The ace photographer and the supermodel, they should have been a match made in heaven. Instead, they fought like the demons of hell.
Complicated, surly, and sexy, Manav Apte was probably the only photographer who resented his muse. From the day he’d seen her, there had been no other. Unfortunately, she was the one woman he could never have. Passionate, talented, and gorgeous, Diana Severes refused to give the temperamental ass behind the camera the satisfaction of knowing he got under her skin. It was, however, impossible not to notice him or his glowering disapproval that trailed her everywhere she went. Their dislike and distrust of each other is legendary in the fashion industry and yet, the sparks that fly when they come together for work are enough to light the sets on fire. Will the Golden Girl of India’s fashion scene be able to see beyond his hatred to the love he’s desperately trying to mask? And will the country’s most talented photographer realise that his true talent lies not in what he views through his lens but what he sees through the filter of his heart?
We walked along the beach. Me in my shorts and black t-shirt, Diana in a glamorous white beach dress with lace trim. If there was ever a contrast competition, we’d win it hands down.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
Diana shrugged. “I guess. That was unpleasant but necessary. I’ll get next steps in place as soon as we get back to Mumbai.”
“Will your family be okay with this?”
“My parents don’t get a say in my career decisions. My dad is ex-army and my mom is a teacher. They don’t understand how this world works anyway.” She sidestepped some dog shit on the beach, moving a little closer to me.
I itched to wrap an arm around her, pull her in for a hug and kiss her. Instead, I clenched my hands in my pockets, Adil’s words still echoing in my head.
“My brother, who is a typical tech nerd, wouldn’t bother to venture an opinion either. The only other person who would have understood was Andrew, the brother who died. He was the one who encouraged me to get into modelling and pursue my dreams.” Tears glimmered in her eyes, a stray one streaking across one golden hued cheek.
“And this was your dream? To be a model?”
She stared back towards the resort in the distance, her mind somewhere I couldn’t follow.
“I wanted the fame, the glamour and the money. I wanted to be independent. I wanted to be someone. Modeling gave me all of that and when my time ends, and it will end, we all know that, I have a backup plan in place for that too.”
I stared at her, seeing her, truly seeing her for the first time since I’d met her two years ago. She was so much more than that gorgeous face and bubbly personality that people mistook to be the entirety of her.
“I wanted to be a wildlife photographer,” I blurted out with all the finesse of a horny sixteen year old.
“You can still be one,” she smiled. “Just in addition to what you already do.”
“I work nonstop. I’d never be able to find the time,” I muttered.
“We can always find the time if it’s important enough to us. We make time when we want to.” She cupped my cheek and pressed a light kiss on to it.
She was right. We made time and space for what we wanted, for what was important to us. And in that moment, I knew… Diana was desperately important to me.
“Everything he said was true, you know,” I told her, shoving my hands deeper into my pockets to keep them from reaching for her.
“Everything I said was true too, Manav,” she smiled, sadly. “But what is your truth?”
What was my truth? It was buried under so many years of misery, pain, and heartache, would I recognize it even if I found it?
About the Author:
Shilpa Suraj wears many hats – corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author. An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.
Published December 1, 2017 by Perfectly Poisoned Anthologies
Historical Fiction
Synopsis:
It’s 1870 in a rural setting on the outskirts of London. Famed surgeon Dr.
Benedict Morrow hosts an elite few surgical trainees at the renowned Morrow
Academy of Anatomy and Science.
Though the days of Burke and Hare are long gone, and body snatching and
grave robbing a seemingly thing of the past, the supply of high-quality fresh
cadavers is still lacking.
Each student of Dr. Morrow must procure a fresh corpse for their very own
study, or face expulsion from the prestigious academy.
These hand-chosen students are the best and brightest in the country. They
are also devious, conniving, and determined to do whatever they must to stay in
the academy and under the tutelage of Dr. Morrow. Even turn against each other
is necessary.
In the cards will be manipulation, murder, betrayal, sex, blackmail, and of
course, money always talks.
