Because You Exist (Light in the Dark Series, #1)
Release Date: 11/11/14
Limitless Publishing
Summary from Goodreads:
Life is good for LOGAN MIDDLETON.
He’s quarterback of the Shepherd High football team, nephew of the town’s most
successful lawyer, and boyfriend of Jenna Maples, a girl who has finally agreed
to take their relationship to the next level. But nothing good lasts forever.
With only a few minutes of last period English left between him and a weekend
alone with Jenna, Logan blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself in a
future where Shepherd High lies in ruins, nothing is what it seems, and
everyone he loves is dead. Logan is a shifter. Chosen to travel through time,
it’s up to him to figure out how to stop the terrible events that claimed his
once perfect life.
Of course, all of this might be easier if he wasn’t paired with the one girl
who’d rather see him dead than help him, JOSEPHINE. A girl he tormented during
childhood. Strong-willed with biting wit, who lives in the shadows. Tough and
dark, Jo is Shepherd High’s most notorious outcast and Logan’s opposite in
every way. Together the two must overcome their many differences to figure out
why they’ve been selected for such an overwhelming task, and who selected them
in the first place.
Before it’s too late…
He’s quarterback of the Shepherd High football team, nephew of the town’s most
successful lawyer, and boyfriend of Jenna Maples, a girl who has finally agreed
to take their relationship to the next level. But nothing good lasts forever.
With only a few minutes of last period English left between him and a weekend
alone with Jenna, Logan blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself in a
future where Shepherd High lies in ruins, nothing is what it seems, and
everyone he loves is dead. Logan is a shifter. Chosen to travel through time,
it’s up to him to figure out how to stop the terrible events that claimed his
once perfect life.
Of course, all of this might be easier if he wasn’t paired with the one girl
who’d rather see him dead than help him, JOSEPHINE. A girl he tormented during
childhood. Strong-willed with biting wit, who lives in the shadows. Tough and
dark, Jo is Shepherd High’s most notorious outcast and Logan’s opposite in
every way. Together the two must overcome their many differences to figure out
why they’ve been selected for such an overwhelming task, and who selected them
in the first place.
Before it’s too late…
~ EXCERPT ~
I was down on the ground before I even had a
chance to make sense of what was going on. The side of my head was bleeding.
Someone had punched me. One of the survivors was sitting on my back as I
struggled to lift my head to see what was going on.
Our new friend stepped towards Josephine. She didn’t
make a noise, her face remaining emotionless. It was as if something snapped
into place within her, like a shield or force field. If she was feeling scared
you couldn’t tell. The only sign of any emotion at all was her breathing. Her
chest rose quickly up and down.
“Let’s see what’s under the pretty wrapping
paper,” the leader said, stepping even closer to Josephine. He grabbed her by
the pocket of her hoodie and pulled her close to him. He reached up and
forcefully yanked down the zipper. Still Josephine didn’t protest. I continued
to struggle to get up, but the man on top of me only laughed and pushed me back
down. For every second that Josephine sat there still and quiet, I thrashed
around more violently and cursed louder. The leader of the group grabbed
underneath the shoulders of her jacket and pulled it off like a magician would
when revealing his great trick.
“Hot damn,” he sang.
I stopped thrashing about. Under the hoodie,
Josephine was wearing a tight-fitting, sleeveless tank top sporting the
Shepherd High emblem, no doubt part of her track uniform. I couldn’t stop
myself from looking. The girl had a body. Her arms were slightly defined, the
arms of an athlete but not in a scary way. She also had a great pair of boobs.
Yes, I noticed. I only looked for a second because I knew she didn’t wanted me
to look at her.
“It’s been so long since we’ve had a girl,” the
man said, slithering closer to Josephine. He reached out his palm, running it
down the side of her face until he reached her neck. He wrapped his hand around
her neck. Josephine still didn’t react.
“Don’t touch her,” I yelled out. Maybe we
weren’t friends, but she was all I had in this world. I wasn’t going to sit
back and let anything happen to her.
“I wonder if you’re the dark one?” he asked her,
choosing to ignore me entirely. “I hope you’re the dark one. I’ve only ever had
me a light girl before. They say it’s bad luck to mess with you shifters, but I
figure we already have had our share of bad luck.”
“I remember the light one. I remember the light
one. I remember the light one,” the third man began to chant.
“She didn’t even fight back. Fighting back is
what lets a man know he’s alive. You know what I mean. Don’t you kid?” he said
finally turning to me.
“Go to hell,” I replied.
This caused the men to begin to laugh. “Hell
doesn’t want me, kid. Neither did God. If God wanted me I’d be dead like the
rest of them. At least that’s how I look at it. You’re the hell and you’re the
heaven. We’re just what’s left.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but the
longer I kept him talking the more time I had to think of a way of getting out
of this. Why couldn’t I shift at will?
