first excerpt here
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The thought
made the man come to mind, flashing in front of him like a real person, getting
Dan’s heart tripping over himself. Could everyone see him?
He’d nearly
driven himself crazy with the image, scared half the time that his gran could
see it just as clearly as Dan, but she never mentioned it, never punished him,
even in her weakened state, over an affair. A fuck buddy.
Deep male
laughter floated across to Dan. He used all his life’s training not to tense
against the slightly crazed noise. Dan tried really hard not to relax
instantly. He’d been caught, that was obvious, but it didn’t mean he had to
show them the laughter—their presence affecting him.
Dan didn’t
trust anyone at this funeral, and it wasn’t just because a sadistic woman who
trusted no one had raised him, but more because he could feel them watching
him, feel those beady eyes intent on getting him in a dark corner and doing
with him what they would.
Let’s face it. The only person in the world that
would miss him was lying in a pine box, no help to anyone but the bugs that
were about to start making her their lunch.
And Gene.
Dan quickly
banished the thoughts as the last slip of pink disappeared from the sky, making
the world seem a shade darker than what it was. Or maybe it was that the colour
was gone from the world as night turned into a bluey-grey black.
Dan shouldn’t
still be standing there, not for a woman he hated, and yet, from the tips of
his hair to the nails on his toes, he couldn’t seem to leave her be. For the
life of him, he couldn’t move his feet off towards the direction he needed to
head before they settled the coffin and the dirt started falling on top of her.
Dan wanted to
believe it was proof. The only way he’d be able to sleep at night was knowing
that she wasn’t coming back, that she was gone and buried, and even if, for
some reason she wasn’t dead, Gran was definitely not getting out of that grave.
The priest walked
up to him, putting his hand on his shoulder while Dan fought the need to flinch
away from the touch. Only one person could touch Dan without him fearing the
worse.
And there he
was again. Shit. Gene.
Dan wasn’t all
that surprised, not really. It had been one of the hardest things to walk away
from Gene. They’d been in a…random hook-up that Dan tried not to delusion
himself as a relationship, for nearly a year, in which time he had found it
impossibly hard not to seek out the other man just so they could bump into each other.
Then, his gran
had gotten sick, and sick in a way that there was no coming out of. They’d both
known the end was rapidly approaching and Gran had held him close in her clawed
hands as she spoke in riddles and delusions while the disease ate at her mind
and body.
Dan was sure
she’d known about him at one point, though not the gay thing. She had been the
one to tell him he liked men before he’d even let his mind slip to that
possibility. She’d used it against him, but at that point, he’d been old enough
that it would have shocked him to his core if she’d been all sweet and
supportive.
No. What he’d
feared was her figuring out that those times he’d been an hour later than
normal had meant he’d been hooking up with someone, and not just any someone,
but a someone who turned into a fucking werewolf.
Dan couldn’t
really help it, though. It wasn’t as if they were easy to spot. No. A person
generally had to spend at least a month with someone and know the signs to
understand, fully, what was under their fingers.
At first, all
Dan had noticed was the smile, which seemed to brighten up the world and the
red-blond hair that Gene liked to call honey blond.
He’d also
talked, his mouth rattling off without a thought or fear of what he was saying,
or at least that’s what Dan thought at first. Really, it seemed Gene understood
what dribble he spoke and when was the best time to speak it. Still, it was
almost as if he couldn’t deal with the silence and always needed to fill it
with something or another, and that suited Dan perfectly because he’d been
sitting in a dark quiet box all his life.
The hand on
Dan’s shoulder squeezed tightly before disappearing, the priest finishing off
his, sorry for your loss speech, making
Dan hold in the sigh of relief he wanted to share with the world because he was
now free.
“Have you got
anywhere to go, son?” the priest asked, as if he was homeless, without just
coming out and saying that.
“I’m good,” Dan
said slowly, steadily. Shit, yeah. He had somewhere else to be, and that place
was going to be a fucking bitch to get to, even though it was only a couple of
blocks away.
“You sure?” the
priest asked again, though this time, something made Dan turn a look at him.
There was an
almost panicked look on the poor man’s face, as if he could sense the evil
lingering in his church grounds.
“I’m fine.” Dan made sure he emphasised that
enough to make the priest understand that it definitely wasn’t Dan who needed
to watch his back.
He saw the man
swallow hard and look over his shoulder. Dan followed, and wanted to gulp down
the lump crawling up his own throat as well. This night was not going to be
fucking easy.
The Rub of My Werewolf by
Bronwyn Heeley
Publishing on the 15th of June
2014
Love the excerpt! This sounds like another great story!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carly, and i really hope it live up to that, it is quite a short one this time round
DeleteThat excerpt!!!! :D Can't wait and don't care if it's short hehehehe
ReplyDelete:D there is nothing wrong with this book, its short, but its all action very little down time, im just stressing for reason that dont make sense. Its a good book. It works, i believe and it fits as the start of this conclusion (but on the low side, you will learn more aboit Dan, The doc and Eamon in the next arc)
Delete