Darynda Jones Spotlight

 The normal part of Lorelei MacAlister’s life didn’t just slip away quietly the day Jared Kovach came to town. Nope. The normal part of her life shattered. It exploded. It burst into a gazillion shards of fleeting light.

It went out with a bang.

Goodbye normal.

Hello dark and eerie.

While her best friend, Brooklyn, is focusing all of her energy on helping Lorelei hone her abilities, Lorelei is dealing with the reality that Satan’s second in command has taken up residence inside her body. Oh, and the fact that she has a crush on the Angel of Death. But what a beautiful death it is. If those weren’t bad enough, something sinister has come to town and it wants nothing more than to hear Lorelei’s dying breath as it strangles it out of her. Thank goodness the gang has a supernatural champion. But what happens when the only being who can save them switches sides midstream? How can a group of misfits capture one of the most powerful beings ever created? And will they find out how to bring Jared back to them before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

DEATH, DOOM AND DETENTION

Chapter One

FUZZY EDGES

“Is this class ever going to end?”

My best friend, Brooklyn, draped her upper body across her

desk in a dramatic reenactment of Desdemona’s death in Othello.

She buried her face in a tangle of arms and long black hair for

effect. It was quite moving. And while I appreciated her freedom

to express her misgivings about the most boring class since

multi-celled organisms first crawled onto dry land, I wondered

about her timing.

“Miss Prather,” our Government teacher, Mr. Gonzales, said,

his voice like a sharp crack in the silence of study time.

Brooklyn jerked upright in surprise. She glanced around as

our classmates snickered, either politely into their hands or more

rudely outright.

“Is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

She turned toward Mr. Gonzales and asked, “Did I say that

out loud?”

The class erupted in laughter as Mr. G’s mouth formed a long

narrow line across his face. As though a miracle from heaven,

the bell rang and Brooklyn couldn’t scramble out of her seat fast

enough. She practically sprinted from the room. I followed at a

slower pace, smiling meekly as I walked past Mr. G’s desk.

Brooklyn stood waiting for me in the hall, her face still frozen

in surprise.

“That was funny,” I said, tugging her alongside me. She fell

in line as we wound through the crush of students, fighting our

way to PE. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t particularly enjoy having

my many faults and numerous shortcomings put on display for

all to see, so why I would fight to get there was beyond me.

“No, really.” She tucked an arm through mine. “I didn’t mean

to say that out loud.”

I couldn’t help but smile despite the weight on my chest, a

weight that seemed to be endless. “Which is why that was funny.”

I did that a lot lately. Smiled. It was easier than explaining

why I wasn’t.

“You don’t get it,” she said. “This is exactly what I’ve been

talking about. Everything is weird ever since . . . you know.”

I did know. Ever since Jared Kovach came to town. Ever

since he’d saved my life after a huge green delivery truck

slammed into me. Ever since we’d found out he was the Angel

of Death and he had been sent not to save my life but to take it.

To tweak the timing. To take me sooner than nature— or a huge

green delivery truck— had intended.

And ever since I found out I’d been possessed by a demon

when I was six years old.

Still, that wasn’t the worst part of that day all those years ago.

The worst part was the fact that my parents were gone. Vanished

in a whirlwind when some guy— we still had no idea who—

opened the gates of hell. And I’d led them straight to it. The fact

that a demon—Malak-Tuke, to be exact, Lucifer’s second in command—

escaped from his fiery pit and decided to crash at my

place was just the icing on the cake. But I didn’t know any of

this until two months ago.

I’d been living with my grandparents since the disappearance,

but my semi- normal existence changed forever when I was

knocked into the street by a skateboarder and hit by that truck.

That near- death experience taught me a valuable lesson:

Never get hit by a huge green delivery truck if I can help it. But

if I hadn’t, if my life hadn’t almost ended that day, then Jared

Kovach would not have been sent. And oddly enough, Jared Kovach

was definitely worth the risk.

The events that followed were both terrifying and life changing.

I learned that there really was a heaven and a hell. That

there really were angels and demons. That I was a prophet, the

last prophet in a long line of incredible women, descended from

a powerful woman named Arabeth. And I’d learned that I had a

demon inside me, that I’d had him inside me for years.

Even Jared had never seen anything like it. Most people possessed

by evil spirits were lucky to survive. People possessed by

demons— a rarity, from what I’d been told— never survived more

than a month. Ever. And yet here I stood. As possessed as a girl

with a demon inside her could be.

And, yes, things had been weird.

Author Bio:

NYTimes and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work, including a prestigious Golden Heart®, a Rebecca, two Hold Medallions, a RITA ®, and a Daphne du Maurier, and she has received stellar reviews from dozens of publications including starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and the Library Journal. As a born storyteller, Darynda grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by, annoying man and beast alike, and she is ever so grateful for the opportunity to carry on that tradition. She currently has two series with St. Martin’s Press: The Charley Davidson Series and the Darklight Trilogy. She lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband of almost 30 years and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys. She can be found at www.daryndajones.com.

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