Bloody Potomac, The President's Vampire Daughter

By Carl Reader

Tasha O'Burke, the President's vampire daughter, is happily hunting young congressmen on her birthday with her girlfriend, Cari Anne Pomegranate, when the Speaker of the House, John Burner, pulls off a bloody coup against the her father. Cari Anne is murdered and Tasha is hunted and hides among her friends, the bats. She has to defeat the Blood Pigs with the help of Cari, now a zombie, and a young congressman from Montana, Wild Bill Cody. Burner and the Blood Pigs appear to be all-powerful, but Tasha and Cari Anne have a few vampire and zombie tricks up their sleeves. Who gets to control the flow of blood coming in to Washington from the humans is the issue here, and Tasha can only win or die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carl Reader
• Release date: Dec 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465749888

Carl Reader

Carl Reader trained as a journalist at Temple University and has worked as a reporter, photographer and editor in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Montana. He's published short stories in literary magazines and on the Internet and has self-published a children's Christmas story called THE TWELFTH ELF OF KINDNESS.That book was partially published in Russia under the Sister Cities program. He's also self-published a novella called THE PERSECUTION OF WILLIAM PENN, which has been well-received in several college libraries. He works as a professional photographer and freelance writer.

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Bloody Potomac

The President’s Vampire Daughter

By

Carl Reader

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Carl Reader

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All characters in this novel are purely fictional. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

1

Tasha O’Burke had her back pressed up against the ceiling of the Oval Office. She was watching the hustle for new blood beneath her.

She was very hungry.

The victim’s name was Tim Hanger, and he was a first-time visitor to the White House. He was just elected as a congressman from Wyoming, and he was slightly rotund but otherwise well-built.

As soon as she saw him, Tasha wanted his blood for her own.

But taking it was not going to be that easy, she thought, with everyone else in town vying for it.

The fight might end up being fang versus fang.

So let me hear what you have to say, the President, her father, said.

The congressman had a bad habit of blurting out nonsense without an invitation to do so. He had done so several times already, but now he had an invitation to speak. Despite that, he was jittery and uncertain and angry in the presence of the President. Tasha saw that immediately.

Mr. President, you promised the American people you would be a different sort of leader, that you would make government work for them, the young man said, with a passion rarely seen in the White House. Instead, you want to raise taxes and suck the life out of people with more job-killing regulations!

Normally, when sated with blood, her father would simply yawn at such an insipid, political speech, but this time the boy’s ire was up and it reddened his face enticingly. From her place above, she saw the President’s eyes glow red.

Normally, that would be a prelude to an attack.

There was blood just below the surface of the young man’s skin.

Oh, daddy, she thought, don’t give yourself away. Let me have this guy’s blood, just this one guy’s blood. I’m tired of our fights.

Does that make you angry? the young congressman went on, pleased he had gotten away with is brash rudeness so far. You look angry. You should be angry. The whole country is angry at you. I’m angry at you. We’re angry! Angry! We need jobs!

Tasha nearly laughed at the silliness of it, which would have made her fall to the floor from the ceiling.

She controlled herself momentarily.

The young man was passionately opposed to her father, who was a vampire.

How foolish!

What the congressman should have worried about was the President losing control and lurching forward to tear through his neck and empty his body of blood. She thought if she wanted it for herself, she’d have to hurry. She’d have to entice the boy away from politics, flirt with him a little.

If not, Daddy might take him at any moment and leave her with nothing.

Suddenly, the competition got worse, as a smoky mist seeped under the sill of a window to the east. It settled on the carpet behind the young congressman and transformed itself quickly. It coagulated into the President’s greatest rival, the Speaker of the House, John Burner.

He was the only vampire Tasha knew of who had a great tan.

He was smoking a Marlboro.

The President’s eyes settled down to their usual friendly brown, and a warm smile pretended to show how pleased he was to see the Speaker.

John, I didn’t know you were coming along today with your young protégée, he said. What a pleasure.

The Speaker made a gurgling sound in his throat, as though he hadn’t quite swallowed his last meal.

He stared with hatred at Mr. Hanger with a set of terribly dour eyes.

Well, Mr. President, what the Tea Party wants, the Tea Party gets, he said, as though he had been there for the entire conversation. Good morning, Tim. Good morning, Congressman Hanger.

Congressman Hanger spun around quickly and in fear. It was his first appropriate action of the day. He was met by the great friendly frozen smile of the Speaker. It was as though the Speaker’s face was made of porcelain but could change at any moment.

So he hadn’t eaten in a while …

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Burner, I had no idea you were even in the room.

I enter here at my own risk.

The joke had barely passed Speaker Burner’s lips when he snarled and leaped forward and knocked Congressman Hanger to the floor, his fangs extending nearly to his chin until he opened his mouth wide and buried the fangs in the young congressman’s neck. Not simply content to drink from Representative Hanger’s neck, Speaker Burner ripped through the flesh while pulling downward toward the heart, while the death-screams filled the room. Speaker Burner tore open a gash two feet long from the representative’s neck to his stomach and then buried his face in it to drink.

John, my rug, damn it, said the President, stepping back from the mess.

Tasha watched the Speaker take what should have been hers – again. He was a sloppy drinker, and much of the blood did indeed splash onto the President’s eagle-signature rug as the young congressman struggled helplessly against the vampire speaker.

Then the boy died.

2

When Speaker Burner had drained the young man of blood he stood up and burped.

Excuse me.

He held his fingertips to his lips.

On the rug, Congressman Hanger looked like a piece of cracked white marble in a badly mangled blue suit.

His cold blue eyes stared up at the ceiling.

Tasha stared down at the lifeless young man and saw there wasn’t a drop of blood left in him. The huge gash down the middle of him revealed several blue and green organs, broken ribs, and a heart torn to pieces.

The pieces of the heart still quivered.

Sorry about the mess, the Speaker said.

John, I thought we agreed not to do this in each other’s offices, the President responded. Can’t we agree on anything these days?

Mr. President, he should never have been here in the first place. I told him never to negotiate with you alone, that I always had to be there with him. Did he listen? No. So this is what he gets.

That’s not the point. This is my little girl’s birthday, and I was going to give him to her.

Without my permission?

"I don’t need