The Tease of Memory: The Vermilion Countess Series, #1

By Victoria L. Szulc

What happens when the one of the world's most deadly assassins has secrets of her own worth killing for? Stella has been around for a while. She knows the game and the price to pay to play. But when Stella has violent dreams and unexplained bouts of repressed memories, will she be able to continue her dangerous missions, resist a romance with her handler and will her checkered past catch up with her uncertain future?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria L. Szulc
• Release date: Oct 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781958760246

Victoria L. Szulc

Victoria L. Szulc is a multi-media artist and author from St. Louis, MO. She "lives" her art and has various hobbies including: drawing, writing, volunteering for animal charities, karate, yoga, karaoke, voice over work, belly dancing, and weather spotting. She specializes in pet portraiture through her company The Haute Hen. For character development she's currently learning chess, fencing, and whip cracking. Victoria blogs about these adventures at mysteampunkproject.wordpress.com. You can view book trailers and her other adventures starting here: https://youtu.be/y-Xja304rUs “Adventures abound and romance is to be had.” As always, thank you for reading, -Victoria

Book preview

to The Unrequited

To those bound by the endless wait.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to all my readers. The Countess has arrived.

The Tease of Memory

Memories, for one such as I, are complicated. My line of work is based on a web of lies. I dance along the kind of failed deceit that could trigger the famished spider at any moment.

Determining what was truly the past, what is forgettable, and what is buried, has kept me alive. Keeping secrets, even from those whom I trust for remittance, is my bread and butter.

Today’s assignment will be like many others I’ve had before. My instinct of human nature has made me a high-paid professional. I ease onto the street lined with silken strains of a rain that fell fifteen minutes ago and stroll towards my rendezvous point. My non-descript clothing helps me to blend into the grey buildings on the way.

I greet Mark like an old friend, returning his hug as we meet out in the open. We fake a few kind words and walk into a park to a specific area where, despite the best efforts of local community groups, they never can keep the streetlights on.

Must we always meet at night, Stella?

Yes. Darkness conceals a lot of things. Hell yeah, it does. "This must be