Khet Chronicles: Sunset Over Bloodied Waters (Excerpt)

OK, I couldn't help myself. I just had to post a quick, brief, excerpt from the new Khet Chronicle book I'm working on.

This excerpt has Kalin and Kora in it. If you read the free sample that's posted online through Freado.com from the first book, then you'll know who these two are.

This passage is rough and unedited (the book is still in its first draft stages) but I hope you enjoy it anyways.

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Excerpt (Ch. 1)



I found Kora outside. She was sitting on the ground under a huge oak, playing with a small twig. I watched as she twisted it between her fingers and then slowly started to break it into tiny little pieces. Her gaze was focused on the ground in front of her, I don't think she even noticed my approach.

“What's going on lady?” Her head shot up in surprise. Yup, I'd caught her off guard.

Her irises swirled with small red streaks from the beginnings of her phase. With a visible shake, she disbursed her energy, letting it leak off into the surrounding air and then smiled faintly at me. Her eyes were now their normal dark blue.

“Oh, nothing.” Her voice said otherwise. There was a note of sadness beneath her words.

“Kora...seriously, you know you're no good at lying. What's going on K.T.? You look like somebody just called you the meanest name in the book and then laughed at you.” K.T. Was my nickname for her. Kora Twymkowski...K.T., get it?

I sat down next to her, leaning my back against the massive oak, noticing the huge shadow it cast on the grassy ground in front of me. I bumped her shoulder lightly with my own, getting her attention. She looked at me and I noticed the beginnings of tears. Oh shit...what can of worms did I just open?

She sighed visibly and reached up, wiping the tears from her eyes before they could fall. “I was thinking about my family—about my mother, my father...my brothers.” She glanced over at me from the corner of her eyes and then quickly back to the ground...

Khet Chronicles: Sunset Over Bloodied Waters

Very rough & unedited excerpt

I tried not to include any spoilers for the first book.


By: Marcus Twyman

Three mutts greeted me at the bottom of the stair's landing. Their nails clicking noisily against the hard marble of the floor. Che had found them running around out back in the woods that surrounded the estate. They had been half-starved as well as flea and tick ridden. She'd brought them in, cleaned them up, and made them the brats of the residence.

Chloe, is a large female pitbull with large dark brown spots that encircle each of her eyes, making her eyes stand out with their light gray coloring—giving her the impression of always being surprised. The rest of her fur is a fawn color. She weighs a little over eighty pounds—all of it solid muscle, thanks to Che's care and attention—but she is the biggest love-bunny you'll ever meet. She'd be more liable to lick a serial killer breaking into the mansion than attack him.

Bobo is a little terrier mix of some sort, standing no more than a foot at his shoulder. His fur hangs down in dark gray wisps, making him look more like an oversized, dirty cotton ball than a dog. He has bangs that cover his beady little eyes, and his tongue hangs out of his mouth every minute of the day, dripping drool in his wake.

Lobo, well—looks like a lobo. He looks like a damn wolf. His eyes are yellow-green, and the only thing that would make you think twice about his heritage is his fur color. He's the warm, blondish color of a yellow lab. He's huge standing three feet at the shoulder and weighing in at one hundred and ten pounds. I'm still up in the air concerning his lineage. I'm almost positive that he's a big, wild, snarly, beast of a wolf. His coloring is probably just a fluke. All I know is that as long as he doesn't eat me, I'm fine with him. He' extremely playful, and loves everybody in the house, but...sometimes I catch him staring at me—like he's thinking. Yeah, I'm gonna keep my eye on that one.

The three mongrels—I say this with compassion— were jumping up on me, making it impossible to move ahead towards the front door. Let me tell ya', half the time I had to move around the house using the inhuman speed of my race, just to get from room to room. They were adamant about having your full attention when in your presence.

“Shane!”, maybe he could take them outside or something. That would help them let loose some of their pent up energy. “Hey, bro! You around?” My voice echoed through the massive rooms of the mansion.

