Today's First Chapter Friday comes from IT TOOK A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. This was a story I wrote at the end of 2016 when I was dealing with a lot of grief and anger. It was also when I was watching a lot of shows and movies about zombies. (The best is still Train to Busan! Fact!) I wrote this story incredibly fast to help me deal with a lot of my emotions then. Now, this story doesn't have chapters. It only has three parts. So, below is the beginning of Part 1: The Kiss. Enjoy the beginning scenes of IT TOOK A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE...RJ strolled through the booths at the fun fair. Another gathering where people either glared at him or pretended he didn’t exist. Growing up in West Vitula, one would think he’d be used to it. But a lifetime of not being welcome in the small town never came easy. Why couldn’t his father have secured a position at a hospital in Ostrander, only an hour away? Women stood behind rows of wooden tables, selling pies, bread, and jams to other women. Some men gathered in various groups, drinking beer from plastic glasses and telling recycled stories from their youth or checking out the college girls who had returned for the summer. Just as RJ had come to do. Yet, he hadn’t seen anyone worth his time. If not for the anniversary of his mother’s death, he would have stayed away from this town and insisted his father take some time off to visit him. Kids ran from games to rides to carts selling cotton candy and candy apples, spending their parents’ money like it would never run out. But the longest line was for a booth at the very end of the park. Males of all ages, from kindergarteners to seniors who needed a walker to travel ten feet, lined up in front of a hand-painted sign reading $5 for a kiss, and beside the words, a pair of bright red lips. RJ bypassed the line to see who was so in demand with the male population. Sidney Flowers, former captain of the cheerleading squad and all-around bitch. The disgusted look she gave the crowd after she’d kissed various men on the cheek proved she hadn’t changed. Yet, no one in line seemed deterred. Only him. No way did he crave the touch of the girl who’d falsely accused him of killing his own mother and sending his father to the psych ward. All because RJ had caught Sidney helping her boyfriend cheat on a test. Though the rest of the school knew his mother had been killed on the highway by a drunk driver, they seemed to like her version of the story better. He turned away. He wouldn’t pay a penny to receive a kiss from anyone in this town. Well, except one girl, but he hadn’t seen her yet this summer, not since two years prior when she’d left for Cremshaw without a backward glance. *** “Melissa Ruth Smith, I insist you come back here at once.” Missy rolled her eyes as she stormed away from her father. The man had helped her celebrate her twenty-first birthday yesterday—with a simple birthday cake and a glass of wine—yet still treated her like a child. “It’s to help Billy and the band, remember?” she shouted over her shoulder. “That’s why I came home.” Though she wished she hadn’t. Not with only two weeks off between her summer classes and fall term. “But, the kissing booth?” Her father rushed to keep up with her. “Jesus wouldn’t approve.” The religion card. What a surprise. “Jesus wouldn’t approve of half the shit that goes on in this town, especially how you treated that family next door.” She spun around and faced her father with her hands on her hips. “And you certainly haven’t been struck down yet.” “Missy, please don’t talk to your father like that.” Her mother hooked an arm through hers and paraded her closer to the booth she was scheduled to volunteer at. “It’s just, aren’t you concerned about the germs? The diseases you could catch?” “C’mon, Mom. I’m just kissing them on the cheek.” She glanced over at Sidney who tapped her watch before kissing Old Man Samson on the small patch of cheek not covered by his fluffy white beard. “Besides, you asked me to come home and help with this fundraiser.” “I know, but there are other things you could—” “I’ve gotta go, Mom. Sidney’s waiting for me to take over.” Jogging over to the booth, Missy took her place beside the bench. Sidney grabbed her purse and left without a word, no different than when they’d attended high school together. Hence, why Missy had fled West Vitula right after graduating high school. No one who stuck around seemed to change. The line