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.