Title: Life Minus Me
Series: The Evanstar Chronicles, Book .5
Author: Sara Codair
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: January 6, 2020
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: No Romance
Length: 23500
Genre: Paranormal, LGBT, Angels, Mental illness, Psychic ability, Pets, #ownvoices, Fae/fairies
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Synopsis
Mel is half Angel, but despite her
ability to heal and read minds, she feels powerless to help anyone. When a
prophecy shows a local pet supply store owner driving their car off a bridge,
Mel sets out to stop it.
Baily, owner of Barks and Bits, is
barely holding it together. Things keep going wrong, and their depression
spirals out of control. Just as they start wondering if they’d be better off
dead, a new friend provides a glimmer of hope. But is that enough to keep
living?
Mel never thought saving Baily would be
easy, but she can’t figure out when, where, or why Baily’s suicide will happen.
As her confidence fades away, she wonders how she can help anyone when she
needs so much help herself.
Excerpt
Life Minus Me
Sara Codair © 2019
All Rights Reserved
Mel
Saturday
Sun beat down on Mel’s cold, rosy
cheeks, and wind whipped her blonde hair into a frenzy of thrashing strands.
She sped up on I-95 in a yellow Jeep Wrangler with the top down on a chilly
Saturday morning in January. The fact that she even felt cold at all reminded
her that she was a little human…25 percent human.
A salty chill grew in the air. A green
bridge loomed on the horizon. It crossed the Piscataqua River, the border
between Maine and New Hampshire, leading her from the place where she, a
seemingly human college senior who lived with her grad-student fiancé, was
deciding which medical school to attend, to one where she was an
Angel-Elf-Human hybrid who fought Demons and healed minor injuries. Sometimes,
Mel felt like she lived in two worlds. In one, science and reason left little
room for belief in the supernatural. In the other, her maternal grandmother was
an Elf, her father was an Angel, and the rest of her family members were Demon
hunters.
They weren’t technically two separate
worlds so much as cultures, one hidden from the other. Mel led a double life in
this messy multifaceted world where she tried her best to make it a better
place. She tried, but she failed more than she succeeded.
She tapped the steering wheel with her
fingers, drumming a rhythm to a song someone was listening to in the car in
front of her, one she wasn’t hearing through her ears, but through telepathy
she’d failed to turn off. She understood even less of the science behind her
mind reading than that of her healing abilities.
Speeding up, she passed the pickup truck
whose driver was loudly thinking about the music he was listening to and how it
reminded him of his ex-boyfriend. Mel imagined the rush of wind, the growl of
her engine, and a big brick wall shielding her mind from everything outside her
skull until the music ceased. Mostly. She’d inherited her telepathic powers
from her father, but she didn’t control the ability nearly as well as he did.
She tightened her grip on the steering
wheel. It was going to be at least another hour before she got to Mary’s Eats,
a diner where she was meeting her cousin, Erin, for breakfast.
Driving was difficult when her attempts
to control her telepathy failed, but crowded restaurants were more of a
challenge. When Mel stepped through glass doors into the diner, other people’s
thoughts battered the mental walls she’d constructed around her mind. She
squeezed by the line of customers waiting for tables, ignoring their glares and
reinforcing her shields so the dull, incoherent murmuring of a dozen minds
faded away.
The L-shaped room was filled with pink
and blue tables that had been there since the 1950s. The faux-wood vinyl floors
were less than a year old, installed around the same time the owners had gutted
the walls to insulate them, updated the wiring, and added gender-neutral
bathrooms. Those bathrooms, along with the large portions of bacon that the
restaurant served, were why Erin often insisted on meeting here.
Erin sat in the fifth booth from the
line, hood up and headphones on. Rocking back and forth to the beat of music
Mel couldn’t hear, Erin shredded a straw wrapper and stared at the silverware.
Two menus sat untouched on the edge of the table.
A bony shoulder collided with Mel’s
back. Newspapers flew up into the air and floated to the floor like feathers
from broken wings as a man with wispy gray hair and pasty skin jumped backward.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, catching his
balance on the side of the booth. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“It’s fine. It’s a good thing you didn’t
fall.” Mel bent down and started picking up the dropped papers.
“I’ll get them. I’m healthier than I
look.” The old man bent down and scooped up more pages.
Mel picked them up quicker and then
helped him back to his feet.
“Thank you,” he said, before shuffling
off to a table where a younger person with short brown hair and rosy cheeks
glared at a computer screen.
“Cooper, these numbers don’t look
right,” said the person, picking at chapped lips.
Cooper clutched his disorganized
newspaper to his chest as he looked over the person’s shoulder. “That check was
only supposed to be for $5,000, not $50,000!”
