Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2)

                  
 
By Morgan Kelley

Copyright © 2016 Morgan Kelley LLC

All rights reserved. Without limiting rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including without limitation photocopying, recording, or other electronic or technical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

The scanning, uploading, and/or distribution of this document via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. For permission requests, email
 
[email protected]

Content Advisory:
 
This book is intended for mature audiences and contains graphic violence, explicit sexual activity and disturbing imagery

©
Copyright 2016 cover photo Cover art by Laura Gordon. www.thebookmachine.com

Other works by Morgan Kelley:

Standalone Thrillers

The Junction 

Serial Sins   

The Blood Betrayal

FBI Romance Series

The Killing Times (Book 1)

Sacred Burial Grounds (Book 2)

True Love Lost (Book 3)

Deep Dark Mire (Book 4)

Fire Burns Hot (Book 5)

Darkness of Truth (Book 6)

Devil Hath Come (Book 7)

Consumed by Wrath (Book 8)

Redemption is Here (Book 9)

Dead Shall Speak (Book 10)

Pledging to Die (Book 11)

Slay Bells Ring (Book 12)

Past will Haunt (Book 13)

Choices will Destroy (Book 14)

Blood shall Run (Book 15)

Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Series

Celestia is Falling (1)

Vegas is Dying (2)

Christmas is Killing (3)

Love is Bleeding (4)

Heaven is Weeping (5)

Hell is Burning (6)

Justice is Dead (7)

Littlemoon Investigations

Blood Red Rage (Book 1)

Lost & Broken (Book 2)

Unthinkable Games (Book 3)

Truth is Found (Book 4)

Haven of Nightmares (Book 5)

The Carter Chronicles Trilogy

Sinner Repent (1)

Sinner Realized (2)

Sinner Reborn (3)

Oracle- The Phoenix Files

Oracle Rising (1) -
Juliett Deveraux & Rhett Longfellow

Oracle Seeing (2)-
Lucian Monroe & Bishop Killion

The Harcourte Vampyre Society series

Dangerous Revelations (1)

Dangerous Choices (2)

Dangerous Misery (3)

Dangerous Retaliation (4)

Behind Closed Doors Anthology

Illegal Fantasies ~ Behind Closed Doors (1)

Romance Under Arrest~ Behind Closed Doors (2)

Holiday Reinforcements ~ Behind Closed Doors (3)

         ~~~~       About the Author    ~~~~

Morgan Kelley lives in the beautiful Pocono Mountains with her husband and two children. After attending college at Penn State University and studying Criminal Justice, Morgan knew her only true passion in life would be murder and books.  She put them both together and began her career as a writer.  Other than books and writing, you can find Morgan hanging out in her garden and digging in the dirt.

Her other works include: The Junction, Serial Sins, The Blood Betrayal, The Killing Times (1), Sacred Burial Grounds (2), True Love Lost (3), Deep Dark Mire (4), Fire Burns Hot (5), Darkness of Truth (6), Devil Hath Come (7), Consumed by Wrath (8), Redemption is Here (9), Dead Shall Speak (10), Pledging to Die (11), Slay Bells Ring (12), Past will Haunt (13), Choices will Destroy (14), Blood shall Run (15), Blood Red Rage (1) Lost & Broken (2), Unthinkable Games (3), Truth is Found (4), Haven of Nightmares (5), Celestia is Falling (1), Vegas is Dying (2), Christmas is Killing (3), Love is Bleeding (4), Heaven is Weeping (5), Hell is Burning (6), Justice is Dead (7), Oracle Rising (1), Oracle Seeing (2), Dangerous Revelations (1), Dangerous Choices (2), Dangerous Misery (3), Dangerous Retaliation (4), Sinner Repent (1), Sinner Realized (2), Sinner Reborn (3), Illegal Fantasies (Anthology 1), Romance Under Arrest (Anthology 2), and Holiday Reinforcements (Anthology 3)

Please feel free to visit Morgan at her website: www.morgankelley.com, email her
[email protected]
, or visit her blog at
www.morgankelley.blogspot.com
.

Case File Two

The Phoenix Files:

Lucian Monroe

My name is Lucian. I fought for justice, and now I’m hunted...

prologue

Ravenswood

They all had to pay.

Each and every one.

They would suffer for what they’d done. It was only fair for justice to be swift and unmerciful. As they sat in their nice homes, living their lives, they didn’t care that they had cost someone theirs.

