Finding Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book One

Saving Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book Two

I'm back at it, working to finish the second book in the series. I would invite all of you to visit my page and check it out.

Present day...

"Omigod, omigod, omigod!" Marie repeated under her breath. Sitting in the damp, dark cell, she struggled to hear or see anything that might tell her where she was. The last thing she remembered, she had been sleeping in her apartment in East Saint Louis, oblivious to any danger; the next was being roughly awakened by masked strangers pulling her from her bed. They had blindfolded her, bound her wrists and dragged her away. She was roughly pushed to the floor in a smelly vehicle and felt the momentum of her body move with its motion. With her face covered and her mouth gagged, she panicked, overcome by stuffy heat. A short time later, they had dragged her into the cold air and then into a building of some sort. After being pulled down several flights of stairs, she was pushed roughly into a small room. Once in the cell, one of her captors had uncovered her eyes and roughly cut the bindings on her wrists. She could not feel her hands, only throbbing clubs at the end of her arms. The cell was so black inside, she had not been able to see him, only felt the frission of energy as he brushed near her on his way out. They had quickly left, slamming and locking a metal door behind them with a teeth rattling Clang!.

The silence was deafening now. As she listened, she heard water dripping somewhere into a puddle: drip, drip, drip. There was a skittering of little feet, likely mice, or worse, rats. The cold hard floor caused her limbs to grow heavy and numb, offering no respite for her ragged wrists and hurting hands. With no idea how long she had actually been in the cell, she had tried to explore the small space, at first on her hands and knees, but she could barely support her weight on her hands. She had tried to stand but hit her head sharply, as the ceiling was too low. Her head still throbbed; the stickiness she felt in her hair let her know she'd bled a little.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, far away at first but getting closer by the moment. Her heart began to thud in her chest when she realized they were headed her way. She cowered in the corner, as far from the door as she could get, or at least as far as she could tell in the dark. Her breath caught in her throat when the metal hinges groaned in protest after the door was unlocked. She had no idea how long she had been confined; there was no way for her to gauge time of day. This was the first time her cell had been opened. She had given up feeling hungry ages ago it seemed, but her throat was parched. Her fear was not strong enough to combat her intense thirst.

"What do you want? Who is it?" she rasped through dry lips. Hands again handled her roughly, pulling her from the corner easily. Marie feebly fought back, but to no avail. The hands holding her deftly avoided her weak attempts at self-protection.

"You wanna play rough? Keep it up, kitten, and you'll get more than you want," a gruff voice whispered, sending chills down her spine.

She still tugged against her captor, but only half-heartedly, as he dragged her effortlessly through the blackness surrounding them. Apparently he could see well, or at least knew his way in the dark. She was brought roughly to a halt and suddenly bright light blinded her when he hauled open a door. Her eyes had grown accustomed to the absolute darkness of her cell, and refused to accommodate the brightness accosting her. Stumbling more than ever now, she tripped as she tried to see where she was being led. Her captor harrumphed then swung her unceremoniously over his shoulder and continued at his clipped pace toward the unknown. The swift change in altitude made Marie's head swim and her vision threatened to go black again, but for different reasons.

Focusing her eyes on the smooth pile of the ruby colored carpet, she managed to keep her equilibrium. A door clicked open when her captor slowed momentarily. She did not have time to look around before she was dropped on her rear in front of a handsome, yet frightening-looking man.