MIDNIGHT REIGN by Chris Marie Green Vampire Babylon Paranormal Romance

TRC's 3rd Annual Halloween Event
October 12th - November 1st

Stuntwoman Dawn Madison reluctantly returned to Hollywood to find her missing father, Frank. Instead, she found something else beneath the streets of Los Angeles—a thriving society of the undead, one she could never have imagined existed. It’s an erotic and bloody night world that Dawn came to believe cost both her father and her long-dead mother—the glamorous movie star, Eva Claremont—their lives. Still, she and Frank’s friends risked everything, pressing on with the investigation.

Now a new slaying, bearing all the marks of a vampire attack, is luring Dawn farther into the underground and deeper into the twisted lives of those who inhabit it, just as her tenuous alliances in the sunlit world begin shifting ominously. It seems she has only herself to trust and her newfound skills as a hunter to rely on.

But Dawn will find that she is not alone—although some who stand with her, stand only in the shadows…

“With a dark, dramatic, and erotic tone, Green writes a complex story featuring well-defined characters and more than enough noir mystery to keep readers enthralled. Fans of Charlaine Harris and Jim Butcher may enjoy.”—Library Journal

“An exciting, high tension horror thriller with enough unresolved trust and family issues to make it credible, a hint of romance for spice and a bit of black humor to lighten up the often dark tone, this is a nicely conceived modern vampire tale that will keep readers guessing.” - MonstersandCritics.com

“MIDNIGHT REIGN is a multilayered, complex novel that will have your brain flexing the gray matter to keep up and your adrenaline pumping.” --Maria Shaink, Romancejunkies.com

“Midnight Reign has raised the bar on how an urban fantasy novel should be written. I can’t recommend this novel or this series enough, it is a must read! -- Hayley, www.fallenangelsreviews.com”

“This story grabbed me and wouldn’t let go until I finished it. Now I have to find out how it all ends. Don’t miss this one.” --Chere Gruver, PNR

When Jessica Reese came home from her job at a Hollywood bar that night, someone was waiting in the bedroom closet.

Someone hiding amidst hanging party dresses and dry cleaning wrappers that ghosted back and forth with every slight, controlled breath. Someone who sat patiently with a container of bleach and a long knife that would be used to slash the victim’s throat and quiet her before that Someone could tear the woman’s neck apart in leisurely delight.

The sheer plastic hangings leeched air out of the tiny closet, making the wait a humid, trembling vigil.

From the kitchen, a set of keys jangled onto a countertop, a pair of high-heeled shoes hammered into the wooden floor.

Someone fought to breathe, running a tongue over the sharp points of fangs. Blood pumped like gun blasts, the resulting hunger pulsing like open wounds. Just keep remembering why you’re here. Remember how The Lee Tomlinson made himself a star through shock value, ripping out that other woman’s throat? You can do it, too.

Every night, entertainment channels and newscasts spotlighted stock footage of The Lee Tomlinson, “The Vampire Killer,” the accused murderer wearing a ten-yard stare, handcuffs, and a harmless smile as he was led into the courtroom for arraignment. While breathlessly speculating about the upcoming trial, the press relished the charges: Lee had torn a woman’s throat out with his bare teeth, then become a fugitive who hadn’t even made it out of the county, thanks to a brief stop at a seedy motel. There, after getting his head together with the aid of some marijuana, he was found: a stoned and peaceful martyr who hadn’t even questioned the “anonymous tip” regarding his whereabouts. He hadn’t even fought the cops when they’d hauled him out of the room. They said he’d gone willingly, with that same smile on his lips, that same perpetual look of lost innocence in his gaze.

He already had a growing entourage of adoring women wearing the same clothing, make up, and cotton-candy hairstyle that his victim—what’s her name—had sported in the one headshot they always showed on the news. The fans camped outside of the bar where their idol used to work, holding signs proclaiming his hotness, his innocence.

A celebrity. That’s what The Lee Tomlinson had turned out to be. A hopeful, Brandon Lee-lookalike actor who had never been anything more than a face in a mouthwash commercial…

…until the cops had uncovered witnesses who’d placed Lee near the scene of the crime, then harvested the DNA evidence that led to the arrest of “The Vampire Killer.”

