Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Ryssa Edward's WILD WEDNESDAY!


Hi!
I’m Ryssa Edwards, your host for this week’s Wild Wednesday.
I was thinking about what to do for this blog, and I thought . . . what’s better—a short story or a contest?
I couldn’t decide. So I thought. . . it’s Wild Wednesday. . . I’ll do both!
Here’s the short story.
The contest comes right after . . .

Assassin’s Treasure
I loved Nisha to death. But his charms drove me crazy. His gold rabbit foot was missing from around his neck and I knew it didn’t matter what I said, he wasn’t going down without it. “You sure you didn’t drop it outside?”

“I had it when we came in.” His blue eyes scanned the darkness that pooled between shafts of moonlight. “We shouldn’t be here.”
I got down on my knees and felt around on the splintered wooden floor. Brittle leaves crumbled under my fingers just before I came across something hard and cold. “Nisha?”

He spun around. “What?”

Getting up, slapping the dust from my jeans, I said, “Want your charm or a lucky kiss?”

He snagged the gold necklace from my grimy fingers and crammed it into the front pocket of his jeans. “I’ll kiss you later.” A shiver ran through him. “We’re not alone. Can’t you feel it?”

“I feel something,” I said. “But it’s too hard to be in the spirit world.” I nuzzled his neck.

He gave in and let me kiss him before he whispered against my lips, “Do you have your knives?”

I raised my hands and flicked my wrists. Two ten inch blades shot out, gleaming in moonlight. “You ready?” I said.

“No.” Nisha looked up at the jagged holes in the roof. “We should come back when the sun’s up. Why didn’t your grandfather just leave you money?”
“He did,” I said, going past him, flicking my knives back into place. “It’s down cellar. And we’re getting it out before my brothers lawyer up.”

“Vance?” His voice was a trembling whisper.

I whipped around. “What?”

“There’s someone behind me.”

There was nothing, just Nisha’s pale face and wide eyes. “Quit spooking yourself.”

He was breathing too fast, working himself into a panic. “Let’s wait in the car till morning.”

This was going to be harder than I’d thought. “Remember our bet?”
“It didn’t include ghosts,” Nisha said in a harsh whisper.
He was right. But I couldn’t risk leaving him alone. “I’m upping the ante,” I said. “You go down with me and I won’t take a job for six months.”
Nisha was a tough negotiator. “Nine,” he said. “And then nothing but local work for three months.”
 “Done,” I said. “Stay close.”
The basement door was where I remembered. We went down creaking steps and almost made it to the bottom before Nisha whispered, “He’s behind me again.”

I got to where the last step should have been and bashed into a door so hard, I nearly broke my nose. Nisha slammed into me. “Back up a minute,” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

I ran my fingers over the door that shouldn’t have been there, made myself take a deep breath, then retraced the shape I’d found. “Give me your rabbit’s foot,” I said.

“I need it. We’re in a haunted cellar.”

There wasn’t time to argue with him. The door at the top of the steps was swinging shut. “Now. I mean it.”
He handed it over and I pressed the charm into the shape I’d found on the door. It opened into a coffin-sized room. A single candle hung from the wall in the grip of a stone claw.

A cold, ghostly hand pushed me. I flew to the floor. Nisha crashed down beside me.

My cheek was brushing up against solid gold. If we got nothing but the treasure chest out, we would be millionaires for life. But it got better. Diamonds, emeralds, gold nuggets, and silver coins glittered in the candlelight.

Behind us, the door slammed shut.

Nisha shoved a scrap of parchment at me. “That better be a clue to the secret way out.” He glanced at the door. “I don’t see any doorknob.”

I held it under the candle. It was my grandfather’s writing. “Dear Vance,” I read out loud, “I know it’s you, because you always were a greedy boy. If you can read the map at the bottom of this here note, you’ll find your way to ten times what’s in that little jewelry box setting beside you. If not, you’ll be guarding my treasure forever.”
I glanced up at the candle. It was burned down more than halfway, and under my grandfather’s sprawled name, there was just blank parchment.

***********
Contest
The Prize: $20 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com.
How to Win:
My novel Dreaming of a Kiss will be coming out soon with Decadent Publishing. I have a preview on my blog. To win:
(1   Check out the preview for Dreaming of a Kiss.
(     Post a comment HERE at the DAILY DOSE OF DECADENCE BLOG with your answer to this question: When Kayne changes into a Wulf (werewolf  to us humans), what color is his fur?
                         
        RYSSA'S BLOG (ryssaedwards.blogspot.com)

That’s it. How easy was that?

ON Thursday, April 21, I’ll gather all the right answers from the comments, do a drawing and post the winner right here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ryssa

13 comments:

michael outen said...

shaggy brown

Ryssa Edwards said...

Michael, thank you! Since there were some problems with responding to this post, I'm going to keep the contest for the gift certificate open until tomorrow night. . .

Maureen said...

Oh, I can cheat! Shaggy brown... Hee, hee. That's good...don't include me. I did cheat, but I do write about pirates and in that universe it's a good thing to cheat...

Anyway! Rather intriguing story!

JM said...

Oh, love, love your cover and the story. Congrats on your release! I won't play, because I tend to win, but 'shaggy brown'. Ha ha!

Valerie Mann said...

Yeah, I'll go with Shaggy Brown but I DID look it up on your website (hey, I'm not cheater and besides, it's my job since I posted the blog, LOL). I am so intrigued with this story, it has a lot of layers in just the chapter you posted on your blog. Best of luck, I think it's a winner!

Melissa said...

Shaggy brown ;)

Drmgrl99 - Dawn said...

I'm gonna say it's Shaggy Brown. love the cover and best of luck with book it look's and sounds great :)

Jess said...

Shaggy Brown. The excerpt was really good. I can't wait to read it!

jcross719 at yahoo dot com

Robin in NC said...

Brown
The excerpt was very interesting!!
Thanks!
rw620ataoldotcom

ClaudiaGC said...

His fur is shaggy brown. Love the excerpt!

Ryssa Edwards said...

@Maureen. .that wasn't cheating!

@JM. . thanks for stopping by

@Valerie . . thank you!

@Melissa. . thanks for your entry

@daydrmzz and @Jess. . thank you and stay tuned to my blog for the release date

@RW. .thank you!

@Claudia. . thank you

Ryssa Edwards said...

I'm really excited because I'm about to do the Amazon Gift Certificate drawing . . .

These people are all entered...

Maureen

Rita

Josie

P. Kirby

Michael Outen

JM

Valerie

Melissa

daydrmzz

Jess

RW

Claudia


Thank you for leaving your comments

Be back in a bit with the winner!

Ryssa Edwards said...

And the winner is . . . *drum roll*. . . P. Kirby!

Please send me an email at: To claim your $20 Amazon Gift Certificate, please send an email with "Gift Certificate Winner" in the subject line to: pennandquill(at)gmail.com