When Evil Came to Stay Read online

  Cyborg: Redux

  Once evil reigns there is only the honest left to fear…

  Clarissa was an ordinary nanny until Dr. Jeremy Colvert made her a bio cybernetic freak. On the run, it was an act of kindness that nearly ended in disaster.

  When Michael met Clarissa everything in his world changed—again—too. He too, is a “Cybe Enhanced Human” — a creature greater mankind now fears. Now they’re hiding from a world out to get them and aiming to shut down Dr. Colvert’s experimentation isn’t exactly going to plan because worse, much worse, lurks just beyond sight.

  Love might have bloomed, but there’ll be no future if they can’t save each other and it’s going to take more than just them to succeed.

  * * *

  Children Of A Greater Evil

  In the deepening darkness, hope can continue to bloom.

  With the knowledge of the cybernetically enhanced, causing the populace to seek stronger, faster, and better warriors, a faction has determined they can use this opportunity to further their ends.

  Senator Daniella Villede takes charge of a covert agency. Their mission is to investigate and close down those who’d overthrow the government. She’s on the rise in her political career, but as conditions change, so does her role.

  Jonah McDowell is just the man to head up the security force. Drawn to Daniella, he fights against his attraction. She’s his superior, a senator, and beyond his reach.

  When the unthinkable happens, Daniella turns to Jonah, but staying alive is just the first step.

  Content Warning: this story contains sexual content and violence but also hope for a future where love conquers evil

  * * *

  When Evil Came To Stay

  When things are at their lowest ebb, chances are it’s going to get worse.

  For Erin McNally that includes working alongside David Villede. He’s the one man she wants and can never have. Too much separates them—position, money, and power are just the beginning.

  For David, Erin is the woman he dreams of and burns for. After she’s hurt in a horrible incident, his protective instincts kick into overdrive.

  But the times are dangerous—the genetically engineered warrior kids are growing in power, there’s someone in the camp they trust who’s betraying them, and the tide of public acceptance could just as easily turn against them as in their direction.

  Success isn’t assured, and neither is their survival. Love may be their only hope.

  Content Warning: Genetic modification, violence and erotic content exist within this book.

  * * *

  Finis: The War To End All Wars

  Inevitably, the end must come. But only one side can win the war.

  Senna Reed—soldier and arson investigator—knows danger. She was there right beside the men in the war—a soldier. Now she’s facing an enemy the likes of which no one in their right mind could have foreseen years before.

  Franklin Mann is a soldier first and foremost. Romantic entanglements aren’t his speciality, but Senna, the woman he’s been tasked to work with, pushes all his emotional buttons. He fights the emotional entanglements…until he can fight no more.

  The passion between them is scorching, but there’s work to be done. Dirty tasks only soldiers can perform.

  The possibility of failure in tracking down the one person who is behind the creation of the super-soldiers and neutralizing them won’t be easy. The battle will require them all to steel themselves, because never before have they seen the likes of what’s to come.

  FOREWORD

  When Evil Came To Stay continues the 21st Testing Protocol. The first books was actually a NanoWriMo project from 2018.

  I don’t usually go off on a tangent or whim, but the original book in the series, Cyborg: Redux was built around the premise that at some point in the future, people won’t be able to help themselves with cloning technologies, cybernetic implants and so on. Perhaps there was also a healthy dose of Borg (Star Trek) thinking went into the storyline as well.

  What if these implants can and are able to be generated by a human body?

  The children then took on their own very large and scary personas. Those who will work on infiltrating and so on. Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d say my brain is a scary place to hang out!

  Back to the matter at hand though. There is one more book in the series after this. It’s the culmination of years of work and I hope you enjoy it…

  Remember if you do enjoy it to leave a review in any location of your choice - and if not, do let me know why.

  Imogene Nix

  2021

  This book was written during NanoWriMo 2019 (Cyborg: Redux came in 2018 and Children of a Greater Evil in early 2019) It’s taken time to get it ready for publication but I’m so pleased to see this series coming to an end.

  * * *

  Erin and David’s story has been building through the series and had to be told because they have been supremely patient.

  * * *

  So has my husband, the awesome Mr Nix. His patience regularly allows me the scope to investigate fight scenes, cloning and so much more. My browser history is at best eclectic! YouTube has a lot of information as well (just in case you’re looking for information yourself.)

  * * *

  To my Mother In Law, June. Cause she reads and shares my books… Her indefatigable support is welcome. Every day.

