CE Savage: Blog

Sarah Meets the Sheriff-
Here's an excerpt from the upcoming 3rd book of the Nexus series. I thought you all might enjoy it. I'm working on Chapter 17 now, so I'm almost halfway. If life doesn't get in the way, I'll be done in late Sept. or early Oct. Thanks for reading!

Heres's where you can support my writing, if you'd care to 🙂
ko-fi.com/cesavage
bookapy.com/a/132/ce-savage
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All eyes were riveted to a gleaming black Escalade as the door swung open and a furious tornado of pony-tailed blond, garbed in form-fitting black tactical wear whirled out and upon them.

Strickland thought he could hear the man softly whispering under his breath, “please don’t kill them, please don’t kill them,” over and over.

That made no sense- why should the man be worried about six deputies confronting an unarmed girl?

“That’s far enough young lady!” Strickland said firmly as Lennie attempted to halt her advance.

“Not far enough old fart,” replied the blond, as she effortlessly slipped around the lumbering Lennie and fixed Strickland with the most piercing blue eyes he had ever seen.

She should have been beautiful with her long tight body, supermodel high cheekbones, and full lips. But instead, she was beautifully terrifying in the way that a wild cat was right before it ripped your throat out. Strangely, Strickland forgot all about the Glock he had under his hand. He knew he could never reach it in time anyway.

“Now, what in the absolute fuck is going on here? Ben you need anything?” the blond vision said with a glance toward the driver.

“No, no, Sarah it’s all good. I was just about to join my buddy here for a little discussion,” said the driver as he opened the door to get out.

Strickland let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Why did he get the feeling that if ‘Ben’ hadn’t been okay, they all would have regretted it?

He had to do something to get control back now.

“Lennie, cuff her,” ordered Strickland.

“Sarah…don’t,” said Clarkson in a low warning tone.

Sarah just smiled in a disarmingly innocent way and turned around with her hands behind her back to make it easy for the deputy.

Lennie roughly snatched her wrists and slapped cuffs on her- ratcheting them down tightly.

The young woman turned back around seemingly unbothered.

‘Now…” started Strickland only to be interrupted by a sharp ‘ping’ from behind the girl's back.

“Will you look at that? They just broke! Here you go, deputy. Maybe next time spring for the expensive ones. A girl likes to know she’s worth the good stuff when you give her jewelry,” said the girl as she handed the pieces of the handcuffs back to the stunned deputy. “Chrome-plated bracelets just aren’t my thing anyhow,” she added with a grin.

“Say, Sheriff why don’t we just assume that I’ll come peacefully back with you to the station and answer any questions you might have about today,” said Clarkson holding out his hands for the cuffs.

“Uh, okay, then let’s go,” said Strickland slapping his own pair of cuffs onto the perp’s outstretched hands

“You know what to do Sarah and you know what the priority is.” said the Clarkson.

“Yes, Ben. Don’t worry, we got this.” the girl said as Strickland led him to his patrol car.

“Oh Sheriff, one thing. If he gets so much as a hangnail, I’m coming for you.” said the girl in a clear sweet voice as Strickland got into his patrol car.

Strickland glanced back at her, about to warn her about making threats and his blood ran cold as he swallowed his words. Instead of the girl, there stood an enormous snarling Bengal tiger with paws bigger than his head, and four-inch long fangs.

Strickland nearly lost control of his bladder. He gulped once more and blinked and the tiger was gone replaced by a sweet, pretty girl who wouldn’t have looked out of place on any college campus. He slammed the door and reversed out in a spray of gravel.

Strickland didn’t realize it just yet, but his greed had finally led him to the end of the road.

Here I introduce an entirely new race of beings. They and their leader Dardenys are a big part of the upcoming book. Stay tuned for more excerpts and character sketches and if you haven't already- check out my other stories here

CE Savage on Bookapy You can also support my writing on kofi.com and get more info and updates. My page is ko-fi.com/cesavage

Ben blacked out for an instant as something struck him in the back and head and tumbled him off the captive.

As he struggled into consciousness he realized he was wrestling reflexively with an unknown assailant. An apparently female assailant. He could feel very long, cable-strong legs wrapped around his. Somehow he had managed to trap a slender but incredibly strong left arm under his, pulling a small soft breast tight against his upper body. He was struggling to capture the other arm before she could get a solid swipe at him when suddenly he found himself locked into her gaze. He could peripherally sense a face of surreal beauty but it was her pale, steel-gray eyes that enraptured him. They were full of pain and the cold depth of an arctic winter but there was also a complicated soul within.

A microsecond of inattention was all it took and her right arm sprung free. As time slowed for him Ben knew it was over. It had been a very good run though, much more than he expected, much more than he deserved. His last prayer was for his girls that they would continue on and know that he would always love them. He thanked the gods that in this life he had known what it was like to be loved in return. That was more than many ever knew and it was enough.

