Ignite, p.1
Ignite, page 1
IGNITE
IGNITE SERIES BOOK ONE
NORA PHOENIX
Ignite (Ignite Series Book One) by Nora Phoenix
Copyright ©2018 Nora Phoenix
Cover design: Jay Aheer (Simply Defined Art)
Edited by Jamie Anderson
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form by any means without the written permission of the copyright holder, except in case of brief quotations and embodied within critical reviews and articles.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The use of any real company and/or product names is for literary effect only. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
This book contains sexually explicit material which is suitable only for mature readers.
www.noraphoenix.com
CONTENTS
Connect with Nora
Did you know?
Publisher’s Note
Names and Terms
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Smolder Sneak Peek
Books by Nora Phoenix
More About Nora Phoenix
Acknowledgments
CONNECT WITH NORA
Connect with me on social media:
Hang out in my FB group Nora’s Nook
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Bookbub
Sign up for my newsletter
Become my patron on Patreon
And for an overview of all my books and audio books, head over to my website!
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know there’s a box set of the Ignite series that contains all three books plus bonus content, including a novella about Pax? (You’ll meet him in the first book…) It’s exclusively for sale through my website, and compared to buying all books individually, you’ll save 50%!
You can grab it here.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This series takes place in a fictional world, based on an alternative reality in the United States. Please note trigger warnings for the entire series for homophobia, violence, sexual aggression, and rape.
This novel is the first in a series with a slow burn MMM romance. This first book ends on a soft cliffhanger, but the story will continue in the next books. No harm will come to the three main characters, and the series will end with a HEA for all romantic relationships.
NAMES AND TERMS
Some terms to explain the world of Ignite:
EUS: Eastern United States (Capital: New York)
CUS: Conservative United States (Capital: Houston)
WUS: Western Unites States (Capital: LA)
CSA: Conservative Space Agency (formerly NASA)
Reintegration Camp: a camp where gay, bi, and trans men between 18 and 28 are locked up until they are reformed, meaning straight, and released back into society. Gay men above 28 go to prison.
Counselor: guard at a reintegration camp
Camper: a “prisoner” in a reintegration camp
Foets: new arrivals at camp, new campers (short for foetus aka fetus)
1
Austin’s luck had run out. For six grueling months, he’d managed to avoid and outsmart Richard, known as The Dick, but the counselor had him cornered now, with no way out. Austin’s eyes shifted from left to right, searching for anything to defend himself with.
He had no trace of doubt about the man’s intentions. Even if his reputation wasn’t something they all whispered to each other about in warning tones, the counselor—hell, there was a euphemism for a rapist if Austin had ever heard one—had made it crystal clear what he was about to do. He’d told Austin in a low, vomit-inducing voice how he intended to “wreck his ass”—and that was about the least offensive phrase he’d used.
But Austin was determined not to go down without a fight. He’d survived six months in the South Dakota Reintegration Camp without getting raped—though he’d been beaten plenty of times—and he wasn’t about to let this depraved excuse for a human being get the best of him now. Richard had twenty years on him and a good forty pounds, but Austin was taller and he was fast and strong, his reflexes honed by years of playing football.
Richard knew it, too, how dangerous Austin could be, judging by the way he approached him, his baton ready in his hand to administer a beating. Being beaten didn’t worry Austin anymore. He’d been there and survived it. Multiple times.
The first time had been five months ago when Austin had fought off two other counselors, one who’d assaulted him and another who’d been about to violate Tan, Austin’s best friend in the camp. It had landed him in solitary for two weeks and Tan had gotten cornered after all, Austin discovered afterward, but at least counselors—guards would be a more appropriate term—had become a hell of a lot more careful around him.
“There’s nowhere to go, you little shit,” Richard said, then licked his lips in a move that made Austin’s stomach revolt. Sick fucker.
Austin forced himself to slow down his breathing and focus. Was there anything he could use as a weapon? A stick? A piece of metal? Anything sharp? They were in the rec room, where almost everything was nailed down and could only be unlocked by a counselor. Austin slowly moved backward, not so much out of fear but to keep looking for a weapon.
Hadn’t Marlon, a fellow camper who bunked with Austin, mentioned something about a chair leg being loose? It was the chair with the blue dot on the back, Austin remembered. He searched for it unobtrusively and saw it after a few seconds, all the way in the back of the room.
He moved again, Richard following him closely, his eyes never leaving Austin’s. If he could get to that chair, he’d have a chance.
“We fixed it, you know?” Richard said, his face breaking open in a sickening grin. “That chair you think is gonna save you? We fixed it. Ain’t nothing gonna save your faggot ass now.”
