Agent Down Blog Tour Materials
Thank you for taking part in Agent Down Blog Tour!
Below you'll find:
Please let us know when you post and send us a link at [email protected] so we can add it to our blog tour and, more importantly, share the heck out of it!
Wishing you all the best!
Echo Shea and Mindy Mymudes
Let's Talk Promotions
Psst...Promotions
Know someone not part of our blogger list, that might be interested? Click here!
Below you'll find:
- A blog tour Schedule
- A Potential Twitter Post with a Twitter-sized graphic.
- A Potential Instagram Post with an Instagram-sized graphic.
- A Potential Facebook Post with an Facebook-sized graphic.
- A Potential Blog Post.
- An HTML Blog post to Copy and Paste when you'd love to share, but you're in a hurry. (We've all been there.)
- A listing of: buy links, blogger run giveaway, rafflecopter, Blurb, about author, and excerpts. Please only use the excerpt assigned to you. (If you'd like an excerpt, get in contact with Echo at [email protected] and we'll see about getting you something for your blog--the more the merrier!)
Please let us know when you post and send us a link at [email protected] so we can add it to our blog tour and, more importantly, share the heck out of it!
Wishing you all the best!
Echo Shea and Mindy Mymudes
Let's Talk Promotions
Psst...Promotions
Know someone not part of our blogger list, that might be interested? Click here!
Blog Tour Schedule:
September 30
https://katturnerauthor.com/ - Review
Ilovebooksandstuff - Excerpt
October 1
Beauty in Ruins - Excerpt
October 4
Luna Joya - Excerpt
Taming Chaos- Excerpt
October 5
Distinct Authors - Excerpt
Romance Reporter - Excerpt
October 6
Romance thats Out Of This World - Excerpt and Giveaway
October 7
All Things Dark and Dirty - Excerpt
October 8
Books to Curl Up With - Excerpt
October 12
Jean Rabe - Q&A and Excerpt
https://katturnerauthor.com/ - Review
Ilovebooksandstuff - Excerpt
October 1
Beauty in Ruins - Excerpt
October 4
Luna Joya - Excerpt
Taming Chaos- Excerpt
October 5
Distinct Authors - Excerpt
Romance Reporter - Excerpt
October 6
Romance thats Out Of This World - Excerpt and Giveaway
October 7
All Things Dark and Dirty - Excerpt
October 8
Books to Curl Up With - Excerpt
October 12
Jean Rabe - Q&A and Excerpt
Twitter Post:
Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.
Agent Down by @JanetWaldenWest is out now!
http://mybook.to/AgentDown
#urbanfantasy #newrelease #newbook #paranormalromance #southwestthriller #booktwt #BookRecommendation #BlogTour #BookTwitter #BookBoost
Agent Down by @JanetWaldenWest is out now!
http://mybook.to/AgentDown
#urbanfantasy #newrelease #newbook #paranormalromance #southwestthriller #booktwt #BookRecommendation #BlogTour #BookTwitter #BookBoost
Instagram Post:
Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
#bookstagram #UrbanFantasy #ParanormalRomance #bookseries #BookBoost #blogtour #booklove #bookrecommendation #newrelease #bookrelease #newrelease2021
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
#bookstagram #UrbanFantasy #ParanormalRomance #bookseries #BookBoost #blogtour #booklove #bookrecommendation #newrelease #bookrelease #newrelease2021
Facebook Post:
Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
#bookstagram #UrbanFantasy #ParanormalRomance #bookseries #BookBoost #blogtour #booklove #bookrecommendation #newrelease #bookrelease #newrelease2021
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
#bookstagram #UrbanFantasy #ParanormalRomance #bookseries #BookBoost #blogtour #booklove #bookrecommendation #newrelease #bookrelease #newrelease2021
Blog Post:
Monsters are evolving. Their happy ending is imploding. And now they’re in a race to outlive a deadly bargain with the enemy…
Vee Ramirez is used to making sacrifices. So she takes it in her stride when a routine trip reveals strange behavior among the cryptids she was born and bred to fight. But after she stakes a rogue vampire, she’s shocked to discover her handlers have been toying with using the bloodsucker’s virus on their own agents.
Bruce Kantor doesn’t trust easily. But since he’s wildly loyal to those he lets in, the abrasive chef reluctantly agrees to his kickass fiancée’s request to see a doctor about his nagging cough. And when he receives a devastating diagnosis, he’s determined to wring every drop of joy out of his remaining days with the brilliant beauty.
Diving deep into forbidden research, Vee exposes herself to the fanged undead in the hopes of discovering a new treatment. But while Bruce scorns her blind faith in her superiors, he fears she’s about to violate everything she believes in and do a deal with the devil.
With mutations and blood flowing through the streets, will their passion survive?
Agent Down is the tension-filled second book in the Region Two urban fantasy series. If you like fierce characters, dark romance, and touches of snark, then you’ll love Janet Walden-West’s steamy suspense.
Buy Agent Down to keep evil at bay today!
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
Vee Ramirez is used to making sacrifices. So she takes it in her stride when a routine trip reveals strange behavior among the cryptids she was born and bred to fight. But after she stakes a rogue vampire, she’s shocked to discover her handlers have been toying with using the bloodsucker’s virus on their own agents.
Bruce Kantor doesn’t trust easily. But since he’s wildly loyal to those he lets in, the abrasive chef reluctantly agrees to his kickass fiancée’s request to see a doctor about his nagging cough. And when he receives a devastating diagnosis, he’s determined to wring every drop of joy out of his remaining days with the brilliant beauty.
Diving deep into forbidden research, Vee exposes herself to the fanged undead in the hopes of discovering a new treatment. But while Bruce scorns her blind faith in her superiors, he fears she’s about to violate everything she believes in and do a deal with the devil.
With mutations and blood flowing through the streets, will their passion survive?
Agent Down is the tension-filled second book in the Region Two urban fantasy series. If you like fierce characters, dark romance, and touches of snark, then you’ll love Janet Walden-West’s steamy suspense.
Buy Agent Down to keep evil at bay today!
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: author.to/JanetWaldenWest or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com (Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
Rafflecopter:
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="9751c04262" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_oyuz3g83">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Janet Walden-West lives in the Southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens inclusive Contemporary Romance and Urban Fantasy. As a two-time Pitch Wars alum turned Pitch Wars 2019 Mentor, Sherrilyn Kenyon scholarship recipient, and Golden Heart® finalist, she believes in paying it forward by supporting burgeoning Southern writers.
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
Find more about her at janetwaldenwest.weebly.com or on social media.
Janet Walden-West lives in the Southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens inclusive Contemporary Romance and Urban Fantasy. As a two-time Pitch Wars alum turned Pitch Wars 2019 Mentor, Sherrilyn Kenyon scholarship recipient, and Golden Heart® finalist, she believes in paying it forward by supporting burgeoning Southern writers.
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
Find more about her at janetwaldenwest.weebly.com or on social media.
