Genesis

  Genesis

  Book #1 of Glory

  Dale Mayer

  Book in this series:

  Genesis

  Tori

  Celeste

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Back Cover

  Complimentary Download

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Also by Dale Mayer

  Copyright Page

  Back Cover

  Genesis and her sisters are the last of her maternal line, the last of the stargazers – except she is a dropout in the energy worker talent department.

  Gentle, non-assuming Genesis Chandler is supposed to be protecting the woods, as is her nature – she’s an energy worker – but since Granny’s death and her sisters leaving town, she’s lost sight of much in her life. While she was living with blinders on, someone else took advantage.

  Connor has been called in to investigate the sacred forest. Something odd is happening to the reserve, and it’s affecting the town’s energy source. That also means it’s connected to the sacred pools. He’s got energy problems himself and needs Genesis to get to the bottom of this problem.

  Genesis has no love for Connor. His fault. He loved her and left her, not realizing he’d left the best part of himself behind – his heart.

  Can they work together to find out who is destroying their energy reserve – a resource that’s key to the life of all who live on Glory?

  Their survival depends on it.

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  Blood doesn’t just make her who she is … it also makes her what she is.

  Like being a sixteen-year-old vampire isn’t hard enough, Tessa’s throwback human genes make her an outcast among her relatives. But try as she might, she can’t get a handle on the vampire lifestyle and all the … blood.

  Turning her back on the vamp world, she embraces the human teenage lifestyle—high school, peer pressure and finding a boyfriend. Jared manages to stir something in her blood. He’s smart and fun and oh, so cute. But Tessa’s dream of a having the perfect boyfriend turns into a nightmare when vampires attack the movie theater and kidnap her date.

  Once again, Tessa finds herself torn between the human world and the vampire one.

  Will blood own out? Can she make peace with who she is as well as what?

  DOWNLOAD a complimentary copy of VAMPIRE IN DENIAL? Just tell me where to send it!

  Chapter 1

  “Can I help you?” Genesis Chandler kept her polite smile plastered on her face and her voice cool yet friendly despite the fact that broken glass crunched underfoot and her shop lay in shambles. A good shopkeeper would never show that anything was amiss. The two large, black-suited males stared at her, not even the hint of a smile cracking their stern faces. Never did they look at the mess around them. There was a large meeting at the Paranormal Council this week, and from the subdued air of power rippling from the men, it was a good guess why they were here. She thought she recognized them. In fact, she thought they might head the similar council in a different city. For all her attempts to stay removed from the dealings in the paranormal world, it was hard to not get glimpses of the goings on. As anything in that line brought powerful memories to the forefront, she did her best to block it out immediately.

  “Are you looking for something specific?” she asked, brightening the wattage of her smile.

  The men never moved a muscle.

  Remi, being wise as well as cheeky, squeaked once and disappeared. But then, what else did she expect? Rare plumers weren’t known to be friendly in the first place. And Remi’s instincts were fine-honed, like any other wild animal.

  As Genesis stared at the big, square men, she realized she’d like to disappear, too.

  They stood just inside the doorway of her shop and surveyed the mess. Without a word, the older man turned and walked out. The younger man brought his gaze around to land on her. She kept her bright smile on her face. A customer was a customer, although she was pretty sure these men weren’t here for a sleeping tisane.

  With the faintest sneer marring his face, the second man exited as silently as he’d arrived.

  “Goodbye. Have a nice day,” Genesis called out, as a proper storekeeper should, then breathed a sigh of relief when the bells chimed, signaling the strangers’ exit from her shop. They’d entered, damn near filled the tiny interior, and never said a word, but had studied her for longer than was strictly necessary. She’d been friendly. Polite. But she’d also instinctively pulled a protective layer of energy around her. She didn’t know who they were or what they wanted, but the one thing she did know was that they weren’t in the right place.

  No one with their energy belonged here. And given their intimidating size and presence, she’d had a hard time keeping a smile on her face and her nervousness at bay. She’d kept her own energetic system well buttoned down. Another of Granny’s lessons she’d learned well. Granny’s words rolled through her head as she’d stared at the men. Don’t let anyone know who you are. What you can do. Everyone has an agenda. It won’t be yours.

  That advice seemed appropriate right now.

  With the men gone, the atmosphere inside lightened. Remi reappeared.

  “There you are.” She reached out and stroked a hand down his long back. “Fine bodyguard you are, leaving me with those two scary dudes.”

  She swore his grin, already wide and mischievous, widened yet again. He chattered once, then raced over to lie on the window shelf where he could look at the people walking past.