thinned out with the departure of her former classmate, but there were still plenty of cheeks to kiss and a plethora of greenbacks deposited into the jar, money that would help her brother and the rest of the band get to Nationals. And maybe they would see there was life beyond this backward town. After numerous kisses, her lips burned. She reached into her pocket for her lip balm and took a break to apply it and let it soak in. When she glanced back at the line, everyone had disappeared. All the males except the one her parents would blow a gasket if she kissed. Which made her want to lay her lips on him even more. *** “Fifty dollars for a kiss.” RJ held the bill and waved it across the counter. “It goes in the jar if I get a kiss from you.” “I’d do it for five.” She pointed to the paper sign on the jar. “But if you’re willing to donate more, go ahead.” He walked into the booth and sat on the bench. “You misunderstand me, Missy. I don’t want a peck on the cheek. I want a real kiss, your lips on mine.” Her cheeks reddened, making her all the more adorable, and she stepped back. “I, um.... It’s not.... I can’t.” “It’s one kiss.” He waved the money around again, enjoying her discomfort. “The same money you’d make kissing ten old guys with beards, or ten creeps who gawk at your cleavage when you bend over to kiss them.” The flush on her face disappeared. Maybe he shouldn’t have included that last observation. “Hey.” He needed her attention back on him. “One kiss, and you never know, you just might like it.” “Really?” She placed a hand on his knee then waltzed in front of him with a confidence he’d never seen from her before. “You’re that confident of the power of those full brown lips, are you?” Before he had the chance to think of a response, she snatched the bill from his hand, leaned between his spread legs, and kissed him. He barely had a chance to close his mouth when it was all over. “Thank you so much for your support.” Missy curtsied then stuck the money into the collection bottle. RJ gripped the bottom of the bench, trying to process the fact the kiss had already happened. He’d hoped for so much more. “Another.” He stood and yanked his wallet from his back pocket. “I’ll give you one hundred dollars if I can kiss you.” Yanking the bill from inside the leather fold, he held it out in front of him to prove he was good for it. “Now, that’s against the rules.” Her jaw shifted to the side, but when she tilted her head, he hoped she was actually considering his proposition. RJ hopped off the bench and took a tentative step forward. He’d didn’t want her to automatically say no. “You know I’ve never played by the rules. Why would I start now?” With a laugh, Missy playfully pushed on his chest. “You’re trouble, RJ. And you’re looking to get me into trouble with you.” Returning to the stool, he stared into her crystal-blue eyes and smiled. She hadn’t said no. “Just a kiss.” He nodded to a patch of bushes with a bench set amongst them. “No one will see us over there.” “Is that brown boy bothering you, Missy?” The twang in the woman’s voice bothered RJ more than her reference to the color of his skin. “No, Shelley.” Missy turned her back to him. “He was just leaving.” “Good.” Shelley, another of their classmates, sized up the jar of money. “’Cause we don’t need his cash. We’re doing fine here without it.” The punch to the gut that used to come with such ignorant comments never came. Some people refused to change, especially in this town. But he’d always believed Missy to be different. Maybe he’d been wrong. “Are you taking over for me, then?” she asked Shelley. “Yeah, your dad followed me around for the last fifteen minutes to make sure I was here on time. He was really freaking out about your kissing guys on the cheek.” RJ walked away. He’d been dismissed. And if Missy’s father was that upset, he was probably waiting with disinfectant or something. No, there was nothing good about coming back to West Vitula for the summer. His dad still worked the same long hours, so except for the day spent together on the anniversary of his mother’s death, RJ was spending his summer alone. “Wait!” He turned with the hope Missy was talking to him for some reason. And she was, standing right in front of him. She grabbed the money he still held in his hand. “You forgot to put this in the jar.” Without giving him a chance to question her, she jogged back to the booth and shoved it through the glass bottleneck. Did that mean he was going to get his kiss?
