Sample Sunday

Today, a sample from one of my own books, Strong Blood, 2nd book in the Last Moon Rising series (YA fantasy).

*****

I gazed into the creamy depths of the stone of power lying heavy in my palm. I had the Air Eyid stone.

Ian, descendant of the Fire Eyid, had the Fire Eyid stone.

Slipping my necklace over my head, I jumped to my feet and paced the length of my room. I’d thought Ian, with his sexy, dark hair, eyes sharp as jade, and a Jersey Boy-jacked body, had been a hall god on Earth. He’d duped me into thinking he liked me, and tried to dupe me into giving him my Air Eyid stone. But his heart was as black as his hair, with a burnt-out, corpse of a soul. I swallowed to lubricate my parched throat. And I, in my pathetic innocence, had almost given him my Eyid stone.

Then he’d revealed his plan to me, a plan that would eliminate the Water Eyid, turn Eyidora into desert, destroy humanity, and devastate all seven globes in the planetary chain. He planned to become a new god in this new Eyidora. And then he tried to kill me. Just because I didn’t agree with him. Just because I refused to let him to destroy Eyidora. Just because I refused to hook up with him.

Now we were working against each other, each trying to find the other two missing Eyid stones before the other. A tremble worked up the backs of my legs and skittered up my spine. I shuddered once, violently, and then took a deep, calming breath. If Ian caught wind of where I was going… and why… My swallow clicked in my throat.

He would hunt me down and kill me.

I straightened, dug my nails into my palm, and lifted my chin.

I’d beat him once. In fact, I came close to killing him. I could beat him again.

It was hard keeping secrets from him, though. The gods weren’t the only ones who could ransack my head while I slept; other Eyid-emos could connect with me through dreamstate as well. And Ian was a constant nightmare, alternating between taunting me about trying to save the globe and trying to persuade me to join him. The guy was numb-nuts crazy.

Still, part of me was glad he wasn’t dead. I’d been called a lot of things — childish, selfish — but I wasn’t a killer, evil soul or not, and I was relieved not to have the weight of murder pressing my chest.

But would the globes be better off if I had killed him?

I didn’t want to think about that. I closed my eyes, and the still-childish part of me longed for my mom. There was one place I could go to feel close to her. I bolted from my room and scurried down the hall. Head down, focused on reaching the Portrait Hall – where I hoped I could sort out my nightmares and insecurities – I rounded the corner and smacked into a very firm, very warm obstruction.

An exotic, coconut scent invaded my head and warmed my veins. My breath evaporated in a tiny gasp, a mental sigh popping like a bubble inside my head. A tongue of electricity caressed my spine, and my stomach muscles spasmed. I didn’t need to lift my gaze to know what I’d just run in to.

Tuggin.

I stepped back. We stared at each other in the cold hallway, and that faint buzz of electricity I felt whenever I came into contact with Tuggin skittered over my body. My conflicted feelings about him battled in my chest, taking a couple of nicks at my heart. While my body initiated a melt-down sequence when I gazed at his ice-blue eyes, longish, dirty-blond hair, and over-all Greek Godiness, my brain registered several shortcomings in the demeanor department. Emotionally he was a void – a zero, a big, fat nothing – and snarkier than a hornet trapped in a used pee cup. Not to mention that he disliked me. Immensely.

His black tunic brushed against muscled arms and wide chest, which narrowed down to a pair of solid hips and long, strong, legs. I bit my lip, trying to not think about what lay beneath those clothes. I tried to douse the heat slipping through my gut, but the flare of nostrils indicated Tuggin had already spied the taint of my infatuation. I sucked my lips between my teeth. Damn, but he was serious hall-god material.

Tuggin leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. His gaze held the warmth of a glacier and the softness of boulder. I tried to meet him glare for glare, the trickling warmth that had ignited my spine a moment ago icing over.

As my Menta-protecter, Tuggin always knew what I was feeling, and what I was thinking. Mentas were trained to fight, to influence people’s thoughts, and to read emotions. Those powers made them pretty well-suited to protecting Council members and Eyid-emos. That was, of course, before the war had erupted generations ago, and those Council members and Eyid-emos who weren’t killed went into hiding. At that point, the Mentas took control of Eyidora.

Those powers also enabled Mentas to become very adept at assassination.

And Tuggin was dammed good at his job; he’d saved my ass on more than one occasion.

I lifted my chin. I was descendant of the Air Eyid, and I had the same powers as Tuggin. And I was learning to use them. Uncle Sal had been teaching me to block lunta intrusion so that no one could force me to do anything against my will. Hiding my emotions, however, was impossible. My emotions always seemed to erupt, no matter how hard I tried to empty my body of feeling.

Tuggin’s gaze melted down my body like butter, then slid back up, coming to rest on my necklace. Goose bumps collided against my skin. I wrapped my arms over my chest, aware that my nightgown didn’t hide much, and wished I’d at least grabbed a bathrobe. And why hadn’t I used the comb to brush my tangled hair rather than pry the board from my wall?

“Going somewhere?” he asked.

I sighed in response to his lilting voice; an alien, seductive voice that had the power to seduce a nun from her convent. Realizing I was melting, I straightened my spine and lifted my chin. Again.

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

The last Sunday I sampled for my babies, Haley had trotted off into the desert with her Earth-kin crush, Ian, and Tanner, a desert girl who is completely in to Ian. Haley thinks it's all rainbows and sunshine until she realizes Ian is taking her to his home, Ralos. Ralos is, after all, the heart-beat of Lak 'Toom, the Fire Eyid's territory.

Duh duh duh duh.....

Enjoy!


Chapter Nineteen

Ralos looked so…so…ugly, and dark, and dirty. Dread slicked through my veins like oil, and a shudder vibrated along my spine.

I said, “We're not going there, are we?”

Ian's eyes glittered, and his smile seemed a little forced. "You don't want to see my home?"

I back pedaled. “No, I do, it's just that, it looks kind of...dark.”

"Trust me, you’ll feel different when we get there. Remember what I said. Things aren’t always as they seem.”

“Tuggin said I shouldn’t.”

Ian’s lips stretched over his teeth, a semblance of a smile. A mocking smile. A painful smile. A deadly smile. “Who cares? He’s a Menta. A liar.”

I wrinkled my nose while I studied Ralos. Maybe the place wouldn’t be as bad as it looked, up close and with Ian.

“Do you know what the Mentas do?” he asked.

“They protect Council members. And they enforce the laws.” I hesitated. “And they have this mind control thing called Lunta.”

“True,” Ian said. “Most people don’t like them though, or trust them. It was only out of desperation that the Council asked for their help, because they can do more with little minds than most people know.”

Tanner shuddered. “The Veiling!”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Ian grinned, and this time it looked real. “It’s an ancient art that the Mentas practiced. See, Lunta only persuades someone to do what you ask, but with the Veiling, you can control people’s minds.”

"I don't see the difference.”

Ian tried to explain. “See, with Lunta, I could ask you to get me a drink of water, and you would do it. The effect wears off in minutes even if the task hasn’t been done. Veiling is stronger. It changes a person’s way of thinking. If you were put under the veil, and I asked you for a drink of water, you would die to get me that drink if you had to.”

A chill ran down my arms. “Like brain-washing?”

“Exactly,” Ian answered. “All Mentas can perform Lunta, but very few can veil.”

“How long before it wears off?”

“Days, weeks, months. A lifetime.” Ian shrugged. “It all depends on the strength of the person performing the veil, and the strength of the person being veiled.”

“Thcary,” Tanner said.

Ian seemed to have warmed up to the subject and continued. “And they’re warriors, too, specially trained in killing. They have these camps where they train children practically from birth.”

Killing machines with mind control powers. Gre-eat. And the Council put these guys in a position to act like the police? I couldn’t believe their stupidity.

“See, generations ago Mentas were the dominant authority on Eyidora. They controlled the minds of important people, giving the Mentas unlimited power. They controlled the Council, the laws, the money…everything. They made Eyidorans slaves. They took away free-will.”

I bit my cheek. “So what happened?”

“The only ones who were stronger-minded than the Mentas were the Eyid-emos.” Ian gave me a sly kind of smile. “The Eyid-emos tried to control the Mentas.”

Made sense. Half-gods were sure to be stronger than the Mentas. I nodded.

“But there were a lot more Mentas than Eyid-emos, and then an Eyid-emos died. It’s especially hard to kill one, and I'm not sure how they did it. Naturally, the Mentas were blamed, and the Council outlawed veiling and ordered a decree that removed the Mentas from power.”

Tanner squeaked, but didn’t say anything.

“What decree?” I felt another chill; this one took a trip down the back of my neck.

Ian shrugged. “They put a bounty on their heads, and people were quick to collect their rewards. Dead or alive, though most preferred dead, and Mentas became almost extinct. Apparently, there were still enough of those witches hanging around when the Council schemed up their grand plan when the war broke out. Sort of an uneasy truce.”

I studied Flax's ears, counting myself lucky that I'd gotten rid of Tuggin and found Ian.
********************
We stopped in the afternoon to pass the worst heat of the day in the shade of rocky overhangs.

“These hills are my favorite place on the globe,” Ian commented while he unsaddled his camel. "Can you feel the power?”

I paused with my saddle in my arms. “Nope.”

“Trust me, it was sheer power that formed the Du Kesan.”

“Ooh!” Tanner exclaimed. “Tell uth thtory.”

“See, this is the Fire Eyid’s territory, and he didn't like it when the Water Eyid kept making it rain.” Ian dropped his saddle. “The Fire Eyid summoned these volcanoes, and they erupted for a whole generation, layering up until these hills were formed.”

“Why?” Tanner asked.

“Volcanoes?” I asked. Who cared why?

“The volcanoes are dormant now,” Ian said to me, and then to answer Tanner said, “The Fire Eyid made a barrier. The Du Kesan surrounds the Fire Eyid's territory on two sides, where it borders the Air and Water regions. The Water Eyid can’t send clouds over the hills if they’re too heavy with rain. In order to get over the hills, the clouds have to get rid of their water first, and Lak ‘Toom stays dry.”

I studied the landscape. “So what part of that story makes this your favorite place?”

Ian dropped into the shade of an overhang. “Anyone who holds the power to summon volcanoes earns my respect.”

I picked an overhang and sat. I felt as dried up as the land around me, and my head ached. I took off my hat and flapped it, trying to whirl up a breeze. “This heat sucks.”

A tingle ran up my arm, and the hairs stood straight. Before I could warn anyone, a flash of lightning smacked the ground behind Tanner, and she squealed.

