Title: Lexia
Author: Rachel Raithby
Release Date: July 26th
Hosted By: Book Enthusiast Promotions
Lexia thought she was normal, ordinary...
Lincoln thought he'd spend his whole life seeking revenge...
Find out what happens when the one you love is your enemy...
When Lexia sneaks out one night to go to a party, she hardly expects to be attacked by vampires. Much less be able to kill them with her bare hands.
That night triggers events Lexia can't escape and soon she struggles to keep up the facade around her friends and family.
And then there's Lincoln, she find herself irresistibly drawn to him. But Lexia senses he wants something more dangerous than a simple romance.
Lincoln has secrets and what she learns changes her life forever. A story of love, loss and betrayal. Only one things is certain Lexia and Lincoln's lives will never be the same again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Her feet pounded on the
pavement as she raced down the dirty backstreets of Deadwood; the night had
turned cool turning each heavy breath into a misty vapor.
They’re so fast, she thought,
why didn’t I stay in tonight? Just for some stupid party! Now I’m being chased
by these... these... things. What are they?
Lexia turned the
corner, stumbling on the uneven curb, and gasped as she came to a dead end.
She whirled around to
see the three creatures circling her. Fear closed her throat; she tried to
scream but nothing would come out. Her eyes widened in fright as they flashed
their razor sharp teeth at her. Vampires?
They had blood-red eyes
and pale ghostly skin stretched tight over hard angular bones; they looked like
the living dead! And they were going to kill her.
Lexia backed into the
wall, her hands grazing along the rough surface, wishing she could somehow melt
into it. She felt so frightened and her body shook in terror as tears silently
streamed down her face. I’m sorry, Dad,
she thought as they all leapt at once; a whimper left her lips as she curled
into a ball, their razor sharp nails slashing at her skin, gouging into her
flesh. She cried out in pain, fear crushing her mind, blackness taking over,
when...
Lexia felt her mind go
blank and the pain... it was torture as adrenaline rushed through her veins,
charging her muscles with strength, taking over her body. With a cry she stood
up throwing the vampires off her; it all happened so quickly, she tore them
limb from limb like a crazed animal until there was nothing left but her
quivering body soaked in blood. A metallic bitter smell filled her nostrils;
she could hear her heavy breaths, and looking around all she saw was red,
death, and darkness.
Lexia stood for what
felt like hours looking upon the scene before her; the torn bodies slowly
rotted in front of her eyes, then panic bubbled to the surface as she finally
got her voice back and she screamed, screamed so hard her throat burned. Tears
ran down her blood-stained face as she realized what she’d done - she’d created
this darkness, she’d caused their deaths.
People
running to her cries could be heard in the distance; snapping back to reality,
Lexia looked around one last time, how do
I explain this? I can’t. She ran into the night not paying attention to the
direction she took or the fact that she could now run faster than she ever had
before. Lexia just thought of putting one foot in front of the other, of the
vibrations travelling up each foot as it pounded on the pavement.
*******
Lexia woke early the
next morning on the forest floor; her body felt stiff with the dried blood that
coated her skin. As her brain slowly remembered the previous night she shot up
on her feet, spinning around, bracing to attack.
But she was alone,
surrounded only by tall pine trees, their needles littered the floor and stuck
to her clothes. Lexia glanced around herself one last time and then shot off
through the trees to her home. ‘Dad’s
going to freak if I don’t get home in time!’ As that thought drifted
through her head, Lexia somehow found the energy to run faster. Five minutes
later she stood at the edge of the trees that lined her garden. There were no
signs of life in the old wooden house, so she ran to the trellis below her
window climbing with an ease she’d never had before. She got back in her room
and under the duvet as her dad poked his head around the door.
“Time to get up Lex,
sweetie.”
Lexia’s dad, Mike, had
raised her on his own since her mother, Lucy, had walked out when Lexia was 5
months old. Lexia had only one picture of her mother, it was taken when she had
just been born; Lucy was looking down at her baby, her pale blond hair covering
her face. Lexia didn’t know what she looked like but sometimes she would dream
of a woman with blond hair singing to her.
Lexia had asked her dad
if her mother had sung to her as a child but he would never answer her
questions about her mother; he always closed up and snapped at her as if the
mere thought of Lucy caused him pain. Lexia had tried to come to terms with the
fact that she would never know her mother and the reason she’d been left
behind; but sometimes, no matter how hard Lexia tried, she would long to meet
her mother.
As her dad walked down
the stairs, Lexia got up and looked at herself in the full-length mirror that
hung on the back of the door.
Her long boots were
torn and the leather stained darker on the toes and ankles; her hands trailed
over her shredded jeans. The back of her blouse was also in ribbons. She took
it off looking at her torn skin and where it had already started to heal, some
gashes were just faint, red lines. Stripping off the rest of her clothes, Lexia
stood looking at herself in her underwear. Even with all the muck and blood
that stained her skin, she couldn’t miss the subtle changes to her body. Her
stomach was just that tiny bit tighter, the slightest hints of a six pack
showing. In fact her whole body just seemed more refined; as she moved forward
muscles shifted under her skin. Lexia looked closely at a slash across her
cheek and gasped as it started to heal. She watched in horror as the flesh
knitted back together, felt the tingling, stabbing sensation, and then prodded
her finger against the red scar line as it disappeared.
“What has happened to
me?” she whispered against her fingers.
She wanted to hide, to
run, to cry, but then she noticed her eyes and how they had changed. No longer
were they just a clear, crystal blue but blue with a fine rim of gold lining
the pupil. She couldn’t hide from this; there was something wrong with her, the
evidence staring back at her every time she looked in a mirror.
Lexia started to back
away from the mirror. She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the person
staring back at her. She could feel herself trembling and hear the galloping
rhythm of her heart. So many emotions bombarded her as she decided whether to
call for help or hide away from the world. She stumbled forward as the back of
her legs hit the foot of her bed. “What am I?” she squeaked.
“Lexia, everything
alright?” her Dad called up the stairs.
She didn’t answer at
first. Am I okay?
“Lex?”
“Yeah... fine, Dad. Just tripped,” she called. Her
eyes hardening, she could never tell a soul.
Lexia dashed across the
hall and locked herself in the bathroom. She stepped into the bath, turning on
the shower and watched as the water turned red at her feet from the
near-scalding cascade skimming over her body. She stared at the pale blue walls
of the bathroom, the night before playing over and over in her head and she
wondered whether she had gone mad, whether everything that had happened had
just been a dream. Then she glanced down to the pink water pooled at her feet
and realized she wasn’t mad. The blood washing off her body wasn’t make-believe
and the cuts and scrapes that covered her skin had been made from the sharp
nails of vampires, but the scariest thing of all - magically watching her skin
heal. What am I? she thought again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rachel was born and raised in N.E., England and then moved to New Zealand in 2008. She now lives in Queensland, Australia with her husband, two children and the family dog and horse. LEXIA is her debut novel, and she is currently working on the next book in The Deadwood Hunter series and also a YA Fantasy novel.
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