Snippet Saturday: The Alley an excerpt from Wraith

I'd parked a good ways down the road from the boutique for two reasons. One, parking was limited, and what was available had already been taken. Two, I wanted to get a feel for the place and hoped to avoid any surprises. I'd gone there on good faith that I could trust Xander, but that didn't mean I trusted him implicitly.

Something seemed all too familiar about the place as I moved down the sidewalk. Storefronts I'd somehow seen before when I knew for a fact I hadn't because, of all the places I'd been, Maine wasn't one of them.

I spotted Dimitri's from down the block just as the tingling sensation started at the base of my skull. Immediately, I was aware that Xander had sent me to meet another Wraith. While that notion made a tendril of fear twist through me, it was what I saw next to the décor shop that made me damn near stop in my tracks.

The little diner restaurant, itself, seemed innocent enough. The images it brought to recall, triggering the reason why the place seemed so familiar, were not. I'd been there before, only not while I was awake.

The fear melted away from the heat of the anger that took its place. I mean, Xander could've had me drive to Oregon or even further, but if the point was to see if I'd follow instructions—well, I still would have left Marshall behind, failing.

I stopped in the alleyway between Dimitri's Antique & Vintage Boutique & Décor and Alexis Diner, listening to the footsteps that fell too quickly as they ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

“Real funny, Xander! I've been here—done this countless times over the years. I don't care to do it in real life,” I yelled much louder than necessary, making a lone woman in the front corner of the diner glance out the window at me before continuing to eat her meal.

A pause from the soles of shoes connecting with concrete, then I heard as those rubber soles pushed off propelling the mystery man—or Xander, as I'd found out months before then was the mystery man in my dreams—into a leap which created a shadow I'd seen before. Only that fear that accompanied me in the dream version wasn't present. Irritation, on the other hand, was.

Flashes of dreams went through my mind. An alley of darkness. A kiss of breath through my mind by a river. A caress of bodies in my bed. Blood-matted pale blond hair in a forest. A goodbye with a promise in front of Innocence's mansion. It all left me wondering why I'd been rejected back at my house. Was it because Xander knew I acted out of revenge?

“I'm not playing this game. You get the hell down here, now, or I'm leaving,” I shouted, earning another glance.

Hush. The word whispered through my mind.

“Fuck it, I'm done. Done with the games. Done with whatever the hell the telepathic shit is. Done!” I turned on my heel and took a step in an attempt to leave the alley.

He was in front of me. The tips of his fingers on his right hand touched the ground. His knees bent with one pointed up in front of him and the other directly below his mass pointed down and stopped two inches or so before it'd made contact with the pavement. He straightened his body to a standing position in one smooth motion. He took a second to look at the woman inside the diner and moved his head back and forth, causing her to turn back to her food with a blank stare.

Snippet Saturday: Pancakes and Jealousy an excerpt from Wraith

Bastian washed down his bite of blueberry pancake with a large gulp from his coffee cup, looking across the table at me. “You don’t remember anything before that night?”

“I get flashes here and there. Mom and me in the car. Her with an envelope full of money she was saving for a rainy day, or so she said. I remember a huge teddy bear, but it didn’t make it to the group home with me. I don’t know what happened to it.” I shrugged and looked down at my plate, pushing the scrambled eggs with my fork. They were dry and unappetizing.

I saw him fiddling with and twisting his fingers, and I could almost feel the unspoken questions weighing in my mind. I waited for him to speak, but it was as if he was restricted on what he could say.

“Is there something in particular I’m supposed to remember? I mean, a little help wouldn’t hurt. Especially if you want me to remember as badly as it seems you do.” I looked back to his conflicted face.

“I’m not supposed to say anything. You seeing me was, I don’t know, supposed to jog your memory or something. Which doesn’t exactly appear to be working, but like I told dad, I was twelve and an undersized, scrawny twig the last time you saw me. Now I’m thirty-four. Yeah, sure, I look twenty-two, but it’s still a big difference.” He shook his head. “Even if you could remember, you probably wouldn’t have realized I was the same person.”

It clicked why he ignored my earlier question of why he didn’t take me in when I was orphaned. He was only a kid, too. I wracked my brain, begging it to give me something from my past. It gave me nothing.

Through the bond, I felt Marshall nearing. I’d lost track at how close he got while Bastian and I ate. I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head. A mass of panic flowed through me, and the wall dropped, making me aware of the flood of jealousy coming off of him in waves.

“Hey, Coral Ann, you okay?” Bastian shook my arm. “Hey?”

I focused on the jealousy, letting it push the panic away. Good, let him be jealous. It’s not like he has a good reason to be, I thought.

“Who’s jealous?” Bastian asked.

“Really, that shit’s annoying. Get out of my head,” I said, having enough frame of mind to keep my voice low and level.

“You project. That’s not my fault. I can’t control what I hear from you. I can only control what you hear from me. Now, who’s jealous? ‘Cause it’s not me.” He noticed me looking at his hand on my arm, and he pulled it away.

“Marshall’s jealous. And he’s here,” I said, turning around and meeting the gaze of the man I hadn’t seen in nearly a year.

