I've posted chapters of my books before, but I'm hoping to keep this a regular thing until the entire first Raina Kirkland Novel, FATAL RETRIBUTION is available to read here.
“Yeah, fang bait,” Nick smirked.
If you haven't read Chapter 1, PRESS HERE
FATAL
RETRIBUTION
A RAINA KIRKLAND NOVEL
Book 1
By Diana Graves
Copyright © 2011 Diana Graves
All rights reserved.
Book cover & format by Diana Graves, www.dianagraves.org
Kindle Edition
♦
License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer
This book is a work of pure fiction. Characters, places and incidents are creations of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to people, living or dead, businesses, events or places is purely coincidental.
Acknowledges
To my family and friends, thank you.
♦
OTHER WORKS
Fatal Retribution
Mortal Sentry
Grave Omen
Deadly Encounters
Toxic Warrior
The Artist: The Serial Series Book 1
The Librarian: The Serial Series Book 2
The Zombie Book: Zombie Book 1
Adult Coloring Book: Dark Whimsy
2
FATAL
RETRIBUTION
A RAINA KIRKLAND NOVEL
Book 1
By Diana Graves
Copyright © 2011 Diana Graves
All rights reserved.
Book cover & format by Diana Graves, www.dianagraves.org
Kindle Edition
♦
License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer
This book is a work of pure fiction. Characters, places and incidents are creations of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to people, living or dead, businesses, events or places is purely coincidental.
Acknowledges
To my family and friends, thank you.
♦
OTHER WORKS
Fatal Retribution
Mortal Sentry
Grave Omen
Deadly Encounters
Toxic Warrior
The Artist: The Serial Series Book 1
The Librarian: The Serial Series Book 2
The Zombie Book: Zombie Book 1
Adult Coloring Book: Dark Whimsy
NICK’S HEARSE SAT in the driveway, and he sat on the steps in front of the door scratching at his black nail polish. My little blue pinto looked sad parked beside Mom’s red smart car and his antique hearse, which looked like it just had a shiny new black paint job.
“Nice car,” I said. He sneered, and I shut the door behind me. I plopped down next to him and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “I’m sorry about Mom.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it, Ray,” he said. He smiled his usual shit-eating grin. After Mom kicked him out of the house at just sixteen years old, and Dad refused to take him in, he was homeless. He lived on the streets for a while before he found a way to use his natural skills to make money, selling harmless curses and magical pranks online. He went from a homeless teen to a well off entrepreneur in a matter of a few years. I was proud of him, and I felt sorry for him. Our mother hated him, our dad ignored him, and our coven labeled him a warlock. And yet there he sat, smiling down at me.
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“What do you think about Tristan’s new job?” Nicholas laughed. I guess a change of subject was called for.
“You think it’s funny?” I asked.
Nicholas looked at me with raised eyebrows. “He’s a vampire pimp.”
“No, he’s not. He schedules vampire entertainment for events.”
“The only event anyone would want a vampire for is an orgy.”
I gave him an ugly face. The only vampire I knew well was our uncle, who was turned as a teen after being violently mugged by a gang of vampires. “Gross, I’ll be sure to let Uncle Seth know how you feel about him,” I said. Nick gave me a hearty laugh.
“No, no, Seth might be a vampire, but he wouldn’t know a good time if she was sitting on his face,” he said. I had to shake my head at that. Nick was such a pervert sometimes.
“You don’t really think vampires are only good for sex?” I asked. He shook his head, and I exhaled in relief. “Good, I didn’t want to have to kick your butt.” Nick looked me up and down as if measuring my worth and finding me lacking. “Hey!” I said with a smile and an elbow to his gut.
Kids ran out of the way as Tristan pulled up in his white civic, and parked right beside Nicholas’s hearse. Did everyone have to outshine my car?
“We’re taking the hearse,” Nick said. “It’s the only car that will fit all of us and our camping gear.”
Nicholas and I got to our feet and walked over to his hearse. He unlocked the doors with a button on his keychain, and I threw my bags in next to his. Tristan went straight up to the house and opened the door without knocking. He looked so much like Mom, it was almost scary. They had the same long dark hair, tall frame, dark eyes and narrow face.
Michael came out of the back seat of Tristan’s car. He had sandy brown hair, big brown eyes, and a round face. He wore his college sweater and faded jeans with a sharp pleat down each leg. Who the hell irons jeans?