Today's First Chapter Friday comes from GIB AND THE TIBBAR, the third book in my Galactic Defenders sci-fi romance series. It was originally released as part of the USA Today bestselling anthology, EMBRACE THE ROMANCE: PETS IN SPACE 2. When the anthology was no longer available, I released this story on its own. Enjoy the first chapter of GIB AND THE TIBBAR:Fire crackled, breaking up the eerie silence surrounding the Defenders on watch. Gib read the sky scan on his wrist com. Nothing. The same as every other reading he’d taken since arriving on Hemera. He snapped a twig then tossed it into the fire pit. “I can’t believe our squad is stationed here. I mean, Alpha, Bravo, Delta, and Echo always get the exciting missions where they actually kill Erebus.” “And we’re stuck on Hemera,” his squad mate Zair interrupted, finally talking after Gib had assumed he’d fallen asleep. “On some backward planet for some fornax ceremony so the king can show off how much wealth he has to the lowly commoners. It’s ridiculous!” “Yes, but there’s nothing we can do.” Gib said back, stretching out his aching legs. Like every other Mingot, Gib had a thin layer of skin over his bones, leaving them visible on the surface. Though on his hands and head, he had thicker skin over those bones, the parts of him generally not covered by his Defender uniform. Being stuck on a planet that consisted of mostly water with only one land mass reminded him of how much he’d aged compared to when he first joined the Defenders. Every joint ached at some point during the day, and others teamed up to slow him even more. He couldn’t wait to leave Hemera, and hopefully his squad would never be sent there again. “Why does the Alliance send us here anyway?” Running his boots through the loose dirt around the pit, Zair stared into the fire they’d started at the watch site to keep warm. “It’s not as if Hemera contributes anything to—” A small, furry white creature scampered between the Defenders and the fire. Gib yanked his feet back and gasped. He tried to follow the path the animal took, and when it disappeared into the grassy field, he relaxed a little. Not that he was afraid, only startled by the sudden appearance of the critter. But his watch partner reacted differently. The cowardly Defender stood on his bench, reaching for a low branch on the ropral tree as if to lift himself farther off the ground. “What in Gaspra was that? No one told me about any deadly creatures on this planet.” Gib laughed and slapped his hand on his lap. “I wouldn’t call the fluffy little thing that raced by us a deadly creature.” “Okay, Hemera is infested with vermin, then.” Zair examined the area around him before he dared put a foot on the ground. A high-pitched squeak sounded, and Gib’s surveillance partner returned to reaching for the branches. The little creature stood on its hind legs below Zair’s bench, peeping as if telling him off. Gib couldn’t hold in his laughter. Not just at the other Defender’s reaction, but also the thoughts running through Zair’s mind, thoughts he’d failed to block in his fear. “It’s not going to eat you.” Gib shook his head, wondering how his squad mate could see the creature as dangerous. “Would you please get down from there? Defenders are supposed to be brave and fierce. Right now, you’re neither.” “Go to Gaspra, Mingot. And stay out of my head.” He yanked his plazer from his hip holster and aimed it at the critter. “If I don’t destroy it, it will bring death to everyone on this planet.” Stepping into the line of fire, Gib yanked the weapon from his squad mate, thankful the safety remained on. “You’re being ridiculous. Besides, if you fire your weapon, you’ll cause a panic. The Hemera will think Erebus have arrived.” The frightened Defender shook a foot at the creature. “Fine, then. Kick it into the fire. Or you could stomp on it.” “Don’t you dare!” A Hemera woman burst from the bushes, storming toward Zair like a mother rehn protecting her young. She shoved him off his bench and shouldered past Gib before scooping the noisy creature into her hand. “This is my tibbar, not some kind of vermin.” “Tibbar? Try nasty rodent that tried to eat me.” Zair smoothed out his uniform but kept his distance from the creature now perched on the woman’s shoulder. “You’re both on nehbred.” She kicked dirt at them, her pink lips pursed and her dark eyes set in a deadly stare. “You don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to my pet or my planet.” “So, you were eavesdropping.” Gib caught the admission and refused to back down to the angry Hemera. Not when she was so appealing to look at, even if mad. She intrigued him even more with her ability to keep her thoughts to herself. He’d never been mind blocked by anyone except the Yarwin on a first meeting, but he couldn’t catch a hint of what she thought except by observing her body language. Unusual for races who didn’t interact with Mingot on a regular basis. “So what if I was.” She slammed her hand on her hips, her nostrils flaring. “I used to admire the Defenders, but now I know you’re all just as arrogant as our king. You know nothing about how the rest of us live.” Maybe Gib didn’t, but, from what the woman said, neither did the leaders of the planet. “Then tell me.” Anything to make him understand why the Alliance sent the Defenders to Hemera each