THE BEAUTY OF DEATH – Excerpt

I’d like to share an excerpt from chapter 2 of THE BEAUTY OF DEATH. Since the entire scene is a bit too long to post here, I just included a few pages from it. It is not a complete scene and you may be kind of left hanging, but I think it may be a good way to at least introduce the two lead characters.

      Dominion did not like the sewers.  Dirty, damp, dingy, dismal – definitely what he deemed utterly disgusting and undeserving of his presence.  He had hoped to bypass the human city by traversing the system underneath it.  The fewer volatile humans he had to encounter, the better.  However, the sewers were quite a confusing labyrinth for Dominion, and he found himself wandering like a dumb and blind rat in a maze.

      Why did these human creatures spend so much time to construct such a complex underground system, only to have it transport waste?  Dominion wondered to himself.  The sewers below the town of Galvendale had nine-foot tall walls of crumbling stone, various passageways and doorways and numerous recesses.  It was immense enough to be a separate city under the city – a dark, enclosed metropolis, complete with a man-made river of smelly, cruddy water sledging down the canals in its center. 

      The penniless and the decrepit of the town’s population staked claim in alcoves of the vast and complicated shelter.  Though the walkways were sparsely lit with lanterns and torches and most areas were dim enough that Dominion could pass by the civilians and be mistaken for human, he kept his eyes toward the ground and the hood of his cloak pulled over his head.

      A bright beam of sunlight shining through a porthole above illuminated a couple of copper coins that lay on the path ahead of him.  Whenever luck allowed it, he found that he was able to buy food, drink and clothing from human vendors who were too distracted with customers and the exchange of coins to pay him much attention.  So after he glanced around and saw no one nearby, he approached the abandoned commerce to claim it for himself.

      He squinted his eyes as he knelt down under the white light and gathered the coins into his hand.  The hood of his cloak slid backwards off of his head and briefly exposed skin an unusual shade of violet and remarkably long ears that ended in hooks.  He stood up with the intention to recover his hood, when he was suddenly aware of a presence beside him.  The loud intake of breath alerted him that it was too late – he had already been seen … again.

      He turned to face the witness and found a startled, young human female with ice-blue eyes and hair as red and wild as field flowers.  She gasped for a second time in shock as she stared into the shimmer of his extraordinarily silver irises, an eye color that was not even common amongst his own species. 

      The woman opened her mouth as if she were going to scream, and Dominion reacted by putting a finger to his lips and shaking his head at her. He grabbed her by the wrist and quickly led her against the wall, away from the middle of the walkway and the beam of light.

      “Trust that I mean you no harm, contessa,” Dominion spoke soft and slow in an attempt to properly enunciate his words in the human’s common tongue and to keep his deep voice sounding as non-intimidating as possible. 

      His closeness to the female exposed him to her excited energy, and he could not prevent himself from eyeing her up.  The fiery hair against the pale skin was an exotic combination to him, her plump flesh appearing soft to the touch.  When he met her eyes again, he found that the fear behind them was slowly being replaced by intrigue, and perhaps even some odd, raw attraction.  She ogled him just as he had done her.

      Dominion struggled to prevent a devious smirk from forming upon his face as he reached into his cloak and, almost like magic, pulled out a single rose.  He twirled it in his fingers quickly a few times like a baton before he moved his other hand to take hers.

      “A lovely flower … for a lovely flower.  Please take this rose my dear, as a gift for allowing me to gaze so closely upon your countenance.  All I ask is that you walk away quietly, forgetting that you ever saw me,” he said. Then he kissed the back of her hand before slipping the rose into it.

      “Forget that I ever saw ya,” the woman repeated slyly.  She looked at him now with devouring eyes.  “A handsome creature like you, how do ya expect me to do that?”

      Dominion hesitated before he replied.  As a virile, young elf of twenty-three years of age, he was tempted to respond to the demands of his libido.  But almost every single one of his previous encounters with humans had resulted in a violent confrontation.  Though this woman was not hostile towards him, he knew that the longer he remained in contact with her, the higher the chance he would encounter someone who would be.  And not only was he a solitary elf amongst a population which despised him, he was being hunted by something even more sinister.  He had neither the time nor the luxury to risk jeopardizing his mission by dallying, no matter how enticing the woman or willing his loins may be.

      “Then welcome me in your dreams, for you will most definitely be welcome in mine.  Just please, contessa – allow me to continue upon my journey without drawing further attention.  I doubt other citizens here will be either as hospitable or as lovely as you,” he answered.  Her cheeks turned crimson and she lowered her eyes at his response. 

