First let me thank you for having me. I am always happy to reach out to new people and make new friends. I am a huge fan of Halloween. In fact it is my favorite holiday of the year by far. That being said, I could not resist the invitation to join in on this amazing 31 Books of Halloween giveaway. As my part of the giveaway I will be adding to the huge prize, autographed copies of the first FOUR books in my Blood and Brotherhood Sage. If for some reason you have not yet heard of the series here is a taste of what you might find . . . But first, a picture of myself and my daughters last Halloween!
Crimson
A Blood and Brotherhood Story
Blood and gore clung to everything in the room,
dripping like melted wax from the walls. Bodies lay here and there like so many
discarded dolls, each swimming in a pool of its own fluids. Steam still escaped
them from time to time, the room being painfully cold in the evening hours of
late fall. Tables and chairs lay overturned or broken and naught but a single
candle still sputtered from a hanger upon one cobblestone wall. Here a wicked
deed had been done: a deed born of evil, malice and hunger. There had been
peace and happiness here once, though from this day forward none would remember
it. Forever it would remain tainted, the air tasting of iron and smelling of
decay. Yet before the sun broke the horizon, she lay relaxing upon the bar of
the macabre tavern, enjoying the sensations that flowed through her nude body.
Naught but blood was upon her skin, yet it felt as if her lover were inside
her, such was the ecstasy that came from feeding.
Anna awoke with a start, sitting up rapidly in the
hope of banishing the nightmare that threatened to bring tears to her eyes,
even now as its details faded. Looking around she assured herself she was home,
within her own bed, in her own room. From across the house she heard metal upon
metal and knew that Momma was already fixing breakfast. With cold sweat upon
her brow, Anna brushed her long red hair out of her face with her fingers and
tucked it behind an ear. Spinning upon her bottom, she placed her small bare
feet upon the cold stone floor as goose pimples spread over her body. It was at
this point that the day, which was starting like any other, that it took an
unexpected turn.
However hard she tried, Anna could not remember
coming home the night before. She recalled working at the tavern, and could
even recollect what she had served to whom. In fact, there had been some rather
special guests the night previous when Lord Seth and his young bride had come
to eat. Anna had served them herself. She remembered not only bringing them
each a plate of lamb, but also hearing the rumors that were whispered around
the room when the pair had entered. Some said Lord Seth was a demon who created
monsters of men as he took their souls. Others thought him to be the hero who
had defeated the black horde in the battle to the south. If the rumors were
true, then the magician was of a breed above and beyond anything that had ever
before been seen upon Thurr. It was said he commanded the powers of life and
death and had single-handedly laid waste to thousands of men in the battle.
Anna remembered his face, and that of his lover. Of this she was certain. The
very last thing she could recall from the night before was taking a break from
her duties to relieve herself in the privy. Having started her cycle the day
before, she had taken many such breaks, but after entering the privy everything
was blank.
Shaking her head as a means to clear it, Anna rose
to her feet to dress but immediately regretted it. No sooner had she stood up
than her body began to tremble and the room began spinning. Bile rose into her
throat. Just as her vision began to darken around the edges, Anna plopped back
down onto her bed. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she breathed deeply,
hoping the dizziness would pass.
Many long moments went by before the door to her
chamber opened. Still feeling nauseous, Anna opened one eye slightly to witness
Momma entering the room with a steaming bowl. As she focused on her mother, the
sensation of illness relented, and Anna could not help but to wonder if the
feeling had been a lingering effect of her nightmare. Regardless of the reason,
Anna was happy it had gone. Cautiously sitting up, she greeted her mother.
“G’morning Momma,” Anna said while stretching.
“G’morning my angel, I am glad to see you up,”
Momma replied with a quizzical expression. “You gave us all such a scare last
night, I feared you might get lost in sleep like that smithy girl all those
years ago.”
“What do you mean?” Anna asked. “What happened?”
“I dunno what happened,” Momma shrugged. “You were
carried home by Mack and Glen. They said you passed out in the privy and busted
your head on the floor. Broke a pitcher too, and cut your neck when you landed.
They said they tried to wake you for over an hour before bringing you back
here.”
“Why would I suddenly pass out?” Anna asked,
trying to recall the event.
“I don’t rightly know, angel,” Momma admitted.
“Perhaps, this being your first cycle, your body is not used to the blood loss.
