ECLIPSE OF THE BEGINNING BOOK 0 OF THE INTERDIMENSIONAL SAGA SERIES J.L. HENDRICKS This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organization...
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ECLIPSE OF THE BEGINNING BOOK 0 OF THE INTERDIMENSIONAL SAGA SERIES
J.L. HENDRICKS This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations,
and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Copyright (c) 2016 J.L. Hendricks
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be sold or given away to other
people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.
Cover Illustration by Anonymous First Edition June, 2016 All rights reserved. Copyright © 2016 J.L. Hendricks
THIS BOOK IS
DEDICATED TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE ON THIS ROLLER COASTER OF A RIDE WITH ME. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This book is part of a series and best read in the following order: The Original Eclipse Series Book 0 – Eclipse of the Beginning Book 1 – Eclipse of the Warrior Book 2 – Eclipse of the Soul Book 3 – The Eclipse of Power
Book 4 – Eclipse of the Heart Book 5 – Age of the Eclipse Origins of the Eclipse Series Book 1 – The Eclipse of Time
Other books by J.L. Hendricks Alpha Alien Abduction Tales – Sci-fi Adventure/Romance Book 1 – Worlds Away Book 2 – Worlds Collide Book 3 – Worlds Entwined (early 2017)
A Christmas Paranormal Romance Story (Shifters) Book 1 – Miss Claus and the
Secret Santa
Table of Contents Table of Contents Newsletter Sign-up Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Author’s Notes Excerpt Prologue Chapter One
Newsletter Sign-up
If you want to make sure you hear about the latest and greatest, sign up for my newsletter at: http://jlhendricksauthor.com/newsle I will only send out a couple of emails a month. I hate spam and lots of e-mails from others, so why would I do that to you? I won’t. And I will never sell your address either. I will however, do cover reveals, snippets of new books and giveaways or promos in the newsletter, some of which will only be available to newsletter subscribers. J
Prologue Several rippers, vampires to earthlings, came from the dark and mysterious shadows of the alley that held the debris of many beings, including these, but no sound could be heard as they silently moved into the night. The Reverend was too late, he walked into the alley and stopped suddenly and gasped, “Oh no! It can’t be them.” He knelt down to check what was left of the neck of the man for a pulse and found nothing but a cold, bloody body. Next, he checked the woman who was further back in the alley. Her neck had been torn out as well, but what really made the Reverend sick was the fact that her unborn baby had been ripped
from her womb and blood drained from her. The woman was only a couple of weeks from her due date. He could tell it would have been a girl. “Was this to be ‘THE GIRL’? Or is her sister the one?” He silently whispered to himself while he gently picked up the baby girl with curly brown hair and put her in her mother’s cold, dead arms. The next day the local papers reported that a family had been in a terrible accident. Their car had rolled off the cliffs of Hollywood and exploded. The bodies burned beyond recognition. But the coroner had determined that the woman was pregnant. This family had left behind one twelve-yearold daughter who was not with
her parents the night of the accident.
Chapter One Fifteen years later – Earth, Los Angeles The Reverend was a spiritual leader, but he was not from Earth. He originated on a planet far away from Earth, in a different dimension. His world was called Sendryl. His people called, Sennafae. They used a series of portals that led to and from their planet to Earth. The Earthlings knew nothing of the portals and the Sennafae guarded them very closely. “Lancer, so good of you to meet me here in Los Angeles. I know you’ve been assigned elsewhere in this world, but I have a very important mission for you.”
The Reverend reached out to the other man, who wasn’t so much a man, as that would imply he was a human. They gripped each other’s forearms in a traditional greeting. Lancer was also from Sendryl. He was at least six feet tall, with long brown hair that went below his shoulders and fell loosely around his head. The intention was to cover his ears, which some might say were pointy. All of the Sennafae had pointy ears. Those who were assigned to Earth wore their hair long in an effort to cover those ears. Other than their ears, they looked like extremely attractive earthlings. “Reverend, anything I can do to help you.” Lancer bowed slightly to his Reverend. He was
the ultimate spiritual leader among his people, and he held a position on the High Council. Although, his political power was actually much more than anyone else on the Council held. All beings on Sennafae looked up to the Reverend and almost worshiped him. They would worship him if he let them. With the exception of a few, all Reverends through their history were revered but never allowed anyone to worship them. The Almighty Creator was the only one to be worshiped. “There is a young girl who we have been protecting for a long time, she has come of age and just might be the girl of the prophecy. Her parents were murdered when she was young,
along with her unborn sister. Some thought the baby sister might end up fulfilling the prophecy, but I believed it would be the older sister.” The Reverend clasped his hands in front of him. “She is of the proper age to take her place, but she has not yet discovered this. The enemy has been following me lately. I believe they suspect I have protected someone of her line. We have always known the bloodline of the prophecy, we just had to wait until the proper time. Now is the time.” “Reverend, forgive me, but this girl might become our savior? She’s the one who will stop the Rippers from ravaging our planet? And Earth’s as well?” Lancer looked at the Reverend with awe
and a little bit of incredulity. He was in awe of being the one the Reverend called for this assignment, but couldn’t believe he knew who their savior was. “Yes, over the years only the High Reverends have known parts of the prophecy. I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you that she is the last of her line. Over the centuries, the enemy has worked hard to kill off this particular blood line and destroy any evidence of who she really is.” The Reverend and Lancer started walking towards a modest suburban house on a tree-lined street while children played in the middle of the road with no care as to who these two men were. “I need to tell you a story, the
real story, of the prophecy. No one other than the two of us will know this truth. You must promise to take this to the grave with you should anyone try to obtain it.” The Reverend stopped walking and looked at Lancer sternly while holding his hands behind his back. “Yes sir, I will not breathe a word of this to anyone. Your apprentice doesn’t know the truth?” Lancer stood next to the Reverend while he asked his questions. “Correct, my apprentice will not know a lot of information until he becomes my successor. On my death bed, I will relay all of the information I have which is kept secret from even the High Council.”