      She took a brief glance at the rose in her hand and then looked up at him, smiling coyly.  “Have a safe journey, sir elf man.  If we ever run into each other again – remember that you are invited into more than just my dreams,” she said before she turned to walk off into the shadows.  He could not help but give himself a chuckle and smug grin in celebration of obtaining yet another invitation from a woman he had encountered for all of mere seconds.

      Dominion ceased his gloating when he realized that the parting redhead could point him in the direction that would lead to an exit outside of the town.  He dashed out of the shadows in a hurried attempt to catch her.  In his haste, not only had he failed to recover his hood, but he also had not noticed two more pedestrians approaching from the opposite direction.

      “Papa, look at that man!”  The boy alerted his father, much to Dominion’s dismay.  With just a single glance at Dominion, the man held his son back and withdrew a rusty blade.

      “Daemon!  Leave the premises of us good people at once!”

      “Listen, I mean you no – “

      “William, go and get some help!”  The man instructed his child and shook his weapon threateningly at Dominion, slowly forcing the elf’s back against the wall.

      Dominion sighed and lifted his hands with the intent to freeze them both in place with a couple of bolts of his frost spell before he made a run for it.  But to his surprise, a shrouded form which seemed to appear from the shadows stepped in between the man and him.  This person, though barely over five feet and thus much shorter than him, put a firm grip on his wrist and moved it downward, deterring him from casting his spell. 

      Both the boy and his father stopped in their tracks.  They stared at the face of this shrouded person, unblinking, their eyes wide and their mouths gaping open as if they were paralyzed with fear.  With a single wave of the instigator’s hand, the two humans simply blinked twice, then turned on their heels and speed away in the opposite direction.

      An eloquent, raspy feminine voice came from the figure which spoke, unexpectedly, in Dominion’s native tongue.  “It is ironic that they are so quick to yell devil or daemon, yet it is they who are pulling out their weapons upon unarmed souls.” 

      Dominion too, froze.  Who is this person?

      “Silly elf,” she said.  With her hand still locked on his wrist she guided him into an alcove behind them, the dark colored cloth which covered its entrance made it almost completely hidden by the shadows from the human eye.  ”Did you think that you were going to be able to just ease the fears of every human who spotted you, with charm and the bat of your lashes?”

      “Well, my charm and good looks do tend to often allow me to escape without harm or challenge.  Forgive me for not being gifted with an appearance so horrifying that humans simply run away in fright when they look upon me,” Dominion replied with a sneer, just as his hostess removed her heavy hooded shawl and turned around to face him at last.

      The smirk slid off his face as his jaw dropped and his eyebrows rose.  He had never before spoken words that he so very badly wanted to take back.

      Like him she was a moon elf, appearing close to his age at perhaps no more than a couple of years over twenty.  Her almond-shaped eyes were as bright and violet as polished amethyst gemstones, trimmed with long dark lashes streaked with a few silvery ones as well.  Her hair, white as cotton, laid slick against her head, with a swish of bangs that brushed across her forehead and curled against one of her long ears.  Her skin was the color of lilac, and appeared as smooth as the petals of that flower. 

       She was the most beautiful creature that Dominion had ever seen.

      “That was due to a fear spell I cast upon them,” she explained with an even tone.  “And as far my appearance being horrifying – if that is your opinion, you are quite entitled to it.  I suppose you prefer your females red-headed and human?”

      “That is not my opinion, now that I have had a look at you.  You are perfect.” Dominion was surprised at how warm his face grew as he paid this female the highest praise he had to offer. 

      She paused at his words for a moment and studied him, her head cocked to the side.  “Do you attempt to flatter every woman you meet?”

      “Yes.  But not always do I mean it.”

      “But you do now?”

      “Yes.”

      “How do I know that what you are saying is not just more of your false flattery?”

      He shrugged.  “Do I appear false to you?”

      “No less than you did earlier with the human,” she pointed out.

      “But I did not also give you a rose.”

      “Oh, is that supposed to make me feel more flattered?  That she won a flower from you when I have not?” she retorted. 

      Dominion chuckled then bowed politely.  “I am Kylek Dominion Sinchyld.  I go by Dominion.  And what is your name, contessa?”

            “Halayna Troii.”  She gave a slight bow.

Tagged as: excerpt, Fiction