A Halloween Short Circuit
Read another scene from my Booktober 2022 story, and shop some great book sales.
Happy Friday, Monsters!
How’s your week been? Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? We might take the kids to a pumpkin patch and possibly do a couple other fall activities as a family. I may even break down and have something pumpkin spice… mm, yeah, but probably not. Lol. Which side are you on in the great pumpkin spice debate? I must know. Tell me in a comment.
This week, I’m dropping another little excerpt from my Big Bad Wolf story out of this year’s Booktober anthology here in the lair. So, get ready! I also wanted to let you know about a couple of book sales that are going on because I know how you Monsters are—always on the lookout for new books. :)
Before I do any of that, I have to tell you that I put another “favorite quotes” post up in our Inspiration Den. This one includes 13 beautifully spooky quotes from some classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Frankenstein, and a bunch of others. Here’s the link:
Now for another peek at my Booktober 2022 story, Who’s Afraid of the Sexy Villain? *Disclaimer I did publish this snippet before on my website as a flash fiction piece for the Wild At Heart PNR Writers’ Circle. I actually wrote it in third person back then, so if this all feels familiar to you, that’s why. I loved the story idea so much that I jumped at the chance to use it for this anthology and I’m so glad I did. The whole cyber-fae magic theme was one I found exciting to develop. I hope you enjoy reading Angel and Grim’s full story when Booktober 2022 comes out later this month. Till then, here’s a look at their first scene together.
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Music pumps into the room via the state-of-the-art speakers my cousin Rick had to have installed a few months ago. There’s a party going on here at the compound—a secret base that houses the inner workings of a secret society of magickals within our fair community. There are many all over the world just like it, but this particular compound holds the server for a cyber prison. And my nerd girl self has the esteemed position of manning the system while everyone else in our community gets down with their bad selves, or something like that. Yep, leave it to boring me to get stuck holding down the fort.
I can’t blame the others. They deserve to let loose. Everyone in the magickal community here in our little town is a key player in the society. They’re a bunch of badass spell workers, elementals, and various other forms of magick-weavers working hard at keeping the light ready to serve this world and holding the dark at bay. Everyone but me, that is. Despite being born to a power family with a lineage traced straight back to the origin of the elements, my magick failed to present.
That’s why at thirty years old, I’m still trying to pass my council exams—a hard thing to do with no inborn magick. And I monitor a video game for a living—a supernatural one, albeit, that naturals unknowingly play. That cyber prison happens to reside inside the game. Tricky bit of casting, to be sure, but one the council is exceedingly proud of, and they have every right to be.
I puff my bangs off my forehead with an aggravated breath. The dungeon level of Realm pulls my focus again. It’s empty. Where is he? Where’s Grim? Is he being played?
So many questions. How about why do I care? Good grief, Angel, get a grip. The aimless state of my life can be the only explanation for my inability to think straight right now. It’s either that or hormones. I scan the matrix again. Yeah, probably hormones.
“Brought you something, sweet-cheeks.”
I look up from my monitor to find Lanie swirling two plastic red cups in her hands. Dressed like a sexy devil for the party going on at the compound tonight, my best friend teeters on the super high red heels she’s wearing as she saunters over to my desk and sits down on top of it.
“Hey, watch it, girlie! I’m working tonight.” I protest.
Lanie shrugs, then holds one cup out to me.
“Work schmerk, come join the party. There’s nothing going on in here.” She frowns at all the tech gear in the control room.
“Whatever. You know I have to monitor my psychos.”
She pouts, rolling her big brown eyes.
“They’re fiiinne. The old crusts haven’t been a problem since fairy tale days. Quit worrying and have some fun. It’s Halloween!”
I smirk at her nickname for the prisoners trapped inside the gaming system my cousin programmed to house them. Fairy tale villains might be how every school kid knew them nowadays, but the dudes inside Rick’s cyber jail were not to be underestimated.