  It was hard to not be suspicious of everyone right now after the break-in by paranormal means. At least her intruder had only broken the energetic lock on the back door instead of smashing the front windows. That was another reason to avoid law enforcement. They didn’t work with those who had power. That would be the Paranormal Center in town policing that. Another group of people she avoided.

  And the community…well, they mostly avoided her.

  There was just enough fear involved to feed prejudice against energy workers in the community. Respect for those at the top, but for the unknown workers, there was a different attitude altogether.

  Not that many knew about her abilities. Her life would be way worse if they did.

  No wonder her sisters had taken off when everything had blown up. Too bad that hadn’t been an option for Genesis. Besides…she had nowhere to go.

  Still, there was enough broken glass for her to reconsider storing herbs in glass canisters. Maybe plastic would be better after all.

  For the rest of the morning, she puttered around her shop, happy to have it looking back to normal again. Then, needing to keep busy, she
’d packaged up herbs for most of the afternoon. By the end of the day, she was comforted to see that she’d actually accomplished a fair bit.

  Still, she couldn’t help shake the feeling that something was off. Something she should know about.

  Only what was it?

  “What do you think, Remi? Any idea what’s going on?” She laughed. As if he was going to answer. Still, if nothing else, the sound of her voice was comforting.

  She wished for the millionth time that her sisters were here. This last year had been horribly lonely. Both had left – one to hide away, and one to find herself. And exactly how did that make any sense? While she, ever the homebody, had stayed to protect their heritage.

  The three girls had been blessed beyond measure by the old woman who had taken them all in. That they’d been able to stay together was an even bigger blessing. As the oldest of the triplets, Genesis had always been the quiet one. The one who’d stepped up in a crisis.

  And a year ago, a crisis had hit in the worst way.

  Granny had died, leaving everything to the three girls equally. But what they’d inherited would send shock waves through the community – and potentially a horrific backlash. It was one of the reasons she’d not brought out the documents to prove her claim at this point. Genesis didn’t think she could handle it alone.

  Granny had always been considered an odd hermit by the locals. And that was the kinder of the names. Caught up in the grief over their loss, none of the three sisters had worried about staking their claim. Granny’s death had caused a vortex in their lives, and their personal relationships had gone off the wall. Instead of three potential weddings, there’d been none.

  Inheritances they’d have to fight everyone over hadn’t seemed important at the time. Or since. She’d hidden away from everything this last year, only doing the bare necessity when she could no longer ignore her inner proddings to go and check on the pools, the forests. She hadn’t wanted to be left alone…but it was past time to mourn what was gone and deal with the reality of what her life was now.

  Growing up had been hard. They weren’t like the other kids. They didn’t have a “normal” family. They’d had trouble making friends, and they’d been the butt of many jokes, but that didn’t matter because they had Granny. She’d been special. Like seriously special. And no one knew.

  And most wouldn’t believe it if they did.

  Life on Glory wasn’t the same as on other planets. And so very different from Earth. Some planets – like Glory – hadn’t been as fully researched as others before immigration had started. The actual living conditions could only be surmised, but time had been short and people had been anxious to get out. Sure, the planet had been examined, tested, and approved, but Glory was farther away from Earth than other options, making it the least popular and least well-known location.

  And on top of that, it was an energy hot spot. Areas that were too hot to live in had been quickly segregated into energy reserves – a geographical truth the settlers had found out the hard way. Now, the towns existed on the edges of these special areas.

  No one truly understood how the energy centers worked. There were massive forests, healing waters, and unique cave systems in each one. It was an ecosystem they all depended on for their own energetic systems.

  There had been many problems in the beginning, but over time, they’d learned. Initially, no one had understood that recharging could be too extreme. Or that the forest needed to be cared for on an energetic basis, but then, they’d come from Earth, where energy workers were rare. After arriving on Glory, energy abilities had started showing up in the population. Now, hundreds of years later, there were enough workers that they had their own Council, led by Matt Luker. As a relatively new leader, Matt was an unknown. Genesis had no idea what he was truly like even though her sister Celeste had been engaged to him.

  Before she’d left.

  As she closed up the shop, Genesis remembered her plans to go to the caves. With all the weird stirrings in the energy field lately, she needed to. She’d been remiss in her duties, preferring to ignore them than face her memories, her losses, her grief. But she couldn’t any longer.

  Besides, she had to return the chart she had in her bag.

  The energy disturbances had been bad this last year, but they had gotten much worse this last week since the break-in at her apartment. A break-in that should not have been possible. Not with the energy locks she’d used.