But the press’s nickname for Lee would become a joke tonight, right after they saw what a set of serious fangs could really do.

Someone shivered. If great care hadn’t already been taken to shave every body part, the hair would be standing on end over each inch of skin, a body electric with skin-buzzing currents.

Stay calm. If The Lee Tomlinson can carry this off, anyone can. Now it’s your time to shine.

The fact that murdering someone using The Lee’s same patterns didn’t register much. Killing this woman might cause reasonable doubt in a courtroom for him.

Instead, jealousy, even anger twisted every heartbeat. Confusion and need pumped through each tangled vein like tainted blood.

You’re smarter than the cops, so you won’t get caught like he did. You’re smarter than The Lee Tomlinson, too. You can beat him at his own game.

The thought of sinking fangs into flesh warped into a fantasy, one in which each violent bite was a thrust into Lee, a furious victory.

Through the slit of the sliding door, the victim came into view, ambling into the brandied darkness on three-inch heels. The steady drip of the adjoining bathroom’s leaking faucet kept time with Someone’s strangled breathing as the light from a dying streetlamp outside suffused the room.

The victim was on the midnight side of thirty, shrouded with August sweat and a dark red dress. She bent to work off the thin straps of her heels, her hair frizzed from humidity, her bodice gaping to reveal most of her small breasts.

Sex. I can smell the sex she wants so badly right on her skin. How will it taste?

Someone’s belly went tight, body tensing with the yearning to join with a counterpart.

Someone craved to become him, to fuse with him again in this substitute act of connecting. An act of beautiful violence. An act of hating and worshipping a fallen hero.

Unaware of what was in the closet, the victim sauntered to her adjoining bathroom, slipping the tiny straps of her dress down her shoulders on the way.

Carefully, Someone grabbed the knife, then opened the closet door and crept to the bathroom, fangs gleaming during the impulsive emergence of a smile.

And when Jessica Reese looked in the mirror to see Someone behind her, it was already too late for her to scream.

2. The Players

Dressed in basic street wear—a sleeveless white T, black jeans, leather bracelets—she crouched, waiting for the next attack, senses alive. She caught the scent of old wood, paint, and must that lingered in the corners of the room. She heard a reporter’s voice barking from the TV speakers her opponents had turned on in order to mask their movements. Her skin prickled as an air-conditioned breeze hushed over her.

A pop from her right split the air, and a projectile whizzed toward her. With the well-trained moves of an athlete, she banked to the left, using her shoulder to cushion herself while rolling to her knees. Another object came at her from the opposite direction. She dropped backward, grunting, her spine hitting the floor, her bent legs splaying to give her leeway. Immediately rolling to her stomach then pushing up to her feet, she landed in another crouch, her hands at the ready….

“Not bad for the dead of night,” yelled a tinny male voice that echoed off the windowless walls.

Heart pattering, Dawn exhaled, regulating her stress while keeping her eyes shut. She maintained her position, ready to withstand anything. “You guys take forever to reload. Can’t you go any faster?”

She heard Kiko Daniels make an okay-you-asked-for-it sound as he inserted another beanbag into his gun.

Dawn tuned her ears into what was happening with her second opponent. Breisi Montoya. Kiko wasn’t very mobile with the back brace he was wearing, but his team member had been all over the room trying to whoop Dawn’s ass during this agility session. The other woman’s bare feet cushioned her stealthy attacks, aiding her in smacking Dawn with three damned bruises already.

The drone of the TV battled Dawn’s concentration as she tried to detect Breisi’s whereabouts. To the right? Left?

Temples throbbing, she stayed cool. She’d have no other choice if this simulation were real; although the three of them hadn’t faced any vampires for over a month, the monsters were still out there. In fact, The Voice kept telling them it was just a matter of time before the vamps reemerged from their “Underground”—or whatever it was the team had gotten wind of.

Dawn blew out a breath, picturing herself outside at night, the moon shrouded behind the tips of pine trees. This training session was supposed to simulate the threat of one vamp variety they’d uncovered. The subspecies was bald, pale, clawed, with iron fangs and attacks that came as fast as those beanbags, especially when they used whip-quick tails with bladed ends.
Red-eyes, the team had called them.

