Full Moon Fever, Book 2: Pure Silver: Full Moon Fever, #2

By Doug Molitor

In Slavic lore, 'vlkodlak' means both werewolf and vampire. Two stages of the same creature. Kill the werewolf with anything but pure silver, and it rises as a vampire.

Drake Callahan learned of this legend too late to save his fiancée from undead author Peter Zaar. Now the only way Drake can restore Nikki to life is to destroy Zaar. But can he keep Nikki from turning killer first...or being caught by his cop friend Lisa, or Nikki's priest brother, Kevin?

FULL MOON FEVER is a supernatural romantic comedy from the author of Memoirs of a Time Traveler.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Third Street Press
• Release date: Oct 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386853664

Book preview

1

REVELATION

Father Kevin Finley had been hearing confessions all morning. If he himself had anything to confess right now, it was that he’d had it up to here with these pious people and their piddling moral misdemeanors. They had to be holding back. Not a good, juicy sin in the bunch.

The church had emptied out. He was about a minute from switching off the green light on the booth that showed he was available. Then what he prayed would be his last penitent of the day clumped into the other compartment.

The priest slid open the screen.

From the other side came a low, whispery voice, like Clint Eastwood had come in to do penance.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

How long has it been since your last confession?

Thirteen years.

What is the nature of your sins?

I took the Lord’s name a lot, and I blasphemed. I stole a book. Also a car.

Father Kevin was sure this wasn’t a member of his congregation, but these sins sounded oddly familiar.

Is there anything else?

I kissed a vampire. Who’s my dead fiancée.

Now he knew the voice.

The burly young priest stood up instantly, banging his head on the top of the booth. Drake?!

It had been thirteen years since Drake Callahan had seen his pal Kevin this furious, so he kept the baptismal font between them as he explained his reasons.

I know how insane this sounds. But you of all people, should believe me, Kevin. This is your field! Resurrection, demonic possession—it’s all in the Gospels.

Oho, very clever, Drake. But I believe in God, not the bogeyman!

You guys do exorcisms, don’t you?

Virtually never. Only when the church has indisputable proof that can’t be explained otherwise.

Well, I have proof.

Oh, really? said Father Kevin, folding his arms.

You know how a vampire doesn’t show up in a mirror, or a photograph?

Yeah, yeah, I watched the same stupid monster movies you did.

Drake showed Kevin a picture on his cell phone.

Kevin peered at it, then looked at Drake, bewildered. This is a photo of your couch.

Drake leaned toward him, dramatic. Nikki was sitting right on it when I took the picture.

Kevin nodded. I am going to punch you so hard. And since when do you call Nicole ‘Nikki’?

She said she prefers it.

My sister is dead, you bastard!

She is, yes. But she also spent last night with me. She’s not exactly the same girl you grew up with.

Get out of my church, right now! said Kevin, his face reddening.

Drake shoved his hand into his pocket. Okay, Doubting Thomas. I didn’t want to do this, but…here. Drake grabbed Kevin’s hand, turned it palm up, and slapped Nicole’s sapphire ring on it. You helped her get this sized, remember?

Kevin’s angry scowl stretched into astonishment. He put the golden band right up to his eye. He gasped, even more impressed than Drake expected.

What?

It has the scratch from when she dropped it.

What scratch? She didn’t tell me that.

She cried and made me promise not to tell you. Kevin’s voice quavered. This was on her finger when we sealed her casket. I saw her buried. I was at her grave just an hour ago. It hasn’t been touched. Drake…how in God’s name did you get this?

You mean, how did a solid ring pass through six feet of dirt over her coffin without disturbing a blade of grass? It’s physically impossible, Kev. Unless everything I just told you about Peter Zaar becoming a vampire, and turning Nicole into one, is true.

Kevin sat down, breathing hard, reeling from the import of that ring. Then he frowned: Now wait, wait. You said Zaar was a werewolf.

"A vlkodlak. Basically that’s a werewolf, but if you don’t kill it with silver, when it dies it comes back as a vampire. That was Zaar’s whole plan for me, and I walked right into it. He wanted me to shoot him, but not with silver bullets. By shooting him with lead, I actually made him immortal."

What do you mean, you didn’t shoot him with silver bullets? You told me…

Lisa says Zaar faked the whole set-up at his house. The melted cross, the bullet mold. It was all set dressing. Those bullets I used were just painted lead.

Okay. So you told Lisa that Zaar is now a vampire? And what did she say?

No, of course I didn’t tell her that! You know Lisa! She’s LAPD. She would never believe anything supernatural, ring or no ring. She already is wondering if I belong in a padded cell. With Lisa, the only thing I can be sure of is that she’ll follow the evidence. She already suspects Zaar was up to something funny. And now I know what it is.

And what was this rich, famous bestselling author up to that required the assistance of an unpublished novelist? asked Kevin, sarcastic.

Well for one thing, Zaar apparently managed to leave all his money to himself. Or a trust he set up.

