Book Watch: Through the Veil by Shiloh Walker

Posted May 9, 2008 by Casee in News, Promotions | 2 Comments

Yesterday we spotlighted Through the Veil. Today we have an exclusive excerpt! Also, be sure to check back later this month for information on Shiloh’s visit to Book Binge. Who knows, maybe some lucky readers will win a copy of Through the Veil…

Note: This excerpt is from the unedited e-ARC.

Lee worked in a daze. Once she finished with the man, she added to the background, working with the sky, the clouds, drawing in just the barest outline of creatures so monstrous they would have given her nightmares, if she was prone to them. In her mind, they already had names. Jorniak demons. Raviners. Sirvani. Battles raged in her mind as she worked. Hissing calls, furious shouts, the sounds of metal clashing, the hum of a laser weapon. She could almost smell the scent of flesh burnt.

There were no battles for him now, though. The battles had already been fought. Now he rested. Now he prepared. Now he waited…waited for her.

I’m getting tired of waiting, Lee…we need you…

Then silence fell and she heard him, like he was whispering into her ear, from just over her shoulder. How much longer will you hide from what you are?

Lee snorted. “Just because I don’t think you are real doesn’t mean I am hiding,” she muttered as she saved the work. Standing up, she wavered a little, her knees weak and shaky as though as she had just run a mile. Or fought a battle. Pressing a hand to her temple, she laughed shakily and muttered, “You’re losing your mind, chick.”

Actually, you’re a little more sane now than usual, Lee. When are you going to stop fighting the truth, pet?

Lee ran her tongue around the inside of her cheek as she started across her studio. “I’m hearing things,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Man, I need a break. A vacation. Drugs. Something.”

You need to stop being so blind, Lee.

“Damn it!” she shouted, spinning around. “Would you shut up?” That voice sounded so real…holy shit.

It was him. The man from the picture.

He was standing right there.

In her studio.

With hair that flowed to broad, rock hard shoulders, eyes the color of pewter, and a coat like Jack the Ripper would have worn. It hung down to the floor and had won of those weird little capelet things over the shoulders. Under the coat, he had a leather harness on his chest and she could see easily five different blades. His eyes glinted like silver and his hair was raven wing black.

But he was also transparent. Lee pressed one hand to her mouth as black dots started to dance before her eyes. His teeth appeared as he grinned at her, a sensual twist of his lips before he faded away. She managed to whisper out, “Oh, hell,” before she hit the ground.

Long moments later, Lee groaned and forced her lids to lift. There was a throbbing just behind her brow as she sat up. With her hands on the ground, she stiffened her arms and forced her weight up, swearing as the world spun in dizzying circles around her. “Whoa…what in the hell…”

An image of that man danced before her eyes. “For crying out loud,” she muttered, pressing a hand to her temple. Damn it. “Working too hard.”

Yeah. That had to be it. Had to be. She was working too hard, sleeping too little and stressing over it all. That was why he had looked so real to her. There was a life to him that was unlike anything she had ever done in her life. Everything, from the texture of his hair, the color of his eyes, to the demons that surrounded him.

She got her feet, locking her knees when her legs wobbled underneath her. Lee rubbed her gritty eyes, trying to figure out how she had ended up on the floor. She needed to go to bed. But the dreams would chase her too vividly there. His image would follow her. Haunting her with that dark, quicksilver gaze and that that mocking grin seemed to taunt her every time she closed her eyes.

“I’m losing my mind,” she muttered.

Pressing the tips of her fingers to her eyes, she shut her computer down and left her studio. “That’s it. I’m done for the day.”

Kalen watched with a faint smile as she walked away, shaking her head and rubbing the goose egg that was no doubt forming. She’d seen him. He’d seen the shock in her eyes, felt her gaze connect with his…at last…she was already rationalizing it away but for once, he had managed to breach her conscious mind. He opened his eyes and the vision of the Veil faded away, replaced once more by the physical world.

Not everybody could see the Veil, or see through it. It took years of training to see beyond what conscious thought allowed. Kalen had been forced to learn it as he ascended through the ranks of their ragtag rebellion. Considering the demons they fought, they needed all the advantages they could get. It wasn’t always handy, but the few times he’d looked through the Veil and seen what the Warlords of Anqar had planned for his people, he knew it was worth it. Saving just one life would have been worth it.

Being able to use it to spy on Lee was just a bonus.

Maybe tonight, they would speak of something more than the battle against Anqar.

Hours later, Kalen muttered to himself, “And perhaps kittens will fly.”

Lee stood in front of the front line of the temp base set right at the city limits. Angeles lay before them in ruins. Up until Kalen had moved his people here, the only living creatures in the ruined city were the few poor souls that had managed to evade both demon and Sirvani.

She stood quiet and intent, focused on something that he couldn’t see or sense, although he wouldn’t have been surprised if she was feigning that serious focus on something just so she wouldn’t have to look at him. From the time she had appeared out of the forest at sunset, Lee had been ignoring him entirely, like that brief, surreal moment earlier in the day hadn’t happened. If Kalen had thought things would be different, he was very much mistaken.

It was business as usual for the pale, pretty blonde. The past few weeks had gone by with an uneasy quiet. It didn’t bode well for them. Other than the encroaching bands of Raviners and the demon attack in the mountain settlement, there hadn’t been much demonic activity on the radar. Small skirmishes, but very few outright attacks and absolutely no raids for nearly two months. The Gate wasn’t completely inactive—weird little flickers that lasted a few heartbeats before it fell silent.

Their enemies never went this quiet for long. Lee’s presence only added to Kalen’s unease. The woman usually only showed up this regularly when trouble was brewing. She was silent and tense, her body practically vibrating from the nerves inside of her as she paced the perimeter of the encampment.

Kalen didn’t think it was the devastated landscape that held her attention.

Much of the city had fallen to ruins, but the inhabitants of New Angeles were determined not to lose one more square foot of their land. Anqar had been a blight on Ishtan for centuries untold. Entire families went missing in the dead of night. A horde of demons slipped through a gate and devastated small villages.

But Ishtan had always battled them back. The small raiding parties that came through were nothing that Ishtan couldn’t handle. But the past two generations had seen drastic changes, and all of it for the worse. Gates were blasted open, unleashing a series of natural disasters that devastated the land. Entire armies replaced the small raiding parties. Demons came through unchecked.

Ishtan was being overrun. Even though their resistance had battled back the invaders from Anqar, Kalen knew their luck wouldn’t hold forever. When they fell, it was over.