Caged View — Kenya Wright

Since the 1970s, Humans have forced Supernaturals to live in caged cities known as habitats. Supernaturals are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads to identify them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, an X for Mixbreeds, and the list goes on. Each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by Humans.

Each habitat is themed and organized by a particular religion. This short story collection is set in the Santeria habitat. The first three stories are in the points of view of characters (MeShack, Zulu, and Lanore) from the novel Fire Baptized, and serve as a prequel to that story. The last short story is from the point of view of Cameo, a character who lives in the Santeria habitat and is from the young adult novel Chameleon, scheduled to be released in June of 2012.

Love Lost, Love Found
Point of View: MeShack
MeShack's mother has been missing for several weeks. Lanore and MeShack search the Santeria habitat for her, only to find something that changes his life forever.


The Heart Ripper's Song
Point of View: Zulu
All in Santeria speak of Zulu the Heart Ripper. Drug dealers fear him. Women swoon at his feet. Too bad the one woman he wants is not impressed at all by his heart-ripping antics. He'll have to dig deeper to get her attention.

The Vicious Circle
Point of View: Lanore
Lanore stumbles from one self-destructive choice to another as she struggles to align her mind's decisions with her body's wants.

Excerpt from Chameleon
(A young adult paranormal romance novel set in the Santeria habitat)

Cameo lives in a caged supernatural city where all species are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads. Her X brand identifies her as a Mixbreed, but she's so much more. Like a chameleon, she can shift from one person's image to another.

It's a great way to make money for a habitat street kid, or Cage Punk as most people call them. Wiz, her street partner-in-crime, finds her jobs to use her abilities. Some jobs entail changing into people to take academic tests. Others require more skill and involve higher risk.

So when Wiz asks Cameo to stand in for a Were-wolf teenager who doesn't want to go to her debutant ball, it seems like just another job, until a corpse is discovered and Wiz is singled out as the killer. Now Cameo has to prove her innocence or lose the only person who's ever shown her any love and respect.