Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer
Nightmares Trilogy
By Demelza Carlton
Blurb
There are real monsters out
there. The worst part is that they're human.
They took her away from me.
I mumbled a protest through the haze of pain and exhaustion that had turned me into little more than a zombie. I'll never be able to watch a zombie movie again without remembering this night, I thought.
"It's all right - we have to move her to take care of her. She's hurt worse than you," I was told. "We need to treat you, too. There's a gunshot wound in your shoulder."
One of the hospital staff looked grim and came over. She started firing questions at me.
"Name?"
"Nathan Miller."
"What happened?"
"I was shot."
"By whom?"
"A homicidal lunatic with a gun and bad aim."
"Her name?"
"Caitlin Lockyer."
"What happened to her?"
"Looks like someone tried to kill her."
Nathan found Caitlin on a beach covered in blood. Saving her life was just the start. Now he's the prime suspect and he has to find out who's really responsible. Both of their lives depend on it.
Who hurt her?
Why was he shot?
What did he promise?
Why doesn't his story add up?
Who was the dead man on the beach?
What will she remember when she wakes up?
They took her away from me.
I mumbled a protest through the haze of pain and exhaustion that had turned me into little more than a zombie. I'll never be able to watch a zombie movie again without remembering this night, I thought.
"It's all right - we have to move her to take care of her. She's hurt worse than you," I was told. "We need to treat you, too. There's a gunshot wound in your shoulder."
One of the hospital staff looked grim and came over. She started firing questions at me.
"Name?"
"Nathan Miller."
"What happened?"
"I was shot."
"By whom?"
"A homicidal lunatic with a gun and bad aim."
"Her name?"
"Caitlin Lockyer."
"What happened to her?"
"Looks like someone tried to kill her."
Nathan found Caitlin on a beach covered in blood. Saving her life was just the start. Now he's the prime suspect and he has to find out who's really responsible. Both of their lives depend on it.
Who hurt her?
Why was he shot?
What did he promise?
Why doesn't his story add up?
Who was the dead man on the beach?
What will she remember when she wakes up?
Dark,
disturbing and definitely scary - Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer is the first
book in Demelza Carlton's Nightmares Trilogy. The second book is Necessary Evil
of Nathan Miller.
Buy Links
Excerpt
"You're
mad," my sister told me, handing me the bag of clothes I'd asked for.
"You find some random girl left for dead on a beach, promise you'll
protect her from someone who hurt her who's already dead, only to find out he
has mates, so you're going to stick around to protect her from all of them,
too? It could be years before the police put them away – if they ever find
them! What are you going to do, stay with her for the rest of her life? Marry
her?" She snorted with laughter.
I shook my head,
rubbing at my bleary eyes in the hope that it would wake me up. Caitlin had
woken me with her screaming more than once last night. "I promised I'd be
here when she wakes up. She's been out for longer than I expected, is all.
She's been through more than anyone should ever have to and I'm not going to do
that to her – just go home and let her wake up alone."
Chris was quick to
notice the gaps in my explanation. "How do you know what she's been
through? She's barely been conscious since you found her!"
"I
don't," I admitted. "But... she has nightmares... even with the drugs
they're giving her, and they sound pretty bad. And... I saw what she looked
like when I found her. It wasn't pretty." I suppressed a shudder, but she
noticed anyway.
"How bad is
it? Can I see her?"
We were in the
lounge at the end of the ward. It was only a short walk back to Caitlin's room,
but still I hesitated. "Don't touch her," I warned. If she touched
her, she'd scream again and I couldn't handle it. I just couldn't.
"Wh..."
She started to ask a question, but she looked like she was having trouble
deciding which to ask first. Why she'd want to touch her, why she couldn't, or
even what in hell I was thinking. Instead, she shrugged and followed me back to
the hospital room.
She thought I was
crazy. She could be right.
The guard outside
the door looked askance at Chris. I nodded to him and he let her pass
unchallenged. Chris didn't acknowledge the police officer at all.
She stopped just
inside the door and stared, looking puzzled.
I looked closely
at Caitlin, trying to work out precisely what Chris was staring at.
It couldn't be the
bruises on Caitlin's pale face. They'd faded to faint shadows now. She looked
as beautiful as the first day I'd seen her.
Caitlin's hands
rested by her face on the pillow, each finger individually bandaged and
splinted, an IV line slipped between the gauze. The bandages extended down her
wrists, like long, white gloves. She wore a hospital-issue nightgown and she'd
managed to kick the bedclothes off in her struggle against her nightmares, so
everything the scanty nightgown didn't cover was on show. White dressings were
stuck to her back, with more on her legs, particularly her ankles and her
thighs. Bruises covered her exposed skin in a disturbing rainbow of dark colours.
Before I could
stop her, Chris crossed the room and grabbed Caitlin's sheet. She yanked it up
to Caitlin's chin, covering her up almost completely. Her eyes turned to me.
"You need to take your own advice."
I was annoyed at
my sister. "It's not like that. Have you ever known me to take advantage
of a girl, without her permission?"
Chris frowned
deeply, her eyebrows almost meeting. "She's not like any of the girls you
usually bring home. She's younger, more fragile..." She stopped, looking
lost for words, before her tone changed abruptly. "How in hell did this
little girl survive all that?" She waved a hand over Caitlin's body,
encompassing everything now covered by the sheet.
"No one
knows," I told her shortly, sitting heavily on the visitor's chair by
Caitlin's bed. "But when she wakes up, it's one of the first things I'll
ask her."
Ah, who was I
kidding? It was a bloody nightmare.
Author Info
Demelza
Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found
she was afraid of fish. She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea
cucumbers and stood on spray-drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a
seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below. Sensationalist
spin? No - Demelza tends to take a camera with her so she can capture and share
the moment later; shipwrecks, sharks and all.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The bestselling Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by the Nightmares trilogy. If you'd like to know more about Demelza or the background behind her books, you can check out her website at demelzacarlton.com or any of the other places she frequents:
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The bestselling Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by the Nightmares trilogy. If you'd like to know more about Demelza or the background behind her books, you can check out her website at demelzacarlton.com or any of the other places she frequents:
Author Links
Website: http://www.demelzacarlton.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DemelzaCarlton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/DemelzaCarlton
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