Beyond Excerpt
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM BEYOND, BOOK 1 IN THE AFTERLIFE SERIES
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Iris shoved open the front door with her hip and walked in, kicking it shut behind her. Her arms too full of bags and shit for her to actually be able to use her hands. She absolutely refused to have to do two tips from her car. The elevator in her building seemed to be permanently broken and she wasn’t doing the stairs twice. Besides, she could carry everything all at once, she had muscles, they were tiny, but they were there. All of this wouldn’t be an issue, if her new neighbours didn’t insist on having loud and constant sex almost all day. If they could keep it in their pants for even an hour, Iris could do her work in her apartment, like an actual sane normal person.
But no, Iris’s new neighbours were basically giant horn-balls, which meant that her thesis project wasn’t getting done at home, because no amount of headphones could drown out the loud screaming from Iris’s neighbour when she climaxed. Yeah that’s what they don’t tell you about apartment buildings. Thin walls means you really get to know your neighbours. And that’s why Iris had multiple bags filled with books, papers, her iPad and Mac and even more books and more papers. Frankly if Iris made it out of Uni without permanent back and shoulder issues, then she’d be surprised.
Iris was starting to think she’d made a giant mistake beginning a doctorate focused on Supernatural Myths and Legends. There was just so much information and history, albeit fictitious history, out there. She was about three quarters of the way through and she was already so sick of studying in general. Don’t get her wrong, Iris loved everything supernatural, but the whole process of her doctorate was starting to crush her love of fantasy and magic. She probably should have taken a gap year before she started, but now she was so close she just wanted to finish up and move on.
Iris walked through the entrance hallway into the living room and she stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the scene in front of her. This was definitely not how she’d left her apartment this morning when she went out. All the books and papers slipped out of her hands when she saw the state of her living room. It had been completely trashed. Her couch had been cut up and stuffing had been strewn everywhere. Her books were thrown all over the room. Her furniture was broken with pieces scattered throughout the room. There were even a few holes gouged into the walls, and floorboards had even been ripped up. “What the fuck?” Iris muttered to herself stunned. This was new and she wasn’t liking it.
Iris put her bags down and stepped over the books and papers that she’d dropped. She walked through her living room and peered into the kitchen. It wasn't any better off than the living room. Glass, plates, cups, everything was broken, shattered into hundreds of pieces all over the floor. Even most of her cupboards were hanging off their hinges; hell, some had been completely ripped off altogether. Really? Even the kitchen cupboards? She was never getting her security deposit back.
So clearly her place had been completely tossed and it was very apparent that the thieves were looking for something. Though for the life of her, Iris had no idea what the hell they could have wanted. She didn’t have anything, well not anything of value, anyway. Hell, her apartment was only a one bedroom. It was small and overpriced, but given the insane price of real estate, she stayed. Plus she was still a student, she didn’t exactly have a lot of money left over for anything else.
Though right at the moment that was irrelevant. Iris knew enough to know, that her apartment being trashed was bad, and that it was way past time for her to get the hell out of here, before something worse happened.
Iris spun around at the same time she took a step backwards towards the door, but she stopped in her tracks as pain exploded through her chest. She was big enough to admit that she squealed in pain and automatically looked down. It took her a moment, a stupidly long moment, for her brain to process exactly what it was that she was seeing.
An arm was sticking through her chest, like right through the space next to her heart. An even stronger wave of pain exploded through every part of her, a slightly delayed reaction and Iris could do nothing but watch horrified, completely unable to doing anything as flames began spreading over her body, encompassing all of her.
Iris looked up to see who was attacking her, but she was barely conscious and due to the pain and blood loss and fucking flames burning her alive, she couldn’t see who was killing her. There was literally nothing but flames and pain and then there was just … nothing.
* * * * *
Iris’s eyes snapped open and she sat up with a panicked start. The last thing that she remembered was flames, then being fucking burned alive. Her hands flew up to her chest in response, automatically patting her chest to check for flames, and to put them out if they were any there. Which thankfully there weren’t, but just to make sure Iris ran her hands over every inch of her chest and was insanely relieved to feel that everything was in one piece and she didn’t seem to be on fire. So maybe, she’d had a weird mental breakdown? Wait, that didn’t sound like her, that was a lot more effort and drama than she usually put into life. Plus it had felt real, like freakishly fucking real.
“Watching you touch yourself is insanely hot.”
Iris’s head snapped up at the sound of the gravelly sexy voice that she didn’t recognise. She had company, of the tall dark and sexy variety. Seriously, he was hot. Six foot four, with a perfectly sculpted body encased in a deep purple shirt, black slacks and shoes. The first few buttons of his shirt were undone, showing off a nice expanse of his deeply bronzed olive toned chest. He had the face of a model, short black hair, piercing green eyes with a gold pupil, because sure that was a thing, a square jaw and sharp cheek bones. And because life was unfair, when the sexy guy had spoken he’d also had a Mediterranean accent. Because he wasn’t already hot enough and the perfect combination of all Iris’s personal kryptonite’s: he’d had to have a sexy accent too. That just wasn’t fair.
Whatever the sexy strangers deal was, Iris wasn’t buying it for a second. There was something wrong with him, there had to be, not only would life not be fair otherwise, but the hot ones were always the most messed up.
Iris refused to get distracted by a pretty face, instead she scrambled up to her feet. Her last memory had been of burning alive and she could swear that had been real, even though it couldn’t possibly be real. Either way, the sexy stranger in front of her could be involved, somehow. That would be a shame though, because then she’d have to kick his ass in retribution if he had been involved in whatever had happened. That’s what she needed to find out. What had happened? And was the sexy stranger in front of her involved? And maybe not get distracted by a pretty face. A really, unfairly pretty face. Focus, Iris.
“Who are you? And what the fuck just happened?” Admittedly Iris’s question came out bitchier than she had intended, but she wasn’t going to apologise. Instead she figured she’d go with it; a little authority and don’t fuck with me vibe would probably work in this situation. Whatever the hell this was, anyway.
“This is what I get for doing a favour for a friend.” Dio grumbled to himself annoyed, as he crossed his arms over his chest. She didn’t need to be so rude. The only thing that made his irritation worse, was that his cock was now as hard as a rock. He couldn’t stop picturing the petite curvy beauty in front of him naked and sprawled on her back. Preferably, with him on top of her.
In Dio's defence it wasn’t his fault, she was bloody gorgeous. Maybe five foot three, but he suspected a bit of her height was due to her heels. Her skinny jeans and knee high boots were plastered to her body so tight, that he could see her every luscious curve. Even her tank top was stretched tight across her full and generous breasts. Watching her run her hands over her chest and cup her breasts moments before, had nearly done him in. Even her face was beautiful. Round, heart shaped, with intelligent warm brown eyes, soft cheeks and a cute button nose. She had straight black hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. She was gorgeous and he couldn't help himself, his eyes trailed right back down to her breasts. He would seriously love to get his hands on them and then his mouth so he could…
“Hey.” Iris snapped clicking her fingers to get the hot guys attention. “My eyes are on my face, not my boobs.” She growled annoyed. His eyes snapped back up to her face and he had the nerve to scowl at her. Iris was internally debating closing the distance between them to smack him upside the head in response. And maybe once she’d done that she could jump his bones. She was seriously torn at what she should do, because she so wanted to do both.
“My name is Dionysus. And as for what’s happening here, you’re dead.”