Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu Read Online Free PDF

place and began to search.
    To Dani’s eyes, the deep shadows of night were easy to pierce—a world washed in blue and indigo. Blocking out the harsh lights of the station, she studied the sparse weeds struggling to survive in the thin soil, nothing higher than her ankle. No ditches.
    “Vincent! Eric!” she shouted again.
    Nothing stirred.
    Dammit. Spinning back, the light from the station blinded her. The phone. It was just outside the deserted convenience store, a relic from the days before cellphones. The heavy receiver swung from its silver cord. Squatting down beside it, she inhaled deeply, running the air through her nose and across her tongue. Beneath the stench of oil and gasoline, she caught the coppery tang of fresh blood.
    Fuckshitcrap . Despair hammered at her. She and her brothers had always stuck together, taking care of each other when no one else bothered. In a flurry of constant relocating and hiding, her brothers were the only ones she could rely on. Their parents had certainly been too preoccupied with their own challenges to notice what their children were going through. She’d come as fast as she could when they’d called. But it hadn’t been enough—another failure.
    Moving slowly over the ground, disturbing the air as little as possible, she swung her head back and forth, trying to track where the blood scent came from. Her artfully disheveled coiffure and two-inch heels were a nuisance now, so she kicked off her shoes and whipped her hair back into a practical ponytail as she skimmed back and forth close to the ground, inhaling deeply like a bloodhound. There. Off to the side and partially in shadow, a pile of old pumps and fragments of broken machinery was the only cover available near the cold bright lights. With Vincent hurt, they would have hidden rather than fight.
    Studying the jumbled bits of metal, Dani noticed something that didn’t belong. Fresh flakes of rust and scratches dotting the concrete in a six-foot swath in front of the pile. Picking up a cracked alternator, she found fresh marks in the metal. The pile had been disturbed and then put back to avoid leaving obvious signs of a struggle. She shoved the junk aside and revealed something she’d hoped not to find.
    Fresh blood smeared on the ground.
    Dipping her fingers, she brought it close to her nose. At this range, there could be no doubt. It was Vincent’s: an unmistakable blend of liquor, old smoke, and leather. After years of living in the next room, she knew his scent better than her own. Fury blazed, tightening her arms, back, and teeth. The alternator clenched in her fist groaned as her fingers dented the pitted metal.
    Rising, she was about to stalk back to the car when she noticed a stray cat staring at her from the edge of the weedy field. Its eyes were glowing green and its fur was a patchwork of colors. Above it, a slim crescent of moon rose over the fields.
    Chill curled over her skin as she remembered seeing this exact scene before—almost a month ago, with her sister.
    Gwen had been drawing by candlelight, curled in the corner of her room, looking more like a little girl than the young woman she was. Dani set the basin full of warm water down on the irregular flagstone floor and knelt beside her. The stale odor of old sweat couldn’t completely hide the delicate hints of lily-of-the-valley. It was her sister’s smell and couldn’t be completely smothered, no matter what—just like Gwen.
    Part of her hated these visits, hated how Gwen was locked up in their family’s farm house, unable to step outside for even a few minutes. But the larger part of Dani treasured them: brief moments of lucidity, hints of the little sister who might have been. Dani always stood between her sister and the dangers of the world, standing over her bed when they were little and beating up anyone who dared to hint that her baby sister wasn’t normal.
    But Gwen wasn’t normal, and it couldn’t be hidden any more, no matter how