The Cursed Teaser #2
As promised, now that The Coveted has reached over 30 reviews, I’m posting the second teaser for The Cursed! This excerpt took me a really long time to pick out because there were so many I wanted to share with you. However, you’ll get to read all of those potential excerpts soon, since I’m putting the final touches on The Cursed as we speak. That means that if all goes well (fingers crossed), The Cursed should be out by the end of next week! Eeeek! So make sure to check back in here or better yet, join my mailing list to receive an email the day The Cursed comes out.
Until then, enjoy!
The Cursed: Teaser #2
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If you enjoyed that excerpt, make sure to click here to add The Cursed to your reading list on Goodreads, and join my mailing list (in the top right corner) to get notifications on new releases and free schtuff (note the Sean Connery accent there)! All the cool kids are doing it, so join the fun!
Hugs and happy reading,
Laura
Until then, enjoy!
The Cursed: Teaser #2
I trotted over to Caleb’s room and
knocked on his door. When it opened, I nearly dropped Oliver’s computer.
It was the middle of the day and
yet Andre stood in front of me.
“What the h-hell?” I stuttered.
Andre glanced down at himself. “I’m
pretty convincing, aren’t I?” he said.
More like terrifying beyond belief.
It was Andre’s body, Andre’s voice, but it wasn’t Andre’s soul that resided
beneath his skin.
I socked Caleb in the arm. “Knock
it off. I cannot even express just how creepy that is.”
Caleb laughed, as though this were
all one big joke.
“I’m serious,” I said softly. I was
picking up Andre’s quiet menace.
Caleb-as-Andre grinned. It was such
a Caleb mannerism, his mouth lifting more on one side than the other, that it
made Andre look like a crude parody of himself. “Sorry,” he said, his tone
suggesting he felt otherwise.
Andre’s skin rippled and in his
place stood Oliver. “This better?”
Behind me I heard Oliver yelp. “Oh
my God, ew, stop that!” he said,
throwing a hand over his eyes. His fingers split apart wide enough for him to
peer between them. “Do I really look like that?” he asked me.
“No—this is the hot version of
you,” I said sarcastically.
He swatted my arm and dropped his
hand from his face, inching closer to Caleb. Caleb watched him, wearing a
satisfied smirk. I peered at Caleb-as-Oliver. I’d seen Caleb shapeshift
before—often in fact—but he’d rarely impersonated people.
“People are harder to mimic,” Caleb
said with Oliver’s voice, as if reading my mind.
Oliver crept closer and, using his
index finger, poked Caleb-as-Oliver.
“Hey,” Caleb-as-Oliver said,
rubbing the flesh Oliver poked. Oliver began to circle him. Once he’d made a
full circle, he nodded to himself. “Damn, I look good.”
Caleb-as-Oliver focused his gaze on
me, his eyes mischievous. “Want to see what you look like?”
My response was immediate. “No—”
Even as I spoke Oliver’s skin rippled
into something paler, more delicate. The clothes Caleb had been wearing hung
loose on him now, and all of Oliver’s masculine edges dissolved into soft,
feminine curves.
I stared into my own face. My lips
were too red, my cheekbones too high, hair too dark, and my skin too pale.
Even more disturbing was that Caleb
lay beneath that skin. My skin.
I glanced away. Looking at my
double was not the same as looking in the mirror. No, it was way worse.
“Don’t I look pretty?” Caleb asked
jokingly, toying with a lock of my hair. Except it wasn’t Caleb’s voice that
spoke. It was my own.
I cringed at the voice. Like
everything else, it was too much. Too feminine, too melodic. “Stop it,” I said,
refusing to look at him—her—me.
“Geez, Gabrielle,” Caleb said in my
voice, “we all know you’re hideous, but you don’t have to look away like that.”
“You’re not funny, Caleb,” I said,
keeping my gaze averted. “Please, stop.”
“Really?” he said in my voice. “Do
you seriously not want to look at yourself?”
I shook my head.
I could feel his gaze boring into
me but eventually he reverted back to himself. “Well that was—”
I threw my fist forward and socked
him in the face, making sure to hold back most of my strength. Even still, the
force of my blow knocked him on his ass.
“Bitch went down,” Oliver threw in,
helpful as always.
I stood over a moaning Caleb while
he held his nose.
“Don’t ever fucking pull that again
without our permission,” I said.
Caleb’s words came out muffled.
“You didn’t have to punch me.”
“That wasn’t a punch,” Oliver said,
“that was her knocking the idiot out of you.” Oliver turned to me. “I don’t
think it worked, either.”
I tilted my head. “I could always
try again.”
Oliver pursed his lips in thought,
as Caleb got to his feet. “Hasn’t anyone told you to use your words?” Caleb
said.
I raised my eyebrows, amused. “This
is coming the guy who threatened to get his hands involved the next time Oliver
and I got into an argument.”
“For the record,” Oliver said, “I’m
still interested in this hand business.”
Caleb muttered something not so
nice under his breath as he brushed himself off. “There will be no hand
business,” he said.
Oliver’s lips drew down in a pout.
“So,” Caleb said, looking back and
forth at us expectantly. “What is it that you two wanted to discuss
oh-so-badly?”
“Unholy creatures,” I said.
Caleb’s face scrunched up. “What?”
Oliver leaned into me. “Nope,” Oliver
whispered, “you definitely did not knock the idiot out of him.”
***
If you enjoyed that excerpt, make sure to click here to add The Cursed to your reading list on Goodreads, and join my mailing list (in the top right corner) to get notifications on new releases and free schtuff (note the Sean Connery accent there)! All the cool kids are doing it, so join the fun!
Hugs and happy reading,
Laura