PLEDGED by Gwynneth
White Erin flicked her hair behind her ear and watched Caleb straighten his clothing. He took a deep breath and entered the hut. They followed right after him, drifting through the closed door as if it didn’t exist. Seth laughed, holding his hand up to Erin for a high-five – until he noticed that Caleb’s Gefallen had also wafted into the cabin with them. Even though he had no idea how to defend Erin from a ghost, he stepped in front of her to protect her. But the wraith ignored them and sailed over to Caleb.A tall, blonde-haired girl with almond-shaped brown eyes was waiting for Caleb. For Erin, the recognition was instantaneous; it was Talitha. “She’s so beautiful!”“She’s okay,” Seth replied, looking her over critically. “But I don’t think Caleb’s here for her looks.”“What’s that supposed to mean?”“You said yourself that Caleb’s a good-looking guy. I bet he could have any girl he wants around here.”Erin frowned; then she smiled as understanding dawned. “So, in guy-talk, you’re saying he loves her?”Seth chuckled as he picked up Erin’s hand and put it on his heart. “Tell me what you’re feeling?”Erin gasped at a disconcerting pulse thrumming in Seth’s chest, over-riding his own heartbeat. “It’s . . . no . . . It’s not possible.”“I’ll bet it is. It’s Caleb’s heart beating.”“How do you know it’s him? It could be Talitha.”“It started the moment I saw him. It’s like it’s there to stop me denying that he and I were once friends. And I was watching Talitha when he walked in. She smiled, and it felt as if someone had just shot a thousand volts through him.”“It’s amazing you’re so connected that you can feel him.”Seth wasn’t so sure he agreed; it made being here just a little too real.Erin felt her own heart and could faintly discern Talitha’s heartbeat; it was nowhere near as strong as the thump in Seth’s chest, but then, she figured, she wasn’t in denial the way he was.They fell into silence as Caleb opened his arms to embrace Talitha. She draped her arms around his neck, twisting the dark curls tumbling onto his shoulders. He kissed the nape of her throat and ran his lips up her neck, over her chin to her mouth.“This is awkward,” Erin murmured, looking away.“You don’t say. All this way just to watch them making out.”
I have spent my entire life living in a parallel
universe of make-believe characters, only coming back to reality for long
enough to check that no one burnt the house down in my absence. A few years ago
I decided to commit some of those ‘friends’ and their stories to paper. The Soul Wars Saga is the result of those
efforts. Before that I co-authored two non-fiction travel books – The Complete Guide to 4x4 Trails and The Ultimate 4x4 Guide. Both books
became instant best-sellers in South Africa. And before that even, I studied a
degree in African History and Politics at the University of Stellenbosch in
South Africa. When I’m not writing, I am a wife to Andrew, and a mom to
Stephanie, Erin, and Kate, our teenage daughters. My family and I live in Cape
Town with two dogs, a cat, a horse, and some neglected fish. Now that you know
a little about me, I would love to get to know you. 
Rift: A Nightshade Novel by Andrea Cremer
Batula by Marco Cinello
Harper only wanted a safe, normal life. But when her younger sister Gemma runs off with a dangerous clique of beautiful girls, Penn, Thea, and Lexi, everything changes. Vowing to get her sister back no matter what the cost, Harper must face dangers unlike any she's ever experienced. Fortunately, she has Daniel by her side, a gorgeous guy who's devoted to helping her find her sister—and who's immune to the girls' dark powers.
While Harper searches for her sister, Gemma struggles to adjust to her new life. Gemma's powers are growing by the day, and the longer she lives with her new "sisters," the harder it is to resist entering their magical world. It's a realm both dark and beautiful, and where she's plagued by strange hungers and unspeakable needs. Just as she's drifting far away from her old life, Harper and Daniel find her...but no one can deny how much she's changed. All she wants is to return to her family and the mortal world, but how can she do that when she's become something else entirely—and will they still love her once they learn the truth?
