Strange Little Band – Dark, edgy sci-fi romance

A dragon. Of course, Shane thought half-hysterically. Every instinct said to run, but he couldn’t. His heartless alien bastard of a father had control of his body. I hate this place. Stop whining, Almeida scolded. Carlyle won’t harm me. Harm you? It’s MY body– Shane cut himself off as his asshole father’s words caught up [...]

The executive level was a ghost town. Jake had visited on a handful of occasions, always accompanied by one of his parents. Each time the spacious, daylit lobby had hummed with quiet activity. Gibson and his Chairmen masters had tens of visitors each day. Despite that, he only recalled seeing a handful of guards. Seeing [...]

Daniel hesitated before the closed door. The innocuous sign hanging from a small colorful hook in the center of the door declared that the room was “In Use” in bold red, blue, and yellow lettered baby blocks. Never before had the sight of the words “Family Room” filled Daniel with a sense of dread, but [...]

Giovanni squeezed a few more drops of blood from the shallow cut across his palm. The miniature tempest swirling before him lapped up the dark fluid before it could hit the floor of his Matron’s office. A half hour of feeding the spirit was taking its toll. Gio bit the inside of his lip again [...]

Green flames leaped from the plush carpet of Chairman Carlyle’s office. Giovanni studied the small, heatless fire between him and his Matron. Despite being one of the senior witches at Triptych, Gio had never seen this particular spell before. The unearthly flames combined Mind, Light, and a bit of Matter. The latter was particularly intriguing. [...]

Daniel willed himself to ignore the smoke permeating his office and stand calmly behind his desk. The scene playing out on his dual-monitor display was bad enough. Worse was the petite, smooth-faced woman occupying his leather chair. Carlyle cocked her head, making her red curls bounce. “Is that his… What does Myers call it?” “Prism, [...]