Title: Flame
Series: The Bionics #5
Author: Alicia Michaels
Published: June 27th, 2014 by Crimson Tree Publishing
Word Count: 39,000
Genre: NA Sci-Fi Romance
Content Warning: Minor violence, coarse language, and mild sexual content
Recommended Age: 16+
Synopsis:
War has come to the United States. It’s been brewing for years as the government and Military Police wage war on the outcasts known as the Bionics. It’s spilling out into the streets as the militant Rejects continue to wage war against the ‘inferior’ humans, the M.P.s are raiding neighborhoods and putting Bionics to death, and I am fighting alongside the Resistance to save our kind from extinction. To top it all off, the president has now declared martial law, and the rights of American citizens are being stripped away one by one.
Together, with the vigilante known as The Patriot, and my Resistance family, I am prepared to fight the impossible fight, to stand up for what’s right. From a single spark, our little rebellion has grown into a revolution, a roaring fire that will envelop the nation. At the same time, things in my personal life are finally turning around. I’m in love with a beautiful girl who loves me back, and we might have a shot at a real future … unless the enemy manages to snatch away from me everything that I hold dear.
Excerpt:
A weapon’s muzzle suddenly comes up to the back of my head and I freeze, lifting my hands and the CBX with it. An M.P. in white, fiberglass armor circles around me, the gun now focused on my forehead. I can see just by looking that he has it on the kill setting.
“Look, man,” I say calmly. “I’m not one of them. I’m on your side here.”
He raises the face shield of his helmet, and I’m face to face with a fresh recruit. He can’t be any older than eighteen and skinny as a rail, shaking like a leaf. “Don’t come any closer,” he says, his high-pitched voice trembling with the force of his fear. Around us, the fight rages on. “You’re all the same, just a bunch of freaks.”
I shrug. “Come on, dude. We both know I could have killed you by now. But I’m not here to fight you. We just want justice. Look around you and you’ll see the real killers, the real freaks. Turn your gun on them, and I’ll do the same.”
He frowns. “Fight with you?”
“With me, next to me, behind me, whatever. What’s your name, kid?”
He swallows noisily, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Ethan.”
I nod. “Okay, Ethan, I’m Dax. You got a girl, Ethan?”
Ethan lowers the gun. “Yeah… I mean, kind of. She doesn’t really know I like her.”
I smile. “Been there, man, done that. I got a girl too, back home. I kind of told her I loved her a few days ago.”
Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa, that’s huge.”
“Right? Big stuff. Plus, I promised her I’d try to make it back alive. The way I see it, I stand a better chance of that if we can try to fight together, even if it’s just for today. What do you think? Let’s end this shit so we can get home. You have a girl to win over, and I’d rather not piss mine off by coming home in a body bag.”
Ethan nods. “Yeah. Yeah, okay, sure.”
My hand grasps his shoulder just as a flying metal disc comes whizzing at his head. He cries out as I take him to the ground, just barely saving him from being decapitated. I’m not quite as lucky. The metal disc slices into my cheek as it flies by, laying it open. Pain explodes along the left side of my face, leaving a trail of fire that goes from my jaw to just beneath my eye. Another inch and I’d be sporting a falsie like Blythe. Behind Ethan, one of the Rejects has some sort of makeshift gun mounted on his shoulder. It’s the size of a small cannon, and it is shooting another disc at me. Dropping for cover and avoiding another gash, I grab Ethan’s shoulder again.
“You good?”
He stares at me with wide eyes and nods. “Yeah.”
“Cool. Stay down while I kill this dickhead.”
This time when he fires at me, I’m ready. The pistons in my leg joints fire rapidly and I jump, my boot connecting with the disc and kicking it back the way it came. I give Ethan a hand up as the Reject’s head slides from his shoulders, taken off by his own disc.
“Can dish it out but can’t take it,” I grumble as I help Ethan to his feet.
He smiles at me appreciatively. “You saved my life, man. Thanks.”
“No need to thank me. Now, let’s go save some others.”
About the Author:
Ever since she first read books like Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. The mother of two and wife to an Army sergeant loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.
Crimson Tree Publishing Links:
(An adult division of Clean Teen)
Giveaway Details:
There is an international tour wide giveaway. Prizes include the following:
- Reader's choice of Clean Teen Publishing eBook and bookmark swag pack.
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