“I am honored you trust me so much with this information, but may I ask why me?” “Because you are to be a part of the prophecy as well.” “How’s that possible? Am I to be the one she falls in love with? Do I give my life for her?” Lancer narrowed his eyes and quirked one side of his lips up as he thought about the ramifications of this new information. “No, my son, you are not to be the one she falls in love with. You are to be the one who changes her into a Sennafae Hybrid.” The Reverend stopped talking long enough to let that sink in for Lancer. “I…I am to be the one who transforms her? But how? That
process has been lost to us for many generations.” “You will know what to do when the time is right. Do not worry my son, all will be revealed in time. For now, I need you to protect her. Her father knew who she had the potential to become.” The Reverend patted Lancer on his shoulder. “All females in their family line were brought up with martial arts training as well as weapons instruction. Since her parents died when she was so young, she has only maintained the martial arts training. Her adopted parents knew something was special about her, but they didn’t understand it all. They were instructed to keep up her training, but sadly they did not allow
B’Lana the weapons training she so desperately will need.” “Do you want me to train her in addition to protecting her?” “No, don’t get close to her and be sure to not let anyone in her family know you’re there. I just want you to make sure that there is no one following her. I’m unsure if the rippers or the dissidents have discovered who she is yet. Since I have been followed, I have to assume that she is in danger as well.” “I’ll do what I can, but I’m not assigned to this region. May I bring in someone to assist me with this protection detail?” “Don’t worry, I’ll work on getting you re-assigned to Los Angeles, in the mean time I have
another warrior who needs an assignment. He will not know anything about the girl, other than she is important and must be protected with his life. I believe you are acquainted with him already, Ash Z’nial.” Lancer breathed out a huff of air while he rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand, “Yes, I have worked with Ash before. He’s not someone who can be trusted with this assignment. Surely you have heard about his actions these past twelve years, since the death of his potential mate?” “Yes, I have counseled with him, and I believe that this is the perfect assignment for Ash. He will do whatever is necessary to protect the girl.” The Reverend and Lancer kept walking until they
stopped two doors down from a two-story Cape Cod style house with a light blue trim. “Once you are re-assigned here we can re-evaluate Ash’s involvement. But you are never to tell him anything about her. Please be very careful in what you say to him. He has a soft spot for human women, and I don’t want either one of you to become intimate with her. Especially you. Lancer, you must swear to me by the Almighty Creator and His two moons that you will never become intimate with B’Lana. It’s very important that you remember this. Do you understand?” The Reverend looked at Lancer and narrowed his eyes while studying Lancer’s face. “Sir, human women don’t tempt
me. Only a warrior would be able to tempt me. And B’Lana does not sound like a warrior.” “Very well, just don’t forget. See that young woman walking out the door of the light blue house? That’s B’Lana. This is her adopted parents’ home. She’s very close to them and visits often. However, she has her own apartment not far from here in a city called Yorba Linda. Her best friend, DeeDee, is actually the daughter of the people who live here. You should learn who her family and close friends are.” The Reverend pointed to a young lady outside. “The young lady running outside right now, that’s DeeDee. She loves B’Lana just like a sister. You will see them together a lot
even though they do not share a dwelling.” Lancer and the Reverend turned around and started walking back the way they came. “Do you have the addresses of B’Lana and all of her friends? That will make things easier if I start out with everyone’s addresses.” Lancer walked alongside the Reverend with his hands behind his back and his head looking straight forward as they spoke. “Yes, I’ll send you via encrypted message everyone’s addresses. Come, let us go back to my hotel so that we can further discuss the assignment as well as the parts of B’Lana’s story you need to understand.” As the two walked back
towards their car, a large human with multiple scars across his face, wearing a vest covered in knives, and a horde of cats following him, skulked in the shadows watching B’Lana and DeeDee prepare to leave for the evening. Lancer’s senses picked up the cats, and he turned to see the strange human walking towards B’Lana. He ran to catch up with the large man and make sure he was not trying to hurt B’Lana. But B’Lana saw the man with his cats coming towards her wearing a sneer on his face while he held up a four-inch knife below his nose. It almost looked like he was sniffing the knife. “DeeDee! Get in the car, Quick!” B’Lana screamed. She tried to start her car, but it
wouldn’t start. B’Lana turned the key in the ignition, but it only made a chugging noise. She tried it again, and the engine caught instantly. "Thank, God!" she cried as she mashed the pedal to the floor, spinning the wheels as the car launched out of the driveway. Lancer had caught up to the scarred man just as B’Lana pulled away. He grabbed the man by his arms and turned him around then he grabbed the man’s wrist with the weapon and twisted it until he released the knife. It fell to the ground and made a large thudding noise. The children in the street had run back across to their yards when B’Lana made her tire screeching exit only moments ago. They did not see the two men
fighting in the shadows. Scarface punched Lancer in the gut, but Lancer isn’t human, so it didn’t hurt him nearly as much as it should have. “Sorry my catloving friend, but you won’t win today.” “Don’t be so sure about that.” He pulled out one of his knives and tried to stab Lancer in the gut, but Lancer moved his arm to block the knife so quickly, Scarface did not even realize he had lost his knife. Lancer pulled the man into the shadow of the large oak tree outside DeeDee’s parents’ home. He put the large man into a choke hold and waved off the attempts by the cat lover to free himself from Lancer.
The man scratched at Lancer’s arm to no avail. Then he tried to kick Lancer’s foot and leg, again he was unsuccessful. All he managed to do was kick one of his cats who had tried to rub up against his leg in an attempt to let him know the cats loved him. Lancer stood there and waited for the Reverend to bring the car to him. While they waited, the human passed out from lack of oxygen. “Reverend, help me get this giant inside your trunk.” The Reverend assisted Lancer in putting the man into the rear of the car. It was an old Cadillac Seville that had a very large trunk. It seemed to be made for carting away large bodies such as this man with an affinity for cats.
Both Lancer and the Reverend looked around to see if anyone noticed that they just attacked and kidnapped the rather large man with a vest full of knives. The cats spread out once the car appeared and they quietly skulked back to where they came from. Lancer took a few seconds to watch them leave and wondered why they were being so quiet. “Sir, should I dispose of the man in our trunk? He seemed to be on his way to attack B’Lana.” Lancer looked over to the Reverend who drove like it was a Sunday morning without a care in the world. “No, I want you to interrogate him first. Find out why he was after B’Lana. Then you can
dispose of him. I doubt anyone other than those who hired him will miss him. Well, maybe that horde of cats might.” The Reverend lightly chuckled to himself as he thought about all of those cats. “There must have been fifty cats following him around.”
Chapter Two The Reverend pulled up to an abandoned warehouse in downtown LA and Lancer dragged the guy from the trunk inside. The Reverend had given him a sleeping cocktail in a very large syringe before they left B’Lana’s neighborhood. They figured the big guy would sleep for a few hours at most. By the time he woke up, he had been tied up tightly to a meat hook that hung from the ceiling of the warehouse. He hung with his hands tied around the hooks and his feet dangling three inches off the ground. “What do ya want wit me?” The scarred man asked of his
captors. “What’s your name and who do you work for?” Lancer started with the easy questions to try and get him to open up more later. “What’s it to ya? I got no name an I werk fa no man.” “Alright, no name, if you don’t work for a man, what do you work for?” The no-name man raised his eyebrows and drew in a quick breath. “How ya know tha?” “I’m not a man either… but I am something that you should fear. I imagine that I am very similar to the being you work for.” Lancer said thoughtfully as he walked around the body hanging like a slab of meat from the hook.
“The only difference is that I have you, and he doesn’t. So are you going to answer my questions? Or do I just kill you here and now?” Scarface grumbled to himself, “Idjiot, he got no klews!” “What’s that? Did you want to answer me now?” Lancer took one of Scarface’s ornamental knives; it was three inches long with a jeweled handle. There were rubies and emeralds in the handle along with some ancient inscription that he couldn’t make out. He dragged the blade down along the inside of the prisoner’s left arm and blood oozed out the entire length of the cut. “I work for da werewolves; the one I met wit he’s an extrey-large werewolf an he hates de blonds
and ‘puters. I sees him grab e blonde gerl wit da fancy laptop and throw her ov’r de bridges. He say she makes ‘im sneeze.” Scarface shivered and had a far off look in his eyes. “Don’t send me back to em, please. I work fer ye now.” The human seemed to cower in front of Lancer, but he wasn’t buying the act. “Do you really work for a werewolf, or are you lying to me?” Lancer eyed him coolly while debating what to do next. “Of curse, I don’t werk fer no werewolf! What are ye, a nitwit? Whos e’er herd of werewolves bein’ real?” “If you’re not going to cooperate then I have no use for you. Why were you going after
that girl?” “I aint sayen notin. I know me rights.” “You have no rights here.” Lancer pulled out his long sword, it was polished to a high shine and he ran his thumb along the edge to see if it was sharp. Sure enough, it drew blood just barely touching his thumb. “You either tell me what I want to know or you lose your head tonight. Your choice.” Lancer shrugged his shoulders as though he didn’t care either way. The large man hung there saying nothing. He tried to look as defiant as he could while hanging from a meat hook. Lancer nodded to the Reverend who lowered the rope holding the man up. When he
lowered his hands enough, Lancer stepped in and swung his sword across the large man’s shoulders effectively severing his head. “Reverend, I think we are going to need Ash right away. This girl’s in danger.” Lancer wrapped the body and head in the plastic tarp he had put underneath the man while he hung unconscious in the air. Then took it and put it in the trunk of their car. One more piece of trash to take to the dump, Lancer mused to himself as he cleaned up before they left the warehouse. The Reverend looked over to Lancer while he was stopped at a red light and considered for a moment what he was going to say, “I don’t normally condone
killing humans, but I do believe in this situation it was warranted. I think you should go over to her apartment and keep an eye on her all night. I’ll bring Ash back in the morning to relieve you.” “Yes, of course. Thank you, Reverend. And for the record, that was the first human I killed, well the first who wasn’t in the process of being changed into a Ripper Hybrid. But he looked and acted more like a ripper than a human.” Lancer looked outside and watched as the scenery flew by.
