Coup de Grace Excerpt

Coup De Grace

Amazing Grace, 6
By Misa Buckley
Science Fiction Romance
$0.99
Amazon: http://goo.gl/lqJMXj
Kobo: https://goo.gl/NGmGh2

Rescued from the evil clutches of Hammel, Grace gathers the mutated ex-residents and goes to war, determined to strike a finishing blow against the evil company.

Excerpt:

My nose tickled. Wanting only to sleep, I batted at it in an attempt to push the itch away. Hands gripped my shoulders. Someone called my name. The floor beneath me trembled. A sound rumbled, both close and yet oddly distant. As if I’d heard it through water.

No, not water. Memory surged, and shock cleared the fog in my brain. I opened my eyes and pushed up.

“It’s okay.” Charity put an arm around me. “You’re safe now.”

“Well, not really,” muttered Emery. “There’s bombs. The whole place is going up.”

I looked around. Charity knelt at my side, Emery stood close by. Heidi was a little further away, wringing her hands as she glanced from me to an open door and back. Lucas waited in the doorway. His expression sent a frisson of fear through me.

“Where’s Benedict?” I asked, my voice faint for reasons that had nothing to do with my recent reawakening.

“Here.” He jogged into sight, sooty and rumpled, but still the best thing I’ve ever seen. The worry on his face turned to a tired smile. “Hello, Grace.”

I snorted and got my feet under me. My knees wobbled as I stood up. I locked them and put my hands on my hips. “Hello? I go through utter hell and all you can say is ‘Hello’?”

He laughed and closed the space. His arms crushed the air out of my lungs. Then his mouth was on mine, starving me of more oxygen. Not that I cared. I held on tight as fractured recollections of what had happened made me shiver.

“Um, could you two save that until we’re out of the burning building?” Charity asked.

Benedict pulled away with a rueful chuckle. “Good point.” He looked at me. “Can you walk?”

“I think so.”

“Come on, then.”

Love In A Cold Month

I've always thought it strange that Valentine's Day fell in one of our coldest months. February is by no means spring in any of the north central or eastern nothern states. And certainly not in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the Viking and I live. My first husband tended to give me something practial for Valentine's Day, but that's not why our marriage was dissolved (in CA it's a dissolution if it isn't contested.) The truth is he thought all romances were trash and if I insisted on writing one it was either him or the writing.
My second husband (yes, I'm a an optimist, but at least this time I picked another writer), was definitely not the romantic type in person even if he did write romances, but he sometimes did remember Valentine's Day by taking me out to dinner, unless it fell on a Monday because that was his bowling night. But he died.
I've known the Viking from my past ever since I was six and he was seven and I
"skipped" from first to second grade. He has since told me that he fell in love with me then. But though we became friends, we never really dated. And after graduating in 1943, in the midst of WWII, he went into the Navy Pilot program and I went into the Cadet Nurse program. So I became a nurse and he went to college when he got out of the Navy and became a geologist. I married a doctor and he married as well. But over the years we never quite lost track of each other.
By the time we connected again, I was a widow and he'd been divorced for some time. We both were a tad wary of marriage, but we decided to become Life Partners and have been together since 1994 and will be until we die.
There's no age limit to falling in love and in the Viking, I finally found a man who really enjoys celebrating Valentine's Day. Always a romantic card at my place at the table when I get up that morning. At his place, too, as far as that goes--I'm almost as romantic as he is. Until it was better for our health if he didn't buy any more there was candy, too. Not to mention flowers. I used to tell myself it didn't matter, but now that I celebrate the day, it know it's better to. Only if the feeling is there to go with it, though.
Still, why February? Because we need love to keep warm? I vaguely recall a song titled "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm." I think it was popular before I was in my teens. My brother, twenty years older than I, had a dance band, so I do recall some of the songs from his time.
Or just maybe we need something to brighten the cold month besides two President's birthdays.
I have lots of romantic book covers, but instead of the photo coming up when I upload, just the URL for it does, so no hearts and flowers. I do hope every one of you had as enjoyable a Valentine's Day as we did. Now that I think of it, it's probably the fault of the old Romans--or even the Greeks, that the month of hearts and flowers is February.
Jane