Title: The Daring Young Man
Author: Jane George
Series: Mumbo Jumbo Circus (2)
Publisher: Paper Grove Publishing
Release Date: 10 Dec 2012
Sixteen year-old Dante Delgado is staring down the barrel of a gangbanger's gun when he's surprised by the arrival of a clown on a unicycle.
Dante hates clowns. He hates everything to do with the circus. He once dreamed of being one of the few trapecistas able to do a quadruple somersault in the air. Then a tragic accident took his parents, their circus, and his ability to fly. But when faced with the choice between the circus or a bullet, he jumps on the clown's shoulders and rides off to an even more mysterious adventure involving Dia de los Muertos, two dangerous girls, and the nemesis of the tiny, magical Mumbo Jumbo Circus, the evil Las Vegas spectacular, Cirque Patron.
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Excerpt
Dante
and Markie, a strange girl who has taken up with the circus teens, are busking
(performing for money) in Balboa Park, San Diego. The act ends with a kiss:
Markie
crashed into him. By all rights, he should have been flattened. The impression
was more like being absorbed into a marshmallow. Her arms wrapped around him,
sending a rush of feeling all down his back that continued into his hamstrings
and calves. He shuddered, and she responded by quivering with glee. Her eyes
were bulbous. Her teeth protruded. Dante should be repulsed.
But
he wasn’t.
The
crowd started chanting, “Kiss him! Kiss him!”
Markie
played the moment to its fullest, glancing at the crowd, her expression
bursting with naiveté, as if to ask, “Should I, really?”
They
hooted and stomped.
She
ripped the fake lips from her face and placed her mouth upon Dante’s.
A
collective, “OOOOOOOOH,” rose from the audience.
Dante
barely heard it. What he did hear was the haunting lullaby from the night he
almost drowned and the seductive sound of ocean waves relaxing his defenses,
drawing him in. Her mouth slid over his with sublime tenderness. He couldn’t
stop himself from kissing her back. The kiss grew deeper.
His
body buzzed, and along with the sensation came an overwhelming sense of her
love. For him. He felt himself
melting into her. He craved this unconditional comfort she offered. And her
kiss was so incredibly hot. So
sinuous. He forgot this was Markie. She hugged him tighter, and he floated on a
soothing bed of complete ease. His hurt, his worry, his anger, vanished. He longed to keep kissing her, to disappear into
her love.
The
lullaby pulled at his thoughts. A hiss-hiss sound tugged at his body. It was
the sound waves made as they kissed the sand. Over and over. He could no longer
tell where he ended and Markie began. They merged. For a split second, he
connected with her pure, inner joy, sparkling and fizzy, like he was her.
Dante
wasn’t swimming, but he felt like he was. Deep in his soul, something black
rose up like a shark, ascending toward the surface beneath his desperate,
paddling feet. He couldn’t allow this. She’d drown him. Kill who he was. He
couldn’t breathe.
He
pushed away from Markie and stumbled backward.
They
were alone. The crowd had long dispersed.
“¿Qué diablos?” he
demanded.
“We
kissed.” She stared at him with those ugly, gorgeous goggle-eyes. “It was part
of the act.”
“I’m
talking about the rest of it.” He backed a step further from her. “What in hell
happened, man?”
She
walked over to the coffee can and lifted it. “We made a bunch of money is what
happened. We work well together.”
“Huh.”
“There’s
a group of people coming out of the conservatory.” Markie pointed. “Let’s start
the act over.”
“You
mean do it again?” Dante couldn’t quite keep the dismay out of his voice.
“Yeah,
of course. The Mumbo Jumbo Circus needs money. We can double what’s in this can
right now.”
He
narrowed his eyes at her, trying to see her secrets. “You’re some type of siren
aren’t you? You know, like the ones that drown sailors.”
She
startled. “What are you talking about? We don’t… Those aren’t real.”
“You
tried to drown me with that kiss,” he accused.
“You’re
nuts. I would never…” She set down the can and put her hands on her hips. “I
saved your life on that beach!”
Angry
again, Dante walked up close to her. “Saved my life? I woke up naked, covered
in sand, and couldn’t remember much. How about you tell me what went on, yeah?”
“I
rescued you so now I care about you, is that so awful?”
Dante
froze. That was exactly how he felt about Belinda. Well that, and a healthy
dose of lust.
He
said, “I don’t remember needing to be rescued.” Which wasn’t true.
“Trust
me. You were well on your way to being the cutest corpse I’ve ever seen.”
Dante
hated to be called cute. And wait a
minute, she’d seen other corpses? He was far from reassured. He could recall
the gangbangers, their fists and their knives. He remembered backing into the
ocean to escape them. After that, his mind filled with that haunting lullaby
and a warm mushy feeling. Yuck. That feeling, combined with the frustration of
not being able to recount everything that happened that night, added to his
rage.
“You
must be one heck of a swimmer,” he spat out. “Olympic level even.”
“Oh,
I’m better than that. I’m a regular sea monster.”
Dante
laughed and, oddly, his anger dissipated. He couldn’t figure her out. What an
absurd thing to say.
About the Author
Author and illustrator Jane George lives in the San Francisco
Bay Area. She holds a BFA in illustration from the California College of the
Arts and has won awards for her art.
A dedicated writer for over a decade, she produces and
publishes her YA fantasy and literary titles under her personal imprint, Paper
Grove Publishing.
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