  * * *

  Thanks also to my team. Charlotte, Michelle, Suzi, Keri, Sassie and more. Without you, this would be a much harder road to tread on my lonesome.

  * * *

  Imogene Nix

  2021

  Copyright © 2022 by Imogene Nix®

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Character, places and events are from the author's imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  Print ISBN 978-0-6484841-7-2

  EBook ISBN: 9781922369987

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  The Celtic Cupid Trilogy

  Star of Ishtar

  The Blood Bride by Imogene Nix

  Also by Imogene Nix

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  Erin McNally slumped into the seat and rubbed the ache from the still healing injuries she’d gained guarding Senator Daniella Villede. Weariness blanketed her, and her eyes drooped. The van wasn’t the best place to hunker down for a nap, but it was all she had. Well, that and her surveillance partner, Franklin Mann.

  Mann was a bear of a man, strong and capable. Reliable. A good friend.

  “Settle in. I’ll let you know if anything worthwhile happens.” His voice flowed over her, and she nodded, hunched a little further down in the seat, and tugged the ball cap over her eyes.

  Drowsiness washed in and out, darkness w
rapping itself around her, and she fell into the bottomless well…

  She pulled the car to a stop outside a secured entrance at the side of the building. Checking front and left, there was no sign of combatants. “We should be good.”

  Erin tugged the car door open and had just moved to the other side, opened the door for the senator, and started to usher her to the door of the building when the wail of the security klaxon filled the air. Jesus fucking Christ!

  Erin stopped midstride, noting dimly that the senator did too. Now she pushed her, snatching at the door and shoving the woman inside. “Get back!”

  She shoved the senator and pulled the door shut before the woman could regain her composure and argue the toss. Right now, Erin’s job was to ensure her safety.

  In the seconds after she jerked the door shut her hand felt down to the snap on her pistol. Before she could draw it fire streaked through her body, and she jerked, her eyes wide as a loud ‘oomph’ echoed along with the sounds of screaming.

  It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her.

  Her knees turned to water as the senator screamed and battered at the door. “No! No! McNally!”

  Her hand reached to her stomach. Wet. Hit. Shit!

  Erin jerked awake, her hand once more rising to her stomach. Heart rate pounding so blood rushed and adrenaline spiked.

  “It’s okay, McNally. We all have nightmares.”

  Her head whipped to the side, and she caught the harsh planes of Franklin staring at her. “You need to talk to someone though. Before you can’t cope with it. You know the drill.”

  She grunted, hoping to head him off before he said any more. Preferring instead to bury those memories and thoughts deep within her psyche. She’d deal with them when she was damn well ready. Sure as shit, that wasn’t now. Tell yourself that, Erin, but you know this is getting harder to ignore.

  Erin rubbed her aching brow surreptitiously, hoping Mann wouldn’t see it. “Any movement?” She wriggled in the seat, then repositioned the cap on her head.

  “A few children. Threat level minimal with no significant movement at this time.” Erin exhaled. Surveillance required patience, something she was chronically short of at the best of times. She squinted through the plexiglass of the vehicle and sighed when all she could see was a distant mass.

  “Hand me the spyglass and I’ll see what’s going on,” she said. “Just in case they’re just beyond our view.”

  They’d decided to borrow a pair of old-fashioned, non-electronic spyglasses from the display case in the interrogation unit, given there was no way it could be picked up on sensors after learning their technological surveillance units could and had been compromised during the operation to shut down the maturational facility.

  Franklin passed over the surprisingly heavy brass tubed unit, and she stretched it out and looked into the distance.

  “Wow, it’s surprising just how much we can see with this.”

  “Really? I mean, it’s got no graphical enhancers or…” His words died off as she glanced in his direction then peered once more down the tube.

  “Maybe that’s part of what we need to do. Employ some old-fashioned techniques that they can’t hack.”

  She reached up and scratched the back of her head, considering her own words. It might just give them a competitive edge.

  She hunched down and scanned. “There. I’m seeing about thirty or so. Huddled together, in the entrance to an alley just beyond the far entrance.” She watched for a moment, seeing the chatter and hands pointing in their direction. “I’d say the surveillance has made us, and this job is done. Let’s get out of here and report.”

  “You’re sure?” Franklin spoke quietly as she collapsed the object in her hands.

  “Yeah. Besides, I want to make a couple of suggestions to the senator and Jonah.”

  He shrugged, started the vehicle, and pulled away. “Any specific route?”

