Read Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu for Free Online Page A

Six
     
    The shrill buzz of Michael’s cell phone cut through his vague and disturbing dreams. Groggy, he thumbed it on and noted the time. Six a.m. “Hello?”
    “Michael? I’m so sorry, but I need help.” Heavy crashes punctuated the woman’s plea.
    The sleep-fog vanished from his brain as he recognized a client’s voice, and he sat up. “What’s happening, Martha?”
    “Can you come over, please? Quickly?”
    “I’m on my way.”
    A muffled grunt of pain and a click ended the conversation.
    Michael’s brain kept cycling with worry as he got dressed. Martha wouldn’t have called if the situation hadn’t been desperate. He’d given her his private number years ago and she’d only ever used it three times before today. Every single one of them had been because of an overwhelming disaster.
    He barely remembered to lock his apartment as he ran out the door. As he drove, he found his mind pulled back to the club last night despite his worry for Martha. What he’d felt had haunted his dreams, and he knew he must be missing some crucial piece of information. Perdition might have a reputation as a sort of East Coast Vegas, but the dark mix of lust and violence wasn’t part of the regular club scene here. Most of the people just wanted to have a good time.
    If he was honest, it wasn’t just the club that he was obsessed with—it was the woman he’d seen. Something about her tugged at him, made him reluctant to dismiss her as a man-eater. He wished he’d gone after her, stopped her from leaving with the blond man. Joe would have helped. But she triggered an uncomfortable wariness, a subliminal warning shivering and shredding the edges of his interest.
    He forced himself to put aside the previous night as he pulled up to the visitor parking of Martha’s modest apartment complex. He took the stairs up to the second floor and knocked on the door. Heavy insulation did not completely shield the shrieks and thuds from inside.
    Martha opened the door and let him in. Her pale eyes were rimmed in red and he could see fresh bruises and scrapes on her skin. Her years hung heavily on her, making her appear much older than her mid-thirties.
    “What happened?” he asked.
    “I don’t know. Last night, she wouldn’t sleep. She started tearing everything apart and hasn’t stopped. I tried to give her the sedative but she won’t let me near.” Martha gestured helplessly at the fragments of toys and furniture strewn around the apartment, rubbing at her mottled arms and tugging at the wisps of brown hair escaping her ponytail. “It’s been all I could do to keep her in the apartment.”
    Now that he was here, he could feel her exhaustion and fear buzzing and scraping in his mind. She wanted to help her daughter, but at the same time, she was desperate for the screaming and attacks to end. Martha was such a font of patience, but she had clearly reached her limits for the time being. Her emotions were almost insubstantial; she simply didn’t have the reserves for anything stronger right now.
    Ready for anything, Michael slipped across the living room to peer into the bedroom. A preteen girl crouched in the middle of the floor, rocking back and forth, grunting to herself. Sandy-brown hair tangled around her head and debris scattered the floor around her. The brightly painted room was strewn with chunks of compact fluff, fragments of rubber, scraps of fabric, and irregular planks of wood—yesterday, it had been a sturdy bed with a rubberized mattress.
    “Bernie?” he called out cautiously—then ducked as a chunk of wood the size of his head slammed into the wall nearby. Her terror slammed into him with equal impact, literally knocking his breath out of his lungs. As he struggled to inhale again, Bernie screamed as if she had been stabbed and began flailing wildly enough that he risked serious injury getting close to her. She looked like every demonic little girl in a horror film. Michael pulled back into the hall to