The body’s desire to live was stronger than anything, even despair. In the midst of a life so horrible Jess often thought she’d already died and somehow deserved Hell-though she couldn’t recall her crime-Farida had given her a spark of light. In contrast, Farida had remained significant to her. That mattered, though in truth, she’d been sick for so long, she couldn’t even recall why that was as important as it had once seemed. At least Raithe would never torment anyone again. Creatures lived, creatures died, and their bones became sand like this. The reason she was dying now was a mere dot in the overall scheme of things, as was the dead vampire who’d caused her wasting illness. She didn’t count killing Lord Raithe, her vampire master, as important. Though she’d had to learn about it primarily from within the walls of her prison, she’d done little else of importance during the past several years but study this, her final destination. But the history of the area was still mapped on this wasteland, if one had trained eyes. She felt almost at home here.Īs the largest desert in the world, this was a place where one could walk for days-if one had the constitution of a camel-and see no other human life. Now it, too, was a barren skeleton that repelled most sensible life forms. Barely two years ago, her body had been vigorous and fertile. Since she’d come here to die, it was a point of interest. Jessica wondered which face the Sahara preferred. Had it been cosmic boredom? A need for a different perspective? Life giver, life taker.

It had happened three or four thousand years ago, barely a blink in the nine-billion-year life of Earth, but in that blink, Heaven and Hell had switched places. Then the Earth’s orbit changed, the sun came a little closer, and the land altered, becoming a desert that swallowed armies.

Lush, a verdant land support ing civilizations.

Beloved Vampire by Joey W. Hill