Karen Chance has Released a few more Q & A to go with the release of Ride the Storm
http://www.karenchance.com/news/2144-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-61/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/qa-64/
Fiction
Penguin
2017-08
608
Cassie Palmer can see the future, talk to ghosts, and travel through time--but nothing's prepared her for this. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...
[Top]Cassie Palmer Appreciation Week – Favorite Relationship
Cassie and Billy Joe
I call Billy Joe my guardian spirit, but that isn’t entirely accurate. He’s more of a pain in the ass who occasionally turns out to be useful
Touch the Dark Part 5 Around timeline anomaly 1
When Louis-Cesar grabs Tomas while Cassie’s spirit is in charge, Cassie barely has time to realize that a vision is coming before she is thrown back through time. When she arrives at Carcassonne, this time she is a spirit and Tomas has come along for the ride. Its a little later this time and they arrive in the torture chamber. This trip she hears the screams more clearly and there are thousands of them. Since she is a spirit she recognizes the thousands of ghosts crying for vengeance. They have made the corridor ice cold and the hallway is covered in a miasma of spirits, Never before has she felt so many ghosts in 1 place at 1 time and the spiritual mist fills the halls air to the point of suffocation. “It was despair made tangible, like a film of freezing grease on my face that ran down my throat until I thought I would choke on it. This time I was alone and, without the bully of a jailer to distract me, I could concentrate on the voices. Slowly they became a little clearer. I quickly wished they hadn’t.“ There was a feeling of intelligence, of many minds and so much rage that Cassie wonders at first if it is demonic, but she quickly realizes that its just ghosts. Ghosts typically haunt for three reasons-they died before their time, they died unjustly (which sometimes means murder), or they died leaving something unfinished. Of course, ghosts are left by people and so there are always lots of complicating factors, making every ghost as unique as the person they were. What Cassie was feeling was thousands of ghosts with all three issues and all the minor complicating ones that could be imagined. If there were psychiatrists for ghosts…but there aren’t psychiatrists for ghosts. All there is is revenge and it plays out with the ghost getting satisfaction, payback or hanging around lusting for vengeance until its energy runs out. Most fade until only their voices remain, but here Cassie can feel so many ghosts-some almost out of juice, some just made. The implication was beyond staggering-this spot had been used for torture for centuries creating so much dark energy that even the most nonsensitive person would feel the chill.
Cassie looks around but she’s a little scared. Her visions have always been predictable. She sees things that are going to happen and they hit her like a freight train, she cries, she moves on. But now the universe has changed the rules and no one told her. A cold wind hits Cassie as the ghosts are getting restless. She asks them what they want, but letting the spirits know she can hear and feel them was like hitting a hornet’s nest with a stick. Suddenly, she is inundated with flashes of color, flickers of images and the wind picks up in the hall and its like she is in the middle of a hurricane. She backs away and falls against the wall, realizing that she is in spirit and in the right body. She recognizes the torture chamber but she is alone except for the torture victims who don’t seem to notice her. She is there in spirit and in body, and its different. The witch Cassie just freed at the casino is laying on the torture rack but she is not burned yet. She looks behind her and sees the thousands of ghosts, standing quietly but there isn’t enough physical space for thousands of people. Cassie is surprised to see the witch looking a her and says that she doesn’t know what to do. The witch tried to speak to her but no sound comes out. Someone hands Cassie a dipper of water but it is gross. Cassie says that water is too gross and a voice responds telling her there isn’t anything else. Cassie is so disoriented she doesn’t recognize the voice as Tomas. Then she does and jumps spilling the water. Tomas is standing there holding a bucket of green slimy water. Cassie asks him what he is doing here. Tomas tells her that he was in his body and she took control of his body and then he was here. He asks her where here is and if that is Francoise. Cassie looks at the bucket and realizes he shouldn’t be able to have a bucket. She asks him where he got it and he says it was in the corner. Cassie decides to screw the metaphysics and just goes with it. If Tomas can move the bucket, maybe she can change whats about to happen. Her first priority is to get the witch out of there but she isn’t going to make it without something to drink and is casting longing glances at the slimy bucket. Tomas tastes the water and says it is another form of torture as it’s 1/3 salt. Tomas says he will go find water. Cassie tells him he has to stay here. Tomas asks what could happen and Cassie considers telling him that ghosts can cannibalize each other. Most don’t because it just isn’t worth the energy but the rules are changing and she doesn’t have a body to hide behind. They are foreign spirits