Pages

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Teaser Tuesday - Mystic Taxi

In this excerpt from Mystic Taxi, the villain finally makes his evil intentions known to his pawn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max stood a little straighter. "I won't help you commit genocide."

The smile slid slowly from Jasper's face. "I'm afraid you have no choice."

Now the boy's over-sized head turned red, his brows furrowed in anger. "You can't make me do anything I don't want to do."

"You're mistaken, son." Jasper snapped his fingers and two large spawnsters, one with rat-like features and the other more lionesque with horns, entered the ballroom carrying two machines that looked like giant typewriters.

Max pointed at them, his finger shaking. "Those are my father's inventions! They're his D-Mail machines."

"Is that what they're called?" Jasper motioned the two men to set the machines down. "Fascinating. Your father has made some amazing creations."

The boy looked frightened, as well he should. "How do you know about my father's creations?"

"Because they're mine now." He turned to his goons, hands on hips, and demanded, "Report."

"The entire building is probably ash and rubble by now," the ratty spawnster said.

"And Vernon Paine?" Jasper asked.

Ratman shrugged. "Didn't see him come out. I assume he went down with his ship."

"No!" Max yelled, and lunged for Jasper, but the lionman grabbed him, picked him up, and slammed him into the reclined chair. Max was undeterred. "Where's my father. I demand to see him. Now!"

"He's dead," Jasper said, enjoying the taste of the word on his tongue. "And your grandmother is next on my list."

Max's eyes filled with tears, but he did well at holding them back. He even held his tongue. What could he say? His entire family was gone. Well, almost gone. Two down, one to go. Henry wasn't much longer for this world if Jasper had his way.

7 comments:

sue laybourn said...

I love the darkness of this book and this bleak world you've created. A great scene, full of menace.
Nice work, missus!

Debra Driza said...

Your imagination is amazing--totally creative new world. Please tell me the bad guy doesn't win. :)

Gretchen said...

I like this. There's a little bit of the Evil Villain and his Evil Henchmen to it and one moment of dialogue - when one of them described the building they'd destroyed I think - verged on the Scooby Doo. But overall, it sounds like a nonstop adventurous romp!

JenWriter said...

I'm so intrigued by the machines. I want to know more about them! And also what happens to Henry. :)

Latasha McLaughlin said...

I am loving this steampunk although I know I couldn't write it. I love the machines that you are using here and I like the description of the people in the room with him.

Sarah said...

Wonderful! You can feel the terror and the absurdity of it all at once - really, really well done.

Anonymous said...

I'm getting to this late....

Love the D-Mail! Like Gretchen suggested, something about it kind of skirts the line around over-the-top villiany, but it's gripping. Gonna be a fun read!