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Vanquished
A Hell Kat Novel Book One
A Hell Kat Novel Book One
Vivi Anna
Genre: futuristic
with romantic elements
ASIN: B009Z05Y7U
Number of pages:
300 pgs
Word Count: 60K
Cover Artist:
Frauke Spanuth, Croco Designs
Smart, sexy, and
kick-ass brave, Kat has the fighting skills of a warrior and a determination
few men can match. She’s caught in a post-apocalyptic world where only the rich
live well and Kat is determined to be one of them. To make her dream come true
and reunite with her daughter up North, the fearless treasure hunter has to get
her hands on a lot of money, and that’s going to take every bit of talent she’s
got.
With her devoted
partner Damian by her side, Kat sets out to make one last big score in a city
rumored to be the nesting place of vicious mutated people. The stakes are high
and they get even higher when she discovers her rival, Hades, is after the same
thing. Big, mean, and sexy as hell, he’s just the sort of man Kat loves to take
to tangle with and will if he can help her in her quest.
WARNING: contains scorching hot love scenes
WARNING: contains scorching hot love scenes
Chapter One
LOWER BC PLAINS, THE YEAR 2275
Dust
devils whirled viciously around the broken remains of civilization. Buildings that once stood proud and strong
were now only jagged cement shards protruding from infertile dirt and rock. The sun was a big glaring ball of light in
the sky. Where it had once produced
growth and warmth, it now scorched what was left of the Earth with its brutal
rays.
Kat
looked up into the blistering sun and wondered for the second time today what
in the hell she was doing out on the Outer Rim.
The fierce, arid wind whipped at her cloak and tried to tear it from her
body. Sand peppered her face like a tiny
barrage of bullets. Pulling her hood
forward, she adjusted her tinted goggles over her eyes and continued to search
the rubble for her treasure. No small
feat, considering her right eye was covered by a black leather eye-patch.
She kicked at the dirt and crumbled
concrete with her steel-toed jackboots.
Nothing. They’d been searching
for nearly two hours now. She glanced
over at her partner.
“Damian! See anything?”
Damian
stood from where he squatted, raising his head toward Kat, his blue eyes
glinting in the sun. He held up his
hand, something encased in his glove.
“Just
this cute little dolly.” He waved it at
her, grinning mischievously.
The
doll, headless and encrusted in filth, rattled in his hand.
“Quit
fucking around. And put on your
goggles.” Kat shook her head. The kid knew better. An hour under the unprotected sun produced
cataracts. Cataracts usually led to
blindness. She’d seen it happen more and
more. Her sister had succumbed to
blindness before she had died from the flu.
Damian was lucky he had his hood pulled over his head.
“Yes,
momsie.” Damian reached around to his
pack and unzipped a compartment. He came
away with his tinted goggles.
Kat
watched him put them on.
“Better?” He flashed a grin.
She
shook her head but smiled. He always
managed to make her smile. That was one
of the reasons she had bartered for his life two years ago.
He
had been an employee of a local junk dealer named Jones. Whipping boy, more like. He did errands for Jones, cleaned up the shop
and, once-in-a-while, loaned out to friends.
Loaned, as in pimped out for sexual favors. Men or women, it didn’t matter to Jones. He was an equal opportunist. If the price was high enough, Damian could be
bought.
When
Kat first saw Damian, he was hanging from the ceiling by his hands, his wrists
shackled in metal claps. Naked, except for a thin strip of cloth hanging over
his crotch, Kat couldn’t help but notice his long, lean body. Muscles rippled as he twisted side to side,
struggling against his restraint. When he managed to turn all the way around,
Kat could see the long red welts on his back.
She looked down at his dangling feet and saw the instrument of choice
lying on the dirt floor: a horsewhip.
Two
days later, she returned with more electronics and bartered for Damian’s
release. Jones didn’t even question
her. It was just another transaction to
him. They had made a deal, sealed it
with a handshake, and she had left the store with Damian in tow.
“I
think Russell gave us a bum lead.”
Damian’s voice broke into her thoughts.
She
looked over at him as he kicked an old metal can her way. It landed at the toe of her boot.
“Yeah,
maybe.”
Eyeing
the dirt and debris on the ground, Kat went over what she knew about the
area. It had once been home to a school
of some sort. The exact nature of it
eluded her, but she knew that young children had attended. She also knew that children of old were
taught by electronic means. They had
access to all sorts of gadgets. It
wasn’t clear even if they had a teacher.
Maybe they had all been plugged into some electronic thingy by wires
coming out of their heads.
School. Kat had no concept of what that would have
been like. The word and idea were as
foreign to her as clean air and fresh water.
The little bit of reading and writing she had learned was from her
mother before she had died. Everything
else she needed to know, she learned by doing it out on the streets. Not a pleasant education for a young svelte
girl with midnight black hair and big green eyes.
Russell, another junk dealer, had told
her that she could find those old learning devices out here. At least a couple of steps above the shit
ladder than what Jones had been, Kat didn’t mind doing business with him. So far, he had been honest with her in their
dealings. He never tried to skimp on her
payment. In fact, he had been feeding
her tips as to where certain treasures were located. A win-win situation for them both, she got
her money and he got his prize. As far
as Kat knew, she was the only hunter that he tolerated.
Something
glinted in the sun just under a rock-pile a few feet away. Moving to it, she bent down and pushed over
one of the stones to brush away the earth.
A small circle of metal, the size of a coin, lay imbedded in the dirt.
“Bring
me the pack.”
Damian
rushed over to where she knelt, placing the bag down at her side. She opened it up and took out a large,
long-handled tool, somewhat like a paintbrush.
With care, she swept at the area around the shiny metal. More metal appeared under the dirt. She took out a small chisel and hammer and
chipped around the earth that imprisoned the artifact. She did it gently and expertly, careful not
to damage her treasure.
“Is
that it?” Damian’s velvety voice broke
into her concentration.
“Shut
up, will you?” But Kat wasn’t asking.
She
dug around the metal and under it and then set aside the tools and lifted the
treasure out of the ground. A flat
silver disc with tiny buttons on one side lay encrusted in the earth. She rubbed at the metal, clearing away the
stubborn clinging sand. The word play
was etched under one button. Kat
grinned.
“Is
it the music maker?”
“Money
maker you mean.”
Laughing,
Damian wrapped his arms around Kat. He
picked her up and swung her around.
“I
can just taste the thick juicy steak I’m going to have. I can almost see the blood on my plate.”
“Put
me down, or you’ll see the blood on your face.”
About the Author:
Vivi Anna is an
award winning, Canadian multi-published author in paranormal romance, urban
fantasy, and scifi with close to 19 books and novellas for Harlequin and
others.
Vivi is the current
president of CARWA and also a co-founder of the popular #TVwriterchat on
twitter. She’s also an aspiring
screen/TV writer. You can find her at http://www.vivianna.net,
or procrastinating on twitter at https://twitter.com/authorViviAnna
Thanks for hosting me today
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