Wednesday, October 30, 2013

WIPpet Wednesday

Welcome to Wednesday! Today I will post another excerpt from one of my books. I've been working hard to finish up Book Four -- Devil's Salvation--so that I can start fresh for NaNo with Nephilim Rising, which starts a new story arc. Well, I might be a day or two off of that, but I will finish it this week. It's shaping up SO different than the way I imagined it would, but I'm pretty happy with it. I am looking forward to wrapping up the storylines for these characters, though. They've been through a lot, and they've all earned some closure, even if it's not all rainbows and butterflies for them.

Today, I am sharing from Devil's Salvation, and it's a bit of an action scene. For those of you who have never done a WIPpet, it's the one day a week you post an excerpt. The only rule is that the amount you post has to have something to do with the date. Once you've read mine and sounded off in the comments about what you think, go here to add yours and read all of the other wonderful works.

Without further ado, here is 30(10-30-2013) RAW lines from Devil's Salvation:



       Alaria moved with the dog, keeping herself underneath it and waiting for the right time. “I have a plan! Rhad, get back! I’m going to blow it up!”
       Rhad looked up from where he was scorching the fur off of one of the three faces. “How in Lucifer’s name do you intend to do that?”
       She held up the still growing fireball she held in one hand. “I’m going to turn it into a furnace, but get back! This is going to be messy!”
       Rhad leaped over the tail as the animal pivoted and shrugged. “What do you need us to do?”
       “Keep it busy!” Alaria hefted the burning sword and ran to keep up with the wildly swinging beast. “Keeping it still would be good, too.” She gritted her teeth. “This had better work. If it doesn’t, I’m going to end up blowing us up too.”
       Rhad grunted as he hit the ground. “Make it fast, Alaria!” He rolled from side to side, trying to avoid the massive jaws as Cerberus tried to bite him. Braxton leaped to his feet and raced to help, using his sword to bat at the beast.
       Alaria said a quick prayer that she was right about how to kill it and drove the flaming blade up into the softer underbelly. Blood—black and thick as tar—gushed out and covered her arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and thrust her arm up, implanting the ball of fire as deep into the abdominal cavity as she could. Holding her breath, she sprinted away, stopping to help Braxton drag Rhad behind a boulder. She ducked down, her eyes closed and her concentration fully on making the inferno into a bomb.
       She felt it building, felt it growing and spinning, gaining momentum as it burned. Cerberus stopped moving, a confused look on each of its three heads. It made a strangled noise and took two steps backward, yelping and whimpering. Alaria forced every bit of Devil magic she had into the fireball and erupted it.
       They watched the fire engulf the dog in awe. Rhad held out his hands and sent a stream of fire at the beast, keeping the fire from going out. The stench of burning flesh filled the air and Alaria gagged, bending over to retch from the assault on her nostrils. The fire rose up to engulf the entire animal and when the fireball exploded, the earth shook from the force of the explosion. Bits of bone and blood rained down on them, showering all three with the remnants of Cerberus.
        Covered in guts and dirt, Braxton swiped at his forehead. “Well, a swim will feel nice after that.”

7 comments:

  1. Igitt, gross! But I suspect that's the reaction you wanted, yes? :)

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  2. I love seeing snippets of mythology and folklore in current works. =0) And that was an awesome way to kill the creature! Especially as back in the ancient Greek's day, being shot by a burning arrow was the worst possible war wound you could get. It just seems so fitting that Alaria would use an ancient weapon (sort of) against an ancient terror. =0)

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  3. This is really good Sirena. I like the excitement of Alaria and her friends trying to destroy Cerberus. I could definitely understand her squeamishness when she shoved her arm up inside him (it?)!

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  4. There are some lovely descriptions here! I don't blame Braxton for wanting a swim after being covered in all that gore - however a part of me does feel sad for Cerberus. Poor puppy!

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  5. hmmm...who's Rhad?

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  6. I'm with Christina. I feel bad for the poor puppy.... :-P

    That said... It was a fun read.

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  7. Eewwwww Cerberus guts. Gross. ;) Very nicely done action scene. And what a great method of killing him. My only nit: "Rhad leaped over the tail as the animal pivoted and shrugged." This sounds like the animal shrugged. An easy fix by breaking it into two sentences or having Rhad shrug before he leaps.

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