Amateur ghost-hunter Perry Palomino has battled ghosts, fought off skinwalkers and skirted the fine line between life and death. But can she survive bunking down in Seattle for a week with her partner (and man she secretly loves) Dex and his perfect girlfriend, Jennifer? And can she do so while being tormented by a malicious spirit from Dex’s increasingly shady past? With love and life in the balance, Perry must discover the truth among the lies or risk losing everything she's ever cared about.
EXCERPT
I closed the door behind me with nothing more
than a gentle click and started walking down the hall back the way I came.
A loud POP came from behind me while the hall
in front of me became a smidge darker. The loud and unexpected noise caught my
breath and made me jump mid-stride. I stopped and stood still.
Another quick POP followed by another level
of dimness. I turned around expecting to see someone but what I saw was the
overhead lights at the very end slowly going off.
Pop. Pop. Pop. They were fizzling out and
leaving the once-bright hallway in darkness, as if some invisible being was
going along and removing the bulbs. I knew enough that the scenario wasn’t all
that crazy.
The dark was catching up with me. I turned
and started to run as quietly as possible, chalking it all up to faulty wiring
on a stormy night. But as I neared the stairwell at the end, the stairwell
lights went off and so did every other light in the hallway.
The darkness engulfed me. I paused,
disoriented and scared out of my wits.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of footsteps raced toward me from
the far end of the hallway. They didn’t sound quick but they were coming.
For me.
I ran blindly for the door and felt around
for it until my hands connected with the handle. I yanked it. It wouldn’t open.
The door had locked behind me. There was blackness outside and in. I whirled
around, hearing the footsteps still coming, this strange, slow and sloppy run.
They stopped somewhere in front of me, maybe
a few inches away. I held my breath. All I could feel was that terrifying
notion that something was standing in the dark and watching me. Wanting me.
“Please let me die.” The voice from earlier
came from down the hall.
“Yes, please let me die,” another voice came,
this one closer to me and from the left.
“He let me die,” said one more. This one
sounded familiar. This one wasn’t a human being, a patient in a room with no
hope or normal life left. This one had an accent. This one was dead. It was
coming from right in front of me.
I slowly stuck my arm straight out in front
of me. I wanted to see how close it was. I waved it around but hit nothing.
Raucous laughter erupted from the rooms. It
caught on like a wave, crashing down the hall until it was all I could hear. Insane,
unforgiving, unrelenting laughter, the type that you’d hear being howled at the
moon. It reverberated through the hallway until it forced me to cover my ears.
I thought about calling Dex. He could come
down and let me out. I could tell him I went to look for the bathroom on this
floor. I took one hand away from my ear and took out my phone, conscious of not
crushing the vulnerable, secret meds in my pocket.
BANG!
The lights above me suddenly came on with the
sound of snapping wires and the low hum of a generator kicking in. The area
just in front of me was illuminated, hurting my eyes. I could see again.
And there was nothing there.
The same went for the rest of the hallway. As
each light went back on, it showed how empty the place was. And the laughter
stopped along with it.
Until the end.
The last light went on.
There was a woman standing beneath the waxy
light bulb. In the middle of the hall. Facing me. She was far enough away that
I couldn’t make out her face. But I knew from the snakelike angle of her head
that I didn’t want to.
She stood as still as night, not moving. Just
facing me like a gunslinger during a standoff.
This…wasn’t good.
I slowly lifted up my hand that had the phone
and dialed Dex while keeping my eyes on her.
She still hadn’t moved. But I knew it was misleading.
I put the phone to my ear and after a few
rings (I could almost hear it ringing on the floor above) he answered.
“Perry? You OK?”
“I’m locked on the second floor,” I
whispered. “Please come and let me out right now.”
“OK, one sec,” he said. I heard him hang up,
a few footsteps from above and then the sound of the third-level door opening
onto the stairwell. I breathed a sigh of relief, not taking my eyes off the
figure at the end.
Which was good. Because she twitched. And
now, she was moving, walking toward me, twice as fast as a normal person,
almost gliding down the hall as if she were on skates.
Her arms were outstretched, her head wobbled
back and forth with each quick stride, and a thick flow of blood flowed off of
her, falling to the floor behind her like a red bridal train.
It happened so fast.
She was there.
And then she was in my face.
Karina Halle
Author of The Experiment in Terror Series
Look for Book #5 - On Demon Wings - out May 13th, 2012
***GIVEAWAY DETAILS***
From April 16-20 Darkhouse will be FREE on the following sites!
IN ADDITION, you can enter to win YOUR choice of eBook from the series!!!!!
Ack! I remember this scene from the book. Super tense! I know you don't like scary books, Autumn. I'm not usually a fan either. But this series is so great.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
I actually do plan on reading it because of you and Jess. If I get scared you girls are in trouble though! LOL
DeleteLove these types of books to read at night with the lights off while hubby is asleep next to me. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle of the first book, Darkhouse, right now. I'm loving it. I really think I'll enjoy the rest of this series from what I've read already.
ReplyDeleteOMG, you guys are killing me with reviews of this book. I finished Dead Sky Morning but I have yet to get to this one. And yes, you should totally read this series even if you aren't a fan of scary books!
ReplyDeleteI will. I got Darkhouse today and signed up for another tour for the next book release. Hopefully I can handle it. LOL
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