Title: Shaper
Series: The Mi'hani Wards, Book 1
Author: Christine Danse
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release
Date: March 13
Heat
Level: 2 - Fade to Black Sex
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 14100
Genre: Romance, NineStar Press, LGBT, lesbian, age gap,
cyberpunk, UST, psychic ability, abduction, amnesia, captivity, magic users,
prison, secret agents
Synopsis
Nameless and without an identity, she
wakes on the streets of Shapertown, an abandoned city that defies the laws of
physics. She’s fleeing a threat she can’t remember. One woman holds the key to
unlocking her memories and the dangerous truth: She is the threat.
Excerpt
Shaper
Christine Danse © 2017
All Rights Reserved
I didn’t dream.
I existed in a black space where for a
time I almost had a family and friends, school, the everyday pleasures of
domestic life. I drifted close to the shores of memory but didn’t make
landfall.
The sound of voices pulled me out again,
a man and a woman. They drew me out to sea and up into the sky, into my skin.
I came to on my side under the warmth of
covers. Home, in my bed.
But no, not my bed. Not my room. No room
I recognized.
Instinct told me to kick to my feet and
bolt, but like a small animal, I felt safe under cover.
I scanned the contents of the small
room. White dresser, table against the side with two chairs, one door. No more
than that.
I made another pass with my eyes just to
be sure, but there was only the one door, so only one way out. The voices came
from just on the other side of it, so I wouldn’t be slipping out unseen. I
would have to wait this out. I had no choice. It had nothing to do with the
fact that the pillow was soft under my head, the blankets a bank of clouds atop
me. A comfort like home, which I hadn’t known for…
For a long time. The feeling didn’t
quite come with a memory, but a strong sense of hard surfaces and shivering
sleep.
“I realize,” the woman was saying. She
spoke in a hushed tone, but I could just get her words.
The man responded in a low rumble I
couldn’t make out.
“I know that,” she said. “But you must
understand the position this puts me in.”
Something about her voice made me
uneasy. Maybe her tone. There was an edge to it, a wariness and also a
weariness.
“I’m retired,” she said at last, flatly.
Nothing after that. They might have
moved off, leaving me, forgetting me. But I didn’t move, just lay with the
blanket pulled up to my eyes and held still, waiting for something, because
something always came.
The rattle of the doorknob warned me
just before the door opened. The man entered first. Tall, with dark brooding
eyes and a presence like a storm cloud compacted into a man’s shape. But it was
the woman at his elbow who scared me. Thin, with straight brown hair and
luminescent blue eyes. Beautiful but tired, mouth in a line like it had never
known a smile.
I sat up and clutched the blanket, never
mind that I was clothed. I pushed back my curls.
“You’re awake,” the man said. He drew
out a chair and sat. The woman stood leaning back against the doorframe with
her arms crossed, seemingly impassive, but our awareness of each other pulled
like a taut string.
“I’m Nero,” the man said. “And this is
Natalia.”
After that came a pause. They seemed to
be waiting for something. I looked between them, fingers curled around the top
edge of the blanket. My gaze caught the woman’s and snagged.
He prompted: “Can you tell us your
name?”
I opened my mouth and— “No.” I felt an
instant pulse in the air, like a throb of hostility from them, and added, “I
don’t know.”
The man’s eyes flickered. The woman
shifted from one leg to the other and propped the foot against the wall.
“I don’t know,” I said again. “I don’t
know my name.” The edge of panic crept into my voice.
They exchanged a glance.
The man asked me more questions. It was
a terror and a relief not to have the answers. They could get nothing out of
me. I could betray no one.
He seemed to get the same idea. He stood
and exchanged a conversation with the woman that consisted of a look, a subtle
glance in my direction, a scowl, and a tight nod. Then the man told me that
Natalia would make me comfortable.
“I’m comfortable here,” I said. At that
moment, I would have rather been huddled in the corner of that crumbling
building like a dog behind the dresser.
The woman, Natalia, dredged up a smile
that didn’t quite make it to her eyes but also wasn’t unkind, and held a hand
up, gently beckoning. I couldn’t decline.
Purchase
Links
NineStar Press: http://ninestarpress.com/product/shaper/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/706576
Meet the
Author
Christine lives with her writing partner
in the wilds of urban Oregon, where they raise weeds, worms, and eyebrows.
Author
Links
Website: http://christinedanse.com/
Email: christinedanse@gmail.com
Giveaway
One lucky winner will receive an ebook
of their choice from NineStar Press
