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The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 4b

The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 4b

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The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 4b

May 2012 – Briarwood, ID

It was a ten hour drive to Briarwood. But rather than hijack the sherif’s vehicles, they dropped their entourage off in Vegas to handle the Searchlight bodies before grabbing a quick flight up to Twin Falls. From there they drove seventy-five miles due north to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Station, fifteen miles south of their final destination: Briarwood, population four hundred and eight according to the 2010 census, was situated on the edge of Sawtooth National Forest.

“Like I tried to tell you on the phone,” Blaine County Sheriff’s Deputy Billy Forest said, ushering them into the city’s small morgue facility. “The bodies we’re digging up way pre-date what you’re looking for. From the style of clothing and the degree of decay, the Briarwood bodies look like they’re from at least the forties. Maybe earlier.”

“Can I see the crime scene photos?” Vector asked in a low voice, interrupting Henderson’s automatic grumbling.

…

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The Porfane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 4a

The Porfane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 4a

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Chapter 4a

May 2012 – Searchlight, NV – Vector

Vector sat in the SUV, chewing lethargically on his McDonalds fries. He could see the four FBI agents seated at a booth inside, talking about something intently.

He’d been assigned to the Bureau for just over thirty-four months and in all that time, he hadn’t even begun to figure out how to crack their human boy’s club.

It was different than it had been in Seattle, even when his own partner hadn’t acknowledged Vector’s supernatural status, at least Lachlan had been his partner. They hadn’t been as close as Vector wanted them to be, but there had been a time he would have considered them friends, if nothing else.

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Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 3c

Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 3c

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May 2012 – Julie Hobbes’s Apartment

Leg still smarting from the pain, Lachlan straightened only to feel something strong push against his chest: strong and cold. The force sent him stumbling back against Julie Hobbes’s couch. He tripped over the arm and fell to his knees with a surprised shout.

“What the hell?” he muttered under his breathing, rubbing at his sternum.

Goosebumps rippled across his arms and the back of his neck. It felt like the temperature in the room had dropped by ten degrees in the blink of the eye.

…

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Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Book 1: Medium Rare Chapter 3a

Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Book 1: Medium Rare Chapter 3a

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Chapter 3a

May 2012 – Evening – Lachlan

Later, after they’d put away another beer each, and Alan had given up any pretense of trying to cheer him up, Lachlan said goodbye to his friend outside the bar and checked his phone for messages: nothing there except a voicemail from his mother that he couldn’t bring himself to delete but sure as hell wasn’t about to listen to tonight.

The days were just becoming long enough that it was still light outside when he entered his apartment building, the stairwell smokey with dust motes refracting off the setting light.

Amelia Hobbes must have been keeping an ear out for him because he hadn’t taken more than a single step onto her landing before she appeared to greet him, expectant expression giving her eyes a bit of life in contrast to that morning’s despair.

…

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Sneak Peak: The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 2b

Sneak Peak: The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 2b

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Medium Rare Chapter 2b

May 2012 – Searchlight, NV – Vector

He leaned his head back against the neck rest as their vehicle ate up the miles, turning off Joshua Tree Highway to take an older side road that eventually disappeared. At the thirty-four minute mark, they had fully transitioned to a dirt path cut between the native flora by—Vector couldn’t even imagine who would have passed this way before them. Hunters maybe? Campers? Hikers with an interest in flat desert and the occasional cactus.

He didn’t sleep, but he drifted in a light doze in the otherwise silent car, lulled by the rock and roll of the tired skidding through brown red dirt. Deputy Roberts kept the air conditioning going on high the whole time so that it felt like they were driving around in a black refrigerator.

…

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Sneak Peak: The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 2a

Sneak Peak: The Profane Series: Medium Rare Chapter 2a

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The Profane Series: Medium Rare: Chapter 2a

12483023_10153404470691985_1313634818_oMay 2012 – Searchlight, NV – Vector

This early in the morning, when the light had not quite begun to rise over the curve of the desert hills, the temperature on his phone read a number that some would not have found fault with: a balmy 75° F. Vector’s gut, however, told him it was a prelude for a scorcher. The day was going to be hot as balls and miserable; made worse so by their destination.

