3,800 Word Excerpt from Emma, YA Paranormal Romance

Emma, a YA paranormal romance, is available at Swoon Reads for FREE!!See the end of this post for a link. :)
Chapter - Tuatha Dé Danann: Day of Arrival

It was a gorgeous day on Tuatha Dé Danann, a perfect day with birds singing and flowers blooming. Sparkling dust swirled on the upper air currents, coloring the afternoon sky with a brush of purple.

Tyler inhaled the energy-laced air of rich faerie dust, savoring the refreshing scent of late spring. Humming a tune under his breath, he glanced around the grove of trees and sighed with resignation. The gorgeous day was not destined to be fun, not when he was tromping through a fruit orchard, northeast of Capital City, following the obvious trail Professor Morgan left behind.

Morgan taught Natural Observation, a required class at Academy. The test was not about tracking. No, taking a test that measured his tracking ability would have been a breeze to pass for a wér-dragon like Tyler.

The observation test was about seeing the environment around him.

School wasn’t even in session. That was what really irritated him. The whole test was a pre-term exam that placed each student in the proper learning level.

He was determined to pass the test on his first attempt and get high marks.

Between one heartbeat and the next, storm clouds burst across the sky. Darkest of black clouds, spiked with swirls of purplish-red faerie dust, covered the sky with an ominous forewarning.

Lightning burst in jagged spears through the clouds. Thunder boomed. The world as he knew it disappeared, abruptly changing from normal to wacked-out crazy.

In the distance, he heard a faint scream. Ignoring the sound wasn’t a problem, not when a brown branch covered with green needles swayed an inch from his nose, a branch that had not been there a second ago. Fearing an attack, his muscles tensed, preparing to shift into wér-dragon, an in-between shape that wasn’t quite human, but not quite dragon either. A moment ticked by, nothing attacked.

Dual hearts racing, he quickly searched the area for a hint of what happened. Eerie looking green trees filled the forest. Here and there, he spotted the light blue leaves of a fat pomona tree; the fruit orchard stood intermingled with the weird green trees. Some of the alien looking trees were taller than the tallest of shroum trees and covered with broad fluttering leaves where shroum heads should be sprouting.

He carefully touched the branch swaying less than an inch away from his startled face. Green needles sprouted along each branch. He flexed a needle-shaped leaf between his fingers, bending it in half. A sharp smell drifted to him. He knew no druid created the unique tree.

The druids of the Celtic Nations tinkered with every living object they managed to get their grasping hands on, willy-nilly changing plants and beasts into unique works of art.
Working with dorcha energy was an ability that came natural to druids but when druids manipulated the dorcha within plants, changing a plant’s color or shape, it left a scent behind. The pungent smell coming from the bent green needle was different. The tree didn’t have the clean underlying scent of something changed by dark energy.

The missing scent could only mean one thing. The tree was natural. The freakish concept shook his world.

He’d never seen a naturally growing green plant, no one younger than a thousand years had, not since the last gateway between Earth and Tuatha collapsed for lack of dorcha energy on Earth.

Faerie tales were the only thing remaining from Earth. Most of those were silly stories created by The Brothers Grimm. Only those two elves could have created eerie stories about mortals killing dragons or about a Tuathan mating with an Earthling and living happily ever after. Just thinking about those strange faerie tales, he shuddered.

The sudden appearance of the forest had to be some kind of pre-attack by the Southerners, the people who lived west and south of the Gulf of Life on the continent of Wormwood.

He heard another cry, a very feminine sound filled with fear. He growled, knowing his return home was about to be delayed.

He inhaled the warm breeze. Searching for the girl’s scent, he tasted each individual smell. A sickening odor reached him. Vampires!

Chapter - Earth: Day of Arrival

Wind rustled through the trees surrounding the forest trail. The breeze coupled with sunny skies created the perfect weather for the first week of summer vacation. Pulling her phone out of her hip pocket, Emma sent a quick text message to her best friend. Picking blueberries.

LOL, blueberries aren’t in season until next month, Kayla replied.

