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    Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire
    Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire
    Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire

    By Laura Ellison

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    About this ebook

    Marcus, a 2000 year old blind vampire medium, lives with his young assistant Julia in a Chicago apartment. In 'Outside in Darkness,' Marcus, along with his spirit guide Despair, come to the aid of Julia, who has been kidnapped by a madman. 'Stolen Souls' takes Marcus and Julia to the home of a powerful vampiress, whose human daughter is dying, her survival in Marcus's hands. 'A Vein Design' takes Julia back to a previous life, after Drusus, a vampire dying from disease, regresses her while Marcus goes through his 'molt,' a process that keeps the vampire alive for centuries. Drusus can not molt, and thinks Julia, once an Egyptain pharaoh's sister, can help him find a solution to his torment.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLaura Ellison
    Release dateOct 17, 2011
    ISBN9781465891068
    Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire
    Author

    Laura Ellison

    Laura Ellison was born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1972, the youngest of four children. She is a graduate of Grand Valley State University, where she majored in English, her emphasis in creative writing. She is also the author of Karma House and Blood In Trust. You can contact Laura through her Facebook page.

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      Book preview

      Time Immortal - Laura Ellison

      Time Immortal: Tales of Marcus, the Blind Vampire

      Laura A. Ellison

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2011

      Smashwords Editions, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold 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.

      Books by Laura A. Ellison are available at Smashwords.com and other sellers.

      Outside in Darkness

      I can’t believe it, Julia thought. Not now, not during the day.

      She checked her watch. Three–thirty. Damn. The van just had to break down now. She would have to get out and walk. She would have to leave Marcus alone.

      Julia, soon after she pulled off the highway, heard Marcus emerge. The lid of the old casket opened and shut, hidden by a heavy black curtain separating the back from the front of the van, where Julia was sitting in the driver’s seat.

      Marcus, his voice soft, asked, What’s the matter? Why have we stopped?

      The van has stalled. I can’t get it started.

      Marcus did not reply.

      I’m going to have to get some help.

      Yes.

      Do you think you’ll be all right?

      He sighed. Probably. When I hear you coming, I’ll get back inside my casket. Just keep an eye on the coolers, all right?

      I’m sorry, Marcus.

      His hand, long and white, reached out briefly from behind the curtain. He squeezed her shoulder. Don’t be sorry. We’ll figure something out.

      *****

      Marcus did not want Julia to know how worried he really was.

      Marcus, being sightless, did not like to travel. His clear blue eyes, which a female admirer had once compared to an autumn sky, registered nothing, not even shadows.

      His long fingers brushed against the four large coolers Julia had packed into the van. Along with his casket, this left little room to move around and, for a blind person, a possible hazard.

      The coolers were used to store the packets of blood Marcus received from the fellow vampires he gave prophecy to every year. Marcus the Prophet provided the entertainment for the bored creatures that wanted to know if they would live one more decade or century. The only difference this year was the location change from the Sands in Las Vegas, which had been demolished, to the seemingly less decadent Heartland Casino in Michigan City, Indiana. This change provided Marcus with the convenience of being closer to his home in Chicago.

      The supply of blood Marcus collected from his annual psychic readings kept him from having to hunt for it. His blindness made pursuing humans as prey almost impossible, although his other senses were as sharp as any vampire.

      Marcus knew of others like him, who had suffered irreversible injuries. One had lost a limb, another an eye, but Marcus was the only blind vampire he knew. This gave him a kind of humility–it almost made him human, to have such a glaring vulnerability. His handicap elicited pity in some, and a grudging respect in others, because Marcus the Prophet had survived longer than most of them.

      Marcus calling himself psychic may have seemed redundant to his fellow creatures at first, because most of them possessed a kind of sixth sense; however, they could not predict, with such amazing and painful accuracy, the events Marcus could. Some recalled Marcus predicting the rise of Hitler and the beginning of World War II. Many of them took his advice, and left Europe before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

      The crowd at the casino did not doubt Marcus‘s psychic abilities, even if some of them remained unconvinced when he spoke of his spirit guide, whose current name was Despair. Marcus‘s guide had been with him from the moment he was born in the city of Viscontio, seventy years after the death of Christ, in northwestern France. Despair had saved Marcus’s life once, and was the one to tell him he would always be blind, after marauders, who had escaped from a Roman prison, attacked the small village where Marcus was living in eastern Italy, near Picenum. His house was robbed, his servants murdered, and he was dragged into the sunlight, which burned every bit of him, including his eyes. Despair took on a physical form, in the guise of a Roman soldier, and carried Marcus to shelter just before it was too late. The burns on his skin recovered, but his eyesight was never restored.

      *****

      Julia Royer, Marcus’s twenty-five year old assistant, knew why he had to make this ridiculous trip every year. He had prepared her, they had planned carefully, but in no way did they expect the van to stall in the middle of nowhere.

      Marcus needs a more dependable vehicle, Julia thought. Of course, I was the one who left my cell phone on the kitchen table.

      Julia had been walking down the highway for almost twenty minutes. She was starting to sweat in her leather jacket and jeans.

      Well, at least the September weather has been pleasant, she thought.

      Except for the occasional inconveniences, Julia knew she was lucky to be working for Marcus. When he hired her, she had been unemployed for almost a year. She knew better than to tell potential employers she had manic depression, and she still would not get the job. She had two years of college as a nursing student and certification in home health care, but it did not seem to matter. She was ready to give up when she met Mrs. Yuen, Marcus’s former assistant.

      Julia had seen a ’help wanted’ ad in a local newspaper for someone to help a sightless person with their housekeeping. Julia sent her resume to the post office box, and got a reply a few days later from Mrs. Yuen, asking for an interview.

      The interview ended up being three, held only by the petite, soft-spoken Mrs. Yuen, who had to be in her late sixties. On the third meeting, Mrs. Yuen finally asked Julia if she wanted to work for Mr. Marcus, who Julia did not meet until a week later, in his small apartment in Cicero.

      Julia, at first, had seen nothing odd about the blue-eyed man with the ash-blond hair. She noticed his large hands, which rested at his knees as he sat straight. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail, revealing the shape of his face, with its wide forehead, slightly hooked nose, and small mouth. His clear blue gaze stared straight into nothing.

      Mrs. Yuen left the room, and Marcus continued to sit at the couch.

      Julia took in the furnishings of the man’s apartment. The dark green couch and matching easy chairs, one of which Julia was sitting in across from Marcus, were comfortable. The carpeting was a dark gold color, thick and plushy. An impressive stereo system rested in one corner. Near her chair,

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