Tuesday Teaser - Sikkiyn by Chris S Hayes #scifi #romance

Excerpt from Sikkiyn, Chapter One.

“Was it possible that Johan Larsen was a telepath? Could he be deliberately leaving himself unshielded in order to catch her off guard? It seemed impossible, and yet it was the most likely explanation for his obvious conviction that she was not a danger to him.

From a distance she could sense emotion, and that would have to do for now. Access to his thoughts required skin-to-skin contact. The temptation to touch him and know had been strong, but it was too much of a risk. If Larsen could, in fact, shield himself if he chose, then she was the one in danger.

He could kill me with one blow of his fist. There is little I could do to stop him if he can block my mental attacks. They are the only advantage I have over him.

The realization should have sealed his fate, but Lara felt strangely reluctant to do what she knew had to be done. It would require some preparation. She would need to gain his trust and keep her mental defenses solid. She’d have to be free of the locked cabin as well: she’d have to link to everyone aboard, a feat impossible from inside a holding cell.

Lara clenched her jaw. Sneak attacks were the sikkiyn way. There was no reason to feel as if she were doing something dishonorable. The man was just using her as a ready source of income. He hadn’t actually meant it when he’d said she could trust him. As soon as they arrived at New Geneva he was planning to hand her over to the authorities for trial and possible execution.

It was a matter of self-preservation. Unless she left the established shipping lanes and put some distance between her and her last known location she had no hope of survival. Her brother was the best tracker she knew, and family honor required that he seek her out and kill her. Once he discovered she’d been arrested she had perhaps two weeks before he made it to Nouvelle France from their home on Ararat, and the unprecedented event of an Alaran killing a contracted employer had been the lead story on the newsfeeds for at least a week already. Once Farid picked up her trail, her fate, and the fates of everyone on board this vessel if they resisted, were sealed.” 

Blurb: 
Captain Johan Larsen is in serious financial trouble. His ship, the Valkyrie, is decades old and falling apart. In a desperate ploy to get the funds he needs, he agrees to a risky but lucrative transport contract. His cargo: an accused assassin en route to trial, to be delivered to the other side of Confederate space, cash on delivery.  His money problems will be over once he delivers her alive to her destination—provided that the killers pursuing them don’t succeed and that his passenger doesn’t murder him herself.  And then there’s the fact that he’s stupid enough to be falling in love with her.

Okay, so maybe he’s in more than financial trouble.

Author Bio:

Chris S. Hayes is a life-long reader of classic science fiction and romance. In 2005 she decided she’d rather be both a reader and a writer, and she began writing her first novel, Sikkiyn, which was published in November 2014 by Solstice Publishing. She works as a college health physician in Lafayette, Louisiana, where she lives with her wonderful husband, a very talented teenage daughter, and a skittish cat, and is writing her second novel now, at a considerably more rapid pace than the first.

Links:

Website: http://www.chrisshayes.com/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/chrisshayes

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/sikkiyn/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel