Sneak Peek Saturday: Some Like It Haunted

Today’s excerpt is from Some Like it Haunted, a paranormal Halloween themed tale from Mystic Valley.

Villa Montera is one of Mystic Valley’s most infamous haunted houses. Owned by the eccentric Miguel Montera, the house is closed to visitors and guests at all times. The only way to get a peek past its high walls is to win the coveted Montera Assignment, a prize offered once every three years to the top graduate student in Mystic Ridge University’s School of Paranormal Studies. The winner gets to spend Halloween night witnessing a true haunting in progress, and is awarded a hefty grant and a prestigious publication credit.

Sara Patel and Reed Mercier are the undisputed king and queen of the School of Paranormal Studies, long time rivals who have spent the past two years fighting for the top spot. When the dean tells them that they’re going to have to split the Montera Assignment–and share the grant and publication that goes along with it–their friendly rivalry threatens to explode.

Of course, if either of them knew they were about to cross paths with a lusty ghost with more than enough power to possess the unwitting, they might have decided to spend Halloween safely at home.

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Just when Sara thought her day couldn’t get any worse, her scarf caught on fire.

Her classroom erupted into pandemonium. The air filled with the smell of singed cashmere as Sara struggled to untangle the scarf from her neck. Erin, the eighteen year old pyrokinetic who had tried to light a candle and missed, let out a startled shriek and frantically waved her hands in the air. In response, the fire tickling the end of Sara’s scarf engulfed three more inches of beautiful hand-knitted cable-stitch.

“Someone blow it out!”

“Air will make it burn faster, dumbass!”

The warning came too late. The lighter items on Sara’s desk went flying as Nate, the class’s lone elementalist, sent a miniature whirlwind swirling toward her.

Dodging an entire stack of homework cost her valuable time, time during which the fire crept dangerously close to her hair. God, not the hair–

“Erin, where’s the emergency bucket?”

“What?”

“The water!”

Sara ignored the shouts and stayed calm enough to get her poor scarf unwrapped from around her neck. She dropped it to the floor just as Brandon shouted in triumph.

All five gallons of water from the bucket in the corner spiraled into the air and cascaded over her head, drenching her, her clothes, and her desk.

Silence fell. Someone in the back of the room snickered and was quickly shushed by someone else. She glanced at Brandon and found the telekinetic grinning at her. “Did you see my control?”

Did you see the scarf already on the damn floor? But Brandon was so proud of himself, which she supposed he had every right to be. The trick with the water had been a fine bit of control for a telekinetic. She forced a smile before bending over to pick up the charred remains of what had been her very favorite scarf.

When she stood, the wet , stinking yarn clutched in one hand, she found out that her day could, indeed, get worse. Much worse. Her fingers tightened around her scarf as she stared at Reed Mercier, her rival for top spot in the department.

She’d bet good money she wasn’t the only one staring. Reed was the sort of man women loved to stare at.

All the women might be staring at Reed, but he was looking at her. Soaked to the skin, standing in my shambles of a classroom, holding a burnt scarf. Perfect.

She’d bet none of his students lit his clothing on fire, tore up his desk with whirlwinds, or upended buckets of water over his head. None of his students do anything but stare at him, she thought bitterly. It wasn’t quite the truth–Reed was a good teacher; she’d sat in on enough of his classes to know that–but he did have a tendency to attract a lot of young women who took his classes “for the elective credit.”

Silence stretched out between them, finally broken by nervous laughter from one of the girls in the front of the classroom. “Hey, Mr. Mercier. Erin’s been setting things on fire again.”

He leaned one shoulder against the door frame and grinned at Sara as he watched her drip on the floor. “Who put it out?”

Brandon didn’t give her a chance to answer. “I did! And you should have seen it, not even a splash, I held all the water together until it…uhh…” He made a vague gesture toward Sara, and she gritted her teeth with the effort it took not to snap at him.

Reed just turned his smile to Brandon and nodded. “Good job. I’m sure Ms. Patel appreciates it.” When he glanced back, his eyes focused on her chest for a moment before returning to her face.

Sara glanced down at her shirt. Her very wet, very clinging shirt through which her bra was now very visible. And not just her bra… It was cold in the room.

Heat flooded her cheeks as she jerked her head back up and turned to look at her class. The girls might be staring at Reed, but the boys… Oh, they were staring at her. Most of them didn’t even bother to look guilty about it.

She crossed her arms over her chest and attempted to adopt a professorial attitude. “Who’s going to stay and help clean up?”

Reed shoved away from the doorway and strolled toward her, his movements slow and graceful. “No need for volunteers. I’ll do it.”

Four girls’ hands shot up.

Sara fought the urge to groan. “Okay, out. Everyone out. If you all clear out in under thirty seconds, no homework tonight.”

Reed flattened himself back against the wall as the students almost trampled him in their haste to leave.