daynight

by Megan Thomason

  I can’t tell Kira about my ARB-fueled blood, either, or I’d put us both at risk. The SCI wouldn’t react kindly to knowing I’m a plant and the Arbiters have taken great lengths to keep their secrets from the Council. So, all I can safely discuss for now is how much I love her. How I’d do anything, everything for her. And how she’s the one thing that makes my life worth living.

  One day, when I know we aren’t being followed or listened to, I’ll tell Kira everything. Maybe I can convince my ARB-brother, Jax, to ‘run interference’ so that we can freely talk. Kira deserves to know about me, despite how painful it will be to share. I’ll start with my childhood. My loneliness. Fear. Monotony. Emotional abuse. Longing for human interaction. Dreams of escape from my prison. I still yearn for escape. My cell may be larger, but the shackles are heavier than ever. I’m an adult, but have no control over my life. And if I can find something to hold over Daddy Christo, I’m going to get approval to tell Kira about the Arbiters and my presumed duty to them.

  Kira saved me from the brink of insanity. Despite my parentage she accepted me. She let me live the childhood I never had with her. For the first time in my life I feel hope for a happy future. I can deal with the rest with her at my side. Or perhaps I can do better than deal—perhaps together we can fight the controlling influences that plague us.

  How can I ever describe on paper how much I love Kira? Or how much I’ll miss her? How I can’t stand being away from her while she’s pregnant? How can I tell her that I would do anything in the universe to make her happy? I do my best, but nothing will make up for my not being there.

  Once my mother has stocked my apartment, cleaned and dusted like the maternal being she’s never been, she’s finally ready to depart. I give her my letter to Kira, which she promises to have delivered promptly, although I know the odds are less than fifty-fifty Kira will ever see it.

  “I think you’re all set, Ethan, so I guess I’ll be on my way,” she says, kissing me on the cheek.

  I grit my teeth. There are so many forms of punishment I could inflict upon my mother, but I’d be killed for any of them. I need to see Kira again, so I choose life. “Thanks for the help, Mom. You really didn’t have to do any of that. I’m a big boy now,” I say with feigned appreciation.

  “It’s the least I could do after everything you’ve done for me and for Thera,” she says. “Everything’s gone according to plan, thanks to your perfect obedience. The Cleaving is done, the babies are brewing, and thanks to those Militant Exilers, the weeds have been extracted from the Ten and the Grand Council. The Exilers have no idea that they only took out the members we left unsecured that night. Equally important, the seed is set for your brother to make his prodigal return. I think I can speak for your Dad when I say that we’re so proud of you.” Actually, she hardly speaks for my real father. And, I don’t know what planet my mom’s from that makes her think her plan or things are perfect. Oh wait, actually I do. The one where the insane people rule.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom. I’ll leave the scheming to you and I think I’ll just focus on law school and visiting my beautiful Cleave every moment I can,” I say. Perfect cooperation. That’s what I vowed to keep Kira safe.

  “Don’t less us down, Ethan. I expect you to focus and do well. Be top of your class. Nothing less is acceptable for what we have planned for you,” she says.

  “I know, Mother,” I say. “But I refuse to do that at the detriment of my Cleaving with Kira.”

  “Kira will be fine. In fact, I assigned Jax to be her personal bodyguard and instructor,” she says. What the fetch? I knew Jax would weasel his way into this somehow. I’m going to kill him. My mother smirks and adds, “She’ll be perfectly safe and attended to.”

  That statement has as much double meaning and little credibility as my Uncle Henry’s campaign slogan: ‘Expect MORE from Henry King. MORE Unity. MORE Service. MORE Security. With NO MORE Taxes.’ He forgot a few: MORE Lies. MORE Rules. MORE Uniformity. With NO MORE Freedom.

  Beware, fellow citizens of Earth. The SCI will soon be controlling a country or city near you. And you won’t even see it coming.

  Author’s note

  If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on Amazon.com and/or Goodreads. Reader reviews help spread the word about new authors and books. I appreciate your support!

