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AVAILABLE APRIL 2019
An ordinary mom from Earth thrust into the life of an evil Mistress
A Kindred warrior desperate to save his people
Can they work together to restore Malik's world and get Nikki back home?
Or will the two of them be trapped forever in a reality which has become...Twisted?
Nikki Davis is having a terrible time. Her three tween and teenage sons are in trouble in school and her husband is divorcing her while a nasty coworker steals her best commissions at work. Is it any wonder she's thinking of offing herself? But when she steps into the foaming surf of Clearwater Beach, she feels something hard under her foot. A stone that looks like a shiny purple M&M is just lying there so Nikki picks it up...
And finds herself in a whole new life on a completely different planet.
Malik is a Volt Kindred, the only survivor of his home planet, Uriel Five. When the Knower, the Artificial Intelligence tasked with taking care of his world, took it over and killed all the humanoid inhabitants, he was off-planet. But he has a plan—a special tool from the Goddess herself to restore his world. The only trouble is, he has to get back to Uriel Five first and the only person brave enough to deal with the Knower is the evil Mistress Hellenix of Yonnie Six. Malik allowed himself to be bought by her and has been her slave for three long years but now, for some reason she has changed completely...
Nikki doesn't know what to think—how did she go from her miserable life in Tampa to a fantastic palace with a huge Kindred bodyslave who is calling her Mistress Hellenix? And how can she ever get back home again? She must pretend to be the woman whose life she has taken over by accident but how long can she keep up the charade? And what will Malik do when he finds out the truth—that his real Mistress is millions of light years away and her double knows absolutely nothing about life on Yonnie Six? How will he save his home world now that reality has become...Twisted?
Chapter One
Nicole Davis, (Nikki to her friends and family,) stood in the cold, frothy foam that rushed over the hard-packed sand and looked out at the vast gray of the ocean and the pale blue of the sky beyond. It was her thirty-seventh birthday and her life felt like it was over. In fact, she was trying to think of a single reason not to keep walking…not to let those rolling waves she saw in the distance rush over her head and drag her under forever.
Shouldn’t even be here. What am I doing at the beach instead of at work or attending one of the endless conferences at one of the boys’ schools?
Right this minute she ought to be at Rosy Ray’s Realty (where we find you your forever home for less!) filing paperwork and taking calls for Missy Cannon, the realtor whose assistant she still was, despite the fact that she’d passed the Florida state licensing exam and had gotten her Real Estate License herself months before. And later she had to attend yet another 504 plan meeting for her twins.
Jacob and James had both been born with learning delays—probably because they’d had to come out really early due to complications in her pregnancy. At the time, Nikki had also been dealing with a toddler—three year old Jude—as well as the two preemies. Her husband, Gary, was at work all the time so he couldn’t really (didn’t want to) help much at all. She felt like a single mother and it had been really overwhelming.
Nikki’s life had gotten really crazy after the twins were born and somehow even twelve years later, the craziness never quite dissipated—it just mutated into other forms of stress. People always told you, “Oh, don’t worry—it will get easier.” But it never did as far as Nikki could see. It just got worse.
Maybe she was just feeling negative because of the awful day she’d had yesterday, she thought morosely. Maybe that was her problem…
* * *
It had started with her finding a bottle of her mother-in-law’s pills in her teenager’s sock drawer when she was hunting for some pairs of spare socks for her twins, who were out of clean clothes again. They had some in the washer—which were unfortunately still wet because she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep before she could put them in the dryer the night before. So she’d been rooting around, hoping her fifteen year old might have some clean socks when she’d found the half-full bottle.
Gary had been rushing out the door to the office, so she couldn’t enlist her husband’s help. Instead, she’d confronted Jude by herself and his answer had been…a shrug.
“Look at me, young man! What are you doing with a bottle of your grandmother’s pain pills? Do you know what these are? They’re addictive! You could get hooked and ruin your life—how did they get here?” Nikki glared at her hulking fifteen-year-old who towered over her since his last grown spurt.
Jude had shrugged sullenly again.
“Dunno.”
Nikki wanted to shake him. Where had her sweet, smart little boy gone to? The one who used to help her in the kitchen when she cooked and made the A honor roll consistently? Lately it seemed that Jude had drifted further and further away from her, becoming distant and sullen, and he’d been getting into trouble at school too. His grades were dropping and he was cutting class all the time. Now she had to wonder if he had a drug problem on top of all that. What the hell was going on?
But no matter how much she ranted and raved, he just stood there, refusing to answer, that same, angry scowl on his face as he silently glared at her from his newly superior height. It made Nikki crazy, but there was nothing she could do about it at that point. The three boys would all be late to school if she kept on and anyway, she was getting nowhere with her sullen teen.
“We’ll have a talk about this with your father tonight,” she told Jude and then shoved the pills in her purse and grabbed the socks for her twins.
“Did not!”
“Did too! Give it back!”
“No! It’s mine now—I own it!”
