Butterfly Scales

Résumé

In the year 2034, alien life has finally made contact with Earth. The Lepids, short for Lepidoptera or butterfly, are a self-proclaimed peace-loving species. Dr. Laura Albright is a 'Sensitive,' one of the few people on Earth capable of communicating with the peaceful aliens via their emotions-based language. Because of her hyper-empathy, contact with other humans is a painful experience to the touch-sensitive Laura.

Detective Vincent Roberts works in Homicide at the Tampa PD. It isn't easy being a black man in a country that has been racially divided for the past fifteen years, and it gets harder for Vince when young, ethnic women begin disappearing from around downtown Tampa ... and then his sister is taken. Clues lead him to an impossible suspect, and only one person can help him--Laura-- the last 'Sensitive' in the city. But as their forbidden sexual tension ignites into a conflagration, the only answer to the truth may lie in Laura's inability to touch and be touched ... and Vince's ability to touch her.