Galactic year for the Alorama ceremony. And to keep her in his presence for as long as possible. She intrigued him more than any woman he’d met. “No, you’re not worth my time.” She spun away and darted into the woods as fast as she’d appeared. If he wasn’t still on shift, Gib would consider following her. He yearned to learn more about her people, or specifically her. He’d never been blocked in reading someone’s initial judgment of him. No being seemed to remember to conceal their thoughts until moments after they met a Mingot. He wanted to find out how she hid her thoughts, how he couldn’t even detect her when she’d been watching them. And her darker features were so enticingly exotic compared to his paleness. She’d left him curious and yearning. How long had it been since he’d satisfied his sexual desire? “Universe to Gib.” Zair waved a hand in front of his face. “You asleep or just still mad at that Hemera woman?” “Mad?” He wrinkled his forehead. “Why would I be mad?” “Because she told her pet to attack me then yelled ’cause you were going to kick it into the fire.” Gib shook his head. “I was never going to kick the tibbar into the fire. And you deserved her scorn for acting like a fool.” “Oh, I see.” Zair plunked onto his bench with a harrumph. “You’re attracted to her, so you’re going to take her side.” Had the ignorance of members of his squad kept them from being sent on major missions? Some members simply didn’t get along with the natives, always assumed they were out to get them. Or him. He glared at Zair, confident any argument would be a waste of time. “Doesn’t matter.” Zair kicked dirt toward the pit. “But I still don’t get why we’re here. This planet is the last place the Erebus are going to travel. They haven’t been here since the former king and queen were killed.” And the princess, once rumored to be involved with Bryce, the new leader of Echo squad. Gib now understood the Defender’s attraction to the women of Hemera. But he didn’t stand a chance with the one he’d just met. Unless he found some way to see her again, make her understand he wasn’t at all like Zair. Cosmos, he yearned for a glance into her mind, and if luck came his way, an opportunity to get to know her on a very personal level. He nodded with determination. “You’re right, it doesn’t matter. We’re here, and I’m going to make the best of it.”
For today's First Chapter Friday post, I'm sharing the first chapter of Demon on Jackson Street. It was published January 18, 2021 with Decadent Publishing. It's the fifth book in my Shifter Towers series, and is about a young omega shifter who can't shift, and the demon whose been tasked with claiming his soul. Readers have said it's darker than the other stories in the series, and I agree. All the books in the series can be read as stand-alones. Here's the first chapter of DEMON ON JACKSON STREET...Toby “Here’s your money.” I took the bills from the shift manager as she closed the cash register. Forty dollars for a ten-hour shift. Not even minimum wage, but it was money I didn’t have to claim on my taxes. Money that would go toward paying for my grandmother’s weekly medication and allow me to pick up a few groceries as well. “Thank you. Would you like me to come in tomorrow?” “Naw.” Becky waved her hand in the air. “We don’t need you again until Thursday. Eleven a.m. Don’t be late.” I nodded, though I didn’t understand why she always said that to me. I’d never been late since she’d been promoted to manager after a month of working at the secondhand store or for the two years I’d worked there before she’d even started. I grabbed my jacket from the staff room at the back then left the store. At the other end of the strip mall was the drugstore where I had Mimi’s prescription filled. Mr. Gilli had the medication ready for me when I stepped up to the counter. “Good evening, Toby. How was your day?” “Fine, thank you.” My response never varied. Because nothing in my life ever changed. I worked a dead-end job for next to nothing, and, when I wasn’t there, I was with my sick grandmother. Never anywhere else. And it’s not as if there would ever be any departure from the monotony that was my life. “Well, say hi to your grandmother for me.” “I will. Thank you.” After paying for the medication and tucking it into the inside pocket of my coat, I walked through the aisles to get a few groceries. I picked up a couple cans of chicken broth, a bag of egg noodles, a jug of milk, and some bananas. At the cash register, I gave the last of my money to the clerk then took the paper bag of food and headed home. The sun had already set, so I walked on the side of George Street with the streetlights. Some of them had been burned out for months, but it was still better than the dark shadows on the other side. As I made my way to my apartment building on the corner of George and Jackson Streets, I continuously looked behind me to see if I was being followed. As an omega, it was imperative I constantly know of my surroundings. But being one of only a handful of non-shifters in the whole metropolis of Saramto made me an even bigger target for alphas looking to cause trouble. I couldn’t shift to escape danger or fight back, so I had no choice but to stand there and take their harassment until they got bored with me. I was nearly home, only a block away, when I heard a wolf