Metally Fatigued: The Hunter Vampire Chronicles, #1

By Juliet Boyd

When you’re the ones who inadvertently let all the monsters out, it’s only fair that you’re also the ones who have to recapture them.

Vampires are natural hunters, when it comes to their own food, but other supernatural creatures? Not their favourite task, especially when they’ve been trying to lead a normal life — human normal. If only.

They’re given no choice. They were the ones who made the mistake of freeing thousands of creatures from the Overlord’s jail, locked up because they were the worst of the worst and a danger to the planet.

That’s a lot of monsters.

This is going to take a long time.
If you enjoy your vampire tales laced with humour, sarcasm, and a fairly light smattering of blood, then this series of short stories is the one for you. Get Part One today.

This story is part of The Rag & Bones Vampire Series World, but can be read independently.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Juliet Boyd
• Release date: Oct 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386240464

Juliet Boyd

Juliet lives in Somerset in the south-west of England. She used to work in administration, but now writes full-time. Her main writing interests are fantasy, science fiction, weird fiction, horror and flash fiction. Details of her work are available on her website.

Book preview

METALLY FATIGUED

The Hunter Vampire Chronicles

Part 1

JULIET BOYD

Copyright © 2017 Juliet Boyd

All rights reserved.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and situations portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Any reference to an actual event, product or location is used in an entirely fictitious manner.

Discover my other work now at

www.julietboyd.com

For Sandy.

You liked vampires, right?

Chapter 1

The words rang loud in Flynn’s ears from more than a mile away.

Her eyes changed. Went black. She grew fangs. It was like something out of a nightmare. A horror movie. He was just lying there … dead. When she saw me, she ran. I’m not mad, am I? Tell me I’m not mad. I did see her. I did.

Flynn shuddered. She still wasn’t used to being something people would run away from, screaming like banshees. Not that she’d heard a banshee scream, yet. She was sure she had that to look forward to on some future hunt. It seemed as if every animal ever squeezed from the mind of a man, put down on paper, immortalised in film, was real.

For her own sanity, she shut off her mind. She didn’t need to hear any more. In a way, it was a good thing. As soon as the police officer heard those words, she was certain he wouldn’t be looking any further for a suspect. Poor man. He would probably be the one accused. That made her feel guilty, but not as much as it should have. Not that she was the real suspect. Why did they always think that? That the creature with the fangs was the one out to do damage?

Well, she was out to do damage, but not to them. She was trying to save them.

If she hadn’t failed, the perception might’ve been different. Trouble was, the wraith demon she’d been trying to subdue had, after literally sucking the life out of its victim, disappeared in a puff of smoke right before her eyes. That was no exaggeration. She’d had her hands clasped around its wrists. Vampire tight, as in so tight that no normal being would’ve been able to escape, or even move, and many supernaturals wouldn’t have been able to extricate themselves, either. She hadn’t counted shape-changing abilities on an epic scale. She should’ve known. Things were so different for her now. In mind. In body. She needed to readjust. If only her body would comply.

If she’d realised what was happening, she would’ve cast her own spell. A bubble spell, that trapped you like a Zorb ball, but not quite so much fun, and no door. Even smoke couldn’t get through one of those, if she set it right.

Her brain had changed too much with the transformation. Her thoughts, which used to be filled with spells and magical ways to go about things, was now overwhelmed by the desire to use strength, menace and a little bit of mind control, to solve every problem. It wasn’t working. So not working.

She stopped running and leaned back against a stone wall — a boundary to one of the millionaire properties in the area. Her breath came in heaves, even though they were no longer necessary. It was difficult to stop breathing. So difficult. And so blindingly obvious that you weren’t normal if you did.

She needed to think. To clear her mind. If she were this creature, what would she do? If she could