“Welcome to immortality in
utopia!”
From the moment Damien signed up for a perfect life with ReGen Inc., he didn’t
ask any questions. He didn’t want or need to know. But after he’s rebooted this
time, there are gaps in his memory he can’t ignore, and people he no longer
recognizes are accusing him of betrayal. When someone dies, he’s determined to
go looking for answers…but sometimes it really is better to forget.
Excerpt
Someone pounded on his door. Damien
jerked out of bed, heart hammering. Had ReGen realized their mistake? Were they
coming to wipe the rest of his memories?
Reality swept over him as the last
of the fog of sleep faded. He wasn’t a hermit. People often came to visit,
though they weren’t usually so loud about it.
He pushed off the bed, a slight
stiffness making his movements awkward. He clipped the doorframe on his way out
and cursed at the spike of pain in his shoulder. Clumsy! The last thing he
wanted to do was damage this new body so soon after a reboot.
“Hold on!” he yelled at the unknown
visitor hell-bent on punching a hole through his front door.
He was still clothed from last
night, but he paused in front of his mirror to drag his fingers through the
tufts of his dark hair. “Yes, all right. I’m coming!” He tugged his shirt
straight. “Open.”
A dark-haired woman stumbled
through the door and fell against him. “Damien!”
His arms circled her by instinct,
but the impact sent him staggering back a step or two. “Whoa!”
She gazed up at him, her hazel eyes
red-rimmed as if from crying, and her pretty face screwed into wrinkles. “I was
so worried. When you didn’t come over last night…”
“Last night? Come where?” Her body
pressed into his was causing all kinds of interesting reactions, but confusion
overrode them. “Who are you?”
“Who?” Her eyes widened, and she
jerked out of his embrace. “What’s wrong with you?”
Fear swamped him again, a cold that
chilled him to the bone. “Diagnostics says I’m fine.”
“Diagnostics?” She backed away, as
if he’d morphed into the worst kind of monster, then grabbed his right hand.
Damien flinched as she rubbed her thumb hard over the back of his hand. Over
the place where his scar had been. “Oh…” She dropped his hand, her head still
bowed. “Oh, Damien.”
“What?”
Her gaze knifed through him,
accusing. “You’ve been rebooted.”
A stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve
years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory,
Pippa Jay bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books
and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and
refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends
the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street
dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical
Colchester in the UK with her husband of 20 years, she continues to roam the
rest of the Universe in her head.
Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the SFR Brigade, a community of science
fiction romance authors and publishing professionals committed to writing and
promoting the very best in the genre.
