The
After Effect
Renegade
Heroes Series
Book
Two
Rose
Shababy
Genre:
Urban Fantasy/Sci-fi
Publisher:
Super sheroes LLC
Date
of Publication: July 19th, 2016
ISBN:
978-0-9904620-3-3
ASIN:
B01GSMOAE0
Number
of pages: 228 approx.
Word
Count: 72,757
Cover
Artist: Regina Wamba
Maximum
Ride meets Sin City in the Renegade Heroes series!
Kasey
and his friends are fringe heroes. They use their abilities to
protect society, until their last battle leaves Kasey almost dead.
Disillusioned, they leave the city in search of peace.
But
peace is the last thing they’ll find. Ever since Kasey escaped the
cold fingers of death, his powers have been running wild. It doesn’t
take long for his girlfriend, Blue, and the others to notice.
In
the lush forests of northern Idaho they meet a brand new hero whose
shocking revelation sheds new light on Kasey’s strange behavior.
And
with her revelation comes a terrible solution none of them can
accept.
Worse
still, Kasey soon comes face to face with the nightmares of his past.
Will
the heroes find the strength to face the consequences of their
mistakes? Or will Kasey be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?
Excerpt:
After
the events of the morning, everyone seemed to need some private time,
especially Blue. She went to our room and crawled back into bed,
claiming to still be tired from the night before. Esme and Avery
retreated outside, while Val and Ash went to town to go bowling with
the couple they met the night before.
I
sat by myself in the living room, remote in hand and flipping
mindlessly through channels. With no one in close vicinity, I didn’t
have to work to block out random thoughts and impressions. I
stretched out on the couch and let myself relax completely, a rarity
for me. No walls in my mind, no struggle for control, no confusion as
I tried to sort out all the voices.
I
came across the movie Casablanca as I scrolled through channels, and
stopped. Something about the movie spoke to me, reminded me of me and
Blue. I wondered if it was the depth of Rick and Ilsa’s love for
each other that mirrored mine and Blue’s.
Maybe
it’s the hopelessness of it, the voice inside me mocked. She has to
give him up to do the right thing, and he has to push her to do it.
Just as you’ll have to push Blue. There’s nothing you can do to
change it. At least she’ll have Avery to comfort her after you’re
gone.
Once
again, the foreign anger inside me growled to life.
In
defiance I pushed the channel up button on the remote, flipping
through channels until I found one playing music videos and a close
up of a woman’s face filled the screen.
Zelda,
I thought as I studied her features. Despite Blue’s denial, I could
still see a resemblance between the two of them. Zelda wore heavy
makeup so it was hard to tell, and she seemed taller, leaner, and had
longer features, but the similarities were there.
Her
brow wrinkled as she sang, and the sadness in her eyes seemed to seep
through the screen.
Stuck
inside a life of maybe
Finding
bliss in erratic shifts
I
watch you avoiding me
Sin-free
and quietly
Keep
your hands clean
Keep
your mind free
Never
touch me
Forget
to love me
We
can be pure
so
we can be godly
We
can be meek
so
we can be lonely
Open
your eyes
Free
from the guise
No
longer hypnotized
Breaking
out
Searching
for a beautiful life
Somebody
else’s life
Can
I start over this life?
Breaking
out
Something
about her singing made me uneasy as I stared at her. The song was a
kind of ballad, but still possessed an edge, an undeniable hardness.
The mournful expression of earlier now seemed like a persona, fake
sorrow. I turned the television off and laid back, closing my eyes,
trying to quell the uneasiness.
I
pushed the song from my mind, thinking about the events of the
previous night, as well as this morning. I wondered if Rayne’s
solution was truly the only way to fix things, but it was the image
of Blue’s tear-stained face that haunted me as I fell asleep.
***
Home,
I realized. I was home. I looked around the small room as I pulled
the nightshirt in my hands over my head. The water closet, the old
bed with the rusted frame, the bare wooden floor slats. I looked down
at my hands and realized they were those of a child.
Suddenly,
a gunshot rang out from the other room, and I dropped to the floor
behind the bed as angry voices barked orders through the wall.
The
door burst open and I scurried under the bed as a man dressed in
camouflage and carrying a rifle marched in, dragging my sister Zoya
by her hair. She screamed and I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep
from screaming as well.
My
father rushed into the room, yelling at the man until another soldier
came up from behind and struck him on the back of the head with the
butt of his own rifle.