I hear it is that way with some women.”
“Makes sense I guess,” Anna replied, her voice
betraying her uncertainty.
Pulling her long red hair over one shoulder, Anna
again spun upon the bed to place her feet upon the floor. Then looking up, she
accepted the bowl her mother had brought, and peering inside admired the dark
colored broth with chunks of vegetables and meat floating in it. Though it was
mostly broth, the scents of spices and garlic filled Anna’s nostrils and she
grinned appreciatively.
“I thought if you were awake, and your cycle is
the issue, a skimpy breakfast simply would not do. This will give you energy,”
Momma smiled, watching her daughter anxiously.
“I’ll be fine Momma,” Anna assured her.
“Even so, if you are not up to it, then you stay
at home today,” Momma said. “You understand?”
“Yes Momma, but I am fine, and we need the money,”
Anna answered. “I am OK to work, I promise.”
For a long moment Momma looked Anna over. Both
knew that they needed every coin they could get. They barely made ends meet as
it was with just the two of them. Seemingly come to a decision, Momma paused in
the middle of turning to leave the room.
“You feel even the slightest bit weak, you bring
your bottom right back to this bed,” Momma ordered sternly. “You ain’t gonna
give me another scare like you did last night.”
“Yes Momma.”
Without another word Anna was left alone in her
room to eat her breakfast in the hour before the sun would rise to light the
sky. Though a day of rest sounded like perfection, Anna knew that a day
skipping work was three days skipping a meal. Though she knew it would not be
the first time she had skipped a meal, nor would it likely be her last, she
preferred the other option available. Anna ate quickly and dressed even faster
in an effort to get to the tavern before sun up. If she was late, her pay would
be docked, and that was something she and Momma could not afford.
Dressed in one of the three simple dresses she
owned, Anna rushed from her house down the dirt road that ran between the two
rows of buildings that made up the little village called Traiven. It wasn’t
much of a place to live, but it was home. Lots of visitors came and went on
their way to or from the capital city of Valdadore to the west. Less than a
hundred people lived in Traiven but thousands passed through each year, and in
order to serve them all, everyone started work before sunrise.
Sliding to a halt in front of the tavern door,
Anna shoved it open and rushed inside. Dodging between tables and chairs, she
nearly tripped, not once but twice as the floor sped beneath her. Unlike times
past, she managed to catch herself before falling. Rounding the bar, she
stooped to snatch up an apron before tying it about her waist while barging
through yet another door into the kitchen.
Letting the door swing closed behind her, Anna
watched as all eyes in the kitchen turned their gazes upon her and each face
stretched into smiles of something more than recognition.
“She’s alive!” shouted Marcy, a plump woman who
spent her days eating nearly as much as she cooked.
“Yup, I’m fine,” Anna stated simply.
Everyone took turns welcoming her back from the
seemingly dead, before quickly returning to their duties in preparation for the
day ahead.
Grabbing a damp rag, Anna exited into the tavern’s
primary room, and began wiping down every table and chair. It was a chore she
had been doing for the past five years. Each of the twenty-seven tables and
ninety-one chairs felt familiar to her touch. There had once been ninety
three-chairs, but an overweight man had crushed one beneath his bulk, and
Wilson, the tavern’s owner, had broken another over a belligerent customer’s
head when the man had refused to pay after drinking for near half a day. Anna
had the pleasure of witnessing both events, though she only smiled fondly at
one of the recollections. Fat men breaking chairs, now that was funny.
Finished with wiping everything down, Anna set
about sweeping the floor as the first rays of sun began to slant through the
windows. With the coming of light outside the tavern, the day began in earnest
as Wilson arrived to manage his establishment, or so he was fond of calling it.
Within an hour some of the chairs began to fill and Anna’s duties started
piling up.
Often as Anna worked she daydreamed about things
that attracted her attention, and more often than not she found herself
dreaming of Gavin. Of course she had to like the one boy in town who had shown
absolutely no interest in her. But how could he like her, as awkward as she
always acted around him? Anna could not remember one single time in the last
year when she had not embarrassed herself while in the vicinity of Gavin.
She was going through so many changes lately she
felt like a stranger to her own body. Worse than that, she had been a late bloomer, as her mother called it.
