Genres:
Young Adult Romance
Paranormal Romance
High School
Vampires, Demons, Witches
Dark Fantasy
Horror
Date Published:
November 26, 2015
240+
Pages
WITH BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS
~
Kira Sutherland ~
After a near fatal accident (and
getting cheated on by her 'boyfriend'), and beating up the lead cheerleader
(with whom the boyfriend cheated...), and
being labeled as having 'issues' in her school because she, uhm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:
1. Continue her 'therapy' (where
she's told the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too
often...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for "Crazies and
Convicts" (as the social media sites call them.)
She chooses the latter...
~
Cory Rand ~
Cory Rand has not had an easy
life. His mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his
mother's best friend...sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of
Cory just before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out
for him.
Brought up in an abusive home,
Cory quickly falls into a life of disreputable behavior. After his third
offense (which was prompted by a girl, as usual - he has a weakness) he's left
with two choices:
1. Be tried as an adult and share
a cell with a guy named Bubba (he thinks...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, which Cory is pretty sure is run by vampires.
But, hey, at least he'll get an education.
He chooses the latter...
It's at Starkfield that Kira meets Cory Rand, a boy with an insatiable Rage
who sees ghosts, too. As well as other things, other things from his past,
things that confuse him, things like fire and witches and demons.
Things he's always ignored.
Until now.
~\/~
EXCERPT
-1-
The Puppy Eyes
My life
was perfect.
I had
the perfect shoes and the perfect friends and I lived in the perfect house. My
nails were perfect and my hair was perfect (except on Sundays, it was always
windy on Sundays) and I had the perfect clothes. My lips were a perfect red and
my hair perfectly straight. My eyeshadow was perfect, my hips were...okay, and my waist...well...also okay. Nothing was wrong in
my life.
But then
there was Jack.
Jack was
a problem.
He
needed to go. I mean, when you’re dead, you’re dead! I had told him this endlessly. Somehow, Jack didn’t get it. I
mean, I felt sorry for the guy. Sure. Being stuck between this life and the
next. But just because I found him, does that mean I needed to keep him?
I think
not!
Sadly,
when Jack got that look in his eyes, that weary, almost teary (if his
tear-ducts worked) look, I melted. I just couldn’t send him away. Not even Jack
knew where he would go after he died.
Would
he, like, die? As in — dead, nada,
kaput, finito, gone, no more? Bye
bye, sayonara, ciao, hasta la vista baby and all that?
I
couldn’t have that on my conscience. No way.
I lay on
my bed, wondering what to do about him. “Jaaaaaaack,” I hollered.
“Jaaaaaaack!”
Still no
answer.
“Jack!”
Jack...materialized.
His eyes
rolled down to the ground. He was making those puppy eyes again. “Jack, I told
you not to do that. I told you not to play on my sympathies.”
His
puppy eyes became worse.
His skin
was gray and, well, dead.
“Oh,
brother,” I said. “I have to do something about you. If mom finds out I have
another ‘imaginary friend’ — at my age — well, I’d die of embarrassment. But,
like, really die. Not like you.” I
wondered about this. Would I die? Was
Jack a freak accident, or did all people live on like him? Think of the cemeteries...
The idea
excited me somewhat.
“What would you have me do, Miss Kira?”
“Knock
off the Miss Kira crap. I told you it’s just Kira.”
“Yes, Miss Kira.”
The
dead. There’s just no reasoning.
“Fine,
Miss Kira it is then.” Rover barked like a lunatic in the garden. No one else
might be able to see Jack, but I was sure my dog could.
“I have to do something about this,” I
mumbled.
Mike
knocked on the door before I had time to leave the house. Mike was the guy I
thought (at the time) was perfect.
“Who is
it?”
“It’s
me, baby.”
Baby,
urgh — I wasn’t his baby. I dated Mike because he was the quarterback, because
girls are supposed to like the quarterback, because it’s just so darn perfect
to be seen with the quarterback, like we’re brainwashed into thinking these
things from the first romantic doll set mom buys us.
This was
my previous life.
“Mike.”
“Uh-huh.
Gonna let me in?”
So you
can try rub me up and then complain when I don’t let you? This, dear reader,
was the big problem with Mike. The second we first kissed, his hand went way
too far south for me to be comfortable — and I pulled back.
Mike
suddenly wasn’t so perfect.
“Uhm, I
was just on my way out,” I said.
“Kira?
C’mon, open the door.” He sounded upset. “Is there someone in there with you?”
Boys. As
if.
I didn’t
know much about love (nothing, actually) but I knew this wasn’t it.
“Uhm,
now’s not the time, Mike.”
