Eerie
by C.M. McCoy
Release Date: 15 Dec 2015
Omnific Publishing with distribution through Simon &
Schuster
Synopsis
Being a ParaScience freshman is a nightmare come true
Hailey’s dreams have always been, well...vivid. As in monsters from her nightmares follow her into her waking life vivid. When her big sister goes missing, eighteen-year-old Hailey finds the only thing keeping her safe from a murderous 3,000-year old beast is an equally terrifying creature who’s fallen “madly” in love with her. Competing to win her affection, the Dream Creature, Asher, lures her to the one place that offers safety—a ParaScience university in Alaska he calls home. There, she studies the science of the supernatural and must learn to live with a roommate from Hell, survive a tunneling earworm, extract a carnivorous splinter, evade the campus poltergeists, and hope the only creature who can save her from an evil immortal doesn’t decide to kill her himself.
Hailey’s dreams have always been, well...vivid. As in monsters from her nightmares follow her into her waking life vivid. When her big sister goes missing, eighteen-year-old Hailey finds the only thing keeping her safe from a murderous 3,000-year old beast is an equally terrifying creature who’s fallen “madly” in love with her. Competing to win her affection, the Dream Creature, Asher, lures her to the one place that offers safety—a ParaScience university in Alaska he calls home. There, she studies the science of the supernatural and must learn to live with a roommate from Hell, survive a tunneling earworm, extract a carnivorous splinter, evade the campus poltergeists, and hope the only creature who can save her from an evil immortal doesn’t decide to kill her himself.
PRE-ORDER EERIE for $2.99
Early praise for EERIE
“5 stars! I felt there was a mash-up between Hogwarts,
Xavier Institute for Exceptional Youngsters, and Beauty and the Beast, AND I
LOVED IT! The creatures, the classes, the college, the Middle of Nowhere! How
awesome!”
- Truth About Books by A. Fae on EERIE
“I would definitely buy this series. I really loved these characters. It read very quickly, and the Alaska jokes really got me giggling.
- Confessions of a Book Whore, Jamie S. on EERIE
“EERIE is Harry Potter meets Twilight meets the Bible with a little bit of the abusive/controlling 50 Shades male mixed in. This is a really fast-paced, exciting novel. There is plenty of drama, romance, mystical beings and mystery to keep you flipping the pages and promising yourself "just one more chapter" before bed. And then before you know it, ten o'clock turns into two in the morning...again.”
- Amanda's Own Little Corner Book Reviews
- Truth About Books by A. Fae on EERIE
“I would definitely buy this series. I really loved these characters. It read very quickly, and the Alaska jokes really got me giggling.
- Confessions of a Book Whore, Jamie S. on EERIE
“EERIE is Harry Potter meets Twilight meets the Bible with a little bit of the abusive/controlling 50 Shades male mixed in. This is a really fast-paced, exciting novel. There is plenty of drama, romance, mystical beings and mystery to keep you flipping the pages and promising yourself "just one more chapter" before bed. And then before you know it, ten o'clock turns into two in the morning...again.”
- Amanda's Own Little Corner Book Reviews
Excerpt
A Guarded Girl
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most
fatal to true happiness.”
Bertrand Russell
Hailey stared at the empty can on her tray, silently willing
the caffeine to kick in. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep, dream of
monsters, and have an “episode” in front of her 200 closest non-friends.
No way she’d let that happen.
Now if only her droopy eyelids would cooperate, because the
hard plastic chair under her butt sure wasn’t. The dang thing was teasing her
and feeling mighty comfy, like a puffy armchair, and she was sinking fast.
Thankfully, though, just as her head bobbed, the bell rang, jolting her into a
wide-eyed, full-body spasm.
Great. Real smooth, she thought, rubbing her face with both
hands as a few gigglers shuffled past.
She groaned, rising with all the enthusiasm of a mushroom,
not at all looking forward to another two hours inside the social torture
chamber, or as everyone else referred to it, South Side High School.
She was so intent on avoiding the students there for the
rest of her senior year that she rarely looked up from her books anymore, and
those last two hours dragged. When three o’clock finally rolled around, she
bolted outside, took the first open seat on the bus, rested her head against
the window, and let it bounce there. She was just about to make it through another
day of school very happily unnoticed, when Tage Adams smacked her on the back
of the head.