on these ghosts ground. Billy Joe has been mugged before by other spirits because it is easier for spirits to cannabalize each other than to attack humans. There were several thousand angry ghosts and so far they weren’t being aggressive, but Cassie doesn’t want to chance it. She tells Tomas he doesn’t want to know and finds herself softening towards him since he seems to be so genuinely concerned about Francoise. And then Cassie begins to worry about Tomas. Billy Joe is inhabiting Cassie’s body and keeping it alive but Tomas’ body has no spirit to keep it from dying. But he’s a vampire so he dies every day anyway. Cassie puts the metaphysics aside and focuses on Francoise. Cassie focuses on Francoise and tells Tomas to help her get Francoise off the rack. They try to be as gentle as possible, but the ropes had dug into Francoise’s skin and the blood and tissue had dried over the ropes. It was almost as if they were flaying her alive again. Cassie looks for another source of water but all that she sees are men bound in chains and tortured in ways she never imagined. It is hard to believe they still breathe. Cassie turns away before she gets sick. Something nudges her elbow and it is a flask floating from the ghosts. It smells like whisky and maybe that will help with the pain. Francoise drinks a little and passes out. Cassie goes to try and free the men, but they are bound by chains. Cassie asks Tomas if he can break the chains. He tries, but both he and Cassie are tiring quickly. Cassie doesn’t know what to do-things look bleak. She doesn’t know where she is, how she was going to get back, or when the torturer would come back. When they do get back to Vegas its going to be in the middle of a fight they may or may not be winning. Even for Cassie its a banner raising bad day! Tomas tells Cassie that it’s useless-he is weak as a human so if they are going to save the woman they need to do it now. Cassie asks the ghosts if any of them know of a way out of the torture chamber. The ghosts shuffle around and eventually a young man who looks like a teenage version of Louis-Cesar comes forward and bows to Cassie. He offers to help using the same phrase Louis-Cesar did “A votre service,mademoiselle.” Cassie looks at Tomas and asks if he speaks French. Tomas tells her he only knows a few phrases because he is rarely allowed at Senate headquarters. Cassie asks when French became the language in Las Vegas and Tomas impatiently tells her that the European Senate is headquartered in Paris. Cassie tells him she didn’t know he was with them and he sullenly tells her there is much she doesn’t know. Cassie puts aside her confusion and tells the ghosts she does not speak french. After some shuffling an older man comes forward who was a wine trader and asks if he can help. Cassie tells him that she doesn’t know what she is doing here or where here is or what they want or how she can help. He tells her that he too is puzzled. They are as puzzled as she is. Cassie and Tomas are spirits like them but not. He asks if Cassie and Tomas are sent be god in answer to a prayer. Cassie almost laughs at the thought and tell them no, they aren’t angels. The younger man babbles in french at the older man and the older man looks shocked. The younger man fears for his lover’s life that she will die here as they all did. He said that he cares not if they be from god or the devil as long as they bring hope of salvation. The older man says that the young man did not really mean it. Cassie tells him its complicated and that she just wants to save the woman but doesn’t even know where they are. The man tells her that they are at Carcassonne, hell on earth. Cassie asks if that is in France and the man looks at her oddly. Cassie says she just wants to get Francoise out before she is killed and the older man asks if she is here to avenge Francoise’s death. Cassie loses her temper and says she would rather Francoise not die at all. Francoise wakes up as the young man and the older man are arguing in french and looks at Cassie with wide eyes. The older man tells Cassie that even if they help they may only save her for a few days and that is no reason for the rest of them to pass on vengeance. Cassie loses it again-she’s not there as the angel of death but is there to save this woman. If they want vengeance they should get it on their own. The older man tells her that if they could they would stop this place but there is some magic that keeps them from vengeance. She is a powerful witch-surely she can help and they will then be her slaves. This is just plain it for Cassie. She tells them there is no witch here, just your friendly neighborhood clairvoyant and she is getting francoise out of there. She gets the younger man to lead the out via a tunnel and Tomas carries Francoise. They get to a cottage and turn Francoise over to Louis-Cesar just as their strength gives out. The next thing they know Cassie is laying on the ground, but at least she is in the right body and the right time
[Top]Touch the Dark somewhere part 4 around the first trip to Dante’s
