Set in Stone: an Aether Vitalis Short Story

Aether Vitalis

by Mercy Loomis

Jon's dreams of the primordial Nexus have become all too real, to the point where waking up is accompanied by nausea and disorientation. The nightly fight for survival is far more enticing than Jon's waking life, and he feels more and more detached from reality.

When Jon meets gargoyle and Nexus guardian Tamal, Jon learns that not only is the Nexus real, he might be able to stay permanently. But it's Tamal's job to keep squishy, vulnerable humans like Jon safe and out of the Nexus. Can Jon convince Tamal he has what it takes to survive? Contains sexual situations.

Available in the anthology Other Men .

Originally published in Taste Test: Welcome to the Jungle. Round Rock, TX: Torquere Press, 2010.

19 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 26, 2011

About the author

Mercy Loomis grew up in a haunted house, and has had quite enough of ghosts for one lifetime, thank you. Though she now lives in a 150-year-old house, it is remarkably ghost-free. (That, or they’re staying on the down-low. She doesn’t care which.)

Mercy finished writing her first vampire novel when she was in middle school, and hasn’t stopped writing about them since. She loves stories about the paranormal because monsters are scary, but less scary than real people. Or at least less depressing.

Mercy graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison one class short of an accidental certificate in Folklore. She credits her love of mythology to her mom reading Greek myths as bedtime stories, and her love of fantastical adventure stories to watching cheesy movies with her dad. Her love of history (and coffee!) is completely her husband’s fault, but she doesn’t know who’s to blame for the fascination with physics.

She guesses that hanging out with Dad while he butchered deer also had an effect on her character, but exactly what effect, she leaves up to the reader.

See what Mercy’s up to and find links to her other work at www.mercyloomis.com.