Retaliation by Haley Cavanagh Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Retaliation
The Oceanstone Initiative #2
by Haley Cavanagh
Genre: SciFi Romance
Publisher: Covey Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: December 27, 2019
One doctor, one alien lover, one botanist, and one engineer on a desperate mission to save earth from human destruction.
Sakota saved Astraeus and her friends from certain death, but in doing so, she gained the attention of the Oreck, who will stop at nothing to destroy everything in their path.
With their ship severely damaged, Sakota and her crew land on a nearby planet and seek sanctuary while they make repairs to return home. But nothing on this perfect planet is as it appears, and Sakota soon learns they've traded one danger for another.
Hunted and targeted, will Sakota be able to carry out her mission, or will everyone she cares about be destroyed?
“No.” Sakota
bolted up in bed in the middle of the night. Her
dreams of blood and fear were monopolized with pointed teeth,
cartilaginous faces, long, double-jointed arms and legs, and cruel,
black alien eyes. The Oreck. They haunted her, perpetual alien
God-ghosts with their eerie, electromagnetic glow beneath papery,
gray skin. Beside
her, Astraeus slept, his arm flopped over the groove in the bed where
she’d lain as he held her. He stirred, frowning. Was he having a
nightmare too? She reached her hand out and searched with her
emotions, as she’d learned to do. He
tossed, fitful, in the clutches of a nightmare to do with Upsilon’s
destruction. She couldn’t remember what her nightmare had been
about, but it had ended violently. Peace,
she sent silently. Tranquility. Calm. Rest. Astraeus
sighed in his sleep, relaxed, and rolled over. She feathered hair out
of his face. His existence had blown her away, and it still did. Astraeus’s genetic code far outstripped her own. He had defense
mechanisms in place to protect him from climate extremities that she
could never even dream of having. But more so, for the first time in
her life, she’d fallen in love. It went against her pragmatic
nature, but his comforting presence anchored her amid the wreckage. She
scrubbed her face with her hand in the darkness and swung her legs
over the side of the levitating bed, careful of the bed’s height
when she stood. Humans
were either a lot shorter than most of the visiting interplanetary
delegates, or for some strange reason, they liked their beds high. Her
limbs ached, fatigue from the action of the last several days. She
suspected healing from microgravity had something to do with it too,
but she’d been through the wringer. The way she walked, the weight
of her lips when she spoke, her arm and leg muscles seemed heavier
and more visceral, like someone had injected them with a heavy drug.
Ridiculous, of course. She was in the best shape of her life. In
the center of the room, she stretched and did some yoga until the
tightness lessened. She rotated her neck. In a day or two, the slight
dizziness and disoriented inertia would subside. As a physician, she
knew the symptoms. She’d be fine. But telling a patient about them
versus experiencing them were two different things. She
padded barefoot out onto the balcony, drew a silver cup from the
shelves, and dipped it into the fountain. Distant light illuminated
the Chuleron buildings along the skyline in the distance. She brought
the brim of the cup to her lips and drank. Cool and refreshing, much
cleaner than the sterilized water she’d had back on Earth. Tastier
too. Earth water had to be purified at least five times before it
could be considered healthy enough for consumption. Bacterial
pathogens ran rampant in food and the polluted streams and springs
back home, so sterilizing was essential. The delightful coolness
soothed her throat. She
twisted her hair and pulled it over her right shoulder, taking in the
strange, tantalizing city. Did her suspicions about this place come
from her subconscious, because of the death and violence she’d
experienced? Or was Hisoka right and something seemed off?
Astraeus
The Oceanstone Initiative #1
Publisher: Covey Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: October 12, 2018
One pre-apocalyptic Earth. One desperate space mission to find a solution. One unexpected alien.
When Dr. Sakota Thorell signed onto the mission to scout out a new, habitable planet, she knew discovering extraterrestrial life was always a possibility. But she never expected to find an alien adrift in space, nor for that alien to be so intriguing. Sakota feels an instant and undeniable attraction to Astraeus, but he represents a million possibilities, and just as many threats.
There are others hunting Astraeus, and his rescue may cost Earth its last hope.
“What
are you called? What’s your
name?” He
opened his mouth, and she moved closer, eager for his first words.