“Call the bank. They close at noon,”
said the younger person.
“Mel? Someone else is going to walk into
you if you keep standing in the middle of the aisle,” said Erin, whose hood and
headphones were now off.
“Good point.” Mel slid into the seat
across from Erin. “It’s been a long week.”
“It must be horrible, going back to school
after having a month off.” Erin gathered pieces of their shredded straw wrapper
into a pile and slid them under the menu.
“You had a couple weeks off too.” Mel
fidgeted with the ring on her left-hand ring finger.
“Over which I had to write a five-page
paper. You had no homework and get to start all new classes.” Erin picked up
the butter knife and put it down, squeezing their hands together.
“Are you okay?” Mel leaned forward and
tilted her head, peering at Erin’s grass-green eyes, barely resisting the
temptation to let her shields down so she could read Erin’s mind.
“Not really.” Erin yanked their right
hand away from their left, running their fingers through short, red curls. “The
meds my new doctor had me on were actually working until I broke out into
hives, got really dizzy, and couldn’t keep a single meal down.”
“That sucks.” Mel curled her hands
around the edge of the booth’s seat, digging her fingernails into the old
vinyl. Erin wasn’t much more human than Mel, which was probably why medications
intended for humans didn’t work. But Erin didn’t know that, and Mel couldn’t
tell them the truth—she was bound by an oath that was impossible to break. Had
she known what the consequences of this secret would be, she never would’ve
agreed to keep it.
“Yup. My stupid brain is already foggy
again, and I can’t focus on getting anything done.” Erin picked up the fork,
spun it around, and ran their fingers over the prongs.
Mel snatched it out of their hand.
“Careful.”
Erin rolled their eyes. “I wish the
server would hurry up and come back now that you’re here. I’m starving.”
“Me too.” Mel slid Erin’s napkin and
butter knife closer, farther away from Erin.
“Really? You think that little of me?”
Erin stood up, fists clenched as they stared out the window to the street where
their car, a Jeep Cherokee built four years before Erin was even born, was
parked outside.
“Erin, I’m sorry. I just…it’s an old
habit, maybe. I’m sorry.” Mel’s hands shook as she waited for Erin to either
accept the apology or storm away. Her chest got tight and her eyes burned. A
year and a half ago, she had sat with Erin in this very diner, thinking Erin
was just fidgeting, not realizing until she dropped her shields that Erin had a
butter knife under the table and was nervously running their thumb back and
forth over the edge until it bled. It was the type of thing that used to happen
all the time, and each time Mel intervened, Erin pushed her further and further
away, resisting help no matter who it came from.
Erin took a deep breath and sat back
down. “I don’t cut anymore, and if me being off medication means you’re going
to start meddling with my life again, I’m not talking to you. Either accept
that I’m fine without your interference or leave me alone.”
“Okay. I’ll stop. I won’t intrude.” Mel
gritted her teeth. Erin would’ve died if she hadn’t meddled. Erin’s bitterness
over Mel’s interference in a suicide attempt was a sign Erin was not fine at
all, but there was nothing Mel could do about it without crossing boundaries
and breaking the fragile trust she’d built with her cousin.
Erin leaned forward. “I have a good
therapist now. Mom isn’t ignoring me as much as she used to. Be my cousin and
friend. Don’t act like some guardian angel trying to save me.”
Mel squeezed her eyes shut, holding
tears in. She’d do what Erin asked, for now, even though it made her feel like
a complete failure, like the shittiest Angel ever.
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Don't miss Book #1 in the The Evanstar Chronicles series, Power Surge, available from NineStar Press
Erin has just realized that for the entirety of their life, their family has lied to them. Their Sight has been masked for years, so Erin thought the Pixies and Mermaids were hallucinations. Not only are the supernatural creatures they see daily real, but their grandmother is an Elf, meaning Erin isn’t fully human. On top of that, the dreams Erin thought were nightmares are actually prophecies.
While dealing with the anger they have over all of the lies, they are getting used to their new boyfriend, their boyfriend’s bullying ex, and the fact that they come from a family of Demon Hunters. As Erin struggles through everything weighing on them, they uncover a Demon plot to take over the world.
Erin just wants some time to work through it all on their own terms, but that’s going to have to wait until after they help save the world.
Meet the Author
Sara Codair lives in a world of words, writing fiction in every free moment, teaching writing at a community college and binge-reading fantasy novels. When not lost in words, Sara can often be found hiking, swimming, or gardening. Find Sara’s words in Alternative Truths, Helios Quarterly, and Secrets of the Goat People, at https://saracodair.com/Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
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