“Ah!” she yelled, startled from sleep.
The bus was waiting at their stop, like normal, and Tage was
waiting for her in the aisle, politely—not normal.
Tucking a wayward strand behind her ear, she hurried off the
bus.
Tage followed.
“What’s up with you today?” he said nonchalantly, adjusting
his pace to walk next to her.
He’d never done that before.
“Nothing,” Hailey said, surprised Tage was talking to her.
They’d been catching the bus at the same stop for four years, and he’d never so
much as looked at her.
“You’re usually not like that, that’s all.”
“Like what?”
“Nodding off in class, falling asleep on the bus…you know,
slacking off. It’s just, you know, you usually have your nose in a book.”
He watches me?
“Oh,” she said, unsure.
“Guess you were working late last night…St. Paddy’s Day…”
“Yeah.” Of course she was working late. Her family owned the
most popular Irish pub in Pittsburgh. Hailey pressed her lips together. Small
talk was not her thing. Especially not with him.
Her mind went blank.
Searching the pavement for a thought, she chewed her lip as
too many seconds stretched the silence. Finally the pressure forced her good
sense aside and she opened her mouth to say…anything.
“What’s—”
“Well, see ya ‘round, Dancing Queen.”
She snapped her mouth shut and waved as he peeled off and
trotted down Bridge Street. She tried to form the word, “bye,” but all that
came out was “buh—”. Standing dumbfounded, she stared after him. She hadn’t
realized Tage knew she existed, let alone the fact that she waitressed. And
danced.
Stunned, Hailey walked, then jogged, then stopped dead to
puzzle over what had just happened. Then she jogged again until she finally
reached the pub.
Nobody at that school “chatted” with Hailey. Not since the
fourth grade, not since the day a particularly mean girl concocted a
particularly ugly rumor—that Hailey had started the fire that killed her
parents. The whispers and sideways glances lasted close to a year, and in
trying to defend herself, Hailey only made things worse. By the time she
figured out that nobody else believed in pyromaniac-nightmare-monsters, it was
too late. She’d already earned the label, “weirdo,” which, unfortunately,
stuck.
Nowhere to Hide
“Judge of your natural character by what you do in your
dreams.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hailey plunked her head on the desk and groaned. Why, why…why
couldn’t she just tell Asher that she wanted out, that she was afraid—afraid of
the others, afraid of dying, and even afraid of…of him. After all, he was
planning to kill her. Only temporarily, but still.
She couldn’t believe she was even considering it, but she
had no choice. If Asher didn’t kill her, one of the others would.
Permanently.
And Asher protected her. He cared about her. He loved her,
right? Asher—an emotionless creature. Hailey wasn’t sure if he was even capable
of love.
Oh, this made absolutely no sense. Kill her to save her? Was
that love?
Freshman year at her dream college was turning into
nightmare, and as she rolled her forehead on the desk, the library’s impossibly
large ceiling clock echoed a thump with her heart. She simply had to pull on
her big girl pants and tell Asher she was done.
That’s all.
She squeezed her eyes shut as a swarm of butterflies took
flight in her stomach.
Lately, she felt an awful lot like Jekyll and Hyde: logical,
rational ParaScience student by day—emotional monstrosity at night. Come to
think of it, this was more like The Phantom of the Opera, and she was the naïve
student who didn’t realize the secret and strange angel she’d come to know was
actually a homicidal maniac…
“I’m not a maniac.”
Hailey jumped up. She didn’t mean to say that out loud.
Asher slid behind her, putting his lips next to her ear.
“But I suppose I am homicidal,” he whispered, his breath on her skin sending
goose bumps down her arms and legs.
She leaned into him and sighed.
So much for steadfast resolve.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her closer.
“How did you know I was here?” she whispered.
“You were dreaming, Hailey,” he murmured. “I’ll always find
you when you’re dreaming.”
About C.M. McCoy
C.M. McCoy is an Irish dancer and former Air Force officer
living in the Great White North. Though B.S.'d in Chemical Engineering and
German, she’s far happier writing stories involving Alaska and a body bag (with
an awkward kiss in the mix.) While working emergency dispatch for Alaska State
Troopers, she learned to speak in 10-codes, which she still does...but only to
annoy her family.
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