But, Underground, she knew the group was named something else. Guards. Robby Pennybaker had revealed this and more before he’d turned into yet another form of vamp, a creature way more powerful than a Guard or one of the basic silver-eyed Goths the team had also encountered. Terrible to look upon and deadly to fight, Robby had thrown diminutive Kiko across a room and into a wall, breaking his back. The creature had also mentally violated Dawn’s mind until she thought she would break, too.

Now, she was preparing to function without ever having to look any of those creatures in the eye—she’d never get mind-screwed by a vamp again. Wouldn’t ever allow them inside so they could see her weaknesses, especially her desperation to find her dad, who’d gone missing over a month ago….

She heard a pop from across the room, straight ahead. Responding by pure instinct, she launched herself sideways, forcing her mind to act as a weapon.

But the trick didn’t work this time, not like it had when she’d fought Robby. She’d accidentally smacked away the vampire with some kind of mental shove, and she didn’t know how to recreate it, even if she’d surprised herself by doing it a couple of times during this last month of training.

Whap! The beanbag punched Dawn’s hip as she hit the floor. Shit. And ouch. Time for a new plan.

Before Kiko could get off a shot and Breisi could reload, Dawn opened her eyes and unwound a chain from around her waist. A nine-section whip chain, to be precise.

Holding the handle with her right thumb and forefinger, she coiled the steel-linked bars in her left hand. In flash, she transferred the bundled chains to her right while securing her grip on the handle. Then, with a push, she sprung the whip outward.

Without pause, she was already cycling the weapon by her side, using a right elbow hook spin to create a blurred bubble around her body. The bars and links moved that fast.

“Dawn,” Breisi yelled from the left. Her tone was laced with a heavier Spanish accent than usual, so she was clearly pissed. “I guess this means we’re done.”

Just to be an ornery hotdog, Dawn spun the whip once overhead, winding up, then launched into a butterfly kick, circling the links beneath her body while jumping. She landed on her feet, grinning at Breisi and slowing the whip down. At the apex of its spin, she allowed it to fall gently back into her hand. There, the weapon rested like a happy snake that had struck out to get the best of Breisi and her goddamned beanbags.

“I thought I’d give my new toy a first run,” Dawn said. She felt good about it, too, even though her right arm ached a little from the injuries she’d sustained during the throw down with Robby Pennybaker.

Breisi leaned against a mirrored wall, hand on one hip, beanbag gun at ease in the other. With her Louise Brooks-black hair, broad yet delicate features, and Mickey Mouse T-shirt—Dawn had just weaned the woman off those damned Teddy bear prints—you’d think she’d come off as some Latina cutie. But, upon a closer look, she was more like an Aztec warrior ready to tear Dawn’s chest open. A more minute inspection also revealed the tiny signs of age that had ended her ingénue acting career.

Not that a thirty-one-year-old should be worried about being ancient. At least, not in the real world. But this was Hollywood, where logic feared to tread.

As Dawn faced Breisi, she could see her own image in the wall mirror. Not exactly an L.A. poster girl herself, with her extremely average face, complete with a lovely scar riding an eyebrow, courtesy of a stunt gag. She also had a sleekly muscled anti-waif body and a low-maintenance, low-riding ponytail that banded her brown hair together.

A special delivery full of attitude. She’d been maintaining the package for twenty-four years, ever since she could first say “Screw off.” Ever since she realized that she would never live up to the gorgeous promises her mother, the famous Eva Claremont, had woven.

Breisi spoke, voice flat. “Those are some clever moves, but I thought you’d left the stunt work by the wayside. Flashy showoff routines aren’t going to keep you alive with vamps.”

Dawn negligently inspected the dull practice dart on the end of her whip. It’d be the real thing if she used it outside. “Sharp, silver, and tipped with holy water. And I can use it to attack a Guard or maybe even one of those Goth Groupies. Blessed articles have an effect on both vamps, and we know silver slowly poisons at least some of them. If I could ward off spit with the chain’s speed and slice the dart into a red-eye’s tail or an exposed place--”

“It is just like one of those Guard’s tails, ain’t it?” Kiko said, making his way over.