◊◊◊ “Reverend, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Ash asked as he motioned for the Reverend to come into his apartment. Ash was
currently living in Las Vegas and not really paying much attention to anything except for the blackjack tables and the showgirls. He figured the Reverend was here to try and convince him to come back to Sendryl for the thousandth time. “Ash, I see you haven’t made any plans to move back to Sendryl yet? I thought we decided it would be best if you went home to your family?” “Nah, that’s what you decided. I never agreed to it.” Ash brought out two water bottles and glasses and put them on the coffee table in front of the Reverend. Then he poured them each a glass of cold water. “Ash, I have a very important
assignment for you. Before you turn me down, here me out.” Ash was about to interrupt him and say no. Then he decided it couldn’t hurt to listen to what the Reverend had to say. “Alright, shoot. What’s the assignment and where is it?” Since living in Las Vegas, he had picked up quite a bit of Earth slang. The Reverend didn’t seem to care for it as he narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips in displeasure each time Ash used Earth slang; which only made him want to use it more. This was the only way he could get away with disrespecting the Reverend, and he knew it. “It’s a protection detail for a very important Earth girl. She lives outside of LA and has been targeted by both the rippers and
the dissidents. I need you to join the team of warriors who are protecting her. And I need you to leave today. We stopped an attempt on her life last night, but I don’t know how long it will be before another comes looking for her.” “Why doesn’t her own police protect her?” “Because they can’t protect her against the rippers, only you can do that. Can you be packed and ready to go within thirty minutes?” “Whoa, wait a minute. I never said I would go.” “Are you telling me no? You do realize I can order you to leave right now, right?” “Reverend I would never turn
my back on an order. However, let me just say that I don’t think I am the right one for this assignment. If she is truly important as you say, then I believe you came to the wrong guy.” Ash was a tall warrior, he was six feet five inches and had darker color skin than a lot of the men around town. But it looked more like he had a really dark suntan. Most of the Sennafae Warriors had a darker tone to their skin. It was only the rippers who had pasty white skin. Women were easily attracted to his good looks and the smooth lines he delivered flawlessly night after night. The Reverend was surprised to find Ash alone at this time of morning. The sun hadn’t even come up yet. The last time he visited Ash, two of his female
visitors were barely dressed. Rumor had it that Ash had multiple human girls staying with him in his apartment at any given time. Apparently, Earth girls were easy. “Come on, I’ll help you pack. The sooner we leave here, the sooner we will get to LA.” Four hours later they pulled up to where B’Lana lived in Yorba Linda. Ash got out of the car stretching and asked, “Is this suburbia or LA? The last time I was in LA, it wasn’t this clean.” “We’re in a suburb called Yorba Linda. Technically it isn’t in LA, but this entire area is LA to me.” “Fine, who will I be working with on this assignment?” The last person Ash wanted to see walked
over towards the car right at that moment. “Aw, for the love of two moons!” “Hello Ash, it’s good to see you standing upright this time. I take it the Reverend told you about our detail?” Lancer looked Ash up and down and judged him to be sober, but barely. Earth alcohol did nothing for the Sennafae, so they would bring over wine from Sendryl that could get them intoxicated. “Yes, I understand we have to babysit a little Earth girl and kill anything that comes after her.” “Yes and no. We will protect the young woman in that apartment.” Lancer pointed to a third story balcony where a young lady sat outside sipping on her
morning coffee. She wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t going to win any beauty contests either. The woman had long brown hair which she usually kept in a large braid down her back. While she seemed healthy, her hips were a bit large and rounded. Ash judged that she could stand to lose some weight. “Are we going to train her to protect herself? That might be better to teach her how to fish for herself,” Ash asked. The Reverend spoke up, “In no way are you to reveal yourselves to her. She is not to know that you’re there. You are to be like ghosts, no one should be able to see you.” “How are we supposed to protect her if we can’t get near
her?” Ash asked as he looked between Lancer and the Reverend. Lancer spoke up and said, “We watch from a distance, and we stop anything dangerous that gets close. We aren’t going to wait for someone to try and attack her, we take them out before she can even see them.” The Sennafae spent the next few hours discussing how best to protect B’Lana while staying in the shadows. Ash left to take a nap and then came back in the evening to relieve Lancer. Ash kept to the shadows but couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the girl. He wanted nothing more than to join her on her patio for dinner and drinks. There was
something about her that drew him to her. He caught movement out of his left and moved to inspect the situation. Turned out it was just a dog. The unearthly mammoth of male, went back to his post and continued to watch her, mesmerized by her presence. “Why does she draw me to her? She isn’t very beautiful. She seems to have an aura of confidence, but also something else. Could it be magic? No, that’s impossible since she was only a human.” However, he did feel a tiny magical pull from her. “Strange, to experience this type of pull from a human? I never even felt this from Hannah.”
Hannah was to be Ash’s mate. She was a human he saved over a decade ago from the rippers. She joined their squad and helped to keep their headquarters cleaned up. He was going to transform her into a human/Sennafae hybrid but something went wrong and he killed her instead. This is what sent Ash down a path of debauchery for the past ten years. Once a Sennafae took a mate, they never mated again. They only had one for their entire existence, which could be up to 300 years if they were lucky, although most only lived to about 240 years. Sadly, Ash believed that Hannah was his mate, even though they had not officially mated. While Ash stared at the pretty
girl on the balcony, something evil slithered its way to her stairs without Ash noticing. The fog was coming through the staircase, which was the first sign that something was wrong. Ash ran as fast as he could to the stairs that led to B’Lana’s apartment. When he arrived, blood drenched the stairway as it dripped down each step to where Ash stood. The ground was covered with fog while the air was difficult to breathe through all of the smoke. Watching the blood drip down each step worried him, and he ran up the stairs as quickly as he could while trying not to slip on the blood. But he couldn’t make his way up, each time Ash thought he made it to the next
landing, he would magically appear on the ground floor again. Ash tried for what seemed like an hour to get up those stairs, and then he heard an ear-piercing scream that frightened him. He jolted awake and wondered what happened. Ash looked around and realized it was a nightmare. He had fallen asleep while watching B’Lana. “Aaahhh” He heard the scream again and realized that was what woke him up. While looking around to see who was screaming, he quickly made his way to the stairs of B’Lana’s apartment.
Chapter Three When he reached the stairs, he almost thought he saw blood and fog covering the stairs, but it was just his imagination. He ran upstairs and realized the screams were coming from the apartment below B’Lana. Quickly he turned around and ran back down to where he was watching before. Once he was back in his shadow, he looked up to the balcony below B’Lana’s and noticed that someone inside was fighting with a man. He figured it was the lady who screamed that was fighting back. “Oh well, it’s not our responsibility to protect the humans. I don’t understand why I have to protect B’Lana, but if the Rev wants her safe, then
she’ll be safe.” He looked up to B’Lana’s apartment and noticed that her sliding glass door was open, but he couldn’t see her anywhere inside. “Hm, she must be in the kitchen, or her bedroom.” Ash looked back to the downstairs neighbor and noticed that the woman in that apartment was doing a great job of kicking that man’s butt! “Good for her,” he thought. And he hoped that B’Lana could take good care of herself like that woman. Not ten minutes later the police arrived, and he could see them arresting the man and hauling him away in cuffs. Then he had to do a double-take because he saw B’Lana coming
out of the apartment and going downstairs behind the cops. “What? Is she the one who beat the tar out of that guy? Nice job, lady.” Ash’s respect for that woman just jumped up several notches. But then he worried that she might be in danger for what she did. While sitting there debating if he should follow her to the police station, Lancer came up behind him. “I see there was some action here tonight. Is our girl Ok?” Lancer looked over to the apartment and noticed that B’Lana was getting into the front of a police car while an ambulance was taking a woman away on a stretcher.
“Yes, I heard some screaming and ran to the complex to check it out before I realized it was coming from the apartment below B’Lana. She must have left her unit to help while I was coming back here. I never saw her walk out. Didn’t even realize it was her beating up the man until she walked out of the apartment. What should we do? Follow them?” “No, we stay here. Next time fully investigate the source of the noise before giving up. And maybe offer help. You know we used to actually help the humans when they needed it.” Lance sighed while he thought back to better times. “Yes, but that was a long time ago, Lancer.”
“I think we should go back to helping them, they’re so weak compared to the rippers and us. What if something else found this planet? They would never be able to defend themselves against the shifters, and you know it.” “That’s not our concern, the Reverend only wanted us to protect this one human, not the entire race. Come on Lancer, let’s get busy while we wait for our girl to get home.” The warriors went back to their van and grabbed some surveillance equipment and made their way to B’Lana’s apartment once the area had cleared out of all of the first responders and lookie-loos. “Make sure to put the listening
devices where she won’t find them. But leave her bedroom alone Ash.” Lancer noticed Ash went straight for B’Lana’s bedroom. He was going through her things and ignored Lancer’s warning. Lancer walked into the bedroom and glared at Ash while he was going through her nightstand. “Ash, I said leave this room alone. We don’t need to know what she does in her own bedroom.” “Lancer, I was going to put a listening device in her nightstand. That way if anyone tries to get into her room while she’s sleeping we’ll know about it.” “I think we’ll know if someone comes inside the apartment, as
long as we are doing our job. Now get out of here and put up the rest of the devices. I want to get CCTV set up to see inside her sliding glass door as well as the front door. I want to see everyone who’s coming or going from the place.” “Aye, aye, El Capitan!” Ash barked out sarcastically and saluted with his right arm while he walked out of the room. It took them longer than they expected and they barely made it back to their spot when B’Lana came home. They turned on the listening devices to see if they could hear her. “Yes, I’m fine. All of that martial arts training has paid off. The lady who lives below me was being attacked by her ex-husband.