That’s not illegal.

"No, but it tells me he was planning to be killed. The one thing that I know, Kev, is how Peter Zaar thinks. I’m convinced he picked me for this job. He needed me to think those bullets were silver, so I’d use them to kill him in his werewolf form."

Kevin rubbed his temples. He felt like his head was going to burst. All right, let’s say that’s what he wanted, and he got you to do it. And now he’s a vampire. So you’re trying to tell me everything in the old Dracula movies is true? About vampires turning into mist and bats and wolves?

Believe me, Kev, I’ve seen it. If you want, I can get Nikki to show you.

I do not want to see that.

The main thing is, the novel by Bram Stoker is more accurate than the movies. Before Stoker wrote it, he did a lot of research and consulted on folklore with a Hungarian professor named Arminius Vambery.

So all of that nonsense is real? About the mirrors? About sunlight turning them to dust?

That’s what Nikki says. I’m not about to test that part. They don’t hang out in graves for fun. Though that is the one part of the legend that Stoker kind of fudged, because he wanted his Count Dracula to be able to move around London in the daylight. And old Bram wasn’t the last writer to cheat with that part. Like all those sparkly YA vampires who can attend normal high school.

But the rest of it? Wooden stakes and silver bullets to kill them? Crucifixes and sacred objects to ward them off?

Definitely. Drake touched the gold crucifix around his neck. I’m afraid this cross gave your sister quite a burn.

Kevin snorted. I might have known there was some utterly practical reason for an atheist like you to be wearing that. God knows it couldn’t be an expression of your faith.

Drake ignored the crack, not willing to debate theology at the moment.

She also can’t bear to be around garlic or wolfbane. She can’t cross running water, like a river, or a bay except at high or low tide. She’s not sure about all the other powers that Stoker talks about, like hypnotism, or summoning storms or commanding multitudes of rats and such. Maybe she’ll grow into those.

I bet you can hardly wait, fumed Kevin.

You don’t know the half of it. She says Stoker was right about a vampire having the strength of twenty men; that’s how Zaar pushed his own coffin out of his grave with six feet of compacted soil on top of it.

What about Nikki? Is she that strong?

I don’t know yet, but I don’t recommend pissing her off.

Kevin ran his hands through his hair. This is too much. It’s utterly incredible!

It is. Yet, you and I both know it’s true.

Kevin got up and paced back and forth, his mind racing. Well, in that case, we need help. We have to tell someone!

Kevin…

Let me handle this. I’ll call…well, who can I call? The police?

Kev…

Or maybe the Centers for Disease Control? No, wait, the Vatican!

No. You can’t do any of that.

Of course I can. Why can’t I? demanded the priest.

’Cause I don’t give you permission.

Kevin stared at Drake. Wait, you don’t mean…

Yeah, I do. I do not give you permission to violate the confessional, Father Kevin.

Kevin’s jaw dropped as he realized the depth of Drake’s perfidy.

"You son of a bitch! What’s it…thirteen years since your last confession? You did this on purpose!"

Drake nodded. I don’t blame you for being pissed. Then he gripped Kevin’s arms, with a desperate anger. "But I am going to destroy Zaar. It’s in that vlkodlak book he brought back from Bulgaria. It says, It says, ‘The victim of the Vampire may avoid his Fate, if the original Vampire be destroyed before his victim kills another for blood.’"

Meaning what?

Meaning if I destroy the vampire who turned her, I can lift the curse off her.

So then she’ll be dead?

No! The book says if she hasn’t killed anyone, then she’s not truly crossed over. She won’t be dead, she’ll be cured!

Uh-huh. And why wasn’t that in any of the Dracula movies?

I don’t know! I only know this is my one last chance to save her. And only you can help me.

Kevin shook free of Drake and walked away. He knew if he didn’t, he was going to bust Drake in the jaw. Finally he stopped, staring at a stained-glass window of the Last Supper.

You know, you aren’t actually in the confessional now, began Kevin.

Because you dragged me out of it, snapped Drake. Before you even absolved me. We’re still on the holy record, as far as I’m concerned.

Kevin stood silently at the wall, keeping his back to Drake.

Kevin, I’m admitting all these years, you were right and I was wrong.

Kevin did not turn around. Is that supposed to mean, now you believe in God?

Drake weighed his words for a long moment. "No. To be honest, I still don’t see the logic…how God can be all the things you say He is. Omnipotent, omniscient, and all-loving. It doesn’t add up."

So you haven’t changed a bit.

Oh, I’ve changed in more ways than you can ever know. I definitely believe there’s some weird powers at work in this world that science hasn’t begun to explain.

Then what exactly is it that you want from me, Drake?

Drake filled a crystal cruet with the water in the baptismal font and handed it to Kevin.

Your blessing.

2

ANOTHER VICTIM

At midday, in the guesthouse Drake rented, he and Kevin stood by Detective Lisa Chen, as his brother Tom sat at a laptop doing a search.

"This