'The first spirits officially appeared in February 1946, near Hiroshima, Japan, when several US Servicemen were Bonded. An investigation by the US Army soon revealed hundreds of Japanese citizens, mostly centred around Hiroshima and Nagasaki had also Bonded with low level spirits. A similar investigation near Alamogordo, New Mexico, found similar results, albeit on a smaller scale.'

Patricia looks down at Antonio as she rode him. She couldn’t believe how often they ended having marathon sex episodes. She bounces up and down on him faster and faster, till they both come at the same time. She falls forward towards him and kisses him.

She couldn’t believe how she felt about him. She looks into his eyes “I love you, so much.” As she kisses him again.

He breaks the kiss and looks into her eyes “I love you as well.” He goes back to kissing her, as he rolls her onto her back and starts going in and out of her.

January 1st 1:00 am
Truckee California

For Larry Rawlings, New Years wasn’t that big of a deal. Neither was Christmas, Thanksgiving and any other Family type holiday. Thankfully this year he was home, and not in the middle of a delivery. So instead of spending it alone, he was with his neighbor, Liz.

My eyes cracked open ever so slowly, the world began to materialize around me as I became vaguely aware of my surroundings. I was in a room, on a bed, that much I could tell. My head was pounding, my body absolutely aching; every muscle screamed in horror as I tilted my field of view and tried to take in the room.

I made my way up to my room, called Lisa, and told her I was headed to her house with news. Lisa loves news … not TV news, but other news … OK, gossip. I told her it was something that involved my gender and it was amazing and incredible. I took my time getting to her house and made her suffer a little. She was waiting just outside her front door when I arrived, patting her foot and pretending to be looking at her watch. We talked as headed to her room.

I awoke to Brianna charging through my bedroom door; she was never one for knocking. My first reaction was to roll my head to the left and glance at the bedside alarm clock which now read: 6:45 AM. Brianna was fully dressed in a silky blouse and black pants, and before I knew it, she was tossing clothes onto my bed.

“I found a shelter for Angela,” She explained rather offhandedly. “Get up, get dressed, we’re taking her right now.”

“I…can’t you just drive her over there?” I asked, pulling the blankets up to my chin. I didn’t want to move from the bed at all.

“Oh, hey mom,” I spoke into the phone, not knowing why I even bothered acting surprised that she was calling. I mean, of course she was calling. What was I supposed to tell her?

“Sweetie I was worried about you,” My mother said in her concerned voice. “You haven’t called in weeks, we thought something happened to you!”

“Uh Mom,” I said as I began to walk toward the parking lot, considering making a beeline for the GAT house, but then rapidly changing my mind. “You know you can call me at any time right? Communication kind of goes both ways.”

Chapter 4

About a week after the doctor assured us that I had gynecomastia, and nothing fatal, my mom came to my room and asked, “How’s the chest?”

“It’s better. They’re getting smaller.”

“Let me see.”

I knew there was no need to argue, so I opened my shirt and showed her my healthily growing boobs. She took one look and said, “OK, back to the doctor. This time, I’m not taking ‘gynecomastia’ for an answer!”

So back to the doctor we went. Same office … new doctor.

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

It was just after one in the afternoon when we arrived at the house in Wiltshire. We’d taken a pretty roundabout route just in case we were being followed but a diversion through some very narrow lanes in South Oxfordshire and West Berkshire had made it next to impossible for any vehicle to follow us without us seeing them.

Jemma got out at the top of the drive to do a quick reconnoitre of the property and the surrounding land. She checked her Glock and then smiled at me as she disappeared into the undergrowth.

XIV Behold! The Nightmare

Champery was built on the lower southern slopes of the mountain Croiz de Culet. Corvo University and the main location of Corvus Scriptorium were located in Champery. Their shared library was overfilled so they used small black powder to excavate tunnels into the mountain to use as library stacks.