Ian watched another bolt of lightning with the air of someone studying a piece of art. The sky burst with angry sparks, and lightning chewed the ground. I swore when a rock shard sliced my cheek. The camels shuffled, shaking their heads like they were looking for the best escape route, so we each grabbed a halter to keep them from bolting.

I ducked as bullet-size rocks whizzed by my head. “We have to hide!”

“It’s just a little lightning storm, Ian said. "It’ll pass.”

“Little, my ass. I’m not waiting to be fried.” I dragged Flax toward the overhand where I’d been sitting.

“I wouldn't,” Ian said.

An explosion made me stumble back. A network of electricity slammed into the overhang, tearing through the rock. With a loud creak, the overhang wrenched free, hitting the ground so hard that I felt the vibration under my feet. Dust and pebbles stung my face; Flax jerked his head, wrenching my shoulder.

Ian shrugged and said, “See?”

When the lightning stopped, we dusted off our backpacks. I saddled and mounted Flax, then set off behind Ian and Tanner. I kept checking out the blackened rock behind us. Soon the broken landscape was a distant memory, and I had only the unforgiving black rock of Ralos to look forward to.

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

So last week, Haley meets up with an old Earth crush, Ian, and she finds out that she has more than one reason to distrust Tuggin. Other than him being a cold-hearted Menta witch, it's Haley's fault that Tuggin's parents are dead.

Ruh roh.

Haley moves on, Tuggin-less.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


I didn’t care anymore that I was sitting on a bed with a hall god. All I cared about was the dread feeling scorching my insides, as if a bomb had exploded in the pit of my stomach.

I leaned away from Ian. “Tuggin and Elana’s parents are dead because of me?”

“It’s okay.” A lock of hair fell over my face, and Ian tucked it back. “I know this is hard, but you need to understand what’s going on.”

I tried to focus, but I wasn’t sure I had enough brain cells left to get the job done.

“See, Tuggin and Elana's parents are the ones who kidnapped you.”

“Oh. Wait. What? Why?”

“That’s the question of the century. Anyway, they slipped through the gateway to Earth then were killed during an attempt to rescue you. Tuggin and Elana were taken in by that Menta group, and were brought up—trained—to feel nothing but hatred and a desire for power. They don’t care about people…certainly not about you. They blame you for their parents’ death.”

My mouth dropped open, and I covered it with my hand. “Elana’s my friend.”

“Elana is incapable of friendship. The Menta camp took care of that.”

I closed my eyes. No, no one could be that good of liar. I thought of Tuggin; he was a very good liar.

Ian went on. “Unfortunately, the people sent to get you back died too. That’s when they lost track of you.”

“Stop.” I scrunched fistfuls of hair, punishing myself with pain. “Just stop talking because I don’t want to hear it.”

“Neither Tuggin or Elana care about you, but I do.”

I blinked at him. Wha-huh?

Ian’s liquid smile poured through his lips. “Go to sleep.”

I gazed at his eyes, so deep, so gentle, so beautiful. He looked as though he moved through chocolate syrup, but every word he said was crystal clear in my mind.

My body felt as though it would suddenly cave in from exhaustion. “I really need to get some sleep.”

I barely made it under the blanket when my eyelids closed. I wondered where we were going in the morning; the question never made it to my lips.

********************

The next morning, I sat on my bed with my head in my hands. People had died because of me, and the idea sat on my mind like a stone gargoyle. I’d never wanted Mom so much in my whole life. Maybe I didn’t need those power stones to get Mom to remember me. Ian was on Earth and he remembered me, so maybe no one remembering me on Earth was just another one of Tuggin’s lies.

“I bring morning meal,” Tanner said with a grin when she came in with a breakfast tray.

I rubbed my eyes. How could she be so happy? Oh, that’s right. She didn’t have the weight of the dead on her head.

"I eat with you, hmm?”

“Whatever.”

Tanner didn’t seem to notice my pissy mood, chattering away while she ate. I nodded now and then, but didn’t really pick up on anything that she said. My stomach resisted the runny eggs—but at least these were a normal color, like on Earth. I nibbled on a few nuts, and then pushed away the food. I couldn’t wait to leave this dungeon. Maybe seeing the sun and breathing fresh air would do something for my mood.

“I’m done.”

Tanner raised her eyebrows, but picked up the tray. “You dreth. I return for you.”

After rubbing the cream on my face and feet, I packed the jar in my backpack. I slid the sandals Tanner had given me onto my blistered feet and wiggled my toes. Definitely better than shoes.

A little while later, Tanner and I padded through narrow tunnels, our footsteps muted by the dirt floors. Heavy beams supported the low ceiling. I kept any eye on them, not liking the creaking sounds they were making, or the puffs of drifting dust.

The tunnels were broken up with wide chambers, from which more tunnels sprouted. I had no clue how Tanner knew where we were going…each tunnel looked exactly the same. I was starting to feel like I was part mole.

We finally turned up a steadily rising tunnel. It leveled off, and we came to a dead-end where Tanner climbed up a ladder. She flipped up a trap door and sunlight knifed through the underground gloom.

Tanner scooted up and out of sight. I gripped the wooden slats and hauled myself up, the tender skin on my face stinging from the sharp sun. I blinked at the glaring sand, and Tanner handed me a cone-shaped hat and a long, thin cloth.

“Thith protect fathe. The thun thtrong.”

“Thanks.” I plopped the hat on my head, and its wide brim shielded my eyes. I let the sheer fabric cloth-thing slide through my fingers. I stared at the desert, and dread trickled into my gut like sand in an hour glass. I’d almost died out there.

Ian and an older guy approach with three camels tacked with bright red blankets and square-shaped saddles. They wore rope halters, and the reins were strung through wooden pegs pierced through their noses.

“I Hawkin,” said the man. He came only to my shoulders, with the same red hair pulled into a tight ponytail as Tanner. “Ian take you home?”

I didn’t know where home was; I’d forgotten to ask. Ian nodded once; so I copied him.

Hawkin gave me the reins to a camel. “You ride before?”

The camel studied me through its long lashes. “What about my sleipnir?”

“Sleipnir can’t survive the desert,” Ian said. “You’ll need to leave him behind.”

I felt a twinge over breaking my promise to Adrana about returning Sorrel. Another sharper twinge punctured my chest when I thought that maybe Tuggin would make her feel better over her loss. Not that I cared, of course.

Clearing my throat, I decided that even though the camel had fat ugly lips, his eyes were pretty. “Does he have a name?”

“He Flax,” Tanner said.

“Daughters,” Hawkin muttered, and then said, “Ian long been friend to our people. You be thafe with him.”

Hey. Good news for once. Ian and Tanner wrapped their cloths around their necks and faces, and then hooked them to their hats.

“I thow you,” Tanner said, taking the cloth from me and showing me how to wrap and secure it. “Thith called tharan. It protect you from the wind and thand.”

“Works for me,” I said.

“Peathe to you, Papa.” Tanner kissed Hawkin on the cheek.

“Thafe journey, daughter.” He tucked his hands into his robes.

“Ek, ek.” Tanner tapped her camel’s front leg with a stick, and the camel knelt.

“Here.” Ian plucked a thin stick tucked under Flax’s saddle, tapped his front leg, and said, “Ek, ek.”

“Do I get on it like a horse?” I asked, eyeing the kneeling camel.

“Yup.” Pointing to the hole cut into the front of the saddle he added, “Hold on to this handle.”

I mounted.

“Tap his shoulder with your stick, and he’ll get up,” Ian instructed.

I tapped Flax’s shoulder and leaned forward. When his back end rose into the air first, I flipped over his shoulder and hit the ground on my back. “Oof!”

Flax snorted and curled his upper lip. Tanner giggled.

“Sorry,” Ian said, hauling me to my feet. “Camels stand on their back feet first so you want to lean back, not forward.”

I ducked my head to hide my burning face.

“And you forgot to hold onto the handle.”

“Right,” I said. I mounted again.

“Lean back,” Ian reminded me when I tapped Flax’s shoulder with my stick.

I leaned back when Flax wobbled to his feet, and I was still on his back. I gave Ian a thumbs up.

“You’re a quick study.” Ian mounted his own camel. “Let’s go.”

The camels plowed through the sand. I swayed to the sideways rhythm, feeling like I was being rocked in a cradle. It was pretty relaxing, except for the hot wind touching my tender face and my skin burning where the saran didn't cover me.

“Talk to me, Earth-kin,” Tanner said.

“What about?” I asked, spitting out the saran when it slipped into my mouth.

“Where your family? Did you leave friend behind on Earth? Ith Earth full of metal?”

It was tough work, trying to open my mouth as little as possible so the cloth wouldn’t slip in when I talked. “No, Earth has plenty of nature left. My mom’s still there, and I don’t have any real friends. There was Elana, but turns out she was a liar. And there was her brother, Tuggin, who I hung out with a while.” I shrugged. “Anyway, turns out neither were my friend.”

On Earth I’d been ignored. Then came Elana, the first nice person I’d ever made friends with, and she’d only pretended to like me.

“Haley? You all right?”

I had new friends, a new home, a new destiny ahead of me. And though it was a crushing thought, I’d have to use the power stones to save the Eyid’s harmony and say good-bye to Mom, let her go as if she were dead—I couldn’t go home and that was a part of my life I would never get back. Maybe Ian would help me get over it. “I’m good.”

No one talked much, and I spent the day watching the endless sand. The monotony was exhausting. Everything seemed so dead, and it made me think how close I’d come to being dead myself. The sun rested on the horizon like a flaming orange when Ian signaled us to stop. I hopped off Flax and stretched.

“Tired?” Ian asked me.

“Absolutely.” I pulled the saran from my face. “This saran thing works pretty good, but it keeps getting in my mouth.”

“It called tharan,” Tanner corrected.

“Saran?” I asked.

“Tharan,” Tanner repeated.

I lifted my hands and turned to Ian. “Isn’t that what I said?”

“It really is called a tharan,” Ian said with a wink.

********************

After eating a cold dinner of spicy dried meat, I sat on my blanket and watched the sun sink while Tanner snored softly nearby. The sun burned like a fireball, igniting the sky and sand. I shifted closer to the fire and stuffed my hands in my pockets, shivering when Ian came and sat with me.

“Cold?” he asked, laying his blanket over my shoulders.

“Not really.”

“Do I make you nervous?”

“Of course not,” I lied.

Ian chuckled.

“I forgot to ask where we’re going,” I said.

The corners of his lips twitched. “My home. I hope you like it enough to stay.”

