Author: Tara Fox Hall
Release Date: December 7, 2013
Weresnake Lash searches for revenge on the demon Hex, whose treachery years ago led to the death of Lash's best friend and former employer, the vampire Abraham Hamilton. With the help of old friends like Dieter, Devlin, and Shaker, and new friends Morwen, Outlaw, and Mather, Lash goes up against a horde of demons and other magical enemies in pursuit of vengeance on Hex. In the process, Lash learns new unsettling facts about Abraham, following the twisting trail fo clues to the small town of Malone to unearth a secret horror long buried and solve the mysterious riddle of Hex's hate for Abraham. But more than one nemesis is hot on Lash's trail, looking for ultimate payback of theri own...
Excerpt:
I’d taken the night before to go over what I knew. Abraham had come from out West before he’d been turned and settled in New Orleans as its Vampire Ruler. He’d reigned there for something like fifty years or so before our paths had crossed. To look into his past, I’d need the addresses that were on his letters to his wife, and hers to him. That wasn’t much to go on, but it was a start, especially as it was likely I’d need to go out there to see what I could dig up about his old enemies. While I believed that I knew the reasons Abraham had been killed and who was responsible, I was taking nothing at face value. Before I killed anyone in revenge, I wanted to make sure I had the right son of a bitch. While I favored a Hellspawn for the crime, if he’d had other helpers, I wanted to make them pay, too.
The demon that had given Valerian and Ramirez the key to invading Hill House had given me his name once, the day he’d interviewed with Abraham for a job and been rejected: Shaker. But after meeting the real Shaker years later, I’d known the other to be an imposter. Not that I believed the bullshit Titus, Shaker’s brother, had once tried to feed me about Shaker not being able to change his shape. That was a flat out lie, as I’d seen Shaker wear more than one glamour in the years I’d known him. No, it was simply that Shaker was far too protective of Titus to endanger his brother by pissing on the vampire elite—Abraham had been one of Devlin’s personal turns—not to mention flat out powerful. The demon that had let Abraham die had been low level: a scavenger, not a player. But that might have changed in the years I’d been at war. He might have become allied with someone powerful, or he might even be dead. But he held the key to the truth, and he was where I’d start.
I was waiting patiently in line, thinking about if I should withdraw 2K instead of 1K, when a shot rang out behind me. I whipped around, hand already reaching for my gun as I dropped to the floor. Then I cursed to see the human foursome with guns at the ready.
Fuck no. Please let it not be a…
“This is a robbery,” the lead man shouted, again firing into the air. “Put your hands up! Everyone get down on the floor!”
I was not putting my hands up. However, I also could not afford the attention killing these fucks would give me. As I hesitated, I was given the perfect excuse. The portly woman ahead of me in line fainted with a little cry of excitement. I caught her, then used her body as a cover to draw my gun.
This was none of my business. But if these fucks made it my business, they were going to regret it.
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