I really think he would have killed her if I hadn’t stopped him.” B’Lana was relaying the whole situation to her friend over the phone. Lancer and Ash could hear her end of the conversation but not the other end. “I think we might need to bug her phone. Do you know anyone who’s good with Earth tech?” Lancer looked over at Ash while he asked him his question, but Ash seemed focused on the apartment instead. “Ash, did you hear me?” “Yes, sorry. I was looking at B’Lana. I think she might have been hurt.” Lancer quickly pulled out his binoculars to get a better look. They had perfect eyesight and
could see more than 100 yards away in the dark. But he wanted to make sure that Ash wasn’t seeing things. “You’re right, she has started to bruise on her face. Looks like that animal hit her. There’s a fist sized mark that is bluish in color on her left cheek. Now I wish you would have stopped him before she could get involved. She also appears to be walking funny, like she has a leg injury. Funny, I didn’t notice this when she left with the police earlier. Did you?” Both Lancer and Ash were getting very angry just thinking about that man putting his hands on B’Lana. They didn’t know it yet, but they were developing feelings for her. One wanted to protect her like a little sister, but the other one was
starting to see the beauty in this young woman. Ash shook his head. He couldn’t talk for fear of blowing up. He was clenching his fists at his side and furrowed his brows together while he thought of the many ways he would inflict his justice on anyone who touched B’Lana. Then he released a large breath, almost like a balloon that was punctured, and realized that he had become protective of her. He was now invested in her safety and welfare. He decided right then and there that if anything dangerous was going on anywhere near her, he wouldn’t walk away again. Next time the perpetrator was going down by his hands, and he would keep B’Lana safe.
“Ash, where are you currently living?” “In a hotel for now. I was planning on finding an apartment somewhere close by. What about you?” “I need an apartment as well. I think we should rent one here. It’ll make it much easier for us to keep a closer eye on her.” “Agreed, first thing tomorrow I’ll see what’s available with a good view of her apartment.” “Thank you, Ash. That will be very helpful.” Lancer sighed as he realized that this was going to be his entire life until she fulfilled the prophecy. “DeeDee, no need to come over. I just want to take a hot
shower and rest. My neighbor’s idiot of an ex-husband tripped me when we got to the police station, and I twisted my ankle. I just need to relax and put my foot up.” Ash wondered what DeeDee was saying and hoped that she would come over and take care of B’Lana. “Fine, I’ll call you tomorrow. Don’t worry, I can take care of myself… But thank you for worrying about me. Maybe we can do a Jane Austen marathon this weekend.” Ash noticed that she had a smile on her face when she spoke about those plans. “Lancer, what is a Jane Austen marathon?” Ash looked over at Lancer with confusion on his face, and he scratched his chin while thinking about this.
“I believe Jane Austen was a romance writer who lived a few hundred years ago. Some of her books have been made into movies and the females of this planet seem to really like her stories.” “Have you ever read any of those books?” “No, I have no desire to read Earth literature, do you?” “No, of course not. Especially not if it’s romantic stuff.” Ash looked back at B’Lana and wondered if he shouldn’t read some of Jane Austen’s work just so he could learn more about human females. The next night when he came to relieve Lancer he had a copy of Pride & Prejudice in his backpack.
He figured it might help him to pass the time while B’Lana slept. Little did he know, but Lancer also had a copy of Mansfield Park in his pack.
Chapter Four Over the next two years, both Ash and Lancer took turns protecting B’Lana. On occasion, other warriors would be called in to assist with the assignment. They didn’t seem to have any more issues with her safety. There were a couple of petty criminals who attempted to rob her when she was in a bad part of town, but she never knew they were there. The warriors always took out any possible threat to B’Lana’s safety even before it could happen. The Sennafae decided to make Los Angeles their new West Coast headquarters as they discovered more and more ripper activity in the area. A Commander Terra came to town and set up a
warehouse in downtown LA. “Lancer, I want you to lead Squad 1 here in LA. You’ve been here for a couple of years and know the area better than anyone else. You’re perfect for the role.” “Thank you, Commander, but I have other responsibilities in the area as directed by the High Command. I will happily join Squad 1, however I will need time to be able to carry out my other orders.” “What are these orders? I was not made aware that you had another set of orders?” Commander Terra stood up taller and walked closer to Lancer and eyeballed him while putting both of his hands on his hips. He was taller than Lancer by almost two inches but his countenance made
him appear a foot taller in that moment. “Commander, I must apologize, but I am not at liberty to divulge my orders at this time. Please speak with the Reverend should you have any questions.” “No, that won’t be necessary. How about you take command of the squad but I make sure you have some time to carry out those orders?” The Commander knew that Lancer really was the best one for the job. And if he was on some super-secret mission from the Reverend, then he wanted him as leader even more. “Yes, I’ll accept the position. Thank you, Commander.” Lancer backed away just a little bit as the Commander had stepped into his
personal space and made Lancer nervous. This new role limited Lancer’s freedom to look after B’Lana, he didn’t have enough time. He also had to move out of the apartment he shared with Ash and into the Headquarters (HQ) which the Commander had set up over an hour away, in Los Angeles. That was an hour when there wasn’t any traffic. Most days it was a two-hour commute from the apartment to HQ. Ash spent more time protecting her, and he brought in several other warriors to help with this secret mission. The Reverend had kept Ash’s involvement quiet so he still had freedom of movement. He would
call in favors with his friends back on Sendryl and usually had help for two to three weeks at a time. However, with these changes, Ash became complacent. He wasn’t always watching B’Lana wherever she went. He figured since it had been two years since the last attempt on her life she was safe.
◊◊◊ B’Lana and her friends enjoyed going out to nightclubs and dancing. While she did enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner or after a long day of work, she wasn’t into drinking at nightclubs. She had seen too many horror stories about women getting drugged. So she preferred bottled water with the lid on. Sadly, some of her friends didn’t think the same way. Janice, one of B’Lana’s friends from college was out with them, and she had ordered a Sex on the Beach. “Check out those guys, “ Janice pointed to a group of five guys who noticed her attention. “Ladies, aren’t you all looking
lovely tonight. I’m Rick.” One of the men said when he walked up to their table. This guy was good looking, in a Brad Pitt sort of way. He had light brown hair and a smile that could light up a room. Another asked, “Would you like to dance?” The girls all smiled and nodded. The second guy was blonde and very fit. B’Lana thought he might be a college basketball player. Finally, after dancing to five songs, the girls went back to their table with the guys, and they finished their drinks while talking to the guys they had just danced with. One of the guys named Rick asked, “Can I get you all another round of drinks? I know I’m thirsty after all of the dancing.”
Janice was a good looking girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a red dress with black high heels. Her dress was sleeveless and only came down to her mid-thigh. She was dressed to impress that night. “Sure, thanks!” “I don’t drink so a bottle of water would be great for me.” B’Lana just didn’t drink with strange men. “Excuse me, girls. I’ll be back.” There was a long line outside the ladies room, and by the time she got back to the table, all of her friends were gone. She looked around the room but couldn’t find them. “Hi, did you see where my friends went?” She pointed to the table next to her as she asked the
occupants of table next to them “Yeah, your friends left with those guys. I think they were all drunk or something. A few of the girls were practically stumbling as they left. I head one of the guys say he could take them home to sleep it off.” The young, redhead shrugged her shoulders and went back to her beer. B’Lana ran out of there as fast as she could and found the group still in the parking lot. The guys were having a hard time getting all of the girls to get into their cars. She dressed more sensibly than most of her friends. She had on black stretch pants with a long purple blouse that hung to her mid-thigh. There was a belt at her
waist that helped to make her look slimmer than she was. While most of her friends wore heels, B’Lana felt more comfortable in boots. “Thank you, Lord! Now if you could just help me to save my friends.” While running to reach her friends, she noticed another group of men coming toward them. They looked like they were high but moving quickly. “I sure hope those guys are going to help. Fighting five guys is enough, I don’t need more!” Normally, B’Lana could take care of herself and could probably fight off three men, but five men were trying to take her friends away. She wasn’t sure how well they could fight or if she could keep them from leaving with any
of her friends. She ran up to the closest guy and punched him as hard as she could in his kidneys, he went down and didn’t get back up. “One down, four to go,” she said to herself but realized that they now knew she was there. Two of the four kept trying to get her friends in their cars while the other two came after her. One of them, Ricky she thought, tried to grab her arm and she brought her boot up to his family jewels and knocked the breath out of him. He bent down and she kneed him in his nose. A bit of blood stained her knee. She knew he wasn’t getting back up any time soon. His face was red and he was having a difficult time breathing.
