Cover Reveal: Exile (The Prequel)

Sarah's story, the third book in the Sídhí Summer Camp series.

Love and danger is just the beginning.

Kraken in the Gulf of Mexico

I received confirmation that a pod of kraken has been sighted off the shore of Texas in Clan Valley.

Every official I spoke with said, no comment, so I decided to take a little trip.

After about a ten-hour drive, I arrived at Galveston. I headed straight for the Marina, but there was not a single boat available to rent.

I stuck around the dock area, and sure enough, I started hearing rumors about the kraken.

The pod was less than fifty miles off shore. Estimates ranged from two to six adults and four babies. One kraken is more than enough, but ten! Supposedly, a group of siren (that's a warrior caste fairy) were on their way to take care of the kraken infestation.

I just happened to be sitting behind a pile of boxes, under a tarp, on the fishing vessel, Hard-up Joy, when a group of hard-eyed fairies walked onboard. (I paid the local pixie runner a cool hundred to find out which boat the fairies had hired.)

We had been underway for about ten minutes when the tarp flew up. One of the fairies glared at me.

"Hi, I'm Jodie Cooper, Sídhí news reporter," I greeted him with a cheery smile.

"I know who you are," he commented, with a sour-look on his face. "You're constantly sticking your nose into things that are none of your business. Today might be your last."

"Hey, the public has a right to know if they are in danger. You don't have any right to threaten me."

"Not a threat, a promise." A second fairy walked up behind the first. "If there is more than one kraken, we'll probably be swimming home. We'll make it just fine. You, little mundane reporter, won't make it a mile, much less fifty."

After that, they ignored me, and my questions. Talk about rude!

I made my way to the front of the boat (later, I found-out it's called the bow) in the small cabin that covered the wheel. The guy steering the boat ignored me.

Nearly an hour later, he pointed out the window. "Not so sweet looking are they."

They, he spoke of, were kraken.

The closer we got to the monsters, the more I wondered if I hadn't made a really big mistake. There were two of the huge monsters and a smaller baby. The baby was just old enough to survive in salt water. I'd heard kraken were three stories tall. If momma and daddy had not been swimming, they would have been that tall.

Each, of the black-skinned creatures, had three long necks. The head was a diamond-shaped like a rattler. Its scream threatened to burst my eardrums.

The largest of the three surged forward, snapping at us with all three heads. Really, really large fangs glistened in the sunshine.

We swung near them, just outside of chomping range. Four of the sirens started singing, aiming their voices toward the rubber-skinned monsters. Sirens had many vocal skills, from tear-inducing love songs to bone-shattering shrieks.

The kraken heads began to bob, like a baby fighting sleep.

That's when I realized, the fairies weren't trying to kill the kraken. The weird fairies of Atlantis Valley were trying to put the mega-monsters to sleep.

Hello? What good would that do?

A few minutes later, all three kraken floated in the water, belly-up and fast asleep.

A different fairy stood next to the railing, staring at the water.

I slipped out of the cabin and looked down into the sea.

Around the body of the baby kraken, the surface of the sea began churning. Huge vines of sea coreweed (that's a Sídhí plant) curled up and around the body of the beast.

Thunk!

Coreweed slithered across the deck. It was the largest specimen of coreweed I had ever seen. Four inches thick, it had bright green skin with blue scaly spots. I knew dried coreweed was sort of the equivalent of hemp from Earth, except it was extremely strong.

This was still wiggling and wet.

The fairy at the rail (who had to be an enchanter) glanced at the flopping end of coreweed. It slithered over the rail, under the boat, and popped-up on the opposite side. It wrapped around the boat several times.

The boat slowly moved south, towing the smallest of the kraken. Hours later, we slowed to a stop. It was in the middle of nowhere. The fairies threatened me with my life if I reported the exact location.

The enchanter fairy severed the coreweed, leaving three lengths on the deck.

Three of the fairies each grabbed a length of coreweed and slipped over the side. Taking a deep breath, they disappeared, pulling the baby kraken behind them.

I later learned there was a permanent portal several hundred feet down, and that was how the kraken appeared in Clan Valley to begin with.

The fairies pulled the baby kraken through the underwater portal, returning him to Atlantis Valley. Afterward the three fairies returned to the boat, and the captain steered the boat away from the portal.

We waited for nearly an hour before the kraken parents showed-up, rushing through the water at an unbelievable speed and shrieking their heads off.

Thankfully, they were more concerned with finding their baby. They dove under the water and didn't reappear.

Until next time,

Jodie

www.jodiebcooper.com

Kraken & Jack the Ripper

Well, I had a hot tip that kraken were seen in the Gulf of Mexico! When I called Guardian Tremaine, my vampire contact in Clan Valley, he said 'no comment' and hung up on me.

