Coming March 24, 2016
Genre: New Adult Dystopian Romance
Cover Artist: Brannon Jones @ B- Dirty Graphics
Cover Artist: Brannon Jones @ B- Dirty Graphics
In the 23rd century, war has ravaged the
planet.
A biological weapon has decimated the population, and those who remain
have been driven to desperate measures to survive. Over the course of a century,
evolution delivers an answer -- the Xeno gene, which provides its bearers with
immunity to disease. All adolescent girls are tested for the X-gene, and carriers are
obligated to bear children for the good of the human race.
The promise of salvation comes at a terrible
price.
Stone Emmerson, heir to a position of supreme power, is surprised to learn
his best friend Kella is an X-gene carrier. He's quick to claim her as his own, but as a
mere servant, Kella can't help but doubt his motives. Before he can offer the
protection of his name, she escapes his household. Mourning her loss, Stone
becomes the black sheep among his peers by focusing on the welfare of his
people.
While survival and freedom hang in the
balance...
Starting over under an assumed name, Kella is a founding member of the X-
Diplomats, a radical group dedicated to stopping enforced X-gene testing and
promoting equal rights for commoners. Years pass before she crosses paths with
Stone again. As the web of deceit that has come between them unravels, their love
begins to grow. But can Stone turn a blind eye to Kella's violent revolution and see
the justice of her cause? Or will their differences prove too great to
overcome?
What price would you pay to break the chains of
oppression?
PROLOGUE
--& HERE &--
ONE
August 8, 2282 A.E.E.
Mack
Ellason tugged the itchy, wool mask over her face. She glanced at her best
friend, Reaper, who was outfitted in a similar fashion, all dark clothing, no
shine on their boots, and nothing but eyes showing. “Let’s do
this.”
“Stay
sharp, Mack.” Reaper gave her a stern glare. It’d been so long since anyone
called her Kella, she’d grown to miss her real name. “If I say run, you fucking
run this
time.”
Yeah,
yeah, she knew the drill. This wasn’t her first rodeo. They’d made recon
missions into the Xeno clinic twice to gain intel, and everything had panned
out like clockwork. Except for the loner guard on the second gig that’d almost
nabbed her from behind in the alley. And by almost, she meant did nab her. Their fight couldn’t have
lasted more than a couple of minutes, but it’d been touch and go for a moment on
who would claim victory. It’d been a close call.
Reaper had
come upon the scene as she huffed and puffed, on her last spurt of energy, while
she put the guard down. Suffering from double vision and bleeding from her ears,
she guessed she’d been a bad sight because he’d flipped. Thankfully, she hadn’t
been seriously injured, just banged up. Her buddy hadn’t let her forget the
incident and likely wouldn’t anytime soon. He could be a bit of a mother hen
when he felt so inclined.
“I count
twenty guards in all,” Dutch’s voice came at them through their earpieces. As
their resident hacker, she could hack into the local security feeds and shut
them down or use them against their enemy.
“Copy
that,” Reaper said. “Like before, I’ll distract while you set the
charge.”
Creed
surveyed the landscape from the rooftop with a bootlegged sniper rifle and night-
vision
scope, ready to drop guards with his tranquilizer darts. He’d made a fortune
selling illegal items on the black market.
That some
dregs obtained financial success pleased her. She despised those who thought
they were better than others simply because of their hefty bank account. She
also reviled them for treating all dregs like expendable civilians. Every
single soul should matter in this world where too many had already perished. What
she loathed most though were the spooners who felt it their due to indenture
innocent Xenos.
While
killing wasn’t necessarily their game—and every spooner involved in indenturing
X-genes deserved to die—they preferred tranqs to keep a clear conscience. Despite
taking the moral high ground, good intentions wouldn’t matter because there was
no defense for a man of Creed’s low rank—any of them really—owning a gun. If
ever caught with the weapon or doing his preferred trade, the offense came with
a mandatory immediate execution. Might be why he chose to maintain a decoy
house in the Quad, but resided mostly in the badlands.
“Ready, Creed?”
Kella asked.
“It’s a
go,” came his gruff reply.
She and Reaper
slunk through the darkness, sticking to the shadows as they moved. She heard a
grunt and then nothing else. Best guess, Reaper knocked a guy out and then
settled him on the ground for the least amount of noise. She’d seen him execute
the move a dozen times. By the time she finished delivering the EMP blast,
every guard would be unconscious.
Kella
kept moving. Staying light-footed she zipped behind a guard without the man
noticing and shot him in the back with a stunner gun. Another bootlegged
weapon.
At the
building, she paused long enough to assess her perimeter. Two guards to her
right, one lighting up a cigarette. An outline to her left shifted, but she
recognized the way Reaper moved, like a predator on the hunt for unsuspecting
prey.