As the other guy, Tim, grabbed her the group she noticed earlier reached them and attacked all of the men. But it was like no attack she had seen before. These new guys went after their throats, like animals. One of the guys from the club was pulled back away from the car by one of the new fighters. He looked strange, his face was pasty white and his eyes looked to be blood shot. Even the color inside his eye was a deep red. Then she saw his mouth. He had fangs for teeth. She watched in horror as that monster opened wide and bit down on the other guy’s neck, who screamed loudly. B’Lana wondered what drugs they were on as they were extremely strong. “Maybe PCP?”
she mused. She shivered but didn’t let the horror in front of her distract her from her mission. B’Lana went for her friends and tried to get them out of the cars and headed back towards the club. These new guys scared her, and she knew that they were dangerous and believed they would be coming for her and her friends once they were done with the five idiots. She took a quick peek back at one of the guys on the ground, Ricky, and saw one of the druggies biting his neck. “Help!” Ricky quietly called out. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought they were vampires. She wondered if that zombie drug from a few years ago had made it back
on the streets and now made people act like vampires. As she was trying to get Janice to stand up straight, another group of five men showed up and started fighting with the druggies. These guys looked like they came straight from a Middle Ages battlefield reenactment. They all carried swords of varying sizes and shapes. These warriors were wearing black pants, shirts, and boots, like they came from the shadows. She was really worried that none of them were going to get out of this night alive. One of the newcomers had pulled the druggie off Ricky and slammed his fist into his face. The druggie backed up a little bit, but righted himself and came after the guy holding a sword. A punch
came from the druggie. It was fast and hard. The new guy’s head popped back but he didn’t lose his footing. The new guy pulled his sword out and stabbed the drugging in the gut. B’Lana’s eyes opened wide and she took in a deep, shaky breath. “If we don’t get out of here, none of us are going to make it home.” Once she had all four of her friends out of the two cars and standing up, she tried to get them to move towards the club. One of the new guys who looked like he might be a soldier was in her way. He was fighting with one of the druggies who were very quick and strong. The soldier guy had a short knife in his hand and he slashed at the druggie who kept
moving fast enough to stay out of reach of the blade. As the girls started to try and walk around them, the druggie was distracted by Janice, her red dress had scrunched up above her waist showing off her red lacy underwear. The soldier used that distraction and stabbed the other guy in the eye. “Oh my god!” B’Lana screamed and turned away from the gruesome sight. She noticed Janice’s dress and pulled it down to cover her friend. Then she tried to get them to move as fast as she could. She figured they had all been roofied and sent up a quick thanks to the man upstairs for making sure she only drank from a fresh bottle of unopened water when out at clubs.
After she passed the two fighting, another friend of hers, Dawn, leaned over and threw up her dinner. She was coughing and trying to expel everything in her mouth. “Oh Dawn, I am so sorry you have to experience this.” B’Lana reached into her purse and pulled out a tissue to help Dawn wipe her mouth. “Maybe you won’t remember this part come tomorrow.” Lancer’s squad had been following these rippers, the guys B’Lana called druggies, and made it just in time to keep them from hurting B’Lana and her friends. He wondered where Ash was. It was Ash’s night to watch her. But he couldn’t worry about that right now. B’Lana was in danger and she probably figured out these
were vampires. He didn’t know how he was going to cover this all up. Her friends looked very drunk and probably wouldn’t remember anything the next day. Lancer remembered what the Reverend told him two years ago, he couldn’t let her see him so he sent one of his other guys, Runi, to help her get her friends away from here. “Hi miss, can I help you get your friends back to the club?” While Runi was talking to B’Lana, Lancer focused on the remaining two rippers. He and Maliki went up against one of them while the other two on his squad fought the third ripper. Lancer and Maliki attempted to circle the ripper, who knew their
tactics well since they had fought several times. The ripper reached out towards Maliki to try and keep him from getting to his backside. Lancer pulled out a broadsword he had strapped to his back and sliced off the right arm of the ripper when he reached out toward Lancer as he was trying to corral them up against the car behind them. The ripper screamed out in agony as he lost his arm. He used his left hand to try and staunch the blood flow and lost track of Maliki who ended up behind him and cut off his head before the ripper even knew what happened. Lancer went over to his comrades and watched as one of them cut off the head of the ripper who was at his feet. The best way
to ensure that a ripper did not survive was to cut off his head. Putting a blade through their brains did kill them, but to be safe, they always cut off the heads. Maliki went over to the first ripper to go down and severed his head as well. “Grab all of the body parts, both rippers and humans, and bring them to the edge of the parking lot. We need to keep them out of sight until the cleanup crew arrives.” “Maliki, look over there.” Lancer pointed to an old building past the edge of the parking lot. “Bring them past the low cement wall and keep them close to that old abandoned gas station, we might be able to use that as a way to cover up how they died.”
Lancer ordered them to put all of the bodies in there until the cleanup team arrived and was able to do a proper assessment of how best to hide this. B’Lana looked at Runi with wide eyes that were filled with fear. “W… what just happened? One minute I was trying to save my friends from a group of guys who had drugged them, then the next all hell broke loose. Who are you guys?” “We’re a neighborhood watch group. We keep an eye on this place since there are a lot of gangs in the area. You and your friends are lucky we came by when we did. Those gangbangers would have killed you.” Runi tried to smile at B’Lana and ease her fright, but his honesty made her
even more frightened. “Oh my god, oh my god, this isn’t happening. I have to call the police. Did you call the police?” B’Lana rambled on as the situation sunk in and she began to feel the shock of it all. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything. Can I call you a cab or something? Are you alright to drive? It might not be a good idea for you to go back into the club with the way your friends are acting. Are they going to be OK? Do you know what drug those men gave them?” Runi was starting to direct the girls away from the front of the club and back towards the parking lot. As they walked along, Janice stepped on a cockroach which
made a loud crunching sound. B’Lana jumped at the noise and yelled, “What was that?” Janice looked down to her foot and noticed half of a dead cockroach under the front of her heel, and she screamed. Then she started to jump up and down yelling, “Gross, gross, gross.” Runi noticed her body literally shook as she began to cry. He put his arm around her, “Hey there, it’s alright. It was just a cockroach. You’re fine. Calm down and please stop yelling. You’re attracting attention that we don’t need right now.” The adrenaline rush from stepping on a large cockroach, it was almost two inches long, seemed to help push some of the
drug from her system for a few minutes. But as Runi was consoling her, she leaned over and emptied her stomach on his shoes. Once she stood back up, she fell back into her zombie-like state and quieted down. B’Lana looked over her friends and then to the guy who helped her, “I think we need to go home. Can you help us get to my car? I’m going to bring them all back to my place so I can keep an eye on them tonight and make sure they’re ok as the drug wears off.” “Of course, I think that’s smart.” Runi walked with her to her car and helped her get all of her friends inside and buckled up. “Will you be able to get them all into your house without any help?”
“Yes, I’ll manage. Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. You won’t need my testimony for the cops will you?” B’Lana asked. “No, once they see the gang bangers they’ll clean it up and label it as a gang attack. You won’t be contacted for anything so don’t worry about it.” “Again, thank you very much! I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t of showed up. I guess we would all be dead by now.” B’Lana looked down at her feet and breathed a heavy sigh. Then she drove off. Runi went back to his squad leader and reported in what happened, minus the whole cockroach freak-out.
“Runi, help us get all of the dead bodies into that old gas station over there. It looks like these two cars belong to these guys as well so we need to move them over there. I think the cleanup crew is going to have to set them on fire to keep any DNA evidence away from the cops.” Lancer directed him towards the dilapidated building just past the end of the parking lot. “Lancer, what about all of the humans coming out to their cars? How are we going to keep this quiet?” Runi was looking at all of the couples coming out, those closest to where he was were making out while they walked to their cars, not even paying attention to the warriors with the pointy ears.
