The Lockwood Chronicles Episode 2: Reunions

By Katrina LaFond

When most people attend their high school reunions, they worry that they’ll look old, or fat, but very few worry that their former classmates will discover that they’re a vampire. For Madeline Lockwood, however, this is foremost in her mind when she and Alexander travel to America, to her hometown in Illinois, to attend her 20 year high school reunion.

There, at first things progress as expected-old school friends and foes, a few ‘frenemies’ and a big surprise from one that she’d thought she’d known so well. But things take a turn for the decidedly worse when Alexander and her mother are drugged and Alexander is kidnapped by vampire hunters.

Now, Madeline must rely on powers that she’s only just learning to use in her search for Alexander and his captors. New enemies and old conspire to keep them apart. Can she find him before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

Need. Powerful, overwhelming need. It clawed at her insides and deluged her senses as the bloodlust took control of her. Her fangs burst into her mouth so suddenly that her bottom lip was pierced. She suckled blood from her own flesh, but it did nothing to abate the drive for fresh sustenance. She knew nothing but the desire to hunt. All rational and intelligent thought was driven from her brain as she staggered to her feet. On pure instinct alone, she transformed into a glistening black raven. A few beats of her powerful wings and she soared into the sky, towards the heart of the city.

Red. Everything she saw was red. In human form again, Madeline forced her legs to walk. She wasn’t sure who she was, where she was, or what she was searching for, but she looked... She saw a young woman, shivering on the street corner, grasping a threadbare jacket closed at her breast. Her garish makeup was streaked down her wet face and Madeline realized it was drizzling. She turned her face up to the rain for a moment, but she craved a different kind of comfort. She looked back at the pitiful prostitute again. The girl’s blood called to her. The girl saw her coming and frowned. “No women,” she spat.

Madeline stopped. Something was wrong with the blood. It was diseased. The girl was dying, and her blood would be bitter. Still, the overwhelming need almost drove Madeline onto her anyway. She could see herself tearing into the girl’s throat, lapping up the precious sustenance, when a young man approached. When he spoke, she heard him distantly, as if through a fog. He grasped her wrist. “If you’re looking for a job, baby, I’ll give you one. In a heartbeat.”

Heartbeat. His strong heartbeat echoed in her head. She grasped his arms and propelled him between the buildings, out of sight, and he laughed eagerly. Then saw her face, the fire in her eyes, the glistening fangs bared at him, and he froze in fear. She pressed him against the wall and attacked, her fangs sliding into the skin at his throat smoothly. She drank deeply but the need still clawed at her. A growl rumbled low in her throat as her fevered brain struggled to understand why she drank and drank and there was no relief.
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Reunions is the 2nd episode in The Lockwood Chronicles series. It contains adult situations and some violence and is recommended for readers over 18 years of age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katrina LaFond
• Release date: Jul 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301619672

Katrina LaFond

Writing is the ultimate escape from reality. You can read or watch a movie, but you're not truly immersed in another world like you are when you're creating one. When I'm not writing, I'm wishing I was and when I'm writing I'm living another life. There's some of me in every female character who lets me write her story--some more than others, but I'll never tell which ones. In my other lives I'm a sexy vampire, a powerful witch, an independent werewolf or a seductive human. I can be anyone and anything I want, and who wouldn't want to do that? My genre of preference is fantasy romance. I became infatuated with vampires in high school when I read a book about a girl, who'd recently been turned, who allowed herself to die in the first rays of dawn rather than feed on the boy with whom she'd fallen in love. I remember that part vividly because I thought it was the most beautiful depiction of unconditional and unrequited love that I'd ever read. I promptly devoured every book with vampires in it that I could get my hands on (in my age range, of course). At the time I wasn’t interested in romance novels, and eventually I ran out of teen vampire stories, so I tried my hand at writing one. Over the years, my characters and stories have matured with me. At first, the only characters I met were vampires, but eventually, other characters came to me, and I discovered I had a thing for tall, dark and handsome aliens as well. I spend so much time with my characters that they become real to me, and all my friends and family have gotten used to me talking about them that way. Thankfully, if they think I’m crazy, they keep it to themselves. I’ve also been very lucky in love. For 26 years, I’ve been with the same wonderful man who is very tolerant of the fact that I fall in love with the leading men in my books.

