The Spinoza Trilogy (25 page)
Read The Spinoza Trilogy Online
Authors: J.R. Rain
Veronica and Natassa
will be back in a series
of their own in:
THE HUNTRESS TRILOGY
~~~~~
Samantha Moon returns:
Moon River
Vampire for Hire #8
Coming soon!
~~~~~
Available now!
A brand-new Samantha Moon short story:
Vampire Dreams
~~~~~
Samantha Moon is back for the holidays in:
Christmas Moon
Available now!
~~~~~
Samantha Moon: The Paperback
In bookstores everywhere! Check out the links to this beautiful trade paperback containing
Moon Dance, Vampire Moon, American Vampire, Moon Child, Christmas Moon
and “Vampire Dreams.” Available now!
~~~~~
Available now!
Temple of the Jaguar
written with Aiden James
A lost city.
A beautiful archaeologist.
And one antiquities thief who is in way over his head.
~~~~~
Dark Horse
Jim Knighthorse #1
by J.R. Rain
(read on for a sample)
Chapter One
Charles Brown, the defense attorney, was a small man with a round head. He was wearing a brown and orange zigzagged power tie. I secretly wondered if he went by Charlie as a kid and had a dog named Snoopy and a crush on the little red-headed girl.
We were sitting in my office on a warm spring day. Charlie was here to give me a job if I wanted it, and I wanted it. I hadn’t worked in two weeks and was beginning to like it, which made me nervous.
“I think the kid’s innocent,” he was saying.
“
Of course you do, Charlie. You’re a defense attorney. You would find cause to think Jack the Ripper was simply a misunderstood artist before his time.”
He looked at me with what was supposed to be a stern face.
“The name’s Charles,” he said.
“
If you say so.”
“
I do.”
“
Glad that’s cleared up.”
“
I heard you could be difficult,” he said. “Is this you being difficult? If so, then I’m disappointed.”
I smiled. “Maybe you have me confused with my father.”
Charlie sat back in my client chair and smiled. His domed head was perfectly buffed and polished, cleanly reflecting the halogen lighting above. His skin appeared wet and viscous, as if his sweat glands were ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
“
Your father has quite a reputation in L.A. I gave his office a call before coming here. Of course, he’s quite busy and could not take on an extra case.”
“
So you settled on the next best thing.”
“
If you want to call it that,” he said. “I’ve heard that you’ve performed adequately with similar cases, and so I’ve decided to give you a shot, although my expectations are not very high, and I have another P.I. waiting in the wings.”
“
How reassuring,” I said.
“
Yeah, well, he’s established. You’re not.”
“
But can he pick up a blind side blitz?”
Charlie smiled and splayed his stubby fingers flat on my desk and looked around my office, which was adorned with newspaper clippings and photographs of yours truly. Most of the photographs depict me in a Bruin uniform, sporting the number 45. In most I’m carrying the football, and in others I’m blowing open the hole for the tailback. Or at least I like to think I’m blowing open the hole. The newspapers are yellowing now, taped or tacked to the wood paneling. Maybe someday I’ll take them down. But not yet.
“You beat SC a few years back. I can never forgive you for that. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone.”
“
Three,” I said. “But who’s counting?”
He rubbed his chin. “Destroyed your leg, if I recall, in the last game of the season. Broken in seven different places.”
“Nine, but who’s counting?”
“
Must have been hard to deal with. You were on your way to the pros. Would have made a hell of a fullback.”
That
had
been hard to deal with, and I didn’t feel like talking about it now to Charlie Brown. “Why do you believe in your client’s innocence?” I asked.
He looked at me. “I see. You don’t want to talk about it. Sorry I brought it up.” He crossed his legs. He didn’t seem sorry at all. He looked smugly down at his shoes, which had polish on the polish. “Because I believe Derrick’s story. I believe he loved his girlfriend and would never kill her.”
“People have been killed for love before. Nothing new.”
On my computer screen before me I had brought up an article from the Orange County Register. The article showed a black teen being led away into a police car. He was looking down, his head partially covered by his jacket. He was being led away from a local high school. A very upscale high school, if I recalled. The story was dated three weeks ago, and I recalled reading it back then.
I tapped the computer monitor. “The police say there’s some indication that his girlfriend was seeing someone else, and that jealousy might have been a factor.”
“
Yes,” said the attorney. “And we think this someone else framed our client.”
“
I take it you want me to find this man.”
“
Or person.”
“
Ah, equality,” I said.
“
We want you to find evidence of our client’s innocence, whether or not you find the true murderer.”
“
Anything else I should know?”
“
We feel race might be a factor here. He was the only black student in school, and in the neighborhood.”
“
I believe the preferred term is African-American.”
