Enthralled

By Viola Grace

Tess Mathers wishes that her mind would simply stop recording the horrors that she witnessed after the city where she studied was blown to bits. Running through the nearby hills may have saved her life, but nothing short of a miracle would save her sanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Nov 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9781554875009

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

Tess Mathers wishes that her mind would simply stop recording the horrors that she witnessed after the city where she studied was blown to bits. Running through the nearby hills may have saved her life, but nothing short of a miracle would save her sanity. Taken from the planet as the spoils of war, Tess hopes that her end is quick. Life at the fighting pit is harsh, brutal and usually short. Hiding inside her mind is her means of survival until the day she is thrown into a black cell and given to one of the fighters. The next day she remembers nothing, a frustration to her captors, but the next night she is sent back and once again he holds her enthralled.

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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.

Enthralled

Copyright © 2010 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-55487-500-9

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.

Published by eXtasy Books

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Smashwords Edition

Enthralled

A Terran Times Novella

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

The third pass of the attack took out the elevated transports, the fourth destroyed Tess's hope of escaping the city when it ravaged the small spaceport.

She had already been separated from the other academics she had been studying with and now was running for her life in the hills above Barco, the only city on the planet Chavip, near Nyal sovereign space. A think tank of educators and scholars from the Alliance and Nyal space made up the majority of the city. The risks of the area had been disclosed to her, but she hadn't believed the reports about colonies and local personnel disappearing without a trace.

She believed them now.

It was sheer horror watching the archive blown to pieces around her by blasts out of a clear blue sky. Bodies in the direct path were torn apart by what seemed to be columns of air travelling with deadly force. The noise that the attack made had the roar of a tornado, but when she peeked skyward, there was no sign of the source.

The air columns explained the lack of identifiable means of attack, but the waves of aggression were obviously under someone's control. Tess Mathers did what she could--she ran for high ground and stayed away from the structures that were systematically being destroyed.

Now and then, she could see another form running for cover, but it was every man for themselves. Life or death. If it is between them and me, I pick me. She would look for other beings later--when she was safe. For now, she wanted to get as far away from the city as she could.

The ships came an hour after the city was destroyed completely. From her vantage point, Tess could see them scanning for life, occasionally stopping and picking up survivors from the ground and then rising again. She couldn't see clearly, but the survivors seemed to be dragged between two of the ship's crew into the ship.

Hiding next to a tree, she fought the urge to run screaming as another ship swerved around and the visible scanning beam flashed out. It missed her by a few hundred feet, but she didn't even breathe as the ship came toward her. They had taken up less than ten