Things were definitely looking up. Smiling to myself, I watched distant lightning streak across the sky, like gnarled fingers trying to grab the stars. I shivered again. I’d seen lightning tear up a mountain and set buildings on fire. Could Tuggin see it, too?

“I love lightning, don’t you?” Ian murmured.

I glanced at him. “I guess, in a destructive sort of way.”

“There’s power, energy, and strength. There’s no other force on this globe that can match it.” Ian looked sideways at me. “Except air, maybe.”

A flicker of insight lit my brain, and I rubbed my palms on my pants beneath the blanket. Thinking back, I’d never heard Tuggin mention heat or lightning or anything to do with fire.

Ian smiled, very very slowly. “It’s late. We should get some sleep.”

I gave Ian his blanket back, and he left me to go to his own bed. When I closed my eyes, it was blue eyes, not green, that I thought about.

********************

Two days later, we left the endless sand and began to climb the Dry Hills. The camels’ soft hooves made no sound on the rocks. My butt was totally sore, and I shifted in my saddle then dragged the back of my hand across my forehead. I felt gross and sweaty and longed for a cold shower.

“How much farther?” I asked Ian.

“We’ll be there today.”

My camel fell into step behind Ian’s while we trudged up a hill. Ian paused at the top, and when I pulled up beside him, I turned my gaze to the horizon.

A stone tower jutted into the skyline, a line of gray rocks on the ground circled it. Clouds of smoke drifted in the air. Was that…?

As if sensing my unspoken question, Ian said, “Welcome to Ralos.”

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

Sunday is back!

Last week,Haley came face-to-face with the Fire Eyid, woke up in a strange place, and had her heart (and her world) rocked when she meets up with her Earth crush, Ian.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


Ian wasn’t wearing his usual Earth uniform of a tight shirt and jeans that highlighted his jacked body in every good way possible. Instead, his totally fine body was hijacked by loose-fitting black clothes, all the way to his sandaled feet. His dark hair was longer than I remembered, falling below his ears and sweeping across his eyebrows. His green gaze zeroed in on me like taser beams, and my heart gushed blood to my head.

Ian strolled toward me. “How’re you feeling?”

I couldn’t think of a word meaning confused, smitten, and ecstatic. I could hardly think of any words at all. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here.”

My heart had a mind of its own, trying to escape my chest so it could pant at Ian’s feet. “You’re Eyidoran?”

“Yup.” He sat next to me.

Ian, one of the best-looking hall gods ever, sat next to me on a bed. My brain worked faster than my mouth when I tried to talk, and neither worked right because I stuttered, “How—what—where?”

“I bet you’re wondering how I found you. Right?”

I nodded.

“Let’s see, where to start?” He looked at the ceiling as if the answer could be found carved into the beams. “About two months ago, I went to Earth to find you.”

“You did?”

“Yup. See, your kidnappers died right after you went through the gateway as a kid. You disappeared when you were adopted by your Earth-kin mother, and I,” he tapped his chest, “went to find you.”

“Are you from Sardeena, too?”

“You mean Sabina?” Ian laughed. “No, and neither are you.”

I wrinkled my forehead. “Tuggin said…”

“He lied.” Ian got up and paced the room. “Did he tell you what he is?”

“I figured it out.”

Ian stopped to study me. “You’ve turned out to be very…resourceful.”

I grinned and ducked my head. “If you were liking me…” I winced. “I mean, looking for me, how come you never, you know, talked to me?”

“Think about it. If I told you I was taking you home to another globe, you would have thought I was bat shit crazy. You’d never have come with me.”

My toes curled. Didn’t he know that I’d follow him anywhere? “Do you know where by brother is?”

He stalked to the end of the room, and then turned back. “I didn’t know you had a brother. Anyway, Elana found you first, and that made the whole situation kind of sticky.”

“And Elana was there because…”

“Are you hungry?”

I blinked in confusion, but then my stomach growled. Loudly. “Um, yeah?”

Ian smiled. “Tanner? Can you get her some food?”

Tanner had been watching us from a chair in the corner. “I return.” She leaped up and bounded out of the room.

Ian dragged the chair to the bed. “Haley, I need you to listen to me very carefully. Elana, and her brother, can’t be trusted. She was sent to Earth to spy on you.”

My heart decided right then it wasn’t worthy of beating. “Why?”

“To be honest, I don’t know why. See, the only people who knew why you’d been sent through the gateway in the first place are all dead. So the question remains: why were you sent through?” Ian tapped a finger on his chin, and then shrugged. “When I found out a witch had been sent to find you, I had to try to get you back, I couldn’t let you fall into their hands.”

“Witch? Then, that means, Elana really is a…a…”

“Menta,” Ian finished for me.

“Why would she…who…”

“The Mentas are your enemy.”

No, that was wrong. What were those region names again? I couldn’t remember. “No, the enemy is in the fire region, Laka something.”

Ian gave me a funny smile. “Lak ‘Toom.”

“Yeah, Lak ‘Toom. That’s where the enemy is from.”

Ian folded his arms over the chair back, and then rested his chin on them. “Why?”

“Because whoever wants to control Eyidora wants to burn it, right? Doesn’t it make sense that he’d come from Lak ‘Toom?”

Sighing, Ian straightened. “You have to remember that things aren’t always as they look. Take Elana for instance. You thought she was your best friend.”

“Why would she do that to me?” As soon as I said the words I remembered: to control me, control my dreams, steal my stone. Just take your pick.

“See, I think they want something you have.” Ian’s gaze strayed to the chain around my neck. “They’re very deceptive, you know, those Mentas. Can’t trust them.”

My heart bobbed once then sank. Did the Mentas have the other three stones? Did Tuggin? My heart constricted at the thought of Tuggin using me. I quit arguing; I knew what Ian said had to be true.

Ian touched my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “I wish, for your sake, they weren’t traitors.”

I lost myself in the green sea of his eyes, and tried to focus. He sounded distant, his mouth forming words two seconds after he’d said them.

“They lied to you.”

“Lied,” I repeated. Ian’s gaze took hold of me. With my head spinning, I decided I didn’t like Elana much anymore. The bitch had betrayed me.

“You can trust me.”

“I do.”

“You need to come with me.”

As if there was any doubt about that. The thought of pleasing Ian, making him happy, agreeing with him, filled me with delicious warmth. “Of course.”

Tanner burst into the room carrying a tray.

“Eat,” Ian said. “I’ll come back later.”

“I glad you come with uth.” Tanner set the tray on the nightstand and sat in the chair Ian had just left. “It be adventure!”

“Us?”

Tanner tipped the chair back, balancing on two legs. “Yeth. I go with you.”

“Aren’t you a little young?” I asked, trying to hide my disappointment that I wouldn’t have Ian all to myself. Tanner looked all of twelve years old; kind of acted like it, too.

Tanner giggled, dipping her head. “I ten years and eight. How old you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Seven…teen?” Tanner wrinkled her forehead.

“Ten and seven?”

Bob and swish. Add a giggle. Tanner headed for the door. “Eat. You feel better.”

I nibbled the chunky brown bread and some kind of casserole thing with green leaves and lumpy white stuff that I thought might be potatoes. The casserole was heavy but, channeling Porky Pig, I scarfed it all then downed the entire pitcher of water. I felt bloated but completely satisfied.

I limped to the mirror on blistered feet. The loose-fitting pants were so wide they almost looked like a skirt flowing around me. I had no clue what they were made of, but the fabric was light. My sunburned nose, cheeks, and forehead had peeled so that I was spotted with pink patches of new skin. My cracked lips were swollen. What had Ian thought of me? I rummaged through my backpack, wishing I had chapstick.

I twirled the herb and studied my necklace. Did this twig thingy have the power to show me where the stones were, through the mind of one of the gods?

I cleared my throat and looked over my shoulder to make sure I was alone. “Um, Nomer? Can you help me see where the stones are?”

I waited for the vision, or whatever. Nothing happened, so I stuffed the herb back into my pack.

Tanner knocked and burst back into the room. Kicking off her sandals, she sat cross-legged on the bed. “I back to talk, I tho full of questions I no wait for the morrow. Earth-kin, what you do in dethert alone?”

“I guess I was kind of lost.” I paused. “But it’s great that Ian’s here.”

“I know Ian long time.” Tanner bounced her foot against the bed.

“Oh?”

“Ian and I very clothe.”

I froze. My heart stretched tight against my ribs like guitar strings. What did Tanner mean, she and Ian were close? How close?

“You ath well?” Tanner hung one leg over the bed and swung it back and forth.

“And I what?” I didn’t feel so fabulous anymore.

“You have clothe friend?” Tanner popped off the bed and twirled. “I like friend!”
Before I could answer, Ian poked his head in the door. “Can I come in?”

Giggling, Tanner swung the door open. “We talk about you.”

Ping! One of the strings in my heart snapped. I didn’t like the way Tanner looked at Ian, all adoring like. Then I wondered if that’s what I looked like around Ian.

“All good things, I hope.” Ian winked at me.

“I no tell you.” Tanner laughed.

Ping! There went another heartstring. My body deflated like a whoopee cushion that someone’d just sat on.

“Here’s something that’ll heal your skin.” Ian gazed at the small jar he held then gingerly, almost reverently, set it on the nightstand.

“Thanks.” I couldn’t meet his gaze. Of course Ian’d never be interested in me…he was a former hall god, and I was a mutant with a peeling face.

“Tanner, go make sure everything’s ready for tomorrow,” Ian suggested.

“I thtay and talk to Haley. Hawkin will prepare.”

Ian and Tanner locked gazes for what I thought was an eternity. Ping! Another string ricocheted off my ribcage.

“Tanner, leave us now,” Ian said firmly.

“I go.” She bobbed her head and swished her ponytail. Back to her bubbly self, she said to me, “I thee you on the morrow,” and skipped from the room.

“I wanted to be alone with you.” Ian sat next to me. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“Nope.” My heart jumped up and ran away with my breath.

“I realize that I should have explained things better.”

I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I sat on them. “Explain what?”

“About Tuggin and Elana. See, I know all this must seem whacked to you, coming to a globe you didn’t even know existed, and then the shock of finding out that your best friend lied to you.”

“You got that right.”

“Like I told you, they’re both traitors, but you in particular can’t trust them.” He paused. “Do you know their parents are dead?”

“Yeah, Tuggin told me.”

“Did he tell you how they died?”

I shook my head.

“See, it’s because of you.”

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

Wow, it's been a looong time since you babies have seen this story, but Haley's back, along with Tuggin, and a whole mess of issues.

