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This was originally posted to the Bring-Your-Own-Book-Club comm on Pillowfort for the April 2020 Challenge--a short story--on April 30, 2020.
* * *
Title: Cade vs. the Bloody Benders
Author: Christopher Farnsworth
Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Historical fiction
Collection (if applicable): None
General thoughts: This isn't a short story so much as an outtake. Farnsworth originally wrote it for the first novel in his Nathaniel Cade series, Blood Oath, but it didn't really fit, so he removed it. I think he also tried to fit it into the next book or two before giving up and posting it on his website. It's now gone from his website for some reason and posted to Forces of Geek with a copyright dated at least five years after I originally read it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's still the same story, though.
Why did you choose this story? I love Nathaniel Cade. I've never understood the appeal of sparkly sex god emo vampires. I like my vampires to be monsters, so it's rare that I read books with a vampire protagonist (I think The Vampire Files series by P.N. Elrod were the only other ones). Nathaniel Cade was turned against his will in the 1860s and later bound to the office of the president of the United States by voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Cade now protects the United States from all supernatural enemies both foreign and domestic.
Cade is not a sparkly sex god emo vampire. He doesn't seduce women, because he doesn't believe in having sex with his food. He's a monster, he knows he's a monster, and he has zero amounts of angst about being a monster. There is nothing he likes more than facing a supernatural threat that's stronger than he is because then he doesn't have to hold himself back. He is a complete and total badass and Farnsworth is really good at portraying that.
Hence, this story. These Benders are based on a real family from Kansas who committed a series of murders in the early 1870s (they were also featured in an episode of Supernatural back in season 1). Cade is such a BAMF he took down three of them without even getting out of his chair.
URL/Website link: Clickety-click.
* * *
Title: Cade vs. the Bloody Benders
Author: Christopher Farnsworth
Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Historical fiction
Collection (if applicable): None
General thoughts: This isn't a short story so much as an outtake. Farnsworth originally wrote it for the first novel in his Nathaniel Cade series, Blood Oath, but it didn't really fit, so he removed it. I think he also tried to fit it into the next book or two before giving up and posting it on his website. It's now gone from his website for some reason and posted to Forces of Geek with a copyright dated at least five years after I originally read it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's still the same story, though.
Why did you choose this story? I love Nathaniel Cade. I've never understood the appeal of sparkly sex god emo vampires. I like my vampires to be monsters, so it's rare that I read books with a vampire protagonist (I think The Vampire Files series by P.N. Elrod were the only other ones). Nathaniel Cade was turned against his will in the 1860s and later bound to the office of the president of the United States by voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Cade now protects the United States from all supernatural enemies both foreign and domestic.
Cade is not a sparkly sex god emo vampire. He doesn't seduce women, because he doesn't believe in having sex with his food. He's a monster, he knows he's a monster, and he has zero amounts of angst about being a monster. There is nothing he likes more than facing a supernatural threat that's stronger than he is because then he doesn't have to hold himself back. He is a complete and total badass and Farnsworth is really good at portraying that.
Hence, this story. These Benders are based on a real family from Kansas who committed a series of murders in the early 1870s (they were also featured in an episode of Supernatural back in season 1). Cade is such a BAMF he took down three of them without even getting out of his chair.
URL/Website link: Clickety-click.
