MUSIC IN THE NIGHT -- Excerpt

 

When her father fell from grace and his colleagues and superiors chose to believe the vicious rumors that shredded his reputation, peace of mind, and his health, Carmen had thought at first Boniface had been behind those false stories; especially when some of the ugly, unbelievable stories and accusations focused on her. Then he had showed up like an avenging angel, fighting to defend her father, mocking those who chose to believe the lies. Even with the taint of disgrace clinging to Carmen and Reverend Mackenzie, he had still wanted to marry her and take both of them away to a quiet life in a small congregation waiting for him. His anger had been tempered with sorrow when Carmen refused him again.

Now...

Carmen found she could breathe again when Boniface's blue-gray gaze slid off of hers and he turned to study the other side of the street.

"Nothing," he said, his voice colder than the rain.

"Are you sure you heard it?" the driver asked. In a moment, the steam-cart carried them both out of sight.

"You don't hear it, idiot. You feel it. In your bones."

"My bones are frozen."

Whatever Boniface said in response was hidden in the drumming rain, the splashing of the cart's wheels and the rumble-hiss of its engine as they continued down the street.

Carmen brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, hiding her face in her knees as she shuddered. For just a moment, even as memories and hurt tumbled through her mind, she had been about to open her mouth and shout for him. What made her think that he could possibly be willing to rescue her?

"You are a fool, Carmen Mackenzie," she whispered. "Just as much a fool as coming here to this great, cruel city in the first place. What ever made you think your answers would be here?"

She knew the answer to that readily enough. When her mother was alive, Chicago had been an adventure. A place of wonders to explore, grand edifices to gawk at, and stores and concert halls and libraries. There was always time for something fascinating after the missionary society business had been attended to. Carmen had felt so sure that when she arrived in Chicago, her memories would guide her to friends of her mother, to people who could help her. 

Carmen remembered her mother going on errands in the city, always by herself, and once had asked her father who her mother had visited, what she had done. Reverend Mackenzie had responded that he didn't know. Anna had painful secrets in her past, and he trusted her when she asked him to never ask, because knowing could be dangerous.

MUSIC IN THE NIGHT -- excerpt

 

Before she could brace herself to clutch the cross and rose again, the vibrations stopped and the warmth faded. The wooden sidewalk rippled like waves under her feet. A more deeply recessed doorway, offering better shelter, was only a dozen steps further down the side street. She needed to sit down, out of the rain, just for a few moments. Hunching her shoulders, Carmen staggered down the sidewalk, aiming for the darkness of the recessed doorway, praying it was dry and deep enough that she could hide from sight while she regained her balance.

A steam-cart trundled down the street from behind her, just as she stepped into the doorway. A whimper of gratitude escaped her clenched teeth. It was deep and wide enough she could have laid down in it, and kept her feet dry. She gratefully sank down into the corner on the right, well out of traffic, if anyone needed to come out of the door. Tugging her skirts down around her ankles, she raised her hand to press against the cross.

The steam-cart came into view, framed in the doorway. It was an open steam-cart, a newer model but without any kind of roof or covering on it. Carmen snorted her disdain for anyone who thought an open vehicle made any sense in Chicago, with its wind and seemingly constant rain. The man who drove it hunched his shoulders, and his eyes were lost in goggles gone white with steam or condensation. The other man in the cart stood up in the passenger section behind him, one hand braced on the seat back, the other on the man's shoulder, and turned his head, surveying the street.

Carmen paused with her hand just above the cross. She couldn't breathe. Just for a heartbeat, the man's gaze seemed to lock with hers. Despite the rain streaming from the flat planes of his chiseled features and darkening his golden hair, slicking it to his head, she recognized him. That flat, hard line of his mouth, she knew very well. It was the last expression she saw on his face before he walked out of her life. Those lips had been as hard as his voice when he castigated her for the choices she had made.

Just a few days before those angry words, he had smiled and spoke only sweet words. Why did she remember his displeasure more clearly? 

Richard Boniface. He had wanted to marry her, and when her father said no, he had insisted she should run away with him. Carmen couldn't break her father's heart, even if she had wanted Boniface more than life itself. Her father had raised her to consider every question and choice carefully. Carmen had trusted her father's ability to read people more than her own heart. If he didn't trust Richard as her husband, then neither could she. Richard’s fury only confirmed her father’s wisdom in saying no. How could she trust her heart to such a changeable man?

Coming January 15: MUSIC IN THE NIGHT -- Excerpt

 

Right now, all that mattered was surviving until spring, and saving enough money for one more attempt at a safe deposit box. By then, her enemies would have to assume she was dead or at least unable to harm them and give up looking for her. Time and patience and prayers would have to sustain her. Other than her mother's cross, that was all she had left.