Where we left off: Haley escaped Tuggin, pretty sure he's planning to put her 6 feet under, and got lost in the desert. She's hungry. She's thirsty. She's dying. She gets a visit from the gods, and realizes she doesn't want to die. She pushes on, finds an oasis, is just about to be discovered by some peeps she sees off in the desert, and bam! She falls into a sinkhole, gets bit by *something* in the dark, and starts dying all over again.

Sheesh.

Let's move on. Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen

The air swirling around me felt like a kiss. Not a good kiss, either. Not loving or warm or seductive, but hateful, hot, and blistering. It was the kiss of death. It felt as though my skin had melted away, and I wanted to die just to get away from the pain.

“Can you hear me?”

I whimpered. If the Eyidoran gods cared about me at all, they’d let me die.

“Open your eye-sss.”

“No.” If I looked as bad as I felt I really didn’t want to see.

“Do it,” the voice commanded.

My eyes fluttered open. A sharp-angled man knelt next to me, and I flinched when he reached toward me. He smiled, and then rubbed a fingernail over the spot on my arm where the spider had bitten me. I screamed at the flare of pain.

An image of a little kid flashed in my head. He was maybe ten years old, glaring at his reflection in a mirror. He screamed then flung his hand forward as if he were going to smash the mirror; there was a flash of light, and the sound of shattering glass.

I flinched.

Pointy Guy put his hands on both sides of my head, his palms cooling my skin. It almost seemed as if his fingers sucked the pain away like sponges.

He let me go. From where I lay on the ground, I checked out my surroundings. Uh oh. Blurred edges, shadows, air cool and damp—I’d been there before, whenever one of those Eyids came to talk to me. I was dreaming.

I scooted back against the wall. Ugh. The air reeked like smoke and hot wax. I stared at the guy, and he stared back at me. He had a pointy face and nose, set on a small head that was totally bald and bobbing on a thin neck. His slightly gray skin was a sharp contrast to his green eyes.

“I’m Sss-oltar, the Fire Eyid.”

“Not you,” I blurted.

“You don’t want to talk to me after I helped you in the desert?”

“Nala helped me.”

Soltar’s smile showed two rows of sharp teeth. “It was a...harmonic effort, wouldn't you sss-ay?”

I hesitated. “Don't think I would.”

“I think you have the wrong impression of me.”

“No, I think you’re out of control, fighting with everyone. And you know what else I think? I think you started the hole in Earth’s ozone, which started the whole global warming mess.”

“How clever of you. That was an effect I hadn’t anticipated, but I’m only doing what comes naturally when the Web isn’t harmonized.”

“Really?” I wondered if my sarcasm was going to get me zapped.

“Thirteen generations ago de-ssscendants of the Eyids vied for power and broke the Web. They were the ones out of control. The Web, when harmonized, maintains harmony amongst us. Without it,” Soltar shrugged, “we fight. I can’t help it if I’m sss-tronger than the others.”

“What do you get if you win?”

Soltar cocked his head. “There are no winners in this fight. Not amongst the Eyids, anyway. Others, however, fight for power and greed.”

“I don’t get it. You need the stones to harmonize this web thing, right?” Soltar nodded. “Can the stones be used for anything else?”

“No, and they won't help you get back to Earth.”

I ignored the heat rising in my cheeks like red flags. “What good would it be for anyone to steal them, then?"

Soltar steepled his fingers while he studied me. “You raise a good point. Ordinary mortals have nothing to gain from stealing the stones. Others, however, are special…gifted. Take the Eyid descendants, for example. There are some who desire to control nature by re-arranging the stones in the Web, if that were possible.”

I didn’t remind him that the only person I knew of who wanted to do that was his descendant. “Why?”

Soltar shrugged. “The desire within one’s soul is unique. I could not speak as to what compels one person to such extreme, as it would be very different from, let’s say, your own.”

“Sorry, I'm on Team Harmony,” I retorted. As if.

He continued with a small smile. “Then, there are others who would take advantage of Eyidora’s disss-harmony to rise to their own level of power. Not sss-o much power over nature, but power to control the globe, power to control the people.”

I pursed my lips. Wasn’t that what war was about, even on Earth?

Soltar ran his hand over his bald head. “Power is a harsh ma-ssster, Haley, able to bring even the most noble to her knees.”

If Soltar meant to include me in the whole man-lust-for-power scenario, he was wrong. He rolled his head on his neck. It made little popping noises that made me clench my teeth. And why’d he have to stand so close to me? The heat pouring out from him started me sweating.

Soltar’s long coat tickled the floor when he paced, stirring up little dust clouds. “I sss-ee you wear a sss-stone.”

I followed his gaze to my necklace. “It was a present.”

“It doesn’t belong to you.” He glared at me, as if I’d stolen it.

I lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

Long, knobby fingers slithered from beneath his tunic and grazed my stone, and then Soltar slipped his hand back into his tunic. “Four sss-tones. United, hold the power to control destiny. Control fate. Control the globe.”

“Seriously?”

“What would you do to get power? How far would you go?” His tongue flicked the air, probing, like a snake.

I stared at him, refusing to answer. He was baiting me, trying to get me to say I'd use the power to trip back home. I'd already promised to help. What a tool.

“Sss-ome have killed for it, betrayed for it. Sss-ome have even broken their promis-ess.”

Nausea crumpled my muscles, forcing me to my knees. I rested my forehead on the cold, stone floor. "I think I'm going to be sick."

“There are those to help you on your path.” Soltar bent close to me, whispering, “If I were you, I’d accept the help offered.”

********************
“Help,” I whispered. Something cold and wet licked my forehead. Did I have a dog? I couldn’t remember.

“It all right. You be fine.”

I cracked open my eyes. A delicate, brown face peered at me through a thick film. I blinked until the face came into focus.

“Greetingth!” lisped the brown face. “I Tanner.” She smiled, her teeth sticking out a little over her bottom lip.

I raised myself off my pillow. A wet cloth fell into my lap; my feet poked out of the bottom of cream-colored pants. My soggy muscles couldn't support me, so I flopped back onto the bed.

Tanner perched at the foot of the bed with her legs folded beneath her. The tiny girl peered at me with eyes the color of pennies. She’d pulled her reddish-brown hair into a tight ponytail, and she kept bobbing her head, making the ponytail swish.

“What you called?”

“Haley.” I wrinkled my nose at the stuffy air. “Where am I?”

“Dunehill. We thand dweller.” Tanner picked at the blanket covering the bed. “You Menta?”

“God no.”

“What power you have?”

“What?”

“You bit by Molken thpider.” Tanner bobbed her head. Swish went the ponytail.

I gave her a blank stare.

“Their bite fatal, but you not dead.” Tanner nodded excitedly. “You healed.”

“Oh.” I studied the red welt on my arm. Odd how that tiny little mark could cause a whole lot of pain. “Is it always fatal?”

“Yeth.”

The welt on my arm had a small cut slicing through it. Dang, those spiders must have some sharp teeth. Did spiders even have teeth? “You helped me?”

Tanner said, “Balm on arm, wet cloth on head. You burn tho hot.” Bob and swish.

“What about Sorrel?”

“Who ith Thorrel?”

“My sleipnir.”

Tanner nodded. “Oh, yeth. He with camel herder. Tho what about your power?”

I considered my floppy state. “I'd say I'm pretty powerless at this point.”

Tanner’s face slumped, but the corners of her mouth stayed slightly curled in a permanent smile. “You could, if you have thtone?”

I jerked upright then leaned back. “How’d you know about that?”

“You talk in thleep.” Tanner tilted her head to one side. “I never thee before. It thtrange.”

Now I picked at the blanket. “Did I say anything else?”

“You talk about power, and the thtone, and you athk for help.” Tanner looked like a bobble-head doll. Bob and swish. Bob and swish. "I not leave thide whole time. You need me.” Tanner clasped her hands together, her face splitting into a wide grin.

I felt my cracked lips with the tip of my tongue. My mouth tasted like I’d been gnawing cinder blocks. “Could I have some water?”

Tanner sprang from the bed. She didn't walk so much as bounce to a small cabinet. Humming to herself, she poured water from a clay pitcher and handed me a cup.

I drank the whole cup down then set it on the nightstand “Thanks.”

Tanner grazed the milky stone of my necklace with her thumb. “Thith your thtone?”

My mouth went dry again. Would she try to steal it? I hid it under my shirt and changed the subject. “I got sucked under the sand. How’d you find me?”

“You caught in thand whorl.” She pointed her index finger in the air and twirled it. Camel herder thee you over old part of village when you fall. Whoosh, right through thand.”

“Huh, I don’t remember seeing a town anywhere.”

“We under thand.”

“Under?” I looked up at the ceiling. Thinking about how the sand had squished me had me gasping for air, as if I were being smothered again. No way. Time to jet this place. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed, but my head spun and my stomach wrenched and I had to clutch the bedpost.

“Haley, no alarm. You fall in abandoned part of village where tunnel not throng.”

I put a hand to my head and plopped back onto the bed, waiting for the dizziness to go away.

“Where you going?” Tanner toyed with the water pitcher, spinning it in her hands.

“I don’t know.”

Tanner swayed as if she listened to music in her head. “I have friend. He help me with your healing. He help you now.”

The door open behind me.

“Hey there, Haley.”

For a minute I thought I was back at school. Or I was dreaming. Or maybe I was dead after all, and this was heaven. My heart cartwheeled and I nearly fell off the bed.

“Ian?”

Sample Sunday: Kiss Me Dead

It's been a while since I did Sample Sunday...the rift started during the freak October storm when I lost internet for 2 weeks, quickly followed by a computer virus...still don't have the computer back, so "borrow" my work laptop on occassion to do stuff.

OK, so I have this new work in progress, an urban YA fantasy, that I'm just starting to peddle. I've also entered it in the Amazaon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. It's nice to have something new under the old belt, a sense of accomplishment and a job well done, and all that. I'm now moving on to the editing process of Strong Blood, sequel to Fire in the Blood (#2 in the Last Moon Rising series). I'll get back to sampling Fire in the Blood soon.

So for this week, I'm posting a sample of Kiss Me Dead. Hope you enjoy.

Kiss Me Dead
Enslaved to the Goddess of the Underworld, Giltine, and addicted to her poison, half-reaper Christian longs to free himself from servitude and addiction. Enslaved to her phobic cocoon since witnessing a reaper steal her brother’s soul, seventeen-year-old Brooke longs to free herself from fear and phobia. When these two worlds collide, more than sparks fly, because there can be only one survivor.