There could be berries this early.

Snort! You keep thinking that.

Berries n cool whip will be awesome!

Dream on.

Moments later, a few notes of her favorite song played. Answering her phone, she eagerly asked, “Hey, what’s up?”

“You know Dad. He gets this emergency call at two in the wretched morning and ten minutes later, we’re in the car heading west,” Kayla said with a heavy sigh.

Emma grinned at her dramatics. Kayla might fuss and groan, but she loved going with her parents. During the school year, she stayed with Emma when her dad got called-out. She wasn’t quite sure what he did, but she knew he worked in software development for some huge company, something to do with security.

“Where did your parents drag you to this time?”

Kyla snorted. “We’re on our way to Carlsbad, New Mexico.”

Her good mood deserted her. She had really been looking forward to the weekend.

“Is Saturday still on?” Emma asked without much hope.

“Absolutely, Mom said we should be home by the weekend,” Kayla said excitedly. “Dad bought me The Lord of the Ring series on blue ray!”

Emma laughed. “We’ll have to flip a coin. I just ordered the Twilight set from Amazon with next day shipping.”

Kayla chuckled. “You hit below the belt.”

“Thanks, I try.”

Kayla groaned. “My phone’s beeping low battery. I’ve got to run, see you in a few.”

Emma said bye, and hit the lock button on her keys. Slipping the phone in her hip pocket, she emerged from the forest, entering the sunny meadow with a spring in her step.

Looking forward to proving Kayla wrong, she grinned and made a beeline toward blueberry bushes growing along the far edge. She was halfway across the meadow when her world turned upside-down. One minute the sky was bright blue, the next moment it was not.

Storm clouds boiled across the afternoon sky. Lightning flickered. Thunder boomed. Clouds engulfed the entire sky in a heartbeat. Dark and intense, the storm filled the air with menacing presence, flickering with an unearthly reddish-purple glow. Lightning streaked across the sky in a jagged display. Thunder boomed in an unceasing roll of bone jarring noise.

Fear shot through her, tightening her chest in mind chilling shock.

She didn’t have time to dwell on the freaky spring weather, not when a giant tree popped into existence, nearly on top of her.

Emma screamed and stumbled backward. She hit the hard packed trail with a bone-jarring thump, cutting off her screech of shock; her teeth snapped together barely missing the tip of her tongue.

She looked up. The longer she looked at the weird tree that nearly squished her, the bigger her eyes grew. Holy crap! Ten more steps and her favorite pizza topping would’ve crushed her to death. She sucked in a harsh breath, choking a desperate urge to scream her head off.

The giant tree had an odd rubbery looking bark that was blue with black and yellow splotches. Sharp, six-inch thorns swirled-up the trunk. The tree didn’t have leaves; mushroom heads covered each branch.

The heads spread across the thick branches, displaying vivid blue colors, ranging from baby blue buds to dark purple beach-ball sized heads.

She scrunched her dark eyes shut and jerked them back open. The blue tree trunk did not disappear.

Weird sounds surrounded her. Singing, buzzing, and chirping created an unnatural symphony of normal and alien.

Her heart raced faster and faster as her eyes darted around the meadow. She couldn’t grasp what in the heck was going on.

Her mind supplied the only reasonable excuse, settling on complete disbelief. She must’ve never gotten out of bed that morning; she had to be dreaming. There was no other answer.

The buzzing sound grew louder. From her position on the ground, she couldn’t see past all the tree limbs, but it looked like a swarm of monster-sized wasps lived among the mushroom heads.

The wasp-like insects made her decision easy. It was time to make tracks and go home. Home was a thirty-minute walk through the forest. At a flat-out run, she bet she could make the distance in fifteen.

A beam of sunshine hit the grass inches from her foot. She looked up, just in time to watch the eerie storm clouds break apart. Sunshine streamed through the holes. Within a few blinks, there were only a few wispy streaks of white, not a single storm cloud remained in the sky.

Okay, now that was beyond freaky. She was so ready to go home.

