Voice Dev

 This week's post is going to be about It's Complicated, the announced next major project on this site. It's also including this subtle indicator that I'm working on other things too so while this is my active project, my actual next book might be something else.

I was going to do that smoother. That's just not happening this week. Neither is a longer post. Because we have the flu at my house and I'd rather learn how to drive a motorcycle by doing donuts on a busy highway in a snowstorm that work right now.

Whew. Now that's out of the way, I think I've finally nailed down the voices of my POV characters. I'm going to put them here. It's the same scene, but from the different POVs.

Moira POV

After being in several rounds on the fae mats, I was at least as surprised as everyone else I was still alive. While I wasn’t the only human sent to die off there, but I was the only one who made it through.

Now I had to go through the tunnel back to the human dorms. If there had been another way possible I would have taken it. Unless it was longer. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d do it.

After all, who really wants to be in the one place where people sometimes showed up murdered?

With a deep breath I opened the door and stepped in. I’d already survived one death trap today. It was fitting for me to step into another one.

A familiar fear rose in my stomach that I immediately squashed. I couldn’t hear any footsteps but my own, while the lights were sparse they illuminated most of the tunnel, and I wasn’t well liked before I’d been sent off to be killed.

I was in no more danger than ever.

The steady march of my feet only stumbled once. Jack Barrett was leaning against the stone wall immediately below one of the lights.

In his hands was a book with a beautiful and rotund woman wearing barely anything, in the loving embrace of a man who could cut glass with his abs. He was immersed. It wasn’t until my foot hesitated for half a moment he even looked up.

The book was closed around his thumb and lowered. Not hidden, just left hanging by his side with the cover still showing.

Jack, the Killer Fae, looked me up and decided he didn’t need to look me down after. A smile worthy of a predator slowly spread across his face as he took in my body.

Not wanting to betray how nice it was to be appreciated I kept my expression neutral. He’d been there when I killed my first opponent. He was rumored to be the kind of person to like that kind of thing in a woman.

After three seconds exactly of humoring these ideas I shut it down. He didn’t appreciate me as a woman, but a fellow threat.

I forced my eyes to the tunnel ahead as I actually passed him. Just before I reached the next pool of shadows I heard him call out, in a voice as low and dark as his morality, “See you next time.”

The words echoed in my head all the way to the other door. It told me that today, I would make it through the tunnel alive guaranteed. Today, he expected to see me again.

Strange.

Jack POV

I knew no one else was passing through for the rest of the night. It meant I could finally read that book I’d stolen from the librarian earlier.

My head couldn’t drop the image of that human girl. How pleased she’d looked when she snapped Freren’s neck. It was a shame I couldn’t do it myself, but it was a close second. She’d used my move to do it.

That quiet I’d gotten when our eyes met. Where I could almost see myself through her eyes instead of hearing everyone else.

As soon as the last whisper of clairvoyance finally shut the fuck up, I sat under the nearest light. My night vision was great in the shadows down here. It wasn’t great for reading.

I was just starting to enjoy the book when I realized I could hear boot heels in a steady march. Because I heard them misstep.

It was a small thing, the hesitation. It was bigger that I hadn’t heard their thoughts. It couldn’t be. When I turned my head to look I saw the same girl from earlier.

I stood, closing the book around my thumb and leaning against the cold stone wall. Normally I’d kill someone for sneaking up on me like that. Especially a human.

She was looking right at me and I could see what she was noticing. The almost lewd cover, my eyes, the flat expression on my face. There was the whisper of a smile on hers.

I looked her up and decided I didn’t need to look her down. She looked average. Perhaps a little shorter than I typically liked, but I knew there’d be muscles under her tender sides and thighs.

There was something satisfying about the way the straps on her leathers were just pressing into her skin. No. I wouldn’t kill this one.

Then she looked away. Straight ahead into the darkness between this light and the next. I thought I could get her to look back at me. She’d tried to get my attention earlier so I might as well return the favor.

“I’ll see you next time.” After all, there was no way a human would survive being sent to our training and not be sent back. I hoped I’d be able to fight her next. It might not be as easy to win against someone who isn’t broadcasting their next moves to me.

What was her name again? Maybe I’d find out.