Blood in the Past (Blood for Blood Series) (11 page)

Sensing a presence, she sat erect, hoping someone had come to comfort her. She hoped for the spirit of her mom—a woman who had believed in such things. Disappointment set in when she saw a kid with a funny haircut staring at her from twenty yards away. Lyla knew he’d heard her crying and glowered at him for invading her intimate moment of vulnerability.

After snatching her sunglasses from the top of her head and shoving them in her coat pocket, she wiped her face aggressively, chiding herself for her weakness. Resolute and composed, Lyla stood and boldly faced her father—his grave anyway—and spit on it. To her mother’s stone, she whispered a defiant vow, one she’d come up with while driving away from her date’s body last night.

“Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll get ‘em. Every last one of them. I got one last night and...” Lyla straightened. Suddenly, she wished she had something to leave behind. Not flowers, but something to prove her allegiance to her mother. Each kill avenged her, one man at a time. Then something came to Lyla. She bent closer and whispered, “Next time, I’ll paint you a better picture.” With a wink, she walked off, still speaking. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Mommy, I have a date tonight.”

LYLA’S SLENDER FINGERS pried open the tortoise shell eyeglass case full of syringes. She removed the only one containing blood. She’d killed again last night, hours after visiting her parents’ graves. Hours after seeing one of her father’s hussies hovering over him, grieving someone who wasn’t hers to grieve. Lyla had thought of that scene many times during her date. She thought of it again as her date toppled to the ground, and once again when she extracted a sample of his blood.

When she and her mother painted together, Lyla’s favorite part was watching her mother mix the paint. She’d turn red and white into the perfect hue for a pink summer sunset. Susannah had known just what combination to use for the trees’ reflection in the river or a sunflower coated with dew. Lyla would watch her magically create colors, stirring gently. Her tendons pulsed with each motion, almost in anticipation of the art to come.

In the center of her recently converted art studio, Lyla released the syringe’s blood into a small, newly bought can of cadmium red paint. She tossed the syringe in a bag by the door. She would dispose of it more permanently later. Leaning over her desk, she spun a carousel full of paint brushes. Tall, lean shadows swirled across all four walls. When the brushes came to a standstill, like a beautiful, painter’s bouquet, Lyla chose a slender, round brush with a wooden handle and rubber grip. She cradled the small can and adoringly stirred the blood in the paint.

Lyla had promised to paint her mother a better picture. What better image than the terror behind her victims’ eyes? What better medium than their blood?

So Lyla rocked gently on her wooden stool. She wore her mother’s favorite butter-yellow shirt, hummed her mother’s favorite Beatles song, and painted her mother a pretty, terrifying picture.

*
Note from the Author
: Now that you have finished
Blood in the Past
, won’t you please consider leaving a review on the website from which you purchased your copy? Reviews are the best way for readers to discover up and coming authors, such as myself, and I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

Jordanna East

Jordanna East readily confesses that she started writing a novel one day when she was broke and unemployed. Her cable had been turned off. SHE WAS BORED. So she sat down on her bed and started writing...and she hasn't stopped. Though, now she has cable and pens her Psychological Thrillers at an actual desk. She lives with her husband in South Jersey and their two cats, both named after food.

Blood in the Past
is the prelude novella to her debut
Blood for Blood Series
, which follows three lives entwined by deaths and consequences, revenge and obsession. The first full-length novel in the series,
Blood in the Paint
, will be released Winter 2013. Also be on the lookout for
The Word and the Way
, a serialized novel revolving around a fanatical cult plagued by abusive and power hungry members, sexual abuse, and murder—and the young couple trying to escape. Episode One of the series will be released later this year.

Jordanna East loves to hear from her fans. You can find her everywhere:

http://jordannaeast.com

http://www.facebook.com/JordannaEast

http://www.twitter.com/JordannaEast

https://www.plus.google.com/JordannaEast

http://www.goodreads.com/JordannaEast

Or email her directly:

[email protected]

Bear with me while I grovel at the feet of a few people. I would like to thank my editor, Cassie Cox, of Red Adept Publishing Services. Working with her was invaluable. Kit Foster, of Kit Foster Designs, for designing my cover, my author logo, and my press logo. Thank you, Kit, for always dealing with my pickiness and nagging emails so graciously.
Thank you to Karen Perkins, of LionheART, for her formatting services. I never could have done it myself. I would also like to thank my beta readers, Amanda Surowitz, Ileandra Young, Rhonda Ramsey, Tonya Kerrigan, Erin Lewis, and Courtney Moore for taking the time to read, critique, and point out major plot holes that I’m too embarrassed to even think about now. Thank you to Greg Johnston for looking over the opening scene that the betas didn’t get a chance to see. A huge thank you to the members of the Crime Scene Writers group on Yahoo, specifically, Kelly Whitley, Melissa Maygrove, Lee Lofland, Wes Harris, and Wally Lind. They provided me with their experience and expertise in medico-legal procedures and even, on occasion, reviewed a few of my scenes. (And it goes without saying that any mistakes found are mine alone and are a result of my own misinterpretation of their facts.) And thank you too all the blog and social networking followers I’ve befriended over the last year and a half, those that have supported me, cheered me on, and featured me on their own websites. I hope I can repay the favor one day.

Thank you to my sister, Danae, my niece, D’vonnae, for their
constant support and excitement. And for telling me how proud they are of me (And they should be. This was hard!). Thank you to my fantastic in-laws. Momma Lisa, Mr Rob, Courtney, & Dan, I really lucked out with you guys. Thank you to my friends who have supported me, asked me “How’s the writing going?” and “When’s the book coming out?” over and over again and never tiring of my answer (“Soon!”).

And I saved the best and closest to my heart for last. My husband, Justin. I could write a separate book about his never-ending love and encouragement, but I’m not a romance writer, so he’s stuck with this paragraph. I dedicated this book to my husband because without him it just wouldn’t be. I would’ve quit and regretted it for the rest of my life. Not only that, Justin financed this little endeavor. I’ve had the privilege and luxury of writing full-time while he shouldered all the responsibilities and all the stress of running a household. That’s how much he believed in me.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

BLOOD IN THE PAST. Copyright © 2013 by Jordanna East. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Blood Read Press, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

FIRST EDITION

Blood Read Press

Collingswood, NJ 08108

EPub Edition June 2013

ISBN: 978-0-
9895810-0-4