Enjoy this teaser scene from the first book in the
Gen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria series.
Release Date: June 3, 2021
Nothing.
Stupid rats.
She let out a
breath and went back to looking through the scope at the party in the house
below, watching for any signs that someone suspected Kevin’s intrusion.
From her
vantage point she had a clear view of the entire street, front of the house,
gardens and walkway. A house staff meandered up a path lighting lamps as the
last of the sun’s rays disappeared over the horizon. The party seemed to be
going smoothly enough for her to relax some. She crossed her legs and rested
her rifle on the floor in front of the window. When Kevin gave the word he was
on the way out, she’d reengage.
A board
creaked, sharper, closer. Katria sucked in air. That was definitely not a
rodent. She lifted her rifle and swung around as a groaning man, eyes rimmed
red, drool flowing from his slack mouth, shuffled into the room. At one time he
appeared to have been a builder, if the simple canvas pants, suspenders and
long-sleeve shirt were any indication. Fingers twitching at his sides, his feet
lumbered in heavy boots unevenly, his sole purpose now to find a victim. Gone
was the man he’d once been.
Katria
suppressed the urge to scream and reached for her mic button. The movement made
the infected man notice her. He charged, fast. His weight slammed her into the
rotting wall between the windows. The thin plaster caved beneath the force,
splintering into the air around her. Brick and pieces of broken wood bit into
her back.
All her
strength focused on keeping him at arm’s length. His power was no longer his
own, driven by the virus’s impulses. She’d seen how this story played out far
too many times. It took all her mental fortitude not to panic. If his gnashing
mouth bit or even touched any part of her flesh, she’d be suffering the same
fate within two weeks’ time.
The diseased
man pressed closer until her biceps burned and trembled with the effort to keep
him away. Terror ate at her and she cried out. Sweat dotted her forehead and
slid between her breasts. The only choice she had was to somehow kick him far
enough away to reach one of her pistols under the window, which would send her
to the ground, more vulnerable than she was now.
“Something’s not right,” Kevin’s voice said across the coms. “He’s not in his room and I’m looking at an
itinerary. The meeting is happening now. Over.”
“Say again, over,” Sean replied.
“We were given the wrong information.
The trade meeting was scheduled for tonight, not tomorrow. Over.”
“Get out of there. Kat, did you copy?” When she didn’t respond, Sean said
again, “Kat, do you copy?”
Katria gave
another cry of distress as her body strained to keep the infected at bay. Teeth
gnashed too close to her face. Twitching fingers attempted to grab at her with
uncoordinated movements. The stench of sickness and rot made breathing
difficult. Stuck, without much hope, she couldn’t stop a tear from sliding down
her cheek. How was she going to escape?
The silence on the other end of the radio made
Sean’s heart thump too hard. He didn’t waste another second. Jumping off the
carriage, he bolted across the street. The side door into the building Kat
occupied hung open, and he slipped in on a soundless stride. Adrenaline flowing
through his veins, he took the stairs two at a time, sliding across the dusty
landings. He wanted to call out. To hear her voice. To know she was okay. But
if she wasn’t, he didn’t want to alert anyone waiting.
Just a coms
failure he assured
himself to keep calm.
When he
reached the seventh floor, he unsheathed his knife and entered the quiet hall
on light feet. He did a quick visual search and saw no one else on the floor,
at least not in the hallway. A strained shout from a center room told him where
to go, and that she wasn’t alone. He pressed his back to the wall beside the
door and glanced in. Cornered into the wall, Kat attempted to keep her assailant
at bay. Sean let out a curse as he took in the man’s thin frame, disheveled
clothes and his sharp snapping of teeth.
He vaulted
into the room. The second he reached the attacker, he grabbed a handful of
greasy hair and yanked. “Move! Now!”
The infected
man jolted back. Sean dropped the knife and broke the man’s neck with a rapid
twist. Kat landed on the floor with a heavy thump. She quickly scooted away,
the body slumping near her legs in a loose pile of flesh and bone. Sean grabbed
the lifeless zombie by the arm and dragged it to the center of the room.
“Are you
okay?” He knelt beside Kat and looked her over, examining her arms, turning her
wrists. He took her chin in his hand and lifted her jaw, checking her throat.
“I’m fine,”
she said, breathless. “He didn’t get to me.”
Before he
could stop himself or even realize what he was doing, Sean gathered her into
his arms and held her tight to his chest. Trembling, she wrapped her arms
around him. His hand smoothed down the long length of her braided hair as
relief flowed through him. Little chunks of grainy plaster fell through his
fingers to the floor.
“You’re okay,”
he assured himself more than her.
“I checked… I
don’t understand. I did a search, Sean. This floor was empty. And… the infected
don’t have the cognitive skills to climb stairs. H-how did he get in?”
Sean pulled
back, his hand still resting in her hair. “I don’t know. You didn’t hear
anything?”
“Just a board
creak. I thought it was a rat, and then I heard another, and that’s when he…”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “That’s when he came in.”
“Maybe he was
in a closet. They can still open doors.”
She shook her
head. “No, I searched everywhere.”
“Okay,” he
spoke in a calm tone to subdue her rising panic. He rested his chin on top of her
head. “What does that leave?”
Her fingers
tightened on his back. “That someone is as skilled in covert missions as we
are, and dropped an infected man onto my floor to kill me?”
Every muscle
in her frame went rigid. He sat back on his heels and took her face in his
palms. “They didn’t succeed. You are fine. And if they sent in a zombie for a
man, it’s because they knew they couldn’t best you. They would fail.”
She nodded,
her lips parting, and Sean made the mistake of focusing on them. For three
years he’d avoided becoming personal with her unless absolutely necessary, such
as needing an accurate gauge of her mood, or treating her for an injury as the
teams Medical Science Officer. Now he found himself inches from her mouth, his
fingers smoothing across the soft angles of her jaw and neck. He moved closer,
the slightest shift of his weight. She didn’t pull away. In fact, her
anticipation tingled through his fingertips, settling in his blood, urging him
to act on the compelling need to kiss her.
Available now for Pre-Order
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