Sullen silence wasn’t a problem with Jacob and James and she had to break up a fight before she could make them finish getting dressed. Before having them, Nikki had heard so much about how twins were supposed to get along and have a special bond. But her boys fought like cats and dogs—maybe because they were fraternal twins instead of identical.
James was fair with light brown hair and light eyes like her husband Gary and like Jude. Jacob, on the other hand, had inherited Nikki’s black hair and dark eyes.
At twelve and a half and in sixth grade, both twins were firmly in their tweens, which meant that neither of them was sweet or cuddly anymore. They no longer wanted Nikki to read them bedtime stories and though the fact that she was always the homeroom mom had used to be a source of delight to them, now having her step foot in their school was the worst embarrassment imaginable.
“Mom, do you have to come to our class every time you have a meeting in the office?” James had asked her just the week before. “None of the other parents come around like you do.”
“Yeah, Mom—it’s embarrassing,” Jacob had chimed in. It was the one thing the two of them seemed to agree on—that the very sight of Nikki in their school was humiliating in the extreme. It made her feel like a trailing piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of a shoe. Though she knew it was normal—having already gone through it with Jude—it still hurt to go from being the greatest mom ever to something shameful that ought to be kept in the closet, hidden away out of sight.
I’m there for you, Nikki felt like screaming. As the school got less funding, they were constantly trying to cut the twins’ speech and language services. Sometimes it felt like every week she had to go down to the counseling office and fight to make certain her kids got the help they needed to make it through middle school. And what was her reward? Tween scorn and ingratitude that almost stung more than Jude’s sullen teenage indifference.
She had finally gotten all three boys packed off to school and gotten to work—five minutes late—to find that Missy Cannon (the realtor with a smile!) waiting at her desk with a frown and a sheaf of paperwork.
&n
bsp; “Honestly, Nikki, I thought we agreed no more tardies,” she snipped, putting her free hand on her tiny, barely-there hip. “I’ve been waiting for you for the past thirty minutes to get started on these marketing plans. These listings aren’t going to sell themselves, you know.”
Nikki thought about telling her to do her own paperwork. It was past time that she got out from under Missy’s shadow and started making her own sales. In fact, she had made a sale the day before—or she was fairly certain she had. The clients were supposed to be calling to say if they wanted to put a bid on the property she’d showed them the day before and she was almost certain they would.
But Missy was the lead realtor at Rosy Ray’s and she had the boss, Mr. Ray, wrapped around her petite, size-two finger. Missy was tiny, blonde and slim—unlike Nikki’s own plus-sized figure. She also flirted shamelessly with their boss and Nikki was under no illusions as to who would win a confrontation if she complained about the other woman.
“I’m sorry,” she said, swallowing her irritation. “My boys were a pain today—you know how it is.”
“Yes, I do but I try not to bring my home problems to work, Nikki.” Missy glared at her meaningfully. “How many times have you ever heard me use my sweet little Malinda as an excuse?”
None, Nikki thought resentfully. Maybe because she’s an only child and you can afford a nanny to help raise her!
But again she swallowed the words and simply took the sheaf of papers Missy was waving in her face.
“I’m expecting a call from Amanda and Luke Travers later today,” she said, attempting to change the subject. “I showed them that property out on Lambright and I think they’re going to make an offer.”
“Oh, they already did,” Missy said breezily. “They called not five minutes before you finally decided to sashay in this morning. I told them I would put in the offer and let them know what the seller said—no problem.”
“But…” Nikki had worked hard to keep her voice even. “But that’s my sale. I found the listing, I did all the paperwork, and I showed them the property. You can’t just take over at the last minute!”
“It’s hardly the last minute,” Missy objected airily. “There’s still a lot to be done. Besides, you’re still under me, remember? If you wanted to keep a sale to yourself, you should have made it to work on time.”
“But I need that commission,” Nikki protested. “My car is on its last legs, Missy—I need to get new tires and a new—”
“Sorry, not my problem! You should have been in on time,” Missy trilled, flashing her the big, fake smile she usually reserved for clients. “Of course, you can complain to Mr. Ray if you want to but when he finds out you almost lost a sale because you were late to work, well…” She shook her head and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “I think he’s more likely to thank me for saving the listing than get upset that I ‘stole’ it from you, don’t you?”
Nikki’s hands had balled into fists but again, what could she do? Of course she wouldn’t have lost the sale—the call would have just gone to voice mail and she would have returned it the moment she got in. But she knew that Missy would make it sound like she was being sloppy and late and losing sales left and right. She’d be lucky to keep her job at all, let alone get back the lost sale after the manipulative little bitch got through telling the story her way.
So she’d had no choice but to cede the lucrative sale to Missy—who would probably use the commission to get herself a week at one of those spa yoga retreats she was always talking about or something equally frivolous. Nikki wished she could go away on some kind of retreat but between the boys therapy, sports, and school commitments plus the endless laundry, cooking, and cleaning there always was to do, she was lucky to get a minute to herself, let alone a whole week.