“That’s all I need is for Rick to chew my ass for not manning his program. Besides, I don’t have a costume.”
“Who cares? You always look cute as hell.” Lanie flips one of my dark red braids off my shoulder. “All moody and adorable.”
Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. Tipsy Lanie reaches down and pulls my chair away from my desk.
“Whoa!” I laugh. But then Lanie—who might be a little more drunk than originally thought, sways precariously close to the breaker box. Her body jerks sideways when one of her heels breaks and she starts to go down. I reach for her, but can’t stop her from crashing into the box.
“Omigod!”
“Aaaa!”
Everything goes dark.
I spring into action, stumbling around blind until I find the switch and flip it back on as I simultaneously pull Lanie away from the box.
“Shit!” The lights came back on.
“Oh, no, Ange, did…” she looks ready to puke.
I stare at her wide-eyed, then shake my head so hard my braids hit me in the face.
“No, I think you just hit the lights.” I rush to my chair to scan all the monitors. “Yeah, it’s fine. Whew.” I blow out a breath.
“I am so sorry, Ange.”
“No worries.” I tell her, but my eyes are glued to the screens.
“I’m gonna go.” Lanie says. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” I chant the words. Miraculously, the system looks intact. Maybe it really was okay. I switch my view on the main screen to check on the psychos.
“You should… you should go back to the party.”
I don’t even turn around as I hear Lanie slink out the door.
“Holy crap, that was close.” I blow my bangs off my forehead again, trying to calm my heart’s hammering in my chest. “Deep breath, girl,” I tell myself. “Quit freaking out. It’s nothing.”
A low rumble rolls through the room and the lights overhead flicker, sending a chill up my spine. Lightning cracks outside the tiny glass brick that serves as a window on one wall, making me look. Thunder roars, and I jerk.
“Get a grip.” I mutter, thoroughly disgusted with myself. “What am I, afraid of a little storm now? Ha!”
But when I turn back to my screen, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head. It was black—the black screen of doom these spelled monitors were supposed to be immune to. Wait, it wasn’t completely black. No. In the center of the screen, two words shone through in tiny print.
You lose.
“What the…?”
Before I get the words out, a low growl echoes behind me. It’s the kind of sound that shakes through flesh down to a person’s bone marrow. Slowly, I turn, my chair squeaking as I do. And Freak. The. Fuck. Out. All the air leaves my lungs at the frightful presence now standing in the room with me. I know this one. Very, very well. I’ve watched him for nearly two years. I’ve battled him in the Realm, kicking his digital ass every time I pitted my avatar against him. Hell, I’ve even played as him when I felt like walking on the dark side, which was a little more often than I want to admit.
Of all the inmates in the cyber prison, this one has always intrigued me the most. His feral moves, his diabolical backstory—not to mention his sexy as hell avatar. The black leathers and the fact that Rick had given him a shirtless skin definitely had something to do with my infatuation. But his digital persona can’t hold a candle to what stands before me right now. Six feet four inches of tan, jacked muscle, thick black hair, cruel lips and the type of stare that could only belong to one of the world’s worst villains of all time. The baddest of the bad. That’s right, I’m staring at the fucking Big Bad Wolf!
Amber eyes agleam, a wicked smirk shapes his mouth. Scary and horrifying as he is, I have to admit I’ve fantasized about that mouth… many times.
“Good evening, Little Red.” His accent is refined even under the grate of his deep voice. He passes those eerie eyes over me from head to toe. “My, how you’ve grown.”
This is insanity. It can’t really be happening! Finally, I find my voice.
“Wh-wh- what do you want?”
His low chuckle rolls through the room. The sound of it hits me in the gut, every note sinister to the core.
“Oh, we’ll get to that. First, let’s have a look at the,” he waves his hand in the air in a downward motion, “warden of my longtime jail.”
