The Blurb:
At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no
students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is
left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to
taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale
skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and
impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh
eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.
When Phoenix is caught between her physical and
her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will
rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late
that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them
all into a centuries old feud.
The Sneak Peek:
I mentally stomped
on the intimidation their perfection brought
into my mind and said, “Excuse me.”
The group froze,
startled by my words. The girls had their brows raised and the boys stopped
mid-speech, mouths agape. They stared at me with eyes the shade of onyx stones.
I smiled and gave
them a little wave.
The boy a step
ahead of the rest recovered first. His stunning features went from shocked
surprise to intense interest. He reminded me of a hawk eyeing its prey. I
gulped.
“A Day Student,”
he said, his eyes insolent and excited.
Something about
the way he said “Day Student” made my stomach flip. “Excuse me?”
They snickered.
The boys looked at each other while the girls continued to stare, muffling
their laughter by delicate hands. I seemed to be the butt of some joke.
“You broke the
rule.” The boy’s grin turned predatory.
The students
formed a loose semi-circle in front of me. My gaze darted from face to face.
Hunger filled their eyes. The image of lions about to chase down a gazelle came
to mind. I mentally shook my head. I was in the mountains not the Serengeti for
crying out loud.
I took a small
step back and cleared my throat. “Can any of you give me a ride back to the
dorms?”
The boy wagged his
forefinger like a metronome. “Ah, that’s unfortunate for you.”
One of the girls
pinched the bridge of her nose. “Eli, you can’t possibly—”
“It’s forbidden,
Eli,” another boy interrupted, pronouncing the word “forbidden” like a curse.
The nervous murmur
at the pit of my stomach grew louder. Six against one. Not good odds. Instinct
told me to cut my losses and run. Bad enough I faced expulsion, now it seemed
like weird, beautiful people who’d suddenly appeared on campus wanted to beat
me up. No, scratch that. Judging from the way they studied me, beating me up
wouldn’t satisfy them. Something more primal prowled behind their looks.
I definitely
wasn’t going down without a fight. Years of self-defense and hand-to-hand
combat classes had me prepared. While other children from rich and important families
got bodyguards, I got defense training. But I think my father meant for my
skills to go up against potential kidnappers, not against other students who
may or may not be crazy. Oh God! Maybe I stepped into a parallel universe or
something when I reentered Barinkoff.
“None of the
students are supposed to be on campus,” I said. Then, realizing my mistake, I
added, “Okay, I know I’m not supposed to be here either. If one of you gives me
a ride back to the dorms, I won’t say anything about all this. Let’s pretend
this never happened. I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me.”
“We’re not
ordinary students,” Eli answered. “We’re the Night Students.”
He’d said “Night
Students” like the words were capitalized. I didn’t know Barinkoff held classes
at night. What was going on here?
Eli smiled with
just one side of his mouth and said to the group, “She’s right, no one will
have to know. We’re the only ones here. And it’s been so long, don’t you
agree?”
The rest of them
nodded reluctantly.
“What’s been so
long?” I challenged. I fisted my hands, ready to put them up if any of them so
much as twitched my way.
“Since the taste
of real flesh passed through my lips,” Eli said. He came forward and took a
whiff of me then laughed when I cringed.
“Flesh.” Yep,
parallel universe.
“Yes,” he said.
“And yours smells so fresh.”
Someone grabbed my
shoulders from behind and yanked me back before I could wrap my mind around the
meaning behind Eli’s words. In a blink, I found myself behind someone tall.
Someone really tall. And quite broad. And very male.
I realized he wore
the same clothes Eli and the other boys did. Not good. He was one of them.
Although… I cocked my head, raking my gaze over him. He seemed born to wear the
uniform, like he was the pattern everyone else was cut from. My eyes wandered
to long, layered, blue-black hair tied at the nape by a silk ribbon. Even in
dim light, his hair possessed a sheen akin to mercury.
I looked down. The
boy’s long fingers were wrapped around my wrist like a cuff. His fevered touch
felt hotter than human standards, hot enough to make me sweat like I was
standing beside a radiator but not hot enough to burn.
“I must be
mistaken, Eli,” the boy who held my arm said in a monotone. “Correct me. Did I
hear you say you wanted to taste the
flesh of this girl?”
A hush descended
on us. It had the hairs at the back of my neck rising. How was it possible for
the atmosphere to switch from threatening to dangerous? Unable to help myself,
I peeked around the new guy’s bulk. Eli and his friends bowed. They all had
their right hands on their chests.
“Demitri, I’m sure
you misheard me,” Eli said.
So the guy
standing between me and the person who said he’d wanted to taste me was named
Demitri. I like the sound of his name. Demitri. So strong, yet rolls off the
tongue. Definite yum factor.
“So, you imply I
made a mistake?” Demitri demanded.
“No!” Eli lifted
his gaze. “I did no such thing. I simply wanted to show the girl the
consequences of breaking curfew.”
“Hey!” I yelled.
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!”
Demitri ignored my
protest and continued to address Eli. “So, you threatened to taste her flesh.”
His fingers tightened their grip around my wrist. “In the interest of
investigating this matter further, I invoke the Silence.”
All six students
gasped, passing surprised glances at one another.
Before I could ask
about what was going on, Demitri yanked me down the hall toward the library.
But why there? Oh, maybe we were getting my things. No, wait, he couldn’t have
known about that. Everything was too confusing now.
Eli and the others
didn’t try to stop us when we passed them. Demitri’s cold command must have
carried power. Handsome and powerful,
never a bad combination on a guy.
We reached the
heavy double doors in seconds. He jerked one open effortlessly. I’d needed all
my strength just to squeeze through that same door earlier. To him, the thick
wood might as well have been cardboard. I raised an eyebrow and mentally listed
the benefits of going to gym class.
“Why are we here?”
I asked after my curiosity overpowered my worry. I’d almost forgotten how
frightened I’d been right before Demitri showed up. I wasn’t above accepting
help from strangers. Especially from gorgeous dark-haired strangers with hot
hands and wide shoulders.
Demitri kept
going, tugging me along, snaking his way deeper into the library. I had to take
two steps for every stride his legs made. I tried to stay directly behind him,
praying we didn’t slam into anything.
He stopped
suddenly and I collided with him. It felt like slamming into a wall.
“Hey,” I said,
momentarily stunned. “A little warning would be nice!”
He faced me, and I
gasped. His eyes resembled a starless night, deep and endless. Their intensity
drilled through me without pity, seeming to expose all my secrets. I felt naked
and flustered beneath his gaze.
“You could have
died back there,” he warned.
A lump of panic
rebuilt itself in my throat.
The video:
The author:
When
Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next
best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the
next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her
university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of
paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters
worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized
to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing.
Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing.
Today, she has four completed Young Adult novels.
The links:
(The rats "helped" me set up this post. I apologise if there are any random characters anywhere in the post that I missed and didn't delete.)
