Made of Awesome Contest

Okay, this is a fun time. Hop over here, and sign up for the contest.
Then come back...I'll wait... and read my entry below.
I'd appreciate feedback/comments, but even more fun, come and play in the
contest with me.

thanks all,

~ Frances


My Entry:

Shrouded
Science Fiction Romance
80,380 words

Opening excerpt:


Vashia pressed her spine against the steel wall and watched the transport slide to a stop between her and the Comet’s back entrance. The alley she’d snuck down reeked of grease and sweat, and she held her breath for more than just a need for silence. A gutter lizard slithered up the wall opposite, snapping its purple tongue at invisible insects. Vashia cringed and slid a half step back down the way she’d come.
The hover sled powered to idle, and the long door panel slid open. Her father’s insignia disappeared into the housing as the gap widened and Jarn stepped out of the vehicle. Vasia’s mouth twisted in distaste at the same time she did her best to merge with the alley wall. Jarn knew about the Comet. Damn it. He’d managed to cut her off four steps from sanctuary.
He tugged at his gloves and sneered down the street in both directions, his vulture eyes picking through the riff-raff for any trace of her. Vasia’s skin crawled. She froze in the alley’s shadows, couldn’t risk the sound another step away from the governor’s aide might make. Instead she watched his shorn head shake and heard him bark out orders to the driver and the armed thugs standing at either side of his car. “Wait. Keep your eyes sharp.”
She held her breath until Jarn disappeared into the Comet, until he’d slid his skinny, uniformed shoulders through the nightclub’s entrance and the blast of music faded once more into the clatter and hum of normal street noises. The hover car whined in front of her, blocking the route she’d intended to take. Jarn’s toadies might not have genius level IQs, but they couldn’t miss an attempt to slip past them in the full light of Eclipsis’ primary moon. Vassia backed further into the alley and let out a slow, silent exhale. She was screwed.