“I'm here, what's up loud-mouth?” Shane spoke into my mind using telepathy, or as he called it—as well as everyone else now that he's been pushing the term on people—brain-tapping.

Rolling my eyes at his name calling, I told him out loud, “Come take the pooches out, mutt!” Shane was half sape and half khet. Some of the other khet called him Half-Breed, I called him dork, boob, bobblehead, and lately, Mutt. He knew I wasn't serious, we always call each other names—we have a snarky relationship.

“Why can't you do it? I'm watching a cool show—some guy just got eaten by a shark and now his shipmates are tracking it through the ocean via the GPS on the dude's cell phone—Ooh...oh that's just wrong...Kalin you've gotta—”

“Shane!” God, he could be such a twit! Running my hand through my hair I shouted, “I'm leaving...take them out!” Before he could make an attempt at another mental rebuttal, I threw up my mental shields.

Che had been teaching me how to guard my thoughts. Living in a household full of telepaths and having other telepathic beings around who knew my energy signature—like the Sidhe and some of the witches—I had needed to learn how to deflect unwanted intrusions. One time Saru had reached out telepathically from New York and entered my mind while me and Krysia were...occupied. Needless to say, that was the equivalent of a parent walking in on you doing the bump unexpectedly. He was the one who requested that Che teach me how to block against intrusions. He was like an uncle to me and Shane and finding not-so PG thoughts flying at him like that must have been just as awkward as it had been for me. Krysia still blushes when I bring it up.

Shutting the door quickly so that the dogs didn't push past me onto the walkway, I tossed my keys into the air, catching them as the gravity pulled them back down towards the earth...

Chapter From 2nd Khet Book!

image source: strongphysics.wikispaces.com

Here's a rough unedited chapter from the second Nebu Khet book, titled Khet Chronicles: Sunset Over Bloodied Waters.

It's rough and unedited and I tried to pick a chapter that didn't give away too many details about the first book (spoilers).

Have fun reading!

*****Material on this site may not be reproduced in any way or form without written consent from myself to do so*****


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Khet Chronicles: Sunset Over Bloodied Waters
Chapter 2
By: Marcus Twyman


Chapter 2

As expected, the paparazzi were waiting for us outside of the mansion's giant iron gates. I pressed the button on my sun visor that signaled the gates to open and putting my dark aviators on, I slowly crept out onto the street, trying to avoid running over the legs of the clambering men. Kora already had her big lensed, red, Dolce and Gabbana shades on, anticipating the bright flashes of the psychotic crowd. That's right, psychotic—what would you call them?

They shouted questions through the glass of the car's windows like, “Are you going out to battle other Nebu Khet?” or “Kora—is it true that you are an ancient Grecian goddess? Do you have a lover, a consort?” I'm telling you, they're like a plague. Kora is only twenty six years old. Where the hell did these rumors start? Ancient Grecian goddess? Oh, please...seriously?

Once I was sure we were safe from the onslaught of sape photogs, I lowered the windows and opened the sunroof, letting the air circulate through the car. I reveled in the smells and sights of summer. After a moment, Kora said while looking out of the windshield, “I honestly don't know if I'll ever get use to them.”

Them? Oh, the paparazzi, “Yeah I know what you mean. I swear one day I'm going to run one over and claim it was an accident. Maybe then they'll stay away...who am I kidding? They'll never stay away, they're like sharks on a blood trail.” Glancing in my rear view mirror I noticed a dark SUV trailing us. I clenched my jaw, these bastards were worse than sharks—they were The Apex Predator.

With a slight grin she said, “You see them trailing us don't you?” She laughed and then looking over at me said, “Your highness is a very important person.”

I felt my eyebrow creep up high on my forehead as I looked at her saying, “Um, OK Grecian goddess.”

She snorted with laughter as she said, “I'm not even Greek.” She sighed loudly before stating, “At least they can't follow me into the cafe.”