Book preview

The Lockwood Chronicles

Episode 2: Reunions

by Katrina LaFond

copyright 2013 Katrina LaFond

Smashwords Edition

Edited by: Laurie Williams

Cover by Abstractionz

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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Beginning of Book

More Lockwood Chronicles

Other books by this Author

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A short time ago, somewhere in England—Stacey opened her eyes and stared around the darkened bedroom, wondering what had woken her. She shivered and realized she was alone in the bed. Was Andrew still watching that movie? She glanced at the clock. No, it should have been over hours ago. She threw back the blankets and climbed out of bed, reaching for her robe as she passed the dressing table. She found Andrew in the living room sleeping on the couch, his arm thrown over his head, snoring softly, and she smiled.

Andrew, she whispered, and went to the side of the couch, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. Andrew wake up.

He stopped snoring and opened one eye, gazing at her blearily. I’m not sleeping, he slurred. I’m watching a movie.

Stacy chuckled. Come on, babe, she said, taking him by the wrist and pulling. That movie was over hours ago. Come to bed.

He groaned irritably and tried to roll over, but Stacey refused to relinquish his wrist. Come on, she encouraged. Come to bed.

He sat up and shook his dark red hair out of his face. Fine, he said, still sounding gruff, but then he glanced up at her and she saw the twinkle of mischief in his dark eyes. Sounds good to me, he said, and used her grip on his wrist to pull her into his lap. She shrieked and laughed when he buried his face in her neck, kissing her.

I meant to sleep! she protested, giggling.

He laughed, his breath feathering over her skin. I’m awake now, he told her. I say we don’t waste a perfectly good night.

She pushed him away and struggled out of his grasp, getting to her feet. We have to get up in the morning and go to work, she reminded him, backing away.

Yes we do, he agreed and stood up, advancing on her. As you said, we really should go to bed.

She smiled, loving the sparkle in his slate blue eyes, and retreated again. We really should.

He grabbed for her and she squealed, dodging, and ran for the bedroom, Andrew right on her heels. He caught her and they fell onto the bed together, laughing and kissing. Stacey pretended to fight him for all of a second before melting into his arms. He rolled them, pinning her beneath him, and she gave herself up to it, reveling in the feel of his hard body against hers.

I think I may start blushing any moment now, a harsh voice growled.

Andrew and Stacey jerked apart and Stacey could see the dark shape of a man in the doorway to the bedroom. Andrew moved quicker than she’d ever seen, jumping up from the bed and putting himself between her and the intruder. She saw him glance at the baseball bat that he kept beside the bed, but it was too far away for either of them to reach.

What are you doing in our house? he demanded.

The man standing in their bedroom door was silent as he appraised the situation, and Stacey shivered when his gaze raked her body, a gleam of lust in his eyes. She moved, trying to hide behind Andrew's solid form, but wasn’t any happier when the stranger’s dark eyes settled on her fiancé.

I was looking for the Kaupps, he said. Am I wrong to assume that you are a relative of Heinrich?

Andrew? Stacey breathed. What’s going on?

She laid a gentle hand on Andrew's shoulder and felt the muscles clench beneath her palm. He was shaking but she knew it wasn’t fear from the way his fists clenched and his jaw flexed.

I’m his nephew, Andrew answered. But I never went into the family business, so you can just go.

The intruder laughed, grating on Stacey's nerves. Why would I do that? he wondered. I like it here.

Please, Andrew said softly. I am no threat to you.

Stacey didn’t argue when Andrew stretched his arm back, pushing her away from him. He was no weakling, and he sparred frequently at his gym. The intruder was thin and pale, no match for him.

That means nothing to me, the stranger said. I’m hungry, and I’m here.

Stacey leapt away when Andrew threw himself on the intruder. The two men fell to the bedroom floor, grappling.

Run! she heard Andrew shout.

She hesitated for only a heartbeat, unwilling to leave Andrew, but then she did as she was told, sprinting for the living room. She raced straight for the phone on the end table and snatched it from its cradle. No dial tone. Frantically, she pressed all the buttons. Nothing. Throwing the receiver on the floor she glanced around for where she’d set her purse. The breakfast nook! The sounds of the fight in the bedroom were intensifying as she dashed into the kitchen and grabbed her purse from the table, rooting through it until she found her cell phone. It was off so she turned it on, waiting impatiently while it started up. It was just about ready for her to dial the police when there was sudden silence from the other room.

Stacey inched toward the kitchen door, peering toward the bedroom, hoping with every fiber of her being to see Andrew looking for her. Instead, it was the intruder, and her heart leapt into her throat when she saw him standing there holding Andrew's limp body by the throat in one fist.

Where are you my dear? he called. There’s no use in hiding! I can smell you.

Stacey retreated into the kitchen, dialing as quickly as she could.

I told you there was no use in hiding, he whispered, his mouth so close to her