I took off the slan talisman Mom made me as I made my way to Tristan’s car, and put on the one I made. If we did get into anything bad this weekend, he would need better protection than my magic could give him.
“Hey Mike,” I said. He looked down at me with our father’s big brown eyes. “I made this for you. It’s for protection.” He smiled, and he put it on right away. “It’s called a slan. That’s Gaelic for safe.”
“Whoa, thanks, real magic! How does it work? Does it—” he began to ask, but he was interrupted.
Katie had been eavesdropping. “He’s not practicing your evil magic, witch!” she said as she stepped out of the car.
Her dirty blond hair was combed tightly back into a short ponytail, making her eyes very pronounced. Her makeup looked heavy on her face; thick black eyeliner, fake eyelashes, shimmering blue eyeshadow and pale pink lips. She wore pink on pink, shorts and dress shirt.
“Magic is natural to her,” Michael pointed out, and I didn’t correct him. Magic came naturally to Tristan and Nick. Me, I had to work at it. “How can that be evil?”
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!” she said, her face twisted in anger that no one here disserved. My mouth fell open in shock.
“You would kill your own sister?” Nicholas asked through gritted teeth, his arms crossed over his chest. She didn’t answer him. She just turned on her heels in stubborn silence and took her seat in the back of the hearse. The boys and I stared after her for a moment; shocked, dumbfounded.
Mom walked Tristan out of the front door. And, as though that were our cue, we all started moving again. He gave her a one-armed squeeze and she slipped him a red frosted cookie. Mom beamed at him with pride as he made his way to his car, and Nicholas slid into his hearse without a word. A painful knot twisted in my stomach. Everyone seemed to be in a funk these days.
We finished transferring bags from Tristan’s car to the hearse and climbed in. Tristan sat in the front seat with Nicholas and Michael. Katie and I were in the back. The interior of Nick’s hearse was made of faded crushed black velvet and highly polished wood. Like Nick, it smelt like cinnamon. Yum.
“How was orientation?” I asked Tristan when we merged onto the freeway.
Tristan turned to face me. “Catch,” he said as he tossed me a bundle of fabric. It was a black t-shirt that said, VAMPS, in big blue caps. “They gave me a tour of the building. It was nothing exciting; mostly just offices and cubicles. There was a lot of handshaking and boring bull shit. But, I did get a box of swag to hand out.” He pointed to the shirt in my hands, “Those shirts are really popular on the club scene these days. I see hot chicks wearing them all the time.”
“Yeah, fang bait,” Nick smirked.
“Thanks,” I said with a joking smile.
“I want to have a completely vamped out birthday party this year!” Michael said. “Tristan said he can get me a family discount.” He was doing a dorky little dance in his seat. Michael was one of those rare people who never seemed to grow up. He was in his twenties and he still got excited over morning cartoons.
“So,” Tristan began again, evidently not done talking about his first day on the job, “after the tour, I was taught how to categorize the vampires. My job is to schedule the right vampire for the right party. You don’t want a serious gothic vampire going to a light-hearted birthday party, or an innocently comical vamp going to a bachelorette party. So, I had to go through these long detailed reports on each newly contracted vampire and put them into an online catalog using the criteria my supervisor gave me. It wasn’t as interesting as I had imagined, just a bunch of paperwork.”
“Cool,” I said, already zoning out for a long quiet car ride up the mountain. Everyone seemed to have the same idea. Nick drove crazily down the freeway, and then back roads. Michael slept on Tristan’s shoulder while Tristan gazed out of the window. Katie and I ignored one another, each with our faces practically glued to our respective tinted windows. The view that started as tall buildings and concrete quickly gave way to long strips of small businesses and city parks, which then became dense forest and steep cliffs as we climbed the mountainside. Eventually, we slowed to a stop in the midst of a small grassy clearing with the remnants of a well-used fire pit.
“So, this is the greatest place to camp,” Tristan said, and he didn’t sound impressed.
“Where are we?” I asked Nicholas.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said with a playful smile.
“You brought us to this place and you don’t think we should know where we are? My cell phone doesn’t even work here,” Katie said. She clutched her small pink phone in her delicate hands like it was her most precious possession.
I took my own phone out of my pocket. “No bars,” I confirmed.
“Calm down, Katie,” Nicholas said, laughing. “Learn to trust people, especially family.” Katie sighed in frustration. “We have two hours till dark. We need to set up the tents and get a fire going before then.”
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