Inching ever backward, her hand reached for a solid handhold. Her fingers never touched the rocky path. Instead, they brushed something soft and squishy.

She yanked her hand away, but the move didn’t help. Stuck like glue, the red blob clung to her palm. Heart racing, panic overwhelmed her. Shrieking at the top of her lungs, she frantically shook her hand in a desperate attempt to dislodge the weird thing, but it didn’t budge.

Quick as a snake, the previously lifeless blob moved, latching onto her index finger. As if a needle had been jabbed into the slender digit, sharp pain shot through her pointing finger.

“Ouch!” Emma cried, and slammed her palm downward.

“Stop!” A tiny wail demanded.

Emma jerked to a halt. Her hand hovered inches from a mound of rocks, ready to smash her palm down at a moment’s notice.

“Stop that! You’re making me dizzy!” A small, high-pitched voice squealed.

She spread her fingers and a tiny head popped through.

Emma’s jaw dropped open. Her ears began ringing and she feared she might actually faint. The red wasps weren’t bugs. She had a real life fairy in the palm of her hand, one that talked to her.

She snorted. Fainting was so not happening, not in her lifetime.

Flipping her hand up, she glanced at her bloody finger, realizing the damage was minor and quickly forgotten.

The tiny body, wrapping itself around her bleeding finger, captured her full attention. A delighted grin split across her face.

With spiked hair and fluttering wings, the little fairy was too awesome for words.

The fairy was not fascinated with Emma. The little creature glared at her with fire in her eyes. Four shimmering wings fluttered madly as the small girl stood. Short, red hair stuck up all over the place. Ignoring her messy hair, she smoothed her hands down a dark red dress that clung to her body like a second skin, unsuccessfully trying to fix the wrinkled material.

Emma opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Well, nothing emerged except hot air. Speech wasn’t working. She stopped trying to talk and sucked in a deep breath.

The tiny girl, not much bigger than a regular-sized Snickers bar, didn’t have the same speech problem. “What were you trying to do, shake me to death?” the tiny girl demanded, stomping her bare foot against the palm of Emma’s hand. Four pointed wings quivered.

Emma’s eyes narrowed, and she defensively muttered, “No, but you bit me first, fairy girl.”

“I’m a pixie!” the tiny girl wailed, her face twisting into a look of pure horror at Emma’s words. “Anyway, you were going to squish me!” Her high-pitched squeal of outrage shot through Emma’s eardrums. “You owe me for a pixie bite.”

“You want me to pay you for biting me?” Emma asked, astonished at the bold little creature. “I didn’t ask to be bitten, you little twit. You can’t be serious!”

“Of course, I am. You’ve gotten all of my languages. I demand payment,” she said huffily. Blowing out her cheeks, they bloomed deep burgundy – nearly the same color as her wings – and just as quickly returned to a light creamy tone.

“You’re speaking English…” her words trailed off. Her entire attention focused on a young man stepping out of the forest.

He remained in the shadows, making it hard to see him clearly. It didn’t matter; no two ways about it, he was sinfully gorgeous. He tugged a hooded cloak up, covering golden hair. His face was a bold mixture of strong lines and sensual appeal.

He slowed to a stop, watching her with cold, calculating eyes. So cold and emotionless, his gaze reminded her of a soulless machine.

Fear tingled through her. She tensed, ready to run.

“You will not run,” he said. “I won’t harm you.” A cool, calm sensation filling her with peace, accompanied the words.

Watching him as he stood at the far edge of the woods, she wondered how she heard him from so far away. She frowned, uncertainty flared inside her.

An ice-cold breeze touched her, reassuring her.

Struck by his beauty, absorbing every detail of him, she shrugged the question away.

He began walking toward her. Every step brought him closer to her, every step made her feel hunted. A warning shiver raced up her back. Confused over her conflicting emotions, she let her gaze travel over the length of him. Only his light green eyes were not perfect. Red veins shattered the whites of his eyes, crisscrossing in a bloody tangle.