So, earlier I said that the first trip to Dante’s on the first night that Cassie finds out about the Pythian power is going to be called spot one. Its important that this distinction be made because here is the long and short of it. These books are about Cassandra Palmer a 20 something clairvoyant who was raised inside a low level vampire’s court with very little training in magic. She doesn’t know it at the beginning but she is a super special snowflake. She inherit’s the power of the Pythia, the supernatural world’s arbiter of disputes and protector of the time line. The Pythia’s draw their power from Apollo and are clairvoyant so they can know when to intervene in the time line to insure that it is protected. For over 2000 years, the pythian court has been attached loosely to the silver circle, a body of mage’s who try to keep the world safe and battle the Black Circle. The Silver Circle thinks they control the Pythian court, but the Pythia’s have long been secretive and have kept many of their powers secret. The Pythian power is somewhat sentient and the current heir Myra has been lured to the dark side by Rasputin, the evil vampire trying to change the world order and he has a bunch of people on his side, from the Black Circle to some of the vamps, weres and others who are unhappy with the current state of things. One of the vamps who have joined Rasputin is Tony, who was in Mircea’s line and raised Cassie. Tony has been especially bad- he is working with Rasputin to kidnap witches right before they were fated to die and sell them into sexual servitude to the light fey. But on this night, the Pythian power has started to transfer and part of it has come to Cassie, the daughter of the last heir and a mage who worked for Tony. Cassie took off before she found out what the senate wanted to try and get info on her parent’s from Jimmy the rat who Tony had kill them. She went into Dante’s to try and find Jimmy before he is killed for going against Tony and finds him in a basement cell. Tony is not one to let an opportunity to make a buck go by, so he has a fight club in the basement for when he wants to get rid of people. Jimmy is slated to fight a were pack whose leader he killed for Tony. When Cassie finds him in the cage, there is a pixie, Radella, who is trapped as well. She tells Cassie she was able to find the witches, but got caught and that she needs to free her. Cassie doesn’t know what Radella is talking about and Radella realize’s that this is not her Cassie. Regardless, Cassie isn’t going to leave anybody, so she frees Radella, Jimmy and three witches-one of whom is Francoise who she saw burned alive when she went back in time as
Louis-César
. Jimmy makes a run for it and Cassie tries to catch him and runs into trouble in the parking lot.
Louis-César
, Tomas and Pritkin are there to bring her back to MAGIC. She is trying to get Billy Joe to possess Jimmy so she can find out info on her parents. Jimmy’s pack of were rat/ satyrs is there and there are vamps around the parking lot who work for Tony. Tomas grabs Cassie and Louis-Cesare tells hi to take her back to Magic. Cassie objects and Pritkin says he will take her. Tomas picks Cassie up and takes away her gun. She tells him she has been looking for Jimmy for years, but Tomas ignores her. She tells Billy to go into Jimmy quickly because she is afraid of what’s about to happen. Billy Joe goes into Jimmy and rockets back out of him and into Cassie, but unlike what usually happens he pushes Cassie out of her body and her spirit goes into Tomas.
Cassie/Tomas looks down and sees Billy Joe/ Cassie in his arms. Jimmy bites Tomas/Cassie and Cassie throws him across the parking lot. Cassie sees everyone in slow motion. Pritkin fires at where Jimmy was causing an explosion and turns to meet the rat things.
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is moving in regular motion and he skewers a rat and yells at Tomas to take Cassie out of there. Cassie is confused and looks down to see a rat sneaking up on her body.
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throws a knife and skewers it in the throat. Cassie figures out that she is in Tomas. Billy Joe in Cassie calls out “Cassie where are you?” as he panics. Cassie in Tomas looks at her body and asks “who are you” and touches her body. Billy Cassie says to stop that. Cassie says who are you who is in there. Jimmy comes back at Cassie in Tomas and Cassie shoots him but he keeps coming. She shoots him again and Jimmy says to call off her gorilla or she will never find her dad. Cassie/Tomas ssays what but Jimmy says he isn’t talking to him. Jimmy looks at Billy Joe in Cassie’s body and tells her that they can make a deal. Tony will never tell her the truth he likes where Rog is too much. Cassie Tomas says my father is dead Jimmy says he isnt talking to Tomas. Cassie Tomas looks up to see that Louis-Cesare and Pritkin have killed most of the were rat things and are making short work of the others. The vamps are standing around watching and Cassie doesnt get that at all.
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calls out tomas behind you and jumps toward cassie/tomas. Cassie picked a bad moment to get distracted and Jimmy capitalized on it grabbing Billy Joe/Cassie.
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is furious with Tomas saying he told him to get her out of there. Cassie/Tomas is more worried about the claw Jimmy has to Billy Joe/Cassie’s throat. When Billy Joe starts cursing Cassie figures out that he is in her body and tells billy joe to shut up. Billy Joe is relieved to have found Cassie as he thought maybe she was dead and finding her in Tomas is a relief. Cassie decides to deal with one problem at a time and asks Jimmy what he wants to let her go after telling Billy to shut up.