“
I’m aware of public sentiment in this regards. I don’t need you to lecture me.”
“
Just trying to live up to my difficult name.”
“
Yeah, well, cool it,” he said. “Now, no one’s talking at the school. My client says he was working out late in the school gym, yet no one saw him, not even the janitors.”
“
Then maybe he wasn’t there.”
“
He was there,” said Charlie simply, as if his word was enough. “So do you want the job?”
“
Sure.”
We discussed a retainer fee and then he wrote me a check. When he left, waddling out of the office, I could almost hear Schroeder playing on his little piano in the background.
The Vampire Club
by J.R. Rain and Scott Nicholson
(read on for a sample)
Welcome
The vampire dropped from above.
The girl recoiled in shock, then let loose with an ear-shattering screech. The vampire stepped back, seemingly impressed by the set of lungs on his soon-to-be victim. As she screamed away, he waved his hands slowly like a maestro.
And then those human lungs faltered and the scream turned into a gurgle. The concert was over.
Staring hypnotically with his obsidian eyes, the vampire approached the helpless girl. She began whimpering. He eased up alongside her, peered down at her exposed neck, and frowned. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away a bit of something.
His tongue slithered out as if summoned by a flute-playing Indian snake charmer. A shudder ran through the girl. He opened his mouth and stretched back his lips, revealing his long and slender teeth. He gripped her shoulders like a lover and sank his teeth deep into her neck—
And I could no longer control myself. Quivering, I leaped from my seat in the movie theater and, waving my fist for needed emphasis, shouted: “God, yes!”
Next to me, Buddy burst from his seat. “Suck it, baby, suck!”
And then Juan further down: “You know you like it! You can’t hide it, baby!”
Janice still further: “Suck like there’s no tomorrow!”
And then finally the professor, with his old and gritty voice, boomed: “Suck until you urinate blood!”
Which was, for me, a new one.
We are The Vampire Club.
Welcome.
* * *
My name is Andy Barthamoo, leader of The Vampire Club, which meets every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in a small room in the basement of Western Virginia University’s library.
There are five of us, and we have one thing in common:
we love vampires
. We love them from the tip of their pointed teeth to the tip of their leathery batwings, devoting much of our pre-adolescent, high school, and college years in search of them.
You see, we want to
become
vampires.
However, we have yet to come across any documented proof that vampires truly exist. Until now....
* * *
On this particular Tuesday night, as I stood before the other four members of the group, I had some interesting news to share. Once all the members had assembled before me, I began the meeting. “Now friends and colleagues, I have asked you this question before and I will ask you again: what is the purpose behind our club?”
Four hands shot up. I would have expected no less. “Buddy,” I said, pointing to the blond football player in our group.
Buddy stood, all 215 pounds of him. “To gather evidence to prove the existence of vampires.”
“Very good, Buddy,” I said, and then paused for dramatic effect. “I believe I have found such evidence.”
There was a gasp or two. Probably Janice, though she’d never admit it. She had a way of hiding her true feelings, which is why she resisted her no-doubt undying love for me.
“This past week while doing research in the Virginia Times Library, I came across a newspaper article from the 1820s.” I opened my DayRunner and removed the photocopied article. I cleared my throat and read: “‘Stranger Shot Eleven Times, Dies Two Hours Later—Old man Andrews says he’d never seen anything like that in all his life. ‘Course I’m blind as a bat,’ says Andrews.’”
“
Interesting,” said Juan, pulling at the goat hair on his chin.
“
Now, as you will soon discover, this stranger behaved very much like a vampire.” I looked each member in the eye, stopping a bit longer with Janice and, of course, adding a wink. “And if so, there’s a chance he’s alive today. And I know where to find him.”
“
Where did you get this article?” asked Juan.
“
A weekly newspaper called
The Inquireth
.”
“
A tabloid!”
“
My assignment didn’t specify what newspaper I had to use—”
“
A tabloid story about a mythical creature. Sure you didn’t confuse it with the Incredible Bat Boy? We can’t accept it as fact, Andy, or anywhere close to the truth,” Juan said.
“
I thought the same thing, until I read between the lines and discovered the writer could not have made this up. He hit too close to vampiric truth. And it was before Bram Stoker, back when vampires were legend and not yet mainstream fiction.”
“
Just read the article,” said Professor L. He smiled and nodded his gray head at me. “And we’ll see what exactly you’ve stumbled upon.”
Professor L was not only head of the Vampire Studies department, he was its only teacher. This was the only university in the nation that offered Vampire Studies as a major, and it attracted the devout, which was pretty much us four. You couldn’t just spout lines from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get in. You had to know about Carmilla, Varney the Vampire, Vlad Dracul, and Nosferatu.