A pretty blond guy in his late twenties with a soul patch under his lower lip, he was a struggling actor of a certain stature, a “little person.” Right now, he couldn’t audition because he was recovering from Robby’s beat down. With a still-healing back, he also couldn’t run, couldn’t lift heavy objects, and sure as hell couldn’t fight by Breisi and Dawn’s side if it came right down to it. But his brain was still running on all cylinders. His psychic/empath sixth sense would always be a valuable weapon and tool, not that Kiko was happy about missing out on any expected calls to action. During this past month, during all the days of dried-up leads to her dad’s whereabouts and information about the Underground, Kiko had been in physical therapy, biting back the pain Dawn knew he wasn’t showing.

He reached for the whip, wanting to inspect it, and she made a big deal of pausing, then running a challenging gaze over him. Then, nodding, she grinned and handed it over, as if he’d passed muster. She hoped he felt like that, anyway.

“Those Guard tails kept nagging at me,” she said. “I wanted to level the playing field with my own version of a barbed whip. Now, I know it’s nowhere near as powerful as theirs, but what else am I going to do? Become a mutant monkey and grow my own freakin’ tail?”

Kiko scanned the dart. It was the first time Dawn had brought out the martial arts weapon around her team, even though they knew she’d been practicing off property.

“When the red-eyes spit at you, it will go right through that steel,” Breisi said, referring to the Guards’ lovely habit of expectorating burning-hot fluids.

“Your lab tests showed that the stuff isn’t composed of acid, right?” Dawn asked. “Remember how their spit just charred the silver arm bracelet I used to wear, and that was it? Maybe steel will go unaffected, too.”

She knew Breisi wouldn’t refute her own scientific findings just to make Dawn put the whip away. Nope, not Miss Lab Rat, U.S.A., their appointed gadget wizard, the Bondian Q of their team. Which made Kiko their psychic Aragorn. Which made Dawn…what?

Memory washed over her: lifting a machete, hacking off Robby’s head. Putting a silver bullet through his heart, just to be sure.

Dawn was what her father, Frank Madison, had once been to this team. Muscle. And maybe even something else….

Before she’d joined up with Limpet and Associates, a psychic vision had come to Kiko. He’d seen her, Dawn Madison, covered in the blood of a vampire.

“It was the end of our struggles,” he’d told her. “I felt that everything would be fine after that.”

Supposedly, she was “key” to beating these vamps. That’s what Kiko and The Voice kept telling her anyway. Their reclusive, as yet unseen boss had even used his employee, Frank, as bait to get Dawn the Prophecy Girl involved with all this craziness. She’d rushed to L.A. to help find her father, of course, but they hadn’t met with success. Yet, according to the boss, whose agenda had more to do with the Underground than Frank, the team was closer to both her dad and the vamps now more than ever.

She rubbed her arms, suddenly going cold…and way too warm. The Voice. The man who communicated with them only through speakers. The only entity the formerly oversexed Dawn had allowed inside of her lately in a strange lust affair.

When she held her hand out to Kiko for the whip chain, the psychic grudgingly gave it back.

He got a look on his face that Dawn had seen way too much lately. Hurt, resentment. “Why can’t I just give it a go?”

“Because, honestly,” Dawn said, “I shouldn’t even be messing with the whip chain.”

“Cross my heart,” she said. “I’m serious. I know full well I might hurt myself, even though I’ve had martial arts training for certain movies. But, technically, I still don’t have enough experience to master this. I’m just lucky I found an instructor, thanks to The Voice.” He’d given her a lot of money to locate a teacher who would weigh her determination and knack for quick learning against common sense. And, lo and behold, it’d worked. Bribes could create wonders.

All in all, there’d been a lot of training this past month. A lot of healing, too. Kiko hadn’t been the only one to sustain injuries from vamp fights but, aside from some stubborn aches, Dawn’s wounds had been pretty well taken care of by a gel Breisi had concocted in the lab, as well as some rest and medical attention. But that didn’t mean Dawn had sat on her butt, waiting to get better. Hell, no. She’d been working on perfecting her mind blocks—keeping others out of her head—as well as those mind pushes. She’d remained in shape, training physically according to her healing progress, and she’d caught up on studying her monster lore, poring over typewritten case files housed in The Voice’s library.

Obviously ticked, Kiko looked away from Breisi and Dawn, shutting them out. He fixed a gaze on the TV. To Dawn, the volume seemed to fill the room, emphasizing the awkwardness of having to leave Kiko in the dust when it came to fighting.

