July 2024 WipWordSearch Excerpts Week 1

“More vampires like Jericho? #Oh no, I think we’ll only get one vampire farm boy who can bench press a full-grown bull.”

Her pale skin was a deep red mess #of fresh, blotched contusions, massive abrasions, and stitches holding together deep lacerations and puncture wounds. A hip spica cast encased her hips and the top #of her right leg, and her arm and nose were bandaged.

The familiar scents of aroma therapy oils, wood glue, paint, and fresh seasonings enveloped his senses. He thought he could pick #out peppermint this time, although it was faint amid tomato and basil.

Thomas braced himself to be splashed with the burning water, but the man did not fling the bottle. Instead he held it #over his knife and let the crystal clear substance drip onto the blade.

“I don’t know what that bloated tick you call a boss told you, jackass, but that knife won’t keep me from force feeding you your own balls. Now why don’t you piss #off?”

Julia followed through with a wild left punch that crashed into the biker’s face and knocked a fang and several #other teeth to the sidewalk.

A small #object was lodged deep into Charles’ muscle, and Thomas had to abandon the forceps and use a scalpel to cut it out.

You’d be surprised how much supernatural stuff is actually out there and kept secret. For all we know, the #original witch who cursed the brothers is still alive, boiling eye of newt and eating children or whatever.

“Thomas just went through a pretty big change in his life. I mean, a huge change. Pretty much the biggest humanly possible.”

#Oh no.

“Or inhumanly,” Sean added as an afterthought.

Shit.

The brief stench of sunscreen and a gagging mixture #of rotting eggs, cabbage, and mothballs on the dawn’s breeze made her nose itch.

A vampire was near her apartment.

She slunk to her window and crouched #out of sight. The wolf in her mind whined for a fight, to chase down the invading bloodsucker.

She’d dropped a small fortune on the potion #over the years. Sometimes she hated how much she’d spent on them, but she despised the alternative. Such was the life of a modern werewolf.

The hairs on her arms and neck rose as the wolf’s predatory instinct flared. “If they’re trying to run us out, they’ve bitten #off more than they can chew.”

“I need extra pairs of eyes while we’re hunting. I can hold down the fort long enough for you and a few #others to make your kill, but after you do it, you’ll have to override your wolf’s mind but stay in the lupine form. Help me control the chaos.”

That all changed as soon as that same, small #object broke the skin.

When the full moon forced the transformation, the wolf was allowed full control, as the #original caster of the curse had no doubt intended.