Blog tour: Division Zero: Lex De Mortuis by Matthew Cox

Excerpt – Kirsten was not sure what to feel more foolish about: resorting to cyberspace dating, or spending six thousand credits on a shimmering emerald gown that left her shoulders and most of her back bare, and stopped just short of the middle of her thigh. When he turned away, she slipped a hand under it and cradled her chest.Damn, two days and my boob still hurts. I hate wraiths.She fidgeted at the hem the whole time she sat; it was longer on the left, with some purposeless strip of cloth trailing to the floor. A few strands of hair that escaped the clip tickled at the nape of her neck, every so often making her grab for a nonexistent insect. Awkwardness pervaded her being; she could not remember the last time she had worn a dress, much less one so short. Most of her effort went toward keeping tabs of how she positioned herself. Lean too far forward, the room got a show; too far back and she remembered how cold the chair was.Armando seemed nice enough, but she had yet to come clean with him. Every time she thought about it, the silver finish of her high-heeled shoes became quite fascinating. She smiled and nodded at his attempts at conversation. At least he was not the type to drone on and on about his success, or money, or other such trite things. He did mention he worked in technology, some manner of investor or engineer; she had not been paying enough attention when it came up. He had gone over it out front while they waited for a table and she focused too much on feeling stared at.“… and that’s when I told him we’d have to start over from scratch. The system infrastructure was too… are you all right? Is your foot bothering you?”Her face grew warm, red. “I’m okay, I’m second-guessing this gown… It’s a bit, um…”“It’s radiant, matches the woman wearing it. The green sets off your hair.”More warmth came to her cheeks. “It’s a bit open, not my usual sort of thing…”You’ll have to show a living man the goods sooner or later.Theodore’s voice mocked her from memory.“It is fine, Kirsten. You should see some of the trash in Paris these days. They might as well not even bother. Sometimes you wonder how it even stays on.” He sipped his wine, leaning back. “Of course, it’s cyclical. In two years, there won’t be a scrap of skin showing; floppy bags on their heads or some such nonsense.”She laughed, though could not hide her nerves. A waiter arrived, setting a small bowl of shrimp cocktail in front of each of them, flecked with scallions and shaved cucumber. Kirsten fumbled to get a grip on her fork, again fascinated by the reflection on her shoes.“You’ve the look of a guilty conscience. Don’t tell me you’re having doubts this early on?” His concern seemed genuine. “Was this an unfortunate choice of location?”“It’s…” She sighed, losing a staring contest with her shoes.“Are you sick? Dying?”“No… it’s―”He lowered his voice to a whisper. “You prefer women?”She giggled, looking up. “No.” Taking a bite of shrimp delayed her having to keep talking.“Dangerous ex?” He followed suit, lifting an eyebrow. “Rather good food here. I hear they ship it in from a colony.”“Pointlessly expensive.” She poked at the next shrimp. “It tastes the same as vat-grown.”He chuckled. “It tastes a lot better if you have it fresh, loses something in shipping. Have you ever been to a colony settlement? It’s adventurous.”“No.” Fascinating shoes. “I get enough adventure down here.”“So what’s got you all mopey?”She looked into his hazel eyes. “You don’t give me the feeling you’re just trying to get in my pants for a night.”He coughed, gathering a napkin over his reddening face.“No… I’m not saying…” She blushed. “That’s what I want. I’m looking for more than a one-nighter.” She lowered her volume when a few people nearby turned. “I want something real, but…”Armando swallowed, taking a few sips of water to clear his throat. “What’s wrong? Can’t have kids? Leaving the country soon?”“Is your name really Armando?”He laughed. “Is that all? It actually is… I changed it a few years ago. I was born Brian, if you want to know. Not very sexy.”“You’re kind of pale for an Armando; Brian is cute.”He smirked, finding her assay of him as “cute” a bit deflating.“I like you, Brian, Armando, whatever. I’ve had a damnable time finding a guy I can trust.” She stared deep into the woven tablecloth, as if some secret to love hid among the threads. “I have to tell you something.”He tensed. “All right.”“I have a son.”The cringe was nigh imperceptible.“I didn’t have him as a baby. I took him in, a special situation.”Brian/Armando relaxed. “Oh, well, perhaps I should meet him soon. That isn’t such a big issue.”“There’s more.” She picked at the shrimp. “I never did tell you about my job.”He squinted. “Something less than legal?”Her laugh startled half the room. When the din returned to normal, and her cheeks to normal color, she gazed at him as her last threads of whimsy mixed with sadness. “I’m with the police.”“Oh.” He bit his lip, shifting in the chair.Two strikes. Kid, cop. Great. Dammit.“Well, I suppose… You don’t really seem to be the type of woman involved in that sort of thing.”So help me, if he says delicate flower… “I’m not a beat cop, I’m with investigations.”“Oh, well that’s better, I think? You don’t get shot at so much?” He took a sip of wine. “I’m not sure I would be able to cope with wondering if you came home each night.”She lifted her glass to her lip, enough to smell the wine, but hesitated. No, I just get blown off the eleventh story of parking garages. “Not so often. I usually deal with people after they’re dead.” Damn it, K, just spit it out.Last shrimp gone, he had another sip of wine, and smiled while dabbing at his lip with the napkin. “So you’re a homicide detective? You must have some stories.”Kirsten stared at her appetizer shrimp cocktail, compliments of the house. She took in a deep breath. Better now than after I get attached.“I’m with Division 0.”The expected cough, the same chest patting, the usual lifted brow. “There’s a zero?”“Yeah, it’s small, there’s not many of us. I’m ps―” A well, or ill, as the case may be, timed shrimp muffled the last bit.“Pardon?”She chewed it like gum. The longer it took to swallow, the longer she could entertain the fantasy this one would be different. He wouldn’t be the same as all others. Adventurous. “I’m psionic.”“I see.” Color drained out of his face.The lip bite, the shift in posture, interest became trepidation.Figures. What would his family think if he brought a psionic girl home?


Date of Publication:September 8, 2014
Cover Artist: Alexandria Thompson at Gothic Fate 
Description:
Some soldiers don’t let anything sway them from their mission, not even death from high explosives.
Free from her troubled past, Agent Kirsten Wren finds happiness mentoring Evan, a boy with similar talents with whom she soon forms a strong bond. Her efforts to help Dorian settle his past become complicated when a team of corporate “issue resolution consultants” continue their mission to kill a man in the afterlife.
Kirsten gets involved when their postmortem grudge match spills into the realm of the living. At the scene of a surgical explosion that gutted only one floor of a residential tower, she discovers a strange arcane circle drawn in silver. There, she senses energy darker than any wraith she has yet encountered; a force that questions everything she believes about the world.
Vikram Medhi, the hacker targeted by Lyris Corporation for elimination, begs her to protect him from undead out to destroy him. With no way to track these spirits, she seeks help from an enigmatic billionaire who offers her more than a simple translation of ancient Sumerian pictographs.
Chasing down a dangerous psionic criminal in the oldest lawless zone in the city, trying to protect a man on a corporate death list, and trying to keep both of them from hurting the one person in the world she loves, Kirsten must reach deep within herself to accept her destiny.
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About Matthew Cox:
Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.
Hobbies and Interests: Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it. He is also fond of cats.Find Matthew Cox Online:Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads