The Lockwood Chronicles Episode 2: Reunions

When most people attend their high school reunions, they worry that they’ll look old, or fat, but very few worry that their former classmates will discover that they’re a vampire. For Madeline Lockwood, however, this is foremost in her mind when she and Alexander travel to America, to her hometown in Illinois, to attend her 20 year high school reunion.

There, at first things progress as expected-old school friends and foes, a few ‘frenemies’ and a big surprise from one that she’d thought she’d known so well. But things take a turn for the decidedly worse when Alexander and her mother are drugged and Alexander is kidnapped by vampire hunters.

Now, Madeline must rely on powers that she’s only just learning to use in her search for Alexander and his captors. New enemies and old conspire to keep them apart. Can she find him before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

Need. Powerful, overwhelming need. It clawed at her insides and deluged her senses as the bloodlust took control of her. Her fangs burst into her mouth so suddenly that her bottom lip was pierced. She suckled blood from her own flesh, but it did nothing to abate the drive for fresh sustenance. She knew nothing but the desire to hunt. All rational and intelligent thought was driven from her brain as she staggered to her feet. On pure instinct alone, she transformed into a glistening black raven. A few beats of her powerful wings and she soared into the sky, towards the heart of the city.

Red. Everything she saw was red. In human form again, Madeline forced her legs to walk. She wasn’t sure who she was, where she was, or what she was searching for, but she looked… She saw a young woman, shivering on the street corner, grasping a threadbare jacket closed at her breast. Her garish makeup was streaked down her wet face and Madeline realized it was drizzling. She turned her face up to the rain for a moment, but she craved a different kind of comfort. She looked back at the pitiful prostitute again. The girl’s blood called to her. The girl saw her coming and frowned. “No women,” she spat.

Madeline stopped. Something was wrong with the blood. It was diseased. The girl was dying, and her blood would be bitter. Still, the overwhelming need almost drove Madeline onto her anyway. She could see herself tearing into the girl’s throat, lapping up the precious sustenance, when a young man approached. When he spoke, she heard him distantly, as if through a fog. He grasped her wrist. “If you’re looking for a job, baby, I’ll give you one. In a heartbeat.”

Heartbeat. His strong heartbeat echoed in her head. She grasped his arms and propelled him between the buildings, out of sight, and he laughed eagerly. Then saw her face, the fire in her eyes, the glistening fangs bared at him, and he froze in fear. She pressed him against the wall and attacked, her fangs sliding into the skin at his throat smoothly. She drank deeply but the need still clawed at her. A growl rumbled low in her throat as her fevered brain struggled to understand why she drank and drank and there was no relief.
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Reunions is the 2nd episode in The Lockwood Chronicles series. It contains adult situations and some violence and is recommended for readers over 18 years of age.