Hyde by Lauren Stewart
Description:
To survive, they must embrace what they most despise
. . . in themselves and each other.
Mitch Turner is everything women want most in a
man—charismatic, successful, drop-dead gorgeous. Except he’s not a man—he’s a
monster.
The only way Mitch can protect others from his
monstrous side is to stop them from getting too close…that and a 7x7 foot cage.
Isolated by his genetic curse, he spends his life hurting people emotionally,
driving them away before Hyde can harm them physically. But, after a night of
the best sex Mitch has ever had, he realizes that might be impossible. Except
the woman he wakes up with claims she doesn’t remember any of it.
Eden Colfax is everything men want most, men other
than Mitch, that is. She’s kind, honest to a fault and sickeningly sweet. To
rid herself of the monsters that haunted her broken childhood, Eden doesn’t
lie, doesn’t curse, and definitely never wakes up naked in strangers’
beds…until the day she does.
Then the flashbacks start—places she’s never been,
people she’s never met, blood she’s never spilled. She discovers she’s split
into two parts—the woman she thought she knew and another who is capable of
anything. And the only person with any answers is the one man she never wants
to see again.
What neither of them know is that someone is
watching them both, manipulating them, determined to see just how evil the two
of them really are. And when the truth begins to seep through the cracks,
leaving them nowhere to turn but each other, they will be forced into a
partnership neither had expected.
Because in life, who you trust is as important as
who you are. And when you can’t even trust yourself, sometimes the only person
you can rely on is the last person on Earth you should be falling for.
*** This novel is
intended for adults only, as it includes lots of cursing, descriptive sex,
biting sarcasm, and themes similar to those in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from which this story was inspired.
About the Author:
After earning degrees in Fine Arts and English,
Lauren Stewart wanted to see the world. A lack of funds meant that she didn’t
get far. She spent two years traveling around Mexico, the Caribbean, and
Canada—first as a choreographer and then as an English teacher—meeting folks
from all the places she couldn’t afford to go to. But that time was highly
useful—she learned about herself, other people, and how insane life actually
is.
Lauren reads in almost every genre. So naturally,
her writing reflects that. With every book, every story, you'll find elements
of other genres--fantasy, mystery, romance, paranormal, suspense, YA, women's
literature, all with a touch of humor because what doesn’t kill us, should make
us laugh.
Excerpt:
Fifteen years ago . . .
He woke up to the screaming. His mom’s.
Different this time. More fearful. More frantic. He ran to the door and threw
it open. His sister barred his way, somehow knowing what he planned to do.
“Move, Shelly!”
“No, Mitch,” she said, her eyes wide.
“Don’t. Don’t go in there. It’ll kill you.”
It. The beast. The creature that had
been part of his life for as far back as Mitch could remember. Even longer for
Shelly and his mom. They never talked about it. As if pretending it didn’t
exist made life easier. Life wasn’t easy. Life was terrifying.
Something had to change.
His mom’s screams were louder. And then
they stopped. Mid-cry, they just stopped. He pushed Shelly out of the way and
ran down the dark hallway toward the living room.
“Mitch, no!”
Too late. It was all too late.
His mother lay on the tile floor. The
only part of her still moving was the blood pooling beneath her body.
The beast stood above her, huge,
smiling. Blood splattered across its neck and chest. It raised its head slowly.
There was a flash of recognition in its eyes, then it blinked, shook itself
like a wet dog, and launched toward Mitch.
Mitch dove to the side. The beast
barreled by him, into the hallway. Toward Shelly.
“Help!”
Her cry slammed into his mind, his heart.
“Shelly!” He grabbed his baseball bat from the entryway and ran.
The beast had her pinned in a corner.
“Are you afraid, bitch?” it growled. “You should be.”
Mitch swung the bat. Three years of
little league and the last two of high school ball packed into one hit. Then
another. But the hall was too narrow.
The beast shoved Shelly against the wall
and then flipped around, laughing darkly. “That all you got, boy?”
Mitch swung again and again, sometimes
making contact with an arm, a shoulder, stepping back as the beast advanced,
toying with him. The bat’s length the only thing keeping the bastard from
reaching him. Back into the living room, it pawed, trying to grab Mitch’s
inadequate defense. If it caught hold, if it backed Mitch into a wall,
everything would end—Mitch, Shelly, everything.
A blow to its head stopped its laughter,
a quiver rippling through its body. “Come here, you little prick!” it roared.
Mitch aimed high for another hit to its
face, one step closer to use the full force of the weapon. The bat rebounded in
his hands as it struck flesh, sending a shooting pain through Mitch’s arms and
shoulders.
Again, he swung. Again, he struck.
The beast stumbled, put its hands to its
ears, still cursing. Another strike landed. Then another. The beast sank to its
knees, its growls turning into grunts of pain.
Mitch lifted the bat above his head. His
legs were numb, his upper body vibrating as he pounded all of his anger, all of
his fear, into the monster lying at his feet.
“Mitch,” his sister begged. “Please
stop. Please.”
He didn’t. He couldn’t.
“Stop! It’s dead. Stop,” she said,
weeping.
He felt Shelly’s arms around his waist,
holding him, pulling him back from the edge. Finally overcome, the bat fell
from his hands, and he let her guide him a few steps backwards. His foot caught
on the rug and he sat down hard, Shelly sliding down beside him.
She crawled on her knees until she was
between him and the bloody bodies on the floor and hugged him tightly.
Over her shoulder, Mitch stared at the
creature. Watched it change, shrink, diminish. Until all that was left was the
lifeless body of his father.
Their father. Dear, old Dad. A man
they had both hated. A man who had been filled with evil when he was human.
Doubly-so each time he transformed into Hyde.
Shelly held Mitch’s shaking body in her
arms, stroking his hair, making shushing sounds, telling him it would be okay.
Would
it? Would it ever be okay? He slumped into her. “Oh, God, Shelly, what did I
do?”
“You had to do it, Mitch. You saved me . . .
saved us. We can be happy now.”
Happy?
“He was a
monster.” Her words stung.
“Don’t say that,” he whimpered.
“But he was. He was evil. He had
to die.”
“Please,
Shelly, don’t say that,” he said through his sobs, his eyes still locked on his
father. “Because . . . that’s what I’m
going to be.”
She stiffened, and then hugged him
tighter, slowly rocking him back and forth. “No, we won’t let it. We’ll figure
something out.”
It was too late. His transformations had
already started. Not as violently as his father’s—not yet—but they’d begun.
When his tears blurred the image of his parent’s bodies, he rested his head on
Shelly’s shoulder and cried.
“You’ll never be a monster, Mitch.”
“I already am.”
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