The Falstaff Vampire Werewolves

By Lynne Murray

Mrs. Battle’s Vampire Survival 101 class comes to a screaming halt when they encounter a werewolf in the midst of a field trip to San Francisco Airport. The moon is full and the hot-blooded werewolf begs to meet Sir John Falstaff. He is on a desperate rescue mission and the vampires old and new agree to help him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynne Murray
• Release date: May 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533778321

Lynne Murray

I live in San Francisco. When not writing or reading (and sometimes even while writing or reading), I spend a lot of time staring at the ocean and happily indulging a small group of formerly feral cats, all of whom were rescued and who daily return the favor.

Book preview

We met the werewolf at the San Francisco International Airport as I stalked along behind Mrs. Battle and her latest Vampire Survival 101 class. There is no Vampire 201. The rules are simple, set in stone, and those who disobey go from undead to true dead in a hurry.

When you disintegrate in open sunlight, your travel options are limited, but after dark the airport is a vast buffet of distracted humanity. When I became undead a few months earlier, I survived Mrs. Battle’s class. She lets me tag along when she takes the newbies to the airport.

The casual observer of our teacher would see an African American woman of middle years with a serious face and a medium dark complexion. Her stout form was clad in a dark-blue trench coat with a matching fedora anchoring her braids. She wore sensible tan shoes and carried a matching huge tan purse.

I followed the three new vampires who scurried along after Mrs. Battle through the airport terminal like a family of baby ducks. I was the most informal in my long wool sweater over a tee-shirt and jeans, running shoes, no hat. I’m short and wiry with curly dark hair shot with gray and green eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses. Vampire vision means I don’t need the glasses but they make me look even more harmless. I dragged along a wheeled suitcase-style cat carrier. Brutus, my vampire cat, is a great conversation starter. After a little kitty talk and hypnotic eye contact on my part, we adjourn to a more secluded corner of the airport. Then I open the carrier. Brutus needs to feed too.

Unlike fictional vampires, not even one of the newbies looked like a stripper or an underwear model.

Gordon Fong, a very thin, shy teenager, had been terminally ill when a vampire night nurse brought him over. As a new vampire, the cold wouldn’t bother him any more but he wore a heavy blue quilted fleece coat.

Jenny often gets attached to a young patient and brings him over. Mrs. Battle told me.

Does she ever come to class with her newly turned vampires? I asked.

No, Mrs. Battle said with a frown. Most who make vampires don’t. I’ve told Jenny she shouldn’t turn so many, most of them won’t make it as undead. But she can’t help herself. She’s like one of those cat hoarders, addicted to rescuing strays.

My eyes turned to Brutus, but I kept my mouth shut.