Cast In Blood: Revelations Series Book 1: by Christine Sutton, Lisa Lane, Jaime Johnesee Read Free Book Online Page B

smile, and dark hair like Drew's. She'd also been sickly, skinny, and perpetually exhausted. He'd done that to her, she would learn when she was a little older.
    Her first stepmother was also a kind soul, and Drew's father had taken to keeping mistresses on the side in order to preserve the marriage as long as he could. Drew could tell he'd loved that one, his second wife, but eventually she fell ill too. Even though he knew the cause, he let her believe her "mystery illness" had to have a name and a cure. He took her to all the best doctors to keep up the ruse. Maybe he truly believed modern medicine could save her.
    She died when Drew was ten.
    When eventually her father explained their affliction, he did so in a way that made it sound exceptional and elite. Her mother had been a "mundane," like most of the rest of the world. They, on the other hand, were special. Being special had its price, though, and theirs meant a slow decay of anything that remained in their presence long enough, the life around them ever feeding their special souls. They could take extra through physical contact, and even greater amounts when that contact was intimate, but extra only grew the beast hidden within, and the larger it got, the more it needed to feed.
    Drew had protested when her father decided to wed for the third time, but he couldn't help himself. He came home smelling like a different mistress every night, and still his wife slowly fell victim to that terrible sickness that had taken the previous two. When that woman grew skeletal and bedridden, Drew decided she could take no more. She ran away from home at fifteen and never looked back.
    Of course, she'd finally understood her father's plight when, not too long after, she lost her virginity to a man who'd so selflessly taken her in. The feeling that had come when their bodies had come together was electrifying. She drank her first lover's soul until she was senseless, lost in the bliss of psychic intoxication. It didn't take long to see the physical effects—his sunken eyes, the subtle weight loss, his waning energy levels—and so she left, determined she wouldn't follow in her father's footsteps. Prostitution had seemed the logical solution, but it had only made matters worse.
    She'd cut herself off cold-turkey several months ago. Those around her had assumed she was detoxing from some hidden addiction.
    In part, they were correct.
    "Here," Kevin said, pulling her from her reverie with the offering of a business card. "If you change your mind, our doors are always open."
    He stood, leaving the card on the table before walking off.
    Although she wasn't going to take a chance at becoming infected with whatever darkness circulated through Kevin's soul, Drew couldn't restrain her curiosity over what exactly it was. It didn't seem to notice when she threw a psychic tether over the thing and proceeded to follow its path astrally through her mind's eye.

Chapter 11
    K evin walked close to three blocks before hopping into the back of an outdated minivan. Another young man sat in the driver's seat, listening to gospel music. The man looked relaxed, but as soon as Kevin closed the sliding door, he gave an impatient sigh.
    "Nothing, eh?"
    Kevin sat but ignored his seatbelt. "A couple prospects."
    The other man scoffed. "‘Prospect' don't mean nothing, and you know it. Unless you get 'em straight from the street, you ain't gonna see 'em again. Satan's got way too strong a pull in these parts."
    "I choose to give people a little more credit."
    "Then you choose to be a fool." The man looked around. "What the heck is keeping Naomi? Did you happen to see her out there?"
    "Maybe she got lucky."
    "Maybe."
    Drew took a close astral look at the driver, not surprised to find he had a similar, yet much less pronounced, shadowy presence hanging over him.
    Alongside them, traffic slowed, and the men both showed discomfort when they became boxed in by the gridlock.
    Kevin stretched to look, frowning.