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tells Tomas he has screwed up enough and he will take care of this. Cassie/Tomas tells
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to shut up which freaks him out as Tomas should not be able to do that.Cassie asks Jimmy what he wants. He says he wants to get out of this alive and Cassie is his meal ticket out of this. Cassie tells him no way, try again. Jimmy says he will kill her and still get a reward from Tony.
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says if he does that it will take him days to die. Cassie Tomas tells Jimmy
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is right if Jimmy kills Cassie then they will just kill him. Jimmy says that the alternative being that he lets her go and they kill him anyway doesn’t work for him.
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says that there are many ways to die. Cassie Tomas tells him to shut up again.
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tells Tomas he doesn’t know what is wrong with him but they will talk later. Cassie tells him he really doesn’t know. She smiles at Jimmy but Tomas’ fangs are fully extended. Cassie Tomas asks Jimmy to give up Cassie and they will give him a 2 hr start and even distract Tony’s vamps who she has figured out are there to finish the job if Jimmy gets away. Jimmy says that they would say anything to get Cassie back and then just kill him anyway. Cassie Tomas asks since when do were’s take orders from vamps and says she cant believe hes been toadying to tony all these years. Jimmy tells Tomas that there is a new world order coming and vamps may be taking orders from were’s soon. Cassie Tomas back tracks as she wanted to prick his pride not goad him into something stupid. She tells him that that wont matter if he’s dead from this fight. She asks him if he will take Cassie’s word on it. Jimmy looks torn and Cassie Tomas realizes that the shot to his chest nicked his lung. Jimmy is running out of time and when he figures that out she’s out of time. She realizes she can smell Jimmy’s fear. This makes Cassie realize she can smell everyone’s emotions and its distracting/
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is way past mad and is furious a simmering peppery scent that is coming off him in waves that seem equally directed at Tomas and Jimmy. “It was mixed up with the myriad scents suddenly hammering me from all around: the faint, far-off whiff of the sewers running beneath the earth, diesel fumes and cigarette butts from the parking lot and the reek of sauerkraut from a day-old reuben in a Dumpster. My body, on the other hand, smelled good, really good, and at first I thought it was because it was familiar. Then I realized with a shock that it actually smelled like a favorite meal, hot and fresh and ready to eat. I had never thought of blood smelling sweet, like warm apple pie or steaming cider on a cold day, but now it did. I could almost taste the blood running under the warmth of that skin, and feel how rich it would be sliding down my throat. The idea that I smelled like food to Tomas staggered me to the point that I didn’t see what happened in front of me until it was half over.” A Suffocating cloud of blue gas surrounds Cassie Tomas,
Louis-César
, Billy Joe/Cassie and Jimmy.
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tells Pritkin to stand down . Shots ring out and Cassie Tomas eyes begin to burn. As she gets ready to go into the cloud of gas to try and save her body, Billy Joe Cassie comes crawling out crying and gasping for breath. Cassie Tomas can’t figure out whats wrong until she realizes Tomas doesn’t need to breathe and hasn’t been since she has been in him which causes him to start hyperventilating. Billy Joes Cassie graps Cassie Tomas around the feet and starts crawling up saying Help. Cassie Tomas asks Am I ok and drops down to check her body saying tell me you didn’t let me get cut up! Her body seems fine except for a thin wound at the neck and watering eyes. Cassie tells a confused Billy Joe to stay her and goes after Jimmy after pulling up her shirt so her breasts stay in. Pritkin is yelling something but Cassie can hear too much in Tomas’ body and so she goes into the blue cloud to try and get Jimmy, but he is down.
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comes into the cloud and says something and Cassie says he better not be dead but then Louis-Cesare reaches out and grabs Tomas Around the throat so hard it would kill a human. As soon as
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touches Tomas though Cassie is thrown back in time, although this time as a spirit and with Tomas along!
[Top]Life is hard. Dying’s easy. So many things have to align to create life. It has to happen in a place that supports life, something approximately as rare hen’s teeth, from the perspective of the universe. Parents, in whatever form, have to come together for it to begin. From conception to birth, any number of hazards can end a life. And that’s to say nothing of all the attention and energy required to care for a new life until it is old enough to look after itself.
Life is full of toil, sacrifice, and pain, and from the moment we stop growing, we know we’ve begun dying. We watch helplessly as year by year, our bodies age and fail, while our survival instincts compel us to keep on going– which means living with the terrifying knowledge that ultimately death is inescapable. It takes enormous effort to create and maintain a life, and the process is full of pitfalls and unexpected complications.