The Dirty City (14 page)

*

The news the following morning was full of the discovery at the docklands. Over two hundred people were rescued from the vampire blood farm, but the dead bodies of at least fifty others were also found. Neither the press nor the cops had a clue what the hell had been going on. There were rumours, let’s face it, I’d put the basics together myself and come up with vampires, but until I actually saw them – and they started trying to kill me, I hadn’t the gumption to mention it to anyone else. It sounded way too crazy. And I think that’s what the cops and the press thought too, it was a damn strange set of events, but no-one wanted to be labelled as the crazy one who dared suggest it was anything more than that. Santa Justina made the national news that day, and the incident entered into folklore such was its notoriety, and the city would forever more be a magnet for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts. But we all made a pact to keep quiet about what actually happened. Hell, who in the world would have believed us anyway?

As it turned out, Anton was alive, but he’d been incredibly lucky – in a couple more hours in the farm and he’d have ended up down the shute like those other poor bastards we’d seen. Richard Jameson paid up in full, with a bit extra, so it was a double win for me.

Even Lydia forgave me, eventually, for getting her involved with this crazy mess. She had as much trouble truly believing what she had witnessed as I had, and I’m sure she carried some deep emotional scars long after her physical wounds had healed up, but being a real trooper, she put it behind her and moved on with her life.

Reana Del-Ray and I hooked up for a couple drinks and dinner dates afterwards, she really wasn’t anywhere near as much of a tight-ass when she wasn’t working, but alas, we certainly didn’t have much in the way of romantic chemistry. In fairness, that girl was just too damn smart for a humble caveman like me! But we remained good friends. About two months after, she called me to let me know that herself and Smitts were being reassigned. She refused to tell me where, so I suspected that it was either government or military. Our paths would one day cross again and I was to find out that there were a lot of things that she hadn’t been completely honest about, but that would be much later.

So that just left me. I took a couple of weeks leave, Jameson’s fee saw to that, and I rested up and tried to come to terms with the significance of everything I’d experienced. Eventually, I had to get back to work, and so I threw myself into it with the same old vigour, and nobody knew any different.

But I was different, inside. The nightmares persisted too. I found that the only way to avoid them was to drink a lot more in order to deepen my sleep. I didn’t become a fully fledged drunkard, but I’d have to admit that I became functionally alcohol dependent, the dreams would have driven me crazy otherwise.

The dirty city, having toyed with me for a few years, had finally taken its first proper bite out of me – and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last...

Note From The Author

Very many thanks for taking the time to read this, my debut book, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it.

I’m currently working on a companion book to The Dirty City entitled ‘
Tales From The Dirty
’ - this will reveal some of the history behind Johnny Jerome, the origins and mythology of the vampires, the backgrounds to some of the key characters in The Dirty City, the backgrounds to some characters that will be key in future books in the series, and of course, the background to the city itself, Santa Justina.

The fully fledged second book in the series is also in progress, entitled ‘
The Dirty City - Call Of The Undead
.’

Both should be available in the Fall of 2014.

You can keep up to date with my work on my author platform website;

www.jimcoganauthor.com

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And again, very many thanks for reading my book :)

Jim Cogan