Sunday Snippet: Dangerous Elements (a Lantern Jack tale)

Happy St. Patrick'sDay! It's been a chaotic week with work projects and life stuff going on. Andmy distraction levels are making me frustrated. But … I'm still getting stuffdone so I can't really complain.

I definitely didn'tmake a full round of shows this week. Just didn't have the bandwidth with myfocus being all over the place.

I did catch anepisode of The Batman and had vague memories of watching this the firsttime around. Joker episodes are hit and miss in the version of the dark knight.

Watched an episodeof My Life Is Murder and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm almost finished withthis show, and I'll miss it when I'm done. Such a fun cast of characters.

Caught anotherepisode of Midsomer Murders and again enjoyed the mystery. I'd seensomething of a similar nature of the plot based on a true story, so thisepisode ended up being a lot of fun.

Finished up the finalepisode of Silent Witness season twenty-five. I'll be starting seasontwenty-six this week. Ended up really enjoying the limited episode run.

That's pretty muchit for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Dangerous Elements,a Lantern Jack tale featuring shifters and keepers.

Here's theminiblurb:

Lantern Jack is back to right another wrong. Thelong-standing animosity between shifters and the human council comes to adangerous head. Dahlia Derringer is next in line to rule the council and she'sstepping into the role because a shifter almost took her father's life. OttoOrpheus leads the shifters and he's furious a rogue fox acted against hisorders. Samhain is nigh and the shifters need to replenish their aura … if Ottocan get Dahlia's permission to do so.

And a preview snippet…

Dahlia's fists clenched. The sheeraudacity! She tamped down a strong urge to punch Mr. Otto Orpheus in the face.Acting innocent after what they did? Inconceivable.

But … he didn't appear to be goinganywhere so… "Fine." She dug her phone out of her back pocket."If it gets you off…" She scrolled to her video app and mashed herthumb on the icon. "Here." Shoving the phone in his face, sheswallowed down the bile threatening to spew forth.

Otto's eyes went wide then narrowedinto angry slits. His lips twisted in a pained grimace and he blanched beforetwo spots of red flushed his cheeks. The footage showed a fox shifter attackingher father, biting his calf to bring him down then tearing into his arm andchest, trying to get to his jugular. Her dad rolled into a ball, tucking hishead to his sternum and using his arms as protection. The fox bit and clawed ather father's back, shredding his shirt and leaving a bloody mess behind.

Dahlia came into view and fired awarning shot in the air. She couldn't risk taking aim at the fox—not when hehovered over her father. She could've taken the animal down when he ran, butconcern overrode her instincts and she went to her dad instead. The video endedon her phone, but she had the security camera feed saved on their server.

Otto snarled a curse. "God dammit."He met her gaze. "Is Dean—" He broke off, swallowing hard. "Howis he?"

Dahlia huffed out an angry breath."Not dead, but it was damned close." She might as well give him thefull status. "And he could still take a turn. He's feverish and fightinginfection." And had a long road to recovery.

Otto sighed. "Look, I didn'torchestrate this, and I don't condone it." He paced back and forth, a handrunning over the top of his head. "But I can't say I'm shocked somethinglike this happened." He paused and met her gaze. "I'm not surprised ashifter went rogue. It's long been a point of contention—the lack of access toour sacred ground."

She growled, low in her throat."Are you seriously defending that damn fox?" After seeing what it didto her dad?

Otto shook his head. "Notdefending him or his actions. But I understand where he's coming from. For mostof us, the land calls out—we need it, and it needs us."

The longing in his voice almost gotto her. But, no, whether he sanctioned the action or not, one of his memberscaused harm and almost killed her father. She wouldn't let him spin this in anyway.

Dahlia squared her shoulders."Are you saying the attack was my dad's fault?" Her voice all butquaked with anger.

I'm very excited tohave another installment underway in the Lantern Jack series. I love thesestories so much.

 

That's it for thisweek.

Cheers!

Skye