They were above the law…
or so they thought
.

If it were up to the unjust, they’d ride in on their white steeds, making the world believe they were better than everyone else.

Only…

They weren’t.

They were evil, sick, and horrible human beings with a lack of basic decency. They were supposed to uphold the law, keeping the innocent from being hurt, but they failed.

They all failed.

The scales of justice weren’t balanced. They were uneven, crooked, and tipped to the point that nothing good could ever come from them.

Well, that was going to change.

In the next few days, they’d all end up dead. They were going to be found, put on trial, and punished.

It was time.

The judge, jury, and executioner were here, and the people who let him down were going to suffer for their lack of integrity. His list was already made, and it was only a matter of taking them down one by one.

A judge.

An attorney or three.

The cops.

The ones who reported on it.

They were all going to be in the spotlight as he made things right. That was his one goal left in life. He wanted to ensure that the people, who let the wicked run free, paid with their lives.

It was a long time in the making.

It had been a decade—the longest three thousand, six hundred fifty days of his life. Ten years had gone by at a snail’s pace, and finally, it was time to strike.

He’d watched.

Planned.

Organized his strike.

And now he’d make them suffer exactly like he had for all these long years. Once he spilled their blood, he would be free. Where he thought there would be an inkling of guilt for what he was planning, there was none.

No, he could taste the bitterness across his tongue. Before it was done, he’d laugh at their pain.

He’d scoff at their misery.

He was going to bring them somewhere private. Once there, he would teach them the ultimate lesson—
every dog had its day
—and that moment in time was all theirs.

With his tools, he set up his workshop.

To do what he had planned, he needed privacy. This, too, was years in the making.

Plotting.

Planning.

He was far enough into the forest in Ravenswood that no one would hear them beg, cry, or scream. When their life was finally over and that last breath was released, he would revel in their blood.

Oh, he couldn’t wait until they were all dead.

It wasn’t enough to wash away the past, but it was a start. For him, it would begin the healing process. It would put a suture in the festering gash that never seemed to heal. With each one of their deaths, he would close that gaping wound.

By the end, he would be free.

He would be better.

But for now…

It was time to prep.

As he stood there, in the little log cabin, he prepped what he needed.

Rope.

Check.

Knives.

Check.

A blowtorch.

Check.

Screwdrivers.

Check.

A wicked hammer.

Check.

That should just about cover it. For him, the fun was about to begin. For them, there was going to be unmentionable torture.

Payback.

Karma was a bitch.

As soon as he brought that first victim there, they were going to wish they were never born. For a change, it would be their tears that were spilled. When it coated their faces and they begged for mercy, he’d really make them hurt.

Mercy was given to those who earned it.

All of these vile human beings deserved no such thing from him, or anyone else.

He wanted to peel away their skin, taking off the layers that gave them their identity. He wanted them to be nothing more than the splotch of blood and bowel that would be left after the kill. They didn’t deserve to be human.

They didn’t deserve to live.

In life, they’d squandered justice.

In death, they’d be judged.

In the afterlife, they’d burn in the hottest pits of hell.

As he headed toward his vehicle, he knew who waited for him tonight.

The judge.

He was first on the list.

He wasn’t the first to suffer, but he would be the one who paid the dearest.

Well, for now.

It didn’t start with him, but it would kick off the wave of retribution that they never saw coming. He was going to be the sacrificial lamb. If the rest figured out what was coming, then good for them.

They still wouldn’t be free.

He would simply give chase. There was nowhere on Earth they could go to find peace.

He would torment and haunt them until the day his body was planted six feet deep.

This was his mission.

It was all he had left in life.

Tonight began years of planning, and with one strike, he would start it rolling.

Blood was coming.

Lots and lots of blood.

He was going to start to lay the groundwork for making all of them pay for what they had done. They deserved it.

All the way to the man’s house, his heart thumped in his chest.

Was he scared?

A little.

He’d lived the last ten years waiting for this day, and finally, it was here. He truly believed that without this payback, there would be no way he could move on. They had to bleed and suffer in order for him to find peace.

It was simply the reality of it all.

Now that he held their lives in his hands, it was cathartic and terrifying.

Oh, he wasn’t worried about hurting them or being caught. He was afraid that he wouldn’t make them suffer enough. He was terrified that he couldn’t do the crime justice.

They deserved so much pain.

He couldn’t even put his emotions into words. In all his life, nothing had mattered quite like this.

