The Return Teaser IV

Alright, so, before I move on with the teaser, I want to give an update on Kris’ website issues.  I checked PG’s blog last night and found out that he had gotten permission from Kris to publish her entire blog post, here.  As it turns out, Kris now believes that the problem originated from malware attracted to her site through the busy Thursday Business Rusch traffic.  She left a comment saying:

Thank you, everyone, for rallying behind me and the post. It looks like, after 36 hours of examination, that this is a standard malware attracted by the huge Thursday traffic on my blog. The malware is quite malicious, and is eating my other websites linked to the original one, marching through them like Sherman’s March to the Sea, leaving only devastation in its wake.

I have had several people working on this. I’ve finally hired a national service to solve it. If the service does a good job, I’ll let everyone know.

I couldn’t quite figure out why the trolls had moved from embedding worms and doing things to my website that annoyed only *me,* to doing something like this. (And yes, I kept upgrading my security, but not enough, I guess.) But I have had a lot of troll attacks, most of which they claimed credit for, but they didn’t claim credit for this one. So…the Russian malware theory that folks are citing here and in an earlier post is probably the right one.

Which is not to say there haven’t been a series of malicious trolls on my site of late, which is why I jumped to the paranoid conclusion….

So, the good news is that it wasn’t someone deliberately attacking her for the post.  The bad news is that her site is still down.  Good luck, Kris.  We hope it’s back up soon.

Now, onto the teaser, celebrating the completion of another chapter.  This excerpt is from the end of chapter three (again, I apologize for the cliffhanger):

Half smiling through hooded eyes, he put his arm around her and she tucked in close to him, curling her legs underneath her and laying her cheek against his chest.  Then, closing her eyes, she let the heat of the crackling fire seep into her as the wind outside howled and beat at the rooftops.

There was something so calming about cuddling into him.  It was a place where the world around her stopped and she could almost forget the hopelessly dangerous road that lay before her.  A road she did not ask for.  A road she could never avoid.  But for now, she did not think about it.  For now, she let her mind relax and the soft sound of Jeremiah’s gentle breathing lulled her into a groggy stupor.

Just when she found herself in that hazy place between sleeping and waking, an alien consciousness surged into her mind.  The presence was strong.  It was a presence that she knew, that she had sensed before when their small party had ridden through the forest of Cedarwood.  The watcher on the hill.  The female mind that had touched hers that day.  Chalice stiffened and sat bolt upright, causing Jeremiah to start.

“What is it?” he asked.

“She’s here.”

“Who?”

Chalice didn’t answer but instead jumped up and crept gingerly toward the terrace doors, peering out into the soft, white drifts.  She heard a shuffle in the corner as Jeremiah snatched up his bow and came to stand beside her protectively.  Then, she spotted her, standing in between the trees, watching and waiting.  Her pair of black eyes hovered in the air, seemingly disembodied in the background of pure white.  The figure slowly moved forward out of the trees, her shape gradually materializing before them, and Chalice drew in a sharp breath.  It was …

Happy Reading!

~ Melissa

 

Tags: Kris Rusch, The Return