Friday, May 30, 2008

Friday Flash-- Forever versus Eternal Pt. 2

Due to a request and a command-- I'm posting part 2 of my Captain Jack Flash for this Friday. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As she walked down the street, the first thing she noticed was the emptiness of the streets. Though she’d been warned by London Torchwood regarding certain beasties, it wasn’t until this moment that the danger became real. “Fuck me sideways until I scream,” she muttered under her breath, rubbing her hands over her forearms, making sure her knife sheaths were in place. Though normally she didn’t go armed with just knives, taking a weapon into a club was not on the recommended to do list.

Her quick strides ate up the ground before her, but no matter how much distance she put between the club and herself, she heard the music throbbing in her veins. Then another sound made its way into her mind. That of movement behind her. Cautiously, Cyrena slid one blade hilt into her left hand while keeping her right free. Something was following her, but she wasn’t sure for how long.

Before she could turn around, the one thing she didn’t want to hear blazed in her mind. Another rift opening occurred, this one bigger than the last. It wasn’t too far ahead of her, but if she was going to deal with her follower, she might miss a chance to balance out the energies of the rift, allowing someone or something else to have entrance. Fuck me while I’m tied! This isn’t fair!

In that moment, Cyrena dashed towards the beacon in her mind, letting her stalker either follow her or not. The rift energy was too high, too uncontrollable to not cause damage to this beautiful town. At least I’m dressed to kick ass whether it be club or dealing with the rift. I wonder if that’s why the Doctor sent me here?
Suddenly, Cyrena felt the power of the rift touching her skin. Glancing around, she realized that she wasn’t in a very populated district of Cornwall, being nearer to the warehouses. Luckily that meant less people to watch her deal with the rift activity, but it also meant that if something happened to her, no one would find her body for days. Shrugging off that negative thought, Cyrena crouched behind a dumpster, waiting for the energy to reach its peak. Until it did, anything she did would be dangerous.

As she waited, she heard not just one set of footsteps but multiple. It must’ve been Jack who followed her. She heard him call her name when she realized something was about to come through.

“Stay back, Jack,” she cautioned standing up and walking towards the rippling energy. She couldn’t look at him. It made her want something that wasn’t hers to have. Though she had powers, some that weren’t made for use on this earth, others could help keep things safe. Like her ability to calm the rift. As the Doctor pointed out, people like her had been kept imprisoned for that talent. “You and your Torchwood team, just stay back.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a tall, thin dark haired man approach. Is it too much to ask for anyone to fucking listen just once? I can’t take a risk of the energy hurting him…Owen. Her mind touched his and she abruptly pulled back. “Dammit, Owen, stay back. This energy can destroy your body leaving your soul to wander free!”

Cyrena looked over her shoulder to where Jack Harkness stood. “Please, Jack. I don’t want you and your people in the crossfire. Toshiko knows just how powerful this energy ripple is. Let me do my job.”

Jack nodded. “Fine, Phoenix. But after, we talk.” He clicked his earpiece. “Everyone pull back. Ms. Cyrena thinks that she can stop this before it gets any worse.”

“Not think, I know.” Cyrena moved to the edge of the energy and using her blade, began cutting and absorbing the power, being moved into a dance that allowed her to shift and release the energy into the more appropriate energy conducive to refueling things, such as a Tardis. She didn’t think past the fact that somehow the Torchwood team had been on their way to this location just as she instinctively was called. All that mattered was this deep, thick energy of the Rift was dissipated in a way that wouldn’t harm anyone on this planet. She continued to lash out her blade and dance, shifting the energy, not seeing anything but the music of the energy.

Then an arm grabbed her and she screamed. It was a huge Weevil, like nothing she had encountered before. Cyrena slashed at its eyes hoping to blind it when a blast filled her ears and the creature released her. She ran blindly towards where the sound originated, smacking into a hard chest. Warm arms wrapped around her. “You okay, Cyrena?”

Jack. Gods above he’d be the death of her. His touch and that look of concern was all hers. In this moment, she knew exactly what the Doctor had warned her about. “I’m…I’m okay. Thank you.”

A small petite Japanese woman approached them. “Jack, the energy is gone. Cyrena did something to it. Now it reads just as regular energy that we’d normally find along the Rift. I don’t know how she managed to convert all that power. How did you?”