whistle. Heart racing, I paused, trying to figure out my best course of action. I darted around the corner, only steps away from the front entrance when the noise came again. From right in front of me. “Look who we have here.” Benji, a wolf shifter who was the self-proclaimed head alpha on the block, stepped into the glow from the streetlight up ahead. “A lonely omega with a bag full of groceries for us. How kind.” As his three cronies stepped out of the shadows, I clutched the bag to my chest. It was all the food I had for my grandmother and I until I got paid again. I couldn’t afford to part with it. “So, what are we eating tonight?” Chad yanked on my sleeve then wrestled the bag from my arms. Dan pushed me away as I tried to grab it back. He peeked inside. “Not much by the looks of it.” After pulling out the jug of milk, he tossed it to Mark. “C’mon, guys. This is all I have.” There’d been too many days recently where they’d taken all my food, and I’d gone without, sacrificing what I could find for my grandmother. Until recently, Lester, a racoon shifter from the neighborhood, would tell them to leave me alone, but he’d disappeared last month. And Mrs. Apple was too ill and bedridden to chase them away with her broom. “You’re wrong.” Mark twisted the jug open then began to drink my milk. He wiped his mouth after chugging half of it. “It’s all we have.” As he dumped the rest of the milk into the sewer, Chad took out a can of the soup broth and whipped it at the abandoned car across the street, smashing the last unbroken window. “Bananas.” Dan grabbed the bunch. “Do you and your granny get freaky with these? You know, if you need a fuck buddy during your heat, you can always call one of us.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiped my eyes to stop the tears threatening to fall. What I needed was for them to leave me alone. And I never wanted an alpha like any of them. Even if I ever did go into heat. I’d rather be by myself for the rest of my life. Benji knocked the bananas out of his hand and stomped on them. My food was being ruined before my eyes, and I could do nothing to stop it from happening. I’d tried before and ended up with a black eye and various other bruises. Chad dumped the bag of noodles and the last can of soup onto the sidewalk before kicking the packages onto the road. Then he tossed the empty bag away. “Let’s go.” Benji nodded up the street. “He doesn’t have anything good so let’s see who else we can find.” I never had anything good, but at no time had that ever stopped them from checking. Sometimes I got home safely with all my food, but, on nights like this, I wished for someone to protect me from them. As soon as I was sure they’d left, I walked over to pick up the package of broken noodles and the dented can of chicken broth. Everything else was ruined. We’d have to make do again, but at least there was something salvageable left this time. I stepped into the apartment building with tears streaming down my cheeks. Why did this always have to happen to me? I’d never done anything wrong in my entire life. I went to school and had done well throughout my childhood, and, when Mimi got sick, I gave up everything to take care of her, finding the first job I could to keep a steady flow of income. Then my hours kept getting cut, and my grandmother’s home care workers kept canceling. I was doing so much on my own yet continued to get further behind. And now I had Benji and his gang after me for no reason. I leaned against the wall outside our one-bedroom apartment and tried to gain some composure before going inside. I couldn’t let my grandmother see me in this condition. She often called me her guardian angel for taking care of her. Though, she’d done the same for me, raising me from a baby. I had no idea what had happened to my parents. No matter how many times I asked, she refused to tell me. She said I had her and nothing else mattered. But I wouldn’t have her forever. She got worse every day, even with the medication. And in the future, when she finally succumbed to her illness, where would that leave me? Would I get my own guardian angel? I shouldn’t think like that. I wiped away more tears. I had to focus on her right now and not be so selfish. I had to be thankful for all I did have. As I stepped inside, my grandmother called for me. “Toby, is that you? Why are you so late?” “It is me, Mimi.” I put the noodles and broth on the kitchen counter then took her medication from my jacket pocket. Thank goodness no one had gotten hold of that. “Just got out of work a little late. Are you okay? Are you hungry?” “I’m okay. I was simply worried about you.” She smiled at me from her bed in the living room. “I’m glad you’re home now. Marlene was here a couple hours ago. She actually showed up for a change. But I am hungry. Could you make me some soup?” “Sure, Mimi. Anything for you.” I’d have to ration our food until I worked again, but as long as my grandmother got something to eat, I’d be okay. I didn’t know how much time I had left with her, but I wanted to keep her around as long as possible. She was the only family, the only friend I had.
|
AuthorJessica E. Subject is a USA Today bestselling author of Sci-Fi and Paranormal Romance. Please note: Some links contain affiliate links.
Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|