Mercy

Praise for
Mercy: The Last New England Vampire

“A beautifully told tale of supernatural folklore and ancestry that ends in a terrifying thrill ride readers can sink their teeth into.”

—Amanda Marrone, bestselling author of
Devoured

In her novel
, Mercy: The Last New England Vampire,
Sarah Thomson got it right. Unlike so many other young adult vampire novels that cannot escape the fanged shadow of the fictional Dracula
, Mercy
is firmly grounded in the historical reality of vampires. It is clear that the novel's main character, Haley, understands that Mercy was a scapegoat and that it was fear of a mystifying illness that drove Mercy's family to perform a horrific ritual. As Haley so poignantly says of Mercy, “this wasn't a horror movie … It was her life.”

—Michael Bell, author of
Food for the Dead

"Sarah Thomson's
Mercy
weaves the dark threads of an old New England legend into a contemporary tale of ghostly mystery that is both compelling and genuinely chilling. In a literary genre overrun with sparkling vampires and romance-novel angst, Thomson has crafted a welcome return to the shadowy terrors of graves and ghouls. I found myself unable to put the book down. A deliciously eerie way to pass a stormy night!"

—Christopher Rondina, author of
Vampires of New England

 

 

MERCY

T
HE
L
AST
N
EW
E
NGLAND
V
AMPIRE

S
ARAH
L. T
HOMSON

 

 

 

Other fiction titles from Islandport Press

Billy Boy
by Jean Flahive

Contentment Cove
and
Young
by Miriam Colwell

Windswept
,
Mary Peters
, and
Silas Crockett
by Mary Ellen Chase

Available from
www.islandportpress.com

 

T
HE
L
AST
N
EW
E
NGLAND
V
AMPIRE

S
ARAH
L. T
HOMSON

I
SLANDPORT
P
RESS
• Y
ARMOUTH

 

 

 

 

ISLANDPORT PRESS

P.O. Box 10

Yarmouth, Maine 04096

www.islandportpress.com

[email protected]

Copyright © 2011 by Sarah L. Thomson

First Islandport Press edition published September 2011

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-934031-55-1

Library of Congress Card Number: 2011925633

 

Front and back cover photos: Sarah L. Thomson

Author photo: Mark Mattos

Book jacket design: Karen Hoots / Hoots Design

Book design: Michelle Lunt / Islandport Press

Publisher: Dean Lunt

 

 

To Ann, Melissa, and Kirsten—Mercy's first fans
—S.L.T
.

I
woke that morning with blood on my pillow. Red blossoms on white linen, like roses in snow.

It was starting for me. Just as it had started for my mother and my sister.

Downstairs, I could hear Edwin coming in from the barn, carrying a bucket of fresh warm milk to the kitchen. Like any eight-year-old boy, he banged the door behind him. The sound of his voice filled the house to bursting. His spirits were exhausting. They sapped the heat from my veins.

But I was glad to hear him, all the same. When it was over for me, my father would still have his son to love.

The thought of my father made me rise from my bed, determined to wash the pillowcase before he could see. But I was suddenly dizzy from the effort of standing upright. And I caught sight of myself in the looking glass. My pale face drifted in the depths of the mirror like a drowned woman floating through fathoms of black, cold water.

I could tell. It wouldn't be long now.

“T
hat's where they burned her heart.” Haley pointed toward a low stone wall that ran along the edge of the Chestnut Hill Cemetery. “Right there.”

Melanie twisted her mouth and made a noise that sounded like
yurghch
. “Burned her heart? Why?”

“Because that's what you do with vampires.”

“I thought you drove a stake though their hearts,” Mel objected. “That's what they always do on
Buffy
.”

Haley shrugged, getting out her camera. “Maybe vampires in Rhode Island are different. Anyway, that's what they did.” She crouched down, holding the digital camera out, tilting it to try different angles. The pale slab of marble, leaning a little, centered itself in the screen and she took the photo—dirty white stone, faded grass shaggy at its feet, the late autumn sky, a chilly blue, distant behind it. The simple letters on the stone were sharp, in crisp focus. M
ERCY
L. B
ROWN
. D
AUGHTER OF
G
EORGE
T. & M
ARY
E. B
ROWN
. D
IED
J
AN
. 18, 1892. A
GED
19 Y
EARS
.