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Isha walked on shaking legs, Rahul's hidden hands on her shoulders. Rapid puffs of air stirred the hairs on the back of her neck in a panicked beat. Her breathing wasn't any steadier, even though he'd made the dash back and forth to the lab on his own before joining her. She only had nerves to blame.

She pricked her left thumb, her right already wrapped with a plaster. A pearl of blood formed on her skin. She drew it across her wrist, a thin trail of sticky discomfort. Giving her thumb a squeeze, she encouraged it to continue leaking, needing more to paint her throat with.

That should be enough. It supposedly wasn't the amount of blood that mattered when you dealt with vampires, just the scent of it in the right places.

Trial by fire for which of Woxell's teachings were lies and which weren't.

Continue reading )

(Chapter 11) - (Chapter 13)

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Jayla woke in sheets sticky with cold sweat. Her jaw ached, her skin prickled with the chill of sleeping on her own in a far too large bed, and her thoughts struggling to exit the dream that had thrown her half-awake.

"Hey! You're okay, you're okay."

Vivian's bright brown eyes took up Jayla's sleep-blurred field of vision and warm hands took her gently by the shoulders. Her presence kicked the last of the nightmare under the rug. Jayla finally managed to take a deep breath.

Her face went from clammy and cold to burning. "Sorry for the drama."

"You have nothing to apologize for. Don't you think the rest of us had bad dreams after our first big showdown with creeps?"

Jayla's face turned the heat up a notch. If only. No, her subconscious had to cook up an 'it was all a dream' scenario, where she woke up in her parents' basement with a sarcastic invitation to Brandon and Carla's wedding. As if Carla would settle for Brandon.

"Where is everyone?" Jayla's lingering unease from the far too mundane stress dream bled over into the fact she and Vivian were the only two people in the living room. "What's wrong with the light?"

Continue reading )

(Chapter 10) - (Chapter 12)

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Book cover with the title of the book over a starry sky

I've realized I'm terrible at posting longer works chapter-by-chapter, which is why I haven't posted any writing on here in close to a year. I've been writing plenty, but nothing that's finished enough to share (have finally learned not to post WIPs - turns out that pre-sharing things kills my writing momentum :/).

Therefore, I've tried to figure out a way to a) practice writing shorter stories + b) get to share things while also not posting full on WIPs. This story 'collection' is my attempt at a solution! I've made up a setting, some characters and a vague plot, and now I'm just going to write short stories about them whenever the mood strikes me. These stories will not be as polished(?) as my other ones, they're even more just-for-fun. We'll see how long I can keep it going.

The short stories in this series will be listed in the order they've been written in. This will likely not be the chronological order of events. We shall see.

Summary: This is the story of a man who ends up immortal completely on accident. This immortality turns out to be contagious. How? Why? He has no idea. It seems to be one of life's little oddities. Sure makes it easier to be queer and do crime though~

Tags & Tropes: Characters grieving over the fact that they're attracted to people with gremlin personalities, immortality that's contagious, eldritch horrors(?) who really like music, heists, grifting, found family becomes loose polycule, "the horrors persist but so do I", people refusing to communicate despite their friends begging them to use their words because feelings are scary, random time and space travel, a space train.

The short stories:

Introductions Without Names

By Firelight

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Isha's right leg throbbed with each step, threatening to buckle under her weight. Her pants were stiff with unhelpfully drying blood. At least it's not mine.

She swallowed against both her heart and bile rising in her throat.

"Where are we going?" Rahul shouted. He had a steady grip on her arm, the two of them hobbling along together. They'd likely need to run soon. Isha considered asking him to let go of her.

"Downstairs, main room!" Jayla shouted back over the piercing shriek coming from the 'music box' that a minute ago had been a man. "We need to have Jesse," she nodded at said wailing box, "down there as soon as possible. Can you run?"

"Doubtful."

