Because You Exist (Light in the Dark Series, #1)
Release Date: 11/11/14
Limitless Publishing
Summary from Goodreads:
Life is good for LOGAN MIDDLETON.
He’s quarterback of the Shepherd High football team, nephew of the town’s most
successful lawyer, and boyfriend of Jenna Maples, a girl who has finally agreed
to take their relationship to the next level. But nothing good lasts forever.
With only a few minutes of last period English left between him and a weekend
alone with Jenna, Logan blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself in a
future where Shepherd High lies in ruins, nothing is what it seems, and
everyone he loves is dead. Logan is a shifter. Chosen to travel through time,
it’s up to him to figure out how to stop the terrible events that claimed his
once perfect life.
Of course, all of this might be easier if he wasn’t paired with the one girl
who’d rather see him dead than help him, JOSEPHINE. A girl he tormented during
childhood. Strong-willed with biting wit, who lives in the shadows. Tough and
dark, Jo is Shepherd High’s most notorious outcast and Logan’s opposite in
every way. Together the two must overcome their many differences to figure out
why they’ve been selected for such an overwhelming task, and who selected them
in the first place.
Before it’s too late…
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Excerpt from Because You Exist
I was down on
the ground before I even had a chance to make sense of what was going on. The
side of my head was bleeding. Someone had punched me. One of the survivors was
sitting on my back as I struggled to lift my head to see what was going on.
Our new friend
stepped towards Josephine. She didn’t make a noise, her face remaining
emotionless. It was as if something snapped into place within her, like a
shield or force field. If she was feeling scared you couldn’t tell. The only
sign of any emotion at all was her breathing. Her chest rose quickly up and
down.
“Let’s see
what’s under the pretty wrapping paper,” the leader said, stepping even closer
to Josephine. He grabbed her by the pocket of her hoodie and pulled her close
to him. He reached up and forcefully yanked down the zipper. Still Josephine
didn’t protest. I continued to struggle to get up, but the man on top of me
only laughed and pushed me back down. For every second that Josephine sat there
still and quiet, I thrashed around more violently and cursed louder. The leader
of the group grabbed underneath the shoulders of her jacket and pulled it off
like a magician would when revealing his great trick.
“Hot damn,” he
sang.
I stopped
thrashing about. Under the hoodie, Josephine was wearing a tight-fitting,
sleeveless tank top sporting the Shepherd High emblem, no doubt part of her
track uniform. I couldn’t stop myself from looking. The girl had a body. Her
arms were slightly defined, the arms of an athlete but not in a scary way. She
also had a great pair of boobs. Yes, I noticed. I only looked for a second
because I knew she didn’t wanted me to look at her.
“It’s been so
long since we’ve had a girl,” the man said, slithering closer to Josephine. He
reached out his palm, running it down the side of her face until he reached her
neck. He wrapped his hand around her neck. Josephine still didn’t react.
“Don’t touch
her,” I yelled out. Maybe we weren’t friends, but she was all I had in this
world. I wasn’t going to sit back and let anything happen to her.
“I wonder if
you’re the dark one?” he asked her, choosing to ignore me entirely. “I hope
you’re the dark one. I’ve only ever had me a light girl before. They say it’s
bad luck to mess with you shifters, but I figure we already have had our share
of bad luck.”
“I remember the
light one. I remember the light one. I remember the light one,” the third man
began to chant.
“She didn’t even
fight back. Fighting back is what lets a man know he’s alive. You know what I
mean. Don’t you kid?” he said finally turning to me.
“Go to hell,” I
replied.
This caused the
men to begin to laugh. “Hell doesn’t want me, kid. Neither did God. If God
wanted me I’d be dead like the rest of them. At least that’s how I look at it.
You’re the hell and you’re the heaven. We’re just what’s left.”
I had no idea
what he was talking about, but the longer I kept him talking the more time I
had to think of a way of getting out of this. Why couldn’t I shift at will?
“What did you
mean about a conductor?” I asked, trying to stay focused even though the blood
that was seeping out of my head wound was beginning to run into my mouth.
“You had your
chance to get your questions. I said give me the girl, and I would give you the
answers. Sorry.”
“Let’s make a
new deal,” I replied. I just needed more time. I could think of a way to get us
out of this. I had to think of a way. I was still pretty sure that whatever
happened to us in this present would follow us to our normal present.
And maybe there
were things worse than death. These weren’t civilized men. I didn’t know if I
could buy all his heaven and hell talk, but I did wonder how they survived. Was
it purely because of their predator sensibilities—some eff-ed-up version of
Darwin’s theory? Or had they been allowed to survive, chosen by the same people
or thing that allowed us to be shifters?
“No deal. But I
do want to play a game. Can’t say we get much in terms of entertainment around
here anymore,” the leader replied, pushing Josephine next to me on the ground.
Her eyes met mine and I saw fear for the first time since the men had showed
up. I wanted to find her hoodie and enclose her in it. I wanted to protect her.
“Here’s how it
will work,” the man continued as he circled around us. His friend still held me
down, and while Josephine was free to move, I knew she wouldn’t leave me. “I will
give you a five minute head start. You hear me? Five minutes. After that, game
on. But you should know that we love to play rough. We don’t care if you’re
shifters. As far as we’re concerned, why save the world when they didn’t want
us around in the first place?”
The man holding
me down must have received some signal from the leader because he let me up. I
scrambled to my feet and held out my hand for Josephine, but she didn’t take
it. She pulled herself to her feet and looked at me. I looked back.
We were screwed.
“Well, what are
you waiting for? Five minutes started thirty seconds ago.”
About the Author
Tiffany Truitt received her MA in literature from Old Dominion University. Her debut Chosen Ones, first in the Lost Souls trilogy, is a searing look at what it means to be other and how we define humanity, as well as a celebration of the dangerously wonderful feeling of falling in love.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
$15 Amazon Gift Card (INT).
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Ooh, this book sounds good! Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt.
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ReplyDeletesounds good.enjoyed the excerpt.thanks for having the giveaway
ReplyDeleteSounds right in my wheelhouse with time travel and fantasy!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading this book
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