I thought about that. It was true, there were laws dictating where they could venture but...I still felt apprehensive about trusting completely in the law. Laws were broken all of the time. All it took was for one jerk to overstep that boundary and someone could get hurt. We're not immune to death, hard to kill yes, but a direct hit to the heart or brain—and no more khet. Krysia was even more susceptible to injury. She was only a witch, she had no superhuman healing abilities. She was stronger than a normal person—three times as strong at least—and she had amazing supernatural abilities, but if she were attacked in the cafe, would she react in time? Would her guard be down while serving customers and running her business? I decided not to take that risk.

“I'm sending over some bodyguards. Just two of them. I don't think it's safe for you and Krysia to be walking around without some sort of protection.”

She looked over at me, both eyebrows arched high in surprise, “You think someone will try to hurt us?”

“No—I'm hoping not. But you never know. Things are different now. We're out in the open, we're vulnerable because so many eyes are on us now. We no longer have the anonymity that we are so use to.” Sighing, I continued, “The last thing I want is for something to happen to either of you, especially if I could have prevented it.” I looked over at her and caught her smiling at me.

“You are such a guy! Me and Krysia could kick someone's ass before they knew they'd wanted to kick ours'. But...if it helps you sleep at night, by all means, send out the watchdogs.” She patted my hand saying the last part of that statement.

“I think Krysia's personality is rubbing off on you.” I laughed at her brazen, playful remarks.

“No...I've always been this way, I'm just able to be myself now...thanks to you and Krysia.” She smiled widely as we turned in to the parking lot of the shopping center.

I maneuvered my way through the busy lanes avoiding shoppers as they crossed through the street to get to their vehicles. I approached the cafe seeing several paparazzi already awaiting our arrival out front. I'm telling you, they're like gum in your hair—you just can't get rid of them. I didn't bother parking and just pulled up as close as the feeding frenzy of photographers and pedestrians would let me. Thankfully, I'd remembered to roll up my windows before pulling into the shopping center. Cameras were pressed up against the glass of the windows, flashing annoyingly into our faces. Even the glasses didn't protect our eyes from all of it. Behind us the SUV that had been tagging us pulled to a screeching stop and more paparazzi tumbled out of it to join the growing mass.

“Do I really have to do this?” Kora asked, her expression grim as she took in the sea of wolves waiting for her to open the door. I couldn't help it, I laughed. She just looked so miserable at the thought of facing off with all of the picture snapping lunatics that it became funny to look at.

My laughter did it for her. With a slight raise of her chin, and a tightening of her jaw, she commented, “I don't see you braving them to go in and say hi to Krysia.” With that she swung the door open, nearly knocking one man to the ground as she swung her legs out of the vehicle and stood up. Instantly she was swarmed by the mob, flashes going off inches from her face. Using one hand she flicked her waist length hair back over her shoulder and smiled like she was on a red carpet. Then she moved forward, a writhing mass of people moving with her as they shouted questions and snapped photos.

Half of the crowd still hovered around my vehicle shouting questions at me through the windows as I thought about what Kora had said. Yup, I was sooo not as brave as her. Hell no I wasn't going to wade through that mess of humanity to say hello to Krysia. I'm sure she'd understand. I'm not too proud to admit when I'm scared. Those crazy, camera happy jerks scared the crap outta me. I watched as Kora made it to the cafe's entrance, pulling the door open and disappearing into the dim interior. OK, that was my cue to get moving. I slowly started to pull away from the curb, moving carefully until there was an opening that I could fit through. I sighed with relief once I made it back to the main road. I drove down 355, headed south towards DC.

I had an important meeting today with some government officials. I had been granted ambassador status by the president himself. They figured that having me as an ambassador could smooth the public's transition into acceptance of the supernatural races. It also gave them a source to go to for advice on all that wasn't sape. I'd gotten a call last night, from the head of the CIA asking if I could meet him for a brief lunch. He'd said that he needed some advice on a situation that could potentially be linked to supernatural roots. Me—give advice to the CIA. Yeah, life was weird—but hey, it's better than life being full of death and fear. I could work with weird.

I passed the state line leading into DC and took in the beauty of the day. Man, I hoped I could find a parking spot. I hated trying to park in DC.