“What in the hell are you…” My words hung
unfinished as an unseen force pushed me up and away
from my prey. Kenryū, my sword, flew from my hand
spinning away into uselessness as I sailed backward
through empty space. Slamming into the opposite wall, I
whipped my head left looking for my new nemesis. I heard
the footsteps, but my attacker visually eluded me. I was
pinned to the wall by the force of him, but I could not
locate him.
Unexpectedly, a voice in my right ear whispered,
“I’m right here.”
I snapped my head back around, to see the man I
most hated standing in front of me. My tormentor. My
adversary. My creator.
“Lazarius.”
S.M. Cook began her writing career as a teenager, writing poetry and
eventually writing screenplays. She began novel writing in college and fell in
love with fictional storytelling. An accomplished poet, Kyuuketsuki is her
debut novel that fuses the love of Japanese culture with the love of vampires.
At university, Cook majored in Asian Studies with a focus on Japanese
language and culture. She lives in Ohio, where she enjoys going to the lake,
reading Stephen King and Diana Gabaldon, and watching anime.
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