It’s release day!!! 🥳 The Vessel is out today… or tomorrow depending on which shop you check.
There is an advent calendar over at JMS Books. I hope you haven’t missed it, but even if you have so far, there are plenty of days left. Every day, from 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM, EST one not previously published book will be free, then the day after it’ll be published wide.
Two years ago, I wrote a story called The Ruby Tooth which is about a werewolf bounty hunter and a human who has no idea supernatural creatures exist, at least not until he’s attacked by an evil vampire.
The Ruby Tooth is the name of the nightclub where Ilya, our human, first meets Ulric, our vampire-hunting werewolf, and it’s a special kind of nightclub. It’s been approved for mixed clientele, meaning werewolves and whatnot have permission from the supernatural council to get drunk among humans.
The reason the council has approved the nightclub is that it’s divided into two different parts. One side is for good-hearted people, and the other is for the not-so-good-hearted. And the reason they know if someone is good or evil is that every night, a veritas is working the door.
A veritas has the ability to look into your soul and see if you’re naughty or nice.
It’s been two years, but the idea of veritas never left me, so for this year’s Advent calendar, I wrote a story set in the same nightclub, but this time it’s about Sadek, our veritas doorman. It’s also about Dei, a human who’s run away from the witch who has kept him as a familiar.
You can read the first chapter below or you can hop on over to the JMS shop and grab it for free. But it’s only free today, so hurry up!
The Vessel
Welcome to The Ruby Tooth, the only nightclub the supernatural council has approved for mixed clientele. Here the pure-souled are shown to the bar on the left, and the rest to the one on the right.
Sadek Verity works as a doorman at The Ruby Tooth. His job is to look into the soul of each club goer and determine if they belong on the naughty or the nice side. It’s an easy job until Dei shows up. Dei doesn’t belong on either side, and Sadek doesn’t know what to do about it.
Dei Vessel shouldn’t have run away from his master. For twenty-six years, he’s been the familiar of a slightly deranged witch, but when the opportunity shows itself, he walks out the door and into the city. He finds himself in a nightclub with a hot but scary doorman. When his master comes looking, Sadek helps him escape. But will he let Dei hide out with him forever, or will Dei have to find his own way?
Grab it here:
Paranormal gay romance: 17,553 words
Chapter 1
Sadek Verity stood unmoving as a man about his size stumbled in through the door. Sadek wasn’t small, and few humans were as big as he was. You didn’t work as a doorman in a nightclub like The Ruby Tooth if you couldn’t handle yourself, and size helped diffuse some conflicts. The Ruby Tooth was the only chain approved by the supernatural council to have a mixed clientele—shifters, vampires, witches, and humans were welcome.
The humans didn’t know there were other species than them, or most of them didn’t know, at least. He suspected the one who was looking him up and down right this moment did. Their gazes met and Sadek’s heart gave a double beat.
The man was nothing special, dark hair, dark stubble on his cheeks, his clothes loved rather than fashionable, but his eyes… His eyes held a thousand sorrows, and the energy around him crackled.
Sadek didn’t have a developed sense of smell, nothing like a shifter, but the small room between the doors to the two different sides of the nightclub filled with the scent of ozone. He took a steadying breath as he prepared to look into the man’s soul. He’d been convinced the man was human, but ozone… only magic users smelled of ozone.
The man gave him a flirty grin at odds with the look in his eyes. The grin slipped away as Sadek reached into his soul—good or bad? He sifted through the turmoil of emotions, impressions, and urges. Evaluated his impulse control and delved deeper. For a moment, he didn’t know where he ended, and the man began. It was harder to climb out than it normally was, and Sadek suppressed a shudder. “To the right.”
The man nodded and swayed before stumbling toward the right. There was something wrong. Sadek couldn’t see what it was, and that was disturbing. He could always see. It was what he did. He looked into people’s souls and knew if they were good or bad. It was his job, but also what they did as a species. He was a veritas. He saw the truth. He was always certain. It only took a second. One quick dip inside, and the answer was right there… except something was wrong here.
The man’s energy had been doused in an oily, sinister substance. Not a substance, exactly, but it left Sadek with an oily, uneasy feeling. Which meant he had to go to the right, but he wasn’t… evil. And yet there was something evil.
The moment the door closed behind the man; indecision curled around him. Veritas didn’t feel indecision. It was why the council had agreed to allow a nightclub chain of mixed clientele. A nightclub wasn’t allowed to open if they didn’t have a veritas doorman on duty.
He and his fellow veritas looked into the souls of the club-goers one at a time and told them which door to walk through. Pure-souled people went to the left, the not-so-pure went to the right.
Shifters and vampires almost exclusively went to the right. Some witches belonged on the left side, but there were black witches, and for some reason, they outnumbered the white witches by far. Power corrupted.
