From the Ashes
by Xen Sanders
Fires of Redemption #1
Publication Date: January 2, 2017
Genres: Entangled: Otherworld, Male/Male, Sci-Fi, Romance
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Synopsis:
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant.Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called this and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father’s inhuman empire. Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford–antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
But one kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. When his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias’s hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile higher, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean–or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
Hi. I’m Xen. Cole. Whatever you want to call me; both are true, and both are lies. My pen names are multitudes, my nicknames legion. Tall, bi/queer, introverted, author, and of a brown-ish persuasion made up of various flavors of Black, Asian, and Native American. I’m cuter than Hello Kitty, more bitter than the blackest coffee, and able to trip over cats in a single half-asleep lurch; I’m what happens when a Broody Antihero and a Manic Pixie Dream Boy fight to the death, and someone builds a person from the scraps left behind. Beardless, I look like the uke in every yaoi manga in existence; bearded or not, I sound like Barry White. About half my time is spent as a corporate writer, and the other half riding a train of WTFery that sometimes results in a finished book. Romance, erotica, sci-fi, horror, paranormal; LGBTQIA and cishet; diverse settings and diverse characters from a diverse author.
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant.Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called this and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father’s inhuman empire. Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford–antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
But one kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. When his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias’s hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile higher, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean–or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
Excerpt
“Ambition,”
he says a little too flatly. “Ambition is expensive, you know. I worked my way
through uni but barely made enough for living expenses. I was arrogant and
young and wanted to be away, because I thought away meant better. But while I
was busy being away, they were giving up their meager savings to pay for my
tuition. And while it’s not as beastly expensive as it is here in the States…”
It’s not
wholly a lie, I think. The regret is too real. But it’s masking something else,
even if the ache in his voice is all too true, too deep, his eyes glimmering
faintly, wetly.
“I feel
like I took everything from them. From my brother, too. Keane.” He smiles, but it’s
tremulous and hurt. “And I paid back every pence and pound, in spades. I’m
paying Keane’s university tuition right now, but I can’t ever forget how they
struggled for what they gave up for me. And I feel like I don’t deserve to go
home, because of what I took from them.”
He’s so
intense. How can he stand to live with such intensity of emotion? How does he
not drown in it, in himself, every day?
I push
myself up to kiss him. It’s the only way I know how to offer comfort. With
touch, with intimacy, with presence.
“You think
they resent you,” I murmur, and he lets out a choked, wet-sounding laugh
against my lips.
“How can
they not?”
“Just
because you resent yourself doesn’t mean they resent you.” I curl my fingers in
his hair, stroke against the back of his neck. “Other people rarely see us the
way we see ourselves. Other people rarely hate us the way we hate ourselves.”
He leans
hard into me, almost desperately. “Do you hate yourself, Tobias?”
“Every
day.”
“Why?” He
makes a rough sound. “No—don’t tell me. I wouldn’t understand.”
“No more
than I can really understand you.” I rest my brow to his. “It’s a lonely life,
not being understood.”
“A lonely
life, for lonely people.” He trails into a near whimper that tears at me to
hear, with a force I’m unaccustomed to feeling—as if he’d stabbed me with that
sound, drenched my heart in his emotions. “Am I allowed to hate it when I chose
this?”
“Yes,” I
whisper, and take him fiercely into my arms.
Because
this, I understand. This choice to be alone, because solitude is safer and yet
so very, very terrible. “Yes.” He burrows into me, making an oddly small bundle
for such a large man.
“You
aren’t the only one running from something,” he mumbles against my skin. “You
aren’t.”
“I know.”
I close my eyes and curl around him and cradle him close. “And you aren’t the
only one who’s lonely. So for as long as we can…let’s be lonely together. Until
we have to run again.”
“Until?”
“Until,” I
answer.
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