  As a thank you, for every 25 reviews, I’ll release either a bonus for daynight (such as sketches of Garden City fashions) or teaser for the next book in the daynight series, arbitrate on Facebook and Twitter.

  Follow me on Twitter here.

  Follow the daynight series on Facebook here.

  I’d love to hear from you! You can email me here.

  Acknowledgments

  Cue the happy dance. This day has been a long time coming. I wrote the first draft of daynight in 2009. Rewrote it many times. Still not perfect. Tabled it for a couple years while I worked on other things, and then alas, inspiration hit and a few changes here, there and everywhere and I finally felt happy enough with the results to release it. Well, after enough editing to make many eyes bleed.

  There have been so many people who helped and encouraged me along the way. First, I’d like to thank my daughters, Ashley and Breanna. From the time they were in kindergarten, they have had such a huge appetite for reading, I literally could not buy books fast enough to satisfy them. They were thrilled when my husband, Jon Thomason, wrote Max Xylander and the Island of Zumuruud. After, when I came up with a new book idea for Jon and he scoffed at the idea of writing a teen romance (not really his thing), my daughters dared me to write the thin veil. They gobbled up every chapter that I wrote and when the book was done, Ashley asked me to write the sequel for her birthday, the thin line, which I did. A year later, I wrote the conclusion to the trilogy, thin skin and then decided to take on a much more ambitious project in my favorite genre, dystopia. Ashley and Breanna, and also my step-daughter Ashley Lyn, have been with me every step of the way, providing commentary, editing, and occasionally threatening my life when they didn’t like where things were headed with certain characters. They shared the books with their friends and soon, I had many girls threatening my life :).

  A note on editing. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I’ve been through daynight hundreds, if not thousands of times (on my laptop, phone and iPad, because things jump off the page on smaller screens). I *hate* finding mistakes. Invariably though, each time I edit, I potentially introduce more errors. So, my apologies if you find a problem and know that I’m cringing right along with you. I’ve done updates over a single incorrect letter, so email me at megan@meganthomason if you find anything.

  My husband, Jon, an exceptional writer in his own right, has supported me through thick and thin, also reading and re-reading my books, offering suggestions, and honest criticisms. He also designed the book cover for daynight, which I love. When I’m fully entrenched in writing, he puts up with a messy house, less-than-fabulous meals, and a very distracted wife. My kids have patiently endured hearing “Just let me finish this” and “Not now”s. Is it a bonus that they’ve all learned to be quite self-sufficient? The honest truth? If I’m not writing, I’m doing another project. My kids tease me incessantly about my projects (sure, the world-class weapons collection might have been a little unnecessary, but at the time it seemed cool. And it will be rather useful come the zombie apocalypse.)

  My kids also make the most excellent muses. I feel like I live in a comedy show. Yes, they have been known to have raging debates at the dinner table about the best weapons to use during the zombie apocalypse with guests present (those guests never returned).

  A huge shout-out to my friends who graciously agreed to read my books early on… Kelli J., LeAnn R., Marci B., Darlene I, Liz S.… you guys are awesome. My sister… Tara C. And thanks to my kids’ friends who also logged some major hours… Rachel P., Jonci R., and Jennifer T.

  I find music inspiring and some of the artists who help get me typing include Muse, My Chemical Romance,
Imagine Dragons, Owl City, blink-182, The Killers, Fall Out Boy, Ludo, and Neon Trees.

  Thanks to the folks who designed and developed Scrivener… they make outlining, organizing notes and research, and writing easy. I’m also grateful to those who created Dropbox, which allows you to open files in Kindle and see your book before it goes live. And a huge shout out to the folks at Amazon and CreateSpace who have transformed the publishing industry.

  I’m hard at work on the next installment of the daynight series and have other story ideas in the mental works as well.

  About the author

  Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn't typing away on her laptop, she's reading books on her phone—over 600 in the last year—or attending to the needs of her family. Megan’s fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac. Daynight is Megan's first published novel, but fourth written one.