HTML Post:
<img data-file-id="5755968" height="900" src="https://mcusercontent.com/db46d89a669bcc0564562defc/images/e80efebc-e915-42c0-57b7-b12969514498.jpg" style="border: 0px ; width: 600px; height: 900px; margin: 0px;" width="600" /><br />
<br />
<font><strong>Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>VEE:</strong><br />
<em>Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.</em><br />
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.<br />
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.<br />
My team stalking the cryptids.<br />
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.<br />
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.<br />
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--<em>me.</em><br />
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.<br />
<br />
<strong>BRUCE:</strong><br />
<em>We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.</em><br />
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.<br />
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.<br />
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.<br />
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.<br />
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.</font><br />
<font><strong>Print Length:</strong> 329 pages<br />
<strong>Publication Date:</strong> August 31, 2021<br />
<strong>Genre:</strong> Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy<br />
<strong>Language:</strong> English<br />
<strong>ASIN:</strong> B0952FX3SR<br />
<strong>ISBN-13:</strong> 978-1-7372190-3-3<br />
<strong>Order on Amazon:</strong> <a href="http://mybook.to/AgentDown" target="_blank">http://mybook.to/AgentDown</a></font><br />
<br />
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: <a href="http://author.to/JanetWaldenWest" target="_blank">author.to/JanetWaldenWest</a> or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com <strong>(Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)</strong><br />
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries<br />
Rafflecopter:<br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="9751c04262" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_oyuz3g83">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
<br />
<img data-file-id="1317523" height="460" src="https://mcusercontent.com/db46d89a669bcc0564562defc/images/4c15f99d-8fe0-63c5-3276-e73c85d488e3.jpg" style="border: 0px ; width: 400px; height: 460px; margin: 0px;" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<font>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<br />
Janet Walden-West lives in the Southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens inclusive Contemporary Romance and Urban Fantasy. As a two-time Pitch Wars alum turned Pitch Wars 2019 Mentor, Sherrilyn Kenyon scholarship recipient, and Golden Heart® finalist, she believes in paying it forward by supporting burgeoning Southern writers.<br />
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.</font><br />
<br />
<font>Find more about her at <a href="http://janetwaldenwest.weebly.com/" target="_blank">janetwaldenwest.weebly.com</a> or on social media.</font>
<br />
<font><strong>Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>VEE:</strong><br />
<em>Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.</em><br />
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.<br />
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.<br />
My team stalking the cryptids.<br />
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.<br />
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.<br />
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--<em>me.</em><br />
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.<br />
<br />
<strong>BRUCE:</strong><br />
<em>We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.</em><br />
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.<br />
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.<br />
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.<br />
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.<br />
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.</font><br />
<font><strong>Print Length:</strong> 329 pages<br />
<strong>Publication Date:</strong> August 31, 2021<br />
<strong>Genre:</strong> Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy<br />
<strong>Language:</strong> English<br />
<strong>ASIN:</strong> B0952FX3SR<br />
<strong>ISBN-13:</strong> 978-1-7372190-3-3<br />
<strong>Order on Amazon:</strong> <a href="http://mybook.to/AgentDown" target="_blank">http://mybook.to/AgentDown</a></font><br />
<br />
Love the Region Two Series and want keep up with Janet's next release? Follow Janet on Amazon here: <a href="http://author.to/JanetWaldenWest" target="_blank">author.to/JanetWaldenWest</a> or go to her website and sign-up for her newsletter: www.janetwaldenwest.weebly.com <strong>(Note: If you sign-up for her newsletter, you'll get the Region Two prequel, Agent Alone as a sign-up bonus. Who could resist?)</strong><br />
Haven't started the Region Two Series yet? Then by all means, check out the series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries<br />
Rafflecopter:<br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="9751c04262" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_oyuz3g83">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
<br />
<img data-file-id="1317523" height="460" src="https://mcusercontent.com/db46d89a669bcc0564562defc/images/4c15f99d-8fe0-63c5-3276-e73c85d488e3.jpg" style="border: 0px ; width: 400px; height: 460px; margin: 0px;" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<font>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<br />
Janet Walden-West lives in the Southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens inclusive Contemporary Romance and Urban Fantasy. As a two-time Pitch Wars alum turned Pitch Wars 2019 Mentor, Sherrilyn Kenyon scholarship recipient, and Golden Heart® finalist, she believes in paying it forward by supporting burgeoning Southern writers.<br />
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.</font><br />
<br />
<font>Find more about her at <a href="http://janetwaldenwest.weebly.com/" target="_blank">janetwaldenwest.weebly.com</a> or on social media.</font>
Info Quick Find:
Blogger Run Giveaway:
For those that selected giveaway on the form, you're authorized to giveaway one e-copy of Agent Down by Janet Walden-West to one of your blog readers. This is a giveaway outside of the Rafflecopter, just for your readers.
Buy Links:
Agent Down on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
The Region Two Series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
The Region Two Series on Amazon: http://mybook.to/RegionTwoSeries
Rafflecopter:
HTML:
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="9751c04262" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_oyuz3g83">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
URL: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/?
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="9751c04262" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_oyuz3g83">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
URL: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04262/?
Book Blurb:
Bargaining with the enemy always has a cost—and mine has come due.
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
VEE:
Remember that way hot, way arrogant chef I rescued? Turns out, he’s my soulmate.
Despite Bruce’s lack of a filter, life is all good in Region Two.
Cryptids stalking the city’s shadows.
My team stalking the cryptids.
My sisters using our fav rom-coms as a study guide for meeting your civilian boyfriend’s parents.
I always believed cryptids were the greatest danger out there. I was so, so wrong. There are some tragedies even agents and Company resources can't combat. A hopelessness that threatens to shatter the team and my heart.
Until I accidentally uncover an ultra-classified miracle. Hacking research above my pay grade isn’t the worst of my sins. What the research points me to requires betraying the Company, my team, everything that makes me--me.
But if this deal with the devil saves Bruce? I’m okay with the sacrifice.
BRUCE:
We’d gone through a different kind of battle and come out more in love than ever.
Vee thought we’d won. Hell, so did I.
Except there are things Vee never told me. That there was a price for saving my life. That Vee’s the one who has to pay. And now I’ve lost the woman who I love with every cell in my body.
When the Company discovers what she’s done, the verdict is treason, the punishment, death.
They’re about to meet Bruce the Bastard though.
There’s no power—human, government, or cryptid—that can keep me from saving Vee.
Print Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Language: English
ASIN: B0952FX3SR
ISBN-13: 978-1-7372190-3-3
Order on Amazon: http://mybook.to/AgentDown
Author Bio:
Janet Walden-West lives in the Southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens inclusive Contemporary Romance and Urban Fantasy. As a two-time Pitch Wars alum turned Pitch Wars 2019 Mentor, Sherrilyn Kenyon scholarship recipient, and Golden Heart® finalist, she believes in paying it forward by supporting burgeoning Southern writers.
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
Find more about her at janetwaldenwest.weebly.com or on social media.
She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
Find more about her at janetwaldenwest.weebly.com or on social media.
Excerpts:
Excerpt One
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
Bruce dribbled the basketball between his legs in a smooth move, out of Josh’s reach. Then ducked under the taller man’s outstretched arm, and took the shot.
“Nothing but net,” he crowed as the ball arced, rattled the rim, and sank in. “At least you’ve got cryptid hunting to fall back on, because your game? Weak.”
Josh got the rebound, but tucked it under his arm. Even with the regulation generic fade, and sweaty tank plastered to equally sweaty dark skin, he looked more like some too-pretty movie version of a private trainer than a soldier. “Time to hydrate.”
Since there was never a time in Scottsdale cool enough to argue, Bruce joined him, grabbing both of their water bottles.
“Try to catch this one.” He tossed a bottle to Josh, then swore and one-handed, hauled his loose basketball shorts up, tightening the drawstring before his pasty white ass flashed the entire compound.
“Bro. We can afford to order you some vertically-challenged sized shorts.”
“Shut it. I’ve been burning it at both ends.” Bruce’s pop-up restaurant concept, the idea that allowed him to join a semi-nomadic team of agents dedicated to protecting people from not-people, had blown up faster than even his healthy as fuck ego had predicted. Keeping his aggressively public #BruceTheBastardNation following and social media commitments up while protecting the anonymity of the team and their parent organization sucked up even more of his time and energy.
“Truth. Desperate restaurant owners for you, and windigos too dumb to remember their own migration patterns for us,” Josh said, then drained the mandatory BPA-free bottle in one go.
The team’s schedule, specifically Vee’s, was the reason Bruce hadn’t done the one thing he’d been building up to since he’d installed himself in their world a year ago.
He eyed Josh, Vee’s brother and teammate, weighing whether to bring him in on Bruce’s plan. He didn’t doubt Josh’s bravery or loyalty. He had trusted the guy to guard his back while Bruce acted as bait to lure out a Godzilla-wannabe the year before. Josh’s inability to keep anything secret from his sisters was another matter—but Bruce needed an insider’s opinion.
Bruce stepped a few feet to the side to bring the yard, the expanse of sandy ground between the house and the rest of the team compound, into view. A quick scan showed it and the narrow second story wraparound walkway empty.
Josh stepped beside him, checking Bruce out instead of the landscape. “What’s up with you? You’ve been twitchy as a goat that accidentally wandered into a chupacabra den for the last two days.”
If there was a downside to living with a quartet of black ops soldiers—aside from wondering every damn time they drove through the outer gates whether they’d survive to drive back through again—it was the un-fucking-canny observational skills.
“Get back on the court and act like you’re only taking a break,” Bruce ordered. The court was in the dead-end section at the end of the house, cut off from view on three sides and requiring turning a corner to find on the fourth. Still, agents excelled at being stealthy as fuck and the last thing he needed was Vee or one of her two sisters waltzing in.
“I thought we were taking a break.” Josh followed the order though, easygoing as always.
Bruce checked again, then jogged to the bench in the center of the yard, beside an artistic and out of place oasis of bird bath and desert succulents. He snatched the sketchpad case, the only item that was one-hundred-percent private in a world of pathological over sharing, and rejoined Josh.
“Don’t make me regret this.” Carefully, Bruce untied the case. The stuffed sketchpad bulged, fuller than usual. He flipped it open, revealing a small velvet bag.
Picking up on Bruce’s secretive vibe, Josh angled so he could watch the yard and Bruce.
When Bruce emptied the bag onto the book’s front page, the sun caught the diamond, refracting light back, the gem coming to life in a hundred tiny facets.
“Is that a wedding—”
Bruce lunged and slapped his free hand over Josh’s mouth as Josh’s yelped question echoed. “What did I say? What did I. Just. Say?”
“Sorry.” The reply came out muffled.
