by Tracy Lauren
“Good night, beautiful!” he replies.
From inside the house I can hear Eri humming to settle baby Jame.
After I help Sarran into his cottage, I meet my daughters’ husbands on the path.
“How was the fishing?” I ask.
Olivia’s husband holds up a long speckled fish that Faith likes to call a trout. I have seen these before, eaten them with my friends and family, but I have never seen one the size of what my son-in-law holds proudly.
“You better go show that to Sarran before he falls asleep,” I urge the young man, knowing my old master will get a kick out of such a sight.
“Is everyone bedding down for the night?” River asks.
“Just the elderly and the children…which includes Lily,” I say firmly. River straightens his back and stumbles over his words.
“You better not be giving River a hard time,” Purity hollers from her perch on the balcony.
“You are supposed to be reading,” I tell her.
“Lily!” Purity calls into the house. “River’s outside!”
I can hear Lily’s feet rushing down the steps, but when she gets to the door she pretends to be calm and collected. I stifle my laughter and turn the porch light on.
“Do not go beyond this light,” I warn the pair. “I will be up on the balcony watching to ensure you obey my rules.”
“Dad…” Lily complains, giving me one of her expressive looks. The girl’s expressions are so powerful she hardly needs to speak, and I try not to flinch as she shoots daggers at me with her eyes. Let the Gods walk with whoever that girl decides to marry.
I leave her and River outside together, trusting the pair more than I am willing to let them know and head up to the balcony, hoping that my Purity isn’t enjoying her book. Otherwise it will take forever to get her to come to bed with me.
She lies in a lounge chair that she had me build for her many years ago and I slide in beside her, foregoing the matching chair sitting beside it. For some reason, it is only Purity’s chair that has ever gotten any use. My wife scoots over, making room for me to squeeze in.
“Come to bed and I will tell you a story,” I say against her neck.
“I’m already reading a story,” she replies.
“Mine is better.”
“Is it?” she asks with a raised brow and a lilt to her voice. Even after all these years together, Purity is still coy and playful with me.
“It is,” I assure my wife, planting kisses along her jaw.
“What’s it about?”
“A pair of lovers who fell for each other despite all odds, who lived a long and happy life together, raising their children and watching their family grow.”
“That’s not a story, that’s a happily ever after,” she contends.
“Happily ever afters are the best kind of story,” I explain. When she looks into my eyes, I know she agrees. My wife kisses me then, with all the love and passion that she gave me on our first night together in this house. She kisses me until we are both panting with need, fumbling in the lounge chair not meant for two.
“Gross you guys!” Lily calls from below. “Go inside already!”
Purity covers her face, though I know she is not embarrassed. More likely, she is hiding her laughter.
“Fine!” I yell down. “But do not forget my rules!” I shoot one glance of warning to River as I pick up my wife and carry her to our bed.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Hunting Purity. I hope you enjoyed it, because I certainly enjoyed writing it! Please take the time to leave a review, just a few words make a world of difference to us indie authors.
Special thanks to Aquila Editing and cover artist Maria Spada.
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If you’re looking for more science fiction adventure romance, please check out my Alien series, books 1-4 now available on Amazon. Read on for an excerpt from my debut novel, ALIEN INSTINCT.
An Excerpt from ALIEN INSTINCT
Kate
Rational thought isn’t possible in this moment. My brain is zeroed in on one thing alone: Ow. Freaking owie, owie, owie. Everything hurts. Then, slowly, I start to become more aware.
I’m on the floor. I’m vomiting. Milk? I’m in a puddle of white milky fluid. How did I get here? Was I out drinking with friends? My heart pounds and my brain works desperately to use what little my tunnel vision is offering me to explain what’s happening.
I see my hands. They are wet. I’m on my hands and knees and I’m vomiting. Dry heaving? Did I drown? It’s cold in this room and I’m soaking wet. I hear others around me coughing and gagging as well. The lights are bright. Bright, white lights. That seems familiar. Are we in a hospital? The floor beneath me is metal. Why am I here?
Sucking in air, I tilt my head to look around me. There are other girls, like me. We’re all on the floor. At least one of them is naked. They’re close to me and I’m disoriented, so I just see a blur of arms, legs and hanging heads. Someone is asking for help. Another is crying. I’m still struggling to breathe. My lungs feel like they are on fire and no matter how hard I try I can’t get enough air.
There are other sounds around me that I’m becoming aware of too. A low rumble, like a growl. It’s constant. And something closer, a strange popping and gurgling sound. I strain my eyes and my head rolls around trying to find the source. I see something. Something fat and green and covered in slime. My eyes connect with it and my adrenaline soars a notch higher than it already was. This something is not human.
