Title:
Demons & Lullabies
Series:
Demons Age, Book 2 (Can be read independently)
Author:
Kallysten
Genre:
Male/Male, Paranormal, Romance,
Publisher:
Self-Published
Ebook/Paperback
Words:
107.000 words
Purchase:
Book
Description:
Some
little boys want to be firemen or astronauts when they grow up. From
the moment Jacob understood what his fathers did, he never wanted to
do anything but fight demons.
Andrew,
Jacob’s father and a vampire, fights demons because it’s a
necessity: few others have the strength or skill to kill the strange
creatures that started appearing the very night his son was born. He
carries with him some guilt, too, and the suspicion that the magic
that made Jacob’s very life possible also opened the way for the
demons. The last thing he wants is for his son to ever join this
fight and get hurt.
As the
years pass, however, and Andrew watches Jacob grow up and grow more
determined, he slowly has to accept there’s little he can do to
deter his son. It doesn’t help that Nicholas, Jacob’s other dad
and Andrew’s Childe, starts giving Jacob sword-fighting lessons
under the cover of playing, or that Jacob discovers his mother’s
diaries and comes to the same conclusion Andrew did concerning his
origins and the demons’.
Through
snapshots covering Jacob’s life from birth to adulthood, watch all
three members of this unusual family change, grow up, and find their
place in the world.
Excerpt:
Andrew
had never minded the office duties that came with running a Special
Enforcers agency. It was mostly a lot of paperwork: incidents
involving vampires were to be reported to the police and to the
organization that gathered information about vampires, and kills of
known killers were tracked even more closely. Andrew had never
regretted his choice of career. He long ago came to the conclusion
that Special Enforcers would be a necessity until all vampires
adhered to strict feeding rules, and by running the agency Andrew
could ensure that vampires who didn’t kill were not hunted down
unfairly. Such things had been known to happen.
The
arrival of demons had added to his workload however. Those kills now
needed to be reported to three places, and each had its particular
forms. It would have been easier if a central organization had been
formed to study demons and the best way to combat them, but even now,
four years after the first one had been spotted, some people were
still skeptical about the sheer existence of demons. They were
thought to be an elaborate hoax—or sometimes a genetic experiment
on vampires gone wrong. Sooner or later, the authorities would need
to get their act together. In the meantime, Andrew would continue
filling out the same redundant forms every time the agency was called
in to deal with a demon.
Two
short knocks sounded on the door, and before Andrew could respond it
swung open to reveal Nicholas, carrying Jacob on his back. At once,
all thoughts of work flew out of Andrew’s mind and he couldn’t
help but smile at the picture they made.
“Hey,
you two. What’s up?”
Nicholas
took hold of Jacob’s waist and, to Jacob’s giggles of delight,
twirled him upside down before depositing him on Andrew’s lap.
“Jacob
has something to ask you,” Nicholas said when Andrew looked up.
“I’ll tell your troops you’re busy and to give you a bit of
privacy.”
Without
another word of explanation, Nicholas left the office, closing the
door behind him. At a loss as to what this could possibly be about,
Andrew looked at Jacob. His beaming smile was gone and he had ducked
his head.
“What
is it, buddy?” Andrew asked, running his fingers over Jacob’s
hair, distracted for a second by the thought that he needed a
haircut.
Jacob
shrugged, and didn’t raise his eyes from the top button of Andrew’s
shirt, which he then began fastening and unfastening in turns.
“You
can tell me anything,” Andrew said after a few seconds when Jacob
still hadn’t said a word. He covered Jacob’s little hands with
his own and stopped their nervous fluttering. “What it is you
wanted to ask me?”
Jacob
finally turned huge eyes that had never seemed so clear up to Andrew.
“Do I have a mommy?” he whispered.
Had
Andrew’s heart been beating still, surely it would have skipped a
beat or ten. As it was, several seconds passed before Andrew could
utter a word, and even then it was only the growing alarm in Jacob’s
eyes that drew an answer from him.
“I…
Yes of course, baby. Of course you have a mommy.”
It
was a testimony of how upset Jacob already was that he didn’t
protest being called a baby.
“Nicholas
said she died, like Auntie Julie’s uncle.”
Andrew’s
mouth opened, then closed again without a sound. He had to swallow
the crushed glass in his throat before he could manage an answer.
“She
died, yes,” he murmured, smoothing his hand over Jacob’s hair
again and waiting for the next question.
But
there was no next question. Jacob just held on to Andrew’s fingers
with both hands, and looked at him as though expecting something from
him—but expecting what, Andrew couldn’t begin to figure out.
Nicholas had warned him over the years; he had told him Jacob would
ask and Andrew needed to be ready for it.
Andrew
had thought he was prepared, but now that Jacob was sitting on his
lap and looking at him like Andrew held all the answers, all he could
think of was that Jacob’s eyes looked a little more like Cara’s
every single day.
“Would
you like to see what your mommy looked like?” he blurted out, the
first thing that passed through his mind.
Jacob
sat up straighter suddenly, and his eyes grew wide. “I can see?”
he asked in a whisper.
Squeezing
Jacob’s fingers softly, Andrew smiled, relieved that he had found
the right thing to say. “Sure. She made a picture album for you
because she wanted you to know her. Here.”
The
album had been in Andrew’s first drawer ever since Nicholas had
brought it to him, what felt like so long ago. Andrew had lost count
of how many times he had opened that drawer and simply laid a hand on
the cover. He had never opened it, though. He had told himself he
wanted to share this with Jacob when his son was old enough, but
maybe the truth was different.
Maybe
Andrew himself hadn’t been ready for this. He didn’t have a
choice anymore. He pulled the album out and set it on the edge of his
desk almost reverently. He slid his chair closer to the desk and
shifted Jacob onto one of his knees so they could both see the
album—and so Andrew could keep a close eye on Jacob’s reactions.
The
cover seemed heavy when Andrew flipped it open, revealing the first
picture. It had been taken just as Cara’s pregnancy had started to
show, and she was beaming as she looked down at her belly, a hand
underneath it and a hand on top as though to frame the bump, or maybe
keep Jacob safe. A pang of grief rang through Andrew.
“She’s
my mommy?” Jacob whispered, his little hand rising to the picture
but falling again without touching it.
“That’s
your mom, yes,” Andrew replied. His throat felt tight, but he
couldn’t remain silent now. Jacob was waiting for him to say
something.
He
wished he knew what to say.
“She’s
very pretty,” Jacob said, still as quiet.
Andrew
pressed a kiss to his temple. “She was, yes. She was the prettiest
lady I ever knew.”
About
the Author:
Kallysten’s
most exciting accomplishment to date was to cross a few thousand
miles and an ocean to pursue (and catch!) the love of her life. She
has been writing for fifteen years, and always enjoyed sharing her
stories and listening to the readers' reactions. After playing with
science fiction, short stories and poetry, she is now trying her
hand, heart and words at paranormal romance novels.
To see
her stories, including free short stories and sample chapters, visit
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