House of Dred: Book Two in the Amulets of the Rainbow Series

Twelve-year-old Reesa Bellemont moves with her family from sunny California to the dour Washington state coastline. Her fathers uncle, Dr. Edward Bellemontalso known as Dr. Dredwilled a house there to Reesas father, and the chance to move into the big, old place is too good an offer to pass up. Even as the seven Bellemonts and their dog cross the threshold of their new residence, however, strange and wicked things begin to occur.Reesa has always had special talents, and she feels particularly sensitive to the houses ill will. Even so, her father, Gavin, denies anything is wrong, and they remain in the house despite the odd occurrences. Soon, Reesa makes the acquaintance of Jerome White, a strange man who lives in a cabin deep in the woods. Jerome comes to the Bellemont house for dinner one nightbut with his arrival, the dark forces truly manifest.Jerome is secretly the keeper of the Amulet of Prophecy, the second of the six Amulets of the Rainbow. Using his metaphysical abilities and the power of the amulet, he and Reesa must fight against an ancient force. The deceased Dr. Dred is somehow involved, and the lives of each and every Bellemont are now at stake. Jerome and Reesa are the familys last hope for surviving the evil that threatens their souls.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

House of DredBook Two in The Amulets of the Rainbow SeriesBy Troy TheiseniUniverse LLCCopyright © 2013 Troy TheisenAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4917-0334-2 CHAPTER 1One"Give me back the ball! I had it first!" Reesa Bellemont yelled at herbrother."Finders, keepers, losers, weepers!" he replied. After sticking his tongueout at her and taunting her with a nasally, "Ha-ha!" Billy nestled Reesa's large,red, four-square ball in the crook of his right arm and bolted."I'm not running after you, Billy Bellemont, no matter what you do!" Shehad blown out the candles on her birthday cake only days ago, and twelve-years-oldwas getting awfully close to becoming a teenager, and the teenageyears were just on the brink of becoming a grown-up. She was getting far tooold to play childish games with little kids, especially selfish, annoying brotherswho were five years her junior. Nope, she wasn't a little girl anymore; she was,well, almost a woman. She loved the way those words flowed off the tongue,whether they were coming from her dad, or if she was lying in bed sayingthem to herself over and over, "Young woman, I'm a young woman!" It filledher with a glowing joy and made her feel all giddy inside.Her daddy always said, when he saw that giddiness seeping out of her likesticky-sap from an old maple tree, "You don't want to grow up too quickly,honey. Before you know it, it will have already happened."That didn't make a bit of sense to Reesa. She wanted to be much older thantwelve. Her two younger brothers, Aden and Billy, were so immature. And herolder brother and sister, Emma and Jason, were just the opposite.Jason's voice grew deeper a few years ago, and right after that, he startedgetting peach-fuzz and stray hairs on his chin. With those changes, he seemednot to want to spend time with her anymore, or any of his younger siblings,for that matter. Occasionally, Jason would let Reesa's big sister, Emma, go tothe mall with him, but for the most part, he had become a lone-wolf—exceptfor when he was "hangin' out" with his school buddies. And now that he hadreached seventeen years of age, she envied his independence and confidencemore than ever. She craved that self-contained, almost cocky, way he carriedhimself. And it seemed like mom and dad let him do whatever he wanted—this,of course, was a misconception, but she knew no better. He wasn't a jerkto her or the others by any stretch of the word, though. Jason was a good andcaring brother; he was just ... private. That was what he was ... private—asprivate as the day was long. Reesa's privacy, on the other hand, was like abathroom without a door. Her parents and both of her annoying little brotherswere always up in her business.Presently, Billy was the one who was prevailing as a complete nuisance,and much to her chagrin, he had come back to her, standing just within arm'sreach."Na-na-na-na-na-na! You can't catch me!" he coaxed musically, grinningear to ear.He just made her so mad she could scream, and she did, "Billy! Leave mealone, right now! And give me back my ball, or I'm telling!"The little red-haired boy—badly in need of braces—whom she had theunnerving task of calling her brother, grinned even wider, visibly tickled byher growing anger. What seemed to stretch his smile even further than thatwas her inability to control the ire that was besting her the more he egged heron. And it was showing through every pore of her being.His tongue was out again, but the giant giggling grin it was stickingthrough was making it difficult for him to tease her with it, so he began tolaugh mockingly, pointing at her all the while."Stop it, Billy, I'm warning you! I'll tell mom."His tittering continued, and the happier he grew, the more afflicted shebecame. When she could take no more, the tea-kettle that was her willpowerblew its top, and she lunged at him, tackling him headlong to the ground. Billyfell flat on his back, and she landed directly on his belly, cushioning her, andforcing the residual air from his lungs with a considerable whooshing sound.The ball, temporarily forgotten, caromed away to unknown destinationswith great, arced, galumphing bounces—each bounce characterized by thatdistinct, echoed-pinging sound that only a big, red, playground ball canmake.She looked down at him and watched as little Billy, with his blue eyesbugging out of his head, changed three different shades of purple in a matterof split-seconds."I'm sorry, Billy. I'm