Instead, he focused on her lips with obvious fascination. His
intriguing eyes caught the light. Despite her disappointment that he
couldn’t speak, a rush went through her. Alien or not, he was the
most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on, with the kind of
ethereal elegance some upper-class, privileged men on Earth spent
fortunes on plastic surgery trying to achieve. “It’s okay if
you don’t want to talk, or if you can’t. We’ll get there. Now,
I’m going to check you.” She kept her voice gentle, as she might
use with a child. She pressed the button to disengage the protective
bubble over the med bed and shone the retinal scanner in her own eye
to demonstrate. “I just need to look at your eyes with this.” She
motioned with the scope to him. “It won’t hurt. I promise.” Warm
puffs of his breath blew on her neck as she leaned in. She paused,
noting the remarkable eight-pointed star-shape of his pupils. The
mutation was his one physical difference, and only if one looked
closely. The pupils dilated when hit by the scope’s light. She’d
never seen eyes as remarkable. “You’re doing great,” she
soothed. Her head burst with countless questions.Where
are you from? How did you get here? What do you want? He
appeared to like the cadence of her voice. His posture relaxed, and
his breath against her was steady. How long had she been staring into
his eyes? Should she push her luck and try to examine his
mouth? Before she could try, his finger stroked her inner arm. He
was still restrained at the wrists, but he could reach her. She
allowed it. He stroked a featherlight finger along her forearm. As he
did so, his gaze never left hers. She offered a kind smile. “That’s
right. Friend. Sakota. Sa-ko-ta.” He opened his mouth and let
out a chicken-like squawk. “-Ota,” he said in a throaty, deep
voice. She raised her eyebrows. “Good. Very good.” He
tilted his head, watching her lips. “Gooood.” Excited, she
lowered the retinal light. “Can you understand me?” He looked
confused. “Me…” “Okay. That’s a no. Then let me take
this opportunity to say, in no uncertain terms, you, my friend, are
the stuff of dreams and legends. I’ve waited my whole life for
this. Are you getting this, Alistair?” she called out. He came
in over the speakers. “I
am. Amazing. I’ll get to work on a linguistics program. Our friend
seems to want to communicate.” She
moved to pull away, but the man’s fingers closed over her
wrist. “Let me go.” She jerked her arm, but he wouldn’t
release his grip. She gave him a cautionary look, and he loosened his
fingers, though he still held her. Warning bells went off.What
if he’s not here in peace?But
his eyes sparkled impishly. He seemed to enjoy her skin pressed
against his. Maybe he hadn’t been touched in a while. Or maybe he
had a crush. Who knew. Before she could extricate herself, the
intercom chimed. “Sakota,
are you okay?” “Yeah,
I’m fine. He’s just being friendly—” The man’s
forefinger trailed along her arm again. She sucked in a breath and
shut her eyes as a series of images flashed through her mind.A
high wall made of stacked stones. A hand spread out to touch the tips
of tall, golden wheat of a field. Multihued buildings in the
distance under a purple sky. Children’s laughter and then screams.
She jerked when the images changed.Strange
rain, like metal. Black ships attacking from the sky, horrible
screams which rent the air, death.A
gentle brush against her hand again. She inhaled and opened her eyes.
The man searched her, calm and patient. She struggled to see
straight, but her mind spun. “W-was that your—” The
isolation walls shot up. Rutledge burst into the room and advanced
like an angry bear, brutish, immaculate, and combat ready in his
black Oceanstone fatigues. “Let her go,” he snarled. Rutledge
yanked the man’s hand off her and pushed her aside. She fell to the
floor on her back in a dizzy haze, reeling from the vision. She
turned her head. The man bellowed and tore loose from his restraints.
His and Rutledge’s images faded into one as they collided and
fought. Rutledge’s weapon whirred as he strained to activate it.
The rifle propelled over her head and hit the wall. “Stop.”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. She closed her eyes. The men barged
into the room with heavy footfalls and angry shouts. She opened her
eyes, but her vision swirled. The blurred image of the alien lifted
Rutledge’s lieutenant like a kitchen chair and catapulted him in
the same direction as the weapon. “Stop,” she hollered to the
men. “Don’t shoot him. He wasn’t attacking me.” Another
soldier fell to the floor with a sick thud, holding his stomach.
“Yeah? Well, he’s attacking me.” The
alien pounced over her, crouching low. He caged her with his body and
made a guttural rumble in his throat, a warning to the men. She
turned her head to the marines, who zeroed their weapons in on them.
Book Trailer
Haley Cavanagh is a military veteran, wife, and mother. She is an alumna of Columbia College, a musical theater nut, and she loves to dive into any book that crosses her path. Haley resides with her family in the United States and enjoys spending time with her husband and children when she’s not writing. She loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media.
$25 Amazon and autographed paperback bundle of The Oceanstone Initiative series and swag
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Thanks so much for having me on the blog today! I'm available all day to answer any question for readers. I hope you all enjoy the book. Be sure to check out the first book in the series, Astraeus! The audiobook for Retaliation will release in February 2020.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Haley C.