Welcome to the Celebration! To Kick things off we have...
Author and my SupaAwesome Friend Taryn Browning
Thank you, Heather, for having me on your blog to kick-off your 1-year blogoversary celebration. Congratulations, girly! I've had the most fantastic time getting to know you. This includes your total awesomeness advocating Janie in the YA Heroine Tourney. You are such a phenomenal, caring, fun person! I'm truly fortunate to have you as a friend.
To many more years celebrating your fabulous blog *CHEERS*!! <3
To celebrate a year of fantasticness, here is the first look at the description for the 2nd book in the Seeker series, Dark Return.
Janie Grey is dedicated to hunting the undead, an inherited duty passed down from her Cherokee ancestors and generations of powerful Seekers before her. Then, there's Kai. He's like no one she's ever met - cocky, fast, skillful, infuriating and gorgeous. Not only has he become a valuable asset in her fight against the growing population of the vampire/demon hybrid known as Daychildren...
She's unwittingly fallen for him.
Just when Janie thinks she's learned everything there is to know about Kai's mysterious past, there's a newcomer to Baltimore. Someone who will do anything to make sure Janie loses Kai forever.
Darkness returns in 2012...
She's unwittingly fallen for him.
Just when Janie thinks she's learned everything there is to know about Kai's mysterious past, there's a newcomer to Baltimore. Someone who will do anything to make sure Janie loses Kai forever.
Darkness returns in 2012...
SG: I'm interrupting the guest post here to SQUEEE!! If you don't know by now... I LOVE this!
I've also provided 3 excerpts from Dark Seeker (Seeker, #1), because you're way to amazing for just one :)) SG: awww, Thanks!
For 17-year-old Seeker, Janie Grey, ridding the Baltimore streets of the undead is an inherited duty passed down from her Cherokee ancestors. Seeker Training Lesson #1: Never trust the undead. After her father’s tragic death, Janie creates her own life lesson: Love isn’t worth the risk. Both lessons are easy to follow until she encounters the flawed Kai Sterdam. At first, she believes he is the hybrid she is trained to hunt. But, when he has human traits, she determines she doesn’t know what he is. As Janie’s intrigue over who Kai is pushes her deeper into his mysterious past, she discovers a shocking truth that is even more harrowing than the evil they are up against. It’s a secret Kai wants to keep hidden, especially from Janie.
So here they are:
He was different.
She just didn’t get the vibe. Usually she could feel when they were around, like that creepy something’s-not-right feeling girls typically ignore, multiplied by about a thousand. But this time she got nothing. It was like he wasn’t even there, until he was there…and then he was gone. And his eyes were so unusual. Not black, but vibrant green.
“Were you hurt?” he said, pulling her out of her reverie. “When your car struck that pole? Sorry I didn’t stick around to find out.” His hand left his scythe. He paused, assessing her hate-filled expression. After an awkward moment, he extended his arm. “I’m Kai.”
“I’m not shaking your hand.” Janie stepped beyond his reach. Something was off. He didn’t smell or act like the rest of them, and she couldn’t get over those eyes. She glanced around the empty alley. “Why did you kill them, anyway?”
“They stink. There’s enough trash on these streets. I’m just ridding the city of filth.”
“And you don’t stink?”
“Nope. Just took a shower, in fact.” Kai glanced down at his shirt. “It was clean an hour ago, anyway, and I had sleeves.”
“What are you?”
“You seem to have me figured out. I’m a monster.”
“Is that supposed to scare me?” She raised her guard.
His voice softened. He forced the sharpness from his tone. “No, Janie. It’s not.”
Kai left his place next to the wall and approached her. Janie froze. The smell of lavender strengthened, filling her lungs. “How do you know my name?” she mustered.
“We all know your name.”
“So you kill your own kind?” Her heart pounded against her rib cage.
“They are not my kind.” She heard the disgust in his tone. She’d angered him.
“I know what you are. You’re one of them. So, now tell me, how exactly are they not your kind?” she pushed, visibly stripping away his cockiness.
The muscles along his jaw line twitched. He glanced off to the side, shifting his stance, seemingly unsure of how to answer. “We’re done here,” he said.
She blinked and he disappeared in the same blur in which he’d appeared. Janie stood alone, still clutching her dagger.
***
Inside his house, Kai retrieved a bottle of water from his mini-fridge and joined Janie on his leather couch. “You look at little less green.” He unscrewed the cap and handed her the bottle. “Drink this.”
