First glimpse, Juliet Immortal

Jun 02, 2010 11:31

Hello all,

I've been working working working, doing my best to get "Juliet Immortal" to my editor in a timely fashion, and haven't had much time to blog. (Or much to blog about, honestly. I'm expecting a new cover soon...but not yet. I'm hoping for word on a thing or two, but haven't heard anything...yet. So...yeah. You know how that goes. And with the summer slows descending on the publishing world, I'm sure it's only going to get worse so might as well relax into the waiting and let it happen.)

So, anyway! I thought an excerpt of the work in progress might be fun. Or interesting. (Or terrifying. It's so scary to share something that's still in the rough stages. But I'm planning to add this to the website this week, so I figured I might as well share it with you all first.)

Without further preamble, the first glimpse:
Unedited excerpt, Juliet Immortal, Delacorte 2011.

Somewhere near the Beginning of Chapter Two:

My neatly trimmed nails bent and broke and my palms tore as I clawed my way up the side of the ravine, grabbing on to whatever my hands happened upon in the dark. The moon had slipped behind a cloud and I was climbing blind, the blackness thick and close, the heavy smell of an impending storm filling the air, making the great outdoors seem not much better than the wreck I’d just escaped.

I’d never enjoyed small, tight places. I liked them even less after waking up in a crypt and lying alone in the stone for over a day before Romeo and his knife came to fetch me.

The Friar, my new husband’s mentor in the ways of the Mercenaries, had thought it would be amusing to see how much of my mind remained after a day or two spent in a death shroud. Friar Lawrence had been a member of the guild so long that he no longer took pleasure in simply killing. He needed a bit of torture to enjoy the claiming of a life. The only mercy in his treatment was that I’d been so out of my mind when he came for me that I couldn’t remember the murder itself.

I only knew that one minute I was clinging to the friar-grateful to have been rescued-and the next I was on the floor with a knife in my chest, Nurse hovering above me, urging me to speak the words that would make me immortal.

I sucked in a deep breath. The sickeningly sweet smell of milkweed mixed with the dust from my frantic scrabbling rushed into my lungs. It made me cough, but the chilly air was a mercy. I wasn’t trapped. I was free and strong and putting Romeo behind me with every upward lurch.

The sound of a car rushing past on the road above helped ease the tightness in my chest even further. I was nearly there. I’d wave someone over and ask for a ride home. Hitchhiking had been dangerous the last few times I’d been on earth, but that hadn’t broken me of the habit. Despite the horrible things I’d seen, I still believed there were decent people in the world.

Or at least better than the boy cursing my name as he crawled from the wreck below. Most of the people driving by wouldn’t want to cut off my arms and eat them while I watched.

I shivered at the thought.

Did Romeo really eat people? Would he really have…could he have…

I pushed the image of Romeo’s grinning mouth-meat in his teeth, blood dripping down his chin-from my mind. No matter what body I inhabited, my vivid imagination always came back to haunt me.

“I see you, love…all that silver hair.” He grunted the words under his breath, but I could still hear him clearly. He was closing in fast from the sound of the rocks skittering down the ravine in his wake.

A bitter, rusted taste flooded into my mouth. I forced my thin arms and legs to move even faster. Ariel could use some meat on her bones. And muscle would be nice. By the Light, why didn’t she eat more during the dinner she’d shared with Dylan? My stomach cramped with emptiness, and my arms and legs shook with effort. Healing Ariel’s wounds and fighting Romeo had taken its toll.

I needed to eat something…as soon as I escaped from my murderous ex-husband.

“Slow down, sweetness. Let me get my hands around your ankle and we’ll see if you can fly.” He laughed, but the sound was strained. He was having trouble now that he’d reached the portion of the ravine that went straight up without a slant.

I was going to make it to the road first. Now I just had to pray that I’d find someone willing to stop and help. I was a harmless-looking young girl with one side of her head covered in blood, the chances were good that I’d-

“Wait!” I screamed, dragging myself up and over onto the edge of the road just as a truck zoomed past. I jumped to my feet, waving my arms to try to attract the driver’s attention, but the truck didn’t slow.

Tail lights faded into the distance, laughter floating on the cold wind rushing through the canyon. Most likely kids from school headed to the party. I could run after them, hope they came to a stop sign sooner or later or-

Something large crashed down into the ravine, but it wasn’t Romeo. I could hear his breath coming in swift pants as he continued to labor up the side, intent on reaching me before I found help.

I spun in the opposite direction the truck had disappeared and ran. Romeo’s new body was bigger, stronger, and had longer legs. I couldn’t afford to head for the beach. According to Ariel’s memories, the road in that direction was deserted. I was going to have to run toward civilization and a better chance of finding someone out at ten o’clock on a school night.

It wasn’t prime wine tasting or tourist season and the nearest town, the village of Los Olivos, was quiet this time of year. But the restaurant might be open. I vaguely remembered Ariel thinking she might find a payphone there to call her mother if she abandoned her purse in the backseat. It was one of her last thoughts before she’d tried to jump out of the car.

“The world is a….sent to…” Romeo was singing, bits of a song that had been popular the last time we were on earth. It was a disturbing song about vampires and rats and the way Romeo sang it made it even more terrifying, a choir boy confessing a murder.

He always had a lovely voice, no matter what body he inhabited. Just as I always had sweet breath. Evidently.

I ran faster, sneakered feet pounding along the broken asphalt, breath crystalline in the air. Romeo was out of the ravine and on the move. He continued to sing as he ran, filling the night with his haunting voice, making me feel as if he’d already caught me with every note that pricked at my ears.

But he hadn’t. He wouldn’t.

I could see the lights of the town ahead. I was going to make it. It was only a mile, at most. He wouldn’t attack me in front of witnesses. Despite his strength, bars could hold him and the lawmen of recent centuries didn't hesitate to punish men for abusing their women. Not like in the earlier days when it was legal for a man to beat his wife, legal for him to kill her if she-

“Oh dear girl won’t you come round tonight, come round tonight,” he sang, switching to a song from our childhood, but in English instead of Italian.

We always spoke in the language of the new bodies, assimilating speech much more fully than memories, but I could recall the way the words sounded in our native tongue when he'd sung beneath my window. Back then, the sound of his voice had filled me with joy, expectation. Now there was nothing but terror.

He was going to catch me. He was too fast. I was tired, weak, not-

The headlights spun onto the road from a dozen feet ahead, seeming to come from nowhere.

I raced forward, screaming for help, waving my arms, willing the person inside the car to hear me, see me, and stop before it was too late. One second passed…then two…then three, the car pulling further away and taking my hope with it until suddenly, the brake lights turned red.

With a sob of relief, I sprinted the remaining distance to the car, threw open the passenger door, and flung myself inside without bothering to see who was behind the wheel. It didn’t matter.

Even the devil himself would be preferable company.

End excerpt.

Have a Wednesday!

Stacey Jay

juliet immortal

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