Tooth & Claw

By Aspasia S. Bissas

Mara, Dominic, and their fellow vampires arrive in Marseille, France in 1909, only to find another predator already on the loose. As the city tries to cope with a killer stalking the streets, Mara struggles to separate memory from delusion. Can she find peace when the past is haunting, the present overwhelming, and the future hopeless? Inspired by real events.

Tooth & Claw is a standalone story set in the Love Lies Bleeding universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aspasia S. Bissas
• Release date: Sep 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463793091

Aspasia S. Bissas

Inspired by pop culture, mythology, history, and magic--as well as a lifelong obsession with vampires--Aspasía is the author of the dark fantasy novels Love Lies Bleeding and Bleeding Heart, and the short stories "Blood Magic" and "Tooth & Claw," set in the same world. She lives in Toronto, Canada, and is currently working on her next project. You can follow her on her website: aspasiasbissas.com.

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Tooth & Claw

By Aspasía S. Bissas

Copyright 2019 by Aspasía S. Bissas

All rights reserved under international and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This book is a work of fiction, although partly inspired by real events. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual living persons is coincidental. Any resemblance to actual dead persons is used as inspiration only.

Bissas, Aspasía S.

Tooth & Claw/ Aspasía S. Bissas

ISBN 9780463793091 (EPUB)

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Who trusted God was love indeed

And love Creation’s final law

Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw,

With ravine, shriek’d against his creed

In Memoriam A.H.H.

Tennyson

Tooth & Claw

She was doing that thing again, where she stared at him but didn’t see him. Didn’t even know he was there. Off in her own world, and not a nice one, either.

What’s the matter this time, pet? He didn’t expect a response and didn’t get one. Frustrated, he paced away from her. What am I supposed to do with you?

Why don’t you leave her to it? Bastian asked. She’ll come back on her own.

It’s time we moved on from Marseille, Dominic snapped. And who knows how long she’ll be.

Bastian shrugged. It was only a few hours last time.

And the time before that it was near on a week. He paced in front of Mara. A week of her staring off into space, not talking, not moving. No use to anyone. And when she did come back to her senses she was never quite the same. He was tired of losing bits and pieces of her.

Mara. He gripped her shoulders and shook her, enough, he hoped, to get her attention. Wake up!

Nothing. Just more bloody staring. He drew his hand back, got ready to smack her. Bastian turned away, pretended not to watch. The other two snickered, then stopped when Dominic glared at them. They thought it was funny when he had to get rough with her. But he didn’t. Nothing funny about it at all. Stupid girl—why did she have to go and keep doing this?

He raised his hand a little higher, steadied himself, and started bringing it down, aiming for her right cheek. A hand shot up and grabbed his wrist, stopping him in mid swing. He looked into grey eyes that stared back with sharp awareness, then breathed a sigh of relief and let his hand drop. She was back.

And annoyed.

What do you want, Dominic?

Her response raised his hackles. He’d been worried about her and she acted as though he were a pest. Ungrateful brat. Next time he’d leave her trapped inside herself. Leave her defenseless. Let her go hungry. See how she liked that. He ignored