Excerpt: Deirdra's Decision

She never heard the warning signs, the strange gasping breaths, the footsteps behind her, any of it. The first warning she got was a strong hand on her right arm.. and instinct took over. Twisting her arm around, she manuvered herself in a position behind her attacker, wrenching his arm behind his back... and then she saw the strange tattoo. A tattoo of a snake, on the back of his hand, coiled around his wrist. His other hand came at her, trying to reach back and grab her and pull her off him. Instead she slammed her knee between his legs from behind, hearing a satisfying yelp.

Grunting slightly with the effort, she wrested his arm up higher between his shoulder blades, and pulled the knife out of her boot, holding it at his throat. In a gutteral tone she had never used before, she spoke right into his ear. "Who are you and what do you want?"

He didn't respond, instead he grabbed her wrist with his left hand, the one he had tried to hit her with, and twisted his arm back, showing an extreme amount of muscle mass, hidden beneath a common hoodie. in doing so he twisted her around, and pulled her so that her arms were cross in front of her, pinned to his chest. "You are coming with me."

At the time, she was utterly unaware of the secret brotherhood who called themselves the Reverence of the Viper, who had heard prophecies of one who would bring them into a new age. One with the hair of a raven and eyes of ice. Entirely unaware of the fact that they believed she was to be their new mortal God, walking among earth.

As he dragged her off, in the silent empty street, she wondered for a moment if anyone would miss her, and started struggling in earnest. He simply hit her in the temple, knocking her out cold, and carried her as one would a lover back to the secret Temple they'd named the Viper's Nest.