Rainville
E. Lee Zimmerman
Author Bio
E. Lee Zimmerman wrote his first “epic” in the sixth grade – a gripping science fiction yarn pitting Earth’s first sentient robot against a supreme galactic threat. His teacher promptly rewarded him with a trip to the principal’s office. Although suspecting he was in trouble, the truth turned out to be much more benign: The Powers That Be were only interested in encouraging that impressionable young lad to continue exploring his craft but ‘go easy’ on writing short novels as homework assignments.
He kept at it, continuing to pen short stories, one-act plays, and the occasional business article for the next thirty years … but, like most budding authors, he’s spent an immeasurable amount of time toiling in obscurity, a condition he’s hoping to now change with the self-publication of Rainville. Vampires figure prominently into the world he’s created, but they’re a far cry from the cuddly teenagers populating the literary scene as of late. He returns them to a point where they began as monsters mankind had every cause to fear. While this book in what he’s planning to be an ongoing “Tales of the Freeborn Saga” isn’t the first novel he’s written, it is the first novel he’s actively promoted.
He lives in Arizona with his lovely wife and an endless number of stray animals who rely on him for sustenance and goodwill.
Description
In days of old, human immigrants arrived to the United States at Ellis Island. They were registered and allowed entry into the new world where they could start a life, make a living, and even begin a family.
But what about the inhuman ones? What of the Undead?
They, too, had a private port-of-entry. It was a dark stop lying just to the north of New York City in a waterfront town known as Port Gallows. There, the first thing these arrivals saw was the waiting scaffolds and a dangled hangman’s noose. The town elders put it there to serve as a warning to them that America – the land of opportunity – will not tolerate the lawlessness these monsters have known before. So long as the Undead follow The Code, they were free to come-and-go as they pleased … but the minute they strayed from those simple rules they were put to death without question or defense.
Thirty years ago, those same town elders threw Delbert Mills out of the city of Port Gallows.
Those who remember call it ‘Blood Town,’ a horrific scandal that sent shock waves through the small coastal community. It was the day an entire Clan of Vampires met their bitter end. So far as he cared, Mills knew those vampires wanted a fight, and all he did was send them to their grave as a price for disobeying The Code. For his part in the affair, he was exiled from the home he’d been sworn to defend.
Thirty years later, Delbert Mills may be the only man who can save them.
Vampires have run loose over Port Gallows. When a bloodsucker sets his sights on murdering one of the Freeborn — a secret caste of warriors officially sanctioned to police the Undead — Mills will be drawn back into a mystery almost as old as he is …
… and it may cost more lives than his own.
However, he won’t be able to serve justice alone. He’ll return to the Rainville Social Club, and he’ll be joined by
Rainville is Book 1 in the Saga of the Freeborn.
Book excerpt
For better or worse, I’ve always done the right thing.
I didn’t much care what the Bible said, though I used to preach the Good Book. Folks would tell me they didn’t see a difference between followin’ a Commandment ‘n doin’ right by their fellow man. I’d tell ‘em that knowin’ right from wrong didn’t make it so. Ya gotta do good in order for it to have meanin’. Anyway, I did what I’d been told was required in my service to the Freeborn Brotherhood. I checked in with the local parish when I got to town. I checked in with the Church. Father Giannetti – the local minister – agreed to pass word up to New York. They’d pass it wherever it needed to land. I never expected to hear back. I never did.
After I pissed in the privacy of the woods, I found the man waitin’ ‘neath the trees along the edge of our drive.
“I presume it’s safe, Brother Mills?” he asked.
“Is what safe?”
“It’s sun-up,” he reminded me. “I assume your children are asleep.”
“Could be,” I said, “but, just so’s ya know, that’s a myth.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“That whole burnin’ up in sunlight? It ain’t true. See, rays from the sun damage ‘em plenty, but it takes time. A vampire’s heart is dead. When vamps move around the blood circulates all of its own. The body becomes one big pump. Blood ain’t coursin’ through their veins, not the way it does through yours ‘n mine. Blood has to soak in. Too much sunlight gives vampires a nasty burn that takes a while to heal, so it ain’t good for ‘em. They sure as shit don’t much care for it. But it’d take quite a long time to kill one.”
The man visibly swallowed, then turned pale. “I see.”
“The myths of man remain just myths.”
“That they do.”
Slowly, he glanced past my shoulder. I figured he’d be on the look-out now that he feared for his safety.
“Ya can rest easy, Father,” I said. “Vampires don’t much care for men o’ the cloth, seein’ the part we played in writin’ the Code they follow.”
“Weren’t you a man of the cloth?”
“I was. I gave it up.”
Enthusiastic, he smiled. “That’s good to know. About the sunlight, I mean. I’m sorry to hear that you … that you set the calling aside …”
“How can I help ya?” I quickly cut ‘im off.
Clearin’ his throat, he studied me briefly. “I registered your presence with my superiors. Last night, I received a telephone call from Father McKinnon out of Port Gallows.”
“I know Father Mack well enough.”
“He asked for me to tell you that you’re needed back in the city.”
His words hit me like a brick in the chest. My stomach grew cold. I thought I felt sweat on my palms, so I rubbed ‘em together, then on my pants. I blinked.
The sun suddenly shone a bit brighter.
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