Cyrena stepped out of Jack’s arms and sighed. “When you die only to live again, you seem to gain certain talents. Why else would my Torchwood moniker be the Phoenix?”

An Online newspaper for Pagans, especially witches

Every so often, I get information that just makes me wonder. When we hear of atrocities of abusers and the human rights gone wrong in other countries, we cringe. Yet, sometimes we forget that those who practice magick need a reliable source of news regarding others in our beliefs. Thus, a friend of mine brought this online newspaper to my attention. www.magereport.com

Though it has a lot of what's been negatively going on in our world in regards to magick, there are some positive things as well. But the only way we can truly combat the negative connotations is if we strive to show the positive sides of being who we truly are.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Raven Radio Goes Nights!




Those Raven Nights!

Raven Radio, as mentioned in Romantic Times Magazine, is moving to nights! Tune in every Wed at 11-12 PM EST and join Authors Michelle Pillow and Mandy Roth as they talk about everything, nothing and the paranormal. Guests include NY Times and USA Today Bestselling authors as well as those wonderfully talented authors soon to be there, editors, paranormal tour guides, psychics, ghost hunters, specialists and more!

www.ravenhappyhour.com or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ravenradio


Listeners are welcome to join the live chat or call in to the show to talk to us and our guests. The show will move to its new evening schedule, May 28th where listeners can catch us every Wednesday at 11PM to 12AM EST. We have a lot of authors on the upcoming line up and you can see a full schedule of guests here: http://ravenhappyhour.com/raven_podcast_schedule_of_guests.htm

WANT TO JOIN THE VIRAL CONTEST AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT RAVEN NIGHTS? Go to Raven’s blog to learn how you could win free advertising packages! Contest open to authors, readers and other groups! http://ravenhappyhour.com/ravenblog/?p=463

Friday, May 16, 2008

Friday Flash- Repository- Chaucer's Game

For Nik and Sharyn. *Grins and runs like hell*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stared at the phone receiver in my hand. Obviously someone is going to London and I think it's not either of my sisters. Fuck me raw with my hands tied behind my back. After hanging up the receiver, I sat back on my office chair and wondered what I was getting into. I don't know why I said yes to the way-too-nerdy-even-for-me British professor. I'm no expert in medieval manuscripts, but something in my mind perked when Dr. Phineas Tolliver mentioned the name of Geoffrey Chaucer. And when my subconscious mind and its link to my ancestors perk, I'm very inclined to listen.

Rubbing the back of my neck with one hand, I looked over the notes I took. Somehow, the fantastic folks at the British Library had failed to realize that in a collection of notes from the exchequer and other government officials-- there were a few unofficial letters among them. Since the Library won't let them be faxed or scanned in any way, the only way to verify the authenticity would be to go there. Lucky for me, it means my other sisters were disqualified from the search.

The ringing of the phone took me out of my revelry. Caller id said it was from the museum I was head curator. "Hello, this is Cylene," I said, trying not to demand what they wanted on my day off.

"Hey boss, it's Callum." The voice was a light baritone, which befitted my male secretary. Good man, Callum Montgomery, even if he deserved to be shot on occasion when his excitement got in the way of paying attention. "There's a slight problem here."

"Not about the new excavation finds," I whinged. "Please say that's going well."

The hesitation let me know that it wasn't going well, but that wasn't the main problem. Sighing, I put my notes aside and grabbed a pad of paper. "What's wrong, Cal?"

"Honestly? Your sister, Serina, arrived this morning looking like hell and is now setting up the excavation stuff. Seems that someone or some people tried to steal it away like you all thought." Before I could ask, Callum continued in that officious voice of his. "She is fine. Serina has contacted certain people whom I'm not privy to and has put an investigation into full swing. We should be able to do the grand opening tomorrow night as long as there are no more interruptions."

"Good. Then that's just scraping by our teeth. I'll check with Serina later. What else, Cal?" I tapped my pen against my desk, trying to keep my patience. I swear Callum wrings things out because he knows it annoys me to no end.

"The insurance adjusters are here, a month early." Those words made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. There was no way they could be there. I know the adjusters. Something was wrong, my intuition and my psychic abilities started blaring hard in my mind.

"Get security and have them follow the adjusters. In fact, contact Garrett and tell him we have an Atlas issue. Understand me? Atlas issue. Then make sure you lock up everything in our offices and change the codes to something you know alone. After that, get the hell out of there and go to my private sanctuary, Callum. Do not go near those people. Let Garrett and Nyla handle them."

