ShakenandStirred by Viola Grace

Tosha wanted a nice day off with her cousin, but a homicidal bug wave forces her to expose her talent to the others on her tour. Before her government can lock her up, she is swept off by a tornado and whisked into the stars. Joining the Sector Guard had never been an option, but now it was her only choice. Her name is changed to Shake and her first assignment is a doozy. With Vortex at her side, she accepts the emergency assignment and finds herself facing a proven killer who has no problem adding her to the roster.

    The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
                                   
    Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.
    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    Shaken and Stirred
    Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
    ISBN: 978-1-55487-858-1
    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.
    Published by Devine Destinies
    An imprint of eXtasy Books
    Look for us online at:
    www.devinedestinies.com

    Shaken and Stirred
    Sector Guard Book 19
    By
    Viola Grace

    Chapter One
    Tosha was breathing heavily as she tried to keep up with her cousin as they brought up the rear of the tour group.
    "Whose idea was this anyway?" She was fighting to keep a cheerful attitude while the instruments of a horrific death chased them across the plains.
    Alara grinned and kept her speed up. "I think I said we should do something different for a weekend."
    Tosha leapt over a shrub and staggered as she landed. "I think we could have just painted our hair green."
    Alara barked a laugh. "It's already green."
    "See, huge timesaver."
    Tosha could hear the insects chittering as they pursued the Dalpha Moon tour group. It had been a good idea to tour the moon in the offseason, but there was a reason that most tourists didn't go into the open wastes. Once a year, for one day, flesh-eating beetles hatched. Today was that day.
    A light whirring noise was approaching from above. Tosha kept running, no time for watching to see if the beetles had learned to fly.
    A cliff face was looming in front of her, the rest of their tour group were milling against it like stunned sheep.
    Tosha stopped and let her cousin run past her. She turned and faced the field of writhing beetle bodies. They were closing in, less than three hundred meters between them and her. The whirring noise sounded again and Tosha watched a tornado touch down and violently throw the bugs in another direction.
    It was good but not good enough. Tosha concentrated and the ground beneath her feet started to shake. A fissure opened in the ground at her feet and ran the width of the field. It widened to a space two meters wide and she sighed in relief.
    The bugs that got past the whirlwind ran until they hit the fissure and then they tipped into oblivion.
    Alara's hand on her shoulder made her whirl in shock. "Oh, Tosha. I am so sorry."
    Tosha patted her cousin's hand. "It's all right. It was time that someone knew. I am sure that life in the labs won't be so bad."
    "Maybe the tour group won't report you." Alara's hope was touching.
    Tosha looked to the crowd of folks who were watching her with a combination of relief and horror. Talents were welcome on