Prepare to fall under the spell of Lullaby, the second book in the Watersong series from New York Times bestselling author Amanda Hocking. (Goodreads Synopsis)
.jpg)
The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: The Complete Collection by Jennifer Malone Wright“Come on. You said you wanted a demonstration of the water element.”“Oh, cool.” I followed him through the trails until we reached a clearing where a tiny stream ran into a rather quaint little pond. Oddly enough, the pond wasn't frozen. Perhaps it wasn't cold enough.“This is pretty,” I told him.He just nodded and said nothing while he set down his bow and backpack on a large old tree stump. I watched while he turned toward the pond and narrowed his eyes.“Look at the water, Chloe, not at me.”“Oh.” I changed direction quickly.The stream poured out of the woods and into the pond with gently running ripples of water. I almost didn't notice when the water in the center of the pond began to swirl. The swirling gradually picked up speed and grew larger until it looked like a whirlpool. But whirlpools go downward into the water. This whirlpool began to rise up out of the water. It rose up maybe six feet and then the water spilled over from the top like a fountain. I glanced at Gavin. He stood stock still, silent, his eyes focused on the water.Slowly, the swirling fountain of water receded back into the pond. I stood there, enthralled by the magic Gavin could do with his power.“You‟re amazing,” I whispered to him.“No,” he shook his head, “I'm not amazing. I can just do amazing things.”“Well… I think you‟re amazing.”He turned his head and caught my eyes. “I think you‟re amazing, and you haven‟t done anything like that.”Oh, little did he know. For some reason, his comment made me want to show him what I could do, but I didn't even know if I could do it on command. So far it had only happened when I was angry.He stared at me so deeply I felt naked.“Gavin, what I just saw was magical. You make magic.”
Mad World: EPIDEMICThe seven of us made a scraggly group as we walked across the parking lot and through the double doors of the hospital. The inside of the hospital seemed deserted. I led us down the corridor calling out, “hello’s” every dozen feet or so. Finally, a haggard-looking nurse peeked out at us from behind a mostly closed door.
“Are they gone?” she asked, looking up and down the corridor. At this, I began to feel a prickly sensation as the hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We just drove down from Fresno. We have an injured little girl with us. What’s been going on here?”
“Alyssa, I don’t think we should be here, it doesn’t feel safe,” Jacob said. “I’d like to at least go get the shotgun,” he looked around as he spoke.
Before I could respond, my thoughts were jolted by the sound of screaming. It was coming from the end of the corridor, where we had come in. Whipping around to look, we saw another nurse running. Behind her were three people. They were running after her, but staggering as they ran. One was a man in a business suit with what looked like half his face covered in blood. One was a woman in a torn blouse who was dragging her left leg, which was also bloody. The third I couldn’t make out clearly until I looked again. Then I gasped in horror. The man’s scalp was torn half off, and it hung down over the side of his face and flapped as he ran after the nurse. They all had the same dark grey skin color as the others had had, and they were coming toward us. Fast. The nurse they were chasing screamed as the man in the business suit caught up to her and grabbed at her. She fell heavily to the ground and skidded a few yards, then scrambled to her feet as the zombies reached for her. She was fast and although they grabbed for her, and got hold of her sweater, she ran on and peeled the sweater off as she ran. It came off of her and the zombies tore it apart with their teeth, but that gave the nurse the seconds she need to sprint away.
The nurse who had opened the door to talk to us cried out, “Stacy!” and screamed, “Run! They’re coming again!” as the three crazed zombies took up the chase once more. As the nurse called Stacy ran toward us, the other nurse who had called out to her gasped and disappeared behind the door again. We heard a growl very close to us, and as we watched as a zombie with yellow pus running down her face grabbed the nurse from behind. She had been in the room with her all along. This all happened in less than a minute.
Jacob grabbed my arm and yelled, “Come on, guys!” then began to run down the length of the other corridor. DeAndre scooped up Risa, and we all ran together away from the chaos behind us. The corridor swerved to the right, and we soon came upon a bank of elevators. There was another corridor off to the left that looked deserted.
“Which way?” I cried. As if in answer, we heard a growl coming from the left corridor and what sounded like someone slapping against a wall. Not waiting to see what had made that noise, I pulled us all into the alcove and punched the elevator buttons repeatedly. Nothing happened. Elevators always took so long. My heart raced, and adrenaline flooded my system. The nurse running from the three crazed zombies had nearly reached us, but the creature that had once been a businessman was right behind her. As she ran up to us, he grabbed her hair from behind and yanked her off her feet. Screaming, she flipped backward just as the elevator doors opened. We piled inside as she screamed, the man clawing at her face. Blood was everywhere. Making sure we were all inside, I frantically punched the floor buttons, but it seemed to take an eternity for the doors to close.
