King Norman covets Francesca Marinelli's ability to read
minds and her unique telepathic nature, so he turns her
into a vampire princess hoping he can control her. The
unthinkable happens and Francesca wakes up over 200 years
later in the modern world and to wonderful new things.
Francesca is now living and working in the 21st century and
loving every minute of it.
As St. Augustine's new paranormal tourist guide, Francesca
understands that being a vampire makes her part of the main
attraction, so when customers arrive on her first day,
she's ready for all their questions regarding her past and
her future. However, when a tourist dies during working
hours and her past life starts creeping into her present
life, she can't help but wonder how it's all connected.
LA VIDA VAMPIRE is funny, witty and absolutely intriguing.
I'm looking forward to reading more from this new author. A
great debut!
Cesca Marinelli is not your typical vampire. Buried for
more than 200 years in a smelly coffin under an old
Victorian house, she is unearthed in a time when vampires
are a protected species. Cesca dives into her second chance
at afterlife, and is soon living la vida vampire as a
surfer girl, a fiend for bridge, and a ghost tour guide in
St. Augustine, Florida.
Cesca is riding the wave of "perfectly normal"... until the
tide turns and brings a stalker, a shifter, and a killer
into the picture. Suddenly Cesca is a murder suspect, and
is forced to team up with sexy ex-slayer Deke Saber to
solve the case. Saber insists that Cesca stop passing for
mortal and embrace her vamp powers. If she doesn't, she
could be the next victim -- and this time, the wipe out
will be permanent.
Excerpt
I arrived at the same substation on St. George Street where
music pulsed from the Mill Top Tavern and Mick paced the
small plaza dressed in street clothes and a windbreaker.
"God, Cesca, don't you ever check your damn cell
phone?" was his cheery greeting when he spotted me. "Janie
and I have tried to reach you a dozen times."
"I've been on the dead run all day."
"Dead run? Har, har." He punched me on the
shoulder, the good one. "Seriously, answer you cell now and
then. We were worried about you."
"You were?"
"Hell, yes. For some reason we like you."
I grinned. "Thanks. Hey, you're not on rotation
tonight, are you?"
"No. I volunteered to give you this personally." He
passed me a rolled piece of paper and a pen. "It's the
medical waiver."
I unrolled the form, scanned it, signed it and
handed it back.
"I'll take this to the office in the morning," he
said, tucking the form and pen in his windbreaker. "You
talk to the cops yet?"
"For more than two hours this afternoon."
"Have they found Stony?"
I pulled my hood tighter as a gust of wind blew off
the bay. "They have a sketch but I don't know how hard
they're looking for him."
"Well, Janie and I put in the good word for you."
"Thanks." I smiled and looked around. "Is any one
signed up for the late tour?"
"Yeah, nine hearty souls. You're stopping at the
drugstore, right?"
He meant the building that housed the oldest
drugstore, circa 1737. The building was once a house of
revelry north of town, then moved and plopped atop an
Indian burial ground that was part of the Tolomato
Cemetery. The drugstore is one of the most haunted places
in an entire downtown of haunted places, and one of the
buildings I'd skipped on Tuesday's tour.
"Yep, that's on tap tonight."
"Mind if I tag along for a while? Ghosts flock to you,
and I want to find the one that bit my arm last week."
"Fine by me, but I've had two weird tours this week.
Sure you want to risk another?"
"I'll chance it. I brought my digital Kodak. And if
the ghost biter doesn't show, maybe Stony will."
"Oh, yeah, I'd love to hand his mug shot to the
cops."
"Great minds think ali- What the heck?"
I turned in time to be engulfed in a Shalimar
embrace.
"Francesca, you poor dear!" Shalimar Millie was
back and dressed in Jacksonville Jags sweats again-minus
the visor-as were two other ladies from Monday's tour.
Their purses were beach bag-sized and hitched on their
shoulders.
"Millie, you're all right," I said, smiling.
She pulled away, looking part confused, part
indignant. "Did you think I was ill?"
"Oh, uh, no," I stammered to cover my apparent
gaffe. In my admittedly limited experience, people of a
certain age either complained about infirmity or denied
it. "You just looked tired, or um, worried or something on
Tuesday night."
She flipped a hand. "I simply had some unfinished
family business on my mind."
"Well, I'm glad you're back."
"Oh, we plan to keep coming back." She nodded
firmly. "We've adopted you."
I stared for beat. "Excuse me?"
"We're sure that frightful man from the other night
killed the Frenchwoman and is trying to pin it on you." She
smiled broadly. "Until that troublemaker is caught, two or
three of us will take every tour you lead. And," she added,
patting her purse, "we'll be packing."
My mouth fell open. Packing? As in armed? I wanted
to laugh until I realized she was perfectly serious. Then I
felt my eyes widen and stuttered, "B-but ma'am you don't
need-"
"Not ma'am, just Millie. That's Grace Warner and
that's Kay Sims," she said, pointing to ladies who both had
short silver hair and identical determination-stamped
expressions.
"Millie, I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but-"
"No buts," she said, holding up her beringed
hand. "Some people adopt highways. We're adopting you. We
have disposable incomes, senior discounts, and we'd love to
help nail that nasty man. Not that the Frenchwoman wasn't a
pariah, but that wasn't your fault."