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
Bruce dribbled the basketball between his legs in a smooth move, out of Josh’s reach. Then ducked under the taller man’s outstretched arm, and took the shot.
“Nothing but net,” he crowed as the ball arced, rattled the rim, and sank in. “At least you’ve got cryptid hunting to fall back on, because your game? Weak.”
Josh got the rebound, but tucked it under his arm. Even with the regulation generic fade, and sweaty tank plastered to equally sweaty dark skin, he looked more like some too-pretty movie version of a private trainer than a soldier. “Time to hydrate.”
Since there was never a time in Scottsdale cool enough to argue, Bruce joined him, grabbing both of their water bottles.
“Try to catch this one.” He tossed a bottle to Josh, then swore and one-handed, hauled his loose basketball shorts up, tightening the drawstring before his pasty white ass flashed the entire compound.
“Bro. We can afford to order you some vertically-challenged sized shorts.”
“Shut it. I’ve been burning it at both ends.” Bruce’s pop-up restaurant concept, the idea that allowed him to join a semi-nomadic team of agents dedicated to protecting people from not-people, had blown up faster than even his healthy as fuck ego had predicted. Keeping his aggressively public #BruceTheBastardNation following and social media commitments up while protecting the anonymity of the team and their parent organization sucked up even more of his time and energy.
“Truth. Desperate restaurant owners for you, and windigos too dumb to remember their own migration patterns for us,” Josh said, then drained the mandatory BPA-free bottle in one go.
The team’s schedule, specifically Vee’s, was the reason Bruce hadn’t done the one thing he’d been building up to since he’d installed himself in their world a year ago.
He eyed Josh, Vee’s brother and teammate, weighing whether to bring him in on Bruce’s plan. He didn’t doubt Josh’s bravery or loyalty. He had trusted the guy to guard his back while Bruce acted as bait to lure out a Godzilla-wannabe the year before. Josh’s inability to keep anything secret from his sisters was another matter—but Bruce needed an insider’s opinion.
Bruce stepped a few feet to the side to bring the yard, the expanse of sandy ground between the house and the rest of the team compound, into view. A quick scan showed it and the narrow second story wraparound walkway empty.
Josh stepped beside him, checking Bruce out instead of the landscape. “What’s up with you? You’ve been twitchy as a goat that accidentally wandered into a chupacabra den for the last two days.”
If there was a downside to living with a quartet of black ops soldiers—aside from wondering every damn time they drove through the outer gates whether they’d survive to drive back through again—it was the un-fucking-canny observational skills.
“Get back on the court and act like you’re only taking a break,” Bruce ordered. The court was in the dead-end section at the end of the house, cut off from view on three sides and requiring turning a corner to find on the fourth. Still, agents excelled at being stealthy as fuck and the last thing he needed was Vee or one of her two sisters waltzing in.
“I thought we were taking a break.” Josh followed the order though, easygoing as always.
Bruce checked again, then jogged to the bench in the center of the yard, beside an artistic and out of place oasis of bird bath and desert succulents. He snatched the sketchpad case, the only item that was one-hundred-percent private in a world of pathological over sharing, and rejoined Josh.
“Don’t make me regret this.” Carefully, Bruce untied the case. The stuffed sketchpad bulged, fuller than usual. He flipped it open, revealing a small velvet bag.
Picking up on Bruce’s secretive vibe, Josh angled so he could watch the yard and Bruce.
When Bruce emptied the bag onto the book’s front page, the sun caught the diamond, refracting light back, the gem coming to life in a hundred tiny facets.
“Is that a wedding—”
Bruce lunged and slapped his free hand over Josh’s mouth as Josh’s yelped question echoed. “What did I say? What did I. Just. Say?”
“Sorry.” The reply came out muffled.
Excerpt Two
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
Bruce removed his makeshift gag, wiping his palm against his shorts. “Are you capable of not blasting the news to the whole Southwest Region?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Josh crowded closer. “So, is it?”
“It’s an engagement ring. The wedding band comes after.” Assuming Vee said yes.
“Oh, damn. No wonder you’ve been jumpy.”
“I brought it back on my trip.” He’d taken a red-eye to New York for a final run-through on a new restaurant he’d consulted on. Which also allowed him to pick up the ring from the jeweler. “My older brother and sister got my grandmothers’ wedding rings. This was an anniversary gift my gramps gave my nona.” A diamond celebrating a lifetime lived together felt right for Vee’s ring. “A couple of months ago, I took it to a guy in the city who specializes in neo-classical designs, and had a new setting created.”
“Can I?”
Bruce tipped the ring into his future brother-in-law’s hand.
Like it was as fragile as one of their sister Kimi’s origami creations, Josh cradled it and held it to the sun. “This is cool as hell.”
“I wanted something different but sleek, and without edges to catch and get in the way.” Intellectually, he knew Vee wouldn’t be wearing it during mission call-outs. He’d seen firsthand how simple days out held the potential to turn into a fight against a stray cryptid, though.
He flexed his jaw, relaxing it from the automatic clenching that hit every time he thought of the danger Vee and the team faced. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
Josh dropped the goofing, a shadow of the analytical, level-headedness that came out once he was sighting through a rifle’s scope emerging. “That’s a two-part question. She’ll love the ring, because you understand her taste and because it’s from you, and you’ll come up with some wild, romantic fantasy way to ask. Whether she’ll accept it and say yes—I don’t know, man. That could go either way. Nobody’s ever gotten married.”
Nobody, as in no Company agent, in the organization’s long damn history.
Bruce had run the scenario a million times but he still flinched at hearing his private fear laid out. He hadn’t backed down in bucking his white collar family’s expectations, in creating his food and fame his way, or in demanding the powerful but invisible Company that created agents also create an unprecedented position for his civilian ass on this team. He wasn’t backing down from asking the person he wanted to officially share his life with to marry him, either.
Vee, and every other agent, had been raised to believe they didn’t require any emotional attachments outside their team. Or viewing habits aside, that romantic love and permanent relationships were anything but civilian fantasy to fill the hole of not having a team. He’d damned well proven neither of those rules was true.
“Are you waiting until after the Assessor’s visit?”
“Yes.” He wasn’t officially part of the team and allowed to stay until he’d jumped through a shit-ton of red-tape hoops, and proven he was an asset to the team as opposed to a hindrance that could get them killed.
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
Bruce removed his makeshift gag, wiping his palm against his shorts. “Are you capable of not blasting the news to the whole Southwest Region?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Josh crowded closer. “So, is it?”
“It’s an engagement ring. The wedding band comes after.” Assuming Vee said yes.
“Oh, damn. No wonder you’ve been jumpy.”
“I brought it back on my trip.” He’d taken a red-eye to New York for a final run-through on a new restaurant he’d consulted on. Which also allowed him to pick up the ring from the jeweler. “My older brother and sister got my grandmothers’ wedding rings. This was an anniversary gift my gramps gave my nona.” A diamond celebrating a lifetime lived together felt right for Vee’s ring. “A couple of months ago, I took it to a guy in the city who specializes in neo-classical designs, and had a new setting created.”
“Can I?”
Bruce tipped the ring into his future brother-in-law’s hand.
Like it was as fragile as one of their sister Kimi’s origami creations, Josh cradled it and held it to the sun. “This is cool as hell.”
“I wanted something different but sleek, and without edges to catch and get in the way.” Intellectually, he knew Vee wouldn’t be wearing it during mission call-outs. He’d seen firsthand how simple days out held the potential to turn into a fight against a stray cryptid, though.
He flexed his jaw, relaxing it from the automatic clenching that hit every time he thought of the danger Vee and the team faced. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
Josh dropped the goofing, a shadow of the analytical, level-headedness that came out once he was sighting through a rifle’s scope emerging. “That’s a two-part question. She’ll love the ring, because you understand her taste and because it’s from you, and you’ll come up with some wild, romantic fantasy way to ask. Whether she’ll accept it and say yes—I don’t know, man. That could go either way. Nobody’s ever gotten married.”
Nobody, as in no Company agent, in the organization’s long damn history.
Bruce had run the scenario a million times but he still flinched at hearing his private fear laid out. He hadn’t backed down in bucking his white collar family’s expectations, in creating his food and fame his way, or in demanding the powerful but invisible Company that created agents also create an unprecedented position for his civilian ass on this team. He wasn’t backing down from asking the person he wanted to officially share his life with to marry him, either.
Vee, and every other agent, had been raised to believe they didn’t require any emotional attachments outside their team. Or viewing habits aside, that romantic love and permanent relationships were anything but civilian fantasy to fill the hole of not having a team. He’d damned well proven neither of those rules was true.
“Are you waiting until after the Assessor’s visit?”
“Yes.” He wasn’t officially part of the team and allowed to stay until he’d jumped through a shit-ton of red-tape hoops, and proven he was an asset to the team as opposed to a hindrance that could get them killed.