Chapter One
1938

Christian watched the dying girl, and did nothing.

Watery sprays shimmered in the moonlight from the girl’s flailing arms, and her fear chopped across the water like turbulent waves. Longing tightened his stomach. He dug his nails into his palms and, teeth clenched, turned his head away.

He despised his addiction.

Christian envied her and her release from this life. Not that he loathed life…he simply loathed the life he led. And though he yearned to walk away, he knew he wouldn’t. He would stay and watch her die.

And then take her.

Her flooded gasps saturated the night’s stillness and her head dipped below the surface. Christian crept from the trees that circled the lake, his movement stilted from cold. The iciness came from his bones, his marrow, his soul. He’d gone too long without a hit, and now he suffered.

Christian lurched over her discarded dress and stopped just short of wetting his boots. The lake was snow-melt frigid. He detested the cold, and the water, as all his kind did.

With a violent thrust, her body broke the surface. Christian’s short intake of breath followed him backwards. Wet moonlight clung to her breasts, and the mark on her cheek glowed like slick silver.

The girl’s hands slapped the water. She slid deeper into the shadowy lake, lifting her chin, but the water covered her mouth, sucking out one last, drowning breath before consuming her nose and fear-glassed eyes.

Still he watched, and did nothing to save her.

He rubbed his thumbs along his pants’ seams. Excitement tempted a tremble through his body. Soon she would come to him in death and defeat the decaying cold.

The girl’s stillness revived the nocturnal silence: the grinding cheeps of tree frogs, a distant owl’s chirruping hoot. Wooden docks crept into the water like skeletal fingers, and a red fox’s tail flashed lakeside. Moments later, like dust motes in a sunbeam, the girl appeared. Her skin shone with an ethereal glow, and her hair hung in damp ringlets. Christian could smell and taste Giltine’s poisonous mark on the girl’s cheek, so saccharine as to make his teeth ache.

Gods, how he wanted her.

He studied the drop of water that tickled her neck and trailed between her breasts. Biting his lip, he focused on the ground, trying to remain detached and unemotional as a proper reaper should, but he was also human. The girl might be dead, might no longer care about decency or modesty, but Christian believed in dying with dignity. He bent like an old man and scooped up her dress.

Put it on.” His voice squeaked like an adolescent boy’s.

The girl hesitated then took the dress. Christian averted his gaze until she’d slipped it over her head. The dress was old with a frayed hem and torn collar. Most of the buttons were missing, and it barely covered her nakedness. The loose flapper-style made her seem like a young girl, but he’d seen her nude, and her figure suggested she was one or two years older than him; maybe nineteen.

Christian slid a fingertip along the silver mark, sweet and sticky like icing on a hot bun, and then licked his finger. Giltine’s poison shot like bathtub gin down his throat and seared his lungs. His sigh bordered on a groan.

“Who are you?” She was pretty, with cat-green eyes, and hair that he was sure would lighten like honey when it dried.

“Christian.”

She wrinkled her forehead. Her inner pain seemed to leak fragile tendrils that looped around his chest. Her soul wouldn’t open to him until he’d taken her to the underworld, but he could taste the earthy flavor of her confusion.

She turned to the lake. “I’m in there.” She smoothed her dress. “But I’m here.”

Christian hardened the anguish from his voice. “Only your body’s in the water, Mary. You don’t need it now.”

He tasted the first, metallic tang of Mary’s fear. She peered past his shoulder at the dark house tucked into the woods. Her fear increased, the taste pinching his tongue.

“I’m dead?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, bugger.” Mary frowned at the lake.

A girl appeared on the porch of the dark house. Christian froze the air in his lungs, trying to melt into the shadows, while dead Mary wafted like smoke.

She stared at the girl and murmured, “I know her.”

Setting empty milk bottles by the front door, the girl tossed her light hair over her shoulder and slipped back into the house. Christian released the breath from his lungs. It was time to dust this place.

Mary’s poison-drenched soul made him dizzy with need, and he licked his lips. “Take my hands,” Christian said. “It’s your time.”

A pause, then warm fingers slipped into his. Christian closed his eyes, focused on that reaper essence deep, deep inside himself, and a tingling fizz burst from his core, enveloping him in an evanescent fog. He drifted into the darkness. He clung to Mary and her warmth, floating through time, not caring about the glacial space sweeping through him. He only cared about Giltine’s poison seeping from Mary’s fingers and touching the cold-rotted holes inside him. A shudder swelled along his spine.

His cells and muscles gelled, contracted, solidified. Time stopped flowing, and the air stilled. White walls loomed on either side, and behind them the dark-gray entrance to the underworld shimmered like a silken sheet in a breeze. Christian swallowed, trying to ignore the cries of souls lost in the void.

Mary clung to his sleeve. Her hair had dried. Not the color of honey, as he’d imagined, but the color of sunlight. It hung around her face in a tangle. Her soul cracked open, and her broken thoughts tumbled through his head:

It’s dark, and cold. I want to go home.

Not that Renkin slob.

Poor Izzy. Who’ll protect her?

Mary squinted down the tunnel. Christian knew that, for Mary, the tunnel held only darkness; the darkness of the unknown, the darkness of eternity.

Christian brushed her fingers. “Take my hand. I’ll guide you.”

Hand-in-hand, they crept forward. Giltine’s poison oozing from Mary’s hand teased him, made him dizzy, dried his mouth with longing. He wanted to take her, right there, but Mary needed to make the choice to climb the stairs and cross over.

It seemed an eternity before a marble staircase stretched upward and out of sight, licking the whiteness like a long, black tongue. Its hardened exterior was cracked and gouged from centuries of reapers and mourning and death.

Shadowy souls moved within the whiteness. Some stomped up and down the stairs, yanking their hair. Others crouched into recesses as though in hiding, and still others had settled on the steps to rock back and forth with their heads tucked under their arms. Christian’s head reverberated with their screams.

Like an ethereal ballet, reapers drifted among the pale shadows. Silver eyes glinted below dark hair, their black coats swirling a ghostly fog. Expressionlessly, they watched and waited for their next hit. Occasionally, a reaper would touch a soul, causing it to shudder.

Mary whispered, “Who are they?”

“The dark ones are reapers. The others are souls who are either undecided or lost.”

Mary squeezed his fingers. “Undecided about what?”

“Some people don’t want to take the stairs to meet their fate. They stop, or try to turn and go back.”

“Can they?”

“Not if they’ve been marked for death by Giltine.” Christian glanced at the silver mark on her cheek. He didn’t bother explaining that the others, the lost souls, were caught between life and death, lingering in the void until Giltine left her mark on their vacant bodies topside. Some unfortunate souls would be lost in the void for a very, very long time. Christian’s stomach clenched. He refused to dwell on that.

“Who’s Giltine?”

“Goddess of death. She marks people who are going to die so that reapers can usher their souls to the other side.”

“The dark ones frighten me.”

“Don’t be afraid. They’re merely guides.” Christian didn’t add that Mary was right to fear some reapers, the rogue reapers; but she was dead now, so none of that mattered.

Mary traced her bottom lip with her index finger and studied the stairs.
Christian tugged her hand. “Come on. I’ll be with you.”

Mary hesitated, and then let him lead her. They reached the top of the stairs, met by an iridescent-white wall that glimmered with rainbow streaks. The area was devoid of souls. Mary didn’t breathe hard, but to Christian the climb had been long and arduous. He needed a hit of Giltine’s poison very badly.

Reapers, attracted by Mary’s poison-drenched soul, skimmed behind them. Christian rubbed his chilled hands, and then took Mary by the chin. Tendrils of Giltine’s poison throbbed toward him like warm, seductive arms, holding him captive.

“It’s time.” He ran his tongue over his cracked lips. “Your mother’s waiting for you on the other side. You miss her, don’t you?”

“No.”

Christian’s head snapped back.

Mary continued. “I can’t go. Who’ll protect my baby sister?”

He struggled to focus on Mary so he could answer in a hoarse whisper, “Your father.”

“No, he doesn’t know. That pill, Renkin, will come after her next.” Mary’s lips twisted over the name. She glanced down the staircase. “Who’ll protect Izzy?”

Christian reached for Mary, but she’d drifted away, her warmth receding.

“Will you?” Her eyes widened; so deeply green that if he stared too long he would become lost.

Christian turned away. He couldn’t promise her anything. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth when he tried to wet his lips. He’d promise her anything.

“Yes.” The word barely slid through his cracked lips.

“Promise?”

Christian needed a hit. Now. “Yes.”

Mary’s mouth relaxed. The trust and gratitude that wafted from her eyes wrapped him in a warmth so foreign that he had to blink. Christian almost corrected the lie, but he couldn’t. He needed to take a hit, and the only way was for her to cross over.

“Thank you, thank you.” She took his hand in both of hers and kissed his knuckles. “I’m ready.”

Mary stepped into his embrace. Christian absorbed Giltine’s poison and the delicious, dizzying warmth. A small flash of light signaled Mary’s entrance to the other side. An explosion burst inside his chest and blossomed flowering heat throughout his body.

Christian tilted his head back and drifted in ecstasy.

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

OK, petty babies, I've been absent a little as I had business in NYC, so not much blogging but plenty of reading. See my review of Anna Dressed in Blood which was *awesome*.

But it's Sunday, and I'm here, and I have my coffee which is getting cold as I sit here and type, and even my tootsies are a little cold on this beautiful, cool fall morning, and I have to get back to Haley's story. It's time.

So, Haley's dumped that dick Tuggin and went off into the desert on her own, and now she's kind of lost, kind of hungry, and kind of scared. She's starting to regret her kind of impulsive move to run away. Oh Haley, chin up! Things can't get worse...right?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN


The next morning, the sun washed the endless dull desert in brilliant red. The sunrise held me hypnotized until the sun rose over the horizon; then it became the usual every day yellow, and the boring desert sand became boring again.

My head buzzed as if a swarm of angry locusts were munching my brain cells. There had to be water out here somewhere…there were trees; scrubby and shriveled, but alive. Using my cup, I dug in the sand, hoping to find an underground spring. Nothing. I sat back, scraping my tongue over my cracked lips.

Could I suck my own sweat off my skin? But it looked like my body had run out of water, too, because I wasn’t even sweaty. I tapped my forehead with my cup, watching sand drift back into my hole.

“Shit.”

Sorrel snuffed the ground, sneezing and spraying sand. I rubbed his face. Did the people on Eyidora pray to the Eyids? I’d never prayed before…Mom had never even talked about religion. What the hell…it was worth a try.

