Title: The Recruit
Author: Addison Albright
Publisher: JMS Books, LLC
Release Date: June 16, 2018
Heat Level: 2 - Fade to Black Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: Novella / 69 pages in PDF / 22,181 words
Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Vampires, HEA, Gay, Bisexual, Contemporary, Bargain, Hope, Blood Mates
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Synopsis
Albert Manlii has walked this earth
for more than two thousand years, but survival on his own was never easy. Now
he leads a faction of highly organized vampires who carefully guard the secret
of their existence. Unlike the old days, potential recruits are carefully
selected and presented with an offer.
Phillip Brewer has weeks to live—if
he lets his disease run its course. He doesn’t want to die, but given a choice,
will his desire to live outweigh his concerns about the vampires’ ethics?
When the new recruit’s missteps are
cause for concern, can Albert control the fallout, or will Phillip’s life once
again be torn apart?
Excerpt
The man moved to the bench and
raised a brow in a welcoming fashion, silently inviting Phillip to join him.
Phillip shrugged. He’d planned to sit here anyway, so why not have a
conversation with a pleasant man while he did it?
“My name’s Albert.” He held out a
hand, and Phillip shook it. The hand felt cooler than Phillip expected for
someone walking on a warm day, but not exceptionally so. Perhaps he had a fever
himself, and that made the man’s hand seem cooler than normal.
“Phillip.” He didn’t elaborate.
There wasn’t anything he could think of to add. Small talk eluded him.
“I’m pleased to meet you, Phillip.”
Albert paused, as if gathering his thoughts.
“Likewise.” Phillip kept his reply
simple. Oddly enough, something about the gravity of Albert’s demeanor gave him
the impression the man had directed him to the bench with a purpose in mind
that had nothing to do with idle chit-chat, so he might as well let the man
control the conversation. Albert didn’t give off a crazed serial-killer vibe,
not that it would matter at this point as long as whatever he chose to do
didn’t add pain to Phillip’s death. Not likely he’d try anything like that in
broad daylight with people around, anyway.
Albert looked directly into his eyes
with a steady gaze. “Phillip, I want to show you something, and I ask that you
keep an open mind and hear me out before reacting.”
Phillip sat back. He hadn’t
developed any expectations for this conversation, but if he had, this direction
wasn’t anything he would have considered.
“I think we can help each other,”
Albert continued.
“I’m dying,” Phillip said. He would
have thought his appearance made that apparent, but perhaps not.
“Whatever you
have in mind, I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to make a deal with you.”
“Please, hear me out.” Albert held
out an arm. “This seems like an unusual request, I know, but I’d like you to
examine my arm. Go ahead and touch it. I want you to assure yourself that it
is, indeed, my real arm and not any kind of advanced prosthetic or makeup
designed to create a special effect.”
Phillips eyes widened. “Unusual
request” was putting it lightly. But what the hell, he might as well add an
interesting interlude to his final hours—or minutes, if this man turned out to
be a homicidal maniac.
He put both hands on the well-shaped
forearm. He felt for a pulse at the wrist and found one. The hairs appeared
natural and moved appropriately as Phillip ran his hand across them. Veins were
visible where expected. Phillip manipulated the man’s fingers and wrist. The
bones on the back of Albert’s hand, and tendons at the inside of his wrist,
moved correctly, becoming more or less prominent when the hand flexed. Then he
lightly pinched Albert’s skin in various places. It felt perfectly normal,
although still slightly cooler than usual.
When Phillip withdrew his hands,
Albert lowered his arm. “Are you satisfied that this is indeed my natural arm?”
“Yes.” Phillip eyed him warily.
“Remember, keep an open mind and
maintain your composure. Give me the opportunity to explain what you’re about
to see.”
Weirder and weirder. Phillip
narrowed his eyes but remained curiously drawn to hearing this man out.
“All
right.”
Albert took a quick glance around,
and Phillip followed his gaze. The people he’d noticed earlier were still in
sight, but nobody new had appeared.
Phillip held his breath when a small
razor blade appeared in Albert’s other hand. Albert slowly drew the blade
across the arm Phillip had just examined, cutting deeply enough for the tissue
to separate. There was no way it was a fake blade merely drawing atop his skin.