Excerpt Three:
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
“I want Vee to meet my family, and them meet her, too.”
“What if they don’t like her or something, like in The Monster-In-Law?”
Bruce’s eyelid twitched at the reminder that the agents’ only outside life experience came from damn movies, usually rom-coms.
“They will. One way or another.” Vee wasn’t Jewish—the Company was it’s own fucked-up religion—but his mother hadn’t been either. And Vee handled him and his bluster and ego and attitude. His family wouldn’t deter her, not even with the gauntlet every new addition to his family had to run before being adopted into the Kantor mob. His sister-in-law had survived it. His brother-in-law had survived it.
Josh whistled. “You are definitely one of us—brave and crazy. I’ve got your back.”
Bruce slipped the ring into the bag, then the sketchpad, and tied it all closed. And hell if hearing Josh’s vocal support didn’t ease his anxiety a few degrees.
At least he had one ally.
Now all he needed to tackle was convincing some well-armed lackey of an ultra-secretive agency that a starred chef with a cult social media following belonged on a team of monster-eliminating super-soldiers.
Then convince the woman who held his heart, who’d had instructors and combat classes instead of parents and soccer and a real life, that they belonged together forever.
Chapter 2
Vee
“This crap is getting old.” I patted out the last sparks burning holes through the leg of my cutest cargo pants.
“This is the third time this month.” Liv, my sister, broke the seal on a finger-sized canister, dropped it inside the metal dog crate-meets-zoo-animal cage, slapped the cover to temporarily close the front grate, and jumped back out of range.
The gas-based sedative was designed for cold-blooded reptilian cryptids, not humans. It still caused a hangover-grade headache if we accidentally inhaled it.
“Why the heck is a firebug in the middle of a residential area?” I didn’t get it. The cryptid species in question was way bigger than a bug, about four times the size of a Gila lizard, but looked a heck of a lot like a cartoon one, all cute-chubby and big eyes. Except for also spitting a substance that ignited when it met oxygen.
“It got lost? Some collector or kid brought one in last night while it was dormant, then it warmed up and escaped? There’s no understanding civis.” She tossed me a packet of alcohol wipes.
The little lizards also exuded a mildly sedative and euphoric substance that relaxed prey long enough for the pokey firebug to get close enough to toast its dinner.
We both scrubbed our hands just in case, since we’d wrangled our bug into the cage without aid of most of our Company toys. Leaning to use the truck’s side-mirror, I checked that the ends of my ponytail hadn’t gotten singed in the process, while my sister did the same. She frowned and swiped at a speck of dirt defiling her cheek, same brown as mine, but hers pore-less and perfect thanks to her hydrating mask obsession.
Agent Down Chapter 1
Bruce
“I want Vee to meet my family, and them meet her, too.”
“What if they don’t like her or something, like in The Monster-In-Law?”
Bruce’s eyelid twitched at the reminder that the agents’ only outside life experience came from damn movies, usually rom-coms.
“They will. One way or another.” Vee wasn’t Jewish—the Company was it’s own fucked-up religion—but his mother hadn’t been either. And Vee handled him and his bluster and ego and attitude. His family wouldn’t deter her, not even with the gauntlet every new addition to his family had to run before being adopted into the Kantor mob. His sister-in-law had survived it. His brother-in-law had survived it.
Josh whistled. “You are definitely one of us—brave and crazy. I’ve got your back.”
Bruce slipped the ring into the bag, then the sketchpad, and tied it all closed. And hell if hearing Josh’s vocal support didn’t ease his anxiety a few degrees.
At least he had one ally.
Now all he needed to tackle was convincing some well-armed lackey of an ultra-secretive agency that a starred chef with a cult social media following belonged on a team of monster-eliminating super-soldiers.
Then convince the woman who held his heart, who’d had instructors and combat classes instead of parents and soccer and a real life, that they belonged together forever.
Chapter 2
Vee
“This crap is getting old.” I patted out the last sparks burning holes through the leg of my cutest cargo pants.
“This is the third time this month.” Liv, my sister, broke the seal on a finger-sized canister, dropped it inside the metal dog crate-meets-zoo-animal cage, slapped the cover to temporarily close the front grate, and jumped back out of range.
The gas-based sedative was designed for cold-blooded reptilian cryptids, not humans. It still caused a hangover-grade headache if we accidentally inhaled it.
“Why the heck is a firebug in the middle of a residential area?” I didn’t get it. The cryptid species in question was way bigger than a bug, about four times the size of a Gila lizard, but looked a heck of a lot like a cartoon one, all cute-chubby and big eyes. Except for also spitting a substance that ignited when it met oxygen.
“It got lost? Some collector or kid brought one in last night while it was dormant, then it warmed up and escaped? There’s no understanding civis.” She tossed me a packet of alcohol wipes.
The little lizards also exuded a mildly sedative and euphoric substance that relaxed prey long enough for the pokey firebug to get close enough to toast its dinner.
We both scrubbed our hands just in case, since we’d wrangled our bug into the cage without aid of most of our Company toys. Leaning to use the truck’s side-mirror, I checked that the ends of my ponytail hadn’t gotten singed in the process, while my sister did the same. She frowned and swiped at a speck of dirt defiling her cheek, same brown as mine, but hers pore-less and perfect thanks to her hydrating mask obsession.
Excerpt Four:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
The timer on the canister chimed, the noise muffled by the cage. I tentatively edged the guard back an inch, peering through the mesh. The lizard was sacked out, bumpy square head resting on its stumpy front legs.
I grabbed one end of the crate, my sister the other, and we lifted it into the bed of her truck. Once it was in, I opened the grate fully so that the little pyro had enough oxygen, while Liv punched in a code on her phone and held a thirty-second conversation with our HQ, via the Cleaners, the specialists who sanitized the aftermath of our missions. Although today didn’t really qualify. This was more of a shopping trip with an accidental cryptid detour.
“We’re good to go. The Labs don’t need any bug samples.” Liv pocketed her phone.
I slammed the tailgate on her cargo. “I’ll do a CYA sweep while you drop Sparky off.” Firebugs weren’t aggressive or territorial, never went after anything bigger than a roadrunner, and were usually pretty dang shy. They rarely interacted with humanity, so they got a pass from us.
“I’m taking it deeper into the range so we don’t have a repeat.” She hopped in, cranked the engine and backed out, desert bound.
The range was code for a huge stretch of desert and scrub owned by a Company Asset—someone not born into the Company, but who’d learned about the cryptid world and had a skill useful to our mission of eliminating predatory cryptids and keeping all cryptid’s existence secret.
In this case, the Asset was a rancher who was amenable to non-lethal indigenous cryptids doing their thing on her property. The lizard hadn’t hurt anyone and I wasn’t going to kill it for the heck of it.
Cryptids were just natural animals, with traits that either made them dangerous to humans, or dangerous as weapons in the wrong hands. They all also had the entirely too creepy ability to go unseen if you didn’t already know they existed, a defining trait we’d nicknamed the Chameleon Effect.
I double-checked my compact Glock, then replaced it in the bellyband holster hidden under my shirt. In case there was a second firebug, I had another slim gas canister tucked into my pocket, and a handful of zip ties and wipes. Plus my phone, in case the lizard had gotten here via some outdoor enthusiast who might’ve seen his find wake up and melt its way through a wall.
I swiped my phone screen for any reports of inexplicable wildlife sightings in the last hour since we’d intercepted the police call about a vandal burning a bench in the park. The park was on our way home, and we’d checked the disturbance out, mostly against Liv’s better judgment.
She’d voted the call was about a non-cryptid. As lieutenant, her opinion carried weight, but as Commanding Officer of our team, the final say was mine. There had been just enough out of character crap in the last year-plus that I’d decided to check. Thus, another ruined civilian outfit.
There was minimal likelihood the reclusive desert creature had ambled into a well-populated suburb. Liv’s idea about a clueless civi hauling it in made sense.
But something still felt off.
We’d had a pair of non-native cryptids show up last year, which we’d attributed to a collector importing them as exotic pets. Then a freakishly large windigo pack led by an uncharacteristically intelligent alpha showed, also in a suburb. This year, the ‘digo migration patterns were freaky as heck. Terence, the C.O. of the neighboring Texas team, had seen zero during what was usually their prime breeding time. The canine-ish cryptids, no relation to the wendigo of some Indigenous nations, were normally as predictable as they were foul smelling.
Same for ghouls, creepy bipedal scavengers and opportunistic predators. We’d had crazy-high numbers of callouts involving the largely urban but also secretive creatures. As far as I was concerned, that trend began even further back, over two years ago. No one else agreed, but the weirdness nagged at me.
My phone vibrated and I switched from the reports to texts.
Where the hell are you two?