sorry. Breathe, Billy. Breathe." She rose to her kneesand began pounding on his chest. "Breathe, Billy!"Now his skin's purple shading became a brilliant, hypoxic blue.With a loud whoosh of air moving in the opposite direction this time,Billy's diaphragm relaxed, his trachea opened, and much-needed oxygenfilled his starving tissues. His cough reflex took hold, and he began hackinguncontrollably.She leaned back and stood up. "Please, don't tell mom. I'm sorry, Billy.Please, don't tell."He tried to stand, likewise, but only managed to get to his hands andknees as the powerful coughing persisted. Long strands of saliva drooled fromhis mouth and fell slow-motion style to the yellowing and prickly autumn-grass.With her brother temporarily incapacitated, she spun her head aroundslowly, scanning the yard to make sure no one else was looking. Then sheturned her gaze toward the ball that was still bouncing away on its leisurelyjourney to nowhere and "thodded" it.The ball stopped in mid-arc, hung momentarily in the air, and thenstarted its sluggish, deliberate bouncing back to where she stood, alightinggently in her outstretched hands.Meanwhile, Billy's coughing had subsided, and he finally managed to getto his feet. He looked at her through tear-drenched eyes, beaming with thatindividualized hatred only one sibling could have for another at the tender ageof seven, and stated with full conviction, "I'm telling, Reesa! I'm telling!""No, Billy, please. I didn't mean it.""Yes, you did! And I'm telling mom!" And he ran off to, most likely, dojust that.Reesa was startled by a voice from behind her. "I saw that."Her other little brother, Aden, this one ten-years old and not quite asannoying as Billy, stepped out from his hiding place behind the big oak treein their less-than-generous front yard."Don't tell, Aden. I'm sorry." She truly was sorry. She had a heart as bigas the moon, and it grieved her to see others hurting, especially if she was thecause of the pain, whether it was physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual."You saw! He was teasing me and being mean. It's not fair!""No, not that, the other thing," he replied with a hint of accusationtainting his voice.Uh-oh, she thought to herself. Only mama and daddy and Emma knowabout that. And mama told me not to ever tell anyone."What `other thing' are you talking about?" she asked, putting on hersweet-and-innocent face as quickly and as convincingly as possible—giventhe short amount of time she had to work with—and consequently fidgetingwith the gold cross pendant hanging from the necklace around her neck, apresent from her grandfather before he passed away. "Go with God," he hadsaid that day. She thought the cross was one of the most beautiful thingsshe'd ever seen in the whole world and would spend hours admiring it in themirror and in her hands."Don't play dumb, Reesa. You know what I'm talking about. The ball.The ball that stopped and floated in the air and then came bouncing merrilyright back into your waiting arms."* * *Even though he was nothing like Billy, Aden was just as strange as Billywas annoying, and he was well aware of it. His dark brown, almost black,hair, in absolute contrast to Billy's fiery-red top, laid flat against his head. Ithad a constant shiny, wet look to it, as if he slathered it thick with gel everymorning. The brown irises of his eyes were so large and dark that they carriedthe perpetual eerie illusion of being totally black. And his skin was ghost-white,like a gothic-freak from a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" reunion. Hissmile was virtually non-existent, although he did crack one from time to time,reminding everyone—albeit briefly—that he was just a boy, after all, and notsome hell-spawn. His level of stolidness was still a great rarity for a nine-year-oldand all but absent from his day-to-day routine. And that routine involved"playing" with his calculator or escaping into the computer game, World ofWarcraft, for hours on end. If he was up for a spot of reading, he would mixup a cup of hot chocolate, sit down in his cushiony reading chair, which hadbeen a piece of furniture from an old living room set his parents had owned,and leaf through his Vampire magazine collection, Webster's Dictionary, or oneof his Encyclopedia Britannica books. He had already read A through Z duringhis short life, had started over again, and was all the way up to D this time.Hot Wheels, Matchboxes, and G.I. Joes did not exist in Aden's toy box ...what did were wires, little pieces of metal, batteries, and other electronic junk.By and large, his favorite "toy" was the chemistry set his dad had bought himthe previous Christmas, claiming it had come from some red-clothed, fat guynamed Santa Claus. He had quit believing that nonsense at the tender ageof five, and even a year prior to that, he had still been skeptical, but yet, hisparents persisted with the lie—probably for the sake of young Billy, who wasa few cards short of a full deck, at least as far as he was concerned.Aden was overly intelligent; probably genius material, and that intellect,coupled with his ominous presence, was what he considered to be theseparating factor between him and others his age. He was an outcast at homeand at school. However, he didn't mind one bit, and he made sure it showedin his disposition. He was quite sure that everyone around him found thatcomponent of his personality to be an even stranger factor than his bizarrenesscould ever dare to be.A few years back, when the Bellemont family moved into their Daly City,California house, the neighborhood kids would tease him and call him nameslike Eddie Munster and Phantom Freak, among others. Nevertheless, all thecrap they gave him ran downhill and slid right off. One time they went sofar as to physically gang up on him, but during the whole episode, he nevercried out or swung back, and not once did he reward them with the smallesttear. He simply let them beat him bloody and sore, got up, brushed off hispants, and limped home without so much as a whimper. After they had triedevery bullying technique known to kids his age in order to achieve getting hishypothetical goat, only to be stroked with a big, bunch of boring nothingness,they eventually left him alone altogether. They wouldn't even give him asecond glance anymore. He became a huge, blank nothing in their world.