Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (36 page)

The Marked Ones Trilogy

• Book TWO •

Patrick may have survived the change but his problems are just beginning…

Read on for an excerpt from The Storm behind Your Eyes, book 2 in the Marked Ones Trilogy or get it now at:
http://amzn.to/14DUBmA

Excerpt from The Storm behind Your Eyes

Endangered Urban Species

Saturday, July 28th

PATRICK

“S
o what are we doing today?” I asked Travis as we walked down the driveway of the Galathea estate. It was the first day since I had found out that he was my older brother that it would just be me and him hanging out. No Nikki, or Shawn, or Connor, or even Nualla. Not that I minded hanging out with them or anything, but it was nice to have a whole day with just us. Just the Centrina boys. No amount of hanging out now would ever make up for the fifteen years we had lost, but it was better than nothing.

“I thought we’d go driving,” Travis said casually as he handed me a coffee cup.

“Anywhere in particular?” I asked before taking a sip of the coffee.

“It’s up to you,” he answered as he tossed the keys at me, and I fumbled to catch them, nearly dropping my coffee in the process.

“You
can’t
be serious,” I said dubiously as I looked down at the keys in my hand.

“You’ve gotta learn sometime,” he said with a shrug and walked around to the passenger side.

I just looked at his Porsche. I wasn’t a car person, but even
I
had to admit it was beautiful. “You’re seriously going to let me drive
this
?”

“Yep,” he answered as he popped open the passenger side door and dropped into the seat.

“You know, you’re not half bad,” Travis said as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Really?”

“Yeah, a few more times out and you’ll be better than half the people who drive here,” Travis added as he put his coffee cup back in the console.

“Travis, half the people who drive here are
tourists
,” I said, flatly.

He didn’t answer, a crooked smile spreading across his lips. I pulled my right hand off the wheel and punched him in the arm.

“Hey, hey, hands back on the wheel!” he shouted playfully as he batted my hand away.

I returned my hand to the wheel and slid the car to a stop as the light turned red. After the first jerky stop-and-go start down Pacific, things had gotten much easier. Even with all the one-way streets, hills, and bicyclists, driving in the city wasn’t proving to be that hard. I mean sure, my driving wasn’t going to win any good driver awards by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I wasn’t likely to get a traffic ticket today.

Hanging out with Travis was really no different than hanging out with Connor or Shawn. Laughing and poking fun at each other and all the other things guys normally did to each other. But there was a whole undercurrent to this day that neither of us was bringing up. Normally one of your parents taught you how to drive, but we didn’t have any. And so in awesome older brother fashion Travis was teaching me in his sleek black Porsche. But who had taught him? I had Travis, but who had he had?

I got the feeling he hadn’t had anyone, and so I didn’t ask. Because I didn’t want to remind him of the fifteen years. Those fifteen years when he had been alone. When he had thought I was dead.

I let my eyes drift to the pedestrians in front of us. People moved through the crosswalk, dark shapes interrupting the brightness of the day. It was too bright; I squinted against the light and the forms of the pedestrians blurred into a flickering dark mass. And then it all seemed to slow to an impossibly slow rate and everything jumped jarringly into sharp focus.

The slickness of a black leather briefcase; forty-seven silver stars dancing across a tight black tank top; the burning ember of a cigarette as the smoke swirled up through the air—all slid by so slowly as if it wasn’t moving at all. And then I saw her—just on the other side of the crowd—bits and glimpses at first. Pale blond hair, bleached white by the sunlight, fluttering in the breeze. Large brilliant blue eyes in a tiny face, looking out at me. Slowly her lips parted, and her eyes filled with fear. The little girl reached out toward me, and I leaned forward even though I had no hope of hearing her.

“
Patrick
,” someone called, but I ignored them, focusing on the little girl.

“PATRICK, TURN!” Travis shouted.

The scene in front of me sped up and changed in a blink of the eye. The girl was gone, the people were gone, and I realized I was about to drive into oncoming traffic. I jerked the wheel too sharply and went up onto the curb. Before I could even think to hit the breaks, I collided with a payphone.

After Reading

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Daemons in the Mist
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For more daemons fun, check out the
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Future Works by Alicia Kat Vancil

The Other Side of Truth

(title not final)

Marked Ones Trilogy Book Three

Winter 2013

The Avensana Chronicles

Serialized Marked Ones Trilogy prequel series

Coming 2014

The Butterfly Project

(title not final)

a New Adult time travel urban sci-fi

Coming 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Daemons in the Mist
was my debut novel, and actually the first novel I have ever completed. As such, there are numerous people to thank, but here are just a few:

My husband and best friend in all the world, for letting me bounce crazy ideas off of him for this book and everything else in the years to come. But mostly, for believing in me even when it was hard for me to believe in myself. My alpha readers and beta readers Scott, Jenn, Chris, Ashley, and Kate, for telling me the parts you loved, and the parts you didn’t, and the parts that made you laugh out loud. For pointing out plot holes, details I only actually wrote down in my head, and generally making the story the best it could be. My editors Scott Aleric and Jennifer Vancil, for fixing all my dyslexic mistakes and making this book as shiny and awesome as humanly possible. Madeline, for hanging out in fake Ikea living rooms and letting me tell you all about my stories for hours. Sally Rose, for always volunteering to be our booth helper at events and for helping me develop the pitch for this book. My mother, and future editor (Go Mom!), Maureen, for loaning me your copy of
The Chicago Manual of Style
. It taught me more about English than school ever did. Merrie, for always sharing awesome tech things with me like Animoto and Elegant Themes. Without you, there would be no book trailer for DITM and my site would not be as cool as it currently is. My twitter friends and the community at large for your invaluable information, support and camaraderie; without you all, I don’t know how I would be able to work in the studio alone all day. All the lovely bloggers who agreed to be part of the June 2012
Daemons in the Mist
virtual book tour. You’re all awesome, wonderful, shiny people! The creators of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) without you, this book would not have been completed as quickly as it was. The creators of Scrivener, for creating a writing program that seems especially designed for non-linear writers like me. Without you, my stories would be a horrid mess and take twice as long to write. The creators of Pinterest for creating a way to store my visual ideas and share them with the world. And as always, I am eternally grateful to my parents, Bob and Maureen Dillman for their unwavering support of all the things I do; from dance and theater lessons growing up to putting me through art school. You two are the best parents anyone could have.

—
Alicia Kat Vancil

About the Author

Alicia Kat Vancil
grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley where she amused herself by telling stories to anyone around her—her family, her friends...random strangers. Eventually she actually started writing those stories down instead of just spending hours hanging out in fake Ikea living rooms and telling her friends about them. Somewhere amongst all the character-torturing and epic explosions she managed to get a BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University and open a graphics studio (Multi-tasking for the win!).

Kat still lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two very crazy studio cats, and nine overfull bookcases. And when not running amuck in the imaginary worlds within her head, Kat can usually be found performing, watching anime, or hanging out in Twitter chats.

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One Last Thing…

After the
Table of Contents
pages, Kindle will give you the opportunity to rate the book and tell your friends about it on Facebook and Twitter. They’ll automatically post the cover of this book along with your thoughts on it. How cool is that? Be the first one of your friends to use this shiny new technology. Your friends will get to know what you’re reading and I, for one, will be forever grateful to you.

Thanks again for reading and have a happy cat day!

=^.^=

Alicia Kat Vancil

Table of Contents