Stephanie Van Orman
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Stephanie Van Orman often writes under the online alias
Sapphirefly. Stephanie has written ten online novels since
2001. You may remember her from such online novels as ‘Vampire
Kiss’, ‘Mark of the Dragon’, ‘Rose Red: Model 85001’, and
‘Whenever You Want’. ‘The Blood that Flows’ is her sixteenth
completed project.
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I just wanted to
root through Marshall’s files. That was my only reason for
getting a job in a Private Investigator’s office. If I didn’t
figure out what was happening to my sister soon . . . No. That
was a lie. I knew what was happening to London. She was looking
for a human and when she found one that suited her tastes, she
was going to drink the poor sucker’s blood. If things went bad,
he’d drink hers and then I’d have another mess to clean up. The
last mess was her previous boyfriend. Yeah, I killed him, but
you should have seen what he was about to do to her. I’m lucky
that hasn’t come back to bite me, because vampire revenge is
uglier than sin.
Excerpt
Word Count: 47,200
Pages to Print: 150
File Format: PDF
Price: $4.99 |
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| Excerpts |
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| The Blood
That Flows |
Chapter One
Not Just a Bubblegum Girl
“A vampire goes through four phases in its development. One of
you two must be able to tell me about them,” Detective Marshall
said gruffly. He looked from Dudley to me, like he was expecting
one of us to raise our hand.
Neither one of us moved. Why should we? This wasn’t bloody
school. We were sitting on mismatched chairs in his cramped
office, which smelled of tobacco and old French fries. A pile of
paper appeared on the verge of sliding onto the floor from the
top of Marshall’s filing cabinet, and I suspected a wad of gum
ground into the carpet was stuck to my shoe.
Marshall just enjoyed talking like this. A former police chief
in some distant city before he’d resigned and moved here to lay
down the law about vampires—which would have worked, except the
Chief of Police here was a closet blood sucker. With Marshall’s
passion for slaying vampires, it was impossible for him to keep
a job working with police who sympathized with the undead. So,
about ten years before he’d started working as a detective for
the masses of humans who hadn’t quite gotten the memo. This was
a vampire city.
Me? Yeah, I got the memo. I got it when I was fifteen. Did I
know the different phases a vampire went through? Well, I knew
some of them, but remained unclear on what happened after a
certain point. One thing I knew for sure—vampires were not
invincible. As for the rest, I’d come here hunting for the gory
details of their lifespan, since things in my life had taken a
distinct turn for the worst. I couldn’t let Marshall know that.
He wouldn’t trust me if he thought I was a newbie, so I returned
his gaze patiently and acted bored, but willing to let him play
teacher all day.
I didn’t know Dudley’s story. He looked like he was in his late
twenties with dark eyebrows and a rough five o’clock shadow. His
expression read like a tombstone. The message was simple—dead
men don’t talk, and neither do I. Too bad really, since he
looked like a movie star from black and white film noir.
Marshall waited for several long moments before he grunted, “Get
out. You’re both worthless.”
Unfortunately, both Dudley and I were in Marshall’s office for a
job interview. Dudley was applying to be Marshall’s partner; I,
to be his receptionist. Dudley was a private detective already.
And me—as I said before, my aspirations were fewer. I just
wanted to root around Marshall’s files and get as much
information on vamps as I could before I got canned.
I cleared my throat, directed my gaze pointedly at Dudley and
said, “Sorry, I rather hoped this would be a private interview.”
“I don’t have time for private interviews,” Marshall said
crossly.
I ground my teeth together. I didn’t want to have to do this,
but it was better to act like a fool than to let a vampire
hunter masquerading as a private detective in on my true stance.
Dumb girl routine number four coming right up. “I’m not
interested in vamps,” I said, twirling a lock of my hair. I
wouldn’t be able to use that routine after I turned twenty-four,
so I had to get good use out of it while I could. “I’d rather
answer your phone, sort your messages and keep your files
straight than get involved with crap that could kill me. I
thought you just stalked married women who strayed from the
path.”
Marshall gave me a weird look, and then opened a jar on his desk
and offered me a piece of round pink bubblegum. Probably the
same stuff that had been stomped into the carpet.
I shook my head and said, “No thanks. I’m trying to cut back.”
He smiled. He liked me. No problem. I was in.
“Okay, so girlie here is too smart to get involved with vamps.
What about you, Boy?”
Dudley shook his head coolly and recited in a disinterested
tone, “A vampire goes through four cycles. First, they are a
human who has been tagged by a vampire to be their mate. If the
human is unwilling, it will die.”
“And if the human is willing?”
“Then they will end up sharing massive quantities of their own
blood with the vampire as well as drinking the vampire’s blood.
A human won’t make the transformation into a vampire unless they
consume at least ten liters of vampire blood over a two-month
period. During this time, both parties experience a drug-like
euphoria where they believe that they can’t possibly live
without the other. Even ancient vampires can fall into this
hole. Many of them can’t bear to kill their lover, even though
they know what will inevitably happen next. Once this first
phase is complete, the human is a new vampire and even if it is
unreasonable, both the new vampire and the old one are filled
with suspicion and anger toward each other. The old vampire
liked the human and is disgusted by them once they change, so
much so that they will murder them if they have the chance. The
new one thinks the old one is jealous of their newfound power
and beauty. I’m sure there are plenty of different emotions
experienced, but in the end—one of them will kill the other.
I’ve never heard of a case where one of them didn’t die. Then
there’s the third phase, where the vampire who survived is
basically not a nuisance to anybody. They don’t kill in the
third phase.”
All of this, I knew. It was beyond this that I hit unfamiliar
territory. What happened in the fourth phase?
Dudley looked indifferent, but he continued. “In the final
stage, they want to mate, but vampires don’t exactly mate. They
either make a new vampire out of a human and die, or they repeat
the process of falling in love over and over again without
giving up their legacy. That path turns them into killing
machines and causes no end of trouble. I’m sure you’ve seen it.”
Marshall shook his head carefully. Then he looked at me and
said, “Be careful who you date.” |
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