Glassford
Girl Boxed Set: Parts 1 and 2
Emily
Heart Time Jumper Series
Jay
J. Falconer
Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy /
Paranormal / Young Adult
Publisher: Bear Down Publishing
Date of Publication: 4-10-2015
ISBN: 978-1508985815
ASIN: B00VXYTS2S
Number of pages: 430
Book Description:
Teleportation. Telepathy.
Superior strength and speed. Abilities she never wanted. Abilities she must
learn to control.
Emily Heart used to have a normal
life. A life filled with family, friends, and a warm bed to sleep in. But that
was before the night of The Taking. The night when she was abducted and
genetically transformed against her will.
Now she's lost everything and
living on the streets of Glassford Park, struggling to stay alive one more day.
But it won’t be easy. Not when a gang wants to kill her, cops want to arrest
her, and a reporter wants to expose her.
However, Emily’s problems don’t
end there. Any uncontrolled burst of emotion can send her jumping randomly
across time and space, arriving naked and alone. If she's not careful, she
could travel to infinity and beyond, never to be heard from again.
Emily doesn't quite know what she
is, or what she's capable of, but she knows what she can't afford to do -- feel
anything.
And she can’t afford to make any
mistakes.
Excerpt
August
11, 2013
1:16
a.m.
Emily Heart
pushed through the burning pain in her chest and thigh muscles, convincing her
legs to run faster. She dodged a park bench before jumping over a homeless man
lying under a pile of cardboard.
Her mind’s eye
could see the gunman aiming his sights at the back of her head and squeezing
the trigger, sending the bullet out of the barrel and downrange with supersonic
intent. She leaned to the left, letting the round whiz past her
fifteen-year-old body. It took out the headlight of a cement truck parked
across the street near the alley behind Glassford Street.
The flickering
specks of blue light were fading in her vision. It wouldn’t be long before she
turned normal again. She would then be unable to see through the gunman’s eyes,
or sense the cold blackness of hate she could sense in his heart.
She bent forward
at the waist, using a low-profile running pattern, hoping she’d make it safely
to the alley. She ran through the grass at the edge of the park, over the
sidewalk and hit the asphalt, racing across the empty lanes of the street.
More gunshots
rang out, one after another in quick succession. She couldn’t see where the
bullets were headed, telling her the link with the shooter was broken. Bricks
and mortar exploded all around her as the hailstorm of rounds missed her. They
hit the side wall of an old warehouse covered in spray paint and gang signs.
She turned right, just before the cement truck, and ran down the alley.
“Don’t lose me!”
she yelled at Junie, who was sprinting in front of her, a book bag bouncing on
the back of her rail-thin body. Emily was falling behind, unable to keep up
with the speed and endurance of her twelve-year-old friend from the homeless
shelter.
A minute later,
she heard another round of weapons fire erupt as she was nearing the far end of
the block-long corridor, plinking and ricocheting off the walls around her. She
felt the wisp of a bullet fly through strands of her flowing red hair. It took
out the painted window on the wall ahead of her, shattering it into a million
shards of colored glass.
She looked back
and saw the gang leader standing at the entrance to the alley, changing the
magazine in his weapon. His crew came running into view, just catching up to
him.
She made the
corner and ran further down the passageway, which stank of garbage and sewage.
She hurdled a pothole, then flew over a garbage can laying on its side, almost
losing her balance in the process. But she managed to keep her feet under her
while her shoes pounded the pavement ahead.
Faster, she told
herself, faster! She pushed her feet to their tripping point, trying to draw
more blood and oxygen than her teenage body could deliver. Her legs wanted to
quit—so did her lungs—but she wouldn’t let them.
She pressed on,
looking ahead, trying to spot Junie, but she couldn’t see her anymore. She
turned another corner and saw a scrawny, dirt-covered leg sticking out from
behind a pile of stained mattresses leaning against the wall. She ducked in and
grabbed her friend by the shoulder, dragging her eighty-pound frame forward.
“Run, baby, run!
Don’t stop! One more corner and we’re there! It’s on the left!”
Emily had
learned over the past two years of living on the streets of Phoenix that the
blistering summers were endless and miserable, and so were the nights, keeping
most of the normal people indoors. She knew that nobody was watching, and
nobody cared. There would be no rescue. Not at this time of night, and not in
this part of town. It was up to her to get Junie to safety before the shooter
and his crew killed her.
She felt a
familiar tingle start to grow at the base of her spine when she turned the last
corner. “Oh, no! Not now! Not again!” she cried, trying to steady her nerves as
she caught up to Junie, who was squeezing her skinny body behind the dumpster.
