Little Russian Dolls

I am working on a short story that will only be posted on this website and my Tumblr account.  Look for it soon!

Excerpt

Excerpt time I think, you want one? I want one? You want one don't you? Okay Okay, so you know the drill Copyright Katherine Rochholz All Rights Reserved That means no stealing peeps! So What to give you you? What to give you? How about :

The Unknown Sister of Sherlock Holmes

Katherine Rochholz

Prologue
I found her journal. The woman who had been a major player in our life for so long now. I can hardly believe when she came in to our life. But this isn’t just her story, it isn’t just his either, it is not mine alone, it is the story of the three us and the choice we made. But she starts it all with just one passage

The First passage…

“I didn’t fit in with my family. In fact I was sure they didn’t care if I continued to exist. I remember the night I found out something that would forever change my life. It was quite amazing actually; after all it was my last night with this part of my family… It was the night I came home after ten years in the Marine Corps… It was the night I truly left the Ollie Alexandra Faythe that was I was expected to be and became the Ollie Alexandra Faythe I wanted to be…”

But don’t let me tell our story… Let the three of us…

Chapter One



Ollie Alexandra Faythe was sitting with them at some buffet restaurant, it wasn’t very good, and she was being cut down again, even though she could kill each of them a million times over. She knew she didn’t fit in with these people. Ever since her father passed away thirteen years before she knew that they had nothing in common. Her dad was the glue that kept the family together. She signed the credit card receipt that paid for the horrible meal and said her goodbyes. She was reenlisting the next day. The Marines were her family. Her men needed her. She had her own team in the war.

“Well, it was great to see you all. I have to be off. I ship out again tomorrow.” She said and kissed her mom’s cheek; at least she cared enough to be concerned with the war that was raging.

“I don’t see why you have to go back, Xandra.” She stated. “You should marry and have a few babies. I could use some grandkids.”

“Mom, the war is still going on. I have a duty to my country, to my men.”

“I can’t see why you can’t just run like all your brothers and half…” Then she stopped. She gave away something; that she never planned to give away.

“Half?” Xandra was curious; and she felt her blood as it started to boil. The one thing she could not stand was secrets and lies.

Her mother looked at me and knew she couldn’t lie her way out of it. Xandra was too good at reading micro expressions. After all she have interrogated some of the world’s best liars. “You have two half-brothers. They are from your father. He was wild when he was in the Marines. Loved some woman, when he was seventeen until he came home when he was twenty-four; he gave her two sons. One was born in 1972 the other in 1976; right before he came home.”

Xandra was pissed. That was her blood! Her family is all she ever cared about, they are the only ones that she could let into her soul. “What are their names?” Xandra asked through gritted teeth.

“Don’t know really. You father never spoke about them really. Your father kept a picture of them in his wallet with the names Mycroft and Sherlock on the back of it.”

“I am sure you know the name of this woman, mother.” Xandra stated, as she tried to hold on to her deadly temper. “At the least since you seem to know they have no sense of patriotic duty.”

“I don’t know…” Her mother tried to lie to her.

“Mother, I love you but you are trying my nerves. I have just got back from ten years in the Marines, you don’t think I know when someone is lying to me?”

“I…” Her mother started again, but she cut her off.

“Just give me their last name mother.”

“Holmes. Some bloody awful woman named Holmes. I know for a fact that your brothers were raised by a step-father and know nothing of your existence or your brothers for that matter.”

“Well, I guess I will just have to find them and tell them.”

“Why? Aren’t we family enough for you?” Xandra’s mother seemed hurt that she wanted to find her half-brothers.

“Mom, it is not about that, it is the fact that they are my blood. And you kept this information from me. You know how I feel about family.”

“Yes, but you have your family here.”

“They are the boys dad took me to visit when I was young, weren’t they?” Xandra asked as a memory flashed to her. She was five and my dad had been talking to a woman while she talked to a boy about seven and another about eleven.

“You should allow all my children to know each other Suzanna. I have young Xandra, and two other boys, Joshua and Stephen with my wife, and I want Mycroft and Sherlock to know them as their siblings.” Her dad had stated.

“You made your choice Damon.”

“The boys should have my last name Suzanna, just because you remarried doesn’t mean they are not mine. I will fight for them if I have too.” Damon stated.