In the last year alone she had grown over a foot, developed breasts and began
her cycle. With so many developments all at once, Anna feared she could not
bear another. Thank the gods she had Momma. Momma helped her to understand not
only how these changes would affect her body, but also how they would influence
the way others reacted to her. Immediately it was apparent that Momma had been
right. Anna began to notice that men looked upon her differently, and the women
who accompanied those men made angry faces at her. Anna was no simpleton. It
was merely that she lived in a very small community from which to gather
knowledge from. She was the only girl her age in Traiven, though there were
several younger. Boys, on the other hand, were more numerous and all but one
had eyes for Anna now that she had changed so thoroughly.
On this day, like most others, as Anna set about
serving food and drinks to the customers, her mind wandered to thoughts of
Gavin with his bronze skin and wavy hair of mixed brown and golden locks. She
imagined for the millionth time what his lips would feel like on hers as she
pictured him pulling her into his arms. But this time the daydream seemed
peculiar in comparison to those she had had before. This time the fantasy was
more precise, the details finer, the emotions more real. As Gavin pulled Anna
close this time, Anna seemed reluctant to obey his restraining arms. When she
did, instead of locking lips as they would usually do, Anna began voraciously
kissing him upon the neck and dragging her nails across his flesh, leaving red
trails. So vivid was the alien dream that Anna walked straight into a table,
causing a customer’s drink to slosh out of his mug. Fortunately it had not
spilled completely, and the man in traveling leathers dismissed the accident
silently with a gesture.
Carefully attempting to control her thoughts, lest
she lose pay for upsetting another customer or spilling someone else’s food or
drink, Anna resumed her duties a short while. However, soon, seemingly caught
up, she took a few moments to relax in the kitchen with the rest of the staff
while Wilson manned the bar. Shoving through the kitchen door, Anna nearly
collided with Kristen, a woman in her early forties with blonde hair and a more
than ample bosom. Apologizing for her clumsiness, Anna stepped aside to allow
Kristen to pass, holding the door for her. Kristen very nearly did exactly as
expected, stepping into the open door, but then she spun upon her heel to stare
at Anna. Immediately Anna felt uncomfortable, even having known Kristen her
whole life. Something about the woman’s gaze was unnatural. It was as if this
day the woman peered beneath the flesh to see all her secrets and shortcomings.
Turning her head to look away, Anna was again surprised when Kristen grabbed
her chin and pried her head to the side, though not violently.
“Wow!” Kristen exclaimed. “I don’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” Anna asked, worried what secret
her soul had divulged to Kristen.
“Your cut is completely gone,” Kristen answered,
still looking at Anna’s neck intently.
“What cut?”
“You had a jagged cut on your neck from falling
when you blacked out yesterday,” Kristen reminded her. “I cleaned it myself!”
For a long moment Kristen tugged Anna’s neck this
way and that, peering closely at the skin of her neck for any sign of the
vanished injury. Wilson rounded the door frame to see for himself too, and
before long the entire kitchen staff abandoned their duties to witness the
absence of the cut. Each of them gave their own imagined reasons for its
disappearance, but within seconds it was decided that it must be a blessing
from the gods that Anna had been healed so quickly.
All the undue attention made Anna extremely
uncomfortable. So much so that she began to sweat, and her knees to shake
slightly. As her body temperature seemed to rise, and the morning’s nausea
began to return, Anna simply could not take any more. Before the small crowd
made any notion of being finished gawking at her, Anna pushed past Wilson.
Entering the tavern once again and rounding the bar, she strode across the
room. Without an explanation, or looking back to assure herself she had not
angered the proprietor, Anna made her way into the privy where she leaned
against the door, allowing no one else entry.
Panting hard Anna closed her eyes as sharp pain
lanced through her skull. For long minutes she gritted her teeth until it
abated. Waiting further still, the trembling and nausea stopped as well. If her
cycles were going to be like this every four weeks, Anna did not know how women
lived as long as they did. The whole ordeal was overwhelming, and Anna
questioned whether or not to take Momma’s advice and return home after the pain
and nausea she had just endured. If she did, though, she knew they would both
suffer for it, and Anna could not bring herself to make Momma suffer for her
weakness. Shrugging off her fear and uncertainty, she left her post against the
door to rinse her face in the bowl across the room. This singular decision
would reveal another fact about the night before of which Anna had been
unaware.