Dr. Linnea Lyons has it all. She is beautiful, intelligent,
witty, and charming. All the things a young woman needs to get her way in 1870.
Tasked with procuring a cadaver for her surgical studies,
Linnea decides to use her womanly charms to get what she wants. A visit to the
morgue when only the Deputy Coroner, Dr. Cyril Rhodes is on duty, she asks him
to allow her to watch his embalming process.
Cyril is enthralled with the dark-haired beauty. After all,
it is a rarity to meet a female doctor, let alone one studying the art of
surgery.
Linnea senses the good doctor is a bit lonely and perhaps an
easy mark to get what she wants.
The first year Dr. Benedict Morrow at the renowned Morrow
Academy of Anatomy and Science considers female students, Louisa Becker is
honored to be chosen. An ocean away from everything she has ever known and
thrust into a highly competitive, if not, demoralizing group of students is
arduous. It intensifies once Dr. Morrow tasks them with procuring their own
fresh corpse or face expulsion.
Residing in the home of a previous student of Dr. Morrow’s
and his teaching assistant, she suspects Edgar Walker guards sinister secrets
and she should fear him. Instead, she observes his skill and technique in class
and respects him. Intrigued and attracted to the withdrawn, brooding man she
watches him from a distance.
One evening following him into London, she witnesses him
commit a grisly crime. Louisa and Edgar forge an unconventional relationship
involving murder, seduction, lust, ambition, and mayhem.
An immigrant, Fredrick Wolf has to succeed at Morrow Academy
of Anatomy and Science. Not only succeed, he has to prove to his peers that he
belongs, that he isn’t a poor local Dr. Morrow accepted out of pity.
Fredrick is willing to do anything to procure a prime
specimen for their special assignment. Calling upon his uncle, his partner in
crime since their move to England, Fredrick plans to use his uncle’s position
at the local gaol to select the perfect candidate.
But not all prisoners are the usual drunkards or petty
thieves. Some possess dark secrets, especially the man known in Clayton Bridge
as Eugene Wallaby. Biding his time, Eugene sees young Fredrick’s murderous plan
as a means of escape, but only if Eugene can survive the night.
No one wants to be successful as a surgeon more than
Scarlett Kensington and no one has as little conscience. She has met every
challenge with skill and talent and by out-thinking her detractors. And when
the great Dr. Morrow demands his students present a cadaver for class, whose
body will it be?
Enzo Mason is a hustler and a thief by nature. After
stealing the most valuable thing he’s ever stolen, he thinks he’s finally on
the path to making a good life for himself. His confidence is tested when Dr.
Morrow reveals the newest challenge that will decide their fate in the surgical
program – procure your own cadaver for study or be dismissed from the Academy.
Will the help of a fellow classmate, who happens to be the most beautiful woman
he’s ever seen, be the one thing that helps him achieve his goals or will his
luck run out?
Jacqueline Kennison is a stunning newcomer to the Morrow
Academy of Anatomy and Science who has caught the eye of a fellow classmate,
Enzo. Jacqueline is determined to see her master plan through, even if it means
teaming up with Enzo. This choice leads to unforeseen dilemmas that she never
expected. Will Enzo be the one to aid in her own self-destruction or will he
surprise her by saving her from herself?
Doctor Elizabeth Chandler is top of her class at the Royal
College of Surgeons of England and has the world in her hand… until it comes
crashing down around her. With the sudden death of her beloved father and her
mother’s convalescence due to a carriage accident, Elizabeth abandons
everything to return to Clayton Bridge and help her family. Traditional
medicine has failed to bring her mother back to consciousness, so when she
hears of Doctor Benedict Morrow and some of the more unusual requirements of
his Academy of Anatomy and Science, this seems like the answer to her prayers.
Blackmail, deceit, and treachery are just a few of the lessons she will learn
along with her surgical studies.