“Don’t worry about them, they seem to be too busy to notice us.” “Shouldn’t we stop those who are obviously too drunk to drive?” “Negative, stay away from those humans. We’re not to interfere with anyone who hasn’t come into contact with the rippers, or us, yet. I think that most will ignore us and if they do see what we’re up to, they’ll believe it’s in their imagination or something. Come, let’s finish this so we can get back to HQ and cleanup.” Lancer started to walk back to the cement wall and Runi followed. But he kept his eyes open for any humans who might get too close.
Chapter Five “Ash, you lazy bag of bones! Where have you been for the past few hours? You almost let B’Lana get killed by rippers! Or worse, attacked by a group of perverts! Why weren’t you watching her?” Lancer was furious with Ash, he had gone over to Ash’s apartment as soon as he could get away. “She was with a group of her girlfriends. Why would someone attack her with a group? She has been completely safe for two years. No attempts at all. What happened?” Ash tried getting up from the couch where he had fallen asleep earlier in the evening. Lancer put his hand around
Ash’s throat and growled into his face, “Are you so incompetent that you can’t even keep an eye on one human girl anymore?” Lancer was gritting his teeth, and his eyes narrowed while he squeezed harder and Ash’s face started turning red. Ash grabbed at Lancer’s hand and tried pulling it off him. Lancer stood up and walked over to the fireplace. “Man, what’s your problem? You saved her right? Why are you so upset? I don’t understand why we continue to waste our time watching her.” Ash sat up on the couch and ran his hands through his hair and then wiped the sleep away from his eyes. “We should be killing the rippers and protecting those we love back home, not hanging out
protecting some human girl who has nothing to do with our world.” “Because the Reverend has ordered us to do this. You don’t need to know any more than that! We’re all very lucky that my squad was tracking those rippers! First, B’Lana and her friends were almost abducted by human men who drugged her friends while inside a night-club. Then when she was trying to rescue them all by herself.” Lancer looked at Ash with heat in his eyes. “Rippers came along and killed the guys. If we hadn’t shown up when we did, B’Lana would be dead or worse! Where are your priorities! I thought you were all in on this protection detail?” “I am, it’s just that something personal happened recently, and I
couldn’t make it. I really thought she would be fine.” Ash looked down at his hands and heaved a large sigh. Then ran one hand through his hair. “I really do want her protected. Had anything happened I never would have forgiven myself. You gotta believe me.” “We need another warrior here; I can’t be on her 24/7. You aren’t around enough anymore,” Ash stated. “Ash, what was so important that you skipped out protecting B’Lana?” “I received news that Morri was killed in a suicide bomber attack at a mall back home. He was out shopping for his mate, they just found out she was with
child so he went to start buying the baby clothes they’ll need. It should have been a time of celebration, now it’s a time of mourning.” Ash stood up and walked to the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “Lancer, I would have been there if I wasn’t so upset. I am sorry, I should have called you to tell you.” Ash looked down at his shaking hands. He knew he needed to do something to change his situation. “I think it’s time you replaced me with someone else. I have sat around doing nothing for the past few years. I need to get out there and fight the enemy again. Anyone can protect B’Lana. But I don’t think I’m in any shape to be
that warrior. Maybe after some time spent in battle again I will be, but not now.” Ash started to feel the pangs of guilt. Guilt over the loss of his friend back home, and now guilt over B’Lana almost dying on his watch. “I agree. I’ll speak with the Reverend about it. I’m sure he can send another warrior here to help. Someone who is committed to the cause.” Lancer gave Ash a sideways glance before he left Ash alone in the apartment they used to share.
◊◊◊ The Reverend sent two more warriors to replace Ash on this assignment. The next year Ash spent in New York City battling the rippers. The time went by quickly, until that fateful day which Ash will never forget. “Come on you’re a warrior, we can kill these rippers easily! There are only seven of them and four of us. We’re so much better than they are. Get up off your lazy butt and get back in the battle!” Ash yelled to his comrade, Bonipal, who most called Bonn. Bonn was a tall, lanky Sennafae warrior but he was young. He made up for his youth with his excellent skills with a blade. He was one of the best warriors on Ash’s team. Bonn had
the typical Sennafae look with dark hair but his eyes were a beautiful shade of green that matched the color of the forest on a bright, sunny day on Sendryl. Some have compared his eyes to emeralds that sparkle in the light. Bonn got up and defended against the ripper who was coming to attack him. Ash had just killed one ripper so they only had six left to dispatch between the four of them. Ash now had two rippers who were trying to surround him. He had trained many years for this exact move. On his back, he carried two long swords which resembled an Earth Katana sword. But the Sennafae blacksmiths were legendary in their sword creation. This sword was called a Ketensa, and it was a
little bit thicker and made of a polished metal only found on Sendryl called, ketolin. Ash pulled both swords off his back and pointed them at each of the rippers who stopped in their attempt to get closer to Ash. They also carried a sword, but it wasn’t nearly as long as the Ketensa. One of the rippers tried to move in so that Ash would commit to defending against the one ripper while the other moved behind him, but Ash had seen this move several times and knew how to defend against it. He advanced towards the oncoming ripper. However, once Ash saw the other enemy make his move he turned around in a circle with both swords stretched out. This move made it possible to
slice into the chest of the ripper who was in front of him with the sword in his right hand and with his other sword he was able to cut off the sword carrying arm of the ripper behind him at the elbow. Both rippers stopped in their tracks and tried to look after their injuries. Ash judged that the one who lost part of his arm was no longer a threat, while the other one had a minor injury. He quickly attacked the first ripper and sliced right through his heart. Then in a graceful move only seen on TV, he twirled around and effortlessly sliced the head off the shoulders of that ripper. The second ripper grabbed his sword with his left arm and tried to stand up to defend against Ash,
who stalked towards him. He was no match against Ash, and he quickly lost his head as well. Bonn yelled out, “Ash, I need your help!” He had two rippers trying to perform the same trick on him, but he hadn’t learned how to defend against that trick yet. By the time Ash was over there, Bonn had a sword through his stomach. One of the rippers was dead, but the other one was coming at Bonn to finish him off. Ash came up quickly behind the attacking ripper who was so focused on Bonn he didn’t hear Ash. “When are you silly Sennafae ever going to learn that Sendryl is ours! You should leave our planet before we kill you all!” As the ripper was bringing up his sword to end Bonn’s life, Ash quickly ran
his sword through the ripper’s heart. Then Ash pulled his sword out and decapitated him while he was in shock. Bonn could see the confusion on the face of his enemy, his forehead scrunched and his mouth was opened in a large “O” as the sword went through his heart. The ripper dropped his sword, and as it clanged to the ground next to Bonn, he lost his head. Ash leaned down to Bonn, “How do you feel?” “How do you think I feel? I have a sword in my gut!” Bonn started to cough up blood and couldn’t talk anymore. “Sshhh, don’t move. I’ll get a healer here right away. You’re
going to be alright.” Ash reached for his communication device he carried in the cargo pocket of his pants and reached out to Sendryl. “Command, this is Ash in New York City, I have a warrior who needs immediate assistance, send Netty ASAP. Bonn has a sword through his stomach.” The response what not what Ash wanted to hear, “I can’t send Netty, she was just called in to LA to assist Lancer with one on his team. But I’ll send someone else to you right now. Don’t move him. Are you also in need of a cleanup team?” “Yes, we destroyed seven rippers. The rest of my squad has minor injuries. Bonn may not make it. Hurry!” Ash told dispatch
exactly where to find them before putting the communicator back in his pocket and trying to wait patiently for help. The warriors waited by their friend for the healer to arrive. Ash wasn’t sure Bonn would make it, but finally, a healer showed up and pulled the sword out of Bonn’s stomach. The damage was too much, and Bonn started to bleed out, but the healer was great at what she did. Sennafae healers used a mixture of magic and traditional medicine. In this case, she used her magic to staunch the blood flow. Then she put a large gauze pad over the wound in his stomach. It was a temporary fix used only in the field. This helped to keep the warrior alive until they could get him to a surgical unit.