It’s like some kind of frog-crab monster, the gurgling sound is coming from it. It shifts from side to side and gurgles madly. My feeble lungs try to suck in a gasp of air. I throw myself back towards the other girls, our bodies knocking together. This catches their attention and that’s when the screaming starts. And this frog-crab monster… call me crazy, but I think it looks excited. Is that gurgling sound laughter?
We’re all still on the floor but I hold my arms out, pushing the other girls back behind me. I feel their hands clutching me like I’m some sort of life preserver. I dimly wonder how the screaming women are managing the lung power it takes to belt it out like that. Unfortunately, I think this is one of those ‘you can scream all you want, no one will hear you’ situations. I struggle to my feet, my legs feel like jelly but I keep my arms out, in some sort of pathetic attempt to shield these other women.
“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” one of the girls is saying. I don’t know how she can speak, rational thought is still something I can only aspire to in this moment. ‘Bad dream’ pops into my head. In dreams you can never tell if you are dreaming or awake, but when you’re awake… well it’s pretty damned obvious you’re awake. I’m wide awake right now. Or maybe I’m dead and this is hell. That’s a possibility.
My brain takes another step forward in assessing the situation again. There are bars surrounding us. We are caged. In a prison? Beyond the bars I see two more creatures. A daddy version of the frog-crab thing in the cage with us: bigger, fatter, slimier. Standing next to him is… well… it’s a straight up, fucking, gargoyle. And it’s growling and baring some massive fangs. Its wings go from being tucked at its back to spreading their full span. It’s giant. It’s speaking to the daddy frog-crab, but in some language I can’t understand. Baby frog looks over at this interaction. I realize it is standing in front of an open door to the cage we are in. And fight or flight? My body kicks in because my brain has checked the fuck out and I rush baby frog. I slam into what feels like sticky, cold pudding and almost lose my balance and fall forward with him. Luckily, his spindly bottom legs crumble beneath him and his bulbous body topples onto the ground just outside the cage. I grab the door and slam the cage shut. Then, I’m instantly embarrassed of my dead-end plan.
I jump back toward the other girls. Some are sobbing. “What’s h
appening?” one asks. Another is repeating her, “oh fuck” mantra. I notice two of them are completely nude. The naked girls are cowering on the floor to cover their bodies. I look down at myself, because I am actually not even sure if I’m wearing clothes or not. PJ shorts and a cami, plus underwear and a sports bra. I feel a wave of relief. I’m soaked and now slimy from baby frog, but it’s better than nothing. I hesitate briefly before I tear off my cami and toss it to one girl and send my shorts to the other. The shock is coming off us all now and the others help the naked girls up and try to shield them as they cover their bodies. We are silent, except for the occasional sobs and incoherent mutterings.
I quickly take in everyone’s appearance. It looks as if no one has regular clothes on. Just PJs for those of us who are lucky enough to have clothes. In some way or another we are all gripping each other for support or connection or something. Some type of silent camaraderie is going on between us. Without speaking, we all scan wildly around the cage for something, anything, to help us. A weapon? A back door? I’m not even paying attention to the monsters in the room with us. I am just searching for anything that might help. Then the popping and gurgling starts up again. Baby frog is at the gate.
He is watching us, amused I think. I don’t know if the noise he is making is speech or laughter, or nothing more than a gross noise. He taps the bars and makes a movement to open the cage. I leap to the door and push hard as I can against it so he can’t open it. “Help!” I scream and it takes only a millisecond for the other girls to respond and we are all pushing against this gate to keep the monster out. I look up and I see his wide set eyes. His mouth opens in a toothless smile which stretches to the junction of his jaws on either side of his face. He could probably fit a basketball in his big, gross mouth. He reaches in the cage and runs one of his weird two fingered slimy pincher, hand things across our arms and bodies causing us to falter. Taking that as his opportunity, he pushes the gate open and snatches one of the girls--a blonde one, by the arm and starts to pull her out.
“No!” I scream. She screams. We’re all screaming. I try to pull her back, but it’s not helping. The other girls try to hold her too. I switch my attention to baby frog and attack him. My balled fists slide over the slime covering him, his gaze turns to me and he lets the other girl go. All the girls fall backwards against the floor now that they aren’t pulling against his strength. That’s when he grabs me.
I’m out the gate with him before any of the girls can get to their feet. He flings me hard into a chair just beyond the cage and starts to clamp me in. I strain against him and the clamps. I start to think about screaming. It’s this weird surreal moment where I waver back and forth over the idea of whether or not I should scream… then I see this thing unfold from baby frog’s abdomen. It rolls out like a butterfly’s tongue and starts reaching, like a snake’s body might, up my leg and towards me. This time I don’t have to think about it. I scream. Just as I do, a deafening crack of thunder shakes the room. A spear or something bursts through baby frog’s chest, spraying slime and viscera all over me. And I realize it isn’t thunder I hear, the gargoyle has just gone berserk and the sound is coming from him.