Zoya
screamed as our father crumpled to the ground, blood gushing from the
wound at the back of his head. From under the bed, I watched it pool
beneath him before one of the soldier’s dragged him from the room,
the blood streaking across the floor in a gruesome smear. The first
soldier shut the door behind him.
I
watched as Zoya twisted herself around the soldier’s leg, biting
him hard on the calf. The man backhanded her with a force that
knocked her to the floor.
She
lay still for a moment, facing the bed, until her eyes landed on me.
Her voice filled my mind. Do not move, brother. Do not make a sound.
The
soldier heaved her off the floor and threw her on the bed. The
bedsprings flexed above me, and I flattened myself against the wooden
slats of the floor to avoid being crushed.
The
sound of Zoya crying filled my ears, and I squeezed my eyes shut as
if I doing so could block out the noise. A wave of nausea hit me and
suddenly, I found myself staring up at the soldier as he ripped the
clothes off my body. In the same moment, I realized I was also
staring down at Zoya as I shredded her clothes with strong,
unfamiliar hands.
I
felt the screams tearing out of my throat as mad panic overwhelmed my
senses, barely able to separate the image of the soldier above me and
Zoya below.
A
second later, the maniacal glee of the soldier ripped through me, and
I couldn’t hold back my screams any longer.
I
screamed until my throat was hoarse, until the screams turned to
great heaving sobs. Only then did I hear the voice calling my name.
“Kasimir,”
the voice soothed. “Shh. Open your eyes, little one.”
Peeking
through my eyelids, I saw Zoya’s face peering at me under the bed.
She reached out a hand.
“Come,
little one, you are safe.”
“But
you’re dead,” I breathed as I put my hand in hers and she helped
me from under the bed. I looked around in wonder.
The
walls had fallen away, and the bedroom sat in the middle of a
clearing, a lush forest surrounding it on all sides as the sun shone
down on us.
I
looked at our joined hands and realized the hand that held hers
belonged to an adult. The childish persona I had adopted in the dream
had disappeared.
“That’s
right,” I said aloud. “This is a dream.”
“Are
you certain?” Zoya asked with a smile. “Just because you are not
awake does not mean you are dreaming. I have been trying to
communicate with you for a long time, but it was not until you
understood what was happening that I was able to break through.”
“If
this isn’t a dream, then what is it?”
“You
are between,” she said.
“Between
what?”
“Between
spaces. Between worlds.” She pointed toward the woods. “Look,
there. Do you see it?”
I
stared in the direction she pointed, and as my eyes adjusted to the
darkness of the woods, I began to see a black void deep in the trees.
At first I thought it was just the darkness of the woods itself, but
after a moment I could see the outline of the void. The edges writhed
and seethed as if alive, and the entire void blurred and shimmered
like a puddle of oil.
“What
is it?” I asked.
“It
is the other side.” She lifted her hand again, this time pointing
in the opposite direction. “And there. That is the world you know.”
I
looked, this time shocked to see a ghost image of me sleeping on the
couch projected against the trees.
Zoya
continued, pointed at the ground beneath us. “This space is the
crack between worlds. This is what you created when you died and went
back. This is you.”
I
nodded. “I understand. I just don’t know how to fix it.”
Zoya
gave me a sad smile. “Yes, you do. Look again,” she said as she
pointed back to the void.
I
looked again, and suddenly I could see long, tentacle-like strands
from the void snaking across the clearing, their thin fingers wrapped
around me.
I
cried out and tried to shake them off, but they moved and slid over
my skin like oily, black mercury.
“Just as you
are attached to the world you know, you are now attached to the other
side,” Zoya told me. “As long as you are attached to both worlds,
they will continue to merge.”
“What
will happen if the worlds merge?” I asked.
Her
smiled disappeared. “Ultimate chaos. Both worlds will be lost.”
Her voice took on a tone of urgency. “You must seal the rift before
it is too late. If you do not, everything you love will be
destroyed.”
I
thought of Blue and realized that if I had to die, I couldn’t think
of a better reason.
I
looked at Zoya. “How do I fix it?”
“You must go
back. The pieces of that world you see attached to you will follow
you back in, and the rift will seal itself.”
“Is
there any way I can seal it and stay with Blue?” I asked.
Zoya
frowned. “As long as you are attached to the other side, you cannot
stay with her.”
“She
won’t let go easily,” I told her.
“No,”
my sister agreed. “She loves you as deeply as any person has ever
loved another. I am glad you found such a love, little one, even if
only for a short while.”
