Summary

Long, dark hair. Dewy, khol-rimmed eyes. Ripe young lips just made for kissing.

Guys like that are dime a dozen.

Wild Bill likes a little edge on his playmates, and Michael's got the whole package going on—plus a loaded gun in his leather jacket, and an unquenchable obsession with vampires.

Michael has managed to follow a breadcrumb trail Bill didn't even know he was leaving, and the kid's got a few new tricks up his sleeve. Hopefully the latest addition to his arsenal doesn't include a wooden stake with Wild Bill's name on it. But anything can happen in the dark.

First edition was published as Channeling Morpheus: Vertigo in 2008. Appears in the print collection Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary.

 

Excerpt

I flicked the tip of the match with my thumbnail, watched a couple of sparks drop toward the ground and fizzle out before they hit, and took a breath tinged with sulfur. There was a pause where maybe the flame would catch, maybe not, as if Fate needed a second to think about whether she'd give permission for a single lick of flame to come to life. And then the match head flared, bluish white, then bright yellow, and then flame.

Lighting a smoke's not usually a Walt Whitman moment for me. But I'd been on edge all night, searching for meaning in every little thing. Kinda made me wonder if the whole world might only be as significant as some hormone in the bloodstream of the last kid I tapped, or a stupid song I half-heard on someone else's Walkman three blocks away…some small trigger that brought back a memory or two.

I finished the smoke and lit another one off the dying carcass of the first. Five, six bucks a pack nowadays—not that it matters to me. I see something I want, I tell the store clerk to hand it over, and it's mine. Cigarettes, clothes, booze, or whatever else my heart desires. Wild Bill's baby blues are an infinite line of credit. I got a kick out of that for a dozen years or so. But then the fun wore thin.

Or maybe I was developing a conscience.

Nah.

I blew out a stream of smoke, indigo in the moonlight, and stared down at the clearing. I was in a park that was a vamp's wet dream, all cliffs and caves and gnarled black trees. I don't usually go for group things, at least as far as my social life is concerned, but this handful of vamps didn't seem too bad for a bunch of bloodsuckers. One of 'em was freshly turned, and she had "mad Internet skilz." Since I had no idea what that's supposed to mean, I needed to take her word for it. She'd picked up such a big following that she had enough entrées to share, and that's all that mattered to me. I don't feel like an A-hole when the hamburger's willing.

They'd built a bonfire, and I picked out the individual smells of at least four different types of flaming wood, and burning sugar, too. I got a kick out of the thought that someone had made a pilgrimage to have their vamp-cherry popped, and remembered to bring along a bag of marshmallows.

They milled around in the clearing, fifteen kids so far, most of them in black with hits of red, silver and purple. I smelled hair dye from where I sat—a hundred yards away—and perfume, and clove cigarettes, and Ivory soap, and nail polish remover, and angst. I wondered who was angsting. Pretty much all of 'em, you'd think. But some are bleaker than others.

One of the other vamps would probably grab up the most tragic ones first. Fine by me. The thought of latching on to a human and finding out I can't let go scares the crap out of me.

A vamp darted out from the treeline and snagged a couple of chicks. It looked like Wild Kingdom from my vantage point, except the vamps were even smoother than a pack of lions. I cocked my head and listened. The buffet wouldn't talk quite so loud if they knew how sharp our hearing was, but even the dullest of vamps wasn't stupid enough to show the cards we've got up our sleeves by letting on that we can hear 'em from half a mile away.

The flock was dying to know which vamp had chosen, because it was dark, and the vamp had moved fast, and a lot of the bloodsuckers could easily stunt-double for one another in a pinch. Despite the fact that we all looked young, white, skinny and goth, each of us had our little fan clubs. I was toward the bottom of the list, and I worked hard to keep it that way. I went for the humans who were jonesing specifically for one of the other vamps, and I took them in twos and threes to make sure no one thought they were anything special.

And even though I was so careful, sometimes I got attached to humans.

 

Series

Channeling Morpheus Ebook Novelettes

Payback
Vertigo
Manikin
Tainted
Rebirth
Brazen
Snare
Fluid
Swarm
Elixir

Channeling Morpheus Shorts
Heaven Sent - takes place after Manikin
Jackpot - takes place after Elixir
Canine - takes place after Elixir

Channeling Morpheus Paperbacks

Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary (Channeling Morpheus Series 1) featuring novelettes 1-5
A Bitter Taste of Sweet Oblivion (Channeling Morpheus Series 2) featuring novelettes 6-10

NEW Channeling Morpheus Box Sets

Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary Ebook Box Set

Series: Channeling Morpheus 1-5
Combined Length: Novel - 71,000 words
Cover artist: Jordan Castillo Price - see larger cover
ISBN: 978-1-935540-74-8

$6.99

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A Bitter Taste of Sweet Oblivion Ebook Box Set
Series: Channeling Morpheus6-10
Combined Length: 101,000 words
Cover Artist: Jordan Castillo Price
ISBN: 978-1-935540- 75-5

$6.99

Purchase at: Amazon, Amazon UK, iTunes, Kobo

Brand new Channeling Morpheus short

Canine: Channeling Morpheus Short
Series: Channeling Morpheus 10.2
Length: 9000 words
Cover Artist: Jordan Castillo Price
ISBN: 978-1-935540-76-2

99¢

Purchase at: Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Kobo, iTunes, BN

Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary Audio

Read by Gomez Pugh

Available now at iTunes - Audible - Amazon

Reviews

Channeling Morpheus: Vertigo is a delightfully entertaining vampire tale that takes you into some fun dark places that prove just how smart Michael can be.  This time, Michael manages to turn the tables on Wild Bill quite neatly, while dealing a hefty dose of explosive sex between both men leaving you eagerly reaching for the next book in the series. - Joyfully Reviewed

Every page has at least one sentence I want to read again and again, that delights and intrigues and makes me want to pick it apart to understand how cleverly it’s written. - Brief Encounters Reviews