"As you say boss. Code locking the computers as we speak and putting all papers into the safe. I'm glad I called you. Something about them--"

I growled into the phone. "No talking, get doing! Hang up with me and get Garrett. I'll call Nyla. She's probably out in her backyard doing some kind of mechanical thing. Go and do exactly as I directed, Cal. You're in danger and I want you out of there!"

Slamming down the phone, I cursed in five of the multiple languages I'd learned as a child. Picking up my cellular phone, I dialed my sister, Nyla's number. On ring number two she picked up. "Hey, what's going on? My spider sense..."

"Is right. Go to the museum. The insurance adjusters are a month early." I scribbled down a number that popped into my head. "I've got Callum following Atlas procedures."

"Going now. I'll call Serina. I know she's in the museum and can cover 'til Garrett and I get there." Nyla disconnected without a goodbye. Times like these, you don't need goodbyes, you need get dones.

And I'm supposed to be leaving to England on the night flight out from Tampa. Fuck me sideways.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Sunday Surprise Flash-- Judgment or Redemption

Things have been brewing and sometimes what I feel and know to be happening has to come out and allow me to see it more clearly. So, I decided to write this snippet because I must make a choice soon….and it’s not going to be easy. It hurts to know that someone I love has broken a promise– and the consequences hurt like hell. Take a read and see what you think of this little story idea.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She looked up at her soul siblings and shuddered. For too long she had hidden in the dark, doing the things that put her further away from balance and away from the loving embrace of those who accepted her as she was. But now, now she had been caught and nothing she could say or do could change what was about to happen.

“I’ve done nothing wrong…” Katarina whimpered, trying to hide her face behind the veil she’d been wearing.

The oldest sibling stepped forward and caressed Katarina’s cheek. “You’ve done nothing right either. You chose a path that fed into the darkness and took you from your own true path. You’ve used your powers to gain power and to gain what you thought you needed and wanted, but without regards to costs nor to the fact you denied the lessons put before you.”

The red-headed sibling stepped forward, ripping the veil from Kat’s face. “You are unworthy to be among us. But you also have served Balance and we must give you this one last chance.” Tanera shook her head. “Personally, I think you’ll find a way to deny your fears and you’ll refuse to admit the truth because you’re not strong enough nor do you want to be whole enough to do so.”

“You know NOTHING about how I am.” Katarina stepped forward, only to have the oldest sister, a blonde haired woman to take hold of her hand and pull her into an embrace.

“But I do. I know who you are, what you are, and what you’ve become.” Sylene sighed and kissed the top of her head and Kat felt the tears slide wet into her hair. Sylene always tried to do what was right, no matter the cost. “You think it’s all about you and that you deserve things. You’ve forgotten the important part– you’re not alone and your actions affect everyone else in your world. We don’t want you to go without– but you are trying to make sure the rest of us do– because you won’t face your demons, nor your own mistakes.”

Katarina wrapped her arms around Sylene. “It’s not true. I’ve made my peace. I’m trying to learn my lessons.”

The third sister, with blonde hair with black streaks pulled on Katarina’s ponytail. “You have not and still you persist on lying. You’ve rejected your heritage, practicing only what helps you, and you LIE when confronted with evidence. You ignore your soulmate, but won’t free him either because he’s YOURS. Yet you do stupid shite and expect to be forgiven always because of who you are and whom you belong to. You face expulsion, Katarina. Do you not yet understand this?”

“Our beliefs are based on the old, not what’s come out since then. Why shouldn’t I have what I want when I want it? Is it so wrong to put myself first?” Katarina looked at her baby sister, Nerys. “You don’t give a shit about anything and think it’s okay, but why the fuck should I NOT have all I want if I don’t hurt anyone?”

Sylene sighed softly as she tilted Katarina’s chin towards her. “You don’t get it. You have hurt people and you seem to think it’s okay to do so. You’ve harmed one of MY heartmates, your soulmate because you choose to act in a selfish manner. You can’t keep balance when you have a heartmate in your life. You go chasing all these things because you won’t face your fears nor will you face the one thing you need to– that you have become what you hate most in the heartmate banished from our group.”