All he knew was that in order to finish his mission in life, he needed to start destroying theirs.

It was fitting of the crime.

They stole something so precious it would never be returned, and that to him was the ultimate sin.

They couldn’t have hurt him more.

This had already broken him. That one day had changed him.

It had damned him to hell too.

As he arrived at his first stop, not far from the judge’s home, he knew the man’s schedule. It was easy to track. The judge’s life was published in the paper. If he had an event, he made sure the paper put it in the headlines. He liked to feel like he was the most important person to walk the Earth. He lived for the applause and the notoriety.

His ego would be his downfall.

The man was nothing more than a bloated bag of wind, and he was about to find out what it felt like to be deflated. In the next hour, when he got home, he’d be stripped from his high horse, he’d lose his rampant narcissism, and he’d see the truth.

He was a waste of life.

And he needed to die.

Hiding there, tucked away in the shadows, he watched and waited. Honestly, he was afraid to move, in fear that he’d somehow warn the man. That would ruin everything. This plan called for carful calculation.

It called for patience.

So, he did his best.

When he came home from his evening out, smiling, dressed so well, and carrying that silver cane of his, he’d never think that someone was waiting.

Lurking.

Sitting.

No, he’d never see it coming, and that’s what made it wonderful. If he were lucky, he’d die fast.

If the man was unlucky, he’d feel every single slash that was inflicted to his body.

He was hoping for the latter.

Oh, he wanted the judge to pay.

As the time passed, he could hear the crickets chirping, he could hear the wind blowing the chimes on the large porch, and then he could hear the roar of the fancy car.

The judge was coming.

Up the drive, his lights flashed, proving that he was indeed on his way toward his date with death.

This was going to be perfect.

As he watched from the darkness, he prayed the judge parked outside on the nice summer night. He hoped the man got arrogant, cocky, and didn’t think about his safety.

His fingers were crossed.

As he watched the Mercedes pull to a stop, he saw the man stumble from behind the wheel.

He was drunk.

Oh, this was perfect.

Not only was the saint off his game, he was once again a sinner. This was proof that the man should have to pay. He could have taken someone else’s life driving home.

Well, that wasn’t happening.

It ended now.

As the judge headed toward the house, he stepped out from the shadows and followed him. When he reached the porch, he knew it was time to make it happen.

It was time to do the deed.

“Judge Abrahms?” he called.

The man turned.

It took a second, but the recognition was there. He’d changed a lot, but not that much.

“What are you…?”

He didn’t get to say anything more.

The man with the crowbar swung out, hitting him in the head. There was the thud of the judge hitting the ground, the heavy breathing of a man getting payback, and then there was the whimper of pain.

“We have somethings to talk about,” he said, dragging the judge, in his tuxedo, toward where he’d hidden his car. “I hope you’re free for our little impromptu meeting.”

Then he laughed.

Oh, he was going to be free.

Free of his life. 

       
                
* * *
  O R A C L E   * * *

Ravenswood

Graymoor Manor

He hated every second of his life.

Nothing had been the same since that fateful day when he’d lost everything.

He’d had a career.

He’d had the attention of women.

He’d had it all.

And most importantly, he’d been helping put criminals behind bars. It had been his true calling in life. It was in the Monroe blood. His father had been an attorney and his mother one, too, so of course he’d followed in their footsteps.

It was a no brainer.

Since the day he could talk, Lucian Monroe knew that he was meant to prosecute the worst offenders and put them behind bars. He’d wanted to make the bad guys pay, ever since he was a little boy.

He had been smart.

He, at one time, had been handsome.

Fate had changed that. He’d never seen past the superficial, and he’d been a fool.

Nothing mattered any more.

Everything that was had slipped through his fingers like sand in an hourglass. Now he was a prisoner of his fate. Lucian was stuck in his large home, trapped behind the walls. At one point, he’d helped people, and now they feared him.

He was a monster.

On that nightmarish day, nine years ago, he’d left the courthouse, dodging the media to get to his car. He had an important person to intercept, and he didn’t want to miss her. It was a matter of his future and happiness.

She was his focus.

She was his new goal.

As he hit the button, to unlock the doors to his Mercedes, the unthinkable happened.

There was a click, and then it blew.

Click.

Boom.

It replayed over and over again.

Everything was gone.

Along with the car went his future.

His career.

The blonde who wanted to marry him.

And the woman he found he wanted more than anything.