Meanwhile, the zombie had lowered his face to the nurse called Stacy and began to bite her. The other two zombies ran up right then; one fell beside the man and started biting the nurse’s arm. She screamed again and struggled all the more frantically. The businessman jumped on top of her knees first and held her down, and her screams began to sound liquidy. The third zombie ran up and tried to grab one of her flailing legs, but she kicked him. Dazed, he looked up at us just as the doors to the elevator began to close. He seemed to sense prey – to sense us – and lunged at the doors. His arm came through as the elevator doors finished closing, but the sensor detected an obstacle, and they began to open again. Risa screamed, and Jacob kicked at the intruder. My breath caught in my throat. DeAndre landed a kick at the zombie’s midsection which threw him off balance. He fell backward, landing across the threshold. Jacob grabbed his legs and flung them out as I pressed the floor button again. Suddenly the zombie, flailing on his back as he tried to right himself, let out a scream so piercing it seemed almost supersonic. I gasped. I had never heard such a sound issue forth from a human being before. The doors began to close again just as the thing rolled over and got to its feet. As he turned toward us again, the doors closed on the sight of him reaching out in our direction, grasping and flailing at the air. But this time, he was an inch too far away, and the doors closed before he managed to reach us. As we began to ascend, we heard him screaming in frustration and pounding on the metal doors that had just closed.
Breathing hard, we checked each other for wounds.
“My God!” cried Holly, clutching her round belly, “Oh my God!!”
Degrees of Wrong by Anna Scarlett
Once Upon a Time Machine by Lee Nordling
Frozen HeartFrozen Heart Excerpt:“You…you’re a...sympathizer.” It sounded dirty as the words passed between my lips. I wanted to snatch them back and swallow them down again. The sting of my insult was evident in the painful expression that settled on his face.“It doesn’t matter what I am. You want to be free, don’t you? Then go.” His authoritative facade crumbled and the innocent hurt of a young boy dripped from his soul as he spoke. “You won’t get far enough if you don’t get out now.”I placed my hand over his, unlatching his fingers one at a time from the tender inside of my bicep. My steps were measured and controlled as I backed away from the Guard. I neared the clear walkway of the Trade Path just as a shrill alarm sounded. Every transaction halted and everyone held their breath for a split second, merchants and traders alike. In the blink of an eye, the entire population of the Path turned to the entrance and moved hurriedly, as if they were trying to contain a generalized franticness.“What is it? Where are they going?” I asked no one in particular.“It’s a blizzard warning.”I cursed. A blizzard. I’d never make it home now. Conditions would be impossible: no visibility, forty-foot snowdrifts, and gale-force winds. The boys and I would never survive. I stood, motionless, while bodies spun and twirled on the periphery of my consciousness. I was stuck in the Collective with nowhere to go and, worse, nowhere to hide.“Come with me,” the masculine timbre commanded over my shoulder before lacing his fingers in mine. His gentle hold of my hand gave me comfort and lulled me into a hypnotic state. The Guard led me forward until I broke from my daze.“Let me go!” I yanked my hand from his. “I have to get out of here. I have to beat the blizzard.”Before I could break into a sprint, the Guard whirled me around. I teetered, stunned by the force. He moved in close and arched over me while he spoke. Not to intimidate but to cover me, protecting me from the eyes around us.“You’ll never make it. Never. Come with me. You can wait out the storm at my cabin. When it’s over, you’ll be free to go.” His eyes searched my person for the answer to the question in his mind. Wherever it is you live.I stared at him, doubtful and distrusting. I had only seconds to decide if this tall, hulking citizen of the Collective, official of the Affinity, could really, truly be a sympathizer.
Her
Sociology degree did nothing to progress her writing skills, but has
given her the ability to construct worlds that exist only in her head
and translate them passionately to the page. The time spent studying
individuals, interpersonal relationships, and particularly, women,
within the constraints of our society led to Annabelle's unabashed
ability to talk about sex as it fits into our modern lives.