Continue reading )

(Chapter 9) - (Chapter 11)

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Warehouses tended to look like warehouses. Which was like saying people tended to look like people and cats tended to look like cats, sure, but not quite. Warehouses, in Jayla's experience, had an air about them that told you they knew you weren't supposed to be anywhere near them and that, had it been physically possible, they would have called your mother to tell on you.

Jayla took one last look at her phone before she turned it off and tucked it in an inside pocket. 4.03 am. Less than four hours until full sunrise.

"Everybody ready?" Lisa spoke in her ear. With the headset on it began to sink in that they were about to, basically, enact a heist.

It's both ridiculous and awesome that they had a whole set of these on hand. I wonder if they need to break into places often? It would have been pretty damn exciting, if the goal hadn't been to rescue a possibly tortured friend and if she didn't have to go in partly blind.Continue reading )

(Chapter 8) - (Chapter 10)

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It's funny the things that spring to mind when you're being chased by a big, hungry-looking wolf.

Jayla had always thought the mind went blank when thrown into life-threatening danger. At least, she'd thought that'd be her reaction. She'd been sure she'd freeze up; locked muscles and hollow head. Though, as dread went, failing an exam couldn't be compared to this. Angst over an F could be fixed by going home to cry and binge eat ice cream.

The wolf's panting breath stayed close. The noise brought on flashes of scrapes she'd luckily gotten out of. If they'd gone on longer or been worse, would she have managed to think beyond a litany of oh shit, oh no, oh shit then too?

Feet smattering against snow and asphalt Jayla ducked under the odd branch that grew over the path, lungs burning. One part of her focused on running, on the growling right behind her and her weakening legs. Another part noticed that the park she was fleeing for her life through was pretty nice. Unlike her crappy new apartment this would be a pleasant place to spend an afternoon, when summer hit, and the forest it bordered offered hiking paths. There were plenty of comfy-looking benches made for reading a book and enjoying a hot cup of coffee on.

Too bad she'd be dead before she could finish that library book she'd accidentally stolen. Karma?

Fangs snapped at her heels. Jayla dodged off the path and darted in among the trees. The wolf let out a promising yelp of pain. Drawing in a desperate breath she forced her shaking legs to run even faster. She weaved between the trees as randomly as her panicking brain knew how.

Outrunning a wolf. Yeah, this was totally going to work.

Continue reading )

(Chapter 2)

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How to Sway Them cover image


Summary:
There are demons in the woods. Well, at least according to the Imperial Military. Soldiers are sent there every year and only a handful come back, most of them suffering an unknown disease that takes away their will to live. They just sit and stare and starve. A rare few wake up before death claims them, but they're all quickly taken away, either to the laboratories or to Outer Camps. Due to that there's none outside the Emperor's closest allies who can claim to have seen a wild demon. The only proof of their existence are the tame bodyguards of the Emperor and his Adviser; obedient like well trained hunting dogs and far deadlier.

Dylis, soldier that she is, is inclined to believe the official claims. All the hellish training and the failed surgery that took her hearing would've been pointless otherwise. Her younger brother Glaw is different; by no means as good a fighter as she, but his surgery didn't cost him his ears. And unless Dylis can think of a way to switch their places, he's leaving for the woods in the morning. Alone.

Tags & Tropes: Magic, loyalty and betrayal, mind control, realizing you might just be working for the bad guys and doing something about that, battle magic in all possible over-the-top forms, accidental spying, medical experiments on a supernatural scale.

CHAPTERS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13

Big thanks to...
…my sister Ellen, who not only drew the beautiful cover, but also listened through the entire first draft of this book without complaining.
…my friend Crescenda, who introduced me to NaNoWriMo (the catalyst to this story ever being written) and whose knowledge of the English language saved this story from being a typo-filled mess.
...my parents and other friends who kept asking "shouldn't you be writing?" and who were very enthusiastic about the project.

If you prefer to read novels as physical books or ebooks, I actually have this book up on Amazon due to publishing a book being part of a NaNoWriMo reward way back when. However, that is the unrevised version. I'm working on getting a second edition up, just for fun, but currently the online version here is the only updated one.

I've also added this book to Goodreads, because why not :)
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