disembodied spirits are not investigated - One, Two, Three Kiss Box Set: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy by Emily Kimelman

An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy
One, Two, Three Kiss Box Set: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy (Transmissions from the International Council for the Exploration of the Universe)

Description:

Published: April 17th, 2015

The International Council for the Exploration of the Universe exists to consider and conduct investigations into the dimensions of the Universe; to examine how far humans are being depleted by zombies; to investigate natural methods, such as by breeding, etc., of keeping up the stock; and in cases of certain future failure of supply to suggest the necessary remedial measures. For the most part it deals with the humans common to all dimensions, but a special sub-committee considers the vampires, and a second the shifters; disembodied spirits are not investigated.

In the first transmission....
A new, dangerous street drug is spreading through Crescent City. A hallucinogen that causes violent attacks, incredible strength, and leaves its victims in a permanently altered state.

Darling Price's band, Higgs and the Bosons, is on the verge of their big break. If only she could get her act together and play the way she did before her best friend and musical inspiration, Megan Quick, fell fatally ill, then disappeared.

With only weeks to live Megan wasn't even strong enough to visit the bathroom by herself, yet, somehow she climbed out of her window and left.

Even though it's been months, Darling can't stop looking for Megan. Still hoping to find her alive is insane. Her obsession is pissing off her band mates and Darling is worried it might trigger her hallucinations. She hasn't been sick since Megan and she ran away from their foster home to Crescent City at the age of 13.

They took a blood oath, pressing bleeding palms together, promising that no matter what they'd stay with each other. So how could Megan leave her? It's a mystery Darling can't solve and refuses to let go of.

Since Megan's disappearance Darling has started to feel a gnawing hunger. No food or drink or drug can quench it. It's a hunger she's felt before, but has convinced herself wasn't real. Because what Darling feels, and the vivid memories from her early childhood, are all impossible.

As the drug spreads through the city and the world begins to unravel, Darling's lack of musical inspiration becomes the least of her problems as she comes to recognize that all of her assumptions about the universe may be wrong.

In the second transmission....

Darling Price thought her best friend, Megan Quick, was dead. Months earlier the doctors said Megan had only weeks to live. Than she disappeared. So when Megan saves Darling from a crowd of flesh crazed zombies, exhibiting strength and speed beyond the bounds of biology, Darling is at once exhilarated to see her friend alive again but also frightened by her.

Darling comes to understand that Megan's new found life comes at a price, one she hopes Darling is willing to pay so that they can be together again.

With zombies over running the streets, immortal beings controlling her emotions, and lost memories flooding back to her, Darling must make a decision that will decide the course of her life forever. At the same time Darling begins to understand that she is not just some regular girl. She may have powers of her own that go beyond the bounds of known biology.

In the third transmission....
Darling Price can feed off the power of others. Through this transfer of energy she can heal from any wound, including a zombie bite. With the help of Dimitri, an 800 year old vampire, Darling searches for answers about her parents and her powers.

As she gets closer to the truth the world continues to crumble around her. Dr. Issa Tor, a powerful warlock, believes that Darling can help save the world but when she goes to his society looking for answers she just finds more questions. Time is running out for Darling and the world she has learned to think of as home.

EXCERPT

TOUR SCHEDULE

International Dimension Investigations

Please state Where and When this correspondence was found and then put it in the nearest inter-dimensional pathway. You will be informed in reply where and when it was set adrift. Our object is to find out the Direction of the Deep Currents of the Universe.

Locality where found?

Depth

Date when found?

Name of Sender

Address

I hope this works. I’ve never tried attaching anything to our research messages before. Only 4% are found and responded to. Perhaps you have no idea what this is, what the Deep Currents of the Universe are. More than likely, if you can understand this, then it is much like your ocean. In my world we first started putting messages into bottles in order to track the currents of our waters.

When another dimension responded it shocked us. It’s possible in your world the dimensional portals are still unknown to your scientists. After decades of study they are still mostly unknown to ours, hence this message. We still use the same methods we did over a century ago. Though now it is the currents of the Universe that we throw our bites of data into.

But I have not broken all protocol, and risked my career, in order to talk about my world or the methodology of The International Council for the Exploration of the Universe. I did it to talk about Darling Price.

I have interviewed many inter-dimensional creatures but none of them like Darling.  Enclosed you will find the recordings from the first day’s sessions. I hope the file is not too heavy to float.  I feel a great nervousness that I will be too late, or that you will not understand the impact of these interviews. I fear that my world is lost, but perhaps yours can be saved.

I will send out more when I can. Please respond. Tell me that you’ve received my message.

****

Darling Price’s hair is dark; it falls over her shoulders in shimmering waves. It’s glossy like a record, catching the light in white lines. Her eyes are a very intense green. Alarming, powerful.

She avoids eye contact. “Bad things happen when I look a person in the eyes. Everyone except Megan.”

“Tell me about Megan,” I said.

“She is the thing that saved me. I was going to kill myself, and kill people with me, and just drag the whole world down. I felt like reality was twisting around me and… she stopped the world and I got to live.”

“Since her leaving?”

“Leaving,” she hiccuped a laugh, “is that what you’re calling it?” Darling stood up and turned to the wall. Her black leather pants were the same shiny black as her hair. On her hips hung a white belt; it tilted to one side, where her gun hung. Silver pistol, not as shiny as her hair. It looked used, scuffed, strapped to her leg for too long.

She raised her hands above her head and rested them against the cinder-block wall. Her fingernails were short, painted the same matte metallic as her gun. She turned back to me, running a hand through her hair, pushing the long locks away from her high cheekbones and arched brows. “She was taken. I want you to write that down. Megan did not leave me.”

“Okay,” I said, dutifully picking up my pen. “Please continue.”

She looked at her empty chair, the long hair falling to cover her fine features. It exposed her shoulder, bare except for the strap of her tank top. Surprisingly erotic under the fluorescent light.

Darling sat down and leaned onto the table between us. “Do you have a cigarette?” she asked.

“You can’t smoke in here,” I said.

She smiled slowly, her eyes warming; a sensation began to tingle along my jaw. “Give me a tobacco stick, and I’ll tell you my story.”

I waved to the guard.

Darling sat back, pushing the chair away from the table, and extended her legs out straight. “And a beer,” she said. “I’d love a beer.”

I nodded.

Moments later, a fresh cigarette hanging from her lip, the smoke curling around her and seeming to want to brush up against her hair before dissipating into the air, she began to tell me her story. 

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About the author:

E.J. Kimelman is the paranormal pen name of Emily Kimelman. She splits her time between the Hudson Valley and traveling the world with her husband, Sean, and her dog, Kinsey (named after Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone), researching exciting locations for her Sydney Rye Mystery Series. Emily is enjoying writing about places that only exist in her imagination with the KISS series. Kimelman has a passion for traveling and spends as much time as possible in the pursuit of adventure. 

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