*Subject to further editing. This isn't a final draft.

Snippet Saturday: Deja vu an excerpt from 'Wraith'

Something seemed all too familiar about the place as I moved down the sidewalk. Storefronts I'd somehow seen before when I knew for a fact I hadn't because, of all the places I'd been, Maine wasn't one of them.

I spotted Dimitri's from down the block just as the tingling sensation started at the base of my skull. Immediately, I was aware that Xander had sent me to meet another Wraith. While that notion made a tendril of fear twist through me, it was what I saw next to the décor shop that made me damn near stop in my tracks.

The little diner restaurant, itself, seemed innocent enough. The images it brought to recall, triggering the reason why the place seemed so familiar, were not. I'd been there before, only not while I was awake.

The fear melted away from the heat of the anger that took its place. I mean, Xander could've had me drive to Oregon or even further, but if the point was to see if I'd follow instructions—well, I still would have left Marshall behind, failing.

I stopped in the alleyway between Dimitri's Antique & Vintage Boutique & Décor and Alexis Diner, listening to the footsteps that fell too quickly as they ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

“Real funny, Xander! I've been here—done this countless times over the years. I don't care to do it in real life,” I yelled much louder than necessary, making a lone woman in the front corner of the diner glance out the window at me before continuing to eat her meal.

A pause from the soles of shoes connecting with concrete, then I heard as those rubber soles pushed off propelling the mystery man—or Xander, as I'd found out months before then was the mystery man in my dreams—into a leap which created a shadow I'd seen before. Only that fear that accompanied me in the dream version wasn't present. Irritation, on the other hand, was.

Flashes of dreams went through my mind. An alley of darkness. A kiss of breath through my mind by a river. A caress of bodies in my bed. Blood matted pale blond hair in a forest. A goodbye with a promise in front of Innocence's mansion. It all left me wondering why I'd been rejected back at my house. Was it because Xander knew I acted out of revenge?

“I'm not playing this game. You get the hell down here, now, or I'm leaving,” I shouted, earning another glance.

Hush. The word whispered through my mind.

“Fuck it, I'm done. Done with the games. Done with whatever the hell the telepathic shit is. Done!” I turned on my heel and took a step in an attempt to leave the alley.

He was in front of me. The tips of his fingers on his right hand touched the ground. His knees bent with one pointed up in front of him and the other directly below his mass pointed down and stopped two inches or so before it'd made contact with the pavement. He straightened his body to a standing position in one smooth motion. He took a second to look at the woman inside the diner and move his head back and forth, causing her to turn back to her food with a blank stare.

I brought my hand up and back. “You're an ass, Xander,” I said, sending my hand open-palmed toward his cheek.

He clicked his tongue at me as he snatched my hand to a halt before I could slap him. “Now, Coral Ann, your mother would've been appalled by your lack of manners.”

His voice wasn't right, and I looked closer at his face. It lacked the same quality his voice did: age, wisdom. Before the word left him, I realized that it wasn't Xander who stood in front of me, but someone who looked like a younger identical version of him.

Snippet Saturday: something a little different than my usual

*This excerpt is from one of my current W.i.P.s. It's titled 'Impractical Encounter' and is a romance. 😲 Who'd've thunk it? The gore horror and dark fantasy writer that I am choosing to write a romance of sorts. Anyhoo, onward to the snippet.*

     She stood there, trying to calm her nerves and her trembling hands. She couldn't be sure, but she'd thought it was coming on about fifteen minutes when she began to doubt her plan had worked. She hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around her. She wrapped her arms around themselves on her waist, rubbing at them as the mist had started to chill her. Then she felt it. Hands settled softly on her shoulders, and she exhaled a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

     “You made it,” she said with a sigh.

     Silence. She didn't expect him to say anything. She reached up and put her hand on his, gripping it. She gently pulled it forward and looked down. She saw the small tattoo that she knew Von had on his wrist. Her heart fluttered, and she kissed his hand. He didn't budge. She brought her other hand up and grabbed his other hand. Then she guided his hands down to her waist, which brought the front of him right up against her back.

     “I didn't think you were coming. I've been waiting for so long. I thought you blew me off.” She breathed in, catching the scent of his cologne. Damn, he smells good, she thought.

     A wave of regret ripped through her at what she was going to do next. She ran her hands over his arms, and goosebumps raised on his skin. She felt a small movement at the small of her back, and she smiled. Then she tilted her head back and to the side, readying herself for a kiss. She closed her eyes. She didn't know what to expect, but then she felt the softness of his lips against hers. She kept her eyes closed and turned in his arms, never breaking from his lips. She never wanted to open her eyes again, but she had to, and when she did she forced her expression into one of shock. Which wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

     She stared into Von's face and said what she needed to. “Who the fuck are you?”

     He let go of Billie and backed up. “I'm sorry. It was just a prank. I didn't mean to. I got caught in the moment.”

     Billie reached behind her, grabbing the glass of water. “How dare you do that!” She tossed the water in Von's face, and she instantly regretted it.

     She ran. Von called after her, but she didn't stop until she reached Randy.

