Hidden Blood

The phone rang, and like a fool I answered. Mistake number one. Then I agreed to do a job for the Hidden Council. Definitely mistake number two. Now I've lost count of my bad choices, same as I have the bodies, as they're piling up faster than a troll after free chalk. As I get to grips with this new magic I've been gifted, the city remains under a spell of violence, and it's down to yours truly to deal with it. But I'm a noob at this job, ill-prepared and with my own personal demons to fight. My hunger is taking hold as the vampire nature encroaches, the need to feed impossible to resist, and my inherited magic is so volatile it's practically splitting me apart. Nevertheless, blood is being spilled and heads are getting cracked, so I must be doing something right. I'm Kate. First Vampire Enforcer. I think I might actually be good at this.

This was supposed to be simple. Make a nice dinner for the Chemist, a ghoul with a penchant for stand-up and utterly obsessed with all things alchemical, and fulfill my promise. But it hasn't gone according to plan, and now corpses are littering the streets-although they're getting eaten pretty rapidly too. I'm not exactly in anyone's good graces either, as it's partly my fault, and my whole life is being turned upside down and inside out. If that wasn't enough, my husband's still sick, and still a muppet, I think something has gone wonky inside me, and my past keeps coming back to haunt me. Still, it's all in a day's work. It's just a shame this vampire enforcer doesn't actually get paid for all the good she does.

It was time for a vacation from the magical mayhem. Camping, that's what we all agreed on. Nothing fancy, just a chance to relax. Nothing could go wrong, not when our party consisted of wizards, shifters, vampires, and necromancers. All there to protect my young child. But things have gone wrong, and before we'd even burned the sausages I found myself alone, and that was just the start of this nightmare. Trolls are jittery, dwarves are chatty, vampires have become insanely murderous, and me, I'm getting crazed. One thing's for certain, I'm never going camping again.