Miranda O’Reily has been struggling with her grades. In a
profession where men are the superior sex, she has a lot to prove to not just
her peers or Doctor Benedict Morrow, but to herself. Coming from an
impoverished home, she was lucky to have an unknown benefactor paying for her
college. The mystery unravels as she tries to identify who this mysterious
wealthy individual is all while struggling to meet the intensity of the
curriculum.
Edward Thatcher, the last mortician she saw denied her a corpse because of her
gender. Infuriated, she vowed to get a body by any means necessary, even if it
meant murder.
Caught in a realm they know next to nothing about, in a time
where they’re hated for not what they are but how they look, these supernatural
teens may find it harder to curve their bloodlust than they thought.
Like most teens, even those with supernatural powers and
abilities, Elvira thinks that her days at Be Prepared High are a colossal waste
of time. Especially Feeding 101, since she’s a cursed vampire that was born
without fangs. She and her friends view most of the classes as useless since
they never plan on venturing to the human realm. Why would they when Underlayes
was made specifically for every factions’ safety, where they could roam free
day or night with not a care in the worlds.
But just like her parents always told her, sometimes you’re
put into situations you can’t control.
Elvira’s life takes an unexpected turn when a wizard hell
bent on misplaced revenge kidnaps her and several of her friends. Not only does
she send them with a one-way ticket to Detroit, Michigan, she sends them to a
time when the tension amongst the races is at its highest. And having to deal
with race issues is the one thing that has never even been so much as a thought
to any of them and is the one course not on the roster.
But will everything they’ve learned in school be enough to
keep them alive? What will they all do when racism stares them in the face?
Most importantly, how will they get back home?
Once
upon a time… Really? I’m not starting my story off with that lame ass cliché. Fat chance. Not when my story is anything but
classic. You can think of this as the life and times of a teenage vampire. A
real one, not one that sparkles as though we were sprinkled with some type of
fairy dust. Oh! And we’re born, not made by just being bitten, consuming blood
from another vampire, or any other legend you may have researched somewhere. The
bitten one is the most ridiculous theory any of us have ever heard of. I mean
really, think about it, if everyone ever bitten by a vampire were to turn into
one how could they ever go back for seconds on the same victim, er donor? Could
you imagine how large the vampire population would be? Anyway, you wanna hear
my story? Just sit back, grab a pint of blood, or milk, and have a listen.
First
off, I don’t live in your dimension, I live in a separate one called
Underlayes. Where the things that go bump in the night – werewolves, vampires,
mermaids, sirens, witches, and so much more – truly are real. Underlayes has
regular neighborhoods just like Earth does, we don’t live in a ton of dug out
caves, or cryptic looking castles; besides the royals anyway. We used to live
amongst you guys, but that was way before my time, and a story way too long and
boring for me to bother with repeating. Just know that we all truly do exist
and a very few of our number walk alongside you still. So, you may want to
think about that before you lay down at night after bullying the school nerd or
your shy co-worker. If they’re the silent and quiet type they’re more than
possibly plotting your untimely demise and deciding what side-dish you’d go
best with. Or what curse to place on you. Something my Mom should have thought
about a long, long time ago.
Me?
The names Elvira, yea, Mom and Pops have a sick and twisted sense of humor.
Which when you come to think of it is actually a very good thing, since Mom was
dumb enough to piss off a witch when she was preggers with me and my brother,
Dracula (yup, again with the humor), Drake for short. During one of her many
mood swings dear old Mom went completely off on an already pissed off witch;
something about the witch crossing in front of her, and Mom thinking that would
make us come out cross eyed (and you thought your mom was superstitious, Ha!).
Miss Witch decided to do her one better and really did curse us both. I was
granted with the gift of being the only vampire known of with NO FANGS! Since
Underlayes doesn’t have hospitals bagged blood isn’t exactly just lying around.
