“The best thing about a well paced book is that feeling that you can't put the book down, and I definitely got that feeling from reading this book. Anyone looking for something new in the urban fantasy genre should definitely check this book out…”

—
Urban Fantasy Reviews

“This story is hysterical. I laughed out loud, and I don’t do that very often. I loved the sarcastic, rule bending-to-the-point-of-breaking, tough talking, softie Selene. She is my kind of heroine.”

—
Books, Books, and More Books

“This was a really fun read, I love books about ghosts and the paranormal… A.J. has a great writing style that kept me glued from beginning to end.”

—
Stitch, Read, Cook

“From the first page this story grips you. Selene, Micah, and Ethan are great characters. An on-the-edge-of-your-seat read that will have you impatiently waiting for book two!”

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Faerie Tale Books

“This urban fantasy is a fast-paced, fun and sexy read. There were many twists and turns that kept me hooked from beginning to end in this laugh-out-loud page turner. I look forward to reading more from A. J. Locke.”

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Who’s Reviews

“The humor and sarcasm that runs rampant throughout this novel is fantastic. Our heroine is a very likable character… The world-building was done well; not too much or too little, and it all makes sense in the end. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.”

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Sapphyria’s Book Blog

“This book really put me through the wringer. But in a good way. Locke's world building is amazing. This woman is a great storyteller.”

—
Offbeat Vagabond

Look for these titles from A. J. Locke

Now Available

The Reanimation Files

Affairs of the Dead (Book One)

Requiem for the Living (Book Two)

The Ravaging In Between (Book Three)

Black Widow Witch

The Ravaging In Between

The Reanimation Files Book Three

A. J. Locke

EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (
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).

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Published By

Etopia Press

1643 Warwick Ave., #124

Warwick, RI 02889

http://www.etopiapress.com

The Ravaging In Between

ISBN: 978-1-944138-30-1

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Etopia Press electronic publication: December 2015

CHAPTER ONE

The Afterlife sucked.

Granted, I had just gotten here, but I would have expected some sort of fanfare to be waiting to greet me. There should be angels throwing confetti, and ghosts cheering as they welcomed me into eternity after my long, hard life. I thought there’d be some clouds, lots of light, maybe a rainbow or two arching above my head. But no, there was none of that. So far the Afterlife was gray and dull.

How disappointing.

And I mean it was literally gray. I did a slow turn so I could take in every direction. All I could see was gray beneath my feet, gray above my head, and gray on every horizon. I put my hands on my hips and blew my unruly ghost hair out of my face. This was what I got after sacrificing myself to save humanity from a madman who wanted to slaughter people so he could feed their ghosts to his creepily resurrected family? Seriously?

I wasn’t sure exactly how the Afterlife worked, despite being a necromancer. Hard to know what death was like until you were dead. But this couldn’t be all there was. I was at a loss here.

Then I thought about Micah and intense sadness washed over me. I don’t know how much time had passed; was it only minutes? Was Micah holding my dead body in his arms on the Brooklyn Bridge? Had days passed? Weeks? Was my funeral already over? My incorporeal heart ached. I missed Micah. I wished the whole mess with Renton didn’t have to culminate with my death.

I threw my hands up. Great, now I had eternity to miss Micah and lament that I had to die because of a psycho. Why couldn’t death erase all the bad stuff?

All right, time to put a positive spin on this. I couldn’t start my Afterlife in a funk. Maybe this was just the starting point and I had to get to where the good stuff was. They made it this dismal at the beginning to show you that it couldn’t get any worse. That way you’d really appreciate your slice of paradise, or maybe the Afterlife was more like communal, eternal fun. I’d take anything over this. I started walking and hoped my theory would be correct.

After walking for a while, the silence was broken by a stomping sound in the distance. A low vibration thrummed through the ground. Was this it? Hordes of angels were coming to greet me and they were running because they were late? But the closer the sound got, the more it reminded me of horses’ hooves. When I turned in the direction of the galloping, I saw glowing, red eyes coming at me.

If I had a beating heart, it would have seized up when I saw what looked like a hulking, jet-black horse. The only color was those red fire pits it had for eyes. Its body, which I could tell was equine, was surrounded by roiling waves of darkness. It was as though shadows had wrapped around it and were in constant motion. It looked twice as large as any horse I had ever seen, and even though I was a ghost, I didn’t want to get trampled. I moved out of the way, but the ghost didn’t seem as though it saw me. When it had run past me a few feet it stopped, reared up and neighed, which was a beastly and horrifying sound, then dropped down and continued running. I was left staring after it with my mouth hanging open.

What the hell was that? A ghost horse? I’d heard of hellhounds in stories about the Afterlife that were meant to be scary. Were they real? Were there hell-horses too? How about hell-squirrels and hell-narwhals? I almost laughed, but was still a bit shaken by that encounter.

I guess I wasn’t alone. Now I wondered what else might be out there. I continued to walk.

There was no way for me to keep track of how much time passed, but it felt like I’d been walking for at least an hour. The world around me changed as I moved, but not in a good way. I didn’t think it could become any more dismal, but the darkness became darker, the ground below me more uneven, and the temperature went from tolerable to humid and swampy. Was I walking the wrong way? They should really put directional signs in this place. My positive spin was threatening to come to a screeching halt.

Then the ground started to shake and I wondered if a hundred of those creepy ghost horses were running this way now. If so, there would be no way for me to avoid getting trampled. I was already dead, but that didn’t mean I wanted to find out what getting trampled by ghost horses was like.

Smoke started to spew up from the ground, and the rumbling and shaking was joined by shrieks, snarls, and guttural cries. I recognized the sound of ghost monsters. Now I was truly scared. No one knew what happened to ghost monsters after they were vanquished from the human world. My hope had been that they regained their human form and found peace on the other side. However, judging from the sounds that were currently shaking the ghostly bones inside my ghostly body…that was not the case.

Hearing them but not seeing them was nerve-wracking. Amid the quaking and smoke spewing, I realized that there were giant craters in the ground. If I had kept walking, I would have fallen into one. Deep within those craters was where the howls and screeches were coming from.

Black pits full of ghost monsters. I was definitely in hell.

I turned around. If I walked in a straight line back the way I came I’d at least avoid falling into a crater.

BOOK: The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3)

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