Excerpt of It's A Vampire Christmas by Lia Davis

Rhianna entered the small antique store and shivered. Damn, it was cold. The sun’s only job this time of year was to provide light. It surely didn’t warm things up. The icy wind cut through her knee-length wool coat as she made the three-block walk from her New York apartment building. With Christmas being three days away, the dry streets were littered with last minute shoppers, rushing from store to store and fighting over sales. Normally, she’d keep her ass at home and stay there until after New Year’s, but she couldn’t resist searching through the shop’s latest treasures.

The antique store was bigger than it appeared. Year of buying and collecting old things made the owners expand to the second floor. What used to be an old studio apartment, now held furniture and other household trinkets. They even had appliances dating as far back as the early eighteen hundreds. The ground floor was where the less valuable, but still pretty cool items from the nineteen hundreds were displayed.

She passed an old fifties model jukebox on her way to the counter. She made a mental note to check it out next time, when she wasn’t on her own little treasure hunt.

When she spoke to the owner a few days ago, he’d said they were going to an estate sale and would be bidding on some very old books and jewelry. Her interest had spiked at the news and she was eager to see what they brought back. So here she was, risking being trampled by holiday shoppers and freezing to death along the way.

And why? The spark of hope she had finally found her grandfather’s talisman—a powerful one-of-a-kind amulet— was too great for her to ignore.

“Excuse me.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” Lost in thought, she didn’t realize she was standing in the doorway like an idiot. “I’m Rhianna. I spoke with the owner the other day about a new shipment that was coming in today.”

The girl smiled. “Yes, Mark said you’d be coming in and not to put anything out until you got here.” She hopped off her stool. “Follow me, please.”

Rhianna followed her behind a curtain. Her heartbeat increased the closer she got to the three large boxes in front of her. A slight tingle of magic drifted from the middle one. It’s got to be the amulet.

The bell on the front door dinged and the girl motioned to the boxes. “Go ahead and have a look. I’ll be right back.”

Rhianna nodded but didn’t remove her gaze from the box. Once the clerk left, Rhianna stepped forward and peered inside and frowned. The container was full of books. Well, Damn. Yet, the magic she’d felt when first entering the back room was stronger. With a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure the girl had left, she turned back to the box. Holding her hand over it, she whispered, “Come to me.”

The books shook within the container. A leather bound volume levitated up to her hand. She grabbed it and walked to a metal folding chair and sat. After closer inspection she discovered it wasn’t just any book, but an old hand written journal. By the yellowed, fragile parchment pages and the thinned, worn leather binding, she guessed it dated back to the early 16th century.

The cover had some kind of crest on the front, but it was too worn to clearly make out. She carefully opened the cover and gasped. On the first page, in faded handwriting, was a name she recognized from her father’s history lessons.

Annamarie Morgan —one of the first vampires created by Lilith over five thousand years ago.