C.F. Francis

You know how people joke about walking miles in the snow to get to school?

Well, every Saturday growing up, I’d walk two miles to the library in the blazing South Florida sun. As I look back on those trips, I wonder why the heat didn’t bother me, but I think I was more interested in the books I was going to discover that week.

Like many young girls, I started off reading Nancy Drew, followed by whatever mystery I could get my hands on. Classics or current, it didn’t matter. When I discovered romantic suspense, I was hooked.

My Sirst novel was written for my own enjoyment— creating characters I wanted to spend time with and would welcome back for a visit. I never seriously planned to publish it - or anything else - until a friend read the completed manuscript and pushed me into it. So in 2016 I gave it a whack, and to my surprise, Sanctuary Island was well received. It currently has over 1,200 reviews on Amazon with a 4.5 rating. So, thanks, Cathy, for the nudge.

The James Gang series is set in Southwest Florida where I currently reside. The stories revolve around a band of former Special Forces members and the kickass women they meet. I’m fortunate to know men who served in both the Special Forces and Military Intelligence. They help keep me honest.

My second novel, Lovers Key, was a Sinalist in two national competitions for romantic suspense. Explosive Touch and Run, River, Run followed. The most recent installment, Secrets Unlocked, just released on January 24. I’m currently working on the last of this series. Where I go next, I’m not sure. I have the beginning of another series tucked away and ideas for others, so we’ll see what feels right when #6 is complete.

Personally, I’m married to a non-handyman who I try to keep away from tools of any sort. (Long story in there.) We enjoy traveling, and you might see a few of our journeys between the pages of the books. Until Hurricane Ian, shelling on Sanibel Island was a favorite pastime and plays a special part in Lovers Key. The islands are slowly coming back and hopefully, by this time next year, they’ll be welcoming visitors again.

***With the shocking revelation that the Laws were not located where they’d always been told they were, Ebbe and Emme have left to see what is going on. The vicious and brutal attack, while at work, has taken its toll on Yana, who is not as concerned as Kit is that a Guardian is missing. No one knows how Yana knows what she does, but one thing is certain... she’s not wrong.***

ShufSling in from work, Yana left a trail of clothing, her satchel and tele, and jewelry from the door to her bed. Barely remembering to turn the locks after walking in, she collapsed onto the bed and passed out.

Sitting down next to her, running his hand from her shoulder to her hand, Donal’s somber stare went unseen; his hand, unfelt. Not understanding how his hand could run along her shoulder, yet be unable to take her hand, he kept the pressure of his touch steady, rhythmic to her breathing. While willing to sit like that for hours, she needed to eat. She required sleep after the recent days and events, but without some kind of nourishment, her body would give out.

Shaking her slightly wasn’t working, Wait a click, that’s not right. His hand had begun to sink into her shoulder. Continuing his gentle stroking, he watched intently. His hand gently glided from shoulder to elbow. Lifting his hand to shake her, he looked on in fascination and horror, as his hand disappeared into her skin.

He opened his mouth, stopping short before calling for Emme. She and Ebbe were looking into what was happening with the Laws, and were unavailable. He couldn’t simply call just anybody. Thinking for a click or four, he tapped out a message on his time piece, and waited. Communications to anyone, nearly anywhere or anytime, were haphazard at best at the moment. He hoped that once Ebbe and Emme located the Laws, all would be back to how it should be.

Are you sure you believe it will be that easy?

He didn’t want to answer that question, so he emptied his thoughts, and continued running comforting strokes down Yana’s shoulder.

Static from an incoming portal had him jumping out of the way. Cursing under his breath at the bodily disappeared into her shoulder. As amusing as the sight was, Yana was his alili, and no one should be in her bed but him.

Waving Donal’s annoyance off, the Guardian reminded him, “She does not know you. The Divide is still fully intact. Her memories of before, and you, are not accessible. You know this.”

“It does not make my claim to being hers, or by her side, any less valid,” Donal argued.

“For you, not for her,” the Guardian said, tilting his head toward Yana’s sleeping form. “I saw what you were doing with your hand, and how it functioned, differently. It is... most odd.”

That’s an understatement. “Do you know why it’s happening?” Donal asked.

“Not completely, though I have my suspicions, which I will keep to myself,” the Guardian said. “I know that your element shelf was tampered with in ways it should not have been. Do understand, you are not the only one this has occurred to. I know the portals and communications are in worse shape, and getting increasingly unmanageable at a truly alarming rate.”

“It would seem that the elements themselves are in an uproar,” Donal said, scrutinizing the Guardian’s response. Unfortunately, true to form, his face and posture revealed nothing. “I hate how you can do that.”

“Why? Because you have so little control?” the Guardian chuckled.

“Ha. Ha.” danger the portals were becoming, he stopped when the Guardian walked through.