“Ash, I have him stabilized enough to bring home. However, he isn’t out of danger yet, so I’ll need assistance bringing him back through the portal. Will you help?” Ash agreed to the healer’s request for help. While they were heading back to the portal and the cleanup crew was doing their job, Lancer contacted Ash. “Ash, I need your help back in LA. B’Lana’s in trouble. Will you come back?” “Is she OK? What happened?” Ash almost yelled into his communication device. He was quite worried about B’Lana, Lancer would never call him back if it wasn’t bad. “This day just keeps getting worse.” “B’Lana walked into a fight
with rippers, and she’s here at our HQ. She has seen too much, and the Commander isn’t sure what he’s going to do with her yet. I need you here to help protect her from us now.” “I’ll be there as soon as I can. I have an injured warrior that I’m taking back to Sendryl for medical attention and then I’ll be there.” “See you soon.”
◊◊◊ Ash walked into the LA HQ late the next morning, “Lancer, where is she?” “She’s sleeping. We were up all night long. We lost one of my warriors during a fight with the rippers last night, after rescuing B’Lana from another group. The ripper’s activity level here has grown significantly since you left.” Lancer reached out to grasp Ash’s forearm in a traditional warrior greeting. “Bonn, one of my warriors, may not make it either. They have increased their presence in New York, as well. However, they seem to just be killing the humans. I haven’t seen too many bodies just
go missing, most are drained.” Ash ran his hand over his face. He had been up all night long waiting to hear how Bonn was doing. The healer told him the next 24 hours would tell. “I need to leave for a couple hours. Can you stay here and keep an eye on B’Lana? At least now you can introduce yourself to her. Watching from the shadows is over.” Lancer brought Ash further inside the building and walked him over to where B’Lana was sleeping in a spare room. “Yes, this should be interesting… I feel as though I have known her for years, but she won’t know me. How is that working out for you?” Ash smiled at Lancer.
“So far, not too bad. She’s a bit confused but be careful as she tried to escape early this morning. I’m sure she’ll try again. Be sure to keep her away from the exits.” Lancer looked down to B’Lana through the barely opened door and felt something stir in his chest. He caught himself before he could smile and then quietly closed the door. “I won’t take my eyes off her once she leaves that room.” Ash walked over to the kitchen to make himself some coffee and breakfast. Once Lancer left, Ash sat sipping coffee near the front door waiting for B’Lana to make her move. As B’Lana walked around the
corner towards the main exit, Ash smiled and knew he was going to have fun with this new assignment. Being able to talk to B’Lana would make this all worthwhile. He thought to himself, “She has grown into a beautiful woman over this past year. I wonder how long it’ll take before I can get her into my bed?”
The End, or is it?
Keep reading for an excerpt from Book 1, The Eclipse of the Warrior Want to know how the story develops? Read Eclipse of the Warrior, Book
1 in the Eclipse Series, An Interdimensional Saga. And the first few pages of the story are at the back of this book so keep reading!
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newsletter as I have a free book to send you when you do! Keep reading for an excerpt from Book 1, Eclipse of the Warrior.
Author’s Notes This story was originally in Inanna’s Circle, an Anthology by 8 different authors. My writing group is very active and one of the participants, Kat Lind, was tired of writing a bunch of technical books at work. So she came up with a game for us all to write a new story, it had to be 10K words minimum. She collected beta readers, editors, and writers from around the globe to help us. It started with a mystery box. Inside that “box” were different elements that we had to add to our story. The opening lines from this book came from one of the elements in our mystery box. I ended up using about 7 different elements throughout my story. That was the
most fun I had writing up to this point! Those elements added a depth to my writing that I felt I was missing. So when the next Inanna’s Circle game comes around, I’m doing it again! Be sure to get your copy of the book on Amazon at: Inanna’s Circle You can find any of my books, anthology’s included, on my Amazon author’s page at: JL Hendricks Author page. On my webpage I posted the first of my short story freebies! Be sure to go over to: http://jlhendricksauthor.com/freeshort-stories/ where you will find an “extra” scene that I deleted from the original manuscript for Eclipse of the Warrior. It was a fun scene that showed you how close B’Lana and DeeDee are, but it
didn’t help the story move forward. So I deleted it and held on to it for just this purpose. I will post more down the road so be sure to follow my blog/website using the sidebar email sign up option and you will always know what’s going on in my Eclipse Universe as well as anything else I write. J
Keep reading…
Excerpt From Eclipse of the Warrior, Book 1 in The Original Eclipse Series, out now!
Prologue I couldn’t believe my eyes. I blinked them twice to make sure it wasn’t the Los Angeles smog messing me up. The group of guys in front of me had to be going to a costume party or coming from the Comic-Con that was in town this week. Maybe they just finished filming a scene for an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster? They were wearing warrior clothes, or maybe it was Army uniforms? One guy looked to have a sword tied to his back. That couldn’t be real. A real sword out in public would cause a lot of problem with the cops. So it must
be a fake one, right? I tried to get a little closer to see the make-up they were wearing to go with their incredible clothes. They had to be on a movie shoot, no average Joe was going to be wearing those black ops warrior clothes, even on the streets of L.A. I strained to sneak a look around without anyone catching me. I hated the thought of someone thinking I’m a stalker. Even if that was exactly what I was doing at the moment. Finding no movie trucks, I mumbled, “They must be going to a movie set.” Then blushed hoping no one caught me talking to myself.
My curiosity was going to do me in some day, but I just had to follow them. I thought it would be fun to watch a midnight film shoot in the streets of Los Angeles. Oh, how so very wrong I was…
Chapter One Earlier That Day In Los Angeles, CA
“DeeDee, I just got out of my interview!” I called my best friend as soon as I left the building. Like always, I couldn’t wait to share my great news with her. “B’Lana, that’s great! How did it go?” “It went for almost three hours! Can you believe it?” I was practically bouncing with excitement. “I take it that means it was a really good interview? But B, I don’t want you to move to L.A. I
wouldn’t see you very often, and it’s a long drive from L.A. to Riverside.” DeeDee and I had been best friends most of our lives. After college I left Riverside and moved to LA for job. I quickly knew I hated living there so switched to a job closer to Riverside to be near her. “I’m sorry, DeeDee, but this job is everything I want, including the salary and benefits. It has taken me almost 5 months to get an interview like this.” The Contract Manager job was offering me 6 figures plus all of the benefits I had at my last job. I couldn’t turn down an offer like that. “You know you would have already had a job if you weren’t so picky about title and pay.” DeeDee sounded a bit snarky, but I
laughed anyway. “Yes, but it would have been a $30,000 pay cut and less benefits. You try taking a pay cut like that and see how well you live, even in Riverside.” I returned her snarkiness with a bit of my own and then laughed along with her while she begrudgingly agreed that a $30,000 pay cut was too much to take. Even if it meant living near her. “Congrats on a wonderful interview! I really do hope you get it. Even if it means that our late night chats will disappear. Since you will have to be up so stinkin’ early every morning just to commute to L.A., ugh! You will still live in Yorba Linda, right?” “Of course, I will. I hated living
in LA last time I worked here. The smog is horrible in the city.” I was remembering how often I woke up gagging on the smog when I lived there last. After college I couldn’t be too picky about where I worked. So I accepted the first decent job. Of course it had to be in L.A. DeeDee and I saw very little of each other back then. Because we both missed each other a lot I looked for a job in Orange County as soon as I could. “If you get this job, you’ll have to come over to my parent’s house for a celebration. You know how much they dote on you. Seriously, I think they love as much as they love me! I guess it makes sense. We are practically sisters afterall.” “I love your parents too! And even your brother. Sometimes.”
We both laughed. Since I grew up with DeeDee, her brother was practically mine too. “Be sure to stay clear of him, you know how he gets when you have better news than he does. His girlfriend just broke up with him so he’s in a funk. I bet he tries to give you a swirly or something else from childhood.” Her brother was fun, but sometimes he took the whole pseudo brother thing too far. “B, looks like you are going to miss the earlier showing of the new vampire romance movie. I guess you’ll have to catch the 7:50 showing, but that gives you time to eat a nice dinner, right?” I really wanted to wait and watch the new vampire flick with DeeDee. However, I knew I would see it
again with her since we always watch the paranormal or supernatural shows that come out. There was no way I was going to drive in that rotten rush hour traffic. “Of course, I am sooo gonna have a steak dinner instead of movie theatre hot dogs. Remember that steak house we went to before I moved to the O.C?” “Yeah, that was a great steak. I guess I could come visit you after work, and we can do dinner there once a month like we used to.” I pushed aside the thoughts of loneliness I knew I would feel working in LA. As before, DeeDee and I would find ways to hang out. She was the most important person in my life and I couldn’t
imagine going more than a day without talking to her. “That my friend, sounds like a great plan.” I continued to chat about my interview while I walked to the restaurant. “I’ll call you after the movie and let you know how it is.”