     “What the hell was that, Billie?” Randy asked.

     “I don't know. I thought it would be good for the show. I didn't think things through,” she said, still rattled by what happened.

Snippet Saturday: A glimpse into my current W.I.P.

A part of me knew it was only a matter of time before someone came looking for me. So, when the knock came at my door, it shouldn't have been a surprise.

I'd heard the movement outside, first. I hadn't heard a vehicle pull down the drive, so I put the sound off as merely an animal. The tingling sensation at the base of my skull let me know otherwise. I knew it wasn't Marshall. Even with the wall up, I could still feel his distance. The sensation differed from the one I could remember of Innocence—when I'd finally realized what I'd felt was her presence, all that time before.

I had a hundred thoughts fly through my mind. One being to open the bond to Marshall and show him my distress, but I quickly squashed the thought.

Should I run? Should I fight? Should I give myself over willingly? How far would I get if I fled? Is it an Inborn, the originals of vampire kind? Or a Wraith, the hunters and executioners? Another Halfborn like Innocence and I? What did they have planned for me? I've slaughtered nearly a hundred people since returning home, most of them known and open cases, would that be a death sentence? Even if it wasn't, would they find out what I was? The unnatural child that was supposedly killed years prior?

I listened closer. The footsteps approached, and I could almost picture the person nearing my front porch steps. I could tell it was one person. They were alone, and I wondered, if they were sent to take me out, why there weren't more?

I heard the first foot make contact with the steps. I went to the window, unlatched it, and worked to wiggle it free. It squealed in protest. The person approaching my door stopped.

“Well, that's just awesome,” I said under my breath. “Man up, Coral. You've brought this on yourself.”

Several moments went by before my uninvited guest began to move towards the door again. I listened as they came closer, and I decided to walk to the door to greet them. Albeit, I tiptoed, trying not to make a sound on my way out of my bedroom and down the hall to the living room. It completely slipped my mind, until it was too late, that if this Born was any good with their senses, they'd know I was getting closer to them even if I didn't make a sound. That knowledge entered my thought process right before I stopped in front of the door.

I briefly wondered why they hadn't knocked. Then I heard a muffled noise coming through the door. It sounded like they were whispering, but I couldn't tell what they were saying because the language was unfamiliar to me and unlike anything I’d ever heard before. What I could tell, though, was my visitor was male.

I stood and waited. I thought about opening the door with a straight-forwardness, demanding what the guy wanted, but the fear that my demise may very well be on the other side of that door kept me from doing that.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. I turned to go to the sofa and sit at fifteen minutes, and that's when the knock rang throughout the living room. I jumped, nearly leaving my skin on the floor if that was at all possible.

I froze for what seemed like an eternity, gathering myself and steadying my heart. I wondered if I still had time to flee, but instead, I drew in a deep breath and released it in a calming fashion. Then I repeated the process until the muscles relaxed in my shoulders.

Finally, I turned back to the door and gripped the handle, turning it as slowly as possible. I pulled the door open, and my eyes fell on the man in front of me.

*This is from the upcoming 'Halfborn' sequel 'Wraith'. Excerpt is unedited.

Snippet Saturday

A little slice from a current W.I.P. for your Saturday enjoyment.

I drove along Interstate 64 in Virginia, glancing at the roadside signs. Then I saw the one I'd been looking for: Falling Springs Falls Next Exit, Exit 16.

Everything slowed to a crawl. The sound of my breathing was all I could hear, and it was deafening as I looked at the speedometer. Seventy-five as it should've been. I'd had the cruise control set, so I was uncertain why I'd thought the car had slowed unless it had died. Though, I knew it hadn't because I passed by other cars on the highway while I glanced around. Seeing as I drew sluggishly by the cars around me, I was left in a confused stated. It seemed to take forever before the exit came into view.

I glanced to where my hands strangled the steering wheel. My knuckles appeared deathly white against the black leather of the wheel; the bone threatened to break through the skin. My head swayed, and the edges of my peripheral started to turn to a fuzzy, black static. I was thrown into overdrive, realizing I was hyperventilating, and everything sped up to normal speed but soon surpassed into a frenzy of overly fast motions.

I flew past the exit. Though, I did swerve into the right lane. Unsure how much further I'd driven down the road past the exit, my car's tires hit the shoulder, skidding to a stop. I threw the door open and stumbled out of it. A small chorus of car horns blared, startling me in a sea of headlights, and I hurriedly shut the door.

Leaning against the car for support, I made my way around to the passenger side of my car. When I'd gotten around to the back tire, I slid down the car's quarter panel. My butt hit the loose gravel of the highway's shoulder. I felt the stinging pain shoot through me as each piece of gravel left behind its own small, biting bruise.

I put my head between my knees, trying to quiet the sudden urge to vomit. I knew the panic attack would subside somewhat quickly after figuring out what was happening to me, but I wasn't so sure I had the time. At some point during the attack, the bond had opened, and I could feel Marshall on the move toward me. Though, he had to have been in a vehicle as he moved much slower than I knew he could if he took a straight shot in my direction.