Cast In Blood: Revelations Series Book 1:

C
opyright
© 2015 by DevilDogPress LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

E
ditor
: Rob M. Miller

Cover art: Dane at
ebooklaunch.com

A
Special thank
you to our beta readers: Vix Kirkpatrick, Lisa Evans, Kimberly Sansone and Angie Crabtree.

T
hank
you to Leslie Whitaker just for being you

F
rom Author Christine Sutton
:

I'd like to dedicate this book to my husband and family that has tirelessly supported me. And, to my extended family, my co-authors, Jaime Johnesee and Lisa Lane, who have made this project so much fun. To Devil Dog Press who is the best publisher, ever. Finally, to my readers. You all make doing this job a pleasure and a blessing. Thank you all!

F
rom Author Lisa Lane
:

I'd like to dedicate my part in this book to my loving and supportive husband, Tommy, for encouraging me at every turn and pushing me to grow a little more with every project. Thank you for believing in me.

F
rom Author Jaime Johnesee
:

I’d really like to thank our awesome beta readers and wonderful editor, Rob M. Miller, for polishing up these stories we’ve created. A huge thank you to Tracy Tufo for believing in this project (and me), as well as my family, friends, and readers for continuing to support me and my writing. I’d also very much like to thank Lisa Lane and Christine Sutton for making my first foray into coauthoring so fun.

My sincerest thanks to all above and those who are reading this book.

L
enny walked
out the back door, two large, black garbage bags in her hands, into the alleyway behind the Children of Light church and the adjacent soup kitchen. She struggled to raise the dumpster lid and hoist the trash up and over. After nearly showering herself with empty peanut butter and jelly jars, she finally negotiated the refuse into its rightful place.

"Ha, garbage! Suck it! I win again!" Lenny raised her arms in a victory stance.

She turned to go back to the kitchen when she heard a rustling noise coming from behind the dumpster. She lowered her outstretched arms and stopped imagining the crowd going wild over her big win against the trash bags, moving instead to seek out the source of the noise.

"Here, kitty, kitty," she called out, assuming it was a stray rummaging for dinner.

Lenny jumped back with a scream when she saw the massive creature crouching behind the big, metal container.

A single, solid black eye glared back at her. The eye almost took her attention away from what looked like a mouth full of sharp teeth that were framed by canines no less than two inches long.

In a flourish, the dumpster lurched forward, causing her to sidestep to avoid being hit. With her natural grace, the side
step
turned into a side
fall
, and she tumbled to the ground, skinning her knee and the palms of her hands. She scrambled forward, feeling a fear that was normally reserved for fleeing dark bathrooms or looking out a window at night and knowing a monster will be looking back at you. She felt two hands grab her ankles and pull her back, but she was too scared to look behind her at the owner of those hands. Without warning, the thing pounced, straddling her body, but not crushing her.

She braced herself for the end.

This is how I die
, she thought.
Crushed by a garbage monster. Great.

The creature placed what felt like a claw in the center of her back. Instead of attacking, it leaned its head down to hers and took a deep whiff. As she closed her eyes tight and waited for the pain, the thing jumped up and disappeared down the alley.

What the fuck was that?

Whatever it was, it was big.

Lenny scrambled to her feet and ran inside, trembling and fighting tears. While she was not exactly unaware of strange and unusual things, never in her wildest nightmares would she have imagined something so monstrous. Not that she was complaining … but why had it left her alone? She wondered if she smelled bad to monsters, like how she hated the smell of certain foods.

I'm like Brussels sprouts to monsters. I can live with that.

She rushed into the kitchen with the other ladies of the Children of Light. The women were singing hymns and smiling as they went about preparing sandwiches for the following day, oblivious to the monster that had just run past their building. She couldn't shake the odd sensation someone—or something—was still watching her. Monday was the day when their outreach group went to the local parks and homeless hangouts with the free food to spread the gospel, so everyone was in high spirits. No one even noticed she'd returned, let alone that she was scared shitless.

She considered telling them about the encounter, but then thought better of it. Who would believe such a wild story?

She went to the sink and wet a small rag to clean her wounds. While she dabbed at the bright red scrape on her knee, her gaze drifted to the open window and she saw the second creature of the day. It was shrouded by shadow, but the long, silver hair glowed like a beacon. It appeared to be a woman, but not exactly. Maybe the shadows were playing tricks on her, but something was not quite right.

The woman-thing turned, and Lenny could have sworn she saw a flash of fire in its eyes.

Lenny gasped.

"Earth to Lenny," Maggie, a petite blonde who'd been charged with the task of wrapping and bagging sandwiches, said from her left. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. I got in a fight with the ground. The ground won." She turned to her friend with a forced smile. When she looked out the window again, the creature was gone.

Lenny dried her hands and got back to work putting sandwiches together, deciding she must have been imagining the fire-eyed woman. Maggie didn't look convinced. "You sure you're all right?"

Lenny nodded. "Yeah, fine."

