Filling the Void - Chapter Seventeen
Victus flowed through his Tai Chi forms with the peaceful grace of a fish gliding through water. The cool dawn air, made humid by the surrounding acres of grass growing unnaturally on this near-desert world, felt dense and energizing as it moved in and...
Filling the Void - Chapter Nineteen
"So what's this guy like?" Lucas asked, as he smoothed wrinkles from his shirt. "You know, really. The way everyone gets that weird look in their eyes whenever someone mentions his name, he must be a real piece of work." "If by, 'a piece of work' you...
Filling the Void - Chapter Eighteen
Their hunger sated, Lucas and Victus retired to their shared room. As they passed the negin's private suite, the sound of a child's giggly laughter reached them through the closed door. Lucas raised an eyebrow. "He has kids?" "No," Victus said, trying...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-One
"I'm worried about my boy." Dagen pulled a used paper napkin out of his pocket and wrung it in his hands, absentmindedly twisting it this way and that. Even though dead air was generally discouraged while on long-distance vid calls, he was glad that...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-Two
From the chair in his private office, Negin Mal glared down at his personal guards from the raised platform he'd had constructed behind the desk to enhance his psychological advantage. To Mal's consternation, Victus's air of cool detachment hadn't...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-three
Moving as one, the small class of young ken-shi brought their bamboo practice swords down, slashing diagonally across their chests. "Hai!" They regrouped, pulled their swords close to their centers of gravity, then pulled their free arms around in a...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty
Negin Mal was as perturbed as Victus had ever seen him. "Is this really necessary?" he spat, his single-minded resistance against the inevitable reminding Victus of the time he had given Master Uhlu's cat a flea bath. Leland took his attention away...
Prologue & Chapter One - Meetings
**Prologue** I was born in the early morning hours, when the mists still hung heavily in the chill air, far in the distant past. My dam and my sire, Fire Weaver and Sky Splitter, who are among those referred to as "First Ones", were filled with joy...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-four
Lucas went through his morning routine the same way he and Victus did on any other day, but going through the motions without the other man by his side was disconcerting. He knew the moves, he could perform the duties, but without having Victus there...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-five
"No, and that's final!" With that, Negin Rudex Mal slammed the door in Victus's face. It wasn't the first time he'd done something like that. It wasn't even the fiftieth time. Victus thought the man was taking a perverse pleasure in blatantly ignoring...
Rare: The Meeting
Draco lifted his head slightly, listening past the pounding and crashing of the waterfall he laid behind. Cool water pooling at his feet under his belly. His claws resting on the solid rock as he concentrated his senses and pinpointed the...
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
**Light poured in from the open window. The soft sounds of bird awakening the neighborhood sliding into the dimly lit bedroom. The only light from the sun itself laying across Brooke's closed eyes. Her eyes slowly opening to look around the room. The...