Sneaky secret Odium excerpt!

3/10/2013

With the release of Odium mere hours to go, I thought that I would share with you a small excerpt from it...you know, just to please (and tease) you!

If you haven't already, please, please add it to your Goodreads bookshelf

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18486757-odium

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http://www.amazon.com/Claire-C-Riley/e/B00CCCSF06/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Anyway, on with the show...

Odium excerpt.

The vegetable patch is closer to the hub than I would have liked, and as we round the corner, the top of the hub comes into
view. I’m still yet to see the actual building, since Duncan refuses to go anywhere near there, but every time we come to collect vegetables he goes all glassy-eyed.

Two deaders are, as we have come to expect, standing right in the middle of our patch. Seriously, it’s only a little patch,
yet every time they end up standing smack dab in the middle of it, trampling some sort of food that we’re growing. I drop my bag to the ground and whistle. They both turn at the same time, give an angry snarl, and come for me.

One of them has a face that’s a mixture of my next-door neighbor and my old Aunt Sally. Since my Aunt Sally was a six-foot-two transvestite who used to wear the most hideous orange curly wig, and my neighbor had a bust size that most Playboy
models would be proud of, the rotting semi-male and busty transformation is not something to smile about.

“Jesus fuck,” I whisper and shake my head.

The other deader follows right after, one of its blue dungaree straps dangling down around its ankle. It stands on the
rhubarb that I’ve been trying to grow for the last couple of weeks, trampling the leaves with its dirty boots, and I curse
again.

As soon as they step out of the vegetable patch, Duncan comes out from behind a tree and lops off Aunt Sally’s head.
Dungaree Guy turns to look at Duncan and then looks back at me. He seems to be in a state of confusion as to which meal to go for. Thankfully for me, he chooses Duncan. I can’t blame him, really; I’m like a skinny taco at about a hundred and five pounds, whereas Duncan is easily twice my build. Does that make him the gourmet meal?

“Nina?”Duncan whispers my name, and I nod and grip my bat tighter.

I run up behind it and slam the bat as hard as I can into the back of its skull, feeling the softening bone crumble upon
impact, and black ooze seeps out of the cracks I just made in its head.

Dungaree Guy pauses for a moment, doing a half-turn to look at what just hit him, before he collapses to the floor and
starts twitching. Brown and black gloop continue to escape through the hole in the back of his head, bubbling out and releasing a toxic-as-hell smell.

“Man, he reeks.” Duncan wafts a hand in front of his nose.

“They’re getting worse,” I agree. “Do you think, maybe, we could use it to our advantage?” I grab Dungaree Guy’s legs and
Duncan reaches for the arms, as we drag him to a hole further into the forest.

“Like how?”

“Well, I was thinking that maybe if they can’t smell us—like, if they could only smell themselves, then maybe we wouldn’t
get as many of them.”

We both drop the deader at the same time at the edge of the hole and I kick him in. He lands with a soft thud on top of the
others we have killed up here over the past couple of weeks.

“R.I.P.,”I say, making the sign of the cross as I continue. “So, I’m thinking maybe we could string up a couple of arms and
legs around the patch. They might not sense—smell, or whatever—that we come here, and move along. Does that make sense?”

Duncan looks down at the pile of rotting deaders in the pit. No flies surround them, no maggots—nothing. Even insects
know not to go near the flesh of the dead. We turn and head back to the vegetable patch.

Don't forget that I have a limited number of these gruesome zombie charm bookmarks to give away. Post your receipt on my wall and one of them is yours. First come, first served!

Anyone who does, will be entered into the draw of winning not only a zombie bookmark, and zombie stickers, but also either a zombie charm bracelet or a zombie t-shirt!