Not knowing what else to say, she glanced at the screen, too. It featured Court TV, where the entire day’s coverage was devoted to Lee Tomlinson, a killer Dawn and the team knew all too well. They’d been keeping constant tabs on any updates: besides being a probable Servant to the Underground, Lee had murdered the woman who’d given them information about Robby, who was part of the Underground himself…

On the TV, the reporter enthused about the career Lee could’ve had, how he might’ve been “the new Brandon Lee.”

“Only on the surface,” Dawn muttered, tucking the whip chain into her pocket and crossing her arms over her chest. She glanced at Kiko, hoping to draw him out with a conversation guaranteed to turn his attitude around. “There’s a difference between people like Lee Tomlinson who just look like a famous celebrity and people like…” She swallowed, not wanting to mention the next name but, then again, sort of needing to if she was ever going to grow up and get over her neuroses. “…Jacqueline Ashley.”

Dawn blew out a breath. Kiko’s crush, their new friend Jac, had gotten a makeover that had changed the faceless starlet into an Eva Claremont throwback, a bloodcurdling almost-double who was persistent about becoming Dawn’s buddy. She was continually calling with invitations to spar at the fencing studio where they’d met, but Dawn hadn’t taken her up on it yet. Someday she would, just to get past the fears Jac’s resemblance dredged up. Maybe.

“I guess,” Dawn said, “there’s something different about Jac when it comes to the hype. You can tell she’s the real star and Lee’s a poser.”

Catching onto Dawn’s protective arm cross, Breisi rose to a stand from the mirrored wall and came over to pat her coworker’s shoulder. The other woman had been in the room the day Jacqueline Ashley had revealed her Eva-over. Just recalling the moment made Dawn dizzy, ill, longing for her mom to come back while, at the same time, hating her for leaving. Hating her for being so beautiful and perfect while Dawn was neither.

“Have you talked to Jac?” Kiko asked, all puppy-like. “Is she still doing that ‘buccaneer boot camp’ for her movie?”

“That’s my girl.” He performed his rendition of Happy Kiko, reveling in a dorky glow. “Her first big gig.”

They all nodded. Even though Jac’s movie wouldn’t shoot for another month, Dawn had been forced to call all her industry contacts to tell them she’d be out of commission for a while. Did that finally make her an ex-stuntwoman?

Once again, she felt the machete in her hand as she winged it down to terminate Robby.

With one final squeeze to Dawn’s upper arm, Breisi handed her gun over, dug into her cargo pants pockets for beanbags, and gave them to Dawn. “What do you say you muchachos take a run at me now?”

Kiko scrunched his nose. “I’m gotten into a mental mood with this break, Breez. Unless you and Dawn want to go at it. I’d love to see a good catfight.”

“Gross.” Dawn made as if to punch him, and he flinched, even though he knew she wouldn’t go there.

“I’m just being honest about my All American red-blooded maleness.” He grinned.

“Yeah,” she said. “You’re such a macho jerk, cooking me spaghetti dinners and gabbing about how much you respect your mother, sister, and ex-girlfriends. Illuminating, that.”

And inviting her into his home so she didn’t have to stay at her dad’s abandoned house? Sure, he was a total pig.

“Ay, Kik,” Breisi said, business in her tone as she moved to the opposite side of the gym. “You want to work or not?”

As he left, Dawn busied herself by loading a beanbag into Breisi’s gun. By chance, she glanced over, catching sight of Kiko by the far corner, turning away from her. He inspected his gun, slipping a hand to his back, holding it like it was paining him. But in the next second, he was loading a beanbag, acting as if everything was normal.

Frowning, she took off the rubber-soled work boots she’d been wearing for the gym floor, then her socks. Kiko was a big boy and she wasn’t going to tell him to take a rest; she knew damned well that bringing up the subject would only encourage him to prove her wrong by playing that much harder. The best thing would be to keep an eye on him, and that was that.

Waiting until Breisi closed her eyes and settled into a defensive hunch, Dawn changed position, ready to give the other woman a few karma bruises.

But before the first shot could be fired, the TV blipped off, the room going quiet.

Her body readied itself, pounding, heating, because she knew what was coming next.

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