I grimaced, but we should have been home by now, and late usually meant trouble in our world. At least, it did according to Bruce, my…I still wasn’t sure what to call him. Other than the person I’d fallen for during the imported-cryptids-behaving-badly crisis of the year before.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
The timer on the canister chimed, the noise muffled by the cage. I tentatively edged the guard back an inch, peering through the mesh. The lizard was sacked out, bumpy square head resting on its stumpy front legs.
I grabbed one end of the crate, my sister the other, and we lifted it into the bed of her truck. Once it was in, I opened the grate fully so that the little pyro had enough oxygen, while Liv punched in a code on her phone and held a thirty-second conversation with our HQ, via the Cleaners, the specialists who sanitized the aftermath of our missions. Although today didn’t really qualify. This was more of a shopping trip with an accidental cryptid detour.
“We’re good to go. The Labs don’t need any bug samples.” Liv pocketed her phone.
I slammed the tailgate on her cargo. “I’ll do a CYA sweep while you drop Sparky off.” Firebugs weren’t aggressive or territorial, never went after anything bigger than a roadrunner, and were usually pretty dang shy. They rarely interacted with humanity, so they got a pass from us.
“I’m taking it deeper into the range so we don’t have a repeat.” She hopped in, cranked the engine and backed out, desert bound.
The range was code for a huge stretch of desert and scrub owned by a Company Asset—someone not born into the Company, but who’d learned about the cryptid world and had a skill useful to our mission of eliminating predatory cryptids and keeping all cryptid’s existence secret.
In this case, the Asset was a rancher who was amenable to non-lethal indigenous cryptids doing their thing on her property. The lizard hadn’t hurt anyone and I wasn’t going to kill it for the heck of it.
Cryptids were just natural animals, with traits that either made them dangerous to humans, or dangerous as weapons in the wrong hands. They all also had the entirely too creepy ability to go unseen if you didn’t already know they existed, a defining trait we’d nicknamed the Chameleon Effect.
I double-checked my compact Glock, then replaced it in the bellyband holster hidden under my shirt. In case there was a second firebug, I had another slim gas canister tucked into my pocket, and a handful of zip ties and wipes. Plus my phone, in case the lizard had gotten here via some outdoor enthusiast who might’ve seen his find wake up and melt its way through a wall.
I swiped my phone screen for any reports of inexplicable wildlife sightings in the last hour since we’d intercepted the police call about a vandal burning a bench in the park. The park was on our way home, and we’d checked the disturbance out, mostly against Liv’s better judgment.
She’d voted the call was about a non-cryptid. As lieutenant, her opinion carried weight, but as Commanding Officer of our team, the final say was mine. There had been just enough out of character crap in the last year-plus that I’d decided to check. Thus, another ruined civilian outfit.
There was minimal likelihood the reclusive desert creature had ambled into a well-populated suburb. Liv’s idea about a clueless civi hauling it in made sense.
But something still felt off.
We’d had a pair of non-native cryptids show up last year, which we’d attributed to a collector importing them as exotic pets. Then a freakishly large windigo pack led by an uncharacteristically intelligent alpha showed, also in a suburb. This year, the ‘digo migration patterns were freaky as heck. Terence, the C.O. of the neighboring Texas team, had seen zero during what was usually their prime breeding time. The canine-ish cryptids, no relation to the wendigo of some Indigenous nations, were normally as predictable as they were foul smelling.
Same for ghouls, creepy bipedal scavengers and opportunistic predators. We’d had crazy-high numbers of callouts involving the largely urban but also secretive creatures. As far as I was concerned, that trend began even further back, over two years ago. No one else agreed, but the weirdness nagged at me.
My phone vibrated and I switched from the reports to texts.
Where the hell are you two?
I grimaced, but we should have been home by now, and late usually meant trouble in our world. At least, it did according to Bruce, my…I still wasn’t sure what to call him. Other than the person I’d fallen for during the imported-cryptids-behaving-badly crisis of the year before.
Excerpt Five:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
My phone vibrated again.
B is getting wound up. Bring in contraband carefully. The two statements only made sense in the mind of my other sister.
I texted Kimi back. Delayed by a firebug tag and transport.
Her response was predictable. I know. Don’t forget the doughnuts.
Of course she’d known. Our intelligence specialist always did, constantly monitoring info via both Company sources and her personal network of contacts.
Although, she also kinda hacked into things for fun. International organizations. Gaming companies to preview new games and skins before their release date. Civilian private accounts.
Before switching my phone off for the sweep, I texted Bruce. Taking a firebug home. We’ll be back as soon as it’s snug and happy.
His reply came within seconds. Be careful. And don’t fucking bring junk food in. I’ll well know.
I smiled at the mix of care and grump, which summed Bruce up perfectly. He was tyrannical about anything processed or packaged or not all natural, and had zero problem expressing his opinion.
He was also the first person who had ever asked me to be careful. He was the only person who waited up for us to come in from a mission no matter how lengthy, or who demanded we check in when we had a call-out while he was out of town.
It was weird.
It was also awesome.
I put away my phone and stepped back, slipping into the real me, the soldier who didn’t worry about cute outfits. I scanned the compact park with its ruined bench. Automatically registering fences, barriers, ingress and egress points in relation to firebug behaviors.
The closest area was part of a neighborhood activity complex. A gazebo and stage in the middle. Soccer and baseball fields on either end. Block buildings side by side with restrooms and a central meeting area between.
The rest of the neighborhood was well-tended streets and homes.
The sun dipped lower, gorgeous multi-colored sunset starting its display. That settled where to begin. After dark, I would stand out, a non-resident prowling their nice streets. So, streets first, relatively secluded and empty park last.
At the last cul-de-sac forty-five minutes later, I was certain our little lizard hadn’t torched a house or homeowner’s garage. I was also starting to attract attention, wandering around with no pet or child as an excuse for walking every street and peering into yards.
Cutting across the park, I headed toward the super-basic block building. As I stepped from park grass to concrete floor, the sun sank below the horizon in a last pastel show.
The central building’s lock gave with only a few seconds of effort on my part. No old smoke or ash signaling a firebug’s stay greeted me. I made a circuit then closed the door so it remained innocent—and definitely not broken into—looking at a casual inspection.
I aimed for the restrooms and showers, moving into the narrow walkway, with the set of his and hers restrooms on either side. The back of the meeting building closed the area off into a dead end.
No trace of our cryptid showed here, either. I turned while palming my phone, needing its flashlight as the man-made canyon turned dark.
A pair of molten silver eyes shone from the open end. The feel of absolute wrongness, and evil, saturated the evening air.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
My phone vibrated again.
B is getting wound up. Bring in contraband carefully. The two statements only made sense in the mind of my other sister.
I texted Kimi back. Delayed by a firebug tag and transport.
Her response was predictable. I know. Don’t forget the doughnuts.
Of course she’d known. Our intelligence specialist always did, constantly monitoring info via both Company sources and her personal network of contacts.
Although, she also kinda hacked into things for fun. International organizations. Gaming companies to preview new games and skins before their release date. Civilian private accounts.
Before switching my phone off for the sweep, I texted Bruce. Taking a firebug home. We’ll be back as soon as it’s snug and happy.
His reply came within seconds. Be careful. And don’t fucking bring junk food in. I’ll well know.
I smiled at the mix of care and grump, which summed Bruce up perfectly. He was tyrannical about anything processed or packaged or not all natural, and had zero problem expressing his opinion.
He was also the first person who had ever asked me to be careful. He was the only person who waited up for us to come in from a mission no matter how lengthy, or who demanded we check in when we had a call-out while he was out of town.
It was weird.
It was also awesome.
I put away my phone and stepped back, slipping into the real me, the soldier who didn’t worry about cute outfits. I scanned the compact park with its ruined bench. Automatically registering fences, barriers, ingress and egress points in relation to firebug behaviors.
The closest area was part of a neighborhood activity complex. A gazebo and stage in the middle. Soccer and baseball fields on either end. Block buildings side by side with restrooms and a central meeting area between.
The rest of the neighborhood was well-tended streets and homes.
The sun dipped lower, gorgeous multi-colored sunset starting its display. That settled where to begin. After dark, I would stand out, a non-resident prowling their nice streets. So, streets first, relatively secluded and empty park last.
At the last cul-de-sac forty-five minutes later, I was certain our little lizard hadn’t torched a house or homeowner’s garage. I was also starting to attract attention, wandering around with no pet or child as an excuse for walking every street and peering into yards.
Cutting across the park, I headed toward the super-basic block building. As I stepped from park grass to concrete floor, the sun sank below the horizon in a last pastel show.
The central building’s lock gave with only a few seconds of effort on my part. No old smoke or ash signaling a firebug’s stay greeted me. I made a circuit then closed the door so it remained innocent—and definitely not broken into—looking at a casual inspection.
I aimed for the restrooms and showers, moving into the narrow walkway, with the set of his and hers restrooms on either side. The back of the meeting building closed the area off into a dead end.