Humans mostly went to the left. It didn’t mean all humans were good, far from, but few of them had any plans of using physical strength or magic to control those around them. As a general, humans were more mild-mannered, and some even had a dash of altruism. Refreshing.
Should he have shown the man to the left? No, he couldn’t risk it. But could he risk the man being on the right side? He hadn’t been able to pinpoint any power source within him, and yet there was magic. Could he be a crossbreed of some kind? A human and a witch who’d had a child, and the power was dormant? He’d always believed the magic took over, and if a witch had a child with a human, it would be born a witch.
He’d have to ask Marilla, who worked in the kitchen. She was a magic user and was familiar with most other magic users in the area. Since Sadek never had seen the man before, he might not be from the area, but…
The door opened and a young human woman in a pink dress far too thin for the December cold took an uncertain step forward. He only took a quick dip into her soul before plastering on a smile and showing her to the left.
Three other young human women followed—one at the time. It was another rule, there was only one other person allowed in the room with him. This was so he couldn’t be distracted. The council didn’t understand veritas if they believed any of his brethren would be, but he appreciated not having to take on a group of shifters if they were displeased with which side he sent people.
More people trickled in, and he did his job, but his mind was still stuck on the man. Perhaps he should peek inside the right side to ensure the other club-goers hadn’t eaten him.
He’d most likely come to meet up with friends and was having a great time, safe and sound. And yet a persistent niggle remained in his mind.
* * * *
Dei Vessel found an empty spot in one of the corners. He hoped the shadows would hide him from everyone in the room—he never had much luck, and several people kept glancing in his direction. As long as they didn’t approach, he’d be fine.
There would be hell to pay once Cornelia found him. This was only the second time he’d gotten away since his parents—if they were his parents—had sold him to her twenty-six years ago.
He didn’t have any money, had never owned any money, but if he had, he’d have bought a drink. Cornelia had a weakness for whiskey, and he had developed a taste for it. Not for the taste in itself, but the warm, buzzing relaxation that followed. It took the edge off the pain.
He shuddered. Today’s session had been one of the worst. Cornelia believed she could embody the power of the moon with the right spell, and the closer the full moon came, the more dedicated she got.
Today, she’d sucked all his energy into herself. He’d collapsed, blacked out, and yet she’d kept going. Screams had echoed in his mind despite the blackness he’d lived in. He didn’t recognize them, but since his throat still hurt, he suspected he’d been the one screaming.
It had been a practice run for when she planned to bring the energy of the moon down, or rather, that was what she’d said. The gleam in her eyes made him unsure if he could trust her to tell him the truth. Sometimes he suspected she only wanted to feel the power run through her.
He gritted his teeth at the memory of invisible knives carving out his insides, turning him into an empty vessel, a human-looking shell. It had taken him hours to scrape himself off the floor. She had been too high on his energy to notice when he crawled out of the kitchen, when he pulled himself to his feet, using the stairs leading to the upper floor. He hadn’t gone upstairs, though. He’d swayed and stumbled until he reached the front door.
He shuddered and pressed his back against the wall to remind himself of where he was—out of the cabin, in a room full of people. It was only a matter of time until she came down enough to realize he was gone. He should make the effort to be back before then, but he couldn’t face it. Not yet.
If she was practicing to harbor the power of the moon, he feared she’d suck him dry again.
For years, he’d managed to stay positive. He’d done his best to care for her. Love was all a creature needed, right? Enough love, and they’d turn good. He’d believed it for a long time, but he’d done everything in his power. He’d been kind, forgiving, devoted. He’d shown her respect and obedience, had served her in any and every way he could, but it hadn’t been enough.
He didn’t think anyone was born evil, but he feared she’d turned so. Part of him hoped the power of the moon would kill her. No living being was strong enough to keep the power of the full moon within themselves, and it didn’t matter if she stripped him over and over again. The power living within a human being was nowhere near what she planned to channel. If she could. He wasn’t sure it was doable at all, but he didn’t know magic. He only surrendered his energy to it.
“Buy you a drink?” A pale-skinned woman with long copper-colored hair sat next to him. He hadn’t noticed her approaching. Maybe he was more out of it than he’d believed.
“Oh… I don’t know.”
She grinned and sharp fangs became visible. Vampire. Maybe he hadn’t noticed her approach since she’d moved too fast?
“One drink doesn’t hurt anyone.” She winked, and he wasn’t sure if she meant a drink from the bar or a bite.
“I… eh… should get back to my master.”
Her grin stretched. “Where is your master?” She made a show of looking around. “Maybe he’d let me borrow you for the night if I ask kindly.”
“She hasn’t arrived yet.” Though he suspected it wouldn’t be long now. How long had he been here? She’d track him down easily enough.
Ofelia Grand 