Avalanche – Snippet 44

Avalanche – Snippet 44 The next few hours passed too quickly for John’s liking. He and Sera ate generous helpings of room service, showered, and did what they could to rest; neither one of them could sleep, however, and opted to just lie in bed next to...

Avalanche – Snippet 43

Avalanche – Snippet 43 John was so out of it that he almost missed the signs of what they were heading towards. A shadow on a rooftop. The scuffle of a boot against concrete. The couple talking on the street corner that were trying a little too hard to keep...

Avalanche – Snippet 42

Avalanche – Snippet 42 “We’ve gotta get back to Atlanta. We’re skatin’ enough as is, though I’m pretty sure we can keep the Commissar from throwin’ too much crockery at us.” They walked through the door of the cabin;...

Avalanche – Snippet 41

Avalanche – Snippet 41 It was Sera who answered Zach.  “We do not know if we will succeed, Zachary.  But if we fail, if we fall, you are the last hope against the Thulians.  This much, we know for certain.  And we searched long and hard for you, and...

Avalanche – Snippet 40

Avalanche – Snippet 40 The cabin and the land were his bolt hole; a place to run when he had nowhere else to go. It had served him well in those early days on the run. He had had a lot of things to deal with; grief over what he had lost, guilt over what he had...

Avalanche – Snippet 39

Avalanche – Snippet 39 Ebb Tide Mercedes Lackey Amphitrite was pleased.  Bill (she really did not like that name) was proving to be more and more congenial as he climbed out of his Melancholia.  The investment in the physician of the mind had been...

Avalanche – Snippet 38

Avalanche – Snippet 38 He and Sera just reacted, automatically, going down to the ground and taking as many of the kids as they could with them.  A Thulian Death Sphere, half on fire and anted sideways, flew overhead.  It was clearly going down, and a minute...

Avalanche – Snippet 37

Avalanche – Snippet 37 John changed tactics. He started to wound and incapacitate the duplicates instead of going directly for the kill. Holding his claymore in front of himself, he swung the blade in a windshield wiper motion, advancing forward with each cut....

Avalanche – Snippet 36

Avalanche – Snippet 36 “Roger that, Vickie.” He withdrew his arm from the hole in the wall, shaking the muddy water off before extinguishing the sword again and re-shouldering his rifle. “Eye in the sky, kid. Our Overwatch; kind of like mission...

Avalanche – Snippet 35

Avalanche – Snippet 35 “Please! No! Please, just no! No no no no!” Zachary lifted one foot, then brought it down savagely on the guard’s helmet; the crunch was horrible, and John didn’t want to think about whether it was the guard’s...

Avalanche – Snippet 34

Avalanche – Snippet 34 By this time more of the guards had figured out they were being taken from behind.  They turned to face Sera, who had sheathed herself in flame and leapfrogged past John, her sword and spear so hot they were white-approaching-plasma. ...

Avalanche – Snippet 33

Avalanche – Snippet 33 “Holy shit!” One of them tripped over his own feet and tumbled backwards, landing hard on his rear. The other, a woman, seemed to shrink in on herself for a moment as she backed up. Even so, she was the first to regain her...

Avalanche – Snippet 32

Avalanche – Snippet 32 “I do not like this, at all.  It is not unlike a theater set…and it is much too quiet.  I think this is a facade.”  Her eyes were getting that flicker of gold in them that meant she was ramping up for combat. John still...

Avalanche – Snippet 31

Avalanche – Snippet 31 # They were flying relatively low; only about a thousand feet up or so. It was a slightly cool, damp 4 A.M., even this high up. John and Sera were flying over the Florida panhandle, as fast as they could manage. The sun hadn’t yet...

Avalanche – Snippet 30

Avalanche – Snippet 30 “Even so…”  Sera sighed.  “If we find she reverts, or will not change, or goes home again.  What would we do? Join with Belladonna and become a part of ECHO?” “That would be an option, I suppose. I love...