It's an exhilarating thrill ride as a human and an alien find an unexpected connection in this sensual and suspenseful story set in space. Keep reading to get a tempting glimpse of Sithe by Starla Night, along with this exciting excerpt, then start counting down the days until this first installment in The Blades of Arris series hits bookshelves on September 21st!
It’s a routine mission. Hunt down the ones who dared – dared – steal our sacred procreation metal from us, the rulers of the empire.
The Arrisans conquered Earth in a day. They smashed into our helpless planet like a wrecking ball, and overnight, everything changed.
That’s what our history books say.
The truth is, I’ve never seen an Arrisan face-to-face. But when my lone medical ship is attacked by ruthless pirates, the nightmare that hunts them down is no hero.
Cloaked in assassin’s gray, metal scythes fused to his wrist-bones, he is the grim reaper of the conquerors. The Arrisan elite special forces. A blade.
Luckily for me, he’s in a good mood now that he’s the last man standing in the blood-soaked ruins of my bridge, so he lets me live. After all, I’m just a lesser. Clearly I’m no threat.
Until his body starts reacting to mine...
EXCERPT:
Oh no.
I’ve gone too far this time.
Way, way too far.
The foot soldier replaces his hood and turns.
The man stands and twitches his gray suit, resettling it over his broad, all-too-human back, tapered waist, muscular quads and calves. The cowl has fallen back, revealing black hair and pallid skin, and he pads silently across the blood-soaked carpet on gray boots. The black lining his fingernails could just be polish, the spikes on the backs of his ears a quirk of biology.
But the molecule-thin blades nested like a chevron tattoo at his wrists prove he is the deadliest member of the conquering race. A foot soldier, known as a blade, from the conquerors of Arris.
Why, if the Arrisans have huge lasers that can devastate planets, do they arm and train their foot soldiers to win a war single-handedly? Old joke. Because every part of Arris is terrifying.
And I have just sexually assaulted him.
I have assaulted him in the ship’s theater where we used to spread blankets and eat popcorn and pretend we were still on Humana, in a big science experiment together, one that would be over soon.
He presses the communication button.
The movie screen activates, and another brutal, pallid Arrisan fills the half dome. He leers over me.
Terror jolts into my bones. I scramble around the back of the captain’s chair.
“Spiderwasp in,” he barks. “We acknowledge your priority call. Intercept in two clegs. Prepare for the majesty of the High Command’s newest flagship, blade. Spiderwasp out.”
The screens go blank, and the orange blood sprays become more visible.
As do the ribbons of flesh beneath my bare feet.
I am crouched in someone’s entrails.
Silence cuts my ears with its sharpness. The stench of burnt oxygen and sour waste pierces my nostrils. The world fractures around me like peering through broken glass. Too sharp, too real.
His face is barely profiled in the cloaking shadow of the assassin’s cowl. The suit moves like a normal cloak, but a sheen of black underneath deflects light like spilled oil. He flexes his fingers. The curved blades emerge a fraction from his wrists. He fixes on me.
No.
I scoot around the captain’s chair, trying to make myself small.
Please, no.
Oh, please—
“What did the Eruvisans do to you?”
His voice is toneless and quiet.
Like a serial killer.
I want to look away, but I can’t in case that’s how I miss when I die. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t remember.”
The shadows where his eyes should be widen slightly. He thinks I’m tricking him. Like I would even know how.
Why, if the Arrisans have huge lasers that can devastate planets, do they arm and train their foot soldiers to win a war single-handedly? Old joke. Because every part of Arris is terrifying.
And I have just sexually assaulted him.
I have assaulted him in the ship’s theater where we used to spread blankets and eat popcorn and pretend we were still on Humana, in a big science experiment together, one that would be over soon.
He presses the communication button.
The movie screen activates, and another brutal, pallid Arrisan fills the half dome. He leers over me.
Terror jolts into my bones. I scramble around the back of the captain’s chair.
“Spiderwasp in,” he barks. “We acknowledge your priority call. Intercept in two clegs. Prepare for the majesty of the High Command’s newest flagship, blade. Spiderwasp out.”
The screens go blank, and the orange blood sprays become more visible.
As do the ribbons of flesh beneath my bare feet.
I am crouched in someone’s entrails.
Silence cuts my ears with its sharpness. The stench of burnt oxygen and sour waste pierces my nostrils. The world fractures around me like peering through broken glass. Too sharp, too real.
His face is barely profiled in the cloaking shadow of the assassin’s cowl. The suit moves like a normal cloak, but a sheen of black underneath deflects light like spilled oil. He flexes his fingers. The curved blades emerge a fraction from his wrists. He fixes on me.
No.
I scoot around the captain’s chair, trying to make myself small.
Please, no.
Oh, please—
“What did the Eruvisans do to you?”
His voice is toneless and quiet.
Like a serial killer.
I want to look away, but I can’t in case that’s how I miss when I die. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t remember.”
The shadows where his eyes should be widen slightly. He thinks I’m tricking him. Like I would even know how.
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