Author: | AU Link | ISBN: | 9781370160600 |
Publisher: | Boruma Publishing, LLC | Publication: | September 24, 2016 |
Imprint: | Smashwords | Language: | English |
Author: | AU Link |
ISBN: | 9781370160600 |
Publisher: | Boruma Publishing, LLC |
Publication: | September 24, 2016 |
Imprint: | Smashwords |
Language: | English |
Aeliana was profoundly frustrated after all these years…centuries really. For so long she maneuvered, positioned and acquired power through her two long millennia. They passed so unremarkable, until him! But that pesky mortal who vexed her so much just would not leave her alone; he even invaded her private thoughts! Try as she might he kept bothering her. How could she escape their time together when she did not want to escape their time together and refused to forget it? She knew she was of the ruling class, and there was no reason for a mortal to cause her any thought let alone trouble. How could she pardon him for treating her so? How could she allow his insults to go unpunished? How did he manage to twist her with such casual effort? And worst of all, he did not just do it to her; he treated four others of her kind with the same callous disregard! Their time was brief, but she could not stop thinking about him and needed answers. She was going to get them from him!
~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~
My life was pretty normal I suppose; some said it was for the better, others say for the worse, things just went on for the most part. The masters just changed faces.
I was always a mouthy sarcastic jerk. As long as I could remember I liked to throw zingers into conversations and walk away. I viewed myself as not mean, just disinterested in a lot of the niceties. And that was pretty much my own view of me, which just made me a bigger dork. That did limit my ability to advance in the big world though, because people above me do not generally like the guy who makes them look silly for sport.
My parents told stories about the wars, economic chaos and corruption that ran rampant through society and the world. They used to say that things were such a mess because self serving crazy people liked to cause trouble in the world so that they could affect some form of social change that benefited themselves. I was too young to really understand when it all happened, but the revolution where 'they' took over was silent, bloodless and complete in its flawless execution.
The bloodletting came after as part of human society fought over the scraps of the new oligarchy, and those who did not want to play or actively rebelled faced disenfranchisement and outlaw status from society.
We slowly realized that we were in a feudal society and if our lord fell, our futures became uncertain. That was complicated as caste groups formed, and while mobility was possible, it was not guaranteed based on birth, but personal choices. The world really was a strange place for most humans.
Suddenly all the things that the generation before took for granted carried steep, life altering prices. Social media posts could eliminate job and employment possibilities extremely. Political dissent became a reason to fall out or be forced out of society, even though everyone knew politics was a sham, saying so angered the powers under the real power and made problems for people. Personal choices like substance abuse and sloth became fatal to career chances. Political and work ethic choices stuck with people.
The vamps coming out and taking over things was a simple and cleanly executed hostile takeover operation, it was just business. Except the ownership was already technically in place already and did not really change hands; so it was not really a takeover, and it was not really hostile. They just suddenly showed up one day and publicly announced their stranglehold ownership. So to us plebes it looked like the world changed overnight, but for the most part it really was just a change in the ownership pictures in public relations documents. There were no longer faceless holding companies or human proxies shown in the pictures, but suave self assured and stunning vampires.
Aeliana was profoundly frustrated after all these years…centuries really. For so long she maneuvered, positioned and acquired power through her two long millennia. They passed so unremarkable, until him! But that pesky mortal who vexed her so much just would not leave her alone; he even invaded her private thoughts! Try as she might he kept bothering her. How could she escape their time together when she did not want to escape their time together and refused to forget it? She knew she was of the ruling class, and there was no reason for a mortal to cause her any thought let alone trouble. How could she pardon him for treating her so? How could she allow his insults to go unpunished? How did he manage to twist her with such casual effort? And worst of all, he did not just do it to her; he treated four others of her kind with the same callous disregard! Their time was brief, but she could not stop thinking about him and needed answers. She was going to get them from him!
~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~
My life was pretty normal I suppose; some said it was for the better, others say for the worse, things just went on for the most part. The masters just changed faces.
I was always a mouthy sarcastic jerk. As long as I could remember I liked to throw zingers into conversations and walk away. I viewed myself as not mean, just disinterested in a lot of the niceties. And that was pretty much my own view of me, which just made me a bigger dork. That did limit my ability to advance in the big world though, because people above me do not generally like the guy who makes them look silly for sport.
My parents told stories about the wars, economic chaos and corruption that ran rampant through society and the world. They used to say that things were such a mess because self serving crazy people liked to cause trouble in the world so that they could affect some form of social change that benefited themselves. I was too young to really understand when it all happened, but the revolution where 'they' took over was silent, bloodless and complete in its flawless execution.
The bloodletting came after as part of human society fought over the scraps of the new oligarchy, and those who did not want to play or actively rebelled faced disenfranchisement and outlaw status from society.
We slowly realized that we were in a feudal society and if our lord fell, our futures became uncertain. That was complicated as caste groups formed, and while mobility was possible, it was not guaranteed based on birth, but personal choices. The world really was a strange place for most humans.
Suddenly all the things that the generation before took for granted carried steep, life altering prices. Social media posts could eliminate job and employment possibilities extremely. Political dissent became a reason to fall out or be forced out of society, even though everyone knew politics was a sham, saying so angered the powers under the real power and made problems for people. Personal choices like substance abuse and sloth became fatal to career chances. Political and work ethic choices stuck with people.
The vamps coming out and taking over things was a simple and cleanly executed hostile takeover operation, it was just business. Except the ownership was already technically in place already and did not really change hands; so it was not really a takeover, and it was not really hostile. They just suddenly showed up one day and publicly announced their stranglehold ownership. So to us plebes it looked like the world changed overnight, but for the most part it really was just a change in the ownership pictures in public relations documents. There were no longer faceless holding companies or human proxies shown in the pictures, but suave self assured and stunning vampires.