* * *Reesa privately commended him on that (not so long ago) day. Althoughshe thought his strategy against them had been most effective in the long run,it sure must have hurt along the way."That's silly, it bounced off the fence and came back is all," she replied."Come on, Reesa, you don't really expect me to believe that now, do you?Somehow, you made that ball come back to you. Give it up. Tell me how youdid it," Aden replied. He squinted his eyes, "You can't fool me."She really did not want to deal with this right now. Her day at school hadbeen hard enough. She had bruised her knee when a student rushing throughthe hall had accidentally knocked her down, she had slammed her finger inher locker door, and she had finished second place in the Spelling Bee, insteadof placing her usual first. If she could only use her power all the time, shewouldn't have to worry about those kinds of things—well, at least the fingerin the locker door incident—she could have closed it with her thodded.As she was fumbling for the correct words to say, she heard the screen dooropen and her mother's voice say, "Reesa, you get your fanny in here, now!"In other circumstances, she would have been hating life at that moment,but she was saved by the bell—or the mom, if she was being practical—andquickly eased out of the present situation with Aden. "Well, sorry, got to go.Mama's calling me.""Wait," he said.But it was too late; she hastily turned away from Aden and ran off toreceive her punishment, her long, thick, brown hair, tailing behind her inthe breeze.TwoSarah Bellemont, mother of five, was well aware that Billy was actingmuch worse than his actual injuries could sustain. His fake crying and forcedpouting were quite bothersome, actually, as he tried to milk it for all it wasworth.William Xavier Bellemont—long for Billy—would never be an actor; thatwas for certain. But he would always be an adopted child. The informationSarah and her husband received from the agency was vague about the baby boy'shistory prior to his being found keeping the ants and cockroaches company atthe bottom of a trash can in a slimy back-alley of the Tenderloin—a crimeridden,drug-saturated, prostitute-walked San Francisco district—simplybecause the agency just did not know. Most likely, he had been the offspringof a down-and-out crack-whore who hadn't the means or the maturity tohandle a new life or the sense of compassion to do something humane withthe baby once it was birthed.Sarah's two oldest children knew about the adoption, but the youngerones hadn't quite figured it out yet. They would eventually, though, andshe wanted to break the news to Billy first before Reesa and Aden put two-and-twotogether. Just how she and Gavin were going to perform that littlestratagem without ripping the whole world out from under the little boy'sreality was still being discussed and contemplated at night after the kids hadgone to bed. They were fairly certain that Billy would be pained and holdsome level of resentment, especially toward their biological children, but theywanted to keep any bad feelings that might stem from its induction at a bareminimum.Through the tears that he probably wished were there, Billy gloweredunconvincingly, massaged the back of his head, and said, "Mama, it hurts.She knocked me down and broke my cradium.""It's not a cradium, dear. It's a cranium." She assessed the area and feltnothing out of the ordinary. "And it's not broken, Billy, but I'll call her insideto ask her why she pushed you down, all right?""Okay, mama," he replied, rubbing his puppy-dog eyes with fistedhands.* * *When Reesa walked through the door, Sarah said, "Sit down, younglady."She liked "young lady," too. Not as much as "young woman," but it wasclose. And she smiled."What in the world are you smiling about? You just hurt your brother,and you're about to get yourself grounded.""I'm sorry, ma. I didn't mean to hurt him," Reesa answered."Well, why did you do it?""He stole my four-square ball and wouldn't give it back, so I got mad."Sarah looked over to Billy. "You didn't tell me you were teasing her." Thento Reesa, she pointed and said, "But that doesn't make what you did right."Turning, once again, to Billy, "So, why didn't you tell me the whole truth?""I don't know," he replied, "I guess I forgot.""You should never hide the whole truth; it can get you into trouble. Now,go on upstairs and wash your hands for supper; I'll take care of Reesa."He paused."Go on, I said.""But I wanna watch.""There's nothing to see, Billy," she said. "Now, get a move on!"He hunkered away, hands in his pockets.* * *"Reesa," Sarah said, as she sat down on the living room sofa, "you're a lotbigger than he is, and you could really hurt him. Are you aware of that?""I know, I ... I just got so mad. I couldn't control it, mom."Furrowing her brow and turning her head slightly to look at Reesaaccusingly from the corner of her right eye, she said, "You didn't thoddedhim, did you?""Oh, no, mom, I would never do that. I could kill him if I thoddedhim.""Please, promise me, you'll never thodded anyone, even in a nice way,okay?""I already know that. I'd never do it to anyone. It wouldn't be fair." (Continues...)Excerpted from House of Dred by Troy Theisen. Copyright © 2013 Troy Theisen. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Reviews

News