The rest of the day at work wasn’t much better—she got a call from Jude’s high school telling her that he had cheated on his Biology exam and skipped sixth period again and a reminder from the twin’s middle school that both their 504 plan meetings were scheduled for the next day. Somehow she would have to try and make time in her busy schedule to get to their school or their services would doubtless be slashed.
Well maybe Gary could help for once, she’d thought, without much hope. He had an hour long lunch break every day—which was more than she could say for herself. Mostly she ate fast food as she rushed from one listing to another, trying to make sure everything looked perfect for the multiple showings Missy did every day. At the very least, he could have a talk with Jude about his bad behavior.
They needed to do something about their oldest son before his life went completely down the drain. Maybe with both of them working they could afford a private school—ever since he’d started high school, he’d been getting into trouble and Nikki really felt like it was because he’d gotten into the wrong group of kids and they were dragging him down and having a bad influence on him.
Work worries and kid troubles filled her brain all day as she struggled to get the twins to therapy and make sure that Jude had really gone to soccer practice instead of ditching to hang out with his disreputable friends. By the time she had struggled through the twins’ confusing common core math assignments and made Jude at least attempt his own homework, Nikki was exhausted. For dinner, she simply threw a frozen pizza in the oven and opened a bag of pre-chopped salad. It might not be a home-cooked meal, but it was literally all she could manage at the moment.
After a silent supper where Gary paid more attention to his cell phone than his family, Jude picked at his food and scowled, and the twins bickered and fought endlessly, she was finally able to get her husband alone.
“We need to talk,” she began, coming into his “man cave” and shutting the door behind her, to be certain they weren’t overheard.
“Now?” A look of irritation had passed over Gary’s pudgy features as he craned his neck to look around her—his attention glued to the TV where the Bucks were playing.
“Yes, now,” Nikki said firmly, planting herself in front of the TV. “Jude’s in trouble, Gary, and I really think…”
“All right, fine. You want to talk? We’ll talk. Just make it quick—the Bucks are winning for the first time this season and I don’t want to miss the whole game.”
Punching the remote control, Gary muted the game and glared up at her from his Lazy-boy recliner. The one with built in heat and massage features that Nikki had scrimped and saved to buy him as a Christmas present the first year she went back to work after the twins finally entered middle school.
“Well? Go ahead—talk,” he snarled.
Nikki was a little taken aback at his open irritation, but it wasn’t like they could put this off—she needed his help with the boys. She went into detail about what was going on with their oldest son and also how she needed some help making it to the 504 meetings for the twins. Gary listened impatiently, his eyes straying often to the muted screen and just as often to his cell phone.
“Are you done?” he demanded when she finally finished.
“Well…yes.” Nikki looked at him uncertainly. “Gary, if you’d just talk to Jude—he won’t listen to me anymore.”
“Hell, Nikki—he won’t listen to anyone. He’s a teenager. But he’ll come back around in a few years.” Her husband gave a snort of impatience. “And as for the twins, we agreed back when we had kids that I would do the real work and you would deal with them—remember? So I’m afraid you’re on your own for that meeting. You’ll just have to work it out somehow.”
“But I’m working again now too,” Nikki reminded him. “I have been for the past two years and it’s really hard to juggle a job and all three boys and their schools at the same time. I know you make more money than me, Gary, but I really think—”
He held up a hand to stop her.
“I’m sorry, Nikki, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t pretend anymore,” he said. Abruptly, he got out of his chair and started to pace.
“Do what? Pretend what?” Ni
kki had a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach but she told herself her husband of sixteen years must be kidding around. Or maybe he just needed to blow off some steam.
What about me? Don’t I ever get to blow off steam? she thought resentfully. But of course she didn’t—she was a mom and a wife and her needs always came last.
But then her husband’s next words blew everything else out of her mind.
“I can’t pretend to be invested in this relationship anymore,” he said, frowning. “It’s too much work—too much pressure. I can’t live like this anymore.”
“Too much pressure? What are you talking about?” Nikki demanded. Suddenly all the stress of the day had come down on her and she heard a stream of words—words she usually suppressed—pouring out like a torrent of dirty water.
“I do all the work around here, Gary!” she exclaimed. “I take the boys to school and pick them up and take them to therapy and soccer practice and make them do their homework and do their laundry—yours too—and make dinner and make sure everyone gets to bed on time and all while I hold down a full-time job! All you do is go to work and come home to eat dinner and lounge around your man cave drinking beer until it’s time to go to bed! All I’m asking for is a little help parenting your sons. Is that so much to ask?”
Gary had given her a nasty look, but he hadn’t said a word. Instead, he went across the room to his roll-top desk and opened a cabinet on the side. He pulled out a thick sheaf of paperwork and handed it to her silently.
“What’s this?” Nikki had taken the papers uncertainly. Looking down at the top sheet she read, “Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with Dependent or Minor Children and Relocation.”
The coldness in the pit of her stomach was growing but she still didn’t understand, couldn’t let herself understand.
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