No trace of our cryptid showed here, either. I turned while palming my phone, needing its flashlight as the man-made canyon turned dark.
A pair of molten silver eyes shone from the open end. The feel of absolute wrongness, and evil, saturated the evening air.
Excerpt Six:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
The vampire stalked a step closer, blocking my only exit.
The once human face was a skeletal parody, skin stretched tight over bones. Its fangs were visible between blackened lips, and eyes an eerie silver every agent learned to hate. The virus had erased all trace of the person, only leaving this monstrosity. Cryptids were at least part of nature and had a purpose. The virus that ruined people’s lives was a disease, one I’d happily eliminate from the earth.
The thing was in full hunting mode. In the middle of an area full of houses with curb appeal, backyard pools, and wooden swing-set forts shaped like pirate ships. And me with no backup, and only one too-small knife, even if it was an alloy infused with our Lab’s cryptid and vampire-toxic chem compound.
I had no choice but the gun, always a last resort when collateral damage was a possibility. I ripped the gun free and sighted on its chest.
The vampire grabbed at the wall, claws finding purchase between the cinderblocks. Moving like a giant spider. It climbed in an inhuman, virus-augmented burst of speed. I slammed my back to the opposite wall and dropped to a crouch, aiming up. Just as fangs and backlit eyes materialized directly over me.
I fired and the shot thumped too far left, hitting it in the shoulder. It shrieked and swiped at its injured arm. Then turned the swing into backhand, knocking the gun from my grip. I rolled, claws whistling past where my head had been. The force of its blow accidentally lodged its claws into the concrete, chips flying.
Jamming my knee into the wall, I rolled the other way, further into the dark and the dead-end. The vamp herding me as it wrenched claws free, and threw itself from wall to wall like a ping-pong ball. Coming at me, blocking any chance at dashing past and escape.
I made my stand, going to one knee and braced. It leaped at me in a blur of bone and wrongness, sure of the kill, mouth wide open. As its rotting-meat breath nearly gagged me, I shoved the metal sedative container between its jaws. Moving too fast, going on blind instinct, it bit into the pressurized cartridge. The gas exploded, metal fragmenting.
I ducked, arms thrown across my face, and charged past, aiming for outdoors.
A line of fire opened up across my hip, vamp claw ripping through fabric. Spinning me. I dropped, hand out and searching. Hoping I was in the right spot. My hand wrapped around the familiar textured grip of my lost gun.
I raised it as the enraged vampire landed on top of me. And fired into its ruined face until the gun locked empty.
Dead, its weight crumpled on me in a suffocating load. I got my knees underneath the carcass and heaved it sideways. Enough to scoot free, butt sliding in vampire blood and gunk. I shoved to my feet.
A scritch of claw on concrete echoed behind me. I whirled, dropping the useless gun and jerking out my knife. Movement flashed across the walkway opening, silver reflecting, and then vanished, fast. At vampire speed.
I put my back to the wall again, crouching out of decapitation range in case there was another vampire hanging over the entrance, waiting for me.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
The vampire stalked a step closer, blocking my only exit.
The once human face was a skeletal parody, skin stretched tight over bones. Its fangs were visible between blackened lips, and eyes an eerie silver every agent learned to hate. The virus had erased all trace of the person, only leaving this monstrosity. Cryptids were at least part of nature and had a purpose. The virus that ruined people’s lives was a disease, one I’d happily eliminate from the earth.
The thing was in full hunting mode. In the middle of an area full of houses with curb appeal, backyard pools, and wooden swing-set forts shaped like pirate ships. And me with no backup, and only one too-small knife, even if it was an alloy infused with our Lab’s cryptid and vampire-toxic chem compound.
I had no choice but the gun, always a last resort when collateral damage was a possibility. I ripped the gun free and sighted on its chest.
The vampire grabbed at the wall, claws finding purchase between the cinderblocks. Moving like a giant spider. It climbed in an inhuman, virus-augmented burst of speed. I slammed my back to the opposite wall and dropped to a crouch, aiming up. Just as fangs and backlit eyes materialized directly over me.
I fired and the shot thumped too far left, hitting it in the shoulder. It shrieked and swiped at its injured arm. Then turned the swing into backhand, knocking the gun from my grip. I rolled, claws whistling past where my head had been. The force of its blow accidentally lodged its claws into the concrete, chips flying.
Jamming my knee into the wall, I rolled the other way, further into the dark and the dead-end. The vamp herding me as it wrenched claws free, and threw itself from wall to wall like a ping-pong ball. Coming at me, blocking any chance at dashing past and escape.
I made my stand, going to one knee and braced. It leaped at me in a blur of bone and wrongness, sure of the kill, mouth wide open. As its rotting-meat breath nearly gagged me, I shoved the metal sedative container between its jaws. Moving too fast, going on blind instinct, it bit into the pressurized cartridge. The gas exploded, metal fragmenting.
I ducked, arms thrown across my face, and charged past, aiming for outdoors.
A line of fire opened up across my hip, vamp claw ripping through fabric. Spinning me. I dropped, hand out and searching. Hoping I was in the right spot. My hand wrapped around the familiar textured grip of my lost gun.
I raised it as the enraged vampire landed on top of me. And fired into its ruined face until the gun locked empty.
Dead, its weight crumpled on me in a suffocating load. I got my knees underneath the carcass and heaved it sideways. Enough to scoot free, butt sliding in vampire blood and gunk. I shoved to my feet.
A scritch of claw on concrete echoed behind me. I whirled, dropping the useless gun and jerking out my knife. Movement flashed across the walkway opening, silver reflecting, and then vanished, fast. At vampire speed.
I put my back to the wall again, crouching out of decapitation range in case there was another vampire hanging over the entrance, waiting for me.
Excerpt Seven:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
Crab-walking, I advanced inch by inch. Nothing slashed where my head would normally be. Nothing dropped from the restroom roof to block my exit. Better to fight in the open than get trapped in here again. I threw myself into a roll, coming out of it with the knife ready. Then jumped to my feet and spun in a circle.
Both sides and roof of the buildings were vampire-free. The park was equally empty, no bird calls, not even the usual tiny bats and bugs flitting around the street lights. I bolted, circling the buildings. Ready for anything.
Back where I’d started, human voices broke the weird silence, panicked people flocking together and shouting questions. I grabbed my phone, calling HQ for an intervention with whatever law enforcement the disturbed residents had undoubtedly called in at hearing the first shot minutes ago.
The firebug hadn’t required them, but this, this was definitely a job for the Cleaners.
I stationed myself at the entrance to the gore and vampire coated walkway, turning myself into a one-woman blockade, hiding cryptid evidence and keeping civilians out.
Chapter 3
Vee
I slid out of Liv’s truck into the welcome peace of the compound’s extra garage bay, the two small spaces attached to the annex instead of the main garage at the house.
Holding the door to the yard for Liv, I fell in beside her as we walked. The house’s upper-level backdoor was already open, light spilling out and merging with the false dawn.
Bruce came down the steps from the narrow elevated walkway circling the house, metal banging under his feet. Liv had already called in, once we had the park scene contained. HQ had activated whatever Company agent or Asset we had stationed in the local law enforcement agency, sending out a false alert about an escaped prisoner. The police had herded civilians out of the area as the Cleaners swept in, dressed as FBI agents from the closest field office.
Bruce still had to see us first-hand, though. Another weird new thing that was also awesome. From behind his glasses, his sharp gaze swept over Liv and me. Arms crossed, his sleeve tattoos extra colorful under the security lights.
I’d changed in the truck, switching out sweaty, gunk-crusted clothes for a set of tactical pants and tee, required extras even in personal vehicles. Bruce took that in as well, as deeply detail oriented as an agent.
“We’re good. We both need a shower and food, but reports first,” I said.
“Then get started.” Bruce blew out a breath, but calmly pointed at the house. He didn’t like what we did, as far as the personal danger involved, but he did understand the necessity. He also respected my role as C.O. Even if he angled behind us like he was some kind of compact, tattooed shepherd moving his flock.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
Crab-walking, I advanced inch by inch. Nothing slashed where my head would normally be. Nothing dropped from the restroom roof to block my exit. Better to fight in the open than get trapped in here again. I threw myself into a roll, coming out of it with the knife ready. Then jumped to my feet and spun in a circle.
Both sides and roof of the buildings were vampire-free. The park was equally empty, no bird calls, not even the usual tiny bats and bugs flitting around the street lights. I bolted, circling the buildings. Ready for anything.
Back where I’d started, human voices broke the weird silence, panicked people flocking together and shouting questions. I grabbed my phone, calling HQ for an intervention with whatever law enforcement the disturbed residents had undoubtedly called in at hearing the first shot minutes ago.
The firebug hadn’t required them, but this, this was definitely a job for the Cleaners.
