Into the Night

copyright 2006 by Esther Mitchell  - Excerpted from SHADOW WALKER

    It was a ten-minute drive from her home in Kensington to the NNMC, and Jaye prayed no cops were out tonight as she sped toward the hospital.  The nagging sense that Trevor was alone and in need of help was her only companion as she raced to the facility.  She was on autopilot, with little awareness of her actions as she showed her ID to the guard at the NNMC’s gate, parked and locked her car, and headed toward the inpatient wards.  She was just at the door into the building when something in her peripheral vision stopped her in her tracks.  She turned, her eyes scanning the bushes beside the building and her brow furrowed.  What was out there?

    She shrugged when she saw nothing, but her skin prickled with awareness she didn’t want to acknowledge as she turned toward the door again.  A  whimper, followed by a moan, sent a chill through her that wracked Jaye to the core.  It sounded like an animal, and a man, in pain.  She spun around, and her eyes searched the bushes again, until she saw one move.

   Heart in her throat, praying that she was about to find a wounded dog, Jaye eased toward the bush.  Whatever she found there, she already knew she wasn’t ready for it.

   A warning growl faded into a whimper of pain and fear as her hand touched the bush, and she eased it aside, expecting an injured animal.  A dismayed gasp left her at what she found, instead.

   Trevor lay in a tight huddle between the bush and the wall.  The moonlight touched his dark, bare skin, and he shivered from the bitter winter cold.

   “Trevor!”  Immediately, she yanked off her warm trench coat, aware it still wouldn’t be enough if he’d been out here long.  She glanced up as the hospital door opened and an orderly stepped outside.

    “Hey!”

    He turned toward her, and Jaye barked out a single order.  “Get some blankets, stat!”

   She returned her attention to her patient.  There were no outward signs of trauma, which did nothing to explain why he was out here in the freezing cold and as bare as the day he was born.

   “Trevor?”  She laid a cautious hand on his shoulder, and felt the shudder that lunged through him.  “Trevor, can you hear me?”

   His only response was a low whine, and Jaye reassessed the situation with a muttered oath.  It was worse than first appearances.  Last time she found Trevor huddled in fright, he’d come around quickly, and he was still fully clothed.  But he was weak then, and they only just made it back to his room from the medical storage down the hall, taht time.  Clearly, his situation was deteriorating.  She didn’t want to know how, why, or where he lost his clothes, and his animal instincts were sharper now than his human ones.  There was no way she could count on his help getting him back to his room, and she certainly couldn’t do it herself.

   Resolutely, she reached over and pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her coat draped over Trevor’s broad shoulders.  He growled and yanked away, but she had her phone in hand, already.  Biting her lip, she punched the speed dial for Inpatient’s trauma unit.

  “Naval Medical Inpatient trauma ward.  Chief Petty Officer James speaking.”

   “Chief, this is Dr. Michaels.  I found our missing patient.  I need a gurney, and a couple of orderlies.”

   Lydia was a professional; Jaye had to give her that.  Though the other woman didn’t deal with psychiatric patients very often, she kept her curiosity to herself, and her focus on the patient’s care.  “I’ll call down and have ER get one out to you, ASAP, Ma’am.  Where are you?”

    “Right outside the lower entrance to building ten.”  Jaye clicked off the phone as the orderly she summoned earlier arrived, his arms loaded with blankets.

  “Thanks.”  She took them and turned to Trevor.  He still looked oblivious to her presence, or his own humanity, and only stirred enough to voice a warning growl as she replaced her coat with the warmer blankets.

   “Ma’am… Is he all right?”  The orderly’s worried voice reached her.

   “He will be,” she murmured, keeping her voice low and soothing as she stroked Trevor’s head gently.  She kept her eyes on him, aware that taking her gaze off this wild animal would be a mistake.  She only prayed her words were the truth as she again whispered, “He will be.”

I’m not often surprised by the way the world works… But I was blown away by the response to the second book of Project Prometheus, HOPE OF HEAVEN.  Here are snippets of just a few of the reviews I’ve received so far (if you’d like to read the whole review for any of them, simply follow the link included):
 

From ECataRomance:
 

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars
 

Hope of Heaven by Esther Mitchell is a scintillating and perilous story of a fight between good and evil while also being one of hope when there is nothing but desolation. […] Ms. Mitchell has always been a captivating author for me and this story is no different with characters that will cause your heart to pound while also providing a sensual read. If you love paranormal adventures then this is definitely a book you must read because it won’t leave you disappointed. 
 

Sheryl, Ecataromance.com 
http://sensual.ecataromance.com/index.php?p=735
 

From Coffeetime Romance: 
 

Rating: 4 Cups 
 

Project Prometheus is a story of hope, love, trust and compassion. Peter and Hope are characters with similar issues but at a stand still almost in their lives. I love their communication to each other. Peter’s voice practically booms off the pages sending off a dialect that is quite sexy. Esther Mitchell spins a tale weaving in romance while the characters struggle against odds but continue to endure until the end. I love how she makes Hope a strong doctor yet struggles with her own problems hard to conquer. She pens believable players and a fantastic adventure story. 
 

Cherokee
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books 
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Projectprometheus2.html 
 

From Alternative Read:
 

Wow! In book two, Esther Mitchell has completed a smooth transition into the next chapter of “good versus evil” with an enthralling read adding a new character to an already fine cast. I can’t wait to see what comes next. There are dreams, visions, demons, egotists and a couple of nice surprises. I found it a pleasure to read. 
WitchGiggles 
http://alternative-read.com/ 

    I know I’ve blogged before about Project Prometheus and its inspirations in mythology.  But I thought I’d touch on where it departs from history and mythology, today.

      I know there are historical scholars out there who’d debate the history and mythology of ancient Mesopotamia with some of the details in IN HER NAME.  I’ve never claimed that I was writing historical fiction.  I know the history of Sargon written in books, and I also know the mythology of the area, as is written in books.  Thing is, I’m also aware of something many historians - whether through choice or the nature of things - forget: We don’t know everything about history.

    There is an age-old adage which says “history is written by the victor.”  In the case of ancient Mesopotamia, there’s not a whole lot written at all.  Even today, there are discoveries constantly being unearthed in the Middle East and North Africa which change how we view different eras of the ancient world.  IN HER NAME was written to take up the areas where history and mythology are vague, where what is and what could have been meet.

    History tells us Sargon I of Akkad was the first great king of Mesopotamia.  Mythology tells us of Ishtar’s adoption of a young man who later rose to become a great king through Her tutelage. 

     History tells us that Ashuribanipal degenerated from a decent king, in his youth, to a depraved and dangerous man in his later years.  Mythology tells us of the epic struggle between Ishtar and Ereshkigal, and of demons that feed on souls and inhabit the bodies of their victims.

    History tells us that every culture on the planet has tales of sunken cities and great floods.  Mythology (and Homer) tell us that Atlantis was once the center of the ancient world, but not where or how. 

    Through IN HER NAME, I sought to bring  these two areas of the same world together, to tell the story that fills in the gaps between segments of history and the rich tradition of mythology - to explore the possibilities that these events might all be part of a cosmic struggle between forces beyond the scope of human history to quantify.  The purpose of this?  Simply, I wanted to show the world that there are undercurrents to every action that are capable of rippling acros the pages of time.

   So was born the story that became the genesis of Project Prometheus, IN HER NAME.  Originally, it was meant to be a stand-alone novel - a response to the fear, paranoia, and terror that marked one of the darkest days in American history.  But, as the story grew, those ripples became evident, and spread outward, encompassing more stories - more tales spun from where history and mythology met, and a new world was born.