Hiding

By Viola Grace

Daphne has spent her adult life since the Tokkel invasion fighting for jobs to support herself. With her parents dead, her family consists of one. Desperate to earn some income she takes a position as wait staff at the reception for the Gaian, Tiera MacKenzie and her husband, Tonos of the Nine.

Daphne is trained to be invisible to the members of the Nine who are attending this first cross-planetary event held on Gaia.

After the reception she is desperate for rest but a peculiar interview by the personnel coordinator of the Nine drives her into the woods and a collision with destiny.

Apolan has accepted a position as Ambassador of the Nine on Gaia. The embassy is underway and all he needs now is an assistant. He has just the Gaian in mind if she will simply stop hiding and allow him to offer her all he can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Dec 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781771112581

Viola Grace

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.

Book preview

Making herself unseen was Daphne’s skill until a forest encounter made her want to be noticed by the new Ambassador of the Nine.

Daphne has spent her adult life since the Tokkel invasion fighting for jobs to support herself. With her parents dead, her family consists of one. Desperate to earn some income she takes a position as wait staff at the reception for the Gaian, Tiera MacKenzie and her husband, Tonos of the Nine.

Daphne is trained to be invisible to the members of the Nine who are attending this first cross-planetary event held on Gaia.

After the reception she is desperate for rest but a peculiar interview by the personnel coordinator of the Nine drives her into the woods and a collision with destiny.

Apolan has accepted a position as Ambassador of the Nine on Gaia. The embassy is underway and all he needs now is an assistant. He has just the Gaian in mind if she will simply stop hiding and allow him to offer her all he can.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hiding

Copyright © 2012 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-77111-258-1

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Smashwords Edition

Hiding

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

The first time she heard of a Gaian marrying one of the Nine, she didn’t believe it. Daphne Hallow still didn’t believe it when it was announced that the reception for Tiera McKenzie and a huge pixie named Tonos was going to take place at the hall where Daphne worked.

Now, surrounded by alien warriors from the ship above them, Daphne was finally cluing in that it might be true.

She and the rest of the serving staff were on alert, waiting for the introduction of the couple. Her heart pounded as the gathering filled with beings that were similar to those of Gaia but different in a variety of ways.

They were predominantly male and seated separately from the Gaians. The Nine were in the shape of creatures of myth and legend, from fairies like the groom, to shadows that clung to living flesh.

Daphne and the other servers had been selected after a rigorous security scan to make sure that the incoming Nine would be safe with them. She had never been a high-security waitress before, but she supposed that there was a first time for everything.

They had been through days of etiquette training, practice runs and disaster drills. It was the most intense thing that Daphne had been through since her parents were taken in the first of the Tokkel raids and never seen again.

The facility manager and the etiquette advisor of the Nine passed their ranks with careful attention. All the hair on the females had to be braided and fastened at the back of the skull. Sleeves needed to be long to prevent accidental contact. Trousers were to be loose and a wide sash on the long shirt fastened and flattened everything into a column. The men were dressed the same. They were all completely sexless and lacking any individuality. Perfect.

Daphne had to admit