Make sure to clean up your messes.
Keep the cat in the house.
Fraternal twins Nate and Larissa Pantera know all about strange rules. They've grown up with plenty of them, and they have always obeyed those rules without question
However, disturbing things are starting to happen--both at home and at school. And when their parents go missing and a strange messenger appears, they discover that the only way to save them is by breaking all the rules.
Interlopers: A Shifters Novel is the thrilling fantasy adventure. Fans of YA fantasy, such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, love this new series about the Pantera twins, who discover that everything they thought they knew is only the beginning of the truth.
L. M. Davis loves great storytelling. She needs nothing more than a good book and a comfy chair to be happy. She was born in the south, raised in the north, and has several English degrees under her belt. She currently lives in Atlanta and is contemplating getting a cat. It will probably be black. The first two books of her Shifters Novel series, Interlopers and Posers, are available now.
Ok, first, this is a long one, but there are reasons for that.
One of the things that always annoys me as a reader of fantasy in all of its many permutations is the cluelessness of some of these characters. I can never not sigh when Superman somehow becomes unrecognizable as Clark Kent because he puts on glasses (or any version of this misrecognition that helps conceal the main characters' secret identity ). My characters are not clueless. In fact Ray, Nate's best friend is something of a genius, so he's going to notice if his friend is doing something that is not humanly possible. Also, because of the kind of guy that Ray is, he's going to call Nate on it.
This is one of the first times that Nate's secret starts to spill over into his everyday life. It was one of my favorite passages when I was doing readings for Interlopers.
Book Excerpt
Interlopers: A Shifters Novel
“Hey Nate!” Nate looked up from his locker
to see Ray jogging down the hall toward him. He wasn’t
surprised. These between period locker runs had become a
daily occurrence this year. Because they only had one class
together, the only time that they saw each other was between
periods and during gym.
Ray skidded to a stop in front of him and Nate
grinned. “What’s up?”
Instead of answering, Ray grabbed him by the arm
and began tugging him down the hall. Larissa gave him a look
as Ray pulled him past her locker. He shrugged slightly at
Ray’s strange behavior but continued along. The boy’s pull
was insistent, though Nate would have followed him without offering
any resistance as Ray pulled him toward the breezeway that
connected the two buildings of the school.
To his surprise, once they were in the
breezeway, Nate found himself being shoved outside.
“Ray!” he exclaimed. “What are you
doing?” Students of Greendale Middle School were not allowed
outside except for gym and a brief recess after lunch. They
were never, under any circumstances, allowed outside without
supervision. Nate began to struggle against Ray’s
insistent tug, trying to get back to the door before it closed all
of the way.
Ray responded by tightening his grip and pulling
Nate harder. Nate looked at Ray’s hand on his arm and
stumbled forward as Ray wrenched his arm. He could have
pulled away, but to do so would have taken a strength that he was
not supposed to have.
He turned back to the school, even as Ray
dragged him farther away from the building, and watched the doors
slowly creak shut. The doors automatically locked when they
closed. Then there would be no way to get back inside without
someone inside opening the doors. Well, there were ways, but
Nate would rather face the wrath of the teachers than that of his
parents.
“Ray! Stop! We are going to get into so
much trouble!”
Ray did not reply, instead he tugged that much
harder on Nate’s arm and pulled him farther away before finally
stopping near a clump of trees a little distance from the main
building. All of a sudden, Ray stopped pulling. He
jerked to a stop and then stood looking at Nate’s arm in his hand
as though trying to figure out what to do next. In the
silence that followed, the soft click of the locking door sounded
like an explosion in Nate’s ears.
In that moment, Ray dropped his
arm. Immediately, Nate turned, running back towards the
building, though it was already too late to stop the door.
“Look,” Ray called to him, “I didn’t think that you would want
anyone to overhear our conversation.”
His words stopped Nate in his tracks. He
looked over his shoulder at Ray and finally saw in his friend’s
face a seriousness that was completely foreign to the generally
easygoing boy. He glanced worriedly at the now shut doors and
then turned back to Ray.
“What is it,” he asked, his tone serious
now. He realized that this wasn’t just some joke or
prank. Ray was genuinely upset about something.
Instead of answering, Ray said nothing for a long moment. He
just stared at Nate as though he were trying to figure him
out. But the harder and longer he stared, the more confused
he looked. Finally, he spoke.
“It’s…” he began and then stopped.
Nate shifted from one foot to the other under
the scrutiny of his friend’s gaze. He waited for Ray to
continue, but his friend looked like he was having trouble putting
his thoughts into words.
“It’s about…” Ray began again, still searching
for the words. The boy turned away and the silence dragged
on. Nate huffed, growing simultaneously more concerned, while
feeling his patience wearing thin. Upset or not, Ray was
about to get them both in some serious trouble.
"Come on Ray. Spit it out," Nate said,
impatience winning the battle over concern. "We are
really…"
"It’s about the other day," Ray blurted out,
interrupting him. Once he got the first sentence out, it was
like a flood-gate gave way. "How did you do it? I mean,
I know you said reflexes. But Nate, I have been
thinking about it, and what you did was impossible. No one
can move that fast. Not only that, Eric is way bigger than
you, and you just caught him like he was a football or
something. Like he was nothing. How?"
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.