Breeding Ugly: The Hunter Vampire Chronicles, #5

By Juliet Boyd

Sometimes, birth is not a joyous event.

People in the city are being gruesomely murdered, in a manner that suggests something non-human might be implicated. The Hunter Vampires decide to get involved, even though they’re one down.

Flynn is on her own mission. She desperately wants to find Lori, to make things right between them. Could it be that her search unexpectedly brings the breakthrough the others are looking for with the murders?

This fast-paced race against time once again sees the Hunter Vampires attempting to save the human race from something they never knew existed. Buy it today, and continue your journey into the world of the mostly hidden.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Juliet Boyd
• Release date: Jan 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386498131

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

BREEDING UGLY

The Hunter Vampire Chronicles

Part 5

JULIET BOYD

Copyright © 2018 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

Chapter 1

It was a feeling, that was all. An inkling that Lori might have returned to Midbury, to somewhere she might feel safe, to where her family still lived. That was what brought Flynn back to the town on one of the most damp and unpromising mornings you could imagine. The kind that weaved a thread of despair through your soul.

She’d spent enough time waiting to see if Lori returned to them on her own. Waiting bred feelings and thoughts she didn’t want to contemplate. The type of feelings that pushed you down. Action felt as if it ought to be productive and positive.

It wasn’t.

Lori hadn’t returned to her former home. Or she was there and hiding. There was no way of knowing.

When Flynn turned up on Jean’s doorstep, the welcome was strained. She wasn’t sure what kind of reception she’d been expecting. They’d all been through so much together, fought the same demons, come through it, albeit not unscathed. Even though they weren’t exactly on the same side, she’d expected something a little more positive.

What she got was, I suppose you want to come in?

If that’s okay.

Jean didn’t say yes, or no, but led her through to the lounge.

They sat on the sofa, her and Georg, with Jean opposite perched on a mismatched armchair, waiting. Jean didn’t bat an eyelid when Flynn told her Lori had returned. She didn’t shed a tear, either. It was as if she had no feelings left inside her to give. Maybe, she’d always been that way. There had always been a coldness to her, a throwback to her vampire hunting days. Her original hunting days, the ones that came before having her one and only child. Georg had a very different reaction. He grabbed Flynn by the arm, an earnest expression of barely-contained hope on his face.

She’s alive?

Flynn shook her head. I wouldn’t call it alive, no more than I would call myself that.

But she exists. You can talk to her?

Yes. She communicates … I can’t actually see her. She thought it was best to leave out the jumping inside your head part of the equation for the moment. It might have been a bit much to take in for a grieving father … and mother.

It was that moment when Jean threw her bombshell into the mix, her tone disdainful, almost mocking. Have you never heard of a hope demon? With that, she got up, went out the kitchen and boiled the kettle.

Flynn looked at Georg. He shrugged. She had never heard of a hope demon. It seemed contradictory. Hope demons almost sounded good.

They sat in silence until Jean returned. She placed a tray on the coffee table, laden with drinks and biscuits, and gestured for them to partake of what they wanted. Then, she proceeded to take in each of their faces, by staring at them intently.

They prey on those who’ve lost loved ones. They get inside someone’s head and take the person’s memories of their beloved and twist them into something that seems real. It’s surprising what your brain remembers that you couldn’t possibly put into words. Intonation, expressions, deep-down memories that you can’t retrieve anymore, but they can. Appearing in corporeal form is much more difficult to pull off, adds an extra layer of complexity, and most demons are inherently lazy. That’s why most of them only ‘appear’ to us as voices in the mind. They’re not malicious, as such, although they feed off the memories, literally, that’s what gives them their energy. In fact, sometimes they get so into their new role, they forget what they really are.

Flynn picked up one of the mugs and cradled it as a delaying tactic while she took the information in. It sounded so farfetched, and yet, with everything she already knew, it really wasn’t. But reconciling it with her own experience didn’t sit comfortably. She shook her head. I don’t believe that’s what’s happened. It is Lori. She has all her memories, even ones I don’t have. A fake wouldn’t know those things.

Jean smiled in that way people do to humour you. Not quite mocking. Pitying, perhaps. No, they’re using your memories and enhancing them, embellishing just enough that it sounds new, but plausible. They are masters of their craft. The method actors of the demon world. You have no idea what Lori’s real thoughts were. You only know the experiences you had with her and what she told you. How would you know the difference?

But the others. She’s jumped into them, too. She’s helped us. She cares. She wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t her.

"Well then, my dear, that just means the demon has more source material to work with. It has leeched all of your memories and is combining them into one person, who seems more whole, rounded, complete. Whatever word you want to use. That doesn’t make it her. And helping you, well, that’s to its own benefit. It helps keep the pretence alive. It bonds.