“Good luck with getting the courts to allow you to take my sons out of the country.” Xandra drowned out the argument at that point. She was much more interested in the boys in front of her.

“Hi.” Xandra stated and waved at the two boys who stared at her like she was an alien.

“Hello.” The one her father called Sherlock replied back.

“Don’t encourage her Sherlock.” The one named Mycroft stated.

“She is our sister Mycroft.”

“She is our half-sister, Sherlock, do not forget that. Father left us for her mother.”

“You shouldn’t blame her. Look at her. She looks like us.”

Xandra got bored with the conversation and walked over to the table where there lay some books. She took one and plopped down with it.

“See Mycroft she even enjoys a good book!” Sherlock exclaimed.

“She doesn’t know that she is reading Sherlock she is four.”

“I am five and I am reading Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.” She said and put her nose back into the book.

“Ha, yep she is our sister. She just sassed back at you.” Sherlock laughed plopped down next to her with his own book.

“After today you know you will never see her again Sherlock. Don’t get attached.” Mycroft stated and walked away.

Mycroft wasn’t incorrect after that day Xandra never did see them again and the memory of them faded.

“They were the boys that I met when I was five. I am going to seek them out mom with or without your help. What do you know?”

“They both live in London still. One works in the government. The other I don’t know he is a lay about I suppose. Your father did try to keep in touch with them, but their mother made it impossible. Which caused your father much heartache.”

“I remember them vaguely.”

“You would Damon had to take you to see them. You were his little princess. And the boys stayed with me while you stayed three days in stuffy London.”

“The picture, mom.” Xandra said and put my hand out.

“What picture?”

“Of me and the other two boys. That is the one dad carried. I know because I remember him taking it. I know you have dad’s wallet. Hand me my picture.”

Her mother looked at her for a moment; she cocked her head and thought about it. But finally she signed and opened her purse and took out the picture from her father’s wallet. “When they reject you don’t come crying to me.”

“I won’t.” Xandra put the picture in my Marine Corps jacket. “I love you all. I will be home again as soon as I can be.” She hugged my mother, fist bumped her two older brothers who were more concerned with the game than the fact she was about to head into war again. She turned and walked out the door.

Once she was in her car she took out the photo and looked at the two boys she barely remembered. “I will find you.” Xandra stated and put the photo back in her jacket and drove off.

Cover The Veil Lifts

The front and back of the paperback version of The Veil Lifts Finally Coming Soon! 

Covers and Mock Covers Of The Katy Lily Series

These are the Covers or Mock Covers of The Katy Lily Series for ALL books and Two companions (there may or may not be more companions in the future)

 Truth and Lies Past and Present 

Katy Lily Year 1

 A Nightmare Within A Dream

Katy Lily Year 2

Hunted 

A Companion

 

 The Veil Lifts 

Katy Lily Year 3/4

 Corruption

A Companion

 

Elemental Mazes

Katy Lily 4/5

 Falling Pieces

Katy Lily 6/7

 

 Dark Shadows

Katy Lily Year 8/9

Pure Shadow 

Katy Lily Year 10

The Titles of A Guardian's Life

The Guardians: Their Book Title: And Cover or Mock Cover

Careia : The Heavenly Virtues

Melina: A Dragon's Power

Kari : The Seven Deadlies  and Lucifer's Promise

Bes : The Sphinx

 
Alexandra : The Zodiac

Guarin : City of Clocks

Charles : The Few and The Proud

Excerpt The Veil Lifts Copyright 1993 All Rights Reserved

A lovely Excerpt for you!

            The distraction of Edgar being arrested gave Gaivan and Katy the chance to teleport away.  They teleported off the plane and landed in New York City.  It took a moment for Katy to get where they were.  She smirked.  It was like she never left.  Now all she had to was pretend that she did not start over.  Did not start over again.  She may be a bit over her head but she had Gaivan to protect.  An aunt to warn and Gaivan's dad to save.  She had to save all their very souls.  She couldn't believe she let her anger overcome her and yelled at Edgar in a public place about her aunt.  She had to find Aaliyah.  Had to warn her they were going to go for Rob next.  All because of her anger at Edgar, who was only doing his job.  She quickly got her bearings and knew the perfect place to regroup.  "Gaivan follow my lead.  After all I lived on these streets, now I just have to pretend I did not leave this behind start a new life."  She stated as she started to lead them to the library.  Katy walked a bit and saw their reflections in the mirror.  Now these clothes wouldn't do at all.  She saw the homeless shelter.  She grabbed Gaivan's hand and jumped in.  She saw a couple of kids their size with their mother and smirked.  She quickly grabbed some of her mundane cash out of her wallet and then went up.  "Excuse me.  How much for your clothes?  I would give you mine instead?"