Approaching the water bowl, Anna first noticed the
bloodstains upon the cobblestone floor. Although the vast majority of the blood
had been wiped up, some of the floor had not been properly cleaned and showed
just how much blood she had lost the night before. Even with little knowledge
of her body’s inner workings, Anna found it hard to believe that she had
survived such extensive blood loss. If the stained floor were not evidence
enough, the bowl upon a small wooden table was filled with water stained
crimson. Rags soiled with blood remained in the bowl and the scent of sweet
iron was overwhelming, filling Anna’s nostrils with the smell of blood. Anna
inhaled, enjoying the uncommon scent as her stomach turned once again and the
sudden urge to vomit returned.
Closing her eyes and breathing deeply through
clenched teeth, Anna waited once again as the nausea subsided. A moment later
she opened her eyes and worked quickly to restore the room to its original
condition lest she suffer some consequence for the bloody mess. Though she
hoped to finish this unforeseen task discreetly, it took two very uncomfortable
trips through the tavern and kitchen for fresh water to complete the job
properly. The eyes of everyone else employed at the tavern rested heavily upon
Anna each time she exited the privy. She wished that they would just forget
that the previous night had even happened and, more fervently, that they would
not call the fact that she had healed quickly a miracle of the gods. Perhaps
the wound had simply looked worse than it was. Maybe it had not even existed at
all and those whom she worked with were mistaken. Maybe they had all eaten
something spoiled and they had all imagined the incident.
Many more thoughts passed through Anna’s
imagination to explain away how she felt, but eventually, as she finished
cleaning up the mess, her mind returned to Gavin. Somehow, amidst her
fantasies, she had imagined everyone had become ill by eating bad meat. Dying,
each of them had risen from the dead as flesh-eating zombies. Someone had to
save the village of Traiven and who better than Gavin with his thick arms and
sandy hair?
“Anna get your ass out here! You have customers
with empty mugs,” Wilson whispered loudly through a crack in the door.
Anna jumped, instantly roused from her reverie.
She had not even heard him approach the door, let alone had she expected to
hear another voice in the room. Sighing loudly as her heart began to slow to a
normal rhythm, Anna strode out to resume her mundane duties of serving food and
drink to the many passers-through of the day.
Little more than two hours came and went, and
thankfully for Anna they were much like any others working at the tavern. The
stares from her coworkers came less and less often, and for the most part Anna
was beginning to have a good time at work, including better than average tips
from her patrons. The kitchen staff was hard at work stirring pots and cutting
vegetables when Anna shoved through the door for the hundredth time of the day
to fill an order when events took an unexpected turn for the worse.
No more than had the door swung closed behind her
than agonizing, stabbing pain exploded in Anna’s stomach. Instantly she
clutched her belly. As she doubled over to ease the pain, Anna lost her
footing, collapsing in a heap. As she screamed in pain, everyone in the room
rushed to Anna’s aid, though without injury none knew how to help the girl who
now began to trash upon the floor as if she were on fire.
Anna felt as if her insides had been torn asunder.
Convinced she would die of the pain, she coped as best as she was able,
struggling to remain conscious. One second it felt as if she had been gutted,
and the next she was overwhelmed by unbelievable cramping throughout her entire
body. One instant she was folded in two as her body was wracked by spasms, the
next she writhed upon the floor as those around her watched on in horror,
unable to comfort her in any way. For more than an hour Anna clung to
consciousness, her nails biting into the stone floor on several occasions,
peeling them back to leave bloodied stumps. It wasn’t until yet another symptom
added itself to the already overwhelming list that Anna was finally overcome.
As if something had ruptured, a loud popping sound
reverberated through her skull as her head exploded in pain, causing her to
retch upon the floor uncontrollably. Blood spewed like a crimson river from her
lips. If that were not enough, after vomiting blood several times, still
squirming upon the floor in puddles of her own fluids, it suddenly felt as if
something hit her in the jaw. It was as much pain as the young woman could
take, both mentally and physically. With the added agony in her head and jaw
Anna lost consciousness.
Anna flexed her taut muscles. Twisting her neck to
an extreme angle, she smiled as the bones in her neck cracked several times.
