REGINA PUCKETT: Soul Sipper

The Soul Sipper

“Damn.” Jericho hated it when the young brats just didn’t die. But for some reason they seemed to fight the hardest at the end.  Was it because they thought they had so much to live for?

Stupid bitch didn’t have enough common sense to know there wasn’t a single thing on earth worth the agony. Maybe there was in hell but not here, not in this trashy dump.

 The aged vampire kicked the writhing figure in the stomach and sneered, “Why don’t you die already? I don’t have all night to stand here.”

He knelt and pulled her long blonde hair away from the two seeping wounds on her neck. The alluring aroma pulled at Jericho until he had to lick the last few drops from her punctured skin. 

The taste brought a smile to his bloodstained lips.

“So sweet.” And so worth the wait – innocent virgin souls were by far the best tasting but the hardest to come by these days. Its innocence settled onto his tongue like the cotton candy he remembered eating as a boy.  Jericho lapped up each delicious drop and groaned when there was nothing left, not even a lick.

Jericho backed away from the corpse. “It’s about damn time.”

The girl’s blood and soul seeped through his dried up veins, filling them with renewed life. Jericho’s black eyes turned a beautiful blue – the same color the girl’s had possessed before her untimely and unnatural death.  The depraved vampire didn’t know, nor would he have cared, that the girl’s mother had once compared the color of her eyes to the sky on a cloudless day. Their serene hue now looked out of place in the stone-cold killer’s face, their innocence a stark contrast against his sin-etched skin.

Jericho drew in a few deep breaths, now energized by her blood.  Its purity gave him the same euphoric high he remembered from so many years ago, during his drug-dependent days. Nothing had ever felt so good or freeing since he had become immortal.

He spun in circles and laughed.  Unexpected joy surged through Jericho, now dizzy with emotion and passion.  

But just as quickly as the laughter had come, it stopped, leaving him light-headed and unsteady as he tried to stand still, his mind continuing to spin on. Jericho almost fell over as intense pain replaced his joyful high and he doubled over, trying hard to stave off the agony.

Jericho gipped, his throat filling with vomit which he fought down, fearful of losing his precious meal.  Her soul was his; no way would he lose such a prized gift.

His muscles contracted and seized, forcing him to straighten. Then Jericho’s eyes bulged, alarmingly, until they finally exploded. His old weathered skin cracked and split, and from which rays of light shot out, lighting the dark alleyway until no corner remained hidden.

Finally, a piercing scream shattered the otherwise silent night as the young girl’s soul escaped its black prison, leaving but faint traces of vampire dust covering the empty crates and trash that littered the alleyway.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Regina Puckett is a 2014 Readers' Favorite Award winning author for her sweet romance, Concealed in My Heart. Her steampunk book, I Will Breathe, and her children's picture book, Borrowed Wings, both received the Children's Literary Classic Seal of Approval. "I Will Breathe" was selected as a Science Fiction Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards.

Memories, won first place in the 1st WSBR International Poetry Contest, and her collection of poetry, Fireflies, won the 2013 Turning Pages Poetry Book of the Year.

Regina Puckett has been writing for over forty-eight years, and lives in Tennessee with her husband of over forty years. She has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She writes sweet romances, horror, inspirational, steampunk, picture books and poetry. There are always several projects in various stages of completion and characters and stories waiting in the wings for their chance to finally get out of her head and onto paper.

Please come and visit me at: 

Facebook 

Website

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY

SIX ecopies of Books I and II of Regina Puckett’s SHORT TALES OF HORROR are up for grabs! To win: go to the Official FB Event Page; find the post announcing  today’s giveaway; and comment, “I WANT TO WIN” in that post and you just might!!!

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Regina Puckett's Short Tales of Horror

Mine

A night of ghost hunting with a sexy coworker turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse with an evil spirit. Can anything save them when the spirit decides they belong to him? Crying through Plastic Eyes: A messy divorce, a room filled with creepy dolls, and a missing six-year-old all create the perfect storm for a young mother’s worse nightmare.

Will Work for Food

You see them everywhere begging for money or food. When an older couple decides to lend a helping hand to a young man and his son, someone gets more than they bargain for.

Pieces

A battered woman confesses to the mutilation and death of her husband, but did she really commit this heinous crime?

Paying the Hitchhiker

You see a beautiful young woman on the side of the road with her thumb out, asking for a ride. Who should be the most afraid: the hitchhiker or the person picking her up?

Inheritance

A confession from Accalia’s grandmother about a curse and an inheritance are just the prologue to seven days of suffering through a living hell..

Short Tales of Horror Part II

Ours

While Sheriff Wilson has no idea what really transpired the night twelve people were murdered in the old mental hospital during what was supposed to be a simple night of ghost hunting, he was at the scene moments after the lone survivor committed suicide. Now it’s a year later and a group of paranormal investigators want to set up a haunted house and invite the general public in that same abandoned mental hospital. How is he supposed to keep that many people safe from whoever or whatever killed the last group?

Silent Baby Screams

Gwen doesn't understand why her husband resents their newborn baby so much, but she never suspects that one day she'll return home from work to discover their baby boy has simply vanished. What happens next is the stuff of nightmares.

Lucky Thirteen

Thirteen black cats help keep watch over a bedridden, old lady. Sometimes the number thirteen is lucky but then again it might just depend on it who you are.

Pay Back

There’s nothing usual about Jeremy waking up late for school, but on this particular morning something feels different. When he goes downstairs to face the music, he finds his grandmother waiting for him but no one else appears to be at home. Jeremy believes he’s caught a lucky break and his mother and father won’t get to know, but he soon discovers that not everything is as it seems. He finds he’ll have to face up to his mistakes, though, and maybe even suffer a little payback himself.

Slimmer

Sandy loves her new boyfriend, but ever since they moved in together, Donald won’t get off her back about how much she eats. When he offers her a new miracle diet pill, she decides to try one just to shut him up. Unfortunately, there are unexpected side effects that take them both by terrifying surprise.

Sam I am

The morning after moving into her dream home with her young daughter and husband, Paige learns that the three story, 18th century house might be haunted. She then finds that her daughter has a new imaginary friend called Sam I Am. It isn’t long before Paige’s perfect home turns into a living nightmare.