Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.
Time to Move On by Elyzabeth M. VaLey
“Put something on, you’ll catch your death of cold”
Disappointment coursed through. They were doing it again. No. He was doing it again. She was making an effort. She was dressed in her sexiest lingerie standing in the doorway to his home office, hoping, wishing, that’d he look at her. He’d barely raised his head from his computer. The damn machine was always more interesting than her. It didn’t matter what she was wearing. It didn’t matter if she was naked. It didn’t matter if she was bleeding to death. He didn’t care.
“Didn’t you hear me?”
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Don’t Look Back #20 (4.5) by Julie Lynn Hayes
Marshall felt a light pressure on the tip of his nose. He swatted at it without opening his eyes. Damn flies. He wasn’t quite ready to wake yet, wrapped in a pleasant post-coital haze, a warmth that suffused his entire body from head to toe. There it was again. He reached for it again, but this time his hand encountered warm flesh. Opening one eye a crack, he beheld a smiling countenance and couldn’t help but grin back.
Lee. He should have known.
Then he heard another voice, one that wasn’t Lee’s, coming from somewhere above where they still lay, completely naked, on the blanket.
“How’s the fishing? Catch anything?”
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Craig and I were woken by banging on the door, again! This was starting to form a pattern.
I chuckled at him and pulled on some sweat pants on the way to the door. I opened it to find Cade lounging against the door frame holding a covered tray.
Fortitude: Part Five by Cia Nordwell
“Who do you think he is?” Teddy whispered.
I shook my head. “No idea. He’s not completely wild, though. He wasn’t born out here.”
Teddy frowned. “How do you know? Oh wait”—he held up one hand—“no one can survive out here, much less a baby.”
“Clearly they canf, Teddy, or he’d not be here.” Sometimes Teddy’s slower thought processes anoyed me. I found myself explaining a lot to him, which was often frustrating. “He’s seen bread; he knew it was edible. He’s not seen food preserved, hence his inability to open the cheese. Did you hear the alarm…
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“I wish to hear about the talentless’ take on the war,” Kenneth said. “What the war was like for you—and why it started.”
Thorn leaned against the wall, thinking over the memories of his first few years at the inventor’s college. He had always had a knack for working with his hands—well, hand, he thought with a rueful smile. Maybe it was because of his injury that he had wanted to go into engineering.
He could still remember the first prosthetic he had received, from a woman he had met when he moved from the orphanage in Allentown to one in Tiribek. The war had been over for four years. He had been 11.
“This will help you,” she had said. “It will take some getting used to, though.”
“Thorn?” Kenneth’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Do you want to hear too? If not that’s okay. I just thought…”
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Title: Rattletrap #21 by Tali Spencer
Ussim turned his back on Jedd and continued to scan the human document. The humans knew more than he’d thought. Or at least some of them did.
“Answer me!” Jedd sounded furious.
“This”—Ussim held up the primitive device to shield it from Jedd’s attempt to grab it back—“is not about you!”
“Yes, it is. It’s about us. Human and Ghisr, and what the Ghisr did—”
“You don’t understand what the Ghisr did.” The human who had composed this research had gathered his data only from humans.
“I understand what happened.”
No. He didn’t understand that either.
A Shaman’s Gift: Part 1 by Johayan
He opened his eyes and saw it was late evening. He tried to raise his head but the pain in his head stopped him. He heard a voice rapidly approaching that was calling out his name.
“Yes. It is I,” he found himself answering, “I am here, though, I am not sure where I have been.”
A tall lean man rushed to his side, “My Sovereign, you have been gone for a quarter moon. The Gods must have had information most important to have taken you into their bosom for that long.”
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Washed Right Out: Chapter Ten by Sarah Hayes
“Kiss you?” Riley’s brain spun in circles, like a hamster wheel on full tilt. “Dude!”
“What?” Eren gave him what could have been a harmlessly innocent look, but ended up looking more devious than he must have intended.
“I can’t kiss you. We’re colleagues. And friends,” Riley argued. “And colleagues. And did I mention sexual harassment in the workplace? And I have my own issues to deal with without worrying about necking with you in an open, public place like the lobby?”
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Edge of Fury (Part 8) by Avery Dawes
Zane spent the next two nights staking out Edge of Fury’s property at the base of the mountains. He rented an older model, nondescript Honda Accord. Since local law enforcement drove American-made cars, Zane figured the Honda would blend better. The dings and scrapes should help, too.
The compound was all quiet the first night—so quiet that Zane had trouble staying awake, despite the large Thermos of high test coffee. After watching only one bike travel down the lane, Zane called his surveillance off at three a.m. He still needed to work the next day; a couple hours of sleep…
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In Enemy Hands – #2: by; M.A. Church
The tension climbed in the shuttle as they drew closer.
“We will be entering the net in five… four… three… two… one… and it’s a go.” Varo held his breath. So far, so good. Once they passed the net, they could—
A bright, sparking flash jumped from one satellite to another. The energy produced electrified the surrounding air as the SSN reactivated.
“Stars and curses! No, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not now, not yet!” Snarling, Varo slammed his hand on the com. The light leaped from one satellite to another, then hit them with a hard blast of energy that shook the shuttle.
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