“Nala? It’s me, Haley. Look, I’m really thirsty, and I made a huge mistake, and it’ll be all my fault if Sorrel dies. Can you help me out a little? Send a little rain? I would, um, really appreciate it, okay?”

I blinked at the horizon, half-expecting to see rain clouds coming at me, but the Eyids weren’t listening. Sure, they came prancing into my dreams so that they could boss me around, but neglected to care when I needed help.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I yelled at the sky.

After a few minutes of desert silence, I tossed my cup into my pack. I shook the water sack.

“Not much left, big guy.”

I skipped eating breakfast. The last thing I wanted was to need a drink of water to wash down my dry food. After giving Sorrel a few drops, I packed camp.
********************
I swore the day was hotter than any others so far. I rocked to Sorrel’s uneven rhythm. My head ached so much it hurt to lift it, so I just let it hang to my chest. My swollen tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I was turning into one of those dead people, the ones I’d seen in that town with Tuggin.

I didn’t want to die.

The landscape shimmered in front of me. My chest tightened. The sun was overhead, but the moons were to my right. Had they been in front of me the day before? I couldn’t remember, and no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find those freaking hills anywhere.

“Nomer,” I whispered. “A little help would be nice. Just give me some kind of signal, show me where to go.”

I halted Sorrel and slipped down his side, landing on my knees. I shuddered violently and threw up, but there was nothing in my stomach, though I half expected to see my guts spilled across the sand.

“Stick a fork in me, Sorrel, I’m done.”

I got to my feet and, swaying, gave Sorrel a few gulps of water. It was almost gone.

“Nala, I’m begging you. I’m sorry if I was mean to you. Please, please, please give me water.”

I fell on my side and closed my eyes. My Eyidoran parents had died in this nature war. Had they felt like this just before they died? Had they withered into death, slowly and painfully? I wanted to cry, but there was no moisture in my body. Nature could be beautiful, but I was finding out nature could be mean.

“I hate you,” I told the sky.
********************
“I sss-ustain life.” The voice lingered on the “S,” drawing it out in a hiss.

“No you don’t. I sustain life. I’m the life-blood of nature.”

“Nala?” I opened my eyes. The horizon blurred.

“It’s me dat supports life,” a different man said.

“Nomer?” I searched, but no one was there.

“I give life,” said the first man.

“I give life,” snapped another woman. “Do not for a moment think I will surrender my high place in the Web to you, Soltar. You cultivate life.”

“Of course, Sss-ylpha,” he replied.

“Are you the Eyids?” I croaked, squinting, but I was alone, except for Sorrel, who lay in the sand. The flies buzzing around his head pissed me off, but I didn’t have the energy to shoo them away.

“Without any one of us, life dies,” said the second woman. “We need your help.”

Even though I didn’t have the strength to get up, anger coiled in my chest like a snake. “Help you? Why can’t you help me? My sleipnir’s dying!”

“We should have known better.”

"Don't wallow in self-pity, child. You can, and you must."

I said, “I’m not wallowing.”

“The nerve of the rude little mortal,” Nala stated.

“Leave her alone. Git up, girlie.”

“If only her sss-pirit had the sss-ame strength as her mouth.”

The statement was followed by giggles. Nala.

I laid my arm over my eyes. “I'm too sick and tired to care. Just leave me alone.”

“Will you leave all the globes to perish, as those who have already perished in the desert?”

“You can accept that fate, or ya can git up off yer rump an’ do somethin'.”

The image of the dead people flashed through my mind. Was my face shriveling up already? Had my gums turned black and were my teeth about to fall out?

“Maybe we’re asking too much. She’s a mortal, after all, and a child at that.”

“She ain’t quittin’.”

“You don’t know everything, Nomer.”

“Child, would you have others die due to your selfishness?”

Witch. I shuddered and opened my eyes. “I’m not.”

“You planned to use the sss-tones for your own sss-elfish purpose.”

I opened my mouth to deny it, and then clapped it shut. Hot shame crept over my skin and I turned my head away.

“Nah, I believe in her. She won’t fail us.”

“Child, we need you. We need harmony.”

My stomach cramped. “I need water.”

“The people of this globe need your help. The people of all globes in the planetary chain need your help. Do you understand the consequences of your inaction?”

Nala said, “I showed her, and she didn’t care. She probably doesn’t even remember.”

I did remember, but seeing death in a dream wasn’t the same as feeling how real death was. I thought I was saving Mom by taking the stones and going home…but what fate was I saving her for? Mom. Elana. Ian. I couldn’t let them suffer this torture. Groaning, I pushed myself to my knees.

“You will help u-sss?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Told ya. Hee, hee, hee! Git her some water, Nala.”

“Fine. Soltar, let me give her an oasis.”

“It’s too late,” I murmured, glancing at Sorrel. “I’ve killed him.”

“There’s an oa-ssiss already. Even the desert needs water to sss-urvive.”

“I told you.”

I lifted my head. “Where?”

“Follow the sss-un.”

I couldn’t bear to look at the sun. My willpower drained away with the last of my strength and my head splat into the sand. I was being buried in nausea. “You guys are killing me.”
********************
When my eyes opened, I saw sand. Not just sand, but every single grain, up close and personal as I lay flat on my face in the desert. My mouth hung open, and there was even sand on my lips and tongue. I wiped my tongue with the back of my hand then crawled to Sorrel.

His side heaved, and I rested my head on his neck. It was very dry and very hot. “I’m so sorry. Please get up.”

I tugged on his bridle. Sorrel lifted his head with a snort, then struggled to his feet and shook the sand out of his hair.

“Good boy.”

I followed the path of the setting sun, and when my gaze rested on the sand I saw…a tree. My lips cracked painfully when I smiled. I wasn’t sure if I’d been in dreamstate, or hallucinating, but there was my oasis.

My body ached with fever. My feet burned inside my shoes. I tried remembering the last time I peed. Was it a day ago? Two days? Whatever, it couldn’t be good that I wasn’t going at all.

I hated to think the Eyids were right, but I had been thinking only of myself and what I wanted. Dying of thirst was painful, and I didn’t want anyone to die that way. I hauled myself to my feet. It was all connected: land, air, fire, and water. None could live without the other. There had to be harmony, or else everything would die.

Me included.
********************
“We made it.”

I sloshed through the sand, dragging Sorrel. When we reached the shade of the tree, I fell to my knees. I would have kissed the ground, but my mouth already had enough sand in it.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I tried bracing myself against one of Sorrel’s legs, but I kept missing. Finally, I grabbed his leg and hauled myself to my feet. Unbuckling his saddle and bridle, I let them fall to the ground.

Sorrel trotted around a large rock. I crawled after him then splashed into a small pool. The water cooled my burning skin. I turned my head and gulped several large swallows. Then, taking a mouthful, I just held the water in my mouth for a long time before swallowing.

I was lazing in the pool, nibbling crackers to ease my cramping stomach, when the ground shuddered. Crap. Would the Eyids interrupt my siesta with a battle? I mean, seriously, was that necessary? Lifting my head, I saw something move in the distance.

I staggered onto the sand. Squinting, I focused on what looked like a parade. Animals, and people!

“Hey!” I croaked. “Hey! I’m over here!” I grabbed my backpack and waved it.
The people-animal line stopped.

I sank to the ground. “Sorrel, we’re saved.”

There was a faint hissing, then silence. Sand trickled out from under my butt. Paused. Shifted again. The ground trembled like quivering lips, then parted, then widened. Sand swirled into its gaping mouth, spinning like water down a drain.

“This can’t be good.”

The sand whirled faster, caving in, dragging me down. Sand pressed against my chest so I couldn’t breathe. I clawed, but I kept sinking until my arms were wedged to my sides, trapping me inside a sand-cyclone.

I drew a final breath and clamped my mouth shut. The last thing I saw before slipping below the surface was Sorrel eating leaves off the tree.

There was a loud humming in my ears, and the sand kept squeezing until I thought I’d pop like a zit. Yellow spots flared behind my closed eyelids. My chest shuddered with the strain of holding my breath…how long? One minute? Two? Three? It felt like hours…it felt like forever.

Suddenly, the pressure let go of my legs. I kicked my feet, and then wiggled my hips. With a final hiss the sand spit me loose and I crumpled to the ground, feeling like a used piece of gum. It was completely dark, warm, and smelled musty, which I could taste as I sucked in air. When I had my breathing somewhat under control, I rubbed the sand out of my eyes and spit sand out of my mouth.

I waved my hand in front of my face but couldn’t see a thing. I crawled, my hand brushing against something stiff. I pulled back, and then warily patted the ground until I felt my backpack. I looped one of the straps around my wrist.

I kept crawling then rammed my head into something hard. “Ow! Damn it!” My fingers felt around in the dark. “Stupid wall.” My words fell like bricks in the heavy air.

Panting, I leaned against the wall. I must be in an underground tunnel. My heart beat drummed in my head. I’d been buried alive.

Something feathery tickled my arm, followed by a sharp pinch. I leaped up, rapped my head, but ignored the skull-pain while I swiped at my clothes. Spiders! Ew!

Red-hot pain seared my arm just below elbow, and I rubbed it, but that only seemed to fire up the heat, traveling down my arm until it hit my hand. At the same time it spread to my shoulder. Burning, itching, blistering my skin.

Fire spread through my veins. My chest burned. I fell to the ground, pawing at my clothes. Moaning, I dimly heard a voice calling me from the dark. It was too late. No one could save me now. I gave up, and let the darkness take me.

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

Good morning, my pretties. I'm not in a favorable mood this a.m., but still, it's Sunday and I am here! I hope you enjoy today's installment.

Last week, Haley figured out Tuggin's game. What a tool. Or a dick. Call him what you will, but he can't be trusted. She's decided to jet and take her chances with the unfamiliar, hostile terrain.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN


Tuggin said, “It is time to prepare for the night.”

I slipped off Sorrel and looped the reins over a shriveled juniper tree.

“You would gather…”

“I know, I know,” I interrupted.

Trying my hardest not to look at Tuggin, because he’d for sure know something was up, I took the knife he’d given me and hacked at the tree. While wrinkled bark piled up at my feet, I made a list of everything I’d need to take: food, water, my backpack, grain, and of course, Sorrel.

“Here,” I said, laying some of the bark next to Tuggin’s fire-pit.

Tuggin laid the bark in the hole he’d dug and lined with rocks. When he tapped his knife against his flint rock to spark the kindling, I mentally added flint rock to my list.