Janie took small careful sips. Her insides felt like a dried-out, cracked desert floor. Kai dabbed a wet washcloth on her lip. “You’re being gentle,” Janie whispered. Even her hushed tone echoed loudly between her ears.
“Don’t get used to it.” The cotton material caught a piece of loose skin. She drew back from the washcloth. “You look like you’ve been in a bar fight,” he said.
Despite herself, Janie let out a laugh. The expulsion of air shot splinters of pain through her ribcage. She recoiled and turned away from Kai. She peeled up her tank and hoodie to check out the bruise the teenager had left along her ribcage when he’d kicked her. As she suspected, her skin was decorated with swirls of red, indicating she’d have a colorful bruise the next day. Over the redness she noticed tiny white dots bubbling up on her skin, resembling tiny fluid-filled blisters. “Kai—” she gasped.
“What’s wrong?” He spun her around. Her eyes widened. She realized her bra was exposed. “It’s the demon blood. It seeped through your clothing. You’ve got to get your clothes off.”
“I am not,” she protested. She yanked her top down.
“It’s burning your skin.”
“Then I’ll remove my jacket.” Janie unzipped her hoodie and slid it off, feeling not quite as vulnerable as before, but still vulnerable enough in her black tank. She squirmed. Her flesh burned under her shirt.
Kai looked at her in annoyance from under his blond lashes. “Your skin is burning and you’re being modest right now?” He took the hoodie from her hand and wadded it into a ball. “This is trash.” He lifted her off the couch and placed her feet on the floor.
“What are you doing with me?” She pushed on his chest.
He held her tighter. “I’m helping you up the steps to the bathroom. You need to take a shower and get that demon blood off your skin.”
“I can make it to the bathroom myself.” He loosened his hold and she spun away from him. She hadn’t forgotten what he’d said to her. We’ll never be that close. It’s not like she had any expectations about their relationship, but hearing him tell her they’d never be friends after all they’d been through over the last few days was hurtful.
He stepped away from her. “As you wish. Towels and soap are in the bathroom.”
***
Kai stood with his hands resting below his hips, thinking about something, maybe how to respond. “It’s because of what I am. I shouldn’t have told you. I should have let you think I was a monster.” He looked out into the street. A group of kids wearing heavy jackets played basketball in the cul-de-sac.
Janie stepped out of the car. She stomped over to him, contemplating how to tell him how she felt. “What you are doesn’t bother me. I just don’t think we should be friends anymore. Ever since I met you, I’ve become sloppy, unfocused. I can’t allow my feelings for you to interfere with my job.”
His eyes left the ground and traced a perfect line up the front of her until they finally reached her eyes. “So you do have feelings for me?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You just said it.” He stepped closer to her, with an intensity so powerful it drowned out the world. Nothing else existed—the bouncing basketball on the black top and the laughter of playing children disappeared. Kai’s words flooded with raw emotion, a fresh wound that had been torn open.
“Then I said it wrong. Kai, I can’t see you anymore.” She pushed against his chest, but he didn’t move. He grabbed both of her wrists and held her in place. His green eyes blazed with an impassioned craving to want and to be wanted.
“You are the only person I have felt comfortable enough with to talk about my past. You can’t say you don’t want to see me anymore. You’re the only one who knows me.”
“That’s not my problem.” She tried to turn away from him but he held her tightly in place.
“You’re afraid,” he said.
She laughed. “Afraid of what, you?”
“You’re afraid of your feelings for me. You won’t ever let anyone in. You think that if you run from your feelings you won’t get hurt.” She yanked on her wrists. He finally let go. She threw her fists into his chest. Again he just stood, still and hard like a statue.
“My mom loved my father and now he’s dead. It’s not worth it.” She pivoted around to leave.
He shouted to her from behind. “What you’re doing with Matt isn’t right. You don’t feel anything for him. He’s safe.”
“And you’re not.” She strode to her car. She wanted the conversation to be over. She didn’t want to discuss Matt, Kai, or losing her father anymore. All the topics were too painful.
***
Taryn
Thank you so much Taryn for stopping by and leaving readers with all that awesomeness! Now if you would like to find her on the web well here is where you can....
Now as part of my celebration I am offering 1 e-copy of Taryn's Wicked Awesome Dark Seeker, because really I think everyone should read this!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
