I think this will be the last post of my SF wip until after Spooky Season. I’d like to bring you some of those soon. Until then here you go. Kaleo is done with his shower.
As he stepped out of the shower, Kaleo froze. Smoke sat there watching him.
“Fuck!”
That was all he needed, to get his privates bit off by Shyroth’s monster cat-thing. She watched him as he grabbed the towel and dry off. She did rub on his naked leg once he tried to get past her. It sent a shiver up him. Damn, why did every touch feel like an invite to ‘let’s get horizontal’ to him? He’d never been like that until the Toy house. Still, Smoke didn’t seem threatening, more like a cat wanting attention.
Running very late again so I’m going to just dive right into it. Kaleo is finally alone in Aneirin’s home and he’s cleaning up, trying to relax and failing. Content warning: mentions of physical and sexual abuse.
Kaleo liked the feel of the warm water whipping all over him. He’d never experienced anything like it. He lathered up and shampooed the hell out of his hair to get all the gunk out of it. He’d never been vain, and he had hated every single time the Toymakers had dressed him up like a doll to get him used to it. As he washed lower, his fingers trailed over the brand on his ass. Kaleo shook. He’d never forget that. They had lasered the mark into his flesh, the stench of his burning skin filling his nostrils. He could imagine he still smelled it.
Like the doc said, I’m trying to find the fun little things to do around here. It could lead to some story ideas at the very least.
For now, here’s more of Kaleo’s first hours in Aneirin’s home.
Kaleo went into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. Devs, he didn’t even recognize himself and he hated the half-painted face staring back at him. Kaleo ripped the necklaces off over his head and contemplated tossing them in the trash, but figured they were probably expensive. He went and put them on the dresser. He got out of the wrap around his hips and, for lack of something better to do with it, he shoved it down the laundry chute, then grabbed some shampoo and soap out of the closet.
Still dealing with a pretty intense depression (no worries, I see my psychiatrist on Thursday) and learning the new insurance’s interference in my meds has led to a 2 point rise in my HgA1C which is bad news in diabetes has not helped.
I’m delving back in the Sci Fi wip where Aneirin is a scientist from a wealthy family and Kaleo was kidnapped from the prison slum he was born in and fashioned into a living sex toy that Aneirin was given as a gift (he didn’t want) They’re talking about how long Kaleo had been kept in the ‘training center’
His lips twisted into a sneer, a greenish pallor coming over him. “They had me over a year. Damn. Yeah, if I could sleep there, I can sleep here. Even if you want something from me, it ain’t gonna be worse than what they’ve done.” Kaleo snorted. “I’m not supposed to say that. I’m not supposed to be talking at all. They were strict about keeping quiet but I’ve always had a big mouth.”
“I believe you and I want you to talk, Kaleo. At some point, if you want, you can tell me everything,” Aneirin scowled. “I might need to know.”
So it’s been months since I’ve done this. This summer has been hard. Two friends lost their children. I lost multiple relatives including my uncle in July. I will catch up with all of your stuff later, promise. I’m in the middle of going back home after not doing anything I needed to do on my sabbatical thus far.
I want to get back to sharing that wip I had been sharing or maybe one of the ones I’d like to maybe rerelease but I have qualms about it that make me unhappy. But for now I’m just going to share another thing from my March release These Haunted Hills because it didn’t hit quite the way I hoped (and that also makes me sad as I was very proud of this one). It’s about paranormal investigating and dealing with the grief (ironically) of the loss of a child. In this snippet, Brendan is asking if they’ll be going back to the very haunted abandoned hotel
“Will we be going back in?”
Josh shook his head. “We decided it might be a bit too dangerous between the level of activity and the structural issues. It might be best to have everyone there. There’s supposed to be a hidden graveyard on the grounds, at least according to the research Madison has done.”
“I saw some mention of the graveyards myself. So you want to look for the graves?”
Blurb:
Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.
As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.
When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.
Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.
Jana Denardo 