Voloken: Stories

A short story about the arrival of a new vampire to town, the fun and outgoing David, as seen through the eyes of his long-time pen pal, the gloomy (and thirsty) recluse Ashley. David is eager to meet her, but it turns out that she may have exaggerated a few details about herself, and sprinkled a few teeny tiny lies in there too. Surely this will not result in a horrible misunderstanding. Surely.

Damien is a nobody, taking on a series of dead-end jobs to eke out a living. His life is as unremarkable as his face — until he meets a strange girl at a new dive bar who upends his carefully manufactured life. She's weird, off-putting and not at all pretty, but events conspire to see him accompany her home where she reveals her true colors: she's a witch, and her coven needs a sacrifice. Yet she isn't the only one with dark secrets, and it becomes unclear who is prey and who is predator.

Edward Sheffield took a promotion no one else wanted. Transplanted indefinitely from New England to the Philippines, he's got a struggling branch office to salvage and a whole new world to navigate. He didn't expect the help to come in the form of a bratty maid, a mechanic whose smarts are matched only by her curves, and a smoky driver with trust issues. But Manila has a way of surprising people. Especially those who think they're beyond surprises.