Ghostly Justice (Seven Deadly Sins, #2.5) by Allison Brennan
Dear Reader:
As the fans of my Seven Deadly Sins series know, I had to take a hiatus because my publisher cancelled the series after two books. What bothered me the most was I truly love this series and wanted to find out what happened to Rafe, Moira, Anthony and Skye. I don’t plot, and I only know what happens as it unfolds when I write.
Sometimes, the decisions we make have repercussions we never consider. For example, I started Original Sin, the first book in the Seven Deadly Sins series, in the summer of 2003. Before the television show Supernatural. Before the huge explosion in the paranormal genre. But also that summer, my romantic suspense The Prey finaled in a contest, so I put Original Sin aside and edited The Prey, ultimately landing an agent and a book sale. Because Original Sin was a completely different genre – urban fantasy, though I didn’t know that’s what I was writing – I put the book aside.
But I never forgot it.
When my publisher wanted me to write something paranormal, I pulled out Original Sin and remembered all the reasons I loved writing this book. The series has my trademark suspense – a murder mystery, good guys, bad guys, and a race-against-time structure – but it also has a supernatural twist. My publisher released two books in 2010 – Original Sin and Carnal Sin – before cancelling the series because fewer readers were interested in my supernatural thrillers than my romantic suspense.
There were other reasons, I think, that the series didn’t catch on, but I won’t bore you with my thoughts. I would have (reluctantly) ended the series for the lack of enthusiasm at that point, except for one big reason: YOU. Even though the two books didn’t sell as well as my other books, I receive more email and letters about the Seven Deadly Sins series than any of my other books. Even now, more than four years after the release of Carnal Sin, I get emails nearly every day from readers wanting the next book in this series.
I’d started writing Mortal Sin before my publisher cancelled it, so I had a general idea of where the next book was going. But because I had other contractual commitments, I couldn’t focus on writing it. Thanks to my current agent, we built in some time this year so that I could finish Mortal Sin and release it on my own. Why? Because I want to give closure to a series that deserves it, to my loyal readers who want to know what happens just as much as I do.
To prepare for Mortal Sin which will be available November 10, I’m re-releasing a novella I wrote four years ago that has been unavailable in print or ebook for nearly two years.
I love a good ghost story, so when a charity anthology asked for something supernatural, I wrote Ghostly Justice. But the story took on a life of its own. The anthology asked for stories of under 10,000 words … but Ghostly Justice ended up being nearly 30,000 words. It takes place in the world of the Seven Deadly Sins, in the time between Carnal Sin and Mortal Sin, and I hope gives you a teaser to the story that’s about to come, while revisiting your favorite characters from the first two books—Moira O’Donnell and Rafe Cooper.
As a bonus, I’ve included a short ghost story Ghostly Vengeance that was first published in a limited edition printing of Original Sin. That story takes place between Original Sin and Carnal Sin in the Seven Deadly Sins timeline, but it can stand alone.
I hope you enjoy this novella as well as Mortal Sin, the upcoming book in the Seven Deadly Sins series. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me through my website, allisonbrennan.com – I read all my email.
Enjoy!
~ Allison Brennan
Chapter One
Detective Grant Nelson sat in his car outside the Los Angeles County morgue waiting for the two people he least wanted to see. He twisted the top off a bottle of generic aspirin, dumped a few in his hand, tossed them in his mouth, and chewed. He chased the familiar, bitter taste with lukewarm coffee, though he’d have preferred to follow the meds with a double shot of Jack Daniels.
It had been nearly a month since Grace Harvest Church had been damn near destroyed in a supernatural battle that he helped cover up. Who would believe that a coven of witches had used a demon to kill men they didn’t like? Who would believe that a demon named Lust had possessed his girlfriend and nearly killed him? And who would believe that he’d seen Lust in its twisted, sick, and surprisingly huge snake-like form?
Grant had never given Heaven or Hell much thought until an insidious evil tried to kill him, clogging his lungs until he nearly suffocated. Lust’s burning touch had invisibly charred his skin and though he showered three, four, five times a day he couldn’t shake the cloak of darkness that surrounded him.
He’d seen a woman thrown across the church with a force so great she’d cracked the brick wall when her body hit. He’d seen the glowing light of souls, the burning pit of Hell, and profound bravery against overwhelming odds.
He accepted it all because he had no choice: he’d seen it. It was much harder to accept that Julie had sacrificed herself to save him, or that she’d set him up in the first place. He certainly hadn’t been worthy, and would have gladly changed places with her as she lay dying in his arms.
He’d screwed up his relationship with every woman he touched, but Julie was his worst failure. He didn’t want to look too closely at his personal life because he wouldn’t like what he saw.