Talon: A Sense of Familiarity

I spent the weekend editing the second novel in the Talon series, Talon: A Sense of Familiarity while simultaneously enjoying the autumn weather.

In novel two, a pregnant Bryce is adjusting to life with her MD/ME/grim reaper fiancé and her growing belly. Attacks on them have become more vicious and unnerving, and Bryce is fearful that the Divine Council in Heaven will choose to remove her from earth, take her away from the man she loves with her entire heart and soul. She and Talon are still locked out of Heaven while her unique case is being debated and discussed.

Meanwhile, Dr. Giles Talon has suggested that Bryce try to reconnect with her estranged family, something she is at first reluctant to do because of how they've treated her as a freak all of her life, and how difficult it was for her growing up without much support from them, however, her father is dying, her mother is about to fall apart, and her older sister is struggling with a large family thanks to her boyfriend who has five little girls by different former girlfriends that he has custody of, and Brittany and he have a baby soon to arrive. Bryce is also troubled by her strained relationship with her best friend, Ed Wrisley, who doesn't like the fact that she's having Talon's baby, and now is living with him.

On a romantic getaway to Camden Lake, a place Bryce has always loved since childhood, Talon and Bryce encounter her parents and Bryce realizes that her father is dying and she needs to mend fences sooner rather than later. The couple is attacked and a rogue reaper infects Bryce with a toxin that will cause her to murder her lover at some point in the future. The situation results in Dr. Everett returning to the earthly realm to help Dr. Talon develop an antidote to try to prevent looming disaster.

At a Labor Day weekend family gathering at the lake at their new lake vacation home, Talon and Bryce entertain family and friends. All goes well until little Savannah, one of Josh's young daughters drowns, is found by rogue warrior Ollie, and revived by Bryce who instills some of her own spirit into the child to bring her back to life. Then Brittany seduces Ollie and the weekend falls apart.

Bryce experiences numerous problems as the toxin works in her and her supernatural fiancé slaves long hours in the pathology lab with Dr. Everett trying to find a way to help her. Bryce's father lands in the hospital and they are summoned there when death is imminent. Mr. Briscoe sees his daughter's fiancé in his reaper form and his daughter in her supernatural form as an earthbound angel, and the bright doorway into Heaven through which he passes when he dies. At Thanksgiving, it becomes apparent that little Savannah can also see them in their otherworldly forms and must be sworn to secrecy. Talon has a special ring made for her, and one made for all the female members of Bryce's large family and also for her friend Keira who is seeing Fox- the rings help Talon's warriors and guardians find them in case they are attacked by demons.

Bryce ends up murdering her lover despite an antidote having been injected in her hip, but Dr. and Mrs. Everett are there with her in Heaven where his remains are brought for her to heal and revive as she has once before, because it was determined that the only way to rid her of the toxin was to let it run its terrible course.

Baby Cayle Talon makes a surprise arrival in City Morgue, delivered by his father. Wrisley, who sacrificed himself for Bryce so that Talon could find her after she destroyed the tattoo he put on her that would allow him to always be able to track her moves, joins the Talon household staff when Talon agrees to have him trained as a guardian, and a protector of his son.

With Cayle's arrival, Talon now wants Bryce to set a wedding date, and she chooses Valentine's Day as an appropriate day to marry the man/the reaper who loves her so passionately.

Bryce has grown in this novel and has learned t control her volatile nature more, however, she is still plagued by some minor insecurities on which the toxin preys and emphasizes. She is uneasy with her newfound Heavenly position, a complete and utter surprise to her as well as to her lover. She is uneasy ranking higher in the Heavenly order than he does. And Talon, the cold, chilly, frosty ME continues to worry that the being who has stolen his heart and given him an awareness of what love really is will be summoned back to Heaven and he will lose her, and be left to raise his son alone.

Book 3 is partially written...completing it remains on my to do list.