Fang-tuary
A short story by S. Peters-Davis
I opened my eyes to darkness and waited for my vision to adjust. My head throbbed with pain. I slid my fingers across the back of my skull, over a wet lump. Now the sticky stuff coated my fingertips. Blood. Great. The full moon gave the forest a glimmer, enough for me to make out the shapes around me. I could hear my mother’s voice inside my head, “Lexi, why would you ever go on a bus tour alone? Don’t you know how dangerous it is for a woman your age?”
Why in the hell was I on the ground, and where was the tour group? I’d heard something behind me right before my lights went out. Someone had hit me, hard enough to knock me out and leave a boulder-sized growth. Someone from the tour group? The grumpy dude that had sat beside me on the bus? Not likely, although I was sure he didn’t let the tour guide know I’d gone missing. Why that woman guide didn’t take a head-count each time we re-boarded the bus, I would never understand.
A wolf howled, and then a few more followed, echoing through the trees from different directions. I stood, deciding to head toward the cave, the last point of interest the guide had shown us.
An owl hooted not far from me, and I wondered if it was the one the guide had pointed out on our night tour - Creatures of the Night at the Hiawatha Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
My cellphone had remained in my back pocket, so I grabbed it out and no signal. The light on it brightened my uphill trek back to the cave. The wolves howled like they were honing in on me, my neck hairs stood up every time one of them shouted-out.
The cave opening appeared, ominous, a big dark yawning mouth. But something caught the light as I climbed closer. A small cage hung from the ceiling just inside. Movement. What the heck is inside that thing. I got underneath it and beamed the cell light upward.
“Hey, don’t suppose you could break me out of this contraption. Could you?” asked a hoarse, weak male voice.
I stared at the little beady eyes above me. A bat? I glanced around the inner cave, looking for the man who’d spoken to me. Goosebumps climbed up my arms and down my spine like frisky spiders. “Um, hello?” Again, I scanned the interior as far back as the light shined.
“There’s a rope. Attached to the north wall. If you’d please simply release it.”
I had no clue which wall was north, so I let the cell light guide me. “Okay. Yes, I found it. But I’m not dropping the cage with a bat until you show yourself and tell me why you would want this winged creature freed.” Really, why would an injured man care about a friggin’ bat?
“I’m the one in the cage. No one else is in the cave, just me. But if I don’t get released from this cage, I’ll die as soon as the sun comes up.”
“Is this some kind of sick joke. The rest of the bus tour is here watching me act out a prank?” I checked the interior and noticed nothing different than before. I glared at the beady-eyed tiny beast. “Okay.” I shined the light on it. “Speak to me while I’m watching you.” And yes, now I definitely passed as an idiot.
“The cage is iron, I’m paralyzed. I can’t move my head. Please trust me when I say, you’ll be a rich woman if you’d let the cage down and pull me out of this apparatus.” This time he came across as impatient, bossy.
I untied the rope, and the cage crashed to the floor. “Oh, my gods!” For a small cage, it slammed to the ground like a three-ton truck. I rushed over, throwing the light around inside the cage. Blood dripped from the bat’s mouth. Its eyes closed. Holy smack-down, batman, I killed it.
I lifted the latch and swung the door open. The bat never moved. I ripped the bottom of my shirt off and wrapped my hands, and then slowly hauled the little guy out. “I’m so sorry.”
Suddenly, growls from the doorway yanked any sorrow away, and instantly, my heart hammered so hard I knew it would explode. The wolves, mouths gaping and eyes glowing, stood in the cave opening. All eyes focused on the creature I held in my hands.
“I don’t think these dudes are your friends, little guy.” I lifted my head and turned toward the backend darkness of the cave, and then shouted, “Hey, mister, now would be a good time to come out from wherever you are and scare these puppies away.”
The wolves, unit-style, stepped toward me. I lay the small critter behind me, and why I felt compelled to save it, I had no idea. I stood, remembering not to act afraid, although I was sure the smell of my fear filled the air around us. Two wolves stopped and allowed the middle one to step closer to me. It stood as tall as my chest.
Its mouth moved in sync, “Move or die,” sounding just like the grumpy man that had sat beside me in the tour bus.
“Are you kidding me?” I stammered.
All the wolves glared at me.
“This is a nightmare!” I rolled my eyes at them and glared back.
Their foreheads crinkled, like a frown, and they looked at each other and then back at me.
I laughed, not just a little bitty chuckle, but an all-out hysterical fit erupted. My vision blurred from the moisture gathering, and still, I couldn’t stop. I’m going to die. I peered through the mist at those fanged killers and realized they hadn’t moved. Their feet pranced, and they eyed each other, but they didn’t come any closer. I gave my last chuckle and nearly choked when something bumped into my back. A shiver quaked through me, almost knocking me to my knees, but arms caught my waist, setting me toward the wall. I turned to see the injured man from inside the cave, but his stormy gray eyes held me captive for a moment as heated waves created a tsunami ripping through my insides. And then I perused the goods, only wearing a pair of denim jeans. There wasn’t anything wrong with the exterior of his masculine physic.
He smiled, flashing a couple gleaming white fangs, and then said, “You may want to close your eyes for this part.” He spun away from me so fast, I couldn’t follow his movement.
I blinked my eyes, but focusing remained distorted, even with the full moon shining inside the cave. Grunts, growls, yips, and barks echoed off the walls. Until, it didn’t, and everything went silent.
Nothing stood at the cave opening, the wolves had disappeared. I shined my cell on the floor where I’d left the tiny bat, only the material of my shirt lay there. I turned, ready to hike the distance to town.
