Amy met Vaughn’s eyes. “My father said to wait ten years and if I hadn’t heard anything from him to gather together what allies I can find, and take back the kingdom if I can.”
Her voice didn’t waver, didn’t sound apologetic or uncertain. Her accent even edged toward British though it wasn’t quite. In that moment, I could completely believe that she descended from generations of royalty and supernatural guardians, and would get back what was theirs. Continue reading Share The Love: Part 2
Jaclyn’s voice came over the comm. “Not that that’s not important, but there’s one more thing we need to decide. What are we going to do with this guy?”
She stood over the body of The Thing That Eats’ host. “I’ve checked his pulse, and if he’s got one, it’s too faint for me to tell.”
Izzy turned toward the body, adding, “I’m not sure either, but if I had to guess, I’d say he’s alive, but barely.” Continue reading Share The Love: Part 1
I found myself wishing that Amy had told us about the creature’s talent for manipulating people earlier. We would have had time to come up with a countermeasure. Of course, she may not have known it herself. I had the impression that most of what she knew about The Thing That Eats came from past Bloodmaidens. They had to have their own reasons for choosing when to tell Amy what they knew.
Whatever the case, I had to think of something now. Continue reading Intrusion: Part 10
I couldn’t read Amy’s face as easily when the helmet covered half of it. Still, she stiffened. “What kind of powers?”
I thought about it. “I’m… not sure. I think he took over a Cabal soldier. The Cabal’s normal soldiers had a wide variety, and mostly their powers weren’t fully developed, but their reserves were terrifying. Think strong, nearly invulnerable, and they regenerate. Actually, you duplicated one of their descendant’s powers, so you know them better than I do.” Continue reading Intrusion: Part 7
I wondered how much fog Ashgabat saw normally. It didn’t seem likely that a city in a desert would have much fog. We were practically announcing, “Hey everybody, there’s something strange in your neighborhood.”
On the other hand, we’d chosen the team based on strength, not stealth. Izzy, Rod, Jaclyn, Amy, Cassie and I were taking on the The Thing That Eats directly. Daniel, Vaughn, Camille, and Haley would be outside, discouraging interference. Continue reading Intrusion: Part 6
I texted back, “I’m awake.”
It had barely been sent when my phone began to buzz. I took the call.
“Hey, Nick!” Cassie answered with her normal level of energy—high. She didn’t sound like she was faking it.
“Hey,” I said, suddenly more aware that the wooden chair I sat in lacked cushions. “So what’s going on?” Continue reading Precision: Part 3
Despite the new details, we’d collected, there wasn’t much to do in the van, and we all left for our respective rooms—within limits anyway. Vaughn, Courtney, Haley, and I all lived in the biggest dorm on campus, and so we walked together. Haley and I broke off from the rest to talk about next weekend—which wasn’t a Stapledon weekend—planning to spend some time together.
Vaughn and Courtney talked a bit as they walked off, but I doubted that they talked for long. Their rooms were on opposite sides of the dorm.
When I finally walked through my own door, I found Jeremy working through physics homework at his desk, laptop open, his screen lighting his face.
I finished the homework I had left and then used my laptop to review the speedster sightings the bots had detected so far. It was just the two I’d found out about on the way back, but in both cases, they started on the southeast side of the city. More interesting, they came in view of my spybots within half a mile of each other. Continue reading Precision: Part 2
A few people laughed, but Amy stopped moving, expression blank, finally managing to say, “That’s the plan.”
Samita stood up and walked up to the front. Dressed in a green blouse and khaki pants, it was one of the few times I’d seen her out of costume. With black hair and brown skin, she looked like she might be from southeast Asia, and her parents were. She’d been born in the US.
She stood in front of the group as Amy moved to the side and stood next to the wall. Samita’s eyes darted from one of us to another. In combination with the straightness of her stance, she gave the impression of a highly motivated student hoping for an “A.” Continue reading Everybody’s Got One: Part 6
As the bright light faded, the first men entered the room, pistols drawn. They were dressed in black suits, none of them unusual, but seen all together, they were obviously the same design.
She didn’t see them for long.
A bolt of reddish tinged lightning surged forward from Giles Hardwick’s hands, and the men fell forward, unconscious, or dead.
“Careful with that,” Joe turned away from the dimensional gateway’s control panel to give Giles a look. “They’re not going anywhere if you short out the system.”
The next man stepped over the bodies, pistol in hand, and a web of red floating in front of him. Continue reading Bloodmaiden: Part 15
Moments later, three more people came through the door. The first two were teenagers—a boy and a girl, holding hands. The boy wore a sporty blue jacket made of wyvern leather in a style that had been popular at Court last year. He was short—only a little taller than the girl who came in with him—and his brown hair went down to his shoulders, a style that was still popular.
His eyes darted from one spot to another in the room, and he grinned as he took it all in.
A low murmuring came from the voices in her head when she saw the girl. Blonde, blue eyed and pale skinned, the girl wore a brown leather coat and pants—the kind Amy had seen in illustrations of colonists and frontiersmen. From her clothes alone, it was obvious to Amy that this person didn’t care about fashion at all, but that was the least of it.
The girl’s ears had a slight point, and her walk hinted at a physical strength that didn’t fit with her slim frame. Continue reading Bloodmaiden: Part 14