She tilted her head, questioning her fascination. Something didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

He walked closer, giving her his undivided attention. He skirted the brightly lit meadow, remaining under the shadowed tree line.

“Such a treat I’ve found,” he said with a compelling voice, a voice filled with unspoken promises. “You want to please me.”

A cold breeze blowing through her mind accompanied the words. She shivered, smiling in wonder as he consented to speak with her.

His eyes focused on her, compelling her with their intensity. “You will offer yourself to me.” Cold pressure pressed against her brain, demanding she agree with his words.

Panting as if she’d run a mile, she trembled.

He smiled at her, exposing rapidly lengthening teeth, very sharp, white teeth. He walked closer, moving beneath the far-reaching limbs of the giant mushroom tree. A slender ray of sunshine peeked through the foliage, glinting off deadly looking fangs. He hissed in pain, jerking away from the brilliant sun.

The sight terrified her, yanking her up by the short hairs. Heart thudding a mile a minute, she turned to run.

“Stop,” he ordered, pointing at her.

She tried to move her feet, but an ice-cold breeze rushed through her brain, demanding her surrender. She finally recognized the cold, alien touch slithering through her brain. She jerked her eyes from his, breaking his spellbinding gaze. The move shattered the false feeling of safety. Fear crashed through her, tightening her stomach into a painful knot.

Frozen in place, she couldn’t move, not a single inch. She concentrated her entire being on making her feet move. It didn’t work. Her eyes skidded across his face, refusing to look directly into his hypnotic eyes. She caught a glimpse of pulsing red veins. Bone-chilling fear crashed through her.

She didn’t see death approaching her; she tasted it. Bitter and sharp, the flavor of her oncoming death rose in the back of her throat, choking her with a tight grasp.

He ran his tongue down dangerously wicked looking fangs, licking them in anticipation.

Repulsed, her body tensed, mutely screaming in terror. Her death was moments away and she couldn’t move. She strained against the odd compulsion thrumming through her brain. Her body didn’t budge, remaining in a frozen limbo.

Sharp pain slashed through her finger as the pixie bit her. “Run!” the tiny girl screamed. In a flutter of sparkling wings, the pixie streaked away.

The pain was just enough to break the freak’s tight hold on her brain. Her single thought mirrored the pixie’s action. She jumped up, and threw herself into a mad dash toward the forest behind her. Never once did she consider fighting the deadly creature with the face of an angel. She knew her only chance at living lay in outrunning the fanged creature, the vampire.

Over the thrum of her heart, she heard his laughter. It was dark and ominous just like the earlier thunder. The sound made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, prickling in animalistic fear.

Dodging around mushroom trees and lunging over bulging roots, she tried not to spare any energy wondering where in the world all the freaky stuff came from or why all of it had been dumped in her lap.

Nearly to the edge of the tree line, the tip of her sneaker clipped a thick, purple root. She stumbled. Crying out, she threw her hands outward and tumbled to the ground, landing near the base of another giant mushroom. She rolled, but he was nearly there.

Running her hand across the rough ground, she frantically searched for something she could use as a weapon. Her hand grazed a smooth, hard surface. Not having time to be picky, she clasped the giant thorn in her fist.

His hand clenched around her arm, jerking her around to face him as if she weighed less than a rag doll. Inhuman strength stared her in the face. She’d never had a chance at freedom; he’d just let her think she was escaping.

His dark hiss surrounded her, one filled with anticipation.

She glanced into his eyes, watching in sick horror as the tiny red vessels covering his eyes multiplied, growing thicker. The mass of veins pulsed with the beat of his heart.

He smiled. Up close, his fangs appeared much sharper.

His face blurred.

She rapidly blinked, trying to clear her vision. The movement didn’t help.

His features seemed to melt, shifting as if water flowed down his face. His appearance firmed. No longer did he appear a gorgeous young man. Unkempt blond hair dangled into his face. His large nose, which perfectly matched his mule-shaped face, flared as he inhaled. The intensity of his gaze increased. He looked hungry.

