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    Now or Forever: Vampire Assassin League, #14
    Now or Forever: Vampire Assassin League, #14
    Now or Forever: Vampire Assassin League, #14
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    Now or Forever: Vampire Assassin League, #14

    By Jackie Ivie

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    About this ebook

    Humans
    Vampires
    and Hunters

    THE SMARTASS
    Leonard Griggins knows vampires. Knows them well. As VAL's Covert Op Specialist, he's used to their idiosyncrasies. Anything they need a human for, Len is their man. And anything to do with a vampire, he's not touching. The last thing he wants or needs is a vampire mate, regardless of how his entire body craves her.

    HAREM TRAINED
    Tassanee is a vampire with a certain skill set. Indoctrinated within the harem in the arts of how to sexually stimulate a man, but clueless to what that really involves, she's not looking for a mate at all...especially if he's a man with such a large chip on his shoulder.

    FIREWORKS
    Len's got his hands full. And worst of all he knows it. But there's not a woman around that will put up with him. Tassanee fires his blood. Stirs his senses. Making him think that even if she kills him later, it might be worth every moment...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJackie Ivie
    Release dateJul 30, 2013
    ISBN9781939820167
    Now or Forever: Vampire Assassin League, #14

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      Book preview

      Now or Forever - Jackie Ivie

      CHAPTER ONE

      "What f-stop you using again, Griggins?"

      "It won’t matter what f-stop, what shutter speed, or even what lens, if we don’t get set up before zero dark thirty.  Get a move on.  We’re being paid for shots of Ta Prohm Temple.  At dusk.  They specifically want atmospheric and eerie.  Looks like we got both.  And by-the-way, it’s Len."

      Right.  Len.

      It’s short for Leonard.

      Oh.  Well, you better call me Stan, then.

      I thought your name was Roger.

      It is.  Roger Stanislaw.

      Cute.  And not expected.  If you don’t mind my asking, who came up with that?

      You spend a lifetime in an eastern bloc army...you answer to what they call you.

      Stan works.  Len smacked at his thigh.  Bastard mosquitoes.  Worse than any vampire can possibly be. 

      I brought spray.  100% DEET.  Here. 

      Stan tossed a can.  Len tossed it right back.  Keep it.

      Why?

      Smell.  It’s like a beacon.  Besides, I think the bugs out here got weaned on the stuff.  I’m seeing... eight o’clock.  Second tier.  I suppose you brought your tripod set-up?

      "Eight o’clock.  Got it.  And I already told you, I never go anywhere without the tripod.  Fits my new SLX with the f/4.0 lens.  That way shutter speed isn’t an issue."

      Shutter speed is not going to be a problem, Stan.  We’re filming an ancient, overgrown temple, not a sports event.

      Well.  You never know.  Action and movement might just happen.  And I’ll be ready for it.  The man took a deep breath and coughed.  Shit.  You were right about the DEET.  Down and dirty.

      Exactly.  And...look.  There’s another great shot at two.  Eagle. 

      Len watched Stan drop his duffle bag containing not only his tripod, but two long range rifles, assorted handguns, and ammo.  Stan unzipped a section, got out a lens, and started scoping, supposedly for the best shot of the Ta Prohm Temple, one of the most unique temples in the Angkor Wat complex.  And then a light rain began to fall, just to make things interesting. 

      Angkor Wat.  Cambodia.  Fantastic place.  According to the pamphlets, it was built in the twelfth century.  Looked it.  Supposedly the entire place was a map in stone of the mythological Hindu cosmos.  It was meant as a heaven on earth, featuring corridors that ran for a half mile, every bit of them carved with deities from the Ramayana stories.  Someone also said that interpreting the carvings and praying to the gods created an elixir of immortality. 

      Hmm.  All that work and everybody still died.  Len shrugged.  The builders of Angkor Wat had it wrong.  They should have worked for the Vampire Assassin League.  Immortality wasn’t an issue.  It was in his future...when he was ready.  And he got to visit unbelievably cool places.  Like this one.

      Len had done a bit of brushing up on the place during the flight and hotel stay.  It helped temper the droning voice of the audio course on Khmer language basics.  He probably should’ve paid more attention.  Then again, maybe he’d be lucky and everybody he’d run into would speak English.  Of course, he could always talk to Stan, over there.  But talking to Stan was exactly what it amounted to.  Talk.  And it was Len doing the talking.  Stan was a closed book.  No history.  No interests.  No life.  This little camera jargon was the closest the guy came to small talk.  That was the first he’d heard of the guy’s stint in an army. 

      Maybe he was as good as Akron said.

      The pictures and video feed of Angkor Wat didn’t do it justice, either.  The entire acreage exuded a mysterious quality, not just the Ta Prohm Temple, although it was the most picturesque.  It was almost sacrilege to have the place overrun by Hunters.  One was even perched atop the platform at the east gate.  The one used by King Suryavarman II and his heirs.  That platform was built so a rider could mount his elephant right from the stone.  That was a wasted vigil but it told Len what he needed to know.  The vampire’s lair wasn’t there.  And they hadn’t found it yet. 

      He and Stan were on assignment, all right.  But it wasn’t to shoot photos.  This came from the big guy, himself:  Akron.  It involved protecting one ancient vampire with a badass complex, from a shitload of Hunters.  That’s what happened when said vampire drained the blood from a supposedly well-known German archeologist intent on this place...along with three of his team members.  And since they were at a world heritage protected site, a 4D Team was the last option. 

      Len hadn’t been given much information on this vampire, but he’d turned the page, unread, anyway.  He’d get back to it after he learned the language – which was never.  He’d rather meet a new vampire cold.  Make up his own mind.  Besides, a vampire was a vampire.  Most of them arrogant as shit, bull-headed as hell, and completely immune to Len’s charm, or even his cute phrasing.

      So.  Akron had called.  He wanted this done with real humans.  And here, Len was beginning to think Akron had shelved him, what with an extended vacation at Bora Bora, followed by weeks of tedium that Len called a life.  It felt good to get back into the ring.  He was also overseeing the new recruit, Stanislaw over there.  Len watched the guy spin his lens, focusing on the roof containing one high perched Hunter.  Stan was dressed in nondescript khaki slacks, an almost-matching shade of shirt and jacket, and a baseball cap.  It was getting plastered to him with the rain.  Len was a match, although his attire was black, and he’d foregone a hat.  He was having the same issue with the heat and humidity.  Everything stuck.  Defined.  He hadn’t wasted any of his off time on his butt.  He’d been at the gym every day.  He’d had to move up a t-shirt size because of it.  Not Stan.  Len hoped Stan had more to him than it looked.  The guy was thin.  Wiry.  Hungry-looking.  Then again, Len hadn’t much knowledge of eastern bloc army life.

      Back to the job at hand.  The Hunters.  They were absolute bastards.  Zero compassion.  And zero integrity.  Len had learned that from his recent stint in Texas.  He wasn’t interested in a replay of being in their hands.  Wait a minute... 

      Len sucked in on a cheek as if pondering light.  There was another Hunter on the ground level, just inside the aperture their vampire probably used.  He’d moved.  Sneaky bastard.  That made four of them at Ta Prohm.  Another six in complexes he and Stan had walked through.  Probably more in the ones they hadn’t visited.  Some days it was a pure pleasure to eliminate them, especially as poorly as they staked a place out.

      Look at the first one Len had spotted.  On their left

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