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    Gem No More
    Gem No More
    Gem No More
    Ebook87 pages59 minutes

    Gem No More

    By Craig Jones

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In this series finale of Craig Jones's vampire short story saga, as Gem battles her sire for possession of the pendant, she accidentally shoots Katrina through the chest. To complicate matters, New York City is under siege. British drug lords are taking over Bradley's empire. When he seeks Gem's help and protection, he inadvertently puts her family in grave danger. With her professional and personal lives on a collision course, she doesn't get mad. She gets even. And in the process, she loses something she may never get back...her immortal beauty.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTWB Press
    Release dateAug 30, 2012
    ISBN9781936991488
    Gem No More
    Author

    Craig Jones

    Originally from South Wales, I have held a wide range of jobs from tennis player to gym manager to health service worker. I turned 40 in October, am married to Claire, and we have an insane ginger cat called Wookie. I went to school with Catherine Zeta-Jones, have played tennis with Jamie Redknapp, and coached Great Britain’s first ever World Number One tennis player. I have always loved horror stories, having grown up with Jason Voorhees and his slasher friends, and I love writing them even more. The thought of taking normal people and putting them in terrifying situations gives me a fantastic buzz. I hope to convey that buzz to my readers in every story I write.

    Read more from Craig Jones

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      Book preview

      Gem No More - Craig Jones

      Gem No More

      By

      Craig Jones

      Copyright by Craig Jones 2012

      Published by TWB Press at Smashwords

      All rights reserved. No part of this story (eBook) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or book reviews.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Edited by Terry Wright

      Cover art by Terry Wright

      ISBN: 978-1-936991-48-8

      Table of Contents

      No Choices

      No Fear

      No Secrets

      No Loose Ends

      No More

      About the Author

      Catalogue

      By

      Craig Jones

      No Choices

      I pushed back the fear swelling in my stomach. The walls of Victor Kyle’s hotel room closed in around me; the air pulsed with a tension I could taste, acidic and bitter. Vampire pheromones swirled musky rank in my nostrils. My fangs itched to break free of my gums. Raw, sinewy nerves stretched to the breaking point as his steady hand reached for the Mjölnir that I held out to him, dangling from the thin chain wrapped around my index finger. I stared into his dark eyes, but my concentration was on the gun just beneath my unzipped leather jacket. Silver bullets to end his undead life...before he ended mine.

      This scene could have been a standoff in an old Western movie, less the tumbleweeds and blowing dust, and accompanied by a Sergio Leone soundtrack. The good guy, that’s me, the bad guy, my sire, facing off in a battle to the death.

      Over the pendant and a girl.

      Katrina.

      Victor held her captive now, a pawn in his plot to take possession of the Mjölnir, the Hammer of Thor pendant that had given Nótt the power of the un-light and allowed the Goddess of Darkness to walk in the sunshine. Just the sight of the pendant made Victor’s jaw drop and his mouth drool. I expected to see tears of joy spill down his impeccably chiselled cheeks.

      Normally I have that impact on men!

      But of course, Victor Kyle was no ordinary man. He was my former lover in my former life. The Mjölnir had revealed our history to me, and worse, that he was also the vampire who had made me what I am today.

      Now I am Gem. Hit woman for the mob. Sexy and deadly in one hot package. Okay, so I turned out to be a little more than he could handle.

      He had made me a denizen of the night and left me to fend for myself. Now he was back, and he wanted something only I could give him, this pendant, the artefact that would make him a Daywalker and the most powerful vampire in the world.

      Nothing good could come of that.

      His fingers neared the swaying pendant and trembled a tiny bit. He was probably leery from the last time he’d touched it, when it was around my neck and gave his hand a nasty burn. He’d learned the legend was true the hard way. He couldn’t have the pendant unless I gave it to him willingly.

      But I couldn’t let him take it without a fight. I had too much to lose. The pendant meant more to me than power. Despite its brutal delivery of headaches and visions of my past, it was the only thing that could give me a normal life with my family: Maria. Angel. Katrina.

      Katrina.

      She had set out to kill Victor, to save me from another myth, that if I killed my sire, I’d revert to my human form. That wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t over eighty years old.

      But she messed up and tipped the balance of power in Victor’s favour. I may have been holding the Mjölnir, but he was holding Katrina.

      His greedy fingers began to close around the pendant.

      I yanked it back from his expectant grasp. Not until I see Katrina.

      His pallid face reddened with rage. "Don’t press your

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