered. “We’re going to tell them when we all go camping in two weeks. You are coming, right?”

“Well, no,” Jeremiah said, “It’s going to be you two and your parents. I’d be a fifth wheel.”

“That’s nothing new,” Betsy teased.

“Whatever,” Jeremiah said, not letting on how much that little remark hurt.

Stephen let the matter rest until about thirty minutes later, when Betsy went to bed and left the two friends together on the couch.

“Dude, you gotta go on the trip,” Stephen said.

“Why? Because you think that if your parents are going to have a problem with you marrying a Chinese girl, they’re less likely to act stupid about it if your best friend of twenty-some-odd years, who happens to be black is there?” Jeremiah challenged.

“Basically, yes,” Stephen agreed. He was embarrassed, but he took comfort in this opportunity to be honest about the situation.

“That is such bullshit,” Jeremiah retorted. “I mean, you’re a grown ass man, and if your folks have the nerve to object to you marrying Betsy, that’s their problem. Besides, dude, your folks aren’t racists. If they were, I think we would have found out by now.”

“Look, it’s just a feeling I have,” insisted Stephen. “I mean, we grew up together and played ball together, and we’ll probably be friends for the rest of our natural lives. But we can’t have babies together.”

“Pardon me, while I try to hold down the vomit,” Jeremiah groaned.

Despite his protests, Jeremiah knew all too well what Stephen spoke of. Except for the amount of time he spent at Stephen’s house, Jeremiah’s mother never seemed to mind him having friends of a different race. However, when he was sixteen and brought Nancy Lopez to the house for a study date, Gail seemed unusually agitated, and gave Nancy an icy reception. A few days later, he brought the much darker-shaded Uniqua Johnson over. To his surprise, Uniqua was received warmly and invited to stay for dinner. At the time, Jeremiah didn’t open a dialogue with his mother, especially since she would only have bristled at his having the nerve to question her behavior. Ultimately, the lesson was clear.

“Fine, I’ll go camping,” Jeremiah sighed.

It was a long-standing Buja family tradition to go camping in Townsend State Park, located just shy of the New Hampshire border. Back in the day, Gregory would pack up the wife and kid, and in most cases, the kid’s little black friend and head for the outdoors at least once a year.

When the boys got older and slightly disinterested, the trips became less frequent, and soon Gregory was going by himself. However, Gregory Buja was turning fifty this year, and one of the things he wanted to do (aside from popping a Viagra and having a threesome with his secretary and that cute blonde in accounts payable) was to go camping with the whole family, just like in the old days. So if Jeremiah hadn’t agreed to go, Gregory would have wanted to know why.

Betsy, Stephen and Jeremiah lived in the Summerville section of Boston. In moderate traffic, it would take an hour in Stephen’s ’99 Range Rover to get them back to the boys’ hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Jeremiah’s mom had moved to West Virginia to be closer to an ailing sibling, but Stephen’s folks still lived in their semi-isolated colonial-style house up the hill on Ross Street. As a kid, Jeremiah spent many an afternoon walking up that hill, and many nights running back down to beat his curfew.

While the view from the backseat window brought back memories, Jeremiah became quiet and introspective. In contrast, Stephen decided to confront his nostalgia head-on by telling his fiancée a little story.

“Honey, did I ever tell you about Jeremiah’s first night on a camping trip?” Stephen asked Betsy.

“No, baby,” Betsy answered as she spied on Jeremiah through the rearview mirror. Jeremiah knew what was coming and rolled his eyes.

“Well,” Stephen began, “We were thirteen. And I don’t know, he must have just seen Rambo or somethings…”

“Fuck you,” Jeremiah interjected.

Stephen smiled as he continued, “…because he had this hunting knife, that was bigger than my father’s. In fact, it was bigger than my father’s head. I still can’t figure out how he got it past his mother.”

“No thanks to your snitch-ass,” Jeremiah growled.

“Whatever, man,” Stephen dismissed, “In any case, he fell asleep with the knife in his sleeping bag, ‘cause I guess he figured we would get attacked by something. Then he had a nightmare, and started screaming so loud my father came running. Too make a long story short, my father found the knife. You should have heard Jeremiah begging my father not to tell his mother!”

“Your mommy would have spanked you, huh?” Betsy turned in to face an irritated Jeremiah.

“Let’s get something straight,” barked Jeremiah, as he leaned into the space between their seats, “Stephen got spankings, and only after he did something really fucked up. Betsy, you probably got spankings if you came home with a B in physics. I didn’t get spankings. I used to get fucked up.”

“Anyway,” Stephen resumed, “my father, being the sneaky guy he is, kept the damn knife and tells Jeremiah that he can have it back when he’s an adult.”

“Now that you mention it,” Jeremiah said, “Your father never gave me back that knife.”

“Well, you can ask him for it in a few minutes, Crocodile Hunter,” Stephen snickered. Betsy laughed as well.

“Whatever, man,” Jeremiah sneered as he settled back in his...