Born of two dragons but raised in a lab, Ruby has lived a life of quiet regulation, waiting until the project proposed decades earlier can be started. When Dimensional Arrest, Retrieval and Extraction gets underway, her innate ability to jump dimensions puts her on the front lines with her sisters, retrieving people from earth whose presence is tearing their home world apart. Each assignment takes Ruby to another world to retrieve scholars, criminals, researchers, and escapees. The freedom she feels on the new worlds is cruelly taken away when she has to return to earth over and over again.
Meeting one of her own kind is a shock, but his determination to help her gain her freedom is even more of a stunning revelation. He offers her a life without walls, in the sun, and wind in her hair. What dragon could resist?
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Ruby D.A.R.E.
Copyright 2011 Tianna Xander and Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-55487-793-5
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Ruby D.A.R.E.
D.A.R.E. Project: Book 1
By
Tianna Xander and Viola Grace
PROLOGUE
Eiwyn threw the covers back. The rustle of the sheets seemed loud in the quiet of the room. Slowly, she placed her feet on the cold wooden floor and slid out of bed. Draven rolled over, his hand resting on her pillow. Heart pounding, she tiptoed her way to the door. Grabbing the knob, she thanked everything holy that she hadn't latched it when she came to bed.
Draven let out a long snore. His hand moved over her empty pillow as though searching for her. Please don't let him wake up. Eiwyn opened the door a little more than a crack and slipped through. If she woke her husband, he would see to it that she went nowhere. She couldn't let him stop her. She knew he would try. He had put his foot down and she was sneaking under it.
Barefoot, she padded her way down to the room they reserved for opening their portals. Two months ago, she'd had a vision, one she couldn't ignore. If what she had seen was true, the future of the entire universe was at stake. Now was the time to act.
Someone, somewhere, played with forces they didn't understand. One couldn't jump from dimension to dimension willy-nilly without consequences. Her people could, but they were the only exception. They didn't need the help of machines, energy or chemicals to open a dimensional rift. They merely needed the power stored within their bodies since birth. Yet, someone had started to do just that and it was ripping holes in the very fabric of the universe. She had to do something and with her sight, she may be the only person who could.
Entering the room, she closed and locked the door. The thick wood wouldn't keep Draven out, but it would slow him down just enough. Waving her arms nervously, she hummed a soft tune and the air rippled in front of her. Soon, the other side of the room blurred as the transparent rift opened before her.
A loud roar had her looking toward the door with tears in her eyes. It would be years before she would see Draven again. Yet, Eiwyn knew what she must do. It was for the good of all. The entire universe depended on her ability to escape her home and jump to the correct world. Eiwyn blew a kiss toward the door. Tears filled her eyes as she heard the pounding of her husband's feet upon the wooden floor. "I'll be back, my loveeventually."
She stepped through the rift confident that the energy would take the path of least resistance directly to the world she needed to visit. One jump, one world, a few decades and with luck, all would soon be put right.
CHAPTER ONE
Ruby sat on her narrow cot staring at the gray wall. After a lifetime of preparing and the last five years in extensive training, this was her first mission. She bit her lip and placed her hand over her stomach. It was almost as though her belly was full of butterflies, the way it fluttered and flipflopped.
Nerves, it's just nerves.
She bit her lip, waiting for the integrity sergeant to come inspect her before her jump through the rift. Dimensional travel both scared and excited her. Perhaps it shouldn't, but it did. She couldn't wait to leave this place. Her mother whispered into her mind about all the things she missed growing up in this sterile environment. It was little better than a prison, but now, she would finally have a bit of freedom.
Rubbing her thigh, she looked around her utilitarian room, her hands fisting in the rough blanket beneath her. This room may not be much, but it was what she had called home all her life. It was a sad, sad thing that she had never been outside the walls of the compound before today. Her sisters had visited her here in this room. They alternated having their birthday parties here.
Glancing down, she looked at the bracelet she wore. Twenty cords represented herself and her nineteen sisters. The cords, woven together into one bracelet, reminded her she was not alone. Never alone. No matter what the techs said, they would always have each other.
Would she ever be free of the scientists, or would they always send someone to drag her back if she didn't return when they thought she should? She rubbed her thigh and frowned. Even after two months, the tracker the techs inserted into her femur still felt strange. It also felt like a leash. It was there, beneath her skin, ever a reminder that she was tech property.
Never! You are no one's property. Soon you willrealize that. Like her sisters, her mother could speak to her mind to mind. She wasn't certain if it was a blood bond or something else attributed to their kind.
Yes, Mother. But if what you say is true, why havewe never met? Where are you?
Where I am is of no importance. Right now, youmust prepare for the trials that await you. Hush now.The techs are coming. Do as they say and soon all willbe as it should.
Ruby heaved a sigh and sat up straight. It wouldn't do to have the techs catch her in a slouch. It would only serve their lust for punishment and today, she didn't feel up to hearing them bitch.
The door opened and a tech walked in. He looked at her through narrowed eyes, as though his lunch had gone missing and he suspected her of eating it. "It's time to go, Ruby. Pick up your bag and follow me."
![Russ Olsen [Russ Olsen] - Eloquent Ruby](/uploads/posts/book/120775/thumbs/russ-olsen-russ-olsen-eloquent-ruby.jpg)
