Dead on My Feet
 THE
LIVING DEAD WERE MAKING HIS LIFE A LIVING HELL . . .
A year ago, Chris Csejthe (pronounced "Chay-tay")
was completely human - then a blood transfusion from the Lord of the
Undead changed everything. No/w he is a hunted man, sought by human and
vampire alike for the secrets he knows and the powers that his mutated
blood may bestow. So far he's dodged undead assassins, werewolves, a
6,000-year-old Egyptian necromancer, and Vlad Dracula himself. But now
he's really got problems.
The dead are turning up on his doorstep after dark
to ask for justice and the police want to know where all those corpses are
coming from. Undead terrorists are testing a doomsday virus on his new
hometown and he's caught in the crossfire between a white supremacist
militia and the resurrected Civil War dead. His werewolf lover, jealous of
his dead wife's ghost, has left him. And the centuries-old and still very
beautiful (and very deadly) Countess Bathory is determined to have his
uniquely transformed blood for her own dark purposes.
Now, more than ever, life sucks!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wm. Mark Simmons is the author of five novels. His first, In The Net
of Dreams, was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award and made the
Locus "Best" list in 1991. That novel, with its two sequels, When
Dreams Collide and the new novel The Woman of His Dreams, have
recently been published in one hardcover volume by Meisha Merlin
Publishing. For Baen he wrote the popular and critically praised One
Foot in the Grave, to which Dead on My Feet is a sequel.
Simmons has worked as a teacher, actor, director, musician, and
entertainer, hosting his own shows on both television and radio while
winning awards as a journalist and copywriter. He currently manages a
public radio station in Louisiana, and hosts a classical music program.
Cover design and illustrations by Patrick Turner
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Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real
people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First printing, June 2003
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN: 0-7434-3610-5
Copyright 2003 by William Mark Simmons
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com
Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH
Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com
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Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,
and if you gaze into the Abyss,
the Abyss gazes also into you.
—Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Beyond Good And Evil
Flectere si nequeo Superos,
Acheronta movebo.
(If I cannot move Heaven,
I can raise Hell.)
—Virgil
The Aeneid
Author's Note:
This is a work of fiction.
The twin cities of Monroe and West Monroe actually exist on the banks of the beautiful Ouachita River, however names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual business establishments, events, specific locales, the U.S. government, or persons living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
This one's for Dennis, friend & author.
While a number of people contributed time and advice, he beat me mercilessly with a blue pencil through conception and rewrites.
Any faults within are mine for advice ignored.
Baen Books
by Wm. Mark Simmons
One Foot in the Grave
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