Excerpt Friday (On Saturday)

Flight of the Valkyrie has finally released! Here’s a short excerpt from Chapter One.


Blurb:

Arrested for the murder of thirty members of the High Council of the planet Carnelia, Sienna McCade could face a hundred years in cryogenic suspension, the maximum punishment allowable by Galactic law. Jordan Dane is the Courier assigned to transport Sienna's cryo-stasis tube to a prison ship, where she will remain until her trial.

When his ship crashes and Jordan is injured, he finds himself at the mercy of the beautiful assassin who has managed to escape from the broken stasis tube. He knows he owes her a debt of gratitude for saving his life, but he can't ignore his mission. Should he deny his growing feelings for her and turn her over to the authorities, or risk everything to help her prove her innocence and spare her a hundred years in cryo sleep?


FLIGHT OF THE VALKYRIE

Pain lanced through Sienna McCade's body, white hot and relentless.

Starting at the base of her spine, it crept upward to the back of her neck, moving like hot lead in her veins. When it reached the base of her skull she clamped her eyes shut and tried not to scream. She'd promised herself when they captured her that she wouldn't show any fear. Had she known then what it would feel like, she would never have made herself that promise.

In her mind, she cursed and fought the dozen hands that held her down while the paralyzing drug worked its way through her nervous system. Had her efforts been any more than an illusion, she might have broken free, but the drug worked too quickly, rendering her inert and silent only seconds after the first injection plunged into her veins. All she could do now was force herself not to panic until the darkness overtook her.

Sienna had never been afraid of anything until she tasted the faint sweetness of the cryogen gases as one shallow breath pulled them to the back of her throat. The flavor of it flooded her senses and made the nightmare all too real. This was actually happening. She was being put into cryogen sleep where she would remain until it was time for her to stand trial for her crimes.

Her heartbeat slowed, beat by beat, and her blood felt like a thick snake, slithering through every dark, arterial passage in her body. It chilled her to near freezing.

I'm dead, she thought. The idea itself didn't frighten her. Her people believed that death was only the beginning of something new and wonderful. They believed the world beyond this life was a comforting place and she believed it, too. She sensed it on a primal level and thus she knew also that this could not be death. This was only a suspension of life, a terrible sleep.

She held her breath and waited for the next exhalation, but it never came. Her lungs filled with thick liquid that hardened like ice, and she cursed her captors with her last coherent thought.

Finally, she descended into blackness.

* * *


To find out more about Ravenstar’s Bride visit: http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/flightofthevalkyrie.htm

Where you will find a longer excerpt from Chapter One!