She couldn’t let
it happen. Not so soon. She’d barely recovered from the last time. She needed
to focus all her attention on Junie, and let the balance of her emotions run
dry. It had only been four days since she’d met her fiery companion in the
homeless shelter, but she felt a strong connection with this girl, even though
she barely knew her. She didn’t know why, but something inside of her told her
to protect Junie. She was important somehow, not just another homeless girl
with a deadbeat mother nobody cared about.
She followed
Junie behind the garbage bin and into the hidden doorway; darkness engulfed
them. “Down the stairs. And stay quiet,” she told Junie in a whisper, locking
the door behind her.
“But I can’t
see.”
“Go slow and use
the handrails. There are twelve steps. Count ‘em as you go.”
They made it
down the steps and through another doorway that led into a basement storeroom.
It was piled high with junk and old restaurant equipment that had been
mothballed by the owner. Emily knew this place well, spending at least one
night a week there in recent months. It was her secret hiding place where she
could escape the insanity of the city.
An emergency
exit sign hung over the inside of the door that she’d just entered, showering
an eerie redness over the scene. On the wall to the left stood another door. It
led to a flight of stairs that rose up to the kitchen of a high-end Italian
restaurant. Emily had made friends with the eighteen-year-old busboy, Parker,
who was also a volunteer at one of the local shelters. When he was the last one
to leave for the night, he’d push the red dumpster close to the door as a
signal to Emily that the door was unlocked and she was welcome. She’d swoop in
around midnight, and lock the door behind her.
“Over here,”
Emily said, gesturing to a huge metal cabinet with rusty hinges that was
standing next to a stack of Styrofoam coolers. “I think we lost them.”
Junie’s chest
heaved in and out as it worked to recharge her lungs after the long run. “How
do you know?”
“I can’t feel
them anymore,” Emily replied, equally as winded.
Emily quickly
opened the white cooler sitting on top and put her hand inside, pulling out a
cellophane-wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a banana. As usual,
Parker had left the food for her in the top cooler with a chilled Pepsi acting
as ice to keep the contents from spoiling until she arrived. She tore the
cellophane off, split the bread down the middle, and gave half of it to Junie.
“Here, eat while
you can,” she said, before stuffing the sandwich into her mouth, chewing it
with abandon.
Junie did the
same, smiling, with peanut butter stuck to her teeth. “Sea food,” she said with
her mouth full.
Emily laughed.
“We have a banana for dessert.”
She popped the
Pepsi open and waited to see if the contents would bubble up. It did. She
sucked the cola off the top of the can until the carbonation settled down, then
gave the soda to her friend.
Junie guzzled
several swigs before giving it back to her. Emily swished the can around in a
circle to test its volume—only a quarter of the liquid remained. Emily finished
her half of the sandwich, then washed it down with the last bit of Pepsi.
They plopped
down against the wall beside the cabinet. Junie wrapped her arms around her
knees, keeping the dual-strap backpack sandwiched between her thighs and flat
chest.
“Junie, that’s
not yours. Where did you get it?”
“I—” Junie
hesitated. “I took it.”
Emily sighed,
feeling disappointment spread across her body. “What’s in it?”
She shrugged. “I
snatched it from those boys right before you showed up.”
“Lemme see.”
Junie gave her
the backpack.
Emily unzipped
it and peered inside. “Uh-oh,” Emily groaned. “We’re in big trouble.”
She tipped it to
the side and opened it wide so Junie could see the money inside. Lots of it.
Bundles and bundles of wrinkled $100 bills, each wrapped with a blue rubber
band and slip of notepaper with a four-digit number written on it.
About
the Author:
Jay J. Falconer is an independent
author, publisher, blogger, editor, engineer and Sci-Fi junkie who lives in the
mountains of northern Arizona where the brisk, clean air and stunning mountain
views inspire his workday. He makes his online home at: www.JayFalconer.com and
is an active member author with BookBreeze.com.
Mr. Falconer is the author of the
critically acclaimed Narrows of Time Series and The Emily Heart Time Jumper
Series, and is currently developing an all new apocalyptic Sci-Fi series called
Redfall, The Flames of Tomorrow, due to be released in 2015.
Be sure to watch the video
trailer for the Author's Narrows of Time book series by cutting and pasting
this link: http://youtu.be/QXic3vkwC1U
Website: http://www.JayFalconer.com
Twitter: @JayJFalconer
Tour
Giveaway
1 set of the series (all 3
paperbacks) and $25 amazon gift card to 1 lucky winner
Brought to you by
Ravyn is a sassy, fun-loving, and adventure-seeking young woman. She loves to travel and can’t wait for her next vacation,