He gripped the armrest on his seat on the plane with white knuckles, swallowing against the sensation of nausea threatening to get a rise out of him. Three years and he still hadn’t gotten the hang of flying around in these little Cessna CitationJet puddle jumpers.

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Sneak Peak The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare Chapter 1d

Sneak Peak The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare Chapter 1d

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The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare Chapter 1d

November 2009 – The Akkadian Club

“Hey, you want to get out of here?”

Lachlan blinked sweat out of his eyes and looked up at his dance partner: tall, lithe, with brown eyes and close cropped brown hair. Symmetrical and pleasing to look at, if somewhat bland. The drunkest part of Lachlan’s brain wanted to wrap his legs around the guy’s waist and climb him like a tree. The small voice in the back of his brain that sounded suspiciously of his Uncle Rory—the minister—babbled a string of horrified arguments about why he should do No Such Thing.

“I’d love to,” he shouted over the music playing in the club. His dance partner grinned and grabbed his hand, leading him outside and into a waiting taxi.

…

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Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Medium Rare: Chapter 1c

Sneak Peak The Profane Series: Medium Rare: Chapter 1c

The Profane Series: Medium Rare: Chapter 1c

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May 2009 – Julie Hobbes’s Apartment

Lachlan shook his head to clear it and threw his empty cup in the trash bin next to the front door.

Inside, the building was dark and quiet, cold in the same way buildings got when management set the air conditioning unit too high, leaving everyone to freeze in the summer despite the fact it was only late spring.

He shivered and glanced down at his hand. The words had begun to smudge from the combined heat of his coffee cup and his own nervous sweat but the unit number was clear enough. He took the elevator up to the sixth floor and got out on another empty hallway.

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Sneak Peak: The Profane Series Book 1: Chapter 1b

Sneak Peak: The Profane Series Book 1: Chapter 1b

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The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare: Chapter 1b

July 2009 – Queen Anne Hill

The doctors had told him to take it easy and maybe this didn’t count as taking it easy—he couldn’t drive with the busted up foot or his arm in a sling so he’d had to resort to public transportation—but he had to see Vector. Had to look him in the face and ask:

“Where the hell have you been?” Lachlan demanded before the front door had even swung open. He blinked and snapped his mouth shut on a surprised noise when he looked up into the eyes not of his absentee partner but some stranger. “Who are you?”

The other man squinted those eyes—pale blue and wildly different from Vector’s—at Lachlan, nostrils flaring. Was he—Lachlan stumbled over the thought but there was no mistaking the way the other man was sniffing him.

“What do you want?” the man growled.

…

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Sneak Peak: The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare – Chapter 1a

Sneak Peak: The Profane Series Book 1: Medium Rare – Chapter 1a

Writing is coming along at a good clip this month, and I’m planning on releasing Book 1 in the Profane Series: Medium Rare during the first week of February… Sort of like a 2 year anniversary celebration.

In the meantime, I thought I’d post the first couple of chapters for you guys to take a sneak peak at. These are still rough, mostly unedited, and subject to tweaking before they go to Amazon, but I hope you enjoy them!

I think you can expect 1-2 updates a week until February.

Chapter 1a: May 2012 – Capitol Hill – Lachlan

Last night a girl had died. He only knew this because, as he had left his own apartment the following day for his morning—emphasis in this case being absolutely necessary—coffee run, he had encountered the girl’s grandmother crying just outside her door one floor below him.

“Oh, it’s you, Lachlan. I’m sorry, dear, let me just get out of your way.”

“Good morning, Amelia.” Lachlan Graham paused, one foot on the next step, one foot in the hallway, torn between comforting a neighbor in distress and the amount of energy it would require to deal with her. “Something wrong?” he asked.

Her sigh shivered through her whole body, her hands shaking as she blotted at the tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. It didn’t look as though she’d had the time to apply her face that morning before the instigating emotional event, because despite the presence of water flowing down her face, there were no dark mascara stains on her cheeks.

…

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