A shadow filled the doorway. “I’m Seth, and I intend to make good on the trust-promise, Ms….” He reached his hand toward me, and I grasped it.
“Lexi…Lexi Conway.” I glanced up, meeting his mesmerizing smolder, and parts of me melted. And more parts melted when his lips found mine.
Unorthodox
A
Kendra Spark Novel
Book One
S. Peters-Davis
Genre: Paranormal
Suspense-Thriller Romance
with a good dollop of
Supernatural
Publisher: Books We Love
Publishing
Date of Publication: September
15, 2017
ASIN: B073MZZPVM
ISBN 978-1-77362-303-0
Number of pages: 153 pages
Word Count: 63,000
Cover Artist: CoverUp.Net
Book
Tagline: Kendra’s ability of
communicating with the dead is requested by her FBI criminal analyst friend to
stop a killer from murdering agents.
Series
Tagline: Kendra sees ghosts, and then her BFF, Jenna, becomes one. The two
friends and FBI agent Derek Knight fight for justice to the victims of heinous
crimes.
Book Description:
Kendra Spark, suspense-mystery
romance author and communicator with the dead, is requested to hop on the first
flight to D.C.
Jenna Powers, FBI criminal
analyst and estranged best friend of Kendra, gets ghosticized in a fatal
accident before relaying all the details of the FBI killer case.
Derek Knight, a dedicated FBI
Special Task Force agent, takes lead on the case.
The investigation into the FBI
agent killings continues as Kendra, Jenna – yes, even after death – and Derek
work together on the case before Director of the Special Task Force Jackson
Powers’ number is up. He’s Jenna’s father and the end-game of the killer’s
target list.
Somehow the elusive killer
remains undetected, until Kendra’s unique ability produces results and a final
possibility at stopping his killing spree before it’s too late.
Malevolent
A
Kendra Spark Novel
Book
Two
S.
Peters-Davis
Genre: Supernatural,
Suspense-thriller, Romance
Publisher: BWL Publisher
Date of Publication: August 10,
2018
ASIN: B07G36D3JC
EPUB 978-0-2286-0419-8
Kindle 978-0-2286-0420-4
WEB 978-0-2286-0421-1
Amazon Print 978-0-2286-0422-8
BWL Print 978-0-2286-0423-5
Number of pages: E-book length:
150
Number of pages: Print length:
195
Word Count: 57,500
Cover Artist: Michelle Lee
Tagline: Trafficked girls marked to lose their souls by a malevolent
supernatural entity require someone with explicit abilities for their rescue.
Will Kendra be able to save them?
Book Description:
Kendra Spark, suspense-mystery
writer and communicator with the dead, signs on to the next FBI Special Task
Force case, trafficked girls that are marked to lose their souls.
Jenna Powers, ghostified criminal
analyst, sticks close to the case as she and Kendra are also marked by the same
malevolent supernatural force.
Derek Knight, lead FBI Agent on this
case, learns of the malevolent entity and the deeper paranormal realm of
danger.
Kendra’s unfiltered feelings for
Derek struggle to take a backseat, and as the menacing threat grows more
intense, so does her passion for Derek.
Derek faces uncertainties he’s
never dealt with in his past, like malicious entities and the loss of his heart
to love. How can he protect Kendra against forces he can’t see?
As boundless supernatural danger
intertwines with the future reality of the trafficked teens, Kendra and Jenna
realize only they can shoulder the rescue by calling in a voodoo priestess…
Albatross
A Kendra Spark Novel
Kendra
Spark Series
Book
Three
S.
Peters-Davis
Genre: Supernatural, Paranormal,
Suspense-Romance
Publisher: BWL Publishing, Inc.
Date of Publication: June 1, 2019
ISBN-10: 0228608910
ISBN-13: 978-0228608912
ASIN: B07S29TF9V
Number of pages: 210
Word Count: 60,200
Cover Artist: Michelle Lee
Tagline: A cold-case
investigation ends in facing the ultimate psychopaths, a highly-accredited
police director gone crime lord and a beautiful malevolent “albatross of a
spirit.”
Book Description:
Kendra Spark, Derek Knight, and
“ghosty” Jenna Powers, members of an FBI special task force, investigate a
cold-case and end up facing the ultimate psychopaths, a highly-accredited
police director gone crime lord and a beautiful malevolent “albatross of a
spirit.” Both want Kendra for her unique abilities but might settle for Jenna
instead.
Derek stops at nothing to keep
Kendra and Jenna safe, but what if the worst-case scenario happens, an
unstoppable villain and villainess of the dark plane that picks the earth plane
as their stomping ground?
About
the Author:
S. Peters-Davis writes
multi-genre stories, but loves penning a good page-turning suspense-thriller,
especially when it’s a ghost story and a romance. When she’s not writing,
editing, or reading, she’s hiking, RV’ing, fishing, playing with grandchildren,
or enjoying time with her favorite muse (her husband) in Southwest Michigan.
As DK Davis, she also writes YA
and NA paranormal, supernatural novels that involve diverse and mature subject
matter.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spdavis788
BWL Publishing Inc.: http://bookswelove.net/
BWL Author Page: http://bookswelove.net/authors/peters-davis-s-suspense-paranormal/
1 comment:
Hello Roxanne:) Thank you for sharing Fang-tuary! Flash fiction for Halloween:) Thank for sharing the Kendra Spark Series also - You ROCK!! Happy Halloween to you and all who visit your fun, amazing place;) Susan
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