He drew closer to another shadow, and a moment later the silhouette dropped
never noticing him.
Damn,
but he was good.
She
popped the two guards closest to her with a stun as Dutch’s voice came through
the earpiece, “You’re invisible to all cameras.”
Going to
one knee next to the building’s ventilation system, Mack opened the pouch at
her waist and selected a mini drill set. The low hum of the electric
screwdriver sounded as the bit released all four bolts in a matter of seconds.
The grate slid up with a small creak. She sent a last glance around to verify
no one had stolen up behind her—even while knowing Reaper or Creed would’ve
neutralized
anyone that brought danger to her. Dutch would’ve given her a heads up too.
Stone taught her to trust no one, and old habits die hard.
She went
headfirst into the ventilation system. It was a tight fit, but not so snug she
couldn’t move. Her petite size was why she performed this part of the mission
and not others in the X-Diplomats.
Even
with her small stature, she likened her tight quarters to a hamster in one of
those tiny tubes. I’ll be a hamster in a
tiny cage if captured.
Thankfully
the DNA clinic was a small building, and she didn’t have far to travel before
reaching her destination. Just a right and left and a few more wiggles had her
arriving at her destination.
Before
she opened the grate into the lab, she tapped her earpiece.
“Status.”
It was a
request to verify she remained alone in the clinic. The least amount of
casualties was their gameplay, and these EMP blasts took out not just
computers, but re-hardwired the electrical neurons in a human’s brain resulting
in immediate death.
“Just
you,” Dutch confirmed.
Satisfied
their hacker had run life-scans, Kella pushed the grill up and tossed the
charge inside. Had Reaper elected not to ‘distract’ the guards, over half of
them would have died once the charge detonated. Not that any of them would
offer any thanks for valuing their lives. They were on the Regency payroll, and
traitors to their own class of people, but it wasn’t their fault the Regency
brainwashed them. Too many of the dregs were like sheep, believing the house of
lies they were fed from the moment of their birth. If a person was born a dreg,
they’d done something wrong in a past life to deserve their punishment in this
life. Karma or whatever, labels didn’t matter when too many people believed the
bullshit for Kella’s peace of mind. The X-Diplomats planned to open society’s
minds, drag them kicking and screaming from their malaise if need be, and
deliver them the truth.
“The
package is delivered.” Kella scuttled back the same way she had come, making a
left and right turn this time, before shimmying down a twenty-foot tube to
where she’d entered. After sliding the grate back into place, she reset the
screws. Couldn’t have the higher-ups easily determining how she’d infiltrated the
building. Of course if they read the blueprints the same as her, they’d know the
building’s security required an upgrade. That the Regency expected total
submission of the dregs worked in their favor. It also detailed the control the
spooners held over their sheep.
She
palmed a paint can and sprayed their calling card on the
wall.
Flipping
the safety cap off the palm-sized tube she dug out of her pocket, she paused.
One click to the button set the timer on the EMP. Thirty seconds later the
charge would blow.
On the birthday of my resurrection…“The revolution begins.”
She’d
waited eight years to utter those words. Instead of feeling the satisfaction
she’d anticipated, she thought of her husband, Stone Emmerson. A Regent in his
own right, now. Powerful and part of society’s problem.
Tears
blurred her vision, and her heart ached for him. Regret for not giving him the
benefit of the doubt and allowing emotion to rule her actions eight years ago,
soured her gut. She should’ve confronted him about the accusations his dad
made…but she’d made her choices, and she’d live and die by them. Pining for
Stone was her greatest weakness and her biggest
frustration.
The heart wants what the heart
wants.
Welcoming
the burn in her sinuses, she blinked back the tears. She would not cry for him or for the things she’d
lost. Like her innocence. At least that’d been sold of her own free will. She
longed for just a few minutes with her mother though. In the dead of night when
she couldn’t sleep, she craved a smile from Stone, yearned for one of his hugs…her
stupid, pathetic heart wouldn’t give up on Stone.
Eight
years ago she’d made her bed. Didn’t matter that she’d been a hormonal,
emotional fourteen-year-old who believed the story of a spiteful old man. A man
who had every reason to lie to her.
Kella
straightened her spine, while chastising herself for sniveling over a wasted
friendship that’d meant more to her than it had Stone. Everything she’d lost in
the years since her escape, those tribulations made her stronger.
“What’re
you waiting for, Mack? Get the fuck out of there.” The alarm in Reaper’s voice
jerked her to the present. “T-minus fifteen seconds. Run,
goddamnit!”
Thank you so much for posting this exclusive excerpt!
ReplyDeleteHuggles,
Gracen