"Well, if you've got anything on your mind, Father is always there to lend an ear and offer advice." Maggie stared off for a few seconds, looking lost herself, then returned her attention to the sandwiches.

Lenny nodded. "He is a good man."

"Not just a man," Maggie corrected. "He truly is a gift from God. He's going to save us all, one life at a time, just like he saved me."

"Tell me how he saved you, Maggie." Lenny thought a story might calm her nerves.

"I used my body to make cash, and then I used that cash to ruin myself. By the time I was eighteen, I was a heroin addict and a prostitute who had already given a son away for adoption. Then one day I got a sandwich, and my whole life turned around."

"Praise Father," a few others working in the kitchen said in unison.

Maggie's moment of sadness turned into a look of euphoria as she continued. "When I came here and met Father, I knew I had a purpose. I knew that my purpose was to serve him." Maggie smiled, again far away in thought. "The best part of being a Child of Light is that now I get to choose who I give myself to. Praise Father."

Lenny thought that was an odd statement, but Maggie was so happy that Lenny couldn't help but be happy, too. She hadn't been at the church for long, but Father Chambers had shown himself to be a patient and wise man, and the outreach work he'd assigned to her had added an element to her life that had long been missing. When she'd been living on the streets, sometimes all it would have taken to brighten her day was a tiny bit of kindness from a stranger. She was so grateful that Children of Light had put her in a position to be that brightness for others. While she still wasn't completely sure Father was indeed the Messiah, he was, without a doubt, a natural leader.

Maggie nudged the cart forward. "Could you please take these in to Richard? I think he and Dale are out prepping the back for lunch."

"Sure." Lenny pushed the cart out of the kitchen, toward a side room that also led out into the alley. Her thoughts drifted back to the thing she'd seen out there.
I didn't actually see anything, really
, she thought, already questioning her memory.

Appearances could be deceiving; she knew that better than anyone.

Lost in a daydream, Lenny snapped back to reality when the cart came to an abrupt halt and she almost went ass over teakettle. She looked down to see what she had absentmindedly run into, and her mild amusement at her own clumsiness turned to horror when she saw the dead boy splayed across the floor.

In front of the cart lay a body she vaguely recognized as Richard. The only reason she recognized him at all was the green Converse that sat squarely on the end of one of his legs. The other shoe, along with Richard's foot, was sitting about two feet away from the rest of him. Where his chest had been, there was a gaping hole exposing a set of sliced lungs hiding under a mess of broken ribs. His face was covered in splattered blood and gore, and his mouth was frozen open in what she could only guess was a final expression of sheer terror before whatever attacked him took his life

You know what did this. The garbage monster.

A feeling of panic enveloped her and she was unable to stop herself from screaming. She stood over what used to be a nineteen-year-old kid and shrieked until her voice went hoarse.

Lenny instinctively reacted when she felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders from behind. She was not about to be caught off guard twice in one day. She whirled around, ready to fight the attacker until she saw who had taken hold of her. When she looked into the sweet, older face of Dale, she relaxed into his embrace. He was a counselor at the church who helped the junkies detox when they came in. He sat with them until the shakes passed or the wailing stopped. Dale never raised his voice or looked angry. He was a good man, and she gratefully accepted his comfort.

"Hey, there, it's okay. Calm down," he said as he gently stroked her hair.

Lenny gathered her senses and took a deep breath. She pulled back as soon as the initial shock passed. "I'm okay now. I just … I … that was Richard."

"I know. Let me take you out of here. I'll get someone to take care of all this ugliness," Dale said in his kindly voice, shuffling her out of the room and back down the hallway.

"What could have done that to Richard?" Lenny asked when they arrived at her room.

The trash can monster with one black eye.

"I don't know, sweetheart, but I want you to lay down and try to forget all of that before services begin. It was probably a stray dog or a coyote or something. Just get some rest."

He tucked her hair behind her ear and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. Lenny pulled away when he inhaled deeply.

"I'll try." She gave a half-hearted smile, trying to cover her sudden uneasiness.

"I'll see if Maggie can bring you some tea."

"That would be nice."

She shut the door behind him and sat on her bed. "That was no stray dog," Lenny said to herself, lying back, trying to get some rest, but unable to banish the images that now haunted her.

A knock on the door made her jump, and she called out, “Who is it?”

“It’s Maggie. I have your tea.”

Lenny sat up, finger-brushing her hair. “Come in.”

Maggie walked in. She held out a steaming teacup. “Drink this. It’ll help you relax.”

Lenny took the cup gratefully and inhaled the lemony aroma. “Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. Just get some rest.” She affectionately stroked Lenny’s hair then left the room without another word.

Lenny sipped at the tea, trying again to reconcile her thoughts on the day.

There
had
to be a logical explanation for everything. Maybe Dale was so calm because he was trying not to freak out in front of her. Maybe he wanted to stay calm until he could get Father's advice on the matter. Maybe it really was a stray dog.

Yeah
, she thought as her eyelids grew heavy.
That had to be it.