2nd Snippet

Nadia banged her head against the table, tea cups rattled in their saucers. “My head hurts.”

“It’s funny how duplicity and intrigue befuddles you, Nadia. I thought you’d be quite an expert on it considering.”

Nadia, Darling and Lizzie looked at him, a spark in their eyes. 

“Considering what?” Nadia asked. 

Seth hurriedly opened his mouth, "Maybe we should--"

"No, no." Nadia cut him off. "Let him answer."

Vincent should keep his mouth shut if he knew what was good for him. 

“Well, considering you’re a woman.”

Nate stared. “Wow, you actually went there.”

Vincent shrugged. “I’m already dead, what more could she do to me?”

“Only trap you for the remaining of your existence in a small crystal ball."

"Ah." He tapped his cane softly against the floor, the only sign that he was discomforted by the probability of his sudden incarceration by Nadia's hands. "Good point." 

"I did not mean it to be an insult, only in my time, slyness and manipulation is a woman's game. It is their only way to power. That or marrying it."

"Stop. Talking." Nadia spat the words between gritted teeth.

He stuck up his nose at her and sniffed as if offended by her tone. "No need to be uncivil."

Darling kicked his cane. "Seriously. Stop talking."

 Copyright © 2014 by D.F. Jules

1st Snippet

Seth yawned again and flexed his left hand; it was covered in black ink from his left pectoral to the tips of his fingers, ancient spells and quotes from holy books in ancient languages from hemetic to hebrew to sanskrit to hieroglyphs to arabic, passages from every holy texts that speak of death. They swirled quickly until becoming a quick blur across his pale skin. He fisted, his fingers clenching tightly and an area around the two ghosts glowed brightly, forming his sigil, a ring of clockwork gears working together, sliding clockwise than counter-clockwise, a ring of silver and gold. The ghost other than Darling fell to her hands and knees with a loud crack and thump, like iron meeting magnet, her soul bound to the sigil. For the moment the sigil flared to life, she has weight and a solid mass again. She screamed with pain and fury, her eyes wild and panicked. 

--Till Death Do Us (Not) Part chapter 1

Copyright © 2014 by D.F. Jules

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time  

  I have been half in love with easeful Death,  

Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,  

 
Keats, Ode to a Nightingale

Character: Seth Matthews and His Bond-Ghost: Darling

(Anton Yelchin as Seth)

Different from both his siblings, Seth doesn't remember much about his parents so the prejudice that they have to face because of their parents' actions didn't feel as personal. Seth doesn't care much about the past, he was all about the moment, the right now. He's a little bit reckless and has edges so sharp it draws blood everytime he bumps against someone. 

He met his Bond-ghost Darling when he was six, bonded with her when he was eight much to the consternation of others. His was the youngest bond ever and people are waiting for it to fail, but even though the situation between Seth and Darling isn't quite ideal, it works. 

When most ghosts look faded and grey the longer they exists in the world, when Seth meets Darling, she is vivid in color and she stays that way the few times they see each other which told Seth that Darling isn't dead but that she is unconscious somehow. 

Darling keeps her real name and her situation close to her chest even from Seth and Seth doesn't really care as long as she does her job, at least, that's what he tells himself when Darling disappears once or twice to visit wherever her body is.

(Isabelle Fuhrman as Darling)

Unlike the relationship between the twins and their bond-ghosts, Seth and Darling's relationship is a lot less like friends and closer to business partners. But it is no lie that they are one of the best Reaper teams and that both understood the other really well despite that they don't share anything personal about each other. 

What they have--their Bond--was personal enough for their tastes. 

Darling is an odd one from the start, quiet, watchful and wary, she drifts in and out of the Matthews house. She is perhaps the ghost that makes the hardest effort to look alive from the vivid colors that emanates from her to her clothes that always changes day by day. And she grows with Seth back from when Seth was six, Darling also looked six and now that Seth is seventeen, Darling also looks seventeen. 

She is secretive and has a wicked sense of humor which rarely shows. She loves a good brawl and knows how to fight in the dirtiest day possible. She takes her job seriously and watches over Seth when he sleeps like a hawk guarding over her territory. 

