Landino14 (guest character appearance)

landino14 said...

Here's my entry!
Meet Ashton Cairnes, retired Special ops now bodyguard for hire. Special skills-weapons, telekinesis.
Weakness-a pretty face.
Good luck!

Oh, the things I can do with a womanizing ex-special ops boy...

I had to tweak Landino14's original character sub because there isn't a true Special Ops force in the book. I'm writing an urban fantasy world that's more fantasy than it is urban. All the magic, all the tech, all the fun! Woohoo! I love combining genres.

And, since my FMC is a cop, finding a special ops/bodyguard character nearby wasn't hard at all. I needed some names for a back up call to bag a demon and Cairnes went along for the ride. The man darn near stole the show! I wanted a basic tough-guy for back up and wound up with a character that, in my head, is very charasmatic. He's a bit of grit, a bit of bite, a lot of muscle, and enough brains to keep out of too much trouble. He's also a bit of a womanizer.

"Sari!" Battlemage and detective Ashton Cairnes held a hand up, his magic held up a swirling tornado of bricks keeping a Carf demon trapped less than fifty yards away.

Like Sari, Cairnes was on retainer with the Vondrin PD as what they liked to call a "Specials". He was a retired fighter, former strike team leader in on of the southern republics, and a minor hero of a one-horse city-state back in the foothills. He'd retired to Vondrin for the woman, he said. And the ale, of course. But a few weeks of retirement and Cairnes found himself a nice serial killer to stalk out of boredom.

The chief of the Vondrin PD, Aims Damen, didn't like people to have that kind of hobby. So Cairnes was recruited at sword point. As battlemages went, he wasn't overly impressive, minor levitation spells were the extent of his repertoire. But it wasn't the size of the spell that mattered, or so he said.

"About time, Sari! What'd you do? Stop to powder your nose?" A tail of roan hair held back by a leather thong whipped past Sari's face as Cairnes dodged a fireball from the Carf demon. Cairnes gave her a baleful look as he pulled out his trademark double long knives. A whip slapped his thigh. "Cute shirt."

And... there's Cairnes. A minor character with a lot of attitude, and a lot of screen time. Good news! I think he might live to the end of the book (unlike all the major characters).

P.S. I'm still looking for minor character to add spice to life. Anyone want to be a paladin or a demon?

P.S.S. Inky, do you see some familiar names up there? "She aims. She shoots. She scores!"