Manikin (Channeling Morpheus 3)

By Jordan Castillo Price

Marushka loves pretty things: lace and velvet, porcelain and pearls. She sews elaborate costumes for all of her dolls, and she spends hours arranging their hair just so. Her collection is growing; she’s added a very pretty trinket, and his name is Michael. She can’t wait to dress him up.

Michael always suspected mentally ill vampires grew worse and worse as the years went by. He’d never realized how unhinged they could get.

Now Michael is in way over his head. Will Wild Bill save him? Or was it only wishful thinking on Michael’s part that their connection ran deeper than sex... or blood?

First edition was published as Channeling Morpheus: Manikin in 2008. Appears in the print collection Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary.
(Explicit gay content)

• Language: English
• Publisher: JCP Books
• Release date: Oct 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781935540274

Jordan Castillo Price

Author and artist Jordan Castillo Price writes paranormal sci-fi thrillers colored by her time in the Midwest, from inner city Chicago, to various cities across southern Wisconsin. She’s settled in a 1910 Cape Cod near Lake Michigan with tons of character and a plethora of bizarre spiders. Any disembodied noises, she’s decided, will be blamed on the ice maker.Jordan is best known as the author of the PsyCop series, an unfolding tale of paranormal mystery and suspense starring Victor Bayne, a gay medium who's plagued by ghostly visitations.

Book preview

Manikin

Channeling Morpheus 3

Jordan Castillo Price

Smashwords Edition 2.0

www.JCPbooks.com

JCP Books LLC • PO Box 153 • Barneveld, WI 53507

ISBN 978-1-935540-27-4

SMASHWORDS EDITION 2012

Cover art by Jordan Castillo Price

Manikin: Channeling Morpheus 3. Copyright © 2008 by Jordan Castillo Price. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Originally published electronically as Channeling Morpheus: Manikin by Changeling Press in 2008 and by JCP Books in 2009 in the paperback Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary

Chapter One

The straight razor slid along the tops of the toes on my right foot. "Shoosh, shoosh, darlink. If you tremble, I might nick you. We mustn’t ruin your skin."

I rolled my eyes down in my head, which I couldn’t move even a fragment of an inch, and told myself not to freak out. The vampire would keel over any minute. I’d slipped her three tablets of Rohypnol, and I knew from experience that three was more than enough.

Part of her, the edge of her hair, was visible in the dim streetlight that threaded through a window high in the bathroom wall. Her hair was flame red, in long, smooth curls like Shirley Temple. It was so dim in the bathroom that the red looked brown, or even black.

I swallowed. The metal apparatus that she’d clamped around my head and neck put so much pressure on my Adam’s apple, even that small motion was painful.

The razor slid up my calf. The steel was cold. The tub was cold, the water was cold, too—and I couldn’t stop shivering. Marushka? Can we take a break? I’m freezing. If she let me warm up for a second, I’d probably still be shaking from the realization that the Rohypnol was taking its sweet time in knocking her out. But I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I know. Her voice oozed sympathy, and she was probably even sincere. But this is better for your pores. Once the gooseflesh smoothes out, your body will be like silk. She wielded the razor around the curve of my knee with such delicacy that it was only the merest whisper of cold metal.

I ached to shove her away—she hadn’t strapped down my arms, even though the ancient leather restraints were in plain view, because I’d managed to convince her that I was just as crazy as she was. That I was into it. Whatever it was she was doing.

It wouldn’t have mattered if my hands were free or not. She was so much stronger than me that I’d never be able to fend her off, even if she didn’t have a length of freshly-honed steel in her tiny white hand.

I gritted my teeth, and I waited for the Rohypnol to do its job.

The razor skimmed my thigh. Now both my legs were completely hairless. Such lovely skin. Your hair—why do you dye it black? What color was it before?

Just brown.

Yes, brown. Brown is better. I will make you a fine wig, long, with curls. Brown. It will suit you. What color are your eyes?

I’d thought she could see in the near-dark. Maybe not in full color. I filed that thought away with everything else I knew about vampires which, at the moment, didn’t seem nearly enough. Grayish.

She snorted. I will give you a pair of emerald green eyes that you will adore.

I’d seen Marushka’s bell-jar collection of eyes—glass, dozens of them, staring every which way—when she’d led me through the old fabric store and the apartment above. They were tucked behind the dress forms and sheet-draped furniture, and the bolts of dusty fabric, the shelves of patterns and rickrack. I was fairly confident that I liked my own eyes much, much better. But I wasn’t about to contradict her—she had my balls in her hand. Her fingers were as cold as the razor.

Open your legs.

I wasn’t sure if I could, but in the spirit of going along with her vision of me, transformed and perfect, I did my best to oblige. I forced my knees against the walls of the cold porcelain tub, and I told myself she wasn’t interested in my ass. The other vampires I’d taken up with? Sure. But not Marushka. She was in her very own league.

The blade swept along the crease of my thigh and I had to force myself not to slam my legs shut. There were ankle restraints within reach of the tub, too.

Shoosh, Michael. My hand is steady.

No kidding. At the rate she was going, I’d be slippery smooth all over in about ten minutes. Will I get to keep my own clothes?

She stroked away the fine hairs behind my balls and flicked them into the

Reviews for Manikin (Channeling Morpheus 3)

[maybedog · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the almost-peril and the almost-emotion of it in this one. It was creepy and weird and perfect. I just love how Wild Bill reacts to what Michael does, although part of it didn't become completely clear until the next book.

This is not my favorite cover--the man needs to pluck his eyebrows--but I had no idea he was built, too. I need to see his whole body even if I have to sacrifice seeing his pretty head in just once.