Walking to the closest chair in Yana’s bedroom, the Guardian hesitated before seating himself. Staring from the chair he now occupied, to the bed where the portal had landed him, inside of, and back, he murmured, “Most odd.” Random sigils Singered into the arm of the chair bore witness his discomfort with the happenings in the Hereafter.

“What in cold ochu?” Donal said.

Dusting himself off from... sparkly... debris?... the Guardian glanced at Donal with amusement through black eyes, shaking the... glitter?... from his golden hair. “Do you believe this to be as absurd as I do?” He paused, looking down while dusting his tanned arms off, he said more to himself than Donal. “Hmm, I don’t believe I should be merged with half the bed.”

Donal couldn’t choose between a snort of humor or a Slash of anger. The Guardian’s lower half was buried in Yana’s bed, as completely as his hand had

“It seems,” he began slowly, “that what you intend to do for, and to her, makes more of a difference than it should. Comforting touches, though unfelt by her, feel normal to you, and appear normal. However, once you tried to rouse her, to take care of her needs... waking her so she will eat... your intention changed, as did your ability to touch and sense.”

“But nothing runs on intentions, nor measures them,” Donal countered.

“That we know of,” the Guardian said softly.

“Wait. What?”

“When, in any histories or learnings, inside any Prophecies or writings, has anyone ever mentioned portals not working, communication breaking, Laws being able to be broken?” the Guardian countered. Seeing cogs turning in Donal’s mind, he continued.

“From what I witnessed, it’s clear that when you intend one thing, comfort, your physical form has one set of rules, but when you intend something else, help or assistance, your form is not allowed... as if the rules have changed.” He held up his hand to stop Donal’s protest. “Yes, I know it shouldn’t be like that, but I watched you re-do your actions. Making sense or not, doesn’t change what is.”

Soft whimpers from Yana had them to her side in an eye blink. Arching her back away from something

“Ow!” Donal covered his eyes a hairs breath too late. Letting them water and not rubbing, he blinked madly as the tears rolled. As the water diminished, he gaped at what he saw.

Protruding, no, running her clean through was a hooked weapon, nearly as long as he was .Somehow, without either of them seeing, some... one?... thing?... had thrust its tip through her front until an armlength was sticking out of her back. He turned his head slightly, the warrior in him analyzing the angle of attack.

“It came through the bed, as she was on her front,” Donal mused.

“Ingenious plan. And why we didn’t see it happening?” the Guardian added. Calling up his shelf, a slight frown was Donal’s only warning before the air in the room began to quaver. Closing his eyes, the Guardian whispered, and the movement ceased. “I appear to be missing the very elements I need. Call up your shelf; let me see what you have.” As Donal’s shelf Sloated to him, the Guardian took a Sirm hold of the curved, razored tip, and began murmuring an ancient dialect Donal was only now beginning to study. Grabbing some elements from both shelves, carefully measuring particle by particle, the tip in his hand dematerialized, its elements Sloating up, swirling, and disappearing into a portal.

“Do you know where you sent that?” Donal asked, taking his shelf back and tucking it away.

The Guardian shrugged.

Donal couldn’t see, he started to reach for her.

“What are you doing?” the Guardian shouted, slapping his hand away.

“But...”

“Why would you go near that?”

Donal froze, not moving a hint toward her still contorting, and yet, still sleeping, body. “Uh, near what?” he whispered.

Shoving Donal out of the way and crawling hesitantly across the bed toward Yana’s back, the Guardian hissed, “I can’t believe...” touching something unseen an arm-span from her with his left hand, he Slicked a Singer toward Donal.

“Fine… Where do you think you sent it?” he asked. “It is supposed to go into the Void, a gift for the Demons, as I assume that is where it came from to begin with. The elements in the tip are... very old would be inaccurate, from before our histories begin is even too young.” Hesitating to reveal more, but knowing that, as Yana’s alil, the Leveler’s alil, Donal needed all the help he could get, the Guardian continued. “There is much you don’t know, and even more I do not know. There are histories, writings, information, hidden from long before this Cycle began, and no, I am not going to tell you how I know this, yet. It may be of importance at a later date, but right now, you need to understand that what we are seeing in the breakdown of elemental ties, sigils and wordings no longer working properly, is not beginning to happen now. It began long ago.”

Donal opened his mouth, and then shut it. Helping the Guardian slowly pull the staff from Yana’s still sleeping form, he mused.

“I do not understand how she cannot feel this,” the Guardian muttered, lifting the now freed staff from her, opening a portal and throwing it through, giving it a push from some of his personal favorite Sire and explosive elements, sent it to the Void.

“I think she feels it, very much, in fact,” Donal answered, moving the hair away from Yana’s face, pointing at the agony clearly etched across it. “Now, how she’s not waking up from it, that’s entirely something else, but she is feeling this.” Sitting next to her, he and the Guardian carefully poured and stuffed mixes into the open wounds, then wrapped elemental strips around her.