Chills wrack through my body. My mind does an instant replay of all the times I’d gotten him killed in some horrible way inside the game. It was just a game though, right? The fact that several of the avatars were living, breathing super villains at one time shouldn’t weigh on my conscience, should it? I never dreamed I’d ever have to face one of them in real life. This was bad, very, very bad. I push my squeaky desk chair back an inch.
Instantly, he lunges forward, grasping the sides of the chair by my hips. My eyes widen at the sight of his predator’s stare, so intent and so close. He leans down closer still, then inhales audibly next to the side of my head. I screw my eyes shut and hold my breath as the heat emanating from his big, ripped body fills the bare space between us.
Don’t open your eyes, don’t open your eyes, I chant inside my head. This is all just a bad dream.
His deep chuckle reverberates like he heard me, the sound of it ricocheting off every nerve I possess.
“Mmm, not a dream, Red. Not a dream at all.”
With that, he licks the shell of my ear. My eyes pop open as a fiery rain of shivers runs through me. My nipples spring to attention under my shirt, molten warmth shamefully unfurling in my lower belly. When his tongue flicks off the tip of my ear and his teeth clack shut, I gasp.
“No offense, little one…” he breathes into my neck. Holy hormones, please stop! Dude is evil incarnate. I know that. Why is my fear of him being replaced by desire? “… but I’m over this place.”
“Oh?” I squeak. My heart is beating so fast. My head swims from the adrenalin overload. No, no, no, Ange, do not pass out. That nasty little habit has been my downfall from way back—that and crushing on a villain, Stars help me. I can’t get up the nerve to fight him. Half of me doesn’t want to. Nope, half of me seems to have no problem with The Big Bad Wolf devouring every inch of me. His arms straighten. He pulls back to look at me, giving a slow shake of his head.
“One hundred years in cyberspace—a man works up,” he licks his lips, “quite an appetite.”
Oh, shit! He winks and grins… or leers. I can’t tell which. I’ve never been leered at before, so how would I know?
“Uh… uh…” I panic, lightheadedness creeping in.
My death grip on my chair proves all for naught. In the next instant, the wolf pulls me out of my seat and whooshes me up over his shoulder. I’m so shocked I don’t even scream. I freeze, unable to breathe. His big hand comes up over my back, resting on my ribs for a moment, then I feel his sharp teeth sink into my bottom cheek. I squeak out a yelp and jerk.
“Still with me, Red?” I hear him ask.
Holy crap, he just chomped me! On the butt! My core flares to life in an instant. Oh, Stars, I’m so wrecked!
I try but fail to stop the squirmy hip wiggle I do on his shoulder. He laughs outright at this, the deep rumble of it spreading heat through my center. Then he swings around toward the door.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to get out of that hellhole.” He growls. “Let’s go.”
His big palm whacks me right where he bit seconds ago. He starts walking and I sway, limp as a rag doll, the accusatory voice in my head screaming at me to do something, anything, just fight back, dammit! But like so many other shame-filled moments in my life—one horrible one in particular—it’s all too much. My view of the floor gets fuzzy. As my vision turns black, his deep voice echoes in my ears.
“This is my game now, little one. My rules.”
Copyright © 2022 Amanda V. Shane, First published as Rules in the Wild At Heart PNR Flash Fiction Writing Circle. All rights reserved.
Don’t worry, you are going to absolutely fall in love with Grim. I know I did. Be sure to preorder your copy of Booktober 2022 today and see what happens next!
(If you can’t wait, I will have some Booktober ARCs soon. Just send me a reply to this email letting me know of your interest and I’ll put you on the list. I’d love to know what you think of this year’s steamy anthology.)
Okay, are you in the mood to shop for some new books? Take a look at these two sales that are going on right now. Some of these are new releases!
That’s all I have for this week, lairlings. I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of fun and fantasy romance type escapades. ;) Oh, and don’t forget to weigh in with a yay or a nay in regards to the pumpkin spice question because now I really want to know where you stand. Hee hee. Till next time…
Stay Magical!
Amanda V Shane