“What did you mean about a conductor?” I asked,
trying to stay focused even though the blood that was seeping out of my head
wound was beginning to run into my mouth.
“You had your chance to get your questions. I
said give me the girl, and I would give you the answers. Sorry.”
“Let’s make a new deal,” I replied. I just
needed more time. I could think of a way to get us out of this. I had to think
of a way. I was still pretty sure that whatever happened to us in this present
would follow us to our normal present.
And maybe there were things worse than death.
These weren’t civilized men. I didn’t know if I could buy all his heaven and
hell talk, but I did wonder how they survived. Was it purely because of their
predator sensibilities—some eff-ed-up version of Darwin’s theory? Or had they
been allowed to survive, chosen by the same people or thing that allowed us to
be shifters?
“No deal. But I do want to play a game. Can’t
say we get much in terms of entertainment around here anymore,” the leader
replied, pushing Josephine next to me on the ground. Her eyes met mine and I
saw fear for the first time since the men had showed up. I wanted to find her
hoodie and enclose her in it. I wanted to protect her.
“Here’s how it will work,” the man continued as
he circled around us. His friend still held me down, and while Josephine was
free to move, I knew she wouldn’t leave me. “I will give you a five minute head
start. You hear me? Five minutes. After that, game on. But you should know that
we love to play rough. We don’t care if you’re shifters. As far as we’re
concerned, why save the world when they didn’t want us around in the first
place?”
The man holding me down must have received some
signal from the leader because he let me up. I scrambled to my feet and held
out my hand for Josephine, but she didn’t take it. She pulled herself to her
feet and looked at me. I looked back.
We were screwed.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Five minutes
started thirty seconds ago.”
Sample4
“I know why they sent us here. Why this memory
is important.”
“Why?”
“So, I could know you. So, you could trust me.
We’re partners. Maybe the people who are controlling this aren’t doing it to
play with us. Maybe they’re trying to make us strong. Ready for what’s to
come.”
Just as quick as the emotions left Jo, they
returned. Her chin wrinkled up and her eyes slammed shut. She dropped the rope
and brought both hands up to cover her face. Her fingertips pressed into her
forehead, her knuckles turning white.
She was fighting it.
“Jo.”
She curled her fingers into fists. “Don’t try to
justify them,” she spat out between her arms, her face impossible to see.
“I wasn’t trying—”
She yanked her hands from her face and looked
straight at me. Enraged. “You were. You like things to have explanations. You
need answers. Sometimes evil is just evil. Sometimes people just like making
other people feel pain.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off
again. “I’ll never be normal. Never! I’ll always be this way. I am so thankful
you saved me, but I can’t be happy to have to live this again. I live it every
day. I’ll always be this freak. Stuck.”
“That’s not true.” Maybe it was. I didn’t know.
Her anger was soon replaced by defeat. She
walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. She didn’t speak. She pulled her
hands inside the sleeves of the robe. When she looked back at me, I was
startled to see her look scared. Truly frightened.
“What is it, Jo?”
“I think I like him. Ben. I think he likes me
too,” she said quietly, turning her face from me again.
I swallowed hard.
“I’ll never have what you and Jenna have.”
“You don’t want what we have. Remember? It’s not
honest or something.”
Jo shook her head slowly. “What would I know?
I’ve never been in a relationship. I watch people in relationships and read
books. That’s all I can base my conclusions on. But I don’t want to be alone. I
wish this wasn’t another thing my father could take from me.”
It killed me to say this. I didn’t like Bentham.
He was cocky. He didn’t deserve her. But she liked him. And I would watch out
for her. “Why don’t you tell Bentham? Be daring. Try an actual date before you
ship yourself off to a nunnery. I’m sure he’d say yes. You two do talk like
every minute of every day. Right?”
“It won’t ever mean anything. I can’t even wear
a damn short sleeve shirt without panicking. Eventually, things will
get...intimate.”
“If he’s worth anything, he won’t push you.”
“I know he won’t. But maybe I need to push
myself. I’ve never told him about these things. I never told you, and you’re
pretty much the only friend I have. If I can’t trust you, the person destined
to my partner, how can I ever even hope to kiss a boy without wanting to throw
up?”
“You’re talking now,” I offered.
And she was.
And I felt honored.
Honesty was tough, but it was also a gift.
About the Author
Tiffany Truitt received her MA in literature from Old Dominion University. Her debut Chosen Ones, first in the Lost Souls trilogy, is a searing look at what it means to be other and how we define humanity, as well as a celebration of the dangerously wonderful feeling of falling in love.
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