Exciting News!

Good morning all, and happy Friday!

As promised I do have some exiting news to tell you today! I would like to introduce a new (but not so new) project that will be released within the coming year, hopefully. For those of you familiar with 'Taming Tianna' you will find the story quite familiar, but I am currently going through the narrative and improving, adjusting and adding depth to the piece. In order to do so I have had to split the story into a duology. This new version will be released to retailers everywhere, and I have covers to show you today! So I would love to introduce the Daemon Duology: Condemned and Coveted for your viewing pleasure.

Yay! Covers are so exciting!

And now, as I know most of you have been waiting, the final chapter of Needing Cassidy:

CHAPTER 35 - The End

The feast was a happy affair. Cassidy sat at a table that had been maneuvered to the front of the room, nearest the buffet line. Normally there was no real division between the Livarians at meals. It had started out that way, but as the women had settled into life in the compound things had slowly become less formal.

Not tonight. Tonight there was a head table, and chef had outdone himself. Not only were there several types of meats, both fresh and cured, but dumplings and three different breads and piles and piles of orchard fruit.

She was in a daze. Her achievements had been announced and congratulated and now everyone was celebrating them. She felt like an impostor. Everything that she had done was what anyone would do.

At the table over near the back Becky and Emily and the others were excitedly planning the greenhouse. Safely out of the spotlight. She watched them longingly.

“I wish I could eat more,” Mia commented from her left.

Cassidy raised her brows and stared at the woman’s plate. Yup, she had eaten it all. Mia had filled her plate near to overflowing, and then had growled at the prime when he’d tried to snitch a citrus slice.

“I swear,” she confided, “I’m either starving or...”

Her face paled and her eyes grew wide. When she pushed from the table and dashed for the doors everyone got out of her way.

One seat over Draven sighed heavily. “I was told it was morning sickness,” he complained. “She’s ill for the entire day.”

“It’s like that sometimes,” she assured him. At least it was for her mother. “The sickness usually passes after the first few months.” Sometimes it didn’t and the poor woman was nauseous for the entire term. She didn’t tell him that though.

He rose from his seat.

“I regretfully have to cut our celebration short,” he nodded to her. “Please tell Tor to see me when it’s convenient for him tomorrow.”

Cassidy smiled politely and glanced back toward the food tables. Tor had returned for a second helping but quickly been waylaid by a woman with some concern or other. Something that could have waited no doubt.

“Hey!”

The shout drew her attention back to the main room. Two Livarian’s rose quickly from where they were seated next to some of the women.

A surprised grunt sounded from the doors, left open from Mia’s rushed departure. Georgie-boy stood there, several steps within the door, looking no worse for the wear. In fact, he was rather looking like he was hoping for a treat, his little beady eyes up on their stalks blinking from woman to woman hopefully. She would bet a weeks worth of macier puffs that Ashley had been feeding it.

There was still some purple oil along it’s back too, except now it was covered in dirt and something foul the thing had found and rolled in.

“Bar the door!” one of the Livarians shouted.

Now everyone’s attention focused forward. A few of the woman screamed in panic. Cassidy rolled her eyes. Drama queens. The door guards filled the open space. Someone leapt for the beast.

Poor Gorgie-boy was not expecting an attack. He squealed in distress and bolted forward slamming against a few chair legs and scattering women in his wake.

Screams and chaos filled the dining hall. Everyone stood, either trying to get a look at the commotion or trying to get out of the way. It made seeing Gorgie-boy’s progress rather difficult. Other than the shuddering crashes when the creature rammed into something. There was a very good chance Gorgie-boy could not see very well.

When the food tables collapsed to the floor Tor grasped her hand.

“Let’s get out of here,” he yelled over the noise. “I don’t want to be trapped all night until they catch the thing.”

Cassidy agreed, though she was secretly rooting for the beast. It seemed pretty harmless actually.

The corner of her mouth twitched.

The door loomed before them, guarded by frustrated looking Livarians. One was covered in...something unpleasant. What exactly had happened over here?

They moved to let her and Tor pass.

As they were slipping through the opening Cassidy cast one last glance backwards, and caught sight of Ashley through the crowd. Laughing her ass off.

“What’s that smirk about?” Tor asked, taking her hand.

The action shocked her, and touched her at the same time. The grumpy medic was a cuddly, touchy feely guy. Who knew?

“Nothing,” she let him lead her along the path. The storms had taken a break for the night, leaving only an overcast sky. When Tor turned away from the trail to the medical building she peered at him. “Where are we going?”

The corner of his lip lifted a little. “It’s a surprise,” he confessed.

The apartment blocks loomed before them. Fat white cubes she knew that each consisted of four units, and four cubes would surround a small courtyard that would eventually hold play equipment for children.

Cassidy followed him inside the closest one. The interior was clean, made from the same white stone material that the Livarian architects favored. It was bright too, almost cheerful. Tor tapped the invisible panel and the door to an apartment slipped open.

The interior was...gorgeous. Muted earth tones covered the walls, the furniture placed with the kind of loving precision that talented interior decorators were known for. Everything was exactly where it should be. Peaceful.

“Are we visiting someone?”

“No, this is for you...for us? Come see the best part,” Tor took her hand once more.

“I thought...”

“The room in the medical building was enough for me, but I wish to provide you with more. Besides, I’ve come to realize it is far to accessible to the rest of the compound and they aren’t very likely to appreciate the things I want to do to you.” He glanced at her, as he led her farther into the apartment, “do you like it?”

She got a peek at the bedroom, a nearly identical room to the one in the medical building, before he stopped in front of what could only be considered a study. There were ceiling high shelves of books interspersed by windows that would let in a good amount of natural light during the day. A desk with a comfortable chair and a small little work station with some of the glass equipment that had littered the medical building that morning. But best of all was the Mag-lense that sat there to the side. A new one, they must have been searching for some time for it.

“Your true lab will, of course, need more space for the equipment, but in the meantime I arranged to have you started here. With your own Mag-lense and the translated tablet I do believe you will be in a position to begin whatever learning you wish,” he hesitated, green eyes flashing to her again, a hint of vulnerability there this time. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” she breathed, suddenly overwhelmed by...everything. Everything had changed. And it was so much better than she had ever thought it could be. Tor had provided her with a companion and a lover, and now a purpose. How he knew what she’d needed she had no idea.

She moved to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, rising on her tip toes to reach his lips. “I love it. I love this, and I love you,” she told him.

Joy filled his face. “I love you, Cassidy. I didn’t realize I wasn’t living until you came crashing into the medical building demanding things. And now I can’t live without you. I need you, and I always will.”

THE END