The Storm (The Rain #2) Spotlight {excerpt & giveaway}

The Storm Spotlight Tour is stopping by today with an original excerpt and awesome giveaway...

The Storm

(The Rain #2)

by Virginia Bergin

10/6/15

Sourcebooks Fire

"I'll tell you a weird thing about apocalypses - a thing I didn't even know until I was in one: they seem pretty bad, don't they? Well, take it from me: they can always get worse."

Three months after the killer rain first fell, Ruby is beginning to realise her father might be dead . . . and that she cannot survive alone. When a chance encounter lands her back in the army camp, Ruby thinks she is safe - at a price. Being forced to live with Darius Spratt is bad enough, but if Ruby wants to stay she must keep her eyes - and her mouth - shut. It's not going to happen. When she realizes what is going on - the army is trying to find a cure by experimenting on human subjects - Ruby flips out . . . and makes an even more shocking discovery: she's not useless at all. The Storm begins 

amazon/b&n/indiebound

EXCERPT FROM THE STORM

From Chapter 10 of The Storm by Virginia Bergin

Drip, drip, drop, dead.

I jumped out of that bath like there were piranhas in it. I hugged towels around me, scratched and scraped them all over my body. No, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. Oh no. OH NO.

All that water wasted. All that water wasted. Wasted.

But I was alive. I was still alive.

I told Simon to fix that shower.

Three minutes? This is going to be a luxury. I will not miss a second of it. Pre-­shower gelled loofah at the ready (I’m surprised the Spratt takes skin care so seriously; it might be Saskia’s influence—­certainly I suspect there must be something other than le fine French cuisine to account for the improvement in his skin), I stand under the showerhead.

I stare up at it. It is one of those big, fat daisy-­head showers. Is it going to come out cold? Do I care? I care enough to crank the setting thing up to hot. Am I really ready for this? Oh yes. I am so ready. I press the lever—­nothing happens. I have that moment of frustrated confusion you have in any new shower—­OH! Maybe it’s like—­I lift the lever.

The daisy head bursts into life, water pours—­pours—­down—­but HOT! SO HOT! I have to scrabble around immediately to work out how to cool it down.

And I work it out.

And I shower, scrubbing frantically…but I tell you: that—­those three minutes—­was the best, the most appreciated shower I swear I will ever have in my life.

I swung open the door, clean and serene, in a pair of the Spratt’s pj’s.

Darius, waiting outside, took one look at me and said, “Oh my q.”

He hustled me back into the room.

“What happened to you?!” he hissed—­even though there was now obviously no need to hiss at all.

I knew why he’d be asking that. Sans Grace’s makeup, I had reverted to…pure Panda Ruby, I suppose. You can’t scrub away major bruising.

“I…” I said, flopping onto the bed and trying to work out what I did want to say about it…but I was too just plain tired. “Let’s not talk about this now,” I murmured.

“OK,” said Darius, leaning across me.

My eyes snapped open in panic. He was staring at me in—­ah—­um—­a tender manner.

WERE WE GOING TO KISS?!

“I need to get the other mattress, Ru.”

“What?”

“It’s underneath you. Can you get up, just for a sec?”

“Yeah, course,” I said, flustered.

I got to my feet and stood by the closet as Darius sorted out beds. A sticky fug of embarrassment filled the room. And I reckoned it wasn’t just me either.

I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.

Darius started taking his shirt off.

“Hn. Um, maybe I’ll just…” He pointed at the light switch.

“Yes!” I squeaked—­and I turned over anyway, trying not to think that maybe it might be a nice thing to do right now to curl up in bed with the Spratt.

“Night, Ru,” whispered Darius.

“Night,” I squeaked back.

“I think you’re really brave, you know.”

I grunted squeakily.

“You really are. Even the shower. Most people around here are too scared to use them.” He yawned.

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You could win 1 of 20 copies of The Storm + 

a poncho 

or the Grand Prize Survival Kit:

(this is a tour wide giveaway and is not run by word spelunking)

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