Crouching above her, he sucked in a lungful of air. He held it, appearing to savor the sensation. “Hmmm, I love the smell of fear. It coats the skin making the kill so much sweeter.”

Like a physical blow, the words struck her, terrifying her. Her desperate need to survive urged her toward action before the vampire had time to bite her, but her desire to live was stronger than her fear so she forced herself to wait for the perfect opening.

She flexed her fingers around her makeshift weapon. Old and gray, the banana-sized thorn must have fallen from one of the mushroom trees. Its sharply pointed end curved upward like a thorn from a rose bush, while the flat base fit into the palm of her hand.

The vampire focused on her throat. He didn’t seem to notice the weapon she held at her side. Either that or he arrogantly ignored it.

She glanced toward the forest, desperately needing a diversion but it didn’t look like one would stumble out of the forest at just the right moment. She would’ve welcomed anything, even a bear. Choking back another surge of fear, she knew she would have to make her own distraction.

She bit her lip against a surge of uncertainty and stopped struggling against the vampire.

Looking up at him, she boldly caught his gaze. “Want a taste?” She aimed for a husky, seductive voice, but her question squeaked out of her throat.

He paused. Confusion flitted across his face before he carelessly shrugged. “I’ll be taking more than a taste when I rip into your throat.”

Acting terrified, she pretended to drop in a dead faint, while slipping the thorn in front of her.

“Dammit, I hate a fainter,” he said amid a snarl. “They go limp and there goes all that fear enhanced sweat coating her skin. I like the skin moist and fresh, not limp.”

The edge of the thorn bit into the tender skin of her hand. The thought of killing someone, even a monster, terrified her. She briefly closed her eyes, praying for strength.

Surging upward, she slammed the hand-sized thorn into the vampire’s crotch.

The vampire bellowed in agony, flinging her away from him as if she were no heavier than a baseball.

Screaming, Emma flew through the air, sailing past several trees. Branches slapped at her body, slashing her face. She crashed a dozen feet into the forest, skidding across the hard ground.

For once, luck was on her side and she landed in a patch of scraggly grass and old leaves. She shuddered in relief; grateful she sat covered in dirt and not filled with holes from the thorn covered tree trunk standing less than a foot away.

She struggled to her feet as the vampire’s howl of pain echoed through the trees.

Cursing her own rotten luck, she shivered. She knew his cries would attract more vampires. That was not a good thing. The mere thought of trying to fight another of his kind made her stumble.

In the distance, a bellow, a true roar sounded. Loud and stringent, the sound grew harsh, filling the air with a wild, savage edge. The noise overwhelmed the vampire’s wail of pain.

The fury-laced sound jerked her to a stop, nearly knocking her to her knees. A soft cry of fear slipped past her lips.

Her dark brown eyes grew huge. Terror ripped through her, turning the blood in her veins to ice. Grabbing a tree for support, she held on for dear life. The sapling was the only thing holding her trembling body upright. Blood rushed through her body, thundering a rapid tempo in her ears.

Whatever made that roar had to be huge, huge as in humongous. There was no way she could fight a creature that big.

The vampire’s pained groan filled the air.

Doubt flickered through her. Hesitantly, she stepped toward the meadow. Pushing a limb out of the way, she searched the ground for the wounded vampire.

Pale as death and shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, his hand reached out to her in supplication. His eyes, a web of shattered red, dug a hole through her. The awful sight screwed his attempt to look innocent.

Rocking on the ground, in a pool of blood, he beseechingly said, “Come to me, my beauty. Help me. I’ll not harm you.”

Intense cold filled her mind. A dream-like feeling washed over her and she took an involuntary step forward.

You can currently read Emma for FREE at Swoon Reads. All manuscripts at Swoon Reads can be read in their online e-reader or on your tablet e-reader!

Thanks!

Jodie

p.s. The conversion process at Swoon Reads is the beta version. It did not convert Emma properly. Words such as Tuatha Dé Danann changed into Tuatha D Danann and wér-dragon into wr-dragon.