(If you’re here for the SFR Brigade Presents excerpt from my next release Star Cruise Songbird, go HERE.)
Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)
The snippet is from Two Against the Stars (story below the excerpt), my latest release. Continuing on from last week where Carialle tries to help her elderly landlady. Edited slightly from the published version to fit into our rules here.
The excerpt:
Carialle sent the entity [the tree] a comforting thought and then used her power to push the insects.
Mrs. Galaganos screeched and retreated as a flood of tiny black and white insects came pouring from the ground between the tree’s gnarled roots, and out of every knothole, “I’ll get the watering robo and drown them!” She hobbled to take action, as the pet arrived to growl and make threatening noises at the invaders. His elderly mistress washed the horde off the sidewalk and into a drain, muttering imprecations against them and obviously taking great joy in defeating the hitherto unseen enemy. Carialle bit her lip hard to repress her urge to grin at the landlady’s enthusiasm, pivoting on her heel to survey the tree.
“It looks better already. How—how did you do that?” Mrs. Galaganos was staring at her.
Hastily Carialle sent a thread of her power to calm the old woman, and to help her believe the lie she was about to utter, “I heard them moving and chirping under the bark and so I thumped hard on the tree. I guess I startled a bunch of them and the others followed, like larger creatures stampeding. – you took care of the problem then.”
Mrs. Galaganos took a deep breath and patted the robo by her side, “I certainly did.”
The story:
Empathic priestess Carialle has escaped the evil Amarotu Combine, but she’s hardly out of danger. Not when she risks everything to rescue a drugged man from a crooked veterans’ clinic. By lulling the clinic staff to sleep, she reveals her powers. And once again, criminals are after her and her rescuer.
Marcus Valerian, a wounded Special Forces veteran, never expected to have his life threatened by the clinic that’s supposed to help ex-soldiers like him. But when he wakes from a drugged state to find a lovely woman urging him to run–he does. In his family’s remote fishing cabin, he suffers the agony of withdrawal, soothed only by her powers.
In their idyllic hideaway, the two also discover a nova-hot attraction flaring. But can they stay alive long enough for it to become more? Not if the Combine has anything to say–they are not giving up until Marcus is dead and Carialle is their weapon
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I could just see Mrs. Galaganos waging war on the insects. Great snippet!
Great way to avoid the truth! 🙂 I really enjoyed the snippet. The joy Mrs. Galaganos took is the same one I take when I start the bbq and see earwigs trying to escape from it.. Though they often meet the bottom of my shoe when they jump out.
Your comment made me chuckle, Jessica! I too have been guilty of taking secret pleasure in watching the earwigs scramble! Guess it’s not so secret anymore. lol
This lady has a future as an exterminator!
Intriguing concept! And I like the way she calmed the old woman before she told her lie. 🙂
I like the way she was able to calm the old woman before she told her the lie.
Love this heroine!
I wish I had her powers. She’s a great character. Good luck with the book.
Absolutely delightful. You never fail to surprise me with all your incredible characters.
Hugs, good friend.
I’d be a little freaked out to see bugs flooding out of a tree. *shudder* I’d probably start stomping on them, though. Great snippet.
Something about the landlady’s reaction makes me giggle. 🙂
Her power to manipulate the mind is a little freaky. Good thing she’s a good guy!
That’s some interesting power she has there. I wonder how she got in trouble because it would seem that she can do absolutely anything and make people do anything. Those insects sound gross, I hope they don’t know how to swim.
Great heroine – and I love the way she had the old lady thinking she’d taken care of the insects herself!
I love the way she’s able to convince Mrs. G. that she didn’t cure the tree. Carialle is quite clever. Good snippet.
Ewwww, bugs!!! I wouldn’t care how they were vanquished as long as they were gone!! Nice creepy crawly scene!
That was both cool and creepy. I was wondering how she was going to explain what she did, and you handled it nicely.
If insects were pouring out of my tree, I’d be out of there so fast.
Good thing she could add a little extra to that lie, because I don’t think she’d be believed, otherwise!
This gave both of the women satisfaction. I can just picture the scene.
I’d be screaming, too …. i like Carialle. she’s an interesting character.