Knell

By Viola Grace

Dot has spent nearly half her life in a private home for those who have trouble with reality. Finding out that her talent for hearing the future is actually useful, she agrees to leave her residence to find a place that she has dreamed of. A world where her talent can be put to use.

Loxin has dreamed of the woman his matchmaker told him about but finding her applying to be an Oracle on his base surprises him. No one told him the woman he was destined for could sense the future, but then, no one outside his family and the destiny painter on Yacaro had known about her.

Together, they will fulfill each other’s needs and protect a world constantly under siege...with a little help from the other Guardians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Jun 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781771119221

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

Hearing the future isn’t as useless as Dot thinks, but she finds herself in the arms of a Guardian who wants her here and now.

Dot has spent nearly half her life in a private home for those who have trouble with reality. Finding out that her talent for hearing the future is actually useful, she agrees to leave her residence to find a place that she has dreamed of. A world where her talent can be put to use.

Loxin has dreamed of the woman his matchmaker told him about but finding her applying to be an Oracle on his base surprises him. No one told him the woman he was destined for could sense the future, but then, no one outside his family and the destiny painter on Yacaro had known about her.

Together, they will fulfill each other’s needs and protect a world constantly under siege…with a little help from the other Guardians.

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

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.

Knell

Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-77111-922-1

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.

Published by eXtasy Books

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com

Smashwords Edition

Knell

Terran Times Second Wave

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

Dot McKenna looked toward the road, her senses dulled by her morning medication.

The Farrow Home was off the beaten path and they rarely had visitors. She watched the vehicles wend their way down the gravel path and up to the main house.

She blinked and returned her focus to her painting. The stars she painted weren’t above her but they had been in her mind forever.

Well done, Dot. You are coming along well.

She looked at Nurse Wicker with dull eyes.

The nurse flinched. Aren’t you sleeping, Dot?

I hear them. I always hear them. She turned back to her painting and carefully put white with a touch of yellow on the edge of a star. They scream.

What was it this time, Dot? Nurse Wicker had a notepad out.

Lightning, a fire at a community centre. They are trapped behind the stage. They were having sex and got trapped when the fire hit.

Good girl, Dot. I will call it in and we will watch for it.

Dot smiled vacantly and tried to ignore the screams in her mind. It hadn’t happened yet, but her sensitivity span was recorded. Seven hundred kilometres from the point that she was standing in in a wide pool. If there was a death, disaster or panic, she heard it one day before the event.

Dot had been at Farrow Home for twelve years, since her panicked screams and constant reports to local police had become an embarrassment to her family. The McKennas had dropped her off and letters and cards at the holidays were their only contact.

She finished her work on her painting and backed away to the bench, looking at it. A strange and alien sky, always the same one. She had dozens of pictures just like this one and each of them was the same sky though a few had spaceships zipping about.

Dot heard the footsteps behind her, and she turned to see Mrs. Kettle, the administrator, and a guest with fascinatingly silver skin. The guest stepped forward and admired the painting. It is a fine rendering of the skies above Nixos. I have seen a few of your others and they are all exceptionally accurate. How long have you had this image in your mind?

She looked him over and could not see anything hostile or peculiar, so she answered, Forever. Since before the screams started.

He came over and gestured to the bench. May I sit?

She waved her hand and he smiled. That was when she realized he was hiding something. He was hiding teeth. His smile was very careful.

He settled next to her. Tell me about the screams.

She cocked her head. Who are you?

Pardon my manners. Representative and Recruiter Norz of the Alliance and one of the coordinators of the Terran Volunteer program. He inclined his head.

I am Dorothea McKenna, resident nutcase.

He gave her a sober look. You are not insane, but tell me about the screams.

I don’t hear them during the day anymore. The drugs keep my mind numb and I only get echoes. Dot looked into his solid black eyes and continued, "When I was fourteen, I heard screams and couldn’t find the source. I closed my eyes and I could