“No! No!No!” Katarina screamed, pulling away from Sylene’s arms. “You lie, you wish to make yourself to be judge and jury. You think to make me conform when you said I should be myself.”

Sylene nodded at her other sisters and they surrounded Katarina, encasing her in a magick circle. “You take advantage, you manipulate, you harm because you want and you need. You are selfish and you are scared. You break balance and you misuse the powers given to you because you think you can do better alone than by living by what’s been proven time and again.” Sylene slid an athame from her belt and used it to cut open a small slit on her thumb. As the blood from the wound dropped to the ground, it sizzled and even Katarina felt the power so much greater than hers surround her. “You are loved, you are wanted, but you refuse to see that you fear not being good enough. You fear not mattering. You fear that if others get you will receive NOTHING. But in doing what you’ve done, you’ve become the nothing. You ache to find fulfillment and make blood oaths and promises and demand things you have no right to demand because you have fucked up, sismine.”

“Bound by blood, bound by love, bound by the elements– you are judged,” Tanera intoned, throwing salt into the circle. “Purify thy heart, thy mind, thy soul. Face the fact that you are no longer in balance but have stepped into that which we cast out Tal. You are a leech, and you’ve lost your purpose. Give up the imbalance and let us heal you.”

Nerys threw water at Katarina, splashing it upon her naked body. “Cleanse and purify. Face the demons that you fear and allow us to show you that we love you.”

A deeper voice came out from the darkness and a male stepped to the edge of the circle, taking Sylene’s hand. “Let us show you the way back to the woman I have loved for so long. Come back to me, Katarina.”

“You touch my sister, but you are MINE!” Katarina spat as she tried to break out of the circle. “You are no longer HERS.”

“Yet you treat me as lesser than your heartmates..I who am your soulmate. I who have done all I could to make you feel safe and loved.” Seth spoke clearly. “Sylene loves me as heartmate. She knows who I truly love and adore. But she and I are close. She gives me understanding and a kick when I go wrong. Yet you reject me for someone you can manipulate into giving you what you think will make you happy. Now look what that’s done.”

Katarina pushed upon the magickal barrier, but nothing would let her out. She knew they spoke truth, but there was no way back…hadn’t the expulsion of Tal taught her that? “There is nothing you can do to me except strip me of my powers and break the bond between you and I,” she whispered.

******

Sylene saw the realization and the fear as it slid across Katarina’s face. Good, perhaps now we can get her past the darkness of self and into the light of self healing. “No, there is more we can do. More that I can do. You forget who and what I am, sismine.”

Katarina swallowed. “You are the servant of the gods, the keeper of balance, the true daughter of the Elements. This I know and understand.”

Sylene stepped forward, releasing Seth’s hand. She felt his hand stroke her back, reassuring her that she was doing the right thing. “Yes, dear one, I am that…but I am more.” Allowing her shields to drop fully, Sylene let Katarina see the power that was hers. “Do you not truly understand what it means to be the daughter of power and the one who cries for the inhumanity that occurs when there is no balance?”

Kat stepped back, only to be stopped by the magickal barrier. Sylene stepped forward. “I declare you Rogue. I declare you Unfit. I declare you Uncleansed before Gods, Mortal and Elements alike. I declare you one chance left to save all you hold dear…and then I destroy it all…..and make you watch it while you acknowledge as my slave…that you did wrong.”

“No! You can’t, you musn’t! Don’t kill my heartmates…don’t destroy Seth. He hasn’t done anything. It’s ME!” Katarina grabbed Sylene by both arms and tried shaking her. “Don’t you dare make me kill you, sismine! I won’t let you take away what I have!”

Sylene laughed, the power growing inside of her as she spun her magick around her beloved sister. “You can’t kill me, sismine. The power was never yours to do so. Only Nerys and Tanera have that ability. And yes, I can kill those you love and have manipulated. Because they’ve been tainted by your evil. If you truly want to save them— then save yourself. Your choice and you make it here and now….or watch me take away all you truly deserve.”

Sylene looked over her shoulder and mouthed to Seth, “I hate this. Please…”

Seth smiled at her. “It’s okay..you do what is needed. I want her better. No matter the cost to myself.”

Sylene turned back to Katarina. “See, he would sacrifice it all to have you healed. Yet you offer nothing of yourself to save the ones you claim to love and be bonded to. How selfish you’ve become, sismine.”