Song Credits: "Hunger" © Noelle Pico.
Full Download available at http://sheisnoelle.bandcamp.com
Taste
Excerpt
"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."
* There is a hidden link of a super exclusive excerpt for TASTE in the above excerpt...can you find it?*
Author Bio: 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.
Author Website:
www.kateevangelista.com
Twitter: @KateEvangelista
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Evangelista/165693410143202
Find Taste on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13484226-taste
Crescent Moon Press page for Taste:
http://crescentmoonpress.com/books/Taste.html
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