  It was her fault. She should never have brought the star chart home to work on in her apartment. She’d known it then but had once again ignored the inner prompting. Her gaze strayed to the chart, the one she’d been working on for weeks, sitting on top of the folders – not inside of the folder. It shouldn’t have been removed from the cottage in the first place. She had to get it back home. And fast.

  Considering the break-in this morning at the shop, she figured she was already too late. Someone knew. That meant she and her sisters were no longer safe. And neither were the documents – the proof of their heritage.

  *

  Connor Bateman quietly approached the hidden cave entrance. He couldn’t sense any disturbance. Couldn’t see any signs of intruders. But then again, that meant little around here. For someone like him, hiding his tracks was easy. Many people could move silently, not leaving even a ripple in the atmosphere to indicate that they’d come and gone. If he had full use of his abilities, he’d likely see more. As it was, he could only investigate at a level slightly above a normal person. Except he had years of experience to draw on.

  He studied the porous rock carefully. This reserve appeared to be the same as every other one he’d been in. They were amazing ecosystems that needed to be protected.

  His job was to do just that.

  Connor had only just returned to Little Glory for the first time in just under a year, thanks to a special request from Grandfather – not a blood relative, just a name the man preferred to be called. He was old, but still active and powerful, although he was starting to show his years. Working for Grandfather, doing contracts for the Glory Energy Council as an investigator, he’d seen his share of weird sightings and events all over the planet.

  But now, something was happening on Glory. And he finally had a reason forcing him to come back. He’d been planning to since the day he’d left, but somehow the jobs close by went to other investigators. He had to wonder if Grandfather hadn’t known about his relationship with Genesis.

  If he’d known, he’d have sent Connor to the opposite side of the planet. Which was exactly where Connor had spent the bulk of the last year. But if that was the case, why had he brought him here now? Maybe he’d realized they’d need Genesis’ help to get to the bottom of this disturbance and figured he’d be the one to charm her into helping. If that was the case, Grandfather had seriously overestimated Connor’s influence.

  Murmurs of problems with the forest, disturbances in the pools, odd, colorful flares in the sky. The reserve was under stress. The real question was why.

  And that was what he intended to find out.

  Connor had to find Genesis. At least, he hoped he’d find her. Matt had told him she was still in town.

  But that didn’t mean she’d be happy to see him.

  A rumble reverberated under his feet, adding to his unease. Power had to be respected, controlled if possible, or it would blow like a volcano to release the pressure. They couldn’t afford to have an eruption here. The town was close. Maybe too close.

  He needed to find why the ecosystem was out of balance and to figure out how to return it to its normal state…and fast.

  The dark cave appeared in front of him. He slipped inside.

  Chapter 2

  Genesis decided to leave her car parked behind the shop and hike to the closest cave entrance. She’d cut through the cavern and be home at the cottage in no time. She no longer felt safe at her small apartment. And she couldn’t rest until the chart was back where it belonged. That someone had seen it was
bad enough – what if they had taken an image of it to show to other people? She knew her thoughts were bordering on paranoia, but it was hard to ignore a lifetime of cautiousness. If someone was looking for it, that would explain the break-in at the shop. After the first break-in, she’d made sure to hide it so no one could find it. But that hadn’t stopped someone from looking.

  Remi raced around her, over and under the tree branches, bouncing up the trunks then down again. She laughed. “We should do this more often.”

  She hadn’t been in this particular area in a while. And that wasn’t good, considering the changes she was seeing.

  The bushes were smaller here, stunted. Their color was dull instead of the rich green that they should be sporting. The ground crunched from extreme drought as she walked, another oddity given the ground water levels here.

  Twenty minutes later, she took the path to the left that led deeper into the forest. A slight breeze drifted in on the lazy afternoon, making the walk a step up from beautiful. There was no feeling like it. Green grass, healthy trees, and sunshine.

  As she moved through this special area, there were signs of a clearing off to the left – where there shouldn’t be a clearing. She stepped up to the edge and gasped.

  There were large trailers parked at one end. Work trailers. And huge metal machines.

  Except no one was allowed to build anything here. This land was sacred.

  With a sinking heart, she realized just how long it had been since she’d come this way. She hadn’t meant to neglect her duties. But with Granny’s passing, so many of the things she used to do had fallen by the wayside. Unfortunately.

  What she was seeing now was an obscenity. Skirting around the large machinery, she followed the path. It led away from the trailers and deeper into the woods. The underground caves had many entrances, but the one she’d always used was less popular. She wasn’t anti-people, but the work she did, she did in private.