AJ Myer Something Wicked Excerpt of Book 2 Something Wicked

Excerpt of Something Wicked

By the time Nathan finally emerged from the woods and headed toward me, I had totally freaked myself out, imagining demons and every other manner of thing that went bump in the night watching me from the windows of those abandoned wings. When I got a good look at Nathan’s ashen complexion and tense shoulders, that spine-chilling factor multiplied exponentially, leaving me shivering.
“Did you find something?” I asked, my voice trembling as badly as the rest of me, when he wrenched his door open with enough force to nearly tear it off.
“First, you are going to answer a few questions for me,” he snapped, sliding behind the wheel but making no move to start the car. “First question, did anything happen today I should know about?”
I started to say ‘no’, but the look on his face told me he already knew something so I decided to try honesty out for a change. Training my eyes on the dashboard, I whispered, “I thought I saw Jack.”
“Is that right?” Nathan seethed. “And you didn’t think to tell me that?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think he was real,” I mumbled, still not looking at him. “I was standing in front of his locker after the last bell rang, looking at the pictures everybody keeps adding to it and thinking about how much I missed him. And when I walked out, there he was, leaning against that tree over there.”
“You miss the spawn of Satan himself, Em?” he growled. “What? Was it more exciting for you when you were being stalked by a damn demon?”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as my eyes filled with tears. “I miss Jack, Nathan. My Jack. The guy I grew up with and fought with and danced with and went to parties with. I miss my friend. Is that so hard to understand?”
He sat there and stared at me for what seemed like forever, and I could see the emotions flitting across his gorgeous face. He was feeling guilty for being such a prick. He was jealous because I had just admitted to missing another guy. He was pissed I hadn’t told him I’d seen a ghost. He was worried about something. And he was…afraid. Like, really and truly afraid.
Oh, that could not be good.
“Next question,” he said softly, his voice sounding even more strained. I got the impression that he was trying not to yell at me, but couldn’t figure out for the life of me why he would want to. “Em, where is your cross?”
My cross? Was he serious? I never took the little gold cross he had given me off. Nathan knew that. He’d even teased me about it. Why the hell would he be asking me where it was when he…already…?
Oh, shit.
I patted my chest where my cross usually rested, but didn’t feel anything beneath my sweater. With a little thrill of panic shooting through me, I pulled my sweater out so I could look for myself, sure it was there and I was just missing it. But all I found was a pair of too-big boobs harnessed by a white lace bra and smooth skin.
“I don’t know,” I admitted in a strangled whisper, my eyes filling with tears.
I looked over at him, preparing myself for the anger I was sure I would see glowing in his eyes, but instead I found myself staring at what was dangling from one of his long fingers. The cross glinted in the muted winter light coming through the windshield, the symbol of my mark that was engraved in the center of it seeming to almost glow in that faint light.
I reached for it, wanting nothing more than to put it back where it belonged. That cross was more than just a pretty piece of jewelry. It was a magic amulet so powerful that it could
transcend worlds and my only guarantee of safety in the crazy world I was coming to think of as my own. It was more than that I wanted it. I needed it. Even before Grams had turned it into a portal to the lost plane I had reacted that way to the little cross. It was mine, damn it, and I wanted it back.
To my surprise, Nathan snatched it back and then curled his big fist around it. Taking a deep breath through his nose in an attempt to calm down, he growled, “You can have it back after Shea and Amelia check it out.”
“Where did you find that?”
“In the woods!” he snarled, flashing his fangs at me as his eyes began to glow like a pair of light bulbs. “It was nailed to a tree. Along with this.”
He held a folded, crumpled piece of paper out to me. I took it with trembling hands, pretty sure I didn’t want to see what was on it. I had to force myself to unfold it, and when I did I wished I had just gone with my first instinct and refused. It was a copy of the story Kim and I had been reading in the paper before she got pissed and walked out on me.
With a few very conspicuous differences.
“What the hell?” I squeaked, staring at the picture of me someone had put in place of Blood Red’s latest victim.
It wasn’t just the fact that my face had replaced that of a dead girl that terrified me; it was the picture itself. Only one person had that picture. He’d refused to even send it to me after he snapped it with his phone the summer before, saying it was going to be his and only his forever. And, as far as I knew, he’d kept that vow.
The photographer had been Jack.
“Read it,” Nathan said, refusing to take the paper back from me even when I practically shoved it into his hand. “Read it, Em.”
Though I didn’t want to, I forced myself look at the paper again. It wasn’t the story I finally found myself reading over and over—though that would have been enough to terrify me all by itself, seeing as the dead girl’s name had been replaced with mine throughout the article. No, what had me wanting to go find a hole to hide in was the handwritten message at the bottom.
Hey, bloodsucker. It’s playtime again. May the best man win.
“Your boyfriend’s back, Em,” Nathan said when I started to shake like I was having a seizure. “That message he’s been sending, it’s to me. This time, he’s playing to win.”

My review of Something Wicked tomorrow....Don't forget the giveaway goes until tomorrow night and then as this giveaway ends SEXY Christmas begins! Enjoy and take advantage of the great giveaways!!********Remember book 1 in the series Something Witchy is free today and tomorrow on line****http://www.amazon.com/Something-Witchy-Mystics-Mayhem-ebook/dp/B00A737G2A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355561169&sr=8-2&keywords=something+witchy