Spinning upon the bar, her nude body was an abomination, as if created by an
insane person’s darkest thoughts. Pale white, milky, supple skin shone out
between patches of blood-stained flesh. Her young body bore the traces of
rivers of blood that had begun at her mouth and spilled from her chin like
crimson waterfalls to fall upon her perky breasts before spattering upon her
abdomen and thighs, and everywhere in between. Her fiery red locks hung in
tangles, with dried blood and gore clinging like scabs between the strands. Her
arms to the elbows were pure red as if dipped in blood, and her legs looked
much the same up to her knees, as if she had spent hours stomping around in
puddles of spent life.
Anna’s lips parted in a wicked smile. Something
about it was unnatural, almost predatory. In that smile was a sign of the
monster she had become. More than that, her eyes shone with a hue that was
demonic and screamed that something evil had been spawned and now lived within
the awkward body of the young woman none would suspect. Seeing something across
the room Anna began to giggle, her small breasts bouncing slightly with the
sound. Upon the floor a young man moaned in agony, trying in vain to roll
himself over with broken limbs. Anna began to laugh harder.
Hopping down from the bar, she strode across the
room like an agile, predatory beast. Her adolescent hips swung from side to
side, slightly over-exaggerated, obviously accentuating the motion. She moved
fluidly. Graceful to extremes, Anna walked among the dead and dying, each of
them covered in gore, like a dancer upon a stage. So light she appeared, that
had anyone witnessed the scene they would have imagined her floating among the
dead, like a ghost come to mourn those lost.
Kneeling beside one of her favorite victims of the
night, Anna began to undress the woman, peeling blood-soaked leather from the
body. One by one she removed the shapely garments, and one by one she donned
them herself. Only moments passed before Anna rose once again. Dressed now from
head to toe in black and buckles, she strutted towards the door. She smiled
again. Pulling the door to the tavern open upon its hinges, Anna watched as the
last rays of the sun vanished from the sky. With naught but a wicked grin she
stepped out into the night.
She was now a creature of singular purpose.
Pleasure was her only want, her only need, and her only desire. Fortunately for
Anna, she had learned well this day that pleasure could easily be found with a
lover. But it could also be found feeding upon the blood of others. Anna could
not help but to decide that Momma had been wrong; it was definitely better to
play with one’s food.
Anna awoke to find herself propped up in a corner
of the kitchen, a damp rag wrapped about her head. Perhaps she had become ill
and had fever. At least that would explain the nightmares. Nothing at all today
seemed to make any sense. Closing her eyes she tried once again to recall the
details of the previous night, in hopes of remembering what it was that had
happened in the privy. Try as she might, however, she did not succeed. She
remembered serving Lord Seth, the Death Mage, and his young wife. She
remembered speaking to Mack on their behalf, as it was the young couple’s
desire to purchase a cloak.
Upon this train of thought it was only then that
Anna recollected another detail of the night before. She remembered the woman’s
eyes. The Death Mage’s wife had the same red-hued eyes as Anna herself in the
nightmares. That explained at least a portion of the dream. Many in the tavern
had been frightened of the young couple, instilling an uncomfortable feeling in
the room while they were present. Their appearance, in dark armor that looked
wholly evil, menacing and wrought from nightmares, could explain Anna’s
peculiar dreams. She was simply recreating that which she had heard the night
before within her own head. The young mage was said to slaughter other men by
the thousand, and this could explain all the bodies and blood in the
nightmares, couldn’t it? Anna could not help but to try and explain the
unnatural subconscious thoughts away. Nightmare or not, it could not explain
why she had blacked out, now on two different occasions. Something more was at
work here, and Anna hoped to figure out just what it was before it was too late……
Trick or Treat!
To read the rest of Crimson you will have to check
out the book I co-authored named “A Gathering of dust”. You can find it here:
However, if you want to read The Blood and
Brotherhood Saga, that has been compared to everything from The Hunger Games,
to Twilight, and even the movie series Underworld, you can find book one right
here:
Once again, thank you for having me. For more info on my series or the constant
giveaways I host, check out my website at: http://www.wix.com/jeremylaszlo/author
or come chat with me and other fans of the series on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/bloodandbrotherhood
**Note: There is a HUGE giveaway at the end of the month
after Halloween!!! To enter for the giveaway, comment on the blogs. The more
you comment, the bigger chance you have at winning!!! There will only be 1
winner, and the winner will be announced 1st week of November!!! Good Luck!!!
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