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    A Tender Light : Episode 1: Ryker's Bane Adventures, #1
    A Tender Light : Episode 1: Ryker's Bane Adventures, #1
    A Tender Light : Episode 1: Ryker's Bane Adventures, #1
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    A Tender Light : Episode 1: Ryker's Bane Adventures, #1

    By Chera Carmichael

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    About this ebook

    Maury's Empath senses lead his Circle to rescue a fragile teen boy with a dark secret. As they try to regroup and decide the boy's fate, Maury can't help but be drawn towards him. It's not just his Empathy reaching out, it's something deeper.

     

    Can they risk adding a child to their dangerous lifestyle? Or is it best to just hand him over to the Healers and be done with it?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChera Carmichael
    Release dateJul 19, 2021
    ISBN9798201135201
    A Tender Light : Episode 1: Ryker's Bane Adventures, #1
    Author

    Chera Carmichael

    Chera Carmichael (aka Scioneeris) to her TBDH fans is a Writer by night and a 9-to-5 worker by day. Her dragel stories feature slow-burn Poly romances featuring dragons, soulmates, elemental powers and otherwordly adventures.

    Read more from Chera Carmichael

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      Book preview

      A Tender Light - Chera Carmichael

      1

      The Faintest Hint - Maury

      A faint, hollowed out feeling crawled into the pit of his stomach and burrowed even deeper when Maury tried to get a better read on it. His Empathic gift strained and swirled within him, trying to step over the confines of the tempering spell he’d cast in order to convince his Bonded to allow him to accompany them on the current assignment.

      Faint prickles of discomfort washed over him as the feeling wavering just enough to let him know that he needed to pay attention.

      Ryuusen, wait! Maury called out, frozen in place from the sheer depth of emotion in the tendril of magic that had reached out to him. It was so thin and desperate, that if he hadn't been directly standing over the source of the faint energy, he would've missed it. 

      We don't have time, come on! Ryuusen said, impatiently. 

      There's something here, it's calling to me, Maury shot back. They were on their way up through the laboratory floors and headed for outside of the massive laboratory complex before the final destructive spell was cast. But Maury couldn't ignore this and it was too strange to simply pretend he hadn’t felt it. 

      Rarely did anything ever reach out to him with that kind of tentative hopelessness tangled up inside of it. Almost as if whoever—or whatever—it was, expected to be left alone to die.

      He stifled a shudder. There were thin threads of distress interspersed with the silent, invisible plea and he knew he wasn’t overreacting then. Those threads only ever showed up when there was death close at hand.

      Instead, he dropped to a crouch over the cracked cement floor and pushed a bit of magic through the opening in hopes of receiving some sort of decipherable feedback. 

      The resounding reply had him shying away from the newly formed hole in the ground. Whatever was down there, it wanted out. He waited until the magic eased, then added another spell to remove the debris. He had to have read that wrong. 

      Ryuusen tugged on their bond, a tad sharply. Enough to make his displeasure known without resorting to outright dominance. We can't linger. You know they're going to tear the walls and halls apart, there won't be anything left standing and I'd rather not cast shields because you got curious. We need to go now! 

      Of course Ryuusen was right. He knew their Circle, Ryker's Bane, was far too gleeful at the thought of excessive property destruction and a client request to use their own discretion. Their mission was to completely obliterate the strange laboratory and leave no trace of it standing—or of the horrific experiments that had gone wrong within its walls. 

      Not the nicest of jobs, but considering that the experiments were all giant bugs trying to eat him, Maury hadn't cared whether their laboratory-turned-home was destroyed or not. He didn't particularly want to be eaten, so complete destruction it was. 

      Of course, Ryker's Bane couldn't do anything normally—so they were happily tearing through the entire laboratory, making sure there was nothing of value left behind and that all personnel had gotten out. 

      So far, there wasn't anyone around—the giant insects had seen to that—and the remaining equipment was half-covered in the weird slime-goo from the bugs that slept in until their rude awakening. 

      Namely, there was no reason for any sort of magical signature to still be present—much less underground. Maury hurriedly dug through the crumbled stone, even as Ryuusen's steps drew nearer. 

      His Alpha was not above physically dragging him out of a semi-dangerous situation, if need be. But something about this space didn't seem right. He could feel the call growing fainter, almost as if the source of it had grown faint. They hadn’t found any building staff or laboratory workers anywhere. The bugs definitely didn’t register on his Empathic scale, so whatever it was—he needed to find it. 

      According to the blueprints he'd seen, there was no mention of anything underground, much less in this area, if his sense of direction was right. 

      Maurice! Ryuusen growled, reaching out for him. 

      Maury dodged his grab with the ease of having been in that particular position before. He was was just quick enough to escape. The ground quivered and gave way behind him. He fell with a yelp—caught by one of Ryuusen's shadows that caught him by the arms in a strong hold. 

      The shadows began to tow him up, until Maury looked down into the hidden hallway. Ryuusen—Ryu—get down here, I think there's a person here!

      His upward trip halted.

      What? Ryuusen demanded, flatly. 

      Blood, Maury said, twisting in the shadow's grasp. I smell blood. Dragel blood Tell me I'm imagining it and I’ll leave quietly, Ryu, I will!

      Ryuusen swore. The shadows quivered and a moment later, Maury was safely snuggled in his Alpha's arms for the downward trip. 

      The scent of blood had given it away. A noticeable difference to a dragel and especially given the harsh chemical smell from the rest of the laboratory. Something had been kept down here. 

      Specifically, a dragel someone. 

      There shouldn't be anyone here, Ryuusen muttered. He allowed Maury to stand on his own now, though a few tendrils of shadow remained wrapped around his wrist out of habit. There was no signs of life in the preliminary scans and- 

      Something reached out to me, Maury said, firmly. He rubbed lightly at the shadows curled around his wrist for comfort. His Empathy was ramping up to provide even more detail—and he wasn’t sure he wanted it.

      Something or someone?

      …does it matter? Dead things don't do that, Ryu. 

      Ryuusen made a strange face in answer. They'd learned that detail the hard way and he didn't like to think of it. Well, it wasn't on the map, he grumbled.  

      Maury rolled his eyes. Most of the things they found in places like this were rarely ever on the map. The blueprints would be missing or compromised and some sort of eldritch abomination would lie in wait to be discovered. He hoped this time would be different.

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