            The mother looked at them.  "Why?"

            "Because we don't have a parent and the last shelter gave us these and they kind of stick out."

            The mother's eyes turned tender.  "Oh I understand dears.  Let's get the clothes changed out.  You are right having clothes like these will make you a target."

            Thirty minutes later Gaivan was making a face and Katy was leading them to the library.  They did not have a lot of time.  After all Katy knew Edgar's former partner S.J. would be looking for them.  “Call your mother Gaivan.”

            Gaivan looked at her and picked up the phone at one of the only phone booths ever, Katy had ditched their cell phones when they changed clothes.  “Voicemail.”  He stated when her voicemail picked up.  “Mum, look, Katy and I are okay.  We just got to do something okay?  We will try to be in touch.  Love you.”  He hung up.  “What now?”

            Katy swallowed.  “Now we go see someone.”  She stated.  After all you did not survive on the streets without some knowledge of the underside of society.  She walked into the library.  She smiled.  There was the librarian.  “Hello again Ma’am.”

            The librarian smiled.  “Katy.  I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

            “Had to move for a while, no big deal.  Back now for a bit.  But gots people looking for me ma’am.  Josh still hang upstairs?”

            The librarian looked at the eleven year old girl.  She nodded.  “Be careful dear.  I hope you know what you are doing.”

            “Always ma’am.”  She stated.  She then pulled out the picture she had of her aunt and another of Rob.  She was getting them out of the country the mundane way.  She knew they would be harder to trace if they stayed in the mundane world.  But for that they needed identities and access to a mundane only airport.  She moved upstairs to the study locations.  Josh was thirty year old genius.  Hacker.  He always made his money illegally.  She knocked on the door of the study room everybody knew was his office.

            The door opened.  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t little Katy.  Rumor was girl you got yourself out of this life.”

            Katy winced.  She did runs for him sometimes for a bit of cash.  “I just bounced out for a while.”

            “And brought someone back with you.”  Josh looked at Gaivan.  “He don’t look like no street rat Katy.”

            “New.   Sticking with me until he figures things out.”  She shrugged.  “He paid me the rest of his money to help him.  Couldn’t say nah now could I?”

            Josh chuckled.  “What is up?”

            “Got a couple that asked me about identities.  They need to bounce from the cops.”

            “How much they got?”

            “How much you need?”  Katy threw the packet on the table.

            Josh picked up the folder and saw the photos and names.  “I can get you a rush job and have them ready at closing for a cool grand.”

            “Four hundred.”  Katy started negotiating.

            Josh raised an eyebrow.  “Eight.”

            “Five.”

            “Seven.”

            “Five fifty.”

            “Six.”

            “Five seventy five.”

            “Deal.”  Josh put out his hand.

            Katy slapped half the money down in his hand.  “I will be back at closing with the other half.”

            Josh nodded.  “Later Katy.” 

            Gaivan was staring at Katy as they walked out.  “What was that?”

            “Gaivan you don’t live on the streets without learning a thing or two.  There is a different language on the streets.  It ain’t proper that is for sure.”  She drawled.  She had to pretend she didn’t leave.  She had to pretend that she had not started over.  One slip and her few contacts will be closed to her.

            Gaivan blinked.  “What other secrets do you have Katy?”

            Katy smirked.  “That is for me to know and the world to never find out.”  She moved quickly.  “We got about five hours before closing.  We should get something to eat.”  She counted their money.  Gaivan always carried a lot.  She rolled her eyes, he was spoiled to much at times.  “After a stop at the bank.”  She grabbed him and teleported to a bank outside of Marcus Valley.   She walked in and quickly went up to a dwarf.  “A hundred if you say we were never here.”

            The dwarf nodded.  “Key?”

            Katy presented the Poe key, Lua had given it to her just before end of second term after they had finished the latest lessons on how to be a Guard.

            The dwarf raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Poe.”  He stated and lead her to the vault.