In the second instalment of this series, Lizzie and Tucker,
along with their faithful dog Rex, are on their way back to
LonePine, Wyoming, population.
Lizzie is now Vampire Queen
and 3 months pregnant. She is now very rich, since she
inherited from her father, but she and Tucker live simply in
a trailer. Lizzie still has not fed on humans; she drinks
Sanguine, blood bottled like a sports drink. The vampire
Coda stipulates that good vampires feed on evil people to
maintain the balance between good and evil in the universe,
while the Reptiles, vampire descendants of Eden's Serpent,
shun those laws and have been causing mayhem since the dawn
of time.
Upon their return to LonePine, Lenny' Tucker's
friend and inventor for the ages, inform them that his
niece, Rose, is missing so they're soon on their way to
Portland, Oregon, as the last anyone knew that's where Rose
is.
Meanwhile, Lizzie stays home with Dad keeping an eye
on her. What they find in Portland is very troubling indeed
and, when they return home, they have a furious, if
temporarily incapacitated, vampire on their trail. When they
return to LonePine, they have some unsettling information
to tell Lizzie, who is faced with rethinking her feeding
habits, over which Tucker and Lenny have a falling out.
Then, Rurik, a vampire and Russian dignitary, comes to
LonePine to see the new Queen, Lizzie, and there is a
troubling connection between the two. Rurik informs his
Queen that a Council of the Nine will take place and that's
where Lizzie will have to show that she can turn humans who
have the proper DNA into vampires, otherwise it will be the
end of the old world order and the evil Reptiles would take
over. Lizzie belongs to the Messianic line, that is either
she or her baby will be the savior of both vampires and
humans. And what happens at the Council of the Nine has
shocking consequences.
THE COWBOY AND THE VAMPIRE: BLOOD AND
WHISKEY is darker than the first book, but mightily
entertaining and frightfully funny in places; you might not
see
a porcupine quite the way you did before. There are
surprising twists and turns to the story, and not all
primary characters are safe from the authors' pen (keys?),
and a somewhat unexpected ending leaves the reader
wanting more, thus on to further adventures with our friends
from LonePine, Wyoming.
First published in 2010 and now in its second printing, The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey is the second book of The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection. It's been called everything from deliciously dark to slyly funny, helping define the Western Gothic genre. Welcome back to LonePine, Wyoming, population 438. It's like any other slowly dying town in the modern American West. Except it's suddenly lousy with vampires. Relationships are always hard, but for a broke cowboy and a newly turned vampire, true love may be murderous. Cultures clash as the vampire illuminati ride into town to settle ancient scores, test loyalties and thrash out a new world order. Grab the reins and hold on tight as Tucker and Lizzie stampede across rural America and through the vampire afterlife, desperate to protect their unlikely love from lust, betrayal and country music.
Excerpt
Tucker and Lizzie sat in a booth at the truck stop along the edge of the highway, staring silently out into the night, both looking in different directions. Lizzie was hungry, of course, but not for anything on the menu. Tucker was bewildered and heartsick. The place was practically deserted, no locals at all, just a few long-haul truckers sitting by themselves reading paperback westerns or, in one case, a smut magazine carefully folded into a day old copy of the Star Tribune. In the pale glow of the fluorescent lighting, Lizzie looked more dreamily beautiful than ever but the light made Tucker look washed out, old and vulnerable, and burdened by the weight around his heart. She glanced worriedly over her shoulder at the empty booth behind them and then around the restaurant, her gaze settling at last on the waitress leaning on the counter by the coffee pots. She was texting, holding her hands awkwardly to compensate for her extra long nail tips. “Red Arbuckle? Jesus, honey,” Tucker said. “I went to school with his younger cousin.” She drummed her fingers on the table top nervously. “Please don’t tell me about him. No details. All that really matters is he was a bad man. He was doing bad things to his wife and daughter.” “I believe that,” Tucker said, swirling his straw through the remnants of a chocolate malted, melted down to a watery paste. “That little girl always looked scared. Guess we know why. She’s probably even more scared now that she’s seen two strangers eating her dad.” Lizzie turned even paler. “There’s something about it though, something hard to describe. It’s like they didn’t even register that we were there, that we were, you know, doing anything.” Her eyes glittered with uncried tears. “They seemed kind of numb to the whole thing. Something made them quiet and resigned. Except for the man.” “Red. His name was Red.” She dabbed her eyes with a napkin. “I talked to Bart,” he said. “They think maybe Cindi did it out of self defense, but she doesn’t remember anything and he’s not so sure. Probably doesn’t matter because no jury will likely convict if he was molesting that little girl. Lizzie, I can’t believe you killed someone. And then ate them.” “I didn’t eat them,” she said indignantly. “I’m a vampire, not a cannibal, not a zombie. I drank his blood and took his life force. He was a bad man. He deserved to die.” “Really? Because that’s usually only something that God, or possibly the government, gets to decide.” “What are you saying, that either I’m a god or some kind of monster?” “I don’t know what to say. I’m totally unequipped to have a conversation about the morality of my pregnant girlfriend sucking the life out of one of my neighbors.” “I didn’t ask for this. And I don’t like the fact that,” she paused as the waitress appeared with a coffee pot. The young woman shrugged at the coffee pot in a silent question and Lizzie nodded for her to top off their cups. “I don’t want to be in charge of the Council, I don’t want to be a murderer and I certainly don’t want to be able to tell you that someone in this room gets off when animals are in pain,” Lizzie said. The waitress caught her breath and flinched, slopping coffee onto the table. She looked at them both, horrified, as Lizzie caught her arm in a vice-like grip. “Stop it. Stop what you are doing,” she said. “They deserve better. I mean it. No more.” The girl stifled a shriek and scurried back to the safety of the kitchen. “All I really want is to have our baby and grow old with you and fight about stupid stuff like why you floss so goddamned loudly,” Lizzie said. “But that’s not going to happen, is it? I can’t grow old, I can’t have a normal life, I can’t not kill people and the only possible solution I can think of is to just take my own life and be done with it. Is that what you want?” Her fury subsided and she focused on the French fries suffocating under a congealing mass of brown gravy, stabbing them angrily with a fork. The silence stretched on between them until Tucker took a deep breath. “I really floss too loud?” he asked. She choked out a sound that was half laughter, half anguish. “Yes, you do. It sounds likes you’re playing the fucking violin with your teeth. But I don’t care. I mean, I do care — it drives me bat shit — but those are the kinds of things I want to fight about. Not all of these huge, ridiculous, impossible things like how do I keep the Reptiles from killing off humans and who do I feed on to keep our baby alive without feeling like a sadistic freak. And I can’t bear it that you think I’m a monster.”
Thanks SO much for reading, and then thoughtfully reviewing, Blood and Whiskey. "Frightfully funny" is one of our new favorite descriptions. (We're absolutely addicted to alliteration!) (Vampire Cowboy 11:31pm July 2, 2014)
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy