Reap and Redeem
The Reaper
Series
Book Two
Lisa
Medley
Genre: urban fantasy
Publisher: Harlequin E
Date of Publication: Oct. 6, 2014
ISBN: 9781460337769
ASIN: B00KV62OP2
Number of pages: 250
Word Count: 78K
Book Description:
He’s a reaper who has given up on saving
souls. Will a dying woman be his salvation?
After a century of enslavement to pure
evil, Kylen Larson is finally free. But he’s long past caring. The only woman
he ever loved is dead, and he’s tormented by memories of the horrors his demon
parasite forced him to commit. Now, he lives for nothing more than hunting down
the infernal creatures invading Meridian, Arkansas, and destroying them.
Olivia Evans is in the final stages of
cancer when Kylen accidentally saves her from demonic possession. When he
rescues this innocent soul, Kylen rediscovers his mission—and his heart.
All he wants is to help Olivia stay
alive. He’ll just have to fight off an invasion from Hell first…
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Kylen kicked the head
across the floor of the dark shed with his steel-toed boot. Blood dripped into
a pool on the floor from his scythe, which he still gripped tightly with one
hand. He straightened to his full height and tilted his neck from side to side,
listening to his spine crack and pop. Another demon down.
“You don’t have to keep
killing them yourself, you know,” Deacon said, grimacing at the black ooze
spilling out of the severed neck.
“Yeah, I do.” Kylen
turned and walked to the door, taking a quick survey of the cemetery. A dark,
sticky trail marked his course.
“You have to admit, he’s
efficient.” Nate picked up the head by the hair and dropped it into a black
garbage bag.
“That’s one way to look
at it.” Deacon pressed his hand, which was glowing with Reiki energy, to the
center of the dead male’s chest, directly over his heart chakra.
Kylen watched as light
radiated from Deacon, encasing him and the body in a soft glow. The demon
boiled forth from the dead human host in a thick black torrent of sulfurous
haze. Spreading his arms wide, Deacon summoned the stream, which penetrated
through his sternum. His body shuddered and the light around him sparked and
cracked like the arc of a welder. The glow intensified to supernova status
before winking out. Several smaller streams of gray light flowed forth from the
ruined body, too, entering through Deacon’s mouth.
“Well? Did you retrieve
all the souls?” Nate lifted the feet and legs of the body onto the tarp he’d
set beside it.
Deacon frowned. “Yes.”
“How many?”
“Three.” Deacon rose and
grasped the body by the shoulders, helping Nate maneuver it. “And the demon.”
“I really hate this
shit.” Nate said, pulling a spool of duct tape from his backpack.
They rolled the man
tightly in the tarp, taping both ends so that none of the bodily fluids would
discharge in transit.
“How many more demons do
you think there are?” Nate wrapped the head in a plastic bag and walked toward
the door.
“Grim thinks there are
at least two dozen more,” Deacon reminded him.
“Great. Slow and steady
wins the race, yeah?”
“I’m not sure we have
the luxury of slow and steady anymore. At this rate, we’re never going to find
them all. There’s already way too much collateral damage. This many missing
humans in town won’t go unnoticed much longer. We need to find their exit
portals and shut down the rest of the demons. Sooner would be better than
later.”
Kylen waited in the
doorway, dividing his attention between the business in the shed and the
cemetery grounds. Deacon was right of course. They needed to close the portals.
Permanently. As it was, they were playing a game of supernatural Whac-A-Mole.
Close one portal and another popped up. New entrance portals continued to open
each week, which then had to be closed by Grim and Deacon. And while one batch
of demons gathered their fill of souls before sliding down the small one-way
shoots to Hell—the exit portals, the next batch waited for their chance. It had
become a never-ending battle and the reapers needed to press on.
They didn’t bother
cleaning up the black ooze or the blood trail. The only way to make sure the
scene was completely clean was fire, but arson would be sure to draw more
attention to the mower garage by the edge of the cemetery than a few stains
that could easily be oil or fuel. None of them were concerned about the law.
There were far worse things for them to worry about.
They’d burn the body at
home, and then bury the ashes and bits of bone. Just as they’d dealt with the
other eleven. This host’s disappearance would never be explained. Good thing,
since the guy’s head was detached.
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Cemeteries
are an integral part of the setting for the characters of the Reaper Series, who spend a
lot of time traveling to, from, and through them. All of the cemeteries of the Reaper Series were inspired by real-life
cemeteries near my own hometown. In
fact, I’ve done an entire series called Grave Discoveries featuring unique and interesting headstones I’ve encountered in my
travels.
Before beginning the Reaper Series, I had little interest in cemeteries. My own mother
knows I’ll likely never visit her grave once she’s passed and has taken matters
into her own hands by purchasing and placing her own headstone in the family
plot, complete with engraved flowers in a vase on the face of the stone.
Perpetual flowers. It’s a thing.
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Yesterday I got completely lost in my travels.
For my day job, I’m a vampire for a local blood bank. I travel
around organizing blood drives across five counties, and I am responsible for
nearly ten thousand donations a year. Most days go smoothly since I’ve covered
the same ground for the past fourteen years now, but one wrong turn yesterday
took me completely off the map and into parts unknown.
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The unexpected writerly benefit was I found some super cool
graveyards.
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You probably don’t really pay much attention to cemeteries. But
once you start looking, you’ll see they are like Chinese restaurants and
banks…there’s one on every corner.
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I am particularly drawn to decrepit and neglected graveyards.
There is an abundance of such places in the rural countryside. Most rely on
volunteers to mow the grounds and some haven’t been mowed in a very long time.
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Those are the best.
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I especially like broken tombstones and those worn slick by time
and the elements.
If you’d like to read my sentiments on the tradition of burying
our dead in steel boxes, you can find a post here.
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No one will ever admire my broken tombstone, but that’s okay.
Since I write reapers, I find graveyards inspiring.
Sometimes you can find inspiration in the strangest places.
Just be careful, some cemeteries are more proactive than others.
Have you ever visited a place that begged for a story afterward?
Have you ever visited a place because
it was mentioned or featured in a fiction work?
About the
Author:
Lisa Medley writes reapers. The grim
kind. A lover of beasties of all sorts, she has a farm full of them in her SW
MO home including: one child, one
husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees and a
guinea pig. Not so in love with the guinea pig. She can do ten pushups IN A ROW
and may or may not have a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk
at all times. Just. In. Case.
Website http://lisa-medley.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/lisamedley
Amazon Author Page www.amazon.com/author/lisamedley
Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/lisamedleyauthor
~*Tour
giveaway*~
3 e-copies of Book one, Reap & Repent
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