Excerpt from "Blood of the Beast" by Tamela Quijas

Detective Valentina Kureyev had been assigned to one of the worst cases of the century. A serial killer haunted the streets, depositing bloodless corpses throughout the section of town known as Little Europe. She hadn't a clue to the identity of the culprit, as the appearance of more bodies had begun to cause terror and panic.

The case was hopeless.

The terror was real.

As real as Demetri Petronov.

The Professor of Russian Antiquities had been targeted with the murderer's special form of a calling card. Val couldn't turn away from his offer of aide in the bizarre case, even though he whispered tales of the beast feeding on human blood.
He was the primary suspect.

EXCERPT: (PG)

Uttering soothing words of comfort, Val sank to her knees before the elderly woman. She carefully pried the gilt frame from her grandmother’s strong grip. There was a moment’s struggle before the woman relented and allowed her to take the frame. Val held a baited breath as she turned the precious remnant of the woman’s past over and stared at the sepia colored images of long ago.

Old Russia was evident in the photo, a land that didn’t exist any longer. A figure, that Val immediately recognized as her grandmother as a child, stood at the forefront of the faded photograph. Dressed in a short white frock and black calf high boots, typical of the era, Val judged her to be six or seven years of age. Immensely proud, the child was beaming at the photographer.

However, it was not her grandmother’s childish image that caught Val’s attention. There, the moment forever captured in time, was a startling figure. She lifted her puzzled gaze to the elderly woman, her normally inquisitive mind spinning.

“I was six.” Her grandmother managed in a low whisper, brusquely waving an imperious hand at her daughter-in-law, ordering her away. Val’s mother, forever respectful, slipped back into the far recesses of the kitchen. “The Imperial Court was on holiday. Their caravan went through our humble town. Great stallions, proud uniforms, it was a moment of great importance for anyone to see.” She smiled, her faded eyes as faraway as the memories. “My mother, she made me wear my best dress, in case the royal family would stop in the streets. “ She smiled wistfully. “The entire village turned out for the event that day, lining the main road. We all wanted to catch a glimpse of the royal family, not realizing it would be the last time we would ever be privileged to see such again.”

“The revolution?”

“A few months later, the revolution would occur.” Her grandmother conceded with a nod and a grimace. “The handsomest of the court was the youngest baron. Women would swoon when he entered a room, attired in his official uniform. I,” She pressed a forefinger to her chest to emphasize. “Little me, in my best dress, happened to draw his attention. He rode on his great charger to my side. He was so dashing, in his uniform, with his devilish smile. I fell in love with him, at that moment.”

Val smiled tightly. Her grandmother could recall a six year old girl’s fanciful crush upon a member of the royal court. After all of these years, it seemed as if the Baron had made an everlasting impression.

“The baron, he dismounted from his horse. He approached me, smiling, with those strangely colored eyes. He took the simple spray of flowers that I held and he thanked me.”

“The picture?”

“A man in the village wanted the picture for posterity. The baron waited, patiently permitting me a moment in time to remember for the rest of my life.”

Val exhaled a strangled breath as she peered back at the image. Her grandmother’s twisted finger trembled as she touched the glass, trailing over the photograph. She stopped on the image of the man that stood at her youthful side.

“Baron Demetri Ivanovich Sergei Daskova Petronov.” She whispered. “The year is nineteen sixteen.”

Petronov. Val remembered it as the name carved upon the dead man.

Val sat heavily down upon the carpet. She felt shock, awed as she stared into the face of the man. He was, beyond a doubt, the exact image of the individual that had been in their presence. The resemblance was startling.

“He is the great-grandson, Babushka?”

“No, child.” The old woman shook her head disdainfully, her gaze straying to the still filled cup of now cold tea.

“Babushka,” Val began heavily. The old woman turned back toward her with the unmistakable expression of dread written upon her face.

“The Baron Petronov supposedly died unmarried, three weeks before the revolution.” She continued heavily, reverting back to her mother tongue. “He had never taken a wife nor had he sired children.”

“This man,” Val began, a chill washing over her flesh as she looked up into the face of the woman that had regaled her with so many fanciful tales in her childhood.

“Upyr, Valentina.” Her grandmother whispered in deep and ominous tones. “The man, the man that was here,” She pressed her fingers to her heart. “This man is upyr.”

Vampire.