Blurb:
When her abusive lover tries to take custody of her baby, Audra flees where even he can’t follow: the aliens’ forbidden cities underneath Kwadra Island.
But can the safety she wants for her daughter survive a search party, violent alien criminals—and the love of an emotionally damaged Kwadran?
Excerpt:
The rebels came out of hiding and stalked toward the good guys.
But fifty feet behind them, rolled black cleaning bots in a solid phalanx from one side of the lane to the other. More were emerging from doors to fall in behind the first line.
Tal’s chest felt light. His fists clenched and unclenched rapidly. This was more cleaning bots than had ever been assembled. “Hurry up,” he said to his army even though they couldn’t hear him. “Faster.”
The line rolled toward the rebels’ rear, charging like phalanx of vengeful cockroaches determined to advance no matter what stood in their way.
Maybe because of the gunshots, the rebels didn’t hear the miniature army. Two guys and a woman in the rear yelped when bots hit their feet. Dropping their weapons, the men fell backward; there were so many bots that they carried them and their guns along for a bumpy, jarring ride. The woman was faster. She dashed into a nearby house—but came right back out again, pushed by a battalion of cleaning machines.
Scores of bots flooded into the lane, driving rebels out of buildings and into the churning flood of small metal soldiers. Some tried to crawl over the flood, but they found nothing stable enough to walk on. They fell and bots crawled over them. A rebel emptied his pistol at the swarm, but for every one he shot, another took its place.
One young rebel, smarter than the rest, rode atop the bots without struggling. At an intersection he rolled once, twice, three times until he reached the edge of the swarm. Then he popped to his feet. His escape didn’t matter, though: he left his gun and ran.
Don’t forget to visit the other stops on the tour.
Author Bio and Links:
Edward Hoornaert is not only an author of science fiction, romance, and non-fiction, he's also a certifiable Harlequin Hero; he inspired N.Y. Times bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson to write her favorite Harlequin Desire, Mr. Valentine, which was dedicated to him. In the past, he wrote contemporary romances for Silhouette Books, but these days he writes science fiction adventures—usually with elements of romance. In addition to novelist, he has been a teacher, technical writer, salesman, janitor, and symphonic oboist.
After having 30 different addresses in his first 28 years, his rolling stone slowed in the mountains of British Columbia and stopped in Tucson, Arizona. His high school sweetheart has been his wife for more years than he has fingers and toes to count. Ed and Judi have three sons, a daughter, a mutt, and the Milky Way Galaxy's most adorable grandsons.
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