The nerve of some people!

I'll hunt down the true story and tell you all about it.

Until then, a little gossip never hurt anyone.

Rumor has it that Lord MuskLeke is back to his old habits of torturing mundanes, killing them, and cutting out their organs.

Sound familiar? Well, if it doesn't, it should. He did the same thing in the Whitechapel district of London back in 1888. He's more famously known as Jack the Ripper.

The rumor hasn't been confirmed, but the mutilated bodies appeared eerily the same as those 1888 murders. This time MuskLeke is spreading out his killings, one in New York City, another in Los Angeles, and several in Australia.

Until next time,

Jodie

www.jodiebcooper.com

Gnome, Troll, & Dragon: Deleted Scene

If you have not read Vampire's Forbidden Territory, the following deleted scene will contain spoilers!

Deleted scene has not been edited.

Change of Plans

“Well?” Clarabelle demanded of the wrinkly-faced gnome standing several feet away.

His pasty colored skin lost even more color as Clarabelle lowered her large head within biting distance of him. His pale yellow eyes widened. Showing a hint of intelligence, he remained crouched next to the squirming troll.

She felt surprise ripple through her big body when the little man didn’t run. At three feet tall, the gnome would be less than a pre-meal snack for her, not that she ate gnomes. Well, only a few and that was years earlier. The unfortunate incident happened after one of the silly creatures cut her beautiful hair too short.

The big troll howled, cutting off her train of thought.

Clarabelle’s foot pressed a little harder, squishing the flopping dark red body under her giant claws. The troll bellowed in fury. Its long yellow teeth gnawed on one of her claws in a wasted attempt to free itself. The big male’s grunts and howls seemed to be a barbarian language, but she knew the noise was only the animal’s attempt to frighten her away.

Trolls, like werewolves or khatts, were very smart animals. If trained properly they became useful tools, but nothing more.

Under Clarabelle’s fierce glare, the troll’s handler hunched his scrawny shoulders. “I tries to teach ‘em Mistress, but I’s don’t always makes ‘em understand. I really tries!” the little gnome squalled under her fierce glare.

 “It’s nots my fault that them mites attacked too soon. I swears it!” the stinky little gnome continued his rambling excuses as Clarabelle rearranged her plans.

Clarabelle didn’t want excuses. She wanted the Chi’Kehra’s lifeMate alive and in shackles before the night was over. Having the Chi’Kehra as her very own trained lapdog would not only guarantee success against the dragon council, but the girl was critical to Clarabelle’s ultimate goal of returning Dragon Valley to the Sídhí home world.

“You will hunt them down. I want the boy captured, not dead. Do you hear me? You will bring him to me alive. He won’t be any good to me dead. He dies and you and every miserable gnome within Dragon Valley will die by my dragonfire.”

The little yellow eyed man dropped to his knees, his loud keening wail of terror pleased her.

Vampire's Forbidden Territory is available at Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble /Smashwords

Christmas in Vampire Valley Cover Reveal!

Fairies, vampires, and explosions create chaos!

Arriving at Amazon.com November 11, 2012

13,000 word short story set in Clan Valley

Shapeshifters on Earth!

Well, I found out a bit more detail on the Haven Valley mystery.

Rumor has it that a fae manipulated the synth crystal within the valley's second dimensional walls.

Fae are supposedly extinct, but then shapeshifters were supposed to be extinct as well, and they are obviously a thriving race.

I couldn't find out any hard-facts about the fae rumor. Myth and fear seem to be the best description. Tens of thousands of years before Sídhí came to Earth, the fae were a dwindling, but extremely powerful race. Powerful, as in the fae were a rival to Chi'Kehra's awesome ability.

The fae had the ability to twist reality, and caste actual spells.

Unfortunately, if they didn't find their lifeMate, by the time they reached five hundred, they went catatonic and eventually died.

I did talk to one old (relatively speaking) dwarf who said many of the first and second-generation fae simply went into a living stasis, sending out tendrils of their consciousness hunting for their mate. Cory Hutch (the dwarf) said many fairies believe they have fae blood in their veins.

This is changing the subject, but once Cory started talking, - with a little help from his homemade moonshine - he told me Haven Valley had several settlements on Earth.

Yes, you heard it here! There are not only shapeshifters on Earth, but several other races as well. He was about to tell me the name of one town, but his mate came in and smacked him up the side of his head with her rolling pin.

He did manage to tell me that the Alpha Prime (Beth) was hiding fae and growing synth crystal in these settlements on Earth!

Well, let me tell you, that's really exciting! I started searching the internet for small towns that were notoriously anti-visitor. My research might take a while, but I'll eventually find out the truth!

Until next time,

Jodie

www.jodiebcooper.com