After a third glance from Tuggin, I stopped spying and separated the rest of the bark into two piles to use for beds. Not the most comfy, but lumpy bark beds were warmer than lying on the ground. Who would have known the desert could get so cold at night?

While I nibbled my dinner, I kept looking over my shoulder at the desert. Would I find water? People? I swallowed. Wild animals?

“What is wrong?” Tuggin asked.

“Nothing.” I’d been gnawing on my thumbnail instead of my bread. I stuffed the bread in my mouth.

Tuggin reminded me of a hawk, staring me while I plucked a heated rock from the fire pit and sauntered to my bed. I curled around my hot rock, focusing on not looking to see if Tuggin was still watching me…but I was too tweaked for focusing and I looked. He was watching me. I quickly averted my gaze.

I lay there, not looking at Tuggin and listening to the sleipnir snore. I peeked when his bed crinkled. He lay on his back, his hands locked behind his head. I squeezed my blanket in my fists and brought it up to my chin. I had no clue what was out there. I just knew that I’d rather face wild animals than be taken prisoner by the Eny and be tortured or killed, or be used by Tuggin so he could steal my stone.

I pulled in slow, steady breaths, exhaling softly while I pretended to sleep. I even threw in a finger-twitch and a couple soft sighs for good measure, just in case Tuggin was watching. I peeked at him again; did Mentas sleep? He looked like he was sleeping—the hard lines of his face had softened, which I knew he could never fake, being such a hard-ass lying traitor. He was very still, corpse-like, except his eyelids spasmed as though he was having a nightmare.

“Tuggin?” I whispered.

He didn’t move, except for his crazy-ass eyelids. Crawling from my blanket, I tied my blankets to my pack and tiptoed to the supplies. I took most of the fruit and bread, and then swiped cheese, wafers, and honey, leaving Tuggin the disgusting leather strips. I dug deeper into the food pack.

Score! I slipped a flint into my pack. Next, I took the full sack of water and left Tuggin the one that was almost empty. I had no idea when I’d be able to find water again. Tuggin could always go back to Given Hall. I was sure naïve Adrana would welcome him with open arms…not that I cared, of course, where Tuggin went and to whose arms.

I saddled and bridled Sorrel, tied on the pack and the water sack, and untied the hobble from his legs. I glanced behind me, then forward. I could do this. I could do this. I could do this. Before I lost my nerve, I slipped from camp.

I checked over my shoulder every minute or two. When our campfire looked no bigger than a firefly behind me, I mounted Sorrel, and then searched the dry plain, glowing in eerie white-red light. I considered, for one second, going back to Tuggin, but then I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, pressed my lips together, and rode into the desert.
********************
It was so freaking hot, and sand was everywhere. It had only been a few days, but sand was in my backpack, my water, my food, my clothes, my nose. My face was killing me; I didn’t need a mirror to know that it had been fried by the sun.

Stopping for a break, I lurched toward Sorrel with the open water sack. The sand rippled in front of me, like ocean waves. I stumbled and dumped half the water.

“Shit, shit, shit.” I clawed at the sand, but the water disappeared beneath my fingers. I got to my feet and swayed, pressing my palms to my temples as darkness pummeled my eyes.

I leaned against Sorrel’s sweaty neck and patted him. The poor animal was as drenched as I was, his curly hair plastered in tight ringlets against his body.

“What the hell was I thinking?” I asked him.

I should never have left Tuggin. I didn’t know jack shit about surviving the desert. I looked back at the way we’d come. Nothing but dunes, dunes and more dunes. Where had the Dry Hills gone?

“You know, big guy, I thought we’d see some people by now. I don’t think this is working out. We’ve got to go back.”

Sorrel nudged my chest. I managed to give him a drink from the water sack without losing any more. Licking my cracked lips, I put the sack away without taking any myself. I’d better save what I could for Sorrel…if he collapsed, I was done for.

I turned Sorrel and headed back in the direction of the Dry Hills. I hoped.
********************
Later that day, when the sun hung just above the horizon, I reined in Sorrel. My muscles were weak, and my head was spinning, and when he stumbled I pitched face-first into the sand.

With sand sticking to the sweat on my face, I dragged myself to my feet and gave Sorrel water. I waited on my knees until Sorrel finished before taking my turn. I gulped several large swallows and then forced myself to stop. God, it wasn’t enough.

“Think about something else,” I croaked to the air.

Firewood. No juniper trees, but there were knee-high scrubby dead-looking trees. I grabbed my knife and set to work.

Sitting cross-legged in front of my wood pile, I started the long job of trying to make a fire with my flint rock. I’d seen Tuggin do it a gazillion times, but I hadn’t been able to master it, and the last few nights had been cold without a fire. I’d tried snuggling up with Sorrel, but spent most of the night dodging all those legs. Not to mention that the desert quiet seemed to amplify Sorrel’s snoring.

I kept at it; the sun dropped below the horizon, and so did the temperature. Teeth chattering, I almost didn’t notice when a spark hit a dried flake of bark and a tiny red dot appeared. I scrambled to my knees and blew until a little crackle was followed by the tiniest flame. I added pieces of bark until the fire caught.

“Score!”

Sorrel snorted.

I gave Sorrel a scoop of grain and a few more drops of water. “Sorry, big guy,” I said when he’d sucked it dry. “That’s it. We’ll find more when we get back to the Dry Hills, okey dokey?”

Sorrel nosed the empty water bucket. “I’m really sorry,” I murmured.

I smoothed my blankets over the sand and searched my pack for food. I’d been giving Sorrel the juicy fruit because I felt bad for him, and I’d pigged out on the cheese just because I liked it; now all I had left were dry wafers. I struggled to swallow one, but it hurt my dry throat. I had to steal a drop from my water stash to wash it down.

The white and red moons shone and a yellow moon slowly rose; I could see the tip of it just over the horizon below the red moon.

“The third moon,” I whispered to Sorrel, who snorted.

The two moons looked powerful, lighting up the night sky and out-shining the stars. I couldn’t remember Earth’s moon ever making me feel so small; even the huge desert seemed to shrink beneath them.

“What do you think’s going to happen when that fourth moon rises?” I asked. Sorrel, still nosing the water sack, ignored me. “Do you think there’ll be a big explosion, or will it just stop raining or something?”

Sorrel stomped a hoof and flicked his tail.

How much longer before the last moon rose? One week? Two? My heart beat accelerated, the pounding rhythm sounding like a clock ticking down the time. How would I ever find those stones, and my brother, and jet this place before the world exploded? I felt as small and powerless as the twig hidden in my backpack.

I froze in the middle of brushing crumbs off my shirt and stared at the sky. Had the moons been to my left when I’d first started out across the desert? Had the sunsets been more to my right?

I stood, twisting to check out my surroundings, but there were no landmarks. “Crap. I have no clue where we are.”

I tossed more bark onto my fire then huddled under my blanket and thought about Tuggin’s story of the Eyid descendants. It was a no-brainer to assume Tomas was the Fire Eyid’s descendant, and now his descendant wanted to pick up where Tomas had left off…but no one knew where the stones were anymore, including him.

I shivered.

Or did he?

It suddenly seemed very dark outside my circle of light. I clutched my blanket to my chin as I strained to see. I hadn’t felt this scared when Tuggin was around. Was he looking for me? Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to pretend that he was just on the other side of my campfire.

Sample Sunday: Fire in the Blood

Good Sunday Morning, babies! Yes, I'm back with sample Sunday...I've been away the last couple of Sundays (and a lot of days in between) but life should be settling down to a more scheduled chaos! LOL

Sooooo, where we left off with Haley. It's getting harder for Haley to ignore some feelings for Tuggin as they set off for home. They witness a battle between the Fire and Water gods, and after discovering human collateral damage, Haley seriously begins to wonder if she really is the one with the power to stop the war...and if she could actually do something about it.

Let's roll on to the next chapter!

Enjoy!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN


I was vaguely aware. I heard murmuring, and my hands and feet were cold, but I wasn’t really awake. I rubbed my eyes and tried to bring the blurred edges of the cafeteria into focus.

Elana sat next to me at a table. Ian stood in front of us, looking at Elana as though he’d just asked her a question. Where was Tuggin? And Eyidora?

“For crying out loud,” I blurted. How could I have fallen asleep right there in the cafeteria? And I’d been having a weird dream. I hoped I didn’t talk in my sleep.

“Excuse me?” Elana asked.

“I said, for crying out loud,” I said at the same time that Ian said, “I asked you about Haley.”

He smiled, very slowly. I didn’t care that he didn’t seem to notice me sitting there, or that he’d just talked right over me…his smile was beautiful enough to forgive such trivial offenses. I smiled, too.

Then it hit me: Ian knew my name. The excitement filling my chest just about pushed my heart through my ribs. Maybe I’d fallen and knocked myself out and he was worried about me. Couldn’t he see that I was okay, grinning at him like a dweeb?

“Leave Haley alone.” Elana jumped up and turned away.

Ian grabbed her shoulder and whirled her to face him. “Don’t you think we’d make a good couple?”

“No.” Elana jerked free from his grip.

I frowned. What was Elana doing? Was she mad that Ian had finally noticed me? Was Elana jealous because he’d dumped her?

“Elana!” I snapped, trying to get her to shut up before she screwed my chance with Ian. I didn’t think I’d get more than one.

They ignored me.

“What’s the matter, Elana?” Ian asked.

I waved my arm. “Hello! Are you guys listening to me?”

Ian continued. “Are you afraid I’m going to spill your little secret?”

“If my secret is blown, then so is yours,” Elana said.

“Come on you guys.” I leaped to my feet. “Why are you ignoring me?”

“Doesn’t matter. See, Haley’s in love with me.” Ian laughed softly. “She’ll take me just the way I am, don’t you think?”

My mouth dropped open and my face erupted with heat, like a volcano blowing its top. Had I been that obvious about him?

“But you,” Ian continued, “you, she trusts completely and she will never forgive you.”

“Shut up.” Elana’s lips were pressed into a thin line.

I blinked. “What’s your problem, Elana?”

Elana wouldn’t look at me. She glared at Ian.

“Oh, no, you little witch,” Ian said. “You’re going to listen to me.”

“Hey! Don’t call her that.” I wanted to scream, grab them by the necks, make them look at me.

“What’s she going to think of her…friend…when she finds out you’ve lied to her? Spied on her?” Ian leaned close to Elana. “Pretended to be her friend?”

“Stop it.” I felt cold. Sick. “Tell him it’s not true.”

“You obviously don’t care about her the way I do.” Ian wore a smug smile.

