One Kiss is the first part in E.J Kimelman's Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy serial: Transmissions from the International Council for the Exploration of the Universe.
**This is a 27,000 word installment of a serial and ends on a cliffhanger. **
The International Council for the Exploration of the Universe exists to consider and conduct investigations into the dimensions of the Universe; to examine how far humans are being depleted by zombies; to investigate natural methods, such as by breeding, etc., of keeping up the stock; and in cases of certain future failure of supply to suggest the necessary remedial measures. For the most part it deals with the humans common to all dimensions, but a special sub-committee considers the vampires, and a second the shifters; disembodied spirits are not investigated.
In this transmission....
A new, dangerous street drug is spreading through Crescent City. A hallucinogen that causes violent attacks, incredible strength, and leaves its victims in a permanently altered state.
Darling Price's band, Higgs and the Bosons, is on the verge of their big break. If only she could get her act together and play the way she did before her best friend and musical inspiration, Megan Quick, fell fatally ill, then disappeared.
Even though it's been months, Darling can't stop looking for Megan. Still hoping to find her alive is insane. Her obsession is pissing off her band mates and Darling is worried it might trigger her hallucinations. She hasn't been sick since Megan and she ran away from their foster home to Crescent City at the age of 13.
As the drug spreads through the city and the world begins to unravel, Darling's lack of musical inspiration becomes the least of her problems as she comes to recognize that all of her assumptions about the universe may be wrong.