“C’mon,
Kira, what’s going on?” He banged harder.
When in
doubt...lie. I opened the door a crack. “There’s a dead rat in the house, Mike.
Been here for days. I gotta go get some detergent and stuff to handle the
stench.”
Mike
stepped back. He peered through the crack of the door.
“It’s
really bad,” I said.
“I’ll
drive you.”
“I’m
afraid the smell” — I stuck my armpit to my nose — “has found its way all over
me. I’ll drive myself.”
“O —
okay. Fine.” And then he grinned like he wanted something. “Later? My place?”
Urgh.
“Uhm, sure...er...later. Not sure when though.”
“Six.”
I fought
the urge to roll my eyes. According to girls at school, he was apparently so
damn good looking — theoretically. But for me personally, he did nothing. Moved
nothing. Twisted nothing. “Look, I gotta go, Mike. I gotta — ”
“Kira.”
His eyes grew stern. “You’ve been avoiding me...”
Bingo!
Well done contestant number one! And what have you won? A brain!
I tilted
my head. “Mike, look, this...rat — I need to deal with it. We’ll talk later,
okay? Bye.” I closed the door, not waiting for an answer, and peered out the
peep hole. Mike hung around for a second, shoulders wide and eyes glaring
straight at me through the door. Could he see me? Did he know I was looking at
him?
He
kicked something off the ground, and I had the distinct impression he mouthed
the word Bitch before leaving. But I wasn’t sure...
“Roll
down the window, Jack.” Jack was recently dead, so he still had a smell about
him. (Which only I could smell...)
I had
purposely skipped breakfast. Maybe Jack would help me lose weight. I was (still
am) a little wide, although it had never stopped guys flirting with me. I know
how to dress.
But I
could be skinnier.
Lucy
Rogers was skinny. All bones and no boobs.
Charlene
Carverton was a babe. Cheerleader. Big chest (which she pushed out generously
with a push-up — if only guys knew). Toned thighs. Charlene only dated college
boys (back then), which I still think is pretty gross for a girl her age.
“He’s
not for you,” Jack said out the blue.
“Hmm?”
“This...Mike
— he’s wrong for you, Miss Kira.” For all Jack’s faults (mainly, being dead),
he has a good heart. Factually, probably it’s why I kept him around at first.
“You
think I don’t know that?”
“Then
why don’t you dump him?”
I braked
at a stop sign. Looked left and right. “Because I’d look like an idiot. I
flirted with him and showed interest, and one kiss later I can’t stand the
sight of him.”
“So dump
him.”
“It’s
not that simple. Kids at school — they can be vicious. I have to let it fade
slowly. If I drop the bomb on him, I’ll never hear the end of it through senior
year.”
“And you
care?”
Yes, I
did. Forget Guantanamo, schools are rough. “You don’t understand, Jack. Maybe
school was different in your day. But in mine, well, we walk through metal
detectors.”
“Schools
weren’t too different in my day.” I noted the sadness in his voice.
“You
okay?”
“I’m
dead.”
Right.
“You miss...your life?”
Jack
shrugged. “I like being with you, Miss Kira. And I don’t remember much of my
life. I think I’m in limbo.”
“Limbo?”
“Yes,
like I have some unfinished business. If only I could remember...what...it
is...” He scratched his head.
“Any
ideas?”
“Well,
it can’t be love. If it were love, I’d be a vampire. That’s who teenage girls
fall in love with these days.”
“A
vampire? That’s just what I need — two undead beings stalking me.”
“I feel
I have something to do around you, Miss Kira. I don’t know what, but something.
Something important.”
I looked
over at him. “Me?”
I was
still looking at him when I missed the stop sign.
The Mack
truck drove straight into us.
~\/~
AUTHOR
BIO
R P Channing is the author of over a million words of
fiction. None of it published.
Until now.
Website: blog.rpchanning.com
Buy
Links
Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Kindle Unlimited
$20
Amazon Gift Voucher Giveaway
At the back of the book there is a
giveaway link. Once the book hits fifty reviews on Amazon, one of those
reviewers will win a $20 (US Dollars) Amazon Gift Voucher!
Author
Bio
R P Channing started writing
three years ago, but never published anything even after churning out over a
million words of fiction. Thirst: Blood
of my Blood is the first book he dared to publish. When asked why, he said,
“Because it’s the first thing I wrote that my wife actually enjoyed reading.”
When not hammering away (most literally) at his keyboard, he can be found
buried in a book, reading anything from romance to horror to young adult to
non-fiction to comedy.
Author
Links
Website
http://blog.rpchanning.com
Twitter
https://twitter.com/RPChanning
Amazon
http://amazon.com/author/rpchanning
