Hyde! One elegant aristocrat engaged in dangerous politics. One beautiful clone, his DNA stripped of emotion. One handsome madman who’s spent his life in and out of gene clinics. All three of them are Teller’s lovers. All four of them live in the shadow of the dragon. Each one of them is subject to a strange, dark possession—Hyde! |
| Cover Art by Syneca |
| Available in Print at Borders, Amazon, Ellora's Cave |
Excerpt The Baron Jay Kel stretched lazily, drifting in his bed. When his feet came up against the limits of the reduced gravity field, the action moved him back smoothly in the opposite direction within the confines of the bed’s limits. Like a boat adrift, he bumped up against something warm and smooth. His head came around with a jerk. “Shit!” he cursed then gave the system order to dampen the bed’s gravity field. “C-BedOff.” Sinking to a gradual landing on the flexible surface, Jay shrank from the body sharing his bed. Rolling quickly to the bed’s edge, he stood to stare down at the golden form sprawled facedown on the smooth, black surface. Warily, Jay traveled to the other side of the bed in order to better observe the turned face. The bedroom floor was littered with the clothes he’d worn yesterday and he cursed as he stooped to fish up a pair of white short pants. Glaring at the grubby knees, he pulled them up his legs then swept his boots from the floor, shoving his feet into the soft, supple footwear. Returning his attention to the person on the bed, he frowned at the thick brush of yellow hair sheered brutally short, in a style suggestive of military school. Either a beautiful man or a handsome woman, he decided, still not certain which was the case. He flinched—his action one of distaste—as his eyes traveled down the slim, naked back and over the bare, bloody buttocks. Reaching out a cautious hand, he took the intruder’s shoulder and turned the being onto its back. A woman then, but only barely so. The baron’s head tilted back on his corded neck as he observed the almost flat, muscular chest rise to take in several shallow breaths. Damn! Hyde had gone too far this time—bringing home this shit and leaving it in his bed for him to find. For several moments, he glared at the long, golden woman in his bed. When the body stirred, he drew an automatic step backward, preferring not to be identified when the girl opened her eyes. “C-Broadcast.” Jay ripped out the order, which was immediately picked up by his System Network as his message was broadcast throughout his villa. “Huvisdank, come to my bedroom.” Retrieving his frilled shirt from the floor, Jay pulled it on, tucking the shirt ends into the top edge of his pants. With his eyes on the girl, he backed his way across the room, until he came up against a heavy antique sideboard where two robust nymphs stood carved out of cherry wood. Wonderfully naked, their arms stretched over their heads, supporting a slab of black marble that was the sideboard’s countertop. Turning enough to pick up bottle and glass, he splashed out a short drink while waiting for his manservant. A battle cruiser of a man stepped through the opaque doorshield and continued into the room, his head only just clearing the doorframe. “My Lord?” Picking up the drink with his right hand, Jay nodded at the bed as he threw the dark red liquor down his throat. He licked his lower lip. “Get her out of h—” “My Lord?” Grasping the marble edge of the ancient sideboard with white-knuckled fingers, Jay sagged suddenly at the knees. “Wait, Huvisdank. Wait!” he cried with a curse. The large man hadn’t moved. “My Lord is having one of his spells?” Huvisdank suggested with utter disinterest. Jay glared at his manservant. “Yes, ‘My Lord is having one of his spells’,” he gritted. He stared at the floor with fierce intensity, as though waging some inner war within himself, then muttered, “Put her in one of the spare rooms.” Again, his knees buckled. “The big room on the main floor. Start a bath for her.” He stared up at his manservant from beneath his brows, eyes dark and shadowed. “A real bath…with water.” Jay watched Huvisdank approach the bed. “The young woman is injured,” his servant stated. “Shall I flash for a medoc?” “No!” he answered swiftly. “It’s just a few bumps and scrapes.” Huvisdank turned to put doubtful eyes on his master. “We’ll doctor the girl ourselves,” he told the clone, picking up his fine brocade jacket and shaking it out with an air of annoyance. Nodding, the servant scooped the girl from the bed as Jay followed the man out of the room and down the hall to the large, sunny room his guest was to occupy. Glancing around the walls, lined with the very finest of his antique furniture, the baron made a face of regret. It wasn’t the room he’d have chosen for some girl off the street. The most elite members of Virtzue’s ruling class had slept in this room! More than a little disgusted, he slung his jacket on the fabulous twenty-third century bed. After filling the white enamel tub, the manservant left his master to administer to the girl. Rolling up his sleeves and sinking to his knees, the aristocrat grumbled obscenities as he lowered the girl into the warm water. Absently, his hand slid beneath the curves of her bottom, between the woman’s warm flesh and the tub’s cool antique enamel. Having overcome their preliminary inertia, the baron’s hands continued up over her thighs to smooth down her legs. She looked as though she’d been dragged through Roughside at the back of a jet bike. And it didn’t take a medical scan to see that her left leg was broken below the knee. Several shallow abrasions marred her legs and hips as well as her buttocks, and a dark purple bruise was mapped out as large as a continent on her right shoulder. She must have hit her knees hard, he thought, his eyes narrowing on the scraped and crusted flesh capping her knees. Turning one of her hands to gaze into her palm, he found both hands just as badly abused. His eyes drifted down over her belly, where he stared at a dark, thumb-sized bruise just inside her pelvic wing. Hyde, he thought coldly. Apparently, the brute had raped the girl and brought her home for more. |
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madison hayes
Hyde!
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