Happy Hump Day! It’s time for another dramatic scene from my current WIP Breaker Zone. In this teaser, Nick has been kidnapped by the insane Nereid Thetis and is trying to treat a poisoned demigoddess with the help of Asclepius’s Rod and its resident snake/assistant Pythia. Unfortunately, things are not going well…

Enjoy, and make sure to hit the list after the teaser to see other great Mid Week Teases!

With his life in ruins thanks to a psychotic ex, Dr. Nick Gardiner winds up at Olympic Cove looking for sanctuary (and free beer) with his friend Ian. The last thing he expects to find is Ian living with two redheaded sea lords and learning how to be a storm god. Adding to the confusion is a wounded merman named Aidan who washes up in the cove, requiring Nick’s professional help. Nick soon learns that the handsome mer and his partner Liam have their own plans for the ER doctor — to claim him as their agapetos, their destined mate, and fulfill his need to submit.

A chance encounter at a local junk shop reveals that Nick has his own role to play in Ian’s battle against the insane Nereid Thetis. Under the reluctant mentorship of Chiron, Nick must master the use of the Rod of Asclepius if he wants to rescue his mates from a ghastly fate and help Ian save the planet.

###

The goddess gazed sadly at him through the bars. “You can’t stop it, can you?” she asked softly.

“I—” He closed his mouth before he had to lie. “This is something I’ve never dealt with before. I don’t think I can stop it.”

Claire’s head dropped forward, and she took a shuddering breath. “So be it. Then kill me.”

Nick recoiled. “What?”

“Kill me.” Her head came back up and her eyes were huge in the dim cabin. “Don’t let Thetis turn me into one of her creatures. Be merciful and put me beyond her reach.”

You can’t do that, Nicholas.

God damn it, Pythia, I wasn’t planning on it, he shouted in his head.

No, that’s not what I meant. Claire is a goddess — a minor one, true, but fully divine. And as such, immortal. Even if you ran her through, she would heal. Cut off her head, and the pieces would rejoin. You cannot kill a goddess.

He shook his head, horrified at the snake’s words.

“Why not?” Claire’s expression changed at his gesture, becoming a mix of pleading and anger. “I’m asking you to do this. To leave me to Thetis’s mercy would be far more cruel than killing me.”

“No, you don’t understand. I can’t kill you. You’re immortal.”

Her grip on the bar tightened. “There must be something you can do,” she said. “For Gaia’s sake, human, don’t leave me like this!”

Nicholas.

What?

There is nothing you can do. But there is something she can do. Sadness permeated Pythia’s words. It will be difficult, but it will free her from her form.

Death was something every doctor fought as long as possible. But Nick had seen too many patients turned into vegetables, dependent on life support, to believe that extreme measures always had to be employed. And in this case, Claire really was looking at a fate worse than death. What is it?

She can make the choice only one other god has ever made, and voluntarily give up her immortality.

What? Which god did that?

Pythia’s tongue flickered once. Your tutor, Chiron.

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…