Her largest difficulty was that she had tried to sell the cross three times, and each time the shopkeeper wanted the crystal rose that fit into the center of the cross as well. Carmen couldn't bring herself to agree to that. Her imaginary childhood friend, Essie, had showed up in her dreams weeks ago and told her not to sell the rose. While the advice of an imaginary friend couldn't exactly be taken as gospel truth, Carmen wanted to believe her. Just like she had believed with her mother's encouragement that Essie was a real girl when she was a child, she wanted to believe Essie spoke the truth now. She needed to hold onto that crystal rose, and not just because it was the last thing she possessed that had been her mother's.

So she needed to get the job as an assistant cook or dishwasher or whatever was available at the hotel just another block down the street. Mrs. Blomfield, her landlady, knew the right people to find out about jobs opening throughout the great, sprawling city of Chicago. The helpful, somewhat worn old woman had admitted that it would neither hurt nor help to offer her as a reference when Carmen applied for work. Then she had looked up at the sky with the gray, churning clouds moving in from over the lake, and bade her get to the hotel before the rain struck. If she looked like a drowned cat when she asked for work, a recommendation from the First Lady of the United States wouldn't be enough to get her a job.

For luck, Carmen had worn her mother's cross. She hadn't worn it since the dream that helped her make up her mind and flee before she lost everything. Seeing and speaking to Essie in her dream had been the first good thing that had happened to her since her father died. She needed that bit of luck or blessing or whatever one wished to call it.

Clutching the cross through the protective layers of inadequate shawl and jacket and shirtwaist, Carmen stepped under the overhang of a doorway on a side street. She tipped her head back and she closed her eyes and prayed. For good measure, she focused on Essie's face as she had last seen her imaginary friend, and called silently with all her force of will. Perhaps she wasn't being so fanciful, wishing that Essie would turn out to be an angel sent to guard and guide and advise her? 

The crystal rose warmed and vibrated through the wet layers of cloth. Carmen gasped and stepped back against the wall. She uncurled her fingers from the cross and tried to catch her breath. No, she was not imagining. The tiny spot where the back of the crystal rose touched her bare skin, under her shirt, was warm. The contrast with the icy rain soaking her clothes was far too clear to be her imagination. She hadn't warmed the cross and rose with her equally cold hand. 

Coming Release: Pre-release Sale on ETRUSCA'S VOW

 

From now until September 10, if you pre-order ETRUSCA'S VOW, you'll save $1 on the regular retail price.

PLUS:

• Receive the book before it's available in the stores and online.
• Order the print book -- get your choice of ebook or audio FREE
• And more goodies in the planning stage!

Check out the Good Stuff page on my website to see what new special gifts might be available. Like free short stories, or maybe a chance to enter to win copies of ALL the Defender Universe stories.

If you haven't checked, that's a lot of stories now -- including a new short story that hasn't even been edited and formatted. In fact, I'm still trying to come up with a title!

To order and take advantage of the pre-release sale price, go to www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com and click on the Storefront -- all three versions of the book will be right on top, marked on sale!

Coming release sample: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF

 

Pete came home while I was settling the expectant parents in Harry's old room. He was pretty excited to see Cerb, then tripped over his tongue and nearly tripped over his own feet a few times when he saw Loralee and realized what was going on. He didn't say it, but he gave Cerb the "you dog" look. It was kind of funny.

Once we had things set up to Loralee's liking, she and Cerb and Maurice headed out again. They were on patrol, after all, making sure that inimical forces on Earth didn't hear the lying siren song of Big Ugly like the Rivals had, and come into our town to try to help him break through to invade Earth.

Pete's timing was good, because there was furniture to move around and put into storage. Not much, since Harry had moved almost everything he owned into Felicity's place, after she and Jake finished renovating their house and moved out. Sometimes I did miss that ridiculous espresso machine. The furniture in Harry's old room was simple, meant for guests. Pete moved the desk out, and we turned the dresser drawers upside down so they became stairs, so Loralee could climb up onto the bed. I had a few squeamish moments, imagining her giving birth and soaking the mattress. Well, it was a spare bed. I would worry about replacing a mattress when I needed to replace it, and not before.

Pete and I put some time in searching through my freezer and refrigerator, trying to figure out what to serve our guests for dinner. According to Maurice, Cerb and Loralee both liked ordinary Human food, and she had developed a taste for spicy cuisine in the last month. Great, a dog with a hankering for Szechuan or Mexican. It could have been worse. How would I explain a dog chowing down on pickles? Or chocolate? It was supposed to be poison in large quantities for dogs. 

While we worked on dinner, Pete dropped his bomb: he had lined up a second summer job. I bit my lip to keep from asking how he thought he was going to spend any time with Meggie, when he was working a second job. I had the feeling the second job was so he could take Meggie out on really nice dates. *sigh* My little brother was growing up and facing adult conundrums.

