Against the Darkness (Cimmerian Moon
#1)
by A.M. Griffin
Release Date: 06/04/14
Summary from Goodreads:
This one time, at band camp…aliens
invaded earth. Sounds like a bad riff on an old joke, doesn’t it? Unfortunately
for me and my friends, it’s all too true. I thought a mess like this only
happened in the movies but, as I watch the alien ships hovering over the major
cities, I suddenly realize I’m a thousand miles away from my Mom. From home.
From safety.
Darkness may have fallen over the
world, but I won’t let it claim me. I’ll do anything I have to get back to
Michigan. Yet nothing could prepare me for what we find on our trek north from
Tallahassee. There’s hardly anything the aliens haven’t bombed. Survival, at
any cost, is the name of the game for the few people who haven’t been killed or
captured. As if trying to stay free and alive isn’t enough, I think I just met
the love of my life. And he’s just the kind of bad boy who’ll tear down the
walls I’ve built around my heart—then break it.
Available from:
Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Amazon UK
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT!!
“Shayla,” I say
with my voice in a mixture of a whisper and whine. I’m scared to
say anything louder.
Stomp, stomp,
slide.
My left.
I peer in that
direction, lifting my sword, pointing it to whatever will come at me.
It shakes in the air, my hands almost too unsteady to hold it.
Stomp, stomp,
slide.
Shayla approaches my
back. “Your turn.”
Stomp, stomp,
slide.
“Something is
here,” I choke out.
She inhales sharply
and steps back, away from me. Only after I feel the tug on the back
of my shirt do I realize that she has me, pulling me with her. I take
a slow deliberate step back and then another, letting her guide me as
I keep my eyes peeled for them. We move to the far corner of the
room. All the while the stomp,
stomp, slide
comes closer and closer, louder and louder.
Briefly I wonder if
they can hear it in the basement. They have to. Will they come up and
save us? Could they even risk it? I don’t think so. We’re on our
own until the aliens leave.
I know we’re at
the wall when Shayla stops abruptly and she leads me to rest my back
on the wall. We’re standing side-by-side, but I get the feeling
that I should stand in front of her. I’m the only one with a
weapon. So I do.
“No,” she
whispers. “What are you doing?”
“I have a sword.”
“Yeah, one that
you’ve been having for all but five minutes.”
“Shhh,” I hiss.
After a blink, it’s
there, blocking the entrance. A lizard, green and scaly. Eight feet
tall, rippling muscles, staring at me with yellow eyes with black,
diamond-shaped iris.
How can a lizard
be muscular?
My mind screams.
I whimper as it
stares down at me, its breathing heavy.
A warm rush of urine
travels down my legs.
Shayla’s scream
seems to pierce through me.
“You will submit
to us.”
Oh, God, No!
In two strides it’s
at us. It reaches out for me and all I can focus on are the claws,
three black claws, almost like talons, coming closer to me.
Instinctively I cringe away from it. But those claws keep coming
toward me.
With a “swish”
of my sword I swing as hard as I can. It glides through his skin like
through butter. A gush of warm liquid sprays me in the face and
torso.
I’m not the only
one who is surprised by what I’ve done. The lizard stares at his
arm with pure shock. I’m in pure shock too. Not that I’ve done
it, but that I’ve taken his hand clear off.
Before I can over
think about what I’ve done, I take another swipe, this time at its
leg. It’s not wearing any clothes, besides some kind of utility
belt, so aiming for its knee is easy. The lizard roars as the sword
passes through it, making him buckle and fall to his left.
I take a bold step
forward and, as it’s falling down, I bring the blade of my sword
down across its thick neck, separating its head from his body.
“Oh God!” Shayla
cries out.
“I killed it. I
can’t believe that I killed it.” My eyes are focused on the ooze
instead of blood that’s dripping from my sword and hand.
“We have to get
back to the basement.” Shayla rushes past me, but I grab her arm
stopping her from leaving the room.
“We can’t. If
there are any more aliens, we’ll lead them straight to the others.”
She pulls her arm
out of my grasp. “They have guns. They can kill them!” She runs
through the door, leaving me to stare at chopped up lizard.
But I have a
sword.
Just as quickly as
she leaves, Shayla comes back, screaming. “There’s another one!”
She runs past me and to a small window on the back wall.
Another lizard, just
like the first comes through the door. It takes a quick look at the
carnage of its friend and in that time I raise my sword, readying for
it.
I killed one. I
can kill another.
With a growl it
turns and uses its tail to knock me from my feet. As I hit the
ground, so does the sword. I hear the clang of metal sliding across
the floor and out of my reach. I can’t take my eyes off of it. It
peers over me to where Shayla is. It lifts up a foot. I see how rough
its skin is, the way his black claws curl inward.
It’s going to
step on me and dig its claws in my flesh, ripping me apart.
About the Author
A.M. Griffin is a wife who rarely cooks, mother of three, dog owner (and
sometimes dog owned), a daughter, sister, aunt and friend. She’s a hard worker
whose two favorite outlets are reading and writing. She enjoys reading
everything from mystery novels to historical romances and of course fantasy
romance. She is a believer in the unbelievable, open to all possibilities from
mermaids in our oceans and seas, angels in the skies and intelligent life forms
in distant galaxies.
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