Why not just bite down extra hard you say? Probably because that leaves a big
chunk of meat in my mouth and vampires can’t digest meat; we have a strictly
all liquid diet. Why not just slit someone’s wrist and pour it in a cup you
ask? If you were on an all liquid diet, would one glass a day keep your hunger
pains at bay? NO! And draining someone completely dry doesn’t work either,
unlike how they portray things in your human movies, blood clots up pretty
quickly when it hits air; unless pumped up with nasty anti-coagulants which
leave a horrible aftertaste and makes the blood nearly impossible to digest. So
the blood shortage on your neck of the veil? Feel free to blame that on us, Mom
and Dad had to feed us somehow during the experimental processes of properly
bagging and storing the blood the way humans do. But no worries, they haven’t
had to raid your neck of the realms in a long time now. The alchemist’s studied
the components your scientists used and now have it down pact.
I’m
not really sure if Drake’s curse is worst or pretty much just as bad. Him? He
goes into a full-blown shock at the very sight of blood; fainting spells,
seizures, black outs, the works. Though lucky for him rarely all of those at
once. Lucky for Mom and Dad, he could still at least savor the taste and smell
of it. But talk about being seriously dependent upon someone else, hard to
nourish yourself when you can’t even look at your food. And as a baby? You try
putting a blindfold on an infant, especially one with fangs, and let me know
how well that works out for you. Ah, but it made for some fangtastic pranks
when I was thirteen, which also ended in a lot of punishments. But they were so
worth it!
So
that’s us, Elvie and Drake, two of the only known vampires forced to live on
bagged blood. Though Drake may get lucky one day and be able to savor a neck or
two, as long as he keeps his eyes shut tight and doesn’t dribble.
Can’t
we just break the curse you ask? Ask Aunt Flo that one. Did I fail to mention
the witch in question was, and still is Mom’s best friend? She’s also a witch
with more power than she can handle who needs to watch what she says at ALL
times. The curse was supposedly never intentional and trying to undo it has
proven pretty much impossible.
Mom, Trinity Alkaev, is a beautiful creature
with a body neither skinny nor large, but what one describes as buxom
perfection. Also, one of the most patient females you will ever meet, and a
truly ferocious beast, fangs and all, when pissed. Dad, Borya Alkaev, is the
strong not so silent type, with a chiseled chin and sculpted cheekbones in
which I heard would give Michaelangelo a run for his money. Born after the
creation of Underlayes, he’s only two hundred years old, so I never understood
how he ended up with such a thick accent as if he just left the great
Motherland of Russia. The exact opposite of Mom when it comes to patience, but
the best dad any set of unorthodox twins could ask for. Neither of them were an
only child, but both are the youngest and only surviving children from both of
their respective lines. Many died before the dimension of Underlayes was made,
some during the move. And Aunt Flo, I’m not even getting into that one. And as
far as looks go Drake and I are a perfect combination of the two, with the
exception of the fact that I have no fangs.
THUD. CRASH. SCREAM.
What
in Hel’s name was that?
“Elvira
Esfir Alkaev!” Moms blood-curling screams vibrated through the floorboards,
“How many times do I need to tell you not
to leave your blood bags lying around? Get down here and help me clean up this
mess. And carry your brother to his room!”
Well
there you have it, the usual beginning of a day in the house of Alkaev.
“Now
young lady!”
About the Author:
When you become a Mom, you begin to put yourself last, and your
combat boots begin to collect dust. Going to your child’s PTA meetings in full
Gothic, especially industrial, regalia is pretty much frowned upon. Especially
by your own children, and your teens would die of a heart attack. But, one
should not have to completely stop being themselves, uniqueness is greatness.
So all of that darkness is put into words in her books, and designs in her
jewelry sold in her Gothic Moms Dark Charms shop on Etsy and Rebels Market.
Single mother of five beautiful children, but by
far more than just that. T. A. Moorman is an artist, a former violinist, a
seamstress, a crafter, a writer, a blogger, a reviewer, a dark confidant and a
darkly dangerous, fiercely protective friend. She still hopes to one day find
her Dark Knight in shining armor, since Prince Charming would never be able to
handle her. And currently broke, so go buy something of hers and tell everyone
you know how much you love this book.