I stationed myself at the entrance to the gore and vampire coated walkway, turning myself into a one-woman blockade, hiding cryptid evidence and keeping civilians out.
Chapter 3
Vee
I slid out of Liv’s truck into the welcome peace of the compound’s extra garage bay, the two small spaces attached to the annex instead of the main garage at the house.
Holding the door to the yard for Liv, I fell in beside her as we walked. The house’s upper-level backdoor was already open, light spilling out and merging with the false dawn.
Bruce came down the steps from the narrow elevated walkway circling the house, metal banging under his feet. Liv had already called in, once we had the park scene contained. HQ had activated whatever Company agent or Asset we had stationed in the local law enforcement agency, sending out a false alert about an escaped prisoner. The police had herded civilians out of the area as the Cleaners swept in, dressed as FBI agents from the closest field office.
Bruce still had to see us first-hand, though. Another weird new thing that was also awesome. From behind his glasses, his sharp gaze swept over Liv and me. Arms crossed, his sleeve tattoos extra colorful under the security lights.
I’d changed in the truck, switching out sweaty, gunk-crusted clothes for a set of tactical pants and tee, required extras even in personal vehicles. Bruce took that in as well, as deeply detail oriented as an agent.
“We’re good. We both need a shower and food, but reports first,” I said.
“Then get started.” Bruce blew out a breath, but calmly pointed at the house. He didn’t like what we did, as far as the personal danger involved, but he did understand the necessity. He also respected my role as C.O. Even if he angled behind us like he was some kind of compact, tattooed shepherd moving his flock.
Excerpt Eight:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
At the top of the steps, he veered right for the kitchen, while Liv and I went left for my office.
Kimi met us in the wide hallway and signed, “I switched out drones for the two low-light infrareds and have one over the park neighborhood. The other is working outward in concentric circles, to a five mile radius of the attack.”
“Jace said the Cleaners are already back at HQ with the specimen,” Josh added from over Kimi’s head, appearing and hanging from the corner of the office doorframe, flicking at her long, copper-tinted curls even though they were nowhere near his face, much less interfering with his view.
Average height and the kind of willowy that hid muscle, adding to her deceptively sweet appearance, Kimi elbowed him in the ribs hard enough he grunted. She wasn’t hearing impaired, but had lost her voice in a training exercise gone wrong as cadets.
She signed to him, “Have him message me.” She grabbed one of her dozens of tablets, off to monitor law enforcement and city calls, and hit up our street contacts. And apparently, Jace, Josh’s twin. He was stuck at HQ recuperating from a mission that left him the only survivor of his team.
I spun the old leather chair and plopped my butt down. A puff of stale cigar smoke rose, decades after the C.O. responsible had gone. Technically we had enough time to shower and eat before writing and sending the mandatory post-mission report. Reaching over, I pulled my laptop close and opened it, putting everything I’d seen and done into the report. My team wasn’t ever going to have to endure what Jace’s had.
On the opposite side of the desk, Liv rolled her chair in, doing the same with her report. Standard procedure, and sometimes the dual points of view caught an issue or potential lead the other had missed.
Hers wouldn’t say anything about the flash of silver I’d glimpsed. It could have been the rising moon glinting off the soccer net’s metal frame. Certainly no other explanation had turned up, no hint of another vampire, despite my and Liv searching and then the Cleaners doing a meticulous sweep.
My gut wasn’t sold though, and neither was I.
I dimly registered Liv leaving, and Kimi darting in and out, checking classified items and reports that were only accessible through the link in my office.
My hand was on the laptop lid, finally ready to close it, when a ping sounded. The Lab’s pathology report on the vampire popped up, also standard procedure. The file opened, and I fast-scanned it. Then slowed and paid more attention to the summary.
There was a note on the vampire’s endocrine system showing signs consistent with disease, or at least signs of alteration. Except once the virus responsible for altering a human into a vampire multiplied and took over, it repaired any damage that would impede the predator in hunting and feeding, its base directive.
Scrolling further, things got weirder. The vampire was seriously underweight. I.E., starving. Again, not hella likely since even a desiccated vampire would reflexively strike at anything warm blooded, the virus’ DNA-encoded self-preservation at work.
Sure, the creature had attacked me, but…there had been an entire, active neighborhood available. It had to have already been there, hiding somewhere out of the sun’s reach. Meaning it should have gone for a family or jogger whenever it first arrived.
A pair of footnote numbers, no text, were appended at the bottom. Those were marked Level Seven clearance. As a C.O., I was Level Six. Seven and Eight were the top tiers, Assessors and Oversight, respectively.
When I hovered over the links, they opened. I hesitated for a fraction of a second, then began reading.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
At the top of the steps, he veered right for the kitchen, while Liv and I went left for my office.
Kimi met us in the wide hallway and signed, “I switched out drones for the two low-light infrareds and have one over the park neighborhood. The other is working outward in concentric circles, to a five mile radius of the attack.”
“Jace said the Cleaners are already back at HQ with the specimen,” Josh added from over Kimi’s head, appearing and hanging from the corner of the office doorframe, flicking at her long, copper-tinted curls even though they were nowhere near his face, much less interfering with his view.
Average height and the kind of willowy that hid muscle, adding to her deceptively sweet appearance, Kimi elbowed him in the ribs hard enough he grunted. She wasn’t hearing impaired, but had lost her voice in a training exercise gone wrong as cadets.
She signed to him, “Have him message me.” She grabbed one of her dozens of tablets, off to monitor law enforcement and city calls, and hit up our street contacts. And apparently, Jace, Josh’s twin. He was stuck at HQ recuperating from a mission that left him the only survivor of his team.
I spun the old leather chair and plopped my butt down. A puff of stale cigar smoke rose, decades after the C.O. responsible had gone. Technically we had enough time to shower and eat before writing and sending the mandatory post-mission report. Reaching over, I pulled my laptop close and opened it, putting everything I’d seen and done into the report. My team wasn’t ever going to have to endure what Jace’s had.
On the opposite side of the desk, Liv rolled her chair in, doing the same with her report. Standard procedure, and sometimes the dual points of view caught an issue or potential lead the other had missed.
Hers wouldn’t say anything about the flash of silver I’d glimpsed. It could have been the rising moon glinting off the soccer net’s metal frame. Certainly no other explanation had turned up, no hint of another vampire, despite my and Liv searching and then the Cleaners doing a meticulous sweep.
My gut wasn’t sold though, and neither was I.
I dimly registered Liv leaving, and Kimi darting in and out, checking classified items and reports that were only accessible through the link in my office.
My hand was on the laptop lid, finally ready to close it, when a ping sounded. The Lab’s pathology report on the vampire popped up, also standard procedure. The file opened, and I fast-scanned it. Then slowed and paid more attention to the summary.
There was a note on the vampire’s endocrine system showing signs consistent with disease, or at least signs of alteration. Except once the virus responsible for altering a human into a vampire multiplied and took over, it repaired any damage that would impede the predator in hunting and feeding, its base directive.
Scrolling further, things got weirder. The vampire was seriously underweight. I.E., starving. Again, not hella likely since even a desiccated vampire would reflexively strike at anything warm blooded, the virus’ DNA-encoded self-preservation at work.
Sure, the creature had attacked me, but…there had been an entire, active neighborhood available. It had to have already been there, hiding somewhere out of the sun’s reach. Meaning it should have gone for a family or jogger whenever it first arrived.
A pair of footnote numbers, no text, were appended at the bottom. Those were marked Level Seven clearance. As a C.O., I was Level Six. Seven and Eight were the top tiers, Assessors and Oversight, respectively.
When I hovered over the links, they opened. I hesitated for a fraction of a second, then began reading.
Excerpt Nine:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
Kimi wasn’t the only overly curious member of the team.
The reports were terse, some of the science well beyond my understanding. What the two footnotes boiled down to was the Lab divisions had attempted, repeatedly, to use vampire plasma and blood proteins to help create compounds for healing. They’d experimented with stem cells, too, isolating the regenerative portion of the virus’s DNA, without the ugly changes it wrought on a victim. The last had been the most recent, work on blood and proteins tabled to divert all the resources to the stem cell branch.
All of which meant we were looking for more ways to heal wounded agents. I circled my finger round and round on the touchpad, thinking. The Lab division came up with all sorts of useful things. Some cryptids were rare because body parts were coveted in traditional non-Western medicine. Many of the effects attributed to them were accurate, based on our research.
Vampires as useful for anything was such a stretch though. The virus was natural, but the changes it wreaked on the victim were devastating, and evil, even if it wasn’t some kind of supernatural or religious evil.
I exited files, closed the laptop, and stretched, reality returning.
Bruce sat on the giant, weathered sectional sofa lining the wall in front of my desk. His sketchbook, his way of developing and nailing down ideas, new concepts, restaurant layouts, and menus was open, his pencil scratching over the page.