Austin’s heart sank in his chest. Dammit. “The way you stick your dick everywhere, I’m not sure which one of us is the faggot here,” he spat out.
The man’s grin broadened. “Oh, that don’t bother me none. The only difference between you and me is that you’re a dumb faggot, considering you’re on the wrong side of the fence here, and I’m in charge. Which is why my faggot dick is gonna wreck your faggot ass. Now, are we done pretending there’s a way out of this so we can get to the good parts?”
He took a few quick steps closer to Austin, boxing him into a corner. Austin lowered himself into a defensive position, still not giving up. He was about to say something when shouts erupted outside, first a few, but then swelling into a chorus of yells and screams.
“What the fuck?” Richard snapped, frustration dripping off him.
Austin kept his vigilance as the counselor took a few steps back to look out the window. It was almost dark outside, but the camp was always lit up like a Christmas tree at night with all the floodlights surrounding the fences and watchtowers. It had taken Austin a while to be able to sleep with the lights on, but like a lot of things in this hellhole, he’d gotten used to it.
He kept watching Richard as he walked closer to the window, peering out to see what the commotion was about. Austin couldn’t see anything from his position, but damn, he hoped whatever was happening was enough to force Richard go outside.
Seconds later, the ground shook with a force that knocked him off his feet, and then everything went dark. At first, he thought he’d been knocked out, but then he realized the power had gone out and they’d been thrown into full darkness. It lasted one, two, three seconds and then longer.
“Dammit all to hell,” he heard Richard curse. “Why doesn’t the fucking backup generator turn on?”
Austin waited for it as well, not that he’d be able to hear the low hums of the backup generators kicking in over the screams and shouts outside. His eyes were drawn to a red haze that spilled in from outside, though he was too far away to see what was happening. Richard could see it, though, his shadow outlined against the window now that Austin’s eyes were adjusting to the dark.
Oh. My. God. He had one shot at this. One. Richard’s attention was fixed on whatever was happening outside, not on Austin. He didn’t hesitate, but silently moved, thanking his lucky stars for the concrete floor that wouldn’t give his position away. No creaky wooden floors here like in the dorms. And since he was looking into whatever was causing that red flare outside, Richard wouldn’t be able to see him.
The counselor realized what was happening when Austin was on him, but by then it was too late. Austin made good use of their difference in height and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, tightening it with his other arm in a classic guillotine choke. Thank fuck for those martial arts classes he’d taken for years. Whereas in practice he would’ve put a slight pressure on his opponent’s throat until he tapped out, he didn’t here.
It only took a few seconds, seconds in which Richard flailed his arms wildly, dropping his useless baton on the floor, never g etting a grip on Austin. Then the man sagged in his arms, and without a second of doubt, Austin finished the move and snapped his neck, then let him fall on the floor where his lifeless body landed with a loud thud. The sound should have made Austin nauseous, maybe, but it sounded like karma to him.
Now, what the hell was going on outside? The screams hadn’t subsided in the least, so clearly something was happening. He took Richard’s keys, then decided he might as well take his com and flashlight, and carefully opened the door, checking first to make sure no one saw him.
Almost immediately his eyes were drawn to the sky, where tens, no, hundreds of fiery balls streaked through the dark night, creating paths to the earth that burned with a deadly red glow. Meteors? They had to be. He couldn’t think of anything else that would result in a show like this. But there were so many! He’d never seen a meteor shower like this, never even heard of one.
From the various buildings around him—there wasn’t a light visible as far as Austin could see, other than that eerie glow from the sky—counselors and campers were rushing outside to watch, shouting and screaming in a mix of panic and confusion. Austin could make out their shapes and shadows, sometimes their faces, but no one was paying any attention to him.
No one was paying attention to him.
It sank in, the unique opportunity he had right now. Not just him, but all of them. Escaping the camp was all but impossible—plenty of campers had died trying—but here was their chance. None of the counselors were watching their surroundings as far as he could tell, their eyes glued to the sky, their positions easy to spot because of their sand-colored uniforms as opposed to the bright orange tanks and shorts the campers wore—their sleeping uniform. They had to get the fuck out of there, he and Tan. And maybe, just maybe, he had a chance of seeing his dad again. If he was still alive.
He silently closed the rec room door behind him and snuck up behind two tall campers—both around his age—quietly tapping them on the shoulder. They gasped in surprise, but he gestured for them to keep quiet, then pointed at the counselors and dragged his finger along his neck in a universal sign they all understood. He made a gesture to indicate they should tell the other campers and attack together. The smiles on their faces informed him they not only got the idea, but were on board.
