Carpe Corpus
Authors: Rachel Caine
Table of Contents
“Addictive and hypnotic. If Rachel Caine is
not on your autobuy list, put her there
immediately, if not sooner.”
—The Eternal Night
Praise for the Morganville Vampires Series
Feast of Fools
“Fast-paced and filled with action . . . fans of the series will appreciate
Feast of Fools
.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“Thrilling. . . . In sharing her well-imagined world, Ms. Caine gives readers the danger-filled supernatural moments they crave while adding friendship, romance, and teen issues to give the story a realistic feel. A fast-moving series where there’s always a surprise just around every dark corner.”—Darque Reviews
“Very entertaining . . . I could not put
Feast of Fools
down. . . . There is a level of tension in the Morganville books that keeps you on the edge of your seat; even in the background scenes you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it always does.”—Flames Rising
“I thoroughly enjoyed reading
Feast of Fools
. . . it was fantastic. . . . The excitement and suspense . . . is thrilling and I was fascinated reading about the town of Morganville. I greatly look forward to reading the next book in this series and catching up with the other books. I highly recommend
Feast of Fools
to paranormal readers for a delightful and fun read that you won’t want to put down.”—Fresh Fiction
Midnight Alley
“A fast-paced, page-turning read packed with wonderful characters and surprising plot twists. Rachel Caine is an engaging writer; readers will be completely absorbed in this chilling story, unable to put it down until the last page. . . . For fans of vampire books, this is one that shouldn’t be missed!”—Flamingnet
“Weaves a web of dangerous temptation, dark deceit, and loving friendships. The nonstop vampire action and delightfully sweet relationships will captivate readers and leave them craving more.”—Darque Reviews
The Dead Girls’ Dance
“It was hard to put this down for even the slightest break . . . forget what happens to the kid with the scar and glasses, I want to know what happens next in Morganville. If you love to read about characters with whom you can get deeply involved, Rachel Caine is so far a one hundred percent sure bet to satisfy that need. I love her Weather Warden stories, and her vampires are even better.”—The Eternal Night
“Throw in a mix of vamps and ghosts, and it can’t get any better than
Dead Girls’ Dance
.”
—Dark Angel Reviews
Glass Houses
“Rachel Caine brings her brilliant ability to blend witty dialogue, engaging characters, and an intriguing plot.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“A rousing horror thriller that adds a new dimension to the vampire mythos. . . . [A] heroine the audience will admire and root for as she swallows her trepidations to ensure her friend and roomies are safe. The key to this fine tale is her plausible reactions to living in a town run by vampires that make going to college in the Caine universe quite an experience.
Glass Houses
is an electrifying, enthralling coming-of-age supernatural tale.”
—
Midwest Book Review
Praise for Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden Series
“You’ll never watch the Weather Channel the same way again.”—Jim Butcher
“Rachel Caine takes the Weather Wardens to places the Weather Channel never imagined!”—Mary Jo Putney
“The Weather Warden series is fun reading . . . more engaging than most TV.”—
Booklist
“A fast-paced thrill ride [that] brings new meaning to stormy weather.”—
Locus
“An appealing heroine with a wry sense of humor that enlivens even the darkest encounters.”—SF Site
THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES NOVELS
Glass Houses
The Dead Girls’ Dance
Midnight Alley
Feast of Fools
Lord of Misrule
Carpe Corpus
NAL Jam
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First published by NAL Jam, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, June 2009
Copyright © Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, 2009
eISBN : 978-1-101-05974-6
All rights reserved
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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For absent friends Tim and Ter. I miss you.
For my dear and constant Cat.
And for present friends Pat, Jackie, Jo, Sharon, Heidi,
Bill, and all of ORAC!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There were many people who helped me out with technical review, including:
Amie
Jenn Clack
Stephanie Hill
Alan Balthrop
Loa Ledbetter
CJ
Minde Briscoe
Trisha
Joann Casper
Lisa Lapkovitch
Bethany
Virginia
Sharon Sams
Also, a special note for someone I left out of the dedication for
Feast of Fools
even though I promised to put her in:
Sarah Magilnick
Sarah, I’m very sorry for leaving you out. It was completely my fault.
1
“Happy birthday, honey!”
In the glow of the seventeen candles on Claire’s birthday cake, her mother looked feverishly happy, wearing the kind of forced smile that was way too com mon around the Danvers house these days.
It was way too common all over Morganville, Texas. People smiled because they had to, or else.
Now it was Claire’s turn to suck it up and fake it.
“Thanks, Mom,” she said, and stretched her lips into something that didn’t really feel like a smile at all. She rose from her chair at the kitchen table to blow out the candles. All seventeen of the flames guttered and went out at her first puff.
I wish . . .
She didn’t dare wish for
anything
, and that, more than anything else, made frustration and anger and grief roll over her in a hot, sticky wave. This wasn’t the birthday she’d been planning for the past six months, since she’d arrived in Morganville. She’d been counting on a party at her home, with her friends. Michael would have played his guitar, and she could almost see that lost, wonderful smile he had when he was deep in the music. Eve, cheerfully and defiantly Goth, would have baked some outrageous and probably inedible cake in the shape of a bat, with licorice icing and black candles. And Shane . . .
Shane would have . . .
Claire couldn’t think about Shane, because it made her breath lock up in her throat, made her eyes burn with tears. She missed him. No, that was wrong . . .
missed him
was too mild. She
needed
him
.
But Shane was locked up in a cage in the center of town, along with his father, the idiot vampire hunter.
She still couldn’t quite get her head around the fact that Morganville—a normal, dusty Texas town in the middle of nowhere—was run by vampires. But she could believe
that
more easily than the idea that Frank Collins was somehow going to make it all better.
After all, she’d met the man.
Bishop—the new master vampire of Morganville—was planning something splashy in the way of executions for Frank and Shane, which apparently was the old-school standard for getting rid of humans with ideas of grandeur. Nobody had bothered to fill her in on the details, and she guessed she should be grateful for that. It would certainly be medievally awful.
The worst thing about that, for Claire, was that there seemed to be nothing she could do to stop it.
Nothing.
What was the use of being a main evil minion if you couldn’t even enjoy it—or save your own friends?
Evil minion.
Claire didn’t like to think of herself that way, but Eve had flung it at her the last time they’d spoken.
And of course, as always, Eve was right.
A slice of birthday cake—vanilla, with vanilla frosting and little pastel sprinkles (and the exact opposite of what Eve would have baked)—landed in front of her, on her mom’s second-best china. Mom had made the cake from scratch, even the frosting; she didn’t believe in ready-made anything. It’d be delicious, but Claire already knew that she wouldn’t care. Eve’s fantasy cake would have tasted awful, left her teeth and tongue black, and Claire would have loved every bite.