The Hunt

By C.L. King

After a long, hard struggle up from nothing, Edward Dillington is finally living the American Dream with his wife Kat. They have a beautiful home, lots of friends, and hard-won acceptance from their neighbors. For a pair of vampires from the turn of the twentieth century, it doesn't get much better than that.

But it can get worse, and it does when a new vampire neighbor named Chris moves in, his aggressive and wild antics frightening the neighborhood and threatening to undermine everything they've worked for. So when the Hunt is announced, a weekend-long chance for vampires to kill each other without punishment, Ed knows exactly what to do.

But is he the only one making plans?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.L. King
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311921574

C.L. King

C.L. King likes writing, brie cheese, insanely detailed costuming, has lived in America and Japan, and one day plans to make it to France.At the age of 10, C.L.'s teacher gave the class a writing prompt, a picture of a room with pretty butterfly wallpaper and one of the butterflies peeling itself out to fly away.Some students wrote stories about how a real butterfly had gotten trapped in the house, or how the butterfly was from the fairy butterfly land on the other side of the wall, but C.L. wrote a horror morality tale about a greedy scientist who discovered by accident that his attempt at an alchemy potion could actually make images into the real thing.The scientist started digging through magazines and pouring it over photos of money, jewelry, and anything else he could think of, until in his excitement he accidentally knocked a beaker of the stuff onto a National Geographic cover with a lion on it.He got eaten. C.L. got a good grade, possibly a note in her student file, and decided this writing thing was fun.It's been a strange road ever since.

Book preview

THE HUNT

C. L. King

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition © Copyright 2013 C.L. King

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expression written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

CONTENTS

1

2

3

4

5

6

About the Author

Other Short Stories by C.L. King

Excerpt from The House

1

Ed sat at Applebee’s with his friend John, clicking through his emails on his iPhone as John put away a large order of buffalo wings. John was a large, stout man snugly in his mid-forties, his hair beginning to thin in a way that showed he’d be bald in ten years.

Ed didn’t have to worry about his hair thinning, ever. Ed was a vampire. So, did you get your rain gutter fixed? he asked, deleting a few messages and tucking the phone away.

Just about. Damn illegal nearly tore it off the house when he fell. What, they ain’t got roofs in Mexico?

Ed shrugged. What was he doing up there, anyway?

I’m getting the house reroofed. John waved a wing at the air. Crystal said we should’ve hired these other guys but Christ, it’s an arm and a leg for them.

Yeah, no kidding. When I got my pool put in I had to pay the extra ‘vampire fee’.

John tore a chunk off of the wing and frowned as he chewed. "Huh?’

The… uh… usual workers won’t work for a vampire. They’re too afraid I’m going to steal their soul or some BS like that.

What, didn’t they have VampEd in school?

I don’t think they had school, most of them… Ed shrugged and leaned back in his seat. But the pool’s there now. You should bring Crystal and the kids again sometime.

John smiled. Yeah, that was a good time. How about this weekend?

The taller man got out his iPhone. Let me see… I know Kat wanted to have her book club over… He paused as the phone vibrated, downloading new messages. One new one sat atop the list, a little blue dot showing it hadn’t been read yet.

Ed didn’t need to read it. The title said it all:

The Hunt Begins 6/15/12.

He stared at it, rereading the simple string of words over and over again.

Ed, John prodded, wiping his hands off. Hey, Ed.

What day it is today? Thursday the….?

Uh, the… 14th. Yeah, the 14th. How come? You forget something?

The vampire shook his head, not looking up. No, but I’m going to be busy this weekend, I think. A strange smile grew on his face as he opened the email.

As per the ancient rules of the First-Bred, the time to cull has been declared. The rules are the same as they are for each fifty-year Hunt. Any vampire, beginning at 12am June 15th, 2012, GMT, may kill another vampire with no penalty from the Courts, for any reason, until midnight, June 17th, 2012. No humans or their property are to be harmed or damaged in any way or the offending vampire will be killed.

As this is our first Hunt living alongside humans, the Courts ask that care be taken not to alarm or disturb your human friends and neighbors. Mandatory vampire