I
stared at her, as if realizing for the first time who I was talking
to, and I reached for her hand again. “I wish you could meet her. I
miss you, sister.”
She
pulled me into an embrace. “I have been with you since the rift was
opened,” she whispered against my ear. “Fighting to protect you.
I will stay with you as long as I can.”
I
pulled away and looked at her worried face. “What do you mean?”
She
glanced toward the void. “There are others who are not so
benevolent. I fight them as much as I can, but I cannot fight them
all. Your mind is too open. The barriers are down, and the others are
trying to use you to gain access to the other side. If they overwhelm
you, you will be lost forever and the side you know, her world,”
she said pointedly, and I knew she meant Blue, “will be lost along
with you.”
I
nodded, tears filling my eyes as I looked at my sister. “Is it
terrible, Zoya? The other side?”
“No,”
she smiled. “Those of the light, stay within the light, and those
of the dark, stay within the dark. I existed in place of pure joy.
The two sides have begun to merge only since the rift was created. If
you repair it, all will be as it was.”
Zoya
glanced at the void again, before looking back at me with fearful
eyes. “It is time for you to wake up, little one, but before I go,
one last warning. The past may be gone, but it is not dead. Very soon
you will come face to face with your nightmares.”
“What
do you mean?” I asked.
The
void emitted a strange mix of moaning and hissing, and Zoya’s
frantic eyes darted to the abyss. “No time,” she whispered. “Wake
up!”
***
I
gasped for air as I woke, rolling off the couch in my panic. I hit
the floor with a heavy thud.
As
my breathing calmed, I replayed the dream in my mind. Not a dream, I
reminded myself. It may have started out just like my nightmares, but
it definitely hadn’t ended like one.
I
warmed as I thought of Zoya. Ever since I lost my family, I’d tried
to put it in the past and forget what happened. I’d told myself to
look to the future and focus on becoming the person I wanted to be.
Now
I realized the past stayed with us no matter how much we tried to
ignore it. By trying to ignore it, I had dishonored the memory of my
family. I had dishonored Zoya.
“I
will do better,” I said aloud. “I promise you, Zoya, I will make
things right.”
The
Blue Effect
Renegade
Heroes
Book
One
Rose
Shababy
Blue
Brennan is jaded and bitter despite her pinup girl looks and quick
wit. Night after night, she scours the Seattle club scene looking for
someone or something to fill the emptiness inside.
When
she meets the mysterious Kasey, her world stops… literally. He
claims she has the ability to control time and stuns her even further
when he reveals his own gifts.
Blue
is inexplicably drawn to Kasey and reluctantly enters his world
filled with a new breed of humanity. They’re misfits like her,
blessed or cursed with powerful abilities, struggling to hide their
differences from the rest of society.
Then
the group discovers a nameless, faceless sociopath with nightmarish
powers; and he’s coming for Blue. She’s left reeling when they
discover her gifts are the key to defeating his terrible evil and
saving them all.
Now
she must race against the clock to harness her own powers and save
her new friends. Can she be more than a renegade? Can she be a hero
too?
About
the Author:
Rose
Shababy and her family reside in eastern Washington State. Rose grew
up in the Northwest but swears she’s going to move to warmer
climates someday. She’s claimed this for over 20 years, however,
and has yet to move more than 75 miles away from her mother.
Rose
has a deep love of all things Star Trek and yearns to travel the
heavens, as well as an intense desire to be bitten by a radioactive
spider. Unfortunately she sucks at science and math so she hasn’t
been able bring her dreams to life, instead living vicariously
through books, comics, television and film. She hopes to someday make
a million dollars so she can afford to buy her way to the
international space station, but she’d settle for being able to fly
around the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Rose
also loves to cook and worked for years in a gourmet Italian grocery
and deli where she learned to hone her skills. She prepares culinary
masterpieces for her family, but fervently wishes the dishes would
wash themselves. Especially now that her dishwashers/children are
nearly grown and only one still lives at home.
Rose
likes to use her free time wisely. For instance, she likes to
daydream, will often read for hours until she falls asleep on the
couch with an electric blanket and a warm tabby cat curled up on her
hip, as well as spending cozy weekend days watching Syfy movies like
Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her husband.
If
Rose were a cartoon animal, she’d prefer to be a wise old owl or a
sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality she’d probably be a myopic
mole with coke-bottle glasses.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rose.shababy
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/RoseShababy
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/roseshababy/
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