Coming release sample: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF

 

"Umm, Maurice … what will the babies look like when they're born? Do they take after the physical bodies of their parents, or are they …" I couldn't finish the question. I looked into Loralee's big amethyst eyes and I couldn't find the words.

Yeah, ever heard of a normal, ordinary dog with amethyst eyes? Proof she was otherworldly.

What I wanted to know, but didn't dare ask at that time, was why some extra-dimensional visitors had to take on terrestrial forms, and their limitations, such as Cerb and Loralee, while others, like Maurice, went around in their own bodies? Although, granted, in the case of Maurice, with some modifications.

Instead, I thought for a few seconds, then said, "Harry moved into Felicity's place. Would his old room be good enough? Not much furniture to move around. Put the mattress on the floor, or would they want to sleep on the bed at normal height?"

Maybe I gave in too fast. On the other hand, this was a pregnant woman, even if she didn't look like one. I owed Cerb for protecting my neck a few times last year.

"Are there any special arrangements they need?" I hated talking to Maurice when Cerb and Loralee were right there. I had gone through situations just like this after I landed in my wheelchair. Too many people had a tendency to want to talk over or around someone in a wheelchair or showing other handicaps. They seemed to prefer to deal with the able-bodied person with the gimp, instead of talking directly to the gimp. Kind of rude. I didn't want to do that to them. Since they couldn't talk to me, I had to ask Maurice, who was clearly there as go-between.

"Just a place to get out of the darkness. There's a kind of a clash of magics and resonances, so it's a little uncomfortable to stay at Divine's for too long once the sun goes down. Don't ask. I don't understand."

Cerb snorted and Loralee gave a little whine. 

"Yeah, neither do they. Probably some side effect of staying so long in these bodies. Anyway, during the day, they'll be on patrol, although Loralee will probably spend a lot of the next couple weeks getting off her feet, down in the park, or at Divine's." Maurice shrugged. "They've never been through this, I sure as heck haven't been through this before, so … we're all guessing."

Coming release sample: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF

 

Just a few days after that, Maurice rode over to my house to visit, on Cerb. I hadn't seen my guardian hound-angel for a while, and one look at the smaller, cuter hound sitting next to him told me why.

"Cerb, you dog." I couldn't help it.

The hound was a girl, and since she was visibly pregnant, chances were good she was the sweetheart for whom Cerb had taken voluntary exile and guardian service on Earth.

He snorted and his mouth fell open, tongue lolling out extra long, with lots of drool. His gross way of laughing at me. Maybe getting back at me for the teasing.

"Hey, Lanie," Maurice said, and leaped off Cerb's back to hover in front of me. I knew he was uncomfortable with all the sparkle and glitter of his wings, which were part of his punishment when he was exiled to Earth, but watching them go at nearly sonic speed to keep him hovering was … mesmerizing. "We need your help."

"Felicity is as close as you're going to get to an OB-GYN for … well, anthropomorphic interdimensional travelers."

"No, not that." He swallowed and looked a little green for a few seconds. The color hovered longest in the tips of his tiny pointed ears. The guy was only five inches tall, but that was a vibrant shade that just stayed visible. "At least, not yet. Loralee isn't due to pop for another month."

Cerb made a sound somewhere between a cough, a choke, and a grunt.

"At least, we hope. We need a safe place for her to hole up until the demon spawn are born."

So help me, I wished I had a fly swatter. I knew Maurice liked Cerb, so he wouldn't say something like that unless he was either in a viciously snarky mood, or he was joking. Still, I wanted to hit him hard enough to send him all the way to home plate at Progressive Field. Considering how far away we were from Downtown Cleveland and East 9^th street, that would take a lot of muscle power, aided by my telekinetic talent. I was sure I could manage it. How dare he say something like that about babies who hadn't been born yet? 

Unless he wasn't joking?

Coming release: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF

 Return of the Living Proof

 COMING: SEPTEMBER 1

from Ye Olde Dragon Books

What do a pregnant, shape-changing, interdimensional visitor, a questionable summer job at an even more questionable new business, a college life sciences project, and returning nemeses have to do with finally finding out what happened to Charlie and Rainbow Zephyr?

 

That's what Lanie and her growing team of allies are trying to figure out.

Cerb is back, with Loralee, the "girl" of his dreams -- both of them stuck in dog shape while on Earth -- and looking forward to a "blessed event." Instead of suffering cravings, Loralee digs up Lanie's yard, in her sleep, uncovering jewels and bones and trouble.

 

Then there are strange visions that result from unwise exploration of Black Water Pool and Jinx's pond. Both are off-limits spots in the quarries that have been seriously and strangely affected by past magic. And Senior Prank Night escapades.

 

When magically altered water seems to open a doorway to view the past, Lanie and her brothers take  advantage of a chance to figure out what happened to their parents in Bermuda, going on two years ago. The question is if they're preparing to rescue their parents -- or if they are the cause of the mystery after all.