What Blood is For: Hell Hare House Short Reads, #14

By Nyx Kain

Her mother once lay at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck. Her father now stands behind a pulpit.

 

Abigail has spent years trying to find a place between the two, but now, a letter from her grandmother has destroyed all her beliefs about where she is meant to fit in the world. The man she knows as her father, it says, is not. The step missed in the dark, the unhappy accident that took her mother from her, was not. Her real father was a man who died before she was born, and her mother was killed to keep the secret of the jealous rivalry and supernatural power that caused his death.

 

That power still resides in the forest nearby, and will still lend itself to those who cannot settle their grievances alone. Now, Abigail must decide if she will be one of those—if she will find her peace on human terms or offer up her conscience to the creature that killed her true father and claim revenge, not only for him, but for her silenced mother and the life she might have had with them both.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hell Hare House
• Release date: Aug 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223100591

Book preview

What Blood is For

Nyx Kain

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Black Hare Press

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Also from Black Hare Press

BLACK HARE PRESS SHORT READS

WARDENCLYFFE by GREGG CUNNINGHAM

HADES 11 by PAUL WARMERDAM

BLOOD AND SILK by ZOEY XOLTON

AS ABOVE, SO BENEATH by JOSHUA D. TAYLOR

THE RISE OF THE GREAT OLD ONE by JASMINE JARVIS

CHRYSALIS by KIMBERLY REI

MOUNT TERROR by E.L. GILES

THE RECKONING by STEPHANIE SCISSOM

THE SPIRIT OF RODEO by BETH W. PATTERSON

CARPE DETRITUS by TIM MENDEES

THE BOOKWORM by L.T. EMERY & ANDREAS HORT

THE SALAMANDRION by MIKE ADAMSON

THIS HIDEOUS JOY by JONATHAN INBODY

THE CORONER by J. MOTOKI

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FINGERPRINT FORENSICS SHORT READS

DEAD MAN WALKING by DAVID GREEN

MR HANGMAN by SCOTT MCGREGOR

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HELL HARE HOUSE SHORT READS

SEEING by PATRICK WINTERS

RAINMAKER by BILL HUGHES

TESATO’S CODE by KAREN BAYLY

THE PUB AT CROKERS CROSSING by KRIS ASHTON

THE DEVIL AND THE LOCH ARD GORGE by LEANBH PEARSON

SANCTUARY by MICHAEL J. STIEHL

JUST DESSERTS by NJ GALLEGOS

SOMETHING IN MY EYE by TERRI HAMILL

CLOWN DIARY – APPENDIX 7 by JOE OPPENHEIMER

THE YELLOWS by TOM GAMMARINO

A GREAT AND SHIFTING SEA by JOHN LEAHY

WHAT BLOOD IS FOR by NYX KAIN

THREE TOKENS FOR MAMMON by JOHN WARD

Contents

1.One

2.Two

3.Three

4.Four

5.Five

6.Six

7.Nyx Kain

8.Black Hare Press

Coming Soon from Black Hare Press

Acknowledgements

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One

He snugged the blanket up under her chin. His fingers held the linen line of it there a moment longer, taut as her arms tucked to her sides and her legs together at the ankles.

The light from the open door broke across his back and caught rapt shards in his eyes. Who was he looking at?

The question beat in the held space of Abigail’s breath. It seemed to wait for her every night now, right where the impression of her body in the mattress placed her heart. But she pinned it in place with her weight, and he was the one to speak.

Is something wrong, child?

She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. Tried to let out that beating breath without letting him hear how long it had been aching in her lungs.

Nothing, she said with just the last of it. I was thinking of Mother.

The light told her so little about how he was