Kelly Meding, writing as her character Evangeline Stone, gives us a one of a kind introduction to Dreg City, the setting of her latest book Another Kind of Dead.
Would a City by Any Other Name….
(…Be as Freaking Dangerous?)
By Evangeline Stone
I’ll tell you a secret: this city isn’t really called Dreg City.
First of all, that’s just a stupid name for a place. Usually, if it’s X City, it’s named after the state it’s in (Oklahoma City, Kansas City), what it’s close to (Atlantic City, Ocean City), or somebody important (Jefferson City). Gives it a pretty good association, right? The name of a place isn’t used to describe the nefarious underbelly of the metro area—I mean, no one’s ever heard of Irish Mob City.
Second of all, the Dregs are a (somewhat poorly kept) secret, and they don’t exactly like to advertise their existence. We just call it Dreg City because there’s no way in hell we’re telling you where we really are. You don’t need to know that.
I’ll tell you what you need to know.
Half a million people live here, according to the last census, and I’ll lay even odds that close to a quarter of that total is not human. You see, vampires and shape-shifters can pass as human, and they live and work openly among us. But it’s the creatures who hide in the shadows because they can’t pass that you have to worry about: goblins, trolls, gremlins, gnomes, and their ilk. Plus the occasional genetically engineered hybrid monster. It used to be the Triads (three human Hunters, trained hard to die young) kept the Dregs in line.
Things have changed.
A few weeks ago, I was murdered by goblins as part of a plan to stir up serious trouble between humans and the darker races. My devastated boss Wyatt (who was secretly in love with me) fell for a happily-ever-after pitch from an elf and sold his free will for a spell to bring me back to life. Since resurrection spells don’t come with receipts or money-back guarantees, we had to get creative in getting his free will back. Along the way, I made friends with a vampire, killed a bunch of goblins, got to see a fairy-lair firsthand, and watched Wyatt die (don’t worry, he got better and got his free will back).
After the goblins were handed their collective asses and sent underground, we got a whole new problem in the form of a high-level human conspiracy (or so we thought) against the shape-shifters. Plus a were-osprey named Phin tricked me into protecting another pregnant were and her unborn child (which did not go over well with anyone, shifter or human). The ruling body of weres was already having some loyalty issues and this just made things worse. After defying my Triad bosses and nearly dying (again) to save Phin’s life, the weres decided they liked me, the humans turned against me, and I realized against my better judgment that I’d fallen in love with Wyatt.
It’s only been two weeks since my resurrection, and already Dreg City feels like a foreign place. Tensions are high, people are switching sides, and a lot of things I once thought were true have been uncovered as lies. And my gut tells me it’s only going to get worse.
