The Prince of Lies: Marko Jaks
Balancing Act
by T. Glenn Bane and Theresa Bane

Chasing a vampiric ghost through fog is never easy. It gets even more tricky when it’s a moonless night in North Carolina and you’re somewhere along the Appalachian Trail trying to remember if the cliff’s edge is to your immediate right or left. Not that it mattered; I was completely disoriented and had to make a decision fast. No matter the vampire or its form, this is a game of blood and these monsters play for keeps. The fiend that I had been tracking, a misplaced species of vampire originating from the Caribbean called a jumbie, was wailing out a cry filled with pain, hunger and desperation. As soon as its bellow ended the creature would charge again, forcing me to act.

I had two options. Plan A: I could take the gut wrenching blow it’d deliver as it passed rough-shot through my body, hoping the assault would still leave me on my feet and give me time enough to get my bearings. If this worked I could try a counter attack in the hope of crippling it when it came back around. Plan B was much simpler: I dive for cover in a random direction, taking my chances that I didn’t nose dive off a cliff. In theory, this would buy enough time to look for my hunting partner, Thomas Kyd, who had the weapon we needed to destroy this thing. We split up about an hour ago to widen our search, and I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

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