He was cutting deeply, but the blood that appeared was black, not red, and the
gash closed up within seconds as the razor dragged up the length of that
forearm.
“What the hell.” Phillip gasped and
fought to keep his respiration steady as he turned to stare at Albert’s face.
He’d been so riveted by what was happening to the man’s arm, he’d neglected to
check his expression. Had that hurt? Albert’s face was tight, so maybe,
although his mask of calm quickly returned.
“Do you trust your own eyes?” Albert
asked. The razor disappeared into a pocket, replaced by a cloth handkerchief,
which he used to wipe the remaining dark fluid—blood?—from his arm.
“I’ll admit I’m drugged up, but
nothing that would explain that.” He’d pointedly requested medication that
would not cause him to hallucinate or overly diminish his ability to reason.
There was no point dragging out his life if he couldn’t consciously enjoy it.
He’d seen plenty of street magic in
his day. Sleight of hand, etcetera, but this transcended all of that. There was
simply no logical explanation for what he’d just seen.
“You accept what you just witnessed
at face value?”
Phillip pursed his lips a moment
before replying. “Okay. Yes. Obviously, there’s something superhuman about
you.” Or he wasn’t human at all. An alien maybe?
“That’s one way to put it,” Albert
said. “I was once fully human, but now…no, not quite human anymore.”
Phillip sat still as he digested
that comment. Albert had “once” been human. He’d also approached
Phillip—seemingly sought him out—and he’d said, “I think we can help each
other.” Was there more than one logical deduction to make here?
“Please.” Phillip swallowed as a
shiver of hope drifted over his skin. “I need you to spell out what you
meant—earlier. Before your demonstration.”
Albert smiled. It was the smile of a
man who sensed he had his fish on the hook. “About helping each other?”
Phillip nodded.
“You don’t need to die yet. I’ve
been walking this earth for more than two thousand years.” Albert spoke calmly
as Phillip froze in place, clenching his hands at his belly.
Two thousand years? And he wanted to
make a deal with Phillip?
Did Phillip want to? What was in it
for him? Everlasting life, apparently. But would it be an existence he wanted?
“Who are you? You’re immortal. But how?”
“Immortal in the sense that I, and
others like me, won’t appear to become older beyond our age at the time of
transition. Nor will we die of natural causes. We can be killed, though. You’ve
witnessed my self-healing abilities, but anything that would instantly kill a
human will kill me…us, too.”
“So, if I agreed, this cancer would
disappear just like that?” Phillip snapped his fingers.
“Like all of our ‘supernatural’
capabilities, self-healing improves over time. As a new convert, you won’t
immediately feel better. It’ll take about a day for you to feel one hundred
percent.”
That was hardly a deterrent, but
Albert was obviously holding back. What facilitated this “transition”? “You
still haven’t answered the question. Who are your people?”
Albert hesitated for a moment before
replying. “The word you’re searching for is ‘vampire.’”
Phillip burst out laughing. He
didn’t know what the hell he’d been thinking Albert’s answer would be, but the
existence of some kind of magical immortality potion was difficult enough to
believe without throwing in something that absurd.
Albert’s revelation probably should
have made Phillip run in the opposite direction—if he’d believed it, or made
him angry—because really, what kind of person fucked with a dying man like
that? But at least his final hours were diverting. “You had me going there for
a while.”
Tilting his head to the side, Albert
raised a single eyebrow as he continued to gaze at Phillip. “Not the usual
reaction. Intriguing, though. You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Please,” Phillip scoffed and
gestured toward the bright sun overhead.
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Meet the Author
Addison Albright is a writer living in the middle of the USA. Her stories are gay romance in contemporary, fantasy, and paranormal genres. She generally adds a subtle touch of humor, a smidgen of drama/angst, and a healthy dose of slice-of-life to her stories. Her education includes a BS in Education with a major in mathematics and a minor in chemistry. Addison loves spending time with her family, reading, popcorn, boating, french fries, “open window weather,” cats, math, and anything chocolate. She loves to read pretty much anything and everything, anytime and anywhere.
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