Without looking up, he said, “I can reheat that.”
When I checked, a bowl of veggies and an egg in an artful array sat on my end of the desk, a bottle of water beside it.
We both had our passions. Mine was the Company, his, food and fame. He respected what I had to do. He also couldn’t not be near after a mission, and couldn’t not show he cared. Food was Bruce’s love language.
I took the meal and curled on the couch beside him. Even cold, the veggie and savory tofu ramen was incredible. When I crisscrossed my legs and my knee lodged against his hip, it was like his tension level dropped a degree.
Done, I gathered the bowl and spoon and took them to the industrial-size dishwasher, one of the many upgrades Bruce had insisted on when he joined us. Just like the incredibly fancy stove with mysterious sections and attachments, and the enormous, equally fancy fridge. I raided the latter, full of local produce, and non-GMO milk and cheese from our favorite creamery. My prize was tucked behind a wedge of what we all could now identify as brie.
I closed the fridge, spoonful of pudding in my mouth. The dessert was simple egg custard and vanilla, and what he made when one of us was injured.
Arms crossed, Bruce propped on the wall by the short, two-person eat in bar, watching me.
I scraped the bowl for the last bits of pudding, then added utensil and bowl into the dishwasher.
Silent, Bruce held his hand out, and I took it. Letting him lead us to my room. Now our room, which was a continuing novelty. Still without a word, he flipped on the bathroom light, the private bathroom one of the perks of being C.O. He’d already laid out fluffy towels and lit a candle.
I stripped while he bypassed the shower and filled the freestanding tub, also new and twice the size of the old one. Plus, massage jets.
He turned back for a more detailed inspection now that we were alone, hands balling into fists when he got to my hip. The scratch from the vampire’s claw wasn’t deep, but it was long. I also had a few new bruises on my forearm, back and ribs.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
Kimi wasn’t the only overly curious member of the team.
The reports were terse, some of the science well beyond my understanding. What the two footnotes boiled down to was the Lab divisions had attempted, repeatedly, to use vampire plasma and blood proteins to help create compounds for healing. They’d experimented with stem cells, too, isolating the regenerative portion of the virus’s DNA, without the ugly changes it wrought on a victim. The last had been the most recent, work on blood and proteins tabled to divert all the resources to the stem cell branch.
All of which meant we were looking for more ways to heal wounded agents. I circled my finger round and round on the touchpad, thinking. The Lab division came up with all sorts of useful things. Some cryptids were rare because body parts were coveted in traditional non-Western medicine. Many of the effects attributed to them were accurate, based on our research.
Vampires as useful for anything was such a stretch though. The virus was natural, but the changes it wreaked on the victim were devastating, and evil, even if it wasn’t some kind of supernatural or religious evil.
I exited files, closed the laptop, and stretched, reality returning.
Bruce sat on the giant, weathered sectional sofa lining the wall in front of my desk. His sketchbook, his way of developing and nailing down ideas, new concepts, restaurant layouts, and menus was open, his pencil scratching over the page.
Without looking up, he said, “I can reheat that.”
When I checked, a bowl of veggies and an egg in an artful array sat on my end of the desk, a bottle of water beside it.
We both had our passions. Mine was the Company, his, food and fame. He respected what I had to do. He also couldn’t not be near after a mission, and couldn’t not show he cared. Food was Bruce’s love language.
I took the meal and curled on the couch beside him. Even cold, the veggie and savory tofu ramen was incredible. When I crisscrossed my legs and my knee lodged against his hip, it was like his tension level dropped a degree.
Done, I gathered the bowl and spoon and took them to the industrial-size dishwasher, one of the many upgrades Bruce had insisted on when he joined us. Just like the incredibly fancy stove with mysterious sections and attachments, and the enormous, equally fancy fridge. I raided the latter, full of local produce, and non-GMO milk and cheese from our favorite creamery. My prize was tucked behind a wedge of what we all could now identify as brie.
I closed the fridge, spoonful of pudding in my mouth. The dessert was simple egg custard and vanilla, and what he made when one of us was injured.
Arms crossed, Bruce propped on the wall by the short, two-person eat in bar, watching me.
I scraped the bowl for the last bits of pudding, then added utensil and bowl into the dishwasher.
Silent, Bruce held his hand out, and I took it. Letting him lead us to my room. Now our room, which was a continuing novelty. Still without a word, he flipped on the bathroom light, the private bathroom one of the perks of being C.O. He’d already laid out fluffy towels and lit a candle.
I stripped while he bypassed the shower and filled the freestanding tub, also new and twice the size of the old one. Plus, massage jets.
He turned back for a more detailed inspection now that we were alone, hands balling into fists when he got to my hip. The scratch from the vampire’s claw wasn’t deep, but it was long. I also had a few new bruises on my forearm, back and ribs.
Excerpt Ten:
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
I slipped into the hot water, tired muscles immediately happier, and watched Bruce strip, subtle highlights from the Arizona sun barely visible in his brown hair and short, neat beard. What he called ‘normal people muscles and flaws’ I called sexy as heck.
Colorful ink covered both arms in full sleeves, more ink trailing across his toned chest, and connecting the intricate artwork.
The newest design, in the center of his chest, was a vibrant sunflower. My sunflower, according to him. Common, because I baffled him with my love of all things civilian and pop-culture. Bright yellow and vibrant, because he swore I was meant for the sun and the limelight. Green tendrils grew from the stem, the delicate greenery curling around and over his heart.
He laid his glasses and the silver Star of David on the sink, and sank into the water behind me. I wiggled backward until I was between his legs, my back pressed to his chest. His thick arms circled me, wrapping us together.
I felt his sigh, the one that seemed to come from deep in him, and the last of the tension flowing out of him. I sank lower in the heated water, and rested the crown of my head against his chest.
Bruce kneaded my shoulders, working down my spine as far as he could reach. His touch was direct and firm, just shy of painful.
The same way we usually approached sex.
I slid under the water, then reemerged. Bruce sat back, arms propped on the sides of the tub while I shampooed the stink of smoke and dead cryptid out of my hair and pores.
When I resurfaced, rinsed clean, Bruce pulled me back into his lap. He amused himself squeezing water from my hair. Primarily so he could push it over my shoulder, exposing more skin.
He kissed everywhere he’d massaged earlier. His beard burred across my skin, raising goose bumps in its wake. If I turned my head enough to check, my skin would be reddened, Bruce leaving his mark. A different heat built under my navel and spiraled between my thighs.
He pulled me against him, water sloshing, his erection against my ass. Then caught my earlobe, setting teeth against flesh.
At my gasp, he caught my nipple, working it over. Pinching exactly hard enough that I squirmed. I not-so-accidentally rotated my hips, grinding against him.
He growled into the side of my neck, the primal sound vibrating through me and stoking me higher.
Agent Down Chapter 2
Vee
I slipped into the hot water, tired muscles immediately happier, and watched Bruce strip, subtle highlights from the Arizona sun barely visible in his brown hair and short, neat beard. What he called ‘normal people muscles and flaws’ I called sexy as heck.
Colorful ink covered both arms in full sleeves, more ink trailing across his toned chest, and connecting the intricate artwork.
The newest design, in the center of his chest, was a vibrant sunflower. My sunflower, according to him. Common, because I baffled him with my love of all things civilian and pop-culture. Bright yellow and vibrant, because he swore I was meant for the sun and the limelight. Green tendrils grew from the stem, the delicate greenery curling around and over his heart.
He laid his glasses and the silver Star of David on the sink, and sank into the water behind me. I wiggled backward until I was between his legs, my back pressed to his chest. His thick arms circled me, wrapping us together.
I felt his sigh, the one that seemed to come from deep in him, and the last of the tension flowing out of him. I sank lower in the heated water, and rested the crown of my head against his chest.
Bruce kneaded my shoulders, working down my spine as far as he could reach. His touch was direct and firm, just shy of painful.
The same way we usually approached sex.
I slid under the water, then reemerged. Bruce sat back, arms propped on the sides of the tub while I shampooed the stink of smoke and dead cryptid out of my hair and pores.
When I resurfaced, rinsed clean, Bruce pulled me back into his lap. He amused himself squeezing water from my hair. Primarily so he could push it over my shoulder, exposing more skin.
He kissed everywhere he’d massaged earlier. His beard burred across my skin, raising goose bumps in its wake. If I turned my head enough to check, my skin would be reddened, Bruce leaving his mark. A different heat built under my navel and spiraled between my thighs.
He pulled me against him, water sloshing, his erection against my ass. Then caught my earlobe, setting teeth against flesh.
At my gasp, he caught my nipple, working it over. Pinching exactly hard enough that I squirmed. I not-so-accidentally rotated my hips, grinding against him.
He growled into the side of my neck, the primal sound vibrating through me and stoking me higher.
|
| ||||
|
| ||||||||