Keeping busy is certainly important now more than ever and, as always, I’ve been busy as a bee this week. Today, my latest venture went live on Amazon: the paperback “boxed-set” of all three Bloodline series novels. That’s right… three full-length novels in one mammoth book (823 pages, guys… sheesh!). So, in celebration of this wonderfulness, I’m going to share a little something from the first book, BLOODLINE.
Though I’ve written several books, and hopefully will go on to write many more, BLOODLINE will always be my “first-born”. It started its life as a screenplay called The Devil Inside. Inspired by music from INXS and Def Leppard, as well as a re-viewing of The Lost Boys, the story was originally about a male cop in LA who gets attacked by a werewolf. After some valuable feedback from writing peers, Sam became a female cop and the location moved to more familiar territory: New York City. At the time I had never been to the city (it was a couple of years after the original script was finished before I actually had the opportunity to live there for a time) but with the help of some stellar guidebooks and a good imagination, I created a world that was so real people from NYC complimented the accuracy of locations and atmosphere.
One of the biggest obstacles in adapting the screenplay into a novel was finding my muse for the character of Vincent Kremer. Vincent is the dark knight-mentor-love interest for the female lead, Sam Karolyi, and breathing life into this character proved difficult until I discovered a then-mostly-unknown Irish actor named Aidan Turner. He’s a bit more well-known now, thanks to a little show called Poldark *winks*
Anyway, here is a memorable scene from BLOODLINE… the first meeting between Sam Karolyi and Vincent Kremer… Enjoy!
The Hooded Man continued to watch the body until nothing remained but a darkened patch where the body had been. He holstered his weapon and pushed back the sweatshirt hood. He ran a hand through his wavy black hair, causing longish pieces on the top of his head to stand at odd angles. He looked to be in his early thirties, but a kind of dark maturity gave him an air of timelessness. His eyes were dark, a rich coffee brown that verged on black, with heavy black eyebrows rising above them. She’d been a little over-generous in her height estimation; with the hood back, he was tall, but his wiry build gave him an illusion of greater height.
He watched Sam for a moment before he stepped away from the melting site and joined her by the tree.
“You all right?”
Sam was silent, staring at the spot where Franco, or whatever he had become, had melted away.
The Hooded Man watched her a moment more, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of soft white cloth. He reached over, dabbing at the blood that had trickled down her neck from the cut Franco had made. He dabbed once, twice; as he reached to dab a third time, Sam shivered slightly, grabbed his hand.
She watched his face relax a bit as he released the cloth into her hand. “That was a little close, wasn’t it?” His voice had a bit of an accent, maybe Irish or something. That wasn’t going to help her concentration.
Sam blotted at her neck, glared at the handsome man in front of her. “Close, yeah, thanks. What was that?”
The Hooded Man glanced at the melting scene then looked back at Sam. “Some poor bastard infected with LV.”
Sam stopped blotting. “LV?”
“Lycanthropic Virus.”
Sam gave him a blank look. “I’m sorry, I left my medical encyclopedia in my other coat. What does that mean exactly?”
“A virus which causes Lycanthropy.”
“Lycanthropy, I see.” Sam moved away from the tree and began to make big circles as she scanned the ground searching for her phone. She stopped suddenly. “Wait a minute. Is that, like, werewolves?”
“Like, yeah. What are you looking for?”
“My phone,” she groaned, resuming her search. “Werewolves, huh? Not to antagonize the crazy person or anything, but when was the last time you had a CAT scan?”
“Six months ago.”
Her phone appeared in front of her face. Sam looked up at the Hooded Man, took the phone from him. He raised his other hand; Sam’s Lorcin pistol hung before her eyes.
Sam hesitated a second, then took her gun, tossing him a small smile in thanks. “Uh-huh, well, you need another one.”
Want to read more of Sam and Vincent bantering? Curious about this mysterious virus and what happens next? You can find BLOODLINE on your favorite e-book platform HERE.
Peace, Love & Muchness
GABRIELLA MESSINA WRITES 