February was a mimic, a soft pretender to spring. Houston’s temperature rose to the high seventies and stayed there. Nights were still cool and the winds often gusty, but the days sparkled. Marjorie was buried on one of those fake spring days, her father shuffling his feet in embarrassment at the...
She felt herself whirling around on a planet spinning through limitless blue space. She had felt this sensation as a child when she lay on her back on the lawn and contemplated the sky and her place on the round globe of the twirling earth. Now overhead she gazed through sparse foliage of a pecan...
Dessy felt Jake's hand brush over her naked left breast, but it was a mindless action. He was deeply entrenched in a paperback vampire novel and not really noticing her. He often did that, touched her as if to be sure she was there, and it made her feel beloved. If she came near him...
Cover art by Neil Jackson, Copyright 20ll "The Magician rearranges the Universe to make himself the center, the Mystic rearranges himself to find the center." CHAPTER l THE LITTLE DEATH She could barely breathe she was so hot. She could hear the night birds call and the rustle of her mother’s pal...
I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents." Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe in Her Own Words Marilyn Lori-Street hung up from talking with Karl. She sat scowling at the telephone handset on the coffee table a few seconds. Then she shrugged and le...
"The shade," he croaked, hardly believing what he had just seen. "He raised the shade." Patty and Jack, playing cards in the backseat, turned in unison to look at the house. "No lights," Jack said. Patty scooped up the cards and slipped them into a cardboard case. "What’s it mean?" he asked, fumb...
The potion mixed with the contents of her stomach, permeated the cells of the stomach wall, drifted into the silent blood stream. Like a horde of marauding ants, the potion properties invaded the cells. Those cells twinkled to life and began to move, invading the cells next to them. Within an hou...
She recognized the devil man the minute he hit town, mainly by his distinctive, eccentric steed. It was a fake palomino, all dolled up with copper plates covering its muscular hips, ropes of silver Mexican coins threaded through its mane, and a horse-like face with wide square teeth showing bone ...
That’s what happened to people who were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to live a long life.Sipping a cup of Empire coffee, she relished the first taste of the day. By noon she knew she’d finish the pot. Outside the long window in the living room of her fourth floor apartment, she saw the new d...
Cheyenne, one of her friends from her neighborhood, was waiting for her at the front entrance before classes started. "I tried to call, but your mom said you were in bed. What's up?" Dell was careful not to look her in the eyes. She said, "Oh, the usual, you know, cramps and stuff." "Oh, yeah, th...
Crow said, in a different voice, a low growl of a voice, “and I’ll take your balls for a necklace. Don’t mistake me for one of your small town candy-ass pussies you put your chokeholds on and beat senseless with a nightstick. You underestimate me and you’ll find yourself in a grave, friend.” “Lis...
On the doorstep the realtor handed over the keys to 2242 Maycroft Street to Linda Broderick. The realtor smiled knowing the commission she was receiving would pay off her new outdoor swimming pool. Though the house had been empty and for sale for a long time--two years--the price was still high f...
It was Saturday, and Ryan was in the garage tinkering with his old truck. He was unaware of her worries and even if she'd told him, there was nothing he could do to help. As lovable and good as he was, his mortality kept him from being any help when it came to vampire troubles. ...
"Where? Deep inside a woman who's stacked like a movie star. Let's say she owns an exercise gym. Yeah . . . that's where it's sweetest." Jeff's roommate was bent over at the waist towel-drying freshly shampooed hair. "It says right here," Jeff said, ignoring Greg's worthless comment, pointing to ...
he said. “And we do it so well,” she said. They lay a while side by side, luxuriating in the peace, holding hands. Then he led her to the bathroom saying, “Come with me.” They showered together, soaping one another, and again grew aroused so that they had to make love even more passionately than ...
Salt Lake City lay in a valley, a flat bottom bowl of land where he could see standing mountains in the distance. The other weary travelers from the bus shuffled into the station to change buses, to call relatives or friends or cabs to pick them up, or just to catch a smoke before the next part o...