Being a Bond-ghost she is given a choice once in a while to possess Seth for good behavior or for protection but Darling usually only uses his body to eat, to feel and taste food again. 

Lately she's been more secretive than ever and it strains their partnership but neither of them knows how to fix it. 

Character: The Matthews Twins and their Bond-Ghosts

(Maddie Hasson as Nadia Matthews)

Fraternal twins, Nadia is blonde and slim like her mother while Nate has the curly dark hair and strong jaw of their father. The only thing they share is the solid shade of blue of their mother's eyes.  

Both are competitive and stubborn and likes to argue, especially with each other. 

(Jesse Eisenberg as Nate)

While Nadia has a volatile temper, quick to blow and equally quick for said temper to blow over, Nate simmers silently and can hold a grudge until the world stops turning. 

Both are competitive and stubborn and likes to argue, especially with each other. 

Like most Twins are, they have a strong mental bond with each other, so much so that if Nate was injured, Nadia not only feels the injury but also suffers the physical injury herself. 

Years older than their younger brother Seth, they act more like his younger siblings but when push comes to shove, the twins will do anything to save their baby brother. 

Reapers have a personal sigil, a magical circle that they apply when catching a ghost and tying them down to our dimension in order to seal them away, and this sigil usually manifests as a mirror of their inner personality. Nadia's sigil, much to the amusement of her two brothers, takes form in a circle made by thorns while Nate's is a circle made of blue fire. Interestingly, both their circles fit together completely, allowing them to work simultaneously with both sigils much to the dismay and envy of other Reapers. 

Bond-Ghosts

Bond-Ghost are the guardians of Reapers, as Reapers are vulnerable to possession and mental attacks, the Bond-Ghosts protects them from such dangers. Souls connected, they draw power and stability from each other. Having a Bond-Ghosts is a big deal for Reapers and is chosen carefully because the connection once made can only be severed by death. 

It is not strange if a Reaper risks possession rather than choose the wrong ghosts to bond with. 

(Max Irons as Vincent)

Vincent is an Englishman who lived in the Victorian era who holds not-so-Victorian values although he often chides Nadia for her foul mouth and unlady-like behavior just to needle her. He is very protective and secretly ruthless. Nate often commented that Vincent was either an assassin once upon a time or a politician. Vincent has a sly wit and a dry sense of humor that makes Nadia snicker and leaves everyone else confused. Indolent by nature, it takes a while to rile him up but when he's rile, it's hard for him to come down again. 

(Zoey Deutch as Lizzie)

Lizzie owned a salon in the wild wild west once upon a time, she hides a blade in her corset, a derringer under her bustled skirts and a knife in her boot. Bold, flirtatious, wild, Lizzie delights in scandalizing everybody with her ever-changing wardrobe that shows off her assets becomingly. And Nate only encourages her, amused by her wiliness and cunning. Both Lizzie and Nate are bad influences on each other but she is fierce in protecting her Reaper, launching everything in her considerable arsenal at the mere mention of danger in Nate's vicinity.  

Something Wicked This Way Comes

SWTWC is a novel I'm working on for Camp NaNoWriMo July 2014. This will be the first time I'm writing a boy as a MC and Ghosts as the supernatural creature. Not going to be a lot of romance in this one, it's more of a Horror/Adventure YA genre.

Here is the summary:

Seth Matthews and his two siblings, Nadia and Nate, have a knack for finding trouble, or as they often protested, trouble have a way of finding them.

But with a family history like theirs, mischief-making is in their blood.

In a world of Affinity-users, Seth, Nadia and Nate have the Affinity with the dead, mainly ghosts. People like them are called Reapers, a designation that is usually treated with respect and admiration. But the black mark upon their family brought the siblings' day-to-day life under scrutiny from their Affinity Elders.
Handling the burden of prejudice and suspicion in their own unique way together with their Bond-Ghosts--ghosts who are tethered to their souls whose sole job is to guard their bodies from possession--Seth, Nadia and Nate stumbles upon a mystery where Bond-Ghosts are disappearing one by one.

Now they have to work together to figure out who is behind the disappearances before accusing fingers point toward them...and before their own Bond-Ghosts, Darling, Lizzie and Vincent disappear as well.

Copyright © 2014 by D.F. Jules