It took less than a minute for them to alert enough campers, and by the time the counselors clued in on what was going down, they were too late. The attacks were brutal, campers using their bare hands and whatever else they could find to bring counselors down. The counselors called out for help, but their shouts and screams were silenced efficiently and brutally, as were any colleagues who tried to come to their rescue. Within minutes, it was over, the yard looking like a battlefield with bodies everywhere.
Much to Austin’s amazement, the com he’d taken off Richard stayed silent. He’d expected counselors to call in for help, raise the alarm, but it was deadly quiet. Strange.
“Watch out!” someone screamed, and the sky lit up as one of those meteors came right at them. Austin gasped as he ducked under the sturdy ping-pong table in the yard, stifling a scream as he almost butted heads with someone else.
They cowered together, Austin automatically covering the much smaller body of his companion as the ground shook with the impact of…of what, exactly? A meteorite hitting the ground, Austin reckoned, but how? Where were they coming from? He waited for the shock wave to hit them, for the blast to incinerate them, but it never happened. How could a meteorite crash with so little impact? Maybe it had been a small one? Even those had to create a shock wave, right? There was something strange about this whole thing.
He let go when it seemed the immediate danger had passed and rolled off the other guy, about to apologize when he recognized his friend. “Tan!” he let out. “You okay?”
“I’ll be a hell of a lot better if you tell me you have a plan to get us the fuck out of here,” Tan replied.
Austin grabbed his hand tightly. “Not a plan just yet, but that’s the idea.” They both got up from under the ping-pong table. “What the hell is happening?”
Tan shook his head. “I have no idea. It was lights out when all of a sudden, these balls started coming at us, lighting up our barrack. It’s freaky as hell, man. The counselors went outside and we followed. Where were you, since you’re still dressed?”
Austin’s face tightened. “The Dick cornered me. Things were about to get ugly when this shit show started.”
Tan squeezed his hand. “He still alive?”
“No.”
“Good. Now what do we do?”
“I don’t understand why the backup generators aren’t kicking in.” He held up The Dick’s com. “The coms seem dead as well. No one’s using them.”
Austin all but jumped when someone behind him cleared his throat. Someone that wasn’t Tan. “I think there’s been an EMP,” a soft voice spoke.
Austin turned around to find an unfamiliar face looking at him. “A what?” he asked. “And who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”
Much to Austin’s surprise, the guy stuck out his hand and he shook it out of habit. “I’m Cormack…Mack for short. I only got here a week ago.”
Austin couldn’t help but smile at the polite handshake they exchanged, so far removed from his recent experiences that it felt strange to be engaging in those rituals again. “I’m Austin. This is Tan. What’s an EMP?”
“It’s erm…it’s an electromagnetic pulse, a high burst of electromagnetic energy caused by rapid acceleration of charged particles.”
Austin snickered despite everything. “Dude, I literally didn’t understand a single thing in that sentence. Give it to me in Sesame Street-language.”
“It’s like a high burst of energy that fries all electronics…anything that runs on electrical power would stop working, including planes, cars, computers, and anything with a plug.”
“How do you know it’s not just a massive power outage?” Tan asked.
“Because the guard in front of my holding cell was working on a laptop that wasn’t hooked up to a power source, but it stopped working along with everything else. Those coms you mentioned, they run on batteries, so they should work if it was just a power outage, except the communication center itself was wiped out, and they’re all fried.”
Austin tried to let the information sink in, but it was hard. “What does this mean?” he asked. “What even causes an EMP?”
“It could be a solar flare, but it can also be man-made, like weapon. It’s not easy, I can tell you that. This is high-tech, expensive equipment we’re talking about,” Mack said.
Man-made? That thought was almost too insane to even consider. “It has to be a solar flare, then, because why the fuck would anyone target our camp?” Austin wondered out loud. “That doesn’t make sense at all.”
“Can we maybe focus on the part where we hightail it out of here before the power turns back on and worry about the details later?” Tan asked.
Austin nodded. “You’re right. We gotta split.”
“Can you… can you take me with you?” Mack asked, his voice soft and hesitant.
“Do we want a bigger group?” Tan asked Austin.
Austin thought about it, but couldn’t come up with a single benefit to teaming up with a large group. Mack seemed useful with his knowledge, and he looked about as threatening as a golden retriever puppy. And if he turned out to be an ass, they could always leave him behind.
“No,” he decided. “Smaller is better, both for us and for everyone else. If we all escape in small groups, they’ll need more manpower to track us. So yeah, you can stay with us, Mack. The three of us, no more.”