  “Yes.” It took a few seconds for her to formulate a plan and another to realize he’d no doubt argue with her decision. “Straight ahead, toward the children.”

  “What?” he bellowed, and Erin winced.

  “Just trust me. Drive slow and steady. I want a look at that alley, so turn on the outer cameras. There’s no need to be covert now.”

  He grunted but carried out her instructions, and she reached out and dragged up the miniature viewing unit attached to the dash of the vehicle. This way she could watch as they drove past and wouldn’t interfere with the video acquisition. Even better, if their vision was jammed, she’d still have the information to report back.

  A mass of children waited in the alley as she’d suspected, and at the back was a door, open…

  For an instant, the urge rose to tell Franklin to stop. To let her zoom in and maybe see what was inside, but reality raised its head, and she sighed. All that would do was place herself and Franklin in danger. As it was, she was taking a risk driving past the throng of child-warriors. She had firsthand experience of just how dangerous they were.

  Once past, Franklin sped up and took the most direct route back to the base. It wasn’t as if anything they were doing wouldn’t have already been watched. She’d seen one girl reach up and touch the side of the vehicle as it slowly slid by the crowd.

  Just before the entrance to the base, she spoke again. “Franklin, pull over. I need to check something.”

  She grabbed her pack, riffled around inside and drew out the scanner, then opened the door and headed for the driver’s side of the vehicle.

  It wasn’t easy to see initially, blended white, the same color as the vehicle, but just beside the driver’s door sat a small tracker unit. The tiny, button-sized item was flat enough that it almost resembled a sticker, but it glowed slightly.

  Mann climbed from the driver’s side of the van. “What is it?”

  With care, Erin squatted down and placed the scanner over the item, waiting as it hummed. “It’s a new generation stealth tracker. Bounces back both visual and verbal, but contains no known compounds that would lead me to believe it’s dangerous.” She slid her fingernail below the surface and peeled it off, grimacing as it also stripped the paint from the car.

  Erin dropped the tracker to the ground then stomped down hard and followed up with grinding it under the heel of her boot.

  A quick glance assured her it wouldn’t be usable, nor had any of it stuck to the heavy rubber sole of her footwear. “Let’s get back to the base.”

  The car rocked as Franklin climbed within. “Well…”

  “There’s one thing we’ve learned—they’re learning. We’ll need our wits about us if we have any hope of defeating them. Come on.”

  David grunted as his sister, Senator Daniella Villede, now the most senior member of the government, shoved a folder of papers into his hands.

  His lips curled in dismay. “Why me?”

  “Because you’re my brother. An agent with an illustrious history, and the people here on the base trust you. That along with the fact that you’ve just returned from a mission, and I don’t have anyone else to spare to the task.”

  He seethed. “Placing infants is the job of—”

  Daniella groaned. “Look, I know this isn’t what you expected. We didn’t plan to find maturational chambers. We didn’t realize we’d return with dozens of babies in need of families.” Her eyes widened. “Trust me, we were and are totally unprepared for this situation. I need someone I can count on to sort out the initial placements, to ensure the families are prepared for what’s to come. We don’t know how fast these babies will mature, and they will need all sorts of care we have no information on that’s specific to their needs. I don’t have time to arrange it, and neither does Jonah. McNally is out on location with Franklin, Clarissa and Michael are involved in the medical and psych assessments… There is no one else we can trust to do justice to this task, David.”

  He grunted and accepted the sheaf of papers. “Just the initial placements. Right?” He flicked through them,
finding photos beside a short description of health and physical attributes. “LV? LM? What are they?” He glanced up into his sister’s narrowed gaze and a trickle of disquiet twitched down his spine.

  “Those are the designations… According to LV-1, or Liv as she wants to be known now, that was their names. It’s apparently based on the parental names, hence they’re designated two letters. The numbers are the number of child they are in the process. LV-1 means she was the first child of those parents. The adoptive parents will need to come up with new and suitable names for the children once they’re placed.”

  Each file page was numbered, and by the end he’d reached twenty-four. “How the hell…” He sighed and shook his head. The inhumanity of what they were facing was a dart to his psyche. “Fine, do we have candidates?”

  “Yes. Lots. All from the base. We’re going to initially only make these children available to long-term couples who’ve been assessed as secure at this time. Down the track, if more become available, and once the political and social situation stabilizes, we’ll take applications from the wider public.”

  Daniella swiped her hand over her face, and for a moment, David read the concern she seemed to be trying to hide. “Is there a process in place for meeting with and considering the applicants?”