“Liar. You do not care about her.”

“Says who? You?”

“Haley will believe me,” Elana whispered, though her face had gone white, and she slowly sank into her seat.

I’d never seen anyone pass out before, but it looked like Elana was about to keel over. A small snake of fear wiggled in my chest. It coiled around my heart and gave a gentle squeeze, enough to cause me a jolt of pain.

“I’ll bet that, as we speak, that brother of yours is spinning a web of lies so thick she’ll never see through the darkness shadowing her mind. What does she see when she looks at his eyes? Hmm?”

“He is not like that,” she whispered. “He would not hurt her.”

Ian laughed. The crowded lunchroom faded. Elana didn’t have any brothers. Except Tuggin. That had been a dream, hadn’t it? The shadowy room spun. That meant Tuggin was real…Eyidora was real. And Elana and Ian were talking about me right there in my high school cafeteria and Ian was worried that Tuggin was going to hurt me, and all of this meant that they hadn’t forgotten about me, like Tuggin had said. No. No!

“This is some kind of sick joke, right?” I said.

Ian went on. “He holds secrets in his eyes, secrets that even you don’t know about. You were raised together, but how well do you really know your brother?”

Elana made a strangled sound. Forget fainting, Elana looked like she was about to puke.

Ian rested his hands on the table and leaned toward Elana, his face inches from hers. “Your brother’s been trained by the best there is, trained in the art.” He leaned even closer, so close it looked like he was about to brush her cheek with his lips. “And Tuggin, as you well know, is quite the master.”

Elana leaped up, knocking her chair over, and then turned so fast her hair flung away from her shoulder. A hoop earring with colored beads flashed from her ear before she ran down the hallway.

“Elana!” I shouted.

The pounding of Elana’s heels echoed when she ran.

“Elana!” I called again. “Come back and talk to me. Elana!”
********************
I bolted upright, gasping and shivering in a frosty field. I threw my head back only to see twinkling stars winking at the moons. No Ian…no Elana…no school.

“What is wrong?”

I turned to find Tuggin standing over me. I rubbed my hands over my face. “Nothing.”

“You do not speak truth. You called my sister-mate’s name.”

“You mean Elana?”

Tuggin nodded.

I pulled my knees up to my chest. “Oh, wait. That’s right. You told me your family was dead.”

Tuggin had the decency to bow his head. “Please to forgive.”

“Whatever. I just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

Tuggin squatted beside me. “What meaning is nightmare?”

“Bad dream. It seemed so real.”

“You dream of Elana?”

I nodded.


“Another was in this dream as well?”

I couldn’t shake the feeling that it hadn’t been a dream. Impossible. Earth had to be, what, a gajillion miles away, for all I knew.

“Disclose who was in this dream,” Tuggin demanded.

I flinched. “A guy from my school on Earth. They were arguing.”

“What did they argue of?”

My thoughts tumbled like a combination lock. Suddenly, the pins all hit and the connection opened. Elana’s earring. Enja had one and, of course, so did Tuggin. My mouth dried up like the parched land. Elana was a Menta. Had she only pretended to be my friend? Was she part of the plot to “neutralize” me?

“Haley?” Tuggin prodded. “What did they argue of?”

I faced him. “Me.”

His brow creased. “This is curious. Why do the Eyids send a message of my sister-mate and an Earth-kin boy?”

I swallowed loudly. I’d been duped into forgetting about my plan to escape. Duped by Tuggin’s good looks. Duped by Tuggin’s pretend niceness.

Duped by my own stupidity.

“I don’t know.”

Tuggin stood. “Or will not reveal to me?”

“I…I don’t want to talk about it right now.” I used a fingernail to remove some dirt beneath my thumbnail.

Tuggin blinked and the soft lines in his face hardened. “Very well.” He strode back to his blanket and lay down with his back to me.

I balled my hands into fists. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Tuggin didn’t want to be with me; Enja had forced him be with me. Maybe the truth had been hiding behind a pair of baby blues, like Ian had said. Eventually, Tuggin would hurt me, just as Enja ordered him to. I’d been fooling myself; I didn’t mean a damn thing to Tuggin.

Why wasn’t he killing me? Or maybe, if I was a Seer, he was taking me to the Eny, planning on torturing me so I’d tell them what was in my dreams. Maybe I wasn’t going to Sabina at all.

I bit the knuckles on my fist so I wouldn’t scream. I wished this whole nightmare would end. But should I be afraid of the sleeping nightmares—or the waking ones?
********************
A rose hue glistened on the frost as the sun climbed over the horizon. While Tuggin slept I thought about what I knew about Mentas, the whole emotion-reading and mind-control thing. And Ian had given me a clue, something about the eyes.

Tuggin shifted in his sleep. I gave the sleipnir water and grain while my mind raced. Mutant talking birds and mutant eight-legged horses were one thing…but mutant people with mind powers? I dropped the grain bucket.

Oh no.

If I was a Seer, was I mutant, too?

I took a deep breath so I could push that thought down and focus on my dream. What did I see when I looked at Tuggin’s eyes? Nothing. They were pretty, of course, but lifeless. Tuggin had been trained in something he was really good at. Had Ian been talking about lunta, or the other power that Nala wouldn’t talk about?

“Morning greetings,” Tuggin said.

I’d been stroking Sorrel’s neck, deep in thought, and started at the sound of his voice.

“Morning.” I took a plum from him and sat.

“You are…competent,” he said in a stiff voice, watching the sleipnir.

He didn’t look at me when he spoke, and he seemed pissed about the night before. I could only imagine the Herculean effort it was for him to pretend to be nice. He must have a big plan to get me to trust him, which was funny considering my big plan to trick him into trusting me.

“Yeah, it’s amazing what can be accomplished when you’re not tied up,” I said.

Tuggin darted a glance at me and I cleared my throat. “So, I was wondering, how do Mentas do that lunta stuff?”

Tuggin studied his plum’s purple skin for a moment. Smoothing it with his finger, he said, “Through the eyes.” He glanced at me. “Earth-kin say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. It is very astute, that Earth-kin should understand this.”

All the spit in my mouth evaporated. Had Tuggin been brainwashing me?

“Un-like your own,” he said.

“What?”

“They do not remain of one color. You see through different colored eyes.”

I locked gazes with him. Tuggin broke the connection, taking a bite of his plum. Beads of sweat crawled down my back. If those earrings were the Menta’s symbol, maybe a group of Mentas was a coven that forced people to do stuff against their will.

I fought the urge to look at him, afraid he’d put me under a spell or whatever it was lunta did to someone. “You never told me what they protect or enforce.”

“Most enforce the laws of the laks. Others protect the Council.”

I rubbed a spot on my plum, and then asked, “Like your leaders?”

“Indeed. Each lak selects four Council members.” Tuggin glanced at me, as if he were going to say more, but then looked away.

I nibbled my fruit. “What do they need protection from?”

“Death.”

I jerked my head up. “People try to kill the Council members?”

One side of Tuggin’s mouth lifted in a fake smile that didn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. “It is war, tenya. Eyidora is weak. There are some who would stop at nothing to control this globe’s destiny.”

“Do you think an Eyid descendant wants to control the globe’s destiny?”
Tuggin blinked. “You know of the Eyid-emos?”

I shrugged.

He ran his fingers through his hair. “There is a tale of the Eyid-emos, if you desire to hear it.”

It was my turn to blink. “Sure.”

“Centuries ago an Eyid-emos, Tomas, desired control over the Eyids. Tomas stole the Stones of Power from the Web of Harmony, and the Eyids went to war.”

“So where are those stones now?” I asked, casually biting my plum though my stomach felt like I’d swallowed the pit.

“It is not known. The other Eyid-emos also lusted for power, and there were many betrayals amongst the Eyid houses. Tomas hid the stones before his death. It is said that Tomas’s descendants guarded the location of the stones, awaiting the birth of the next Eyid-emos, though that knowledge has been lost over the centuries.”

Tuggin seemed to know an awful lot about the story. I thought about how electric the air felt when I was near him. Did everyone feel that way around Tuggin? Could Tuggin be the descendant of the Fire Eyid? That would be a hell of a secret.

Tuggin…two-timing player. The realization snaked from my head to my chest, twisting and biting and filling me with its numbing poison. Was Tuggin playing the Eny, pretending to go along with their plans, while using me to find my stone and keep it for himself?

“Sounds bad,” I whispered.

“There are some who believe the Eyid houses are corrupt. There are some who believe Eyidora fares better without the Eyid-emos in power.”

“Do you believe that?”

Tuggin didn’t answer.

I ignored the tingling in my fingers. “What’s this have to do with Mentas and the Council?”

“Eyidora fell into chaos. Council members were killed. They beseeched the Mentas to protect them and maintain order.”

“What’s your job?”

I hadn’t meant to whisper, but my throat had tightened. I wondered if it would piss him off that I asked about his job as a Menta, but he didn’t seem to notice. Or he didn’t care. Maybe I was already a goner no matter what. My swallow stuck in my dry throat, and I coughed.

Tuggin had finished his plum; he turned the pit in his fingers. “It is difficult to explain.”

“You don’t know what your job is?”

“I am aware of my duty,” he snapped.

Forget what Nomer had said. Forget the bee in his bonnet. Tuggin had a bee up his ass.

“Please to forgive,” Tuggin tossed the pit. “It is difficult to…”

“Why, if you told me, you’d have to kill me?”

Tuggin glared at me, his face a shade paler than white. My gaze swerved to his knife, and I wished I hadn’t brought up the whole killing subject.

“Why would you speak such a thing?” he snapped.

“It was a joke.”

“Death is not to laugh at.” He ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “The sun rises.”

Silently, we broke camp. I spent the rest of the day considering how Tuggin was playing me; as far as I knew, I’d been telling him things that I wasn’t even aware of saying, maybe I’d already told him I had a stone. I had to escape before I was totally brainwashed.

We were going north, so I couldn’t go that way. To the east was that Rally place or whatever Tuggin had called it. Crossing the desert to some smoke-filled town gave me the creeps, and I told myself that it had nothing to do with Tuggin’s warning to stay away. Behind me was that mountain Nala had told me to go to, but I didn’t like the idea of chancing a run-in with Enja while I passed Given Hall.

I turned my gaze to the south, a whole lot of nothingness—deserted and lonely. The Region of Fire. Only an idiot would go out there alone. I didn’t want to go out there alone, but I couldn’t follow Tuggin any longer.
I sighed, considering the dead land shimmying in the heat. When the moons rose, I’d jet.