Sister Katherine Release Week: Excerpt 1

Here we are with another book coming out!  I will alert you as it becomes available via the usual sales channels.  Meanwhile, enjoy this sneak peek:

Earthers were usually not as muscular as Kalquorians either.  Even the few surviving females of Vadef’s race were powerfully built.  Vadef himself had nowhere near the brawn of the average Kalquorian; certainly he possessed none of the robust fighter’s heft that Miv had.  Yet he was still a powerhouse compared to the female struggling in his clanmate’s arms.  Her frame was spare with the hewn look of one who had worked hard in her life.  She was too spare really, almost approaching scrawniness.

With her wide, staring eyes and tiny face twisted in a rictus of panic, this poor creature looked very much like prey caught in the clutches of a predator.  To liken Miv to a hunting animal was neither inaccurate nor insult.

Miv was of Kalquor’s Nobek breed, the warrior-protectors of the Empire.  That he belonged to the most ferocious category of Vadef’s people was obvious in the wary and almost feral expression he usually wore.  Miv’s demeanor was the first thing one noticed about him.  You had to get past that evaluating hunter’s stare to see the large eyes, the broad, crooked nose that had been broken too many times to count, and a voluptuous surprise of a mouth.

Vadef doubted the Earther was getting past his clanmate’s brutish aura at the moment, not when Miv was holding her helpless and waiting.

The poor female unleashed one final scream as Vadef painlessly injected the sedative into her neck.  She lost consciousness an instant later, and Miv handed her off to him.  The Imdiko looked at the now insensible face, which looked far more lovely without terror overcoming it.  

He grimaced.  Vadef was not a Nobek.  He’d never frightened anyone in his life, and he didn’t like that he scared these poor women.

Miv’s hand squeezed his shoulder.  His voice had a delightful gravel quality, one that Vadef felt scratched an itch deep in his ear.  “It’s all right, my Imdiko.  We’re not hurting them.”

“I wish we could make them understand that.”  Vadef thought he might hear the screams for the rest of his life.

“They wouldn’t listen.  They are poisoned against us.  Not to mention terrified at this moment.”

Vadef nodded.  Even the most benign invasion would be far from pleasant for those it was happening to.  With a sigh he carried the woman to the wall of the corridor and laid her on the floor.  Her white gown, while voluminous, still seemed inadequate protection for such a small creature.  It wasn’t cold in the corridor, but Vadef still had the urge to cover her in a blanket or slip a pillow under her head ... something that demonstrated care.  However, he needed to keep up with Miv, to finish this unpalatable work.  The sooner this invasion of the tiny Earther colony was over, the sooner Vadef could sit in front of a computer where he belonged.

Now available from Amazon, Amazon UK, and Smashwords.