In his heightened state, the blade descended slowly. Ben’s eyes never left his killer’s though. He saw her eyes fly wide, as if in recognition and the blade halted right at his neck leaving a faint red line and a single drop of blood. Her nostrils flared sharply once, then twice, and suddenly she was gone. All that remained was a single white feather falling onto his chest.

For those of you that haven't read my bio or aren't familiar with me, you might be interested to know that I'm half-Cherokee and a registered member of the Cherokee tribe of Oklahoma.

I only make that point to differentiate myself from practically every other person in the U.S. who claims Native descent because of some mythic ancestor who was a 'Cherokee' princess.

It doesn't mean that is all that I am, but it does inform my writing with a unique perspective. For one thing, when I write about Native mythical characters, they aren't necessarily 'myths' to me. I believe in the unseen. I believe in deities that exist in dimensions that we can't see and sometimes interact with us.

I studied Native American anthropology at college and so I know both sides of many Native cultures and I truly hope to bring some of that insight to my writing and that it is, at least sometimes, a little more than just entertainment for you the reader.

I hope you enjoy my writing and I hope that some of it makes you think. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any questions or feedback about my stories. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you!

Here's a little snippet from my next book where Ben first encounters the new god in the mix. I chuckled to myself a bit as I wrote it, I hope that makes it entertaining. Ben is definitely a different sort of hero, that I think most men can relate to and even he can get on the wrong side of his women occasionally. Enjoy!

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Ben wiped the sweat from his eyes and swung the posthole digger down into the hole yet again and felt the bone-jarring ‘whack’ travel all the way up his arms as the blades smacked into still another fist-sized rock.

“Goddamnit!” he said out loud for at least the hundredth time that morning.

Why did there have to be a pile of underground rocks pretty much everywhere he had to dig a posthole for the new fence? It must be a law of nature he grumbled. The Nexus ranch had plenty of operating capital and he could have hired one of the crews to do this work for him. But he would’ve felt guilty about having them do something he could easily do himself and besides Kelly had pretty much run him out of the house, telling him to ‘go find a tool and do something with it’. This was accompanied by a look that gave him some idea about what she thought he could do with said tool. Hey- he couldn’t help it if he had no idea about weddings and was only trying to help with his suggestions.

Pretty much every female on the ranch was doing something to get ready for the wedding and pretty much every male had more sense then he did and was trying to stay the hell out of the way. So he had finally decided to get with the program. Now though he was wishing the tool he picked up was a fly rod instead of a posthole digger.

Suddenly he felt the weight of eyes on his back and whirled about abruptly, simultaneously stepping into the hole he had been digging. His arms pinwheeled briefly as he fell backward and ended up on his ass in the dirt.

“Osiyo” said an old cowboy leaning on the fence next to the road. ”Sorry about that. Dinnit mean to startle you.”

"Osiyo, uncle- where the heck did you come from?” replied Ben sheepishly.

“Old Bertha got me here all the way from Idaho. She’s old but she’s still runs good!” the old cowboy said with a sly grin gesturing behind him to an immaculate turquoise and cream ‘57 short bed Chevy pickup.

“No, sorry, I mean how did you…” started Ben.

“Oh she can be pret quiet when she wants to play a trick,” said the old guy with a grin.

“Uh yeah, I guess, how can I help you Mr….?”

‘You can call me IC, if you like. Well, I’m here because I heard tell of a great warrior from around here…”

“Well I wouldn’t go that…”

“...And you obviously aren’t he,” said the old guy gesturing to where Ben sat in the loose dirt. “So I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I’d really like to meet ‘im.”

I know Maria is one of my most popular characters so I thought you readers might enjoy this excerpt from the upcoming book. I'm working on Chapter 12 at the moment. and should be able to start releasing chapters here in September. You can always find more info and detailed updates on my kofi page: ko-fi.com/cesavage or get the sneak peek chapters on Bookapy here: bookapy.com/a/132/ce-savage

Enjoy!

On the white satin comforter was a vision of caramel perfection. Rose-scented candles grouped about the bed painted her skin in an amber-golden glow. She was wearing one of his crisp white dress shirts and nothing else. The fine Egyptian cotton covered her slight figure to mid-thigh where the abrupt transition from white to warm mocha-colored skin drew his eyes down along long smooth tapered legs to perfectly formed feet with deep rose painted nails.

“Ahem…” Maria cleared her throat.

“Um.” was the best he could do, as now he was captured by her rich coffee-dark eyes and impossibly long lashes framed by tousled, raven-wing, hair falling in waves about her head and shoulders.

“You like?” she said shifting slightly. The tip of her tongue slipped out with feline grace and lightly caressed her naturally red, lower lip.

A slight shivering shrug uncovered a small chocolate-drop tipped breast that peeked shyly out from cover as if to say ‘Hi! Come see me,’ but Ben was still rooted in place.

“Uh Ben, this isn’t going to work unless you get closer. A lot closer.” Maria said with a slight blush.