Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday: CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER

It’s Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday! This week we have an excerpt from CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER

This was a significant book for Nadia, since it was the first time the Rebels made an appearance.

Unlike most of my other series, CLOAK GAMES takes place in real locations on Earth, and most of FROST FEVER takes place in Madison, Wisconsin. This at times requires a bit of research. Fortunately, CLOAK GAMES also takes place 300 years in the future, so if anyone emails to complain “hey, Madison isn’t really like that”, I can email back and say “of course not, it’s 300 years in the future, some things have changed.” 🙂

CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER is available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play, and Smashwords.

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A gaunt man walked down the center of the aisle, clad in a trim black suit, his hair close-cropped.

He looked absolutely identical to the disguised anthrophage I had killed outside the Silver Dollar. The man’s shadowed eyes met mine, and he started to change, his human guise dropping away to reveal the grotesque features of an anthrophage.

I stomped on the gas.

The anthrophage’s yellow eyes just had time to widen.

The creature hadn’t seen that coming.

The van’s bumper hit him in the waist, and I ran right over him and kept going. I felt a nasty thump, and then I spun the wheel, the tires squealing as I slid onto the street and slammed my foot onto the gas. The big van surged forward, shooting past the Silver Dollar, and a short time later I was on the freeway, driving exactly the speed limit to keep from attracting the attention of Homeland Security patrolmen. Traffic in Los Angeles is horrendous, even at one in the morning on a weeknight, but about an hour later I was out of the city, past the suburbs, and heading into the desert.

At last I found a rest stop and pulled over. Big recreational vehicles filled the parking lot, the sort veterans of a certain age purchased so they could tour the country before they died. My battered van stood out, but not by that much. I found an isolated parking spot, killed the engine, and sat back against the seat, breathing hard.

I let my Mask dissolve with a groan of relief. Maintaining a Masking spell isn’t nearly as hard as a Cloak, but it’s still an effort. Sweat drenched my tank top, so I pulled off my jacket and threw it into the back of the van.

Right then Morvilind decided to cast his summons again.

Pain exploded through me, sharper and harder than before, and I bit back a scream, gripping the wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. I slumped forward, my forehead bouncing off the steering wheel with a little thump, a fresh wave of pain rolling through me. After a moment the pain subsided. I spent a couple of bad minutes shivering and sweating under my breath, then reached into my jacket and drew out my phone. I sent a text message to Rusk, Morvilind’s butler, asking him to tell Morvilind that I had received his lordship’s summons and would arrive at his mansion within three days.

I sagged in the seat, clutching the phone. A moment later it chimed. Rusk had received the message and would pass it on to Morvilind. Hopefully Morvilind would not use his summons spell again until those three days passed. It would serve Morvilind right if he sent the spell while I was trying to merge into traffic and got killed when I lost control of the van.

But if I got killed, my brother Russell was going to die.

A little chill went through me, and not just from my sweat-sodden clothes. Six years. I just had to hang on for six more years, until Morvilind had cured Russell’s frost fever. Until then, I had to stay alive.

For now, though, I could have a few hours of rest.

-JM