Title: Drowning in Danger
Series: Liquid Onyx, Book Three
Author: BL Jones
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 09/26/2023
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 112100
Genre: Urban Fantasy, family-drama, urban fantasy, superheroes, magic/magic users, organised crime, tearjerker
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Description
Sixteen years ago, Alex Nova defied the impossible and shook the world to its core. He made children into superhumans and, in doing so, made a villain out of himself.
At age twenty, Rex Nova took the consequences of his father’s actions and used them to make himself into a superhero, so he could protect the world his father almost broke.
Unknown to him, however, are the secrets buried in his genetics. Hidden truths soaked in tainted blood.
Like his father before him, the choices Rex makes when his back is up against the wall will force him to confront things about who he really is, and what he’s willing to become to protect the people he loves.
This time, the consequences will be of his own wreaking, and the fallout will threaten everything he cares about.
Drowning in Danger
BK Jones © 2023
All Rights Reserved
“Stop trying to have a dance-off with me,” I admonish Jatin. “Keep your feet equal distance apart and hold your stance.”
Jatin gives me the look I’ve become familiar with over the course of our few training sessions together. It’s his are you sure you know what you’re on about look. Despite having enthusiastically agreed to accept my help and training, Jatin is highly sceptical of my ability to teach him how to fight or defend himself. I’ve refrained from telling him I’m not teaching him how to fight yet. I’m trying to stop him from getting dropped in the first two seconds of any real-world altercation.
We’ll move on to offensive action later. Baby steps are required when you’re learning how to fight this late in life. I was six when Roux started training me how not to die. Jatin is years behind already, as far as I’m concerned, and he needs the basic foundation on technical defensive skill before I even consider letting him throw a punch.
Unfortunately, Jatin, the impatient imp that he is, keeps trying his best to jump ahead in the training program. I’ve lost count of the times he’s attempted to goad me into hitting him. His latest attempts include doing a lot of fancy footwork bullshit that he knows I hate. It makes him look like he’s training for a high-level skipping competition. He knows I hate it because I’ve told him a million times to stop, before he trips and accidentally kills us both.
“Go on.” I look pointedly at Jatin’s feet. “Do it like I’ve shown you. If your feet end up on the same line with your target, you won’t have a strong base and it will be extremely hard to rotate or pivot. Keep your chest slightly open to the target.”
Jatin blows out an exasperated breath, still giving me the same look, but he does as I say and spreads his feet the proper distance apart. He bends his knees slightly and rolls his shoulders back, fitting his body into one of the beginner stances I’ve drilled into him. The boy’s no ballet dancer, but he’s got good form. There’s untapped grace and fluidity in his movements, I’m certain of it. If he could just stop trying to kick box slash break dance at me then we might actually get somewhere in the next ten years.
“Stop that,” I say again when Jatin starts bouncing in his jittery, eager way. It causes his stance to slip and his shoulders to lock up when they should be loose and ready to help him move freely.
Jatin lets out another irritated huff and comes out of the ready stance entirely. He kicks at the sand beneath our feet impetuously.
“Are you ever going to teach me how to do anything other than stand around looking at you?” he complains. “Because I’ve been standing and looking at people for years already. Learned how to do it ages ago, actually. Can we please move on to something less boring now?”
I sigh quietly and take a moment to sweep my eyes out over the expanse of Colbie beach.
I decided to bring Jatin here for our session today. I checked with my friends first, to make sure they were okay with it. They all agreed to letting Jatin come to our home, which is entirely based on their trust in me.
“No.” I let my gaze return to Jatin. “I’m not teaching you how to stand, menace. I’m teaching you how to hold yourself so that someone else can’t knock you around like a rag doll. It’s really important to have control over your own body, to know exactly how to manipulate it in order to protect yourself. You’re not Rocky; you can’t just take hits and expect to keep getting back up.”
Jatin heaves out the loudest and most dramatic tween groan I’ve ever heard in real life. He turns away from me to look over at Jamie and Sami instead, who caught me on my way down to the beach and decided to come observe my training session with Jatin. I argued that it would be a distraction to have them there, but Sami said he wanted to see me “beat up a child” and followed us out onto the beach, dragging a more reluctant and respectful-of-my-wishes Jamie along with him.
“How about you two?” Jatin shouts to them. He throws out an arm to gesture wildly at me. “Will one of you fight me? Properly. Before I die of old age learning how to squat like a crab.”
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BL Jones is a twentysomething British author who spends all her free time reading and writing and taming her three much younger brothers. She works as a BSL interpreter in Bristol and lives with a temperamental bunny named Pepsi. She’s been writing stories since she was five, rarely sharing them with anyone except her numerous stuffed animals. BL has had a difficult journey into discovering and accepting her own queerness, and therefore believes that positive, honest, and authentic stories about queer people are very important. She hopes to contribute her own stories for people to have fun with and enjoy.
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