* * * *

Yana whimpered awake. Her insides throbbed; she couldn’t straighten her back either. Rolling over with a groan, she carefully ran her hand across her aching front, Sinding nothing but normal skin. Pushing inward slightly, she winced in pain as the throbbing increased with each probing touch. Something had happened. She had no idea what, but there was no arguing her way out of the tightness and tenderness of newly injured Slesh - or of the pain itself. She was familiar with both from her previous life as a rambunctious juvenile who loved recreations.

Sitting up slowly, she took a few shallow breaths, followed by deeper ones, and blinked the woozy from her sight. It was still dark. Pausing before standing, she had to concentrate to remember the day. Sighing in relief, she leaned her head back, trying to release the tension in her spine. It was not a workday. Rising unsteadily to her feet while holding onto the wall for support, she shufSled to the bathroom. Noticing her shades were still open, she paused to stare at the waxing moons. The zing that always hit the left back side of her head walloped her hard enough to make her vision spin.

Remembering the blue Slames no one else could see, she raised her right hand, palm up, closed her Sist, and opened it. Not that she’d expected to see something, but her heart sank a bit with a palm of nothingness... well, not nothing. There was a light tingling, and... a heavy... sphere?... in her palm.

“What?” she whispered. Not knowing what she was holding, but instinct said it was real. The zing told her to twist her wrist and toss it at the moons. So she did.

Then Sinished in the bathroom, closed the shades and went back to sleep.

Donal knew he looked ridiculous, but hearing the Guardian’s unnatural-for-him howling laughter, and seeing him fall to the Sloor had him thinking maybe he’d gone a bit too far. “What?” he asked defensively. Taking off the protective mask, he continued, “You saw what was in her hand. How are you not also covered top to bottom in layers of protection?”

Wiping his eyes but refusing to get up, the Guardian answered, “What makes you think I am not layered in protection?”

“I don’t see anything,” Donal said.

“Well, that is already an established fact,” the Guardian snickered, Sinally standing up. They were “Very funny.”

“It is not untrue.” Looking out at the moons, which had begun to explode in colors no Mortal would see, he mused, “I had not thought any Mortal capable of such advanced elemental work.”

“She’s the Leveler. Of course she’s going to have skills no one should have, not even the gods,” Donal countered.

“That may be true, and I know the Prophecies and writing better than you, but it does not explain what I just witnessed. Those were ancient elements, ones you know about but are not allowed to touch,” the Guardian said.

Look at the moons. She’s managed to untangle the Demon nests housed there for millennia

“Why do you think I covered myself in a protective suit?” Donal asked rhetorically. “I know what those were, and I’m not surprised at all that she used them. They were some of her favorites...” he clamped his mouth shut.

Head whipping to glare at Donal, the Guardian bit out, “You both were warned about breaking the Laws.”

“Yeah, and aren’t you glad we did? Look at the moons. She’s managed to untangle the Demon nests housed there for millennia, the ones you’ve been unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the whole time. And she did it with half a formed, sleepy, pain-Silled thought, and a Slick of her wrist,” Donal said with a grin.

“What else did the two of you not listen to? What other Laws did you break?”

Donal snorted, “As if I’d tell you that.”

Turning back to the moons, and the explosions of the Demon nests, the Guardian murmured, “Soon, you may have no choice but to tell all.”

Glossery of Names and Terms

Alil–AH leel (husband)

Alili–AH leelee (wife)

Ama-(Ah mah) - mom

Concilium–cohn SIL eeyum (a council of high gods/goddesses who guide others on the Path of Progression and oversee much of the running of the Hereafter)

Corrupt–the dead whose Mortal life choices and doings align them with evil and the Demons

Datter-(daa tr) - daughter

Deisos–DEE sohs (after death “paradise”)

Deisos Teacher(s)–Mortals spiritually and higher skilled than Oracles, rarer too, few known, can talk to/see Ebbe/Emme when allowed

Donal–DOH nul (male protagonist)

Ebbe–EH beh (Cycle God)

Emme–EH mee (Cycle Goddess)

Gods/Goddesses–those who were Incorrupt, then passed their various tests and trials in Deisos, allowing their ascension to godhood on the Path of Progression; god(s) is often gender neutral, as they are equals, but lazy, and the word is shorter to write/ say

Ochuroma–O schu ROH mah (after death “hell”)Hereafter–the life continuation along the Path of Progression that occurs after Mortal existence endsIncorrupt–the dead whose Mortal life choices and doings align them with the gods/ goddessesGuardian–a guide, helper, from Deisos, who assists Mortals

Oracles–Mortal version of prophets, seers who can talk to/see the Incorrupt, Guardians, Void - realm of the Demons (devoid of light)

Yana–YAH nuh (female protagonist)