◊◊◊ Downtown Los Angeles, California A group of five athletically built males stood inside the meeting room of a nondescript warehouse in Downtown L.A., not too far from Skid Row. “You should have seen it! I had three rippers coming at me and I
used that new technique I learned last week to take them all down! The first ripper came at me with nothing but his bare hands and I flipped him over my shoulder and quickly jabbed my knife into his heart. Then I had to pull out my sword as the other two rushed me at the same time. I kicked out at one blood sucker and knocked him back while stabbing the other in his gut. While he was still on my sword he reached out to grab my neck but I evaded his razor-like hands and pulled another knife out and got him right in the eye! The third was simple after that.” The young warrior puffed out his chest and nodded to his comrades. They were discussing fighting techniques and how they each had
taken down their enemies in the past week. Just then a very good looking middle-aged male, with long blonde hair that covered up secret about what he really was, walked into the room. His eyes were as blue as the ocean and commanded everyone’s attention. This imposing warrior was over six feet tall and dressed in the same black leather gear as the other warriors in the room. “Gentlemen, please be quiet and take a seat. We need to get started with this meeting, or we will be here all night long discussing our prowess in the field,” their commander said as ten of his warriors took their seats around a long, wooden table.
“However, we have more important things to discuss. Like how the enemy keeps grabbing humans right in the middle of the street, and no one sees a thing!” The Commander said as he pounded his fist on the table. All of the water bottles tipped over due to the force of his fist, while the pens bounced up and down a couple of times. The warriors scrambled to pick up their water before any papers where ruined from the sloshing liquid. “We need to up our patrols of the city every night and figure out how they are grabbing their victims and leaving no evidence.” Lancer, the leader of the squad, stood up and looked right at the commander as he said, “Sir,
we have gathered intelligence from the local police, but they are even more clueless than we are. We, at least, discovered that there were a few blood spots in the areas where the humans were last reported to be seen.” Lancer walked to the head of the table next to the commander. “But we still aren’t able to find their lair, or how they are disappearing without anyone seeing which way they went.” Lancer said while running his hand through his black hair. It reached to just below his jacket collar and reflected the length of every warrior’s in the room. They all wore their hair down and not tied back. It seemed to be a standard length for all of the men. However, it didn’t follow any standard
human military edict. “Lancer, hand out the files. We all need to review them again. See if there is anything similar about them. We know most are young women, aged eighteen to late twenties, and a few males in the same age range. Why only a few males? Where they able to fight off the attackers better? I have so many questions and very few answers.” The Commander handed a stack of files to Lancer. “Alright, let’s pair up and review several files each. Hopefully, with two sets of eyes on each one we can figure this out.” Lancer walked around the table giving five files to each set of investigators. This meeting went on for
several more hours. Once they finally finished everything on their agenda it was after 10pm. “Listen up. We are all going out tonight together. After reviewing your notes, it seems there is one area where multiple women were last seen. I want us all to check out the alleys in that area. Each of the abductions took place in, or near, an alley. We’ll start with a standard grid pattern and move out from here.” Lancer pointed to a spot on a map. He stood up and led his men to the weapons room to suit up.
◊◊◊◊ B’Lana - 2 Blocks From The Warehouse
I texted DeeDee that I just got out of the movie and it was not anywhere near the quality of what we usually watched. I felt she would be disappointed in the plot and the lack of other paranormal or supernatural creatures that usually play in our favorite movies. I told her that we could talk about it the next day. While walking the six blocks to my car, I noticed a group of guys heading across the street. They looked strange, but I couldn’t be sure since it was so dark outside, and the light from the streetlamps wasn’t very bright. So I did what any normal girl would do, I called my best friend to chat about it. “DeeDee, you aren’t going to believe what I’m looking at right now!”
“What? Do you see a movie star? Ooohhhh, is Chris Hemsworth there? I loved him in Thor and can’t wait for the next movie!” DeeDee sighed, which caused me to picture Chris Hemsworth in his Thor costume. I blinked and shook my head. “No, silly. I see a group of seriously hot guys, like models or actors, in costume or something. I’m not sure if they are heading to a party or a movie set.” “Well, don’t just stand there, follow them!” “Yeah right, like a stalker?” “Of course you’re not a stalker. You’re just curious about their costumes, and if they’re part of a movie shoot or something, right?” DeeDee started laughing after she
said that, which only made me feel more stalkerish. “Okay DeeDee, I’m gonna check them out.” I looked around to make sure no one heard me admit to being a stalker. “Make sure to send me photos of them too,” DeeDee chuckled. “Wait, are they in plain sight? Just be sure to stay out in the open and don’t follow them down any dark alleyways or anything.” “They’re on the sidewalk of a pretty busy street right now. Oh! One just looked at me and I think he smiled.” I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face in response to him. I crossed the street so that I was in front of them. I didn’t want them to think I was trailing them
or anything. When I came up to the corner at the next intersection, I stopped and looked into the window of the business on my right, hoping to use the glare of the window to get a look at them. The guys were talking in low voices about the meeting they just exited and none of it made much sense to me. “Alright, we are only a few blocks from the area I marked on your maps. You five go to area B,” he pointed to five of the guys with him, “and the rest of us will head over to A. Keep your eyes open. If you notice anything weird, or someone stalking down a dark alley, call me.” “Lancer, should we be worried about any of the humans noticing us?” another guy asked.
“No, ignore them. Just don’t let them get taken,” the guy they called Lancer responded. I wondered why they were calling people humans. Then I got a better look at them and wondered if they were human. I turned slightly so I could get a better look and noticed that one of them was so handsome, he reminded me of Orlando Bloom. It made me want to get closer. Yes, he looked a lot like the fae warrior version of Orlando Bloom, I thought as I almost tripped on the broken sidewalk. “Yikes!” I said a bit too loudly. Oh, how embarrassing. I sure hoped no one saw me almost fall while I was ogling those guys. I was even wearing my favorite black Skechers with my most
comfortable blue jeans and a black Star Wars shirt, so there was no excuse for tripping. There were five guys after they split up into two groups. The first guy I noticed had caramel colored skin with long, dark brown hair that fell in waves to the man’s shoulders. Oh, how I wanted to run my fingers through that gorgeous mane of hair! While I couldn’t get a good enough look at his face, I guessed he was close to twenty-three. He was a little young for me. Momma didn’t raise no cougar! I thought. Well, maybe for him I would consider it… Then I got a good look at the rest of the guys he was with, they were all dressed up in black
leather, like some kind of black ops warriors from a movie. I shrugged my shoulders as I considered the fact that I was in Los Angeles after all. Hollywood filmed all over the city on a regular basis. These guys were extremely good looking. I could not stop thinking about how handsome they were. DeeDee would be making fun of me right about now if she were here with me. She would probably say something along the lines of, “You know B, McHotty’s have hearts too. You shouldn’t just be concerned with their bodies. What about their minds?” Then we would bust up laughing and continue talking about their physical assets. Aaaahhh, if only DeeDee had
come to meet me for dinner and a movie after my interview. This would be so much more fun if she were here, I silently mused. Maybe it was a photo shoot with hunky male models? What about that Comic-Con that was going on at the convention center? I let them enter the crosswalk before I slowly followed them. I hoped I might get to watch either a movie being filmed or some crazy photo shoot. Wouldn’t DeeDee just love a bunch of photos from some crazy new male cologne photo shoot or something? I thought to myself as I continued to follow them down the street. His friends all looked young as well, ranging from maybe 18 to
24. When they walked under a bright street light I noticed they all had pointy ears and were carrying weapons. One had what looked to be a katana sword. The McHotty I noticed earlier had two swords strapped to his back that were curved. And the other three had long knives attached to their belts. Two looked to also have guns under their black jackets, but I couldn’t be sure that was what those bulge’s were. “Hmm, this seems a little strange, even for a photo or movie shoot. Where are the wardrobe people, other actors, or even a director?” As I continued to whisper I realized I really needed to stop talking to myself. Even if I am in L.A. people are going to
wonder about my sanity. I kept following them, even after they passed where I parked my car. I decided that I really wanted to see what they were up to. And I still needed to get a photo to send to DeeDee. All five guys turned down an alley, so I peeked around the corner hoping to see what they were up to. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. This wasn’t a film set. That’s when I realized I made a huge mistake following these guys…
Do you want to finish this story? Come to my website to see when the new version of Book 1, Eclipse of the Warrior will be out! http://jlhendricksauthor.com/home/