Imagine an earth just a bit different from ours. In this world normals unknowingly share the planet with all manner of beings, including vampyres, most of whom rely on bagged blood, which is supplemented by the blood of sabors, valued individuals whose blood contains an element necessary for the survival of the species. Tyrell Small has always felt different. He just never knew how different. On his sixteenth birthday, his father reveals Ty is one such sabor, with the birthmark to prove it. Upon learning he’ll be required to feed vampyres, Ty decides he’s not having any of that. He’ll run away and make his own destiny. Slipping out his second story bedroom window, he finds Adam Dasani, the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen, waiting for him on the roof. Adam is reluctant to distress the young sabor about to slide down the drainpipe, but he’s one of the vampyres Ty will one day feed. Equerry to the vampyre king, Adam had been given the task of guarding Ty on the day he was born. Because the blood of the two most powerful saborese families in the shared history of vampyres and sabors runs through Ty’s veins, some vampyres will do anything to obtain him for themselves. It will be up to Adam to keep Ty safe, not only from those rogue vampyres but from others who have plans of their own for him. Everyone keeps telling Ty he can’t escape his destiny, but he has no intention of sitting around twiddling his thumbs, waiting for life to catch up with him. However, will something Adam inadvertently said give Ty a way to live the life he wants and keep those he loves -- including Adam -- out of danger?

They Come by Night

I laughed, snorting coffee from my nose, as my second grade class put on a Thanksgiving skit. The girls were going to prepare the feast while we boys went out to hunt for the main course. The recording of a turkey gobble sounded, Jimmy dropped to a knee and braced an imaginary gun in the palm of his left hand, à la all the cop shows we watched, and he took aim at a tree. I stood to the side, staring at him with my hands clutching my equally imaginary gun and laughing helplessly.


There were images of the Halloween party with its costume contest that took place a couple of years later. Dad had gotten some green face paint, and while I smeared it all over my face and hands, he blew up a bunch of green balloons. Then he helped me attach them to the green shirt and sweatpants I wore.


“You took first place with that,” he remembered proudly.


“Thanks to your help. I think that was the only time a bunch of seedless grapes won.”


Chapter 46