I had two seconds to digest Millie's announcement-
and puzzle over her pariah comment-when someone tapped me
on the shoulder. I nearly jumped out of my shoes as I spun
around to find a twenty-something man in jeans and Flagler
College sweatshirt standing almost on top of me. When did
he sneak up? Vampire Senses Stunned by Shalimar Lady. Film
at eleven.
"Ms. Marinelli? Paul Thoreaux. Has the sheriff's
department made any progress on the French Bride murder?"
"Hunh?" Quick when I'm startled, aren't I?
"Are you a suspect in the case?"
Yikes, a reporter? I glanced at the press ID
clipped to the sweatshirt and gathered my sadly scattered
wits.
"I don't think I can comment other than to say I
had no reason to harm the bride, and the groom has my
sincerest condolences."
"He says you didn't do it."
I blinked. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
tonight. "Who and what are you talking about?" I asked.
"The husband. Etienne Fournier. He says you didn't
kill his wife but thinks some guy who was following them
around did it."
"Stony, the Covenant guy?" I asked.
"The guy following them was an honest-to-God
Conenant?" Reporter Paul all but wagged his tail in
excitement. "Shit, they play rough, but I didn't think they
bothered regular people." He darted me a glance. "No
offense."
"None taken, but Mr. Fournier is right. I didn't
kill his wife."
"That remains to be seen," a deep, mellow voice
said from my right.
I turned. In slow motion. Hoping what I heard would
prove to be a trick of the wind.
It wasn't. Deke Saber sauntered toward our little
group in the same clothes he'd worn this afternoon minus
the sunglasses. The jacket was buttoned to hide his gun,
but I saw the slight bulge at his hip. Could this day get
any worse?
I didn't even try for tactful. "What are you doing
here?"
"Taking in the sights," he said mildly.
"You're taking my tour?"
"Who's this guy?" Reporter Paul asked, all
eagerness.
"I'm a new ... acquaintance of Ms. Marinelli's,"
Saber said.
"She doesn't look happy to see you," Millie shot
back.
"I'm hoping to grow on her." He flashed the kind of
smile meant to charm the support hose off the older ladies.
Shalimar Millie didn't fall for it, bless
her. "Humph. Handsome is as handsome does."
"Hell," Reporter Paul groused. "I thought you were
that Stony guy. The one stalking the French couple."
"Oh, no," Millie supplied. "That man had a long
scar on his face. If he tries to pull anything tonight,
we'll shoot him."
Paul blinked long eyelashes.
"That's right," I jumped in. "These ladies are
armed with their digital cameras tonight. So is Mick." I
pointed to my colleague's goofily grinning face. "He's also
a guide. Maybe you should talk to him."
The reporter brightened and headed toward Mick,
whose goofy grin morphed into a dirty look at me.
I spun toward Millie and her merry band and shooed
them back a few paces. "Ixnay on the gun-ay talk-ay,
ladies," I whispered hoping Saber couldn't hear.
"Why? I have a permit," Millie said.
"To carry concealed weapons?" I hissed in
frustration.
"We're seniors. The fuzz won't bust us," Silver Kay
said.
"Not unless we actually shoot someone," Grace added.
Millie shook her head at me. "My dear, you're
looking awfully frazzled. Did you get a chance to, uh, eat
tonight?"
"Maybe you should've had a double," Saber drawled.
I jerked around to find him closer than he
should've been. Super Hearing Fails Vampire Again.
Millie sniffed. "Maybe you're the problem, Mr.-"
"Are you the vampire?" a new voice on my left
demanded.
I glanced over my shoulder to see four women
dressed in more leather than an entire herd of cows. Black
leather bustiers, second-skin pants, ankle boots with three-
inch heels and long coats. Their acrylic nails-and exposed
midriffs-were stark white in contrast. So were the fake
fangs flashing behind bright red lips. None of them more
than twenty-five or six, they made the goth gang look
mature and well-dressed by comparison. Worse, faint bite
marks dotted their necks and exposed arms.
I was thinking, Yikes, but must've nodded.
The tallest of the foursome, long-legged and black-
haired, looked me up and down. "We're going on your tour."
"To check you out for the Daytona vampirth," a
blonde added, lisping the s. Pointing to the tallest girl
first, she introduced them as Claire, Barb and Tetha. "And
I'm Thithi."
I almost said, "I'm Thethca," but caught myself
when Barb and Tessa, both redheads, waggled their fingers
and flashed big fangy smiles at Saber.
"Hi, Deke."
"We've missed seeing you at the club," Tessa pouted.
Yeesh. Wasn't his just peachy. Gun toting seniors,
a reporter, Saber, and now blood bunnies. That's what they
had to be. Human women who wore fake fangs and got their
jollies hanging out with vampires. I'd read an article
about blood bunnies, but seeing them was another plane of
weird. If Stony did show, it'd be the highlight of the
evening.
Saber had mentioned Ike this afternoon. Now the
blood bunnies show up. Coincidence? I thought not.
I wanted to bang my head on the nearest coquina
wall.
I plastered on a smile instead. "Welcome to the Old
Coast Ghost Walk. We're a bit late getting started, so hand
me your tickets, and let's get right along, shall we?"
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